Conversation While walking to the car yesterday from the Mall. . .

Me : We're walking down the ramp to the car . . do you see the car Alaina?

A: . . . see the car!

Me: Hi car!

A: hi car!

Me: Did you miss us car?

A: . . . miss us car?

(car lights blink)

A: OH!

Me: See she missed us!

A: Missed us Car!

(carn horn beeps once and lights flash causing Alaina to jump)

Me: Look at how happy she is to see us!

A: I love you car.

(Alaina stops near the front bumper and gives the car a little kiss*)

* - No touching of the lips to a buggy bumper occured in this kiss, it was an air kiss.

Aren't car remotes wonderful things to play with?

Wordless Wednesday - Before and After

Ick

Coming back to work after a break is the pits.

It appears that everything is broken, when in reality its nothing more that usual.

Jeff said last night he would sacrifice his dignity for our daughter and we should dress up as the Incredibles. Now we just have to figure out who Alaina will be . . I vote for Dash and then she can wear the mask for a little bit.

I keep rediscovering how wonderful it is to have a stylist who knows your hair, after the laughter about how uneven my previous haircut was. I ended up with a cute little bob cut with bangs.

I like it!

But that's about it for the morning.

Back to the pile on the desk. . .
Maybe I'll win that big ol' lottery tomorrow and won't have to worry about this anymore

Mommy's Day!

I'm taking the day off from work. At least from the full time job.

I needed a quiet day at home to catch up on laundry and vacuuming. As of now the laundry is done except for the guest sheets, and the vacuuming, well, we'll see what happens.

I've decided to splurge and take myself up to Omaha for a one on one with my favorite stylist Shannon. She listens well and isn't afraid to shoot down any poor ideas I have for my hair. Hopefully it will comeout perfect this time. At any rate, it has to be better. This cut is getting pretty shaggy.

I can feel the pressure for the holiday season beginning. The first pressure is for Alaina's Halloween costume. I've got a couple of fun ideas, and a few from friends. I was hoping to let Alaina pick what she wants to be, which will probably entail taking her to the sewing store and showing her pattern pictures.

My top picks right now are:
-Cinderella and I could be the fairy godmother.
-Stitch or Lilo because we have a stuffed Stitch that she could carry. But I wouldn't really have a costume to wear for this.
- Frog because she likes to hop
- Pony because she likes to gallop

I really like the idea of Cinderella, but I figure maybe the grop or pony because She'll want to be a princess for the next 16 years, so why not go for something different now?

Wait did you hear that? The vacuum just screamed my name. I'd better get moving.

Fun!

First off, sorry for the confusing post yesterday . . . computer issues.

Second, I finally broke down and bought a camera. A nice Sony cybershot with a 4x optical zoom. It is pretty nice a very affordable. The hardest part was picking out the memory chip. I only bought the 1 GB because I've never had more than 100 pictures on my camera at once.

Moving on,
Disney on Ice was fantastic! I was so excited! I giggled everytime I saw Syndrome and his hair that flapped every time he talked! I do have to say I felt a little bit like I'd watched a play on fast forward by the time it was all done, but I think it needed to have speedy dialogue to keep the kids pumped!

We left what we thought was super early, but due to traffic, we were only about 1/2 hour ahead of time . . . We blew 22 dollars on ONE snow cone and ONE bag of cotton candy . . . but we got a cute mask and a Mr. Incredible mug with them.


Alaina pointed out all the characters she knew and we had fun clapping and cheering for Mickey and Minnie, we got a little scared when they started firing cannonballs at Mr Incredible, but otherwise she enjoyed it all.

However, the whole ride home she kept saying,
"I want my crib mommy."

Unlike OM's charges, mine doesn't sleep in the car, she enjoys watching trucks too much.

It was a long, fun day.

The best part was getting to sit right behind OmahaMama and her three charges for the evening! She and I got to chat for a little bit and Jeff and I got to help watch B and her friend K while OM took M for treats and bathroom breaks.

But between you and me

I think that I loved it more than Alaina. ; )

And Happy International Talk like a pirate day!

Gah!!!



