Pitter Patter and Chit Chat

New Blog

2008-10-14T17:56:00.000-07:00

Come check out my new blog at Over the Hump Again

Mystery Illness

2008-04-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

So what's up with this? Wednesday, my baby is a puking screaming mess. Thursday, my husband is a puking miserable mess. So, I wake up Friday morning, I don't feel ill so I think we're in the clear with this whole stomach virus thing.

Wrong. William's baby sitter calls me at 3:00 yesterday afternoon saying that buddy had laid down to take a nap at 10:45 and didn't wake up until 2:15 and as soon as he got up she gave him his milk and he promptly puked up everything he'd eaten all day.

All I can figure is that William and Daddy are passing this thing back and forth. So, I forbid them from kisses for 24 hours. Daddy is not thrilled about this new rule but we've got to do something to eradicate the puke bug.

Here's hoping for no more puke.

Celebrate

2008-04-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

I PASSED MY COMPREHENSIVE EXAMS!

Barf-o-Rama

2008-04-23T18:56:00.000-07:00

Well, we woke up to less than pleasant sights and smells this morning. Our poor boy woke up around 6:45 this morning crying. This is unlike him. He usually sleeps until 8am or later unless we get him up.

Ben was going to be home for a little while anyway because he was taking William to his 18 month well baby appointment so I asked him to go get buddy while I finished getting dressed and ready to go to work. The next thing I hear is "HONEY!" So I take off to buddy's room only to find my child and his bed clothes covered in puke.

No sooner had I left the house and Ben was calling me to tell me he'd puked again. Every time Ben put anything in him, including water, it all came right back up. Good thing he already had a dr. appointment considering he'd puked 4 times before 8:30am.

Dr. said he has a stomach virus and should be feeling better soon. (Also said he'd gained 2lbs which is great news for our poor little ethiopian baby. However, I'm sure he lost all of that in fluids today.) Poor Ben stayed home with him all day. Needless to say Ben didn't have the greatest day. He got in lots of snuggle time but the rest of the time he was either listening to a screaming sick baby or being puked upon. Not a great day.

Good news is, sweet guy is sleeping well and has been for an hour and a half now. The hope is that he will sleep through the night and be all better in the morning.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Weather, weather, weather, weather, whether you like it or not.

2008-04-19T15:51:00.000-07:00

Thursday night, we got POUNDED by a crazy strong thunderstorm. I hadn't been feeling well Thursday afternoon so I called Ben and asked him to go get William from my folks house and pick up some dinner on the way home. I came home took a nap, felt some better and greeted my boys when they came home.

We'd just sat down to a nice dinner of Whataburger and had the news on in the back ground when we hear the weatherman say something about people living along FM 920 taking cover. Umm....that's where we live. So, we turn the volume up on the TV and sure enough there's a huge thunderstorm headed our way and the radar shows a BLACK hail center to the storm, producing SOFTBALL sized hail that is supposed to slam down right on us. Not to mention, the several rotations dected by the radar in this storm.

William, still strapped in his high chair was promptly relocated to the hallway (our only interior area) as well as all the cushions from our couches. Ben was watching the storm approach from the west out the back window. I knew things were going to be ugly when hail stones first hit the east side of the house from a storm moving in from the west. I'd guess that's an indication of some rotation with in the storm.

You know how they always say that tornado producing thunderstorms make the sky look greenish. I'd say this thunderstorm was a close relative of kermit the freakin' frog. Needless to say I was a little scared. We all 3 sat in the hallway as hail pounded the crap out of our house. William, poor kid, seemed oblivious, sitting in his high chair in the hallway, eating his french fries.
The good news, no tornados touched down, and we only got about quarter to ping pong ball sized hail at our house. The bad news, our house, and my jeep, got the holy ever livin' crud beat out of them. So, we'll soon have the pleasure of making aquaintances with an insurance adjuster at our house.

I felt very fortunate when I got to school Friday and learned that the community near my school, Mineral Wells, actually did get pelted by softball sized hail. All of the sky lights at Wal-Mart busted out, and the store closed for a couple of weeks while repairs are done. My school nurse and her husband were in the car trying to get to safety when their front and rear windshields were broken out by softball sized hailstones. He continued driving until they got somewhere safe, she crawled over broken glass and laid on top of her two boy who were in the floor board to protect them from the hail. She had a few cuts from the glass but the worst was the huge ugly black and green bruise on her back from one of the hail stones. Some wonderful waitstaff at the Chili's in Mineral Wells helped them get their boys out of the car and inside. Things weren't much better inside Chili's where there was water pouring from the ceiling and everyone was huddled in the walk in refrigerator to keep safe from possible Tornados.

Needless to say, things were a little crazy in North Texas on Thursday night and we all woke up Friday morning with one more reason to count our blessings.

Here's some pictures of the aftermath at our house. By the way, that's all hail, not snow!

The True Spirit of Christmas

2007-12-22T18:00:00.000-08:00

Today, I went with my mom for an appointment at bella permanent makeup studio. She had an appointment to have her eyebrows permanently penciled in (tatooed) because all of her hair, inluding her eyebrows is gone from the past several years of chemotherapy treatments. Since there is likely to end to her treatments, she decided to opt for a permanent option. We met two wonderful ladies at bella. Shirley and Debi.

Mom's appointment was with Shirley who had told mom she'd knock $100 of her procedure because she's a cancer patient. We got there and Shirley started on mom's eyebrows. When Debi showed up she told mom she'd do her eyeliner for free because she was a cancer patient. As the day went on and mom was having some beautiful hair stroke eyebrows tatooed another client came in to have her eyebrows and lips touched up. The lady asked mom if she was going to have her lips done. Mom said not today but sometime in the near future. Debi looked at me and silently asked if she should do her lips too and I said yes. Debi also did permanent lip liner on mom today for no charge.

While mom was sitting in the chair with numbing gel on her eyes and lips, Debi left the studio and went to her house and came back with two wigs. After giving my mom $700 of free cosmetic procedures she also gave her two wigs that she owned but never wore. Could this woman be more caring, more giving?

When mom finally got to look in the mirror, she wept. And soon all 4 of us were in tears. My mother looked like a woman I've not seen in many years. Her face once again reflected the amazing, vibrant woman who lives within a cancer ridden body.

Debi personified the Christmas spirit today. I hope that each and every one of you who reads this will have a chance to encounter the Christmas spirit in human form this holiday season. I did today, and it was truly amazing.

Thank you Debi. You have given my mother a gift bigger than color and pigment. You have given her a reflection that shows who she really is.

Firsts

2007-07-09T11:51:00.001-07:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th. My family was engulfed in a frenzy food, fellowship, and fun during our big family reunion. When my sister decides to share pictures I'll post but for now, I'll just have to share news of William.

We've been experiencing quite a few firsts around here lately. William has recently begun pulling up. This has created quite a bit of excitement for hubby and I. Needless to say he falls down alot. He learned to cruise (move around holding on to things) almost simultaneously with pulling up so there have been lots, and lots of "No William"s happening. He has already decided this is not his favorite word.

Another first is that Grandma bought William his first bath toys. Three baby fish that sit on a momma fish. He LOVES playing in the tub. Up until he got the toys he would splash but didn't show much interest in playing. Now that he has his toys, he gets upset when I take him out of the tub. He's having too much fun.

Can't wait to post pictures of the 4th. Be prepared for naked baby pictures. So much fun!!

I just can't resist including this pic. It's my favorite recent pic of my big boy. It's all going by much too fast.

Please don't give up on me

2007-05-22T19:15:00.000-07:00

No, I haven't left the blogging world forever, it's just become very low in terms of importance in my daily life. Combining work and being a mom, while challenging, has become somewhat routine. However, there are some things that have had to suffer because of it. These things include laundry, dusting, attention for the dogs, correspondence with friends and family, and as you've noticed blogging.

Don't take this to mean that I don't have wonderful amazing things to share about my son. He's becoming more and more fun by the day. While he's not yet crawling, he scoots with amazing speed. We are definitely entering the "no William" stage. He dosen't quite understand what that means yet, but we're working on it.

He's eating baby food and learning to drink water and juice from a sippy cup. Both of these actions provide us with much amusement, especially since eating baby food has corresponded with his learning how to "motor boat" with his tongue. This often results in green baby mush flying everywhere. William gets quite a few giggles out of watching Ben or I duck, turn our heads, and squeeze our eyes closed when he does this.

William is a talker. Of course, there are no words to speak of, but there is constant sound coming from this boy. Oohing, aahing, screaching, and babbling. Thankfully, not much crying. He is such a good boy. It's not at all uncommon for us to go a whole day with out a single tear. His biggest point of contention is going to sleep. It doesn't matter if it's nap time or bed time, sometimes he just decides he does not want to sleep. Flailing arms, kicking legs, tears and screaming ensue. So far, the parents have always come out the victors in this battle. However, there are many battles yet to come.

Also, since I last blogged, my 32nd birthday and my first mother's day have come and gone. I must say, I enjoyed mother's day much more than my birthday. I'm getting to that age that birthdays just remind me of how fast my life is flying by and how I really wish I could make it all slow down so I could enjoy it more. Especially now that we have William. Mother's day was a ball. I scrapbooked a 6X6 board book for my Mom and William gave her a plant. William (via grandma) got me a sweet card and twenty bucks. Ben (via several reminders) got me a sweet card and twenty bucks. This was in addition to cash from my folks, my in-laws, and Ben for my birthday. So, with scrapbooking money in hand, I'm a happy girl.

Finally, one week of school left. And due to various activities, I only have 4 days actually left in the classroom. Hooray!! So, the end is drawing very near and I can't wait to spend my summer with William. It's going to go by faster than any summer I've ever had before I'm sure, but, oh well, atleast I've got it and can enjoy it while it lasts.

Hoppy Easter!

2007-04-08T17:09:00.000-07:00

Wow, it was an exciting day at Grandma's house today. It was the first Easter for William, and Kaden, and Makhala and we were fortunate enough to have them all together.

Mom, Will and I went to sunrise service this morning so we were up and leaving the house around 6am. It's a good thing too. It took us the rest of the time until lunch to get all of the food ready.

We had a house full. My sister Sharon and her whole family including my niece's boyfriend, my brother and his whole family, our family friends, the Travis's, my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Randy, Mom and Dad, and of course the three of us. All told there were 24 of us. Nothing compared to the close to 40 that show up for Thanksgiving but still a fun day.

Here are some preliminary pictures. I'm sure I'll post more when my sister e-mails them to me. See, I was holding, or propping up Will during most of the picutres and Ben was on camera duty. He wasn't always exactly paying attention when it was picture time. Good thing my sister is such a shutter bug.

Well, I hope everyone had a great Easter!

My sister. She looks fabulous for 40!
There's an egg on the milk jug handle with his name on it!
Candace and her new baby girl Makahla
Will checking out his haul!
Will and cousin Ty having a ball with Big Bear.

Long time, no post

2007-03-03T19:36:00.000-08:00

So, I haven't been in much of a mood to blog lately. Obviously.

