Happy Second Birthday JB!

Nana and JB at her birthday party.
Time flies when you're having fun. JB is already 2 years old! We had her birthday party at a local park. We wanted to have a Word World party, but couldn't find any Word World stuff and the bakery didn't make any Word World cakes (and I'm not a fan of those fondant screen prints - which they offered to do), so we went with her other favorite...Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. All the kids had little cardboard ears to wear, but The Big Guy bought these super cute plush Minnie ears for JB. She wore them until they hurt her head, then traded them for a cardboard pair.

Our table was pretty close to the kids play area at the park, and when we first arrived, JB wanted to swing and slide - so I let her and then while I was putting out the tablecloths and goody bags her Aunt Nik took her and let her play some more. It made me a little nervous that she wouldn't want to be at the tables at all, but once I put out the bubble wands and solution she didn't give the playground a second glance.

We had a pretty big crowd - JB is fortunate to be loved by so many! I got a nice chance to socialize with everyone, and I think The Big Guy did too. We still have not perfected the art of moving the party along quickly enough - and some guests had to leave before the gift opening which was a bummer. We squished the cake in as they were telling us they needed to leave, so I think everyone got cake. We succeeded in only purchasing one cake this year - a really cute beach scene with Mickey surfing while Minnie was on a beach towel on the shore. Unfortunately The Big Guy decided to pick up the cake as his first stop, and when the buttercream got warm, the top layer slid off the bottom layer. He and his mom used forks to return the top layer to is proper place, but the side of the cake was pretty trashed. Oh well! It was still tasty :)

To say that JB had a great day would in my opinion be an understatement. She has been worn out for 2 days! I think that the party was definitely a success.

The Big Guy's birthday was on June 3rd, so it's been a cake and fun filled few days! Now we're off for more fun at the Magic Kingdom!

Reason #4765 Why You Should Listen to Your Mother

Because she is right.

Thanks for the help yesterday mom :)

Much Love Gramma

Stale weenies again

This afternoon I ran across "The Big Doghouse" on TCM. Best TV I've ever seen. I googled it and found out it was one of a series of movie shorts turned out by MGM studios. I even found a collection of all the shorts (135 minutes of doggy drama)..
They're even on YouTube. Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GUa8n-REQo

Dear Gray's Anatomy,

I regret to inform you that I will no longer be watching your show. I love the original characters. I hung in through the crazy british chick, the repeatedly crappy forced relationships of Callie, and the god-awful Alex storylines. I'm not even too upset that Izzy is dying. But I have to draw the line somewhere.
I refuse to subject myself to the torture of the dying children stories. I adore the character Dr. Bailey more than any other on the show - but like Dr. Bailey I simply cannot face another dying child.
So that's it. We're through. After the wedding it's over - and I mean it.
Drawing a line in the sand,
Chraycee

Care for a ride on my emotional rollercoaster?

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::First the Up's::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
JB's new car. She calls it Mickey. I think it's because of the goofy eyes on the front, and the red/yellow color scheme. She loves this car.

JB enjoying the beautiful weather on Easter day. She loves loves LOVES bubbles!

She actually got 2 bubble machines for Easter. We got a super cute Elmo bubble machine, and her Grammy got her one which blows thousands of bubbles in minutes.

Here JB is anxiously waiting for daddy to put together her new car on Easter. I'm not sure that she'll ever be this excited about a car again. Seriously...she could not wait to get her hands on that car. And once she got in...she sure as shootin wasn't getting out!

I baked cookies....lots and lots of cookies. We took some over to my Gramma in the hospice house, but she didn't eat any of them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

During spring break we took a day trip to Seacliffe state park beach. JB had a great time digging in the sand. She didn't care much for walking on the sand....she tends to be very careful about what she walks on. The sand was just too uneven for her comfort. It rated just above our fluffy bath mat on JB's personal untreadable surface scale. "Dig, dig, dig!" was the phrase of the day, and dig she did. I washed sand out of her hair for 2 days. And then it was still in her ears.

Here JB and The Big Guy are headed back to our blanket. She is wet from standing on the edge of the surf. "I wet!" she squealed happily, stomping around in the foam. Let me tell you...that water was c-o-l-d! She didn't mind much, but since there was a good breeze we thought that we had better head back to dig in the sand some more, before she decided to plop herself down in the surf.

We spent the afternoon on the beach, and it was so much fun. The Big Guy and I had grandiose plans for dinner at a local seafood restaurant.....until JB conked out in the backseat about 4 minutes into our search for said restaurant. She slept the entire way home. We had a pizza delivered. It was delicious :)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------::::::::::::::::::::::And then the downs:::::::::::::::::::::::::

Now's the time to tune out - leave on a good note. I'm posting this here, but it is totally out of character for me. I don't want to write it in a journal - because I don't journal. I don't like to write things down - but have been feeling like I need to find some sort of release.

Fair warning - the following bit of this blog is sappy, sad crap.

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

I feel like a person living two seperate lives. I'm a busy mom with a gorgeous baby girl and wonderful husband, and I'm an emotional basketcase granddaughter.

Gramma is not doing well, and probably is not going to be here for much longer. It's a blessing really, because she is not eating much, and not taking her medicine. She is confined to one room, and sleeps a lot. She is now on methadone, because she is unable to take her other pain meds. Sometimes she is lucid, but literally in the next second she will say something that doesn't make sense.

Everytime I see her might be the last time. I try to visit every day, but once there I keep finding excuses to leave the room, because it's so painful for me to see her in this condition.

Today I went to see her, but she was sleeping. I didn't wake her - mostly because I didn't want to face her ever weakening condition. I'm ashamed of myself for being such a chicken. I know she would rather that I woke her.

It's awful how I let this be about me. It's really about her, she's the one who is dying. As weak as she is, I am amazed that she still gives the best hugs. It's true. Gramma's hugs are practically a force of nature.

I'm so thankful to my mom for taking my Gramma into her house. For allowing Gramma to spend her last days at home, rather than in a hospital. It's not easy for her, or for my aunt - they take care of all her needs. I think it's the most wonderful gift my mom and aunt could ever give to my Gramma.

No one mourns the Wicked

Mom and I ventured to San Francisco yesterday to see Wicked. Loved it! I really hadn't heard anything about the story so I didn't have any expectations going in. I was suprised by the story. If you want to go see it, let me know - I'd love to see it again. I'm a little bummed that I didn't buy a shirt, so if I go again it's the first thing I'll do.

If you know me, you know that I don't normally drive to places I haven't been to many times before. This means I do not drive to the city. Ever. Period. End of story. So when my co-worked posted a flier advertising 2 tickets to see the play in the mail room, I wanted to pounce and buy them, but wasn't sure how I would get there. I was really hoping that we could take BART. I can drive us to the BART station, that's pretty easy. I figured we would just take a taxi if there station wasn't near the theaetr. Guess what? The station is less than 1/2 block from the theater! No more worries about having to get someone to drive me to see plays! Guess who is going to see MORE PLAYS!!!! Me!

Of course the day wasn't without some adventure....I knew we needed to be on the blue route for the trip to and from the theater. In my mind this means that one should get on the train with the BLUE stripe. Logical yes? ::::Ahem:::: Would you believe that ALL the BART trains have blue stripes? It must have something to do with the fact that their logo is blue..... I hopped on not one but 2 wrong trains. Luckily mom figured out that we needed to get off the first wrong train before it left the station. The second time we were not quite so lucky. We wound up about 3 stations too far north - and one station past the last transfer station. ::::SIGH:::: Oh well. It was an adventure, right? This meant a total of 30 extra minutes spent waiting in 2 different stations for the correct trains. One of the 15 minute spans was in 45 degrees, with freezing cold gusts. Bbbbrrrrrr!!! Lesson learned. I will pay more attention to the signs and maybe even get myself a BART map in the futurel.

Could it happen to you?

I believe it could. We are all subject to our physiology. Memory is a physiological process. HHMI just did a holiday lecture series on memory this year. If you're interested you can find it here.

This is quite possibly the most painful thing I have ever read. It is graphic. It involves dead children. It could happen to me, and it could happen to you. I think the author, Gene Weingarten, has done a great service by having the intestinal fortitude to write this article, and there is good research behind it. If you are able to make it through the article, and are interested in more on it take a look at the question and answer chat he hosted on Monday.

The article is called "Fatal Distraction
Forgetting a child in the back seat of a hot, parked car is a horrifying, inexcusable mistake. But is it a crime?", and you can find it here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/03/06/ST2009030602446.html?sid=ST2009030602446

To me, the article is more about making sure this doesn't happen to Joe and Jane Public than it is about deciding if we should prosecute parents. This happened in our community a few years ago. I reacted like a lot of other people do, wondering how it could be possible. The moment JB was born I gained a different perspective. Terrible things happen to people regardless of race, religion, education, income level or geography. The best plan of action for me is to be aware, and to do my absolute best to prevent those things from happening to me.

In a very small (and thankfully insignificant way) I experienced this type of lapse in memory just the other day. I was driving with JB in the car, on our way home for the day. She was so quiet in her seat that for a few seconds I forgot she was in the car. Not in a "sort of aware in the back of my mind she was there" way, but in a much scarier "I didn't even realize that I forgot she was in the car" sort of way. Until she gleefully held her favorite mouse out and proclaimed "MINNIIIEEEE!", I didn't even realize that I had forgotten she was with me. And that folks, scared the bejeezus out of me.

I honestly don't believe that I would have left her in the car. We were on our way home, and I pick her up every night, so it's a solid routine that I get out of my car, unbuckle her and help her into the house where I get to hear her squeal with delight to see "Daaaaheeeee!" But my god. What if it had been on the way to work? I never take her in the morning, so I wouldn't even have a routine to rely on.

At any rate, here are some recommendations from kidsandcars.org: (pulled from the question and answer chat with the author after the article)

KidsAndCars.org offers these reminders that don't cost a penny and can certainly help to prevent these tragedies. If you employ the first three (all at the same time) your child should never be inadvertently left behind.
*** Put something you'll need like your cell phone, handbag, your employee badge, lunch or brief case, etc., on the floor board in the back seat. Get in the habit of always opening the back door of your vehicle every time you reach your destination to make sure no child has been left behind. This way it will become a habit. KidsAndCars.org calls this theLook before you lock campaign
***Keep a large teddy bear in the child's car seat when it‘s not occupied. When the child is placed in the seat, put the teddy bear up front in the passenger seat. It's a visual reminder that anytime the teddy bear is up front you know the child is in the back seat in a child safety seat.
***Make arrangements with your childs day care provider or babysitter that you will always call them if your child will not be there on a particular day as scheduled. Ask them to phone you if your child does not show up when expected. Many childrens lives could have been saved with the telephone call from a concerned child care provider. Give child care providers all your telephone numbers, including that of an extra family member or friend, so they can always confirm the whereabouts of your child.
***If you see a child alone in a vehicle, get involved. If they are hot or seem sick, get them out as quickly as possible. Call 911 or your local emergency number immediately.

