The funeral was beautiful, heart breaking, with little bits of wit and wisdom thrown in.

Everything a funeral service should be.

My MIL requested that I sit beside her since Jeff and my FIL were pallbearers and would be seated in the first row. I was just a teeny bit uncomfortable sitting in the middle of her and her sisters, but not in a bad way. I just felt a little bit like an outsider even though I was requested to join them.

Time will hopefully heal the family and here's to hoping they don't all associate Christmas with Grandma's passing.


Moving on to other things.

Our water heater has gone out leading to the one thing no one wants at the holidays.
Unplanned expenses.

Ick.

And I guess that's all I have to say today.

Sympathies

Jeff's grandma passed away yesterday.

I'm sorry for the pain that his family is feeling at the loss, but I'm glad that is grandmother's pain wasn't prolonged.

As is pretty much the rest of NE, we are snowed in, even the cat won't leave the house.

We celebrated the early close of work yesterday by foolishly driving 3 blocks to target to buy the new Harry Potter movie and snow boots for Alaina.

And by "we" I should say "I."

And then we had guests for supper. Guests who willingly, in fact they eagerly, drove through the mess of 10+ inches of snow to get to our house for supper. We tried to reschedule, but they wouldn't hear of it.

Our guests were a pastor and his wife who used to minister at Jeff's hometown Methodist church. They are very nice, but they have a bit if an agenda for us. He desperately wants Jeff to help lead his worship band and youth ministry. There are several reasons that Jeff won't be doing this, the main one being his decision to become an atheist.

Do you become an atheist or do you just decide to give up religion? I'm not sure about that one, because things work better if we don't mention the fact that I still believe in a higher power while Jeff finds me to be a fool.

Anyway, it was nice to have them over, but a tiny bit uncomfortable because of the subtle hints to help him get the new church up and running. And kudos to Jeff for having told the pastor of his newfound beliefs which have left Jeff wide open to be a 'saved' soul.

But we'll have to see if he ever reveals that to his parents.

Cold-heart versus Rock

I feel the need to just articulate/pontificate/ expound for a while . . .

Here's a little history:

Jeff's maternal grandmother raised five daughters all by herself, loosing her husband to a car accident while she was pregnant with the fifth. My MIL is the oldest and Jeff's aunt R is the youngest.

Jeff's grandmother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's for about 4 years or so. Its amazing to see how medicine may not have cured it yet, but it gave her a higher quality of living by improving her social interaction.
Translation: She may not have known my name, but she always liked to sit and talk to me for a while. My favorite moment being earlier this year when Kayla was 2 weeks old and she asked me when I was due. I just laughed and pointed out my new baby across the room and she laughed along with me.

But it appears that cancer has entered the picture and the family feels that it won't be long before she moves on. Everyone is taking it really hard, especially my MIL and Aunt R, who assumed responsibility of their mother, moved in with her and has taken care of herself ever since she couldn't do it herself.

I have no idea how to react. I am at peace with her passing, and Jeff seems to be as well. So when everyone get misty and choked up, I feel like a cold hearted woman patting their hand. I asked if there was anything we could do and the answer was "pray."

I immediately asked, "For what?"

I thought that sounded mean as soon as I said it, but I guess I was asking what stage of grief they were at. If they wanted me to pray for her to get better, things were going to get really ugly in the next few weeks.

But since they asked for me to pray for her comfort, I think the family is going to stay strong and count their blessings in the short time they have left.

I worry that I might seem too insensitive, but sometimes I feel like I've been down the road of grief more that other's my age, so I'm a little bit more staid in my grief. We haven't had a lot of deaths in the family, but being such a close family, losing my grandfathers in slow battles and one uncle in the blink of an eye has helped me adopt a calmer facet during the grieving process.

I don't know, I guess maybe I never was a big crying in my grief. I'm hard pressed to remember being distraught with grief at a funeral, I can remember crying for sure, but never loud sobs. Mom, any input into my ponderings?

Anyway, thanks for listening as I rambled my way around.

Wisdom for my daughter

I was looking at pictures the other day and I came across my favorite one of my sister and I just before our high school graduation ceremony. I thought about what I had learned since then and any regrets/wisdom I wanted to pass along to my daughter.

1. Alway study hard. As much as it sucks, you will be judged by that stupid little letter/number on that report card by nearly EVERYONE!

2. If you are going to go out for sports, give it your all. Then, win or lose, you will know that you did your best.

3. Always think before you act. SERIOUSLY! This applies to even the little idiotic things like calling and hanging up on that cute boy from the neighboring town because 10 years later you will realize that he knew it was you and you will still be embarrassed about it.

4. Boys are for later. Don't waste your time on them before you are settled into college. How many relationships survive the high school to college transition anyway? (Don't say Mimi and Papa or their neighbors . . .that's cheating and they don't count.)

5. Don't ever take someone from a different school to a school dance. You feel like you are babysitting the entire night, or they accuse you of ignoring them to hang out with friends.

6. Be nice to EVERYONE. Not just the so called 'cool kids' but to everyone! That shy boy that sits next to you might be the next president, your boss, or a Husker quarterback and won't you feel good when you can say you know him.

7. Be adventurous. Try new foods, meet new people, learn a foreign language.

8. Think about the future. What do you want to be? Its never to early to think about those kinds of things.

9. Don't give up on something just because its tough. Things I regret giving up or not making more time for . . .Piano, dance, yearbook, speech, drama. I loved them all but didn't try to excel at any.

10. Manage your money! Have a dollar? Save it! I'm terrible with money and your father is great with it. Learn from him please.

11. Don't be in a hurry to grow up. Once you leave a stage behind there's no going back. For everything that you gain as you move on, something else will get left behind.

Any other recommendations?
I think I'll keep a running tally of things to tell my daughters as they grow up and then every year on their birthdays I'll read it too them after they turn 7.

Once they turn 12, I'll read it every month. : )

Who said that???

In the hall the other day I saw someone that I work with walk by and had to pause. He was dressed in a really nice shirt and glossy tie and looked very GQ and I heard a quiet voice say. . .

Well isn't he adorable!

I stopped in the middle of the hallway in shock because:

A) The voice was in my head

B) When did my inner voice start to sound like a little old lady?

How did this happen? I sat down and tried to think about when my "inner hottie spotter" had aged into someone who could star in a remake of "The Golden Girls." How bad is it and how long has it been going on?

What did I think about the latest group of young stars on my favorite dance competition show?

Adorable

What about the latest viral video I saw of Justin Timberlake?

He's so cute and funny.

OH my gosh! WHAT THE HELL?!?

Watch your language!

Ack!!!!

Someone wave a picture of Gerard Butler at me . . . no I don't think that's strong enough . . .What's stronger that Gerard? Hugh Jackman? hmm maybe that might do it.

Oh, he played such a suave man in Kate and Leopold.

NO! No no no,no,no,no,no,no! Go away! If I'm going to channel a Golden Girl, can't I at least get Blanche?