I figure you all deserve, at the leat, an update on my sweet boy. Well, he was 4months old on the 23rd of February. He had a well baby check up this past Monday. The results are, he's wonderfully healthy. He's on target for all of his developmental goals. He's in the 50th percentile for head circumference, the 60th percentile for weight, and the 97th percentile for heighth. Whoda thunk I'd have a tall, skinny, kid. Well, he's not really skinny but his weight is somewhat low in comparison to his heighth. This discrepency is making finding clothing for him a challenge. Everything is too loose in the waist but all of his long sleeves are 3/4 sleeves, and all of his pants are capris.

He smiles and coos quite a bit. That makes it lots of fun to play with him. The downside is he gets bored easily so getting things like laundry and house cleaning (and other things)done quite a challenge. He started rolling over this week too. He's grabbing things and really starting to enjoy toys. He likes to sit up in your lap and watch what's going on all around him, especially the TV. He likes anything with bright moving lights, so the TV definitely qualifies. Anyway, all in all, I'm absolutely loving him right now. He is so much fun. That's not to say that the nights of screaming while he's teething are all giggles for me, but the smiles and giggles are well worth the price.

So, now, what you've all been actually waiting for. Pictures of Wild Bill. Enjoy!!

Getting ready to head to Julie's on a very cold morning!

Hello? Is anybody there? DANG TELEMARKETERS!
Happy Baby Boy After a Bath
Sweet Sleeping Boy
Wild Bill with a Tiger on his head!

Have you noticed?

2007-01-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

Have you noticed that my weightloss ticker hasn't moved? I know I have. I'm stuck. Part of it is that I haven't been doing as well with dieting as I could (as I should). For example, yesterday, I packed my lunch and ate what I packed, but then I saw everyone with these yummy looking garlic bread sticks from the cafeteria. So, I went out there and bought not one but two. And to make matters worse, I ate both of them even though they weren't nearly as good as they looked. Then last night I got lazy and made cheeseburger mac for dinner. Not on the diet. The good news is I had a small portion size and filled up the rest of my plate with veggies (green beans and sweet potatoes). So, today, I'm determined to eat well.

However, I'm still not getting any exercise and I have got to find a way to do this. I haven't figured out how to work it in to my daily routine now that William is here. I'd love to walk in the afternoons but here are my excuses: 1) There are loose dogs in our neighborhood that are not very nice. 2)The weather has been very cold. I have a gazelle out in the shed. I'm thinking about having Ben bring it in but the problem is I literally don't have ANYWHERE to put it. We have a great workout center here at work but the baby sitter brings William to me right after school and she doesen't get here until right before school to pick him up.

When Mom starts keeping him things get easier. I can leave early and come to work to work out or stay late, either one. So, I'll be able to figure something out after next week. It's this week and next that I'm worried about. If I don't get some exercise in I'm never going to meet my Valentine's day goal which is 10 lbs. Any suggestions??

SNOW DAY!

2007-01-17T09:06:00.000-08:00

Wooo hooo!!! All the schools in the area are closed today and my schools aren't starting until 10:00am tomorrow. This is my kind of week. 2 days off, 2 days of work, and 1 short day. I vote for this every week.

Being a lifelong Texan snow is, of course, a big deal. So, I did my duty and went out this morning and took pictures of all the snow. So, here it is. Weatherford snow.

My dogs are loving life because they've been inside 4 of the last 5 days. We did have to let them out to make yellow snow though.

In Response to Recipe Rut

2007-01-17T04:47:00.000-08:00

Snarfle mentioned on her blog that she'd been in a recipe rut. Well I have been cooking some new recipes to accomodate the number of calories I'm aiming for everyday. This recipe is one I made for the first time last night. It was easy and it was soooooooooo good.

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas
Serves: 8

recipe ingredients
1 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp Cheddar cheese
1 cup bottled picante sauce
3 oz. 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
1 tsp. ground cumin or chili powder
8 (6-inch) flour tortillas
1 1/2 cups bottled green taco sauce

Recipe Directions
Preheat oven to 350*F.
Place a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat until hot.
Add onion, and sauté 6 minutes or until tender.
Add chicken, 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese, picante sauce, cream cheese, and cumin.
Cook 3 minutes or until cheese melts.
Spoon about 1/3 cup chicken mixture down center of each tortilla, and roll up.
Place enchiladas in a 13 × 9-inch baking dish; drizzle with taco sauce, and sprinkle with 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese.
Cover and bake at 350*F for 15 minutes or until cheese melts.
Serve enchiladas immediately.

Nutrition Information Per Serving
calories total fat sat fat protein fiber sodium carbs ww points
272 8 3 18 2 924 32 6

I cooked my chicken breasts in the microwave and then put them in a food processor to shred it. It took no time at all. If you wanted you could probably even use canned chicken. It was nice too because since I already had my food processor out, I went ahead and used it to chop my onions so I didn't stand in the kitchen and cry. I would suggest making the oven a little hotter or leaving it in a little longer. They weren't quite as piping hot as I would have liked.

Enjoy!!

Welcome to the Blogging World

2007-01-15T09:44:00.000-08:00

My big sister Sharon has succumbed to peer pressure and started her own blog. You can check it out here.

ARCTIC BLAST!!

2007-01-15T09:32:00.000-08:00

Atleast that's what they keep calling it on the news, an arctic blast. Here's what I know. I've been stuck in the house for all 3 days of a 3 day weekend because of ice. Lots and lots of ice. Here in Texas we don't get snow. No. That would be fun. We get ice. What really sucks is I don't even get a day off of work for it. We were already off for MLK day. So, what could have been a really fun 3 day weekend has turned into having the dogs inside for 3 days, and getting lots of house work, and blog posting done. Now, I'm officially bored. So, here's some pictures of the ice. Hope everyone is warm and safe!

New Year - New Diet

2007-01-15T08:43:00.000-08:00

Yep, that's right. Hubby and I have decided it's time to do something about the battle of the bulge. We've started a low calorie diet and we intend to start an exercise program of some sort at the beginning of February. So, soon, along with William's one year birthday ticker, there will also be a weight loss ticker. My goal is to loose 65 pounds by Jan 1, 2008. I intend to post a picture at every 10lbs of loss. So far, I'm down about 5lbs. My first goal is 10lbs by Valentine's day. So, I'm halfway there. I don't know how many of you would be interested in such things but when I find good recipes or good information I'll pass it along here. Here's the first recipe I want to pass along. We like it so well that I make one for hubby and myself every morning. It's so yummy.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

1 cup 1% milk
1 TBS Unsweetened Cocoa
1 TBS Reduced Fat Peanut Butter
4 packets artificial sweetener
1 ripe banana in pieces
1/8 TSP Vanilla (optional)
2-3 Ice Cubes

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
Calories 319
Fat 9
Sat Fat 3
Protein 14
Fiber 5
Sodium 218
Carbs 48
WW Points 6

I found this recipe on a great website called 3 fat chicks on a diet This site is wonderful it not only has recipes and articles it also has a forum where you can share ideas and encouragement.

So, wish me luck!!

The Christmas Update-better late than never

2007-01-14T10:25:00.000-08:00

Well, obviously William's first Christmas has come and gone. At 2 months old he didn't get too terribly excited about anything. Hubby and I, of course, took tons and tons of pictures. This one HAS to be my favorite.

I think that probably sums up pretty much how William felt about all of the Holiday festivities. Not his most flattering picture, but honestly, I really don't think he could have cared less that it was Christmas.

We started out with Christmas Eve candlelight service at church. Just the two of us. Ben isn't much of a church goer and Mom was feeling ill from her chemo treatments so he and I went to church together.

I'm sure the service was quite lovely. I wouldn't know. I spent almost the whole time in the cry room. Oh well, I guess that's just part of being a Mom.

Christmas morning it was just the three of us. Mom and Dad came over later that morning and we all enjoyed opening gifts together.

We all rested that afternoon and then loaded up and went to Abilene that night to have Christmas with my Mom's side of the family. It was nice to see all of them. We haven't been able to do Christmas with them for the last couple of years because that's when we're usually doing Christmas with Hubby's family. I was sad we didn't get to see them on Chrismtas day but it was nice to see some of my family that I don't get to see very often.

The last of our Christmas festivities took place on the evening of the 26th at my sister's house. We got together with my folks, my brother and his family, my sister and her family, and the Travis's, our family friends. It was lots of fun and though there are tons of pictures from that get together, this one defintely tops the list. This is my sister, myself, and Wild Bill. Hubby did a great job taking this pic.

Well, that pretty much takes care of Christmas. On to Meranda's birthday. That's the next post. This one has taken me all day between working on the house and uploading pictures. So, I'm taking a blogging break. Hope that satisfies everyone's need for pictures of Wild Bill for a while.

New William Pictures

2006-12-24T08:35:00.000-08:00

| View Show | Create Your Own

Working Mother

2006-12-18T15:13:00.000-08:00

Well, I survived my first day back to work since William's birth. I didn't cry today. I got it all done yesterday. It just about broke my heart this morning to walk out the door and leave my baby. I felt better when I got to work and my principal announced my return at morning assembly and all of my students started screaming like mad and I got a billion and one hugs after assembly. They sincerely missed me which I really didn't expect. Then I got home and read Snarfle's blog and almost cried again because I am so jealous that she is getting to stay home with her baby.

I know I'm not the first woman to go back to work when her baby is 8 weeks old. I know that hundreds of thousands of children with working mothers have turned out just fine. I never dreamed I'd be one who would want to stay home with my baby because I am such a social person. But here I sit, looking at my sweet baby knowing that every day I'll wonder what I'm missing. The women I work with assure me that it will get easier. I'm sure they're right but from where I'm sitting it seems awfully difficult to believe.

My sweet husband, in the midst of all of my tears last night offered to take a second job so I could stay home. I won't do that because it is just as important to me that he is around for William as it is that I am. I know that going back to work is what is best for my family. But, it dosen't mean it's easy.

2006-12-14T17:30:00.000-08:00

It's (another) BOY!!!

2006-12-12T20:29:00.000-08:00

My beautiful niece Felicia had a baby boy this evening. His name is Kaden Lee Martinez. He was 6lbs 14oz and 20 inches long. He is absolutely beautiful (the second most beautiful baby I've ever seen in fact)! CONGRATULATIONS to the new parents Felicia and Rob and the new grandparents my brother Chuck and his sweet wife Ellen. I love you all very much.

Fe~Welcome to motherhood. From what I can tell so far it involves lots of poop, pee, puke, exhaustion and oh, tons of joy. I hope that you and Rob will find as many laughs as sighs of frustration, as many smiles as tears, and many many more days of happiness and joy than sadness. I hope that Rob will be the wonderful partner to you that Ben is to me. I hope that you will find as much wonder looking into Kaden's eyes as I do William's. I am so excited that our sons will get to grow up together. I can't think of anyone I'd rather experience motherhood along side of. I love you.
~Aunt Mary

What's good for the gander isn't always good for the goose.

