Why females should avoid a girls night out after they're married....

My mom sent me this email today and I thought it was too funny not to share...some of you might've read this already but I thought it was hilarious!

Why females should avoid a girls night out after they're married....

The other night I was invited out for a night with the "girls." I told my husband that I would be home by midnight, "I promise!" Well, the hours passed and the margaritas went down way too easily. Around 3am, a bit loaded, I headed for home. Just as I got in the door, the cuckoo clock in the hallway started up and cuckooed 3 times. Quickly, realizing my husband would probably wake up, I cuckooed another 9 times. I was really proud of myself for coming up with such a quick-witted solution, in order to escape a possible conflict with him. Even when totally smashed...3 cuckoos plus 9 cuckoos totals 12 cuckoos = MIDNIGHT!

The next morning my husband asked me what time I got in, I told him "MIDNIGHT"... he didn't seem pissed off in the least. Whew, I got away with that one! Then he said, "We need a new cuckoo clock." When I asked him why, he said, "Well, last night our clock cuckooed three times, then said 'Oh shit.' Cuckooed 4 more times, cleared its throat, cuckooed another three times, giggled, cuckooed twice more, and then tripped over the coffee table and farted."

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Swimming Lessons

I am super super excited!! Hailey is going to take swimming lessons!! Usually all this fun extra-carricular stuff is sort of limited to kids of stay at home mom's around here so I really thought this was something she would never be able to do. But I found out recently that they're now offering classes on the weekends and weeknights!! I'm so glad I went ahead and looked it up and called right away because there was was only one more class left at Hailey's age level that hadn't already started and I got one of the last two spots for that class! She goes from July 7 to the 16th, at 6:30 in the evening. Plenty of time to eat first, since I get off at 4:00 during the summer! It's at an indoor heated pool, so that will be nice. Best of all, the 8 days worth of lessons were only $35!! Completely worth the money. I really hope she likes it. They teach things like submersion, floating on their front and back, safe entry in and how to safely get out of the pool, safe life jacket practices, etc. She loves going to the Lake so much, already jumping off the dock and tubing behind the boat (with me in the tube too of course) so I'm hoping she'll like her swimming lessons too. I only got to take them one summer as a kid, when I was about 10 I think. I've never been good in the water and I've always been a bit afraid of it. Hopefully by getting Hailey in lessons she won't take after me! :) I am just beyond excited and I can't wait to start!!

Total bummer that I'm going to have to keep my legs shaved for a good 2 weeks, but oh well!! LOL She's worth it.

I've had days where I've wanted to do something like this!

The sun is shining

We're going to have bad days here and there, I know that. But the bad days just need to, well, not be so bad, darn it! Things are okay. Things are better. Promises aren't being broken, which is the major reason I was so upset. Hailey's still getting to go to the Lake next weekend. I'll forget the name calling in time. Everything's fine. Moving on.

So big things have been happening in these parts. Well big in my book anyway.

My husband finally admitted he is getting excited about moving. I think having to peel off his mud caked clothes and shoes on the front porch for God and all the Mexican's living next door to see really did it. He's very excited about having a garage now. And here I thought telling him he could have all his hunting/fishing/golf stuff at HOME instead of stored in his parents garage would do it! All I had to do was start making him undress outdoors! LOL

Hailey isn't that weirded out by the packing, which is something I was worried about. A couple nights ago I started packing up the books in her bedroom (the ones we don't read every night) and she did run in her bedroom and say "Hey, those are mine!" but once I explained that we had to pack them away so we can move them to the new house, she was fine. We've decided on keeping her around for most, if not all, of the day while we're moving. That way she can see all of our stuff leaving the old place and being moved into the new. I'm sure there will be plenty of comments from the inlaws (who aren't helping us move, by the way) about how we need to just send Hailey to the sitter's but I know my daughter and I really think it's best for her to see what's happening first hand.

My mom's new job is going amazingly well. I feel like God really answered our prayers with this one. The people in this law office are absolutely amazing. The lawyers are incredible. The things they have done for my mother are just above and beyond that of a normal employer. Things like giving her a huge check just because they didn't have to pay two months of Cobra insurance for her. You'd think they'd just be thankful they didn't have to pay for it and leave it at that. Instead they give the money they would have used to pay for the insurance directly to her. Just to have. We are so incredibly thankful for everything God is giving her right now. She really deserves it. And just to add to her happiness I bought her a new vacuum last week. She loaned hers to her boyfriend over a year ago and unfortunately he never gave it back. She's been borrowing mine. When I bought my new (ABSOLUTELY AWESOME) new vacuum I was going to give her our old one...until D took it down to the Lake and used it to clean up the nastiness at the cabin. Now that one is banished to the cabin (as we threw the old one there away) and my mom has a nice new one. All is right in cleaning land!

D and I have realized that we are going to have to share the cabin. Which is totally fine, except for the fact that we're the only ones that have been cleaning that place and fixing it up! Well aside from his dad, who has really been doing a lot as well which we are very thankful for. But now that the place is cleaner and has newer couches and a TV, all the relatives are wanting to go down there. Like D's brother and my sister in law. And now D's cousin that hasn't been in years will be taking her new husband there a week after the wedding. Which is totally fine! We just need to get over the fact that it's not just our cabin. And that people don't care that we're the only ones that have done any work, they're still going to reap the benefits. And we've realized that we just need to move to the Lake ourselves! We're hoping D can get a job down there after he graduates. The Lake is a place where I've always just felt at ease. I love the atmosphere, I love the lifestyle. I want a boat and a waverunner way more than I want a house. I just need to be away from the city, I'm tired of all the congestion and how there are people everywhere you go. I love being down at the Lake and waking up to the sound of boats going by and waverunners zooming all over the place. (Sort of off topic but waverunners remind me of nats. They follow huge boats around riding their wake...I'd think this would be really annoying for the boat owners! It's so fun though!) If it can't be there then I want to live in another tiny little town. I'm talking no grocery store tiny like one of my favorite little blufftop towns near here. Where you're driving along and come upon a heard of chickens just standing in the street. I crave that slower paced, less stressed, more quiet life.