This post started as a joke, but I think I need to go home and swoon will watching Pride and Prejudice just to try to exorcise that terrifyingly sweet voice.

Geez, the last time I watch P and P, I was watching it with the director commentary on.

Is this how a quarter life crisis begins?

p.s. I told someone at work today that I am "busy out of my gourd." I'm going to blame that horrid little phrase on the holidays.

For the love of a foreigner.

With the head secretary out today I had to answer the big wig's phone. I was given a heads up to decline an invitation to a conference call from someone name Greg. Here's how the call went.

So- and-so's office, Katie speaking.

"Is so-and-so available?" said the warm male voice in a smooth british accent.

I'm sorry so-and-so's on the way to the airport to catch a flight. May I ask who's calling?

"This is Mike Miller. One of my associates, Greg, contacted s-a-s about attending a conference and had arranged to get back to them today," replied the butterly smooth accent.

I see, s-a-s left me with a message for you. They thank you for the offer but due to a conflict they must politely decline to attend. (yes I do speak like this)

"Alright. That's about what I needed. Cheers. "
And so ended my conversation with the man whom will surely be the reader of the next #1 best selling audio book.

I got all giddy and excited after the phone call. For 5 minutes I repeatedly said "cheers" to myself and giggled.

I'm a sucker for accents. British, australian, german, sweedish, russian, chinese, and even local ones like Minesotan and texan. I have no idea when it started, but I know that I had a huge crush on a foreign exchange student from Australia who attended a different school when I was 16. His name was Dave, but when he said it, it sounded a bit like "Dove."

After I got engaged to Jeff, my Mom told me she always thought I would marry a foreigner. Strange how I ended up marrying the boy next door instead.

Maybe I can encourage one of my daughters to marry someone from 'across the pond.'

To sleep or not to sleep

Last night Alaina, Jeff, and Kayla were all asleep by 8:30.

I started some laundry, then sat down with a book and the cat came to join me on the couch.

It was heaven.

No TV, no talking, no phone calls.

Just me, the cat, a couch, and a good book.

Of course I sat there is the quiet until 10:30 pm and then I made myself a Husker shirt.

Yep, I put the 'fan' in fanatic.

But the more important question is, why does it feel so much better to have stayed up late in a quiet house versus getting three extra hours of sleep?

Pressure Princess

I went to pick up pizza (Yay cheese!) on Saturday and had to stop and gas up my minivan which lead to checking my tire pressure and consequentially airing up the tires.

As I'm airing up my tires, a white car pulls in beside me. Other than making sure I'm out of their way as I air up the front passenger tire, I don't pay attention to them.

So I'm a little startled to see the middle aged man staring at me after I've finished with the last tire.

He waits until I replace the hose before he steps forward and says:

I'm standing here trying to figure out who taught you how to do that.

Do what?

Check your tires and air them up. You even have your own gauge!

I grew up on a farm. My dad taught me.

That makes sense, because you obviously can't be married.

Actually I am.

But its the husband's job to do that! (gesturing toward the van)

Really? I'm surprised you think that way. Because I drive a MINIVAN. What about this vehicle says that a man wants to be in charge of it? Its my van, I take care of it.

He laughs and I leave.

I had no idea where the conversation was going the entire time, but all I could think was

Was he standing behind me staring at my butt the entire time I was checking the passenger side?

I swear I did my homework!

This morning on the radio they were talking about the SNL spoof of that new vampire-pretty-boy movie in which all the 'pretty-boys' are Frankensteins instead of vampires.

Then the talk show hosts started talking about the background of Frankenstein. In the spoof, the kids went around accidentally choking other people, so they talked about how Frankenstein was created by putting a brain in the body of a big dead guy, sewing the head shut, and he kept crushing beautiful things because he was trying to 'capture' beauty.

My brains initial response was . . . . . .WHAT???

That's not even close to true! Obviously they've never read the book because in the book he . . .

he . . .

Oh crud.

I can't remember Frankenstein!

I read it 7 years ago for a college class and was pissed because the teacher was talking about the homosexual relationship between the monster and Doctor Frankenstein (a load of horse apples) where I wanted to talk about how it could be viewed as a heartbreaking story of a parent figure who has trouble loving their child because they are less than perfect (probably also a load of horse apples.)

So I sat there is my car fuming because these DJs only knew the Hollywood version of Frankenstein and I couldn't remember the literary version. I am soooo disappointed in myself.

At least we can compromise and stick to the Robert DeNiro, Kenneth Branagh, and Helena Bonham Carter movie version which is much closer to the novel than tall, green, and bolty.

All of this has added a new label for me for posts because I reread this and realized how snotty I sound.

Conversing to compromise

I ventured out and bought some clothes for Alaina and Kayla, forgetting how one size can vary depending upon the store.

Alaina now has a bunch of huge pants and shirts to save for next year, but I found a belt on a 2T outfit I bought two years ago that I'm trying to use to prevent a second, smaller size shopping trip.

But Alaina thinks that belts are toys. I have one good belt that frequently surfaces in the toy box after Alaina has used it as either a leash for an animal, a rope, or a band aide to wrap someone up like a Gothic mummy.

Jeff gets really disturbed seeing Alaina dragging around an animal wearing the belt. (They end up looking like they are trussed up for an S and M session. Creepy!)

Anyway . . .
Trying to get Alaina to wear the belt end up with us having logical little conversations like this:

Alaina, if you are going to wear your belt today, you can't take it off and play with it, it isn't a toy.

OK.

If you take it off, Miss N will have to put it in your cubby.

Except for Nap Time.

What?

I don't have to wear my belt for nap time because it will poke me in the tummy and hurt me.

Okay, you can have Miss N put it in your cubby for nap time.

I can just put it under my cot with my shoes and then put it back on after nap time.

Oh, ummm. . . fair enough. you can do that.

Yes I can.

And I can't decide if I hallucinated it or if she really did use the word 'except.'
Way to go Alaina!

Now if I can just find a school that teaches grammar skills I'll have a great politician in training!

The end is here!

The diet has ended! Pending any screaming/fussing I have begun to fully embrace dairy and soy again.

I've celebrated by eating these items:
A cheese runza
An apple struesel bagel with chocolate chipcream cheese
A reese's peanut butter cup
A snickers bar
Adding parmasan cheese to my spaghetti sauce
A shortbread cookie
Broccoli Cheese soup from Panera
Frosted (not just iced) Animal crackers
A bacon cheese burger

And finally, by adding so much cream to my coffee that it is officially a cafe au lait.

There are only a few things left I haven't eaten in my feeding frenzy . .
Pizza Hut Pizza
Yogurt
Ice Cream
Juice Stop

After that, the feast will be complete!

So good bye MSPI!

How many days until Thanksgiving?

