Its been one week . . .

Funny, I heard that song on the radio this morning. After seeing that I hadn't blogged since last week, I thought I should put a little something out here, or at least ramble for a minute or two.
Alaina was off to daycare in her first pair of hard-soled shoes today. She's having a little trouble getting around because the shoes grab the carpet mroe than her robeez, which is why we stayed with robeez for so long, but we like to go walk the mall and she keeps sliding on the smooth tile and landing on her bottom, so it was time to upgrade. We tried them on last night with only a little bribery, "If you come and try your new shoes on, I'll turn on bear (The jungle book) for a while." THis worked out well because while she watched bear, I clipped her nails with minimal fuss, a rare thing in our world.
She is learning words so quickly, each new one is starting to lose a little magic. The wonder is still there, but I have to clap really hard to make it shine as bright as the first words she said. It makes me a little sad, but the joy has just moved to another area, linking words together for phrases. She likes to wave bye bye to dada and the other day she said "Bye-bye Dada" out loud, It was so precious.
Anyway, my digestion is still a little touch and go, I went in for the ultrasound of my gallbladder, and everything seemed to look normal. So Fatkins here I come, I've started to watch a bit more of what I eat, yogurt with granoal for breakfast, unleaded coffee instead of leaded and salads from the cafeteria, I've eaten at the cafeteria more this last week that I have since I started working here. Yep that's right, I've eaten at my office cafeteria less than 5 times in two years, excluding donuts. When you live a block from work, its nice to go home and sit in the quiet for a while.
And just a little snippet of humor, a few months ago Jeff and I pulled up to an ATM and he was going to get cash. When he entered the mail manu, he was prompted to withdraw a quick $60. I was a bit confused because when I login, I am only prompted to get a quick $40. I got to thinking, well how sexist of the bank to prompt my husband for a larger amount! is it because the account was originally in his name? Does he spend more with his card than I do mine? Really, how could they assume such a foolish thing as to what cash we need! I told Jeff I thought that was silly and he looked at me like I was nuts. Turns out if you pay attention when you login to our online banking, you can set the Quick draw amount that is displayed on you ATM intro screen. Hmmm. And here I thought machines were becoming sexist!

"Suck it up. . "

I was basically told by the gastrologist that I would have to suck it up and push through. I'm so glad I went to see him, Mom. What an unhelpful diagnosis. He says I probably had a bacteria in Dec that screwed up my system and it will take a while for my system to recover, like maybe a year. A YEAR! I can't live like this for a year! Dang it all! Of course by the time my system recovers, I'll probably have another bacteria or virus that screws me up worse and the cycle will continue. Ick.
And while I'm at it he said I should cut caffeine, fat, and carbs out of my diet, eat small meals throughout the day, and make sure they are bland. Why not just tell me to eat baby food for the rest of my days? Seriously, this is so wrong. And just in case, I'm going to have an ultra sound of my gallbladder, just to make sure that it isn't the problem, of course there's only a 5% chance that it is the problem, but he wants to check it out. Harumph. I just want to feel better, and wish me luck as I embark a journey on the FAtkins diet.

Rumbly rumbly in my tummy . . .

Seriously,
Done in by a bowl of shredded wheat. My tummy feels like I swallowed three shots of tequila, and for those of you who haven't ever had a shot of tequila (a.k.a. Mom) think about swallowing a whole jalepeno pepper that's been turned inside out. What is going on in there? I called the doctor to see if I could put a rush on my second test results, because I need to either figure out what's wrong or start testing again to figure out what's wrong.
And I've decided again, that its time to start seriously writing. Sis, did I hear you say you have an old laptop? I'd love to have it if you aren't utilizing it!

what I want my child to know . .

For some reason I have been thinking about what wisdom I hope that I can give Alaina that she will hold onto and learn from. I'm thinking I need a top ten list so here's what I have.

10. Always be nice to the new person, be friendly and learn about them, it will turn out that most everything you hear in the first week will be false rumors.
9. Don't do things that you are dared to do. If it was something you should be doing, someone wouldn't have to dare you to do it.
8. Don't force growing up, many things are worth the wait, such as earrings (who wants to have to remember to put them in everyday?), makeup (seriously, if you are too young, your just putting on clown makeup), dating (once you start, you feel obligated to keep looking, its more fun to hang out with your girlfriends) etc
7. Don't drink until you're 21. Stupid things happen. Instead, be the one who gets to tell your friend all the stupid stuff she did while she was intoxicated! Its more fun, plus no hangover.
6. Don't speed. You aren't going to get there that much faster. What are you going to do with that extra ten seconds that you couldn't live without?
5. Be nice to everyone! Even the bully because they might need a friend too.
4. You don't have to have everything that everyone else does. Save your money for important things, like a car or gas for the car. Buy a cup of tea at the coffee house instead of a latte. Its four dollars for a cup for pete's sake! For that much it should be made out of gold!
3. Try everything until you find what you like. Its out there, and once you find it, really go for it, don't just expect it to come to you.
2. DO YOUR HOMEWORK! In fact, do all the bonus stuff, this will pay and pave your way to college. That includes practices!
1. Unless you have a boyfriend before the dance, don't take a date. You spend most of the time making sure they aren't bored and you forget to have fun yourself.

