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Landon's first sand box experience.

Pop!

My bubble …it has been burst.

And I just…I can’t think of any words

There are no words right now. None. Well, there’s one word.

Craptastic.

There are also other words, but since my Grandma reads this blog, I’m not going to use them.

I sat on this for a day thinking it would be easier to write about and it’s just, it’s not.

It’s not easier. I should be used to it by now, because the cycle of my life is that I come up with a plan, a plan that has worked for 100s of other people, a plan I’m very excited about, I begin to implement that plan, and the universe takes a giant crap on my head. I brush the poop off and I reorganize my plan and I keep trying, I morph my plan until it only vaguely resembles my original plan and yet, I still am not making any headway.

Maybe that’s why I’m so hesitant to try new things, I figure it’s not going to work out for me anyway, why try. But this one was important to me and this one was a real plan and I thought I was done.

Remember my ethical dilemma? No, not the dead animal one, the early certificate one. If I hadn't been so ethical, I wouldn't be dealing with this right now. All I had left to do was paperwork and a test and they changed the rules on me 1 day after my last requirement was complete, but before I had a chance to apply. If I had taken that stupid early certificate and applied when I got it, I'd be on my way. But I didn't, I didn't think it was ethical. And NOW it's going to cost me a lot of money.

Hey, guess what though, I never learn. I have a NEW plan.

Actually I have 2 plans, 3 if you count the one where I plan to win the lotto. One of the 2 depends heavily on the willingness of a 3rd party. So once I contact him and get the “No Way.” Or the “Okay.” I will unveil my new plan. Plan #5697.

A New Direction

Landon has been standing up in the middle of the floor on his own for some time. He has been cruising along holding on to various pieces of furniture and toys.

On Saturday afternoon he took his first unassisted step. To me! Completely unprovoked! Mah preshus babee is growing up.

Of course he has no idea what he did. And he's only done it once since then, towards Clint.

Video of him with a walker cart thingy to come later this week.

Wordless Wednesday

Explanation

The last post was a favor to a friend.

There’s a special place in our hearts for gnomes. She may very well have a painted cement garden gnome in her parents’ attic, and we may or may not have spent several days out in her backyard creating homes for gnomes…actually that might have been the fairies, but whatever, we liked the gnomes.

In Scotland there’s a loch, Loch Fyne to be exact where scuba divers have dropped gnomes in a certain area, creating an underground gnome garden. The main dropper of gnomes says he encourages others to drop their gnomes as well.

The idea behind the post is that “I dropped my gnome in it” could conceivably replace “I put my two cents in.”

I also believe is could replace other sayings, it’s a smurf of a saying:

“Shut Up!” “Oh, drop a gnome in it.”
“It’s not rocket science.” “It’s not gnome dropping.”

So, go forth and gnome it up.

Getting it out there

I do not normally post my views on politics or religion or parenting decisions on my blog. As such I will probably never get the “you have arrived” hate mail that the big bloggers seem to get. As it is, either you know me or Clint, or you came here looking for a recipe for tomato soup from scratch, and a select few of you may have followed a link when I commented on your site. As a matter of fact I’m having a lot of trouble trying to make a controversial post just to get a 6 word sentence on the end out into the world.

Why? There are 2 categories really:

Category 1: I don’t care about the decisions in your life that have no bearing on mine.
Category 2: I think you're a person capable of making informed decisions and do not need my opinion unless you ask for it.

But mainly, I don't care.

I don’t care if you’re gay or straight or married or civil unioned. I don’t care if you bottle feed or breastfeed your baby. I don’t care if you’re Buddhist or Christian. Or Muslim, or Atheist, or Wiccan. I don’t care if you co-sleep or crib sleep. I don’t care if you use cloth or disposable diapers. I also don’t care what kind of toilet paper you use, so there! I don’t care if you work or stay home. I don’t care if you make $1,000,000 and I don’t care if you don’t even make $10. I don’t care if you have 17 children, or 7 children, or maybe none. I don't care if you potty train at 2 or 3 or 4 or beyond. I don't care if you homeschool or send your kids to public school. I don't care if you're a democrat or republican. I don't care what kind of car you drive. I don't care if you have an abortion or not. I don't care if you circumcise or not, I don't care if you vaccinate or not.

It's not my business.

So there, "I dropped my gnome in it."

Solid proof that the truck is mine

Clint and I had a gas mileage conversation last weekend where he discovered that I had been getting about 400 miles/tank, and a tank was lasting me 9 days. In which I revealed that I was not using the A/C unless absolutely necessary. Disturbed that I was able to do this and that he never was when he drove the truck, and inspired by how I achieved it, this week, he didn’t use his A/C all week and still got the same gas mileage in his car. He suffered for nothing.

Just wait until he hears this: I last filled up on August 30. I still have half a tank of gas.

BWAHAHAHAHA!!

The Next Jerry Lee Lewis

Except without all that cousin marrying stuff.

Trying something new...

Doing it the normal way, just in case.

Which do you prefer? Format wise?

Small Change Challenge – The cop-out

What?

It’s September already?

No seriously, so much stuff I didn’t do this month.

I was supposed to donate to a school supply drive. There was one at work, but it was the brokest week of our lives, so I didn’t get to buy anything for it and all of the sudden it was over.

**Rummages through desk.**

What did I do, what did I do…I gave a co-worker one of my apple pies. He’s not a kid, he could have afforded his own apple pie. Doesn’t count.

My bone marrow donation card came in. I already used that one though.

I think this is the month I have to use my ace in the hole. This is the month I have to play that card and it means for the rest of the year I have to behave myself and actually follow through on challenges.

Dang it.

Here it goes.

I’m a Girl Scout leader. I have been for 5 years, this school year will be our troop’s 6th year. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in my office, bored off my butt, thinking, what I need is an extra curricular activity. I know! I’ll get my sister to let me be a Daisy leader for her daughter. When I was a brownie, my troop leader was a young engineer – she wasn’t even related to anyone in the troop. And so I called and began the arduous process of setting it up.

I got online and I heard all these horror stories about troops and parents and behavior problems and un-reliability. I was scared. But I have been blessed with quite possibly the best troop ever.

I don’t mind doing the paperwork. And when I decided to have a baby, I told the Moms that I needed more help, and they stepped up (well, those who didn’t, quit.) I have 7 girls in my troop. And I love every one of them. I am so glad I did this, it’s totally worth it.

Hey, I can even tie this into the month of August. This month we took the girls on their annual cookie trip. My parents allowed us to use their lake house, we built a campfire, took a night hike, looked at stars, swam, played a little bit with compasses (the directional kind, not the circle kind.) They had a blast. They earned 3 badges and had a blast doing it. Their only complaint? Why can’t we stay longer?

Monthly Newsletter #11

Dear Landon,

It’s been almost a year. It doesn’t seem that long. Well, some parts do. Like Wednesday evening, when you were just plain mad all evening. And when I finally got you down and took my shower and was just about to drift off to sleep, you were up and mad again. Presumably because you were awake. Or maybe you were still mad that we had the audacity to make you be born 11 months ago. Or maybe you were upset at the news coverage, I guess it was a slow news day so everyone decided to replay news from 2 years ago. We want news, not olds, people.

But I wanted to poke her with the dinosaur...

It finally stopped raining long enough to get in the pool a few times this month. You are kicking like a pro, and I can get you to motorboat every once in a while. We’re still working on not diving head first into the water and trying to breathe it. It’s physics really, and as much as I’d like to change that for you, I don’t have the power.