Fall fun

Dress up day

I slaved over my sewing machine last night to make sure that Alaina could be Cinderella today for daycare. I'm just sure that the costume will come home in shreds and I'll have to start from scratch for tomorrow. *sigh*

All night long and this morning as well she said things like,

"I'm going to be so beautiful. I'l be soo pretty."
"Tabby will want to wear my dress!"
"Everyone is going to sing happy birthday to me."

Hopefully she isn't too crushed to realize that she won't be the center of attention all day.

I did persuade her to stand for a picture this morning.

I recycled a costume I previously made for my sister, and if I feel up to it, I'll take a picture.

But I wanted to share with you the view that greeted me and I arrived at work.

This is HR and yes 'Fred' did dye his hair for this. He told me he tried a wig and it made him look like Doris Day.

They actually chased down the owner of the mystery machine and asked to borrow it just for this.

I love Halloween!

Food Glorious Food!

Today is the day!

Kayla went to daycare with a diaper bag stocked with yummy mashed bananas and pureed squash. But for some reason even though I bring my own food, I'm still signed up for the food program? I feel like I should ask for an itemized list of what I pay for so that I can argue the point.

But the BEST news is that Kayla didn't have any 'fussies' since the cheese incident on Sunday! I've decided to truly test the theory and in honor of the fact that I forgot to brew my coffee this morning, didn't wash my daily oatmeal mug from work, and ran out of poptarts and granola bars, I headed to McDs for a truly milky meal with a bacon egg and cheese buttermilk biscuit and cream in my coffee!

Woo Hoo!

Now we'll just have to wait and see how Kayla handles it so I know if I need to take baby steps toward milk and soy or if I can take the plunge and stuff myself full of chocolate, pizza, cream, yogurt, lattes, and cream cheese fruit dip.

TGIM

I don't know that I've ever felt this way before but I just have to say . . . .

Thank Goodness its Monday.

I feel like I just came back from vacation at family drama island, I didn't know that Jeff's family was as crazy as . . .well . . .mine.

It was just a weekend of snipping and pouting . . . most if it probably by me. But we had a few take-away lessons.

- The visiting cousins will stay with us next time because we are ridiculously happy to have them and since they have a kid, the mommies can stay up and talk to each other if everyone else goes out.

- Ground rules will have to be set for Alaina and everyone must know about them.
#1 - All treats must be approved by mommy first
#2 - Incoming toys must be approved by mommy, because I have to explain why the visiting toys aren't here to stay
#3 - Please, please NEVER ask her if she wants to do something before running it past mommy. She has a schedule I try to stick to and while I am flexible, it becomes even more important to try to maintain it when we won't have Sunday to recover.
#4 - No chasing/racing while anyone is sleeping. (Although I'd prefer no chasing at all . . . I know I've already lost that war.)

- Food rules
#1 - Have LOTS of coffee on hand and a warm pot on at all times.
#2 - Buy a bottle of red wine because what I call wine is the equivalent of apple juice to the rest of the world.
#3 - Fix meals for me and mine when we are hungry. Waiting for the family to debate what we will do is insane.
#4 - Don't fix anything that contains food not on my diet because I will screw up and eat it.

Are you getting the picture of how things went? We all about expired from hunger before we ever ate, I had to run to HyVee at midnight for coffee the first night, Alaina was very cranky that she wasn't allowed to leave after she was invited on a trip to the farm, the visiting family packed all their stuff and shifted where they were staying because of family pouting matches EVERY NIGHT, and the babies didn't get near enough sleep.

All in all a fun weekend.

Belated Wednesday

I'll take common knowledge for $300 Alex.

What happened to common knowledge? Does it still exist? I know what everyone thinks they know - politics, Hollywood, technology. But what about what we used to know?

Think of all those test you took in school on psychology, geometry, and social studies. Sometimes little things that I remember surprise me. Homeostasis, the Pythagorean theorem, how to calculate the weight of the protons of an element, yadda, yadda, yadda.

But then I can't believe the things I've forgotten. One of which hit me last night . . . .

I can't remember the capitals of all the states anymore. I was sooooo unbelievable proud to know them all when I was in high school, but somewhere between now and then I've forgotten quite a few. Granted I still know all the states, but when I tried to mentally add their capitals, I blanked on more than one or two.

This isn't really a big deal, except when I add in the fact that I can still remember the lyrics to all of the Disney movies I watched growing up and all of the New Kids on the Block songs, A.K.A. useless knowledge.

When did our society's priorities shift in such a different direction for what is important to remember? Why is it not important to know what country your family originated from, and the roots of our nation?

I can't even list the first 10 presidents anymore, let alone tell you when the last 5 were in office.

But I can play six degrees to Kevin Bacon and hold my own!

I would say I can play six degrees with the best of them, but I've tried that and failed miserably. They were two guys from college and they pulled out names like directors who appear in one movie as a walk on role.

P.S. Here's a small Wordless Wednesday pic for you Mel.

The big white dress.

Saturday found my family waking to a light dusting of snow on the yard. It was enough to send me in a panic about . . .

Holiday shopping! The weather made it feel like I needed to run to the crowded mall and search high and low for a perfect gift. To remedy this, Jeff and I sat down to talk "money." This is a huge thing for us, because for most of our relationship, I never had any $, Jeff had plenty of $, so when it came to finances, Jeff ran the show. I finally got tired of conversation that started with "Don't spend any money until (insert date)," "We can't afford that right now," and "What did you buy?"

Things have been a little tight for the last few months because of hospital bills that seem to just keep coming (seriously, why can't there just be one bill?) but not uncomfortable by any means. I'm looking forward to that magical time next year called tax returns when someone pays us because we have two beautiful children and because we have the heart to donate. Sometime mid next year, we should be able to redo the baby room.

Any who,
Saturday afternoon found us at the State Capital Building for a wedding. It was pretty cold, and we didn't know that the wedding would be outside in one of the courtyards. It was a beautiful place for a wedding and the bride was stunning.

Enter our new wedding expert, Alaina.

As we were treking out the door to go to the wedding, Alaina stopped and in a shocked voice stated,
Wait! I wanted to wear the big white dress!

Oh hunny, the bride wears the big white dress.

But I want to wear it!

hunny, only the girl getting married wears the big white dress.

Okay, I'll marry daddy.

Hunny, you have to be all grown up like mommy and daddy to get married.

Ohhhhh -kaaay

Then at the courthouse, she announced that Mommy and daddy needed to dance with her.

And where did she become the wedding expert all of a sudden?

My Big Fat Greek Wedding was on last week and I let her watch the wedding scene, Then when she started to connect the dots, I showed her our wedding album, Aunt Angie and Uncle Brett's wedding pictures, and even pulled out my wedding dress. (which by the way, still needs to be dry cleaned, oops.)

I did promise her that if she wants too, she can wear mommy's big white dress when she gets married.

Potty Mouth

Well, it happened.

I was sitting on the couch nursing Kayla, and Jeff was flipping channels. He stopped on "My name is Earl" and then got up to use the restroom.

