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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** This is my family updates blog. I'm sorry to say that it's moved to Facebook. If you would like to continue to read about my life, you need to be my Facebook friend.  |
| I haven't really felt like blogging lately. Or writing really. It's just sort of a burn-out since I've been working pretty hard at work and at home. It seems everyone's gotten over the stomach sickness that passed through last week. I'm recovering from taking care of everyone. Hehehe... The weekend included a number of boring administrative tasks like doing taxes and filing and all that jazz. I have just been inclined to watch some dumb tv or read my book. I'm reading George R.R. Martin's Feast for Crows, the latest in his Fire and Ice Saga. Jack has taken to greeting people saying "sup" because Chris says that. LOL He's a good little mimic now. And a climber. He loves to climb the furniture. But ya know, there's worse habits - he's not a biter or a hitter. Link is almost sitting on his own. He can do it for a few seconds and then loses his balance and stumbles forward. He eats A LOT! I haven't found a baby food he doesn't like. He'll down a whole bottle and then go on to have rice cereal and some baby food. It's a full meal. So he's definitely chunking up really good. It's hard to believe he'll be 5 mos old on Valentine's Day. Speaking of V Day, I am astounded by the vicious hatred for this holiday. I KNOW it's commercialized. I know that it's "fake." I know St Valentine was martyred. I know we should appreciate our loved ones every day and not just on a special day. But seriously! It's good to have things to celebrate. I appreciate my husband every day, but I'll be the first to admit that I don't necessarily say it all the time. What is wrong with taking a day and just acknowledging that? I tell you, people are just ridiculous!  |
| There's an Episcopal Church just a five minute walk from our house, and I have been meaning to go since moving here. Tonight I finally did. Lent is a very meaningful time for me, so I figured it was a good time to start. It was a really nice church - open and airy. There wasn't a huge crucifix hanging over the altar. That's a big turn-off for me, so I was glad it was just the altar. It was a peaceful service, and I felt mentally refreshed afterwards. I think I'm going to try going on Sunday to see a regular service and check out what kind of activities they have for kids. I needed a spiritual recharge because this week has been kind of draining and it's only half-over. Link and Jack both had a stomach bug on Monday. Nothing like being up at all hours cleaning up baby puke. Tuesday was a blur because we were both so tired. Thankfully, the vomiting was only a 24-hour thing because after staying home yesterday the boys were ready to get back into the normal routine. Work was really busy last week and Monday and Tuesday. But I turned in like four reports, and it's eased up a little. Not a lot though. They're quick to find more for me to do. I might have to branch out a bit from the technical writing. They found out about what I did for my last office and realized I could help do the same thing for them. It's kind of exciting to think I will be able to reuse that knowledge, but I really don't want to give up the writing. I enjoy that more than anything. I guess we'll see how it works. I think I may have a touch of what Link and Jack had. I haven't been throwing up, but I have had no appetite to speak of for the last couple of days. It's a bit of a bummer, but nothing like that ear infection. |
| I went to the doctor on Thursday and she told me my ear was no longer infected, but she did say it was "cloudy." This is a medical term for the fact that there is still a bit of fluid in it. I can feel it still even though it's been a couple of days. It's all good though. We've been sleeping really well this last week. One benefit of me going out of town is Link was with Chris who doesn't wake up as easily. Apparently, it only takes two or three nights for Link to realize he can go back to sleep just fine. Last night he slept from 7pm to 6:30am. And so did Jack, so even though it wasn't my morning to sleep in today, I still got a few extra winks. (Usually, they get up between 5:30 and 6.) I'm sure the fact that Link is eating the cereal and baby food in addition to milk is helping keeping his belly full all night. We have been giving trying new fruits and veggies slowly but surely. Bananas, Pears, and Sweet Potatoes. So far he likes all of those. Tonight I made what I have named Phil's Chowder, after Punxsutawney Phil since it's Groundhog's Day. Just something I threw together really, and it turned out great! It's really quite amazing what you can do with only a few simple ingredients. It's seasonal too. We're trying to eat more seasonally since I'm reading about