Last day

Today is the last day of NaBloPoMo. Thank goodness. I am getting very tired of seeing this

every time I start my pc. (just the reminder bit, not the wallpaper -though that is several months old and probably should be changed).

I have enjoyed posting daily, and didn't really find it all that hard, but at the same time, it will be nice to be feel like I can slack off and not post for a day or so should I feel the urge.

I hope that everyone else has enjoyed NBPM and all that and that someone wins something to make this worthwhile. :)

About Me

Because I can't come up with something else to write today...

1. YOUR NAME: Erin

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE: No, but my middle name is my mom's and her mom's, and now my daughter's.

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? yesterday, I guess. (while on the phone with the OB)

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Eh. It's ok. I don't write very much now, so it looks pretty crummy.

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? turkey.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Probably

7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? not really, though this blog probably could be considered a journal of sorts.

8. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? noooo. Oh, wait. I guess that would be a yes. :)

9. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? yes

10. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Not a chance. Nor would I sky dive.

11. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Cinnamon Life

12. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? yes

13. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? ABSOLUTELY

14. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Chocolate with peanut butter swirl. mmmm.

15. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? I don't really know. Probably facial characteristics.

16. RED OR PINK? Red

17. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF? Probably my habit of completing other people's sentences. It's the too fast thing.

18. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My MI parents. And my grandparents.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES YOU ARE WEARING? Blue jeans (decorated by Emily with animal cracker) and blue slippers.

20. THE LAST THING YOU ATE? A piece of peanut butter toast.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? The radio and my daughter playing.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? royal blue

23. FAVORITE SMELL? Rain on blacktop in the summer.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My mother-in-law

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Of course - it was Karen.

26. FAVORITE DRINK? Alcoholic? Amaretto Sour. NA? Iced tea.

27. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? I'm not really a sports watching kind of girl, but I do enjoy watching the Olympics.

28. HAIRCOLOR? Red

29. EYE COLOR? blue

30. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? no

31. FAVORITE FOOD? it's hard for me to pick just one. Probably Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.

32. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? Happy endings.

33. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? A Knight's Tale

34. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? blue

35. SUMMER OR WINTER? SUMMER

36. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs, I guess. Kisses from my husband and daughter.

37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Tiramisu or ice cream.

38. Lake or river? Either one.

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? Mortal Prey by John Sandford

40. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Don't use one - have a laptop with a touch pad.

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST ON TV LAST NIGHT? Battlestar Galactica (recorded - thanks, Uncle Tim!), Standoff & House.

42. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Waves or water trickling.

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Either, I guess. Or neither. Can take or leave them.

44. FURTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Europe

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Not really.

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Ypsilanti, MI (Home of Domino's Pizza!)

Oh, good God! - Updated

This morning sickness (which? total misnomer. It's more like all damn day sickness, with a side of exhaustion) is kicking my butt.

The ONLY time I am not ready to heave is when I am asleep. That's not that easy to do when you have a very active 15-month old who just dropped her afternoon nap.

And it's even harder to do when that same 15-month old got 4 shots yesterday and now has a 100 degree fever. And you have a mountain and a half of laundry to do (seriously, Mike was home from work for a week. From the pile of laundry downstairs, I am convinced that he and Emily changed their clothes at least twice a day), plus grocery shopping (on negative $3), and work, and, you know, the rest of Christmas.

I called the OB this morning and talked with a nurse. She recommended eating 6 or so crackers and 1/4 cup of 7-up (with ICE! I am not a big ice fan, but I'm trying to be good and do as she says...) (she recommended ginger ale, which I don't have and don't want to go get, see above: -$3) every half hour and call her at 11. I was hoping for something more... um, pharmaceutical? in nature, but I'll give this a shot and see how I'm feeling. And while I'm waiting for my next mini-meal, I'm going to go over to Julia's and check out what it was that she was taking the last time she was pregnant for her morning sickness.

I called the nurse back at 11 and reported the following: the 7-up and Wheat Thins help for about 5 minutes and then I go right back to feeling crummy. At which point, she said she'd have a doctor give me a call. He called me, I dunno, 30 minutes later, and recommended ginger ale, flat, instead of the 7-up. I didn't bother to point out what Karen said, that ginger ale no longer contains ginger or that the reason I wasn't drinking ginger ale previously is because it is currently not located in my house. He also recommended I take vitamin B-6 (different from B-12, which as Studio 60 taught us, pregnant women cannot take. Though I want to know why... ) and said he would call in a prescription.

And here is where I get exactly what is coming to me. If I piss and moan that I am so nauseous that I cannot eat, I will eventually get a prescription.

For Compazine.

Suppositories.

Oh happy day.

And I think that is enough said about that.

PS - thank you all for your good wishes and suggestions. I was able to eat a piece of peanut butter toast for lunch, and I'm sure its all the good thoughts that are coming my way that helped me figure out that peanut butter (honey peanut butter, no less) on wheat toast would taste pretty good. :) Also, welcome quiltingkayaker! I keep turning your name around in my head so you are "kayakingquilter" to me.

Well, that was close

Earlier this month I signed up to participate in a blog exchange. At some point in the near future, I will be sending a post to someone else and she will put it up on her site and vice versa.

I was pretty sure when I signed up that I was in no way cool enough to participate, but I thought it sounded like a good time.

The feeling that I was not cool enough to participate became even stronger when I discovered who I am paired up with. I am absolutely not cool enough to do this. Since then, I have been freaking out about what I am going to write that won't make me sound like a raving lunatic or a blithering idiot.

Last night, while I was sitting in my father-in-law's recliner (the single most comfortable chair in the entire world and right by the coal fire to boot), I came up with an idea. It's a good one. It fits the theme, its fairly insightful... Now if I can just manage not to screw it up too much.

And, on December 1? You'll have one of the best posts on this site. Ever.

Ick

I have had 4 nights of gigantic meals. In a row.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Mike's family's house on Thursday, a second Thanksgiving on Friday with my family, our traditional Christmas dinner on Saturday (tacos and refries... mmmm. I ate 3 tacos) and then a third Thanksgiving dinner tonight at Mike's parent's house.

Fortunately, through all that eating, I have discovered that if I just gut through the nausea and eat anyways, I do ok. There is very little that sounds appealing when it is proposed as a meal option, but when I actually sit down to eat it, it usually tastes pretty good. And I need to eat every couple hours or I am in big trouble.

I don't have much more to say right now, so I am going to hit publish and go work. Or maybe surf. I dunno.

I am so tired

Tonight we had Christmas with my sister and brother-in-law. We also went bowling. Mike (my Mike - my brother-in-law is also named Mike) did pretty well, and ended up in second place. He kept coming on strong in the last few frames with strikes and spares, but would stink the place up until then.