Changing subjects completely...I'm going to talk about work now. I can't go into all the details but I have to say working for a public school system vs. for a big corporation is very interesting. We're dealing with tax le.vys and bud.get cuts and board meetings and it's just all very (oddly enough) exciting. It gets your blood boiling, you start to feel so passionate about your feelings on the issues! This morning we all met at the office about 15 minutes early (and I was NOT the last one here, I am happy to announce! **pats myself on back**) and rode over to the boa.rd meeting together. Apparently we made quite the impact all showing up as a united front like that, our whole office. My boss and our secretary (who replaced me when I took this job--and who is now losing her job because of the budget cuts) both spoke and we stood up with them to show our support. We were in the very front row so when we stood up it looked very intimidating. We could just feel the teachers behind us staring and we could hear them whispering. It's amazing how much in denial they are of simple mathematics. We're dealing with a bud.get crisis, we're cutting something like 82 positions across the dist.rict, everybody is losing 2 days of work w/out pay...and the teachers think we should go ahead with the salary sch.edule and essentially give everyone raises (although as the teachers put it, it is NOT a raise...it's a contractual obligation, a part of their benefits package--although it's not in any of their contracts or benefit info!) The whole idea of taking away jobs and days and then giving everyone a raise is just ludicrous. And what really bites my ass is the fact that the teachers claim to be so much about the students, reminding everybody that this is really about the students here, but then they are so money hungry! And they give sob stories about how so many of them are already at a hardship, having to work 2 and 3 jobs to make ends meet, and PLEASE don't make this harder on us than it already is! BOOHOO. The average teacher in our district makes almost $50,000 a year. For 9 months work. Some of our accountants make less than that and they work 12 months! And as far as having to work 2 and 3 jobs to make ends meet...I would LOVE to see them live on my salary or that of our secretaries. They make twice what we do and are able to be off in the summer. It's just a mess and while both sides have valid points I think it just says something how the people that are supposedly so "for the students" still want their raise so bad, while those of us that are being directly impacted by the cuts by ways such as losing staff, so our individual workloads will go up, we'll be losing 2 days of work w/ no pay, etc. are all for NOT getting raises. How about we keep the staff that are losing their jobs so the district can actually run/work properly and everybody stay at the same rate of pay...an efficiently run district is what the students need. Not a teacher who makes $1000 more per year.

So I got off on a rant there. I feel very good about being involved in this and it makes me happy to hear that we made a big impact on everyone this morning (in a good way). The superin.tendent is very happy with what went on. Hopefully a good decision will be made and this will all be over soon!

A plus about having to get here so early this morning...now I get off at 3:43! Yay!

I've really gotten into reading again. I've finished The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella...hard to get into at first but ultimately a GREAT book! One of my favorites of hers so far! I've now moved on to Can You Keep a Secret...another one of hers. So far it's pretty good...now the only problem is I haven't had time to read lately! I've got many more books on my "to read" list and can't wait to get all settled in our new place and have time to read again!

Tomorrow night we've got a rehearsal and dinner for our friend's wedding that is going on Saturday. We've made the decision to take Hailey to the rehearsal and dinner, against my inlaws judgement, and we're very excited about going. Another reason for me to get semi dressed up...I got a new dark grey knit skirt (the kind w/ the foldover top like I LOVE) at Old Navy last night for the occassion. I'll probably just wear it with a pink tank top and some flip flops unless I can find some sandals tonight. For the wedding Saturday I found a HUGE bargain at Kohl's, a dress on sale for $7. I'm going to attempt to curl my hair which means I need to buy either some curlers or a curling iron. I've been wanting those for ages anyway. I got Hailey the cutest little dress at Penneys on sale for $15 and she picked out some little gold braided flip flops that I'm going to squeeze her fat little feet into. Hopefully the day goes smoothly with minimal meltdowns on her part.

My sister came over last night after a LONG time of not seeing each other. We went to Old Navy, got sandwiches at Quizno's (not to self: Hailey does NOT like toasted subs), ran by Penneys and just hung out. We decided we really need to make an effort to do it more often and we've planned a date with just the two of us to go to this new seafood place we both want to try.

Hailey has yet again grown up overnight. The other day at the sitters she was going a puzzle with the sitter's middle son who is 2 months older than her. He asked her what a puzzle piece was. Hailey said "I THINK it's a crab. I THINK." The sitter said she laughed so hard, and that Hailey sounded just like a little adult. She also told the sitter all about the tye dyed shirt she made at the festival I took her to last weekend. The sitter had read about it on our family blog but hadn't mentioned it to Hailey at all. Hailey brought it up all on her own and told her all about how she made this shirt with circles and colored it yellow and blue and pink and then Mommy washed it. She said she made it at the big park. Little things like that make me realize that I have a kid now. She's not a little baby anymore, as much as I still feel like I have a baby. I have a kid now. A true little kid.

