You down with OCD? Yah, you know me!

The title was my shout out to Naughty by Nature's OPP song if you missed it . . .

Last night I was going around turning off all the lamps in our house when I notices this.

Alaina had discovered these Care Bears in her closet and brought them out to play with . . .which meant that I needed a new hiding place for her stocked up presents.

Do you see what I see?

There were two dvds waiting to be returned to the store sitting on her little table and do you see how her little mind decided they needed to be displayed?

Prefectly squared away in the corners with the bears toes almost perfectly lined up.

And the OCD gene has struck another member of the family!

What we've been up to . . .

I don't have much to write about, or much time, so here's a Pic Fix for you.

Alaina and kitty watching Mommy's old jewelry box ballerina dance. She's wearing the cross that Grandpa Shafer made for me.

Our Disney Fairy tatoos we got in the mail.

Our new princess castle for Belle and Cinderella.

Daddy's favorite game. Alaina decides Daddy needs to sleep so she tucks him in and reads hima story. (For some reason, Mommy is never invited to play.)

Snow Angels!

Helping Mommy and Daddy scoop the drive. It worked well until she would fill the bucket and dump it out where we had already scooped.

Making Cookies together, I scooped, she stamped.

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?