"Momsense" and more!

Alexis is 3 months old

2010-05-21T20:42:00.000-04:00

Today, my little baby girl turns 3 months old. She is getting so big, so fast. I can not believe all the things she is doing, it's hard enough for me to remember what the other kids did at this age.

This week, I had to go out of town, and I have the pleasure of being able to take Alexis and my mom with me. They had a blast, and Lexi enjoyed her 1st "vacation." She did so well, was very happy most of the time, rarely fussed, and even took her 1st trip to the pool. It was a little cold for her in the water, but she hung out in her stroller with Memaw for a few hours before they decided it was getting too hot.

Here is what she is up to these days:

Just moved into 3-6 month clothes (they are a little big on her, but 0-3 is too tight now)
Wears size 2 diapers
Is sleeping MUCH better at night, and even slept through the night for the 1st time while we were out of town. She sleeps much better when she does not take a lot of naps during the day (more than 3-4)
Smiles REALLY big for mommy and daddy (Kaitlyn and Tyler too). She does smile for others too, but they have to talk to her all sweet and cute to get a good one.
Wakes up super happy - THANKFULLY
Has started talking (baby talk), and now thinks that people on TV are talking to her - it's absolutely adorable.
Just this week, she found her thumb. She will suck on it if she does not have a passy, and has even put herself to sleep with it. She has been sucking on her fist for the past few weeks when she gets hungry, but seems to like her thumb now more
Sleeps on her belly when she is in her crib, but likes her "rock and play sleeper" that grandpa bought her. She slept in that every night while we were out of town. Makes easy for traveling and not have to bring a pack and play (for now anyway).
Is very much so a rolly polley, but I do not know how much she weighs right now. Last time she was weighed (last month), she weighed 13 lbs 6 oz. I have a feeling she may be around 14+ lbs now. Definitely eats well.
Still nursing and doing absolutely wonderful with it! 3RD TIME'S THE CHARM!!!!
SADDEST PART - Will start daycare on Monday :(. Mommy is going to have a rough time with this and has a feeling she will be very tired until she gets her routine down.

Next month - towards the end of her 4 months, we will start baby food. I have never made baby food, but I want to try it this time around. I think it will help save $$ and will be better for her. I have a few friends that are doing it or have done it, so I am going to talk to them and get all the details.

Alexis is 11 weeks old

2010-05-09T19:26:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I have blogged, because I am now back to work - and not that excited about it. Things are going ok, and have actually been a lot less stressful since I got back, but I would rather be at home with my baby.

Brian is currently on "paternity" leave, until May 21st, so he is staying home with her. This makes it a little easier for me, because I usually come home everyday at lunch time to feed her. I am contemplating trying to do the same thing when she is in daycare, but we will see how that goes.

What is she up to these days?? Well, she is SUPER smiley ALL the time. I love this, because all you have to really do is look at her and she gets a HUGE grin on her face. It makes it VERY hard to put her down, or to force her to go to sleep when she does not want to. It's very rare that we have to do that, but sometimes I do have to let her cry for 3-5 minutes before she will go to bed. Most of the time, I can get her to go to sleep by cuddling up with her and giving her her passey, but sometimes she will fight it - especially when she is SUPER sleepy.

Most of the time she ends up sleeping with me, but I have started putting her to bed in her crib. She will go down anywhere from 8-10pm, and has started getting up around 2:30 to eat. Uusally we end up falling asleep together, so she will sleep with me until around 5-6am. I have to get up at 6:30 to get ready for work, so only waking up 1 time in the night is not so bad. Last week, I think she was going through a growth spurt, because both Wednesday and Thursday night she got up almost every hour - 2 hours. She was very hungry!

I am not sure how much she weighs right now, but when she went for her 2 month check up, she was 13lbs 6oz and 22" long. I would venture a guess to say that she is at least 14 lbs now. She is very chunky, and I love it!

She is starting to do much better with daddy now that she has been home with him for 3 - going on 4 weeks. She does not get as fussy with him, and is even in the bedroom watching TV with him while I type this blog.

She just started in the last week sucking on her hands. I thought at 1st is was because she was hungry, but she will do it even after she eats. She might be discovering that she has a built in pacifier!! It's too cute.

She LOVES to talk and coo at you. She will do this for a good 10-20 minutes sometimes. She definately loves all the attention, and will even let you know if she was not done talking to you. It's too cute.

Well, I think that is about it right now. She will be 3 months old on the 21st. She's growing WAY too fast, but I love to see all the little stages.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure...........

Alexis is 8 weeks and I am back to work

2010-04-19T14:44:00.000-04:00

Today is not such a happy day for me. I had to go back to work :(. Alexis is 8 weeks and 1 day old now. She is so active and alert all the time, I wish I could be home with her still.

Work has not been too bad, and I have done much better than I thought I would. It probably helps that she is home with daddy. I will most likely boohoo when she has to go to daycare, but I am hoping I do not have to see that day. We are trying to find a way for me to be able to be home.

So what is Alexis up to these days??

Well, she is sleeping about 6-7 hours at night. As I type this, I probably just jinxed it :). She goes to bed anywhere between 9-11pm and wakes up around 4 am. After that, she usually wakes up again around 6:30. Sometimes she goes back to sleep after that, and sometimes not. She will eat, play for a little bit, then take a nap. That is typically her cycle every time she wakes up - other than the night feedings. Usually she will go right back to sleep after eating during the night.

She is a BIG time smiler. She loves to talk and coo at you. One of her favorite things that usually gets a pretty big smile and almost laugh out of her, is to tell her she is a "pretty girl." She LOVES it, and I love it when she does it to me. She is also doing really well with recognizing voices - my especially, and can follow objects.

Pray I make it through this week.....

Alexis is 1 month old

2010-03-26T22:55:00.001-04:00

I can not believe my baby girl is 1 month old! Heck, I can't believe my other baby girl is 4 and 1/2 years old and my baby boy is 2 1/2 years old. Time sure does fly by fast.

Alexis and Kaitlyn had check ups at the doctor this week. Kaitlyn is 37 lbs and 40 3/4" tall. She is now in the 50% for both height and weight. The last few check-ups, she had only been in the 10% for her weight, so I am pleased that she is now back up to 50%.

Alexis weighs 10 lbs 12 oz and is 21" long. She is in the 90% for both! All of my kids started out at "chunkers" but Kaitlyn thinned out a little. Tyler is still a little "solid", but that's o.k., because he is a BOY, and boys are SOLID! :).

WHAT ARE THEY UP TO NOW???

Kaitlyn

is in preschool and learning to write her name.
she loves to spell out any word she sees on her daddy's t-shirt
loves playing games on MeMaw's I-phone and can figure them all out pretty quickly
has started a little pouchy lip, pouty thing since the new baby has come home
is a picky eater, but is starting to try new foods when I cook dinner
is a very good big sister helper!
really enjoys "girl days" or outings with just her and me and Lexi

Tyler

is in preschool learning letters and colors and shapes
is very sensitive
starting to talk a lot more
has started to need a little more attention since new baby has come home
loves spending time with daddy and throwing the football
says he is going to play football when he gets bigger
will eat anything you set in front of him
is starting to potty train
is very fascinated by his new little sister
is starting to understand "boy vs. girl" and "sister vs. brother"

Alexis

is starting to get on a 4 hour schedule for feeding and sleeping
likes to stay awake for about 2 hours before morning and afternoon nap
is starting to "coo"
recognizes mommy's voice and looks for me when she hears me, if I'm not holding her
gets a "knowing" look on her face when she sees me and sometimes will smile
loves to be held and to sleep with mommy

It's interesting to see each kid at the stage they are in. The other two, you can tell, need some attention, but we are trying to make sure we give them all equal attention. They definately love helping mommy when it comes to the new baby....

Almost 1 month old

2010-03-18T15:59:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it....my little girl is almost 1 month old, but she is still SO tiny, but yet growing so fast. The last few days she has decided that nap time will not happen until after lunch time, which means that she wants to be held for the majority of the time until then. Whenever she does act like she is falling asleep and I lay her down, she will wake up within minutes. I have got to break her of that!

We are still getting up every 2-3 hours at night, but I am proud to say that I am still nursing. Both my other two were on the bottle by now, but I am determined to keep going. She is a great nurser, and although she has recently started to spit up, it's not anywhere NEAR as bad as Tyler was - which made me stop nursing him.

My days are pretty much spent holding/playing with her, sometimes napping with her, entertaining the occassional visitor(s), running a load of laundry (or 2), putting away laundry, doing dishes, and trying to clean up at least a little bit and organize something. Today, Salvation Army is coming to get a whole bunch of stuff out of my garage, too bad it's not stuff in my house that will make it look like I did something today.

Tomorrow, I am going to tour another daycare. I don't even want to think about having to put her in daycare, but I have to find a place. She won't actually start until May 24th, but I need to find one that I like and start the process before then. I go back to work 4 weeks from Monday, and my husband will be home with her for 4 weeks. I then have to go out of town for work, but I am taking her and my mom with me, so she will be just over 3 months when she starts daycare. Too bad I can't find a friend close by that wants to keep her.

Well, that's it for now. Sorry if my posts are boring, I don't do much these days - but thankfully Angela came to visit today - with sweet baby Dallas too. It was a nice visit, and we will have to do it a few more times before I have to go back to work.

Long Posts

2010-03-11T18:33:00.000-05:00

I just looked back at my last two posts and realized how long they were. I don't know how I even found the time to type such long posts with a 2-week old. Well, I do know how - I wrote them while she was napping, when I should have been napping too.

I have been bad about not sleeping when she sleeps, then wonder why around 4-5:00pm I can't keep my eyes open. Alexis is a good baby, but contrary to popular belief that newborns sleep all the time - this is not true of my daughter. This morning, she got up at 7:30, and was awake until 12:30 pm. She slept until 3pm, but then was up again until 5pm. Just about the time that I think I am ready to go to bed (around 10pm), she wakes up and decides she is not going to go back to sleep until midnight.....

Today I decided to stay home since I have been going non-stop since Monday. Although, I did not take a nap with her, we still snuggled in bed and relaxed for a while. I did try to get a few things done when she took her nap(s), and was able to get a little bit done. Too bad my house does not look like I have accomplished anything - still working on projects. BUT, I did make dinner!!! :)

Tomorrow, we are going to lunch with MeMe and Tiffany, but we will try to get a nap in for mommy at sometime............

2 weeks old....

2010-03-07T18:18:00.000-05:00

Today, Alexis is 2 weeks old, and she is already growing SO much. I just love spending my days with her. So far, they have consisted of the following:

Awake around 7-7:30 to eat (that's after waking up several times through the night - but this is when we actually get up).
Play for a little bit, then take a nap - sometimes I join her, sometimes I don't. We are also usually watching "Saved by the Bell" and "Fresh Prince" at this time.
Mommy eat Breakfast - sometime around 9am
Do some laundry/dishes/or work on a project
Alexis wakes up and eats and plays some more
Eat lunch around noon
Alexis takes another nap - sometimes mommy too :)
Wake up for a bit - kids come home from school and get baths before getting to play with Alexis
Dinner with the family - Alexis is usually sleeping again
Wake up and play until around 10-11pm
Sleep - she wakes up around 12:30-1ish, depending on when she went to sleep, again at 3ish, and again around 5:30ish. It all depends on what time we actually go to bed and how well she sleeps that night

I am stilly trying to figure out a night time routine that will 1. help her to sleep longer, and 2. keep her from sleeping with me. Granted, she is only 2 weeks old, I don't want to start a habit of her sleeping with me (although it's so much more fun!). We have some good nights and some bad night. And shen I say "bad" it's not really bad, she just wakes up more often. I don't really let her cry (at night), so when she starts to make noise and get a little fussy, I go a head and get her up to feed. My husband is working, and the only way I can keep him from sleeping on the couch is to keep her as quite as possible. So far, so good.

Saturday I had her take her naps in our room where it was nice and quite. I need to let her get used to sleeping when there's not a lot of noise, because at night, it's very quite. The 1st few nights home, my husband did sleep on the couch, so I slept with the TV on, and it's usually on all day long. The only problem is, I like to keep her close to me while she is sleeping during the day, so that means she is usually in whatever room I am working on, and the TV is on. This week we are going to continue the naps in our room, but also try to get her to actually sleep in the bassinet. She has been sleeping in the car seat, so I am going to try to get her to sleep in her bed. Soon, I will let her sleep on her stomach (please don't gasp, my other 2 were tummy babies, and if you ask your mom - SO WERE YOU). I don't know that I agree with the whole "on the back reduces the risk of SIDS." In fact, if you research it, many will tell you that they don't know that it actually does reduce the risk. My son spit up so much all the time that there was NO WAY I was going to let him sleep on his back and have him choke. Luckily, she does not spit up much, but as long as she can move her head - which she already can, then I am fine with it. They actually sleep much better that way too!

Alexis is so alert all the time now, which surprises me that she is only 2 weeks old. She likes to look around at things (as long as you are holding her). She is even drawn to the light from the TV and will stare at it.

She's getting so big already too. Her cheeks are so fat already. Did I mention that I LOVE staying home with her???? I still have 6 weeks left to go, and I am soaking up every minute of it. I do not want to go back to work - it's not even funny. I get very sad when I think about it, so I try not to. I wish I could find a work from home job - one that does not require me to sell anything, or go to school for......there has to be something out there!

Here are some pictures of her from this week.....

We have a baby!

2010-03-03T11:12:00.001-05:00

O.k. this blog is a little past due, but I am sure my "readers" (which I am pretty sure are only two people), completely understand.

Alexis Grace was born on Feb 21st @ 6:38pm. This is an extra special day, because she now also shares the same birthday as her daddy. Although he was not too thrilled with the idea at 1st, I think he has come to terms with it. It's not like you really get a birthday anymore, once you reach a certain age - and he is WELL past that age :).

The last month of pregnancy was a little rough. I was very uncomfortable, and was having contractions off and on. We actually went to the hospital twice thinking we were in labor, only to find that I was just having contractions but not any more progressed than I had been. This was very frustrating to me, because I had a previous C-section, and we wanted to try for a "regular" delivery this time. The only way to actually do that would be if I was in "progressive" labor on my own. There was nothing they could do to help put me in labor, because it could cause serious problems.

Each week I went back to the doctor, and there was no change, not to mention the pain of her having to check, because Alexis' head was in the way, and my cervix was "post terior." Not a good combination.

Sunday, Feb 21st, I started having contractions, in fact, I had some during the night that were strong enough to wake me up. For those of you that don't know me very well, I could sleep through just about anything, so the fact that they were waking me up meant they were stronger than normal.

Around 12:00, they were about 3-4 minutes apart. We watched them for the next couple of hours, and my husband even attempted to take a nap. The pain was harder than labor pain was with my daughter, but we also didn't want to go to the hospital and be sent home again. We had a C-section scheduled for 2 days later, if we did not have her already. About an hour later, they started getting closer. There was a constant "pressure", but strong pains around 2-3 minutes apart. I decided to call my doctor.

My doctor was not on call that day, but the girls in the office had told me to leave her a message and she would call me back. The message sounded something like this...."I have been having contractions for the past few hours 3-4 min apart, and now they are more 2-3 min apart. I don't really know what to do, I don't want to go to the hospital and be sent home. Can you please call me back?" (with tears in my voice too). Thirty minutes later, no call - so I called the doctor on call.

The answering service answered the phone, and I started to tell her about my contractions; she proceeded to put me on hold. I was SO UPSET. I just really felt like no one cared at that point. Not to mention that my husband had called his mom around 12ish to see if she wanted to come spend the day with us and have dinner for his birthday, and be there just in case we needed to go to the hospital. By this point, it was around 3pm and she was still not there.

The doctor on call called me back and talked to me a bit about what was going on. He also informed me that he does not usually do VBAC deliveries, or even offer them to his patients because of the risks. I told him that at this point I didn't care how we had to get her out, I was just in a lot of pain and was ready to get her out. He told me to go a head and go to the hospital.

3:30 rolls around and Brian's mom is just down the street. We went a head and got in the car and were ready to back out of the driveway as soon as she pulled in. At this point, I was beyond frustrated. We get to the hospital - I sign in. The girl at the front desk asked if I had been there before because I knew what to do....UHHHH Just a few times!

They sent me to triage and the nurse came in to start doing her thing. She hooked me up to the monitors and started monitoring contractions. After a few minutes she came back in and started updating my chart...asking me all kinds of questions that they never asked me the other two times I had been there. She made me VERY happy when she said she was "banking on me staying." Whatever she told the doctor, it worked. He said we could go a head and plan to have the c-section in an hour - should have been around 5:30 pm......

One little problem..... I was sick earlier that week and we were not sure if it was the flu or what. I still had 2 days of the medicine she gave me, so he wanted to do a "quick" swine flu test. SERIOUSLY.....I was FINE. I was really only down for one day, no way I had the swine flu. This quick test took 30 minutes.

6:15 pm, we were ready to go. I was in the O.R., had my spinal block and was ready to begin. At this point I was VERY nervous. I don't know why, I was just anxious to hear my little baby cry. Not that I like it when babies cry, but if you have had a child, you understand that that is the most blessed noise you can hear when they 1st come out. I could feel all the tugging and pulling and then they asked my husband if he wanted to see - they had her head out. He looked over the curtain, but I still could not hear any cried. I asked the anesthesiologist if she was going to cry, and he informed me that they were sucking all the stuff out so she could. Few seconds later - there it was. One more big push on their end and they pulled her out - 6:38 pm

They took her over to get her cleaned up, cut her cord, get her stats and footprints while they finished up with me. That time seemed to take FOREVER, I just wanted to see her. They finally brought her over to me, and she was absolutely beautiful. I was so glad she was FINALLY here!!!!

Here are some pictures of my beautiful baby girl........

We came home from the hospital on Wednesday, and I have been enjoying spending time with her ever since. My recoupe time has been MUCH better than my 1st C-section. I have not really been in nearly as much pain as I was with Tyler. This is our 2nd week of Maternity leave (I am taking 8 weeks), and we are just enjoying our time together while slowing doing little projects around the house. I love being a mommy!