Strictly on the record

Every time I take JB to see her pediatrician they have a list of questions for me concerning her development. Invariably there is a question which asks something about how many words she knows. Each time, I wrinkle up my nose and screw up my eyebrows and start trying to count the things she says to me; and each time I say "Yes" to the given range of word numbers, even though my count is one word short. Then I go home, and mention the situation to The Big Guy (I suffer from the guilt of those who manipulate their data) who immediately lists off words I missed in my on the spot count and I am able to go to sleep guiltlessly. Phew!

For the record, JB's first word was "Mama". I think her second word might have been "shoes". Currently she starts every word she utters with the sound "Eh" (well, except "Uh Oh!", "Oh Dee!", and "Oh My!"

This weekend JB and the Big Guy were reading a pop up book about a caterpillar who loses his house key and can't get in his house. At the end of the book the caterpillar realizes that his door is not locked after all and the key is in his house. His friend the bird finds this incredibly funny and is laughing so hard he has tears coming out of his eyes. Saturday morning JB noticed this and got a very concerned look on her face, pointed at the bird and said "he crwy?!!!" She did this several times throughout the day and it's really the first time she had indicated that she is aware that crying is a bad thing, or that others have feelings.

Here is a list of current common JB'isms:
Maheeee (mommy)
Daaheee (daddy)
Dogheee (doggy)
Dee (deer)
Bayer (bear)
Hischie (fishy)
Eye
Mou (mouth)
Eeee (ear)
Nooooo (nose)
No (often accompanied with a swipe of her hand to remove the offending item)
Bahwl (bottle)
BaBa (bottle - means NOW)
Saaey (Sally - dog's name)
Tink (Trink - dog's name)
Bahbo (Bosco - dog's name)
Shooes
Horsey
Minnie (refers to both Mickey & Minnie Mouse)
Waay di he/it go?
Waay daaheee/maheee?
Scheeep (sheep)
Gooohf (Goofy)
Dohnahld (Donald)
Wa-oooo (water)
Pooh (Winnie the Pooh)
Schawk (sock)
Ba (bath)
Ouww (can mean open, or out, or down)
Daahwhn (down)
Apple
Up
Nannie/Nonnie (banana)
Oh Dee! (oh dear)
Oh No!
Oh My!
Bunny
Fower (flower)
Oink
Raff (giraffe)
Ball
Hmmm Hooo (Thank You)
Sit
Buuuddy
Haiwh (hair)

I'm baaack....

JB on Christmas Day. She is so into accessorizing....must be some sort of throwback gene. See how she has to scrunch her face up to keep those glasses from slipping down off her nose? Recently she figured out that when she wears them upside down they stay on, no face scrunching required.

Wow! A whole month without access to the internet and I'm still alive! Phew....I'll admit it was close a few times. Not only no internet, but no television. It would seem that we moved into a log cabin on a mountain somewhere rather than a home in town. We watched The Big Guy's collection of "The Dukes of Hazzard" dvd's. He must have the entire series on dvd.....

I've moved back to what I more or less consider my home town. It's the town I attended high school in. We actually lived in the boonies - between 3 small towns and there happened to be a teeny little school on the road I lived on which I attended 6-8th grades in with my 6 other classmates. Before that I went to elementary school in one of those small towns in a larger school - but one that wouldn't be considered truly large by anyone's estimation. Being back home is awesome! A good bit of the awesomeness is that I now live about 10 minutes from my parents rather than 30 minutes. This is hopefully going to mean that I get to spend more time working with my horse this spring and summer - as well as being able to take JB over for more visits with Nana and Papa :)

JB's vocabulary improves so quickly, I often don't even know where she picks up new words. The other day she was insistently demanding a "nonnie". I've never heard her say that word before - we were at her Grammy's house and Grammy didn't know what she wanted either. She kept throwing herself toward one of the kitchen counters - upon which rested a bunch of bananas so I wondered if that was a "nonnie" it turns out BINGO! Nonnie = banana. I find that sort of strange because earlier the week before it was a "nana". :::::shrugs::::

She grew so much that the nurse at her pediatrician's office measured her twice. She took all the usual information and measurements and headed out only to come back in five minutes later to remeasure her. Apparently she grew a lot since her last visit. If I were a good mommy who knew where all those damn slips of paper with Elmo stickers and measurements on them that they hand me everytime we visit were I could tell you just how much she grew.....but you know.

Two of my best gal pals are due to deliver babies in about a month! I'm excited!! One first child, one second child. The one who is the second child is actually due one day before her sister's birthday...talk about timing!

If you're reading this I hope 2009 has been treating you well. Happy Valentine's Day in advance!

Common Sense

We have a small part of our family room fenced off so JB can't get to it. Behind the fence is our entertainment center (VCR, DVD, game system etc.) and the fireplace hearth which is raised. Sitting on the hearth is our finch cage. JB is fascinated by Mr. Finch. She often goes to the fence and watches him.

Recently JB figured out she could lean on the fence and move it. Taking advantage of this new skill, she went to visit Mr. Finch and pulled his feeder off the cage - scattering his seed all over the hearth and floor. I swept up the seeds, replaced and refilled the feeder only to have JB repeat the performance a few hours later. Not Cool.

Since JB won't leave the fence alone, I figured I had to find a way to secure it so she can't move it aside. Using nylon knee high socks, I tied the fence to a console table near the hearth. Ha! Victory is mine!! Quite satisfied with my cunning method for defeating the evil plans of my 18 month old daughter I went about living life for the next day and a half. In the back of my mind I did take note of the fact that the other end of the fence is not secured, rather is just tucked against the wall and entertainment system, but figured she is focused on the bird end of the fence so I'd be safe.

JB was not. happy. to find that the fence was tied and thus immoveable. Being of strong mind (and a devotee to the belief that you can't keep a good toddler down) she directed her attentions toward learning new tricks; like how to stand on the seat of her Barbie quad, stealing the wireless mouse, and signing onto media net via my cell phone.

This morning I was browsing the internet when I noticed a suspicious quiet in the room. I looked around for JB, and sure enough there she was, behind the fence standing on the hearth peering down at Mr. Finch. Sure enough she figured out that the opposite end of the fence can be moved out, and once it has been moved she can walk the length of the room to the hearth. Three times I have removed her from the hearth this morning. I searched for a way to secure the fence and the best I could come up with was to wedge her music table between the sofa and the fence, but she figured that one out easily.

It really amazes me how she uses common sense to solve problems as they crop up. She does it over and over. I'm glad she's got it, but does she have to apply it to me??!!!

Christmas

We had a nice Christmas Eve & Christmas this year. As always we went to AK's on the 24th as it is her birthday. This year money is tight for many of the younger adult members of the family so we agreed not to exchange gifts, rather we would just do gifts for the babies in the family (there are 3 kids under 2) and birthday gifts for AK.
When AK gave JB her gift she was worried that JB wouldn't like it because she gave her clothes - while she gave each of the boys a toy. Silly AK! Sometimes I think she hasn't met JB :) Of course JB was thrilled with her new clothes, she took them out of the box and flapped them around happily.
AK's son had brought her a bouquet of balloons for her birthday. When JB and cousin N (a week younger than JB) saw those balloons come through the door they were completely transfixed. It seems they share the balloon obsession, which resulted in AK cutting the boquet apart so each child could have a balloon. This however did not satisfy JB - who believed she needed to be in posession of all the balloons. JB followed cousin N around trying to steal his balloon. This prompted cousin N to yell at JB - no words or syllables, just one note "aaaaaaahhhh!" He continued to do it everytime she approached him for the rest of the night - even after we removed all the balloons from the room. Funny stuff!
On Christmas Day we spent the morning at home. My parents came over and visited for a while before we headed over to Grammy's house (The Big Guy's mom). JB was g-r-o-u-c-h-y after my parents left. We were worried that we'd have to miss Christmas dinner, but when we got to Grammy's JB perked right up. She was especially pleased when her 4 year old cousin Emma showed up to play with her. JB and Emma had a wonderful time playing all day long. JB's grouchies were nowhere to be found.
Before everyone arrived for dinner, we opened gifts. This year JB was better at opening her gifts, if we got them started, and showed her that there was something inside, she would pull on the paper and tear it off. She was so profoundly thrilled with each gift, that she didn't care about anything else, which made opening the following gifts a challenge. Damn whoever invented the parent proof packaging on children's toys! Next year I will remove all the straps and twisties holding the toys in before I wrap gifts. It will lessen JB's (and my) frustration significantly.
I have to say JB's favorite toy this year is a little tea pot that makes a sound like tea pouring when you tip it. It says please and thank you and other cute things as well. The Big Guy tried to show her to drink directly from the spout - but it got twisted somehow in her toddler mind and she now drinks from the top of the lid. Holding the teapot by it's little handle, she tilts her head waaaay back and slurps from the lid of the teapot - consequently she resembles a pirate slogging rum from a jug. Hilarous!
Christmas is not done for us yet. Tomorrow morning my parents and brother's family are coming for breakfast here (to our old house - we still haven't moved) and gift exchanging. On Tuesday after JB's doctors appt. (the last of the vaccinations for a while!) we'll have lunch and gift exchanging with Uncle Blakie-Poo and his family.
Until then, I'm packing boxes and slowly transferring our stuff to the new house. Recently we discovered that neither AT&T nor Charter offers service to the new house, so when we move we'll have neither internet nor TV for a while. We'll be living cabin life right in the middle of town! This has put a serious damper on my enthusiasm for moving. Keep your fingers crossed that the AT&T engineers take pity on us and program our location into their system soon, because Charter hasn't even run the lines under the street yet.

Catch Up

I meant to write a Thanksgiving post, but never got around to it. I've been pretty busy with school since then - that's about the time I ran out of definite "lesson plans" and started flying by the seat of my pants - ala a first year teacher (a skill developed in the first year of teaching that still comes in handy from time to time). I've been literally planning my lessons one day ahead of time, and sometimes not even that far ahead. One thing that makes that type of thing much easier than it was that first year is the fact that I have accumulated a lot of resources over the past five years. It's not that I don't know what I want/need to teach, it's more that I haven't decided how I will teach it. It's a nice problem to be honest :)

As usual I'm up agains finals and still have material to cover. BUT thanks to the efforst of myself and my fabulous colleagues, we collectively put together a year long schedule, which has actually allowed me to accomplish more of the things I need to do this semester than I have ever before! Yay for collaboration!

Our school got some cool news this week. US News named our school in the top 7% of schools in the nation. Our school, and our sister high school were the only two schools in our county on the list. On Friday administration rewarded the staff and kids with an extended lunch schedule - and bought pizza for the staff. It was nice - and I have to admit that being on that list gives me a sense of reward for all my hard work. Our school is sort of a hidden gem. Often when people find out where I work they sort of wrinkle their nose, and wish me luck - I used to think the same way. It's a bad rap . In reality the school is really great. Our staff is always going above and beyond for our kids, and we work hard to be better teachers every year. Most of our kids work their butts off for us. I really am amazed at the amount of homework they have - and still they manage to be involved in extracurricular activities.