food. PHIL's CHOWDER: 1-2 cups of white fish (I used Tilapia) 3 leeks (chopped) 2 cups frozen corn 3 cloves of garlic (chopped) 2 tbsp olive oil 1/2 tsp paprika 1/4 red pepper flakes 1/2 tsp salt 4 cups vegetable broth 1 cup milk (we used soy b/c of Jack's dairy allergy; could also use cream) 1. Saute leeks in olive oil until tender 2. Add garlic, paprika, pepper flakes, salt. Cook a couple more minutes 3. Add broth, fish, and corn. Bring to boil, add milk, then simmer for 15 mins. 4. Serve with ground pepper. HOW EASY IS THAT? Oh, it was so good! Even Jack ate every single bit of it, which is amazing to me. And it only took like 30 mins. I almost blended up a small cup to give to Link, but I changed my mind. I thought maybe it was too many new things for his newbie palate. Even though I call it a chowder, it is really light. I think that's because I used soy milk instead of cream. Groundhog's Day is a very witchy day. In the pagan calendar it is a day of purity (much like Ash Wednesday and Lent actually) and a time for celebrating the first stirrings of Spring. True to form I spent the day Spring Cleaning and then researched gardening to see what I should grow and when. This will be my first serious attempt at growing anything (since it's the first time I actually have a yard). I'm curious to see how it goes. I figure it will take me a couple years to really have anything significant to show for it, but I feel like it's very important to learn these things. We went for a walk this afternoon since it was in the 50s and sunny. Jack now runs up and down the trail, so you have to actually walk to keep up with him. Now that he is talking more, my husband and I have reached the spelling stage of parenthood where we don't actually say powderkeg words. b-i-n-k-y. Or l-u-n-c-h. Jack knows breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Whenever he hears them, he goes immediately to his chair and climbs in. Then he will get mad that the food isn't already there. He doesn't quite understand, "It's not ready yet." LOL |
| My ear is finally feeling better today. I can hear pretty good out of it, and there's only a few twinges of pain...nothing like the excruciating pain I had last week. After my adventures on Wednesday night, I tried to sleep but didn't have much luck because the pain made it hard to get comfortable. The next morning I even tried to go to class, but I didn't last two hours before realizing I was actually much sicker than I thought...and go figure only one day of antibiotic wasn't going to magically cure me. So I went home and suffered through Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The pain was ridiculous! I couldn't do anything other than sit in bed or on the couch and think about how awful it was. I figure it was second only to childbirth. So that's labor pains, ear infection...then probably gall bladder disease back in college...and then probably running on shin splints. It actually hurt all the way down my neck and into my face so that I couldn't eat without it hurting mass. I'm writing all this because I am still having a hard time believing that it hurt that bad. I don't think I've ever had an ear infection that bad, but then maybe the others one I had were middle ear infections. This was an infection of the ear canal, and supposedly that is much more painful. So anyway...in other news... I'm a little disappointed that I won't be able to pick a presdential candidate in the primaries. I didn't realize I was still unaffiliated according to Maryland. In Georgia I would have been able to vote for either primary, but not this time. Oh well... Chris thought he put down Democrat, but it turns out Maryland says he's a Republican.  He said he was going to vote for Huckabee just in case he was serious about making Stephen Colbert his running-mate. LOLOL Then he started spouting Republican rhetoric to try and make me mad. Jack has been saying a lot more words lately. He plays this hilarious game called "Go kitty!" which entails chasing the cats around the house shouting "go kitty go kitty go kitty." The Fritza cat seems to enjoy this, not so much the others. It seems like now when we tell him "No" he'll turn around and tell the cate "no." Hehehe... The binky is my next war with him. He has been taking to biting them, and he showed me where he bit a hole on one. I told him that was not what binkies were for and made a big show of throwing it in the trash. That's where holey binkies go. His eyes got really big. I hope it gave him something to think about. Link has been really antsy trying to sit and stand and getting mad if you don't help him do it over and over. I remember this from Jack. He's ready to get moving but can't go anywhere on his own. Thus begins the age of frustration...which doesn't really stop when they start to move. That just adds more frustrations. Hehehe... He's doing really good with the rice cereal. We started mixing in a little bit of the bananas and he loves that stuff too. |