Emily did pretty well considering we didn't get her home to bed until 8:30. She has more or less given up one of her naps, and I'm trying to shift her remaining nap to the afternoon (she had been trying to ditch her afternoon nap), so she had been awake from 1 pm to 8-ish.

I was going to post before and after Christmas pictures, but for some reason my camera isn't transferring the pictures and I'm too tired to figure out why.

Mike and I just spent two hours putting together a play kitchen my mom and dad got for Emily. It's very cute and I know she'll love it. But I am sure that this was just the first of many Christmases and birthdays where Mike and I are up late laboring to assemble the toy of her dreams.

Going to bed now. See ya'll tomorrow!

5 books meme

Stolen (I have to stop doing this!) from Jess over at daysgoby.

1. Take five books off your bookshelf.
2. Book #1 -- first sentence
3. Book #2 -- last sentence on page fifty
4. Book #3 -- second sentence on page one hundred
5. Book #4 -- next to the last sentence on page one hundred fifty
6. Book #5 -- final sentence of the book


Book #1 - When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

Book #2 - I don't know, but it must be better than work. A Light in the Attic, Shel Silverstein

Book #3 - As I filled my syringe, my mind seethed with the thought that there was indeed some kind of magic at work here, but it wasn't my injection. Every Living Thing, James Herriot

Book #4 - I was in the mood to make out in the back row of the movie theater with someone who did not know my first name. My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult

Book #5 - "Of course I'll be godmother!" she shouts as the tears come. "I'll be the best godmother the world has ever seen!" Babyville, Jane Green

That was kind of fun! I think I'm going to take Jess' lead and whoever wants to do this can consider themselves tagged.

Have a good Friday everyone, don't shop too much!

Thanks

I am thankful for my family.

I am thankful for my husband and my beautiful daughter.

I am thankful for the baby growing inside me.

I am thankful for my friends, both real-life and internet.

I am thankful to have food on my table, a roof over my head and a few dollars in my pocket.

I am thankful for the large pile of wood in my backyard.

I am thankful for the 2 tons of coal in my basement.

I am thankful that Mike has a good job.

I am thankful that I am able to stay home with my daughter.



I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. Don't eat too much!

It's here....

The morning sickness has arrived. And it has brought its friends, afternoon illness and evening ailment.

I was pretty sick when I was pregnant with Emily, from approximately week 8 to week 16, or thereabouts. So I was kind of expecting (ha! get it?) that the nausea would eventually arrive, but at the same time I was hoping that it would decide it tormented me enough the first time around.

Not so much.

Today is really my first day with the whole package: the constant nausea, the sudden aversion to a food that looked tasty 2 minutes before, the shift of my gag reflex to the middle of my mouth...

I made the mistake of going to the grocery store while I was somewhat hungry and feeling pretty punky. Of course, the track that is laid out takes you through the seafood department. I literally gagged. And then I realized I had forgotten something in the bakery department, so I had to go back.

This particular store has a very unkind-to-pregnant-people layout. As you come in the front door, you are led through the deli section. With its complete sushi bar. From there, you pass by the fancy cheese section and the smelly olive bar. Then you hang a left and on the right is the seafood department. On the left? The in-store chinese restaurant. If that doesn't do you in, after get through all that you're in the meat department.

Mike and I have been very busy today, cleaning the house. My sister and brother-in-law come in tomorrow night (YAY!) and we are going to have a Thanksgiving dinner on Friday here. Our house was pretty dirty, so it has taken some elbow grease to get it presentable. I also went through the basket of toys Emily has in the living room and sorted out the ones she has outgrown (like the rattles) and brought out others that I had stashed after the toy glut of her birthday. All this just in time for ... more toys. She's been enjoying discovering all the new stuff out there for her, especially her Little People Bus that Karen got for her.

Ok, time to go get some crackers to munch on.

Have a good Turkey Day!

Where did I put my beatbox?

I spent the afternoon at my mom's house wrapping Christmas presents.

My family is celebrating Christmas over Thanksgiving weekend, mainly because my sister and her husband are coming in from San Francisco then and won't be here with us for Christmas.
When this plan was first proposed, I wasn't all that crazy about it, but now that the day is almost here, I'm pretty ok with it.

Having Christmas (or at least round 1 of Christmas, which will be a play in four acts for us) at Thanksgiving made me get my butt in gear with shopping early. I was planning our Christmas buying list in September and October. So now I think all of my shopping is done, not only for my family, but for Mike's side, too, which means I can just relax while everyone else freaks out because Oh My GOD, Christmas is like 4 weeks away!!!

Anyways, my actual point for this post was the wrapping part. I love to wrap presents. I can't quite explain what it is about the present wrapping that I enjoy, but it is very fun for me. I thought I would give you some present wrapping tips and some of my present wrapping pet peeves.

First, the tips (or how to wrap a present, Erin-style).

1. Get all the presents pulled together in one place.
   
2. Lay them all out on a large surface and use sticky notes to label who they are for. (My sister and brother-in-law's birthdays are in December and January, so I usually get them something for their birthday off their Christmas idea list).
3. Set up your wrapping paper, boxes, scissors and tape on another large table.
4. Pick a present from the first table and bring it to the second.
   
5. Check the present for price tags.
6. If the present needs to go in a box, find one an appropriate sized one.
7. Now pick a roll of wrapping paper and put the present on the paper.
   
8. Leave about 3 inches on either side of the box, then cut the paper from the roll (I try to make sure that the piece of paper cut will completely cover the box. If it won't, I change the orientation of the box to the paper - i.e. if the box was perpendicular to the roll, try turning it so it is parallel)
9. Now flip the box over and tape one edge of the paper to the underside of the box.
   
10. Pull the box towards the newly taped edge, to make the paper nice and tight on the box.
11. Fold the other edge of the paper over the box and if you have enough extra paper, fold the cut edge of the paper under before taping.
    
12. Now you're ready for the corners. Fold the paper on the sides of the box into the center and crease.
    
13. You should now have two sort of triangle shaped pieces of paper hanging out over the edge of the box. Fold the piece that is made up of two pieces (from the seam on the underside of the box) down first and then bring up the other piece.
    
14. Again, if you have enough extra paper, fold the cut edge of that last piece of paper under to make it pretty.
    
15. Rotate the box and repeat steps 12-14.
    
16. Flip the box over and you're done!
    

Now, the pet peeves.

1. Price tags that are left on a present. I don't want to know that you paid $1.99 for my present. Nor do I want to know that you paid $199.
   
2. Paper that doesn't quite cover the box, no matter how you adjust it. The only solution (other than throwing that piece aside (and by aside I mean away) and cutting another) is to patch another piece of wrapping paper in to cover the box.
   