On the personal front, we still haven't moved to the new house. ::::Big Sigh:::: We were supposed to move over Thanksgiving weekend, but the painters had to push us back a few days, which meant they were in the middle of painting that weekend. We want to have grass in the backyard before we move the dogs in, so they won't track mud in the house all winter long, and that can't go in until the patio is built. We had to get a permit for the patio - that took 2 weeks! Now the patio is almost done, and winter has set in. I guess we'll still roll sod in the backyard and hope for the best. I'm guessing we won't move until after Christmas, but the hope is still there that we'll be in for Christmas.

The thing that bothers me most is the fact that we haven't decorated at all for Christmas. Our house is usually nicely decorated. I have a nice village for the mantel and various other things that I put out around the house. It's really the one time of the year when I think my house looks really nice. The Big Guy developed a cool way of putting the lights on the outside of the house, but those aren't up this year either. Our house is one of the few in our neighborhood that doesn't have lights this year.

I did by a pink flocked pre lit tree at Michaels for JB's room. I think I'll bring it home and put it up. I don't really have shatterproof ornaments (nor do I want to get out a bunch of ornaments only to have to move them) but it's pre lit so at least it'll glow prettily. It was a crazy buy - the pink tree, but I thought it would be fun for JB to have her own tree.

I have not yet begun to shop - well I did buy 2 gifts for JB, and for my two teacher pals, but family so far has nothing. I guess I'll beg Grammy to watch JB during the first week of break for a day or two so I can get out and shop. I hate shopping. I even hate shopping online.

I am hoping to do some baking for Christmas. I'm dying to try making some cake balls like PW and Bakerella, and one of my student's mothers gave me a recipe for cookies that taste just like girl scout thin mints.....so there's fun ahead!

Halloween, JB, New Home and Gramma

Here is the beautiful basket of cookies given to us along with the keys to our new home :)

Have you ever seen a cuter ladybug?

I mean....c'mon.....really.....have you?!

JB expresses sheer joy when meeting her idol.

I'll post a photo of JB dressed up for Halloween this year - she was a ladybug. So cute! We went to Disneyland for Halloween this year and it was fun seeing all the kids dressed up. Don't think JB had too much fun though - she wasn't able to nap this time like she did last time. She's way too into the action to sleep through it now. We have the same issue at home. This meant she was one tired puppy.

We arrived late in the day, and Disneyland was almost closed. We decided to go on Pirates first, since JB had handled it well last February. (You know....when she was 7 months old?) Well, during the very beginning part of the ride, you know - the meandering through the bayou in the dark, crickets chirping part - JB announced "ALL DONE" and started trying to escape. She clambered out of her daddys arms, across me to her Grammy, where she buried her face into Grammy's shoulder and spent the duration of the ride quivering in fear. This was our first clue that things were different this time. We stuck to the kid friendly rides for the rest of the trip, or one of us sat out while the others rode.

Another difference this trip was that since JB is now walking, she didn't want to be in the stroller. She wanted to either walk, or be carried. The trouble is that she isn't afraid to walk away from us. Repeatedly she walked away into stores, or crowds of people (while we watched her of course) without looking back even once to see that we were following her - she just assumed that we would (which we did of course).

One thing that remained the same is that she still loves the characters. We hit the character breakfast again, and our seating was awful. We got stuck on the outskirts, and the characters had a really hard time getting back to us since they had to maneuver past four other tables to reach us. Thankfully most tried (I'm looking at you Tigger). I think the highlight for her was when she got to see Minnie Mouse. She must have hugged Minnie about 4 times. Minnie even came back to our table to see her one more time before moving one to another area of the plaza. Seriously, just about every picture I got of JB with Minnie is of JB hugging her. That was defintely the highlight of our trip.

We also discovered that we must buy a portable DVD player. Aunt N loaned us hers, but couldn't find the car charger for it. When things got grisly on the way over and back, we put on the Wiggles and she was thrilled. When the battery died? Not. Thrilled.

In other news, this past week JB has learned to kiss with puckered lips rather than the open mouth slobber-fest that used to be her trademark. The cutest part? The fact that she makes a "mmmmmmwwwwaaaaah" noise each time :0) And yesterday she ate a hotdog for the first time. She loved it, ate almost the whole thing. Maybe she doesn't hate meat after all.

The biggest news of all has to be that we closed on our new house. We signed the contract last February, and it's finally complete. Now we just have to move all our stuff. Mike and I decided on the colors we're having painted - and there are 9. The new house is much larger than our current house, and it has 7 wall colors. No one thinks it looks crazy, so I think we'll be ok with 9 in the new house. The only thing is that from the entry you'll be able to see a few colors at once, and we don't have that situation here. And I've picked a sort of crazy green for JB's bathroom, which I'm just going to be brave and go with. I just hope my painter still likes me. :)

We went with mostly standard stuff on the house because the builder charged so much for upgrades. The one thing we splurged on (in a big way) was the carpet, and I'm so glad that we did. It's nice and soft, and cool looking. When we go over there, JB loves to roll around on it! I think she's just thrilled not to have laminate like we have here.

It turns out that some of my gal pals and their families have also purchased new homes. Congrats to Rat and Joy on their new homes!

Now the crappy part of the update: my Gramma went to the hospital to have a clot in her back explored, and during a pre-op x-ray they discovered a mass in her lung. It has turned out to be melanoma, which she has a history of. I did some initial searching and found that only 0.01% of all lung tumors are melanoma, so there's not a ton of info available on that particular diagnosis. I did find one good case report, but I've been so crazy busy with things here and at school that I haven't been able to focus enough to read it. I'll get there.....

Gramma got her clot removed, and is feeling better. She is sounding very chipper on the phone, and that is reassuring. She has scheduled a PET scan for next Tuesday. Send happy vibes and prayers.

Snippet from our day

A quick comparison:

Things that fascinated JB at this time last year: Her jackolantern booties.

Things that fascinate JB a year later: balloons!

Today we went to Costco to stock up on some essential things like paper towels, ground turkey and jerky treats for the dogs. The line was quite long to check out, and JB was getting a leetle bit fussy (who could blame her, we were on stop 2 of our 3 stop shopping spree - 3 stores in less than 2 hours.....I'm still patting my own back over that one. Especially since stop#1 was Target and stop #2 was Costco. This list thing seems to work after all.....) so The Big Guy handed her his Costco membership card to look at. Boy Howdy did it ever do the trick. She turned it around and around and flipped it over and slid it against the metal frame of the cart. When we reached the checkout she gripped it firmly in her little hand whist mom and dad unloaded all our supplies onto the conveyor belt for scanning.

When it was our turn for scanning, the cashier asked for the card. The Big Guy pulled on the card, and JB clung to it as if it was her last goldfish cracker. Her bottom lip pooched out as the card slid through the white tips of her fingers. The cashier laughed and commented on how JB really had a death grip on the card as she swiped it and held it out for JB to take back. A cute moment, but not anything I considered memorable. Not memorable that is until we went to Merchandise Pick Up to get the gift cards we had purchased. At the counter JB proudly offered the card to the girl working at the counter (who didn't notice) and again at the door where they check your items against the reciept she shoved her chubby hand outward toward the reciept checker.

I must endeavor to remember that she doesn't miss a thing!

Busy, busy, buried

No, not literally. Ok maybe a little. Under piles and piles of school stuff. Last week our grades were due, and both of my classes had units end just prior to the end of quarter so I had about a million bajillion things to grade. It honestly took me a week and a half to accomplish the grading. I literally did nothing but grade and teach and eat and sleep. And some of those days I gave the kids projects to work on that allowed me to grade while they worked in class. Yipes!

Now I've emerged from my ginormous grading pile to find that I have no lessons planned. So I'm frantically planning. I think this is always the worst time of the year. I know it's the time of year I always lose some weight. No worries though, it always manages to find me later :) In the meantime I'm enjoying the comments, and hating that I don't have time to go shopping to buy some new pants so I don't look like a clown.

JB is chattering all the time now. I feel like she needs me more now, and I am not able to give her the attention she requires. I try not to bring home work with me, but this weekend I must prepare powerpoints and slice liver for a lab. Eeeewwww. Too bad it's a really good lab, or I'd dump it. I hate liver. The way it's hard to cut, the way it smells. My pal decided to skip the liver and just use potato, which works - but not as spectacularly as liver works. So I'll head out in search of liver a little later today - and maybe I'll stop by the Dress Barn to get some new pants :)

Back to JB, she doesn't have the vocabulary, but that girl is talking. She tells us things all the time. Makes direct eye contact and speaks complete jibberish in a very serious tone. Or tellls a funny story and laughs about it. She is the cutest baby on the planet I'm sure of it. (no bias here.) Her motor skills are really good now too. Two Sundays ago we celebrated my SIL Big Bird's birthday at her sister's house. There, JB practiced walking down the steps of their patio. She walked up and down them many times, always holding onto someone for balance. This weekend she showed interest in her rocking horse so I brought it out to the living room. Yesterday I put her on it and she rocked and laughed. This morning she has climbed on and off of it several times. When she sits on it, her feet barely reach the wood panel where her feet should rest. She can touch it with her tippy toes. She also sings to her favorite programs. She sings a few Wiggles tunes, and along with Snook from The Big Big World. The other day in the car Shania Twain's song "Up" came on and she sang with that as well.

This Thursday we have the walk through of our new home. Of course we haven't sold this home yet, so we're looking for someone to rent it to. We figure we won't be living in the new house until Thanksgiving, so we have to make both payments on our own at least once.....it's a little intimidating.

More good news, The Big Guy's sister got a job! She's had a rough year with the closing of her business and break up of a long term (and we're talking looooong term) relationship. I think it's helping her to have a reason to get cleaned up and dressed nicely. She loves clothes and purses and make up, and has really not had a reason, or desire to partake of them for quite some time. She seems happier now, and I'm really glad for her. I hope the seasonal position turns into a permanent one for her.

I know this post is pretty random, but lots of things have happened since my last post, but nothing too exciting to write about. Maybe next time I'll actually have a good story for ya.

All's well

Everything went perfectly with my dad's procedure on Thursday. Better than perfectly! It turns out that the blockage shown by his stress test is actually a narrowing of the stent caused by scar tissue. The doctor measured the lumen and decided that it is still in excellent shape. No further action needed! Dad was very happy to say the least.

The other cool thing? I got to see the recording of Dad's angiogram! Way cool! This isn't my dad's heart, but this is pretty much what I saw (in this video the blockage is on the left hand side) Dr. said his heart is very strong - it sure looked like it, pumping pumping pumping. The body is so amazing. Dad walked out of the hospital about 4 hours later with a bandage on his leg and that's it. Score one for the good guys!