| I have an ear infection. I could feel the fluid filling in my ear, and today the pain started this morning. By lunchtime my ear canal had closed up and the pain was radiating down my neck into my face. So here I am in this brainwashing training trying to focus with this raging pain. Oh, I was hating life...until I found some Tylenol. After that kicked in I actually felt like I would be alright except I couldn't hear out of one ear. But again, once that wore off...This was at dinner. What ensued was out of like one of those random slice-of-life movies. I thought I could go across the street to the pharmacy by hotel and at least get some homeopathic drops that could help dry up the fluid. But the pharmacist was pretty pessimistic. He sold me the drops, but he was like, "These aren't going to work for you, and what you describe definitely sounds like an ear infection. You're going to want that looked at before the fluid busts out your eardrum."  Thanks guy! He was some Indian, so if you imagine a totally humorless Apu telling you that it makes it funnier.Apu told me to go to the walk-in clinic a block away. I get there just as it's closing. Rubbish! I was like, "please just look at my ear!" But the nurse was having none of it. She said I needed to go to the 24-hour clinic 10 mins away and gave me directions to that. I get lost wandering around trying to find the place. When I get there it's a 3 hour wait to be seen. WTF? *sigh* "Is there anywhere else?" The ER. Oh, great! At least I passed the hospital on the way there, so I didn't get lost.  And the ER waiting room was nearly empty, so I actually got in, was seen, and released in an hour and a half. Record time!! But by that time it's 10pm, and I needed to find a 24-hour pharmacy which was another town away.When I get there, I'm a little out-of-it and my head feels like it is exploding from the pain. Away from home, spent the whole night wandering around this place, getting lost, trying to find someone to help me. Meh! The night manager at this Rite-Aid was so funny. He said, "I saw you come in here and I just knew you had a bad day. I can see it in your eyes. [which made me want to cry] You should totally read the book The Secret. I can tell you're a reader [I AM!!], and you would really like this. It changed my life!" I was like, damn, dude...you don't know me from Adam...but at least he made me smile. He genuinely wanted to cheer me up and make me feel better. It's rare to find people like that, and whoever that guy is...props to him. Maybe he really does have the secret to life. Maybe I will check out that book. |
| Here I am at the Marriott. The road here was dark last night. It only took an hour and half to get here, but the drive reminded me of when I would drive hours up and down the East Coast. There was a whole year I did that. I had just separated from my ex-husband and I was exercising my freedom quite literally. I can tell I haven't driven like that in a long time. I'm no longer exhilarated by freeway driving. Other cars are faster than me now, and my thoughts always turn to the home I'm leaving behind and (of course) how big my green footprint is. The class today was alright. It was your typical office orientation training, but I was fortunate to sit at a really awesome table. We had a good time joking about how everyone else seemed to be either really super-serious about learning this BS or falling asleep. At the end there was a whole section about "acculturation." I think that's where we were supposed to drink the kool-aid, but we were having too much fun being "real." We had a running tally of how many time this one guy (Mr. ooh-me, ooh-me!) asked a question or made a comment or answered someone else's question or...you get the idea. It was pretty funny! The most painful by far was the finance section about how the firm makes money. The poor accountant was going into WAY too much detail for me. After a while, I was like "ok, I'm just going to fill in my time sheet." I'm just the writer. That's when I went to go pump milk. I miss my fam, but I must say it was nice to get a full 9 hours of sleep last night with NO interruptions. I don't remember if I dreamed or anything. I laid down and the next thing I remembered was the alarm going off. It was beautiful!! Of course, I forgot where I was, but after I realized I was in a hotel, it was nice. I feel bad for Chris, but what can you do? I got a quick message from him earlier today, saying that he had to pick the boys up early because the daycare thought Link was getting pink eye. They've done this before. If the kid is rubbing their eyes and it looks red or teary, all of a sudden it's conjunctivitis. I've seen pink eye and usually you can't even open your eyes with that. Whatever! |