From Bored to Busy

2010-01-16T15:32:00.001-05:00

Well, I went through about 2 weeks at work where I was BORED TO DEATH!!!! Nothing to really do, outside of the daily activites that needed to be done - that did not take very long to do. Come 11-11:30, I was finished with my work, and really didn't have much to do the rest of the day. Most of my days were spent searching for things on Etsy, and buying a lot of the things I found......Which, I have had to STOP since JAN 1! Things have started to pick up speed since mid-last week, and I really have not had time for much of anything, other than to do these reports and things for work.

We are doing REALLY well on our "new budget." I check our credit card statment for mid month, and we are have spent less than 1/2 of what we normally do by mid month. I tell you what, those lunches out, and drive thru dinners really do add up!

I am so excited about this week. Tomorrow, my sister-in-law is throwing me a baby shower. I can't wait! We also have Monday off, so the work week will be short. I have a dr. appt at my Primary Care - which I may end up canceling. The only reason I was going to go is because we switched to an HMO insurance so we would not have an OUTRAGEOUS bill from the hospital when we have Alexis. Now, just a small deductible payment, and we will be set. BUT, now that we are on an HMO, I have to have referrals for EVERYTHING! I was going to the chiropractor for massage every now and then, but now I have to have a referral for that. The only way the dr. will give me one, is to come see her - since I have not been there in over a year. Debating on whether or not it's worth the $25 co-pay to go. Under the new insurance, I can no longer get my massage for $13.41, I have to pay $35, but that is still not bad for 1 hour. I only have 5 weeks left, maybe I can stick it out.

Anyway, Thursday, I have lunch plans with Angela, and I'm definately looking forward to that. I have been staying at the office EVERYDAY since we started our new plan of saving money. Once or twice I may wonder out for about 15-20 min, just to get away, but I have pretty much been taking 10 min to eat my lunch in the break room, then going back to my desk. Thursday will be a nice change.

Next saturday, my sister is throwing me another shower. This one is supposed to be fairly big - about 25-35 people will be at my house. Hope I have enough room!! :) I'm so excited. Never thought I would get a baby shower for my 3rd child, let alone 2! I truly am blessed with some great family and friends.

An Inspiration........

2010-01-11T13:39:00.000-05:00

Well, our family New Year's Resolution was to spend less money. We have made this a "monthly" goal, but have not quite succeeded YET. We really talked about it over Christmas, since we will be having our 3rd child soon. Something that is sort of a MUST, and not optional anymore.....

So, with that, I decided that I will no longer BUY my lunch, unless I have some cash, or if I sold some Pampered Chef...as long as it does not go on any credit card, or out of our checking account.....

With that goal in mind, I cooked dinner Monday night, with some left over, so I could bring it to work (Monday I ordered Chinese for lunch, but had cash), and did the same everynight thereafter, so I could bring my lunch. My 4 yr old tried to ask if we could have Taco Bell Tuesday night, but I resisted the urge, and she was fine with me making her "Taco Bell Fav." at home :).....

My biggest problem is that I run out of ideas of things to make.....so I started searching the Food Network website for meal ideas. They actually have some "30 min" ideas, and crock pot ideas. Those tweaked my interest 1st, because my 2nd biggest problem is that I am PREGNANT! :) Which, makes me tired. Not to mention, I have 2 other children and work full time. Excuses, I know....My home ec teacher in highschool would be VERY disappointed.

After searching the website and printing some recipes that would be easy and could cook most of the day with minimal effort, I set out on a plan.... My plan was to PLAN meals for the next few weeks, then go grocery shopping this weekend...... I incorporated a few of the new recipes into some of our old traditional favorites, and went to the grocery store. I had a "mental" budget of what I wanted to spend, and made sure to not get too many things outside of that... (a bad habit I often have). I did get some breakfast things for the kids, a few easy snacks and easy quick meals for them, for when my husband has to watch them (like Thursday night when I go get my hair done!)

The other key is to take a pen and piece of paper with you and put little hash marks for every $ spend, making the 5th mark across so that you can keep them grouped in 5's. Anything over $.50 will count as a $1. It will all even out in the end. If you stick to that, then you will know before you start putting things in the basket that you REALLY don't need, and can stick much better to budget. Also, buying store brand for things that don't really matter.

After posting on Facebook that I planned the meals, went to the grocery store, was within $.08 of my "mental" budget - and was able to get a new crock pot as well - since I broke our....LITERALLY, like dropped it and it shattered into pieces.....others started commenting on my facebook. My sister (1/2 sister from Dad's side), who is ALWAYS a great cook - even had her own catering company, emailed me to find out what I was making, how I did my shopping, and asked for pointers. I was THRILLED! She is the one that ALWAYS has the "good stuff" - even food sometimes I don't know what it is. My other sister also sent me a message this morning that I "inspired" her to cook more at home too. The "inspirations" are such an encouragement, because I am one to get tired easily. Knowing that someone else has decided to try the same thing really keeps my spirits going......Hopefully it will last....

My newest obsession - which I have haulted since after Christmas (trying to save $$) is ETSY. You probably know what it is and have probably see all the cute stuff they have on there. Let me tell you...I have bought hairbows, and dresses, and all kinds of stuff on there. Some of the last bit of stuff is coming in now - since they didn't have enough time to make during the holidays. One of the girls here at work can sew, and she also told me that showing her some of the stuff I have bought has "inspired" her to maybe start making things again and selling them on Etsy. I wish I was that talented, and for now, I think Alexis and Kaitlyn have PLENTY of stuff from there. I even got some stuff for my sister and another friend. It's just SO cute, I can't help myself!

Here is a dress that I bought for Alexis that came in today......Isn't it ADORABLE??? It's MUCH tinier than the one shown below, but SO cute! I have to stop looking at stuff online so I don't buy it.........

Well, to anyone that reads my blog, I hope you have a great day, and let me know if I even "inspire" you. It really does boost my spirits and help me to stay on track.....

Annoying people make me mad.......

2010-01-05T11:54:00.004-05:00

Why would someone stop by my cubicle at work and ask me why I picked out the curtain I did?? (I have a curtain hanging so I can shut it when I'm really busy, so people won't bother me - it's actually a shower curtain, but still). Then, after I state that I picked it out because I liked it (why else would I have picked it??), they respond "really?" Some people just need to be slapped!!!!!!! This is the same person that I wish my curtain would automatically shut when they come by.......YES, THAT ANNOYING!!!

It's also VERY annoying that the people here CAN NOT COUNT!!!!...... SERIOUSLY....You know how many hours each week you are allowed to work, but it never fails that they still go over..... Always someone. What worse, is not only did they go over their "allowed" hours, but they went WAY OVER in OVERTIME!!!!!!!! Almost 10 hours....ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Is it really that difficult?? Being the Operations Manager, it is my job to check up on them, but when they pick up some last minute hours, and are asked "how are your hours?" I can only be responsible for so much.....and yet, in the end, I will be the one that gets in trouble for it.....How does that work??? Guess I have to get my calculator out EVERYDAY and add......uggggg.....

Sorry, don't mean to complain so much - actually, yes I do! :)

On a brighter note, this morning, another one of my employees sent my Co-worker (their boss), and email saying how wonderful I am. The funny part is, I have never physically met this employee; she was working here before I started, and only works weekends (while I am off). We exchange emails often and correspond that way......

My co-worker proceeded to forward it to her boss and mine, who sent it all the way up to Regional Management, who sent me back a nice sweet email...(can I get some $$ with that??? :) )

I am looking forward to my dr. appt today. It's at the specialist, and I get to see my little girl! :) Can't wait for her to get here....6 1/2 weeks left. I want to see how big she is now, and see if they can give me a "guesstamate" on how big they think she will be. I am counting down until maternity leave!!!!!! :)

Dr's Appointment(s)

2009-12-30T13:11:00.003-05:00

It's getting sooo close!! We have started every 2 week appointments, as of this week. I can not tell you how excited I am. It makes the day go by faster, because I schedule them around lunch time, so when I come back, I don't have much time left in the day.

Today was just normal, nothing out of the ordinary. I actually saw the nurse, because my Doctor is on Vacation. My visit was over in about 45 min......That's a RECORD! We actually have to go to the specialists next week - and I get so see sweet baby Lexi (Alexis), because they will do a very detailed ultrasound. LOVE THOSE VISITS!

This week has been SO slow at work. SO, since my sister works with me (and she is pregnant too), we have been planning our baby showers. YES, I am having one for my 3rd child. My sister is SO GREAT. My sister-in-law is also doing one too. This is my husband's bioligical sister (if you do not know the story, you can read here http://momsenseandmore.blogspot.com/2009/01/so-busy-and-never-enough-time-to-post.html . So, I actually get TWO! The one MY sister is doing is mostly people from work and old friends, and we have 80 people to invite! We will see how many actually come, but I couldn't NOT invite someone from work.

I am doing one for my sister, and another friend is doing another one for her too, and her friends in Pensacola are going to do one for her there too. Her husband's family lives there too, so hopefully they will be able to come. She deserves it! :)

Well, that's it for now.... Maybe something interesting will happen tomorrow I can post about, bc this is BORING! :)

SO BORED...............

2009-12-29T13:50:00.002-05:00

Well, for some reason, this week is SO SLOW at work. Normally I have so much to do I just want to cry, but that is not the case today (or yesterday). I should not be complaining should I?? Probably not, but then it means I am BORED....

Today I had an appointment, so I did not have to be in until 10, but that means I have to work until 6:30...BOOO.... I may leave at 6, since I did not go anywhere for lunch.

Good news, I am going to see my friend Angela tonight for an Arbonne Party. Should be loads of fun....Oh and Dallas (her baby) will be there too... We might all fight over who gets to play with her. Maybe if I get there early I can call dibbs!! :)

Tomorrow I go see my OB... We will see what she says, if anything, about how things are going. I don't think she will check anything, unless I tell her I am still having contractions, but who knows. I have to go back to the specialist next week for another Eco-Cardiogram. Nothing to worry about. I just get some extra tests because my 1/2 sister had some complications with her 1st. Nothing I will complain about, because I get to see the baby and get more pictures!! :) I seriously can not wait for her to get here........Then we start every other week visits, which means I will have 1 every week for the next 3 weeks (1 this, 1 next(specialist), 1 regular the next week). It's getting CLOSE!!!!! I can't wait.

I keep saying I'm looking forward to my 6 weeks off from work. Who am I kidding, I will be BEGGING for all my friends to come see. The older two will be in school, so that will be nice to just have some me and Alexis time, but after a few days, I am sure I will be STIRR CRAZY! :) We shall see though. If all goes well and we have normal delivery, recoupe time should not be too bad. All depends on how bad the tubes tying thing goes.... (not overly thrilled about that, but I am sure I will be ok :) ).

O.k. if the rest of the week goes like the last two days, I might blog again....Or maybe for my 1 reader's sake, I won't blog again..... :)

Enjoy your day!!!

BAD BLOGGER

2009-12-27T20:26:00.008-05:00

O.k. I just realized that it has been since October since I have posted! WOW am I lazy.....or am I just busy?? I like the 2nd one better.

Well, since Vacation, I have been looking forward to my NEXT Vacation....partly because I will have another baby then! :) I can't wait. 7 weeks, 5 days in counting. That is, if she will cooperate and come on time. I don't see any reason she won't, but we will wait and see.

I have a dr. appt. this week, and one at the Specialist next week, then I think I go back the next week to my dr. again (will start 2 week appointments this week). It's getting SO MUCH closer!!!!!!!!

I will upload some recent photos.... I had maternity pictures done recently, and this was one of my favorite that she took, so she sent me a copy to have for myself......It was one of the better ones that you could actually tell that I was pregnant...

We also had 4-d pictures done a few weeks ago. These REALLY made me want to bring Alexis home NOW!!!

Isn't she beautiful??

For Christmas, I got a new crib/changing table and the bedding for her bed. Right now, it is all in our room. We are working on getting the office cleaned out and moving Tyler into Kaitlyn's room so Alexis can have her own room. She may end up in our room for a while......

The Crib and bedding....

The changing table

We had a really good Christmas, the kids were spoiled with everthing they got. We should almost not buy them any presents with how many they get from everyone else.....:) They are enjoying playing with their toys and their week off from school. Everything should be back to "normal" for the time being after the 1st.

Can I get another vacation??

2009-10-15T20:46:00.003-04:00

Last week we went to Pigeon Forge, Tn for 5 days! It was a long drive, but the kids did great, falling asleep at separate times, but enjoying watching DVD's the whole way there and back. They only got a little antzy towards the end of the 8.5 hour drives :).

We didn't get in until 7pm on Wednesday, so we just got to the cabin (mom, steph, and matt were already there), set the kids up where they would be sleeping and relaxed a little bit. Our room had a jetted tub in the room - separate from the bathroom with a normal shower/tub combo.

Thursday, we spent the day shopping at the outlet, and lunch there as well. I could not believe how sore I was when we were done. It did not seem like that long out, but I guess pushing two kids in the double stroller all day, and all the walking we did, my calves were so sore.

The next day we went to DollyWood, as if my legs didn't hurt already. We took the kids to ride some of the rides there size, Kaitlyn rode her 1st "roller-coaster." I was able to ride the elephant ride with her so daddy could ride with Tyler. We decided to go watch the 50's-60's show, and poor Kaitlyn was asking the whole time to go back and ride more. If I had to do it over again, I would have skipped the show and taken her to ride more. Show was ok, but I could have done without seeing it. Would have rather let her have all the fun she could in 1 day. We ate at "Aunt Grannie's Kitchen" in the park after the show. Good home-cooked southern food on buffet....mmmmmm. At the end of our meal, it started raining. Poor Kaitlyn started crying, I almost started crying, because I was sad that she wouldn't get to ride more. We decided to stick it out and wait for it to stop. It let up enough to take them to the carousel and ride. We walked back through the other rides and found a "car" ride that they could "drive" on a track that would not let them off track. We both road passenger, each with one kid. I wanted to let them ride so much more, but we were so tired by then.

Saturday was Kaitlyn's 4th birthday. Mom and I went out to get her present and cake and lunch, and traffic was RIDICULOUS!!! It took 30 minutes just to get 3-4 lights down the street, and the lights are very close together. Pigeon Forge must be a tourist place, because it was INSANE!

We finally made it back to the cabin (4 hours later), and open presents, had cake and dinner, and just did nothing the rest of the day. We left on Sunday and drove home. It was nice to be back at home in our own bed, and the kids in their own rooms. Tyler was in the pack and play in our room the whole time.......

Now, back to work. This week has been busy busy, but went by so fast. I have so much to do everyday, and never seem to have enough time to do it. This week was a little different, but good....my boss was here for training, so we were able to spend some time together. We laughed a lot (mostly @ me), so that keep things less stressful.

OH so glad tomorrow is friday!

Vacation....here we come!!!

2009-10-04T11:34:00.002-04:00

WOW! Last week was CRAZY!!!!! The director of our center put in her resignation, and on Tuesday they went a head and let her go. We have a manager (our center is "three-tiered" - Director- resigned, Manager - new, and Operations - ME!!). Anyway, as I was saying, we have a manager, but she has only been on the job for 1 month, so she doesn't really know much yet. Nothing against her, she's just new and still learning.

SO, It's just me and her! Luckily, I have been there a year, so I know what's going on and how things go, but we have been changing a lot of things recently too.....eeekkk!!!! Needless to say, last week was very hectic and stressful. I was really looking forward to the weekend of NO WORK......Do you think that happened???? NOPE! Yesterday they did a Nation-wide ALL CALL for people to come into work and help out. Both the manager and I were calling and scheduling people all day long. Thankfully that can be done remotely, and I didn't have to go into the office.

This next week I only have to work 2 days before we leave for vacation. I am sure the manager would love it if I decided to stay, but we have already made the reservations and everything, so no backing out! I can't wait though!! There is no internet access at the cabin we will be staying at, so even if I wanted to work while on vacation, I CAN'T!!! Yippie. Good news though, my boss will be available to help her, as well as her people too.

SO, Vacation, here we come. Hopefully it will be somewhat relaxing. The kids are coming with us, this will be our 1st "family" vacation. My sister and her husband, and my mom will be coming as well.....what fun right?!?!?!? :)

We will be going to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and will have a cabin up in the mountains for all of us to stay. We get there on Wednesday and will probably just relax from the 8-9 hour drive. Thursday we are planning on going shopping - as much as the two pregnant women and the kids can handle. Friday, we are headed to DollyWood. My sister and I just realized that we will not be able to ride any of our favorite rides - no pregnant women allowed! We will probably spend a good portion of the day there, eat at "Aunt Grannie's Kitchen", and get some "Dolly Dresses." Saturday, the plan is to veg and watch football. The boys will love that. We may venture out and do something, we at least have to get a cake for Kaitlyn's Birthday. Hard to believe she will be 4!!!!! Sunday, we are headed back home! I really wish it could be longer, but I need to save as much time as I can for when the new little one comes.

IT'S A GIRL!!!

2009-09-27T14:33:00.010-04:00

Things have been quiet in the Baird house (health-wise) for the last two weeks! Thankfully, it looks like we are all well for the time being. Hopefully it will stay that way.

Last week we found out that we are definately having a girl. I was so excited. Now, if we can just get her here :) It seems like it is going to take forever..... We have also picked a name - Alexis Grace.

This week should hopefully be a little quite. Nothing major planned, and nothing really exciting going on at work. Let's just hope we make it through the week with no phone calls for sick kids.

One week from Wed, we will be going out of town - to the Mountains. I get to buy some "Dolly" dresses for the new baby, and for Kaitlyn too. I can't wait!! :) This will be our 1st family vacation. The kids will be joining us, along with my sister, brother-in-law, and mom. We have not been on a family vacation EVER. Kaitlyn is very excited, because we will be in the mountains for her birthday. Little does she know that means she won't have a birthday party, but we will do something there with just us to celebrate. Nice to be off the hook for birthday party this year :)

Does it ever end????

