What a Christmas!

I kept loading movies throughout the day today and so now there are several up on the new photobucket account. I also put up some photos. They're just ones I've taken, so they're not great like JM's. But she did take a few on Christmas Eve, so we might have some good ones soon!

Nicky had a wonderful Christmas. He came out of his room running and was just awed by all the stuff Santa brought.



It was a while before he even noticed the wrapped gifts by the tree (Santa doesn't wrap at our house). Tom helped him go through his Santa gifts and stocking and then we had breakfast.


After breakfast he got dressed and we went outside to see what Santa left outside. He had so much fun with his water table and sandbox.




Then he had a nap, lunch, more time outside, a bath and then it was time for Christmas dinner and more presents! It was after dinner that we finally got to the wrapped gifts. Each one took a long time to open. He was more interested in playing with all the toys he could see than in opening new ones.

Then today my dad and Gwen came by on their way back to GA. They brought even more presents! Nicky had a lot of fun playing with more new stuff.

Whew, who says Christmas is only one day? Ours was at least three.

Health update: Tom's sick, Nicky's sick, Donna's getting better and I'm still ok so far, just tired.

4000 minutes of uploading for this movie

Not sure why, but this video took FOREVER to upload. I actually started a whole new photobucket account for it because I thought maybe the old one was just too full. But it still took over an hour. But in my opinion it's worth it. This is a movie of Nicky running out to see what Santa brought him for the first time ever. What a cutie!

There are more movies to come, but if that first one is any indication they might take a while. I'm off to bed now. Donna is sick and Nicky, Tom and I seem to be coming down with it too. Tis' the season, or something like that.

Merry Christmas!

We've been having a busy few weeks here. Sorry I've been lax on the posting lately. I'll get better!

First Nicky came down with a mystery fever on Sunday two weeks ago. Tom was at church and we'd just put up the tree that day. Nicky was having fun playing with the tree and then we went to watch a movie so that I could clip his nails (it's my trick to keep him distracted and still). It didn't take long before I noticed his tummy felt hot. I thought maybe I'd dressed him too warmly, but his eyes looked a little glassy too. I took his temp before putting him to bed and it was 103.1. I gave him some motrin and put him to bed. I called his pediatrician and the nurse said as long as he's not showing any other signs we can probably wait till morning. The only thing we'd noticed was he hadn't eaten well the past day or two, which is unusual for him, but he'd been drinking fine, no puking, sneezing or anything else. He was still running a temp when Tom got home and we gave him more medicine at about 2am when he was still at 102. By morning it was down to nearly normal though. We didn't end up taking him to the doctor or anything. So we guess he was just fighting off a little bug. Amazing thing is this is the first really high fever he ever had. I don't think we'd ever even taken his temp before. I was so glad we'd gotten a good thermometer and I was proud of myself for handling it well with Tom out of the house. Good momma!

Since then I've spent every evening after Nicky was in bed making Christmas gifts. I have photos that I'll put up once everyone has gotten theirs. I think everything turned out so pretty! We did end up buying two things, but everything else, including the boxes, are homemade!

We do have one other project that Tom was working on with Nicky for gifts though. It's not going so well. Our first idea totally wouldn't work and now our second idea was a bust too. Projects that require the cooperation of a 21 month old aren't as easy as we thought they'd be. Especially when this 21 month old refuses to touch anything mushy or moist. Aw well. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve so I think we've called off that project. Maybe next year. See the videos here. I loaded up two of them.

Now we have Tom's mom, sister and brother in law in town. (Video of Nicky talking to Maryellen on the phone here.) My dad and stepmother are coming on Christmas day, so we'll have a big crowd for Nicky's second Christmas. I think it's going to be a lot of fun! We're all going to have Christmas Eve dinner over at Tom's dad and JM's house, kind of early I hope, and open gifts from each other (we drew names this year). Nicky will open a present too, one from Grandma and Grandpa. Then we'll head home and put Nicky to bed. Nana will stay with Nicky while Tom and I go to midnight mass. And then Christmas morning will be stockings and presents from Santa and everyone else for Nicky. He's got a lot to look forward to this year! I'll give a full report and photos after Christmas.

The Fab-Four Meme

Another meme. This looked like a fun one over at a new blog I just found. Hi Sweetisu!

4 Places I’ve lived:
* Woodstock, GA
* Davie, FL (near Ft. Lauderdale)
* Memphis, Tennessee (3 worst months EVER)
* Clearwater, FL

4 Jobs I’ve had:
* Telemarketer (it was HELL)
* Customer Service person (loved it)
* Elementary Teacher (still have nightmares)
* Coordinator at academic library

4 Jobs I wish I had:
This is an interesting one. I've asked myself recently what my ideal job would be and I truly can't think of one!! So how about one that meets these four criteria:
* Where I make enough money to live comfortably one one income (say 75k)
* Where I can use my teaching skills
* That is service oriented (rather than sales)
* Where I can make a difference

4 places I’ve holidayed:
What's a holiday? If it means sleeping somewhere other than in a family member's house these are the only ones I can think of. Clearly I need to get out more.
* Disney World: we camped at Fort Wilderness and visited the three main parks (best holiday EVER)
* We camped once for half a night at my inlaws horse farm in Citra, FL
* We stayed at a hotel once in Dawsonville, GA while visiting my dad
* We stayed the night at a hotel one night in Clearwater, FL where Tom's company had a fancy Christmas party in a hotel on the beach

4 Favorite foods:
* Sushi
* Pizza
* Tom's Chicken & Mushroom/wine cream sauce over rice
* Beef Stew

4 Places I’d rather be:
I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be than here in my house with my husband and sweet baby. Well, unless you're saying money is no object, cause in that case my hubby and baby can join me in:
* Hawaii
* Aruba or other tropical island
* The Grand Canyon (I'm GOING to see this place darn it!)
* Alaska (but not really NOW, more like in July!)

4 Bloggers I like to pass this meme onto:
Psst! I tag YOU, YOU, YOU, and YOU! Yeah, you guys, the ones reading right now!

Frustrated Over Lead...AGAIN

This is really getting out of hand! I'm so sick of hearing about lead and other dangers with toys. It's seriously getting to the point where I'm thinking we're just going to have to start carving, whittling, knitting and sewing all Nicky's toys by hand.

If you read that link and follow the links she has you'll find this article about how Fisher Price has recalled a toy in Illinois, but is still selling on it's website! It's a very popular toy too. One I would normally have considered getting for Nicky if he were another year older.

And if you follow the link to this blog and then to the source of that photo you'll see these ducks that Nicky's had since he was born! He's been chewing on those ducks in the bath forever!

Now the really funny thing is we just did some lead testing yesterday. We tested all four pieces of the art deco furniture for Nicky's room. It's really old and we were sure it was lead paint, but nope. It's lead-free! Awesome!

We tested:
his crib since some of the paint is chipping (lead free)
his Elmo phone (lead free)
his "the cow says MOOO" toy (lead free)
the old ceramic tiles in the bathroom (lead free).

And then today I see that his rubber duckies might have lead. (Who knows if they are from the same year/batch as the ones in the photo?)

How the heck are you supposed to trust anything that you don't test yourself? I'm telling you, a good business plan might be to shell out the 50k for an industrial testing device and charge folks to bring their toys to test. Charge 2$ a toy, you'd probably make money on it.

Why isn't that a service we have in our communities?

And more importantly, WHY aren't all toys randomly tested? As I understand it, the FDA randomly tests foods, drugs and cosmetics. Why aren't our toys tested with the same frequency? I keep hearing they have ONE person in charge of safety testing all toys! How is that even possible?

The Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator: Harry Potter Style

According to this I'm most like:


Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

I took the actual Myers-Briggs a year or so ago. I'll have to look up my results and see if this is close.

Tom is most like:


Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

And he just did one of these at a retreat last weekend and it came out this way.

Interesting.

Thanks to Sarah for the link!

Pics from Thanksgiving #2 are up!

And they are MAAAHVELOUS!

Last night Tom cooked a turkey with mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, brocolli and crescent rolls. I declare it Thanksgiving #3! Now we'll have leftovers till Christmas! YAY!

I couldn't help it, it was funny!

I just had to try this out: The Amazing Death Predictor

And my prediction was:

Angela: At age 49 you will fall into a tank at a large aquarium and be eaten by suckerfish.

Uncanny isn't it. Well maybe not really uncanny. Maybe just very funny. Guess I'll try to avoid going to the Seaquarium till I'm well into my 50's.