Alaina was running around playing, but she stopped to watch the tv for a bit. I've never seen the show so I wasn't quite sure what it contains, but I should have been smart and changed it.

Two minutes after Jeff left the room, Earl learned a shocking fact and to express this he uttered one phrase before the commercial break.

Alaina parroted it right back to the tv twice for good measure.

"Son of a B*tch."

"Alaina, he said a bad word. Mommy doesn't say that word. Daddy doesn't say that word (yeah right) and if you say it at daycare you will get in really big trouble. So lets not say bad words."

"Okay Mommy."

We'll see if that lesson sticks.

Kayla the Tiny

Happy 4 months! Kayla turned 16 weeks yesterday and she is tinier than ever!

I can't believe I have a child with an 18 percentile head size. . .granted that's only 1 1/2 inches smaller than Alaina's at the same time, but sheesh! Grow already! Shots went well and we are headed back to see Jeff's parents this weekend.

Here's to hoping they fix something I can eat.

In four weeks I get to try adding a little soy to my diet . . .we'll see how that goes.

Speaking of eating, Kayla has been enjoying squash, against the recommendations of our pediatrician. (Wait until six months to start feeding MSPI babies, they say) She's starving and desperate to taste everything, so why not try some food? Its been over a week and she's still doing fine.

Well that's about it, sorry for the disjointed thoughts. Much sadness today, but trying to feel joy for him getting to be at peace. (If you don't know, I'm not going to be the one to break the news, cousins. Call your mother.)

My Sister, the finder of cool things

MBG just has the knack for finding the perfect gifts. I don't know how she does it . . . but she does.



But I'm still in awe of this one.



I've been struggling with the whole MSPI and still trying to nurse thing, so when this card arrived in the mail, I couldn't stop laughing.

Talk about summing up my life in a Hallmark greeting card! I can't believe you found this sis!

Not so Wordless Wednesday.

So remind me that I need to tell the story of Alaina's first retail meltdown, but I wanted to start with this one.

Everyone has seen those little neck pillows shaped like the letter 'C' that you can get in adult or kid sizes right? Have you ever noticed that they are the same shape as a boppy pillow?

I didn't, but Alaina did.

I was scolded for being too loud while she 'fed' her baby. (I was laughing) I reminded her that only mommies were able to feed babies from their chest.

And you know what her comeback was?

"That's okay, I'm a Grandma."

Oh dear.

But at least if she does it in public, no one will think to ask be if I'm nursing.

Org Roundup - Command Center

So I've been desperately trying to get back into the Org Junkie Challenge, but I haven't seemed to have the time to get the first, ummmm, eight months done before the deadline to post, if it even gets done at all. You would think I was busy having a baby or something. ; )

But lo and behold! I managed to get this one done, by the skin of my teeth. This challenge had to be done for many reasons, the biggest being that I didn't have a command center before this. And the biggest pain in the rear reason is my husband complaining about how the mess builds up on the island by the door and takes over the kitchen every afternoon.

See? Yikes!

So I decided to migrate the mess to the corner of the kitchen where my dust collectors, a.k.a. my mixer and blender, live. They got new homes and I hauled all of the stuff that had squatted there to better places.

Disclaimer: I did not decorate my kitchen! The previous owners tried to disguise the ugly brown tones of the 70s tiles with ugly wallpaper from the 80s. You should see the duck border that runs around the entire room at the ceiling. Blech!

Here's the before:

And here's the after:

The bottom shelf has room for the diaper bag, by pumping supplies, reusable grocery bags, and my travel coffee thermos that I fill everyday for work!

The second shelf is for my purse, our lunch boxes, and seasonal needs. Finally on the top I have my coupon and receipt files, things pending a trip to the basement/car, and my library books.

Since my decorating scheme is so advanced I thought I would shake it up a bit with the Husker board - Translation: I couldn't find another board that didn't cost an arm and a leg, plus this plays the Husker fight song!

But my favorite pieces are these adorable little fluer-de-lis hooks that you just hammer into the wall, only 2.64 for a package of 4 at Target!

We'll see how this works for a while. Maybe when we can finally afford to gut the kitchen, I might have a better idea of how I should lay it all out not to mention the fact we can tear down the time to make more room for shelves.

Boys!

Alaina, Kayla and I went to the mall Sunday morning. She was such a good girl, we went down and got her a small ice cream cone at Runza. We sat down beside a table with six older high school boys sitting at it and I had two trains of thought run screaming through my head at the same time.

the first train was . . .

I'm too old to tell if they are good looking anymore. The only phrase that comes to mind involves the evil adult phrase "What a nice looking boy!" (Blech!)

And the second train . . .

Its going to be so much fun when Alaina is old enough to be embarrassed by her mother in front of the opposite sex.

But for right now she just chatted happily while the boys tried to ignore the lady with two little girls at the table next to them.

Bugging me?

Alaina and I had a quick entomology lesson this morning. This HUGE praying mantis was hanging from one of the parking signs when we pulled into daycare. I scrambled to think about what I could say that would be a good fact about the praying mantis, but I could only think of one thing when I saw it.

And that fact is something I won't share with my child until much later in life.

So I picked one other thing that I notice about bugs.

Look at how still he is.

She's a girl mommy. (How did she know?)

She's sitting so still because its chilly out. When it warms it, she will move away.

Yep and then she'll turn into a boy.

and that is where I lost control of the conversation.

Oh, Alaina, girls don't turn into boys.

Yes!

Nope. Girls stay girls and boys stay boys.

I'm not going to touch the variations that modern society have made to that statement either.

It's amazing how many topics I can find to avoid in three minutes.

Biter Brenneman

Alaina had an incident report yesterday. She bit another kid. Apparently he was pestering her so she decided that turning around and biting him was the best solution for peace.

And the best part?

She bit him on the stomach.

Anyway . . .

We had an interesting adventure in eating out last night. I've learned its almost easier to find fast food that is MSPI friendly than restaurant food simply because in fast food places everything is cooked in oil, restaurants use butter.

We went to Granite City and I jealously watch Jeff eat a blue cheese bacon burger while I had pork with pork au jus, some sauteed potatoes and a delicious combo of sauteed almonds, garlic, tomato, onion and spinach leaves on top of the pork. I am definitely going to try making that topping at home!

Wordless Wednesday

Jeff's lesson . . .

So last night was my last night working during the week at Younkers. I was at first excited when I came home because Alaina was in bed already. Jeff was wearing his usual I-just-got-left-home-alone-with-two-children-under-the-age-of-five look, but it was anything other than a usual night for Jeff. I asked Jeff last night if it was a good thing that I'm quitting.

I'll let you guess his answer after I tell you the story of how his night went.

After I left for work, Kayla slept just long enough for him to feed Alaina and himself. Alaina had an english muffin with grape jelly which she somehow got all over her hair meaning she would need a bath on a non-bath night. Then Kayla woke up about three seconds into Alaina's pony ride with daddy.

