Wordless Wednesday

Weeked Update, Christmas Special

This week so far has been the best week ever! Laine is having her first Christmas, Erik and I are finally getting to have our first family Christmas that we've been planning and we got to spend Christmas day with both of our families! Everything happend this week like it was supposed to and there were no fights and no owies and everyone was happy and together. I really can't believe how awesome this holiday turned out to be.




As for photo's there are just so many, so I'll leaving you with a link to my Facebook page and there you will find all the photos. I've taken the time to caption each of them so hopefully you can follow along with our weekend, when you see it I hope you can forgive me for not taking the time to put it up here too.
I hope everyone's Christmas holiday was as blessed as mine!

Update

Laine is sick again. She has another ear infection but this time it’s only in one ear and its swelling. Also instead of a cough it’s got a sore throat with it, but that cough should develop in the next couple of days. She was put on a broader spectrum antibiotic and she is on a very strict schedule with her Tylenol, every four hours exactly or her fever spikes. She has hardly any appetite, except for cheerios; she’ll eat those any time. She’s lethargic, staring blankly at nothing for long spans of time and she just wants to be held constantly.
This is not the little girl I’m used to.
The last couple of days her laugh has gotten even more beautiful since we don’t hear it. When she smiles it stops everything else in the room. That little snaggle-toothed smile that is a constant light usually and now it’s just flashed like a busted strobe light and we just have to bask in the warmth it brings when it does spark; you wouldn’t believe the antic’s Erik and I are willing to pull just to get her to smile.
She hasn’t been wanting to sleep much either, she wants to take little cat naps and then she’ll stay out for about five hours at night then she’s up before the sun, screaming the roof down. And the more she screams the more it hurts her throat so she cries more and then she hurts more so she cries more… I’ve been taking the time to cry with her, she seems to appreciate the company.
Erik said this morning that he had her lying on the couch next to him and that she sat up, grabbed her blanket (the pink one that is her favorite) and she pulled and kicked at it until it covered her up, stuck her thumb in her mouth and laid back down and started watching TV.
This is not the little girl I’m used to. Poor thing.

Laine's Sick Again

So this is all I can do for now, enjoy.

Sisters, Sisters

Never were there such devoted sisters.

I’m not one of those people that can say “I’ve always wanted a sister” because I didn’t, half the time I didn’t even want the brother I had, so now that I am grown and my one brother has turned into three brothers and six sisters I’m a little overwhelmed by it at times, especially during the Christmas season when you are made to realize how big your family really is. When I sat to make my Christmas shopping list this year I was surprised at how long it’s gotten in the past few years, it seems we are adding one every year. Count them out: Momma and Daddy, Torben and Patricia, Levi and Sydney, James and Cassie, Darren and Audrey, Alicia, Jennifer, Kate, Jacob and Joshua, Grandma, Poppy and Grandmother Rosendahl. Holy Silent Night Batman! That’s not even including our friends that we count as family and my own husband and live-at-home kid. Haha! I LOVE it! Christmas gets better and better with the more people you add and I can’t even remember what I found so terrible about someone else joining my family. One day when time travel is possible I’ll have to go visit my three year old self and say tell her that we don’t need to try to drop baby Levi on his head, we really do love him and are even better now that he’s given us Sydney.
I got to thinking about this even more last night after I got home from Miss Andrea’s house. Jennifer and Kate had been baby sitting for me and when I got home around 8:30 Laine was already asleep in bed, so I felt a little sad that I missed out on Laine time for the day, but my sisters took care of me, they gave me video and photos of their night with Laine; it’s like I didn’t miss a thing.
I love every one of my sisters, each one for different reasons; but Jenn and Kate take the prize this week.

Thoughtful Thursday

There is always music in my kitchen; it's the one room there will always be music in my house. It’s never turned off; just sometimes it gets turned down. Next time you’re in my kitchen test it and see for yourself, the little radio by the stove, turn it up, music is always on. I prefer it that way. Actually I prefer to live my life that way, with music always on. I never know when I’m going to need that little pick me up. Also it’s how I make some of my decisions, like last week I couldn’t decide what to make for dinner, baked chicken and potatoes or spaghetti and meat sauce, I turned up the radio and 30 Seconds to Mars was playing. Jared Leto is a beefcake so… meat sauce. Once I needed help deciding on what shoes to wear to church and Friday Night’s Alright for Fighting was playing so… sneakers, because who wears flip flops to a fight.
Anyway now since Laine takes her bath in the kitchen sink I always have music on during bath time, sometimes it makes her dance and sometimes she screams for me to turn it off, last night she didn’t' seem to care one way or the other, but since I want to make her bath time as enjoyable as possible, I scrolled through the radio stations to see what she wanted to listen to... and wow. Here’s a video of that.