3. Paper that is patched as described above. I had to apologize to my mom this afternoon for wrapping one of her presents like that. I felt very guilty.
   
4. Wrapping presents in round containers. There is just no way to make them look pretty. They always wind up looking like Emily wrapped them.
   
5. Inexpensive wrapping paper that rips instead of cutting. I usually do the scissor slide thing (you know, start the cut, then slide your scissors through the paper... ) and I encountered a bunch of paper that would slice nicely for an inch and then rip, then slide for an inch and rip and so on.
   
6. Inexpensive and thin wrapping paper that tears if you look at it.
   
7. Expensive and excessively thick paper that doesn't fold nicely. Well, it folds nicely, but is so bulky that the folds look bloated. (I might be a bit of a perfectionist about wrapping...gee, what was my first clue?)
8. Paper whose edge is taped to the rest of the roll. How exactly are you supposed to get that tape up? I almost always wind up cutting the layer underneath or tearing the paper around the tape. Grrr.

I had my dad take a picture of the mountain o' presents I wrapped this afternoon (took me about an hour and a half). I will update this post with those when he sends them to me.

$400

Recently, I have been feeling as though I visit the pediatrician every week. We seem to spend a lot of time there and I feel as though Emily is continually sick. That we no sooner get over one illness than she has another.

Emily has a physical coming up next week and I thought I should call and get some help figuring out how much of my feeling described above is fact and how much is my tendency to exaggerate.

The answer? A little of both.

We have been to the pediatrician 20 times since January 9. We have a $20 copay each time, so I have spent $400 just on Emily's doctor visits.

That's not my point, however.

I count 4 ear infections in those 20 visits, along with a month of bronchiolitis (6 visits), allergies, coxsackie virus, eczema, 1 trip to the hospital (104 degree fever) and 6 upper respiratory infections. She has been prescribed antibiotics 7 times.

Actually, what is my point? I seem to have lost it.

I guess the point is I'm not crazy in feeling that she is frequently sick (and especially for a kid who is not in day care), but she's not been as sick as I thought. For example, we didn't see the doctor (for sick visits) at all in February, April, June, or August. But, I also think that 4 ear infections in less than a year is a bit extreme. So is 6 upper respiratory infections, but I know that kids get colds (so do their parents!), so I'm less frustrated with those.

It will be interesting to talk about this with Emily's doctor (who I very much respect, by the way. She's a dedicated pediatrician and a nice person), to see what she has to say and suggest. I know that I overreacted in some instances (like the 3 consecutive visits in July).

************************************

This afternoon, while Mike and I were having lunch, we were talking about Emily and how she napped this morning without her pacifier (woo-hoo!) and fell asleep last night without it, and the night before, and the night before that. She's pretty much weaned off it.

So, as Mike pointed out at lunch, the last two big milestones we have in toddlerhood are moving to the big-girl bed and potty training.

ACK!!

I don't think I'm ready for that.

Blankie

I checked my Yahoo! mail account a couple of days ago and found a message from Javis Davis. They offered a custom crib set to the first blogger to announce her pregancy.

That wasn't me, unfortunately. I was 11 days too late (but thanks, Jennifer, for letting them know about me!!).

The email I got from Javis Davis said that although I didn't win, they still want to give me a free blanket and pillow set.

REALLY!??! Cool!

So I went out to their website and picked out what I wanted. Wow! There are a ton of choices! After a bunch of deliberating, I chose this set:

In those colors, more or less. The blanket will be the natural chick mink stripes and sage (which is what is shown) and the pillow will be jacquard dots and the ruffle may be the citron pucker up, if that will work. If not, the border will be what it is right now, which is the jacquard stripes.

Either way, I'm pretty jazzed about the free pillow and blanket! Many thanks the Javis Davis for them!

Crafty

My mom and I went to a craft fair (they call it the "Holiday Craft Bazaar") today. It is held in a museum in the city near us. I had been looking forward to this date with my mom all week. The craft fair is usually quite nice and today was no exception.

Another reason to look forward to today was because I got to go to the craft fair child-less. My dad took care of Emily for us while Mom and I went shopping. Whee!!

We made it through the two buildings of the fair in a little over two hours and then went to get some lunch. I was craving a salad and so we went to the grocery store (a very very very fancy grocery store) and got a ready-made salad (oh wait! you guys still don't care what I had for lunch, do you?).

Anyways.

We also stopped at Barnes and Noble so I could get a pregnancy journal (more like a calendar to keep track of my appointments, weight gain, etc) and then on to Target to buy anti-frizz stuff for my hair and a new collar for Domino.

We got most of the skunk smell out of the dog (though you still catch whiffs of it) and the house, but his collars are a lost cause, I'm afraid. My parents have an extra invisible fence collar, so they are going to give/lend that to us.

And now I am very tired. Emily is supposed to be taking a nap, but so far that seems to be a pipe dream on my part.

Pepe le Peee-eeeew!!!

Domino got sprayed by a skunk tonight.

Mike let him out after he had his dinner and Domino seemed very anxious to go outside. We both assumed he had to go.

I got Emily out of the bath while Domino was outside and suddenly, there was this terrible smell thoughout the house. Very metallic and yuck. As the smell hung around, I realized it was skunk.

I finished putting Emily to bed and went to let the dog inside. As I was heading towards the sliding door to let him in, I had this horrible thought "What if Domino was sprayed by the skunk?" I let him in, and grabbed his collar to take a sniff before letting him loose in the house.

Boy, am I glad I had a hold of him. He STINKS! The smell gave me an instant headache. I kicked him right back outside and told Mike that the dog was sprayed. Then I went online to find out what I could do about de-skunking yon mutt. I also called the vet to see if they had any better ideas.

It turns out that the best formula is 1 qt hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda and 1 tsp liquid dish soap.

We have to was the dog in this mixture, while wearing rubber gloves since the mixture is somewhat caustic.

I ran out to the store to get the peroxide and some more baking soda while Mike worked on gathering his hunting stuff. (Tomorrow is the beginning of hunting season and Mike's first day of vacation - he's off all next week. Woo-hoo!)

Now we're trying to figure out how to wash the dog without bringing him and his stink into the house. The best we have come up with is to wash him outside, but it's not especially warm here tonight, so Mike isn't wild about bathing the dog with cold water. Not just because the dog will get cold, but also because Mike's hands are going to get cold.

This was not what we had planned to do this evening!

Old Habits Die Hard

I know that every one has bad habits that they would like to break. I sure do. Since I am somewhat at a loss for what to write today, I am going to tell you about my bad habits.