My husband got a lesson Tuesday night (before Hailey went to bed and we fought, of course) on just how much of a kid Hailey is now. And how he really needs to watch his mouth. We were on the way to the park after having DQ ice cream. He started hassling me about doing "the deed" with him that night. I kept telling him I just do NOT feel like it, it was not a good night, I was exhausted, blah blah blah on and on and finally I told him to not talk about things like that in front of Hailey anymore. He started in again hassling me until Hailey finally had enough and she yelled at him "DADDY SHE'S NOT IN THE MOOD!" He was so embarrassed and I just laughed and laughed. The look of shock on his face was priceless. Of course she had no idea exactly what we were talking about but you'd better bet that got him to shut up!!! Thanks Hailey!

And now I'd better get to work. Sometime this weekend I should have some pictures to upload! Hope everyone is having a great week!

Busy weekend!

We had a very busy weekend this weekend! Friday night was spent at my mom's. I cooked dinner, Hailey played...after dinner I relaxed on the couch and watched What Not to Wear.

Saturday we got up, cleaned ourselves up and straightened up the house a little bit and then went to lunch with my stepmom and little sister. That was so much fun! We haven't done that EVER. Seriously. I know this divorce has been really hard on all of us...we've gone through some really tough times since my step mom moved out with my grandma going insane and threatening everybody, my dad trying to kill himself, my sister being so stressed she's moving out etc. BUT...things are starting to finally come together. My stepmom is much happier, I can tell the difference in her just by looking at her! She's finally able to be her own person and do what she wants to do when she wants to do it. Going out to lunch, just us girls, was so nice...I hope we can have many more times like that in the future. After lunch we drove all around town trying to find a place for my little sister and stepmom to live. This town is over-run by college kids...finding a good rental in a quiet/nice area that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and isn't teeny tiny is really hard to find around here. We got lucky when we found our place! After that Hailey and I headed over to my dad's. My dad is also doing great, despite his mounting health problems. His liver isn't functioning as well as it should and the one kidney he has left is showing signs of failing...but he's in good spirits and trying to make the best out of things lately which is a huge change from just a month ago. My brother moved back here from another state a couple weeks ago (he's going to be 24 next month) and brought his little brother along with him (he's 20). They're living with my dad and it's really brightened my dad's spirits. Saturday evening we got to see my brother for the first time since Hailey was 5 months old. Hailey went right to him! She's really shy with people she's not around a whole lot and takes a while to warm up to people. She hates my husband's dad and freaks out when he even comes in the door. I have no idea why. She tolerates D's mom. She's always taken a while to warm up to my dad. But for some reason Saturday night she went right to my dad and sat on his lap and watched Spongebob for a while which made him incredibly happy. He went from seeming like he didn't feel good to getting up and cooking us all dinner and visiting with everybody like nothing was wrong. Hailey sat on my brother's lap for a long time and kept leaning over to steal looks at S, my brother's little brother. At our wedding my brother M was the only person that could get Hailey to settle down and go to sleep (she was only 3 months old). He stayed with us in the women's building while we got ready to take care of Hailey. It was so sweet. I don't know what it is...but she still loves him to pieces. He has two little boys of his own, ages 3 and 5 that his ex has full custody of...he is so good with little kids though. He was doting on her all night. My dad had a full house with me, Hailey, my 2 brothers, my brother's brother, my littlest brother's friend K (who's always around and is basically like another little brother), my little sister and my cousin. We all ate dinner and visited and had a great time.

