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.

Coffee Person and Doctors

Yesterday was a day. One that will make you go “SHEESH!” when it's finally all over. I got to work a little earlier than usual, sat down to eat my breakfast taco and check up on what Perez Hilton had to say about the news, then right as I was getting started on some intense programming Erik calls to ask me if by chance I had the car seat with me. SHOOT! Yes I did. In my car. Here at the office. While the baby was home. With him. AGAIN! So instead of driving home to take Laine to the daycare and then driving back to work just to leave again at noon to go get Laine and take her downtown for her appointment at the doctors, I decided to work from home for those few hours. So I get home and Erik and Laine have just finished eating breakfast and getting ready for the day. I kissed my husband and told him I love him and that I was sorry for getting his day started off wrong, but he seemed to have really enjoyed spending that extra hour with the baby so he kissed me back and off to work he went. Laine and I took the short ride to the daycare and I came back home alone, I sat at my computer in my messy dirty room and I tried to concentrate on programming the job I’d started at the office, however there was a pair of socks right in my peripheral vision to the right that kept taunting me, nagging at me about how they had been laying there for almost a week and I had yet to do anything about it, so I got up and collected about half the clothes in the room and took them downstairs to start a load, but I can’t start one without finishing the other so I took the clothes out of the dryer and folded and hung up what needed to be folded and hung up and then I started the three trips it took me to get everything upstairs, once everything was upstairs and on my bed I needed to put them away, once they were put away all the other clothes on my floor started laughing at me about how I’d just done a half ass job of cleaning my room, so I gathered up the rest of the hecklers and brought them all downstairs and stuffed them rather roughly into the already full laundry basket, then kicked it just for good measure, said “HA! Laugh at me now, jerkface!” and ran back upstairs before they could taunt me anymore. I was able to get about half of my job done before noon and at that time my lack of caffeine intake for the day was starting to seriously show so I packed up all my stuff and headed over to my persons house. Her bean was sleeping so she and I were able to spend and entire hour drinking coffee and talking at the kitchen table just like we used to and it was so nice to just slip right back into those comfortable shoes. I even got to learn a little bit more about who she is and why she is that way and it was a good hour, the best one I’ve had in a while.
I left her house a little later than I had wanted to but traffic wasn’t as bad as I expected so I ended up getting Laine up to Erik’s office a good fifteen minutes early and we were able to actually make it to an appointment on time for once. This check up was a lot easier than all of her others, she didn’t get any shots this time so she was able to stay happy for the whole time. We were offered the H1N1 flue shot but decided against it, every time Erik has gotten the flu has been after he got a flu shot, so I’m not going to question his right to make decisions for his kid, and I stand behind the choice. We know they have the Tamiflu medication available at her doctor’s office if she does get sick.

After the doctor’s appointment I took Laine to target to go shopping for a new cardigan sweater for her, I love the one she has and I feel that she needs more, at least one to match ever pair of pants she owns, but I couldn’t find any cardigans that weren’t holiday themed, which bugged the crap out of me. It’s not even thanksgiving so I’m not putting reindeer's and Santa’s on my kid yet. So I got a pair of white ruffle butt tights for Laine to wear with her Christmas dress and some new bow for her hair, a couple of packages of baby hangers and a little sumfin-sumfin for Nicolette while I was at it. Then I meandered on over to the women’s section (yes, the women’s section, where I can wear a size 2 and not feel like I am giving up my youth to mommy hood) and I found a cute little dress that was super colorful and totally my size and style and I also grabbed a t-shirt, because it’s a sickness I have and I can’t help it. Then on my way over to the check out I realized that I’d left my debit card in my car and all I had was my birthday $20 gift card to use, and I was about to go and put the dress back because I could get just about everything else for the same price but lucky for me I had my Super Person on the phone to talk me into buying something for me with my birthday gift card. Us mom’s are crazy when it comes to buying things for ourselves, like we feel like we are neglecting our children’s needs by seeing to our own, much less out wants. Its ridiculous and thank you person for pointing it out, I happen to be wearing my dress today and it’s amazing.
Erik and I got home right about the same time and I took care of Bitty while Erik got the dogs ready for their flea baths. I’m so glad he’s all about doing that himself, I’d hate to have to wrestle Sasha in that tiny shower of ours the way he does. But Erik is a manly man and he gets it done, with manly mannish manliness. It’s hot.
Laine decided to stay up late running around the kitchen in her little walker thing, so it wasn't until around 11:00 that we got to go to sleep but finally we did.
She woke me up at 4:30 so I got her a bottle and we sat for a while together, she never went back to sleep but she sat with me; quietly staring out the window until about 5:30 when I finally made her another small bottle and put her in bed with Erik so I could get ready for the day. She was still awake and looking out the window when I left at 7:00. She’s such a watcher. Always looking and studying and learning.
I got to work just before 7:30 to find we were out of coffee so I walked across the way to the gas station to buy a small container and as I was checking out the old Indian man that runs the place told me “I like your frock. Very pretty.” I’m so glad I was talked into buying this dress because that is one of the best compliments I’ve gotten ever, mostly because it came from such a grumpy old man, but still it made me feel nice.
Small little tidbit here: I ended up forgetting my program at home, so all day today I will be making up for what I missed yesterday and reprogramming what I’ve already programmed because it is needed by the end of the day. Makes you wanna say SHEESH! Huh?