| Jack is constantly getting taller - taller and skinnier. When I'm changing his clothes he likes to suck his belly up into his ribcage. The effect makes him look like a Holocaust victim, and I always make some kind of "goodness gracious" comment. He thinks my reaction is funny, so he keeps doing it. Hehe... His favorite word now is "hot." It started with the oven and telling him to stay away "because it's hot." Now anything around the oven or stove is hot. Cooked food is always hot...even when it's cooled down. He'll eat it and keep telling us that it's hot, when I think he means it's just warm. It kind of reminds me of Paris Hilton always saying "that's hot." LOL Link has become an expert at rolling over both ways. He especially loves to do this at diaper time and when we're changing his clothes. Oh, I see....it's that phase is it...LOL I am happy to say that we tried giving Lincoln milk formula yesterday, and he didn't throw up or have any allergic reaction. This is great! This means that he might not have the food allergy problems his brother has. I'm excited! We had to test the formula because I will be in a class this week from Tues-Fri, so in case we run out of breast milk, we have a back-up. Link is also doing really well with the rice cereal. Usually, he does better at dinnertime than any else. Sometimes he gets really impatient, but Jack mostly spat it out for the first month so I think Link is doing alright comparatively. If you thought this would help him sleep through the night, you would be wrong. He still wakes up, although not because he's hungry. I think it's been this cough/cold thing that is still hanging around...and the teething too. So much to fuss about! Sometimes I manage to tuck him in really snugly, and he seems to sleep the best then. Maryland weather has turned really cold. The lake by our house has frozen over again. Since our heater is limping along, it has gotten kind of cool in the house. We have had some quotes from heating/cooling companies, and we scheduled to have a new system put in this week. That will be nice! It's the most efficient kind of system, so we're hoping our power bills will be less of a drain. All for now...ZUMA! |
| Last night was a little freaky. Jack woke up at 9 screaming and writhing. He didn't calm down until 11:00, even when we were holding him. In fact, at first trying to hold him made it worse. It was really bizarre. A little research turns up that it might be night terrors, which is a nightmare that you don't quite wake up from. I don't know...it's hard to explain. But it said that you are just supposed to let them cry it out. Hmm...so I guess we'll be trying that next time. So I was really tired today! Goodness! I'm fading fast tonight too. Next week I have to go to a class in Virginia, and I have mixed feelings about it. It will be the first time being away from Link. It will be nice to have uninterrupted sleep for once. I kinda feel bad for Chris, but I know it's not impossible because I watched both boys when he went to Seattle a couple months back. We had to have some heater people come out today to give us an estimate on a new system. Ours is dying...fast! Our power bill was ridiculous last month because the heat pump is so inefficient and old. I'm really looking forward to getting a new system in here. Chris has been setting a small percentage of our savings into specific stocks...I mean, outside the index funds these are stocks that he did research on. The stock market really sucks right now, but it's fascinating to watch. All these random things from high school economics class are coming back to me now. I found a stock that I like that I'm going to watch for a couple weeks to see how it goes. |
| Link had his 4-month check-up today. He put on a nice show for the doctor who was impressed by how alert and bubbly he was. He said he was the size of a 8-month old with the teeth and strength of a 6-month old. LOL He weighed in at 15.5 lbs and was 26 3/4 in long. A big boy! I feel like I'm finally getting into shape. My clothes seem to fit better. I went shopping on Saturday with my friend Jaime and it wasn't an awful experience as I found things that fit well and looked good. The shopping gods were with me! Jaime's husband just left for Baghdad a couple weeks ago. It's the first time he's really been deployed for any length of time, and they're already like "never again." I completely understand! I was only on my ship for a couple of months and I missed Chris like superbad. Now that I have Jack and Lincoln, I don't think I could stand being away from them. It makes me SO glad that Chris and I got out of the Navy while we could. Ya know, I'm a huge fan of reality tv, so I can't say that I'm that upset about the sudden influx of it since the Writer's Strike. Being a writer, I think it's awesome their standing up for what they deserve. |