Get me!!

I think we need to talk about sharing. Sharing is a good thing. You should share your toys with other kids; it will help you make friends. I’ve been trying to do some type of charity all year (and probably will continue to try to do something once a month for ever) to instill the idea that you should share your wealth in one way or another. But there are some things you should keep to yourself, and some things that have rules. The dogs share their toys with you, but you should not share your toys with the dogs. Primarily because their toys don’t rip to shreds as easily as yours do. While I understand the urge to give them the rest of your chicken, as fast as you can, so mama can’t stop you, and watch them scurry around like fish in a tank at feeding time trying to eat it all before they get caught. This actually teaches them to beg from you. And while I see that you don’t mind sharing your wagon wheels with them. A lick for Scarlett, a lick for you, a lick for Scarlett, a lick for you. One day you’ll have set out a pound of bacon on the counter for breakfast, you’ll turn back to the fridge to get the eggs out, and you’ll turn around just in time to see Scarlett make off with the bacon. You’ll chase after her and she’ll swallow the whole thing in 3 gulps, it’s like she’s a python and can unhinge her jaw. And that’s not something that we want to teach her is ok. Bacon is sacred. Also when I tell your girl friends in high school that you used to share food with the dogs like that, they might not want to kiss you, and you will want them to kiss you.

I know it's in here somewhere.

You seem to have a need to put things inside of other things. If I hand you one small toy, it’s not all that cool, if I hand you a container to put said toy in and take it out and put it in and take it out and put it in and take it out, its da bomb! So I can see the allure of the dogs’ food bowls. Lots of little stuff to take out and put in and take out and put in. Plus, it’s small enough to put in your mouth, and it must taste ok, you keep doing it. When you’re older and have molars and can crunch it, I probably won’t stop you from eating it, but for now? Stop trying to eat the dog food. I’m sure it won’t hurt you nutritionally, but since you have no molars, it’s a choking hazard and the very last thing I want to do after giving you the Heimlich is tell the good doctor that you were eating dog food. I know, you share your food with them, they should share their food with you, by all accounts it’s totally unfair of me to put those kind of restrictions on you. There’s a whole nother separate issue about how some dogs don’t appreciate you messing with their food, and while our dogs seem ok with it, I don’t want to get a call from your friend’s mother about how you were trying to get a snack from the dog bowl and their dog bit you. I’m such an evil mother. You can tell your therapist all about it, and how I outted you to the internet as well.

Who knew door stoppers were so much fun.

Other people’s dogs will also probably not tolerate you whacking them with a spatula for the fun of it. Poor Scarlett just sits there and takes it. Fiona at least has the sense to get up and walk away, she knows she’s faster than you and you can’t catch her. Yet. I don’t know if it’s that Scarlett thinks it’s ok that you do that to her, that she thinks she’ll be in trouble for abandoning you, or if she’s just biding her time so she can lick your face again and maybe get some of your leftovers that you like to carry around on your cheeks.

Eeeew pink!

This past weekend we bought you a new slotted spoon and spatula. The whacking that followed was more whacking than an entire season of Sopranos. Shortly after purchasing them, the sky fell out and we were stuck in the store for a good 15-20 minutes before I had enough of the whacking of the display where we were sitting, trying to wait it out and we just walked through the pouring rain out to the car. We also went to a kitchen and bath store, the kitchen section is your play ground. You know how some kids throw a fit when you make them leave the toy store or the toy aisle. Hell hath no fury like an infant parted from his measuring cups.

Do you really think you deserve this?

Next month you turn 1. I can hardly believe it has almost been a year since you took over as CEO of the Wood Life. I hope you realize that the position as CEO is not a lifetime position and one day the tides will turn. After this stint you should realize that you may not be CEO again until you move out. Enjoy it while you can.

Love,
Mom

Education

New Math

4 + 4 = 1.5


Who knew?

Life Skills

Someone learned to blow bubbles (motorboat) in the pool this weekend. Someone did it several times in a row on Saturday. Someone pretended he had no idea what his mother was doing on Sunday when she tried to get him to do it again, and possibly reliably enough to shoot a video. Someone has no idea how much trouble he's going to be in with the internets once they read this.

Photography

Someone has also discovered that when the little silver box comes out, he should mug for the camera when really the person behind it just wants him to keep doing what he's doing.

Reading

Someone discovered the joy of pulling all the books off the shelf at Barnes & Noble, while Mom and Dad try and find a decent children's book that doesn't look easily digestible.

In which I become a thief

The remnants of tropical storm Erin headed through Houston last Thursday. We got about an hour or so of rain out at my office, but not too terribly much. I had class on Thursday evening, and while I heard about some flooding in East Houston, nothing said that HCC might cancel the classes. So I went ahead and went into town.

I got to the building, parked on the 5th floor like I always do.

I went down to the 1st floor and out the front to get dinner. Just like I always do.

The security guard said “Good Night!” to me like he always does.

I came back in and the security guard had me sign in, like he always does…(why? I don’t know, because when I leave I don’t pass him again.)

And THEN he tells me that HCC is closed. And in my damsel in distress mode, I made a big deal out of it because a) I have no money to pay the parking garage guy and I need a validation sticker and b) I was thinking on the ride over how I wish I could just go home and it turns out I could have – but instead opted for a 2 hour pointless side trip.

The way this building works is that they can shut the elevators down so you can leave via any floor of the parking garage, but you cannot get up to any offices with out a badge. They shut it down like that every day at 7pm, but also are able to do that, if say…an office closes for the day.

So he lets me up to the 7th floor anyway – doesn’t seem like a very secure thing for him to do, but maybe he recognizes me. Except if he recognizes me, why then does he tell me “Good Night!” every time I walk through to get something eat if he knows I’m coming back. He’s right, there’s no one up there, and there’s a sign that says they’ve closed the campus. Except if I hadn’t made a huge deal to the security guard about it, I never would have seen the sign and they didn’t bother to broadcast that news on anything.

And then I turned criminal.

I had no money. No cash, the parking garage only takes cash. I hadn’t been paid – payday was the next day, my allowance fund was not even enough to bother finding an ATM.

I knew where the receptionist kept the parking validation stickers, and without so much as a backwards glance, I walked around her desk and opened the drawer. I looked to see if I could sign in and account for the sticker, like I always do – but there was no sign in sheet anywhere.

I assume HCC has to pay some amount of money for those stickers and I suppose, the guys in the parking garage might have bought my story if I hadn’t gotten one. But if HCC didn’t want me to steal a sticker, they should have called me and told me my class was canceled.

Tonight, in some morphed bit of reasoning, we are making up the missed class by having a field trip, during what should be tonight’s class. So somehow, a 4 hour class that we missed and a 4 hour class tonight (8 hours total) will all be made up for by a 4 hour field trip. I’m not arguing, I just want to know where the logic of 4+4=4 comes from.

Current Events

Guess what’s on the news today? No, go ahead, guess. It won’t be hard. I’ll give some clues. You tell me how many it took you to get it.

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Its kid related.

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Its China related.

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Its toy related.

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Its paint related.

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Its lead related.

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If you don’t have it by now, how’s life as an ostrich?

How many more lead paint related recalls are coming? It makes me afraid to buy toys. Luckily I’m not big on buying toys to begin with, but still.

It started out with cheap vending machine jewelry, but has moved on to Thomas the Train and Mattel. Every time I hand him a toy with any kind of paint on it, I think “Is this going to make him dumb?” “Am I poisoning my own child?”