I'm sure this will change, but I just keep hoping that When Alaina grows up, she will listen to me sometimes. The number one lesson that I hope I remember, is that I don't want to be my daughter's friend, I want to be her Mom.

Long week . . .

It has been emotionally and physically a long week. With the snow, whenever the public school closes, so does Alaina's daycare. So she got to stay home with Jeff on Wednesday. When I got home, we all headed out to play in the snow, Jeff shoveled the walk, while Alaina and I played Jack London and I was the sled dog. We must have been quite a site in out front yard with me pulling her in her little purple sled (thanks Uncle Scott!) all over the yard for a half an hour! It was a lot of fun, I wanted to take pics, but we were all too busy enjoying ourselves to go inside for the camera.
The big news came from work this week. The head of the department was let go. It was a tough time. I sit right outside his office by his secretary, who has been holding up better than anyone could expect. I admire her a lot and she has been a constant support to me since I got here, I've had to basically build my own job, but I would have had no foundation without her. She had been working with the BMOC for over 8 years if I remember correctly, so this has to be hurting. The department is shocked and I'm a little afraid of what's to come.
And the big physical news is that I am a team leader for the N-lighten Nebraska program! This means I'm the go getter who is suppose to inspire my team of five (including me) to get movin' and shakin! I hope I can keep this PMA for the next three months for this! I'm going to meet with my team to talk about our goals today, so I'll see how much they want me to poke my nose in their business. I'm actually very excited! If you want to know more about the N-lighten program (its statewide) google it and take a look! Mimi and Papa are heading to Omaha for the annual Phi Tau weekend, so hopefully we can arrange to get up there to see them! If I'm lucky, I can get a haircut while I'm there!
Oh that's one thing that still bothers me, I joined a hair cut club, which you can get double points for haircuts on tuesday, so I figured, 40 pts a haircut, and 200 pts equals a free haircut, so after 5 haircuts, I get a free one? With the new short hairdo, I could easily do that. Well the problem is that after I joined, they lost all their stylists! Ick! Now what do I do? Good thing it didn't cost much more than my pride to join this club. And that's probably enough about my week except . . .
Jeff's work party was last weekend. We got all dolled up, and headed out to the Embassy. We met some friends at the bar, so that we could all sit together for the meal, you have to get their early so that you can save seats! I had myself two chocolate martini's which cost way too much for a drink, but since I don't get out much, I can justify it! THey have prizes which are usually pretty great, like last year we won a portable DVD player, but this year it was all gift certificates. We got two, one from Shopko for $25 and one for Linens and Things for $25. I danced a bit at the dance until some drunkard dumped his very cold drink down my back, starting at my hair. Ick again. But all in all it was a great night. Great friends, good food and all the like.

To Papa . . .

Everyday as Alaina and I leave and return, she catches a glimpse of our new truck, Alaina excersizes her memory. She sees the truck, in all its big burgundy glory, points at it and says "Papa!" Obvoiusly the last time you were in town Papa you made a big impression with your big red truck. She doesn't do this with every truck we see, just the one that's parked in our driveway.
I forget what is was, but something sparked "Mimi" the other day. I think its time to compile pictures of family members to help her with faces. If the family manages to get together for Brett's birthday, I'll have to get pictures of each person, a nice big closeup, to put in a picture book for her. We have fun looking at the pciture of Brett and Angie from their wedding on the fridge, but they aren't looking at the camera so she doesn't get the full effect.
p.s. the results came back from my tests, everything came back clear. Dang it. I'm ready for them to find something and fix it.

Jeanette Rankin

I must be feeling a bit emotional today .. .
I can't stop thinking about her. When Mom,Stacey and I traveled to D.C. for the national History Day competition in 1996, we took a tour of the Capitol Building. I don't remember much about it, but I remember Jeanette Rankin. Each state was allowed to place two statues of influential people in the Capitol building and Montana chose her. Jeanette was the first woman to be elected to the House of Representatives, but I don't think that is the reason she has a statue. For some reason I have never forgotten that she was the only U.S. Rep who didn't vote to go to war for WWI or WWII.
I know that a lot of patriotic people would say that is terrible, but when it came time for her to vote she said, even thought you aren't suppose to speak, "I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war." I think that is the most amazing quote I have evern heard. Not because of the words, but because of the situation. Could you imaging saying that in front of a room full of men who you are voting against? I don't know that I would be that strong, but I would like to be.
But what amazes me more is that the next election, she didn't win, but as WWII began she was voted back into the House and again, she voted the only no, for entering war.
Could you imagine? Post-attack on Pearl Harbor she said no! That takes guts! She still didn't believe in war, but this time when she spoke out of turn, she said "As a woman, I can't go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else." The second vote for war, she simply voted, "present" instead of saying no. What a woman! I just want to know when the movie will come out about her! I think is would go over very well right now with Hillary running for office and our troops over seas.