2006-12-07T12:53:00.000-08:00

When Ben and I were ready to go to bed last night, Will was not. We fed him, we changed him, I rocked him, I sang to him, we fed him, we changed him. This was the perpetual cycle for about two hours last night. During this time we tried a few times just laying him down and ignoring him to see if he'd go to sleep. Well, for those Huof you who don't know, Will is still sleeping in our room because we haven't even begun working on his room yet. (That's a whole other story.) So, needless to say, even if you have no intentions of getting up and picking up the crying baby, you still can't sleep while he's crying.

I went to the bathroom and came back and Ben had his shooting earplugs in his ears. I rolled my eyes at him. Gave him my usual response to such things "You suck." And tried to go to sleep. My sweet baby was not cooperating with this idea. So, I got up, changed him, took him into the living room and fed him, sang to him, rocked him. He still wasn't asleep but he was doing the heavy eyed thing so I laid him back down and I laid down. Hubby still had his earplugs in.

Now the baby is finally asleep BUT my wonderful husband, because his hearing is significantly diminished, is snoring so loud the bed is shaking. That's not just a phrase. that's not an exaggeration. THE BED WAS SHAKING!!!!!!

Just about the time I was ready to kick him to make him stop, roll over, something, Will started screaming again and I had to get up again anyway. You'll all be happy to know, sleeping beauty went right on snoring.

Sweet William

2006-11-16T06:53:00.000-08:00

Create Your Own

Graduate Gripes

2006-11-13T20:17:00.001-08:00

The class that I have this semester is with out a doubt the most boring and difficult class I have had in my MANY years as a graduate student. The prof lectures for three straight hours. Most of that telling us his personal stories and how they apply to what ever theory it is were discussing. This would be nice except they are the same stories week, after week, after week.

The tests are "short answer". His definition of short answer is about a paragraph of memorized regurgitation and 25 questions. That's ALOT of freaking memorization. The worst thing, this class has the potential to be very interesting. It's a class on marital and family counseling. So far here's what I've learned, (besides his life history.)

1. There are 1,000,001 ways to screw up your kids and only one way not to and no one can agree on what that one way is.

2. Either Ben and I are really great at being married because we don't yell and scream at each other or we are both suppressing our anger and are doomed to a life of misery or divorce.

3. My prof had a really screwed up childhood.

Well, I'd better quit griping and get busy. I've got a kid to screw up, suppressed anger to discover, and 3 pages of material to memorize for my test next week. Wish me luck.

Contortionist

2006-11-11T08:12:00.000-08:00

The body contortions required to be a mother are mind boggling! I came to this conclusion yesterday while driving home with William after a trip to my school to turn in grades, a trip to Wal-Mart for some groceries, and a third very short trip to buy Ben's birthday present. Needless to say, after all of this excitement little guy was a little grumpy and ready to go home. When we left the last store he was just starting to get hungry so I plugged in the pacifier thinking "This will work until I can get him home because he always sleeps in the car anyway." Wow, how wrong I was.

We were sitting at the light waiting to make our turn onto Main St. when he starts fussing. I knew he'd lost his pacifier and I knew if I didn't get it back in, he'd be in full-on melt down mode by the time we got home (which could take up to 30 minutes in Friday afternoon traffic). This is where the afore mentioned body contortions began. First of all, I don't know how many of you have noticed, but I don't have very long limbs. So I try to reach back into the car seat. Nope, I can barely touch the top of the car seat, can't even touch the baby more or less dig around for a pacifier.

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to drive safely in crazy traffic while planting your feet on the floor, arching your back, lifting your butt up off the seat, and dislocating your shoulder to find the magic plug that will keep your child from completely freaking out? Well, I do. It wasn't easy but I accomplished to get it done and he dutifully sucked on it about four times, fell asleep, and spit it back out. But, that's okay because he did sleep the rest of the way home and about another 30 minutes after we got home giving me time to put away groceries.

There are a few other amazing physical feats that only come with motherhood. Such as the "cradle the phone against your shoulder and change a diaper" feat. Then there's the "dig your keys out of your purse to unlock the car while carrying your purse, a huge diaper bag, and a baby in a carrier" routine. And of course my favorite, the "hold the screaming baby while making a bottle for him and keep dinner from burning" combination.

At this rate, I'll be circus material in no time. (No midget jokes please!)

ABANDONED!

2006-11-04T19:06:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know I've been remiss in my posting. It's been almost two weeks since William's birth and I'm sure everyone expects me to post about how wonderful the last two weeks have been. Well, that goes with out saying, so why say it??? Right?!? ;-) Of course my baby is perfect. He's beautiful and he has hands and feet that draw interest everywhere we go. And all though the last two weeks have been wonderful they've also been slightly overwhelming. Everyone tells you how much your life will change when your first baby is born and no matter how many times you hear it, you can't understand it until you live it. Those of you who have children know exactly what I mean.

I am enjoying being a mommy a great deal. I enjoy it more when the sun is up and my baby is awake than I do from 1-3 am when he's so sure it's play time and I can barely hold my eyes open. I have a whole new appreciation for my husband. He's been fantastic since William's birth, doing his fair share of diaper changing, feeding and night time duty. I didn't know just how nice it was until last night. HE LEFT!!! Hubby left yesterday evening to go hunting. William, sensing that his father wasn't here, decided to wreak havoc on mom's sleep schedule. He was down at 8, up at 9. Down at 10, up at 11. Down at 12, up at 1. Stayed up until 3. Down at 3, up at 6. Down at 7:30 and mom had to be up at 8:30 because of my grandparents coming from Abilene to see sweet William. He (of course) slept peacefully until 10:45. My mom was kind enough to hang around after my grandparents visit and give me time to take a little nap.

This evening, other than being awake a few minutes at a time for feeding and changing, he's basically been asleep since 4pm. And while that was really nice because I got a lot of work done on a paper that I have due on Monday, I have a sneaking suspicion that he has evil plans to keep me up again tonight.

That's okay, I've decided that tomorrow night, Ben is on duty all night. He's getting a two for one. I've been on duty alone for the last two nights, and I'm only asking him for one AND he got to go hunting all weekend. That will work right??? Somehow, I doubt it. He has to work on Monday. That dosen't mean I won't try!!!

Bummed. . .

2006-10-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

This weekend is McMurry homecoming. I'm not there. I'm bummed.

Obviously, one week before the birth of my child is not a good time to be away from home and there are plenty of things here that need doing in order to get ready but still, I wish I were there. This is the 2nd year in a row I've missed. Last year I had class on homecoming weekend.

A few of my friends who I haven't seen in several years are going to be there this year. Also, it's a big anniversary year for my sorrority and they're having a big get together this evening.

So, to my friends, my sisters, whom I love, I hope you're having a good time. Give each other hugs from me. Take lots of pictures. Call me when you get home. Oh, and don't forget to miss me!!

All is well

2006-10-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry to be posting so late. I know many of you have been awaiting word about what the doctor had to say today. Well, obviously, since I'm posting, I'm home and baby and I are both just fine. I would have posted sooner but I had a band concert tonight.

Went this afternoon for a sonogram and the doc said that my fluid levels were just fine and she'd see me at my regular appointment next week. So, all is good on the baby front and we're still on for 6am on October 23.

Now, for some reason, I feel compelled to tell you all the STUPID thing I did after leaving the doctors office today. While I was there the nurse wrote me a couple of prescriptions for this nasty upper respritory stuff I've had for the last few days. I had to stop and get gas on the way home and decided to throw away some trash that was in my jeep and, like a complete and total idiot, threw away both of the prescriptions before getting them to the pharmacy. Wow, did I feel like a real moron when I pulled up to the drive thru window at Walgreen's and went to pick up the prescriptions from the passenger seat and there was nothing there. So, I'll be calling the doctor's office in the morning, telling sweet Nurse Sandy what an idiot I am and asking her to call those scrips into my pharmacy.

People told me pregnancy would make me forgetful, they never told me it would also make me a complete moron!

Baby Update

2006-10-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

I saw both of my doctors today, my endocrinologist and my OB. My endocrinologist says all is well. He wants to see me back two weeks after delivery. The OB was a little more interesting however. I've been having sonograms every week for the last several weeks. They've been doing a biophysical profile to check the amount of fluid surrounding the baby, breathing movements, limb extension, and gross motor movemement. Well so far, we've (William and I) have gotten full marks on all 4 items. Today, the fluid was on the low end of normal. So I was instructed to consume as much fluid as possible and go back for another sonogram at 3:15 tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully the fluid will be back in a good range. If it's about the same I'll have to go back for sonograms 2 times a week from now on instead of one. If it's below the normal range at any point in time, the likely hood is that they will go ahead and induce at that time. So, we'll see what the sonogram shows tomorrow. I'd really like for this little guy to hang out a little bit longer but we will of course do what ever the doctor believes to be in his best interest. I'll update tomorrow and let you know what the verdict is.

Dinner is Served

2006-10-04T17:56:00.000-07:00

Well, I cooked dinner tonight!! Yes, this is very exciting news. It's the first time I've actually prepared a meal in my kitchen in a little over two months. Luckily I didn't forget how to do it. We had chicken fried venison steak, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, and yellow squash. It was mmm mmmmmm yummy!!!

Wow-wee Wow!!

2006-09-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

Between Ben's dad and mine there was plenty of help to be had in the kitchen this weekend. Cabinets got painted, countertops fitted and soon to be installed, sink dropped in, lots of work got done. My kitchen is starting to look like a kitchen again and it's BEAUTIFUL!!

My sweetie has worked himself silly this weekend and our respective Dads have broken a sweat and sacrificed a little blood to our kitchen this weekend too. With the exception of completing the paint job on the cabinets my kitchen should be put back together by mid-week. I promise to post tons of pictures when that happens not to mention the complete menu of the first meal cooked in my new kitchen.

Yea!!!!

Picture this. . .

2006-09-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

Me: Sitting on the couch with a frosty silver can (of diet coke) watching the colts vs. giants game yelling "OFF SIDES!!!" at the TV.

Ben: Sweeping and vaccuming.

What's wrong with this picture?

We have floor!!!

2006-09-06T20:20:00.000-07:00

I must reiterate. My hubby is a hoss. The kitchen floor is almost completely covered in tile and it is beautiful. He was up until 1am last night working on the floor and worked until 10pm again tonight. Not to mention the night before he conquered the clothes dryer which was having some serious issues after having ingested an ink pen into it's lint trap. He showed that dryer who was boss and just dared it to ever even look at him funny again!! You go baby, teach that dryer what happens to appliances in our house that don't behave!

I couldn't be more excited about how beautiful my floor is and I couldn't be more grateful to my hubby for working himself to the nub to make the progress he's made. Check out these pictures of my beautiful kitchen floor.

Yea hubby! Yea hubby! As he put it in an e-mail to me today, he got in a fight with the house, gave it a titty twister and made it cry uncle. Yes you did baby! Gee, I'm a lucky girl!!

Sooner rather than later. . .

