Food, Glorious Food!

The cravings are killing me!

At least this time they are cheaper than the last pregnancy.

I MUST have two McD's plain biscuits with honey in the morning.

After that I start to crave any of the following. . .

- Oranges, but not just any orange. A cara cara pink orange. They are in season in winter so I have no idea what I will do when they dissappear from the produce section.

- Cheetos puffs. This craving is mild, I don't need many, but between Jeff and I we can plow through a bag very quickly.

- Chocolate milk. But it has to be the stuff that is premixed and sold as Chocolate milk. For some reason (I'm sure I don't want to know) it tastes better.

- And always ready to sneak up on me is the rare craving for a steak. It is rare, but when it hits. I HAVE TO HAVE ONE!

Of course to go along with this are the foods I feel queasy about eating.

- Eggs. I'm not sure what it is, but I can only stand the thought of hard boiled eggs at this point. None of this scrambled stuff, thank you very much. For some reason even the thought of smelling eggs cooking is enough to make me feel a little green.

- Fish - I thought fish sounded good the other day. Wrong! I'm thinking this is now to be avoided because it did NOT sit well.

I'm thinking the two avoidances are leftover morning sickness things. I once read that some scientists think that morning sickness is an evolutionary thing that is designed to keep mothers from eating foods that could compromise the development of the fetus early on.

And yes, Mimi, you told me this once too. ; )

Maybe I should just give in and drive home quickly to get a travel cup of Chocolate and bring back that Cara cara sitting on the table. . . .

Watching your dollars

Did anyone catch the President Obama speech last night?

I caught most of it, but I started to get a bit sea sick as I watched Nancy Palosi and Joe Biden do their imitation of 'the wave' behind President Obama. I wished Palosi would just sit down and let the man speak.

I checked CNN.com this morning for a little news and wasn't surprised to see more stories about how the public gets wind and reacts to spending habits.

The leading stories were (in my words):
-Bank that received loan money spends too much for PGA party.
-Bank CEO gives $60 million in personal bonus money back to company
-Palin called on the carpet for using state money for personal travel. But she swears she'll pay it back.

Bravo for the news for trying to keep people honest . . .but does it make you a little nervous about how you spend your own money and who might be watching?

I'm almost afraid that the local news will post a story about me.

"Local woman who lives two blocks from work wastes precious gas by driving to work everyday."

or

"Local preggers spends almost $3 a day to get daily ration of McDonald's biscuits and coffee. Learn to cook lady!"

True I have to drive Alaina to daycare in the mornings which is about 3/4 of a mile on the other side of the office. But if I were a govt employee or a celebrity, would they care to post that?

I'm glad for the honesty that Obama is promising by saying he will disclose all of the spending from the stimulus package and try to do the same for the budget. (At least that's what I heard when he spoke.) Because frankly, the press would love to be able use it for headlines and tear him apart for it.

Meanwhile, I'm going to try to resist having my personal plane take me to Fiji to soak up the sun for the weekend. ha ha

Fat Tuesday

Well that glorious day has arrived!

Fat Tuesday!

The day that we . . .

umm, the day that we . . .

Well, Nuts.

I can't think of a single thing that we do to celebrate this celebration of all celebrations. Mardi Gras just isn't a big deal in Nebraska I guess.

Personally, I can't decide if this is a good or a bad thing. In a state that was largely populated by German, Czech, and Slavic immigrants, I guess we are more of a Wilber Czech Festival kind of people.

I think that this is an instance that our new Attorney General would have refered to us as cowards for. . .

What, sis? You mean you don't know what I'm talking about? Well, allow this Anderson Cooper addicts to enlighten you.

Our oh so lovely Attorney General gave a riveting speech in honor of Black History Month in which he called us all a 'Nation of Cowards.' He basically railed at all of society for staying in our comfort zones, leading the whites to congregate with whites and blacks to congregate with blacks in social, religious, and familial situations, leading to a society induced segregation.

I can't get this out of my head, its been milling around for the last week. The illusion of the USA as the "Melting Pot" was mentioned, but I've never bought into this pesonally. So many people have tried to retain some of their roots and maintain their cultures that we've never seemlessly melted together. I've always pictures us as more of a salad. Different foods that are mixed together in one dish. We each retain our own tastes and structure, but together we become something more interesting that we were on our own.

But what about this comfort zone theory?

Is it so bad to have a comfort zone? For the people who are afraid to take a chance, comfort zones are all they know. But in a society today where international travel is getting to be as common as going to a neighboring state, what is the harm in settling back into your comfort zone?

Does it really relegate us to being called a 'Nation of Cowards?'

In related news . . .

Dear Ishmael,
Its funny how things can be related in the weirdest ways.

Last night on CNN they had a wild life specialist, Dave Salmoni ,talking about the chimp attack and how regular people shouldn't be allowed to house wild animals as pets. They talked about how the owner of the now famous "attack" chimp treated the animal like a person.

Anderson Cooper asked Dave last night to respond to the chimp owner's statement that she loved the chimp like a son.

Dave's response to Anderson Cooper was just AMAZING.

"Loving an animal is not enough. To raise a wild animal, just because you love it and treat it well, doesn't mean you know what you're doing. There should be laws that say that you know enough and have the right enclosures. . .etc etc."

Sounds like a pretty standard answer right? So why did it impress me so much?

Because directly after that story came this one. . .


Crazy Octo-Mom to lose house to Forclosure.

So I thought,



You could apply the same speech with a few altered words to this situation as well. "Should this woman have been allowed to have invitro?"

And the answer would be . . .



"Loving the thought of having a child is not enough. Having more children, just because you love them and treat them well, doesn't mean you know what you're doing. There should be laws that say that you know enough and have some way or a plan to provide for them. . .etc etc."


