Detroit, here I come.

And my fate has been sealed. Last night Jeff's friend Todd called him at work just to ask "How does it feel to be married to a Lions fan?" I said all season that I would be a fan of what ever team drafted him and the results are in.

As soon as Mr. Suh's name was called, I started plotting heading over to the mall to get my official NFL Lions hat.

The best part is that Jeff is so excited he thinks that I should get an official NFL Detroit Lions Jersey for Suh. But his excitement is purely selfish.

Mr. B thinks that simply because I have picked an NFL team, that he will get to watch more football during the season.

Silly man.

SOAPBOX POST

I've got a terrible head cold and I can barely hold a coherent thought in my head. And yet . .all I can think about is one thing.

I know exactly what I'm going to say to my daughters about smoking. What else is there to do other than saying "Don't do it?"

Well here's my approach to one of "the talks":

Ask yourself why you would even want to try smoking. Are you just curious? What are you curious about?

Are you curious that you might like it or that it feels good?

So lets say you try it and you like it. Now what? Now you get to smoke some more. And your clothes start to smell, but you only notice for a few days. Because after that, your sense of smell starts to go downhill too.

And what about all the money you will spend on cigarettes? You just as well start flushing dollar bills down the toilet or lighting them on fire. Because it is a waste of money.

Will you try it because you know you won't smoke much and that you can quit? Well it is a slippery slope my darling dears. Once you have had more than one cig, consider yourself screwed. The urge for a cigarette could sneak up on you at the weirdest times, most of which will be kindled by an act that Hollywood has chosen to associate with smoking or by a co-worker heading out for their hourly smoke because they are hooked worse than you are.

And by that time we've hit the BIG STINK. Get used to sanitizing everything that you own, because no matter how you try to resist, that nasty stink of body odor and smoke is going to start to show up in your clothes. You may not have the odor all the time, but you can bet your favorite jacket will, and probably your car since that's the first place that you start smoking in other than the bars.

So before you try it, ask yourself what you are signing up for. Because I've been there my friend. Smoke free for probably about 2 years. And why do I say probably? Because I didn't pay attention to when I quit. I just slowly cut the habit, one cig at a time.

So I don't remember when the last smoke was . . . but I know that at least once a month I really think that it would be nice to go out for a cigarette. It is such a pain in the ass to have a craving that could kill you. And while chocolate, cheeseburgers, and wine may not be the best things on the planet for you, the act of having one every now and again isn't directly linked to cancer.

So before you feel pressured into trying smoking. Ask yourself . . .


Why the hell would I want to try something I don't ever want to find appealing?

And this is where my mind wanders when I'm on cold and allergy medicine.

Five years ago . . .

Five years ago today I was,

Primping my hair and hanging out with several of my best girl friends.

Smiling at the beautiful daffodils that were everywhere.

Giggling about the many uses of double sided duct tape.

Fuming about the groomsmen mixing up their tuxes so that they spent too much time playing Goldilocks and the 3 bears. (This vest is toooo small!)

Celebrating the fact that I got to have this small simple ceremony with so many friends and family.

Smiling until it felt like my face muscles were frozen into a grimace that couldn't possibly be a smile.

Listening to a song written just for me by the man I love.

Walking down the aisle with my daddy.

Having the best time ever in a Limousine with friends.

Dancing til I dropped!

And in the midst of it all, getting married.

Now for the list of a few things that I never want to forget about my wedding:

1) Fittings, Fittings, Fittings. If you are going to have anything made for your wedding . . .you must have measurements taken, have a fitting of a mock up or a pre-hemming fitting. Then after any tucks or adjustments are made, you must try it on again. Also , practice hugging lots of people in your wedding dress to see if you are going to wear a tube top on account of the sores around your arm pits the next day.

2) The best shoe is no shoe. I wore isotoner slippers that I threw away later when I got married.

3) Simple may be good, but well planned is better. Just because I wanted things simple, doesn't mean there was no planning to do.

4) No matter what you plan, something will go wrong.
- Someone might talk to the DJ and change your plans for the first dances (AHEM! Yep it happened) so print and give them a list at the actual reception.

5) Put everything in one box and put it in a car that will be going to the reception as soon as possible. (I forgot the gorgeous Knife and serving set my sister gave me at a shower to cut the cake and the toasting glasses for the champagne)

6) Don't get too attached to any one thing that you used for your wedding, they are just things. Knowing that it might get lost, I made my own veil and petticoats because $200 seemed an awfully steep price to pay for a scrap of tulle or a bunch of it shoved under a dress. And ditto for the dress. I had a friend who's new husband accidentally threw her dress away after the wedding. She cried buckets, but can now laugh about it.

7) If you and the bridal party are going joy riding in the limo before going to the reception. FEED YOUR GUESTS FIRST! They consume less alcohol and are very happy when you arrive versus the alternatives.

8) Open your gifts alone. (Suggested by my mother and it was a great idea.)

9) Be considerate of your family when you plan the wedding. (Unless you don't want it to be a family affair.) I'm mean and think that flying to Key West and inviting people to pay $3000 to come watch you get married is mean. If you are going on a destination wedding, either go by yourself with 2 witnesses, or stay home so that your family can share in the special day. Don't expect 50 people to shell out that kind of cash.

10) Get a video. We had two sisters take amateur video footage and they make us a cheap DVD of the entire event. It was wonderful, cheap, and we laugh at the family interviews every time.

Did I miss anything?

She's here!

I swore I was going to make Sisi take a pic with me to post . . . but I haven't gotten there yet.

I have been warning my co-workers for almost a month now that my double is moving home, but I know it isn't going to sink in until they run into her and she look all blank and tells them she's not me. . . .and I love it when that happens!