I'm so excited! We are going to Disney on Ice tonight! I'm so excited for Alaina to see the Incredibles in person! This is going to be the best!



Yesterday was also the super shoe and purse sale day at Younkrs. I finally realized that I bought mom shoes and a purse last time she was here! So I went last night and returned and then rebought the shoes to save about $12 and then I bought the same purse again with the intention of returning it with the old receipt that mimi has . . .which saves $18 on the purse.

I bought myself three pairs of shoes for $50 and a liz claiborne purse for $6. Cool!

But the big buy today is a camera. Yep I finally gave up looking. I'm so devastated . . .

I bought a sony cybershot . . which gets good reviews and isn't too costly.

Which means time to start posting pics again!!

Yay!

I know, I'm silly.



But what's the point of having the discount if you don't use it?



Tonight I'm headed out with Tiff to see "The women" I'm so excited, I'm sure this won't be quite as good as I want it to be, but I loved the original movie, and there was a version that they showed

Shopping!!!

So . .
The family went shopping last night at the mall for a couple of reasons.

1) tomorrow, I get to use a 35% discount on all shoes and handbags at work (Yes!!)

2) Jeff had gift cards to use at Dill*rds and Penneys

3) I needed to go to work and get someone to cover my shift for Thursday

We had a good time, Alaina was a little rebellious for some of the trip, but at her age I figure that's the norm. . .

But Sunday was a fun day!

I worked most of the day, but while I was there we found two boxes of stuff that was clearance and someone forgot to put out on the rack a month ago. So it was now a box of $4.99 shirts. I got to go through it first and pick out my size and brought home 4 really good shirt for $3.99 each.(discount!)

Yes!

And then when I got home, we had the moment of the day . . . Jeff, Alaina and I got to dance!

We played the credits from Shrek 2 and danced out little hearts out to "I need a hero!" It was wonderful!

I've also started really taking advantage of my library card, 10 books already! A couple of them are ones that I'm just rereading for the fun of it, but this is sooooo much better than buying all those books!

It's so much better that I'm thinking about getting rid of some of the books I have at home now and only keeping the best of the best . . . anything else, I can borrow from the library when I want.

Secret Crush?

So I had a dream last night. . .

A very messed up dream.

I was feeling a little achy after the part time job (the DM was coming for a visit so I had to stay and help tidy until almost 10 pm) so I took so Tylenol pm to help me sleep.

But I had forgotten about the latte I drank at 6 pm to charge me up and apparently lattes and Tylenol pm do not mix.

I had one of those strange sci-fi "where did everyone go" / Armageddon / monster / deadly machine / blazing hero dreams.

Which always leave me a little confused the next morning, because to me its like watching the middle of a sci-fi movie and getting really into it, but since you didn't see the beginning you really want to know what happens in the end . . but the satellite goes down!

However the most confusing part was actually the hero

Aaron Eckhart

Okay so he's a good looking actor, but he's never been at the top of my list dreaming of you actors. Sorry but Gerard Butler take the cake for that list followed closely by Christian Bale.

(Which reminds me, I've been meaning to write that fan letter to Gerard thanking him for being so good looking that dreaming of him helped get me through my third trimester.)

Back to Aaron, I'm just not that into his Gaston like dimpled chin and blond surfer looks.

But apparently my subconscious would disagree. I was even shocked enough to mention it to Jeff. I've alway went by the policy to not mention my leading dream boys to my real life leading man but I felt this was an exception I needed to make. He thought maybe it was because we recently saw Batman, but then why didn't I get Christian Bale?


Oh well, the mind is an amazing thing and a good looking man in a dream is a terrible thing to waste!

The moment that made the day

For me's there's usually one moment that set the tone for the day . .
or at least one moment that I wish I could have patterned the day around.

Yesterday ended a little rough with the part time job being a little hectic. It's not often that a manager calls her employees lazy just because we figured out that we can move our mouths and chat as well as fold piles of shirts at the same time.

Oh yes she did say that. But the kicker was she started the statement with a canned phrase that was the equivalent of "please don't take this the wrong way, but . . ."

Right

As if we could take that as anything but insulting.