Three seconds after Jeff picked up the crying Kayla, Alaina announced that she had to go potty. Jeff set the baby down in her boppy pillow (still crying because he couldn't calm her down) and took Alaina to the bathroom, where she had just pulled her pants down when her "potty warning" expired.

I can just see the look on his face when Alaina peed allover the floor, can you?

Of course Alaina slipped in her 'accident' so Jeff undressed her and deposited her in the tub and proceeded to clean up the potty with paper towels. Meanwhile the baby was still crying and continued to cry until I got home.

Do I even need to ask if you can guess what his answer was?

And is it any wonder the baby slept all night without waking up once?

Green with Envy!

I am so jealous!

Jeff is home right now . . .probably sleeping away! He has two extra weeks of vacation that he has to use before the end of the year, so he's taking a few extra days off around the holidays, and the next two mondays.

So he has three four day weeks!

SO NOT FAIR!

I'm really lamenting the fact that I am required to use a full week of PTO to start off my maternity leave. I understand that it makes people think twice about taking a short term disability leave unless the REALLY need it . . .but can't they make an exception for maternity leave? When you are having a baby, you really need that extra week for sick time for you and baby!

Anyway . . .

We had a busy weekend. If I didn't mention before, Kayla is growing like a weed, which is evident in the fact that she now takes 5 oz bottles to daycare. Needless to say, I'm now struggling just a little bit harder to meet her needs. That plus the fact that she screamed for most of yesterday with what I hope was the end of the tummy tantrum brought on by the evil piece of cheese I ate Thursday.

Saturday we drove up to Omaha for a birthday party for a one year old. It was nice to see a few faces I haven't seen in a while, but I appreciated going home. A short nap was taken, and then Jeff took Alaina to Champions Fun Center for his company's family night.

I sent the camera with them and Jeff sat down to show me all the picture he took, only to realize he'd only taken three, one of which was of a friend and their child.

I'm going to guess Alaina consumed about two cups of sugar while out with daddy in the form of cotton candy, snow cones and even more. She came home wired to the hilt, streaked in dirt, sporting a fresh bruise on her knee and had blue cotton candy stuck in her hair.

Evidence of a great time!

I can't wait to take both girls next year!

Crazy Friday.

I was so frustrated that I yelled at both of them. They didn't even see it coming.

I just wanted things to move a little faster, but the oven was taking forever to heat up and I needed to leave for work.

So I yelled. Actually it was more like I hollered.

Right before I tossed it back in the fridge.

HA! You thought I was talking about the girls!

Nope! Much to the questionable relief of my sanity, I'm talking about the roll of Pillsbury refrigerated sugar cookie dough that I didn't have enough time to cook over my lunch hour, even though I desperately wanted a cookie.

And the next victim? STILL not one of my girls. It was . . .

A can of pop.

Needless to say I was a little frustrated that I hadn't had time to finish my soda over lunch, so it is still sitting on my table at home.

Waiting and deflating.

I guess I was the definition of Freaky Friday today.

Half a cheeseburger into paradise . . .

I get an F for the day.



I've been a good girl. Really I have. I've printed off menus with allergy information to use for Runza (can't eat anything good) and Wendy's (very MSPI friendly!) to have in the van. I grabbed Wendy's after putting in my two weeks notice at my part time job and grabbed a 'safe' 1/4 lb burger meal.

Now on my cheat sheet is says that a "1/4 lb burger with everything" has no soy and no milk. But, apparently the folks working the grill include cheese when you get a hamburger with everything and unfortunately I didn't notice until I was halfway through the burger.

How do you not notice cheese? I have no idea but to illustrate the silly things that eating on autopilot make me do, here are a few examples. In the last month I have -

-Popped a bit of cheese omlet off of my husbands plate into my mouth only to spit it in the trash as I realized what I'd done by the look of horror on his face.


- Did the usually of touching a bite of Mac n Cheese to my lip to test the temp for Alaina and having to get a wash cloth to wipe my mouth off because I couldn't lick it off.

- excitedly joined a co-worker in the lobby when Panera dropped by unannouced with free samples only to remember that I can eat NOTHING from Panera. (Sad march back to my desk akin to the 'walk of shame.')

So for a brief moment I actually debated going to the extreme of putting my finger down my throat. A brief moment I said! Followed shortly by the thought, in for a penny, I should raid the fridge and binge on milk/soy products and freeze my next pumping or so of milk.

Both thoughts were dismissed as horribly stupid.

And did you like how I snuck in that I finally quit my part time job OM? I already miss the discount that I don't use. ; )

Reinventing the pencil . . .

Do you ever feel like you're having one of these days? . . .

When NASA first started sending astronauts into space, they realized that the ball-point pen would not work at zero gravity.

A million dollar investment and two years of tests resulted in a pen that could write in space, upside down, on almost any surface and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 Degrees Celsius.

When confronted with the same problem, the Russians used a pencil.

(Seriously . . .you can buy this!)

I need more sleep! I feel like I could spend hours looking for a pen to write with, not thinking to use the pencil in front of me. . . .

Oh, and if you want to go to a website that has items that make you smile, giggle, our just bust out laughing go to.

http://www.perpetualkid.com/

My favorite things are the muppet lunch boxes and the gnome-b-gones. I mean who doesn't want a little metal demon in their yard forever caught in the act of dstroying a pink flamingo?

Coupons, colds, and criminals!

That's it! I'm going to jail! I'm going to be locked up because . . .

I ruined a library book.

Okay, so I didn't ruin it, but I spilled water and it got on the latest book I have from the library. It soaked in 1/2 inch from the end of the page the entire length of the book.

I hope I survive the punishment.

Kayla is getting a cold. Bless her little heart, but she has the sneezes and that cute little cough that babies get just before it gets really bad.

And I invite you so share in my shopping joy!
I wore a hole in my post baby jeans I bought when I had Alaina so I finally got around to using my birthday gift card for JCPenneys. I had a coupon for $10 off and it was a buy one get one for $1 sale.

I ended up with 2 new pairs of jeans for $7.

Yay!

Unfortunately, all I can think about is how if I would have completed the survey from the shopping trip a week or two ago to get Alaina shoes, I could have saved another 15%. Oh well! Maybe I'll forget after I wear my new jeans a few times!

Long weekend.

So the results from Kayla's appointment are . . .

She has the same 'yeasty beasties' that Alaina had, even though I tried my hardest to keep her neck folds clean and dry.

If you didn't hear me talk about it with Alaina, it seriously is a yeast infection just like athlete's foot. In fact the doctor recommends antifungal foot cream to treat it.

Good thing Jeff gets AF foot cream for free from work.

And the shots went okay, I nursed Kayla as soon as we finished and then she slept the rest of the afternoon. But the calm gave way to the storm and she hasn't slept through the night or slept much during the day since.

Friday, was however, My day!