| Did I mention that Jack's allergic to milk? Well, in case you thought he might have been growing out of it...he isn't. Not yet at least. This week I got regular milk in a carton instead of a jug, and the carton looks similar to the one the soy milk comes in. Chris accidentally grabbed the real milk and gave Jack a big old cup of it for dinner. Before we realized the mistake, Jack drank all of it. It made for a messy night - throwing up, hives, wheezing. Poor guy was completely drained by bedtime and not just because of the Benadryl. The wheezing really scared the crap out of me, but it didn't last long. Thank goodness! Of course we felt so bad for him because it was a simple mistake. But I can't blame Chris because I am such a scatter-brain half the time, I could totally have done the same thing. Poor Link too! He has been fighting an upper respiratory infection. So he was all cranky and wheezy and coughing also tonight. It was crazy because we kind of just had to let him fuss a bit because Jack was such a mess, and we were afraid we might have to take him to the hospital. Then all of a sudden they're both asleep and it's quiet again. And I feel wiped out. I actually went back into work because I had to finish something due tomorrow morning. I decided to stay home tomorrow because I have to take Link to a dr's appt. Work was so quiet without anyone else there. It let me clear my head a bit. |
| I finally talked to my boss, and he said he would let me decrease the amount of hours I have to put in at work...especially if I work on getting my masters. I found a really great program through Chatham Univ that is all online. It would be a Masters in Professional Writing. Of course, my boss was hoping I would consider a computer science or business degree. He was like, "if you want to make money, it's not by getting a masters in writing." I love him to death, but he doesn't understand how much I love doing what I do. For the first time since starting my actual job, I finished all of my projects. It was a weird feeling, and I'm not sure what happens now. LOL I'm curious to see some of the other projects they have for me to do. Link has gotten better about sleeping through the night. We started to give him a little cereal just to try it out. He really loves the stuff. Jack spit a lot of it out at first, but Link chows down. Jack is going through another toddleritis phase, which has been rather puzzling. But what can you do? You can't predict it or even mitigate in many cases. You just have to let him ride the wave of fury until he gets over himself. Hehehe... |
| Link is at that age. Too young to play with his brother, but he's decided that he doesn't like playing by himself as much as he used to. Just weeks ago he was fine just sitting in the baby swing or on the playmat. Now he wants to be held and cuddled. Again, I blame the teething. Teething is a cruel cruel joke to play on parents! I found myself pleading silently to God last night at 3am. "Please, Please, make the Tylenol work!!" Poor thing had been fussing for an hour. Eventually he did fall back asleep. God is listening after all. I caught up on sleep this morning when Chris woke up. I ended up missing most of the morning, which is a quarter of the day, which is an eighth of the entire weekend. *sigh*On the upside Jack has been a real sweetheart lately. He's getting so independent. It's amazing once they start doing things for themselves. I have to keep reminding myself that it was only a year ago that he was Lincoln's size. Crazy!! |
| Monday Chris and I were able to have a lunch date. It was nice to just have a quiet lunch. We got a chance to talk about how crazy this last year has been, and what we want to do with 2008. I think '07 was pretty stressful for both of us with the new baby, new jobs, new house, everything just piling on. Everything turned out so perfectly though. This year we are both resolving to stress less and try to be more thankful for what we have. We are incredibly blessed. On top of that we both want to work out more. Of course what New Year's Resolution list would be complete without the "exercise" entry? I would like to start editing my NaNo novel, as well as do something with the collages I have finished. Chris starts his masters degree in a couple weeks. I feel like I should start something. My mom suggested yoga classes. Maybe that or piano lessons, now that I have a piano. I don't want anything too crazy because I want to save a lot of time for my novel. I don't want a masters yet. I don't feel like I need one in my field. We didn't stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve. But Link did wake me up at 12:30am, so that's how I rang in '08. Link has had some problems with night waking lately. He used to be such a good little sleeper, but just within the last few nights he's been very wakeful and fussy. I blame teething. He has all the symptoms - hand-chewing, problems eating, fussiness, waking up at night. You can feel the little ridges of teeth on his lower gums, just ready to pop through. I hope it happens soon, so we don't have to prolong this