The White House

he fits right in!!

2009-09-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

My favorite number is 28. It has been for many many years.

My address is 28
my wedding anniversary is 08/28
robs bday is 09/28
alivia's bday is 07/16/05-if you add that together it equals 28

and the most recent addition to this 28 thing is maddox.
he was born at 8:28 am.
weird huh!

2009-09-23T14:05:00.000-07:00

Alivia has a towel with her name on it. We usually use this towel when she goes swimming. The other night we came home and her towel was hanging over the shower in my bathroom. She went in there and noticed it and pulled it down. She said (from the bathroom) "daddy, did you use my towel?" he said "no, maybe mommy did" he had no idea what towel she was talking about, i had seen the towel hanging up in there so i knew what she meant i said "no liv, i didn't use your towel" and i said "rob, she's talking about that pink towel over the shower" and he said "oh, yea, i did use it, i didn't know it was yours liv" she walked into the bedroom with the towel and said "daddy, this is my towel, it has my name on it, see...it says a-liv-i-a, not daddy, this is not a towel for showers daddy, it's for pools" i was cracking up as she was going off on him, he played along and said "i'm sorry liv i didn't realize it was yours"

2009-08-20T14:23:00.001-07:00

Ya know they say that every pregnancy is different and for the two I’ve had I can’t really say it was that way for me. The two pregnancies itself were very similar, the only real difference was that Alivia was born at 37 weeks and Maddox wasn’t born till 40 weeks. The labors on the other hand couldn’t have been different. With alivia I had pretty painless contractions and was in labor for about 14 hours. With Maddox, however, I had very painful contractions, no drugs and it was over in about 3 hours!! I guess there are pros and cons to each of these methods! With alivia it was very laid back and painless for the most part with Maddox it was anything but laid back, it happened so fast. I still can’t believe it. Wednesday was my last day at work and I had a dr appt that afternoon, the dr said I was dialated to 2 and about 80% afaced. I was scheduled to be induced on Friday morning. When I got home Wednesday I was laying down watching tv and I was having what I would call cramping, didn’t feel like the contractions I had with alivia. Amber came over and brought us dinner and I got up and ate and started moving around and the pains completely stopped. I was planning on spending the day Thursday cleaning the house and doing laundry. I went to bed Wednesday night feeling fine. I got up Thursday morning at about 5:30 and was having the same cramps that I was feeling the night before. I got up and started walking around the house thinking maybe they would go away like they had the night before. It was pretty much a constant pain and I couldn’t really tell when they stopped and started. After about an hour of that I called my mom, rob was at work and it would have taken him at least 45 minutes to get home. My mom and dad came over and picked me up and the pains got even stronger on the way to the hospital. We called him and told him he better get to the hospital! When we got there they checked me to see if I was dialated. I asked the nurse if I was and she said “ um, you’re about ready to have a baby!” They wheeled me into a room and everything just happened so fast, the pains were getting worse and all of a sudden my water was breaking. My mom asked me if I had told them that I wanted an epidural, which I hadn’t. My mom asked the nurse if we had time and the nurse said she didn’t think so. Before I knew it they were telling me to push and then a few minutes later Maddox was here. It was so crazy. Rob got here about 15 minutes after he was born. He weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. He’s so perfect! I think he looks like alivia did when she was born. Noone else seems to think so but I think once they pull out the pictures of the day she was born they will see! He is a very good baby so far, very low maintenance, we’ll see how long that lasts!

2009-08-05T11:14:00.001-07:00

Alivia decided she wanted to play with her squirt gun outside last night, then she found a water bottle outside and decided she wanted to fill that up with water and water the drive way and my flowers! After coming in and out of the house about 5 times to fill it up I had enough and told her she was done with that. I guess the neighbor kids decided they would just go play with their hose-btw-their parents are out of town and my neighbor kids are crazy wild! Alivia asked if she could go to their house I told her I didn't care, then she came back in and asked if she could water their tree with the hose, I told her no. It was like 8:00 by this time. Then she came back in again and asked if she could water the grass with the hose, again I told her no. She came back in about 3 more times and kept asking if she could do stuff that involved the hose. I finally raised my voice and said "NO, quit asking" She put her hand on her chest and told me I was hurting her heart!!! She said I wasn't letting her have any fun!! I told her to either go back outside or go in her room. 2 minutes later she came back in and asked why I wasn't letting her play with the hose. I said "That's it, you're done outside, you're in for the rest of the night" Well, of course, that didn't make her very happy. I told her it was bathtime so I started the bath and she got in. I walked past the bathroom and she was sitting there with her head back saying "I'm missing out on all the fun" she kept saying that over and over again. I was laughing to myself, ahh, little girls..... By the time she was done taking a bath she had forgotten the whole thing and actually fell asleep watching tv at like 9:00, i'm gonna guess she probably didn't get a nap at the babysitters house.

I think the neighbor kids think I'm pretty mean because I don't let her run wild like they are able to do. They are gonna think I'm REALLY mean after the baby gets here because they are not going to be allowed over when the baby is sleeping. That should be fun....

The Avocado Tree

2009-06-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

In early april I ate lunch at Chevys with my mom and sister. When we were leaving the kids got a balloon. There was a little brown bag stapled to the end of the balloon string that contained an avocado seed and directions for how to grow an avocado tree. I thought it would be cool to try it so I read the directions and followed them very carefully. First, I had to suspend the seed over a glass of water with toothpicks and fill the cup with water so that the seed was half in the water and half out. Then you basically wait for about 5-7 weeks for the seed to crack and grow a root. Next I went out and bought a pot to plant the seed in, I already had the dirt. I planted it and set the pot outside. You're supposed to leave the seed half in the dirt and half out and keep the soil moist. I was doing everything I was told to do!!! It had rained almost everyday so the soil was very moist. I was so proud!!! About a week ago I was walking to my car in the morning and noticed there was nothing sticking out of the pot!!! An animal dug it out and ATE IT!!! I couldn't believe after all my hard work the seed was gone!!! Oh well, maybe we'll try again some other time, but next time I'll have to figure out where I can put the pot so animals won't get into it!!

Baby updates

2009-06-05T13:25:00.000-07:00

I went for my monthly checkup the other day and the dr is still concerned at the size of the baby. She said she may do an ultrasound soon to determine exactly how big he is. I'm at the point where I will be going to the dr every two weeks. Every time I go she measures me. Well, this week I measured 34cm. That pretty much means 34 weeks!!! Except, I should only be 31 weeks.

I gave Rob a deadline of July 4th to have the room done, that's when the furniture will be out of layaway and I want to have the room done so I can put all his stuff away before he gets here!

When I had Alivia, I didn't have her bag packed or mine. I had to pack it on the way to the hospital. I also made her bed up before I left to go have her, we didn't have a car seat or a stroller!! I want to make sure I have all of this taken care of in plenty of time.

People are obviously noticing that I'm pregnant and are asking when I'm due, what it is and what the name is. I've noticed when I tell anyone over age 50 that the name will be Maddox-they pronounce is like Mad-docks. That makes me CRAZY. Even when I've just said Maddox (pronounced Mad-dix). This has happened 3 times with 3 different people-apparantly there was some show years and years ago that had a Maddox (mad-docks) that all three of them mentioned!! I hope this isn't a reoccuring thing because I will have to correct everyone who prounouces it wrong!!

When I had Alivia I didn't know of one single person with her name spelled the way hers is spelled. THE DAY I had her, the nurse said "My neices name is Alivia" I couldn't believe it!!!
I thought we were so original! And now of course there are Alivia's everywhere.

As of now, I don't know of anyone named Maddox but I'm sure the second he's born there will be a million of them!

My little girl is growing up so fast!

2009-05-27T08:40:00.001-07:00

I've noticed over the last few weeks that Alivia just asks a million questions about everything. Rob gets a little frustrated with the "Why?" questions but I told him that's how she learns things. She wants to know how everything works and why! It's so funny.

Last night we were outside and she had my slippers on. I thought I heard her say "That sucks" I said "What did you say?" She said "I have grass in my toes and that sucks!"

We were driving down Mid Rivers Mall Dr last night and I noticed that Blockbuster had closed. I was looking a little too hard and when I looked back in front of me traffic had stopped so I hit the brakes.

Alivia: What are you doing?
Me: Slowing down so I don't hit the car in front of me
Alivia: Why?
Me: Because I don't want to get into an accident
Alivia: I want you to crash
Me: Why would you want to do that?
Alivia: Just DO IT!
Me: No, are you crazy?
Alivia: Well then can we drive in the grass?
Me: No
Alivia: Is it hard to drive in the grass?
Me: No, but I really don't want to
Alivia: But I really want you to crash
Me: Why? We could get hurt
Alivia: Fine

I have no idea where that came from.

She is like a little sponge and has been picking up all kinds of things. She can write her first and middle name by herself and if you tell her the letters she can write her last name. She is recognizing all of the letters of the alphabet. She can count to 50 with a little help. She knows her right from her left. I love teaching her new things. I can't believe she's turning 4 soon! I've already started planning her bday party. I've rented a princess castle bounce house and I ordered her invitations today. We're not doing a huge party with Jack this year because I will be 37 weeks pregnant at the time! I just wanted to do something kinda simple at our house-as simple as it could be with me planning it! Can't wait!

Scary...

2009-04-17T10:16:00.000-07:00

HIGH SCHOOL -- 1967 vs. 2008

Scenario 1: Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck's gun rack.

1967 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.

2008 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario 2: Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.

1967 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins.. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.

2008 - Police called and SWAT team arrives -- they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged them with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario 3: Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students.

1967 - Jeffrey sent to the Principal's office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.

2008 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin.. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADD. The school gets extra money from the state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario 4: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt..

1967 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman.

2008 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has an affair with the psychologist.

Scenario 5: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.

1967 - Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock.

2008 - The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario 6: Pedro fails high school English.

1967 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.

2008 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario 7: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed.

1967 - Ants die.

2008 - ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents -- and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny's dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario 8: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.

1967 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.

2008 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

Some Shocking News!

2009-04-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

I had a gut feeling that I was having a girl, at my last ultrasound they said they weren't 100% sure but if they had to guess they would say it was a girl, the heart rate has been 150, 148 and 146. Typically numbers for a girl. Last week I ordered a bag and had it personalized with "Ava" along with a pink blanket. I ordered furniture and picked out a bedding set. Today I went for another ultrasound and was told "It's a boy" I'm in such shock. I went online to change my registry and it feels so weird looking for boy stuff! I'm not upset about having a boy, I really don't mind, I feel blessed to have a boy or a girl, I'm just really having a hard time wrapping my mind around this change!!!

I'm not able to change my order for the things I had personalized, not sure what I'm gonna do with those yet....and the furniture is pretty neutral so no problem there. We do have a boy name picked out and I was actually a little bummed that we wouldn't be able to use it when I thought I was having a girl.

It's such a weird feeling to just know for so long that it was a girl and for them to tell me different today... I'm trying to snap out of it!

2009-04-09T07:51:00.000-07:00

We have a bird stuck in our fireplace. It's up in the flue part and we can't get to it and I'm not about to dismantle my fireplace to save a bird!! The other night rob kinda stuck his head up there just to see if he could see anything, he asked me to get him a flashlight. Alivia went running into her room saying "I'll get one daddy" I went into the kitchen to get a flashlight for him. She got back before me and he was kinda bent over looking into the fireplace and liv said "Here you go daddy" he kinda held his arm out behind him to grab it and wasn't looking. She handed him her disney magic wand. I was cracking up. He said "What am I going to do with this?!?" She showed him how it worked but the lights and music didn't help him see in the fireplace. It was so funny. She's such a good little helper!

2009-03-16T09:40:00.001-07:00

Here's my day so far:

My babysitter called last night and she is in the hospital so amber is watching alivia today.

My heat in my house is not working AGAIN! We got a new furnace in 2007 but apparantly something is wrong with the electric that's going to the furnace so it keeps blowing a transformer. We had to have someone come out on xmas day to fix it. Last week someone had to come out again and then this morning it's not working again.

I go out to start my car this morning and the battery's dead, good thing I have AAA, they came out and put in a new one.

Our toilet downstairs runs constantly, last month my water bill was $75!! I finally wised up and turned the water off going to that toilet, we're not down there that much anyway. This morning I was downstairs waiting for AAA and alivia said she had to go potty. I turned the water, when she was done, I went to turn it off and the handle wouldn't turn, I didn't want to force it so I just turned the water off to the whole house.

I can't believe I'm still in a decent mood!!!

Baby Update

2009-03-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

We are now 17 weeks pregnant and def starting to feel the effects! I officially cannot wear my pants anymore. Only stretchy maternity pants for me! Which I don't hate! I had acid reflux so bad when I was pregnant with Alivia and was hoping I wouldn't have to go through that again but those dreams are over....it's back and in full force. I've had to start carrying tums with me-great. I went to a checkup yesterday and according to them I've lost 2 pounds since getting pregnant so I'm happy about that! I was just able to schedule my ultrasound for Friday March 20th. So hopefully the baby will cooperate and we will be able to tell what we are having, although I'm thinking a girl, we will see. We leave for Vegas in a week and a half and am sooooooooooooo excited. That's all for now...