In real life though I have some AMAZING photos of Nicky from last weekend that JM took. He is SO cute! I'll get a few up this weekend. Promise!

Apples and Rice

First you must see the video Tom took of Nicky eating his first apple. Oh he's had apples before, but only cut up or as applesauce. THIS was a whole apple! Click here for the video.

And this is just something I found via a blog I read today. Free Rice is a word-game to test your vocabulary. Simple and fun right? But by having advertisements on each page they're actually able to generate money from the site to donate rice to hungry folks around the world. I've gotten up to level 45 at one point but seem to hover right around level 40 as an average. Oh, and I donated over 1000 grains of rice! :)


So how did you do?

What does this really mean?

So I did this little readability test for both my home blog and my work blog. This is what came out:

This blog:



Work blog:



Kind of weird huh.

Angela Day

So last week Tom went over to his Dad and JM's house to help build a feeding pen. Of course Nicky went along and, even more obvious, JM was ready with the camera. JM and Nicky ran around outside in the beautiful weather while Tom and his dad worked really hard. After a few hours JM had a ton of gorgeous pictures of Nicky (I picked just a few to upload) and the feeding pen was all done! I'm amazed at how much work they did in just one day!

Oh, and when I asked Tom if the weather was nice he said "it was so beautiful he named it after me and called it Angela Day." Just one more reason I married him! This man knows how to flatter a Leo and make her smile.

Grandpa and Tom with Nicky by the newly finished pen:

Thank You!

I think this is just the cutest thing EVER! But then again, I may be a little bit biased... CLICK HERE for the video!

A Big Night Out

Well darn. I missed posting yesterday. We had a houseful of company with Nicky's Aunt Jessie here till Sunday afternoon and Nana here till Sunday morning and with all the visiting going on I didn't get around to sitting at the computer at all. Bummer.

Well we had a very nice visit with Aunt Jessie. Nicky now says "Aunt" although admittedly it sounds more like "Ent" at this point. He started saying it about 2 minutes before Jessie got here actually. Aunt Jessie stayed in Nicky's room and while he did wake her up most mornings around 7am with "Ent, Ent, Ent" we usually were able to take him out of there in a little while so he and Tom could drive me to work. So she did get a little sleeping in on her vacation.

I'll have to take a look at the few photos I did try to take. I'm not sure any of them came out right.

But JM took a bunch of photos of Nicky when Tom and Nicky went over there during the week. Tom helped his dad build a feeding pen and JM and Nicky ran around outside with the camera. The photos are beautiful and I'll have my work cut out for me picking out which ones to upload. Hopefully I'll get a chance to do that tomorrow.

Because LUCKY ME I have tomorrow off for Veteran's day! Apparently not everyone gets Monday off, but we do at UF, so I'm hoping for some rest and then to get into the den to try to organize it. It's a wreck! The whole place has become the dumping ground for all things we don't want Nicky to have access to, and so it's pretty much a giant junk drawer. The challenge will be to get it done while Nicky isn't in there with me. Not an easy thing to do since he's down to one good nap a day when we're lucky (and sometimes NO nap or only a 10-30 minute catnap).

Nana came to visit on Friday and we left Nicky with Nana and Aunt Jessie for the evening so that Tom and I could go out on a "date." It was very nice and relaxing. We don't yet feel the desperate need to get away for adult time yet, but it was fun to go to our favorite restaurant where we can't take Nicky. We went to the Melting Pot and had a lovely (and incredibly expensive- for us) dinner. I can just imagine trying to take Nicky there! There couldn't possibly be a place for highchairs since the controller for the burner is in the only spot you could put one. And there's a freaking stovetop on the table for goodness sake! I'm thinking Nicky'll have to be around 12 before we could take him here. And even then it would most likely be a waste for a kid. Maybe we'll introduce fondue at home first when he's around 8 or so. I do think it's fun. (Just really expensive at the restaurant for a kid.)

After a lovely dinner (we skipped getting a dessert because we were so freaking stuffed) we realized we had to go pay a bill and didn't have an envelope. So we headed home to get the envelope and take a potty break. It was just exactly Nicky's bedtime so we brushed his teeth and put him to bed before heading back out to continue our date.

We talked about where to go. We were too stuffed for dessert or coffee, too tired to do a movie, I'm too sensitive to smoke for a club (and Tom won't dance anyway), and we didn't have plans for a show or performance. It was too late for the museums and most stores, and there were extenuating circumstances that even put parking out of the question. So darn.

We ended up at Publix. Yep. For our BIG NIGHT OUT we went to dinner and the grocery store. Lovely. We picked up some candy, greeting cards and playing cards (so we could play canasta with Jessie). On the way home we dropped off payment for a bill. We're so romantic.

But it was fun anyway. And probably the most fun was having Nicky go out to dinner with Nana and Aunt Jessie (they went to Chili's) and hearing how GOOD he was, and how BEAUTIFUL, and how he was such an ANGEL. I never get tired of hearing people compliment him. (Heck I ordered pizza for dinner tonight and tipped the driver extra because she was mooning over how cute Nicky was.)

Today after Nana and Aunt Jessie headed home (not together of course, but off to their respective homes) Tom's Dad and JM came over for lunch. We all looked at the awesome photos JM took and watched Nicky play on his trike. Right now the most fun thing seems to be to push the trike up to the counter and then try to stand on the seat though. Not the safest way to use it.

After they went home, Nicky, Tom and I all went down for a nap. What could be better than a nice nap on a beautiful Sunday afternoon after a week of company? Company is fun of course- I'm an extrovert remember? I LOVE company! But when everyone does go home, the quiet they leave behind is so peaceful don't you think?

Right brain or Left brain?

You may have seen this before, but I thought I'd post it for those who haven't. It's a moving image of a woman spinning. But which way is she spinning? I can see it both ways, can you?

Oh, and my cold is starting to move into my chest. Just like this time and this time too. Lucky me. But I've got a 3-day weekend starting tomorrow and hopefully I'll be feeling a lot better after that.

Spammers Suck

While cleaning out my old emails I found some responses I'd sent to some scammer spammers. Guess these guys caught me on a bad day when the delete button just wasn't enough. My responses are in bold.

-----Original Message-----
From: Rev Thomas & Rachael David
[mailto:revtomdavid@christianbookscenter.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2005 7:55 PM
Subject: Hello my good friend


Dear Sir/Madam,
We are Rev Thomas & Rachael David, we print christian books and export to Europe/America. We are searching for a christain representative who can help us establish a medium of getting to our costumers in America/Canada as well as recieving payments due to our ministry. Our clients find it difficult to release payments to us because they find it difficult to make wire transfer or we have no representative closer to recieve checks from. But with you around, they can easily send the funds to you if we tell them that you are our christain brother/sister.
If you are interested in representing our ministry, we will be very glad as you shall be entitled to 5% of every total amount you recieve for us. Directives would be given to you on how to send the funds across to us.
Please contact us for more information. Subject to your satisfaction you will be given the opportunity to negotiate the mode of which we will pay for your services as our representative in America. There is no more responsibility than this like travelling to meet them or spending money from your pocket.
I hereby request you forward any proof of your identities, your current telephone and fax numbers including your forwarding address to establish trust and business relationship and also to enable us inform our clients to communicate with you.
Thanks,
Remain blessed
Rev Thomas & Rachael David
http://www.christianbookscenter.com/


To whom it may concern:

In an effort to promote education, I have included color-coded editing to your email below. Red words are misspelled, and blue words indicate a grammatical error which may include punctuation, subject-verb agreement, or other egregious errors. Rather than earn money by scamming hard-working people, perhaps you should further your education and attempt to obtain honest employment. If you would like me to edit further works of creative writing, please include the words "for editing" in the subject of the email.

Thank you,
Angela


-----Original Message-----
From: Darren Wheeler [mailto:oct11@app.topica.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2004 12:00 AM
To: Public Services Division
Subject: Charity Assistance.