1. I am continually playing with my hair. I either put the ends in my mouth, or I take a bunch and kind of poke myself with the ends. I can't really explain why I do this, except that I like the way it feels. It is sort of scratchy.
2. I used to bite my fingernails, to the quick. I finally kicked that habit after I saw someone else biting their nails and realized how unintelligent I must look. It literally took me years of hard work to break that habit. My mom tried when I was a kid to help me stop biting my nails, with the yucky tasting stuff, but I discovered that the icky taste went away in a couple of minutes. I have to keep my nails fairly short and if one breaks, I have to cut it immediately (which is why I carry nail clippers in my purse) or I will start biting them again.
   
3. I am incredibly lazy. It takes a lot for me to get up off my butt and do something. This is especially true when I am tired. My house is dirtier than my husband or I would like and a big part of that is I just don't feel like expending the energy. And that's bad. I always have a mental list of things that need to be done, but sometimes, the longer the list, the harder the pull is for me to just sit down and read my book. I feel like I am constantly pushing against inertia. It gets very frustrating.
   
4. I used to swear a lot before I met Mike. I have been trying to be better about this, especially as Emily gets older and I have pretty much kicked the habit. The worst words I say now are shit (very infrequently), ass and damn. And I try not to say any of those in front of Emily, since I really don't want to have to write in her baby book that her first word was any of those. I am even trying to stop saying crap as much because I don't want to hear it come out of my kid's mouth.
   
5. I do everything quickly. I walk, talk, eat, read, move, type... you name it, I do it too fast. I had a lot of trouble with this when I was working in Payroll, because with speed comes inaccuracy. My manager was always on my case about going too quickly and messing something up. When I was a kid, my report cards always said that I worked too quickly, I just needed to slow down. I used to write "Slow Down" on my tests because I was always the first one done. It didn't work, but I was trying. It's just a part of who I am. I try to slow down, and sometimes think I'm doing pretty well, but I either speed up unconciously or discover that my slow is everyone else's fast. I can't count the number of times I have gotten myself into a jam I would have avoided if I had just. slowed. down.
   
6. This kind of goes with the going too fast thing, but I frequently put my foot in my mouth. I don't stop to think about how my words are going to affect someone else. I might think my funny comment was well, funny, but someone else might think I'm being incredibly insulting. I also usually forget that the written word doesn't translate as well as the spoken one and will say something in an email that was supposed to be funny and it just bombs. I'll read it later and think I just insulted this other person because I'm an idiot. I have been working on this issue and have managed to install a pretty good mouth-brain filter, but it still malfunctions once in a while.
   
7. I don't really keep up with my family and friends like I should. There are all these wonderful people in my life and if I don't see them on a daily, weekly, or at least monthly basis, I typically don't talk with them. There are a bunch of people, college and high school friends especially, that I have just plain lost touch with because I didn't write back or send them a note or whatever. I hate talking on the phone (though I am trying to be better about that), so it always feels like a chore to call my parents in Michigan or talk with my grandparents. I need to just get over myself and call them already. But I probably won't (see #3). This also tends to ooze over into my blog reading. I read so many great posts, and feel as though I have something to add to the conversation, but either the inertia takes over (it really is a lot of work to type in my name, email address and URL) or I read through the comments that are already there and feel that what I have to say couldn't possibly be as witty or interesting, so I just don't. I have been trying to be better about this, because I know how happy it makes me to see that someone else has left a comment on my post.
   

I know that there are more, but I can't think of them right now. I'd love to know what your bad habit is. I need to get off my butt and go downstairs and start a fire already. I've been putting it off since I got home (at 11:00 am - it's now 1:30 pm) and I'm tired of being cold...

Stolen post...

Sheryl, of Paper Napkin, had this post up yesterday and I thought it was very cool. So I am stealing it. I told her I was going to steal it, so is that still stealing?

Anyways.

Things I don't mind that you might find horrid

• the smell of gasoline
• the smell of a just lit match
  
• kissing someone who has been smoking (ps - Mike does not smoke, neither do I)
  
• country music
  
• doing laundry
• washing dishes
  

Things I can take or leave, that you probably love

• alcohol, especially beer
  
• biscotti
  
• new car smell
  
• most pop music
  

Things I have no desire to do that you might like

• go into outer space
• be famous
• go hang gliding
• go sky diving
  

things I'd like to do, how about you?

• swim with dolphins (I know, very cliche)
  
• go on a cruise
  
• learn to scuba dive
  

things I wish I had more of

• friends
• money
  
• time
  
• patience
  
• sleep
  

things I have, that I hope you have too

• good health
• a healthy family
• an enjoyable job
• a good relationship with parents
• a creative outlet
• a nice, warm house
• a dog that is always happy to see me when I come home
• hugs from my baby, sometimes with pats on the back
  

Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades

It turns out, I was unkowingly part of a contest for NBPM. The contest for who would announce their pregnancy first during November. Someone announced on 11/2 and someone else announced on 11/6. Go over to Fussy.org to understand what I am talking about.

So far, this pregnancy is going pretty well. I am very very very tired, but a big part of that is due to Mike and Emily. They both have colds (how I am not yet sick is beyond me) and were coughing through a large portion of last night. And when one wasn't coughing, I was having a weird dream about a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker. I'm not quite sure what they had to do with the dream, but it was very unsettling.

I had terrible morning sickness when I was pregnant with Emily, so I alternate between knowing that the sickness is coming and hoping that I can avoid it with this pregnancy. Though I have a feeling it's coming, because I walked through the seafood section of our grocery store last week and the sight of some fish they had displayed there (whole, with the beady eyes staring up at me) had me dry-heaving for the next 10 minutes. It still makes me shudder thinking about it.

I took some pictures this morning of Emily. She's wearing a one-piece jumpsuit thing from Carter's and she totally looks like Thing 1* to me. I love the sweet curve of her back and her belly. It seems more pronounced in this outfit than it is when she's wearing pants and a shirt.

This is the "what's that, Mommy? Can I play with it?" look. She comes running when she sees me touching something that she's not usually allowed to play with.

She's sitting on my lap in this picture, and I took it using the LCD screen instead of the viewfinder. Those cheeks!! They are so smoochable! (but watch out, because with the cold comes a runny nose and it's not funny to kiss your honey when her nose is runny)

Here's a pretty good Thing 1 picture. And my dining room floor (in the background) really isn't that shiny. It's actually very dusty and covered in doggy footprints.


Emily loves her some Oscar. She picks him up and gives him big hugs. The kind where she rocks back and forth. He is far and away her favorite toy.

"Mommy, stop taking pictures of me and pick me up! Dance with me, like we did earlier to Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy." Sorry, sweetie, that wore Mommy out.

* I called Emily 'Thing 1' a couple of weeks ago and Mike asked me what I meant. It turns out he doesn't know The Cat in the Hat and therefore doesn't understand the Thing 1/Thing 2 reference. Wow.