My best bud Mrs. S and I headed up to get Miss O from the airport. She's back from CA and spunky as ever. The best part of the trip was our little adventures in the Old Market. We went to a bar and grill to eat, but we figured out it was pretty much just a bar after we got our food.

I tried to find something MSPI safe, and this is how the conversation went.
"Do you know if there is milk or soy in the buns?"
"No, I don't know. Tell me what you can eat and I'll tell you if we have it."
"I can eat chicken."
"We have that. How about a salad with chicken?"
"Okay, I'll take this Blackened Chicken that says it is on a garden salad. But no cheese or croutons please."
"We don't have cheese or croutons on our salads."
"What does come on your garden salad?"
"Black olives and tomatoes."
"And the menu says eggs."
"Nope! We don't have eggs. What kind of dressing? We have Bleu cheese and ranch . ."
"I can't have those. Do you have a vinagrette?"
"Yes we have red wine."
"Sounds great!"

I paid $8 for a lump of lettuce, tomatoes and olives (which I don't like), and the vinagrette he was talking about? It was just plain vinegar.

I won't be going back to Billy Frogs anytime soon, for any reason.

But it was fun laughing with Mrs. S and Miss O about it.

Hooray! She's two!

Kayla is two months old today!

Its hard to believe how different she is from Alaina. I'm enjoying this stage, but I'm so excited to see how she changes in the months to come! I'm excited for the squealing stage and to start solid foods next month. Yay for cereal that looks like ivory soap flakes!

And to top of the joyous occasion. She gets her shots . . .

Hopefully she feels alright after the deed is done. I'm usually the one who's bonkers.

I did it all for the discount . . ..

I am ashamed to admit it . . .

I'm still working at Younkers. I signed on for 3 hours a week.

But I just can't give up the discount. After I passed the one year mark last month I get 25% off of all clothes, including clearance. And when I use the coupons with it . . .

Yay!

Tonight is my first night back so we'll see what Jeff thinks about me staying at work when I get home . . .

Is it hard?

Everyone who has finally noticed that I'm back at work asks the same question.

"Is it hard leaving your girls everyday?"

There is no easy answer because

1) Yes is is hard to leave my girls at daycare instead of getting to watch them everyday.

2) It is nice to know that Alaina is getting good social exposure to other kids and learning in a structured manner that it would take me months to plan out let alone execute.

3) It is nice to challenge my brain with things at work and interact with adults during the day

But most of all, my working allows us to continue to live in our big house. Jeff and I sat down before we had Kayla to look at our finances and see if I could stay at home.

You know how everyone says there is always a way? Well there was a way for me to quit working full time. We could . . . .

a) have me work part time when Jeff is at home 20 hours a week, but Jeff and I would never see each other and the girls would only ever be with one parent at a time. Not to mention I would never get to do anything on the weekends.

Or

b) move out of our house back into a very small apartment with barely enough room to sneeze without running into each other. And doesn't that sound fun?

Anyway, Kayla will be two months this thursday which will be very exciting except when I have to take her for her immunization shots.

Yuck.

Yo - Yo!

I'm getting really pumped for theater events this season.

Someone put some event brochures for the LEID center down in the lobby at work so I snagged one and posted my upcoming shows in my cube.

I'm so excited for Yo-Yo Ma in May that I could just puke!!

That and Tiff and I are going to see the traveling show of "So You Think You Can Dance?" in Omaha on Nov 3rd.


And to top it all off . . .NWU is doing Applause, Applause again in which the students perform assorted musical numbers from historical broadway shows. They did this my senior year and it was so amazing! I can hardly wait!

West Wing baby

I can't even remember who gave them to me . . . but I have season one and two of the West Wing on dvd. I started watching them while on maternity leave and got so into them that I borrowed the rest of the seasons from the public library. I personally think that this show helped soften the nation to having our current president, but that's just my opinion.

But my love of the West Wing led to the greatest discovery.

It puts Kayla to sleep.

Picture a dark house, with a soft blue glow coming from the tv and a show that features almost no action scenes, no teenagers, and with no commercial breaks. AKA - no screaming, gunfire, loud noises, crying or other hullabaloo. (great word!) I bounch on a big exercize ball until Kayla slowly dozes off which usually takes hours but with the loving glow and witty charm of West Wing for us - the glow fo Kayla, the charm for me. She is out in ten minutes.

And last night while watching Donna said my word!

Snarky

I heart The West Wing and all of its wonderful characters.

A lost dream.

MBG and I used to spend hours pouring over the American girls catalog in the summer.



We plotted and planned exactly how we would purchase our favorite historical dolls and all of their accessories.



In the end we didn't buy a single thing. I think we just couldn't justify buying an $80 doll when we could buy books and jewelry instead.



But yesterday I got an urge to go look at that doll that I desired so much for 3 summers.


And what I found was a tragedy.

The doll that I had picked out was discontinued last year. I couldn't believe how sad I was hearing that no other little girls would dream about having their own victorian Samantha doll like I had.

No planning or saving,
no wishing or hoping.

Sniff, sniff.

If I really wanted, I could buy her on ebay for probably $150. But if I wasn't willing to spend $80 as a yound girl for her, why would I want to spend more now?

I guess the dream is often sweeter that the reality.

"To sleep; perchance to dream . . "

For some reason Kayla was waiting to start daycare to gift me with a good night's sleep. She's been sleeping from around 11:30 pm to 5-7 am and now sleeps just a little during the day. All of which is fine with me.


But Alaina has been having trouble sleeping through the night.

Last night I woke up to see the shadowy outline of Alaina standing in front of me holding my contact saline bottle.

"Mommy, my eye hurts."(Last week, Alaina was having a terrible time with her left eye, so I had her lay down and I put some saline in to rinse out the irritant.)So I walked her back to her room and had her lay down so that I could put some drops in her eye.

But before I could rinse out her eye, she rolled over to go back to sleep. Jeff was baffled to find my contact saline in Alaina's room this morning. ; )



I find it a little unsettling to be woken out of a dead sleep by my toddler every other night. Especially since she never says anything to wake me up, she just silently stands there until my mommy senses kick in and I wake up to the sound of her bending over to look me in the eye.

But the big question in my mind is . . .

why doesn't she ever wake up Jeff?

I tried . . .really I did!

I tried to blog while on maternity leave, but looking back my efforts weren't so good.

I'm back at work and Kayla is at her first day of daycare . . .I'm going to have to go visit at noon because I have to drop off another bottle . . .

Which makes me very unhappy. I tried so dang hard to pump when I could to build up my milk supply so that I wouldn't have to 'bus' milk around town.

And then MSPI struck.

I have approx 10 oz of milk in the freezer waiting for Kayla's digestion to acclimate to soy and milk again. 10 oz just waiting to be used.

But not for another two months.

Kayla also has the worst case of baby 'back-ne' that I've ever seen too. It was so bad I took her to the pediatrician to see if it was a rash.