She likes the Mexican. She digs Zydeco and she LOVES polka. Thank God for the BBC radio station, they play all kinds of accordion music on the weekends.
I know my dad is probably giggling like a little boy right now. Polka! What’s next? Khaki pants and chess club?! My God, what burdens have You set on my shoulders? Couldn’t she get into Emo like all the other kids? What am I going to do?
I’ll tell you what I’m going to do, I’m going to blast me some Tejano jams and dance like I love me some lederhosen. Because she’s my kid, and she can like whatever kind of music she wants. I’ll just be glad she likes music at all.

Wordless Wednesday

Weekend Update

Is it just me or has the last few weeks flown past? Every day is running into the next, nothing is ever different. I get up, I work, I come home, and I sleep. In between I take care of Laine and Erik and the laundry.
Friday I left work close to four in the afternoon so I got home right at 5:00. Picked Laine up and was going to do a little shopping but decided against it, the mall was packed and I had some place to be in a few hours anyway so I didn’t want to try shopping if I was going to have to rush. So at 6:30 I headed over to the White’s and hung out with Mizz Andrea and my mom until about 9:00 then I went home to meet up with Erik and try to get some snuggle time in before bed but he was working so I went to bed alone.
Saturday I had to get some errands run so I took Laine with me to CVS and Hobby Lobby and the bank while Erik took April to the vet to see about the rash she’s developed. We met back at the house close to the same time and then left together to meet mom for lunch then head over to the Verizon store to get me a new phone that doesn’t suck. It’s amazing; it’s smarter than I am for sure. After Verizon we went to Kohl’s and Target and PetsMart before heading back towards home. On our way we stopped by a Christmas tree lot but didn’t find anything we liked, all the trees were scraggly looking so we opted for looking elsewhere another time. We thought that other time was going to be on Sunday but it wasn’t. Sunday we went to church to see Amy and Jacob and Josh in the Christmas play that the children’s classes were putting on, everyone was so wonderful. I can’t wait for Laine to be up there with her brothers, it’ll be so great, but I’ll definitely need better seats next time.
After church Laine and I took about a two hour nap together while Erik worked. He was still working when I got up, he was still working when I fed Laine and he was still working when I put her down for her second nap hours later. Finally around 5:00 he stopped just long enough for us to make a quick visit to his parents house, we visited and ate dinner and had some coffee then Erik got another call and had to go back home to work again. He was just crawling into bed when I woke up with Laine at 4:00. I know the economy suck and I know I should be grateful that he even has a job, and I am. But I really can’t express to you how much I truly hate his job. We still don’t have a Christmas tree.