Ok, I am STARVING!!! I have to go get something to eat. The two pieces of toast I had at 8 am didn't last. (and yes, I know that if you don't care what I had for lunch, you probably also don't care what I had for breakfast, either. Get over it)

In case you were wondering...

Mike's uncle sent me this link last night. It is very cool.

So, in case you were wondering (modified from the site):

My Native American Zodiac sign is Bear; my plant is Violets.

I was born in the Egyptian month of Hathys, the third month of the season of Poret (Emergence - Fertile soil).

My date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 16 Elul 5736.6 (I was born at 3:12 am so the next sentence is somewhat irrelevent) Or if I was born after sundown then the date is 17 Elul 5736.

The Mayan Calendar long count date of my birthday is 12.18.3.3.8 which is
12 baktun 18 katun 3 tun 3 uinal 8 kin

The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of my birth is Saturday, 17 Ramadan 1396 (1396-9-17).

The date of Easter on my birth year was Sunday, 18 April 1976.
The date of Orthodox Easter on my birth year was Sunday, 25 April 1976.
The date of Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) on my birth year was Wednesday 3 March 1976.
The date of Whitsun (Pentecost Sunday) in the year of my birth was Sunday 6 June 1976.
The date of Whisuntide in the year of my birth was Sunday 13 June 1976.
The date of Rosh Hashanah in the year of my birth was Saturday, 25 September 1976.
The date of Passover in the year of my birth was Thursday, 15 April 1976.
The date of Mardi Gras on my birth year was Tuesday 2 March 1976.

As of 11/14/2006 12:43:14 PM EST
I am 30 years old.
I am 362 months old.
I am 1,575 weeks old.
I am 11,021 days old.
I am 264,516 hours old.
I am 15,871,003 minutes old.
I am 952,260,194 seconds old.

My age is the equivalent of a dog that is 4.31350293542074 years old. (I'm still chasing cats! - But I'm not changing their litter boxes!)

There are 301 days till my next birthday (Wow! Better start working on my birthday list)
on which my cake will have 31 candles.

Those 31 candles produce 31 BTUs,
or 7,812 calories of heat (that's only 7.8120 food Calories!) .
You can boil 3.54 US ounces of water with that many candles.

There's a lot more information on the site. The guy who did this must have gone to a lot of trouble to figure all that stuff out. He even has what the moon looked like the night I was born.

Another site I saw recently where someone went to a lot of trouble to do it is this one. You seriously need to watch this. It is very cool.

We have a weiner... er, winners

Well, that didn't take long.

Karen guessed the answer correctly. Karen is a real life girlfriend that I used to work with.

July 14, 2007 is the due date of baby #2.

However, I have to give an honorable mention (and prize) to Jennifer for her guess that 7/14/07 is my 1 year anniversary of blogging. Strange how that stuff works out, isn't it?

So, Karen and Jennifer, email me with what you want book-wise and how to send it to you (Jennifer, especially) and I will get them on their way to you! :)

For those of you who were wondering about the 38 that was briefly up as part of the contest, it's um.... (this is kind of embarassing) ... the number of blogs I have bookmarked. And that number is slightly smaller now, because I just deleted a bookmark this morning after two full weeks without an update.

Now, Katie tells me that I have to go to bed, straight to bed, so I can't write any more now.

Contest Time!!

Updated below.

I'm pretty sure I don't have enough readers to do this, but what the heck!

I am going to post a number below and you guys get to guess what the significance is. Winner(s) will get a book from my Yay! Books! post. Leave a comment with your guesses. I will leave the contest open all week, or until someone guesses correctly, whichever comes first.

Here is the number:

1. 7/14/2007

To quote Simon Powell, off you go!

There were originally two numbers, but I'm pretty sure no one would have been able to get the second one, so I erased it.

No more bottles for you!

Last night, Emily had her last bedtime bottle. She's been using sippy cups during the day for milk for a couple of months now.

Her pediatrician said that she should no longer get a bottle after she is 15 months old. I am somewhat of a stickler for some things (and I knew I would want to keep the bottle thing going as long as possible in an attempt to cling to one of the last vestiges of my girl's babyhood) and so I worked out a schedule where she would slowly wean off the bottles until the last one remaining was her bedtime bottle. Then, when she was exactly 15 months old, we would stop the bedtime bottle.

Yesterday was 11/11 and Emily was born on 8/11. She was exactly 15 months old. And she got her last bedtime bottle. She doesn't know it yet, but tonight when she goes to bed, after she has her bath and gets into her jammies, we're going to brush her teeth and put her to bed. No bottle, and no pacifier. Mean, mean parents.

This was Emily's first bottle ever. She was 2 weeks old. Daddy gave it to her because I was nursing and didn't want to confuse the poor kid. She took right to it! Daddy didn't seem to mind too much, either!

This is her very last bottle, taken last night. She is 15 months old. We're sitting on the big-girl bed in her room. We were given this bed by Mike's brother after he got married this summer. We didn't want to keep it in the basement where it might get damp, so we set it up in Emily's room. She doesn't use the big-girl bed just yet, but I'm sure that will be coming sooner than I am ready.

This isn't quite how I remembered it

While I was in Michigan, I got a chance to go to my grandparent's old house. The house has been abandoned for a number of years. The last time Mike and I went there, the house wasn't boarded up. I wanted to go in, but we were afraid we would disturb a squatter and get shot. The neighborhood has gone down in quality a little since my grandparents moved. This time the house was in even worse shape. This house is one that I think of when I think of my childhood. I spent a lot of time here when I was little. I used to ride my bike all around the house and the barns in the summer. My grandparents had a bunch of dogs, and I would play with them outside. They were old, so they didn't like me very much.



It's all boarded up now. The yard is grown over. One of the barns that my dad and grandpa used to keep their equipment in has burned down.


The green house in the background here is the house where my mom, dad and I lived before they split up. It used to be a lighter green color, but otherwise it looks like it's in pretty good shape. The yard is cared for and we think that the person who owns that property also owns my grandparent's former house.


The rock in between the two houses was put there by my grandparents and my parents. My dad and grandpa dug the rock up at one of their excavation sites (I think) and brought it home. I used to love to play on it. The wood in the foreground is covering the entrance to their front porch.


A close up of the rock. The window in the background is my grandparent's former bedroom.


The upstairs window was my dad's bedroom. The lower window was the kitchen. My grandma used to have a drawer in the kitchen filled with cookies and stuff . It was low enough that I could reach it and help myself. I loved that drawer! And they always used to have Reese's pieces in the kitchen.

This was the final blow. The house is condemned.