It was a good weekend,
Alaina had her last swimming lesson . . .and I couldn't get her signed up for the next level because all the classes were full. (Nuts)

Mimi came up to stay with us and helped watch the girls so that we could get our house cleaned up and vacuumed before Sisi moved in.

And then the 2nd best part of the weekend.

YO-YO MA! I have never been so excited to see a Lied center performance. But I have one comment for the Lied crew:

Please dim the lights for all performances. I know that maybe Mr. Ma likes to have the house lights up to interact with the crowd. But I was distracted by the flipping of programs and the fidgeting of other audience members the entire time.

And another suggestion:

Please escort anyone who's cell phone rings out of the theater. That's what you get for "thinking" that your cell phone was on vibrate. For a performance that you paid over $50 to see, turn the dang thing off.

Anyway . . .

Sisi and Papa arrived home during the performance. Unfortunately they weren't able to unpack the truck because Baby K took one look at Aunt Sisi and decided that she was my stand in until I returned home.

Papa and Sisi told us all about their trip to Graceland and handed out gifts.

One for Kayla and one for Alaina. Alaina got to pick which one was hers. She chose the one with the belt, but last night while playing with them, she pointed out that she had two new bears.
I reminded her that one was Kayla.

She pondered it a bit then announced.
"My bear doesn't have a guitar, the red bear is a bad bear because he won't share."
Kinder-translation: "Cut the guitar off the red bear so I can have it."

She's too crafty for her own good.

Anyway, Kayla has been sick, so we took a trip to the pediatrician yesterday just to make sure that it wasn't the same ear infection we just got rid of last week. The trip to the doctor involved Kayla having to get her ears scraped out because she had so much wax in them the doctor couldn't see her ear drums.

Is it any wonder that by the time I got Kayla back to daycare, she was more than happy about me leaving her to play with toys and friends?

And the fun moment from last week. I told Jeff that is 20+ years I can pull this picture out and cry before Alaina gets married. She's in a wedding stage so once a week she announces her plans to get married. I had to make her a veil because I couldn't find mine, so here she is all dressed up to dance her wedding dance with her daddy.

Awwwww . . . ..

The Dressmaker

Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations - Faith Baldwin

Faith sound like my kind of girl. Well the dressmaker is almost here to do some major alterations in our home. We found out Monday afternoon that Jeff starts his second shift job on the 29th and Aunt Sissy will arrive to live with us this Sunday. Those are the big adjustments.

The rest have just been little nips and tucks along the way.

Everyone in the house is finally well, even Pixie. Its amazing what a round of antibiotics can do. Apparently the siezure-like spasming was atributed to a tooth infection and the piddle was from a bladder infection. Of course, the antibiotics also had the lovely side affect of Pixie vomiting all over . . . but at least that is easier to clean up than piddle. With the unexpected joy of Jeff getting a raise, we've been dreaming a little bit bigger and spending a few more dollars. Alaina has probably benefitted the most from this as she has gotten new decorations for her room and was able to get a new princess doll and the Princess and the Frog the day it came out on DVD.
Alaina now equated me with Tiana's momma that make beautiful princess dresses by the dozen. I have now be informed of the fact that she doesn't have a dress like Princess Tiana and I need to make her one. I'm not sure how I ended up with a princess in the house, but at this point I'm just glad that she only calls herself a princess when she's pretending to be a specific Disney Princess.Kayla in the meantime is a clapping, crawling, cereal eating, two toothed wonder. She loves to make music, laughter, and splashes in the tub. And speaking of splashes, Saturday will be Alaina's last swimming lesson with Mommy. After this, she's in the 'Pike" class which Mommy's and Daddy's aren't invited to attend. (Yay!) It's been a wonderful time, but having that lovely bouyant weightless feeling for 50 minutes every Saturday make me feel rather heavy and sleepy for the rest of the weekend.

Work has become stressful as I strive to impress my new boss . . .I've always worked with Miss L and readily enjoyed it, but now I'm doing double time trying to work my way toward a raise.

And with that all said . . .my banana bread is ready to come out of the oven.

10 days down, 21 to go . . .

I have declared the month of March a hazard zone. I now have a cold and the cat has been in the posession of the vet for over 24 hours. Everytime I call they just want to look at 'one more thing' and then they will call me with an update.

At this point I'm way past no news is good news and am just waiting for the call that I'm going to be a single cat home again.

Bleh.

If the March 'In like a lion, out like a lamb' is true for personal lives, I'm going to win the lottery by the end of the month!

Confession time . . .

Too much going on to mention right now, but I promise to catch you up here are the highlights:

- I got pink eye last week
- Kayla got an ear infection and spent the night screaming about it the very next night
- Cat peed all over the house at least one of them did (Did I ever mention we got a new cat?)
- Spent 40 minutes trying to pump for baby at lunch with no results TWICE last week (ouch)
- Jeff is getting a cold
- Chased down both cats when they snuck outside


And then just to top it off, I spent an hour and a half last night muttering about bad kitties while cleaning up cat piddle using a black light. Then at 4 am I felt REALLY guilty about being mad at the cats because I found out why she had been peeing everywhere.

At 4 am while sleeping on our bed, Pixie (new kitty) had a seizure, rolled off the bed, and pottied everywhere in our bedroom.

BUT WAIT! There's more!
I did my best to clean up the piddle, and went back to bed, only to sleep through my alarm. I was already 15 minutes late for work when I ran out to the truck . . . and it didn't start.

SOOOO I walked the 3 blocks to work. Trying not to cry, and muttering the entire way.

Pixie will go to the Vet tomorrow because i didn't want to stress her out by walking her there in our tiny travel cat case.