So me (being the person that I am pointed) out to her that not a single one of the three of us standing their folding had paused in our folding duties during the entire conversation.

I should have started thie statement with "Please don't mistake this for the insubordinate comment that it is intended to be, but . . ."

Hee hee


But ANYWAY

The best moment of the day was when I came downstairs before I went to the part time job.

Does anyone here use L'Oreal's mineral makeup? If you do you know that they have a concealer powder (which I love) that looks like this. =>

Apparently Alaina will be a great beautician someday because when I came downstairs I found Jeff laying down on his back while Alaina was using the brush to apply makeup to him.

Actually she wasn't really applying make-up, she was just using the brush on him.

But she wasn't putting it on his face . . .

My wonderfully imaginative daughter had gotten it into her head that this brush which is flat on the sides was for nail polish. So she was pretending to apply it on Jeff.

More precisely on his toe nails.

Ewwwww!

As I type this I can't stop laughing, because the best part was the fact that my husband was grinning ear to ear as she did this because he thought it was one of her "play makeup" pieces.

I guess after I empty the powder out I know how to recycle the container.


p.s. Alaina used the potty chair at home this morning for Jeff! I guess the factor that needed to change for potty training to be a success was the subtraction of me from the equation!

Go Alaina!

Big walk talk

Yesterday for lunch, I had a meeting with the volunteer committee that assist with the wellness committee.

And if you know me . . .committee/volunteer work is my favorite thing to do at the office.

I love the brainstorming and the excitement that thinking of new ideas seems to bring to a group. We were pumped by the time we left that room!

We talked about the corporate wellness program and we got pretty excited about next year. We have plans for a "Walk the Lewis and Clark trail" challenge and a "Biggest Loser" challenge, someone has planted the idea of having a smoke free campus (BIG Deal for us!) and we are using the Biggest Loser challenge to promote lifestyle changes by exercise and healthy eating. (which we are trying to emphasize doesn't mean you have to go on a no carb, no dairy, no sugars, or NO FUN diet)

And I was excited until when it came time to get this ready to present to the managers that support this team . . . .

it came to me to put it into a presentation and type it up.

sigh.

I really wish this team was a paid position because I'd love to do it full time but . . . Nope.


Oh well, its for the good of the company. Hurrah and all that jazz.

However, for the second day in a row, Alaina came home with a 'certificate' for using the potty again.

YES!!!!

Not quite a failure

So . . . the potty training didn't go as expected.

I had thought that Alaina wasn't using the potty simply because diapers were convenient. .

But I was wrong.

The first day we had wet pants by 11:30 am. No big deal, but when I laid her down for a nap I put a diaper on so that she wouldn't wake up because she was wet.

the day came and went with no potty in the potty chair (and yes mimi, I did try pouring a little warm water on her to jump start the process with no luck.)

The next day, she had a BM in training pants and was so distressed by it that I ended up putting a pull up on her for the rest of the day . . .

I was ready to declare this weekend unsuccessful, but this morning she woke up with a dry diaper and asked to sit on the potty.

She didn't potty in the chair, but the fact that she asked makes me think we are making some good progress!

Put to the test . . .

So before my big mommy story I do have to say I have an interview with "the card store" and BandBWorks tomorrow. We'll see if they look better than Younk*rs.

Yesterday if you have a Younk*rs card you received 20% off of your purchase. So Right after daycare I took Alaina shopping.

Oops, big mistake.

Alaina was bent on doing everything her way yesterday, which meant not staying close to me and ramming the stroller into things.

We had a little talk and decided that we would go home. She decided not to get back in the stroller as suggested by me, so I carried her out the store while I pushed the stroller.

The End. . . .

You mean you don't believe the Idyllic version?

Fair enough.

If someone else would have told the story they might have said it this way.

The little girl stood in the middle of the store and yelled Uh-Uh! at her mother every time the Mother told her she needed to get in the stroller or they would leave, except instead of leaving she gave her about 16 other choices, before she hauled the child up, who by now was wailing and screaming and kicking and carried her back the the elevator.

She wailed all the way out to the car . .
Through the one block drive home . . .
And for the next 45 minutes at least until she finally ran out of steam and decided she needed a drink of milk and to blow her nose.