And as a special bonus, this makes me oh so proud to own stock in Mattel.

A boy and his truck

We went to Babies R Super Expensive this weekend, we were looking for some more tank top outfits that are tank tops and shorts in one. We thought we bought them there before, but I guess not. We also needed a few more bottles, as 2 are MIA and 2 are visiting the grandparents. I had a coupon for 15% off in my wallet, but forgot it in the car, and I left Clinton alone in the store for not more than 3 minutes while I went out to the car to get the coupon.

3 measly minutes. And the 2 of them found this:


That's a reenactment of my face when I saw the price.

He was not giving it up. And I figured for sure that when we got home, he'd just ignore it, but he did at least play with it. And he's even got his hand signals down, at least for the right turn. Nice and safety conscious.

Or maybe not.

Carrot results

I tried to pull up just one, but a bunch came with it. Here's my biggest carrot:

For some size perspective, these are pictures with a teaspoon:

I still have a few left, the package said 60 days to harvest and it's been 60 days, but I thought I'd give them a few more weeks. Also tiny carrots? Not that tasty.

Keeping the lynchers at bay

I know it's been a while since you had a picture and the one I'm about to post is not a new picture, it was actually taken in June.

If he's playing with my toys, I get to lick him, right?

My eye has been hurting for a few days, yesterday when I put my contacts in, I thought to myself, I should probably wear my glasses, but I didn't. Because I'm vain.

Mid morning I told my supervisor I was going to the Whole Health Center before my eye fell out. It's like a clinic at work, for $10 you see a nurse practitioner, and she can write prescriptions or whatever for general issues.

I made the minor mistake of describing the pain as "pressure" and the woman FREAKED OUT. She suggested I go home immediately - despite the fact that I have a deadline of (well, today) for my 250+ page report. I told her I had a deadline and that I couldn't get home to take my contacts out until this evening, I can't drive without them, and I'm not driving 60 miles to take my contacts out and come back. Anyway, she prescribed the drops I felt I needed and an antibiotic I feel I don't need. I'm doing the drops (also antibiotic) for a couple days and if it gets better, I'm not taking the pills. She also said something about if it didn't fix it, that I could come back and they could give me a shot and then we'd "re-think" the breast feeding. Now look, I'm not a breastfeeding nazi or anything, I'm not a member of LLL, but I've made it 10.5 months. And surely a scratch on my eye is not going to be the reason I stop with only 6 weeks* to go. If it’s not healed next week, I will go see a real doctor. And I do think it's a scratch and not so much an infection, simply because the last 3 contacts I have put in my left eye have only made it a couple days before ripping in half. I understand the need for the antibiotic approach for keeping me from getting an infection from the scratch, but the drops are also antibiotic and I think it's overkill.

Since I have a high deductible insurance plan, and as such will be paying my entire cost of prescriptions and doctor visits until I shell out $1100, I looked up the price of the prescriptions online and found that they were both on Target's $4 list, so I decided to go there to get them filled. I dropped them off, the pharmacist said it would be 10 minutes; I wandered the store and came back. She asked if there was a Dr. who the NP worked under and I said "no" it's a work clinic. And she said "Oh, well I’ll just fill them under the NP's name, since she is legally allowed to write prescriptions." Uh...yeah, I mean, shouldn't you? Shouldn't you fill a prescription under the name of the person who wrote it anyway? Whether or not she works with a doctor. Or is that just me? So then it was another 10 minutes, because rather than page me and ask, she just waited until I came back and then didn't bother to do anything else towards getting the prescriptions ready. Whatever, I can't complain; it was only $8 for something that would have cost about $40 at Walgreens (according to their website). I started my drops last night and have applied them twice this morning, and while they sting at first and actually make my eyes redder, they do seem to be working, because I don't have the pain I had before.

* My goal was originally 1 year. 1 year THEN wean, so technically, it's more than 6 weeks.

Ethical dilemmas continued

FAIR WARNING, THIS IS NOT A STORY FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. It's a little gory and very sad, you may want to skip this post. And also not read it either while eating or shortly after eating
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Ok, I warned you.

On Friday morning, Clint left for Gun Barrel, and I was preparing to take my girl scouts to Lake Limestone. I had a bunch of errands to do, and one included taking Ivan to the vet for what seems like will be his annual cortisone shot for his mosquito allergy. Apparently we can’t do anything to prevent this, without allergy testing and weekly allergy treatments, so, he had an appointment on Wednesday, Clint left work early to take him and then couldn’t find him. We rescheduled for Friday morning, so I was looking for him. The cat knows when he has an appointment and knows exactly where to hide, because I couldn’t find him either and ended up calling and telling them that I would need to call back if he resurfaced.

In my hunt for him however, I was in the backyard, since we have a section of fence that’s like at a 45° angle and has been for a few weeks, I thought that as long as I was out there, I’d go see what we’d need to do to fix it. Ever made a decision in which you truly wish you could turn back time? I come up to the fence and notice a particularly foul odor. And I’m looking and I see what I think is possible fangs from a snake and maybe and eye and some skin that looks scaly. And I looked on the bottom side of the fence.
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It’s not a snake. It’s not fangs. It’s a claw. Now, I can’t tell if it’s a raccoon, or a cat or a possum. But I didn’t stick around long enough to find out. I ran back into the house, horrified. Remembering the other night when I heard a cat crying and I couldn’t find it. Remembering the nights that Scarlett was back in that corner of the yard and I could not for the life of me get her to come in.

I called Clint, one of his household duties is the removal of dead animals. He used to share this duty with Shane. I have issued orders of removal for a mouse, a squirrel and now, this – what I hoped was a raccoon. I told him of my grisly discovery, and went on to the Girl Scout trip. I can honestly say that animal was in the back of my head all weekend. (I did find Ivan and took him to the vet and all is well with Alexander, and also the gray cat that does not belong to us, but apparently we feed.) So when Clint finally got home, and went to inspect the dead animal, he said he needed my help in its removal due to the angle of the fence. I asked if he could tell me it was a raccoon. And he was silent. And I knew. And he said slowly, “I … can … tell … you … it’s … a … cat.” And I said “NO!!! Tell me it’s a raccoon.”

And all I could think about was the week I was missing Alexander. How during that week all I wanted to know was where he was. If he was dead, I wanted a body, I needed closure. Here’s the thing, this animal, which I would still like to believe may not have been a cat, had already lost a significant amount of hair, there’s no recognizing a cat by its skeleton and dried up skin. And there had been lost cat posters around the neighborhood a few weeks ago, but not within the last week or so. That cat has been hanging on our fence for at least 2 weeks. We put him in a black trash bag; he’ll go out with the rest of the week’s trash on Wednesday. How do I get over this? How do I live with myself for not being able to tell someone what happened to their cat? What if I call the lost cat poster people and it turns out not to be their cat? Or worse yet, what if it is? And who’s to say which of the lost cats is the one we have? The cat, like ours and so many others in the neighborhood had no collar. I’m heart broken for this cat, and his/her owners. And I’m mad at myself for not looking harder for that crying cat a few weeks ago, when I may have been able to save him.

I know now, that when I hear a cat crying, I will walk the fence of our yard. But that doesn’t save this cat. This cat that I'm still hoping is actually a very skinny raccoon.

Is this an ethics test?

