Here's What Happened

C&P'd from an email to Meredith:

On our way back from our wonderful, relaxing weekend on Sunday, my sister calls me and tells me that a child protective services worker from the county and a cop visited my parents house on Saturday because they got a tip that Paige would be here for the weekend (their words, they knew her name) and wanted to make sure she was safe. My mom had a breakdown after they left and literally collapsed. Thank god Paige was sleeping. She thought they were going to take Paige away. I work and live in Oconto County and my parents live in Outagamie County. A child pro. Services worker here left me a message on my cell phone on Friday to call her back ASAP, but I couldn't get a hold of her until Monday afternoon. Basically someone here (and I'm sure it's someone from work, no one else knew Paige would be at my parents) reported that I was placing Paige in danger by keeping her at my parents EVEN THOUGH my sister and mom would both be there. So Oconto County child pro services has no choice but to report it to Outagamie CPS and they "screen it out" which I assume means they have no grounds to pursue it further. This is all according to Oconto county CPS. So even though they screened it out, Outagamie CPS and a cop still stopped at my parents house on Saturday and told them they would stop by again, thank god they didn't. So I called Outagamie County CPS and tried to get more info, but the biotch I talked to on Monday was no help, she said they couldn't even acknowledge they received a report. GRRRRR...Put a call into the cop shop and the cop that was there will be in this afternoon so I'll be calling back and chewing her out too. My dad told his lawyer all this and they are trying to get an exemption to his bond condition to allow him to be alone with minor female family members. I plan to speak at the hearing for this, if there will be one. She's mine and I decide who she spends time with. I'm just so furious and angry and can't believe that a co worker of mine actually thinks placing Paige with my dad would be putting her in danger and that I would intentionally put her in danger. I would DIE before I let anything happen to her and I have nothing but 100% trust in both my parents. I'm going to be talking to my boss and letting her know that I'm looking for a new job. I can't work with these kind of people. This never would have happened if I didn't work here.

OK, so after I wrote that, I called my mom last night for some words of wisdom and she really helped calm me down. She made me realize that the anger and hurt I feel will pass in time and that it might not have been a co worker of mine here in Human Services, it could have been anyone in the courthouse that overheard someone talking. I'm trying really hard to believe that and to just put this out of my mind. I can't hold on to these feelings for ever and keep these thoughts in my head, I'll go nuts. So I'm working on the healing process, I guess....

Anyway, a couple of big news items...Paige slept on the floor at Sandi's yesterday for her nap! No more pack n play! I know people probably think I'm nuts for keeping her in a crib/pnp, but it works for us. But anyway, Sandi decided to try having her sleep on the floor in the living room like the other big kids and it worked! I couldn't believe it! So I'm thinking we might try letting her sleep in a a sleeping bag in her room for naps soon and see how it goes. We'll be needing the crib soon enough because.....

We're finally going to start ttc #2!!!! I know it's the right time because I'm excited about it, I'm jealous of a pregnant co worker, and am hoping for a little Christmas present/miracle in the form of a positive HPT. I just finished my Nuvaring yesterday so AF should start next week. I have an appointment with a new OB/GYN next week who is actually a male. I can't believe I'm going to a male doctor, but one of my very good friends is his nurse and she highly recommends him. Plus the hospital he delivers at is SUPER NICE and I think I'll feel comfortable with him since Erica (my friend) is his nurse. Her and I went to Country USA this year.

I signed up for a bunch of events with my moms group. They finally scheduled some Friday events so Paige and I can go. Tomorrow we're going to the play area at the mall in Green Bay, Paige really likes it so it should be fun. I'm also signed up for 3 of their Mom's Nights Out, those are fun too. We usually go out for coffee or out to eat. We're also going to a children's museum in Appleton in November.

I think every kid in the world has this nasty cold with the bad cough. A co worker of mine is home sick today and I'm assuming it's with her 3 year old dd and another co worker told me both of her kids had it. Terri's little streaker girl has it too...poor little ones. It's a nasty one.

Back to work!

Back to work!!!

36 Pounds and 39 Inches

That's how big Paige is already!!! We took her to the dr. last night because she had a funky sounding cough and was quite lethargic and didn't have much of an appetite. She had a 101 temp there, but everything else was fine. She's just got a yucky cold, so we bought her some cough medicine. Every kid in town must have this virus because all the generic cough medicine was gone! She seems to be better today, temp is between 99-100, the cough seems better, but she isn't eating ANYTHING and refuses to drink any fluids. Stubborn creature.

I stayed home with her again today because of the fever last night. She seems to have more energy today, but not as much as usual. I hope she takes a nice long nap.

I just can't believe how big she is!!!! No wonder my back is sore from hauling her around.

Got some really bad news yesterday that has shattered my trust in the decency and goodness of people. I really don't want to go into it, but basically my outlook on the goodness of people has totally changed.

Anyway, that's about it. Going to relax while Paige is napping!