2009-09-15T19:20:00.002-04:00

Oh the joys of parenthood, attempting to hold down a full-time job, and being a mother :). Last week I only made it to work 1 1/2 days out of 4 (Monday was a holiday). Tyler was still sick - not with "hand, foot, mouth" because he didn't ACTUALLY have that, but Monday night started diarrea. I was hoping that Tuesday morning he would be fine, so we sent him to school (don't most parents send their kids to school knowing good and well they might be a little under the weather but hope they don't get a call from school, or is that just me?? - please don't judge me :) ) I received 2 phone calls before 12 on Tuesday that he had 3 wet diarrea diapers. Good times. So, I picked him up and took the rest of the day off. My plan was just to work an extra hour Wed-Friday to make up for it, so I went to work on Wednesday. I pulled a 10.5 hour day - was plum exhausted, only to come home to an even more sick little boy. The diarrea had not gotten better, he was not eating very well, drinking some what o.k., but started to get a bad cough and congestion. Thursday I took the day off and had to take him to the dr. What does the dr. do?!?!? Tell me it's a virus, give me cough meds (with steriods) for the cough, alergy meds for the congestion, diaper cream for the major diaper rash, and send me on my merry little way. I thought after 3 days of diarrea, they start on anti-biotics. He said it was a virus, but I thought they give anti-biotics regardless after 3 days.....I sware, I could be a pediatrician.

We survived the weekend and even though he's not back 100%, he's almost there.....

Now, here's the fun part. My husband gets a phone call around 5:15 that Kaitlyn has a 101.6 fever!!! What does that mean??? We have to keep her out of school at least through tomorrow and hope the fever breaks by then and she is o.k. Even worse, she has a very nasty cough. Since she is going to be out tomorrow, I am going to call in the morning to see if I can get her into the dr. and go a head and start meds for whatever the heck she might have as quickly as possible. What has me even more worried is a few people that work with me (not at my center, but within my company in other states/cities) have the Swine Flu - one girl that used to work for my husband as well. They said it either started as bronchitis, or it turned into brochitis. Her cough has me worried she might end up with swine flu...... Paranoid....

Well, let's just hope I don't get sick. It' can't be good (if she has the swine flu) to pass that on to a pregnant person....... I maybe thinking into this too much.... I will stop stressing....

Home again.....

2009-09-08T15:06:00.003-04:00

Well, I thought with the long weekend that it would help kick any illness that Tyler may or may not have so that we could return back to school/work. We were fine all weekend long, spent Sunday at the pool and just had a great weekend.... Well, until yesterday. Tyler did not really want to take a nap yesterday...kept waking up and whining every 45 minutes. He started to get a little bit of a fever yesterday and we saw that he is cutting teeth. FUN TIMES!!!! Not long before bed he had a "blow out" so I knew he was not feeling well. This morning he woke up with a loose diaper, but it was not the "blow out" from the night before. He was a little cranky this morning, but I gave him some motrin and sent him to school. I guess I was hoping we could drug him up enough that he would be o.k.

I receved 2 phone calls from the school before noon. They decided to watch his diapers after he had 2 "blow outs" because they knew he was teething. She told me 1 more and he would have to go home. Not even a hour later they called me back......UGGG....

These are the times that you really feel like a "mom." Taking care of sick kids, and trying to figure out how to help them feel better. Do you medicate, do you not. What kind of medicine do you give them? Do you let them have milk or juice? Maybe Sprite?? But is the soda bad for a 2 year old?? Don't we drink Sprite when we have an upset stomach??? I know my son tends to have loose diapers when he drinks juice, regardless of whether he is sick or not. Milk is not supposed to be good on an upset stomach.

I never call out sick, especially for my kids. I have been blessed that they do not get sick that often, or if they do, it's on the weekends. It really stinks that I had to take all day Friday off, we had the long weekend, and now I have to take 1/2 day off today. I feel bad, but what can I do? These are my kids, and if I have to take time off because they are sick, then that is what I have to do.

My last job, if they were sick, I just went across the street to pick them up, and brought them back to work with me. Unfortunately, I can not do that at this job. Luckily, I get paid time off. The only bad thing is, I am trying to save every ounce of it up so that I can stay home as long as I can when I have the new baby. Guess we will cross that hurdle when it comes.

So, hopefully Tyler will be much better tomorrow, and he can go back to school after lunch. My husband is supposed to stay home tomorrow with him, but we will see if that really happens. Let's just hope we get past this hurdle and will be nice and well from here on out!!!

Do pediatricians really know what they are talking about???

2009-09-04T13:45:00.002-04:00

I often wonder if pediatricians really do know what they are doing, or are they just guessing so that they give you some kind of diagnosis??

Yesterday I received a call from the daycare that my son was breaking out in some sort of bumps or rash on his face. So, of course, I have to go pick him up from school and take him to the doctor. He was acting completely fine, other than the fact that he had a few bumps on the bridge of his nose, and they were starting to appear around his nose (he has a really runny nose as well). He also had a few around his chin/cheek, but he has been drooling a lot too.

So, we take him to the doctor and wait....and wait...and wait...and wait some more. Then the doctor finally came in. My kids were playing on the floor (hide and go seek and a few other games) when he came in. I of course had to take Tyler so that the doctor could look at him. His immdediate response was "hand, foot, mouth".

What is hand foot mouth you may ask??? Well this is what Web MD says....

"Hand-foot-and-mouth disease is a common childhood illness. It causes sores in the mouth and on the hands, feet, and sometimes the buttocks and legs. Mouth sores can be painful and may make it hard for your child to eat. The disease is not serious, and it usually goes away in a week or so.
It can occur at any time of year, but hand-foot-and-mouth disease is most common in the summer and fall.

What causes hand-foot-and-mouth disease?

Hand-foot-and-mouth disease is caused by a virus called an enterovirus.
The virus spreads easily through coughing and sneezing. You can also get it by coming in contact with infected stool, such as when you change a diaper. Often the disease breaks out within a community. Children are most likely to spread the disease during the first week of the illness. But the virus stays in the stool and can sometimes spread to others for several months after the blisters and sores have healed.
It usually takes 3 to 6 days for a person to get symptoms of hand-foot-and-mouth disease after being exposed to the virus. This is called the incubation period.

What are the symptoms?

At first your child may feel tired, get a sore throat, or have a fever of around 101F to 103F. Then in a day or two, your child may get sores or blisters on the hands, feet, mouth, and sometimes the buttocks. In some cases a child will get a skin rash before the blisters appear. The blisters may break open and crust over. The sores and blisters usually go away in a week or so.

How is hand-foot-and-mouth disease diagnosed?

A doctor can tell if your child has hand-foot-and-mouth disease by the symptoms you describe and by looking at the sores and blisters. "

O.k. lets just 1st state that I have not listed any of those "problem areas" as any of where he has his "bumps." The doctor picked up his hands and because they were slightly red, tried to say that he had it on his hands (one of the places you get it). I wanted to say "Are you kidding me??? Did you not notice that they were crawling on the floor when you came in?? No wonder he has red hands!!!" I think they just pick an illness and try to diagnos every kid that comes in with the same thing.

The symptoms also state that you start out with a fever before the blisters/bumps start to appear. My son has not had a fever AT ALL in I don't know how long. He has nothing inside of his mouth, does not have any trouble eating, and the "rash" he did have on his lower abdomen (diaper area) yesterday tured out to be diaper rash (my assumption since I put diaper rash cream on it last night and it was gone before bed time, and still not visable today).

This makes me wonder if pediatricians really do know what is wrong with our kids. Once again, I think they just pick something so they feel good about sending you home. That pediatrician did not ask me many questions, looked and him and just said "this is what he has....."

So, needless to say I am home with both kids today. Oh and get this, I had to call MY doctor to make sure I was o.k., because of their diagnosis. I had to go yesterday to have blood drawn so they could make sure I didn't have it and was fine. Still waiting on the results. Thank God we have a long weekend a head of us. I took the day off today too because I am exhausted, especially after running around yesterday, then having to work late to make up for the extra long lunch break I had to take. I wasn't feeling 100% this morning either....just light headed and dizzy. I'm sure I will be fine. Just frustrated............

Cutting a 2yr old's hair

2009-09-02T20:54:00.002-04:00

Cutting a 2 yr. old's hair while he is in the bath tub playing can be a challenge. But, after stuggling in between splashes, it is done and with SUCCESS!! I should have taken a picture so you could see my handy work..... not too shabby. The very 1st time I did it, he did so good, but then he figured out what I was doing by the second time. This time was not too bad, but did get a few "owie's" as I was trying to grab pieces to cut it. That was our venture when we got home from a very long day.

Today was not too bad of a day. I was able to go to the chiropractor to get an hour massage....boy was that great. I took the kids to "MeMaw Susan's" while I had my appointment. They enjoyed getting to go to grandma's house and play. Something different, because they never go over there. She usually comes to our house to watch them, but the chiropractor is right down the road from her house. Just easier to go there.

I have 3 weeks from today before my next doctor's appointment. These once a month ones seem to drag on longer than a month. Will it ever get here?? Maybe the next few will go quicker, because I won't have any "big" ones to pine for (1st heartbeat, 1st sonogram, hoping to find out the gender early, finding out the gender). I am really not looking forward to the gestational diabetes test visit. That stuff they make you drink is SO nasty.

Well, that's semi-boring day..... Not as creative as Angela :)

Contractions at 14 weeks are not fun.....

2009-09-01T14:37:00.003-04:00

Yes, contractions...at 14 weeks...NOT GOOD! Well, they are not hard contractions, but they are contractions none the less. The last 2-3 weeks at work have been physically and emotionally stressful, and I think that is the big contributing factor. My doctor last week told me that it is normal and that is just part of my uterus growing, and can have them more the more children you have, but I still worry about it. It's not overly painful, and is just maily pressure, but I also had full on contractions starting at 24 weeks with my son. I just don't want to deal with weekly, bi-weekly, and sometimes even tri-weekly dr. visits again. I am sure it is nothing to worry about, but I have been really emotional the last two days....Completely work related, but emotional non the less.

Anyway, if they get any worse, I will call the doctor, but at this point they are not major. In fact, they were much stronger than this with my son and I didn't even know I was having contractions, so I only recognize it as that because I'm on baby #3.... And who knows, maybe it is just my body growing to accommodate a living thing inside me :) We shall see!!!

A lot has happened since then.....

2009-08-29T21:18:00.002-04:00

Well, I just realized my last post was in FEBRUARY.....Well, here we are almost in Sept. Wow has time flown, and BOY have a lot of things happened since then. Well, I don't know that I could say A LOT of things have happened, but one BIG thing has happened.....

IM PREGNANT!!! AGAIN!!!! Baby # 3 is due March 1st. I'm excited, but sometimes (on those very stressful days :) ) I wonder - what the heck am I thinking??? I am actually very excited and want the baby to come now. This pregnancy seems to be going much slower than the other two, but maybe that is because I have been pregant twice before and now I just want to hold the baby.

I had my 3rd dr. appt this past week. Each one I have been blessed to be able to get a sonogram. I don't know what I will do when a visit comes that I won't get to SEE the baby. 1st sonogram was at 6 weeks - confirming, determining due date, and seeing heartbeat. The next visit was as 9 weeks. We were supposed to see the ultrasound tech - check brain fluid and make sure baby was looking good. Well, they did not schedule the appt. with the ultrasound tech, just the dr., so she left. The dr. decided to go a head and do the check, but said she wanted me to be checked by the ultrasound tech - since she is the professional in that field. So, this visit - 13 wks, we got ANOTHER sonogram. I love getting to see the baby and see the heartbeat for myself. I asked her if we could check for "parts", so she checked quickly. She did not want to say for SURE, since we are so early, but she said her bet is a girl....about 85% sure. I really hope nothing was hiding :). We will go back at 17 wks and confirm then. The baby looks great - both the doctor and the ultrasound tech commented that the baby looked "cute" and "healthy."

Even though we "think" we might be having a girl, I am trying to refrain from buying anything girl until we know for sure. A part of me thinks that I might ginx it - yes I know I could return it if need be. I just don't want to get my hopes up too much - although I'm REALLY excited. Don't get me wrong, if it is a boy I will be just fine. I was just hoping for the last baby to be a girl so I could get all the pink frilly things that I didn't get to get with Kaitlyn. Besides, I think God wants me to have a girl too because Kaitlyn said she would cry if she did not have a sister and even prayed to God to ask him if she could have a sister. :)

I do have a girl name picked out - Alexis Grace....I really like it. Daddy has not said one way or the other, and Kaitlyn thinks we can name the baby Kaitlyn too.... Silly girl. Tyler still is not sure what is going on, and I am not sure he will be too thrilled when we bring the baby home. We still have a while - and he will be 2 1/2, so I'm hoping it won't be too bad......We shall see....

I will try to update a little more often, but no promises :)

Update........not much going on

2009-02-01T19:07:00.012-05:00

Well, there's not much going on lately....although it seems like we have something to do everyday!! Isn't that always how life goes?

Work has been the same, but always super busy. Mondays are usually my most busy days, and others sometime feel like they aren't going to be, until it's 5:15 and I realize 2 things....1. where did the day go, and 2. I should have left 15 minutes ago........But I guess it's good that the days go by fast. I don't have much time for socializing, if anyone needs me or wants to see me, they pretty much have to come find me in my hiding place (my office), because I don't really have time to walk around and say hi to everyone like I used to be able to. BUT, I prefer it that way!! :)

As for the kids, they are growing like weeds. I need to upload some pictures.....

These are some Christmas picutures we took recently (well Christmas time! ) Click on it and make it bigger....Tyler's face is SO adorable in some of these pictures........Oh and look at Kaitlyn's straigh hair!!!!

Not that you want to see us, but here we are!! :)

Tyler swinging

Brian and his newly found birth sister Tiffany....do you think they look alike???

Kaitlyn swinging

That's the family!!!!! They are all growing fast. It's hard for me to believe that Tyler will be 18 months on in 6 days! WOW...How time flys! He's walking all over the place like a big kid, and starting to talk now t00. AND, he's eating me out of a house and home!!

Well, I guess I better get back to watching the Super Bowl with my husband. I'm honestly not all that interested in who wins....The only person I know is Ben Roethlisberger......

Well hope everyone's week goes well...........

TTFN!

Posting Again!

2009-01-13T08:34:00.003-05:00

Wow, I have actually found some time to post yet again! This week so far has projected to be a slow one. Mondays are usually pretty busy, but after about 2pm yesterday, my day slowed down. Around 4pm I decided to go a head and do my Friday Reports, and that kept me busy until a little after 5pm.

Yesterday was my day to go pick up the kids (Brian had to ref. football). I dread the drive, because it's kind of out of the way, and traffic is not usually very good either. Yesterday was a little more congested than normal. It was raining, and I hate to say it, but people do not know how to drive in the rain! But, I got there before the daycare closed, and that is all that really matters. Kaitlyn had a good day, because she could not wait to tell me that she did not get in time out all day long. SO, we went to Taco Bell for dinner! She was so excited.

Tyler did something yesterday that was a 1st for me to see. Usually when I get there to pick up the kids, they are all in one room watching a movie, patiently waiting for their parents to get there. Tyler, as soon as he sees me, usually come crawling as fast as he can to me, but not yesterday. Yesterday when he saw me, he pushed himself up with his hands until he was standing, walked a few steps, tripped over another kid, stood back up and walked over to me! I was so excited. Yes, he has been walking for a few weeks now, and even standing up on his own to walk, but usually he tries to get to me as fast as he can - which means crawling! My little boy is growing up!

Because I had the kids all to myself last night, it meant getting all the things done in one night, alone. Usually I am too tired (whether Brian is home or not), to do too much once I get home from work. Our "New Year's Resolution" is to save as much money as we can each month. This means eating more at home. I have been trying to do this as much as possible, with the occassional treat to Taco Bell, when daddy is not going to be home for dinner. So, we picked up Taco Bell, came home, ate dinner, Tyler was so tired he didn't each much of what I gave him (and he also had 2 cerael bars in the car so he was probably full). He went to bed not too long after we got home. He was sweet, I layed him down, covered him up, and he just layed on his back looking up at me with his thumb in him mouth! Those are the moments I cherish. Kaitlyn finished her food and played for a while while I proceeded to put some laundry on, do the dishes, get dinner for tonight ready (Roast and Potatoes!!), and put away some laundry that has been sitting out all weekend. WOW! That's more than I do on a weekend sometimes. I'm trying to be more motivated to get a little bit done every night so come weekend we can try to relax and enjoy!!! We will see how long that lasts......

Well, I better figure out what I need to be doing today. I am feeling a lot better health wise, but I still have some sinus pressure....even in my ears...today they feel like they might burst....ugg....

Hope you have a wonderful day!

So busy and never enough time to post

2009-01-09T19:24:00.003-05:00

As I sit here tonight, I ponder all the things that have taken place since my last post. It has been a long time since I have even looked at this thing.

I was taking care of the kids the other night, and as I was rocking Tyler to sleep, I thought about what a good post it would be, if I only had time to write. We are constantly on the go, and hardly ever home long enough to enjoy our time home, and I decided to actually spend some "mommy time" with Tyler. Brian had been sick, and I had to take the kids to school and pick them up. Tyler had been unusually cranky (which cranky is not unusual for him), so I wondered what might be the problem. I realized that Tyler had not seen or even spent time with mommy in at least 6 days, because I was sick with the flu. So, I decided that after dinner, I would give him a bath and just sit and hold him for a while. So, after bathing the kids, I got Tyler dressed in his pjamas, and rocked him for a while. It's been a very long time since I have done that. I just sat and loved him, and thought about the fact that therer will come a point in time when he will no longer allow me to. Mind you, Kaitlyn wouldn't let me hold her long before now, but Tyler is a little bit of a mama's boy. He just layed on my chest while I scratched/rubbed his back, and just took in the moment and tried to make a mental memory. All the way until he fell asleep. He was so prescious just laying there, I didn't want to put him down. We sat there for a few more minutes, then I put him to bed.