Sunday started off with a little family turmoil but ended up okay. Hailey started off the day showing us how incredibly cute and funny she is. She went to put a bowl of dry cereal in the sink. I told D she was going to dump it all over the floor, I just knew it. Sure enough the bowl tipped backwards and the cereal scattered all over the kitchen floor. I wish I had what happened next on film. It was priceless. Hailey's jaw dropped as she looked down at the cereal and she said "OH MY GOD!!" I couldn't believe what I'd just heard. Did she really just say that? Then she said "OH MY GOD MOMMY!!" I hope I remember that moment forever. It was the most adorable thing ever. I got up and went in there. She said "Mommy I make a mess! Help me clean up??" and started frantically scooping up the cereal. I stood her up facing me and kissed her on the nose and told her she was the cutest thing ever and I loved her. I told her to put the cereal on the rug and we'd shake it off outside to feed the birds, which she thought was really neat. That started the morning off great. Then my inlaws called and invited us over for the Super Bowl. I told D we just couldn't go. It was too last minute. I'd kept Hailey out late both Fri. and Sat. night and said I was keeping her home Sunday. She wanted to be home! He told his parents we'd come and we fought about it a little. He told me that I had to call them and tell them we weren't coming and I refused...they are HIS parents, he needs to grow some balls and deal with them himself...I'm tired of being the bad guy!! I was so mad. He just didn't get why Hailey couldn't go...he doesn't understand how much sleep a toddler needs and how she was already so worn out from running around all weekend to see family. My family had made our plans the previous week. His parents can't do that. They ALWAYS call last minute and expect us to drop what we're doing and do what they want. It's always been like that. When Hailey had been home from the hospital a couple days even, and I was struggling with being a new mom and freaking out about breastfeeding right and crying and just having a really rough time, they'd call at 8:00 at night and say they were almost at our house to see Hailey...no warning, nothing. So instead of being able to get into a routine and try to deal with things, we had to sit there until 10:30 at night or whenever they'd decide it was time to go. Hailey would sleep the whole time they were there too, so by the time they left she'd wake up and I could've gotten 2 or 3 good hours of sleep...and they NEVER have understood why we tell them no. Just like on Hailey's first 4th of July when it was boiling hot outside and I could tell something wasn't right with her. She was gagging and throwing up a lot but they insisted she was fine and took her outside and passed her around from one sweaty person to another. I fumed inside until I finally went and grabbed her and said we were leaving. The next morning she went into the hospital for a few days with an extremely high fever and she was refusing to eat and had a bad rash etc. They just don't get it! Yesterday after much "discussion," a phonecall to my mom where I cried that I was ready for a divorce, D blowing up at my mom when she came over for something really small and stupid and then us all making amends...D decided he wanted to invite his friend and his girlfriend and their 3 week old little boy down instead. It's NOT that I didn't want to go to his parent's house. I would LOVE for them to invite us over sometime or call and ask to keep Hailey for a few hours or even a day...but they NEVER do this...they never call to watch her at ALL...and when they call for us to come over it's so last minute we've always made other plans already or it just doesn't fit into our schedule. I'm so sick of it! So anyway D called his dad without any prompting from me and told him we'd decided to keep Hailey home instead and were having A and his family over. His dad said "OK bye" and hung up on him. These people are so immature it's ridiculous. We didn't let it bother us. We hurried up and cleaned up the house, me working on the bathroom, D the kitchen and my mom helped pick up the living room so D could vacuum. I cleaned the kitchen floor. That is one thing I LOVE LOVE LOVE about having company...I get a clean house!!! My mom, Hailey and I ran by Walmart to load up on snacks. I even bought a 6 pack of beer and told myself I deserved one after the day I'd had...but of course since we just don't drink I ended up not having one and D only drank 2. We had a nice peaceful evening visiting with our friends, stuffing ourselves on wings, pizza rolls, cheese dip etc. and holding a baby and a toddler! Hailey loves A and had a lot of fun playing with him all evening. I didn't hold baby L a whole lot because I've been sick with a cold and although the only symptom I have left is a clogged right ear I just couldn't bear the thought of this itty bitty cute baby getting a cold. I pray to God there were no germs lurking about...they knew that we had been sick and still brought him though which I was quite surprised at. I think his mom is pretty relaxed since she's been taking care of her 2 nieces forever. Hailey was having so much fun I couldn't bear to make her go to sleep w/ them there so she didn't get to bed until 10:30 but she went right to sleep then. We had a great night and Hailey woke up in a great mood this morning. While I was drying my face I heard a little voice say "Mommy?" I opened the door and turned the corner and there she was, standing at her bedroom door with the light on. She said "I wake up!" Morning couldn't have gone better...great moods, got out of the house on time and I even got to work on time! Well, 1 minute late but come on. That's on time. What a great start to the week...hopefully it's a sign of the great week we're going to have!!!

I have another physical therapy appt. after work today and for the first time I didn't shave my legs. Last time I did and got bad razor burn so this time I just said screw it. My PT told me last time she doesn't shave in the winter so I don't need to worry about it! I still feel weird about going with hairy legs though...

**

The concert was awesome...after we left I had a message to call my mom, Hailey had come down with something pretty suddenly. After we got back in town, I picked Hailey up (3:00 in the morning). She has croup. I've been home with her since then, except this afternoon my mom was able to take off work so I could go in to work for a grand total of 3 hours. I spent the afternoon basically doing odds and ends and barely making a dent in my stack of work that has piled up.

We still haven't gotten any loan money yet. The disbursement for the 2nd loan we were approved for was mailed today. It says to allow 5 to 7 days. I'm hoping the mail will be extra speedy and we'll get it by Fri. or Saturday. Needless to say, we need it bad. Things just keep going from bad to worse, financially.

Since Hailey is doing better D and I are going to the live broadcast at a local movie theater tonight of the last Garth Brooks concert(my mom is watching Hailey at our house, much to Hailey's delight). Pretty excited about that. We've already planned on wearing our Garth TShirts we got at the concert Monday night. Because yea, we're nerds like that. :o)

Busy busy busy **UPDATED W/ PICTURES!!**

We've had a LOT going on lately...where to begin?? First off, part of why I've avoided posting is I haven't been in the best of moods. We've hit a pretty major financial crisis and aren't really sure how to dig ourselves out. I had a meeting with a credit counselor Friday which did not go well. Basically we can't live on just my income alone. It's just not working. But D can't work more than 1/2 time, which is stretching it as it is. After the meeting I sat in the parking lot at work, crying to my sister in law on the phone. They've been through rough times as well. The rest of the day at work was pretty cruddy, and that night was even worse. D and I had a huge blowup over the phone...well mostly me talking calmly trying to explain everything to him to where he could understand it (finances are beyond him for some reason) and him yelling at me that he doesn't care about any of it. That night was a very low point in my life unfortunately. As of right now, we're taking my mother in law's advice and applying for a student loan through MOHELA. We started the process last night by getting D's credit pre-approved online. Now we just have to actually print off the application and go from there. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers(if you're the praying type)!

I pulled it together and got up the next morning to pack. We got everything together and got out of the house an hour late, but for once it didn't matter what time we got to where we were going! The car ride was un-eventful. We arrived at the Grandparents' house in St. Louis about 2:00. Hailey had a blast looking at the "skirls!" in the backyard. We got settled in, had a bite to eat(we were so hungry!--see paragraph above about financial crisis--that equals a lack of funds for quick take out) and began getting all purdied up.


We took some nice family shots in the very pretty backyard then we were on our way. We actually found the Cathedral with pretty much no problem, which is saying something for us small town folk not used to driving in downtown St. Louis! The wedding was absolutely beautiful. And surprisingly laid back/short! Everyone was dressed VERY nicely, tuxes and fancy dresses/outfits, but it wasn't snooty like I'd expected! Hailey was an absolute doll the whole time, sitting on my lap, not wanting to be down running around, talking quietly(no screaming!) and she even fell asleep for part of it!(So un-Haileylike!)