Good Times

Wordy Wednesday Weekend Update

I feel as though I’ve neglected my blogging duties by being three days late in posting my weekend update. I know you’ve all been sitting at your computers losing entire workdays hitting Refresh (or F5) over and over; waiting for those beautiful words to spontaneously appear “Weekend Update” it’s like a flashing ball of happiness that seeps into you and officially starts your week off on a good note. I know this and I am so sorry that this week must be sucking so badly for all of you without my update to start you off, but I’ve had issues. You’ll forgive me, I know you will.
So Friday was a wonderful day as you would know from watching the video and seeing the pictures from my last post. Snow days are always fun when you get to play in the snow. By the time I got home it had all melted so Laine wasn’t able to see it until Saturday. Saturday was a super day; we had our family portraits taken by Colleen. All eleven of us were there and everyone brought the right clothes and everyone was happy and healthy and smiling for the photos and the boys were being wonderfully patient and cooperative, Laine is still a baby so excuses don’t need to be made for her. Here are a few of the best ones, and by best ones I mean the ones where I look the best. Hey, it’s my blog.
After pictures were done and everyone was back in the house Momma made hot cocoa for us and we ate cookies and just had a great evening together. Josie and Laine got to play on the countertop like children should be able to and had a blast. I got to see my person for a couple of hours outside of both of our houses and it was a wonderful day.
Sunday we did the cardboard testimonials at church. I got up on stage and stood there for like fifteen seconds, and this time I did not vomit so I’m thinking next time I can try for a full minute. Haha. Or not.
After church Momma and Daddy had us over for brisket and Darren and Audrey brought the boys over again, having time with the whole family for two days was something I should have taken way more pictures of, but Colleen takes better photos anyway.
Sunday night is when Laine started acting a little sick. She started coughing right before we put her to bed and she coughed all night. By the morning her coughs sounded bad, like watery and she was way more congested than normal, so at 6:00 Monday morning I gave her some decongestant and some Tylenol and tried to give her a bottle but she didn’t want it. She’s always such a happy baby that we aren’t really that surprised when she is happy as she’s coughing and struggling to breath through her nose but happy or not, she was getting really sick so I took the day off work to take her into the doctor. On my way downtown I called the doctors office to let them know I was coming in, but no doctors were going to be in until after 10:30 so I wasted about an hour at Target and did a little Christmas shopping until it was time to head over, Laine was such a trooper having fun talking to strangers and pulling things off hangers and shelves if I pushed the cart too close, sometimes I would on purpose just to keep her happy. Our appointment was with a doctor that we haven’t seen before but one that I would totally see again if I had to. She took her time with Laine and really listened to all my worries and addressed every one of my concerns. She told me that Laine has a very bad ear infection, one that she called “impressive”. I had a little heart attack thinking her ears might fall off but the doctor told us that we caught it on what seemed to be its first day so it shouldn’t take more than two or three days to clear up. We’ve got Laine on eh brat diet again and it’s keeping the medication from affecting her too badly. Her diapers are a little worse but no where near what they could be. As we all know. After the doctors appointment we met Erik for lunch to catch him up on the very first doctor’s visit that he’s ever missed. I think he felt bad for not being there on her first official sick visit. (They apparently don’t count the stomach virus as sick since she wasn’t given any kind of medication)
(They apparently don’t count the prescription diaper cream as a medication because she had a reaction and quit using it)
(Ha! Whatever)
After leaving Erik Laine and I headed over to CVS to get her prescription filled and since it was raining so badly I went to the drive through and drove around Friendswood and League City until it was filled. But then when I went back I realized I needed to get some more Aquaphor in case she had explosive butt reactions to this medication as well and I needed Tylenol for myself to deal with the pressure headache that had started that morning. So I ended up dragging her out into the rain anyway. The pharmacist was incredibly nice to me and gave me a sucker since Laine was too young and he reassured me that as a new mom I must be doing something right since at ten months this is her first ear infection. I figure he was just saying nice things but as I had a headache and I was drenched and my kid was cranky and cold and hungry it was nice to hear that from a stranger.
So once we got home we played in the living room for a bit and I fed her some rice cereal with cinnamon which seems to be one of her favorite meals, she ate about twice what she normally does and took her medicine happily. She decided to conk out at 4:30 and seemed to want to stay asleep but I woke her up at 6:00 to take her to the White's house for Amy’s birthday. Erik was so upset that he wasn’t going to make it on time and was rushing to meet us there. I think Erik and Amy are a great pair, soul mates, brothers in another life, they get along so well. We stayed out until almost 9:30 before heading home and putting Laine to bed finally. She slept all night and we sent her off to daycare Tuesday with instructions to feed her only apples and bananas and cereal. Since the formula they have at the daycare is milk based I asked them to give her only water if it looked like she was thirsty and they dint’ give her any bottles for the whole day, I was so glad they did what I asked. So instead of three meals and two bottles she had four meals. However when I got there at 6:30 she hadn’t napped since 12:30 so as soon as I got her home I gave her some medicine and a little formula changed her diaper and put her to bed by 7:00. She woke up right at 6:45 this morning super happy and completely not congested. She looked like she felt a lot better. I had to leave for work but Erik gave her medicine and cereal for breakfast and said she was really happy for the rest of the morning. I had the car seat with me again, like a jerk, so Erik had to walk Laine to daycare but he said they enjoyed it. I’m hoping today that I’ll be able to do a little shopping before going home, we’ll see.

Snow In Texas

Oh, shut the state down! Haha, or maybe just the office. Today is a snow day for me and my coworkers who have all turned into seven year old kids.