As I am recalling this memory, I am also listening to my husband have a conversation with Kaitlyn on why she would hit her friends at school. We have a little bit of a rough week. Kaitlyn has been in time out every day for hitting or kicking her friends. Usually one time would be enough to keep her out of time out for anything for at least a week, but not this week. She also got in trouble yesterday for pulling her dress up, pulling her panties down and shaking her booty in her brother's face at school. Mind you she did it in front of other people too. When her teacher told me about it, she told me she that she told Kaitlyn that it might be o.k. to do that at home, but not at school. I can only imagine the look on my face.....I told her "We do not do that at home." I have NO idea where she got that idea from. I was shocked! Not sure what has gotten into my daughter these days. Usually when I go to pick them up from school (which is usually only once a week), we go by Taco Bell on the way home. The first day I picked them up, we did go. Kaitlyn has asked every day this week to go, but every day I have told her that we only go to Taco Bell on special days, and when she can be good at school and not go in time out. Today I had planned to take her there after school. When her teacher told me she was not good, I ALMOST gave in. I thought about telling her that we would go, but next time she wasn't good, we couldn't go, but I had to stop myself. I had to say "No, I told you it's for treats. You were not good, so you can not have a treat." Let's hope I can stick to this.

Well, this is nothing of a catch up, but I am tired. I am not going to promise that I will keep up with the posts, but I will at least try to post as often as I can.

Until then!

WOW I'm actually making a post!

2008-10-30T08:58:00.003-04:00

WOW.....Twice in one week. Now this is a new record! :)

I decided to go ahead and write this morning because I am too tired to start working. Nevermind that I have already been here for 30 min. and I have only turned on my computer and responded to 2 emails. I really need some coffee!

My eyes are KILLING me today! I went to the eye doctor about 2 months ago and got a new prescription and a new kind of contacts because I could never seem to throw the old ones away after 2 weeks. This new kind I am supposed to change every month, and although I am supposed to be able to sleep in them, my doctor recommended that I take them out once a week so my eyes could rest. WELL, I only slept in them 2 night and my eyes hurt SOOOO bad. I could barely drive work this morning because of the sun. And now, this window view I have at work is not working out well either! As long as there is no "direct" sun light, I am o.k. I hope they start feeling better soon!

I am also supposed to be going to lunch with a girlfriend of mine that I have not seen in like FOREVER! We have both been extrememly busy with our jobs, and it seems like every weekend for the past few weeks, someone in my house has been sick. Let's hope this weekend is better.

We are also going to venture our first "trick or treat"ing on Friday. I have never taken the kids, mind you Kaitlyn is only 3. This should be fun though. We have plans to meet another friend of ours with her kids, and probably her sister and her kids as well and let the kids have some fun. We never did the "trick or treat" thing growing up. Our church usually had something going on that we would dress up and go to, but we never went around our neighborhood, so this will be a first for not only my children but Mommy too!!!

Saturday is my neices' birthday party. My sister does a "halloween" theme party for them every year, so I will take the kids for that as well. I am sure that Kaitlyn will have fun dressing up again and going to play with her cousins. PLUS, my sister has a new baby they just adopted so I get to play with her. She is so sweet and little, but i have not seen her in a month!

My husband is going to the Florida/Georgia game on Saturday, so he will not be joining me, but I am sure the guys will have fun. Not sure why Florida/Georgia, because they are not fans of either, but I am sure it will be a good game, and the tickets were free. Heck it's FOOTBALL, who cares who's playin right? :)

Well, I guess I better get some work done!

what a horrible blogger I am

2008-10-26T14:47:00.002-04:00

I must say that things have been super busy since I started my new job. I have yet to find a day where I have NOTHING to do. I guess that is a good thing, because it makes things go by faster. But, on the other hand, I do not have time to blog. I will have to make an appointment in my calendar, at least 2 times a week, to take 30 min. to write a blog and to catch up on everyone elses.....That's sad isn't it? I am sure things will settle down soon, I am still new at the job and making sure that everything is right. I am sure it will become part of my everyday routine soon enough, that I won't be afraid I have missed something...:) Things are actually going really well. I have caught on fairly quickly and easily. It is just a lot of reports and remembering where all the information has to go. Fun times.

The kids have also been in a new school. After the fiasco with the last place, it was over it. We pulled the kids out of the other daycare the very next day, and went to view the one they are at now. I LOVE the new place. They have been there going on 3 weeks now, and not ONE phone call from them that either of them were sick. We even took Tyler to school one day when he was a little down because he is teething, and I called to check on him. She said he was fine, a little cranky but she new it was the teeth! WOW....I would have DEFINATELY received a call from the other center that day FOR SURE!! I really do like this new place though. They have web cams so I can go online and check on the kids whenever I wants. It's kinda cool. I actually have only been on there once because I am so busy, but Brian gets on there several times a day to check on them. They also take the kids on field trips too. The first week they were there, they went to the pumpkin patch. Because of the short notice, I was not able to go with them and chaperone, but they seemed to do fine. There were even workers ready at the pumkin patch to help all the kids. I was nervous at the idea at first, but after talking to the directors/owners, I was fine. I mean, eventually they are going to have to go on field trips in school right? They didn't take Tyler either, so that was good. I thought he would be too young to go!

In December, they are taking them to the Nutcracker. I have already put the date on my calendar so that I can go with them. That should be a lot of fun!

All in all, things have been good, just busy. We all had the "bug" going around the last few weeks, but seem to be getting better. Hopefully I will be able to write again sometime this week. I hate that I have not been able to, I know this is a way a lot of us keep in touch. I will try to do better!

It's been a while

2008-10-08T19:56:00.002-04:00

So it has been a while since I have posted anything. Things have been mad crazy with the new job. I actually wrote a post last week, but when I posted it, only 1/2 of it was posted, so I had to deleted it!

Last week was one stressful week, well the first part of it anyway. Monday-Wednesday was really stressful with all the things I had to learn and try to retain. It truly is a lot! Not to mention that BOTH Monday and Wednesday I got a call from the daycare about the kids being sick. Monday it was Kaitlyn....she had a rash from what I knew was an allergic reation to lotion my mother-in-law put on her. Like most daycares do, they tried to self diagnose her and say she has "Fiths Disease." So, at 4:45 I get a phone call about this rash and am told that I can not bring her back without a doctor note....So, $46 later, we find out that....IT'S AN ALLERGIC REACTION!!!! Sensative skin!!!!!! Not to metion the fact that her regular doctor was close, so I had to take her to her old pediatrician (which I HATE!!!) @ 8:00 at night......Not a happy mommy. But, in the daycare's defense, I do understand why they called me. It's just procedure. I would want them to call another kid's mom if they had a rash too.

Now, Wednesday was Tyler, and this one was RIDICULOUS...They called at 10:00 am to tell me Tyler had a fever 100.5....HE IS TEETHING! I told the director that he was teething and she said he had a runny nose too.....REALLY A RUNNY NOSE??? Gee, he's TEETHING, AND is in DAYCARE! KIDS IN DAYCARE HAVE RUNNY NOSES ALL THE TIME....She said she would watch him and monitor the fever but if it got worse, she would call. At 5:00, when my husband went to pick up the kids, there was a note ,stapled to his daily report, that said he could not come back to school unless he had a dr. note saying he was not contageous....SERIOUSLY? You wait til 5:00? So, again, we found ourselves @ the dr. office I don't like. Luckily, the doctor on call that night was the only one I actually liked out of all of the doctors! So, $15 and we have a dr. note saying he is teething and to give him motrin! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH.............

This is only part of my issues with the daycare....I do understand that there are procedures when kids are sick and I do appreciate it, but you would think they would use better judgement. I mean, seriously, Tyler was playing JUST FINE and didn't act like he was sick. Do they seriously not have anything better to do with their time? But get this....Monday and Tuesday Tyler came home with his shirt soaking wet. This boy drools A LOT! With him teething, it's even more. I take changes of clothes for him, but he still came in the same clothes - SOAKED with slobber. I even mentioned on Tuedsay to the teacher that I have bibs for him. She told me they have their own bibs they use. Wednesday I made sure I even brough extra shirts. I meet my husband at the dr. office when I get off work, and they are already back in the room where he had to undress him for them to check vitals. I noticed that he had been wearing the same outfit, but it didn't look as wet as the days before. BUT, when we were done with the doctor, I dressed him. I could smell the "mildew smell" from his shirt because they didn't change it and it had been wet. I was FURIOUS.....Wait there is more. I also noticed that his nose was rather dirty. I thought it was just dried up snot because I knew his nose had been running. NOPE! Aparantly, when they take the kids outside, the ones that can not walk just crawl around in the dirt.....This made it a whole lot worse.

I took the kids to school on Thursday, with the intent on talking to the director....she was not in - took the day off. I did say something to the teacher about his shirt issue, and I must say since then, he comes home in a fresh shirt and even has a bib on. I did get to talk to the director yesterday and felt a little better about a few things, but still not about the outside play.....Then TODAY.....I get a call from the daycare at 3:45 that Tyler has an "explosive diaper." I have to come get him and he either needs to stay out tomorrow or he needs to have a dr. note. ONE LOOSE DIAPER....SERIOUSLY??? The poor boy had 2 jars of yougart for breakfast.......AHHHHHH!!! He has ONE normal poop that morning and ONE loose one. Since when does that constitute sickness? Maybe 2-3 but not ONE! So, here we go again to the doctor....

On the way to the daycare, I called 2 different daycares to see what their response was to it. Needless to say, I am looking for a new daycare. I can't have this. The kids haven't bonded to this new daycare like they did the last. I am not to fond of it, and it doesn't really seem like that are looking out for the kids in my opinion. They are being a bit ridiculous if you ask me. Maybe that doesn't sound ridiculous to you, but I do know that the other daycare did not seem this paranoid! Nor did they let my 1 yr. old that can't walk play in the dirt! I mean, come on, how much dirt has he eaten???? And, I find out there is only 1 kid in his class besides him that can't wait, so it's not like the whole class can't walk!

So, anyway, sorry that my 1st blog in a while is a RANT, but I just had to get that out. So, any suggestions? Am I being an overly sensative mom? Am I right for being frustrated? I mean, it's just the fact that I am having to shell out all this extra $$ when I could be spending it on other things. I just don't get the same vibe from this daycare that I had from the first daycare they went, nor the other 2 places I called today. I really liked both of the directors at the 2 places I talked to today. Now I just have to go visit them to see if I like the location/facilities.....

I will try to post some better things tomorrow!

Formal Night

2008-09-25T20:32:00.002-04:00

So, at this work retreat I am at, we have been having A LOT of meetings/sessions. I have been so tired because they have gone so late and we have had to get up so early. It's been crazy! Not to mention I do not sleep well while I am away from home and my family. Can't wait to get in my own bed tomorrow!! Which will not actually be until REALLY early Saturday morning being that my flight does not get in until almost midnight!!!!

Tonight we have a formal dinner. They are calling it PROM. HAHA....The dress is better than Sunday up to evening wear if you want to go that far. I did have a dress I was going to wear, but then received an email from someone about dress code, and my dress was on the "do not wear list." It was not not inappropriate, but they do not like strapless, so I left if at home. I opted for my black cocktail dress. Hope it works. Basically I look just like my profile picture with my husband (dressy picture not the margarittaville picture) with DARK brown hair. YES, I dyed my hair......I LOVE IT!

Well, I have to go. Short meetings in the morning, then we leave for the airport. Can't wait to be home!!!! :)

Training is over and now we are in Utah

2008-09-22T21:22:00.002-04:00

Well, my first week of work went well. I think when it comes time for me to start doing my job (next Monday), I will be fine. I will have plenty of questions, I am sure, but I learned a lot in the 2 1/2 days I had of training.

We are now in Utah for winter retreat. I am not sure what all we are going to be doing and learning here, but it should be fun. We don't have anything going on today, so I am in the hotel watching Dancing with the Stars and trying to find One Tree Hill.

My kids were so sweet when I came back. Kaitlyn was SO happy that I was home. I think Tyler was glad I was home too, but he shows it differently. He clearly did not want to be in the car seat anymore. All he did was scream and cry on the way home. If I would look at him out of the corner of my eye then I could see him crying so hard reaching his hands out. It really was sad. I think part of it had to do with the fact that he was tired too.

When we got home they both just layed on me and hugged and loved me. It really was sweet. Kaitlyn even said, "Next time when you come home, you have to bring a bear for Tyler." I guess she wants to make sure Tyler gets his own present this time. I didn't really think he would care, being that every time I try to give him a stuffed animal to play with, the thows it. Oh well.

I do not know how busy this week is going to be, but I will try to write more. I am sure you do not wish to hear about our boring training sessions, so I will try to keep it short.

Until then.....

1st day of training!

2008-09-17T21:02:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was my official start date at my new job, although the entire day was spent flying from Jacksonville to Birmingham, AL. When I got there though, my boss picked me up and we drove to the hotel to check in and went to eat. I guess I slept O.K., but you know how that is when you are in a different place, especially by yourself.

Tonight should be a lot better because we worked for a LONG time today. My hips hurt so much from just sitting down. I wish I had my bath tub here so I could take a nice bubble bath.

Today was just a bunch of training and basic stuff. Tomorrow, I forcast for things to get a little more technical, but we covered A LOT today! The bad thing is that I do not get to go back to my office next week and actually start applying things I learned this week. We will be out of town yet ANOTHER week for National Conference. I am not really sure what all this consists of, but I think it's mostly technical stuff based company wide. We do more district and regionally located conferences come January that is more targeted to our area and needs. Should be fun.

So, so far so good. I think I will like this job.......I do miss my kids though. I have talked to Kaitlyn last night, this morning and now tonight. My husband send me an email telling me he has a new found love and respect for me because he has had to do all the things that I just "take care of" that he doesn't even realize need to be done. It's sweet. I miss him too and I know he is doing a great job.

I will write more later when I have time. But just wanted all of you to know that things are going good so far........

I made it through the week

2008-09-14T17:26:00.002-04:00

I just have to say, More power to the stay at home moms!! I am sure that I could do it if I had to, but there are times that I am glad that my family NEEDS me to work. That is a horrible thing to say isn't it? I feel bad for thinking that, because I do love my children and I enjoy the time I have with them. But, I have ADHD, and I can not stand to be cooped up or not doing something. I constantly have to be on the go, and with 2 little ones, sometimes that is hard.

One thing I did from the very beginning, was not try to make a routine of nap times and just go when I needed to go. Sure, there were days that we did take naps on schedule and things like that, but it was much easier to have kids that could just go with the flow. Babies are usually good with that, because they sleep anywhere. Kaitlyn never really had a problem with that, and even when she got a little older and would not sleep in the stoller, she would either sleep in the car seat on the way home, then go down for a nap or just take a nap when we got home. She was never really a cranky kid if she missed a nap.

Tyler on the other hand is a little bit different. If we are in the car long enough, he will fall asleep, but that is not the best place for naps. I think I also discovered this week he will not take naps in the stroller anymore......NOT GOOD. Unlike Kaitlyn, he DOES get cranky if he does not have a nap. Fortunately, he has gone to taking only 1 nap a day, for several hours. That is what they do at school, so he has adopted that behavior at home too. This actually works out well, because I usually just make sure I am home right after lunch time to get a good nap in. Let me tell ya though, I had this whole week off of work, and had LOTS of plans of things I needed to get done, but didn't get too much of them done after all. I even attempted a pedicure and manicure while having them with me, and let's just say that I only got to get a pedicure. I might be insane for taking them with me, but they really are pretty good in public. It was just lunchtime and naptime all at the same time, so the nails would have to wait.

Next week, Tuesday to be exact, I am going to start my new job. I am really excited about it. The only thing I am not overly excited about is that I will be out of town the 1st two weeks, but I do come home for the weekend in between. Not that I don't want to go out of town, but I am going to miss my husband and kids. I will fill you in on how the training goes.

I get to enjoy one more day of no work on Monday, but this time it will be without the kids. They start their new school tomorrow, and I am glad that I will actually be here to take them and pick them up tomorrow, that way I can hear all about their 1st day (well from Kaitlyn anyway).

Bad Blogger

2008-09-07T16:23:00.002-04:00

Once again, I am a terrible blogger. I have a notion that the weekend is going to be the only time I am going to be able to blog for the next few weeks/months. I do need to figure out how to blog from my blackberry (aka, crackberry), so that when I am out of town, I can blog. I do not know that I will have my laptop with work yet, nor will I even know how to use it at the hotel. Oh well.

Friday was my last day at work!! Boy am I excited. I was very nervous to tell any of my customers, because a lot of them might have not even decided to buy their cabinets from us (since I was leaving), so I only told the ones I thought needed to know. I still find myself thinking about all the things that need to be done on the jobs, as if I still work there. I guess it is not my headache anymore. I am sure I will stop worrying about it soon. It's ut hard, because I was tehre for o long.

I think I am going to like my new job. I am sure it will take me a little bit of time to get used to it, but I am sure it will be fine. I will be out of town the first 2 weeks I start, but when I get back will be the true tell. I'm sure it will be fine. I am just going to miss my family while I am gone!

I also had a recipe to put on Nikki's Recipe Fun Friday thing, but I didn't even have time to share it. Oh well, I will do it this week.......Saturday, I have my 1st Pampered Chef Party, so pray everything goes well......Maybe I will have a new recipe for the next week as well......

Thank God for the weekends

2008-08-30T14:37:00.002-04:00

I am so glad it is Saturday. This week has been so hectic. I spent the night with my mom last night. My husband was going to be out really late, and I though I might have to meet a customer today, thank God I didn't. I was willing to go meet her, but I was sooooo tired.