2006-09-05T18:27:00.000-07:00

It looks like our baby William will be making his arrival sooner than his parents expected. At my last doctor visit I was told that it is standard practice to induce diabetic patients at 38 weeks. So, we're going to be speeding up the preparations a bit. Ben is working furiously on getting the kitchen done so that we can begin work in the baby's room. So, as things stand right now we've got 7 weeks until William's arrival. I know it's only two weeks but 7 weeks seems like so much less time than 9 weeks. Why is that?

To tell the truth, even though poor hubby is under a lot more pressure to get things done I'm feeling some relief. I'm glad to know that I won't have to wait and worry about knowing when I'm actually in labor, making it to the hospital in time, etc., etc., etc. I'm glad to know that I'll have an appointment, walk out the front door with my bag feeling just lovely, and, God willing, come home a few days later with a beautiful baby boy. I'm willing to sacrifice two extra weeks for that peace of mind.

Now, the only question left to be answered in the next 7 weeks is whether or not William will be sleeping in a completed nursery or a dresser drawer when he comes home. I have faith in hubby. Come back soon and check for an update on kitchen progress. Right now I'm looking at his tiny hiny up in the air while he's on his hands and knees diligently applying ceramic tile to my kitchen floor. Keep up the good work honey!

Congrats!

2006-09-05T16:52:00.000-07:00

I want to send out lots of hugs and a big CONGRATULATIONS to hubby's cousin Kristi and her family. Kristi gave birth to Billy Houston yesterday making her a mommy of 5. They have four beautiful girls and now a sweet baby boy to add to their family. CONGRATS we love you guys!

My hubby is a HOSS!!!!

2006-08-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

Hubby took Thurs. and Fri. of this week off of work to torture himself in the kitchen remodel. He has worked endlessly for the past three days and I can honestly say there is visible, measurable progress being made. He has been at it right now for about 12 hours straight and is still hard at it as I'm sitting here on my rapidly broadening behind just typing away.

Today he tiled our kitchen backsplash and is currently grouting it. In the middle of all that he went over to my parents house and helped my dad move his built in oven-microwave unit. (My folks are also remodeling their kitchen.)

He's not to thrilled about the outcome of the tiling but he's also his own worst critic. I think when all is said and done my kitchen is going to be fabulous!! I can't wait to see then end result. I hope he's as proud of it as I am of him.

This is NOT the man I married. He's a million times better. I LOVE YOU BABY!!

I survived! . . . And I'm not sure that's a good thing.

2006-08-26T17:54:00.000-07:00

I survived the first week of school! Just let me say, "Wow, that was with out a doubt the longest week I can ever remember." Starting on Wednesday I kept thinking it should be Friday. So, I'd have to say, so far, it's been less than stellar. There are a few reasons for that.

First of all, the elementary school I work at was rated "academically unacceptable" by the state of Texas due to our TAKS scores. If you don't know, TAKS is the "Texas Assesment of Knowledge and Skills". The test it's self and it's implications have become so ridiculous that some teacher in Texas created this little bit of satire to express his/her feelings.

Forget TAAS! Forget TAKS! Here comes the new wave of testing.

Since the average life of previous state-wide tests (TABS, TEAMS, TAAS and now TAKS) has been 5 years, we have decided that it is not too early to plan for the next test.

The new instrument will be the Texas Assessment of Cognitive Operations(TACO). It will have a remedial version (Soft TACO), a regular version (Hard TACO) and advanced version with many more pages (the Gordita). It will be graded on a normal curve (the TACO Bell). Districts will be graded/offered a report of standings, the Summative Administrative Assessment Survery - SAAS (pronounced SAUCE). Ratings are excellent (TACO Bueno), satisfactory (mild SAAS) or unsatisfactory (Hot SAAS).

Districts receiving the lowest scores will be put on probation with a Basic Educational Appraisal - Not Satisfactory (BEANS). A second low rating earns the dreaded supplement: REmediation FactoR for Individualized Education Deficits (REFRIED BEANS). This rating will cause a lot of hot air at campus faculty meetings. If a campus makes changes that significantly affects performance, then the low rating is raised a half level due to Remediation Improves Campus Efforts(RICE) so that the supplement title will now become (REFRIED BEANS with RICE).

Any campus experiencing less than satisfactory performance on the new TACO tests will need to submit a summative report of Factors Affecting Jumps In Taks Assessment Scores (FAJITAS).For fast and informative news of upcoming changes in assessment andaccountability, please sign up for our weekly e-news - CHanges IMminent In Classroom Happenings And New Guidelines AttachmentS (CHIMICHANGAS).

Believe it or not, this actually sums up the way many teachers in the state feel about this test. My school, which was graded on 8 different sections of the test recieved an "exemplary" rating on 2 sections of the test, a "recognized" rating on three areas of the test, an "acceptable" rating on 2 areas of the test and an "unacceptable" rating on the 4th grade writing portion of the test. We were only "unacceptable" by a margin of two students on this test. That brought our WHOLE CAMPUS to an "unacceptable" rating? I don't get it.

Anyway, needless to say this has created a less than desirable atmosphere on our campus. We're trying to implement a new program campus wide called "Capturing Kids' Hearts". The basis of this program is the positive attitude of the teachers. Somehow, these two things are not working well together. Our principal, who we all love, has told us that if our campus is not rated "recognized" or "exemplary" (which he pronounces "exemplar-ary") next year, he won't be returning as our principal. That makes us feel eeeeeeven better!

The second little issue is that our district has adopted a new policy about paid leave. The state of Texas gives us 5 paid personal days each school year and the district gives us 2 paid sick leave days each year. My school district decided this year that we have to work 18 days to accumulate 1/2 of a personal day of leave and 36 days to accumulate 1/2 of a sick day. If you have days left over from the previous year you may use those at any time. Well guess what, after having a miscarriage last year and being diagnosed with diabetes I used all of my days last year going to dr's appointment after dr's appointment. And now here I am 7 months pregnant, I still have to go to dr's appointment after dr's appointment and every half day I take off is going to cost about $101 out of my pay check. Needless to say, this is causing me stress. Not to mention I think it's going to be really bad for our school because teachers who don't have accumulated leave are going to be coming to work sick because they can't afford to take off thus making the children sick. This will begin a self-perpetuating cycle that is just going to SUCK! So, again not how I really wanted to start my school year.

The final thing causing me stress about this school year is that our kindergarten numbers are way up this year. We have 20 students in each of 3 classrooms resulting in 60 kindergarteners. Because the PE teacher and myself teach a class and a half at a time that means for 50 minutes, I am expected to provide a musical education to 30 kindergarteners at one time. Most of you who know me already know that I don't do my best work with the little ones. The endless shoe tying, "teacher he touched me", nose wiping, and bathroom needing of 5-6 year olds gets on my nerves. Now, don't get me wrong, individually I enjoy each and every one of them, their take on the world is priceless. However, when you put them in a group of 30 with one teacher this is the end result

(If you've ever seen the Disney cartoon recess then you'll understand when I tell you that I believe that cartoon has more accurately captured the nature of kindergarteners better than any thing else I've ever come across.)
Notice her frustration? Notice that she's resigned herself to their wild nature? Notice how happy the little suckers look? Yep, given time I truly believe that the natives might actually conquer me this year. So, if ever there's a day that you have a moment between 12:10 and 1:00 please say a little prayer for me.

So, as far as I can tell here are the expectations laid out for me by my district this year (a) do your job better than you've ever done it before (b) bring up test scores (c) sit through faculty meetings during which you will be constantly reminded of the low test scores and the horrible consequences if they aren't brought up (d) keep a positive attitude (e) don't ever be sick (f) capture kid's hearts, and (g) capture them 30 at a time. And they tell us not to set our students up for failure . . .

All I have to say is 5 days down, 175 to go.

Sleepless Nights

2006-08-08T23:05:00.000-07:00

Well it's one o'clock in the morning and I'm laying on the couch, lap top in lap, wishing, hoping, begging for sleep. For the 2nd night in a row I can't sleep and it's making me crazy. Usually staring at the computer screen makes my eyes tired which in turn makes me feel sleepy. No such luck tonight. Well, I hope everyone else had a better night's sleep than I did. Please let me know if you have any nifty tricks for getting to sleep. Just remember, I'm 7 months pregnant so drinking myself to sleep is not an option and neither is downing a handful of sleep inducing drugs. Happy sleeping everyone!

Friends, presents, and fun!

2006-08-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday, my good friend "J" gave me a wonderful baby shower. She did an awesome job of putting the whole thing together. It was held at a local restaurant and I had lots and lots of friends and family that attended. Getting great gifts and eating yummy food was fun but having so many of my friends and family together was even better. There was even a surprise visit by our friend "B". So, thanks "J" for the wonderful baby shower. It's great to have such wonderful friends! And thanks also to everyone who came, and everyone who sent gifts. It was a wonderful shower and baby boy will have lots and lots of neat things when he gets here. The Cake

The Party Room

Getting lots of great presents for baby boy.

Friends and family.

Following the shower J and B came over to the house and we spent a great afternoon and evening hanging out with hubby and oohing and aahhhing over cute, cute baby things. Hubby was sweet enough to take the three of us to dinner and a fabulous time was had by all.

"How old are you?" quiz.

2006-07-31T06:57:00.000-07:00

You Are 30 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Perfect

2006-07-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

Yep, my baby is perfect.

We had an ob/gyn appointment yesterday and everything looks great. I've gained about 12lbs to date. I really want to keep it at 20 or less total for my whole pregnancy so I guess I'm going to have to slow down on the sonic cheeseburgers that I crave so much. But, I am doing so well at controlling my blood sugar that my endocrinologist sent my OB a letter telling her what a good girl I am. I felt like a 3rd grader whose teacher sent a nice note home to her mommy.

The dr. is going to have sonograms done at each of my visits from now on to check the baby's growth. Because I am diabetic it is likely that the baby will be large so she's keeping an eye on him to make sure he dosen't get too big which wouldn't be good for me or him either one.

The sonogram we had done yesterday was perfect, or so the tech said. She even wrote on my chart, perfect growth.

My doctor also gave me the go ahead to go to my college homecoming even though it is three weeks before my due date. She said that at that point in my pregnancy there's no reason a hospital in Abilene couldn't handle the delivery and since it's my hometown I know my way to both hospitals. I'm not thrilled about the idea of delivering in Abilene with out my doctor BUT if worse comes to worse it'll be okay. My mom told me yesterday that the OB in Abilene that delivered me is still practicing, so I guess we could make it a family tradition.

Anyway, just thought I'd let everyone know how things are going with my pregnancy. Hope everything is great with everyone else!

OH MY GOODNESS!! WHAT HAVE WE DONE??

2006-07-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, hubby began working on scraping up our kitchen flooring last week in order to begin the large project of laying new flooring in our whole house. Well, he got just about done last night.

As you can see in this picture he is getting up the last of the flooring next to the carpet. So, we get up this morning thinking we've got a little more cleaning up on the floor to do as well as remove the flooring underneath the appliances before we can begin laying new tile.

Somewhere in our morning discussion about the "game plan" for today. One of us, (me) uttered the words "Well, as long as we're going to have everything all messed up in the kitchen we might as well __________(fill in the blank). " That blank got filled in with, paint the cabinets, put new laminate on the counter tops, paint the walls, scrape and retexture the ceiling. Oh my goodness!! What were we thinking??