Afterwards we made our way to the City Museum to the Vault Room for the reception. If you ever get a chance to go to this place, please do! It is very neat, and they've got tons of stuff for the kiddos to play on! Here's an outside shot, showing all the stuff they have hanging off the side of the building(including a fire truck and airplane!) for the kids to play in! Sorry the pic is blurry...

And here's part of the play area inside, next to the Vault Room we were in...Hailey kept saying they were "stuck!":

We were worried the reception was going to be uncomfortable but we had a blast! They had waiters walking around with trays of hor deuvres(ok how do you spell that???) that were OH.SO.GOOD! Lobster rangoon, caramelized bacon, grilled shrimp, grilled shrimp cocktail, mini-quiches, chicken quesadillas, chicken skewers, ginger/sesame beef skewers, fruit skewers, crustini w/ mozzarella and tomato, pita toast w/ some sort of cream cheese spread...I know I'm forgetting something. We were stuffed! They also had open bar, which means I drank about 4 cokes (I did have 1 little glass of champagne, which they carded me for--I'm just not a big drinker) and 2 cups of coffee.
Centerpiece:

Favor(Very neat idea!):


She also tied me to the chair:


And hid under the table:


Hailey got down and boogied on the dance floor, which was a huge shocker...she dances at the sitter's but I've never see her get down like that before! It was so cute. She wanted me to dance with her (I'm SO not a dancer). Dan took her over into the museum part and took her down the ginormous slide a few times, which she LOVED. The favors at the reception were very neat! Our family friends, whose daughter was the one that got married, hung out and talked to us all night...we were pretty surprised they didn't mingle with all the other people! All in all, it was a great night!

After the wedding we went back to the Grandparents'. I read a few books lying next to Hailey in bed and turned out the light. She fell right to sleep. I, on the other hand, lie awake for hours w/ my mind running non stop. Mostly about our financial issues...partly because we were in a different place, partly from all the caffeine from the reception(not a good idea Erin!), partly because my pillow was incredibly lumpy(note to self: never go on a trip w/out my own pillow again!), partly because they don't use the air conditioning much so the cold fresh air blowing in the window right above my head was killing my sinuses...oh and my daughter decided to head butt me a couple times right in the nose, and kick me repeatedly...when D came to bed we talked for about an hour about what to do on the whole financial issue. I maybe got 2 hrs. of sleep that night tops. Seriously. I woke up the next day at 8:00 to Hailey staring me in the face saying something about up and papa and skirls. My face was puffy, my eyes were insanely dry...but I was so glad to be where I was at. Papa hopped up right away and started making us breakfast. My mom got up about 9:00 and joined us. We had yummy coffee, pancakes, turkey bacon, and orange juice. D snoozed away while the rest of us ate. I was in such a fog, all I remember then was crawling back in bed with D and sleeping for another 2 hours until I got up at noon. I knew Hailey was in good hands and didn't need me, and I took advantage. I woke up feeling a bit better and we had lunch(roast beef w/ veggies, fresh fruit salad, iced tea and my yummy brownies I brought w/ some cookies and cream ice cream!). Then we all got ready and headed to the Zoo. Hailey was a CRAB.APPLE oh my...hitting people in the face that would try to talk to her, not wanting to look at the animals, sometimes not even wanting ME! I was so embarrassed. Eventually she loosened up a bit. I could tell something was off, since she wasn't eating much and wasn't napping well. But it turned out ok. I did have a mini-crisis though...as we were walking into the giant bird cage I noticed my nose was running like crazy all of a sudden. I couldn't grab a tissue fast enough so I put my hand to my nose(I know, ew) and was shocked to pull it back and see blood. Huge amounts of blood. I have never had a bloody nose in my life!! Papa took Hailey off to see the birds while I freaked out and soaked tons of tissues. FINALLY it stopped and we were able to have a good time. Hailey rode the train for the first time and loved it. "My train! Toot toot!!" She fell asleep on the way back to the Grandparents'. We packed up the car and headed home. Hailey woke up as we were just pulling into our town and started crying for her Memaw. She didn't get to say goodbye :o( None of us, my mom included, wanted to come home!

Unfortunately we couldn't get Hailey to settle down that night. She still refused to eat, and would not fall asleep while I rocked her. Finally about 12:30 am I gave in and put her in our bed. She fell right to sleep. D put her in her crib at 2:30. I called work yesterday morning and told them she wasn't feeling well so I was letting her sleep in and I'd be in when I could. I ended up being home all day. It was a day of HUGE tantrums, refusing to wear any clothes even though it was freezing, diarea leaking all over my living room/dining room/hallway and bathroom floors...oh, and all over me! Yea, that was great... then last night she refused to let me rock her again. I had to lay her in our bed, where she fell asleep immediately. She woke up when D tried to put her in her crib at 1:30. Which leads us to another thing going on in our lives at the moment...the transition to a regular bed. I knew it was coming. And now it's become an absolute necessity. She's getting so big, and I'm so small, that it's hard to rock her comfortably anymore. She wants to lay down. But she doesn't want to lay in her crib by herself. My mom is giving us her twin daybed. Now I just have to come up with enough money to buy one of those rails that folds down so I can lie in bed with her at night and read to her. She absolutely CANNOT sleep with us from now on. We get NO sleep. And she didn't even sleep very well last night either. It's just not good for any of us. My mother in law (bless her!) is taking me out to lunch today and she's supposed to buy us some ink for our printer at home. I'm going to see if I can either trade in the ink for a set of bed rails for Hailey, or maybe ask for an advance on Christmas! LOL We'll see. I am VERY excited about lunch though. I've only had lunch with her one other time and it was so much fun! She's picking me up even...she knows I HATE driving. She really can be such a sweet woman! So, wish me luck on this issue...and babyproofing her room. Any advice on what to look out for/what they like to get into/any safety issues I need to watch out for????????? Seriously I need the advice, and fast! :o)

In other news, Hailey is learning her colors. She's doing pretty well so far. Also, she used to "count" to ten with out help...we'd say "one" and she'd say "two"...we'd say "two" and she'd say "tee"...but now, if you ask her to count to ten she does it on her own! Not fully yet, but she's getting the idea! She'll say "one, two, tee, six, nine, yay!!!" It's too cute.