Ok. Depressing stuff over now. Tomorrow's post won't be a bummer, I promise.

Stolen Meme Day

I swiped this meme from Katie at Life, the Universe and Everything because I think its a pretty cool one.

1. Explain what ended your last relationship.
He was 8 years older than me, had 4 kids and two ex-wives. I decided he just had too much baggage for me. And I had a monster crush on Mike. And this guy was starting to get kinda weird, like, he got upset with me that I went to Michigan for the 4th of July because he "would miss me". Um, yeah. And when I had a car accident with someone we both worked with, I had to calm him down more than he was helping me. Add to that his psycho ex-wife and I decided the relationship wasn't quite what I was looking for. When I broke up with him, he was "so distraught" he didn't come to work for 2 weeks.

2. When was the last time you shaved?
I shave my armpits every day in the shower. Legs... um, a couple of weeks ago? I remember I shaved them the day after I was cleared to stand in the shower. I don't think I've done anything with them since. Should probably get around to that...

3. What were you doing this morning at 8 a.m.?
Working on this meme (it's 8:07 now)

4. What were you doing 15 minutes ago?
Giving Emily her nebulizer treatment.

5. Are you any good at math?
Eh. I can do mental math OK if I can clear all the other stuff out of my head, but that sometimes doesn't happen. I usually break out the calculator that I carry in my purse. It's just easier.

6. Your prom night?

Eh. I went to both of my proms with the same guy. He was a total dork and I really regret that I brought him to both of my proms. But I thought he was something special at the time. Strangely enough, last year I was in the mall with my mother-in-law and someone started calling my name. It was this guy. He works in a chocolate store in the fancy new part of the mall. He's married now and has a kid. Which is funny, because I'm pretty sure I heard he was gay. Or at least bi. *shudder* Anyways...

7. Do you have any famous ancestors?

Not really. I am sorta kinda related to Charlie Gehringer, who was a baseball player for the Detroit Tigers, and inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I think that is about as close as I get to famous-ness.

8. Have you had to take a loan out for school?
I didn't have to do loans for my first 4 years of college, which my parents paid for (thanks, guys!), but when I went to pharmacy school, I had to take out loans. I was only there for a semester, so it wasn't a lot, but it still took me a couple of years to pay them off.

9. Do you know the words to the song on your Myspace profile?
I don't have a myspace profile. I'm not cool enough.

10. Last thing received in the mail?
A bunch of catalogs, a notice from the bank about changes to their internet banking program, a Good Housekeeping magazine. We hadn't gotten the mail in 3 days, so there was a bunch of stuff.

11. How many different beverages have you had today?
Just 1, a glass of milk.

12. Do you ever leave messages on people's answering machine?
I almost always leave messages. I usually only hang up on Mike's voice mail at work, or my parent's answering machine because I can call their cell phones and hunt. them. down.

13. Whom did you lose your CONCERT virginity to?
Wow. It was a really long time ago. Mom will have to comment and let me know if I'm wrong. I think my first concert was Air Supply, probably in the early 80s. It happened to be the concert where, for some reason, they had a big gap between two halves of the stages and one of the lead singers jumped from one stack of speakers to the other and missed. He fell into some kind of decorative planter thing and broke his wrist (or was it both wrists, Mom?) and a couple of ribs. Not good. But I think it's kind of funny now. Second concert was New Kids on The Block, I think.

14. Do you draw your name in the sand when you go to the beach?
Not usually. I actually prefer to go to a pool. Less sand to get into areas that shouldn't be sanded. When I was in Bermuda (the last beach I went to), I think I made a sand castle and buried my feet.

15. What was the most painful dental procedure you have had?
It's kind of a tie between getting my braces on and having them taken off. I remember when they were being put on, the technician lady was putting a band around one of my molars and it hurt so bad I was biting down on the stick-thing she had in my mouth. Then I realized it wasn't the stick I was biting, it was her finger. Whoops! I've always felt bad about that. And that night, my mom made tacos for dinner (one of my absolute favorite meals) and I couldn't eat them. My teeth hurt way too bad.

16. What is out your back door?
Leaves. And our deck. And our grill.

17. Any plans for Friday night?
I think we're going to make jam. We've been experimenting with a jam recipe to give to family for Christmas. So, it's going to be a really wild Friday night in our house!

18. Do you like what the ocean does to your hair?
Not especially. It always makes it frizzy and unruly and it's like that enough without help from a large body of water.

19. Have you ever received one of those big tins of 3 different popcorns?
Not me, personally, but I have helped my parents eat one when they got one. (I hate how that last sentence sounds, but can't figure out how to make it better)

20. Have you ever been to a planetarium?
Yes. They are OK. And I always think of that Friends episode where Ross seduces Rachel at the planetarium.

21. Do you re-use towels after you shower?
Yep. I'm sort of militant about it. We use the same towels for a week, then they are thrown down to be washed on Sunday. I do enough laundry, we don't need a clean towel after each shower.

22. Some things you are excited about?
That Emily slept through the night last night WITHOUT A PACIFIER!!! And I have an episode of Studio 60, and an episode of House to watch today.

23. What is your favorite flavor of JELLO?
Any of the non-citrus ones. But I'll eat pretty much any Jell-O. It was invented in a town near here. (But that's not why I like it)

24. Describe your keychain(s).
I have one main keychain that has a key to my car (and the remote-dealy), Mike's car, our house key ... I have to go look, because I don't remember what else is on it ... it also has a key to my parent's house and two of those little tags you get with some store loyalty cards. One is for Hallmark and the other is for a local grocery store I don't go to often. There is also a small key for a padlock. I think it went to the lock we had on our storage area in the apartment, but I'm not sure.

25. Where do you keep your change?
Mostly in my wallet. Any pennies I find in a parking lot go into my jeans and then find their way onto the table by my side of the bed. I have about 10 there now.

26. What kind of winter coat do you own?
I have a couple. One is a Lands-End squall jacket (red). Another is a dressy black leather jacket. The third one is a longer parka. It is purple and black.

27. What was the weather like on your graduation day?
Which one? High school was sunny and warm. College #1 was sunny and HOT!! College #2 was sunny and HOTTER! We were in gyms for both college graduations and everyone was roasting.

28. Do you sleep with the door to your room open or closed?
I usually sleep with the door open. It lets the heat into the room during the winter and is easier to hear the baby when she cries.

Whew!

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

Mike and I headed out of Michigan about 8:30 and were pulling into the driveway at my parent's house about 3:30. We made a couple of stops, but we still made pretty good time. I was doing between 75 & 80 mph pretty much the whole way.

As soon as we got home, Mike took Emily to his mom's house to get the dog while I ran around the house and unpacked and organized. I got both suitcases unpacked and the dishwasher unloaded and the kitchen tidied and some emails checked before Mike and Emily came home.