Hi all my name is Darren, I have never asked for charity before but when I typed it in a search engine I came up with your email address. My wife had a car accident last year, shattered her back in a few places and now is paralyzed. I spent 9 years in the British Army and am now disabled, we have two kids. We are extremely poor and are in need of assistance. Our car is on its last leg and we really need a wheelchair accessible dependable vehicle. In addition the house we live in is extremely old and the doors (except for the front) will not allow for a wheelchair to pass through them. So we need a dwelling which will allow for a wheelchair to pass through the doors. In addition this will give her a sense of "independence" to where she can move freely about the house and can bathe in the bathroom. What's sad is.... I have searched the internet only to my disgust. It seems all these charity sites only want to take things, and don't provide a place for a "needy" person such as ourselves to apply. One of them, wont say which, but seemed to be a popular one, provided a contact email, which didn't even work In conclusion, I appeal to your conscience to send whatsoever the Lord lays in your heart to give to help us out of this condition. Please feel free to reach me at my personal email address: pioneercoy@netscape.net Sincerely, Darren L. Wheeler

"Darren"
How stupid do you think we are? You sent this to a department at a university. Remove our address from your list. Your emails have been forwarded to www.truthorfiction.com and the United States Secret Service.
AKM

I totally did send that one off to TruthorFiction.com and the Secret Service too (although now it seems the FTC is the one to report to). Doubtful that anything happened, but you never know.

Death to Spammers & Scammers! (Or at least long, miserable, internet-less stints in prison)

Does anyone remember this?

Remember The Rocky Horror Picture Show?

I admit I only went to a theater to see a live show twice. But we just rented the DVD for The Rocky Horror Picture Show from the library and watched it along with this script and it brought back memories.

I know there are others out there that remember this...but are they willing to admit it?

It was a One-Eyed, One-Horned, Flying Purple People Eater

And he sure looked strange to me!

JM sent me a CD of the photos she took on Halloween and they're all so good! It was tough but I managed to limit my uploads to only 19 pictures. Just a few :)

Her photos show more of what it was really like at Boo at the Zoo too: a wooded path that wound through the cages and fences, decorated mostly with cardboard, with zookeepers and student volunteers dressed up as a wide variety of characters along the way.

There was a swamp monster


And a very strange dragon lady


And of course a few witches


And Captain Hook


And much more.

And I'd forgotten that Tom and Nicky went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Halloween morning. JM got some amazing photos there! And while I did upload several to the photobucket page, I'll just show you my favorite here:



He's so beautiful and I'm so lucky! I love this boy!

Who you calling Fool?

So I did this little online thingy (not really a quiz, more like a fortune cookie) and this came up for me. Very Interesting...

You Are The Fool

You are a fascinating person who is way beyond the concerns of this world. Young at heart, you are blissfully unaware of any dangers ahead. You are a true wanderer - it has be difficult finding your place in this world. Full of confidence, you are likely to take a leap of faith. Your fortune: You are about to embark on a new phase in your life. This may mean changing locations, jobs, friends, or love status. You are open about what the future will bring, and free of worry. You have made your peace with fate, and you're ready to start down your new path.

What Tarot Card Are You?

I wonder if this is in regards to a job I hope to apply for in the spring or a surgery I hope to have sometime next year. Or maybe it's in regards to my plans to clean out the darn den! Our den is such a mess right now and I'm hoping to spend this weekend in there with Tom organizing everything. What a relief that would be!

Getting sick

Well, I'm coming down with a cold or something. At least I'm finally getting over my surgery. I'm taking zinc and maybe that will help me get over this quickly.

Enough about me though. Jessie came to visit today and will be here this week. Nicky now can say Aunt and PooPoo. LOL! Nice combo huh.

I'll have to be sure to get some good photos of Jessie and Nicky together to add here soon. But right now I'm off to bed to recuperate before work tomorrow. I've used all my leave on the surgery and so have to work through my cold. Hopefully zinc really works.

Nicky and Colin

Colin and his parents came to visit this weekend. We spent the first half of the day cleaning house, because of course we're sure that somehow this will give the impression that we've got things all together and under control (or at least that we don't usually have mounds of clean clothes piled in our bedrooms). Funny because Gayle and Thad have known us for over 10 years and they pretty much know and love us as the slobs we are.

But we cleaned anyway. Hmm, actually I should have taken a photo so that I could give everyone in the internet the impression that I'm all organized all the time. Darn.

Well even though I gave them crappy directions and sent them 34 miles out of the way, they finally made it here right at the end of Nicky's nap. It only took a few minutes for Nicky to warm up to Colin and then they were running around non-stop for the rest of the day. Colin is 4 and Nicky is 1 so it is a big age difference, but they both seemed to have a lot of fun.

They even sat together at the "kids table" for dinner. Which impressed the heck out of Tom and I since usually we still strap Nicky into a highchair for meals.



Then they took a bath together. Splish Splash!



Then they ran around in their jammies for a while. They got to go to bed a little late since the time changes tonight (that's our attempt to get them to sleep a little later too). And now they're both in bed. Well, not together, cause OMG no sleep would happen then! But Nicky is in his crib and Colin is in the other room. And it's just now nearing 11. Nice!

Of course now you'd expect all us grown ups to sit around and play a game and chat till 2am. But I'm writing my daily blog entry and yawning, Tom's watching some special on The Who, and Gayle and Thad are falling asleep with Colin.

We are officially lame.

Getting Dirty

Today Tom and Nicky took me to the Rheumatologist. I'm trying to figure out what causes all the pains I get off and on in my limbs and joints. I've had it for years and it comes and goes seemingly at random. The good news is I don't have the markers for arthritis or lupus, but the bad news is they don't have a clue what's causing it. My levels on one of the blood tests was high- the one that measures inflammatory response was a little elevated. But doesn't give us much info. So now I have a standing order for the lab to go get repeat blood work the next time I have a flare up of the pain. At least the doctor didn't say it was just all in my head.

After that we went to lunch and Tom got Nicky fruit punch to drink. It was so funny! He was belted into a highchair, but was bopping around like mad after a while. I think sugar really affects him no matter what the research says. He was awfully cute though.

Then Tom dropped me off at a clothing store while he and Nicky picked up dog food. I had a gift certificate and was finally going to buy some clothes for myself! I found two tank tops and a pair of pants. I think these are the first clothes I've bought since maternity clothes! Fun stuff.

Then we headed home while Nicky crashed, poor kid was so tired! And Tom mowed the lawn. After Nicky's nap when Tom was finished we ran around in the backyard.

Nicky had lots of fun playing in the dirt (which was much preferred over the piece of dried up doggy-doo he first picked up). Sampson even helped him dig in the dirt. I caught a little movie which is a lot easier than taking a photo on this camera. Enjoy!

Halloween (and NaBloPoMo)

NaBloPoMo?

I know you're wondering if that's just some strange cult thing, but NaBloPoMo is much more innocent. No dancing with rattlesnakes or talking white lizards in the desert required. It stands for "National Blog Posting Month" and is a challenge for the month of December. As far as I know it started just last year when someone decided that instead of National Novel Writing Month (where folks write a whole novel in November!) that they could commit to posting on their blog for every day of the month. I thought it was a neat idea last year, but this year I'm ready to belly up to the keyboard and give it a shot myself. Hence the fancy little badge over on the right side of the screen. I figure I've been so bad about posting lately and this might just give me the kick in the pants I need to get my ass in gear. (Even as sore as it STILL is!)

So here's post number one!

Halloween 2007

Nicky and Tom came to pick me up at work and we headed off for Boo at the Zoo. We did this last year, but at only 7 months old Nicky was pretty blitzed out. We expected this year to be much more exciting and didn't even bring the stroller (you may start laughing here).

Ready to go! We've been changed, bug sprayed and costumed. Where's the candy?


We met up with a buddy from work and his cute little boy and in my haste to snap a photo of his son (batman) before they went into the zoo I completely and utterly ignored said buddy's wife. I only realized that I didn't greet, nor look at, his wife when I was drifting off to sleep last night. Apparently I've lost all social skills. (Maybe the surgeon cut that part out by mistake. Who knew that's where the epicenter of social nicety nestled?) I did apologize at work today by the way. I am a dork.

Anyway, we waved them on into the zoo and headed for the back of the line to get in. It was a very long line, but moving pretty quickly. We were also trying to keep an eye out for Nicky's Grandma who was supposed to meet us there. We saw her just before we were going into the park and she joined our little group. Yay!

Waiting in the super long line:


So for the uninitiated (which I imagine is the majority of anyone stumbling across this blog), Boo at the Zoo is a free program at the Santa Fe Teaching Zoo. This is at our local community college and the students and zoo folks decorate the path through the zoo for Halloween, dress up and let kids say trick or treat and get candy. They usually have a radio station there, and the cost of admission is one canned good per person. It's all a big donation drive to collect food for folks in need over the holidays. Not sure how much they pulled in this year, but last year it was over 6,000 cans of food!

So anyway, lots of camera opportunities along the path and I even had Nana's camera with me to take a few photos and movies, but I haven't quite gotten the hang of it so mostly took photos of the back of Nicky's head. But with JM there I'm sure she must have gotten a few cute ones with her super awesome professional camera. I'll post them when we get them!