Saturday's mail contained my completion certificate for the roofing systems class I'm currently enrolled in. A class which is still supposed to meet 6 more times. That certificate is all I need (in addition to what I already have) to contact the TREC board and get permission to take the inspector test. I can't wait to see if any of the other guys in the class decide they no longer have to come since they already have their certificate.

Monthly Newsletter #10

Dear Landon,

This month you discovered that you and Noah are not the only babies in the world. You met your new cousin, you stared at her in disbelief. She’s so small. You fretted over her and gave Uncle Austin a dirty look when you thought he made her cry. You met one of her friends, who is about a month older than you, and she ran all over the room and you bit her butt. Or maybe you were trying to give her a zerbert or kiss. We’ll never know. But you most definitely liked her. There was much screaming for joy. And “yea!” clapping.

You’ve begun cruising with some regularity. I set you down on the floor and you rarely stay there, it’s off to find something to pull up on. Standing is the way of the future. Also, baby proofing is apparently the way of the future as well. Someone we know has a cabinet fetish and has some strong pull towards the pantry when it’s open.

You still have an aversion to most of the toys we present to you, instead favoring things like a broom handle, or dog toy, or a plastic cup, or the dogs’ water bowl. The dogs have been kind thus far, allowing you to play with their stuff, although they don’t seem to understand why they get yelled at for playing with your stuff. Their interest in where you are and what you're doing and that they come poke their noses in your face makes you giggle almost uncontrollably. Scarlett even brings you a rope occasionally thinking you might throw it for her. And you don’t, but one day you will, she’s sure of it.

With my new job and Daddy picking you up everyday, and having given one of your car seats to your cousin, we have switched car seats around and bought new ones, I used to take you in with the carrier and now in the mornings I have to carry you into Linda’s and hand you to her. For the first week you were terribly upset. Every time I handed you to her, but you seem to have realized it’s the same process, just different a mode of transportation.

Love,
Mom

My day can only get better

I dropped my 2 cans of soup and 2 packages of macaroni and cheese off in the reception area this morning...I'm pretty sure there will be a school supply drive this month. My job is totally making this small change challenge thing easy.

I’ve already had a terrible day – it started last night. When I discovered that the plate thingy around my tailgate handle was stolen, I thought it had just fallen off because it's broken before, but there’s clearly a dirty handprint where someone took it. I assume it's a bad design and someone else's broke and they took mine instead of buying a new one. It's a $20 part, people, it's not that expensive, it's a hassle, but there's no need to make someone else go through it.

Trying to be vague about it, Clint told me a story last night that has my hackles up, I cannot stop thinking about it and how awful it was. I don't really know what's worse, this story or the M!ke V!ck one, it's that bad in my opinion.

This morning when I left the house I saw a woman who does NOT live on our street walking her dog, shooing 2 dogs who had gotten out (the dogs do live on our street, or at least one does for sure) off of our street onto a busier street. I should have stopped then and picked up those dogs, but I took Landon to his baby sitters first because I don’t know the dogs’ temperaments, and when I got back I couldn’t find the dogs. It made me sad to think that a woman who has a dog would be so careless as to shoo a dog onto a busier street. And this woman walks with a stick in her hand, presumably to whack at other dogs when she comes across them, at least that's what I think now, since she was waving it around wildly at those poor dogs. I tried to be all “I hope one day her dog gets out and someone shoos it further away from her house and onto a busy street.” But I can’t even do that, because it’s not her dog’s fault that she’s cold-hearted.

When I got to the babysitter’s and opened my back door to get Landon out, his bag for the day spilled everywhere.

When I got to work and opened the back door to get my stuff out, my bag with my food drive donation spilled everywhere.

And now I have a headache.

I just want to go back to bed, can I go back to bed? I didn’t even get any Landon loving this morning because he was asleep the whole time. And I have class tonight so I won’t see him again until 9:30 or 10 tonight.

Small Change Month wha???

Somehow my numbers and Beth's numbers are screwed up, I think she skipped a number and went with the month number, but if you'll remember she gave us 6 weeks for one challenge and blah blah blah, she says this is the end of challenge 7 and the beginning of challenge 8.

Guess what? I didn't do anything this month. She didn't give specific instructions "do something for a charity" is not all that helpful. Is this the month I cash in on my normal non-profit work as a Girl Scout leader? Or do I say that because I did a couple things a few months ago, that one of those counts for this month? But I already feel bad for having kind of ignored the whole, clean up a local park or playground one in favor of using cloth napkins. I do have an out. At work this week they're collecting canned goods for a local food bank. So If I can remember to pick a few things out of my pantry or stop by the grocery store, I can drop those in the "lunch bag" in the reception area and I will get credit for this month right, even if I have to do it tomorrow?

Next month's challenge is to find a way to donate school supplies.

100th Post

In honor of my 100th post, a picture inspired by I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER.

Introducing....

Zoey!!!

Born July 25, 2007. Right around 11pm.



7 lbs 9 ozs, 19 in long




She has lots and lots of light brown hair, and really long toes. There's something about having long toes and being really smart, right?

Zoeywatch

Zoey was supposed to be here yesterday. Zoey apparently takes after her cousins and doesn't show up when she's supposed to.

I remember having a talk with Landon in utero about how important is it to be on time and that people like it when you're on time, and keeping people waiting is just plain rude. Landon paid no attention to my admonishments and stuck around as long as he could. Kathy had the same talk with Zoey and she apparently likes her current place as well.

Landon's probably been sending her secret messages about how AWFUL it is to be born and telling her to stay put as long as she can. He's saying things like "They pulled me out, and I told them I wanted to go back in, and they wouldn't let me, and then I screamed about it for 3 or 4 months and it seemed like no one was really understanding my pain!"

They're admitting Kathleen tonight, and starting induction tomorrow, so hopefully all will go well and by tomorrow evening we should have a Zoey. I can't wait to see her!

Getting Your Ducks in a Row

Picture it, you’re 9 months old, it’s July 4th. It’s been raining so much that the fireworks display that your parents intended to take you to has been canceled. What else is there to do but take your first big boy bath?

So your mom puts a couple inches of water in the bathtub, dons her bathing suit, and gets in with you. At first, you’re all, hey man, this is not where I normally bathe. But you decide it’s ok if it’s what you have to do.

And then… She starts handing you ducks. A fireman duck, a devil duck, a mama duck, 2 baby ducks. And an ugly duckling (a dinosaur).


You’re trying your hardest to keep all your ducks in a row. But it’s difficult at best, and really probably impossible, you only have 2 hands and this crazy woman has handed you 5 ducks and a dinosaur. And then it comes to you. Your sister has the best idea of all. And you stick a duck in your mouth for safe keeping while you try to deal with all the other ducks.

Either that, or we have the next Ozzy Osbourne.

This year carrots, next year cucumbers

Children eat more vegetables if they are homegrown according to this article. Soooooo…I planted some carrots. They’re growing!!! See these? Carrots! This is exciting, I can’t remember the last time something I planted as a seed actually grew and came up green. I’m jumping up and down and doing cartwheels, the very least you can do is clap a happy clap for me.





As much as I would love to believe that I could maintain a garden, I don’t have the time. If I don’t walk by my plants on a daily basis they have a 99.9% chance of dying in the first month. If I do walk by them they only have a 50% chance of dying, so they have better odds in pots on the back patio. So any vegetable growing at our house will have to be contained in pots. This year I’m going for carrots. Next year I may add cucumbers or tomatoes. I’m leaning more towards cucumbers, I don’t often need fresh tomatoes, but I may in the future.