Not long after this discussion I did what every smart, spoiled rotten, only child, does, I called my mommy and daddy to come help. They came over. Dad helped hubby get up the rest of the mean nasty linoleum and mom and I emptied the contents of the entire kitchen.

Everything that was in the kitchen ended up in the back room, what is supposed to be the baby's room, the room which has an absolute deadline. Yikes.

2006-07-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

Now, if you'll look closely at that last picture you'll notice that there's no oven range or dishwasher in that room. That's because hubby and I have officially achieved the status of white trash. Where are our appliances you might ask. Well, here is your answer.

Yep, that's our dishwasher and range sitting in our carport. Right now all we're missing is a pitbull chained up in the front yard next to our old car up on blocks that hasn't been mowed around our under for a couple of months. So, maybe we're not quite official yet, but we're sure getting close.

So, now my kitchen is totally prepared to begin accepting the mediums of remodeling; paint, tile, texture, etc. I'm thinking the Domino's pizza man is going to learn his way to our house by heart by the time all of this is over since my microwave is the only working cooking device I have at the moment. Wish us luck!!!!

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction

2006-07-11T08:45:00.000-07:00

So, the question is what is the equal and opposite reaction for your husband when he stays up until 1am scraping linoleum flooring from your kitchen?

Well, before I answer that question let me just state what I'm sure I've said before. I have the worlds most awesome husband. He's handsome, he's smart, he's sweet, and he's one helluva handy man (not to mention he looks really cute when he's bent over scraping the kitchen floor with his shorts riding about half way down his cute little "no butt").

Before the arrival of baby number one, we have enough projects to be done that Bob Villa would run screaming in the other direction. Hubby however is not phased by the seemingly endless list of honey do's that must be completed sometime in the next 17 weeks. One of these tiny little, no big deal, I can do it in a weekend, projects is putting new flooring in the whole house.

Normal people would go, get a home depot credit card, pick out some carpet/laminate/tile and have them lay it and pay for it for 6 months longer than the flooring actually lasts. Nope, not hubby. He's a do-it-yourself kind of guy. So, yesterday he decided that "the list" can be ignored no longer. He calls me on his way home from work and says he's going to pick up "a couple of things" at Lowe's and be home later. An hour and a half after that he calls and offers to pick up Chicken E on the way home. I didn't argue. We eat some yummy, greasy, no excuse for exposing your pregnant body to this crap, chicken and then go to unload the car.

We bring in things that I have no idea what they are and some of them quite frankly scare the hell out of me. One of which is a 4ft long metal pole with a giant blade attatched to the end of it. He tells me it is "an industrial floor scraper". After we get it all inside he grabs said "industrial floor scraper" looks at me and says "I want to see how well this is going to work." I grin, while the wife in my head says "Yeah, and you're not going to be able to stop. I know you. You're like that." I, being the good wife, and appreciating the fact that he intends to basically remodel my whole house before the arrival of our child, sit down at the dining room table, fire up my lap top, and begin to watch. It's not 5 minutes and he's pulling off his shirt. At which point in time, I suggest he just go ahead and put some work clothes on. Enter no shirt, old baggy shorts, old tennis shoes, and strap on the knee pads and thus begins the adventure of the kitchen floor. But not before a trip outside to the shed for a painters tool and razor blades.

(Funny aside, he comes back in the back door from the shed with his hands full of stuff and because his hands are full he can't pull up his old baggy shorts which have fallen completely off of his butt. He's having to walk all splay legged to keep them from falling down around his ankles. Being the helpful wife that I am. I just stated the obvious "Honey, your pants fell down." while laughing, not with him, at him. Wow, he puts up with a lot of crap from me!)

So, as previously mentioned he continues to scrape, pull, peel and coax (with curse words) the 25 year old linoleum from the kitchen floor, until approximately 1am. At which point in time he sweeps up the mess from the kitchen floor to reveal that he's only about 1/3 of the way done. We both just kind of chuckle and get ready for bed.

Now, the answer to the question, "What is the result of all of this?" Hubby usually has an alarm that goes of at 6am and if he doesn't get up then, he's up with in 10 minutes. This morning I yawn, stretch, open my eyes, see daylight, and notice that hubby is still in bed. I look at my clock. 8am. I softly and sweetly say "Honey, did you not set an alarm?" At which he comes flying out from under the covers, looks at the clock, wonders why his alarm didn't go off, and immediatley begins his morning routine of making coffee and eating breakfast. At 10 am he's showered, dressed, drugged up with Aleve (from the previous night's slaving) and ready to walk out the door when he becomes engrossed in a cheesy vampire movie.

He went into the living room to hit record on the TiVo and makes the mistake of sitting down to perform this task. 10 minutes later, again in my sweetest wife voice, I say "Honey, you do know it's after 10 o'clock?" I get a "Yeah" while he's still staring glaze eyed at the TV. "You do know you're recording that?" The same response "Yeah". "You do know that means you can watch it later?" Finally, I got through "Huh?" breaking eye contact with the TV, "Yeah, I'd better get to work."

Husbands are such funny things!! He's smart enough and talented enough to do pretty much anything in the world, but he can't resist the siren song of "John Carpenter's Vampires II".

Neighbor Update #2

2006-07-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

Let me see if I can sum this up in a few brief points:

Yard STILL not mowed.
Trash STILL in yard.
Dog running loose AGAIN!
Called Animal control.
Was put on a "list" to have the ONE county animal control officer come out and "look into it".
Want to strangle neighbor.

Tummy Flutters

2006-06-28T19:42:00.000-07:00

For the first time today I felt what I am sure was the baby moving. It began before I got out of bed this morning. I, ever the lady, thought I just had gas. Nope, it continued after I got sat down and started working on school stuff after breakfast. After several minutes of "Is it?", "No, surely not.", and "Maybe" he gave me one good kick. Then I knew. Those flutters in my tummy are not gas bubbles, they are little William making his presence known. I couldn't be more excited.

His imminent arrival has been becoming more and more real over the past few weeks. I have pre-registered at the hospital. A friend of mine brought me a box full of little boy clothes. Ben and I registered at Target for all kinds of fun baby stuff. My friend Jenny and my Mom are planning a baby shower. Even though I was doing all of those things, nothing made me more aware of the fact that he really is coming than the flutters he's making.

Neighbor Update

2006-06-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems she finally decided that she would put the dog in his kennel. He's been there the last few days. I feel bad because he has no shade and because of all the tall grass I can't tell if she's even bothered to give him water. Yikes. Well, atleast he won't be biting either of us. We'll see how long this lasts.

Marvelous Morning

2006-06-23T07:02:00.000-07:00

It's raining. The dogs are in the house and asleep. Everything is peaceful. Ahhhhhhhhhhh. . .

Nettlesome Neighbor

2006-06-22T14:06:00.000-07:00

What do you do with a neighbor who just doesn't get it? Okay, most of you who read this have been to our house. We don't live in the greatest neighborhood but it could be worse right? Right. Well, I've lived in this house for 5 years, Ben for a little over 2 years and we've always gotten along well with anyone in the neighborhood we've come in contact with. We've never really made buddies with anyone, but hey, we don't cause trouble, we keep our place neat, and that's pretty much all we expect from our neighbors. Apparently, we're expecting tooooooooooo much!

The lady who lives in the house to the south of us seems to have some difficulty meeting our two requirements of not causing trouble and keeping her place neat. First of all, up until last week she had not mowed her yard once this year. Johnson grass in her back yard taller than me, (Not saying much, I know.), trash piled up beside her house that's been there since who knows when, various rubbish strewn about. (This past winter she finally got rid of the couch that was in her front yard.) This, while not devastating, is very aggravating. Especially when hubby works so hard to keep our yard looking nice.

She recently added to our frustration with her when we started noticing cockroaches in our shed that borders her yard. I'm sure they were having a hay day in that trash and tall grass. And, they started making their way into our house. WE ARE NOT DIRTY PEOPLE! Our house might be messy from time to time, it's definitely cluttered, but there is NO reason for us to have cockroaches in our house. Luckily, we haven't seen any lately. But again, very aggravating.

Now, here's the kicker. She has this dog. About the same size as our dogs. The dog is allowed to run loose where ever it wants. It doesn't cause any trouble UNLESS neighbor lady or her grown son are outdoors at the same time we are. If the dog sees us outside while one of them are out doors it will charge, barking and snarling. It's never bitten either of us, but it would have several times if one of us hadn't been paying attention. We've spoken with her about it and asked her to keep him restrained. Well, she kept him on a chain for a while, but he kept getting loose. She finally bought a chain link kennel to keep him in. Well, that lasted for about a day because he barked and barked.

Last night hubby was outside, spraying the yard for bugs when her son comes out to get in his car to go to work. The dog comes tearing across our yard going straight for hubby's leg. I was scared to death. I froze and didn't say anything in time, luckily hubby saw the dog just in time and sprayed it in the face with the hose and it backed off. Hubby got her son's attention, he got out of his car with this nasty attitude and asked "WHAT?!?" Hubby politely asked that he restrain his dog. I lost it! I don't know if it was pregnancy hormones, having the ever living snot scared out of me, or just total frustration with the whole never changing situation. I started yelling at her that she needed to do something about her dog. This is getting ridiculous. We've asked you and asked you to do something. If that dog bites one of us she's going to have trouble. Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Well, she's got this real meek personality. She just kept saying "I know. I'm sorry. I know. I'm sorry." I finally got control of myself and said, "He's your responsibility, you need to do something." She hangs her head, says "Come on Bear." (The dog's name is Bear.) She and the dog go back in the house.

I feel like a total turd for loosing my temper. I was raised to be respectful of my elders so I'm feeling like a real turd for talking to this woman, close to my parents age, the way I did. Well she comes back out wanting to talk to me. She says that she didn't keep him penned up in his kennel because she was afraid he was keeping us up at night. Great, she's worried about our sleep but not the safety of our flesh! I told her that I'd rather him bark than bite. She agrees to keep him in his kennel.

Well, it's 4:30 pm. Where's the dog? Asleep in her front yard!!!!! Arghh! Logically, there should be some sort of law enforcement we could contact and have this taken care of. Well, though I haven't tried I'm doubtful that anything would be done even if we did contact someone. I've contacted the county before regarding my neighbor on the other side (who is gone) and her unkempt yard that had TARANTULAS crawling out of it and into my yard. The response I got was that there is only one environmental officer for the county and his time is consumed with illegal dumping. The sheriff's department couldn't help me. So, I call my county commissioner. After MONTHS of hounding the man something finally got done. I don't think he'd be pleased to hear from me again. And, regarding the dog, a good friend of mine who also lives in the county, outside the city limits, just like us, has had trouble with dogs attacking her horses. What she was told is that until the dog actually bites SOMEONE, there's nothing they can do about it.

So, I'm stuck between a crappy neighbor and a less than desirable situation with my county law enforcement. The question I have is. . . NOW WHAT?

It's a BOY!