The Big Guy, JB and I enjoyed a nice dinner at Angelini's - we did have to get our tiramisu to go though since JB was reaching the end of her patience. It still tasted awesome! I got The Big Guy "Guitar Hero Aerosmith" for our anniversary (romantic huh?) and he got me "Singstar 90's" LOL! FINALLY!!! A video game I'm good at!! :o)

9 Years & Prayers

I can't believe that today is my 9th anniversary. It can't have been NINE years already - shoot we just went out on our first date a few years ago....ok - so it was actually more like 15 years ago,but who's counting? Muchas Smoochas Big Guy!

Today I am staying home from work so I can sit at the hospital with my mom while my dad gets another stent put in the lower part of his heart. He had a heart attack in October 2006, and at that time they put 3 stents in. Poor guy was very ill for 2 or 3 weeks before the Dr.'s figured out what was going on. Since then he has been very good about eating healthier, which is a big thing for my red meat loving dad. He often jokes that everything he eats now tastes "fowl". A few weeks ago his stress test indicated that there was another blockage and they're not sure if one of the 3 original stents has failed, or if it's a new blockage. Whatever. Just fix my dad up 'kay.

So if you happen to see this and feel inclined, we're accepting good thoughts, glows and prayers. As soon as I know things are good, The Big Guy, JB and I are going out to Angelini's for some rigatoni and tiramisu :)

In a bit of a spot

On September 10th I took JB to her 15 month well baby check up. She vetted out just fine - and I received instructions to change her from whole milk to 2%. It was pretty funny -
Dr. G:"Is she on whole milk?"
Me: "Yes."
Dr. G: "Lets change her to 2% milk."
Me: (giggle) "JB! Dr. G. says you're getting too big!"
Dr. G: "Is she drinking a lot of milk?"
Me: (guilty look plastered on face)(sheepishly) "Ummmm.....yeeeaaaah."
Dr. G: "How much?"
Me: (lying my face off) "Um....24 ounces or so"
Dr. G: "Ok, well lets get her down to no more than 16 ounces per day."

The truth of the matter is that JB was drinking at least a gallon of milk a week ON HER OWN. 24 ounces was how much she would drink on a slow day. Hey - it does a body good right?

Fast forward to today. The first few days she wanted her normal amount of baba's, but now she's getting one or two per day (12-24 ounces daily) with most days only being one bottle days. Mission accomplished with minimal trauma! Go team JB!!!

This past Wednesday night I noticed a puffy rashy spot on her leg. "Hmmmm....that's weird. I wonder what that could be from?". It didn't seem to bother her so I wrote it off, figuring I would keep an eye on it. Then Thursday evening I noticed a bug bite or pimple on the skin between her thumb and index finger of her right hand. Strange, but no big deal.

Friday morning when I got JB out of her crib she had developed two bright red pimple/bug bites on her face and I finally put two and two together. She got her varicella and MMR vaccines. Now she has a rash on her leg (the varicella injection leg) and has developed red bumps. I'll bet my poor girl has the chicken pox - and on Saturday we're supposed to attend cousin Max's second birthday party at JB's favorite park. :-( I called Dr. G's office and spoke to a nurse. Not much help over the phone, I understand you can't diagnose her without seeing her, but I'm at work and can't bring her in. What I want to know is: If she got the pox from her vaccine, is she contagious? They tell me that she is ok to go to daycare (which she doesn't - thanks MIL!) so I figure she's ok to go to the party. My sciencey brain is having trouble with this, but I figure maybe since it's an attenuated virus vaccine (she must be affected only because her immune system was a little compromised by the cold we were sharing at the time of vaccination) the virus must be replicating as a weakened virus so they figure she's not contagious. This is why they are the medical professionals and I'm not right? We'll keep an eye on her, and if she gets worse I'll take her in.

When I pick her up from MIL's she's got a fever, so we stay home while The Big Guy goes to Uncle Blakie Poo's season opener. Saturday morning she's still warm when she wakes at 4am. I administer tylenol then and again at 8am. She takes a 3 hour long nap - missing her next dose interval and putting us an hour late for the birthday party. When she wakes she is cheery and no fever so we go play at the park for about an hour (luckily she played by herself - she's one of the youngest kids there and still is doing the parallel play thing - and was more interested in walking around picking up leaves than playing with the kids), then head out to check progress on the new house. (tile disaster - we're in emergency re-design mode).

This morning no fever -but she's obviously not feeling swell. We're hanging out around the house in our PJ's. When I undress her for her bath I notice that the rash on her leg has changed. It's no longer a regular shape and is much redder. She's also got a new pox on her other leg and maybe 2 on her foot, along with a more normal appearing rash on her chin/cheek. I call the Dr.'s office again. This time the nurse asks, "She doesn't go to school does she?"! Egads!

Long story short: I'd like to humbly apologize to anyone at Max's party who comes down with the pox in about 10 days. I tried to do the responsible thing by asking the Doc, but should have done the more responsibe thing by not bringing her at all. I would be pissed at me if I were you.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you, and you keep your fingers crossed that JB gets no worse. Deal?

B. Sturdy!

Wow! I'm not sure it gets much better than this for my 18 year old brother in law. Having your local newspaper do a kick ass photo like this one partnered with an article all your own (The theme for the High School Football opening section in the paper is "The Hits Keep Coming" and they've done each league in our area with a different hit album cover)- and them using it for the button to get info about your football league on their website.....his head's probably two sizes bigger. Way to go Blakie poo!

New cuteness

JB has some new cute habits that I need to tell you about.

First - she has taken to wearing one of my headbands as a necklace. She has been hiding it somewhere - I'm not sure where, but for the last few evenings she has appeared in the living room, proudly wearing a thick black grippy headband around her neck. Don't even try to get it away from her - it's a battle not worth fighting.

Second - she started this thing where she leans in her head toward you (sometimes forehead, sometimes cheek) while making a "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" sound. This is her asking you for a kiss. C-U-T-E.

Third - she has finally figured out that she can sit on her little Pooh car. She's had it, and played with it for a long time, but could never get on it before. Now she pulls it over to the couch and sticks her chubby leg waaaaaay up in the air to get it over the seat. It's hilarious. There's only one problem - she hasn't figured out how to move in the forward direction consistantly. Every once in a while she goes forward, but mostly she moves backward.

She also likes to push it around the living room. We have laminate floors in there, and she finds it delightful to push the car sideways around and around the couch. I suspect that if there were carpet in there she'd push it forward or backward (either way the wheels would turn) rather than sideways......but whatever.

Fourth - the girl is dying to learn to hop. She is currently running around in her tutu, stretching her arms up into the air and making this high pitched squeal as she shifts her weight in a slightly upward direction. We are required to clap each time. cute cuTE CUTE!!!! Oh - and the tutu? She got it out of the basket in her room, brought it to me and demanded to wear it.

Did you know?

It's ovarian cancer awareness month. I didn't know until I saw this post on Spuddy Buddy (by way of Teacher Mom). Check it out and enter her contest. Girls - get your annuals. They're important, and called annuals for a reason.

And the winners are......

Here is the fabulous prize I'll be sending along to ................
Mommy Writes!!!

And the winner of the second draw (hopefully you'll be getting the same prize - but I haven't had a chance to pick another up - so if not I'll put something else cool together) is.................
Cherish!!!

If you happen to stop by to check the winners - please send me your address so I can send out your prizes. Thanks for playing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Two time winner. PIF time BABY!

Here are the lovely necklace and earrings that Mommy Daisy sent me when I won her PIF contest. She also sent an assortment of cute notecards. Thanks Mommy Daisy!!!!
JB grabbed the gold box as it fell out of the package when I opened it....I put the necklace on her to see what she would do......she couldn't take her eyes or her fingers off of it LOL! And I couldn't get it off of her for hours!
Here is the assortment of scrapbooking stuff from Teacher Mom - can you believe how much there is??!! I had better get busy soon!!!

:::::UPDATE!::::: Since Swistle is going to stop putting the PIF's on her website I'm going to host both my PIF"s now. I will randomly select 2 winners from the comments to this post, and 2 lucky people will receive a prize! I will try to get my hands on another calendar set so both prizes will be the same.

Guess what? It turns out that I AM lucky after all! I won not one but TWO pay it forward contests!! TWO!!! This means that I'll be hosting two PIF's of my own :)

The first time I won a bunch of neat scrapbooking stuff from Teacher Mom. Now all I have to do is get my hiney in gear and start scrapping! I took a picture of all the goodies I got - it covered almost half of my queen sized bed! Today when I went to load the photos from my camera I discovered that the dadgum battery is dead. SO I will update this post with a photo of my winnings (which I received a looooong time ago - and poor Teacher Mom probaby thinks she picked a dud because it's taken me such a very long time to post about it) as well as a photo of the prize I picked up for my contest.

::::::UPDATE::::::I just received my second PIF winnings - a lovely necklace and notecard assortment from Mommy Daisy. I opened the envelope while JB was watching and she immdediately grabbed for the gold box. I thought it would be cute for her to wear the necklace for a minute or two.......and two hours later I'm still trying to get it back!

I have to admit that I'm experiencing a little difficulty in giving away this prize. It's cute and funny and useful. I love cute and funny and useful stuff. It's a Mom's Family Desk Planner, Mom's Family Calendar (September 2008-November 2009; complete "with 500 nifty stickers and a swell magnetic phone list") and two list notepads by Sandra Boynton. I'm linking you to Amazon so you can get an idea of just how cute and useful this is. Heck - it got 5 star ratings from most of the people who rated it :) And that's just the calendar!

This contest will end at 9:00 pm August 31st(provided that there are entrants). To enter all one has to do is leave a comment on this post. The topic? What is your favorite children's book? Don't have a favorite children's book? Tell me about your favorite book. I'm jonesing for a good read.


By entering my contest you are agreeing to pay it forward by hosting one of your own. If you don't have a blog of your own I would be thrilled to either host a contest for you here, or to simply select another winner from the comments to this post.

Score!

This past weekend I participated in my one and only driving event of the year competitively. I drove my boy Tongaroa in an HDT(Horse Driving Trial) at Clay Station Horse Park. An HDT is a shortened version of a CDE(Combined Driving Trial). There are 3 parts to the event: dressage, cones and marathon. The marathon course is much shorter than the marathon course in a CDE, and all the events take place on the same day. I have participated in 2 other HDT's (last year) but have never actually received a score before. The Big Guy kindly consents to being my navigator for the marathon portion of the event - and we managed to get ourselves eliminated by going off course both times last year (well actually we went through hazard gates in the wrong order or some such silliness).

My point being that we really wanted to earn a score this time. I have been driving Tonga in preparation for this event 2-3 times per week, conditioning him for the 6K marathon. I wasn't able to practice our dressage test at all before the show because of a lack of a smooth enough area in our pasture that wasn't planted in hay. Luckily the dressage test was a very easy one - pattern wise.