About halfway through the zoo I was really ready to be done. I think I was zoo'd out before Nicky even. But we stuck with it (not really much choice actually) and made it through. I think it probably took about an hour to go through. That was the longest I'd stood up and walked since the surgery and my behind was not happy with me. Ow. Poor Tom ended up carrying Nicky for most of the walk. It was just too crowded and he was too overwhelmed to stay down for more than a minute or two at a time. But he was more interested this year, and stayed happy which was nice. Especially since the little girl behind us was having a sugar-induced meltdown.

After we were through the zoo we hightailed it to the car and to the grocery store to grab some sandwiches for dinner and a bag of candy in case we had any trick or treaters show up when we got home. We had two groups of kids show, so good thing Tom bought 3 bags of candy! I really must take some to work next week. (IF it makes it through a 3 day weekend uneaten- HA!)

This year instead of reaching desparately for his binky once we got in the car, he reached for a lolly pop. Yummo! - Notice though he's still naked after Boo at the Zoo. Costumes get HOT in Florida!


All in all I think it went pretty well. I don't know if we'll do it again next year though. I just heard about a cool idea to have a Trunk-or-Treat. And that sounds like FUN! I might have to figure out a group to put one of these on for us. Maybe the libraries? Maybe Tom's church? We'll see.

And there's the post! HA! Done with 6 minutes to spare before midnight!

A movie again!

Nicky's Nana came to visit this weekend and she brought a new digital video recorder. So I chased Nicky around a bit with it and took a few movies! It's so much easier to take a movie of him than it is to take a picture. He just doesn't stay still very often and with digital cameras there always seems to be a delay from the time you hit the button to the time it takes the picture. And with him zipping around you end up with something like this:



But I did catch a few nice ones with Nana's new camera outside and even uploaded a video or two for you! I'll try to get a few more up soon. It takes forever for these to upload!

Poof! There goes my vacation

Well it's been over a week since my surgery. I finally started feeling a little better on Tuesday of this week. By "better" I mean able to go longer than two minutes without cringing and screaming "my butt!" But I did start to wean off the major pain meds Tuesday and today, mostly only taking Tylenol, although Tuesday night I succumbed and finally took a Toradol. My impetus for trying was that I only had two Toradol left and maybe 3 Percocet. I'm all out of the Lortab. Good stuff though huh? Yeah? Well I was on all that and STILL in excruciating pain for over a week. Nice surgery. Why did I have this again??

Anyway, still hurting, but only taking Tylenol really, oh and living in mortal fear of the bathroom, and now have had to take off the one week I'd planned and so far 3 days of another week. I really don't think I'll make it back to work before next Monday, which means I'll have taken my whole two weeks of leave. And that means our vacation to North Georgia we'd planned to take in early November isn't happening. Of course right now the idea of sitting in a car for 7 hours is laughable anyway, but hopefully by then I'd be able to do it. But it's a moot point now. Aw well. The one time I'd actually planned to take an actual week of vacation and I end up spending it at home miserable. Grrr! Maybe I'll be able to acrue a few days of vacation by Christmas and we can go up just for a long weekend or something. We'll have to see.

That's enough about me and my Heinous Heiny. Now for something about someone much cuter and more cheerful...



Oops, more like this...



LOL That picture just tickles me! We were over at Tom's Dad's place the weekend before my surgery and Nicky was having a ball playing with some of JM's mom's old jewelry. At one point I had him with clip on earrings wearing two necklaces. Tom said he looked like a pirate. I thought he looked rather beautiful. JM grabbed her camera to snap some shots of him. While I was changing him into something cooler to wear. Here's another...



He's just too cute!

Anyway, he's not tried the climb-out-of-the-crib trick any more, so let's hope he refrains until I can buy him a toddler bed. I hope to go out mid-November to buy one. We thought about making one to match his antique furniture, but then we just laughed and laughed and decided we needed him to actually be able to sleep in his toddler bed before he starts school. So I'll pick one out somewhere (cheap of course) and we'll pick it up and hope it's not recalled. Sigh. What is up with all these crazy recalls? Did someone miss the memo? LEAD PAINT = BAD.

Let's see, other Nicky related news... Did I tell you he now has two upper molars to match the lower ones? That means he's got 6 teeth on top and 4 on the bottom. Hey, that's 10 teeth! We're halfway there. And then of course he'll start losing them and growing them all over again.

We have lots of new words now, he knows where his ears, nose and belly button are and can say ear and nose. I'm not sure if he knows his eyes, cheeks and mouth yet, but we're working on it. His Grandmomma taught him to say "I don't know" during my surgery day which was fun. He just picked up a nicely sarcastic "so?" from me today. He's been calling all dogs Bobo (Benjamin's nickname) but now he can say Abbey and Sampson too. He says Night-Night when he's tired and wants to go to sleep. He says Cow and knows that a cow says "Moo." (That was accomplished at the craft store where he picked out a toy cow and we went through the store saying Mooo Mooo! Ahh, good times.)

I'm sure there's more, but I'm getting too sore sitting on one hip trying to type so I'll leave it at that. Point is, he's learning new words everyday, and while they're not crystal clear or anything he's obviously starting to use and understand language. So yay! (And of course it's all because we moved the house around and don't let him watch any tv anymore. Right?)

My poor, poor tookus...OUCH!

I came through the surgery just fine. But I am in some major pain. OW! I cussed up a storm the whole way home while lying in the back of the van and realized my curse word vocabulary is significantly lacking.

My mom was able to come to watch Nicky while we were at the hospital, and they had a great time. I am so grateful she could do that. It was a 5 hour drive for her to get here and she has an all day work thing to do Wednesday, but she came on Sunday and left this morning. If we'd had to take Nicky with us it would have been a nightmare!

They had called us at about 11am and said they thought they could fit me in earlier than 3:30 so instead of coming in at 2 they asked me to come at 1pm. So we get there just before 1pm. I go back at about 1:30ish to get an IV and prepped. And then Tom comes back in around 2ish to sit with me. That's when we find out that they're backed up because the surgeon before mine arrived late for his surgery and now my surgeon is just getting started on his FIRST patient of the day. I'm the LAST one (third of three) so mine didn't start till after 4pm. It would have been horrible to have Nicky there all that time! But I asked the nurse if I could use my hands while waiting (my IV was in my left hand). She said "sure, to do what?" I said "knitting." She was amazed LOL! She said as long as the IV was still dripping it would be fine, but she'd never had anyone knit while waiting for an operation. LOL!

So Tom and I knitted while we waited for about an hour or so, and then I napped for another hour while Tom read. Tom's working on a beautiful Alpaca wool scarf for his first project and I think it's going to be gorgeous! I'm working on my third dishcloth. They're so fun to knit! I did my first one for the dishcloth throw that our yarn group made to raise money for charity (and I won it in the raffle!) and I love the feeling of the 100% cotton yarn so much! So I bought more and have made another pretty yellow dishcloth to actually use to wash dishes and now I'm working on another in purple and green. I have another pattern to make a kitchen towel (the kind with a button to hang on the fridge or oven) in a pretty light blue too.

It's so nice to work in a yarn that feels good. I don't know that I'll work with a cheap acrylic yarn again. I still have several rolls that just feel icky to me. I know wool is supposed to be great, and Tom's alpaca wool feels very soft, but I just really am loving the cotton right now. And for Florida I think it's great. I made Nicky's hat and snake scarf in a 100% cotton and then a kerchief for myself too. Très Chic no?

Anyway, I've been sitting way too long now, even if it is on a pillow and I am HURTING. So I better get off my delicate derrière. Plus I hear Nicky stirring from his nap. By the way, yesterday before I went in for surgery my mom and I were sitting in the living room during Nicky's first (and only) attempt to nap in the morning, when I heard a "thump-WHAAAAA!" I threw my knitting across the room and ran for Nicky's room where I found him lying on his back on the floor. This was his first attempt to climb out of the crib and apparently it didn't go so well. I see a toddler bed in the very near future. I was hoping to wait for Christmas, but looks like we'll get one much sooner than that. He hasn't tried it again yet, but we're a little nervous about it. (Hopefully Nicky is too!)

A little angel

Nicky was so good yesterday! Yesterday really was a rough day for all of us, but he held up so well and we're so proud of him!

First we had his 18 month pediatric visit at 9:15am. That means we left the house around 8:30am, which was too early for breakfast according to Nicky. So I packed up some halved grapes, "cookies" which are actually fruit cereal bars, and two pieces of cheese toast for him to have later and we left.