My mom got this new TV service called Uverse. It is through AT&T, and it is only in select areas at the time. It has taken them 5 hours to hook this up. It's CRAZY. I like it - it's similar to Comcast on Demand type thing, but a little different. I think you can go a whole lot of other stuff, and soon will do even more, like ordering groceries through you TV. How awesome is that? In just a little bit we are going to Kohls. They are supposed to be having sales. I have been trying to get some new things for work, but my husband is going to kill me if I spend any more money!!!

Well, hopefully this weekend will be nice and relaxing! Lord knows I need it! Next week is my last week at work, then I have a whole week off before I start my new job.......I am SO excited!

Long lost blogger

2008-08-28T20:43:00.003-04:00

Sorry I have not written all week. Things have been a little hectic. I will give you the latest updates........

Last Tuesday, my kids were sick, but I also had a face to face interview for a new job. I think it went pretty well (you will find out later in this blog that I KNOW it went well). They told me that they would give me a call and let me know one way or the other.

Wednesday was the start of the storms. The kids still weren't feeling well, but I also did not want to drive all the way over to work (over the bridge) and have the bridges close (which they did), and get stuck on that side of town, so I stayed home.

Thursday, the schools were closed as well as my work. We were going on 3 days now being cooped up in the house. By now I was starting to get a little stir crazy, but I was enjoying my time off and the time with the kids. My husband's work was still open, even though the rest of the banks were closed around him. He was not too happy about that either. One of his girls had to drive 45 min one way to work, and she lived close to where the storm was hitting pretty bad. He didn't like having to tell his employees that they still had to work, regardless of their saftey. They finally closed at 4:00. Later that afternoon, I received a phone call from the company I interviewed with to do a face to face with the VP of Operations (the position I was interviewing for is Operations Coordinator). I was pretty excited, and they wanted me to come the next day! That was good because my office was closed.

I was off again on Friday. They kept telling my husband that they were going to have to go in, but they were trying to decide WHEN. Finally, they made the call and said they didn't have to come in at all. YEAH!! I still went for my interview....it was close to my house and the weather was not too bad. This interview went pretty too. I left feeling somewhat confident, but you still never know. THEN, at 6:00 pm, she called and offered me the job!! I can not tell you what a relief this was. I was nervous about giving my 2 weeks, but it was such a burden lifted off my shoulders to have such an opportunity come up.

Monday, I took the kids to school. I though seeing Kaitlyn tell her teacher she was going to have to go to a new school was worse then me having to tell my boss I was leaving. It was really sad. I went to work, EXTREMELY nervous, and actually had an opportunity to tell my boss 1st thing. Brian did not want me to tell him until I had an official email offer from the company. I received the offer later that morning, and after lunch I went to tell him (not without crying though). BUT IT WAS DONE!!!! So, the rest of the days have been really hectic. Because I do actually care about my job and my customers, I am trying to finalize everything, close as many jobs as I can (so I can also get more $$), and just get everything to a point where there should not be any questions after I leave. Of course, there will be some questions, but it won't be a chaotic mess. At least I hope not.

SOOOO, this is the update. I do not start my new job until Sept. 16th, but my last day at my current job is Sept. 5th. This will give me a week to spend with the kids and also give me time to look at the daycare we are wanting to send them to and just spend some time relaxing.

My first week of work will be spent in Alabama for training, and the second week will be in Utah for a retreat. I will be home on the weekend in between, but my husband will have to play both mommy and daddy for 2 weeks.....Good luck!!

Sooo.....that is my update.......Sorry it took so long to give you all the news.....

Recipe Fun Friday

2008-08-22T08:00:00.004-04:00

O.k., so I tried 2 new recipes this week, and they were both good, so I have to share them with you. I forgot to take pictures of the 2nd one, so you will just have to imagine how good it looked. :)

1st Recipe: Chicken Gnocchi Veronese (ala Olive Garden) they have lots of recipes on their website http://www.olivegarden.com/ ) you can also adust the serving sizes on the website and it will automatically adjust the quanity of the ingredients. It's FABULOUS!!!
Prep Time: 30 min - 2 hrs, 30 m
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Serving Size:4

Ingredients:
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 small Vidalia onion, chopped (I left this out)
1 red bell pepper, sliced (julienned) (I left this out)
½ zucchini, sliced, (julienned) (I left this out)
Salt to taste
4 chicken breasts, sliced in ½” strips
2 small branches rosemary (I used what was in the cabinet)
1 garlic clove,
minced Juice of ½ lemon (I didn't have lemons, I had limes, but it worked just fine)

Veronese Sauce:
1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
½ cup ricotta cheese
14 fl oz heavy cream

Gnocchi:
2 qt water
6 oz all-purpose flour
2 eggs2 lbs russet potatoes
2 tsp salt
OR
1 lb gnocchi (potato dumplings), cooked according to package directions

(If you are like me, you will go the easier way out. I used the prepackaged gnocchi. If you shop at publix, it is close to the top shelf I believe on the Ethnic food aisle - not positive though)
Procedures NOTE: You may make your own gnocchi by following the steps below, or you may purchase them already made.

Gnocchi
WASH potatoes and place in water. Cook potatoes until soft (cook time will depend on size of potatoes). Remove potatoes from water and cool in refrigerator.
PEEL cooled potatoes and push them through a fine grater (rice grater) until mashed; do not over-mash potatoes or they will get tough. COMBINE potatoes, flour and eggs in a mixing bowl. Mix well until dough does not stick to hands (add small amounts of flour at a time if needed).
DIVIDE dough into 4 sections. Roll out each section into a long rope. Cut each rope into ½” pieces. Push fork tines on each piece for the classic gnocchi appearance. BRING water to a boil in a sauce pot. Drop in gnocchi and cook until they float.

Chicken & Sauce
COMBINE garlic, lemon juice, rosemary and chicken slices in a mixing bowl. Let marinate for at least 2 hours. (I didn't realize that you had to do this for 2 hrs, so I just let it marinate while I made the sauce, and it ended up just fine)

COMBINE Parmesan cheese, ricotta cheese and heavy cream in a mixing bowl and set aside.

HEAT sauté pan on medium high. Add extra virgin olive oil, onions, bell peppers, and zucchini. Saute until onions are translucent (do not brown). ADD marinated chicken slices and cook until slices are brown on all sides and internal temperature is 165°F. Reduce heat and add sauce mixture. Bring to a simmer. DRAIN cooked gnocchi and add to pan with chicken, vegetables and sauce. Stir to coat gnocchi with sauce. SERVE gnocchi topped with extra Parmesan cheese.

I do not like onions, zucchini or bell peppers, and when I order this at Olive Garden, I always leave it out there too. This was an EXCELLENT dinner. I do have to try to make the gnocchi next time, per my husband's request. We will see if I actually do it. They tasted fine without making them myself. My house smelled the the resteraunt. It was GREAT. Only thing missing was their fabulous salad and breadsticks. Other than that, I got an A+ on dinner.

I know it looks funny, but it was really good!!! :)

2nd Recipe: Chicken Vegetable Cobbler (aka Turkey Vegetable Cobbler) Ala Pampered Chef "It's good for you" recipe book

Chicken (or turkey) & Vegetable filling:
2 cups of diced cooked turkey or chicken
1 cup of sliced carrots (I didn't have carrots, so I used mixed vegetabls - 1 can)
1/2 cut chopped onion (did not use)
2 cups of broccoli
1 can fat-free reduced-sodium condensed cream of chcken soup (didn't have so used cream of mushroom - it was fine)
1 cup of 100% fat-free chicken broth
1/2 cut of 2& reduced-fat milk
1 garlic clove, pressed
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Biscut topping:
1 1/4 cups reduced-fat-all-purpose baking mix
1/2 cup 2 % reduced-fat milk
1 egg white
(I used already made biscuits for this part. Just make sure you flatten them or slice them in 1/2 (through the middle like you would open a biscuit up) otherwise, the biscuits will cook too fast!)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees (I would personally do 350 if you are using already made busicuts. Otherwise the tops of the biscuits will cook WAY too fast) For turkey (chicken) and vegetable filling, cut turkey into 1/2" cubes. Cut carrots into 1/4" slices. Chop onions. In a large microwaveable bowl, combine carrots, onions and broccoli. Microwave, covered, on high for 2-3 minutes or until crisp-tender; drain

2. Meanwhile, in a seperate bowl, combine soup, broth, milk, garlic, thyme and black pepper. whisk until blended. Stir in turkey (chicken) and vegetable mixture; mix well. Pour into baking dish.

3. For biscut toping, in smal bowl, combine baking mis, milk and egg white; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened and mixture forms a soft dough. Use a medium sized scoop, drop six scoops of dough over filling. Bake 30-35 min or until topping is golden brown.

I refrained from using all the "Pampered Chef lingo" for the tools and bowls you should use for the recipe. Being that I just signed up with Pampered Chef, I do not have any of my gadgets yet, other than the measuring spoons that I ordered from my friend. If you would like to know what gadgets, utensils, bowls, and cookware they suggest you use, I will be more than happy to send you the un-edited version. If you would like to host a party or place an order, let me know and I will be happy to take care of that was well! :) This would be a great support for my new business!! :)

Thank you for letting me share my two new recipes with you. Hope you enjoy!!!

Fay - I love her (well for now anyway)

2008-08-20T16:43:00.005-04:00

I was off yesterday with the kids! THEN, I got to stay home with the kiddies again today because of good ole Faye. I love Faye, ok well as long as all she brings is minor winds and rain, and keeps me out of work. I don't like the damage she is causing, but I do like that I do not have to go to work. I really would be happy if I never had to go to my job EVER again!! Wouldn't that be GREAT?? :) I'm off tomorrow too, so I better enjoy it while I can!

Update on Friday's blog. I got the results from my sonogram, and everything is fine with my uterus! :) YEAH!!

Hope everyone stays safe through the storms!

We made it through the week

2008-08-15T20:26:00.002-04:00

Well, we made it. Tyler survived his 1st week in his new class. He did get to visit his old class a few times though. When they are short staffed, they shuffle around a little. I'm sure he was excited to be in there. They let him take a 2nd nap if they think he needs it. In fact, I came t pick him up one day and he was sleeping. I think that allowed him to stay up a little bit and have dinner before he went to bed. He is definately wiped when he gets home.

I think mommy will survive too. I went on Thursday for my check up and finally asked her about the IUD. (if you do not know what that is, it's a form of birth control that lasts either 5 or 10 yrs.) I had to go get a sonogram of my uterus because she said it felt enlarged. I did not get a chance to call my doctor today to see if she received the results yet, but I also saw the sonogram tech typing notes and one said "No abnomalties found." I wasn't too worried after that. So, in about 2 weeks, I am going to have this procedure done to insert this IUD. I guess this solidifies our decision to not have anymore kids for a while. I have 5yrs. to decide if I want anymore..........

I think I will be o.k. :)

Drama Central

2008-08-15T20:13:00.003-04:00

Sorry I have not written in a couple of days. It has been rather crazy! Nothing but DRAMA at my office. My outside sales rep. quit yesterday. I am actually glad, because with her comes all the drama, and boy has she started it. I don't care to see her or hear from her ever again I don't think. I just don't need all that drama in my life too. What is sad is that we were starting to become friends, and I was starting to trust her. I am not sure really who/what to trust anymore. All I know is that I want nothing to do with any of it. I just want to stay in my office and be by myself, minding my own business. That is VERY hard to do at my office, because there is always something to stick your noes in around there. Oh well, for now I will try to be by myself.

We have a busy weekend. Tomorrow is my sister's son's 1st birthday. His birthday is 1 week after my son's. They actually adopted him a few months ago, and yesterday was the first day I have seen him (I know, I'm a bad sister). We try to get together, but something always happens with one or both of us. So, we will entertain ourselves at another 1yr. birthday party.

Before we do that though, we have several errunds to run. We have to go by Sprint and see what kind of deals they can offer us, I think my husband gets a discount through his work. Anyway, he is getting me a phone added to his plan, partially to help relieve some of this "Drama" from work, since my phone is ran through them. So, I get a new phone. I am VERY excited about that.

We also have to go see if we can find me a Jaguar shirt (I found one on my lunch break today, but I was not informed that we have to dress better than T-Shirts for the Jaguar game since we are going to be in my husband's company's box). This is going to be my first Jaguar game, and we are going 1ST class. We got tickets from my husband's work, and the CEO of his company will be there so we have to be on our BEST behavior. I think I can handle that.

We also have to go get a present for my nephew, as well as go by the bank to make our car payment.....All before 2:00. That should be fun!!!!

Now that you are bored to tears, I will go. I am about to fall asleep myslef!!

Good evening!

My sweet little girl

2008-08-13T14:19:00.008-04:00

At the school my kids go to, they do picture day twice a year. I think it is part of a scam on us parents to see how much money they can suck out of us, because they know we are going to buy these prescious pictures of our little ones. This last month, they did picture day with a horse. They dressed the kids up like cowgirls/boys, and made them sit on a horse. Kaitlyn's teacher said there were several that did not even get their picture made because they were crying. When you see Kaitlyn's pictures, you might understand why. She didn't look all too thrilled, but she suffered through it. I was able to scan all these pictures in my computer so that I did not have to pay for them!! :)

Enjoy!

I think I am having a heart attack!

2008-08-13T12:29:00.002-04:00

O.k. that might be a little drastic of a title for this blog, but my chest really does hurt, and it's NOT heartburn!!!

My job is VERY stressful at times, especially in this ecomony. A lot of people are scared to build houses or remodel because of interest rates, and the economy, and stock market, and just the fact that the price of EVERYTHING is going up, but our paychecks seem to be going down. It really is kinda scarry. It also doesn't help that a few people around here don't seem to have ANY sense of urgency to complete a job in a timely manner, so I am the one that gets yelled at because it is not done.

Today, my service manager, who know EVERYTHING about cabinetry, has called me SEVERAL times to tell me the stupidest (that's not a word, I know) things. I mean, come on! If you can build a masterpiece out of NOTHING, then why can you fix 1 TINY crack in a door? REALLY??? He has an excuse for everything, THEN when I told him if he couldn't get done with what he was doing by Friday like we told the builder, then HE had to call, he made the comment "I'm getting used to calling people now" WHATEVER!!!!!! I AM THE ONE THAT HAS TO CALL EVERYONE!! EVERYTIME!!!!!! He never has to call!! O.k. so maybe 1 time I made him call a customer, but that is only because I have been calling him since NOVEMBER of LAST YEAR!! That is VERY sad.

O.k. I guess I need to calm down now. This really is stressing me to the point that I am having CHEST PAINS!!! I need a new job....Anyone hiring?

An update on Tyler's 1st day in his new class

2008-08-12T09:40:00.001-04:00

As I said I would, I called as soon as I was done blogging yesterday to check on my son. She said he ate all of his big boy food. She smashed it all up and fed it to him. He took a good nap on his mat and had a good day over all. He did come home with a bump on his head. They thought he probably did it on a toy. It's o.k.! He's tough. He feel asleep on the way home and slept all night long. I felt so bad because he didn't have any dinner, but he was wiped!!! Oh my boy is growing up, and I'm still not ready for it!

I'm sure I will have more stories on how he is doing here soon!

One of these

2008-08-11T15:24:00.003-04:00

I received this email from my sister today, so I thought I would post it on my blog and fill it out. Right now I don't even want to be at work, so maybe this will help the time go by faster. Everything has gone wrong today and I really don't feel like calling people to tell them that either their stuff is not here YET again, or it's not coming for a while.......SO Here we go!

1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:45 AM
2. Diamonds or Pearls? DIAMONDS!!!
3. What two things do you always have with you? Kids and a diaper bag (well most of the time). I guess my cell phone all the time - can't live without it!
4. What is your favorite TV show? Anything on HGTV
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? What is breakfast? :)
6. What is your favorite book? Anything by Lori Wick, all time favorite Pretense
7. What is your middle name? Michelle
8. What food do you dislike? onions, peppers, cucumbers, liver, beets, ocra, anything NASTY!
9. What is your favorite CD? Rascal Flats
10. What type of car do you drive? Toyota 4Runner
11. Favorite sandwich? BLT
12. What characteristic do you despise? Lying
13. Favorite item of clothing? O.k. this might be funny, but my mom bought me a jean skirt when I was pregnant with Tyler and if it weren't a maternity skirt, I would still be wearing it....Second favorite are my Gap jeans that I got for like $10, and now I can't find anymore like it....I wore those until I was 6 mo pregnant with Tyler with a hair tie to button it up!! :)
14. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Ummm.....I am not really sure...Does everyone say Italy?
15. What color is your bathroom? I don't know if you can say it is a color....It's BLAH..BORING...We have not decorated...My cabinets are brown, counterts are white, tile is some weird yellowish brown color, and walls are kaki...I have floor mats that are blue and brown...to match the bedroom, but that's it.
16. Favorite brand of clothing? Anything at KOHLS!! I love that place!
17. Where would you like to retire to? Islands
18. What was your most recent memorable birthday? I would have to say 16th or my 25th (we were on a cruise!!!
19. Furthest place you are sending this? Depends on who ends up reading it.
20. Who do you least expect to send this back to you? Everyone that reads it
21. Person you expect to send it back first? Angela (she's the only one that reads my blogs on a daily basis :) )
22. Favorite saying? You are so funny
23. When is your birthday? May 12
24. Are you a morning person or a night person? No time of the day! I want to sleep ALWAYS!
25. What is your shoe size?6 1/2 - 7
26. Pets? Jasmine - want her?? :)
27. What did you want to be when you were little? A mom or a Teacher
28. How are you today? tired, little depressed, frustrate......
29. What is your favorite candy? Orange Starbursts, Peanut M&M'S
30. what is your favorite flower? Any of them
31. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? SEPT 1ST!!!
32. What is the last thing you ate? Chicken & Broccoli (Thai)
33. What are you listening to right now? 99.1 "Can't get enough of this everyday stuff"
34. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Purple
35. How is the weather right now? Hot
36. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My customer
37. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I have to, she's my sister!! :)
38. Favorite soft drink? Coke or Pepsi
39. Favorite restaurant? Ruth Chris (wish I had enough $$ to eat there often!)
40. Hair color? Brunette
41. Sibling(s): Jennifer, Stephanie, Shawn
42. Favorite day of the year? Any Holiday (I get the day off work to spend time with my family)
43. What was your favorite toy as a child? ummm I am not sure about this one.
44. Summer or winter? Maybe Fall...Because in Florida it's not too hot but not cold either...Next would be winter....Summer is UNBEARABLE!!
45. Hugs or kisses? Both
46. Chocolate or Vanilla? vanilla
47. Do you want your friends to email you back? DEFINATELY
48. When was the last time you cried? This morning when I got off the phone with my friend
49. What is under your bed? I am not really sure....Wouldn't be surprised if there was a bottle hiding under there or some dolls' shoes
50. Who is the friend you have had the longest? Angela 21 yrs!
51. Favorite smell? Fruit
52. What are you afraid of? Bugs, reptiles, Im a girl!!
53. Plain, butter or salted popcorn? Salted with LOTS of Butter
54. How many keys on your key ring? 3, car, house, mom's house
55. How many years at your current job? 6yrs.
56. Favorite day of the week? Friday
57. How many towns have you lived in? 1
58. Do you make friends easily? Yes!
59. How many people will you be sending this to? Depends on how many read it!