For Sale

2009-03-04T11:04:00.000-08:00

1993 Chevy Cavalier

148,000 miles

5 speed

2 door

no radio

runs great

$1,000

(314) 393-5310

I think my child has A.D.D

2009-02-26T09:19:00.000-08:00

This morning I was getting ready for work and told Alivia to go into her room and pick out some pants. She went into her room and came back and said :

Alivia: (handful of pajamas) These jammies were in my pants drawer (i know they weren't but ignored her)
Me:Go get some pants
Alivia: (with a pillow case) Mom, I found my tinkerbell pillow case
Me: Go get some pants
Alivia: (now wearing the pillowcase) mom look, what am i wearing?
Me: that's a pillow case, go get some pants
Alivia: (carrying a pillow) look mom, i put my pillow in my pillow case
Me: great go get some pants
Alivia: (now with a new pillow case) mom, i found my other tinker bell pillow case
Me: GO GET SOME PANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alivia: mom, i have pants on

I look over at her and she is wearing a huge pair of snow pants. I couldn't help but laugh. So after all of that I ended up going into her room and getting the pants myself. So much for saving time this morning!

It's not for me!

2009-02-24T08:42:00.000-08:00

Every once in awhile I will cook something that calls for beer. I don't have beer at my house so I always have to make a special trip just for that. I used to buy a six pack but it would stay in my fridge forever. So the last couple times I have just bought a 40 ounce. I always feel the need to explain that It's not for me to drink! Last night was no exception. I decided I was going to make cheese fondue. I went to dierbergs to get everything and picked up a 40 ounce beer. I got up to the checkout and the idiot ringing me out says "Nice choice" I said "I'm not going to drink it, I'm going to cook with it" and he said "Oh, well I'm sure it will be delicious" It was a natural light that cost $1.09!! I said "Well, I hope so, I just picked this kind because it was the cheapest." He says "Well, that's why I drink it too because it's so cheap"

OMG.

2009-02-23T07:36:00.000-08:00

This article was in last weekends journal about my aunt and uncles diner!

MY WORLD: Nothing finer than a good local diner

By Karen Diekamp HitchcockSaturday, February 21, 2009 3:13 AM CST

Sometimes you have to look no farther than almost your own back yard to find a little adventure and a good piece of pie.Valentine's Day dawned like any other Saturday at our house, which meant that Hubby was up early to fix his coffee and I was putting pillows on my head in bed upstairs trying to drown out the sound of grinding coffee beans.It is always a competition between Hubby and the local birds as to who gets up the earliest. Usually, Hubby wins.After waiting a few hours to see if breakfast in bed would be my Valentine treat (no such luck), I finally dragged myself out of bed to see what the day would bring. Surely my better half had planned a special day for us.He had indeed. He pronounced he was going to work in the yard.

I'll skip over a recitation of how many tree branches he cleaned up, and how much he complained about his sore muscles after, and get to the good part. The part with the pie.After running an errand on Elm Street in St. Charles, we decided to drive up Kingshighway, not a side of town in which we usually find ourselves. It's a perfectly nice part of town, but we just don't usually have business to do there. It turned out to be a serendipitous change in routine.As we got near Lindenwood University, we saw a quaint little place called Allin's Diner. The word "diner" hooked me. I yelled quickly at Hubby to turn into the parking lot.I love diners. I love the sleek, '50s, "Happy Days" kind of ambience. I love the smell of burgers and the cozy small-town feel.This place has all that, plus a friendly owner named Dave Allin. It turns out this little gem of a place is going on its fourth year, and has a lot of lucky regulars who discovered this place a long time before we did. Their pictures line the walls. It seems one of the waitresses also is a photographer, and she snaps customers' pictures every Wednesday. I spied a certain St. Charles mayor's photo up there (I guess she likes good hot wings, too).Hubby and I had a very nice waitress named Jessie, who recommended her favorites, but I'd already decided to have a cheeseburger (Hubby had a Reuben). I am a connoisseur of cheeseburgers, and this one didn't disappoint. It was big, sloppy and juicy, just like Mom used to make, and served on ciabatta bread, which made it even more texture-filled and delicious.I made a mental note to come back to try other things on the menu, like the meatball-ziti soup, the meatloaf and the smoked hot wings.We were inspecting the whimsical little silver-framed fun facts on each table (sayings like "The Statue of Liberty wears a size 879 sandal") when a piece of coconut cream pie appeared before our eyes."Compliments of the owner," Jessie said.Oh my, happy Valentine's Day to me!The owner appeared shortly thereafter to see how everything was. He shared his food philosophy with us. "Food is fun," he said simply.I asked him how he got started in the food business."I drove past this place 25 years ago and told my wife, 'I'm going to open a restaurant there someday,'" he explained.Her response: "You're crazy!" But she did encourage him to go to school, so he enrolled in the culinary arts program at Forest Park College. He also kept an eye out during the next 25 years for his dream location to come up for sale. His dream came true several years ago.Allin has had a lot of other careers - over-the-road truck driver, warehouse worker, forklift driver - but food always has been his passion. He might have picked up a few pointers from his grandma, mom and wife Vicki, all excellent cooks he says, but he also honed his skills at a local country club and Lindenwood University.Now he's his own boss, and he has high standards. I could tell as he described the ingredients of the coconut cream pie that here was a chef who didn't cut corners."It's real food," he summarized. "Nobody's doing what I'm doing."His regulars will testify to that. Jim Tyrell, formerly of Chicago, discovered that when he found his way to Allin's Diner a couple of years ago."He hooked me with his pancakes and keeps me with his wings," Tyrell joked as he and a pal played cards at the counter.Allin's Diner, 130 N. Kingshighway, is open 6 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 6 a.m.-2 p.m. on weekends, but is starting to be open certain nights for dinner. For more information, call 636-946-5556.Karen Diekamp Hitchcock of St. Charles is a medical secretary who writes a semimonthly column for the Journal. She can be reached at kdhitch1@hotmail.com

13 week checkup

2009-02-13T13:12:00.000-08:00

I went to the dr today for a regular monthly checkup. This was the first time I got to hear the baby's heartbeat. The heart rate was 150 bmp. I'm pretty sure when I was pregnant with Alivia, her heartrate was always in the 150's. I did some searching on the internet and found some old wives tales that say if the heartrate is 140 or under it's typically a boy and anything over a 140 is typically a girl. I'm not going to be painting the room pink or anything yet but am wondering if it's another girl. I'm ok with that. It will be a heck of alot cheaper since I already have everything for a girl!!! Rob has been very sure that it's a boy this time, he also has Alivia convinced it's a boy too. I really don't care either way but i'm starting to get the feeling we're having another girl!

2009-02-03T10:51:00.000-08:00

Every couple of years Rob starts talking about getting into martial arts again. Before we met he studied regularly but he was bowling and playing softball so often that something had to give and that's what he chose to give up. Every few years he says he wants to get back into but he never actually does. His sister and brother in law own a martial art school. He had his sister get him a martial are book so he could start learning the technique again. We were coming home from there the other night and he was looking at the book in the car and said to me "Are you going to help me study this?" I said "What do you mean?" I didn't know if he wanted me to read the book to him while he practiced or what. He said "I need someone to do this on!" I looked at him like he was nuts. I said "I'm pregnant you idiot and you want to practice martial arts on me?!?!" He started cracking up laughing when he realized what he said. That wasn't exactly what he meant but that's how it came out. It was pretty funny.

update

2009-02-02T10:38:00.000-08:00

So, we're now 12 weeks pregnant. I've been feeling pretty good, no more sickness, so that's good. I weighed myself this morning and I've lost 6 pounds since finding out I was pregnant so that's pretty exciting! I've got a few to spare so I'm sure it's fine! We've started to clean out the babies room, I'm ready to decorate but of course I can't do too much until I know what it is. I guess I've got another 8 weeks until I find that out. Don't have too much else to say just wanted to give an update!

My good deed for the year.

2009-01-19T10:28:00.000-08:00

Rob and I went to Tony's for dinner on saturday night and had a FABULOUS dinner and then we went to the casino. I was waiting in line to get money out of the ATM. When it was my turn I swiped my card and did my thing, When it dispensed my money it literally spit $20 out at me. I had to bend over and pick it up off the floor. When I stood back up to get my money the little door was kinds stuck and I had to manually lift it up to get my money, when I counted it, I had $20 more than I was supposed to. I figured it belonged to the lady that used it before me. I turned around and she was no where in sight. I went and told Rob what happened and of course he was like "Cool" I kinda felt bad so I went up the cashiers cage and told them what happened, they asked that I leave the money there and if the lady came up asking for it, they would have it. I really didn't want to do that because if for some reason she didn't came back I wasn't sure what would happen with it. A little while later I saw a lady who I thought was the ATM lady and I went up to her and said "Excuse me, did you use the ATM over there earlier" she said "Yes" I said "Do you remember if I was behind you" she said "Yes" I said "Did you happen to notice if the ATM shorted you?" She said "Oh, I don't know I didn't count it" So I said "Well I'm pretty sure that it shorted you $20 and I left it at the cashiers cage " she said "Ok, thanks" I was totally bummed because here I thought I was doing a good deed and this lady didn't even notice nor did she care that she was missing the money and I could have kept it!!!! Oh well, hopefully it will bring me good karma!!

Oh and on a side note:
Yesterday alivia said to me "I don't have a baby in my belly, I just have junk in there!"

New Years Resolution

2009-01-06T10:36:00.001-08:00

My New Years Resolution for 2009 is to start coming to work on time! In my job, I don't clock in and out and I really don't report to anyone so it's very easy to come and go as I please. Which I have taken full advantage of in the past two years! If I wasn't scheduled to be here at 9:00 AM then I wouldn't set my alarm and I would wake up whenever and show up then. That has been nice but I really need to get back on track and be a little more disciplined. I started this yesterday and I'm 2 for 2!!

The saddest sight

2009-01-05T08:58:00.000-08:00

Before:

This was Alivia's bday present for her 3rd Bday. There are deer in the background too!

After:

We woke up New Years Eve Day to this!!! It was pretty windy Tuesday night and I guess this tree was dead. Alivia came into my room later that day and said "I'm very sad about my playground! Do I look Happy?" None of us heard this happen. I'm not sure if we can save any of this yet or not.

Baby Maggots

2008-12-30T13:24:00.000-08:00

Alivia and I were talking the other day and I told her that if we have a baby boy his name will be Maddox. She said she didn't like that name and wanted to call him baby tyler. That's the baby's name at the babysitters house! I told her that his name won't be tyler it will be Maddox. I asked her if she could say that and she said "Maggots!" We'll have to work on that!!

I'm so glad xmas week is over it was totally crazy. We started off tuesday night by going to a visitation at a funeral home. That was the perfect start! Santa always comes to our house the night before xmas eve, with us being out late tuesday night and Rob had to work all day wednesday we decided to do the Santa thing xmas eve night. On Wednesday, Alivia and I woke up and went to the funeral. She decided she wanted to go home with my mom. I was able to go home and get the Santa stuff ready. When Rob got home from work that day we finally went to my mom's to start xmas! When we got home that evening I felt like it was a little chilly in the house, I went to crank up the heat and discovered WE HAD NO HEAT!!!!! We have a home warranty and of course they said they couldn't get anyone to come out until Friday morning, and it was wednesday evening!! It was 28 degrees outside Wednesday night. We survived the night and got up the next morning and opened our presents then we started to go to Rob's mom's house for xmas. We got about 5 minutes from the house and the heating guy called and said he could come right then!! So we turned around, he was able to get it working temporarily so we were very grateful, we ended up being 2 hours late to his family's house which made us 2 hours late to my family that afternoon. It was very rushed and not relaxing AT ALL!! I was, however, very impressed with how my house held the heat. It only got down to about 65 degrees in the house. We normally keep it at about 74 so it was a little chilly but not unbearable.

Today is my friday, I'm off xmas eve, I never work that day, it just feels like a holiday to me, my office is closed on new years day and i figured heck, i'm not coming in just for friday! So hopefully, these next few days will be relaxing!!

good point

2008-12-23T10:06:00.000-08:00

this morning rob was getting ready for work and i said "can i have a few dollars for lunch" alivia was already in our bed and said "mom, dollars are disgusting for lunch!" i cracked up, i guess she thought i wanted to EAT the dollars FOR lunch.

my nephew brayden is potty training, last week amber said to him "brayden i'm so proud of you for being potty trained" he said "mom, i don't have a potty train!"