Got to his doctor right on time and he had fun playing in the office for a little while till it was his turn. Apparently having an appointment early in the morning is the way to go because we hardly had to wait at all. His pediatrician said he's doing perfectly. He's right around the 50th percentile on all measurements, which even though he had been in the 90th and then around the 70th she said he was fine.

Measurements were:
Height 32.75 inches
Weight 25 lbs 13 oz
Head 47.5 cm

She also avoided calling me a worry wart, but said his speech is just fine. She said as long as his receptive speech (understanding what we say) is developing not to worry. I'll probably still worry some, but I'll refrain from hair-pulling till he turns two. Well mostly. She did say to keep him away from TV till age 2 and to not even have it on in the background, but that music is ok. So I do feel good about how we've moved the house around. (Of course today is nail cutting day, so he will get to sit in my lap and watch a dvd while I'm snipping away. It keeps him still and that's just too useful to pass up when it comes to nail clipping.)

He did get three shots though. Polio, Flu shot, blablablasomethingsomething. All I know is he's done with shots (other than a yearly flu) until he's FIVE! That seems so far away!

So anyway, we finished that appointment right around 10am. I know! Record time! And so here we are, in the building where my doc appointment is at 11:00. An hour early. Joy. So we head to the cafeteria (yep, it's a hospital so it's got one) and feed Nicky grapes, cheese toast, and a chocolate and pink M&M cookie that Tom bought from a fight Breast Cancer display. Breakfast of champions there. The cafeteria was closed between breakfast and lunch so no milk, but we had water for him.

About 10:20 (love how he eats fast when we have a whole hour to kill) we head upstairs to my doctor. Tom watched Nicky play in the little waiting room toy area while I knit. (I actually finished his hat and scarf yesterday!) When Tom tired of running around after him we traded off. My doctor, who actually turned out to be a nurse, finally saw me it was already 11:45 or so. (yep, nearly an hour and a half in the waiting room) Nicky was tired, but still hanging in there and walking up to everyone in the waiting room to say "HI!"

I had my annual exam, and found out I can't start TTC until I see my real OB/GYN in a month. Lovely. Aw well, I guess we won't get PG this cycle. (This turns out to be a good thing after my next appointment.) I go to pay and find out that they think my insurance will pay for this visit 100%. Well cool! Hopefully that's true, otherwise I'll get a bill. But still, not having to shell out the 25$ yesterday is very helpful.

So we leave there about 12:30 and my next appointment is only a parking lot away and is at 1:00. By this time we're hungry, and Nicky is exhausted (usually naps from about 11-1 every day) so we drive to the Wendy's that is really close and run through the drive through for some cheap food. I eat in the car and then head in to my next appointment about 5 minutes early. I left Tom and Nicky in the car to try to have lunch.

I'm knitting in the waiting room when I hear a lady say "Oh he's so cute!" and realize Tom and Nicky have come in. Now this waiting room has nothing even resembling a toy in it. Well, maybe the wooden sculpture of a hippo looks like a toy to Nicky, but it's probably 500$ so I wouldn't let him touch it. We did a lot of spinning and playing with Daddy's keys in there. Tom took him outside in between rain showers and we just hoped the appointment would be quick.

I finally went back around 2:00. (Yep, an hour in the waiting room.) I waited in an exam room, then met with the doctor in his office, then back in for the exam, then talk to the doctor. Tom kept a hold on Nicky all during this. He played with my comb, his stuffed puppy, the keys, my water bottle, anything we could think of to keep him happy. He wanted to get down and play, but this place was not even close to baby-proof with the TWO biohazard containers right in the corner. Lovely. Tom took him out to walk in the hall for a little bit while I talked to the doctor after the exam. When I went out to do the whole paperwork, copay, schedule my surgery thing (yeah, surgery, fun stuff) Tom took Nicky to the car.

It was 3:00. Three PM people! My kid has usually gone down for his SECOND nap by this time! He hadn't eaten lunch, had a weird breakfast, three shots, and no nap. If I had the $ and energy I'd have bought him some amazing toy as a reward. But instead we let him sleep in the car for about 20 minutes or so while I filled out paperwork. I think he enjoyed that more.

After coming out of the office, Tom drove up to the door to pick me up. We went to the store where Tom picked up some groceries for dinner and I knit while Nicky slept. Then we went to the bank. Nicky woke up by then so we all went inside to change our address (finally- about a year after moving!) and order new checks. Then we finally got home around 4:30pm.

I took Nicky to his room, changed him, put on his music, held him through the first song and then put him right down. He laid down on his tummy and I covered him up and left the room. Not a peep. Poor kid was so tired! Tom and I took a nap too. Chasing Nicky around and keeping him entertained was exhausting, and knitting, knitting was exhausting too. And the doctor stuff wasn't much fun either.

Nicky woke up about an hour later and we started getting ready for dinner. Amazing though. He still went to bed on time (even a little early) and slept all night. What a wonderful little boy! I just had to record this amazing day for posterity. We're so lucky!

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so I know what you're really wondering about is... what were you knitting? I know! I had to take a picture to show you because I knew that is exactly what you'd be thinking!

Ok, Next month we're hoping to go to North GA to visit my family up there. It's cold, and we, being Floridians, have nothing other than jeans and a few long sleeved shirts for winter. So being the good mommy that I am (read poor) I decided to knit Nicky a hat and scarf! The hat is a "little critter hat" and the scarf is a "wiggly worm scarf" (although I declare it to be a snake!) and they're so cute. Here's Nicky doing some modeling last night.

Before I sewed on the eyes:


After eyes were sewed on:


From the back:


Falling asleep standing up?


On the phone with Nana:

Mystery Photos Found!

So while I was slaving away at work on Monday, my mom, husband and sisters were all playing "photograph the baby." Liz was wondering where those photos were and Tom had forgotten all about putting them on the computer, as well as where on the computer they were.

But once he remembered, along with my mad searching skillz, I was able to locate the photos and have uploaded the vast majority of them to the photobucket account. Enjoy! I must now go drool after these new photos for a few more minutes, imagining all the fun I missed, and then head off to bed.

And to Liz, who is off at her retreat starting today, we love you!

More teeth this week!

Mid week I was in the car with Nicky, Tom and Jessie, guess it was Wednesday, and I was in the backseat with Nicky. I was feeding him little bits of "cookie" (which is actually a fruit&cereal bar) and noticed something large and white in his mouth. I waited till we got home to get a good look, because I've learned my lesson about sticking my fingers in there, and it's true! He has TWO new molars on the bottom! One on each side. They're nearly all the way in too.

I guess that's the reason he's had a few whiny days lately. We thought it might have been teeth, but hadn't seen a thing. I guess we thought he'd get more of the front teeth first. He still only has the two bottom center teeth other than the new molars. So now we're all the sudden up to having 8 teeth. With how whiny he was this evening it wouldn't surprise me if he was working on more though. I put on some Baby Orajel, just in case, but he had a rough evening anyway. Tom's at church, and I think Nicky missed him too.

I have managed to take a few more photos, but I'm having a hard time getting the hang of this camera so a lot are fuzzy. Sorry Liz! We actually went to the park Saturday and I took the camera with me to specifically take photos of him doing something other than climbing on me to get the camera. But I totally forgot it and left it in the car the whole time. Aw well. Next time I'll do better!

Nicky did have a lot of fun at the park though. There were tons of people there, although not really any for him to interact with much. Mostly they were older. I think there were 3 birthday parties there. He liked the swing, but wasn't into staying there very long. He mostly wanted to wander around and look at everything and say "hi" to everyone. My little extrovert!

He did enjoy the slides, but I think the most fun was taking a little branch with pine needles still on it and sweeping the ground and dusting the tree trunks. We've got to start getting him outside more! Poor kid is amazed by plants and bugs and dirt, but hardly gets any exposure. Hopefully once it cools off a bit outside we can do more outside stuff. Even at the park we only could stay about 30 minutes. It was so hot! It wasn't even really sunny, but the heat and humidity had us all about to pass out, even with water.

But soon it will cool down and we can go out and dig in the dirt. He did get to sit with me by the front stoop about a week ago while Tom and Donna were at the store. He just stayed right there and dug a hole with one hand and kept filling and emptying a flowerpot with dirt from the hole. He had so much fun! AND he was sooo dirty when Daddy drove up! :) Good dirty fun though.