My son is no longer a "baby"

2008-08-11T11:06:00.005-04:00

I have so much other stuff I SHOULD be doing right now, but I just finished a deadline and sent the info to the customer, so I feel like I can slack off for just a little bit. I am also STARVING, but I have to wait until 12:00 to eat lunch because I am going to lunch with my dad.

So, my son is no longer a baby. This saddens me a little bit. On Thursday (his first birthday), after taking him to the doctor for his 1 yr check up, I dropped him off at the daycare. I had received my receipt for payment for the week with a note on the bottom that the fees were going down $4/week ($20/mo) and I was EXSTATIC! What I did not realize is that he was going to be moving up to the next class……

IM NOT READY!!!!!!

Tyler is definitely ready to go to the next class, other than he is not walking yet, but there is another girl in his class that is not walking either. He also does not eat table food yet, but I told her she was more than welcome to try and if he didn’t eat it she said she would feed him his baby food. We will see how he did when I pick him up. In fact, I will probably call as soon as I am done with this blog. He also has to take a nap on the big boy mat now….we will see how well that works.

IM NOT READY!!!!!!!

I guess since Kaitlyn was with a girlfriend of mine when she was Tyler’s age, and she didn’t really make me go through stages like this, I didn’t really realize how quickly she was growing up. BUT I also think part of it is this is my last one (for now), and I want him to stay a baby forever. Kaitlyn came to work with me 1-2 times a week until she was 6 months old, but I was not able to do that with Tyler. He also goes to bed A LOT sooner than she used to. So, I guess since I am working all the time, it feels like he is growing up even faster!!!!!

IM NOT READY!!!!!!!

I guess I better get ready. Ready or not, here it comes!

Recipe Fun Friday (Sunday)

2008-08-10T16:20:00.003-04:00

So my Friday was SO busy that I did not have time to write this. I also did not remember to take pictures of what I made. Trust me though, if you was it, you may not have wanted to try it, but it was really good.

I had a Pampered Chef Party for a friend of mine a few weeks ago. She made this, so I thought I would try to make it for Brian and I to eat one night for dinner. Brian liked it, so it must have been good :)

Cheeseburger Salad - the idea is that you make everything you put on a cheeseburger in salad form (Kara, if you are reading this, I just made my own recipe up, so if it is not the "Pampered Chef" way, it's only because I could not find my book and I just made it however I could remember)

1 lb. of ground beef
1 cup of ketchup
1/4 cup of mustard
1 tablespoon of mayo (I added this because I wanted to)
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
sliced tomatoes
pickles chopped (i left these out)
2 sets of hamburger buns (2 tops and 2 bottoms)
lettuce chopped (romaine)

Toast hamburger buns in oven on 350 until brown

Brown the ground beef. Mix with ketchup, mustard, mayo (optional), pickles in a bowl. Pour over lettuce. Sprinkle cheddar chesse over salad mixture. Lay sliced tomoatoes over a mixture. Slice hamburger buns and lay over top of salad......

AND

DIG IN!!!

Like I said, my husband liked it, so I will have to make it again sometime.......

"Next Blog"

2008-08-05T16:10:00.002-04:00

O.k. so have you ever clicked the "next blog" link up on the top of the screen? I just did, and it was interesting and even disturbing to see what I saw. I guess it just rolls though blogs, not sure if they are in any kind of order. Some of them were in foreign languages so I could not read them. I just scrolled through one where the person charts everything they eat every day and even takes pictures of it.....They were on like day 23. That was weird. Anyway, just wondering if anyone was as curious as I was!

How do you like it?

2008-08-05T14:50:00.002-04:00

So, I con'd a friend of mine, well not really she offered, into making my blog all pretty like hers. What do you think? I think she did a GREAT JOB!!!!

KUDOS!

Another silly Forward

2008-08-05T09:10:00.005-04:00

I got this in an email from one of my subs. He decided to email me this instead of his invoice yesterday. What he doesn't know is now I am not going to pay him until next week...LOL Just kidding. I thought any of you men that might read my blog might get a kick out of this. I was laughing pretty hard too, because I am married, and my husband often tells me some of these things. I thought it was good enough to share.....Hope you enjoy.

Women: if you are reading this, don't get upset. It's rather funny, but men really do think this way.

Finally , the guys' side of the story.
( I must admit, it's pretty good.)

We always hear ' the rules ' From the female side. Now here are the rules from the male side.

Please note.. These are all numbered '1' ON PURPOSE!

1. Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it
down.

1. Sunday sports. It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hin ts do not work!
Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

1. 'Yes' and 'No' are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become Null and void after 7 Days.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one .

1. You can either ask us to do something, or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin i s also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say 'nothing,' we will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine... Really .

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball or golf.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this. Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight;

But did you know men really don't mind that? It's like camping.

Tyler's Party

2008-08-04T15:39:00.001-04:00

We had Tyler's birthday party on Saturday and it was fun. Some friends and family members came over to help celebrate. Tyler was getting tired when it came time to do cake, so he cried when he put his hand in the cake. It was still cute. I will upload pictures soon so you can see them.

Memories

2008-08-01T23:16:00.003-04:00

Let's see if this will work....

I was looking at pictures, so in honor of Tyer's First Birthday (which is not until Aug 7), I made a slide show. Hope you enjoy!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I've graduated!!!

2008-08-01T10:57:00.001-04:00

So I decided to do this again, and I must have put a big word in my last few blogs or something, because I have graduated from Elementary Level to Junior High...NO, I did not cheat!!

Kids say the funniest things

2008-08-01T10:50:00.003-04:00

I had to do 2 seperate blogs because I could not mix a funny one with something as serious as a friend losing her baby. It just didn't feel right.....

Anyway, we have been talking about Tyler's Birthday party at home and how both of the kids used to be babies in mommys tummy and now they are soooooo big......

Kaitlyn decided to strike up a conversation with me on the way home last night. It went something like this.....

"Mommy, when I was a baby, I was in your tummy....." I reponded, "Yes baby, that's right." Then she proceeded as follows....."Mommy, when you was a baby, you was in my tummy. And, you was in my tummy last night and I pushed you out and now you are big." I could not help but laugh. I have tried to explain to her that I was in my mommy's tummy, but she kept insisting that I was in her tummy.

This morning, she decided to tell me that she went to Disney World last night. We have been discussing the idea of going this year, but I am not sure if we are going to make it or not. But, anyway, aparantly she went there last night while we were all sleeping!

Aren't kids cute? I can't wait until Tyler starts talking so I can see what is going on in his little brain!!!

Saddened....

2008-08-01T09:58:00.004-04:00

A "friend" of mine just lost her baby. She was only 10 weeks and went in for her 1st sonogram and there was no heartbeat. Her husband sent a message to my husband Wednesday night to let him know. At first we were not sure what happened. His message read, "Will not be at Tijuana tomorrow. We lost the baby." (The boys all get together every Thursday for lunch @ Tijuana.) Yesterday, he called my husband to tell him the details. They had the DNC yesterday, and told them that it wasn't anything she did, there was something wrong with the baby (ie...disease, mental problem, something of that sort, they were not specific). It's one of those bitter sweet things. You are saddened because you lost your child, but you are also somewhat greatful that if there were indeed issues, your child is not going to have to live their life with those kinds of handicaps.

What also saddens me is that I am not sure if these "friends" of ours are Christians. Not to say that they do not believe in God, but "Christian" in what the word really means. I think you can have religion without being a "Christian." Sure, they got married in a church, and they did the religious baptism for their first child, but they do not attend church regularly. I know that is is difficult for the mother, but I am also saddened by the fact that she might be blaming herself, God, or someone/something that this happened. I do not know if she has the faith to fall back on God to help her through this time. I don't know what I would do in this situation, but I hope that I can be there for her as a friend.......

Ridiculousness.....

2008-07-29T13:13:00.002-04:00

So when is it ever fair/right to take credit (in whole or partial) for something you DID NOT DO?? So why do people feel that they have a right to do so?

So remember the blog about the customer that came in that should have been for the other girl that works here? Well, you see, she took it upon herself to first of all LIE to the boss saying that I split something that she did all the work for because it was my referal (NEVER happened). What I have done before, because I am a fair person, was split a sale with a friend of mine because she did ALL the work before she quit working here, then I closed the job after she left. I didn't do ANY work other than make the changes after the house was measured, suggested a few design changes, confirmed colors, and ordered the job. Granted, I also made sure the job was completed properly, but that is my job to do for everyone here. I thought it was only fair to split the bonus with her, because she did most of the work. I am just nice like that. I have NEVER EVER EVER split bonuses with someone that did ALL the work with one of my customers. If I was not here and they designed and sold the job while I was gone, I didn't take any credit for it. I would never do that. IN FACT, I was on maternity leave and someone came in and signed a contract that was with MY builder and do you think she split ANYTHING with me? NO!! Not only did she take the builder. but she tried to hide the fact that she even worked with people that were my customers.....IT'S RIDICULOUS I TELL YOU, RIDICULOUS!!! I need a new job...Please pray for me! :)

Saturdays are for Sleeping!!!!

2008-07-26T10:10:00.002-04:00

I really think that the company I work for should NOT be open on Saturdays UNLESS you have an appointment with your sales rep. I really think that it would save us some money to not have to pay someone to come in and work on Saturday unless they have a scheduled appointment. THEN I would NEVER have to work on Saturday!!!! :) I have been here since 9:00 and I had 1 lady drop off some samples she checked out and that is IT! I do think I am supposed to have someone come in at 11:00. Maybe that will make the rest of the time pass by more quickly......

After I get off work, I have to go to Publix to order a birthday cake for my son's 1st birthday. We are having a party next Saturday for him. I still can't believe he is going to be 1! I am having a hard time trying to figure out the theme because he is not really into anything right now....Kaitlyn was a little easier, but I can't find the cake we did for her (it was universal, so we could use the same one again and it wouldn't make a difference). I guess I will just stick to blue and boy stuff. His room is in sports, but that's only because Daddy plays/likes sports.......Tyler will be in big trouble if he doesn't like sports :)

Tonigt were are going to be adventerous and go to game night at a friend's house. This will be fun, because we don't really do things other than hang out at the house with the kids........

Monday is not only my mom's birthday, but also our 2 yr. wedding anniversary. We have yet to decide if we are going to take the kids to school then spend the day together or just enjoy the day with the kids.......I don't think we are going to be up to driving the kids to the other side of town to school, so they will probably stay home with us. It should be fun, we don't get too much time with them during the week. We might even adventure a trip to the beach..........

Isn't it amazing???

2008-07-25T10:18:00.004-04:00

So, my last blog was about how busy it has been at work being that my help is gone. Also, that a customer came in that should have been for her, but because she wasn't here, they will become my customer.

Well, the lady came back yesterday morning to sign all per paperwork and place her order...YEAH......BUT listen to this.........

She sat down in my office and we were talking about things, I asked here where her kids were going to camp (because she told me that she had just dropped them off), and she told me they were actually at VBS at church. When anyone mentions church, I always ask them where they go, being that my husband and I are in search of a church home that we both like. This usually gives me ideas of other places we can try if it is close to our home.

At first, it didn't all click with me, she told me she was going to a church close by that was Spanish. After a minute, I put 2 and 2 together and realized that she went to the church that the Pastor used to go to the same church I did, his son and I are the same age. (No, I am not Spanish - incase you didn't see my picture, nor do I speak it, we went to a regular church and he ran the Spanish Ministry there.) It was kinda neat to see that we knew the same people, which in turn opened up another door.......

We started talking about our families and that we are trying to find a church and different things and found that we had several things in common. It was really quite encouraging. She came back this morning to pick out her hardware for the cabinetry and brought me some Christian Magaizines and even a book that she had ordered that they sent her 2 of. She said she hung on to it for a long time thinking maybe there was someone that needed it....hmmm..

Isn't it amazing how things like that happen? It truly is!

It's been a couple of days......

2008-07-23T16:39:00.002-04:00

O.k. so I haven't posted anything since Monday. I've been rather busy........

The girl that works with me as been out all week and will not be back until Monday, so I am left doing EVERYTHING, BUT that's o.k. I got a sale out of it today. Should have been hers, but now it's MINE! You snooze you lose....That' mean. I shouldn't be like that because she is out of town visiting her father who got in an accident this weekend. Still, I'm not giving her the sale.

So, today has been rather frantic. My desk looks like it exploded paper work and I really don't feel like doing any of it....

I had a Pampered Chef party this weekend....Being a Pampered Chef Consultant sound WONDERFUL right now....Would you let me host a party for you??

They grow up so fast!!!!

2008-07-21T11:03:00.010-04:00

My dad called me last week to ask for photos of Tyler. He knows someone that makes digital photo albums and he wants to have one made of Tyler (I already made one of Kaitlyn), and he was going to have one made for me too. So, here I am today, in lieu of an EXTREMELY busy day, organizing photos of my son that will be 1 yr old on Aug. 7th. My, my how time flies. As I look back at these photos from delivery to today, I can't believe how fast both my kids have grown up. It seems like yesterday I found out that I was pregnant with the 1st, and now I have 2! WOW!!!

I will let you enjoy what I have been looking at the last hour or so.........

Fresh out of the womb!!!

Sleeping at home on mommy's bed

Chunky Monkey!!

Sissy and Bubby playing (tyler @ 6 mo.)

Tyler and Daddy (9 months)

Bubba ready for church.....Isn't he cute!!!!

(this is 10 months )

Here's the both of them!!! Aren't they both so BIG??

O.k. now that you know what a proud mom I am!!!!! Hope you enjoyed looking at my kids!

Today's Mood: Want to crawl in a hole and not come out....

2008-07-18T09:21:00.002-04:00

So there is not a mood thing on here like they have on facebook or myspace, but if we did have one, mine would read as follows:

Stacie: wants to crawl in a hole and not come out for a very long time..........

I'm not going to go into too much detail, because I think certain aspects of our lives are personal and should not be discussed with just anyone and everyone, but I will say that I am in a "sad" mood today.

Life is rough!! But you have to grow up and take it like an adult! Sometimes I wish I was a still a kid living at home with parents to take care of me and not really have to make any "BIG DECISIONS." I don't hate my life by any means, it's just sometimes you are in a place and you are not sure how to get out of it and you aren't really sure what any of the answers are......

It's hard to stand on shifting sand
It's hard to shine in the shadows of the night
You can't be free if you don't reach for help
You cant love if you dont love yourself
There is hope when my faith runs out
Cause I'm in better hands now

It's like the sun is shining when the rain is pouring down
It's like my soul is flying though my feet are on the ground
So take this heart of mine there's no doubt
I'm in better hands now

I am strong all because of you
I stand in awe of every mountain that you move
Oh I am changed, yesterday is gone
I am safe from this moment on
There's no fear when the night comes 'round
I'm in better hands now

It's like the sun is shining when the rain is pouring down
It's like my soul is flying though my feet are on the ground
So take this heart of mine there's no doubt
I'm in better hands now

It's like the sun is shining when the rain is pouring down
It's like my soul is flying though my feet are on the ground
Its like the world is silent though
I know it isnt true
Its like the breath of Jesus is right here in this room

So take this heart of mine there's no doubt
I'm in better hands now
I'm in better hands now

That song was just on the radio and I really like it. Sometimes it's hard to believe that you are in better hands....We may not always have the answers, but Someone does.

Tempertantrums

2008-07-17T20:14:00.002-04:00

So I will have to say that I have been blessed with reasonably good children. I am not one of those moms that thinks her kid does nothing wrong and insists that they are good when all they do is raise all kinds of rucus! We have had the normal tempertantrums where they try to test their boundaries (really only Kaitlyn, Tyler has not gotten to that stage just yet, but he is starting to get there). She has never been one of those kids though that you just look at and think, "her parents need to beat her."

Today was a totally different story. I went to pick the kids up from school like normal, and everything seemed to be o.k. (other than my 2 yr. old that was a little hyper from not being able to go outside and play all day - expected). She has recently started to pout or whine whenever she does not get her way, but I have found that ignoring her has been the best. She usually stops quickly and realizes that she is not getting her way.

She decided that she wanted to close her door herself (which is amost impossible for her to do from inside the car, but she likes to think she can), and when I shut the door and got in the car it was the end of the world. I actually had to stop the car in the parking lot and tend to her in the back seat, but that did not help. Almost the entire way home she SCREAMED at the top of her lungs, kicked and tried to get out of the car seat. I honestly have never seen something like this from her before. It shocked me so much I had to move the rear view mirror so she could not see me because I was laughing. You may think why was I laughing, but I think it was mostly out of shock.

Needless to say we took care of things when we got home, and I don't think it will happen again. She seriously looked like she was possessed....that's bad to say, but she was screaming SOOO Loud I thought her eyes were going to pop out of her head.

Oh the joys of being a parent!!!!