Granted, that's a little strict, but in the case if invitro, I think it isn't too far out there to think about screening women before they are allowed to do this. After all, adoption agencies screen parents so why can't we watch out for babies that haven't been created yet?

What do you think Ish. Too radical?

Tattle-Tale

Dear Ishmael,

Last night I just needed someone to talk to about how things had progressed with Alaina. Jeff decided to allow her to get up, put on pjs, and read a bedtime story . . .but didn't enforce my original point of brushing her teeth.

So I called female family members for emotional support.

Jeff heard me talking to Mimi about the situation . . .and I truly wasn't being a tattle-tale, I just needed someone with two XX chromosomes to hear and respond to my situation. Preferably someone who's 'been there and done that.'

But Jeff doesn't quite get that about the females of the species.

That's been a constant area of unhappy mention in our relationship since day one and frankly I don't see it changing.

So how do we reach a happy medium?

Anyway, this day can't get any rougher . . . I've been up since 4 am unable to sleep.

And by the time I made it to work I realized I had:
- Forgotten to put on deodorant
- Have the smell of Runza oozing out of every pore thanks to a stupid meal choice for last night.
- Forgot to change my broken glasses for contacts
- Forgot to bring shoes to wear other than my sneakers

Don't I sound like a pleasant person to be around today?

End to a bad day

Dear Ishmael,

To steal dear Lydia's letter from Beetlejuice

I am Alone.

I am utterly Alone.

Today just won't end.


I actually cried over chocolate this evening.


I was devastated to find out after looking through the little purple bag that Alaina's treats were sent to daycare in, that all of Alaina's classmates were sent home with huge chocolate peanut butter hearts.

And the teachers apparently didn't get anything to take home.


So I cried.

But the hormonal winning streak didn't stop there.

Right now my daughter is in her bed screaming her head off. She didn't think she needed to go to bed.

So she refused to go potty

refused to brush her teeth

and refused . . .well, to do anything.

So I picked her up and put her in her bed, kicking and screaming. My husband found this to be a good time to inform me that I should have just let him step in and Alaina would do what he asked because she always listens to him.

I didn't dare to even open my mouth to tell him what a terrible time it was to say that to me.

I'll just sit here and pretend that the terrible twos are going to end exactly on her third birthday.

And try not to ruin it for me, Ishmael or I may cry again.

Stress Relief

Dear Ishmael,

I've never been much of a "Dear Diary" girl, let alone a diary writer at all. But looking back, that's exactly what this blog has become. I have to say whether anyone reads this or not it provides a much needed stress relief during my A.M. break. So I'm taking advice from Mr. Melville and I'm going to 'Call you Ishmael.'

The second day of my mental slump has arrived, with a stormy outlook. I feel a bit on edge, but am unsure why. Perhaps it is the anticipation of handing back the responsibility of the CIO's schedule to her regular secretary tomorrow upon her return from vacation, or the fact that after my prenatal appointment tonight, I have nothing left for evening activities this week.

Granted, Jeff will be parked in front of the TV for his new addiction of Husker basketball tomorrow night, but I'll jump that hurdle when I get there.

The latest installment of The Alaina Chronicles was a humorous mention from yesterday.

Since Alaina's Val's Day party was delayed because of the snow on Friday, I figured that the catch up event would occur Yesterday. Apparently I was the only parent who felt this way, because I was one of the few that brought their treats in. The teachers get chocolate, while the kids get temporary tatoos. Am I a practical Mommy, or just a mean one? ; )

So the cute little purple bag that all of her treats for said teachers/classmates was left on a high shelf at daycare to wait for the party today. Somewhere during the day, Alaina realized that the contents of this bag were treats.
Not just any treats, but treats that her Mommy had brought which could only mean that they belonged to her.

She realized 15 minutes after we arrived at home that the treats had not accompanied us.

Up until this moment I didn't know that she knew what was in the bag until she asked for her purple bag of treats. I explained they were at daycare and that we would not be going back to get them, then all I could do was laugh at my daughter's attempts to pout in the corner.

You see, she had picked a rather unfortunate corner to pout in.

Jeff and I could see her sneaking glances to check how her efforts were progressing.

Our laughter led to a full out pouting session.

Even that cat was amused. Kitty proceeded to stalk Alaina as she would peek around her little corner. With every peek, kitty crept a few inches closer. Thankfully the pouting session ended before that cat went in for "the kill."

Alaina's father deserved an honorable mention from yesterday too, although I didn't find it humorous at the time.

I have no idea where he found them, but Alaina said she wanted hotdogs for supper. Jeff asked if we had any. For once, I knew the answer because we had just bought a new package last week.

So I left him to prepare her dinner as I prepped to go to my parttime job.

When I came back, the room smelled like feet and he was feeding her a hotdog that was very obviously not a red Fairbury Dog from the new package I had brought home.

I have no idea where he found that hotdog, but when i asked what smelled like stinky dead feet. He held up the plate of hotdogs.

And Alaina was already eating them.

I asked him why he didn't throw it away, and can you guess what his answer was?

"But she's eating them."

Ewwww!

She hadn't gotten more that one bite in before Mommy came to the rescue and brought a new hotdog from the new package to satisfy her tastebuds.

Thankfully she hasn't appeared to have any digestive repercussions from the stinky dead feet dog.

Anywho, its off to finish the work day. If things go well, Alaina and I will be going to visit Grams tonight, a follow up to the guilt-inducing-call from Grams on Sunday as Alaina and I were in the grocery store.

She is either very good at those calls, or I'm just easily rattled. Either way, I hope I can achieve that kind of power over my grandkids when I'm her age.

Take care Ishmael.