A rock and a hard place

Oh I'd been thinking of waiting for a while, you know, lose weight, get more financially stable, finish up projects around the house, etc. But here's the thing, even though you and I both KNOW I'm only 29 (right? RIGHT?) something about being born in 1973 is going to very soon impact my being a higher risk pregnancy if I wait much longer.

Apparently time doesn't actually stand still, even though I've conveniently brainwashed myself to really believe I AM still 29 (and I have). So here's this rock (needing to have time to get things "ready" to try for another baby) and this hard place (reaching some magic number when you subtract my 1973 from the current year), and here I am right stuck right between them.

So a decision had to be made.

And finally, after consulting the Magic 8 Ball, I’ve made a big decision.

Transcript of Magic 8 Ball consultation session

Question: Should I continue taking the pill for the next cycle?
Answer: Maybe

Question: Should I stop taking the pill after this pack runs out?
Answer: Definitely

Question: Will I be able to get pregnant within the first three cycles after stopping the pill?
Answer: Absolutely!



That sounds pretty good to me.

So I've decided to stop taking the pill after I finish this pack. I won’t see the doctor for a few weeks, but hopefully if necessary I can just bring on a cycle with progesterone and then do the met/clomid thingy. Or just get pregnant on the first cycle by just relaxing, cause you know that works so well. (Please notice the sarcasm here.)

So I won't have lost 100 pounds, and I won't be financially set for life, and I won't have the house completely perfectly done...

Meh, whatever.

The important thing to me right now is that Nicky have at least one sibling to grow up with (hopefully two eventually). And I'm pretty sure that finances will always be tight, there will always be stuff needing to be fixed or improved around the house, and I'll always have to be trying to eat less and exercise more. Waiting till everything else is perfect just isn't really realistic if what we really want is another baby. So we'll just throw caution to the wind and see what happens.

Well, we would if it was that easy for us.

Instead, we'll throw caution to the winds, meet with a bunch of doctors, start a carefully designed regimen of drugs, blood tests, gathering fertility data and raid the local Dollar Tree stores for heaping handfuls of pregnancy tests. Next session with the Magic 8 Ball: Should I invest in a new basal thermometer...

New words this week

Well we had three new words over the last week. While in the grocery store, Tom went to the bakery to get Nicky a cookie. It was a yummy chocolate chip cookie. Rather than let Nicky feed himself and make a mess, Tom was feeding him one bite at a time. He'd hold up a piece and ask "Nicky do you want more cookie?" Pretty soon Nicky started saying "cookie!"

Later on at dinner when Nicky saw the grapes he said "Grape!" although it sounds a lot like "gape" right now. He's been eating a lot of grapes lately (cut in half of course) and loves them better than bananas lately.

And he will say "Bobo" which is our dog Benjamin's nickname that use all the time.

So three new words! Not a word explosion yet, but a good start!

Today Nicky and I went shopping with Nana. Note to self, driving anywhere near the interstate not a good idea on game day. The Gators are playing Tennessee today. It's a big game, and the traffic was horrible. But we persevered and had a fun time at Toys R Us. Nana bought Nicky a rocking horse and a table and chairs set. We have them both set up in the living room and Nicky loves them. I can't wait to break out the crayons and paper for him to color at his table! (Remind me of this when he colors on the walls or something in the future.)

The pain of weeding

Well I was trying to upload a few more crappy cell-phone movies, but ran into the 1 Gigabyte limit on my photobucket account...again! So in order to make room for these and future movies and photos I had to do some weeding.

I deleted all the house photos from when we bought the house. I deleted some old photos that I'd made into profiles for my message boards. I couldn't bear to delete the old ultrasound pictures or the other pregnancy pictures, so they stayed. I went ahead and deleted the old 2006 movies and deleted a LOT of the 2007 movies too.

Of course the good news is that I actually have all these movies and photos on my hard drive still, but someday I really need to back them up on CDs or an external hard drive. I think I'd just keel over dead if something happens to my computer before I save all these videos and movies.

Anyway, end result is there is a lot less to look through in the movies. I uploaded a few new movies today and a couple of photos too.

BUT the super good news is that Tom found out that the part he needs to fix the camera is only going to cost about 40 bucks. Whew! So we'll work that into the budget in a few weeks and hopefully that will get us back in the photo/movie-taking business! The cuteness must be documented!

New videos and pics. Crappy, but new.

Well we still don't have a working real camera, but Tom's old cellphone can take little movies and pictures, so we actually have a few movies and pics for you! The quality stinks, but for those of you missing the Nicky these are pretty cute.

Yesterday Donna and I were at the grocery store when Tom called us. He and Nicky had been playing in Nicky's room when Nicky pulled his old dragon costume (that he wore last year for his first Halloween) out of the "things I've outgrown" box. He brought it over to Tom and so Tom put it on him to see how it fit. It actually still fits! Tom ran for his cellphone camera and snapped a few photos and this movie. I guess we're set for Halloween this year already!







Now today Nicky was being really stubborn and NOT taking a nap. No morning nap at all, and we were trying to get him calmed down for an afternoon nap (I was certainly feeling like a nap!) but instead he decided to work on his spinning. This is one of his new favorite things and has resulted in a carpet burn on his nose and a scrape on his forehead from falling down once he gets really dizzy. Silly boy.







So there you have it. Some new Nicky-cuteness, good quantity but yet REALLY crappy quality. But we'll take what we can get till Santa brings us a new camera.

Addicted to Blogging

Tpok a quiz tonight:

81%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Can that be a bad thing?

I do know that it's Sunday night, Nicky's asleep and it's prime blog reading time. AND my Google Reader is empty! I'm subscribed to 77 blog feeds and not a single one has a new post for me to read. Now what am I going to do?

Playdate

We had Nicky's first official playdate today with two babies born within about a month of Nicky. It was one of Nicky's first times getting to play up close with other kids for an extended time and I think all three babies did really well.

We went over to little Evan's house and Evan was great about sharing all his toys. Kyle came too and she was shy at first but quickly warmed up and even let the boys play with her lovey, a stuffed panda named Bobby. We stayed for about 1.5-2 hours and Nicky actually fell asleep on the way home. He had so much fun.

Of course the only thing that would have made it better was if I could have taken PICTURES! Man I miss our camera!

Two Firsts

First poop in the tub:
It's inevitable I suppose. Tonight was the night for us though. Luckily the water had just finished emptying out and Nicky was already up and about to come out. Tom came when I called out "POOP in the TUB!" And he cleaned the tub while I got Nicky into his jammies. Let's hope we can avoid this in the future. Poop in the diaper is gross enough. And thank goodness for daddy. Phew!

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First meme tag:
Well I was tagged for a meme today. Beck tagged me and it seems like an interesting one. My problem with memes (is that the right plural form?) is that I don't mind doing them, I'm just uncomfortable about passing them along. I feel like I'm passing on a chain letter or something. But I'll try. Ok, here's the meme:


INSTRUCTIONS:
1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. When you are tagged, you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts.
4. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Well my middle name is Kristen, which seems awfully LONG right now, but here goes:

K = Kisses. This morning Nicky was sitting on my lap with one of my earrings in each hand looking back and forth to examine each one. I puckered up and he kissed me right on the lips! My first kiss from my boy! Heavenly!

R = Rich. Something I will NEVER be. I think I'm finally coming to terms with that. Sigh.

I = Insects. I find most insects fascinating and beautiful. Not necessarily in the house though. Oh, and I wish death on all female mosquitoes. And fire ants. Hate them too.

S = SAHD (Stay At Home Dad). This is how our family works. Tom is a wonderful hands-on father who stays home with Nicky and manages the household. I bring home the paycheck and handle the finances.

T = Teaching & Tornadoes. Along with alligators, teaching and tornadoes are two of my most common recurring nightmares.

E = Extrovert. That would be me. I'm definitely an extrovert. That's actually one of the big reasons I can't be a stay at home mom. I actually get depressed when I'm not around lots of people on a regular basis.

N = New Orleans. I've only gone on a plane by myself once and it was to go to present at a conference in New Orleans. I was only there for about 24 hours, but it was during the week before Mardi Gras and it was AMAZING! I had so much fun and the city was so colorful and the flavor was just so different than anything I'd experienced before (being a country and suburb kind of girl). I wanted to go again with Tom for a longer stay, but now after Katrina I don't know if it will ever be the same.


Phew! I did it! And now to figure out who I'm tagging. Problem is I don't think anyone really much reads my blog and the folks I read might not do memes. So instead of being just a "tag" list, these are examples of blogs I have in my feed reader that I really enjoy. I have a lot more, but these start (sort of) with the right letters for the meme. Read and enjoy!