Weekend Update

Good news for me, bad news for the blog. This weekend was the laziest one we've had in a very long time. Friday I got home a little early and found Erik already there and he'd gone grocery shopping for us so we had some amazing sandwich making supplies to last us the weekend. So in appreciation I played a little Family Fun Time game with him before we went to get Laine. Once we got home we really didn't want to do anything so we just plopped ourselves down on the couch and watched a movie and waited for the Dynamo game to start at 10:30. My person texted me a few times and I wish she'd come hang out with us, but it was already late by that time so maybe next weekend.
Saturday I woke up with the feeling that I was missing something so I texted mom and dad and Darren to see if there was a soccer game or something I was supposed to be at and I found out that I had forgotten about Jacobs karate thing on Friday. Ask me if I felt like crap... YES! I missed the last three weekends of Josh's soccer and now this. I feel like a horrible birth mom, I complain about not seeing Jacob enough and when given the chance I flake. It's so retardedly dumb. So that was a way to start a day, huh?
Our Saturday was more or less piddling around the house. Erik and I spic and spanned the kitchen and living room together and He took a bunch of stuff from his office upstairs into the attic while I finished some laundry. After that Laine and I took about an hour nap while Erik did whatever it is he does when I'm not looking, video games I think. When we woke up we found a Mad Max marathon on TV so we vegged until about 4:45 then we packed up and headed over to Erik's parents house for a visit. It turned out we were supposed to be there anyway but never got the email, Patricia and Torben wanted to tell us about their trip to Egypt and hand out the gifts they got for everyone. I got some Egyptian oils that smell wonderful on me; Erik seems to really like it. And Erik got a chess set made of camel bone, how sick is that? But you have to touch it after you find out what it is, because seriously, who wouldn't be curious to feel what camel bone feels like? Laine got a wooden snake that amuses her to no end; the fact that it is chewable makes her very happy.
Laine is growing her third tooth, this time it's on the top. My little gentle thing's got razors sprouting out of her mouth, and she loves to show you how they work, she's gotten Erik's nose a couple of times and she caught my ankle last night. It's like having a Yorkie or Maltese or something.
Sunday we got to church a little late since we stopped for coffee on the way, Erik fell asleep three times during the service, I kept poking him and he'd peek at me through one eye then smile and close his eyes again. It reminded me of sitting next to Pawpaw in church. He'd always fall asleep and Grandma would have to get either me or Levi to poke him to wake him up. Pawpaw was never apologetic about it either.
After church we headed out to Smelly's to eat some Mexican with the White's and mom and dad then after lunch dad followed us home to drop off a new diaper genie and a bookshelf for Laine's room. We haven't moved it upstairs yet, but I'm pretty sure Erik will do that tonight.
We went to the Painted Potter sometime around 4:00 and finished making the grandparents Christmas presents, then we dropped off our movies from last weekend back at blockbuster and headed to HEB to get some stuff for lunches this week and for dinner last night. Hot dogs are what we decided on and I was so glad, it might not be that good for you but it's yummy and quick and easy to clean up so I was happy. I decided to go to sleep around 9:30 and now we are here. Monday is almost over and I really didn't think I was even going to write out an update since I didn't think anything happened. That just shows me, I don't need anything to write about, I’ll just write about anything.
And here are some video's we've taken recently. I've got some cute kids.

Good Stuff

Listen to my playlist HERE

9) Goodnight Moon by Shivaree
8) In Spite of Ourselves by John Prine
7) The Sad Song by Fredo Viola
6) Wagon Wheel by Levi Porter (Old Crow Medicine Show)
5) Look Heart, No Hands by Randy Travis
4) Gravity by Sara Bareilles
3) Was I? by Madeliene Peyroux
2) El Manana by The Gorillaz
1) Tranquilize by The Killers

Listen to the playlist HERE.