But to close, here are a few things I learned while on Maternity leave.

1) There is always at leave on version of CSI, Law and Order or The West Wing playing all day on TV.

2) I should not be allowed to watch any of the above shows for more that 2 days of leave because I start telling myself that I should study law, forensic science, or politics just so I can pontificate like my favorite characters.

3) I hate hemming things by hand.

4) Ironing curtains sucks.

5) Having to read the ingredients of everything you eat sucks big time

6) The public library is a blessing and a curse

7) I do not trust anyone with a Y chromosome with the exclusive care of a baby under 6 weeks for more than 30 minutes. And the women that I trust with one for more than 2 hours is very short indeed.

8) Movies are getting too long if I can't figure out how to go see one in between nursing sessions for Kayla.

9) Those stupid mittens they make for babies are useless. A good pair of their socks over their hands works much better.

10) those stupid mittens are not for keeping baby from scratching their face, but are to keep babies from trying to nurse from their hands and howling in frustration when trying to sleep.

11) I'd rather have to break my child of using a pacifier, than have a child who refuses to suck on one for comfort.

I could go on, but I have to go home to scrounge for food, go to daycare, and maybe sneak in an eposide of The West Wing over lunch.

Two minutes!

I've got two minutes and counting to blog . . ..
Kayla is in her swing which she doesn't really like very much, but my arms need a break from rocking about this time of day . . . .

the 4th of July was fun! Except for the fact that the inlaws were upset with Jeff and I because we weren't watching our cell phones for calls because we were busy with the girls. The decided to come up to town, but when we wouldn't answer our phones they decided not to stop by the house to visit.

Jeff was rather upset with them because they actually stopped by the house, looked to see that our vehicles were in the garage,
and left.

hmmmmm

Anyway, Alaina was rather excited to go buy "sprinklers and firetrucks." We went to Scott and Tiff's house to watch fireworks the evening of the fourth and the next morning Alaina asked,
"Can we go to Scott and Tiff's?"

"Why do you want to go to Scott and Tiff's Alaina?"

"You and me and daddy and sister can all go watch the firetrucks!"

kayla is starting to reject thw swing so I'll end with some pics.

Week Three

Well Kayla and I just returned from the Pediatrician with some disapointing/relieving news.

Kayla has Milk Soy Protein Intolerance, MSPI for short.

so good bye cookies, milk, most breads, cheeses, etc.

And hello fruits, veggies and meats.

Other than that, things are going great. The diet change for me while hopefully lead to a sleeping habit change in Kayla.

I'll try to get the pictures posted of Alaina with her pool that Jeff filled yesterday. I'm sure she'll be dying to get in it today, even if the water in it is freezing!

Week two down . . .

Hurray!

Kayla is two weeks old and I'm not nearly as comatose as I was with Alaina. Every now and they I lay down with her for a nap . . .of course that's usually the time that she wakes up after 15 minutes, but hey! I'm trying!

Now the only problem is deciding what I need to do the most during the 15 minute window that I usually get between feeding myself and feeding her.

Today I chose checking the internet and updating my blog.

I received a mystery package in the mail yesterday. My aunt and uncle (your parents OM!) sent me thins wonderful book titled "101 places you gotta see before you're 12." It is absolutely inspiring! First I had to go through and see if we had already taken Alaina to any of them. Then I had to go through and see how many I had seen. Finally, I went through trying to plan some future family vacations.

And . . .

uh oh . . .

The baby cries and mommy is signing off.

Its been one week already!

Welcome Kayla Marie!

Kayla arrived at 5:11 pm Thursday June 11th weighing 8 lbs and 4 ozs.

Her arrival was preceded by 7 hours of labor, the discovery of a penicillin allergy after an intense coughing/vomiting spell, the mysterious failure of an epidural machine, and a vomiting spell brought on by acid reflux when me medications wore off.

All in all it was about as intense as having the first child.

I was informed that I should stay in the hospital for at least 36 hours for the transition period for Kayla. Of course I still don't know what that means, but I was ready to come home after 12 hours in the "care" of the hospital staff.

I can home with only one 'injury' which was courtesy of the nurse who botched the 4 am blood draw on my first night there. She didn't even wait for my veins to pop to stab me. Even though I was tired and delirious I knew it was going to leave a mark. This is a picture of it today. (please note it has been a week, so this is when it looks better.)

The hardest part this time around was waiting for my milk to come in. I had a pretty low iron count when I left the hospital, low enough that my midwife was surprised I wasn't having horrible headaches and light headedness, but I attributed everything to the after affects of the epidural.

This last week has went rather well. Jeff and Alaina stayed home all week for family time, but I think Jeff will be glad to get back to work. Alaina has been having fun running the show, so going back to daycare should present a bit of a challenge. I'm just looking forward to being ion Kayla's schedule of eating and sleeping next week. This was my week to heal so next week I start doing yoga everyday to try to rediscover my abs.

Tomorrow!

7:30 am tomorrow I'm scheduled to be induced and I am scared out of my mind.

I'm getting more and more nervous about the state of the baby as we go past the due date, so I want to be able to hold her in my arms and know that she's alright.

But, I'm scared and a little unsure since my midwife wasn't 100% set on the idea of having me induced. The alternative is if I was still pregnant friday, I would have to go in for a stress test to check my fluids and other things that could be changing for the worse at this point.

one of the reasons that I want to be induced is because Jeff had to start his vacation time for the baby on Monday, so he's been home for the last two days just getting some honey-do list items done.

But I'm still going to try to get things going myself with stairs and walking, but since that hasn't worked yet . . . .

She said I probably won't have the baby until late afternoon with being induced, so don't expect to hear anything too early tomorrow.

And is it bad that we aren't telling anyone other than my immediate family that we are going in? We don't want family calling all day Thursday to see what's up while we're still at the hospital.

How do I love/loathe thee, let me count the ways!

Pregnancy is an experience. I can't say whether it is a good or bad one . . .but here are a few highlights before I have this baby and forget everything about the pre baby stage.

Pros
- I get to eat whatever I want, and I usually know exactly what I want. I have single-handedly consumed enough oranges to fill a grove, the same amount of avacados that Chipotle says they prep daily for guacamole, and enough slices of cucumbers to . . .well I have no comparison for that one.

- I get away with more things. I park in the visitor parking for the last few weeks under the pretense that if I need to go to the hospital or if someone has to drive me, its easier to find my van.

- I get to take naps.

- Someone is always there to help me.

- Strangers let me go first . . . sometimes.

- Six weeks off from work!

Cons

- I may know what I want to eat, but 90% of it gives me heartburn.

- Maternity clothes are not made with A-B cup, tall women in mind.

- People randomly stop you to ask questions, or just shout at you from across the mall. (Yesterday someone shouted at me from across the food court "GIRL or BOY?")

- The lack of energy to do much of anything in the first and last trimesters.

- Pains in places that shouldn't feel pains . . .