K= Kristen at Motherhood Uncensored: Hillarious blogger. Love her writing and I don't think I've ever seen her do a meme actually.

R= Robyn: She just started her photography blog. We've been buddies online since we were both due to have March 2006 babies. She takes beautiful photos!

I= I Am Bossy: Ok, totally cheating here, but I have no one who actually has a name starting with I that I can think of. But Bossy is very fun to read, and has a killer sense of humor.

S= Sweatpants Mom: I know she's been out and about commenting, but hasn't posted in a while. Maybe this will help. :)

T= Toddler Planet: I've written about her before. She's currently fighting IBC tooth and nail, and winning!

E= Elizabeth: I know, it's totally cheating, but my wonderful sister reads this blog faithfully and can respond with her meme answers in the comments...unless of course she'd like to start her own blog today? Hmmmm?

N= The New Girl: I seriously doubt she had any time for this, and if she does have a moment she probably needs a nap instead of a meme, but her new baby is a DOLL!
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Update: Ok, I totally sucked it up and actually DID leave each person a comment telling them I tagged them. I feel like a freaking criminal! But if you haven't read one or more of the blogs above, do click the link and check them out. I enjoy all of these and more. I really should put up a blogroll someday with all of the blogs I read.

A prayer request

Those who know me know I never do this, but I think we can make an exception here.

A wonderful woman who I met on the internet is right now going through something no one should have to go through. Her son Evan, who is just precious, is having a brain tumor removed in a few hours time. He's the second youngest person to ever have this surgery at only 9 months old. But the surgery will cure him of the seizures he's been having and improve his life considerably.

Please take a moment to visit her blog, see Evan and leave a prayer for his safe surgery and recovery.

Thank you!

Forced Exercise

Sunday we moved all the furniture around and now the computers and the tv are in the den past the baby gate. Nicky's got the run of the living room and the hallway right now, and once we have his bedroom all safe for him he'll have the run of that room too. The living room is all nice, but the den is a wreck right now since we don't spend any time in there except after Nicky goes to bed. But it's nice to have some adult space in the house where we don't have to worry about Nicky getting hurt with anything.

Of course he's mad about not being able to go in there, and he's discovered a fun new game, throwing his toys through the baby gate into the den and into the kitchen with the dogs. The den doesn't bother me too much, but the kitchen is a problem since the dogs might chew up whatever gets thrown in there. We're working on "no." I think he knows what it means, but just doesn't really care at the moment. But we'll get there. Enough redirection and moving him away from the "no" thing and he'll get it...right?

Tom and I have enjoyed two evenings of playing EQ2 together so far. We have our little gnome characters: Missgnomer and Mistergnomer. We're clever like that. :)
I'll have to take a picture for you (since I can actually take a still shot of the game while I still CAN'T take a photo in real life. I miss my camera!!!)

This is a very tight two weeks until the end of the month, and so to save money I'm driving myself to work. Sigh. It's hotter than hell here and often rainy in the afternoons, but I have to save on gas and so I'm doing it. That means a 15 minute walk in the morning and another one in the afternoon. Ick. Too much like exercise! But yet better than taking the bus...which I might end up having to do if I can't make this 3/4 of a tank stretch till the 30th at least. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. I would take the bus all the time if it was a straight shot, but there's an exchange downtown and I'm not a city-girl; I have no clue how to work the bus system. Shocking to some I'm sure. :)

Well I woke up an hour early today with a backache, but I have to work a desk shift today till 6pm so going in early wasn't going to help me leave any sooner today. Bummer. I've already painted my nails and blogged. Maybe I'll go eat some breakfast at a speed slower than "wolf" for a change.

Now we're cooking with gas!

Today my Mom and sister Liz came to visit for the weekend. And guess what! They gave Tom a router for his graduation gift! AND Tom got it hooked up, AND he's on the desktop playing Everquest2 (as usual) AND I'm on the laptop on the internet too! (Ok, that's the exciting part folks, so be amazed.)

So now we can both be on the internet at the same time. I'm very excited! Soon we'll hook up the other desktop and be able to play Everquest2 together after Nicky goes to sleep in the evenings. (We don't get out much and it's our fun thing to do.)

Tomorrow we're going to move around the living room and den. I want to put both computers, the TV, the wood-frame sofa, the coffee table and the baker's rack in the den where it can be gated off. Then I'll have the rocker-recliner, the reclining loveseat and Nicky's Toys in the living room.

I think it will work out really nicely. And it will be safer to limit Nicky's time around all the stuff we'll have in the den. He's too close to being able to climb on top of the TV, pull off the heavy CD rack from the wall and play with (break) the blinds in the windows. And really, he hates being in there now. He's spent so much time in there it's boring for him. He likes the living room where he can run down the hall and play with the dogs through the baby gate in front of the kitchen.

Hopefully it will all get done tomorrow. Because the next project after that will be to swap the bedrooms around! YAY! That will probably be a while though. Maybe after I finish refinishing Nicky's bedroom furniture.

Well, I'm off to read blogs until Tom and I go off to sleep. I can't believe we're both on the net at the same time. It's AWESOME!

We're still alive over here with no TV

But it's been exhausting! Tom's had the brunt of it of course, but over the weekend and during the evenings I try to step-up and take over a lot. And I can now say: talking is hard work.

For me I mean! Just tonight I was cooking dinner and Nicky was in his seat. I finally realized that while I was singing to him (a variation of my favorite "Mommy is a cannibal" tune) I could actually be using that time to talk about cooking and what I was doing instead. I sing all the time, mostly made up songs, but don't talk much I guess. (Which is kind of funny since anyone who knows me KNOWS I can talk your ear right off.)

So I made an effort to talk about what I was cooking and what all the things on the table were as I made his little burrito. And then he promptly unfolded his burrito and threw all the components in the air.

Well at least the dogs had a nice dinner. After a while I called Daddy in to take Nicky off for a bath and sat my butt down to catch up on some blog reading.

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And what did I learn today? I learned about this:

Yep, that's it over on the right side of the blog. It's basically a button that indicates that folks who leave comments on my blog with a link to their blog will get "credit" for having a link to their blog and will therefore be able to increase their pagerank by leaving me comments. Of course icky spammy comments might come along with folks trying to increase their evil spammy sites, but I'll delete those and I'm not too worried about it yet.

But don't worry, if none of that really means anything to you it changes nothing about how my page works, how the comments work and how cute Nicky is so it's no biggie.

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But that reminds me! Donna is going to check her camera to see if she has some photos of Nicky's top teeth on there. If so (and if they're not blurry beyond recognition) she's going to email them to me. And then I can put them up here! YAY! I miss having a camera!

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Health update:
I'm nearly over my bronchitis. Still coughing some, but not hardly anything compared to how it's been. Tom and Nicky are doing pretty well too. Nicky's still got a runny nose, which is lots of fun. But we're getting lots of nose blowing practice. Although mostly it's me chasing him around grabbing his nose with a kleenex and saying "BLOW!" Lot's of fun.

New rule: No TV when Nicky is in the room

Ok, while I do really consider myself pretty laid back about most things parental I am completely freaked out by this article.

So until someone can show me something countering this, there will be no more TV on while Nicky's in the room. You can watch it while he's asleep or napping or off in another room playing with someone else. No exceptions until he's at least 2. Tom said he's ok with enforcing that too which makes me feel less like a reactionary idiot better.

Maybe I wouldn't feel so horrible if Nicky was some kind of language genius and speaking in sentences or something, but he's not. I've been getting more and more concerned about his language development actually, although I'm really trying to keep in mind that all kids develop at their own speed, etc. etc. The facts are that other kids his age are talking a lot more, and while he says mama, dada, hi, hello, bye, and light pretty consistently there really isn't anything else he's saying regularly and in context. And the guidelines are that he should be saying about 40 words by now. (Ok, REALLY should not have googled that. I thought it was more like 15 words, and now I'm even more freaked out.)

So for the next 6 months if your visiting please just humor me and leave off the TV around Nicky. Really, he's pretty darn entertaining without it.

Our next pediatric visit seems REALLY far away right now.

Baby's First Shiner

Well I managed to get a few photos of Nicky's first black eye. It's three days old now since he got it on Saturday. He of course was only interested in grabbing the cellphone while I was trying to take his picture.



It doesn't seem to bother him at all, but I feel so bad for him! Wish I could say "you should see the other guy" but really the nightstand looks just fine.