Today's lesson (#2)

Put in your contacts BEFORE cutting up the habaneros and jalapenos for the carnitas.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I know that I haven't posted in longer than usual. I do have some posts in the works, they're good posts, posts with pictures even. But the last couple weeks have been pretty busy, and our home computer is fritzy, which means that any pictures I have on there are out of pocket.

My new job is great, I love it. I have not regretted this move one bit. I like my supervisor, I like the people I work with, I like what I'm doing.

Landon had his 9 months check up. No shots, but they did do a blood prick on his toe - and he didn't even cry, and neither did his daddy. He was 18 lbs, 4 oz - which is at the 25th percentile for his age and his height was 26" or something and that wasn't even on the chart. So he's got my short genes, I guess. The didn't tell me the percentile for his head, but it's always been pretty big. The doctor said to ramp up the food and try some finger foods. So we bought a bunch of stage 2 foods and finger foods, and I've been shoving everything I think he might be able to swallow down his throat, and he's loving it. Wagon wheels being a favorite. And last night he even ate an arrowroot cookie.

And the project of the moment is waiting on cousin Zoey. And waiting and waiting and waiting.

Monthly Newsletter #9

Dear Landon,

You are finally crawling. And I am learning to not leave you in places and expect you to stay put. I realize the attraction of the bathtub, but diving head first into an empty bathtub is not a wise move, as you found out…the hard way. You didn’t fall hard and the bump on your head was really small. But, your father is not prepared for what lies ahead with the bumps and bruises that are to come as you get to be more and more mobile.

Last week you got to spend 2 whole evenings alone with your daddy. He was scared to death, but I had every confidence in him. And he did fine. And you two bonded.

This has been on the whole a pretty uneventful month for you, so I asked your Dad when I could stop writing these monthly newsletters and he seems to think that I should continue through 12 months and then just do one every 6 months or years. So here’s the thing, I’m going to need something to write about and if you look back it’s been “you’re about to crawl” for like 3 months and then this month I got to write “you’re crawling.” And I’m out of ideas. You'll notice you've learned to really hate the camera, so most of your pictures look pretty sad. You are the only one who has control over that, I'm just sayin'.

So here’s a video of something cute you’ve been up to:










Love,
Mom

And the theme for the night was ... disappointment

Ever paid for something, to be somewhere and while you’re there you are mentally adding up in your head how many people paid to be there and what there must be in the bank account of the event group? Ever then start adding up what the cost of the event was and see a giant discrepancy and want to gouge your eyeballs out due to sheer anger?

Oh, hi, did I mention my class reunion was last weekend?

The theme was pirates of the Caribbean – which I can only assume they came up with after buying this cheap treasure chest from Oriental Trading Company which sat on the check in table. NOTHING ELSE was piratey or Caribbeany. The theme for the night should have been disappointment.

I’m not saying I want this job in 10 years, but I am saying I could have done a much better job. I have a few issues with the way things went down. And they’re kind of rambly because I just typed as I thought of them.

First of all, there should have been a breakdown of the cost for the afternoon event and the evening event, if you chose to attend just 1 of the 2 you should only have to pay for the one you attended. Second of all, you should not be able to show up and pay at the door. There should be a deadline to RSVP, you cannot plan an event based on an unknown number of attendees. A monetary surplus is inexcusable, because this is not a for profit deal. And those who paid ahead should have pictures on their name tags, and those who didn't should not - not the other way around.

Why did we fill out those little forms about what we’re up to? Why weren’t there awards? Most kids? Most successful? Living furthest from “home”? Ehh – I need more time to ruminate, but I could have come up with a good 10 or so awards. Why was there not more than plastic trays of food? For the amount of money we paid, there should have been more decent catering. I’m not saying there had to be a sit down meal, but it could have been actually catered – like we were told it would be. Why was there not a cash bar? Nothing says “classy” like hauling a cooler in while dressed in cocktail attire.

What’s going to happen to the pictures taken that night? Are they available for purchase? He certainly didn’t take the time to photo graph each person, so it’s not like I would buy a huge set of photos. Is there a scrapbook being put together somewhere? Will it be at the next reunion? What’s the point? What about the DVD? Who the hell is going to watch a DVD of their 10 year reunion? Totally unnecessary.

What happened to all the questions about what giveaways should be? There were no giveaways. There were 2 items in the drawing at the end of the night, one was a digital picture frame which was fine and the other was a picture frame mat. Whose idea was it to have everyone sign a picture frame mat and give that away? What is anyone going to do with that? Should I have a picture of my class hanging in my house somewhere? I highly doubt it.

They need to publish a ledger now. I realize that some people paid as little as $35/head, and some paid as much as $55/head. I really am interested to see what was spent where. And what the balance in the account is at this time.

I compare this event to a wedding, only because by my own estimation about 100 or so people attended. 100 people at an average of $45/head – is $4500 they had to work with. Take a wedding reception, replace nuptials with awards, adjust the cost of the flowers into the awards, and you have a much better reunion for roughly the same price. I know it can be done. I’ve been personally involved in at least 2 of similar cost.

Beyond my disappointment for not getting what I paid for, I saw people that I hadn’t seen in a long time, I talked to a few people I probably wouldn’t have otherwise seen again. But it felt very much like high school, where the people you see anyway are the people you’re sitting with all evening long. I know I was not the only one who was disappointed.

The Modernish Father has a pretty good wrap up of the night.

Yea Boo

I started my new job Monday. Since I was coming back to a company I previously worked for, I did not have to attend the safety training and sexual harassment training, so HR released me and I threw my department manager’s schedule off. It’s such a relief to be somewhere that they actually have work for me. I’ve already done more work here than I did in the past 6 weeks at my old job. And it feels great; it’s exactly why I had to leave. Although, apparently I’m not smart enough to program my speed dial buttons on my phone.

Oh, and I’m wearing jeans today – at work – on a Thursday (and also Tuesday and Wednesday) – and I didn’t have to pay for the privilege. I may actually get to finally retire my maternity clothes (and therefore prevent any future Kris Kross incidents.)

I also had my first and second day of my Legal/Ethics class, for which the teacher was 45 minutes late – he thought it started at 5:30 and was only 15 minutes late, and I parked in a parking garage that I thought was going to cost me $10.50, and I about had a heart attack after I read that sign, but had no way to get out – but thank goodness they validate parking. Also, I discovered their weird system by which I can leave the 7th floor to go to my truck on the 5th floor, but if I - and I'm just hypothetically talking here - say forgot my cell phone and parking ticket (with validation) in a bathroom stall on the 7th floor, I have to then go down and get the security guard to let me back up on the 7th floor. Not that that happened to me or anything.

Meanwhile, Clint spent his first and second evening alone with Landon. He had said on Sunday that he was going to do some laundry and try and clean up a little too…and I laughed and laughed. And he thought I was being mean. I got home Monday night and he had very wide eyes, and he said “I didn’t get anything else done!” And I said “I told you so.” But he did it and they both survived, just like I knew they would.

This has been a week of ups and downs, so I thought we’d play the yea/boo game…ready…

I started working at Mustang … yea!

I forgot some of the stuff I needed for my direct deposit … boo!

They let me out of nearly half the orientation because I’d already had the training … yea!

I can’t figure out how to program my speed dial buttons on my phone … boo!

They actually have work for me to do … yea!

The commute is longer … boo!

The commute is not as bad as I thought it would be … yea!