All in all, this pregnancy hasn't been the wonderful thing that I had last time because, well, the lack of new discovery isn't there. I know what's waiting at the finish line and I'm anxious to get to hold my new little girl!

I'm also anxious to get Alaina aquainted with being a big sister. We need to have this baby so that I can quite buying her "big sister" things. Yesterday I bought a digital camera with a gift card that a friend gave us with the full intention of letting her have it in the hospital as a big sis gift.

But like all the other big sis gifts, I give it to her right away because I can't wait to see her play with it. she took 105 pictures in about 20 minutes. It is pretty neat to look and see the world through her eyes.

What I've been waiting for???

So Jeff gave me permission to go into labor this morning. . .

Seriously.

He mentioned how perfect it would be if I went into labor about noon today or tomorrow so that we could be home by Saturday and be able to call both of our parents in time to pick Alaina up from daycare.

Seriously!

The midwife said last night that I was the only one of her patients that was close to being done that DIDN'T go into labor while she was on vacation last weekend.

SERIOUSLY!

Add all of these to the list of things I didn't want to hear today . . . . if I don't have the baby by next Tuesday, she said we could talk about inducing. Hopefully that day doesn't come.

But to help try to keep the smile on my face, here is a pic of Alaina and I making our princess hats this last weekend.

Do you see the button jar Aunt Stacey? This morning we woke up really early and Alaina spent 30 minutes looking at all the different shapes and sizes of buttons. It was like going back in time and watching us at Grams' house.

No baby, but plenty of pity.

Nothing like getting looks of pity from your co-workers everyday as you come in and sit at your desk.

That and the occasional nervous/helpless man comments.

"Just let me know if I need to go boil some water!"

"I used to have an EMT license . . so let me know if you need some assistance!"

"How far away is your hospital?"

The ladies just want to be helpful.

"Let me know if you need anything!"

"Can I grad you something from the cafeteria?"

"Do you have a sitter for Alaina?"

"Call me any time!"

Now the only words that I want to hear are from the Midwife at today's appointment

"Would you like to be induced?"

YES PLEASE!!!!!

(And yes sister, just for you I have waited to have this baby so that I will be on maternity leave for your entire visit in July. I expect lavish gifts, aka flipflops, and a babysitter for at least one nap while you are here.)

Fun weekend . . . but no baby.

So I tried to sleep as much as possible this weekend for no other reason than I can barely function. I'm tired, crabby, cranky, snarky . . .you name a negative attitude and that's me.

I'm just ready to be able to move around again.

Alaina wants me to dance with her.
I can't.

Alaina wants me to play in the sandbox.
I can't.

Jeff would like to see the counters and floors in our house again.
I can't get around enough to clean up my growing piles.

And I have to have Jeff carry the laundry baskets up and down the stairs for me to do laundry because . . .
I can't.

So to distract my family from me being pretty much a decoration around the house, I brought home food from the farmer's market on Saturday, Alaina and I made princess hats (I didn't bring the right camera to download the pics), and made little pink cookies.

Jeff pronounce the pink cookies horrible, but what do you expect from a kid's recipe book? They were just powdered sugar, flour, vanilla and a little milk with food coloring.

Alaina thought they were wonderful so I declared them a success.

And I'm not the kind of person to post videos, but Alaina has started singing all kinds of songs.

One is the bumblebee song . . .which I thought they would never teach the kids at daycare because in the version I learned, you barf up the bumblebee, but they modified it to 'coughing up.'

And the cutest new song it the Tiny Tim Turtle song. Alaina has such good diction, Jeff and I were able to catch all the words by the third time she sang it.

I found a little turtle
His name is tiny Tim.
I put him in the bathtub
To see if he could swim
He drank up all the water
he at up all my soap
And now he sick in bed
with bubbles in his throat.

(Accompanied by adorable actions and a cute voice.)

I think its time to get out my Philadelphia Chickens cd to start her on broadway style tunes.

A week and counting!

How unfair is it to dream that you have went into labor?

Very unfair.

Almost as unfair as your sister calling you and saying that you can't go into labor yet because she will be coming back for a visit exactly six weeks from yesterday, so hold off on the labor thing so that she can see the baby.

I hope she is volunteering to babysit during that time.

I'm ready to have this baby so that I can get some sleep.

hey now . . . STOP LAUGHING!

Seriously,
I want to be able to sleep instead of toss and turn all night long and get up every hour for a bathroom break or snack.

At least with a baby I'll get a few hours of good solid rest in between feedings.

Not to mention it will be a lot easier to get things done around the house. I have no energy to cook and have been living out of a laundry basket of clean clothes for a week and a half.


If I go late, I'll pity those around me. I'm getting less pleasant by the day.

TIme off for bad behavior, please?

Its time.

or at least I really want it to be time.

The midwife says that the baby is as low as the baby can possibly go, but that doesn't mean things are going to happen any time soon.

So I'm taking matters into my own hands.

Ever heard that energy drinks could start labor? Well I'm having Juice Stop put energy supplements in my morning smoothie (please hold your gasps of astonishment and criticisms)

And how about taking the stairs? Yep, I did my first set of hustling (not to be confused with running) up and down four flights of stairs at work. I'll probably do this 3-4 times a day.

And lots and lots of bouncing, plies, jumping anything that I can think of.

And it doesn't help that I have this insane craving to go running.

Seriously, all I want to do is strap on some running shoes and just move!!!

Its not that I'm sick of being pregnant, although I'm ready to feel a lot cooler during the day, but work has just taken a big dive and I don't want to be here anymore.

Heaven help me go into labor today!

Birthday!

Happy Birthday Alaina!

It seems just like yesterday I was obsessing over your first birthday party.

I've let the obsessing go this year and have already had much more fun!

I'm looking forward to another year of
"Oh, mommy, its sooooo beautiful."
"That'd be just great if you could do that for me mommy!"

And lots of hugs and kisses!

You had so much fun staying home with Daddy yesterday. You got to play princess all day and eat your birthday cookie, too!
I'm impressed that the first present you got to open was Mater. I'm so excited to have a big girl who likes to play with all kinds of toys, not just dolls and makeup.

And today is the big party day! I can still remember the little thrills from last year as you attempted to open your presents by yourself, this year is going to be even more fun!

I'm just sorry that I couldn't give you the present you really wanted.

"Mommy, I'm going to have my birthday and a barbie cake and I'm going to share it with my baby sister."

As close as I could get was the barbie cake.

Thanks for the Barbie aunt Stacey! She worked perfect! Jeff thinks I should compete with HyVee for making barbie cakes.

They charge about $50 for a barbie cake. I think I came in at under $10 and about 3 hours (excluding baking time).

Now I just need to wrap all those presents I've been hoarding all year.

Did you know that barbies have patterned underwear 'built in' now? I'm so silly I can't wait to hold her up to one of my old dolls and see how matel has revamped the vamp!