2006-06-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

Yep, hubby and I are having a baby boy. We went to the Dr. last Wednesday and had a sonogram. If you've read hubby's blog then you already know most of what I'm about to tell you. But, just in case you haven't I'm gonna say it anyway.

We had a 9:00am appointment thinking that the earlier we made the appointment the less time we would have to wait. Well, we sat in the waiting room for less than 10 minutes and they call my name. I walk back and the nurse asks me why I'm there, is something wrong. I tell her "no". I'm here for my 20 week appointment. She looks kind of confused and says, oh, you're supposed to have a sonogram. In my mind I'm thinking "Yeah, and that's what's creating all these butterflies in my stomach." So she tells me they put my folder in the wrong place and the sonogram lady isn't ready for me yet and to go back and sit down. So now I've had my heart up in my throat only to be shoved back to the pit of my stomach.

We sit about another 10 minutes. They call my name again. I go back with a nurse I've never seen before and I'm thinking that something is wierd. Again, I'm asked what I'm there for. Again I state that I'm there for my 20 week appointment. The nurse chuckles and says, sorry, wrong person. Same first name, different last name. UGHHHHHHH!

FINALLY! The lady that I know to be the sonogram lady calls my name and I FINALLY get to have nasty goo rubbed all over my belly. This lady, nice as she is, takes FOREVER telling us the baby's gender. We see heart; healthy. We see spine; healthy. We see bladder; healthy. Then she says "Well, it's got it's hands between it's legs, that usually means it's a little boy." Then she has the hardest time getting a good view of the genitals because my son won't quit playing with himself. Finally she gets just the right angle and says, "Yep, it's a boy." I was so sure I was having a little girl. I said "Is it really?" She says "Yep." and points out just what he had been playing with. Definitely a boy. William Gaston Stennett is on his way.

I was hoping for a little girl but as time goes by I'm getting more and more excited about having a son. First of all it means a lot to my hubby to be having a son. Then I think about my nephew and all of the fun little boy stuff, bugs, dinosaurs, trucks. Hubby wants to teach him to hunt. I want to teach him to ride horses. It's gonna be great.

Now comes the long, long, long list of preparations to be taken care of before William's arrival. So, I suppose I should shut up and go be productive. Wish us luck y'all!!!!

Finally, some "Pitter Patter" to go with the "Chit Chat"

2006-05-08T18:34:00.000-07:00

I'M PREGNANT! Yep, you read that right. I am 14 weeks pregnant. We've had two OB appointments and everything looks great. We had a sonogram at the 12 week appointment and got to see our little person really looking like a little person. At our 8 week appointment it just looked like a little blob.

We have our 16 week appointment next Thursday. Our 20 week appointment is June 14, two days after our anniversary. We're going to find out the baby's sex on that date.

Thankfully, my nausea pretty much went away right at the end of the first trimester. I am very grateful for this seeing as how I made my mother miserably ill for the first six months of her pregnancy. I have recently apologized for that many times over. So far I haven't felt the baby move but I'm hoping to really soon.

Because of my diabetes I not only get to see the OB once a month I also see my endocrinologist once a month. He says my blood sugars are looking okay for now. He says though that as my hormone levels increase through out pregnancy, my blood sugar is going to be more and more diffucult to control. He seems to think an insulin pump will probably be necessary before the end of the pregnancy. I really don't want to do that so I've been keeping an extra close watch on my blood sugar and really behaving myself at meal time. But, having an insulin pump is better than being hospitalized for the last couple of months before delivery to keep my sugar controlled. Hopefully neither of those things will come to pass.

I will do my best to do a better job of keeping my blog updated. It should be easier since this Wednesday is the last night of my grad class for the semester and I'm not taking any classes this summer. If nothing else, I'll be sure to update after each dr's visit. Thanks to all of my friends and family who have kept us in their prayers and please continue to do so. There's no such thing as too many prayers.

Birthday Fun

2006-05-08T18:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I know it's a bit late but my birthday was a week ago today and it was awesome. First of all, two weeks before my birthday Ben and I went to "The Phantom of the Opera" put on by Dallas Summer Musicals at the Music Hall at Fair Park. It was INCREDIBLE!!!

We left the house a little later than we had planned so instead of having a nice sit down lunch like Ben had planned we grabbed some Jack-In-The-Box on the way out of town. While I love their burgers and curly fries I found this choice of dining to be of some slight concern. You see, I had bought a dress especially for this occassion and it happened to be WHITE! Anyone who knows me knows that getting my food on my clothes at every meal is my trademark move. So, I'm sure there were many people driving down I-20 that day who got a kick out of seeing some woman eating a hamburger with napkins tucked in the front of her dress and covering her entire body. However, it did the trick. I made it to Music Hall with no ketchup on my white dress. WHEW!!

When we got there it took us a minute to figure out where we were supposed to park because Fair Park is huge. Once we figured out where to go, we ended up in the valet lane. I was very shocked by my money conscious husband when he said "That's okay, we'll just have it valeted." I felt very pampered.

The show was fabulous. I think the only time I breathed was during the intermission. The rest of the time my entire consciousness was focused on what was going on on the stage. I've always loved the music, and I enjoyed the recent movie but this was an experience like none I've ever had. Hubby was also sweet enough to pay the ridiculous $10 for the souvenier program for me.

When the show was over we decided to head back toward home for dinner. So we came back to town and he took me to "On the Border" which is one of my favorite restauraunts. He dosen't like it much so we usually don't go. I'm telling you, I was queen for the day.

After dinner we went out to see my parents. They have never been much on the theatre but were sweet enough to listen patiently while I went on, and on, and on about how much I enjoyed the show.

The next day was Easter which we enjoyed with my whole family. It was lots of fun.

Then, of course, this past Monday was really my 31st birthday. My parents bought me a fruitless mulberry tree for my birthday. I'd been wanting a shade tree for the dogs. I wanted a fruitless mulberry specifically because there were two of them in the back yard of the house I grew up in and I spent many summer days climbing and sitting in those trees. So, my Dad called my husband on the Saturday before my birthday and tells him that he needs to dig a hole 5 feet in diameter and 16" deep. Needless to say, my hubby was not thrilled about this idea.

So, Sunday we get out and my hubby starts digging. There was lots of sweat and lots of moans and groans. He tells me to call my parents and have them go ahead and bring the tree over so he dosen't have to play in the dirt two days in a row. Mom and Dad show up with the tree and even though hubby was almost done with the hole at this point in time he was very gracious to have my Dad's help in finishing. Mom and I sat in the shade and watched while they finished digging and then put the tree and the dirt back in the hole. All in all, I think it took about 8 hours to get the whole project done. I came in and ordered pizza for the whole family.

On Monday, my acutal birthday, Mom and Dad came over. Mom made me sour cream enchiladas (my all time favorite meal), gave me some really pretty dragonfly earrings, and we all admired the tree and felt sorry for my poor hubby who was hurting very badly from all of his shovel work. He was in so much pain on Tuesday that he stayed home from work. Poor guy. Needless to say, I think he went above and beyond for my birthday this year on more than one day.

Green Quiz

2006-03-17T17:35:00.000-08:00

Here's a green quiz for your St. Paddy's day enjoyment!

You Are Apple Green

You are almost super-humanly upbeat. You have a very positive energy that surrounds you.
And while you are happy go lucky, you're also charmingly assertive.
You get what you want, even if you have to persuade those against you to see things your way.
Reflective and thoughtful, you know yourself well - and you know that you want out of life.

What Color Green Are You?

Yuck!

2006-03-14T15:57:00.000-08:00

It's my spring break. A whole 9 days off of work. Hooray!!! Right? Wrong. It's day 4 of 9 and I'm sick! Allergies, head stopped up, can't breathe through my nose, coughing, the whole 9 yards. Nice, huh?

Good Weekend

2006-03-12T19:06:00.000-08:00

This weekend was really fun. Some of it was planned and some of it was just spur of the moment. To start with, I got up at 5:30 Saturday morning so that I could be at my Mom's house by 6:30. She and I took my nephew Ty and his friend Cole to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup.

It's three hours to Sweetwater from where we live and we had to make a stop in Abilene to see some family. On our detour to Abilene, my Uncle and his family joined us for our rattlesnake adventure. The six of us had a really good time. We saw them milking venom from the snakes that would later be used to make antivenin. We also saw the snakes skinned. While we were watching the snakes be skinned it was really rather "ooky". They would remove the guts and the pull the skin off of the meat. The meat would lie on the table and still be wiggling. That was pretty freaky. One of the men working with the snakes saw me getting a little freaked about the still moving snake meat and reached down and picked up a snake heart and held it over the edge for me to see. It was in his hand and it was still beating. That was just wild.

We also saw the pit where they dump all the snakes as they are brought in. I am here to tell you, that sight is not for the faint of heart. It was definitely something straight out of a horror movie or a nightmare. Thousands and thousands of snakes, slithering all over each other, and so many of them rattling. Ooh, it was disgusting. They smelled bad too. This was not my first rattlesnake round up, I'd been to the same on in Sweetwater a few times as a child. Thousands of slithering snakes freak out my adult brain much more than they used to.

All in all, it was a very fun day. My aunt bought some fried rattlesnake for lunch. I tried some. Yes, I'm going to be cliche, it tasted pretty much like chicken but the texture was really wierd. And, since I'm one of those people who can not stand to have things with a wierd texture in my mouth, that was probably the last rattlesnake meat I'll ever eat.

We finished up our day at the Rattlesnake Round-Up by visiting the very large craft show. I was very surprised, Mom and I accomplished not to buy anything at the craft show. I think that was mostly because she spent most of her money buying rattlesnake souveneirs for the boys.

We left Sweetwater and went back to Abilene where we dropped off my uncle and his family. Then we went to visit with my grandparents. Another of my Aunts, my cousin and her two littleones came to see us while we were there. It was very good to get to see everyone and we had a very nice visit. My grandparents were nice enough to buy us pizza for dinner and then we headed home.

I got home about 9:00 Saturday night very tired but very satisfied having spent a wonderful day with my family.

Sunday morning I got up, made breakfast and proceeded to clean house. Yuck! I'm still not done with the laundry but I'm working on it. At about 4:00 in the afternoon afternoon hubby and I decided to get out of the house. We loaded up in the car, headed no place in particular, and went for a drive. Our drive ended us in Lipan where my sister and brother and their families live. We went and visited both families and though we weren't expected visitors, we had a really good time visiting with everyone. We got to see all of the family except my oldest niece Fe. We don't all get to see each other very often, so, it was definitely a good day.

Now Sunday is just about over, hubby and I had a nice dinner at home. The dogs are in and both are asleep. And I'm feeling the contentment of a weekend well spent. I hope everyone else had a great weekend too.

Adventures of a Dog Owner

2006-03-08T18:40:00.000-08:00

I can't count how many times in my life I've had to eat my own words. Most recently, the words I had to eat were "Honey, I want a big dog." Now, mind you these are words I uttered almost two years ago and they're just now coming back to bite me on the ass.