Maybe I'm Crazy

Last night was a good enough night. After work I got held up in traffic so that by the time I got to Laine’s daycare she was asleep, I try to get to her before that usually because I had to wake her up and get her to the car and she typically doesn’t do well going strait from sleep to uncomfortable chair of doom. She and I took a trip to the grocery store and the whole time I was there Laine kept wanting to be picked up so that she could reach for things on the shelf easier, then she wanted to be put back in the cart so she could chew on the nasty handlebar, then she wanted to be picked up and lay on my shoulder then she wanted to be put back into the cart to cry and be inconsolable for the rest of the shopping trip. Once I was done and got her into the car she cheered up. She sang to me and talked to me the whole way home and then was in the most wonderful mood ever for dad while he fed and bathed her as I was making dinner. After we ate Laine and I lounged on the couch for a while and watched the Italian Job. Mark Wahlberg makes her as happy as he makes me. When she went down she crashed hard and didn’t wake up again until right as I was walking out the front door to leave for work. If the world ended today I could go on to whatever afterlife I get with a peaceful mind. I got to spend a good night with my kid and husband, cuddling and laughing and generally enjoying each others company. So this morning when I woke up late because I slept through my alarm clock I was okay with that. I just figured that I must be missing some accident or crazy man with a gun that is going to hold up the car that would have been me if I’d been there on time. So my calm had not been damaged; I was still in the glow of my good night. And when it took me almost a half an hour to fight through traffic just to get to the highway I was okay with that, there was a reason for it, and it probably had something to do with the Yeti rampaging down I45, knocking cars away like little Tonka trucks that that his little brother left in the bathroom to be stepped on in the dark. And when I got cut off twice in less than a minute by the same car that couldn’t decide what lane it wanted to be in, I was okay with that. I had some good music to sing along to and I had an excellent cup of gas station coffee to warm me up, so I could let some aggressive driver have their way because chances are they don’t have the coffee that I do and they don’t have a connection to music like I do, they probably listen to talk radio anyway. So their hostility is understandable to me, and I can let it go. I can allow them their bad mood; because if there is anything in life that I truly hate, it is someone telling me that I’m not allowed to feel the way I do. That brings us to my reason for typing this blog at all. I was making a cup of coffee earlier, just trying to get my day started, and I noticed that there was a mouse turd on the counter, so I dumped the coffee out, I emptied the coffee pot and started washing it out, scrubbing every surface of it and then set another pot to brew, because mice are dirty creatures and I’m not going to accidentally contract the plague because I drank from a carafe that a mouse made love to (for all I know). One of my coworkers asked me what I did to the coffee that was made and I told him, he then commented that there was a greater chance that there was no plague and I just wasted a good pot of coffee that there was of there being the plague and it surviving the brewing processes and would kill us all. That comment got so far under my skin that it was actually a part of me for a moment. It was a nothing comment but I guess that everything from this morning that I thought wasn’t bothering me was really just building up silently underneath the peace and joy that I so desperately wanted to keep. Now I’m sitting at my desk. I have a whatever cup of coffee, I’m listening to whatever music and typing a whatever blog that I may not even post because really, it’s whatever. And I know for a fact that if I were to try and explain the way I’m feeling to any of you you’d tell me to calm down and don’t be melodramatic. I know I’ve got a little crazy in me, my husband and person tell me that often enough. I know I’m an exaggerator, I take things that are maybe four out of ten stars of crazy and I make them eight. And when folks try to tell me “no no no, it’s only four stars crazy” I can’t understand why they think my crazy scale is the same as theirs. It’s eight, no, now that I think about it it’s more like twenty-three, but that’s because my scale goes to a million. When I’m told that I’m being unrealistic and not thinking in a normal logical way I don’t magically start thinking logical realistic thoughts, I don’t spontaneously quit being afraid of things. Just because people laugh at me doesn’t mean that I’m not afraid of little doors anymore. Just because there are scientific facts stating that sneezing seven times in a row doesn’t kill you doesn’t mean that I believe it. And just because some jerk with a bad attitude doesn’t believe that mice carry the plague anymore doesn’t mean I’m going to go and more or less lick a mouse’s face. I begin to question how it is that people who were once children with astonishing imaginations lost them, how they became people that like to steal all the wonder out of the world. My fears and rationalities are what make me who I am. My thought process is who I am. If I didn’t think the way I do I wouldn’t be me. And if I were me I’d be a boring ass person for sure. When I’m told that I’m crazy, or I get the “Okay Amanda, your right, clowns aren’t scary” with the rolley eyes and heavy sigh it makes me feel crazy, it makes me feel like thinking I’m just misunderstood is actually my crazy brain rationalizing for it’s crazy thoughts. It makes me think that I’m in my own world and that my world is wrong. I find it to be sad that I can start a day off with wonderfully peaceful thoughts and a warm loving feeling wrapped around me and then half way through the morning I end up not being able to give a crap even if you hooked me up to a crap-giving machine. It’s whatever.

Wordless Wednesday

Water Baby

Laine got to spend the day with Mom and Josh instead of going to daycare yesterday. Mom said she only took two half hour naps and I believe it because when we got home she was so worn out. I got to Mom and Dad’s close to 6:00 and since Erik was running late I went to dinner with them at Kelly’s for some soup and a grilled cheese sandwich that was so amazing that I saved some for lunch today. I got home close to 7:00 and Laine was rubbing her eyes and getting a little cranky so I stripped her real quick for a bath; she hadn’t had one in almost two days and instead of letting myself go to bed feeling like a bad mom, I made my kid get in the sink and wash up. She didn’t seem that interested at first, she just sat there and let me wash her off, she raised her arms when I said “up” and put her head back for me when I was rinsing off her head, she seemed very ho-hum about the whole process right up until I got the squirter out. This time I remembered to get the cold water out first so I sprayed her all over with the warm water and that started to perk her up, so I let it squirt out at a little more than a slow drip to see if she’d be interested in playing in the water, and she leaned forward and started to let it hit her in the mouth. Everything goes into her mouth so I wasn't too surprised but usually she drinks the water, this time she just picked up her tongue and let it hit the bottom of her mouth. She smiled at me every now and then and got a little aggravated with me once because I was trying to take pictures and aim the water at the same time and I got her strait between the eyes. She stayed interested in the water for about ten minutes but when I stopped spraying in her mouth to spray it on her back to make sure she stayed warm she lost all interest and started puling at my shirt to get out. I got her dressed in some warm pajamas and sat down with her to watch some TV and give her a bottle. She was so tired that she started getting fussy. Her eyes were red from rubbing them and she couldn’t get comfortable, I wish I had taken a photo of the position she ended up in. She was on her back across my stomach, her head hanging off the side almost upside down and she kept picking her feet up so they were curling up towards her chest and once she got in what looked to me like the most uncomfortable position ever she started snoring and her arms fell up above her head, dangling off the edge of the couch. I’m telling you it was the most adorable and funny position ever. I had to do a bit or juggling her to be able to pick her up but she didn’t wake up. She stayed out all night too. Seems to me that grandma wore her out good.