Week 7

2008-12-17T07:22:00.000-08:00

So we're 7 weeks pregnant. I've been feeling HORRIBLE!!! I'm pretty sure this is the same way I felt with Alivia this early on. I've lost 3 pounds and I haven't really been eating. Nothing sounds good and I think I'm afraid to eat! I've been taking my vitamins and I'm not sure if that's one of the reasons I haven't been feeling well. I got such a good start on christmas a few weeks ago and now I haven't done anything the last few weeks-all I want to do is lay on the couch. This week the baby is starting to grow it's brain, which I think is so funny because last week it started to grow eyes and a nose. I would think the brain would come first!! If I don't start feeling better I may just decide to sleep through the first trimester and start again in week 13!

2008-12-05T12:06:00.001-08:00

I was telling Rob that I feel so lucky that we've been able to plan exactly when we wanted to get pregnant and that it only took us two months each time. I know there are lots of people out there that want to have kids and aren't able to or it takes them forever to get pregnant. I'm not bragging, I know how fortunate we are. I wish everyone who wanted kids was able to or I wish they could just take kids from parents that don't deserve them!! I never understood how there could be so many dirt bag parents out there having a million kids they couldn't take care of and there are so many good couples out there that can't have kids. It doesn't make any sense. Anyway, I have been feeling this for the last few days and just needed to write it down!

2008-12-02T12:47:00.000-08:00

I found out I was pregnant with Alivia the day after thanksgiving in 2004. Since we were trying again this fall, I just KNEW that I would find out I was pregnant the day after thanksgiving again, i mean why not??? Well that day came and I took a test and it was negative--i didn't believe it so later in the day I took another and again, negative i was slightly disappointment especially when my sister in law found out she was pregnant that day and then later in the day I found out my cousin and his wife were pregnant!!! I figured my time would come and i just needed to be patient. Well last night I still wasn't feeling confident about the test I took last Friday so i stopped and bought another. I went home and took it and the indicator line was faint. I wasn't sure what to think so I took another this morning, again the line was there but was kinda light so my sister talked me into taking a digital test (which, by the way, are by far the coolest tests!) and it popped up and said PREGNANT!!!!!!! YEA!!! I should be due around Aug 5th. With alivia, i was due on Aug 4th and had her July 16!

3 Year Old For Sale!

2008-11-20T09:19:00.000-08:00

This child is testing my patience lately. Every morning is a big dramatic display of emotions. She is always fine until it comes time to get her shoes and coat on. I think the problem is that she has too many options. She has like three coats, which ever one I ask her to put on she wants the other one. Last night we were leaving and I told her to put her pink coat on, to which she replied "Pink is NOT my favorite color, I want my purple coat" After standing in the corner and a talk from Daddy we worked it out!! She was a sweatheart the rest of the night. Then this morning I guess she decided it was a new day so the drama started all over. I said "do you want to wear your brown shoes?" she said "NO!" so we started to put her tennis shoes on to which she replied "I WANT MY BROWN SHOES!!!!" No matter what I want, she wants the opposite. We are going to have to put a stop to this QUICK! Last night in the car she said "Me and you are fighting so we just need to belax" I may have to give her up for adoption if she doesn't straighten out!!! (of course i'm kidding... maybe)

2008-11-19T08:16:00.000-08:00

I got a phone call the other night asking if I wanted to make a donation to the Vietnam Vets. I have an ongoing garage sale pile with alot of clothes so I decided I could donate them. I hate when people call me asking me to donate money because I don't have a ton of extra money laying around to just give to someone less fortunate than myself. I know that's terrible but that's how I feel. So when they just asked for a donation of items and didn't ask for cash I felt good about it. I have everything set out on my porch. Hopefully they will actually pick it up. So I guess I've done my good deed for the season!

Refrigerators by Rob!

2008-11-06T11:55:00.000-08:00

This is what my husband did at work on monday! Maybe he's onto something here!

2008-11-04T11:25:00.001-08:00

I have the sweetest kid ever. Yesterday morning I was laying in bed with alivia we had the following conversation:

Me: Guess where you are going today?
Alivia: Where?
Me: Ambers house
Alivia: (excited head shake, eyes closed, tongue stuck out-she's weird I know)
Me: Nat is sick today so Amber is going to watch you
Alivia: Why is Nat sick?
Me: She just doesn't feel good today so she needs to get some rest so she can watch you tomorrow
Alivia: does she have medicine?
Me: Yes
Alivia: is joel going to give her medicine?
Me: Yep, he's going to take care of her so she will feel better tomorrow
Alivia: Should we go and check on her?
Me: No she will be fine tomorrow

I thought that was so sweet that she was worried about her getting better.

The other day in her room she was watching little mermaid

Alivia: What is that girls name?
Me: That's Ursula, she's a sea witch
Alivia: Why is she a sandwich?
Me: (laughing) not a SANDWICH-a SEA WITCH

She's a funny girl

2008-10-29T08:27:00.000-07:00

This is what the picture on all three of my tv's looks like. I'm NOT happy!

It started acting up on Alivia's tv Monday night and I called and they sent signals to the box and had me unplug it and plug it back in to reset the box but nothing helped, then last night it started doing it on the other two tv's so I called again, again they sent signals and had me reset the boxes, but it still didn't help. The earliest appointment I could get was FRIDAY!! OMG two more days with no TV!!!!!!!! So, last night I thought, oh well, I'll get on the internet-NOPE-it was down too. ARE YOU KIDDING ME, NO TV AND NO INTERNET?!?! WTF!!! Charter installed a box in my basement for the cable and internet, I'm thinking maybe the box needs to be updated, who knows. I guess we'll be watching movies all night and I'm sure that whatever shows I had set to DVR will be lost as well since the signal into the house is bad-GREAT!! Maybe I'll have to actually get something done around the house since I'll have so much free time ;)

good rules!

2008-10-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

GAMES FOR WHEN WE ARE OLDER
1. Sag, you're It.
2. Hide and go pee.
3. 20 questions shouted into your good ear.
4. Kick the bucket
5. Red Rover, Red Rover, the nurse says Bend Over.
6. Musical recliners.
7. Simon says something incoherent.
8. Pin the Toupee on the bald guy

SIGNS OF MENOPAUSE :
1. You sell your home heating system at a yard sale.
2. You have to write post-it notes with your kids' names on them.
3 You change your underwear after a sneeze.

OLD IS WHEN:
1. Going bra-less pulls all the wrinkles out of your face.
2. You don't care where your spouse goes, just as long as you don't have to go along.

Thoughts for the week:
Wouldn't it be nice if whenever we messed up our life we could simply press 'Ctrl Alt Delete' and start all over?
If raising children was going to be easy, it never would have started with something called labor!
Brain cells come and brain cells go, but fat cells live forever.

Ponderisms: I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.

Garden Rule: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.

The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to? I
n the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, 'I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here and drink whatever comes out?'
Who was the first person to say, 'See that chicken there? I'm gonna eat the next thing that comes outta it's ass.'
If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?
Why does your OB-GYN leave the room when you get undressed if he's going to look up there anyway?
Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
But Most Of All, Remember! A Good Friend Is Like A Good Bra. Hard to Find, Supportive, Comfortable, And Always Close To Your Heart!

Birthday Marathon

2008-10-07T08:26:00.001-07:00

Today starts the birthday marathon. Rachel kicks it off today by turning the big 3-oh. She's not thrilled so she's going to vegas this weekend to party it off! I'm so jealous. Then next week Mindy will also be turning 30. Then me, but I won't be joining the 30 crowd until next year (hehe!) Then Jenny will join them 2 days after me and Kelly will finish it off in early November. How on earth did I manage to become friends with everyone with a bday in october?!? Funny stuff. Happy birthday to everyone!!!!!

2008-10-02T08:39:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to my mother in laws in Perryville, we also took my 18 month neice with us. It's about a 2 hour drive. My sister in law let us borrow her portable dvd player for the ride. Alivia LOVED it. When we came back home we didn't bring our neice with us-nor did we bring her dvd player with us! As soon as we got into the car Alivia said "I want to watch a movie" I told her that the tv belonged to Gianna and we had to give it back to her. She was NOT happy. She said "I want my own purple tv for the car" I'm not sure why she decided she needed a purple one. All week she has been asking when we can get one? did you get one yet? can i have one? I finally told her she would have to wait for xmas. She said that was ok. I said "Christmas is kinda far away though" she said "well, we can drive there!"

I did some research to try and find a purple portable dvd player and I couldn't find one. I told her that they only came in black, pink, red, blue and white. She said "umm, I'll take pink" So, I guess I know what she will be getting from santa this year!

2008-09-23T08:19:00.000-07:00

Alivia's snake incident was more than 3 months ago and I'm still dealing with the insurance about it. A few months ago I received a letter from UHC asking if she had any other insurance coverage, I promptly sent it back and said "No". Then about a month later I received the same letter again and again I sent it back and said "No" A few weeks later got the same letter AGAIN-I threw it away, I thought- this is ridiculous!! So then they started calling my house saying I hadn't responded and they couldn't pay the claim until I responded. So I called them and they said "Does Alivia have insurance coverage anywhere else?" and I said "NO!!!!" they said, ok that's all we needed. OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!! A few days later I got a bill for $35,000!!!!!!!!!!!! That's how much her bill was for not even 48 hours in the hospital. Then yesterday I got a letter from the Ambulance district that said the insurance company hadn't paid them yet. So after 20 minutes on the phone this morning-I think everything is taken care of-GEEZ!!

What a nice little girl

2008-09-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

Brayden stayed the night with us last night and in the car this morning:

Alivia: Brayden?
Brayden: What?
Alivia: I Love You
Brayden: I Love you too
Alivia: Brayden?
Brayden: What?
Alivia: I don't want you to come to my house anymore

flashback

2008-09-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

I had a total flashback last night. I was watching TV and came across a special on the New Kids On The Block. Which by the way, yes, I am going to their concert in November!! Jenny called me on day:

Jenny: Do you want to go to the New Kids concert?
Me: Absolutly NOT!
Jenny: Oh Come on, it will be a blast
Me: Are they going to sing their old songs or what?
Jenny: They have a new single out
Me: ONE SONG?!?!
Jenny: I Don't really know do you want to go or what?
Me: I guess so

The tickets were EIGHTY DOLLARS....EACH!!!!! Geez.

So, anyway, after I watched the New Kids special I was flipping through channels and came across a 90210 marathon. I felt like I was 14 again....90210 AND NKOTB!!

I'm not sure if I'm going to watch the new 90210 series. I know some of the old characters will be on there but i'm sure it just won't be the same.

My little thinker

2008-08-26T18:27:00.000-07:00

Alivia and I have had many conversations about the moon and sun and she understands that the sun makes it bright outside and when the sun goes away the moon comes out and that's what makes it night time. But, tonight she stumped me

Alivia: The sun is out and the moon is sleeping right mom?
Me: Right
Alivia: And when the sun goes to sleep the moon will wake up right?
Me: Right
Alivia: Does the sun wear pajamas?
Me: Um, No
Alivia: Does the sun have a house?
Me: Um, No
Alivia: Where does the sun sleep?
Me: Ummmmm
Alivia: Does the sun sleep in the clouds?
Me: YES! yes the sun sleeps in the clouds
Alivia: Where are the clouds?
Me: (looking up in the sky and noticing I can't see any clouds) We can't see them right now, they're too far away

She changed the subject after that!!!
I need to work on my reasoning! Or maybe I'll just go buy a book for every subject I can't explain!

You have got to be kidding me

2008-08-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

"Roadsters who want their Hot Pockets on the go can now invest in a In-Car Microwave Oven! This mobile meal maker is made of a robust steel construction, boasts an LED screen with touchscreen operation, and can be powered either via your 12 volt cigarette lighter socket or directly by the car battery. The company supplying this modern marvel warns that your vehicle had better already be started before using the direct-from-car-battery method, lest your battery become discharged. Also, going with the 12 volt option means a cup of coffee will take roughly six minutes to heat up. But even slowly nuked food has got to be better than some of those roadside dining options, right? Get yours imported from the U.K. for $167. [Product Page via Cnet]"

Do we not have enough distractions while we're driving?!? Are you in such a hurry that you need to COOK while you're in your car?? This is insane

You can go, I'm gonna stay

2008-08-17T17:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Alivia's first dentist visit. I've been talking to her all week about it trying to prepare her. At dinner friday night we were discussing it.

Me: Daddy, Alivia gets to go to the dentist tomorrow and he's going to count her teeth.
Alivia: Mommy, is he going to count your teeth too?
Me: Yep
Alivia: Is he going to count daddy's teeth too?
Me: No, Just me and you and daddy is going to stay home
Alivia: How about you count your teeth by yourself and I can stay home with daddy

Rob and I were cracking up. She did really good at the appointment, better than I thought, she even let them polish them!! She does have a cavity though-ugh. He referred us to someone else to have that done. She brushes her teeth about a hundred times a day but I had noticed a spot on one of her molars about a month ago. So we'll just make sure she is brushing them right from now on.