Hangin In There

Yep, still here, and haven't heard anything new. I'm just so relieved that we got my dad home that I haven't been able to think of anything else.

Took Paige to a nearby pumpkin patch tonight after work; I think she's just a little too young for it. She didn't really want to ride the kiddie train, climb around in the kid sized tractor, or go in the petting zoo, corn maze, corn stalk tunnel, etc. All she wanted to do was walk around the pumpkins and attempt to pick them up. Maybe next year.

Mike got us new cell phones because we were due for an upgrade. It's a Motorola camera phone and it has WAY too many bells and whistles! I was just used to my last one and now I have to try to figure this one out.

We're headed out for the weekend. I'm taking Paige to my mom and dad's tomorrow, then Mike is meeting us there tomorrow night after work. Him and I are going to an hotel/indoor water park for the weekend; should be a fun getaway for us!

I'm so tired and Paige has been getting up around 6am so off to bed for me!

Update on Horrible News

Dad's home now; he got out on a cash bond. The preliminary hearing is November 2nd and one of the conditions of his bond is that he can't have unsupervised contact with a minor female, meaning he can't be alone with Paige. Absolutely ridiculous. But the good thing is that he's home and now we wait for the next hearing. Please more prayers!

Horrible News

More charges:
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061017/GPG0101/61017038/1978

I'm sick to my stomach and can hardly function at work. Lots of prayers please.

Very Quick Update

Work is out of control busy, but wanted to give my ya yas a quick update. OK, here goes:
1. I'm over the worst with my pinkeye. Still on the drops, but the I want to rip my eye out feeling is gone.
2. *Knock on wood* Paige and Mike seem to have escaped the pinkeye plague. Probably because we avoided each other like we had the plague.
3. I have a ton of pix to post of Paige, but I have no time to load them into photobucket.
4. I had 9 voicemail messages waiting for me since last week Wednesday at work and actually got another one while checking mine. Still haven't returned all of the calls.
5. Paige is talking up a storm...today she told me "I missed you Mama!" when I got her out of bed!
6. She's sleeping a little better, woke up at 6:30am the past few days instead of 5:30am. Would love it if she could make it to 7am.
7. We discovered she LOVES playing in leaves and she also loves her new tunnel thing we got for 50 cents at a rummage sale last week.
8. I have to pee bad.

OK, hope to post pix tomorrow!!!!

Pinkeye

I have PINKEYE!!!! What adult gets that? I'm so irritated! The pain started last night and actually woke me up a few times in the night. Luckily I was able to see a doctor at our clinic here in town this morning and he diagnosed it as pinkeye and prescribed antibiotics. It flippin' hurts..i thought pinkeye was itchy, not painful. So I'm going to try my best not to spread it to Mike and Paige, but I have a bad feeling it will. I feel like this house is crawling with pinkeye cooties.

The silver lining in this is that Mike took the day off to drive me to the doctor and also took Paige to the sitter so we've had a super nice relaxing day. I slept until about 10am when he woke me to go to the apt., then we stopped at the pharmacy afterwards, then to Radio Shack while waiting for my meds. Found out we can upgrade to camera phones for free during a promotion they're having next week so I think we'll do that. Stopped a few rummage sales afterwards and had so much fun! We'd never gone to them together before and got so much stuff for Paige! A brand new ez-bake oven, a bunny halloween costume, 5 pairs of shoes, a couple of pairs of jeans, couple of pairs of capris, a climb through tunnel thing, alphabet floor mats, hat, mittens and a xylophone for $20! So now we're just bumming around the house until Mike goes to pick her up. I also got out of a super boring mandatory work inservice today...WHO HOO!!!! It's so nice to have these "mental health days" every so often....just wish my eye wasn't burning.

Shots

I'm off work today so Paige and I got our flu shot at an immunization clinic here in town; one of the nurses I work with gave it to us. She also recommended a Hep A shot for Paige and I let her give one. I'm kinda second-guessing myself on that one, because Paige let out a pretty good scream while she got it because it stings; she was pretty clingy and tired when we got home. She gave me a hard time for her nap, but finally fell asleep not too long ago. She didn't make a peep for the flu shot, just tightened up her leg. My arm is a bit sore, but it'll go away.

We used two nightlights last night and they seemed to help a little. She seemed to fall asleep a little quicker. Of course she was awake around 6am this morning and shouting out to us to make her presence known. This morning it was actually pretty funny: "I'M AWAKE!!!! I'M AWAKE!!!!! I ALL DONE SLEEPING!!!!! I AWAKE!!! MAMA!!!! DADA!!!!!! DADA!!!!!!!"

I was about ready to fly through the roof though last night when putting her to sleep. As I was rocking her, she saw a pair of jammies sitting on her dresser and something inside of her flipped, she started throwing a fit and insisting on wearing these pink jammies. I tried offering that she can bring them to bed with her and she turned to me with fire in her eyes and screams "NO I PUT THEM ON!!!!" So I gave in, pick your battles right? So then Mike has to go in and rock her after a bit because she's screaming out for him. He comes back down and tells me he had to change her jammies back to the ones she had on originally. I almost screamed with frustration, what a manipulator! And poor Mike had no idea I had already changed her jammies or he never would have.