Hubby and I decided over the weekend that our dogs (Liberty 62 pounds and Justice 55 pounds) were stinky and needed a bath. Instead of bathing them ourselves, we rather lazily decided to take them to PetSmart to the grooming salon and have them bathed there where they would brush their teeth, clean their ears, trim their nails and all kinds of other things that we would never do if we bathed them at home. We also decided since the weather is getting warmer that Liberty, since she is long haired, needed to be trimmed up some so she won't get so hot. All sounds like a great plan right? It is a great plan until you get to the actual execution of the plan.

I get home from work Monday at 4:30. Their appointment is at 6:00. So I come in and get all of the CRAP off of the top of one of their crates and haul it to the Jeep. Ben and I had discussed the night before that I would take them and he would pick them up on his way home from work. We had also decided that we would put them together in one crate since they wouldn't be in there very long. This was the first of many miscalculations in this little adventure.

So, I go in the house and relax for a little while and at about 5:15 I decide I had better start getting these two loaded up. I bring them in the house, put their leashes on them, at which point they go nuts. They LOVE getting to leave the house and they were very excited. Usually there is two of us to handle two excited dogs but, not this time, just me. I manage to get them out the door and get the back of the jeep and the crate open. First I try to get Justice in since he usually jumps right up into the crate. No, not this time. He gets his front paws up there and then won't go any further. I have to keep control of Libby and lift his butt up in the crate. Mission one, accomplished. Then I have to get Libby in. She is usually more reluctant than Justice to just jump right up because she's rather clumsy. But usually she'll at least put her front paws up for me. Nope, not this time. She laid down on the ground and refused to get in. I had to pick up all 62 pounds of her and shove her into the crate. Needless to say at this point in time I'm a little hot, a little sweaty and a LOT aggravated.

Finally the three of us are on the road. And of course, I get into town, and traffic is a royal pain. The worst part of it all is that for the majority of the time I was sitting stuck in traffic, my destination was in sight. Very frustrating. So, my two lovelies are shoved in this one crate together for much longer than anticipated. Liberty begins to get aggravated from Justice being on her and she starts growling at him. I'm thinking "GREAT! I've got one dog about to kill the other and no way to get out of traffic and get them off of each other." So, I do the only thing I can think of. I yell at her to "CUT IT OUT!" Thank the lord that did the trick. Everyone was quiet for the rest of the trip.

When we arrive in the PetSmart parking lot I am completely relieved to see that there is a parking space right up front. I get out and proceed to try to unload two anxious, excited dogs. My strategy is to barely open the door to the crate and grab both of their leashes before I let them out. No such luck. As soon as I open the door Justice comes flying out and right into the road. I was able to grab Liberty's collar before she went anywhere and thank goodness Justice came back to me when I called him.

Now we begin our walk to the grooming salon. While still in the parking lot, Justice keeps going from one side of me to the other wrapping me up in the leash. I finally get them both to the doors of the store and the automatic opening doors freak them out. By this point in time, I no longer wanted to deal with them so I DRAGGED them into the store. Of course, there are other dogs in the store and they want to go visit. Justice gets the leash wrapped around me again and starts pulling for all he's worth and Liberty is too. I look like a complete idiot in the middle of this store being dragged and almost knocked down. People are all around me telling me what cute dogs they are. I had many words to describe them at that moment. "Cute" was not on my list.

I was finally able to get unwrapped from them and get them into the grooming salon. A girl came right up and said it looked like I had my hands full and took Liberty from me. Finally, one dog, this I can handle. The girl had been gone for no more than 5 seconds when someone behind me starts petting Justice. I look around to see who it is, yeah, it's my husband. He wasn't supposed to be there until much later but at that moment, all I could think was, couldn't you have gotten here just a few minutes sooner? I was, none the less, grateful to see him. Instead of going home, I stayed with him and he took me to dinner and we hit a few stores before they called us to come and get them. We decided on the trip home, it would be best to take them in separate cars. The trip home was a much more pleasant experience.

Needless to say, in the future, I have decided two things. One, they can have a bath at home. Two, if they are going out in public, two dogs = two people.

I'm a bad bad blog girl

2006-03-08T18:09:00.000-08:00

I know, I know. I haven't posted in nearly a month. I'm sorry already!! :-) Just kidding. Really, I don't have any excuses other than I've been lazy. I'm not EVEN going to try to go back and cover the entire time that has lapsed since my last post so I'll update you on the latest.

Good news first. Let's see. I had a test in my grad course tonight. I think I did okay. I guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks.

More good news. Two more days until my spring break begins. (cue chorus of angels) HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!!!

Even more good news. I had a meeting this week with some of my co-workers and some architects. My district has finally decided that they are going to build a new gym and music room. Oh thank the Lord! I won't have to be Milton from OfficeSpace any more. "Um, yeah, Milton. We're gonna have to move you to the basement. See we're having to make more room for these boxes. If you could get right on that that'd be great." I've had three rooms in five years. Each one progressively less desirable in some way than the one before it. Needless to say, just the prospect of this brand new classroom is making me ECSTATIC!

I'm sure I am leaving out a whole bunch of other good news. I'll add it if I ever think of it.

unfortunately, now comes the bad news. We learned a couple of weeks ago that my Mom's cancer has returned. It is in the vertebrae in her neck and in her pancreas. She begins Chemo this coming Friday and radiation the following Tuesday. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. We are praying constantly that God will rid her body completely of this horrible disease and that she will never have to fight it again.

Well folks. That's all for now. I'll do my best to be more diligent in my posting in the future.

A BABY IS BORN!

2006-02-11T18:49:00.000-08:00

SNARFLEMARFLE IS A MOMMY!

snarflemarfleand her hubby TC had a baby boy today!
Congratulations! I love you guys! (All three of you.)

All I Need to Know in My Life I Learned From My Horse

2006-02-10T18:45:00.000-08:00

When in doubt, run far, far away.

You can never have too many treats.

Farting in public is nothing to be ashamed of.

New shoes are an absolute necessity every 6 weeks.

Ignore cues. They're just a prompt to do more work.

Everyone loves a good, wet, slobbery kiss.

Never run when you can jog. Never jog when you can walk. And never walk when you can stand still.

Heaven is eating at least 10 hours a day.. and then sleeping the rest.

Eat plenty of roughage.

Great legs and a nice butt will get you anywhere.

Big, brown eyes help too.

When you want your way, stomp hard on the nearest foot.

In times of crisis, take a shit.

Act dumb when faced with a task you don't want to do.

Follow the herd. That way, you can't be singled out to take the blame.

A swift kick in the ass will get anyone's attention.

Love those who love you back, especially if they have something good to eat.

Muppet Quiz

2006-02-10T18:41:00.000-08:00

You Are Fozzie Bear

"Wocka! Wocka!"
You're the life of the party, and you love making people crack up.
If only your routine didn't always bomb!
You may find more groans than laughs, but always keep the jokes coming.

The Muppet Personality Test

Babies, babies, everywhere!

2006-02-10T17:56:00.000-08:00

I think I've hit the baby jackpot. No, not my own. Not yet. One of my best friends, snarflemarfle, is going to be induced in the morning. I have a good friend at work who is 7+ months pregnant and already showing signs of starting to domino. My close co-worker and his wife just had a baby less than a month ago. And, I've just learned that one of my cousins is also expecting again. With all of these baby vibes around I'm sure to be pregnant myself ASAP right?

I told several of you who read my blog about the trouble my co-worker and his wife have had since their baby boy has been born. They recently learned that he has three small holes in his heart. When they learned this they were referred to a neo-natal cardiologist who refused to see them because they did not have any insurance. With the help of some friends they were able to contact the right people and get emergency qualified for Medicaid for their baby. They have since seen the cardiologist who tells them the holes will probably repair themselves, making surgery unnecessary. We are all praying for that outcome.

I absolutely can not wait to get the call tomorrow that snarflemarfle has had her baby. She and her husband TC decided not to learn the baby's sex. I'm really excited to find out if she has a boy or a girl and what they decide to name it. (They've been keeping that information secret.) Even though snarflemarfle and I are not related by blood, I get to become an auntie tomorrow for the sixth time. It's very exciting.

I'm telling you, they say sometimes pregnancy is "in the water". If that's the case you should be expecting news from hubby and I any day. All of this baby stuff is bound to rub off. Right?

How not to end your day on a high note. (AKA I got pulled over.)

2006-02-09T14:48:00.000-08:00

Wednesdays are the night this semester that I have to drive to Stephenville to Tarleton for my graduate school class. I'm taking group therapy this semester and I'm thinking I'm going to be next week's test subject after my day yesterday.

First of all, I have officialy reached the point of being completely burned out on going to school. (Yes, big sister, I know it's my own fault, I could have been done ages ago, thanks for the sisterly advice but remember this whole grad school thing was your idea and you went and changed majors on me.) So, when I woke up Wednesday morning the minute I got out of bed I was thinking, "Oh, I SO do not want to go to class tonight."

Then I have this lovely day at work where I send two kids to the office. That may not sound like a big deal, but, that doubled the number of students I'd sent to the office this year. I'm pretty big on taking care of stuff in my classroom if I can. So, it was not a great day at work. And of course it had to end with a faculty meeting that was supposed to end by 4:00pm, and ended up being over at 4:40pm. So, I'm thinking "Great, I'm really gonna have to hustle to get to class". Then I get into my jeep and notice that I'm almost out of gas. So, I have to drive to Mineral Wells to get gas, and decide to pick up some dinner while I'm in town. There is this little mexican fast food place in Mineral Wells that I just love so I decide I'll go there. I get a couple of bean burritos, which ofcourse, end up on my shirt before I make it to class. Nice.

I finally get to class and the professor isn't there. Ten minutes later (I so wish this had been undergrad because at that point in time we all would have gotten up and left.) she finally shows up only to discover that the classroom door is locked and she dosen't have a key. She goes to hunt down the campus parking nazis (otherwise known as the Tarleton Police) to unlock the door and ofcourse as soon as she walks out the door here comes a prof that has a key. We all go in and sit down. When she gets back we are now 2o minutes late starting class.

We finally get settled and she says that we're going to go over the ethics questions from last week and a couple of things in the chapter and we should get out early. Well after all this time, I can tell when a prof is starting to wind down a class. It's 8:40 and she's still going strong. We aren't yet through with the ethics scenarios and haven't even cracked the book. Yea. At straight up 9:00 she says "Well I'd better let y'all go. I guess I lost track of time since we got started so late." Of course with my wonderful attittude I'm thinking "Well WE could have started on time if YOU had been prepared." But, at 9:00pm that's neither here nor there.

I finally got in the car and headed home and I'm realizing that my day/evening probably wouldn't have been nearly as bad if I hadn't decided it was going to suck. So, my mood is improving as I'm driving down this dark country road with very few other cars on the road. About this time I see this shooting star that I get to watch streak across the sky for probably 10 seconds before it dissapears. I'm thinking about how incredible that is and how exicted I am that my future children are going get to grow up in a place where they can see shooting stars. I grew up in a small city and didn't see my first shooting star until I was 27. So, for the first time all day, I'm feeling pretty good about life. When IT happens. The lights come on and he flips around behind me. All I can think is "SHIT!"