2008-08-14T07:54:00.000-07:00

I had to go to Costco last night to get a few things. I had a list of things to get. When we were ready to check out, I gave my list to Alivia to play with. She said "What does this say?" I told her it was the list of things I needed to get and told her to read it to me. She held it up and looked at it and said "Um, it says we need to get a toy" Isn't she clever!

Sassy Pants

2008-08-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

Last night when I got home from work I decided that I was going to make Alivia a playroom in the basement. Her room is huge but there is a TON of stuff in there and even when it's "clean" it's still a mess! So I put two big rugs downstairs and brought her kitchen, her baby nursery and her vanity table down stairs. She LOVED it. She said "can we bring my bed down here?" I then cleaned up her room and shampooed her carpet. It looks so much better and I can't believe all of that stuff was crammed in her room.

When we pulled into the driveway last night Alivia said "Can I play with Emma?" I said "Liv, it's too hot outside and I think they might be out of town." She said "MOM, I JUST WANT TO PLAY WITH EMMA, IT'S NOT A BIG DEAL"

All in good time

2008-08-01T10:47:00.001-07:00

Rob and I decided that after amber and bryan's wedding we would begin to try to have another baby. I've known this all year. Now that it's getting closer I'm getting very impatient and VERY excited!! We were talking the other night and I told Amber that I already know what I'm going to name our next baby. If it's a girl it will either be Alexa or Ava and either way the middle name will be Morgan. I told her if we had a boy the name would be Maddox. Amber and Bryan also want to try for another baby after the wedding. She pretty much told me if she had a boy first she was going to steal my boy name!! I hope she was kidding but you never know with her!

So the wedding is getting very close and everyone is trying to wrap up all of the last minute details. There are only 44 days left!!!!

2008-07-30T10:13:00.000-07:00

Alivia got a digital camera for her bday. I uploaded the pictures last night. There were 75 pictures on there. Here is some of her work!

The back of the couch

Her TV

The ceiling fan

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My favorite

2008-07-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

In my house I am responsible for the following things....everything! I do the cleaning, cooking, shopping, laundry, child bathing and everything else. I have exactly one person to blame for this-myself. I never ask for help. Sure I make snide muffled comments about how I have to do everthing and noone ever helps. However, on the other hand, I never ASK for help. Of course, Rob probably should volunteer once in awhile, but, honestly, if he was outside changing the oil in the car, I wouldn't offer to help!! Last night, I was feeling overwhelmed and said to Rob "I would really appreciate it if you could help me out tonight" We are planning on going to columbia for the weekend for a softball tournament. I wanted to get laundry done and the house cleaned so I wouldn't have to worry about it when we got home on sunday. Much to my suprise Rob said "Sure, What do you want me to do?" I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!! I gave him some things to do and he DID IT with NO COMPLAINING. I'm an idiot. Why do I feel the need to take care of everything all the time? I've always been this way. Maybe someday I will learn

I've lost it....

2008-07-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

I like to consider myself a good cook. However, I cannot cook corn on the cob to save my life. This is so dumb. I remember when I lost it....When I was pregnant with Alivia, one day, Rob and I were outside doing some yard work. We were BBQing and I threw some corn on the stove and went back outside to help Rob with something. I ended up overcooking the corn and ever since have not been able to cook it right. It's the dumbest thing. Last night I even looked it up how long to cook it-it said 5-8 minutes after you put it in and it began to boil again-I did this exactly-it was undercooked. Rob never complains about it but it's making me crazy. I guess I'm just thinking about it too hard. I don't know what to do!!!

2008-06-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

On June 11th Alivia was out playing in the yard with the neighbor. It was a pretty normal night. We had already eatten dinner and she had already had a bath. Rob was outside cleaning out the escalade. I was inside cleaning up dinner. At about 8:30 I heard alivia outside crying. I went to see what was going on and Rob came running inside holding alivia and I saw her foot was bleeding. Rob was screaming "she got bitten by a snake and I think it was a copperhead!!!" I didn't even think, I just went to the phone and dialed 911. I have zero experience with snakes and didn't know if this was serious or not but I was not going to take any chances. I told the operator what happened and she dispatched an ambulance right away. Alivia was sitting on the kitchen counter and Rob was trying to suck the venom out of her foot. I guess he had always heard that's what your supposed to do! He told me to stay with her and he went back outside. The operator wanted to know if the snake was still outside and if there was anyway we could try to kill it so that the paramedics could see it when they got there. The neighbor had come inside to see if she was ok so I asked her to sit with alivia while I went outside. The neighbor and rob had caught the snake under a bucket and were trying to kill it with a little handheld shovel-it was the only thing laying around!

I went back inside and got alivia and brought her outside. At this point she really wasn't crying. The fire truck and ambulance pulled up on our little bity street, lights and sirens and all. I told her they were here just for her and she laughed a little. Her foot was starting to swell up. The firemen came down first and looked at it. The ambulance guys came down next and said she would have to go to the hospital . At first I was thinking they were going to leave and just wanted us to take her. Then he said to me, You can ride with us. And I realized he meant she needed to go to the hospital right now in the ambulance. Her and I both had pj's on so I ran inside really quick and just threw on a sweatshirt and grabbed my purse. Rob was going to follow us in the car. I had never been in an ambulance before. I asked the guy where we were going so I could call my parents. This was the evening before my mom's 50th birthday! He said we would have to go straight to childrens. My heart sunk. I figured it must be pretty bad if we have to go all the way there. He took alivia's vitals and everything was great. She was just sitting there sucking her thumb. At one point she asked if we were going to the store to buy some candy!

We ended up going to St. John's. We went straight to the pediatric emergency room. I didn't even know there was such a thing. Rob met us there a few minutes later. They didn't do too much to her at first. By now her ankle was starting to swell. The put some markings on her leg to keep track of the swelling (this stayed on her leg for about a week and she called it her tattoo!) The e.r doctor was consulting with a few other dr's to figure out if they wanted to give her an anti venom. They weren't sure if they should just deal with the bite or worry about the side effects of the treatment. At about eleven, they put an IV in her. At about midnight they said they were going to admit us and start the anti venom. We were moved to the pediatric ICU, where we spent the night. Most of the next day they were just monitoring her. She was still hooked up to the IV as well as heart monitors and an oxygen sensor.

We were moved into a regular room late that day and had to spend another night. Most of the day she had a fever that they were keeping an eye on. They also had a plastic surgeon come in to look at her. Apparantly, copperhead venom is known to do alot of tissue damage. They weren't too concerned after looking at her foot. We were finally released around 4:00 pm.

She talks about this everyday! And everyday the story changes! One day the snake bit her arm. One day it ate her, one day she beat it. It's pretty funny. I am so paranoid now as this happened right in our yard. I called the hospital the other day to make sure they had all of our insurance info, they did, and I asked them if they knew how much the bill was. He said so far, it was around $34,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He said with the provider discount though, the insurance company will only be billed for about 10% of that. Crazy.

When we finally got home, there were balloons and stuffed animals on the porch from the neighbors, it was so sweet. We had alot of visitors and phone calls while we were in the hospital. I told rob it's really nice to know that when something like this happens to you, that other people are thinking of you.

funny stuff

2008-06-25T08:09:00.000-07:00

I was upstairs making dinner last night and Rob yelled to me from downstairs

Rob: I have stain on my underwear should I throw them away?
Me: (pause) What kind of stain?
Rob: Stain...from the trim (he was staining trim for our bedroom)
Me:(pause again) How did you get stain on your underwear?
Rob: It got on my pants and leaked through
Alivia: My daddy didn't poop in his underwear
Me: I was just checking!

***********************************
We were at dinner on Sunday night and we were done eating and I said to Alivia "I'm glad you came with us, you were very good" and she said "It was my pleasure!"

Simon Says

2008-06-11T10:48:00.000-07:00

In the car last night

Alivia: Mommy, are you ready to play simon says
Me: Sure
Alivia: Simon says....shake your body
Me: (driving and shaking my body)
Alivia: Simon says....Wiggle your fingers
Me: (driving and wiggling my fingers)
Alivia: Simon says....tickle the sun
Me:i just looked at her and she had her arm reached toward the window and was pretending to tickle the sun
Alivia: Simon Says......open the door (and proceeds to act like she's going to open the door, which obviously she cannot do)
Me: (cracking up)
Alivia: Simon says....stop the car....mommy STOP THE CAR....SIMON SAYS STOP THE CAR
Me: liv i can't stop the car, i'm driving
Alivia: Ok, simon says just go home

2008-06-09T10:38:00.001-07:00

This is pretty funny if you're REALLY REALLY bored!

www.brunching.com/idiotguide-datearchive.html

How to order a pizza, make a bologna sandwich, and cook a tv dinner-for idiots

2008-06-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

My child is officially potty trained! and I survived! It really wasn't that bad at all. It's amazing, now that I don't have to go to the store to buy pull-ups or diapers, I don't go to the store as often which means I'm not spending as much money-it's a win/win! I made the mistake of getting liv a step stool. Now she wants to brush her teeth/wash her hands/get a drink of water-a million times a day. So I guess what I am saving in diapers and pull ups, I will be spending on toothpaste and hand soap!

Mindy and I went to VooDoo last night to watch the taping of Harrah's Lucky Break. We had been talking about it forever so we finally did it! We ran into a friend of ours that was singing! I think it will air on June 14th on Channel 4 at 10:30pm. I think we will def be on camera because our friend mike would start clapping and singing whenever the camera would come near us.

The other day I told liv we needed to go home so she could take a little nap she said "yea, one little nap, no more, no less" then last night she said "do you see the storm cloud, it will rain any minute" i don't know where she gets this stuff from but she cracks me up.

silly kids

2008-05-30T13:04:00.000-07:00

With the nice weather, all of the neighbor kids have been out playing. When we pull in the driveway they come running over asking if Alivia can play, it's too cute. My neighbor has 6 kids, 5 girls, 1 boy. The 4 younger girls range from 8-1. They play with bubbles, chalk and ride bikes. Last night I needed to do some stuff inside so I told Alivia she needed to come inside. One of the little girls she was playing with wanted to come inside too. Her name is Emma, she's about a year older than Alivia, she so cute. Brayden was over last night too. Emma said to me "Where did you get that brother from?" I told her that wasn't Alivia's brother, it was her cousin. Later on, we were in the living room and I asked Emma if I could fix her braid. It was all falling out and it bugged me! She said I could. While I was brushing her hair she was asking me a million questions about anything and everything. There were some wasps on the sunroom window that we could see from the living room. She wanted to know how they got there and what they were doing and yadda yadda yadda. She asked me if my dad (referring to rob) was going to kill them. I had to explain to her that Rob was my husband and Alivia's dad not my dad. Then two of the wasps were very close to each other and Emma said " I think they're doing the Cha Cha!"

This morning in the car Alivia was rocking her carebear and singing "Mary had a little man, little man, little man, Mary had a little man, it went across the street" I said "Liv, it's little LAMB" she said "Yea, little man"

My funny hubby

2008-04-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday night, we were outside most of the night, I was bbqing and Rob was cleaning out the gutters, Alivia was standing in the driveway the whole time yelling at him to be careful and not to fall! Later that night I was laying down watching TV and my shirt smelled like bbq. I told Rob I was going to change and he said "I always smell like that too after I BBQ, doesn't it make you want to eat yourself?"

***

Words you never want to hear from your spouse or anyone really:

"I accidentally used your toothbrush babe"

Rob said this to me the other day...nice.

***

I went to a trivia night last night with Brian and Rachel, Rob stayed home with Alivia and decided he was going to make chocolate chip cookies..by himself. Here are the series of text messages:

Rob: Where are the chocolate chips at?
Me: In the cabinet, in a baggie
Rob: How am I suppose to know how to make them?
Me:Look in a cook book
Rob: Where are they at?
Me: Above the stove
Rob: Do we have any more flour?
Me: Check in the pantry or the spice cabinet
Rob: Is it one stick of butter?
Me: One stick is half cup

After about 20 minutes:

Me: How's it going
Rob:First round not so good, lil too big, ok, really too *#&$ing big, wish you were here
Me: Me too
Rob: Sure aint Amy Lou cookies
Me: See i'm good for something
Rob: Cooking is definitely on your great list, what time are you coming home?

I'm sure you can imagine the mess I came home to. I have certain tupperware containers that I use for certain things, One for cookies, one for bacon etc etc. He put the cookies in the one I use for bacon. What would he do without me?