We had a sewer back up in our house … boo!

When the guys came to investigate that, they also made note of the water main leak in front of our house … yea!

They did not fix it … boo!

But they’re going to … yea!

Our baby sitter’s air conditioner is broken … boo!

I found out my results from my PE exam … yea!

I did not pass … boo!

I know what I need to work on for next time … yea!

I was so close it made me madder than if I had totally bombed it … boo!

And to end on a yea…in talking with the people in my current class, the class I’m going to register for in August will most assuredly make and I will be able to register to take the inspectors exam…yea!

Change of Scenery

I quit my job.


Yesterday was my last day.

...
...
...

Relax - I start somewhere else doing almost exactly the same thing on Monday.

But I thought it might be prudent to show you the things that made me wonder about my current..former...workplace.

This is the only sign on the escalator that make a reference to bare feet, because the people on the third floor were always taking off their shoes and driving their vacuums on the escalators.


Someone taped an obituary to the wall by the water fountain. Maybe they worked here, but really? Taped to the wall? By the water fountain?

Oh, and as a special bonus; I get to attend my 10 year class reunion - technically unemployed!

Kris Kross

Maybe it’s because I didn’t get enough sleep that night.

I had been at work a mere 3 hours. I had been dressed for 4 hours by the time I needed to go to the bathroom.

At which point I discovered…my pants were on backwards. And NO ONE TOLD ME.

Hippie Chick / Small Change Challenge #5

This month’s challenge is to get out there and clean up a local park or playground. I’m going to twist this into “do something for the environment.” We pretty much never go to the park or a playground. For one thing, my non-walking child doesn’t really mesh with the playground equipment that’s available. And his tolerance for being in the stroller doesn’t even last long enough to walk down to the park, much less around it or back from it.

I stumbled across a blog a while back. It’s extreme. It’s about a guy and his wife and toddler who live in NYC and they’re spending a year doing an experiment by which they try to live with no net impact to the environment. Knowing that they will have some impact no matter what, for those things they do proactive things for the environment – replanting trees, etc. So they’re going in phases, reducing trash, not buying new items (except food), buying locally grown food, going vegetarian, not using electricity (his laptop is powered by a solar cell). They’re in NYC, so giving up the car is easier for them.

Anyway, it got me to thinking about what I do and used to do for the environment. When I first started caring about the environment I started with cutting up those plastic rings that 6-packs come in. I made everyone in our family napkin rings and we used cloth napkins. I also made my parents start recycling. They still recycle, but have given up the cloth napkins.

And coming full cycle, I’m now trying to figure out what change I can make to help the environment now.

So I brought out the cloth napkins. Hey, guess what, I’m finally using one of my wedding presents, Thank you nonsoccermom and Modernish Father!!! We already plan errands to conserve drive time. I already don’t litter, and I already do what I can to conserve water. So technically with the bringing out of the cloth napkins I’ve already completed this challenge.

Our city also has a recycling program, where we can bring in items to drop off. And eventually I’d like to do that, but for now, I don’t have the time or energy to do it.

I will soon have no excuse

In October of 2005 Clinton bought me a GPS. So I could go geocaching. [Link to geocache.com] I thought it would be a neat way to accidentally get some exercise without mentioning to my body what I was technically up to (because it totally shuts down when it hears the word, so keep it down). I had a wonderful time doing the geocaching right up until I got pregnant and fell asleep for 9 months. And then for the past 7 months, I’ve been all “oh the pool is too cold” and “it’s raining” and “I can’t hold him AND the GPS.”

Well, I’m out of excuses now, because the pool is warm enough, the motor is fixed. And we bought a float that he sits in and I use as a kickboard. And he’s big enough to put in the back position in the carrier for geocaching. And for Mother’s day, I got a kickstand and a seat for him and a helmet for him for my bike.

(He didn't care much for the helmet and spent his entire first bike ride desperately trying to take it off.)

Retail Therapy

Ever been upset and someone suggests you spend money? Yeah, cause if I’m upset, what I need to do it go out and spend money that I probably need to pay a bill, so I will be sadder when the bill comes in and I can’t afford it and they shut off my electricity and I die. What? Too dramatic?

Ok fine, I just don’t understand retail therapy. I have never felt better after buying stuff, much less stuff I don’t need, much less expensive stuff I don’t need.

And so, my apologies to the salespeople and other customers for melting into a puddle of goo on the floor of Best Buy last weekend when I discovered that my coveted laptop had been $150 cheaper the day before. I did not mean to stain your shoes. Oh and kudos to whoever’s fine idea it was to change the prices, but not remove last week’s sale prices so I would know that. I get that your computer wasn’t working or whatever and you had to handwrite the prices, but you could have cut off the old price from the old tag.

Never have I spent so much money on something I could neither sit in or on.

I don’t know why Clinton appointed last weekend as “Laptop or Die” weekend. I don’t know why I went along with it. I certainly didn’t need it yet. And now, I’m afraid to touch it. I have had it almost a week, and I have yet to touch it more than to verify that it does turn on and what programs I may need.

Eventually I'll get used to it, I know, and eventually, I'll have an internet connection and I can post my blog from it and I will be able to post more often, but I'm not promising I will, I'm just saying I could.

Body Part Donation

I already blogged about the bone marrow donation, and how they were going to send me a kit.

I did something else too.

I did this:



I’ve been losing my hair – apparently there’s post partum hair loss, yet another side effect I had no knowledge of and was not experiencing until someone mentioned it. So I decided I should cut it for Locks of Love. I made the decision to do it about a month ago, I decided to do it in August. And the more I thought about it, the more I thought about how much damage I was going to cause it by being in the pool all summer. This weekend provided the perfect culmination of events. Clint’s cousin Shelly sometimes cuts hair at family functions. I would ask if she would cut mine. I didn’t tell anyone but Clint and Clint, being that he’s been begging me to cut my hair for like 83,000 years now, immediately flipped open his phone to call and ask if she would be cutting hair and if she’d do mine. I also wanted to make sure she’d be ok with the long cut. Some hairdressers don’t want to do it. She said she’d love to. And I still didn’t mention it to anyone. At least not until a couple hours prior.

Anyway – I’m pretty happy with the result:

Monthly Newsletter #8

Dear Landon,

I saw you do it for the first time 3 days ago, you didn’t really want to, it seemed like more of an effort than it was worth to you, but you did do it, so I know you can. Oh sure, you put forth the effort to appear to be crawling, you lay on your tummy pull your knees up under you, rock back and forth, then put your legs out behind you again and flail your knees about, grabbing the floor with your grubby little palms, you pull forward ala an army man. But you have no real interesting in being on your hands and knees, you prefer standing. You prefer standing so much, that you may just walk before you crawl and all I can say is “PLEASE DON’T!”

We finally had your border put up in your bedroom. We had to pay someone else to do it, because apparently we’re too dumb to put up a stinkin’ border. Actually according to the lady we hired, we were lied to about what extra glue we should put on it. We were lied to by people who SELL wallpaper…it’s their job to know what to put on it to make it stick and they said, “Here use this chewing gum.” Anyway, it’s up, and it’s cute. We have a new rocking chair we still haven’t put together, and your toys are more or less uncontained in your room. And at this rate, your nursery might be finished in time for you to move on to college. I hope I can still lift you over the crib rail by then.