Our dressage test wasn't spectacular - but considering it was the first time I had driven that test since July of 07, we did alright. I managed to remember the cones course pattern, but our speed was slow. I knew we weren't in the running for a ribbon, but hey folks, we just wanted a score - alright?!

The Big Guy and I decided to walk the hazards on our own - figuring that we could find our way around the rest of the course based on our memory of the venue. We planned our routes through the hazards carefully - marking our path on the course map, with me trying very hard to pay extra attention to where I needed to turn left or right. We felt pretty good about our course knowledge, and were looking forward to our first official score.

You can imagine our dismay when upon crossing through the exit gate for the first hazard the volunteer judge yelled out "You missed a gate!". ::::::heart sinking::::: I steered Tonga along the route, with The Big Guy asking "So we do the rest for practice?". :::::Sigh::::: Yep - we do the rest for practice and good sportsmanship. But deep down I knew we didn't miss a gate. We planned so carefully - and we followed our planned route perfectly. There was no way we missed a gate.

Tonga was poking his way around the course, and I made the mistake of allowing him to go slowly. The maximum time was 26 minutes - we came in at 33. I asked the steward helping the judge about the appeal process - because I was convinced that we did not miss any gates. She informed me that under no circumstances could we ask the hazard judge - our only option was to wait until the results were posted and then make an inquiry to the show organizer. It was hot and since we were the second team to go there was going to be a lot of time between our finish and the result posting so The Big Guy headed home to pick up the baby.

In the meantime I ran through the course several times and became more convinced than ever that we did not miss any gates. So convinced that when I saw the show organizer walking around - I asked her to double check our score sheet. "I'm not expecting to win - I just really want a score - any score!" She laughed and assured me that the hazard judges were new at this and that she would review all the score sheets. (I felt that I could ask her because it's an informal show - and we were not likely to place). She thought it was hilarious that I was willing to accept any score.

When it was results time, the show organizer came out and told me "You not only got a score - you got a ribbon!" I was pretty excited to say the least - I figured we were waaaaay out of the ribbons with our slow times at cones and marathon. When the announcer read off the placings for our category he did not announce my name. Whaaa? My pal had an outstanding dressage score - the best of the day and she got first place. Another person took second and that was it for our division.

After the awards ceremony the organizer asked me how happy I was with my ribbon - and I just looked at her quizzically. My first place winning pal came over and asked me what was up - she thought I was getting a ribbon. I told her that I thought so too, but no ribbon was awarded to me. She asked the show organizer who looked at us stunned and called over the announcer. He had made a mistake - I did end up receiving the third place ribbon1 Hooray for us!! Not only our first score as a team - but our first ribbon too! Now I really wish I could participate in the October HDT - but since we'll be packing and getting ready to move it's just not possible. Our show season is over - but look for us next year!

Learning the important things....

Everyone? Everyone! Gather 'round! :::::brisk clap:::::: I have an important announcement to make..............

JB has learned to spit. Yep, she's refining her skill at what is surely one of lifes most important abilities. She spits when she's walking around the house. She spits when she's eating dinner, and yes she even spits while having her diaper changed. She is fascinated by it. Me? Not so much.

Girls Nite Out

Last night was a good night. I met up with 4 of my best gal pals from high school. We do this a few times a year - of course it's never often enough. We at fabulous Italian food and talked until 10:30 or so. It was good to see the gals again. I took my camera along but forgot to take pictures.

I'm still giggling as I reflect on my very sweet pal A's assertion that we really don't look that different from how we looked in high school. I LOVE you A!!! I for one have reached the point where I am no longer dying my hair for the fun of it, and I weigh about 70 pounds more than I did in high school (egads! That's like a fifth grader! Damn that tiramisu!!!). I think she meant our faces.....yep that's it. Our FACES don't look that much different. I have to say that I don't think we look old either. Our faces have maintained their youthful expressions. I guess all those weekends we spent having fun without drinking or smoking ourselves into oblivion are really paying off. Of course we're older now - but I agree - we don't seem older.

(Oh sweet sweet tiramisu.....I didn't really mean that......you were sooooooo totally worth it. )

Gotta run......I've got a date with Debbie Siebers.

The Verdict is In

Porter Convicted of Murder

This is one of the more surreal happenings in my life. I attended this church, I trust(ed?) this man. He was the pastor at a church I attended, the wrestling coach and a constant presence at my high school. I grew up with his kids. I occasionally worked for his mother's catering business. I really wanted him to perform our marriage ceremony, but as we were not official members of the church we were married by another wonderful pastor there. When I got married I moved out of the area. Not a huge distance, but far enough that it's not convenient to go to the church any longer, and I have lost touch with the family.

A couple of years ago Doug was arrested on murder charges. I was (and still am) in a state of disbelief. I feel so badly for the family. I am usually not a grey area kind of gal, but my heart won't let my mind make a decision on what I think about the case. My brain says, "Look at the evidence Chraycee. He did it." At the same time my heart screams "TRAITOR!! You know this man! You still feel cared for and safe when you think of him. How could you believe the worst of him? He's a wonderful pastor - someone you believe in."

I wish I had not become removed from the church and family. Then I could quash the doubts, and be a strong supporter of his innocence like so many others in the community. Like I want to be.

Fun Quiz

Anyone who knows me is aware that I love Disney. Especially Disney villians. One of my favorite moments at the grand mecca itself was when I took the Which Disney Character Are You quiz at DCA. Turns out I'm Maleficent. I of course knew that all along. Today I stole this princess quiz from the Shoe Addict's blog. I was actually suprised with the result, but find it to be pretty accurate, so I'm sharing it as well. I hope that's not bad blog manners........if so, I apologize up front for my rudeness.

You Are Mulan!

Strong and spirited. You're no one's girly girl; actually you are very determined person with a strong sense of self. Never let go of that! The only thing that equals your sense of self is your family, but the traditions of society can always be bent to protect something or someone you love.

Monterey (with gratuitous cuteness)

The best thing about living where I live in central CA is......well - how central it actually is. We are a 2 hour drive from just about any CA scenery a person could want to visit. Beaches? Mountains? Desert? Yup! 2 hours thataway'll getcha there. And not just namby pamby run of the mill mountains or beaches either - we're talking Yosemite and Monterey people.

Of course you'd hardly know it if you were to ask me about my summer vacation. JB and I have been spending most of it doing absolutely nothing worth blogging about. Last week that changed.
Imagine my delight when I answered my phone to find my gal pal Joy on the line inviting me to spend some time in Monterey with herself, her sister and all the kids. Whoo Hoo! I hopped on Expedia quicker than my dog Trinket chasing a tortilla chip and booked a couple of rooms for a night (because if we're going to the trouble of packing up our collectively 5 children - ages 9,7,3,1 and 6 months...........AND paying $4.07/gal for gas.........??? We're making a trip of it) and started packing. Ok, well, I didn't start packing until about 9pm the night before we were scheduled to leave, but you get my drift.

My gal pals and their kidlets piled into their minivan and I loaded the suitcase, overnight bag, backpack, beach bag, toy bag, pack n play, stroller, neat sheet, and JB into our car and we were off like.....weeellll...... like two people in a heavily loaded car. This was my first trip by myself with JB overnight ever. I was very excited. Excited, that is until she awoke from her peaceful car seat induced slumber and became the screaming baby in the back seat. I called up to the minivan (hands free speaker, thank you officer) and asked the official back seat question. "How much longer until we get there?" I think I had to repeat myself twice so Joy could hear me over the screaming baby. "About a half an hour, let us know if you need to pull over, it's no problem." she replied.

Well.....I think we can do that, don't you? Unfortunately for me, JB did not think so. Unfortunately for her(me?)....I didn't ask. Poor JB cried and cried until it dawned on me that....hey genius! She might be hungry! Must.....find......cheerios. I located the cheerios and managed to dump some onto my lap. I would fumble around in my lap to get a cheerio, then wrench my arm back to her general area in the back seat and hold my arm steady until I could feel her pudgy little finger grab ahold of said cheerio. Repeat 42 kazillion times (accounting for dropped cheerios) until we reached Dennis the Menace park. My angelic pals (whom I will be nominating for sainthood posthaste) found a parking spot and let me take it first so I could rescue JB from her car seat prison ASAP. Wouldn't you know that she stopped crying the instant I opened the back door?

We ate lunch at the park (well everyone that is except JB - she was full of cheerios) and let the kids play for a while. What a fun place! JB must have thought she had died and gone to toddler heaven. She was very happy to sit on the neat sheet and watch the kids play. I took her to the baby swings and pushed her on those for a bit - which she loved, then we slid down a big slide - which she didn't love (but I think that has more to do with the fact that her foot got caught on the way down than with the slide experience itself).

After playing at the park we decided it was time to head to the beach. Jamie suggested we go to Lover's point because it was sandy and protected from the wind. When we got there, my very wise gal pals changed all their children into bathing suits before heading down to the beach. I on the other hand thought it might be too chilly for JB in just a swimsuit, so I rolled up her pants instead.

Shortly after getting our neat sheet laid out on our tiny little area of beach I took JB down to the wet sand. She thought it was awesome, but she really wanted to play in the water. I set her on the sand when a wave washed up, and she was supremely thrilled. She dropped to all 4's and headed out, chasing after the water.

Let me tell you folks, that was it for her. She's just like her mama. The ocean calls her, just like it calls me. I ended up changing her into her suit after all (but not before her outfit was completely soaked) so she could splash around at the water's edge. Her chubby thighs were like ice cubes after a bit, so I pulled her (kicking and screaming) out of the water and set her on the neat sheet to warm up a bit. That was when she discovered one of the kids had brought along an inflatable ring.

(notice that by now I've had to buckle the chin strap on her sun hat.....)

I couldn't have asked for a cuter picture of JB enjoying herself on the beach! If you look closely at the background you'll see what appears to be a bubble. That's exactly what it is! A lady was standing on that wall with a giant bubble wand, releasing bubbles over everyone on the beach. It was pretty cool!

Here are the two of us spending quality time together.

(one of us already has her sights set on getting back into the water!)

After the beach, we went to check in at our motel. The check in lady was rude, even though only myself and Joy and her 3 yr old (we'll call her Birdie) along. By this time Birdie was hungry again, and all around the lobby were cookies, and candy and fruit. Birdie asked her mom politely (seriously - if JB is half as polite as Birdie when she's 3 I'll nominate myself for sainthood) if she could have one, but Joy said no, thinking that those items were for sale. The clerk handed over my key and explained where my room was - and was pissy when I pointed out that I had reserved two rooms, not just one. After procuring the second room we headed off to our rooms for showers/baths/changes of clothes, with plans to meet up again to head out to the (world famous!) Monterey Bay Aquarium.