2008-04-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

Amber, Brayden and I went to lunch today at Max and Erma's at Mid Rivers Mall. We wanted to get the kids some summer clothes. Sears had alot of kids clothes on sale so I got Alivia a few outfits. While we were sitting at lunch, Amber picked up Brayden's soda cup and read a joke off of it, she said "What did the politician say to the sundae?" and the answer was "Freeze!" She set the cup down and said "That's dumb, it doesn't even make sense, I don't get it" I thought for a minute and said "Are you sure it doesn't say policeman?" She looked again and then started cracking up. Yes, it said policeman not politician. Of course then the joke made sense. It was pretty funny. She said "I better not see this in your blog!" ;)

Making Progress

2008-04-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

We tore our master bathroom out on May 13 2007. We put in all new plumbing, new subfloor, new drywall and even new insulation and we had to move two electrical outlets. This is Rob's first complete remodel and he did most of it himself. It's been a slow process but we're making progress

Shower Before:

New Shower:

Vanity Before

New Vanity:

We're not done yet but gettin close.I'm so EXCITED!!

2008-04-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

Rachel and I went to the Cardinals game Tuesday night. We parked and walked into the park and figured we had better get something to eat before we sat down. We went to the concession stand and I ordered first. I asked for Nachos and a diet coke. I noticed that the girl behind the counter was wearing a button that said "If I don't repeat your order, ask me for a free gift" The girl proceeds to get my nachos and sets them on the counter, then she asked me again what kind of soda I wanted, I told her again and then she started to ring me up. I said "You didn't repeat my order back" She said "That's because I wasn't done yet" I'm thinking to myself, what good would it do to read it back now, you're already done, but whatever. Rachel begins to order, as the girl is getting Rachel's food, we figured there is no way this girl will be stupid enough to NOT repeat the order back, now that she knows were paying attention! She set Rachel's food down and tells her the total. I nudged Rachel and said "Tell her!!" she said "no, you!" So I said, "You didn't repeat her order back" the girl says "Yes I did" I said "No, you didn't" and again she said "Yes, I did" and again I said "No, you really didn't" She kinda laughed and said "Oh" and I said
"What's the gift?" she said "I guess you get to tell on me" and I said again "but, what's the gift?" she said "I don't know, none of us do"

Rachel and I went to our seats just not believing how stupid this girl was. Later on we went for a walk and to go to the bathroom and walked by guest services. I said "Let's go over there" We explained what happened, the woman called down to the supervisor and brought us down 2 $5 off coupons to the concession stand!! We walked back by that stand later and Rachel covered her face and started to walk fast, it was all pretty funny. The cardinals ended up winning. I don't watch baseball at all plus there are alot of new players this year so I had no idea what was going on. On top of that, it was Jackie Robinson day and every player was wearing a jersey that had number 42 on it and none of their names were on their shirts! I was so lost but we had a good time.

Will Pee For Candy

2008-04-15T08:24:00.000-07:00

Alivia has been wearing big girl panties for the last two weeks. She's been doing really good. Sunday we had to go to a baby shower and I tried to put a pull up on her before we left and she refused so I hoped for the best and we left the house. We went to walmart, the baby shower, back home and then to the bowling alley with not one accident!! Now, we did spend most of the day in the bathroom but that's ok. Yesterday was the same, all day no accidents. YEA!!! Rachel and I are going to the cardinals game tonight and Rob has to run around to a few places and said he would take her with him, then I reminded him that he will be on potty patrol, I think maybe he will think twice about taking her out all night! He said "Do I take her in the boys bathroom?" Well yea. I told him I think he should do what he needs to do tonight and just make sure he asks her alot if she has to go! We'll see how that goes!

Who's side are you on?

2008-04-11T11:07:00.000-07:00

Last night Alivia and I were sitting on the couch. Rob came into the living room and said he was going to go downstairs and play poker on the computer (which cost money).

Me:Um no, I don't think you are
Rob:Why not
Me: Because I don't think it's a good idea
Alivia: He can play games if he wants to mommy
Me:No he can't
Alivia:Yes he can
Me: No, he can't, I said no
Alivia: You can't tell him no, he's a big boy, he can play games if he wants to
Me: No, it costs money
Alivia:Yea, he can spend money
Me: No, I said he can't spend any money
Alivia: It's ok daddy, you're a big spender like me

I have no idea where she got that from but it was hilarious

Mommy's Baby

2008-04-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

Alivia has been referring to her self as my baby. It's pretty cute. A few weeks ago her TV blew up. It wasn't a huge suprise but it was very devestating to her and me! I bought that TV my self with cash when I was about 16 years old. So i'd say it had a good run. Anyway, since her TV has been gone she's been sleeping through the night with no interruptions. It's been great. We still have the TV in the living room (which is also going out BTW) and we have the TV downstairs. She has been watching her noggin shows in our room in the evening. She'll come upstairs every once in awhile and want to tell me something or want a drink or whatever. Well, last night she came upstairs for something and then wanted me to take her back down. She said "Can you help your baby go downstairs" One day rob was playing with her and saying "where's livy?" she jumped up and said "Mommy's baby is right here!" She's said it a few other times and I love it!

My mom sent me this, can't remember if I've posted it before but I like it.

2008-04-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

THOSE BORN 1920-1979

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because,WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hou rs building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms.......WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays , made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disa ppointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! If YOU are one of them CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good .While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

2008-04-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's already been over a week that we got back from vacation. You wait and wait for something and then it's here and gone before you know it. We had a really nice trip.

We arrived in Albuquerque on Tuesday 03/18, checked into the hotel, laid around for a little bit and then drove up to the sandia mountains, there is a tram that takes you to the top of the mountain and there is a lookout and a restraunt. We had a very nice dinner and when we came back down on the tram the sun was setting. It was really cool. On wednesday we went up and checked out the bowling center and went to a local casino. They had a deal where if you earned 100 points on a new card you got a free sweatshirt and a free watch and I got both! We won a little money too! We went back to the hotel and waited for our friends to arrive-they decided to drive there from St. Louis! They got in at about 8:00 and we went and bowled the 40 frame game. Its one continuous game that is 40 frames long. I bowled terrible. On Thursday we got up and ate breakfast and went to the casino and the bowling center again. We had to bowl at 8:30 that night. On Friday Seth and Kristy and I went to the zoo, aquarium and japanese garden and walked around "old town" the weather was beautiful the whole time we were there-about 70 degrees and sunny skys! We had to bowl at 5:00 that night. Everyone decided to drive back friday night. We had a 9:25 am flight back home.

On saturday we got to the airport at about 8:00 and as we were walking up to check in and someone walked up to us and said "did you know your flight is delayed" um no we didn't "yea, the plane is here but the crew got in late and now the flight leaves at noon" we were so pissed. We were supposed to get in at around 2 and we didn't end up getting home until 7 saturday night, that sucked.

The next day was easter, Alivia made out like a bandit, she ended up getting 5 easter baskets. We went to my moms and rob's mom's house.

I've been trying to work on potty training, my goal is to have her completely done by her birthday. So, I have a little more than 3 months. She's doing pretty good so far.

I did end up switching babysitters. I really like her, Rob said it will be a matter of time before this one pisses me off too! Well, you know what, when it comes to my kid, I'm pretty particular!

I won two sets of cardinals tickets for my production at work-very exciting. Rob and I will be going on 04/18 and he couldn't make it on 04/15 so I asked Rachel to come with. She's very excited. I can't wait. I think that's all for now....

thanks mom

2008-03-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

another wacky website

http://www.doctorzebra.com/madcow/index.html

This site calculates the greater risk of eating beef, contracting a rare disease or suffering a heart attack. You'll be suprised by the results!

Wacky Web Sites

2008-03-15T08:28:00.001-07:00

My mother gave me a page-a-day calendar for xmas. There is a page for every day of the year, each page lists different websites that you can visit. The one from Friday March 14 lists this website and I thought I would share. This is by far the stupidest website I have ever visited, also one of the funniest!!

www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/freakyfranks/franks.php

Select a wet topping and a dry topping and click build it! My favorite is the spaghetti-o's and the barbie doll head!

2008-03-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

Finding decent childcare is a pain in my ass. I'm going to interview my sister's babysitter this afternoon. Alivia's daycare called AGAIN yesterday saying she had a fever so I needed to pick her up. No big deal...I made her a Dr appt, went straight there from daycare...no fever. imagine that. They did find that she had a mild ear infection in one ear so they gave her some amoxicillin. We got up today, I took her temp, no fever, gave her the medicine and two aspirin *just in case* and headed to daycare. As I'm dropping her off a teacher comes over (not her teacher by the way) and says "oh, since she left with a fever yesterday she can't come back today" this was at 8:45 and I had to be at work, on duty, at 9. She called the director and confirmed and then I stormed out of there like a child. I was PISSED. I understand this rule, I really do, however, it would have been nice if they would have told me this when I picked her up yesterday rather than 15 minutes before I have to be at work. THANK GOD my sister was off today and lives close so I was able to drop her off over there. I hate making this change right now. I can't decide if I want to finish out the week since I've already paid for it or if it works out with amber's babysitter maybe I will start her there tomorrow. They have pissed me off before but I didn't want to pull her out because I really liked her teacher, well her teacher quit last week and I found out the day after so I don't have that keeping me there anymore, I feel bad because she's in love with a little boy there and has made alot of friends, but honestly, I don't remember any of the kids I went to daycare with when I was her age. This is so frustrating.

isn't it too early for this?

2008-03-05T07:58:00.000-08:00

Alivia goes to daycare and there is a little boy in her class that she has come quite attached to. His name is Liam. She has good taste, he's pretty cute!! A few weeks ago I dropped her off and when she saw him, she jumped out of my arms and started following him around. This is when I first started noticing this whole thing. A few days later, I picked Alivia up kind of early and they were just getting up from their naps. Alivia and Liam's cots were next to each other and the teacher told me that Alivia was rubbing his face, the teacher said "what are you doing?" and alivia said "i'm just trying to touch him" Earlier this week Alivia was crabby and didn't want to go daycare so I said "Let's go to daycare and see if Liam is there today" to which she said "He's not your friend mommy, he's my friend" Liam's parents are teachers and were off work yesterday so Liam wasn't there. The teachers said she was sad all day!!! Today, the kids were sitting around a table threading beads. Alivia pulled up a chair next to Liam of course and they were taking turns threading, Liam then said " Livy makes me so happy" CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?!?
Isn't it too early for this?!?!?!?

2008-03-03T14:26:00.000-08:00

Alivia has been in a big girl bed since exactly her 2nd birthday (7 months ago). The first six months went GREAT, she wouldn't get out of her bed for anything, now she won't stay in it. We put her to bed and then she gets up every half hour needing something. I've composed a list of her actual excuses:

I need a drink of water
I need some milk and chocolate
I DON'T WANT to watch (spongebob, oswald, max and ruby, dora...whatever is on at the moment)
I WANT to watch (spongebob, oswald, max and ruby, dora...whatever is NOT on at the moment)
I want some strawberries
I hurt myself
It's scary outside
My (belly, ears, lips) hurt (changes nightly)
and the best one last night was "my feet are broke"

I don't know what to do to keep her in her room. Please help!!

Car For Sale

2008-02-28T07:24:00.000-08:00

Stock Photo

Car for sale:
2004 Silver Chevy Malibu, 4 door, power locks and windows, all glass is vin etched, 67k miles, cloth seats, great gas mileage.

Blue Book Value is 9,995, I'm asking $8,995. Let me know if you are interested or would like to see it. Thanks!

3 more weeks till vacation yea!!

2008-02-27T08:25:00.001-08:00

I've been meaning to write about this for awhile and it makes me CRAZY!!! I HATE when I'm sitting in traffic and look over and see someone smoking in their car....with a child in the back seat...with the windows up. I have to wonder what kind of selfish idiot this person must be. I would never say anything to anyone because people these days are crazy and i'm not trying to get shot!! But, I have looked at them and shaken my head or given them a dirty look and I'm sure they have NO IDEA why. Why on earth would someone think that is healthy or safe. I really don't have anything else to say about it except that I think it's disgusting and if you are guilty of this you need to stop and consider your childs health over yours.

2008-02-21T08:48:00.000-08:00

This morning I was getting ready for work and alivia was in the living room laying on the couch watching tv. As I'm running through the house trying to remember everything, I'm yelling at her to turn the tv off. I went in her room and grabbed her shoes and brought them into the living room. She was still laying on the couch but sat up when she saw me.

"Come on, let's get your shoes on and go bye bye"
"I want to watch super where" (it's actually called super why)
"You need to turn the TV off, we need to go"
"You need to put your make ups on first" (pointing to her cheek)
"I already did put my make up on, turn the tv off"
"You need to put more make ups on, I want to watch super where"

She is too smart....

2008-02-18T08:45:00.000-08:00

We are pretty much all feeling better, Rob and I are dealing with a small cough still but Alivia is all better. We had a pretty quiet Valentines day at home. We BBQ'd ribs and had potato casserole and salad and some strawberries and bananas dipped in chocolate. It was nice. Alivia really liked the chocolate!!!

We leave for vacation exactly one month from today yyyyyeeeeeeaaaaaaaaa!!! We're going to Albuquerqe for a bowling tournament. We're leaving on a tuesday and coming back on saturday, I can't wait!!!