This has been a month of road trips. Can I just ask up front that you tell me what exactly we need when we go on these trips? Quite frankly, I’m tried of over-packing. Can you tell in advance that you will not be as hungry as usual? Or that this will be the one time we take a trip where I don’t need the nasal aspirator? Or that you’re going to actually go a full day without a second or third change of clothes?

We went to Lake Limestone for an overnight; you had your first dip in a lake. You were a little concerned that the water wasn’t as clear as your pool, but you quickly decided that was ok, and maybe it should be tasted anyway. You splashed around a lot. And you nearly worried Scarlett to death, since she couldn’t get to you and why would you even go out so far as that anyway? “Float, Schmoat, and I don’t really care if Mom was right there beside you, sometimes a dog has to check on her hairless puppy, and you know I don’t swim.” You were supposed to start fruits this month, and you did have your first taste of watermelon, which you prefer to suck on from the rind. You loved what was essentially watermelon flavored sugar water. In the real business of introducing foods, we tried applesauce, and everyone said once you tasted fruit you wouldn’t eat vegetables, and that’s not exactly true, you’ll still eat the vegetables, but you have to have them first in the meal.

This month will forever go down in history as the teething month from hell. You having been trying to pop 14 bazillion teeth out of your poor little gums for so long, it’s hard to remember the last day you got to go with out Tylenol or Motrin. Your pain varies from “eh…something is bothering me” to “someone must be trying to pull my toenails out with pliers.” I’m trying my hardest not to over medicate you, but the toenail scream deserves something I think.

We also went to Gun Barrel, where your grandfather had bought a wagon. Your father and I worked to put it together, and probably would have been more successful if they had actually included all the parts you need. Or at least made them look like they do in the drawings. Also, they should include a couple extra of the small parts, since, deck boards are not the most forgiving place to be dropping 10 mm washers, or lock washers or tiny tiny hub cabs. We also put the screws that hold the wooden slats on backwards, but we did it on purpose and there was method to our madness, we didn’t want you scratching yourself up on them while sitting in the wagon.

This weekend, we went to your Great Uncle John’s Memorial service. We stayed in a hotel Friday night, it was you first time in a hotel. We met up with your Aunt Kathleen and her clan and went to the best steakhouse EVAH. Just ask your uncle Austin about it, I’m sure he’ll still be talking about it in 10 years.

The memorial service was nice, the lake was pretty and people said a lot of nice things about Uncle John. I wish you had gotten to know him.

All in all it was a decent month, but I hope you don’t mind if we hermit ourselves up and don’t go anywhere for a while. Between the terrible sleep patterns when we’re not at home and the price of gas right now, I don’t think we can afford to go anywhere anyway.

Love,

Mom

Uncle John

We knew this was coming, although I’m not really sure we thought it would be THIS soon. But I couldn’t really get a grasp on what to say. But the one thing that kept coming back in my mind was Astroworld.

When I was little I used to wish I was just a little bit older, it seemed to me that Uncle John was always taking the older kids to Astroworld and I SO wanted to be included. But I was too young or too short, so I wasn’t allowed to go. And by the time I was big enough the older kids were no longer interested and he wasn’t taking them anymore, and his youngest was too small when they moved to Dallas. But I remember him taking his kids and my sisters. And I remember seeing him as the cool uncle who takes you to cool places and I vowed to be that cool aunt for my nieces and nephews. Kathy claims she only got to go once, but it was the very best time she ever had at Astroworld. Astroworld was leveled at the end of 2005, and though I did eventually get to go to Astroworld through the church or clogging or with school, I still always associated Astroworld with my Uncle John.

We’re also one of those “house divided” families between A&M and UT. Uncle John’s side rooting for UT, and Mom’s side rooting for A&M. It’s an all in good fun rivalry, everyone makes sure to bring their college paraphernalia and wear their respective shirts for the big day. Now that we do Thanksgiving on Saturday, the winning team is absolutely sure to wear theirs, and the losing team is not so interested in discussing the game with anyone, but they wear their hats and still boast proud. The truth is that we all know they’re both good schools, and you have to pick a school based on your major, so whatever you choose is really fine.

Uncle John lost his battle with leukemia a couple weekends ago. When this started we all thought that they’d caught it early and that we’d all be “happily ever aftering” by now. It’s been quite the roller coaster, in the beginning he responded well to treatment and the prognosis was good. He was in remission for a short period of time, and then they found more. They tried everything they could. He fought long and hard, and in the end it just didn’t lie down and submit like it was supposed to. I hate cancer.

For the past few years our extended family has gathered (and hopefully will continue to gather) at my parents’ lake house for Thanksgiving. Uncle John and Aunt Mindy always come. Kerri and Adam and their 2 sons always come. Sometimes Johnny (although he wants to be called John now that he’s an adult) makes it, sometimes Andrea makes it. And we have a fun weekend. A couple Thanksgivings ago, the family gathered as usual and amid the chatter I heard a little person’s voice say something to “Uncle John.” And I thought, “Uncle John’s outside.” It was one of Kerri’s sons – so my Uncle John is actually Grandpa to him. He wasn’t talking to my Uncle John he was talking to his uncle John, my Uncle John’s son. May he see his Uncle John the way I saw mine.

Small Change Challenge #3 & #4

Well, crap. Last month’s challenge was to clean out your closets and donate stuff to charity. And I had every intention of doing that, but last month seriously went by in a flash and I have no idea where it went (well, I kind of do, wedding, PE exam, sewing). So, I promised to do it this month. And we did.

5 full garbage bags, plus one box. 4garbage bags and the box care of Clinton, one from me (actually one bag has both of our stuff in it.)

What? Clint has WAY more clothes than I do. And he continuously buys clothes and refuses to throw any away. We had a deal by which for each new clothing item he got, he owed me one – one for charity – one for the trash, whatever, I’m not picky. He’s been sneaking new shirts by me a lot lately, he thinks I don’t know, but I do. He tries to make sure he’s the one who does the laundry when he has a new shirt to hide, but then forgets that I will eventually do the laundry and once he wears a new shirt I will totally see it. So he’s been busted.

Anyway the bags are headed for the local Woman’s Shelter Shop, where they are sold and profits are used to help battered women.

This month’s challenge is to donate blood or join the bone marrow donor registry.

Giving blood is easy – I did it 2 or 3 times in high school, before they started rejecting me for having had a piercing within the past year. I haven’t done it since; it’s always been one thing or another, whether it was a piercing, or pregnancy. The local donation center is not open at the best times for me, but if they bring a donation van to work for a blood drive, as they occasionally do, I’ll make an appointment to donate. With AB+ blood, I have the worst blood type as far as donations are concerned. However, I’m the best victim since I can receive anyone’s blood. To give my blood away they have to find someone who is also AB+, and to add insult to injury, AB+ is a relatively rare blood type, so my blood donation is about as useful as a pair of weak glasses to a nearly blind man.

Moving on, when my uncle was diagnosed with leukemia, my mother went down to get tested to see if she was the right type for him. They said the best match is usually a sibling, but they also said the best match is usually a pre-pubescent sibling. Unfortunately, my mother was not a match. This means that the bone marrow transplants he’s had, have been from the registry. Someone he doesn’t know took the time to go down to the bone marrow transplant place, in some cases paid $52 or more (pays for testing and typing which is not always covered depending on where you go) to join a registry on the off chance they might be able to save some stranger’s life, and then when they were called – they didn’t make an excuse, they came in and underwent a painful procedure to donate, for a stranger.