So I pull over and find my liscense and insurance. He comes up to my window and says that he clocked me going a little fast, that my speed would be handled with a warning (THANK GOD!) and he'd be right back. He comes back and I ask him how fast I was going and the little smart butt replies "Fast enough for me to pull you over." Oh, that just flew all over me. I asked again "I'd like to know how fast I was going because I had my speedometer set on 67 and if I need to make adjustments I'd like to know." He says "You were going 71 but you know there are hills out here and your car will gain speed going down a hill." At this point, thank goodness, reason took over in my brain, and I just said "Thank you sir." He told me to have a safe trip home and we parted ways.

And, of course, it is inevitable that with in 5 miles of where he pulled me over no less than three people go flying past me, one in a no passing zone, easily exceeding the speed limit by 15 or 20 mph. I just had to laugh. I have never been so happy to walk in my front door! Wednesday was finally over and I'd made up my mind that no matter what Thursday would be better. And guess what, it has been !

What a day!!

What Kind of Soul are You?

2006-01-31T17:25:00.000-08:00

You Are a Bright Star Soul

Like a shining star, you have no trouble being the center of attention
In fact, you often feel a bit hurt when all eyes aren't on you
You need to be number one in everything, no matter how trivial
And it's this ego that both hurts your confidence and helps you acheive

You're dramatic and a powerhouse of pure energy
You posess a divine quality or uniqueness that's hard to define
A natural performer, it's likely you'll become famous in some circles.
Just learn not to take everyone's reaction to you so personally!

Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul and Prophet Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

Health Update 2

2006-01-30T17:48:00.000-08:00

Well I had another visit with my endocrinologist today. He's really starting to grow on me. I didn't care for him much the first time I went to see him. Today was the third time and we had some really enjoyable conversation. He says that everything looks wonderful. My blood sugars are very good. They checked my hemoglobin A1c today and it was 4.4. For those of you who don't know much about diabetes, for a diabetic anything under 7 is considered good. He had me make an appointment for three months from now, which actually ended up being on my birthday. He told me though that he'd better see me between now and then because he wants to see me four weeks after I find out I'm pregnant. He said to let him know when we get some good news. He's turning out to be a really nice guy.

That means that all I have left before we can start trying to concieve again is to hear back from my OBGYN about some blood work I had done Friday. I should hear from them tomorrow about my progesterone levels. If all is good there then this baby making train is back on track!!

Wish us luck!

I'M GOING TO PHANTOM OF THE OPERA!!

2006-01-19T19:27:00.000-08:00

So. . . Ben and I are watching the news a few days ago and see an advertisement for the Dallas Summer Musicals production of Phantom of the Opera. I've had the soundtrack to the stage production for years and have always loved the story and the music. I got Ben hooked on my sound track quite a while back and we both enjoyed the movie that came out recently. So, even though Dallas is not exactly convenient to where we live it's not out of day trip range, I was very excited about the news.

Well believe it or not, I actually didn't think about it for a few days. Yesterday morning at work I remembered and looked it up on the net. I saw that tickets were pretty expensive but also saw that the dates were pretty close to my birthday. So, I send Ben this e-mail with the link to the site.

"Do you think we might be able to go? Maybe as an early birthday for me?I'd really LOVE to go. I figured you'd want to go too! Love you!"

He didn't go into work yesterday because he was at a funeral and I accomplished not to break down last night and beg. So, I kept my mouth shut and figured he'd read the e-mail today. Well, I got to work today and got busy with kids and teaching and stuff and didn't really think about it much. I get back from lunch and I've got this e-mail. . .

"I'll see what we can do, like maybe going on April the 15th at 2pm and sitting in Section F, Row HH, seats 1 and 2. "

It was a good thing I already had students coming in my room when I read this or people all over the school would have heard me screaming and jumping up and down. Since I had kiddos I managed to contain myself.

I mean seriously, do I have the coolest husband or what? Not only did he get us tickets, he got us GOOD tickets. What a man!! I mean honestly, most women couldn't drag their husbands to a musical. Mine bought me tickets! Geez, I'm so lucky.

So now the only question that remains is. . . "Is it April 15th yet???"

Good food, good day, good dogs. . .

2006-01-14T19:30:00.000-08:00

Well, the previously mentioned funk seems to have disappeared. This is due mostly, I believe, to some quality time spent with the hubby. We went out to dinner together Thursday evening, then went to Target then to PetSmart. After doing a little shopping we came home and enjoyed the rest of our evening together. It was really nice.

This morning we got up and drove two hours to Abilene to pick up my deer from the processor. On our way we stopped and had a really nice visit with my Grandparents (Hi Granny and Gramps!). Then we went and picked up the meat and headed back toward home. We got home, put the meat in the freezer and left again to head to Ft. Worth so Ben could go to Cheaper Than Dirt! to buy some new really neat ammunition for his deer rifle.

After leaving there we went to Academy so that Ben could use a gift card that he got for Christmas. He decided on a gun cleaning kit. We got that and headed home.

Once we got home, I was itching to eat some of my deer. So, I cooked some chicken fried venison steaks, mashed potatoes, gravy (from scratch), and corn on the cob. Oh my! It was so very yummy. So, I've had a really wonderful day spent with my hubby, visiting my grandparents, doing a little shopping and eating a fantastic meal. Now we've let the dogs in and we're both so full we can't do anything but veg.

Speaking of the dogs, here are a few cute pictures of our "puppers" as we like to call them.

Here is my 62 pound Liberty (Libby) trying to be a lap dog. She's such a sweetheart!

This is Justice, (we call him Bubba more often than not) and I'm pretty sure he's surfing the net. I hope he's not looking at racy doggie pictures!!! I guess his daddy and I should spend a little more time with him and a little less time on our computers. Poor boy.

In a funk. . .

2006-01-11T19:33:00.000-08:00

I just don't know what my deal is lately. I'm in a perfectly fine mood all day while I'm at work and then I get home and I'm feeling all sad/mad/moody-ish. What is up with that? I mean if I MUST be in this kind of mood I'd much rather be in it when I'm at work than when I'm at home with my hubby and my sweet puppers and my kitties. Anyway . . . hoping this passes soon.

I'm also stuck in a conundrum that I must figure out by Friday. Next month is the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) convention in San Antonio. Last year was my first time to go and I went with the high school band director from my district. He and I were pretty good friends and since it was my first time to go he was nice enough to be my TMEA tour guide.

We have a new band director this year who I really like but who I haven't had a chance to get to know very well and who is taking his family with him to San Antonio. Thus leaving me spending four days in San Antonio by myself. I am definitely NOT wild about this.

I had asked my friend J to go with me but she has a professional convention to attend during those days also. My hubby is going to be super busy at work starting next month so he can't go with me. My Mom has used all of her days at work on doctor visits so I don't feel right about asking her to go with me. I wouldn't ask any of my other friends because all though they'd have a free ride and a free hotel, they'd have to pay for their own meals and entertain themselves all during the day while I was in workshops.

So the question is . . . Am I going to be a big ol' weenie and not go to San Antonio because I'm afraid to go to the big city by myself? OR Am I going to suck it up and make the trip? I have to decide by Friday because that is when pre-registation for the convention begins. I'll let you know Friday what decision I make. Man I hate making decisions.

What a wonderful Sunady.

2006-01-08T18:02:00.000-08:00

Today Ben and I went to Cabela's in Fort Worth because both Ben and my Dad had recieved free $10 gift cards from them during the holidays and Dad had gotten a gift card for a Christmas gift. Ever since my adventure as a great white hunter Ben has been itching to make sure I'm completly outfitted for hunting. After looking at lots of camo clothes and several rifles for deer hunting, we left with a $10 duffle bag paid for completley by the free gift card. Anyway, it was lots of fun for me to be at Cabela's and actually enjoy looking at all of that kind of stuff for me. I enjoyed it lots more than watching Ben and Dad look at all that stuff and not understanding why they found it so exciting. We were there just about all day. It's really nice to get to spend the day with my parents and my husband and have everyone have such a good time together. Gee, I'm a lucky girl!

The All American Quiz

2006-01-02T13:59:00.000-08:00

I thought this was kind of cute!

You Are 50% "Average American"

You are average because you've known your best friend for at least ten years.

You are not average since you have (at least) a college degree.

How "Average American" Are You?

Health Update

2006-01-02T09:56:00.000-08:00

Well I went for my final visit to the Diabetes Education Center today. I learned...well...not much that I didn't already know. My blood sugars are really good and the nurse at the center said I was doing a fantastic job. I will see my endocrinologist again in a few weeks and if he gives the okay then we will once again be attemting to make an addition to our family. Wish us luck!

I'm a Deer Hunter!

2006-01-01T08:08:00.000-08:00

Over my holiday break from work (gee being a school teacher is great), I begrudgingly joined my hubby on a trip to the deer lease with my dad, my brother, and various and assorted other men. I told my hubby that I would go out to the blind with him but I doubted I would shoot anything. On the first hunt on Wednesday evening we didn't see any deer but got to sit in the blind and watch a covey of quails feed on the corn from the feeder. No hunting but lots of fun all the same. The next morning by some miracle I was up, out of bed, eaten breakfast, bundled up in lots of warm clothes and ready to go to the blind around 6:30 am. We decided to hunt a different blind that morning. Eight deer had already been killed from that blind this season. So we went, we hiked a huge mountain (really just a small hill but at 6:30 in the morning in the freezing cold it could have been Mt. Everest for all I knew) and settled shivering into the blind. We watched and whispered for about an hour when my husband says "There's one. Look at the feeder." I look over and see a deer eating corn around the feeder. My husband is looking at the deer through binoculars and says "It's a buck." I suddenly lost all of my apprehension about killing a deer. He handed me the rifle and the binoculars. I found him in the binoculars and watched and waited until I could get a good shot. Finally after watching him for about 5 minutes he turned just the right way and I looked through the scope and squeezed the trigger. He jumped and ran. I looked at my hubby and said "I missed." He said "No, I think you hit him." We waited about an hour and then went down to trail him. We followed a blood trail right to where he laid dead. It was a perfect shot penetrating both lungs and the heart. He died almost instantly. It was very exhilerating and lots and lots of fun. He turned out to be a 5 point and field dressed at 84 pounds. I'm thinking I'll be doing some more deer hunting in the future!

FINALLY!

2005-12-31T22:19:00.000-08:00

Well, it's just after midnight Jan 1, 2006. My hubby and I just FINALLY got high speed internet at our house today. Needless to say I think we're still up at this hour not due to the fact that it is new year's but more so because we're both stuck to our computers. For the sake of our marriage, thank God we each have our own computers. Anyway. . . Since we've finally arrived in the world of modern technology I've decided to join three of my best friends and have my own blog. So...welcome to pitter patter and chit chat. Why pitter patter and chit chat? Well the chit chat is pretty obvious, if you know me, you know I never shut up. And pitter patter because it is my deepest and most sincere wish that my hubby and I will add a new member to our little family this year. So, wish us luck.