A blog about everything and nothing

2008-02-03T17:48:00.000-08:00

This past week has been nuts. It all started last saturday night. Jenny, Jack, Alivia, me and a family from work went to see Sesame Street Live at the scott trade center. Alivia had alot of diet coke, popcorn and cotton candy. At about 11:00 that night she came into our room, climbed into our bed and threw up...in my bed. great...I proceeded to give her a bath, change the sheets, change her, ets.. at about 12:30 I hear her coming again so I jumped up and met her at the top of the stairs in just enough time for her throw up down the stairs. Again, I cleaned her, cleaned up the stairs and changed her again. She was fine the rest of the night and all day sunday. It began again Monday morning and of course of all days, I had to be at my HQ office at 8:30. She got up around 6:30 and again had gotten sick. I wondered if she was still sick from all the junk she ate saturday night so I gave her a bath, got ready for work and headed on my way. Rob was already at work. I drove through sonic for some drinks and she threw up again....in the car. So, I called Rob and luckily he was able to meet me at my work and he stayed home with her that day. Tuesday and Wednesday were fairly normal. Thursday is when it started snowing hard here so I left work at about 1:30. My car was already covered in snow and I really didn't want to end up in a ditch so I figured I would go while it still wasn't too bad. My bowling league got cancelled that night as well. On friday we woke up and the snow was to the middle of the tires...on the escalade!! Again, this is a day I was supposed to be at my HQ office at 8:30 (never fails) I called my boss and told him there was no way I could get out and wasn't going to be able to make it. He called me back a few minutes later and told me that he would offer to give me a ride but didn't want to drive on my road either! As you may or may not know, I live on a private street that is not maintained by the city so it doesn't get plowed unless we pay for it. Not to mention my driveway is straight up hill and the road is down hill...anyway. So we stayed home all day. It should have been a great snow day stuck at home but it was far from it. I started feeling sick, rob was coughing all day and then alivia had diarrhea. I had to borrow diapers from my neighbor. I only had 5 pull ups left which wouldn't have been a big deal except she went through all five of them by 9:00 AM!!! I called my neighbor who has 6 kids so I knew she would have extra diapers and she did-thank god! Rob and I were supposed to go out of town saturday morning for a bowling trip and were really looking forward to it. Rob woke up saturday morning and felt even worse then he did on friday. We got everything together and was able to get out of the driveway. I was so behind at work, I stopped by there first and did some work while he slept in the car then we dropped alivia off at my mom's house. We also had to go to his work and get his wallet because he left it there on thursday not thinking he wouldn't be at work on friday. We finally got on the road and got to springfield, il at about 2:30. I still wasn't feeling 100% and he wasn't even feeling 25%. He ended up bowling pretty decent. We went back to the hotel and stayed there all night. At about 9:00 our friend called me who had brought his son with him, he said that his son wasn't feeling well and he wanted me to sit with him while he went up to the store and bought him some medicine. I thought to myself, if this kid gets sick on me i'm going to lose it. I had been cleaning up bodily fluids all week and just didn't want to deal with anyone else's kids!! Everything was fine and I went back to my room. We woke up sunday morning and still didn't feel well. Rob was going between burning up and freezing. He somehow managed to bowl a 299 game!! He got done at about 11:30 and we headed home. He sleeping on the couch right now while the superbowl is on tv and I'm trying catch up from everything that I didn't get done all weekend. Alright, time to put liv to bed and pray I make it through the night with no messes from anyone.

A poop story

2008-01-21T09:17:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer* If you don't have small children or do have a weak stomach you may not want to read on*

Alivia's daycare called me at work on thursday and said that she was complaining that her stomach hurt and it hurt to go potty..and she had a fever. It was 4:00 when they called so I told them someone would be there by 5. I ended up having to stay home with her friday because she had a fever. She just kinda laid around all day and I noticed there was no number 2 that day. On Saturday, she still had a fever and still no number 2. A few times that day she would all of a sudden announce "I have to go poop right now" we would run to the bathroom and she would say that she couldn't push it out.

We have a secret food cures book. I was looking through it for constipation and fever. For a fever it said to cut up raw potatoes and put them on the bottom of her feet and wrap a bandage around them to keep them in place. I didn't even try it, she was way too crabby and I knew there was no way she would let me near her with raw potatoes! For constipation it said to massage the area under the bottom lip and above the chin. Weird....

Later saturday night, we ran to the bathroom again, while she was sitting there concentrating on the deed at hand I thought, what the heck. So I took my finger and started to massage under her lip and above her chin, of course she told me not to touch her. I tried again and she let me for a few seconds. She said she couldn't push it out again. So she got down and started to walk away. She didn't even get 10 feet away and came running back saying "It's coming out, It's coming out!" She sat back down and SUCCESS!!! IT WORKED!!!!

I couldn't believe it and maybe even thought it was a coincidence. BUT, It happened again on sunday. I wanted to share this with anyone who has ever had this happen to their kid, hey, it's worth a try!!!

2008-01-15T10:01:00.000-08:00

American Idol starts tonight-YEA! I'm not sure what I'm going to do though because the biggest loser is on at the same time-what a dillema!! I guess I will be flipping back in forth. This is the first season I've watched of biggest loser. I like watching it because it makes me feel thin!! Of course as soon as it's over I run downstairs to the exercise bike!! That was kind of my new years resolution, to do SOMETHING every night whether it be the bike or my pilates video. It's been going pretty well so far.

We're going to see Sesame Street live on the 26th. I'm SO EXCITED. Is that weird?! Jenny and I went to sesame street live when we were like 5. I remember bits and pieces of it. I just know that Alivia is going to LOVE it. She knows all of the characters from the show and to see them up close-I just think she's gonna flip. We're going with Jenny and Jack and A guy from my work who has a 2 year old daughter-I can't wait!

Our computer was out of commission for about a week, but thanks to Phil, it's up and working. Apparantly the power supply went out. Phil came over to fix it and before he even got in the front door Alivia said to him "wanna see my room?" he went with her. This is what she got for xmas from santa. It's a nursery for her babies.

She calls it her "house" She LOVES it! I LOVE this picture of Brayden and Alivia from XMAS day at my aunt's house. He is so silly and makes the funniest faces.

This is a picture of Jack with his new haircut-he looks so grown up!

too early for humor

2008-01-10T08:36:00.001-08:00

I've been really good about staying away from Hardee's and Jack in the Box for breakfast. Today I had to be at my HQ office at 8:30. On days when I have to work there I stop at JITB for breakfast. I ordered my normal supreme croissant and ice tea and the guy says "your total is three hundred eighty five dollars" (the total was actually $3.85) I pull up to the window and again he says "three hundred and eighty five dollars" I smile and hand him my money. He says "I said it was three hundred and eighty five dollars, i'm trying to retire today" It was too early for me to come up with anything witty to say. I thought it was kind of funny the first time, the second time it was less funny and the third time it was just annoying. I don't like when fast food people try to make jokes, just take my money and give me my food!

A New Year

2008-01-03T08:34:00.000-08:00

I'm really looking forward to 2008. My 10 year high school reunion is this year. I can't believe it. Amber is getting married later this year, and after the wedding madness is over Rob and I are going to start trying to have another baby. We should have our bathroom and bedroom done soon...there's just alot of things to look forward to. I think I was going crazy over the long holiday weekend, I started cleaning out drawers and cabinets. I cleaned out a junk drawer in the kitchen that I have never cleaned out in the 5 1/2 years we've lived in our house. It was terrible. I found the following things:
5 flash lights
4 tape measures
5 rolls of scotch tape
at least 50 pens/pencils if not more
at least 50 screws/nails if not more
2 screw drivers
3 notepads
a bungee cord and many other odds and ends

anyway, it felt good to get that sorted out!!

I had 4 garage sales in 2007 and am already starting a pile for 2008. I think I just am really tired of having so much extra stuff around. I used to never throw anything out because I always thought in the back of mind "I might use it someday!!" I'm pretty much over that, and if I haven't used it in the last 6 months, I'm probably not going to use it anytime soon.

Alivia has been saying "shit". And in the right context. I have been ignoring her but the other day I told her not to say that and told her it was a bad word. This morning I was talking to rob on the phone in the car and i had him on speaker phone. I told him he forgot to take the trash up and he said "oh shit" alivia heard him and said "don't say shit daddy, that's a bad word" It was pretty funny.

That's about it for now...

A Xmas story...

2007-12-28T08:08:00.000-08:00

Last Friday I had to work out at our HQ office until 1:00 pm. I was so behind on my xmas shopping I decided that I was going to hit up Walmart in chesterfield valley when I was done working. This way I wouldn't have Alivia with me and hopefully I could get everything done.

Earlier that morning, I had gone online and purchased 6 tickets to sesame street live. When I got the confirmation back I realized it had the wrong day on it so I had to call and change it, well of course they couldn't just change it, they had to cancel that order and do a new one, so my credit card was going to be charged two times for the same thing and then a credit would show up later.

When I got off work I went to walmart. I loaded up my cart trying to remember everything I needed to get. I stood in line, loaded all my stuff on the belt and then swiped my card...the girl looked at me and said "it didn't charge" i said "what do you mean" she said "it doesn't say declined it just says it didn't charge, try it again" so i did and the same thing happened and she says "are you sure you have enough on there" and to that i say "of course it does i checked it before I got here, i will call them and see what the problem is" so she bagged up all of my stuff and i stood at the end of the register, completely humiliated and called my credit card company. of course there is a line behind me that heard every thing that was going on. i got ahold of my credit card people and they said "are you trying to make a purchase at walmart" and i said "um, yea that's why i'm calling, what's going on" she said "did you make two purchases this morning for sesame street live" i said "yes" she said "well we just wanted to make sure it was you and that your card hadnt gotten stolen, we'll remove the block" i'm thinking, hey, that's a great idea!! so the guy that was standing behind me is buying a ton of gloves and long underwear, he leans over to me, taps me on the arm and said "is your card going to work" i said "yes they just wanted to make sure it was me because i made a big purchase this morning" and he said "well if it doesn't go through i will pay for your stuff" i said "no way, it will be fine, thank you though" he said " i will be more than happy to, i don't mind, it will be my merry xmas to you" (my total was $380 and he knew that!!!!) i couldn't believe that he offered to do that, it really touched me, and he wasn't creepy or anything, he was a very nice looking older guy. he said that he was buying all of the gloves and long underwear for homeless people in st louis!! his total was $580. He was swiping his card and said to me "don't go anywhere, if my card doesn't work i will need to use yours!!" of course he was kidding. I thought that was the coolest thing every, of course I could never accept anything like that but it was really cool that he was ready to pay if I wasn't able to.

2007-12-13T11:38:00.000-08:00

Alivia's new thing of the week. When I pick her up from daycare, she all of a sudden has to go potty, wash her hands and get a drink from the fountain. Tuesday when I picked her up she was taking forever so I went looking for her, her and another little girl were getting drinks out of he fountain.

me: Liv, don't put your mouth on that, it's yucky. Just drink the water.
the other little girl: it's ok you can put your mouth on there (talking to liv)
liv: i need to get a drink
me: that's fine, just don't put your mouth on there
little girl : i put my mouth on there
me: well that's yucky, because if another little kid puts their mouth on there and they are sick then you will get sick too
little girl : but i'm already sick!!

what could i say?!?

then this morning, we were getting in the car and my neighbors are having some landscaping doen, there were a bunch of workers in her yard. alivia yells "hey boy, whachudoing?" lucky her voice is about as loud as a mouse so they didn't hear her but it was funny

super busy weekend

2007-12-11T08:43:00.001-08:00

I took off last friday because I had a home and garden party friday night. So of course I needed the whole day to shop for all of the food i needed to make that night, saturday and sunday and cleaning of course. The party went ok. I love their stuff! I was supposed to go up to the bowling alley after my party for anthony's 12th birthday party but my last guests didn't leave until 10:30 and I was beat. Saturday morning I woke up and made pasta con broccoli for brayden's bday party. Before I went over there I had to take Anthony's card to him since I didn't make it the night before, then we went to brayden's party. He got lots of spiderman stuff-that's his new thing. The party went well, on my way home from that I met Mindy to pick up lilly. I was watching her for the night. The next morning we were supposed to go to brunch with Rob's dad but he cancelled since the weather wasn't great, so we rescheduled for this weekend. I made a batch of chex mix and then we went to a cookie exchange. When we got home from that I went to rachel's mom house and picked up the christmas tree that she was so gracious to give to me. I went home and put it up and it's BEAUTIFUL!! I love it. Needless to say, sunday night I was exausted. This weekend isn't looking much better. Friday night we have a birthday party for my cousin, I have to work saturday morning and we are doing our rescheduled lunch with rob's dad on sunday. I haven't had much time to get any shopping done since I've been so busy with all of this other stuff. I've been trying to christmas shop in between all of the birthday shopping!! I really don't want to be one of those last minute shoppers but it's kinda looking that way...