craziness. He wakes everyone up at night, and we're all getting sleep deprived, even poor Jack. Yesterday we had a few friends over to just hang out and watch football. One of them was Sterling who went to OCS with us, and works with Chris now. His son Allister is a month younger than Jack. Allister doesn't go to daycare, so he seemed kind of shy. I'm glad Jack is used to playing with other kids. Allister also still sleeps with his folks, and to hear them talk about it makes me SO glad we don't do that with our boys. It would be so hard to break that habit. After everyone went home I came down with a stomach bug. I spent last night either tending Link or in the bathroom trying to keep my dinner down. I'm still feeling a little blah. I haven't been throwing up today, but I haven't been eating much either. I think something I ate must have sat funny because it's not like a full-on flu, just a wonky stomach. My digestive system is so sensitive, it drives me crazy! Work again tomorrow, so I'm getting some rest now. |
| My Lit Blog finally looks half-way decent, and I got the Amazon.com links to work too. Double bonus!! https://www.piglitblog.com It's been fun playing with WordPress. If I had more time, I would try coming up with my own theme. I'm actually at work right now, but no one is here to know if I'm doing anything constructive. Hehehe... Silly people! I have been obsessed with emo lately. I mean, not just My Chemical Romance, but also Fall Out Boy, Good Charlotte, Paramore, Panic at the Disco. It's like all the poppy little guitar hooks have invaded my brain. I resisted Fall Out Boy for so long, and now it's like I can't listen to anything else. LOL |
So Xmas was nice and quiet. Just the four of us. I had to help Jack unwrap presents, but he sure was into everything he got (and everything Link got). His favorite by far is the Mega Blocks set that Chris got him. I thought for sure I had a winner with the kid magnets, but not so much. Chris cheated though. He didn't get around to buying a present, so on Christmas Eve we went early to ToysRUs, and he let Jack pick out a present. Of course since he picked it out he likes it.  Chris got me a jewelry box which is awesome. Now my crap isn't hugging the corners of our bathroom sink. Everything has a nice little spot in the jewelry box which has a nice spot on our new dresser. Other than that it was a bunch of books. (AWESOME!) And money! (Double bonus!!) And a couple DVDs to add to my Leonardo DiCaprio collection - Departed and Blood Diamond. Don't you just love Leo? I don't think I ever got over him in Titanic when I was in high school. Work continues to be busy. I have been techediting the same document for the last two days. It is a rough rough draft. Not only is this guy a computer science engineer, the like of which isn't known for good grammar skills, but he also didn't bother to read over what he wrote. There's words missing, words misspelled, made-up words (parameterized), phrases duplicated, comma splices. I had to rewrite a whole section because it was just SO bad. Oh, and I had to track down all the references. His footnotes would say stuff like "Insert cite here." Thanks dude!The great thing is I never had so much fun in my life!! I love this job! I'm such a grammar nerd. I broke out my dictionary/thesaurus, my Strunk and White. I would love to go into business for myself, but it wouldn't pay as much as the government is willing to pay. It would be cool for making extra cash though. Another long weekend coming up! We're planning on having some friends over on New Year's Day, but other than that it will be another quiet weekend hanging out. |
| Yesterday I was feeling better, and today I seem to have made a complete recovery although my voice still sounds a bit croaky. Work has definitely kept me busy. I finally finished the 6-month report for one office, only to find 80 pages of programming code to go through for my other one. The code wouldn't be so bad, but the reports they go with are barely in English. A lot of grammar problems and incomplete sentences. Some of the footnotes literally said "Insert reference here." Hehehe...it never ceases to amaze me what they leave for us poor tech writers to do.I like it though. None of the programmers or analysts understand, but I love it. I love the formatting and the editting. It's kind of a puzzle to find the perfect word for a sentence. It's fun to work a way of saying exactly what they mean. Chris and I beat Halo 3 tonight. ZUMA!! It was fun, although the story wasn't great. I saw in TIME magazine that they named it #1 game of the year. Give me a break! I mean, sure the online play is great, but the campaign story is blah. The graphics are what you expect from next-gen, and it certainly didn't seem to push the envelope creatively like Super Mario Galaxy or BioShock. That said, I enjoying killing those aliens. Jack is getting so much better with words. Lately, his favorite has been mo - more. And kis-ma-tee - Christmas tree. He answers most yes/no questions with a shake or a nod instead of saying the actual word. At least he answers, though, which is nice. He's starting giving kisses, even to baby Lincoln. SO CUTE! Awww.... One of these days I'm going to catch a picture of that, but not yet. Lincoln can roll from belly to back easy. He seems to really enjoy tummy time, which is just astounding to me since Jack didn't like it much. Today Link was kind of cranky because he didn't get his usual 3 hrs of nap(s) in. I'm not sure why he sleeps more at daycare, but he sure was a bear by the end of the day today. |