Elemantary School Rating

2008-07-17T15:41:00.007-04:00

So I should not have read Angela's Blog, because I did it too and I found out that my blog is at an Elementary Level....I don't know if I like that or not. I should write about more intelligent things......I mean for gosh sakes I do have a college degree, but I did no enjoy creative writing all that much. I'm not very creative!

(the link does not work because I was too retarded to figure out how to make it work so I just copied the picture)

Potty Training

2008-07-16T08:40:00.002-04:00

Both of my kids started in school the first of this year. Kaitlyn had just turned 2 in October, and we had not really started potty training. When she started in school, her teacher told me that she takes the kids potty ever hour so that should help with the potty training. After a while she was doing good, even asking to go (while she was at school mind you). She would still wear a pull-up for nap time and when they went outside, because she would still sometimes have accidents, and there was the pooping issue. She REFUSED to go poop on the potty.

FINALLY, about a month ago, her teacher told her she was not putting pull-ups on anymore and she needed to use the potty. She has been doing VERY good. When she started doing that, I stopped putting pull-ups on at home because I noticed she would not tell me she needed to go potty unless she had panties on. One day she needed to poop, and she went in her room and put a pull-up on just so she could go because she didn't want to go on the potty. We had a little chat after that, and I showed her we only had 2 pull-ups left and mommy was not buying anymore (I still have some in the diaper bag, but she doesn't know that). I decided that it was too expensive to buy pull-ups and if she still needed to wear one at night time then she could wear a diaper, since her and Tyler wear the same size, knowing she does not want to wear a diaper.

Last night I decided to put panties on her. I have the thicker kind as well as the plastic cover-up that I was going to put on her, BUT, I couldn't find the cover-up. I was very hesitant and almost went and got a diaper to put on her, but she wanted to wear the panties. So, she went potty before bed (and even pooped too :) ), and went to bed. About 10:00 I woke her up and tried to get her to go potty but she didn't need to go. I also told her when she was going to bed that she needed to get up and go potty because she did not have another mermaid sheet (her whole room is little mermaid and she LOVES it!). She would have to use one of Tyler's sheets, and she doesn't like that. I woke up around 2:45 and thought about getting her up to go potty again, but I didn't. When I got up this morning I thought I had made a mistake not getting up.

Kaitlyn woke up and went straight to the potty in my room. She told me she did not pee pee in her panties, so I checked her....YEAH! WE WERE DRY!!!!!

I know this may not be a big deal to you, but it is to me. Do you have any idea how expensive those pull-ups are? I am sure we will still have accidents, but I am so proud of her. She's getting sooo big!!

STUPID PEOPLE

2008-07-15T12:40:00.002-04:00

WHY DO I WORK WITH STUPID PEOPLE???

All I have dealt with is issues on jobs all morning long, and they would not be issues if someone would have used their head! I try so hard to make sure everything goes well (being that I am the service coordinator), and stress to my guys out in the field that they need to let me know when there are issues and problems, but they still insist on doing stupid things and making me look like an idiot!

It's time for a new job....are there stupid people EVERYWHERE or just here???

Maybe I should just stay home with my kids. But then I would have to give up the housekeeper as well as the frequent trips to Target, Kohls, and the mall...hmmmm maybe I will deal with stupid peoplea little bit longer!!!

New Hair Do

2008-07-15T10:34:00.002-04:00

So, I have a friend that does hair at my house (or my sister's house as we did this time), and she does a fabulous job. She cuts and colors my hair (usually with 3 colors, but this time I just went with 2), and I only pay her $60.00. SOOO, If you are in need of a cut and color, let me know! She is fabulous! She does not work in a salon, because she doesn't like all the drama and gossip (she shouldn't work with me either!! :) ) Here is a picture of my new hair - I went dark this time!!

Clean houses....then again maybe not

2008-07-13T21:28:00.003-04:00

Why is it that when you clean the house (or have it cleaned - like I do), within hours or if you are lucky enough, the next day, it doesn't look like anything was ever done? This week we started having the lady that cleans my mom's house come and start cleaning ours. You may think that I am spoiled, but being that my husband and I both work high stress jobs and we have 2 kids, we decided for the sake of our sanity and marriage that we needed to get help with the household chores. We also desperately need to sell our house, so we figured that if we can get someone to help keep it clean, maybe we can start showing. NOW, if I could just get somone to come in my house and throw away the things I don't need, and organize the rest, I think we will be in good shape!! Design to sell here we come!!!!!!

After all that, it now looks like nothing was ever even done. Why...why does that happen? I have been trying to get in the habit to either wait until the end of the day and run the vacuum in the kitchen or right after they get done eating. Sometimes I wait because otherwise I would be running it all day long. I have also tried to get Kaitln in the habit of cleaning up after herself, but that doesn't always get done. The attention span of a 2 year old is not very long.

My kids are both spoiled to death not only by mom and dad, but also by both grandmas and my sister and her husband. They have so many toys that they get bored with them, so this is what I have decided to do........

This next month is Tyler's birthday and if it is ANYTHING at all like Kaitlyn's 1st birthday he will get a MOUND of presents. My husband and I decided that we are not going to spend the kind of money on a party and presents like we did for Kaitlyns, partly because we can't afford it, but also because we are trying to teach our kids that they don't NEED all that stuff. SO, I am going to go through all of their toys (mostly Kaitlyn because Tyler is still kinda too young), make a pile to donate and keep the rest, BUT I want to put some of them away and every few months rotate the toys she plays with so it will seem (to her) that she has something new. ALSO, I am not opeing all of Tyler's gifts, and will keep some of the for Christmas most likely. We are also going to try to down play Christmas this year since my family used to be ALL ABOUT THE PRESENTS. I really don't want my kids growing up like spoiled little brats, and I forsee one of them being like that if we don't change some things. PLUS, the less toys they have, the less I will have to CLEAN!!! :)

So, I will hope that next week's cleaning experience will go a little better.....Maybe I could take another day off and get some organizing done.......hmmmm....One would only hope!!!

Wonderful Husbands Part 2

2008-07-11T07:55:00.003-04:00

Today I feel awful. I think my husband gave me whatever he had last weekend and earlier this week. I am VERY tired and my throat hurts and body aches....I need some sleep......(this is not why he is so wonderful).

We got up this morning and he could see that I felt awful. I didn't even want to take a shower (but I did). He told me to call in sick to work and he would take the kids to daycare. You may think, "What's the big deal about that?" WELL, He has NEVER taken them to daycare. Not that he doesn't want to. We decided it would be better if the kids were on the side of town I work on for a few reasons. 1st being that I am the one with the more flexible time, so if one of them were sick, it's me that would be able to go get them. I didn't want to have to drive all the way back over here by the house making my sick child have to wait 30 min. for mommy to come get them (is that a dumb reason? I don't think so....) 2nd was $$. All the daycares on this side of town that had any infant openings when we were looking to put them in school, were amost double the price for childcare....THAT'S INSANE!!!!! Plus, I liked this center the best. The kids love it and they love them!!!! So, on days like this, which has not happened since we put them in in January, it makes it look crazy for having them over there. Don't worry we are looking into different options since Kaitlyn will be in preschool next year. We found one we like right across the street from where Brian works!! WOOOHOOO.......

So, now that I have made my blog for the day, I am going back to bed..........ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Tagged

2008-07-10T21:07:00.002-04:00

O.k. This is a continuation of the "meme" tag last week. Dustin, my friend's husband, finally updated his blog and did the "meme" tag. His suggestion was if you already did it, then to name 10 movies you and your significant other like to watch together.....Well being that we NEVER get to watch movies, and if we do watch a movie, we only watch it once, it's hard to say what movies we like to watch together. We ususally watch all movies together unless it is a stupid sci-fi movie.....(not all of them are stupid, but some of them are and my husband still insists on renting them.) Most of the time when we do turn on a movie, I fall asleep so I don't think that counts as watching a movie together.....SO, what I decided to do was name 10 T.V. shows (the idea came from Angela - Dustin's wife) that we like to watch together....

1. Design to Sell
2. House Hunters
3. Divine Design ( Candice Olson does some killer designs)
4. Flippin Out
5. Hidden Potential
6. The Real Estate Channel (that sounds boring)
7. Scrubs
8. Desperate House Wives
9. Friends
10. Extreme Makeover Home Edition

Yes, most of our T.V. shows are on HGTV....We LOVE that channel. Being that I am a designer and Brian's dream plan would be to flip houses (given the market being better), we get a lot of ideas. You would think our house would be killer with all the ideas we have...NOPE! We bought this house with the intention of selling it, so Brian does not want me to personalize it too much. We do have some family photos out, but the walls are neutral and he doesn't want me to paint......NEXT HOUSE!!!

So, now feel free to do favorite TV shows or Movies.....This was fun.

Thank God for wonderful Husbands

2008-07-10T08:52:00.003-04:00

My husband is so great!! He has been sick the last few days so I have been making sure everything was taken care of for the kids and getting the bags and bottles made (he did make them yesterday morning). This morning he was feeling better. He got up at the same time as I did and got ready, then went and made the bottles. After he made the bottles, he got Tyler up and dressed (this time in matching clothes!!!), brought him to me and got Kaitlyn dressed while I fed Tyler. He finished feeding Tyler and put him in the car while I fixed Kaitlyn's hair and put her shoes on, then put her in the car so all I had to do was grab my purse and the diaper bag and drive away...OH how nice of a morning I have had. The kids did not scream and cry on the way to school (they must have known that mommy has been stressed lately). The drop off went smoothe. Tyler did fuss a little for me to hold him when I stayed longer in his class to talk to his teacher, but he soon found a ball and I was forgotten.

I have lunch plans with a friend today, I'm ready for lunch now!! :)

Hope today goes better..........

BUSY..........

2008-07-09T16:53:00.003-04:00

I have been so busy today that I have not even had time to make a post today......

So, in short here we go:

Day started out better....work is the same all the time but I stayed in my office all day. Caught up on some things and realized I did a kitchen design with NO fridge....nice.

About to go home and I have a meeting with my husband tonight....

Final thought for today: THANK GOD I DIDN'T WEAR WHITE PANTS TODAY - NUF SAID!!!

Conversation I had with my boss

2008-07-08T16:41:00.002-04:00

Hopefully no one that knows the people I work with read this, otherwise they will know I write about them.....

My husband is always telling me I need to stand up for myself more (like I do with him). Here at the office I just let things go when they bother me, well most of the time anyway. Lately things have gotten "stressful." I am getting a little bit tired of people talking to me like a child and like I don't know how to do my job. I am told how it needs to be handled and when I do handle it that way, it's still wrong.....

Yesterday I had called my boss to ask him if he could meet the countertop man on a jobsite because the homeowner really did not know what to tell him if he had any questions. I can understand that, we installed the job, so we should have all the answers right? He agreed to meet him out there and I told him he would be there at 9:00, because that is the time that was told to me. At 9:30 I received a call from my boss stating he was not there yet and he didn't want to wait much longer, he had things to do. So I called the countertop man and was told the guy was knocking on the front door.....Called my boss back and relayed the info EXCEPT, he was not knocking on the door. I called the countertop man back to say NO HE'S NOT (by this point I was getting frustrated....why was I on a rat race??) Needless to say, my boss called me back and when on and on about how he had wasted 45 minutes of his time and he wanted to back charge him 45 minutes and take it off the bill and yaddah yaddah yaddah...meanwhile I am just listening. He the said "what do you think?" I said "I don't know what to say to that other than you are late to your appointments too....." So why is it that when a customer gets upset that he is late to an appointment then that is not o.k., but when someone else is late, then it is wasting his time?? I don't get it. The homeowner finally called him back around 10:00 and told him that the guy was there and that he told him he would be there between 9:30-10:30. My boss decided it was necessary to call me back and tell me that. All I said was I guess it was miscommunication....The guy doing the measuring though he was supposed to be there between 9:30-10:30 so he didn't think he was running late, that is why he didn't call to tell you, and I was told 9:00 from someone different. He then said "maybe I should call them since you are acting nonchalant about this." My response..."O.K." What the heck was I supposed to do? How many times have these people helped us out when we needed help? So lets just piss or vendors off because they were 30 min. "late" and you had other things to do....LIKE WHAT???

O.k.......yes I have had a rough day!

cool!!

2008-07-08T13:28:00.001-04:00

http://www.mychurch.org/blog/30635/coolest-video-ever

check this out!! turn your volume on!

Saddened but greatful

2008-07-08T11:50:00.003-04:00

This is the most I have ever posted in one day. I was just humbled by one of my subcontractors. I have one that has become my favorite. He tries so hard to re-arrange his schedule to do whatever it is I need done, when I need it done, never complaining about what it is or how much (little) it pays. He also has a son the age of my daughter with whom he NEVER gets to see. He just stopped by to ask me to fax some paper work over to the court system so that he can get rights to see his son at least 3 weekends a month because the mamma does not let him see his kid but ever few weeks and only for a few hours at a time. It was really sad. When he was leaving I told him that I hoped his day got better and at least his kid didn't spill milk all over the back seat of his car....his response "it's not like I could have been around to see it if he did...." That made me very sad.

I need to be thankful that I am able to see my kids every day. That I am awared the opportunity to drop them off at school every day and pick them up. To be across the street from their school if anything goes wrong and they need me. To be able to spend time with them whenever I want to. I see myself getting frustrated to constantly hearing "mommy...mommy..." but I need to be thankful that I do get to hear that. Some people are not as luck as me, and boy do I have the best kids in the whole world!!!

Be greatful for your children, there are plenty of people in the world that would love to have kids and can not.......

More forwards, this time it's not a joking matter

2008-07-08T10:00:00.004-04:00

O.k. I have another forward, but I felt compelled to leave this message for anyone and everyone to read. I have kids, and this is scarry.....................

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

McDonalds, Chuck E Cheese, Discovery Zone... All places with ball pits in the children*s play area.One of my sons lost his watch, and was very upset.We dug and dug in those balls, trying to find his watch.Instead, we found vomit, food, feces, and other stuff I do not want to discuss.I went to the manager and raised hell.Come to find out, the ball pit is only cleaned out once a month.I have doubts that it is even done that often. My kids will never play in another ball pit.Some of you might not be parents, but you may have nieces, nephews, grandchildren, or friends with children.This will pertain to you too. As I read the following, my heart sank.I urge each and every one of you to pass this on to as many people as you can.I cannot stress how important this is!Hi. My name is Lauren Archer, my son Kevin and I lived in Midland, TN.On October 2nd, 1999 I took my only son to McDonald's for his 3rd birthday.After he finished lunch, I allowed him to play in the ball pit. When he started whining later on, I asked him what was wrong, he pointed t o the back of his pull-up and simply said 'Mommy, it hurts.I couldn't find anything wrong with him at that time.I bathed him when we got home, and it was at that point when I found a welt on his left buttock.Upon investigating, it seemed as if there was something like a splinter under the welt.I made an appointment to see the doctor the next day, but soon he started vomiting and shaking, then his eyes rolled back into his head.From there, we went to the emergency room. He died later that night.It turned out that the welt on his buttock was the tip of a hypodermic needle that had broken off inside.The autopsy revealed that Kevin had died from a heroine overdose.The next week, the police removed the balls from the ball pit.There was rotten food, several hypodermic needles: some full, some used; knives, half-eaten candy, diapers, feces, and and the stench of urine.You can find the article on Kevin Archer in the October 10, 1999 issue of the Midland Chronicle.Don't think it's just McDonald's either.A little boy had been playing in a ball pit @ a Burger King & started complaining of his legs hurting.He later died too.He was found to have snake bites all over his legs & buttocks.When they cleaned the ball pit they found that there was a copperhead's nest in the ball pit.He had suffered numerous bites from a very poisonous snake.Repost this if it scares the crap out of you!! Repost this if you care about kids!! Please forward this to all loving mothers, fathers and anyone who loves and cares for children!! What has this world come to??If a child is not safe in a child's play area then where??

Rough Start

2008-07-08T09:16:00.002-04:00

So today started rather rough.....

I have been trying to get Tyler his breakfast before we leave the house, because when he moves up to the next class, they do not feed them breakfast. So, I have been trying to be a good mom and feed both my kids a good breakfast before I leave the house. Normally, this works pretty well. Kaitlyn will usualy get up while I am getting ready so I can get her fed before I am done getting ready, and my husband is usually up helping by making the bottles and even getting Tyler up and dressed at times. This morning was different. My husband is sick, so he did not get up to make the bottle and both kids must have been exhausted from our very stressful Target trip the night before because they were both still sleeping at 7:45. I went to get Tyler up and dressed and he was starting to wake up, I opened Kaitlyn's doors so maybe the noise of Tyler and me playing while I get him dressed would hopefully wake her up. It did! But by the time I got both kids ready it was almost 8:00 and still no breakfast. (I like to leave before 8.) We will had to make a birthday card for her teacher's birthday too. So I sit down to feed Tyler and Kaitlyn was upset because I had not gotten her breakfast yet. That meant I had to get up and get hers while Tyler screamed because he was hungry. We got both of them fed (mind you I think there is more peaches in my hair than actually made it in his mouth), got them in the car and pulled out of the driveway at 8:10....not too bad right? Tyler likes to drink his bottle in the car on the way to school, which helps keep him distracted meaning NO SCREAMING all the way to school. He dropped the first one I gave him and it was not where I could reach it, so I grabbed another one out of the bag. A little later I hear him sucking on something so I look in the back and he had unscrewed the top off the bottle and poured milk all over the car and himself...NICE. When I drop the kids off at school, I usually have to drop Kaitlyn off first because she can not be in the baby room. This morning I took him straight his class and asked them if they could PLEASE change his clothes. I think those ladies in there hate me. I am always forgetting something or doing something wrong. The probably wonder how my children survive with a mom like me........

Im at work now...Let's hope this gets better!