Weekend Update

So, I have a lot to catch you up on. We had a long weekend, well the weekend was the same length that it always is but I got a half a day off of work (the last half) on Wednesday and I had Thursday and Friday off too, then Saturday and Sunday of course, so that’s four and a half days of at-home-away-from-work time so, long weekend.
Wednesday I told you that I was going to go get Laine from daycare early so that the ladies there could go home early, as it turns out there was one other baby there so my good intentions were for nothing, but I got a hug from Miss Joann anyway. On my way home I was going to stop by Kroger to get the stuff I needed to make the hot rice for Thanksgiving at Erik’s uncles house but mom called and said she was at the mall, so der, I went to the mall. We ate at the food court and walked around for a while, I bought Kate and Jennifer’s Christmas presents and I got Laine a pair of shoes to wear for Christmas. After I left mom I went to Target to do a little more shopping since I was in the area and got my groceries while I was there. By the time we were done shopping Laine was getting really tired so I took the long way home, finally getting there around 6:00. Erik was waiting for us and decided to start a fire in the fireplace for us, so Laine was able to see fire for the first time ever. She didn’t seem too interested in it, but she did look at it every now and then, like it’s something that isn’t supposed to be there. We tried to keep her awake a little later than normal so that she would sleep in the next day but that didn’t work. Thursday morning we were up at 7:00, rolling around in bed for about two hours until she went back to sleep until close to 10:00. We got up and ate breakfast in the meantime and watched a little TV while having snuggle time on the couch before the baby woke up again. Erik played with Laine around the living room while I ironed the clothes we were wearing out that day and made the rice for dinner. We made it to Uncle Bill’s close to 2:30 and got to visit with a bunch of family that I haven’t seen since I was pregnant. It’s always great to see peoples reaction to how big Laine has gotten, it’s also amazing to see how bad they feel when they realize how long it’s been since they visited. HA! (I know that’s mean.) After Bill’s we headed over to Mom and Dad’s house because Grandma was in town, so we were able to let Laine see her for a few hours before calling it a night.
Friday we woke up early again and went to go visit Grandma again at Mom and Dad’s, once we got there we get a call from Darren and Audrey saying that they were out shopping but would be stopping for lunch and asked if we wanted to join them. Again, der. It was a wonderful lunch that Laine slept through and then we were able to get a picture of Grandma with the boys and Laine. A good picture too, with everyone facing forward and not making silly faces. It’s amazing and needs to be framed. After lunch Dad took Grandma over to my cousin Michelle’s house to visit while Laine and I went with Momma to go and see Poppy for a while. We had a good visit and he was looking really well. He’s lost a lot of weight but in a good way, his hair was recently trimmed and combed nicely, his shirt looked pressed and he was wearing real shoes, not slippers. Its looks like this new nursing home is treating him well. I tried to get a good photo of them but Laine was too squirrelly to sit still for a photo.
After visiting for about an hour Mom and I headed over to Target to do a little Black Friday shopping. It really wasn’t that bad. It could be because we got there around 2:00 and missed the morning rush, but I didn’t’ have any problems finding the toys and video games I was looking for so I guess we either got lucky or this Target was just well stocked. I left there and headed back home close to 5:00 and found Erik and his old friend hanging out and drinking a few beers so I decided that would be a good time to dunk my head in a vat of chemicals, but had to settle for dying my hair. Since my hair is so thick I had to use two boxes and it probably would have been a lot easier if I did have a vat. (What is a vat?) It took me a little longer than I though to do the dying but I was still ready and out the door in under an hour so we weren’t too late for dinner at Patricia’s house at 6:00. Everyone liked my hair so I felt it was okay that I was a tad bit late. Patricia was saying how she feels bad that she doesn’t get to see Laine that often so we were like… weeellll, there is a movie we want to see… So Erik and I got to go on a date, kinda. Erik’s friend came too. But he bought me popcorn and a root beer so I didn’t complain, much.