It's rough being two...

2007-12-05T08:16:00.001-08:00

So, We're potty training. Daycare is working with Alivia alot and she's wearing pull ups now. The only problem is that she wants to go potty every 5 minutes. She was in the bathroom almost all night last night. This picture is of her sitting on her potty chair with her feet up, life is rough. She's doing pretty well, she had "big girl panties" on for about an hour last night with no accidents, although I don't know how there could have been since she was in the bathroom for most of that time.

Amber watched alivia on sunday night while me and rob were at bowling. Her and brayden had alot of fun together. Amber had laid sheets over her kitchen table to make them a fort. She said they sat under the table and ate spiderman cheese it's for like an hour-giggling the whole time!! When we came to pick her up, amber was just getting them out of the bathtub. Alivia came running past me down the hall into the living room where bryan and rob were sitting on the couch. She dropped her towel, held her arms out and said "TA DA!!" I was dying, Rob and Bryan were just kinda like "um, yea, ok" I don't know where she gets this stuff from, but she cracks me up.

Monday night, we were sitting at the dinner table and she had a baby doll tucked under her arm while she was eating. Out of nowhere, she pulls the babys head up by it's hair, gets in the baby's face and says "don't tell me no!" she looked at rob and said "baby need nose in corner" so she proceeded to get up, and put the baby in the corner she came back and said "her not tell me no" Rob told her to go back and get her baby and tell her to be a good girl and give her a hug.

I got her xmas present from santa yesterday from Toys R Us. It's the disney princess magical talking nursery. It's awesome. It's a crib, swing and changing table. I can't wait to give it to her, she's going to love it!

2007-11-27T08:42:00.000-08:00

After the normal thanksgiving dinner at mom's house we packed up the car and headed to mississippi. Rob has alot of family that live there and it's a really nice get away! They live right smack dab in the middle of memphis and tunica!! It's about a 5 hour drive. We got there around 9:00 thursday night. Rob's cousin had made a whole fried turkey just for him. Rob, George (our brother in law) and myself sat around and almost ate the whole thing-it was awesome. We spent the night at his cousin's house that night. We got up the next morning, got ready and headed over to his aunt's house. They made a huge breakfast with ham, sausage, bacon, eggs, biscuits, gravy, hash browns, it was awesome. After breakfast, Kelly, George and I headed to graceland. I really wanted to take alivia but she was having a good time with the other kids and rob wasn't going either so she said she wanted to stay with daddy. I've only been to graceland one other time with kelly and we just visited the house. This time we saw the house, the cars, the motorcycles, the after dark musuem. It was fun, it was really cold that day. We were there for about 4 hours. We headed back to the house and then we went to tunica. They had a crab leg buffet that night it was really good. We played for awhile and got back to the house around 12. We got up the next morning and had that same breakfast again, it was just as good the second time-when these people make a meal they don't mess around!! Rob played a poker tournament at the casino all day saturday. The rest of us stayed at the house and watched movies. That night kelly and I decided that we were going to make dinner for everyone just to show them our appreciation for taking us in for the weekend. We made a huge hash brown casserole, green bean casserole, salad, rolls, tomato cucumber salad and we bought fried chicken, it was really good too. You never have a bad meal in the south!! We stayed in and watched movies that night too. We woke up sunday morning and left to go back home. It was a miserable drive home, it rained the whole way. We got back around 2:15 on sunday. we all took showers and put our pj's on.

Rob spent all last night working on our bedroom and bathroom, I feel like it's never gonna be done!! All of a sudden alivia is obsessed with my cd from the movie walk the line. I played it in the car on the drive back on sunday and we got in the car this morning and she said "play music mommy?" I said "this is music" she pointed to the cd player and said "play that music" i put the cd in and she said "thank you" I like that cd but i don't think i can listen to it every day. That's about it for now. We have a busy couple of weekends coming up. This friday is a party for some of our friends that are getting married this week, saturday is alex and brady's bday party, sunday we have to bowl. The friday after that is my home and garden party, saturday is brayden's birthday party and sunday is a family cookie day thing. The holidays have def arrived. I threw my xmas tree away last year so i have to go buy another tree too!

2007-11-14T07:35:00.000-08:00

Last friday night Jack and Anthony spent the night. Alivia and Jack had so much fun playing together. On Saturday we went to the circus!! It was so fun. When we first go there Jack was crying and wouldn't look!! He warmed up after about 15 minutes though. Alivia loved all of it. Rob even went with us!! We stayed home all day sunday. It was so nice. I got alot of cleaning done, I made some bread in my bread machine, cooked dinner in the crockpot all day and even made a cake. Alivia and I stayed in our jammies all day. It was wonderful! Monday I wasn't scheduled to work the desk in my office and Amber was off so we decided to take care of wedding stuff. I called a florist to see if we needed an appointment and they said they couldn't fit us in, I called another florist and they said if amber didn't know what she wanted then it would be a waste of their time and on the third call, we finally made an appointment. We were there for almost 2 hours and amber is very happy. They will me making all of the flowers for the wedding party, all of the centerpieces and even her cake topper. That was a huge thing to scratch off the list. I've been calling around for rehearsal dinner ideas, no luck yet.

Alivia's vocabulary grows and grows every day, I can't believe some of the things she says and comes up with. Yesterday morning in the car she was talking to me and I guess I didn't respond to her fast enough and she said "MOMMY? I talkin to you" Last night, she wanted me to open the front door so she could go outside to my car and go bye bye and she wanted me to stay home and watch her baby. She handed me her doll and said "Watch me baby, her be good" "I haf a go to yerk" This went on and on. She was makin me nuts. Then in the bath tub she informed me that she needed to hurry up because "maw maw pickin me up little bit" She is so independent and has such an imagination. She is such a neat kid.

So we are going to tunica after we do thanksgiving at my mom's on thursday. We will stay there until sunday. we are going to go to graceland while we are in the area. Kelly and I went to graceland before but george will be with us this time. Elvis is george's idol, so i'm sure it will be a different experience with him there. Today is kelly's birthday and we are going to dinner at the boat i think. Alivia and I have had ALOT of quality time so I'm looking forward to a night out!!

2007-11-02T12:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday on the way home from daycare alivia told me the sun was in her eyes and she needed sunglasses-this is all I could come up with!!

This is a funny email I got:

THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!!! If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!! When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning ... uphill BOTH ways. Yadda, yadda, yadda.......... And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it! But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it! I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!! There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there! There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, yo ur drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister! We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and asteroids' and the graphics sucked ass! Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE! When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just screwed! Sure , we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards! And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up.We had to use the stove or go build a frigging fire... imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot. That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980! Regards , The over 30 Crowd

Are you aware that you are in public?!?

2007-11-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

I work next door to a Schnucks Grocery store and I visit it frequently. Our Hq office was paying for the branch offices to have Ice Cream so I got designated to do the shopping-go figure! Anyway, I was in the Ice Cream Aisle trying to figure out how to get the most for our money and a little girl about 3 or 4 years old opened up a door and grabbed a box of Ice Cream. Her mom came up behind her and told her to put it away telling her they had ice cream at home. The girl immediatly bursts into tears trying to convince her mom that they really needed to get some more because the ice cream at home was gone. They went into the next aisle. I was walking around still trying to weigh my options and ran into the mom and daughter again, she was still crying then I hear her say "If you were behaving then I would be nice but when you act like a stupid idiot, I don't give two shits!!"

I'm glad she wasn't looking at me when she said that because my eyes got huge and my mouth dropped!! I couldn't believe she said that to a child that young. I see serious issues in that family's future......

Interesting....

2007-10-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

If you ever feel stupid, then just read on. If you've learned to speak fluent English, you must be a genius! This little treatise on the lovely language we share is only for the brave. Peruse at your leisure, English lovers. Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.
2. The farm was used to produce produce.
3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4. We must polish the Polish furniture.
5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum
9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10. I did not object to the object.
11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13. They were too close to the door to close it.
14. The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail
18. After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear
20. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests
21. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France (Surprise!).

Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

Quicksand works slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? Doesn't it seem crazy that you Can make amends but not one amend. If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? Is it an odd, or an end?If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up and down at the same time and, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which, an alarm goes off by going on. Why do you drive on a parkway and park on a driveway. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And while we're at it, why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"?

2007-10-08T12:37:00.001-07:00

I had such a busy weekend. Alivia and I went up to the bowling alley friday night to watch rob bowl for a little bit. I had to work saturday morning till 1, then alivia and I went to a birthday party. We went home and laid down for about 2 hours and then we all went to brian and rachel's bon fire. We got home about 10:15. Sunday morning Alivia and I went to see Rob's dad and grandpa in desoto. We got home from there about 5. I sat down for about 15 minutes then I had to go to the bowling alley for a few minutes, amber asked me to watch brayden for a little bit so I picked him up while I was out. I got home about 7:15. Alivia and Brayden played in her room the rest of the night. I was downstairs trying to get some laundry done -since I had been gone all weekend. We have a monitor in our room so I could hear them playing. I heard some splashing noises and then lots of laughter. Brayden loves to play in the humidifier. So I ran upstairs and of course they were both soaking wet as was the carpet. So I put that up and went back downstairs. They were quiet for a few minutes so I went to check on them again and as I was coming down the hallway I heard alivia say "bubba, tut me hair" When I walked in her room she was sitting at her vanity table and handing brayden her play scissors that came with her table. He grabbed them and stood behind her and proceeded to pretend to cut her hair!! he then put the scissors on the table and said "done" I went and got my camera :

The neverending birthday

2007-10-01T09:05:00.000-07:00

Rob's birthday started Thursday night with presents and a cookie cake from me and alivia, friday was actually his birthday, saturday was his party and yesterday we went to his mom's for dinner and he opened his presents. When we got home last night, he had missed a card, so I handed it to him and said "This is it, your birthday is officially over!!!" The party was SOO much fun. I think everyone had a really good time. He got a TON of gift cards and some scratch off tickets, he won about $30 off the tickets!! I asked him if we were going out to eat tonight and he said "what for" I said "did you SEE all of those gift cards-why WOULDN'T we?!?" He got gift cards to Long Horn, Chipolte, Tony's on main street, O'Charleys, QT, Burlington and Red Lobster!!!

This weekend is going to be another busy one. I have to work Saturday, then I have a birthday party then a bon fire. On Sunday, I am taking Alivia to see Rob's Grandpa in DeSoto. I think I have a party Friday night too, who knows. It's always something!!

Happy 30th Birthday Rob!!

2007-09-28T08:58:00.000-07:00

Rob turns the big 3-oh today!! Alivia and I went shopping last night for his presents and gave them to him last night. We went to the mall on a mission for a white pair of air jordan's. We couldn't find the exact one that he wanted but found one that was close, he loved it. We also got him a hat and a hoodie from American Eagle. We went to Aeropostle first. Everything in there had "1987" on it. Amber, Bryan and Brayden went with us, I asked Amber "Am I too old to shop here?!? Everything says 1987" So went went over to American Eagle and ironically most of their stuff says "1977" on it. Which of course, is the year that rob was born. Then we went to Mrs. Fields and ordered him a cookie cake and the lid of the box said "oven fresh cookies since 1977" I thought that was so weird. It seemed to be the theme of the night. He loved all of his presents. He has to bowl tonight and tomorrow night is the big party which is not a suprise anymore. WHATEVER!! I can't wait though, all of our friends and family will be there and we will have Karaoke-what more can you ask for?!?

A new found independence

2007-09-26T07:41:00.000-07:00

The first two weeks of daycare drop off were not fun. Actually the first two days were fine and they went downhill from there. There was screaming, crying, begging. It wasn't fun for either one of us. All of a sudden this week Alivia LOVES daycare. On Monday, She reached out for the teacher and before I left she was already helping the teacher get the art project ready. Yesterday was the kicker. We walked in and she was clinging to me, then she sat up, pushed me and said "go" I was sort of glad on one hand because I didn't have to walk out of there wondering if I was the worst mom ever for leaving her there in her time of need. Then again now she WANTS me to leave-WHAT HAPPENED?!? Today was the same thing, we walked in she hugged me, pushed me and said "GO Bye Bye" then looked at the teached pointed at me and said "mommy, go" like she was saying "tell her to leave!!"

Last night she was in bed and we were going through the normal routine and then she said "get away me, mommy" WHAT IS HAPPENING?!? all of a sudden she is 2 and doesn't want me around!! Well, that's not true all of the time but I'm not sure I like it!! I told her it hurt my feelings when she said that to me and she said "go bye bye" I think this is the beginning of something very bad.......