Funny Forward

2008-07-07T10:50:00.006-04:00

Do you hate forwards? Why is it that people with nothing to do all day long think you have nothing to do all day long and send you forwards ALL DAY? My favorite are the ones that say.....If you don't forward this to 10 people, you will not have good luck, or you won't find true love, or whatever hog-wash (that's a funny word) they want to tell you will or will not happen. So, today I got 3 from the girl that works with me, and I assume she doesn't have anything to do today :) Hahaha Just kidding......This one was the best one of all the onese she sent me.....

One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out. She motors out a short distance, anchors, and reads her book. Along comes a Game Warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and says, 'Good morning, Ma'am. What are you doing?' 'Reading a book,' she replies, (thinking, 'Isn't it obvious?') 'You're in a Restricted Fishing Area,' heinforms her. 'I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing. I'm reading,' she replies. To which he replies, 'Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up.' 'For reading a book?' she replies. 'You're in a Restricted Fishing Area,' he informs her again. 'I'm sorry, officer, but I am not fishing. I am reading,' she replies, again. Again he says, 'Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at a ny moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up.' 'If you do that, I'll have to charge you with Sexual assault,' says the woman. 'But I haven't even touched you,' says the game warden. And she replies, 'That's true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment.' 'Have a nice day ma'am,' and he left. MORAL: Never argue with a woman who reads. It's likely she can also think.

Happy 4th of July and Happy Anniversary

2008-07-06T19:18:00.002-04:00

Four years ago, my husband and I met and now, four years later, we are married and have 2 kids. Usually on the 4th of July, my aunt has a big get together, and I think we hav been like 1 or 2 times in the last 4 years. The only other option is to go to my husband's friend's house. So, this year I decided I didn't want to do ANYTHING, but spent the time at home.

Brian let me sleep in and watched the kids so I could do so. Usually 1 of 3 things happens though. Either Kaitlyn decides she wants mommy and he can't keep her from coming in to wake me up, Tyler cries uncontrollably and he can not get him to stop, or I lay there unable to fall asleep until I get up around 9 a.m. This time, these were not the case. Kaitlyn was fine playing with daddy and bubba, Tyler is old enough now that he likes to play with sissy, and I slept until 11:40. WOW!!! I don't know when the last time was that I did that.....I really needed it. So, I was nice and rested and while my husand and kids took a 3 hour nap, I cleaned the kitchen, did the dishes, and did some laundry (it's not all done though, there is still a mound!!)

Saturday I repaid Brian for letting me sleep in, and he slept til about 12:00, then I took Kaitlyn to meet my mom at the mall to go shopping....I bought lots of stuff, then came home and tried it all on and decided I didn't like but 2 of the things I bought....Do you hate that or what? Now I have to take it all back.............

So, to the uneventful 4th of July, it was nice to spend the time with the family and do NOTHING!!! Hope you had a good 4th.....................

MAD CRAZY WOMAN ON THE LOSE!!!!

2008-07-02T22:01:00.003-04:00

Most of my week days are like this......

Alarm goes of at 6:15....hit the snooze til about 6:45. Get up and take a shower. Start getting dressed, Kaitlyn comes in and wants to watch cartoons. Then theres, "Mommy, I'm hongry" (yes I spelled that right, that's how she says it.) Which is followed by "I need milk," while I try to continue getting ready. Then I get her ready, fix the diaper bag (after my wonderful husband makes all 5 bottles for the day...isn't he great??) Then I get Tyler up, put him in the car with a bottle, and get sweet pie in the car and we leave. Drop them off at daycare, go to work, pick them up from daycare. Get home and try to decide what's for dinner, Brian usually goes to pick up something because I am too tired to cook, eat feed the kids, get baths, get in bed (kids). This is all supposed to take place by 8:00. Then I go take a bath...read my book and Brian and I climb into bed, sometimes as early at 8:30....No we are not 80 yrs. old.

Tonight was much different....All of the stuff from 6:15 until pick up the kids still happened. BUT, tonight I decided to go to church with my friend Angela. It has been a LONG time since I have been to church on a Wednesday night, but I was looking forward to it and was excited....I felt like a little kid all day long. So, after I pick up the kids, I picked up dinner for all of us. Didn't get to her house until 5:45, church starts at 6:30 mind you, we eat, drive to church (her church is HUGE!!), get the kids in the nursery and finally settle down into church around 7:20-30.....We didn't get the WHOLE sermon, but probably 2/3rds of it. The preacher was good. Then it was back to get the kids, head to my dad's to drop something off from the kids, and home, get the kids to bed (they actually got baths this morning as well as Tyler getting his breakfast before we left too....which was a MAJOR accomplishment because he usually doesn't eat breakfast until he gets to school)........WHEW.....What a long day....But all in all it was nice. I feel like I chatted the heck out of Angela's ears......we haven't seen each other in 2 almost 3 years and even at that is was at her wedding, so it's really been at least 5 or more years....Oh how I've missed her! :) We are getting together for lunch next week too....Looking forward to it. Now we just need to get our husband's together...........

So now that I have bored you with what I did today, maybe my head will stop spinning and hurting at the same time.....If my husband would just get home with my Taco Bell......:)

He always comes through.....

2008-07-02T09:06:00.002-04:00

My husband and I have 2 different ideas of how Sundays should be spent. I was raised that you don't do anything on Sundays except go to church, come home, eat lunch, take a nap, then back to church.....We weren't even allowed to do homework or chores on Sundays. My husband was able to do whatever he wanted on Sundays. They would still go to church, but the time depended on what they had planned for the day.

Neither one of us have been faithful to church lately, so my sudden urge to go to church on Sunday Mornings @ a certain time was hard for my husband to understand. You see, he plays in a football league that plays on Sundays. He wants to go to church, and he wants to go as a family, but he also wants to go play football. He is very active in sports, which is is one thing that he gets to do for himself, so I understand.

Since I have been reading this book, I have been realizing (I already knew this, but didn't want to admit it) that I can not get anywhere with him if all I do is nag. If I feel that I need to go to church at 11:00, then I should go without making him feel guilty, then we can go together as a family to the 6:00 service or whatever time works. The selfish side of me didn't want to give in. I wanted to MAKE him see that he needed to go with me when I wanted to go. Well, that's not really how it works. A husband responds best to the testimony his wife has.

So, I decided to "compromise." (I really do hate that word!!) This past week I decided we would go to the 10:30 service. The service gets out at 11:30, and that would give him time to make it to his 12:00 game. He was happy with that, and I was o.k. with it too. Saturday he calls me while I am out and says the game has been cancelled! YEAH!!! This week's game is cancelled too.......Now, what to do about the rest of them? I can't just tell him to quit, he will resent me for that, and that's not really fair to him either. He knows my feelings, and it would have to be God that changes his heart about it. (Please don't get me wrong, my husband is a wonderful man and does everything he can to make me and the kids happy and compromises on the things that are important to me. He wants to go to church with us, but he also wants to be able to play his sports. If the family had another need, he would drop the football game in a heartbeat to tend to the family. As I explained in the beginning. We were just raised differently on how the ENTIRE Sunday is spent.)

Last night he gets home from his softball game. (They won and now they are playing for 1st or 2nd place in the tournament tonight!!) We ate some Taco Bell (MY FAVORITE!!) and chatted about our days and how things went. He then proceeded to tell me that the football league is now "up in the air," because the school that they are playing at doesn't want them to use their fields any more. Hmmmmm...........

Now, they could very well find another place to play, but I also feel this is God's way of telling me.... "See when you sit back and let ME take care of things, I will always take care of YOU." We will see what happens............

Tagged....

2008-07-01T13:53:00.005-04:00

I have never done this before, but I figured, "what the heck." I am supposed to be doing work right now, but I am really tired. We just got back from lunch, and I could use a nap.....

Here goes....I am just copying and pasteing (that doesn't look right but the other way did not either) what Angela wrote because I am not original enough and too lazy to retype all of this and it's rules........

The rules of the “meme”:
1. List your top ten favorite films (in no particular order).
2. If you're tagged, you've got to post & tag 3-5 other people.
3. Give a tag back (some link love) to the one who tagged you in your post
4. Give a hat tip (HT) to Dan.

My Top Ten Favorite Films: (I had a really hard time coming up with more than 1 or 2 for my facebook page)

1. Little Mermaid (my daughter makes me watch it almost EVERY day)
2. Sleeping Beauty (if we are taking a break from Little Mermaid we must watch this one or Disney Channel) No one said these had to be adult films right?????
3. Oceans 11,12,13 (I should have listed these all seperate - would that be cheating??)
4. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
5. Sweet Home Alabama
6. Save the last Dance
7. You've got mail
8. Mission Impossible 1, 2, 3
9. How to lose a guy in 10 days
10. 10 things I hate about you

O.k. so I also must admit that I cheated a little bit. It has been so long since I have been able to watch and adult film that I can't remember what the names of any of them are..........

I cannot tag anyone that has not already been tagged because I only know Angela and she has already done this.

Tag back love:
Angela, again she is the only blogger I know!!

Hat tip to Dan:
hey, Dan! Don't know who you are!!!

(I feel that I must also clarify that when I say "adult film," I mean a big person not a child film!)

.....the mom's life

2008-07-01T08:43:00.007-04:00

O.k., so my blog is title "the life of a mom," but yet I haven't really talked about my kids much. I titled it that because I figured most of my conversations through out the day some how turn to my children....the funny things they do, the crazy things that are said, anything really I can work into the conversation because I'M A PROUD MOM!! So, let me tell you a little bit about my kids......

Kaitlyn is 2 years old. She will be 3 in October. You can even ask her now when her birthday is and she replies, Octttoober....It's really rather cute! Not only is she 2, but she is the SMARTEST 2 yr old I know (because I hang out with all kinds of 2 yr olds!! haha). Yes, I am bias! She knows sign language, and not just the "milk" and "more" and "please" that you teach your kid when they can't talk because you want to know what they want. She knows other words and even some short sentences like..."microwave is white" (my sister taught her that because her microwave in her toy kitchen is white) and "how are you, I am fine." That one is the most impressive to me. The other little words include, boat (I taught her that one when daddy went on a cruise witht he boys and she kept saying, "where is daddy?"), cheese, aunt stephie, uncle matt, memaw, grandpa, mommy, daddy, tree, clouds, rain, shoes, and a lot more that I can't think of right now. SEE I TOLD YOU SHE WAS SMART!! She also knows how to be manipulative at time....Her new phrase is "My mommy said yes!" Or whomever she wants to use in the "mommy" place to get her way. That is her barganning tool she thinks will give her what she wants. It makes me laugh at times.

Here's a cute funny story of something she did the other day......She has VERY curly blonde hair and likes me to get my straightener and "fix it like mommy's." It's very cute! So I was fixing her hair before we left the house and bubba (Tyler - the other kid haha) was playing with his toys in the walker waiting "patiently" for us to finish. He dropped all his toys and started to squeel. Katilyn preceeded to put her hand out (imagine the "talk to the hand" hand), and said "Quiet bubba, I can't deal with this right now, I'm getting my hair done." I couldn not stop laughing.........

So, now about my sweet little boy Tyler. And boy is he sweet. He will be 11 months old in 6 days. He is getting WAY too big.....He just started getting around really good, as he used to just scoot on his belly to get to places. He also just started pulling up on things, so we are baby proofing AGAIN!! He weighs about 24lbs (Kaitlyn only weighs about 29lbs soaking wet). Tyler LOVES to eat. He eats at least 4 - 8oz bottles a day and 5 jars of baby food, sometimes more!!! (And I wonder why he spits up sometimes). I wonder how much he would eat if I just sat him down and kept opening jars of food and feeding him. He would probably stop when the cubbards are bare!!! Tyler used to be a BIG mamma's boy, but he has started to warm up to daddy more and even chooses to go to him over me sometimes. He LOVES his sissy though!! They play very well together, and I am sure he is thinking he CAN'T WAIT untill he is a little bigger and can start knocking her over for a change. (Kaitlyn is still learning gentleness!!)

So, that in a nut shell is my 2 kids! The are sweet.......And I am sure there will be more stories to follow!!

Don't ask why Tyler is always in the pink

doll stroller, I honestly don't know

A husband needs a wife that is complasaint not complaining

2008-06-30T10:13:00.003-04:00

So I started reading a book called "What a Husband needs from his Wife." It has actually been pretty good. I have been able to relate to the author a lot, although I have found myself not wanting to practice some of the things I have learned. That's bad, I know.

In the evenings, I like to get the kids to bed then go take a bath and read. As I said, I have started reading a new book. The books I typically like to read are Christian Romance novels (usually by Lori Wick - she's an excellent author). I had actually gone to Lifeway Christian Bookstore a few weeks ago in search of her newest book in the latest series, but they did not have it. My husband and I have been having (typical) marriage "issues/spats," and this book had caught my eye. I didn't like the constant power struggles and issues that we had been having, but I also knew that they stemmed from us not being in church regularly, and me not being as encouraging as I should be. So, I decided that I would purchase this book instead, I need all the help I can get.

Like I said, I have found some very good things in this book, but I have found myself not wanting to put them in practice. One day, after reading the book, I realized that I could no longer depend on anyone else for my happiness. If I am constantly looking to my husband for happiness, then I will be constantly disappointed. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that my husband does not make me happy, because he very much so does, but there will always be things that he un-intentionally does that could upset me. The same goes for me to. I am by no means a perfect wife. But when you look to someone else (other than God) to find happiness, you will always end up unhappy.

So, if you have read my blog from yesterday, you already know that I was disappointed in our church experience. So, after I put the kids to bed, I went to take my bath and read my book. I finished the last section I was reading the night before and started on a new one.......A husband needs a wife that is complacent, not complaining....O.k. so I don't think that is word for word what she titled it, but it was very close. I read the section on that (only a paragraph), and put the book down. It was really what I needed to read, but again, I didn't want to. I had to ask for forgiveness because I was not happy with what happened at church yesterday, and my husband knew it. Webster defines complaisant as "marked by an inclination to please or oblige." I need to be pleased with everything that God has given me, not complain about it. She went on to say that when we complain about everything, we make our husbands feel like the weight of the world has been put on their shoulders. They are supposed to be the head and support of the family, but how can they not feel burdened when the one person they want to be happy is not? I need to be happy with everything God has given me. I act as a bad testimony when all I do is complain and wish things were differently.

So, I hope you have learned something. If you had not read this book, read it. I am only 1/2 way through, but it really is helping me to see how selfish I have been. I can always be concerned about me and myself. If I worry more about what my family, husband, and children need, then God will make sure he is taking care of me.............

......discouragement

2008-06-29T18:02:00.002-04:00

O.k. so Sundays are supposed to be a day of worship and rest. My husband and I have not been very faithful to church after we got pregnant with my daughter. We have gone off and on, but not on a regular basis, partly because we are from different "backgrounds." We have made the decision to start going regularly on Sundays and have started the journey to find a church we both like and can get involved in. So, the first Sunday I found myself, with my 2 kids and my dad, going to try the first church by ourselves. My husband plays football on Sundays, and the game was at the 11:00 hour when I wanted to go to church. We were going to attend at 6:00pm, but the church was not having a service that night (it was Father's Day). So, the next Sunday we went at 6:00 together as a family (because again he had a game). Although I want to go to church together as a family on Sunday MORNINGS, I have agreed to be flexible with him and his schedule and go later if we need to.

I was a bit excited yesterday when my husband told me that they had cancelled the football games for the next two Sundays. I was looking forward to being able to go to church in the morning with all of my family. So, we tried a different church, one I thought that we might both enjoy. When we got there, the people were friendly, the nursery workers welcomed us and helped us get the kids in their proper places. I felt very comfortable with the security of the childcare (this is VERY important to me).

So, as the church service started, the band started to play. Let me go back a little bit and tell you that my husband and I are both more on the "Traditional" side than the "Contemporary" side. I like some of the Contemporary Music, but we don't like to feel like we are at a rock concert when we go to church. For some people, this works, but it's not something we prefer. Which is how I felt when the church service started. My husband and I both looked at each other and smiled.

The sermon was good. He preached on Joy. The majority of what he had to say, I agreed with. There was something he said about the "circumstances" surrounding the story in the Bible that I had never heard before. I am not going to say that it was not true; I need to research it. I have been in church since I was born, and even went to Bible College, but I have never heard those premises before. Again, I will need to research it. So, I will not say that he is wrong, but it makes me wonder. I am not one that just listens to what someone says and takes it as the truth. I like to research it and make sure that it is the truth.

So, as another week passes, we still do not have a place that we will call our church "home." There are a few other places I would like to take him and try, so I pray that God will open his heart to that.......

My first blog

2008-06-28T09:26:00.000-04:00

O.k., so I have never done this before, but I am excited. An old friend of mine does this. I started reading hers and I thought, "I want one." Her's are very good, even make me laugh, mine probably won't be AS good, but that's o.k. She said she likes to write in here because it is one of her greatest stress-relievers.....hmmm....sounds nice. I have many of stresses, maybe this could work.

So a little about the writer......My name is Stacie, I am a wife and a mother of 2! They are the 2 most adorable children you will ever see (o.k. so I'm bias). One may think, so how cute can a little rugrat that drools and spits up all the time and is covered in 1/2 eaten slobbery, mushy cherios be? (That is what my son looks like right now) Well, let me tell ya.....THE CUTEST EVER!!!

My children are the MAJORITY of my life. I do work full-time as a designer for a cabinet shop, which I love. The kids go to school close by, it's nice to have them so close. My husband works for a bank, and he does a great job. Most of our evenings and free time are spent at home with the kids, or my husband enjoys his sports playing too. We go occassionally, but most of the time it's too late for the kids.

Im 25, and yes, I don't feel old enough to have 2 kids. I am finding a lot of people my age are having kids early. My thought is that by the time I am 40, they will be in college, then I still have some time to enjoy life right?? O.k. so maybe not, but if I could have 100 more, I would.

I love babies. Who doesn't? It's just crazy to not love babies! Oh, and we also have a cat. She doesn't get as much attention as she did before the kids. Poor kitty...........

See, I told you this was not going to be very interesting. Maybe they will get better, but no promises.....

Thanks for stopping by............