I had 39 emails. There are a ton from work that I will have to deal with later tonight and tomorrow.

While we were gone, Emily learned how to tell us what a duckie and a turkey say. A duckie says "ka-ka" and a turkey says "ga-ga". Very smart, our girl.

She seems to be feeling a lot better. She hasn't had a fever since Tuesday afternoon and is eating really well again. I still think we did the right thing in leaving her home, not only because she wasn't feeling well, but also because it would have been very stressful dealing with her at the funeral.

I can't think of a good way to end this post, so I am just going to stop writing. Insert good ending here.

Ergh!

I am having a very hard time getting into my email. It is very frustrating. And it is starting to occupy my every thought.

I think that's not a good thing.

I was trying to type very quietly because my parent's computer is in the same room as where we're sleeping. It didn't work and I woke Mike up. Oops.

Funeral is today. Maybe more later.

We're here!

We made it to Michigan. My grand plan to get up at 5:30 and be at the polls to vote by 6:30 and on the road after that didn't work out so well.

We got up at almost 6 am, were at the town hall to vote by 7, and then didn't actually get on the road until 8:30 or so. We had to get gas and then while we were getting gas, Mike asked to go see Emily real quick because we weren't that far from my parent's house. We stopped to see our girl and then stopped at the bank to get cash and then finally finally got on the road.

We crossed over into Canada at 10 am and were outta there at 1:20 or so. The border crossing into Canada was completely empty. We didn't have to wait at all. In fact, as we pulled up, 'our' guard was just returning to her booth with a magazine. On the way out of Canada, we got into the lane with Mr.Thorough (is that spelled right? It doesn't look right). He took forever with the car in front of us inspecting the guy's passport. He must have looked like a terrorist or something.

So, we're going to have dinner in a few minutes (yes, it is only 3:45 pm, what?!) and then get dressed up and head down to Ypsi for the viewing hours. We're meeting my cousin at the funeral home and will probably hang out with her for a little bit after we leave the funeral home.

The funeral is tomorrow and then we'll head home on Thursday. I'm hoping to get a chance to go through my grandparent's former house. It's been somewhat abandoned and has fallen apart, but I still want to stop and try to get some pictures of it before it is completely gone.

Will post more tomorrow. Ta-ta!

I cannot, cannot, CANNOT wait until elections are over!

Updated below...

These political ads are making me CRAZY!!!

I am so tired of hearing from John Doe that Jack Smith wants to raise our taxes and didn't support our troops and then in the next commercial hearing from Jack Smith that John Doe likes young boys.

Or whatever.

I want someone to enact a law that political ads cannot mention the name or politics of the candidate's rival. Ever. If you violate the law, you ... I don't know. I can't think of a punishment suitably painful enough. The only one I keep coming up with is locking the violator in a room and playing the commercials over and over again. With periodic interruptions for car dealer commercials (another group of people I would like to impose advertising limits on).

*********************

Just in time for our pending trip to Michigan, Emily is sick again. She's been running a fever all weekend and has now added a dry cough to her repertoire. I am going to call my girlfriend who went to playgroup with me and see if her daughter is feeling ok because I have a funny feeling that might be where she picked up whatever she has.

I just got off the phone with the pediatrician and we're going in at 10 for our weekly visit. Or so it feels.

7:20 pm: I went out to the car at 9:00 to load up to go to the pediatrician. Except, the door to the van wouldn't open (my van is sorta fancy in that it has power doors). And then I noticed that the interior lights weren't coming on. Uh-oh. The interior lights were left on last night (MIKE!) and the battery is dead. I made a quick call to my mom and she came down and got us so we could go to the doctor's. I am so glad I left early. I was planning to go to the warehouse store to return some stuff and buy some more.

Emily has one ear that is slightly inflamed, but not enough to be called an ear infection. She also has a very red throat and still with the fever. The doctor put her on Amoxicillin (again!) to combat whatever infection is causing the fever. She did a strep test and it was negative. We asked her about the whole going-to-Michigan thing and she said if it was her kid, she would leave her home, if possible. So that's what's happening. Emily is at my parent's house tonight, Domino is at my in-law's house, Mike is at a board of trustees meeting for the church and I have the place to myself! Woo-hoo! Too bad I feel like I'm drowning in work so I can't really enjoy it (though I haven't really done much since Mike came home from work... laziness has struck again).

My mom and mother-in-law are going to work out some kind of arrangement for taking care of Looney while we're gone. This will be the longest and farthest I have ever been from her. It feels sort of like I've removed a part of my body.

Saturday Night Bummer

Mike and I had my in-laws over for dinner last night. As we were finishing cleaning up, the phone rang. It was a long-distance ring, and as soon as I heard it, I knew who it was and why they were calling.

I was right: it was my dad. My uncle died. This wasn't unexpected, but still bummed me out.

I'm not sure of all the arrangements yet, but I will be driving to Michigan probably later today or tomorrow for the funeral.

I will try to keep posting while I am gone, but my MI parents only have dial-up (!! I know. But, they recently got cable, so they are making steps into the 21st century) and I have no idea how well Blogger Beta will play with dial-up.

I also have to try to figure out what to do about work. I was just given a huge portion of a new project and I know that time is short for them. I have to call and speak with my manager-type person and figure out what I can do. Hopefully I will be able to bring some of the stuff with me and work on it while I am there. Though, that stuff definitely requires more than a dial-up connection.

This is getting really old

Emily has been waking up at least once every night for at least a couple of weeks. When she was sick, of course, she was awake a lot at night, coughing. Because she was sick, when she'd wake up, I would go in to her room and give her pacifier back to her and medicate her as needed.

Well, now she is healthy again, but still waking up. Last night, she was awake and fussing/talking to herself for at least an hour.

Part of the problem is the pacifier. She falls asleep and then it falls out of her mouth and then out of her crib. She can't find it when she wakes up, so she cries. I have reinstated the 15-minute rule (where I wait 15 minutes before going in to her when she wakes up in the middle of the night), but that almost makes it worse because I wind up staying more or less awake while waiting the 15 minutes.

I also have reinstated the go-down-for-naps/bed-without-pacifier rule. We put her down without the pacifier and if she cries for 15 minutes, I go in and give her a pacifier.

All of this is with an eye towards getting rid of the pacifier all together.

And, I, for one, can't wait. There is a big part of me that just wants to take it away now and let the chips fall where they may. But, I think that might be harder on her than necessary and it doesn't feel fair to inflict my frustrations on my daughter. So I'm trying to tamp down the frustration that boils up in me every time I hear her start crying at 3:37 am.

But, I am so tired. And I am tired of being tired.