Once we got back to Patricia’s house we were told that Laine was angry when we left, that for an hour she kept looking towards the front door and crying. They told us she didn’t seem sad at all, just angry. We got a good laugh out of that and decided we won’t make a big deal out of saying bye-bye when we leave her again. We got her home and into bed pretty easily and she slept for most of the night. Our Saturday morning was a lot like our Thursday morning so instead of retyping it I’ll just let you reread it. Go ahead I’ll wait… Then we decided to go to Kohl’s to do a little shopping but on the way out we stopped by Mom and Dad’s again to see Grandma and get a cup of coffee. Mom told me that Michelle’s twins were having a birthday party (yeah, whatever right? I didn’t want to go anyway, humph!) but Mom told me that my cousin Elizabeth and her parents were wanting to come by for a visit after the party, so I had major heart palpitations for a little while and then Mom offered to watch Laine and take her to the party while Erik and I did our shopping and cleaned the house, It was so nice to have a solid couple of hours to do some serious cleaning for once, we got the whole house deep down clean, except for our room, by the time we got there we threw our hands up in the air, said we quit and sat down and had some coffee while waiting on everyone to get there. When they did I offered coffee to everyone else but only Grandma took me up on it, which I was happy for since that left more for me. We did a quick once over of the house, I love people seeing my house for the first time, it reminds me how lucky we are for having such a nice house. They didn’t stay very long to visit since they had a ways left to drive to get home, but I wouldn’t mind having that bunch of folks over again, I like them.
On Sunday Laine was able to wear her new dress that Grandma bought for her, It’s probably the most adorable outfit ever, and it’s a really simple pattern, so since I have a sewing machine now I’m going to try to make one like it, see if I can’t make cute things too. Lunch after church was NOT at Melly’s, thank God, but at a different Mexican restaurant, so we got our fix, just somewhere else this time. I think a two week break will be just enough for me and I’ll be ready to go back next Sunday. Once we got home Laine crashed for about an hour and a half and when she got up we played for a few hours but then I asked Erik to take care of Laine for me while I watched a little TV to finish the show I had downloaded and while my back was turned that turd let Laine take her first steps! So I ran to get the video camera and was able to film just a little bit before she got too tired to do anymore, I'm so excited that I could catch what I did. Things like this only happen once and you got to be quick! Next time she’ll be doing it without holding onto Erik’s fingers and I can only pray I don’t miss it. After the excitement died down and all was back to normal I took Laine to go and visit with my person since she was home from her trip and I missed being in her company. I didn’t stay long at her house, I hadn’t realized how tired I was until I sat on her super comfy couch and got all droopy eyed. After I left her house I went and raided Mom and Dad’s refrigerator and stole their sweet potatoes and a pumpkin pie that I think might have been our to begin with but I’m not sure. I got home and ate a huge plate of sweet potatoes and Erik got Laine ready for bed, she had been manic for about three hours before I left the house and for the first time I think ever, she did not fall asleep in the car. She went right back to being all over the place when I got home and didn’t’ stop for almost 45 minutes, then out of the blue she started crying hysterically and rubbing her eyes a lot so I took her upstairs to rock her for a bit and before I even sat down she was snoring in my ear, so I laid her down in her bed and went to tell Erik goodnight too. It was only 6:30 but I knew that if she was going out that early that I’d be getting up super early with her, so I figured I’d be tricksy and get a few good hours in too. The next thin I knew it was 6:30 in the morning and she was still asleep. I got ready for work and was going to wake her up and take her to Mom’s house but it was a little early and I though I’d let mom sleep in al little if she could.
That was our weekend. Long. Good.

This is what parents go through to get a nice picture of their kids.