The moral of the story is

Well there isn't one, but I'm proud of myself for not giving in and letting her win the battle of wits.

Just call me the Sicilian . . . .

AlainaB Training Pants!

They finally posted the schedule for next week for Younkers and guess who got the entire weekend off? That's right me! And without asking!!!

Yaay!

However, this also brings the perfect opportunity for potty training . . .the training pants way!
Alaina just doesn't seem to get the point that having a wet/poopy diaper is an undesirable thing. So I'm going to go all out and put her in training pants this weekend to reinforce the joys of potty training.

I may sound brave, but inside, I'm trembling. I'm hoping she learns a bit this weekend, because the mess that I envision isn't very appealing. Thinking about the nice new carpet in the bedrooms and hall and the white carpet everywhere else gives me quite the deathly pallor.

But it must be done. The praise and encouragement to sit on the potty chair just isn't sinking in.

But enough about the weekend. I have two other things to bog about today.

Thing One.

How hard can it possibly be to find the wallet I want? They need to have a mix and match line that you can add and subtract pieces from. I have some very specific needs that I would like fulfilled.

1) windowed holder for DL - removable if possible
2) 6-10 credit card holders - and why does everything have to have a punch card or rewards card these days?
3) REMOVABLE checkbook (this is kind of optional because I don't carry it often, but I would if it fit nicely into my current wallet.
4) zippered coin holder INSIDE the wallet
5) I would prefer a zip close wallet over all but I really just want a wallet that closes securely
6) I want it long and skinny because I HATE folding dollar bills.
7) Multiple large side pockets for floating media . . .

I mean how hard should that be to find? ; )

Thing Two

Last night after Alaina's bath, we marched downstairs to pick out our pj's

Which led to a lot of hopping since she picked the frog pajamas.

After she practiced "hopping" into the pants, Alaina was being silly and suddenly turned to face Jeff and I and began doing the most impressive belly roll I had ever seen! You know, like Mike Myers in Wayne's World (for some reason that's the only example I can think of. . .)

Jeff and I struggled not to laugh too hard at her since we were trying to keep our game faces on for bedtime.

But we were failing.

I'm not sure yet, but is this a pretty neat thing for your kid to do?
Do I giggle at her antics, thus encouraging the development of the belly roll . . .

or do I stay straight-faced and try to keep her from seeing how impressed I am by her muscle control?

Holiday? What Holiday?

I had forgotten the thrills of working retail over holidays. . . .

I worked everyday this weekend at my parttime job and am looking forward to having two evenings off. I worked up until the start of the Husker game and then decided I just couldn't sit around watching tv, so a friend who was down from up by South Dakota and I went shopping at SouthPoint.

She mentioned that her husband would be very angry if they started talking politics while we were gone. I was a little surprised that they woudl feel that was because isn't everybody talking politics these days?

That of course led us to have a bit of a heated discussion about politics of course.

She feels it doesn't matter who gets into the white house because all politicians lie.

I stated one of my main reasons to vote was that I felt our soldiers should be brought home and I felt that Obama would be most likely to make it happen . . .

And the feces hit the fan.

I was not so peaceably informed that many of the soldiers who have returned home have said they are doing a lot of good and I shouldn't think that our assistance in the mid-east is worthless.

Okay, please scroll back up at this point and see if I made any negative statement about what our soldiers are doing overseas.

Really? You mean I didn't scream obscenities about war and billions of dollars and rant about the evils of oil?

I've tried to learn the subtle art of polite politics discussion and I have the talk about war down to a science (I hope.) I simply feel that our nation is struggling right now and that it is time to focus more on internal problems, which is hard to do while we are all gazing across the globe, worried for our loved ones safety.

The End. . . .that's all I try to state about the war with someone that I know doesn't share the same political beliefs.

Of course, everything else in our discussion went down hill from there . . . .On to other things.

Alaina spent the weekend with Jeff's parents. I missed her, but it is hard to create an argument to have her stay here while I was working most of the weekend out of the house. She got a lot more play time and fun with Grandma and Grandpa.

But that about sums up the weekend.