Typical day in the life of Rob White

2007-09-20T08:27:00.001-07:00

Tuesday September 09/18

10:30 AM Call to Wife: "Can you look on the internet and see if you can find any places hiring painters"

11:00 AM Wife calls back: "I found a place, I'm faxing them your resume"

11:05 AM Call to wife: "They called me and I'm going to talk to them this afternoon"

3:30 PM Call to wife: "I start on Monday"

I don't know of any other human that decides that they want a new job and 4 hours later have one. He's so funny....

Self diagnosed

2007-09-17T09:57:00.000-07:00

I self diagnosed myself over the weekend. I believe that I am a pregnancy hypochondriac. As you know, I was sick last saturday (over a week ago) My stomach has not felt right ever since, I haven't really been that hungry and at night my stomach actually kind of feels upset. I lay in bed at night and think to myself "Maybe I'm pregnant"

This happens alot, I will not feel good or have a werid cramp and my first thought is "Maybe I'm pregnant" Now, I 'm not trying to get pregnant nor am I exactly ready to have another child yet. I believe I've had this condition ever since pregnancy ever became probable. I've never told anyone about it until this weekend. Amber and I went to lunch and I told her about it and she was cracking up at me. I told her that I never tell anyone when I'm thinking these things and I don't go buy a pregnancy test or anything (not all the time anyway ;) ) She said that's what's so weird about it-that I don't tell anyone because I ACTUALLY think I might be pregnant!!

I had my parents over for dinner saturday night and we were sitting around talking and my mom said "Your dad was wondering if there was some kind of announcement or something and that's why you were inviting us over-like one of you was going to have another baby or something" I looked at Amber and she just rolled her eyes (because we had just had this conversation earlier that day) so I told my mom about my condition too, she also laughed at me.

So, I'm not sure what I can do about it but I think admitting it is the first step!!!

I have to go now and take a pregnancy test......

2007-09-14T07:28:00.001-07:00

So, Alivia cries every day when I drop her off at daycare. It breaks my heart. I have been kinda hanging out with her before I leave-they're probably going to start making me pay tuition for my self!! This morning the kids were eating breakfast and I over heard the following coversation-totally random of course:

little girl:I can go potty on the toilet
little boy: No you can't
little girl: Yes I can
little boy: No you can't, you go potty in your pants
little girl: I'm a BIG GIRL
little boy: You're not 4
little girl: (silence)
little boy: You're not 4

The teachers weren't really paying attention, I guess they're used to those kind of conversations, I thought it was hilarious.

I got a note on tuesday that Alivia needed wipes. When I got in the car I started thinking, today is only her 5th day at this place and on her first day I brought in a package of 80 wipes-5 days ago. I called up there to clarify that she needed wipes, they said yes because they use them to wipe their hands and face with them sometimes. I'm kind of protesting and I'm not going to bring wipes in until next week. There is not reason she needs to use 80 wipes in two weeks. That's crazy!

I bribed alivia this morning with Jelly Beans, I know that's terrible but I really want her to want to go to daycare. I'm sure she'll get used to it and it will be fine....I hope

Pass the pepto please....

2007-09-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

There is nothing worse then hearing a two year old throw up through a baby monitor. And then that feeling of walking into the room not knowing what you are going to find. This is how my day last thursday started. I was supposed to work the front desk in my office from 9-1 that day. I had no phone numbers to get ahold of anyone, rob works an hour away and everyone else was at work already. Alivia has been known to thrown up one time and then be fine...I was hoping that was how this was going to turn out. I got in the shower and got ready for work and got her dressed. She fell asleep in the car on the way to daycare and I sat in the parking lot for about 10 minutes letting her sleep as long as possible. I was just going to tell the daycare that she wasn't feeling well because I knew if I told them that she threw up they would send me back home. We walk in and I'm hoping for the best- next thing I know, we are running to the bathroom. DANGIT-she blew it!! I said ok, we're going back home. I went into work with her attached to my shoulder and was able to find someone to cover for me. By that afternoon she was feeling better and friday we went back to daycare. Saturday morning I woke up at 3 and it all went downhill from there. I spent 50% of the day in the bathroom and the other 50% on the couch. It was not fun. Yesterday Rob was sick all day. He ended up calling in sick to work today. I don't feel 100% better myself either. Hopefully, this has run it's course now and we can get back to normal!! The pictures above are completely unrelated to this post but I thought they were too cute. The second one is her drinking out of an apple juice container that's about as big as she is!

I knew I was forgetting something

2007-09-05T12:12:00.000-07:00

I got woken up this morning by a police officer knocking on my door. I walked to the door and a million thoughts were running through my mind (see blog about crazy neighbor) I open it up and he says "Sorry to wake you, someone hit your mailbox, actually they knocked down all the mailboxes" The hill in front of our street is very slick when it's wet out and someone went sliding down the hill and took out all the mailboxes (4 total) and my neighbor's trash! There were kids waiting near there for the bus, thank god they were standing far enough back from the street, they didn't get hit. So I guess I have to get a new mailbox now. We have lived in the house for 5 years and had the same one the whole time. I'm just really glad the kids weren't in the way. They were towing away her car when I was leaving for work, my neighbor's yard got torn up a little (he's a jerk anyway!!) too bad he wasn't standing out there when it happened-ok i'm just kidding (sort of)

A Few things

2007-09-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Alivia's first day of daycare. We pulled up yesterday morning and I was a little nervous. We walked in and dropped of her diapers, wipes, blanket and pillow in her classroom. The other kids were outside playing. We walked outside and alivia was attached to my leg. We stood there for a few minutes while she checked everything out. She walked away real slow and grabbed a toy and then came back and grabbed my leg. There was a little rocking toy so I took her over to it and she got right on. She started rocking and then a little boy came over and started playing with another toy right next to her. I waited a few more minutes and told her I was leaving. I asked her for a kiss and she told me to give her a hug. I walked away. When I got back inside I looked out the window and she was still fine. When I got outside I peeked through the fence and she was still fine, so I left. The teacher said I could call as many times as I wanted! I only called once and they said she had been playing all day and was fine. When I picked her up last night they gave me a paper of what she had done that day. There was a checkoff list of things -I was a kind friend, I was a big helper, I participated in class learning etc, etc, the only thing that wasn't checked off was "I was quiet" I thought that was funny. She went back today ok so I guess she liked it!!

After I picked her up last night, we were going to meet my mom at the mall. We had a little bit of time so we ate dinner. She was being really good and we walked around a little bit and then met up with my mom. After awhile I don't know if she was bored or tired or both but she got really crabby and was being a monster. She was not in her stroller and I kept trying to put her back and in and one time she said "I don't yike it" and I said "Well, I don't like it either" We ended up going home, I gave her a bath and she went right to bed. This morning she kept saying "I don't yike it ear, mommy" It took me a few times to figure out she was saying "I don't like it either" I was thinking oh great-hopefully she doesn't say that at daycare today!!

I went to lunch today with Rachel and Alena. We went to Napoli pizza, it's right by my office. We each got a pizza and a salad. My bill was around $10 and hers was around $12. When we got done we went up to pay and their credit card machine wouldn't work so we got free lunch! Sweet!!! I told them we will def go back again-we had been there before. That always makes for a great day!!

I can't wait to pick alivia up tonight to see what her sheet says today!

Make that To-Go please

2007-08-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

So I love Mexican food and there is a Mexican restaurant in the same plaza as my work. I got done with my duty turn at one and started my trek to the other end of the plaza. I walk in and was immediately greeted. I said "I wanted to get something to go" he started to hand me a menu and I said "Oh, I already know what I want" I followed him to the counter so I could place my order, I told him what I wanted and added that I would also like a soda. He took my money, I grabbed a Togo menu to read while I waited, he then said something to one of the other workers "blah blah senorita" (that's what I got out of it!!) The kid got up and started to make my soda. I sat down and began to read the menu. He brought over my soda and set it in front of me and then handed me a straw and said something I said "what?" he said something again and again I said "what?" and then he said "diet?" (i ordered diet coke) I said "Yes" which led me to believe that he didn't just ask me if i was drinking diet soda the first two times. I kept trying to read the menu because when I'm in places like this I try not to make eye contact. The kid sat at the table next to me (where he got up from in the first place) and said "working?" I said "yes I work down at AAA" he said "are you married" i said "yes and today is my anniversary actually" he stopped talking to me after that but every one of those creeps that walked by me looked at me all smiley and creepy. The guy came out with my food and I stood up and then he wouldn't let go of the bag and he was smiling at me. So I kinda tugged at it and said "thanks" I love their food but I just don't know if it's worth the sexual harassment!! I don't know if I possess some quality that attracts Mexican guys but this happens to me all the time with these people or maybe it's because they're just looking to get some from anything that walks. Who knows but maybe next time I have a craving I will have one of the guys at my work pick up my food!!

Happy Anniversary!!

2007-08-28T07:38:00.000-07:00

Today is our 3rd Anniversary. We had to celebrate last night because Rob is bowling tonight and tomorrow and I bowl thursday. We went to Bristol's for dinner. It was...ok. That was the theme of the whole dinner. They have sweet biscuits-they were kinda dry and didn't have too much taste. The waitress asked me how they were i said "they're...ok" Then we got clam chowder and she asked again how it was"it's...ok." Rob ordered catfish which came with garlic mashed potatoes. The potatoes were really good but the he said the catfish was...ok. I got a filet and king crab legs. I ordered the steak medium and it was well done but it was tender so I didn't sent it back. The crab legs were amazing and I also got garlic mashed potatoes which were good. I had gotten a cosmo from the bar and they took it off our bill since my steak wasn't cooked right, they also gave us a free dessert since it was our anniversary, the bill was still $83. We def wouldn't go there again but all in all it was..ok. Rob gave me a very nice card this morning and I guess that about sums up our anniversary celebration. After dinner we went to Ashley furniture, he can't find any bedroom sets that he likes. I however, like them all!!

Alivia took a spill down our basement steps last night. She was standing at the top with a baby in one hand and a string cheese in the other, she got her feet tangled up and down she went. She went down most of the way on her feet but the last one ended up on her face. She had a scratch on her arm and her nose is pretty red.

I had another garage sale last weekend, it was the 4th this year. It feels so good to have all of that junk out of the house. I'm getting better as I get older about getting rid of stuff that I'm not using and I make a little bit of money in the meantime.

We're going to perryville this weekend. I think we'll leave saturday and come back sunday. I think the weather is supposed to be really nice too. Rob wants to catch some more fish. I think that's all I got for now...

Here we go again...

2007-08-24T07:20:00.001-07:00

Last night was my first night of bowling on thursdays, which means I have to leave Alivia home with Rob. I even said to the girls last night "I wonder what I will find when I get home" Everything seemed to be pretty normal when I got home last night. And then when Alivia got up this morning this is what I found:

All of her pj's are in the same drawer, it's just a matter of picking out what goes together. I could not stop laughing when I got her up this morning. The bottom's she has on are blue with red cherries and the top is purple with a cow on it. I'm laughing right now. But he did give her a bath, and get her dressed and she was asleep in her bed so I can't complain too much, but seriously does it look like these clothes go together?!?!?

2007-08-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures I took with my phone. Alivia likes to sit on the couch and watch TV while I get ready for work in the morning. She has to have her milk, some dry cereal in a little bowl, her blanket and the remote. She cracks me up. The other pic is of liv and bray playing on amber's porch. The other day I was in the bathroom getting ready for work and Alivia brought her baby in and said "Mommy, baby, potty" I said "oh, you're baby has to go potty?" She said yes and proceeded to hold her baby over the toilet. A few seconds later she said "good job baby" and flushed the toilet. A few minutes later apparantly the baby had to go potty again so she held her baby over the toilet again and I heard her say "I dot chu baby" (I got you baby) When I hold her I always tell her I got her and won't let her fall. She never ceases to suprise me with the things she picks up from us. She likes to talk on the phone all of a sudden too. She talked to my dad on the phone for about 5 minutes the other day, she was walking around the house with the cordless telling him everything she was doing. It was funny.

2007-08-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

Since Alivia is now two, I've been contemplating taking her to daycare. There are a few things that bother me about my current child care situation. One big thing is that I'm not able to claim my weekly child care fee on my taxes because my sitter doesn't claim in on her taxes. Maybe I shouldn't put that out there...but it's true. So I toured a daycare yesterday and I liked it. They have a special program for two year olds. The fee is only $22 more a week than what I am paying now and I can claim in on my taxes at the end of the year. They have bulletin boards in each room saying what they'll be doing each week and a set menu and the lady said I could have copies of everything every week. I really like that. They have sheets they fill out for each kid every day that shows what they did and when they went potty. The only bad thing about this is that I have to break the news to my babysitter. I'm not looking forward to that AT ALL. I was going to do it this morning but her son was there. So I'm going to try again tonight. I'm such a chicken. I called my mom last night and said "Will you break up with my babysitter for me?" She said no. When we were touring the daycare, Alivia jumped right in and started playing with some kids. Their front door is kept locked by a keypad and each parent has their own code to get in. Alright well, I still have a few hours to work myself up to telling her....geez.