First Steps

Single Serving Family

So as of yesterday we are officially a one serving family. We are one man, one woman, one baby, one pet. Sasha escaped sometime last week, we are guessing around Thursday; we found the hole in the fence on Saturday and were finally able to check with the pound on Tuesday. And really, wow because I thought for sure they would have her. What a weird feeling this is… If she had been at the pound it would have given us the choice to get her or not; knowing that she isn’t there makes me almost sad, it takes the choice away from us. I mean I didn’t want her anymore, she attracts fleas too well, she digs constantly, and she howls in the middle of the night and refused to come inside anymore, of course with the fleas she wasn’t allowed in anymore anyway. She wouldn’t eat but maybe every other day which worried me and pissed me off because it made me worry about her. I have been whining and complaining about her for almost a year now and I’ve been praying that we would find a home for her or find a shelter that would take her and we haven’t had any luck, and now she gets out on her own and this is the first time that the pound didn’t catch her. I’m really close to being sad about this now. How weird is that? I mean I’m happy that she’s gone because I now have one less stressor in my life and things have gotten a lot better with the flea situation just in the week she’s been gone but I’m not completely heartless in that I don’t care what’s happened to her, I do care. She stood as a symbol of my relationship with Erik for a long time. Buying Sasha was a big step for us; almost as practice in starting a family so I am sad that that symbol is gone. But this way I have no idea what happened to her and I have no idea if she’s okay or not and that’s what makes me sad. However as far as I know she could be sitting on a beach sipping on a bacon daiquiri thinking about sending us a postcard if only she knew how to write. I’m pretty sure that’s the way I’ll think of her from now on.
I think we will be just fine with April. I trust April way more than I did Sasha. April has never snapped at me before so I don’t have the fear of her hurting Laine as much as I did with Sasha. April has been an inside dog for this past week, she’s been kind of depressed without Sasha around but surprisingly April is a really good inside dog, she knows where she’s allowed to go and she hasn’t had one accident in the house. So we will be okay with just one dog.
I have no photos of Sasha handy to show you which is sad, I may tack one on here after I get home today if I remember.

Last night when I picked Laine up at daycare I was handed a card with Laine's picture on it, she got her first ID! It's for emergencies, like if she gets taken or something it's what I'm supposed to give to the police. So it' a good thing but it makes me think scary thoughts so it's in my purse and I don't look at it.

When I got home with Laine I sat her down in her highchair and gave her a biter biscuit while I made my dinner. Every few minutes I’d give her a bite of banana but it was hard to fight the biscuit out of her mouth to get her to eat so it took almost an hour to finish the jar of food off, and then we took a bath, and that took a while too because she was in such a good mood and being so playful that I couldn't take her out. When she’s having that much fun I just sprinkle her with warm water every now and then so she stays warm and let her splash to her hearts content, it’s when she started trying to crawl out of the sink and across the counter that we call it quits. Erik got home close to 8:00 and took Laine for me while I got caught up on a TV show I’m about two seasons behind on.
Today Laine is the only baby at the daycare so I’m going to try to get there early to pick her up and give the girls a break, if there aren’t any babies they can go home so I’m going to see what I can do to help with that. We should have plenty of photos for my weekend update next Monday, and since this is a holiday weekend I doubt I’ll blog again until next week, so if you don’t hear from me assume we are well and happy and eating copious amounts of pie.

#23 Finished

Here is my account of last night, as it happened in my head; that tiny box that sits on my shoulders that is filled with backwards logic and fantastical rationality; I get that I’m a little bizarre in some of my ideals but you’d totally understand if you lived here too.
So last night on my way home from work I stopped to pick up some Christmas gifts and while driving down Bay Area I get a text from Mizz Andrea. I try not to text while I drive so I glance at the phone and it said “hey we are making dinner”, so I reply, or course, that I’ll be there soon, it wasn’t until I was already on my way with Laine packed up and set for the night and Erik home sick, enjoying the house all to himself for once, that I finish reading the text sitting at a red light; “hey we are making dinner and painting on the murals if you’d like to come paint with Samantha and me and your mom can watch Laine.” DANGIT! I know it was my fault that I didn’t read the whole text but I still felt suckered, hoodwinked, FOXed! Why can’t I see?! Oh yeah, the wool’s in my eyes! So, head down, beaten and resigned I continue on my way. I get to the house and its fun and food and good company to get me comfortable in my surroundings; they are feeding my trust and calming my concentrated terror of what is to come. These smiling assassins, these cannibals, just fattening me up with kindness and then they turn, BAM! Time to paint. Go be artsy, go be fartsy. I DON’T WANT TO PUT GOLD IN IT!!!! I am dragged by my hair outside into the bunker of human anguish where the young mistress of torture awaits me. She hands me a cup of water and some paint and tells me that I will be in charge of the red houses. IS THERE NO MERCY?! My hands shake; I’m going to fail, and I’m going to ruin what work they’ve done, I can’t stucco!
So I sit on the ground with Sam and I take my paintbrush and I stare at my two red and a brown and I poke at it, and I push it around and finally I start making the canvas wet. I’m not setting the thing on fire with my death ray eye which is incredibly relieving to me. With that thought one chain falls off my back and I try shading the side of the building, and the reds don’t turn to gold and the paint is going where I want it to go and I have no idiotic goblin lady staring over my shoulder saying “No, no, nononono, it’s all wrong, start over!” There goes another chain. I move on to windows and doors and then on to the second red house and I find that I’m having fun with Sam and there goes another chain. I’m not thinking about how I need to keep that brick wall around my pride and I don’t need to be defensive of the slant to my brushstrokes or the choice of black instead of brown, and there goes another chain.
By the time the cherry pie is ready in the kitchen I’m feeling better, I’m feeling like I deserve to be there helping my friends that I’m not ruining anything but in fact I’m contributing. I realize that I was making the whole situation a lot worse than it needed to be. It’s hard for me to go from planted in the dirt to orbiting the moon in few seconds. It’s been nine and a half years since I’ve picked up a paint brush. Nine and a half years! I almost made it to ten years, I was so close. But these people will not let me fail and they will not allow me to give up. They knew I had surrendered my fight and still they hand me back my sword. I’m not saying I’m back in the fight but I will say that I have withdrawn my white flag. And just because I am feeling a bit smug today, I will reiterate what I have said a multitude of times in the past; up yours Mrs. Fox, up yours.