I'm getting very excited about the up-coming holidays! Hailey has her first ever Halloween party at school this year! I'm taking off early to go. Also, we're having a huge family Thanksgiving with my in-laws in KC this year! We've never been to their house, and haven't seen them in ages! We're really excited about that. I'm also excited because we get more time off from work here than I did at the other place! 3 days for Christmas, which will mean a 5 day break w/ the weekend! Awesome!! Speaking of awesome, we taught Hailey to say it and she sounds so darn cute saying "awesome!"

Wednesday randomness...

I’m so excited, I had ordered some scrapbook supplies from LTD and they came in yesterday. I thought the three kits would kind of help me get started, since the pages already have spots for pictures and such. They were only $4.95 a piece and they come with stickers and die cuts and 16 pages...

Vacation:



Friends & Family:



Four Seasons:



I also ordered these for $6.95 and they are SO neat...I love the little tags!



I'm planning on using the card table we have set up in the corner of the dining room as my scrapbook/photo album area once I get to cleaning it off. I also need to get some storage containers for my supplies. My mom has no interest in scrapbooking...she thinks they look neat, but that's about it. Well last night she was going on about how we need to get me some special scizzors and pens and such. I only have 1 pair of the scizzors and a few pens...I think black, purple, dark blue and silver. I already know some of the things to put on my Christmas list this year! My mother in law is going to be so excited...she loves shopping for us girls, esp. when she knows what we want! All I have to do is give her a list...I'm also asking for a new skillet this year. Mine is getting so old and I use it so much it's really wearing out! Anyway...anybody have any ideas for scrapbook supplies that I just shouldn't live without???

D'S HOME!! YAY!! So excited. It was so nice to walk into our bedroom to get dressed this morning and see him laying in bed. When I got Hailey up I told her Daddy was home and asked if she wanted to go see him and she smiled really big and said "uh huh!" She gave him a kiss and giggled. Hopefully he'll get home from practice in time to see her tonight. I think she really misses him. He misses her like crazy.

WELL...I'm finally done...I finally read the last Harry Potter! If you haven't read it and are going to, stop here, because I'm about to say a few things about it. First off, I think it was awesome. Loved it. It was my favorite one of all of them. There is one thing I'm confused on though. Why did the Elder Wand choose Draco as it's new master, and how did Harry know this?? Did I miss something? When he was talking to Voldemort in the end and he told him that, I was like WHAT?? I think I'll probably have to re-read the book eventually, I know I had to of missed some things. Now I don't know what I'm going to do over my lunch break! I used to be so excited to go read Potter...it seems weird that they're over with. I can't imagine what the last movie is going to be like. All those deaths...I wonder how much they'll skip over and what they'll include. To me the whole story seems so important to the ending of the tale. I guess we'll see!

I made a major booboo. I've been so exhausted since D's been gone, from getting no sleep...I completely forgot to start my new pack of pills Sunday. I realized this yesterday. I was reading Kayce's comment on a post from a couple days ago and thought oh no... I took Monday and yesterday's pills last night and just skipped the first pill in the pack. Is that ok?? I hope I didn't totally screw up my cycle. It was just now finally getting back on track. I have to call my dr. at some point this month, see if she can give me 3 more months worth of samples. She had wanted me to go off them in October because we were going to start trying in December, but now that we're shooting for March or April I figure I'll take my last pack in December. But there isn't a generic for the brand I take, so my ins. makes me pay a crap load for them. Hopefully my dr. still has samples.

Hope everyone is having a good week so far! The weather here has been WONDERFUL!! I went home and changed last night and then took Hailey to the park. It was only 80 degrees, and dropping as the night went on. It was beautiful! Last night it got downright cold...in the 40's! I'm excited at being able to put different clothes on Hailey finally...her summer clothes were getting so boring! I put her little goucho capris on her this morning (hand me downs from my friend S--I actually bought them for her little girl a year or so ago!) and a jacket that, get this...is from LAST SPRING! All her jackets/coats still fit her, how cool is that?? They were big on her last season. They're all 6-12 months. But now they fit her great! That reminds me, I noticed something this morning...Hailey is thinning out. I've noticed lately that she only gets her big buddha belly after she eats now. When she wakes up in the morning it's a normal little pudgy belly. This morning as I was changing her diaper I noticed I could see the white lines of her leg rolls on her upper/inner thighs. Up until now I've had to spread the roll apart to see down in there. Her legs are definately looking thinner. I was so afraid she was going to be a little fat kid. Not that there's anything wrong with being fat, except I don't want her to have any health problems from being overweight. That runs in D's family! Luckily he's escaped it. Anyway...she's definately not my little baby anymore. I'll have to post pictures soon...

FRIDAY’S POST!!---Once in a while you've just gotta relax!!