And today is even harder. Because, even if it is a Saturday, Mike and I got up at 6:18. ICK!

We are having 2 tons of coal delivered this morning and the truck is due here between 8 and 9 am.

It is 7:47 am on a Saturday morning and I am showered, dressed, fed, have teeth brushed and have put the laundry I folded yesterday away. And now I just want to go back to bed.

Books!

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah had this meme up on her site a couple of days ago. I wasn't among the people she tagged to do this, but I am doing it anyways. My list won't be nearly as intellectual as Sarah's was, but it is what it is.

• One book that changed your life: The Watchers, Dean Kuntz. Introduced me to a totally new genre and blew my mind. Love that book. I've since had to stop reading Dean Kuntz's books because they started to annoy me, but I really enjoyed the premise behind The Watchers.

• One book that you’d read more than once: Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery.

• One book you’d want on a deserted island: Anything in the James Herriot series. I can re-read those any time.

• One book that made you laugh: Seven Years of Highly Defective People, Scott Adams

• One book that made you cry: My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult.

• One book you wish you’d written: Any book. I love to read, but seem to be unable to come up with anything interesting to write for my blog, let alone for a novel.

• One book you wish had never been written: I have to agree with Sarah, the What to Expect When You’re Expecting series is pretty terrible. The Q&A style gives me the willies and all it seems to do is make you freak out at a time when you’re already freaking out enough.

• One book you’re currently reading: The Rosary Girls, Richard Montanari

• One book you’ve been meaning to read: Night, Elie Weasel. It’s been on my nightstand since August and I just can’t seem to work up the guts to read it. It’s about the holocaust and that’s not exactly bedtime reading.

• Tag people: Julie, Jennifer, Jess, and Katie

Let it, um, SNOW?!

It's only November!


But this is what I saw when I looked up from my computer yesterday afternoon.
So pretty.

And coming down pretty hard for the first snow fall.

It has all melted now, but it is still pretty cold outside. Mike was all excited that it has snowed already. He's looking forward to going hunting in a couple of weeks. But it made for some chilly grilling last night.

Last night while I was watching CSI, I saw a commercial for a contest the local weatherman was having to predict the first snowfall. I think I can guess that answer... :)

Children at Play

Yesterday, Emily and I went with a friend and her daughter to a meeting of a local Moms Club. I had been to one last year, when Emily was very little and didn't enjoy it. It's geared more toward toddler-type kids and the people were just not my type. So I didn't go back.

But, recently, I had been feeling like I should get Emily out into groups more often and I also needed to do something to connect with more moms. I posted a mini-sob fest a couple of months ago (My God, that was in AUGUST! Now it's November! Where is the year going?!) and have been trying to get to this meeting ever since. They meet the first Wednesday of every month and it seemed like every month, I had something going on at 10 am that day.

So anyways, my girlfriend picked Emily and I up and we went to a church near my house (like within 5 miles) and checked out this group. As we were getting out of the car, my girlfriend pointed out another mom who was in the parking lot and reminded me that she had been in Water Babies with us earlier this year. (Which is how this girlfriend and I met. She's my first mommy friend that I didn't know before Emily. And her daughter and Emily are 1 day apart.)

We walked into the church and followed the sound of voices coming from down the hall. As we walked down the hall, on the left there was a room with a bunch of kids in it and a baby gate across the door. To the right there was a meeting-type room (table, chairs, etc) with a bunch of moms in it. (No baby gate across the door on that one.) So Emily, girlfriend, girlfriend's daughter and I walk into the meeting-type room and I introduce myself to the membership coordinator and tell her that I've been emailing her for a couple of months. She remembers me. Wonder why? They tell us we can take the girls across the hall and let them play and then come back and sit with them. (There is an adult in the playroom supervising).

By this time, Emily has already wandered across the hall and is standing at the baby gate, watching the playing. I asked her if she wanted to go in and play, and she signed "Please" (this is a new-ish trick for her) so I picked her up, gave her a smooch on the head and set her inside the baby gate. I totally figured that she would freak out when I walked away, but she didn't. She took off and went to go play. I kept going over to check on her and GF's daughter, but they did great!

This was Emily's first experience with being dropped into a group of kids she didn't know and she didn't have a problem at all. Of course, right now, she mostly does parallel play, so she's not really interacting, but still!

I don't know why I expected her to be a shrinking violet, but I seriously thought she'd be more upset. And when she did cry, as she walked over to me, she decided instead to take a hard right and go play some more.

So I wrote the ladies a check for $20 (a year's worth of dues) and joined up. This club is a chapter of Moms Club International, hence the dues. They've got smaller playgroups and field trips and a night out just for the moms. All kinds of good stuff. I'm not sure if my girlfriend is going to join, but I'm glad I did.

So, between the Moms Club stuff (and I'm going to try to get involved in lots of stuff so Emily and I get the chance to make friends) and the new job which sounds like it is going to be heating up pretty soon, I should be fairly busy. I like being busy.

First day of NaBloPoMo (NBPM)

Today is the first of 30 days of posting for me. And several hundred other people, according to M.Kennedy's website, Fussy.org.

I thought for my first post of the month, I would share some pictures with you. Emily and I went outside yesterday and wandered around the yard. It was a gorgeous day and she really seemed to enjoy herself. So much that when it was time to go inside she refused to walk while holding my hand. Instead, she collapsed on the ground and sobbed, forcing me to carry her in the house. It was, in Emily's opinion, the end of the world. For that 2 minutes.

Every time we go out in the garage, Emily makes a bee-line for her swing. "Uhh! Uhh!", she says, pointing at it. So I decided to drag it out and put it up one more time before winter hits.



I had just taken Emily out of the swing not 3 seconds before, but she wanted to go right back in it. I distracted her with something. I don't remember what.

And then she fell down and Domino had to come over and investigate. He was very happy that we were outside with him, though he felt the need to go running and barking violently at any car that dared to drive past our house. Really, the nerve!


Emily is carrying a couple of walnuts from our English walnut tree. As long as she wasn't trying to eat them, I was fine with it. English walnuts are the ones you buy at the store for baking, but Mike doesn't like them, so we don't do anything with them. Other than rake them up and throw them out back.


She is the cutest baby. Ever. Or she is my cutest baby ever.

Heading out towards what I call our back 40. It's more like our back 3/4, but still. You can see the creek is WAAAAY over its banks. We had a bunch of rain over the weekend. Emily was determined to go in the creek. More tantrums ensued when I told her no.


Emily gently deposited her walnuts at the base of this branch. It's from one of the lilac bushes closer to the house and was torn off during the monster windstorm we had over the weekend.

Heading back towards the casa.

She's running because she sees the swing and thinks I might give her another ride in it. I didn't because I'm mean.