It was late when we got there, but gal pal Jamie is a member! As a member she gets awesome benefits - including member admission and free guest passes that are good for entry anytime, any day, as many times per day as you want! Seriously - I'm giving thought to becoming a member. They get all kinds of awesome perks - including sleep overs in the aquarium for kids! Kid SCUBA! Discounts at the gift shop!

We visited the Jellies exhibit, the Otter exhibit and the Outer Bay exhibit along with pretty much everything on "that side" of the aquarium. There was hardly anyone there. I wheeled JB's stroller right up to the tanks, and she pointed out the fish to me while uttering little "ooooh!'s" and "ahhhhh!'s". So. Cute.

We ate dinner at Bubba Gump's. JB particularly enjoyed their selection of whole wheat saltine crackers (her daddy would have been so proud), while I enjoyed something called the Accidental Entree (or something like that) complemented by a few goodies from gal pal Jamie's Bucket of Boat Trash.

With tired children in tow we headed back to our motel. Joy and I shared a room, and we decided to borrow "The Aristocats" from the motel's DVD library for our girls to watch. Joy went to get the DVD. While she was waiting her turn in line, she learned by overhearing the unpleasant desk clerk tell a new arrival, that all the food in the lobby was "complementary until 10pm". Uh - beeyotch? Thanks for telling us that when we were checking in with the starving kid.

Thankfully the people working at the desk the next day were so very nice and friendly and helpful that I will actually consider staying at that motel again. I don't know if the initial clerk was having a monstrously bad day or what, but she did earn a letter of complaint from Joy. (other rudeness ensued throughout our stay that I'm not blogging about...because....hellooo boring) (as if I weren't courting that already)

After a not so restful evening - (JB wasn't too big on the whole sleep idea) we headed out to the aquarium again - to cover the half we didn't get to see the evening before.

Here's JB all ready to head out for our second day at the aquarium

Long story short: The entire Cannery Row area was wall to wall people. Jamie and I and the littlies strolled the row biding our time while Joy and the older kids went to see the 3-D Imax movie "Monsters of the Deep", then we went to the aquarium. I couldn't wait to get out. I love the aquarium - seriously. I adore it. But I couldn't take all the people. There wasn't even enough room for me to wheel JB's stroller without running over people. I gave up eventually and sat on a bench while the others visited the gift shops and bought souvenirs.

We got the hell outta dodge around noon. So much for our second day - but by then I was tired, JB was tired, and the whole gal pal minivan was chock full of tiredness. Joy & Jamie said all the kids slept the entire way home. JB was awake for about half the trip before drifting off to laalaa land. Overall I give the trip an A-. I would definitely do it again, but next time we'll have to try a Tuesday/Wednesday trip :)

The Great Shoeventure

As a result of the too-small-sandal incident on my birthday I have been on a mission to get some new sandals for JB. We have been planning a trip to Monterey with some gal pals and their kiddos, and will be spending some time at the beach. Sandals are a necessity.

Wouldn't you know that NOT ONE store in any of the towns near me has size 4 sandals? Well, unless you count the Payless Shoes I finally visited on a whim (oh look! It's in the same parking lot as the JC Penney I was just shopping in). They had a cute pair of jelly sandals (clear with a HUGE aqua butterfly on the toe) and some white leather sandals with big pink butterflies on the toes in a 4W (because....hello, potato wedges!) They also had a cute pair of black flats that have a cute round toe in MY size that I picked up. Only I really want brown.

Turns out we were also in dire need of TP, so we headed over to Target. The Big Guy wanted some new swim trunks - so while he was in the fitting room JB and I zipped across the aisle to the shoes. I found some shoes similar to those I had just bought in a bronzy color - much closer to brown than the black - so I just had to try them on. JB was thrilled to be stomping around in her new sandals, so I set her on the floor for just a second while I tried on the bronze shoes.

It turns out that the time it takes to slip on one bronzy shoe is exactly the amount of time it takes for one toddler to speed down the shoe aisle and turn the corner. HOLY CRAP! In one micro-second she would no longer be visible to me, and panic set in. I was off like a shot down the aisle - with my shoe on the left foot, and Target's bronze shoe on the right. Only Target likes to keep their shoes together - which means that the bronze shoe currently adorning my foot was connected to it's partner shoe by an elastic band.

There I was frantically chasing my baby girl down the aisle with the footless right bronze shoe flapping alongside. Flapping alongside that is until I turned the corner - at which time the elastic band stretched to 10 times its normal length and the loose shoe wrapped around my left ankle. Somehow I managed not to fall, and was able to nab JB before she became stranger fodder.

Later, I was telling my pal about our adventure and she laughed "The surveillance people were probably dying!" Damn. I never even considered that someone got that on tape.

I know I'll be kicking myself.....

On Saturday The big Guy and I loaded up JB's bassinet, rainforest jumparoo and sesame street walker into the back of his truck to take over to a new baby consignment shop in town. We don't have a place to store these items, and seeing as how we're trying to sell our current home so we'll be able to afford our new home - it was time to get them out of the house.

The only item that tugged at my heartstrings as we drove down the road toward the shop was the bassinet. I loved that bassinet - it had wheels on it and I used to wheel a soundly sleeping JB all around the house in it. I scooted it right up next to my bed so I could peek over the side and check on her at night. It was pretty without being frilly, and had a cool mobile on it that played songs, made nature noises or even told a story. It had a light "show" and a really noisy vibrate feature on it as well. I never used most of those, and the bonnet was usually pulled back, rather than up in the "pretty" position.

That damn thing is still calling me from the shop tonight. I never intended to get rid of it, I intended to keep it for any possible future babies. I packed the instructions back into the box after assembling it, and looked forward to storing it carefully back in the box to put in our attic. Unfortunately I didn't make my plans clear to The Big Guy - it's not his fault - he knows how I hate clutter, and that getting rid of empty boxes is normally an easy way to make me happy. He tossed the box and I never realized it until it was too late.

We were shopping at Target after consigning the items, and he even suggested looking for a plastic bin we could store it in, but I didn't see anything big enough. My insides tug at me to go and get my beloved bassinet - but I'm letting it go. I do take some comfort in the knowledge that Target still carries them, and if need be I'll pick up another ASAP! If we do decide to have another baby, it's going to be just as expensive as the first one, because we'll have to replace all this stuff. Swistle would be squirming uncomfortably in her chair, even cringing if she were to find out about my wastefulness - sorry Swistle!

Funny story regarding the jumparoo. The Big Guy was unloading it from the back of the truck to take across the street to the consignment shop when a lady popped her head out of a nearby salon. She bought the jumparoo from him for $30. which is way more than we'd have gotten at the consigment shop.

She cried because she had no shoes.....

JB is 13 months old and already is a strongly opinionated little girl. She is very into clothes and shoes. Often I find her in my closet, hugging the clothes hanging on hangers, or playing with my shoes. Unfortunately for her, she has potato wedges for feet, and consequently very few shoe style fit her.

Last night we were going out to dinner with family to celebrate my birthday. I dressed her up in a super cute outfit (pink/blue/green plaid halter top and white pedal pushers) and thought to myself that it might be fun to put some shoes on her as well. It seems that as she is growing, her feet are fitting better into shoes, so earlier this summer I took a chance on some cute sandals from Target. I thought they would look adorable with this particuar outfit.

I retrieved the shoes from her closet and wrestled her feet into them. I set her down, and she proudly toddled off in her shoes. I cringed inwardly as I noticed how her little heels were hanging off the back of the shoes, and how tightly the little elastic strap was stretched around the back of her foot. "Well that's got to be uncomfortable" I thought to myself, so I grabbed her up and took the sandals off. I still wanted her to wear shoes (they please her so) and I have a little pair of pink croc-type shoes for her. Not as cute as the sandals, but knowing JB as I do I realized she was pleased at the prospect of wearing some, so I slapped those on her and set her down again. This time, when her feet hit the floor she fell dramatically down and started crying. Then she got to her knees and started crawling - as if to say "I can't wear these!" I got her up on her feet, and she took a few steps before crashing down again (note that the shoes do fit still, and she has worn them, even walked successfully in them before) and crying. Hmph. Well, that's not going to work either. I scooped her up and removed the offending clogs.

Drat! That outfit was going to look so cute with shoes. I relegated myself to taking my barefoot toddler to dinner and set her back down on the floor. Once more she started howling, only this time she bobbled over to where I had dropped the original sandals, grabbed one up, dragged it over, and began banging it against my leg. I took it from her, told her that it was too small and set it on the ottoman. She looked from me to the shoe and started crying again. ::::::SIGH::::::

I can take a hint. I picked up the other shoe and the baby and commenced squeezing her feet back into them, and set her once again on the floor. Of course she stopped crying once she realized I was putting the sandals back on her feet, and upon hitting the floor she ambled off babbling happily. She wore those too small sandals all night without a single complaint. In fact when we arrived at the restaurant and I was removing her from the car seat she reached out and touched her foot, as if to say "Aren't my shoes pretty?"

I never imagined

My parents have a carriage business. One of their jobs a couple of months ago was for a nearby city - ferrying people from a park to Main Street for a food tasting. Apparently while waiting to pick up passengers at the park they were approached by a blonde cowboy type guy who said "You're Chraycee's parents aren't you?" Suprised, they acknowledged that yes they are, and he told them that he went to high school with me. Also that he's now homeless. Mom said that he looked like he is probably addicted to meth (a look we became familiar with a few years ago when a family member was addicted - clean for 5 years now)

The thing is this: my parents were not very involved in my high school career. That is to say, they were involved with me and my progress at home, they just didn't actually go to school functions often. For this person to have recognized my parents means that he must have spent some time at my house. (an honor that not too many kids I went to school with had) My school was very small. My graduating class numbered only a little more than one hundred.

Unfortunately the incident happened a few months ago (and they just got around to remembering to tell me!) and neither mom nor dad could remember his name. Dad said it seemed like it was a "different" first name. So I guess that means all the Jeff's, Steve's, Matt's and Pete's are fine. Ugh!

Here's thing thing though. Even if I did know who it was, what would I do? I feel like offering help, but at the same time I don't want to offer help to someone who doesn't want it, or isn't ready to accept it. The town he is in really doesn't have many resources for homeless people. I don't even know if this person is homeless because of circumstance, or by choice.

It just seems to me that if he went out of his way to talk to my parents, and to tell them that he is homeless - maybe it was a plea for help.

I don't know if I'll ever know for sure, because I can't very well take my heat intolerant one year old out to the park with me to hang out with the homeless people.

Makeover

I gave the blog a makeover - I finally noticed all the options in the editor (duh!) And I must credit JB with the new blog title. I am forever trying to keep the floor swept! I thought the new wood floors would be awesome ..... but it turns out that they just look that way. I HATE it when stuff sticks to my feet. Ahhhh well. Such is life. That's JB's cute fat foot in the photo. If anyone knows how to make the photo stretch all the way across the top please let me know. I've messed with it for hours and can't seem to figure it out.

The first day of summer

Hello there gorgeous!