Yesterday was a GREAT day!! This week may have started off cruddy, but it’s ended wonderfully! Wednesday afternoon my mom came in to work to see my new office. She’s not working right now because school is out. She wanted me to leave work and go goof off with her. I only had 2 hrs. left though, so I didn’t. But yesterday I wasn’t going to have anything to do all day at work…so after I got my checks ran I left and went to her house about 10:30. We ate lunch at a local drive in place we’ve gone to for years. It was nice to not have to worry about Hailey trying to climb out the window or getting chili and cheese all over the radio knobs for once. Then we laid out at my mom’s pool for a couple hours. I haven’t been able to do that in years! Just lay by the pool, mid-day, very hot, enjoying just baking in the sun. It was nice! Then we picked up Hailey about 4:00. I could tell she couldn’t figure out why we weren’t in my car(my mom drove). I kept asking her if she wanted to go swimming. She was confused…we don’t usually swim on weeknights, except in her little baby pool in the front yard every now and then. We went to a place we’ve never been before here in town that I’ve heard the little kids LOVE. We were driving down the long driveway and she looked confused. Where were we going?? It’s way back in a wooded area. Finally we got to a big clearing, and she could see across the parking lot all the fountains and stuff. She started to get really excited and laugh and point. I asked her if she wanted to go swimming and this time she knodded her head very enthusiastically. I got her into her suit and we walked up to the front gate. My mom was lagging behind messing with the car, and Hailey kept turning around and yelling “MON!” which is how she says “C’mon!” She could hardly contain herself as we got closer, she was clapping and shrieking and giggling. It’s a children’s play area—the water is only about 10 inches deep at the deepest part so it’s nice and shallow to walk through. There are concrete slides and fountains. It’s basically a huge glorified kiddy pool! So neat!! It was only 3$ a piece for my mom and I to get in, and Hailey was free! We found a good place to put our blanket out and I greased Hailey up in sunscreen(she helped—she loves putting lotion on) while we waiting for the 10 minute break to be over. Finally the whistles blew and we waded in. She had a BLAST! She wanted to go down the slides right away. She kept saying “Ride! Ride!” First I put her between my legs and we went down, and the water splashed up into her face and over her head at the bottom and she just laughed her deep belly laugh. She loved it! Then I started putting her beside me and going down with her. She had so much fun. She loved wading around in the water and trying to “swim” on her belly. Her butt kept floating to the surface and she’d stick her face down in the water and then pull it out and just laugh and laugh. She shook her hand at the leaves in the water and said “pooey”…then tried to step on them because she though they were bugs. We stayed for about an hour and a half, until she started shivering a bit and her lips started turning purple. It wasn’t cold out, but the wind had picked up just enough to make her cool I guess. Then we went and got pizza for dinner and she ate 2 pieces of pizza and some peas while she watched Shrek 2. She is OBSESSED with Shrek lately! “Shek! Weevee! Shek!!” That’s all I hear. Thank God I like them too. I’ll be glad when the 3rd one finally comes out on video…my luck by then she’ll be over her “Shek” phase by then though. After we ate we left her with daddy while we ran to Walmart to get diapers and stuff like that. Then I took her home and we read about 5 books before bedtime, and she fell asleep while I was reading again tonight! This time to One Fish Two Fish. It was an absolutely wonderful day…very relaxing and very fun!! I’m really excited that today is Friday and we’ve got the whole weekend ahead of us. D wants to take Hailey back to PL(the place we took her last night) since he didn’t get to go, but it’s always really busy on the weekends from what I hear. But we’ll see!!

I actually got some sun yesterday, I’m getting pretty dark! I haven’t been this dark for a few years now! My forehead is peeling a bit which bugs me, but oh well. OH! Another thing I have to mention that I am so friggin excited about. I went through a bunch of clothes that I’d try to sell at a garage sale(everybody that came to the sale last summer were all bigger sizes, I can’t find ANYBODY to buy my little clothes!) and I found a bunch that fit me again! One pair of khaki shorts still had the tags on, and I washed them up and they fit me perfectly! It was like going on a huge shopping spree in my own storage! I found a bunch of tank tops, some that had the tags still on, that fit now. Of course a ton are still way too small, back from my highschool days when I was teeny tiny. But a bunch of them do! And the best part about it…I found my knit skirts from a few summers ago that are so comfy and cute, and I found my whole bag of underwear!! YEA!! I had bagged it all up when I was pregnant, because it didn’t fit anymore and I knew it never would again. But now it does fit again, so I have literally a whole drawer full of underwear now! You do not know how good that feels. I have thongs that are comfy and thongs that are pretty and comfy big ol nighttime underwear and all my VS underwear in all their diff. styles and colors and patterns. I feel like I hit the jackpot! I could wear a diff. pair every day for like 2 months and never have to wash any if I felt like it! I am so freaking excited. My goal for the next 2 or so weeks is to go through all the rest of the clothes I have bagged up and get rid of what I don’t want and organize everything I do want. I need a bigger dresser, mine doesn’t hold squat so I’ve got piles of clothes all over my bedroom floor. I’m thinking I’ll take my closet doors off and hang up a rod w/ a curtain instead because I just can’t get to anything with these big doors—the kind that just slide back and forth.