| I have laryngitis (sp?) or something. This happens every Christmas, I swear. It seems to me at least. I'm always losing my voice around the holidays. One of my lasting memories of Christmastime is my Grandmother (Dad's mom) boiling water for me so I could inhale the steam and clear my chest a bit. My Grandma always seemed kind of quiet, but I'll never forget that. It's one of my strongest memories of her. Anyway, so I can't talk, which makes getting info from people for the report I'm writing kind of hard. My boss is mostly deaf, so I haven't even bothered talking to him. Poor man has a hard enough time hearing me as it is. Yeah, can't talk and my head's kind of fuzzy from cold meds. Yuck! I just need to make it a couple more days...just until this weekend and then 4-days off. Last night the furniture we ordered arrived. I love it!! I can't tell you how much I love my new couch and our bed. OMG! I think the old one was the reason we were having back issues - not enough support. This one has a Temperpedic mattress, and it's much better. I have an actual dresser now. I'm not slumming it and piling my clothes up in the closet. LOL Oh yeah and it was our Anniversary yesterday. We kind of forgot about it. At the end of the day it was like, "Oh yeah, Happy Anniversary, I didn't get you anything!" We're not that romantic, huh? That's what you get when you do it cheap and get hitched in Vegas when you're already 4-months pregnant. We probably will celebrate more when the kids get older. This has been a busy year. It's only our 2nd, so it's not like a major milestone.Ok, I best get some sleep! Hoping to feel better tomorrow. |
| There always seems to be one week in the wintertime defined by violent gusts. It's so windy right now. I hate that moaning whooshing sound. MD is just gray, now that the first snow has come and gone. The leaves that didn't get raked are now piles of mush, and the trees are all naked. Jack and I went for a walk today and counted 20 squirrel nests. The beaver was at it again. There were some freshly gnawed trunks and a pile of fresh branches piled on top of his den. There was a really cool dead tree that had mushrooms spiraling up it. We put the toddler bed together and tried it out yesterday at nap time. Jack was so excited the nap didn't really happen, but it worked well at bedtime. Today he actually took a nap and fell asleep on time tonight with no fuss over the bed. Cool beans! This means Lincoln is in the crib now in the same room as Jack. So far so good. I'm a little concerned about my job. I keep having to take time off for kids dr's appts or sick days. I was thinking of asking my boss if I could go down to 32 hrs a week...or maybe get an unclassified project that I could work on at home on days when I have to leave early. Surprisingly enough, the allergist did not jump on my bleach allergy idea. He just said maybe. *sigh* Whatever! Even still, the daycare isn't going to stop using bleach anyway. This sort of prompted the concerns about staying with the 40 hr work week since I will likely keep having to pick up Jack every now and then when he has a reaction. Friday I went to a holiday party for my office which was alright. It was at the big boss's house, a monstrosity of brick. It was too much brick I thought, but nice and spacious inside with a lake view. It's the kind of house that people think of when they hear where we live. It bugs me that every time I say what town we live in people either say, "That's where the rich people live" or "I can't afford to live there." For some reason, it bugs me that people think I'm rich. I mean, we're doing alright for ourselves, but I wouldn't go so far to call us upper class or anything since we work so hard. That said, it is a nice community. The other holiday party on Friday was our neighborhood progressive dinner. The neighbors are really nice, and we had a lot of fun chatting and eating and having our funny gift exchange. It's was cool! Especially cool since two doors down is a nice teenage girl who babysat the boys. She was so nice, and we're excited that she loves babies. The other thing people think about this town is that the community association is uber fascist, but since we aren't planning to add an addition to our house, I'm not sure