Doesn't this look refreshing?


Look Ma, BUBBLES!

These photos were taken last Saturday - which was of course the first official day of summer. It was beautiful outside, and seemed like the perfect opportunity to take JB to play in the baby pool. That kid LOVES the water - be it bath or pool. I was trying to get some cute pics of her smiling - since she so often puts on her "serious" face when she sees the camera. Apparently the pool is just the ticket.

I particularly love these pictures because one could never tell by looking at them that no more than 25 feet behind my back fence is a humongous dairy - which means that no more than 25 feet behind my back fence is a vast amount of cow poo. And do you know what likes cows, and their poo? That's right.....flies. Not the inocuous black housefly..... no siree. These particular flies bite into flesh like I bite into popcorn balls on Halloween.

I cannot wait for our new home to be completed so I can be rid of these vile insects FOREVER!!!! (Ok, ::::::::reality check::::::I know it's not forever considering the fact that I'm a horse owner, but never again will I have to endure them in the massive quantities I have experienced over the last 8.5 years)

First Birthday aka The Great Cake Debacle

JB ponders the question: "How many cakes do you think they'll order for my second birthday?!!"

Exhibit A: the $60.00 Bakery Cake

Exhibit B: The $15.99 Costco cake I ordered

Exhibit C: the $15.99 Costco cake I hadn't planned on

The Small Party

On June 6th JB reached the ripe new age of 1 year. We gathered at Red Robin's for a small birthday party (a precursor to the big party on June 8th). The Big Guy got a balloon for JB, which she was instantly enamored with. Seriously. I couldn't get any pictures of her because the balloon was attached to the opposite side of her high chair, and she wouldn't look at anything but that dadgum ballon. Her Aunt Nik got her a very cute Elmo shirt that had "First Birthday" on it, along with a matching crown-hat thing. I wasn't too crazy about the crown/hat, but after looking at her in it for a while it grew on me. She didn't mind wearing it either. Headwear for her can be tricky. She has definite opinions on such things. Maybe it was the magical Elmo....she loves that guy.

Our waiter was good (which can be a rare occurance for us at RR) and he brought JB a sundae. He was worried that the singing would frighten her, so he skipped having the entire crew come over......turns out the people at the table next to us had a birthday, so the whole crew sang to that table, and JB thought it was FABULOUS! It was the one thing that could tear her little eyes away from her balloon. :-)

The Big Guy's mom brought JB a gift: a newborn Cabbage Patch baby doll. JB has a mini CP baby doll given to her at Christmas which she loves. Apparently she is loyal, because she gave the new baby one kiss (as requested by the gift giving Grandma) and promptly threw it decisively to the ground behind her. There will be no replacing the original CPK.

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

Sunday the 8th was the big party (56 invitees). The Big Guy is an adopted child, and about 4 years ago or so he found his bio parents. This increased the size of his family exponentially. His "real" parents (as opposed to "bio" parents) are divorced, and while bio dad says nothing negative about the bio mom, the reverse is not true. It so happens that his "real" parents are also divorced, and had not shared a common airspace since before their divorce until the day we were married. And on that day, his dad was late, and left early. At my baby shower the women of all those families were present, and as stressfull as it had to be for all of us, things went pretty well. This was the first time that all members of all the families would be together. (This is why I am thankful that my parents are together, and have 10 acres of space to host parties at, thus allowing those who prefer not to mingle to remain seperate) As I suspected, it was a bit awkward at first, but amazingly things went very smoothly, and I would even say better than I could have hoped for. The Big Guy enjoyed visiting with his bio dad, and bio grandfather on bio mom's side (who always have gotten along well, but aren't really able to visit anymore) all together. BG's "real" mom even ended up extending an invitation to bio-mom's parents to come by her house and visit JB anytime (which is HUGE people, H-U-G-E. Especially since for the past 4 years she has been referring to anyone biologically related to the Big Guy as "Those People")

The party went longer than I had planned, and I ended up opening a good portion of JB's gifts in the dark. She got some super cute clothes, and toys. Blah blah blah, I know.... I know.... you want to hear about THE CAKE.

On Sunday, we were (of course) running late ('cause that's how we roll), and we still had to pick up all the food (yes, all the food) for the party at Costco. We also had to bring our own BBQ, because my parent's wasn't working properly. So JB and I headed over to my parent's house with the paper/plastic goods and BBQ to start getting things set up while The Big Guy went to Costco. He had a list of what was needed, including orders to pick up the cake.

Apparently I wasn't very clear on that point. When BG walked into my parents backyard, I was anxious to see how the cake turned out, and if it would indeed coordinate enough with the fancy cake. Fancy bakery cake was pink with a big butterfly and daisies, and luckily for me Costco offered a white background with big smiling daisies. I requested that they write "Happy 1st birthday JB" on it to make it a bit more personal.

Imagine my suprise when BG walked in with a chocolate frosted cake that had red, yellow and blue balloons on it.

"That's not the cake I ordered!" I said (ok, ok....screeched as calmly as I could).

"What do you mean the cake you ordered??!!" BG replied, shocked look on his face.

Yeah. I know that I told him all about it after I ordered it on Monday, but in his defense, he was at work and was probably only half listening. At any rate we had a cake right....? Except that since it was a special order I knew that Costco would be calling us asking us to pick up our damned cake. So BG's mom and sister went back to Costco and picked up the correct cake. Are you keeping count? This makes cake #3 at the party (and last I checked 60+16+16 = $92. So much for saving money by ordering the smaller cake) Needless to say we will not be running out of cake any time soon. Seriously.

Needless to say, I re-upped for another 6 weeks of Jazzercise :)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another Milestone

True to form, JB has hit another developmental milestone just before her birthday. On June 2nd she sort of hopped one foot forward toward her Aunt Nik. Aunt Nik was overjoyed, spouting "She walked to me first!! She walked to me first!" over and over. June 3rd was the Big Guy's birthday, and she was gloating about it, so I explained to her that it really wasn't walking, because in order to qualify for walking, JB had to shift her weight from one foot to the other. It was as if JB was listening to me. I kid you not, as I was explaining that, JB proceeded to walk a few steps. She has increased the number of steps daily, and as of today she is starting to view walking as a pretty good way to get around, unless she's in a hurry - in which case crawling is much faster :)

The Great Cake Debate

Now that school is almost out (three half days of finals and one teacher work day to go) I'm finally all caught up with my grading/planning. This means that I can turn my spare time into "first birthday party planning time". On Friday I realized that I had better get our cake ordered. I thought this would be simple enough.....we have 2 choices: get a cake from Costco, or get a cake from a local bakery. I lean toward Costco because it's yummy (what cake isn't) and fairly inexpensive (considering the 56 invitees for whom I also will be providing BBQ and refreshments). When I talked to Big Guy's mom about it, she told me that she wants to buy the cake, and she wants me to order it from her favorite local bakery - which is of course the favorite of everyone on that side of my marriage.

I went on Friday afternoon and waited in line at the super popular local bakery to order my cake. It turns out I need a 3/4 sheet cake, and to have it decorated to go along with the theme of the party the darn thing is going to cost (are you ready for this????) $86.00! I tried not to choke on my tongue, whilst explaining to the helpful bakery clerk that I was not the one paying for the cake, and I felt that I needed to get an "ok" on the price before ordering. Off I went, certain that we would be getting our cake from Costco after all.

MIL did seem a bit suprised at the cost, but she mused aloud, "It does come with a 6" cake for the baby for free", and "It is her first birthday after all". She sent me back today to order the cake. I called my mom this evening to tell her about how much the cake cost. I knew she would think the cost was outrageous, and was looking to share disbelief. What I did not expect was for my mom to declare that she doesn't even like cakes from that bakery (a sentiment interestingly enough echoed by my aunt unbeknownst to my mom in an earlier conversation), and that she'll be buying a Costco cake. OMG!!!!!!

I asked her not to do that, because I ordered the 3/4 sheet cake which feeds from 48 - 70 people, and two cakes would be waaaaaay too much. She won't buy the cake, but it did get me thinking......should I change my order to a smaller cake from local bakery, and supplement with a Costco cake? Then everyone can have the kind of cake they want, and we can save MIL a bit of money. Of course MIL will still want to get the 1/2 sheet, so JB can have her own baby-cake. The 1/2 sheet feeds up to 40 people, so we'll still have a ton of cake, but we'll save some money. Heck, I could even get a chocolate cake from Costco so we'd have one white and one chocolate cake.

Miscellaneous May

Wow, it's been a while since I posted! I'll do my best to summarize the happenings of the past 3 weeks.

My first mother's day was very busy. We had JB dedicated at her Grandma's church. This was important to us, because although we don't attend church every Sunday (or even once per month) we do have strong ties to our christianity. I would very much like to attend church more often, we'll see how that goes.

Next we were off duty for a couple of hours, except that I had to grocery shop for food to serve at the BBQ scheduled at my mom's that evening. I wanted to make a yummy dessert, but not enough time so opted for chocolate and fresh strawberries and some yummy marshmallow creme/sour creme dip. Not too shabby.

Beyond that I have been extremely busy at school. I volunteered to be a dancer in the half time show for our Sober Grad fundraiser basketball game. Practices were scheduled for lunch, but I have a hard time giving up my lunch. it's 40 minutes of peace in the midst of my teenage angst filled days. Oh yeah and I often use the time to complete power point presentations and the like for my next class (which is my only period of that particular subject). Anyhoo I shook my groove thang as best I could. I spent the week before the event dancing every lunch, and I even got one of my students who was participating to come and give me lessons during my 6th period prep. I danced at home in the evening too, and by the night of the game I finally knew the dance. At the event I screwed up my favorite part, but I can honestly say that in comparison to some of my cohorts I looked like I knew what I was doing.

All that dancing though left me little time for actual grading, so I'm backed up. 8 more days of school. Well, really 4 full days and 3 half days with students - then the one day of finalizing grades and cleaning up/checking out for the summer. In fact I should be grading at this minute, the Big Guy and JB are napping on the sofa, but I'm blogging! I haven't updated in so long.....(yeah - procrastinate much?) I promised the kids updated grades on Tuesday (I updated my 4 regular classes on Friday but I have a lab and big project to add in). No fun for me this weekend!

Oh, I guess a big development is that due to a strange twist of fate, I'll be the department chair next year. Not sure if that's a good thing, but there you have it. On Friday one of the veteran teachers in our dept. went out of her way to tell me that she thinks I'll be good at it, and she offered to be my back up for meetings. That was very nice of her, and it meant a lot. I know she meant it, because the year I was preggers she nominated me for teacher of the year, and she's not one to toss around compliments.

On the JB front, she's as cute as ever! About a week ago she was not so cute. She was awake at all hours of the night with a fever and obviously not feeling well. She would only sleep if I cuddled her up tight to me, which meant I didn't sleep. I suspected it was teething issues, which is a good thing since she'll be one year old in a few weeks and had no teeth. Sure thing, yesterday her first tooth broke through. She won't let me put my finger in her mouth, and isn't very willing to let us look at it, but it's there (I felt it!).