Right now, you can join the registry for free without leaving the comfort of your cozy little nest on the couch. (Actually I suppose, you have to check the mail.) I just did it, it took less than 5 minutes to fill out the questionnaire, and they are sending me a kit to do cheek swabs. The drive is being sponsored, so that aforementioned $52 is being paid by someone else.

I’d like to encourage you to do it, but it’s not that easy a decision to make. I’m not going to encourage you to do it if you don’t see yourself being able to actually donate when and if the time comes. The registry is no good if the people on it won’t do it when called upon. When and if the time comes it is not easy or painless, but I don’t think leukemia is easy either. People have been interviewed post donation and they said “Yes, it hurt, but I would do it again, to help save someone’s life.” There are certain health issues, and age restrictions on donating, but the questionnaire will weed you out if you’re…uh… weedy. Here’s the link.

Just push him down and say "NO" firmly

This was the advice of the guy at the sandwich shop we ate at on Saturday, in regards to this and what comes next:

Monthly Newsletter #7

Dear Landon,

I swear last time I wrote one of these you were on the verge of crawling. You still are. You scooch along pretty well, you’ve discovered the secret to going forward, and now if you could just lift your big ole milk belly off the floor, I’d be chasing you around the house.

This month marks your first foray into solid food. You liked the cereal, you LOVED the sweet potatoes, you tolerated the squash. We’ve still got green beans and carrots to go, and then we move on to fruit. There are still other vegetables to be tried, but we’ll work those in later. Much to your father’s amusement, I try everything I put in your mouth. If I won’t put it in my mouth, I don’t know how I can expect you to put it in yours. Somehow the baby food manufacturers have managed to create a product that smells exactly like the thing on the label, but tastes like a watered down version of it.


Your father and I finally got around to putting your car together. Your grandmother had requested it for your overnight, and the only reason we hadn’t put it together yet is that you were just barely big enough for it at that point.

We also finally took the cart thingy out of the box that your Aunt Kelly gave you for Christmas. (Actually we did that to keep you occupied while we put the car together, and also because of your attraction to plastic bags you needed a diversion – like a new toy and its box)


You stayed over at your grandparents house for a couple nights this month and although you seemed to have a fine time, when we went to pick you up, you were not about to let me out of your sight.

You have successfully transitioned to the crib, for the most part, although still not sleeping through the night. And your father and I both appreciate the morning you let us sleep in until 9:45, at which point we found you playing quietly with the toys in your crib. Let's try for some more of those kinds of mornings!

Love,

Mom

Small Change Deferred

This month went by entirely too fast and I did not go through our closets. I will be going through them this weekend though and will post about that then.

This month's challenge is to either donate blood or sign up for the National Marrow Donor Program Registry. Last time I gave blood was in high school. I'm not sure they'll let me do it now because of having ababy within the past year, but I'll find out.

To Post or Not to Post

How do you know it’s been too long since your last post? Is it because your camera is full and you can no longer take pictures until you take the time to actually take some off – and possibly share them with the world at large? Nope, or this would have happened last week some time. Is it because something vaguely amusing happened and you have a funny story to tell? Nope, or this would have happened last Monday. And then you don’t post and you don’t post and you don’t post and all you can think about is the fact that you haven’t posted and how hard it will be to come up with a decent post to come back. And then you post this drivel anyway: (Rewind you clocks to April 13, 2007, as that is when this story begins.)

Wouldn’t it just figure that when you finally get to skip off into the sunset without your kid that you’d get sick? I was full of snot for a few days prior to the wedding trip, and still am slightly.

Friday morning we headed to the EZ Tag store to iron out their stupidity. EZ Tag people need to get a new programmer. If a person breaks their new EZ Tag and calls to get a new one, and the customer service person changes their remaining good one to “Defective” and leaves the broken one as “Active,” and sends a new one, also marked “Active,” but you don’t check your account online, it can totally be a pain in the butt to fix. When the toll violation for the truck came I was completely annoyed that they should know that I have an EZ Tag, they should be able to look it up and fix it. Apparently I couldn’t just call and have them change the “Defective” one back to “Active.” They made me go in person to deal with it, instead of mailing me a new EZ Tag. They didn’t make me chose the trainee girl, but they didn’t have her clearly marked and admittedly I probably could have stomped my feet and gotten someone else who was faster to help me, but I let her be trained on me, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I walked in the door. It took them 35 minutes to fix it and give me a new tag. 35 minutes of my life I will never get back.

After the EZ Tag fiasco – which thankfully Landon slept through in the car with his daddy, who was ever fearful that the kid might wake and start howling, we went down to LJ and dropped off Landon, ran a couple errands, went by Target to pick up the stuff I forgot because for the very first time in my entire life I didn’t make a list prior to packing. And we headed off to the wedding festivities.

It was super windy and cold. Rehearsal dinner was very good. And I thought I was saying rather quietly to myself at the end of the night “Oh my God, I get to go sleep the WHOLE night.” As we got up to leave. I was not saying it quietly though, and the entire table laughed. They may have been laughing, but I woke up at 6:30, not having been up 2 times already and I was AWAKE!!! And well rested and felt like I could have conquered the world.

Bridesmaid luncheon was nice, and the wedding was nice, and it was quite possibly the EASIEST bridesmaid job ever. My second night of sleep didn’t go so well, but it was nice that I was starting to feel better anyway.

Sunday morning, we got up and packed everything up, we grabbed breakfast on our way out of town.

As it turns out, I’m the type of mother who does not call and check in on her child, I never did it when he was in Day Care, I never did it when Ashley or my Mom was watching him, and I don’t do it to Linda (Not to say, I’ve never called for other reasons though). I wouldn’t have left him if I didn’t trust the people he was with. Lots of people asked if I had called and checked in on him, and well, I know what it’s like to be dealing with him and have the phone ring. They gave me a kind of funny look when I said “no.” He survived and I survived, although I probably could have used another night or 2 for the sleeping.

My PE test was last Friday. They made me sign a non-disclosure agreement – which I find odd, since I figured they changed the test every time, but whatever. Suffice it to say that the morning was easier than I thought it would be and the afternoon was harder than I thought it would be. We took it in the club level of the Reliant Stadium (not in stadium seats, but at tables in the walkway). And now I wait. 12 weeks. 12. TWELVE!! So I will know July 13th. Maybe. If I don’t know by July 19th, they will start posting on the board’s webpage the results status (are they in, are the mailed, blah blah blah). And If I have to take the test again, I will have to register by August 31st, and will have to spend my birthday taking it. Let’s hope I don’t have to do that.

Which brings us to yesterday. When I got home I thought it odd that the pool was full of leaves and bird poop, since everything is supposed to run in the afternoon and I normally come home to a beautifully clean pool. I went to look at the timers and they’re sitting there pretending that it’s noon. So I tried to turn it on and it wouldn’t turn on, and Clint went to check the breaker and it had been flipped. He flipped it back and it shot flames at him. I turned everything off on my side and he flipped it, and when I turned it back on, I got flames from the motor. I guess we’re lucky we didn’t come home to a smoldering pile of house. So I called the pool guy and the motor itself is about $260, plus labor. And 14-18 days before they can make it out to the house – we will be pushed up as much as possible, since the pool is actually down, and it’s not just maintenance. In the meantime, we are to shock every 3-4 days with a pound or 2 of shock and net out as much as we can. And god help us, the birds of the neighborhood have decided that our pool is their bathroom, so it’s leaves and bird poo galore.

PS - I added some pictures to the Easter post.