Weekend Update

Mom picked Laine up from daycare on Friday after lunch and got some much needed bonding time in, even dad got off work early and had a little fun, by the end of the day both their blood pressures were down, I say love is the best medicine. After work I hung out at their house for maybe an hour since Laine was in a happy awake mood, she was screaming and crawling everywhere and back again and getting into things so before she decided to go for the Tupperware cabinet and destroy mom’s kitchen I called it a night. Laine didn't stay up too late, she watched some TV with me and let me get caught up on my Criminal Minds and then went quietly down so that we were both in bed by ten. I 'm not sure what time Erik got home but he was there when Laine woke up at four, I never even asked him what time he got home, it’s becoming the norm to go to bed without him now, and it’s sad that I’m getting so good at it.
Saturday we stayed close to the house. We did a once over of the living room and watched some TV while playing with Laine. When it came time to feed the dogs we noticed that Sasha wasn't coming when she was called. She didn't come on Friday morning either and I didn't think anything of it since it was raining. Usually she'll find a corner and stay there until it stops so when Erik went to look for her Saturday we realize that neither of us had seen Sasha at all since Thursday, and Erik found a hole in the fence so we assume she's out and lost to us. Erik want's to check with the pound on Monday but my vote is to leave her there. We’ve been saying we were going to give her away for a while now and I think this is nature taking its own course, so… Go nature!
Since it’s been a week or two since Erik and I got some good quality time out of the house together we asked my parents to watch Laine for us so that we could catch the 4:30 showing of Boondock Saints, the movie we’ve been waiting to come out since 1999. It was worth the wait, for anyone who’s wondering. We caught a quick bite for dinner before we headed back to Mom and Dad’s to get Laine. Again she was still up and playful but Erik and I were tired and wanting to go home so we left shortly after we got there. Laine was still awake and active until close to 10 but she slept the whole night which Erik and I both took advantage of. I think Erik may be coming down with something, he’s never this tired and he never ever takes naps, so the fact that he wanted to this weekend makes me wonder. Lots of medication is getting bought tonight just in case.
We woke up early on Sunday, played around in bed for a while then Laine and Erik went back to sleep, as is fair since… well no, it wasn’t fair but oh well. I got up and showered did a little laundry and finally woke them up again. We stopped to get coffee on the way into church so we were late again. Darren showed a video for the service that had me laughing and Erik enjoyed it to. Seriously anyone who starts off a sermon with “Hey there’s a lot of people here, how about we take an offering” is okay in my book, also he made God have a Scottish accent. That is so cool.
For lunch we went to Melly's again and Darren and Audrey brought the boys, the Schmale's and White's came too and we had a great lunch. Jacob and Josh were amazing and I was able to get a few pictures but they move so fast its hard to get them to stop and smile at the camera, but I got a couple of candid’s that are wonderful. I love knowing Laine, Jacob and josh will grow up together as brothers and sister and I love that the separation of homes doesn’t seem to bother anyone; love can live in two houses.
Seeing as how I was in a good mood and the day seemed to be full of no plans and TV and naps I decided to schedule a hair appointment for 3:45 that afternoon with Seelva, and I am so glad I did. My hair looks wonderful and it’s the wash a go style that I’ve been wanting. Today is a good hair day and I didn’t even brush it I can’t put into words how wonderful that is for me. When I finally left Seelva, two and a half hours later, after some intense gossip action, I went over to Target and bought myself another dress. Shocker huh? Actually I got myself a dress and a long sleeved t-shirt. I made myself special yesterday and I don’t feel bad about it. Once I got back home Laine had just woken up from a nap so I decided since we’ll be up late anyway I’d make some dinner so we had some pork chops and sautéed veggies with brown rice, it was amazing, but I forgot the leftovers that were to be my lunch at home, like I do. That just means that I’ll have a great lunch tomorrow though.
Well that’s about it, it was an easy weekend and It should be a super easy week, seeing as how I only have to work two and a half days this week, maybe I can talk Erik into putting up the Christmas lights... That could be an amazing story for you to read.