this is a problem for us yet. The only bad part about living in this town, as I see it, is the fact that there are no mailboxes. The founder of the city thought it would be more neighborly for everyone to go to the communal mail box, so you can greet each other when you get your mail. I can't say this works for us since the extra walk means we only get our mail twice a week. LOL Also on Friday (in between the two holiday celebrations) was a lecture by Dr. Spencer Wells at Johns Hopkins APL. If you remember I read his book Deep Ancestry back in August when I was busy on family tree stuff. I wasn't thrilled about the book since it didn't reveal many of the findings, since the Genographic Project won't be done until 2011. But the lecture was surprisingly good. He was a great speaker and presented some new material not in the book. I think Chris is convinced he should get his DNA tested. That would be cool. Monday tomorrow! Gag me! I'm totally looking forward to the upcoming four-day weekend! |
| Today is my birthday. It didn't start out as anything spectacular, but it turned out great. I had a headache this morning and had to sit through some rubbish class. Rubbish because it was about computer networks and I had already had this training in the Navy and I wasn't really interested in that computer stuff anyway. But once the class was over I got some Tylenol and my new office mates surprised me with a birthday cake. That was nice! Chris picked up some baby back ribs (my favorite) for dinner, so that was yummy. He got me The Aviator movie and pearl earrings, both things I really wanted. The movie because I have really been into that early Hollywood time period because of my novel...and Leonardo DiCaprio is an awesome actor. The earrings because I love pearls and I didn't have pearl studs to go with my pearl necklace. I have a new theory about Jack's allergic reactions. It just so happens that when I picked him up today he had just started breaking out into a rash. He was eating anything, just playing with a toy. I asked them how they clean the toys, and they said soap and water and then a bleach solution. My theory is...he has a bleach sensitivity. My hands get really irritated when I handle bleach, so it wouldn't surprised me if this would cause him to get hives especially if he's sucking a toy that wasn't rinsed off well enough. I'm going to call the allergist tomorrow to see if this is a viable theory. I'm excited I have actually thought of something new. One of our cats is becoming more and more of an outside cat, and now when she's inside she's forgotten all the inside rules. It's frustrating! It's like she's going native on us. We're not sure if we should let her out less or let her out more. |
| The snow is all gone now, but it was still a nice weekend. The boys were generally in a good mood, even though they were bother getting over minor colds. Lincoln has gotten super smiley lately. He just loves when people sit and talk to him. He likes it when I play the piano for him too. He rolled over from back to belly today. He didn't do it again, so he must have gotten some good momentum that one time. He's getting much better neck control, and keeps trying to sit up on his own. What a big guy!! I feel like I'm getting better at defusing Jack when he's upset. I have learned that matching his tone of voice when he's frustrated really helps. It's like he feels better that I'm getting frustrated with him (not at him, with him). I read this tip in a magazine, and I'm surprised how well it works. He almost immediately listens to me, and then I can explain more calmly the situation. We went to the store today and three people commented about how good he was. I gave him an item, and he got a kick over putting things in the cart. He is such a good helper! Other chores he has gotten good at - wiping his tray when he's done eating, unloading the dishwasher, putting dirty clothes in the laundry basket, and of course, picking up and throwing away pieces of trash. Chris set up my Lit Blog: https://www.piglitblog.com It's not much to look at yet, but I still have to play with the themes and plugins. I have been keeping my book thoughts in a separate Word document, so I already have some material to work with. This will still be my blog for family events and general news. The other one is just for my thoughts on reading and writing. Chris's computer crapped out on him, so he is ordering a new one. He had that one for 4 years, so it was about due. He's kind of hinting at starting up World of Warcraft again. LOL To be honest I have kind of had a hankering to play also. |
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But I am happy about those Cardinals! The same Cardinals that I'd written off as possibly the worst playoff contestant in history just three weeks ago. Now look at 'em! I'll be pulling for them in the Big Game!
Tuesday would have been my last day until I turned 18.