Still no walking, but girlfriend is THIS CLOSE!

I'm planning her first birthday party. Egads! I ordered cake plates and napkins with a cute first birthday theme, colored flatware, plain lunch napkins and colored plastic cups along with a bib, #1 candle and thank you notes to the tune of $80! Jeez! I still have to pick up the food, plates for the food (I'm figuring regular Chinet) and a cake! Because of the Big Guy's unusual familial situation we have invited 56 people. At least half of those people are a little (understatement) uncomfortable around one another. I just can't go through the rest of my life doing everything two or three times with different parts of his family though, so I'm doing one big event. I started them off slowly with one baby shower (with success I might add), but this will be the first time all the members of the different families will be in the same area. Thank goodness my parents have a HUGE backyard!

The cake is presenting a minor problem for me. Big Guy's family loves cake from a certain bakery. This bakery will include a kids mini cake with the purchase of a sheet cake. But 56 people! And I'm sure the cake from the bakery will be expensive. I'm considering ordering a cake from Costco (who I think makes yummy cake) but then I would have to either make a little cake just for JB, or suck it up and give her one piece of the sheet cake (which is what I lean toward anyhoo). It just seems that other people are very excited at the prospect of her having her very own little cake. I'll admit, it's cute, but is it necessary? I am no cake decorator, so as much as I would love to make a little cake for her on my own, it won't be the same.....

Regarding our new home (which we signed papers for 5 months ago.....) we met with the development's new lender last weekend. The builder actually lowered the price of our home substantially. With all our options we are now paying less than the base price was when we signed the contract originally. We had to negotiate seriously to get the original price, so we're pretty pleased to have them lower it further. I guess maybe I can grant them a little forgiveness on the 5 months with no progress. We go to sign the contract addendum and a good faith something or other with the lender tomorrow. Concrete forms should be up on June 14th!

I still haven't done a damn thing with poor Tonga. I'm looking forward to seeing him pretty much every day this summer though. Ahhh it appears nap time is over......and so ends another fabulously long and exciting blog.

Stand up!

True to form JB has made another big accomplishment just before another month milestone. Last month (literally the day before turning 10 months) she baby clapped for one last time (one hand open, the other balled up in a fist) and 10 minutes later she started clapping with both hands open and hasn't looked back. This month it is standing up.

When I picked her up from Grandma's on Friday she crawled over to me and simply stood up. Like it was no big deal. Now - she's been practicing, but always holding on to something. This was completely unaided. She can even stand and bounce a bit.

Earlier this week I got a super funny video of JB clapping and "dancing" while the Big Guy was playing "Slow Ride" on Guitar Hero. It's high-freakin-larious. I might even send it in to AFV. That is of course if I ever figure out how to get it off the digital video camera...

Another funny thing....this weekend we've noticed that when JB dances, she's taken to "head banging". She sort of leans over, hangs her head and shakes it like crazy. It's so cute! Now, do you suppose she learned that from Grandma?

Unfortunately a family member's teacher supply store is going out of business. Luckily for us that meant we got to buy a TON of cool toys on the cheap. I could practcally open my own Melissa & Doug museum now. Also some non M&D wood toys. Lots and lots of puzzles! And I got some really cool stuff to decorate my bulletin boards at school. I won't decorate them again until next year....this year I had to tear everything down because someone keeps drawing penises on my cute froggy border. :::::sigh:::::

When will I ever learn?!

JB and I headed out to the Ram Tap CDE yesterday to watch the marathon portion of the event. My parents were there volunteering as hazard timers and since the weather was beautiful and the Big Guy was going to be out playing, it seemed like something fun to do. Even though I'm not competing....which I am NOT resentful about.....NOT resentful......NOT RESENTFUL!

I started calling my parent's cell phones on Thursday to let them know that we were coming. My parents however did not check their cell phones. No big. We'll find them once we get there, and if not we'll still get to see the competitors do their thing.

We got there around 11 and I pushed JB's stroller (note: the nice jog stroller doesn't fit in the trunk, so her normal Evenflo stroller has had to become an off-road stroller) up the steep, sandy path to the top of the hill where I could watch 2 water hazards and one normal hazard figuring that this was the densest area of volunteers. We lucked out and found some shade, but not my parents. But shade! We planted ourselves there for a while....and by a while I mean 4 hours or so. We lucked out and got to see my pal drive her horse through the hazards. This was their first official CDE and they looked great!

Sidenote: JB has very white skin - something she had no chance of not getting considerng that the Big Guy has arctic white skin while I like to consider my skin to be snow white. Being the good mom I am I lathered her up with baby sunscreen. I even put it on her scalp (she has very little hair) and face. By the time I got to the top of that darn hill her forehead had broken out into a rash, and she had rubbed sunscreen into her right eye and was understandably a bit distressed. She kept rubbing and rubbing at her eye, poor baby! I doused a burp cloth with water and tried to wipe the sunscreen out of her eye and off of her forehead. It did seem to help.

About 2 hours in, I found that I was going to need to use the porta potty. Aaarg! Where were my darn parents?! I was all alone, and the porta can was a short distance away - across a sandy field so I left the stroller behind and carried JB over with me. There were lots of people around, but I couldn't just ask some stranger to hold her so she had to go in with me. Of course the capris I was wearing had a button, 2 hooks, the obligatory zipper and a string holding them up (as if my plentiful hiney and hips weren't enough). Somehow I managed to keep JB from touching everything and got myself secured back into my clothes. I think I'll have shirts made up...."You're not a real mom until you've taken your 10 m/o into a porta john!".

Around 2:30 I pushed JB back down the hill to the barn area where I was able to locate my parents horses and trucks and trailers. I left a diaper under their windshield wiper to let them know that we had been there, because it was HOT and DIRTY and I was ready to leave.

At this point in the day, JB had food all over her clothes because I somehow forgot to pack her bib, (and I'd like to see YOU feed your baby blueberry/pear in her stroller while crouching next to her as she swivels her head around taking in all the sights without dripping some onto her clothes!) And I'm not sure if you know this, but CDE's can to be sort of fru fru. I was a bit embarassed to be carting around a baby with purple stains on the front of her outfit - but to their benefit, no one really seemed to mind.

On our last stroll through the parking area, a nice lady in one of the booths (one sponsored by our driving club, Northern California Drving Club) suggested that I ask about where I could find my parents in the show office (DUH Chraycee!) so I did and JB and I headed out to find them.

Score! They were working another water hazard, and there was shade! JB and I hung out with them until the last competitor cleared their hazard at around 5:00. It was a good thing that she was the last one, because a few moments before she arrived, JB had managed to poo all over herself - her diaper had apparently managed to become a diaper wedgie....a first for us, and thus poo was all over her outfit. I of course had not packed another outfit. What had I packed you ask? A pair of socks, 2 hats and a sweatshirt along with food, diapers, wipes and toys.

Since the temperature had to be in the 90's, I couldn't justify making her wear a sweatshirt, so I changed her into a fresh diaper and let her be naked girl. She was representing her okie heritage, and possibly signaling to any planes flying over with her lily white skin. Remember the part where I said CDEs can be fru fru and I was embarassed by the stains? Yeah, well naked okie baby (who was now hunting for a serious full body sunburn) was simply too far out of my comfort level, so we headed back toward the car.

On the way home I ended up taking a turn off on the higway and was temporarily lost. Luckily I regained my bearings and we were able to make it home in one (and for some of us naked) piece.

Noteworthy lessons from the day:
1. JB is an awesome baby. She was so good all day long, hardly complaining at all even when her
eyes were stinging from sunscreen.
2. MOM! Forwarding calls from your house to your cell is useless when you don't bother to
check your cell phone.
3. JB might have an allergy to sunscreen. It runs in the family apparently.....information that
would have been useful YESTERDAY!!!
4. ALWAYS pack extra clothes!!!

My girl wants to party all the time

JB has never been big on sleep. She's not a very good napper, sometimes sleeping only an hour during the day. This would not be a big deal, except that her no sleep policy seems to extend to going to bed at night as well. Three times this week she's been up until 10:30 or 11:00. Mommy on the other hand is an "in bed by 10:00" kind of gal.

Before returning to work I did have her on at least a night time schedule, where she went to bed between 7:30 and 8:00, but that's pretty much shot now. I used to be able to rock her to sleep while nursing her, but lately she alternates nursing with climbing me like a mountain. I've tried laying in my bed with her, sitting in her dark room with her in her crib, reading to her, walking in small circles while holding her..... all to no avail. She is very strong willed.

Tonight she went to sleep with me in my bed, and I carried her to her crib. She slept for an hour and a half then woke up crying. I sent the big guy in with a bottle and strict instructions not to pick her up. He was in there for only a second or two before she started screaming at the top of her lungs. I went in and the big guy was sitting on the floor bottle in hand. She had started to take the bottle, then started screaming. I tried giving it to her myself with similar results.

I know it sounds crazy, but I told her that if she was just going to scream at us, we were going to leave, and I turned and left the room. The big guy followed me, which was a BIG step for him, he hates to hear her cry (who doesn't) and his usual suggestion for making her stop is for me to "just nurse her". She cried for a few minutes, then calmed back down. He went in to offer her the bottle again, and she began screaming again. She's calming down again now, but this time I think we'll just listen intently to the baby monitor once she calms.

Welcome!

I have to admit, this isn't my first attempt at keeping a blog. I tried a year or so ago with dismal results. Since then, I've been reading (aka addicted to) blogs, and have decided to give it another go. I think it would be more fun for me if I knew the "blogger secrets" - you know, like how to get that really fun strikeout font, or how to put neat little doodads on my site. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually, but for now it's the regulation blogger template for me :)

A bit about me: I'm 30 something and a high school teacher. I am married to The Big Guy, and we have an amazingly beautiful daughter (JB) who is 10 months old. She's smart too :) That girl loves The Big Big World, which she watches every day with her Grandma while I'm at work. She also loves the Wiggles - and I'm becoming ok with it. They're weird, but the music is happy, and she loves it, she flaps her arms and kicks her feet happily along with the songs. JB loves the dogs and horses, enjoys being outside, and of course she loves chewing on everything she can lay her chubby little baby hands on. She is not afraid of ANYTHING and has an opinion on EVERYTHING. (I have no idea where she gets that from.....honestly!) What's that you say? Something about lightening? Ah - well..... nevermind......

Along with being a mom and the teacher bit, I enjoy the company of 2 boston terriers and 9 horses. Ok - well I can only really claim ownership of one of them directly, the rest belong to my parents, but we share. Before I had JB I was getting into Combined Driving competitions, but since her arrival my time with the horses has been limited. Now I juggle Mommyhood with my job and there is simply not enough time in the day.

Life is good. Busy and full of choices and good.