Yesterday my mom went in the post office to mail a package. I sat in the car, in our prime front-of-the-building parking space. At first it was exciting to just sit and people watch, enjoying the fresh air w/out having a toddler babbling at me in the back seat very impatiently to turn on the radio or yelling at the sun to get out of her eyes etc. It was amazing how many people were in SERIOUS need of some fashion/bodily grooming help. Now don’t get me wrong, in no way am I “trendy” and I do not have perfect hair and my face is a bit broken out etc…but some of these people were just ridiculous. I am not one to judge, but come on…I saw many women with HUGE wedgies. One girl looked like she was about 50 in the face, with the frizziest fried looking hair and she was dressed like she was a teenager…and she was what I call a “walking trend”…every trend that’s hot right now, she had it on her body. Seriously. It was just goofy looking. Another lady looked like she hadn’t washed/brushed her hair in days…she had on faded stretched out knit shorts way over her belly and much too short on her legs, w/ this short misshaped tank top on that showed off her big ol saggy boobs that were in great need of some support. And she had on some sort of hiking shoes. Nice. These people would all be wonderful candidates for What Not to Wear. Eventually I got bored, and I sat there and just stared off into space, looking over hopefully ever time I heard the door opening…finally my mom came back out, and I was happy to be leaving. I thought to myself “Good God, this is how dogs feel that are left in the car”…

Everything is down at work today so who knows when I’ll be able to post this…going to be a long day! We got bagels though from Panera (St. Louis Bread Co.) so that already started the day off good! Plus my mom’s coming in for some training w/ my boss, and we’re eating lunch together!

I almost forgot…Hailey is running now! It’s so cute! Yesterday at the sitter’s she ran across the yard yelling “I run! I run!” She also told the sitter “I wanna cracker.” Instead of making me nervous, her new attitude and new changes are making me excited now! This is the stage I was really excited about, where she could communicate and we could take her to do more things and we could lay on the couch and watch a movie together etc. I’m loving having a little girl!!!

I hurt from laughing

Ok well I just ate lunch w/ my sister and I feel tons better. We were both in bad moods when we met up(she always picks me up for lunch she's so sweet) but that didn't last long. When we're together we just laugh hysterically. We feed off each other and act so silly and just crack each other up. It all started w/ her comment on my sexy leopard print socks(that I wore because my others were all dirty ok!)...at one point she was laughing so hard she spit soda all over the place and I was laughing so hard I was drooling...it was great. I don't even know what we were laughing about most of the time...we did talk(nicely) about my cousin though, who we call "Biracial Rachel" because well her name's Rachel and she's bi-racial. We usually sing it like it's some super hero name...Rachel actually thinks it's hilarious. I don't know why it cracks me up every time. Also in the car back at my work, where last time my little sister decided she's got "smokers toes," this time she was freaking out about my hands...they're really dry and cracked because of over-obsessive handwashing and she knew they were bad but not this bad...she told me in a deep gay guy voice "oh God girl we're gonna get you hooked UP"....we have a weird sense of humor...and laugh easily. It's great! And I feel tons better!!!!!!

Fun is good

Well the guys came over last night along with my sister and my mom kept Miss H for the evening. I was dreading the evening at first and then I thought you know what, we never do anything like that, SNAP OUT OF IT, have fun for once!! And you know what, it was fun! I had a few beers, we danced around and acted silly to old rap songs and just random cds...and these guys are great, I really like D's friends. Before we'd had much to drink I got the great idea to go to Trops and get some frozen drinks, so we climbed in the car and brought some home. They are so GOOD. So we had a really good night, just acted really stupid together...and actually, we hardly EVER played the Wii...anytime it was turned on we all agreed everyone got really bored and we started doing something else again. Of course I just barely got tipsy, I know I'm small (5'2" and 113 lbs) but it takes a LOT to get me drunk. So it's not like I was just this drunken mess, I was actually having fun on my own LOL We really have to do this more often, it was nice to have fun like we used to...I've been in MOM mode completely since Miss H was born, and it was hard for me to let go of that, but once I did for a night I just had so much fun. I have to realize I can be a mom and a wife and myself all at once and still have fun with life outside of Miss H. The 2 guys stayed the night, my sister went home because she's having a rough time w/ her breakup. We got up about 11 this morning and I went and got Miss H and then we ordered pizza. The guys played the Wii and watched Miss H while I took a nap for a couple hours. Then about 8 this evening the guys were going to leave, saying they thought they'd worn out their welcome...which is silly, we don't mind them being here, they really are great guys. Oh his friend A even helped me clean up the kitchen last night(well actually about 3:30 this morning WOW can you believe I stayed up that late????) I mean he took out the trash and helped me fill and run the dishwasher and cleaned up all the stuff and everything...why won't my husband ever do that?!?! LOL So they stayed, and the guys went to get stuff to make for dinner(breakfast stuff) at Walmart and rented a movie(School for Scoundrels, hope it's good) and now they are in the process of cooking me dinner while I'm laying here on the couch!! How cool is that. I think I need 3 husbands, that's my problem right there, I only have one LOL J/K Oh and it was nice because while they were gone I put Miss H in the Pack N Play and pulled it in the bathroom and took a shower. And FINALLY, she's old enough to keep herself entertained for the most part so I am able to take a shower. She pulled the drawers out and emptied them onto the floor.

Miss H is finally starting to try to take a couple steps...she'll use the wall to stand up and then try to take off walking. Tonight she was trying to walk in the hallway and she found this thermometer thing that can suction cup to a window that we usually keep propped up on the top of the thermostat there in the hallway...and she picked it up, stood up and held it up towards the thermostat. How on earth does she know that's where it goes?? She's just too smart. She also pointed at the sitter Friday and said "Heather" which is the sitter's name. How cool is that? Made Heather pretty happy :o) She's also loving her new taller height...she can now reach her microwave on her play kitchen, and she really enjoys cooking us fake steaks and halves of chicken in the microwave. She even opens it, checks the temp with her hand, and then closes it again to cook it a little longer. She is so observant of everything we do, she picks up on stuff so quickly.

Well I think it's time to go eat!!