Thursday Theater

My Erik has been having a time of it at work lately. Every night this week he's worked past midnight and we've only had him for dinner once when he took a two hour break to come and see us before heading back out again. He has promised to take a half a day off on Friday to rest, I'm hoping he remembers that. Every night Laine and I have been making videos for him, letting him know that we miss him and hope he can come home soon, here is one of them.

Soup and Tupperware

We went over to Mom's house last night. She had picked Laine up around 3:00 and took her home with her and made some chicken soup so I was able to take my time coming home, so I took the back way, through the county roads, and had a very nice drive. Once there the whole house smelled like yummy feel goodness and the soup warmed me. Laine got to play in my mom's tupperware for a while and thoroughly enjoyed banging things around for a while but she wore herself out and was easy to put to bed once I got her home. After she went down I changed into my most comfy pajamas and watched an episode of Iron Chef while I ate the rest of the cookies from my person with a glass of milk and then crashed out around 9:00. Erik was able to come home sometime between 10:00 and 11:00 last night. It was a wonderful surprise to see hm next to me when Laine woke up in the middle of the night. I had started to really miss him.

Weekend Update

Starting around Wednesday I was fighting something awful that infected me, I’m not sure if it's the bug that my boss had on Monday or if it was the mess that Jacob and Josh had the week before but whatever it was, it kicked my butt, from here to there and back again. I’m actually dead on the floor right now and I’m still getting kicked, I’m congested and sneezing and coughing and I have no appetite and I feel like if this goes on for one more day I very well might die. Laine is also snotty. I’ve got her on her decongestant and Tylenol rounds that the doctor recommends. I’m hoping she isn’t feeling anything near what I've been feeling. Its hard having something hurt your baby when you can't hurt it back.
I left work early on Thursday to go home to rest. I slept for about six hours before I needed to go and pick Laine up from daycare, it was definitely the boost I needed, without it I wouldn’t have made it through the rest of the week. I slept fine on Thursday night, the deep sleep of a woman medicated, but Friday came and I was out of every drug except for Tylenol and it just didn’t want to do its job, so I fired it. Chicken broth and water and an apple here and there is all I had to fight the Dread Pirate Roberts Bug of Doom. My kingdom for a sword! I felt useless and beaten. Friday morning I still had a fever so I just didn’t go in to the office. I couldn’t sleep though so I was stuck with no energy but wide awake. So I watched a lot of TV and just generally sat around feeling sorry for myself until around 11:00 when I was ready to tear my hair out, so I got up and started doing some laundry and in the process made myself sweat, which broke my fever. So after my Extreme Laundry Folding Championship Medal Winning Time Record was set I collapsed back on the couch to watch more TV and after about an hour, my fever came back, so I decided to exercise the sick out of me, so I cleaned a lot of the house that really needed it and I’m glad for the excuse but man was I tired afterwards. But no fever so no complaints. One thing that I really had going for me was that it was a lazy weekend, Erik and I made no plans and we didn’t have to be anywhere or visit anyone so I was able to sit on the couch and feel useless all day long and no one looked sideways at me for it. And Laine helped out a lot too; she slept all night every night. It’s like she knew mommy needed the break and so she helped.
Saturday started the same as it always does with one of us going and getting Laine and bringing her into bed with us to take pictures and spend good quality time together. This Saturday morning I built up a fortress of pillows around her so she wouldn’t crawl off the edge before someone caught her, she had an empty M&M bottle that she was gnawing on and she started putting the whole end into her mouth then flapping her arms around while making weird noises. From my seat on the couch she looked like a little dragon all mad that she couldn’t get past the castle walls, she even growled at me a couple of times. It was an amazingly adorable moment.
That afternoon we had made plans to go back to the Painted Potter but after Erik got done with his Extreme Landscaping Genius Battle to the Death he had with the front yard he was pooped and just wanted to watch TV for a while. Laine and I were happy to veg out too. Around 6:00 we got bored and decided to see what new movies were out so we went by Blockbuster and then got some Popeye’s for dinner and made a family night out of our laziness. It was really fun and relaxing and not even a little bit stressful and I thought it was wonderful.
Sunday was a little different and I’d tell you all about it if I had the energy but suffice it to say that Erik is a very smart man who is capable of great things and I’m very glad that Team God is on our side. I still haven’t talked to Erik yet so I’m in the dark as to whether or not everything is back to normal. I will say this about Sunday; I love my person for giving me the company and cookies I needed to make it through and I hate Erik’s job.


Today I’m not contagious so I’m back at work. I’d rather have one more day to sleep it off, but I take what I can get and what I can get is what I had and I’ll be grateful for it. Tomorrow is Tuesday so I’m not expecting much, but maybe tomorrow will at least not be worse than today.