Get your mind out of the gutter

I just had to share this idea. What a great way to create bookshelves! I'm thinking this might be a project for us to try soon. Nicky's got so many books, and the bookshelves that face out are really expensive.

Surprise Surprise

I'm sure everyone who knows me is just shocked to hear I have bronchitis. NOT. I get this every single time it seems. Tom and Nicky are both getting better from the cold, but of course mine has taken up permanent residency in my lungs. I finally called the doctor and got an appointment for this afternoon. Yep, acute bronchitis. He gave me a script for a cough suppressant with sudafed and codeine in it. Yum. Why oh why are all cough meds in liquid form? Could someone PLEASE invent a PILL?! Well at least I think it's working. I just took my second dose and now hopefully will be able to fall asleep for longer than an hour.

Poor Nicky looks like he's been punched in the eye. I still haven't gotten a picture of it yet. Poor kid. I'm sure the folks at the doctor's office were wondering how it happened. I didn't make eye contact with anyone though, just in case they were glaring at me. He was very good at the doctor's office and said "Hi" over and over to everyone. He was very interested in the blood pressure cuff and watching the doctor listen to mommy's lungs with the stethoscope. While we waited for the pharmacy to fill the script we ate dinner at Sonny's. Nicky had so much fun smiling at everyone and saying "Hi" some more. It's funny because he'll just do it over and over again. Hopefully he'll add a few more words to his repertoire soon. Maybe he'll start saying "Hi, how you doing?" (Just like Joey on "Friends" of course.)

Well, that's about all the updates I have for you. Oh, did I tell you that Tom and his mom did a LOT of work on the kitchen? They finished stripping the upper cabinets, painted them, put on new hardware, installed one new base cabinet and replaced the countertop. All this is on the stove side of the kitchen. We still have to replace the rest of the base cabinets on that side, but it looks SOOOO nice! My cabinets have DOORS! It's awesome. Oh, AND Tom got the electricity fixed in the wall, installed a new outlet by the stove and installed the range hood and task lighting. He's awesome.

Next will be the sink side of the kitchen. That's probably going to have to wait till the next tax refund though since we have to replace the sink cabinet and probably move the plumbing around. Donna is giving us her old dishwasher if Tom can get it working and we'll have to figure out how to fit it in there. Can you imagine? A dishwasher! (I mean, other than the two-legged kind.)

If I had a working camera I'd show you a picture of the new 1/2 kitchen. But I still don't have one! That might be waiting for tax refund time too. Or maybe Christmas. Santa might be good to us this year.

Ok, I've gone a whole 3 minutes without coughing. Maybe I can actually sleep tonight! In a bed! Lying down! One can hope...

The House of Plague

Well, Tom came down with the cold on Friday. I called my mom and told her and we agreed it's probably a good idea to put off their visit. So Tom, Nicky and I are all miserable together. Tom and I have been taking turns on Nicky-duty so we could alternate on our naps. I actually did get about 4 hours of sleep this morning finally and then another 2-3 hours throughout the day. So far it's still just a head cold for Tom and Nicky and I sincerely hope it stays that way. For me it's all in my lungs and even the new albuterol inhaler Tom picked up from the pharmacy for me isn't helping much. I hate being sick! GRRR!

Oh, and to top it all off, We had Nicky in our room playing on the bed while Tom was napping and I was taking meds. Nicky tried to crawl over onto my nightstand to reach something, but his hand missed the nightstand and he landed right on his face on the corner of it. OW! He's got a nice big purple bruise on his poor cheekbone. I wanted to call the pediatrician on call, but Tom insisted Nicky was fine. He was happy, playing and eating so I guess he's alright, but he would not let me put any ice on his cheek. At least I was right there when it happened. If I'd been farther away I'd feel guilty, but as it is I was right there and he still managed to hurt himself. I guess you can't protect them from everything. I still don't have the camera, but I do have the cellphone camera and so I'll try to get a pic of his poor cheek tomorrow.

Haven't fallen off the planet, just sick

Well it's three am on a weeknight, and I'm up. Can't lie down without coughing, so I might as well update everyone on what's up in Mottsville. I came down with a stupid cold last Sunday. Braved work Monday, stayed home in bed Tuesday and Wednesday, made it to work Thursday and now I can already tell I'm staying home Friday. Hopefully I'll be well by Monday and I can get back into the swing of things at work. I hate being sick.

But more than that, I hate NICKY being sick! Thursday morning at 5am I woke up and went to check on Nicky. He was soaking wet and running a fever. I got Tom up, changed Nicky while Tom changed his bedding and then we gave him some tylenol. He was so sleepy he went right back to sleep. He's running a temp on and off and has a runny nose, but hopefully he'll shake this faster than I am. And don't even get me started about Tom. I can't bear to think of him getting this too. I hate it when he's sick too. I feel so awful leaving him home to take care of Nicky and especially with how bad I felt Tuesday and Wednesday, I could NOT have been in charge of Nicky by myself in that condition. I don't think I have enough sick time to stay home anymore though, so hopefully Tom will beat out this germ and not come down with it too. So far so good.

Speaking of Tom though, his diploma finally came in the mail! It's official- he's a college graduate from the University of Florida with a bachelors in History! I'm so proud of him! This is something he worked so hard for! We'll have a nice dinner this weekend when my mom and sister come visit and next weekend too when his mom comes. This is the kind of thing that needs multiple celebrations. ;)

I miss taking movies of Nicky for you all! And photos too. I've got to do something about that camera! Grr! Nicky was being so cute at dinner Wednesday. Tom made burritos, and fixed one for Nicky. He held it and Nicky was taking bites out of it. Of course about halfway thru Nicky wanted to do it all himself and ended up with a big pile of burrito fillings in front of him while chewing on the tortilla, but he had a ball! He's really able to eat just about everything now I guess. His top four teeth are all coming in very nicely and they're huge compared to his two little bottom teeth. He's acting like he's getting more in any moment, but I don't see anything yet. I wonder how long the next ones will take to come in. He's already 16 months old and only has 6 teeth. Hopefully the old wives tale about "the slower the teeth come in the stronger they are" is true!

Well darn, here it is early in the morning, I'm completely exhausted and can't lie down to sleep! Guess I'll go sit in the recliner with some hot tea and tissues and try to read. It's better than watching TV anyway. I hate being sick!

New pics!

What could possibly be more exciting than new Nicky pics?! JM took some wonderful photos when we were over to her place for dinner last week. I just got them yesterday and they're awesome! I had a hard time choosing which to put online, so there are quite a few. Nearly 40 actually. Well, I can't help it! He's adorable and I'm seriously missing having a working camera at my disposal. I must do something about that soon.

Anyway, the photos are up, and here's a nice sample:


Told you he's adorable!

Well Friday was my *gulp* birthday. I'm 29 (again). I have considered possibly not being 29, but it doesn't feel very good when I start imagining higher numbers, so I won't think about that today. Maybe next year.

Tom, Donna and I went out Friday to see Harry Potter's 5th movie. It was great! Of course they had to leave out TONS of stuff. But I was careful this time and didn't reread the book till after watching the movie so I wasn't too upset by the changes. I just reread the book today and I must say the book is lightyears better than the movie. No surprise of course. My main birthday present was actually the last Harry Potter book. I got that the day it came out and read it in just over 24 hours or so. Amazing! Incredible! LOVED IT! And there is no way I'm spoiling it for anyone. If you read HP, enjoy it! And if you don't read HP... well why the heck not? I can't imagine anyone not liking the books. Aw well.

While we were out at the movies, Tom's dad and JM came to watch Nicky for the evening. On the way home I was a little worried that he'd be trouble going to bed and that they might not be able to let him cry it out and he'd still be up and overtired (it was nearly 11pm when we got home). But apparently Nicky was an angel for them. JM described how Nicky basically showed them exactly how to put him to sleep. She described it thus:

She took Nicky in to brush his teeth, which he didn't like much. And then into the bedroom. Turned out the light, but then she was having a hard time seeing how to turn on his music so she went and turned the light back on. She was looking at the stereo trying to figure out how to turn on the music when Nicky pointed at the button for her. She pushed that button and the music started.

So she turned off the light again and was swaying with him to the music when Grandpa came in. Nicky pointed to Grandpa and JM handed him over. Grandpa held Nicky for about a minute and then pointed to his bed. They laid him in his bed and Nicky pointed to his binkies (which hang on the side of his crib). They gave him his binkies and he laid down to go to sleep.

I can't believe how GOOD he was! We're so lucky!