So anyway, Paige is now sleeping and I have a big stack of junk mail to go through, and Baby Story is on! My guilty pleasure!

Sleep Baby Sleep

OK, I've officially jinxed myself; Paige has been sleeping like crap lately. Last night I had her in bed by 7:30pm, she started crying out a few minutes later so I went in and rocked her. Went downstairs to walk on the treadmill, came back up around 8:45pm and hear her aquarium STILL going. Mike said he had to rock her once after I did too. She finally fell asleep around 9 or so. Woke up a few times in the night, but we didn't have to get her and was up at 5:30 again this morning! UGH!!!!! And it wasn't just kinda moaning and whining like maybe she'll fall asleep, it was all out yelling "MAMA MAMA MAMA DADA DADA DADA!!!!!!!" I'm like WTF? We were both rather cranky this morning and I was more than happy with dropping her off at Sandi's-it would have been a LOOONNGGG day today with it starting at 5:30am. I won't let her CIO because she won't quit crying, I just KNOW she won't. I think I'm going to have to get her a nightlight because she seems to be afraid of the dark. Of course she's napping like a dream, taking 2.5 hour naps at Sandi's...UGH!!!!!

Work is super busy right now and I can't get my head above water. I'm half listening to a work teleconference right now, talk about multi-tasking! I'm out the rest of the week so I'm trying to get things settled before I go. I'm afraid I'm going to come back on Monday to a full voicemail machine; I sent out letters to the businesses that sold tobacco to teenagers over the weekend. The bars can get pretty prickly with me when they get the letter. I need to talk with our sherriff's dept. about writing citations for these businesses.

We are going through stickers like they're going out of style. Thank God there's a Dollar General on my way home, they have CHEAP stickers. All she does is peel them off and put them on paper, but it entertains her like you wouldn't believe! She's gotten so silly lately, running around and making up songs, jumping all the time, etc. I think she forgot how to walk...she just RUNS EVERYWHERE!!!! It's crazy!!!

My Virgin Hair

has been violated. I finally broke down and got highlights this afternoon! I've colored it a few times, but it's been an all-over color, have never done the hightlighting thing before. But with this short, layered cut, I've been tossing it around for a while and finally went for it today. I got blonde highlights and mostly around my face. They're quite drastic at least to me anyway...I look almost blonde instead of my mousy brown. They'll take a little getting used to, but Mike really likes them and I think I do too.

I think Paige is FINALLY getting interested in art! I'm certainly no artist myself, but she has never been into coloring or other artsy stuff. But I bought some "washable" (read: they'll wash off if you get to them right away) markers earlier this week and suddenly coloring is like her new favorite thing to do. I bought a few other artsy things today at the Dollar General (my new favorite store): this window painting kit, stickers and a sticker album, a couple of sheets of Dora stickers, and play doh. Also some accessories for her princess Halloween costume. I broke the play doh out tonight and at first she wasn't sure what to do with it, but ended up LOVING it! She sat at her table and I sat on the floor by her and we played with that darn play doh for probably a good half hour...an eternity for a 2 year old!

So I came up with the brilliant idea (well not really that brilliant) of putting together an arts and crafts box with stickers, markers, play doh, etc. for rainy days. I think I'm also going to start looking for some cheapie dress up items like purses, hats, shoes, scarves, etc. and put together a dress up box too. Maybe I can score some cheap costumes after Halloween to add to it. I know Sandi has a dress up box that she'll break out every now and then and the kids go nuts for it.

Arts, crafts, dress up...my baby is turning into such a big girl!!!!

Not Much New

to report. Work has been super busy the past few days and I don't see it slowing down anytime soon. It's like feast or famine for me; I like being busy, but not quite like this. I'm meeting with my boss tomorrow which should be helpful.

Paige is starting to really test and push her boundaries, even at Sandi's! She's finally getting brave enough after 2 years there to see how much she can get away with! I wonder if she's growing or going through some sort of developmental change because she's gotten a little more sassy and bossy with me, and her sleeping has gone downhill. She's been waking up in the night wanting us to come and rock her and then waking up before 6am. She napped for two hours at Sandi's today, but was still super tired, so I had her in bed around 7:15pm. She started crying out 2 minutes after I laid her down (which NEVER happens, she always goes to bed so well) so I went back in and rocked her, laid her down again, and when I was on the treadmill downstairs I could hear her crying on the monitor. Mike went back in and rocked her for a while, and here it's 8:30pm and I still hear her aquarium going. AGH!

Trying to get back in the groove of exercising more often. I walked Monday night, did Pilates last night, and walked again tonight. My eating is so out of control and I don't know how to stop it. I ate about a half a big bag of M&M's on my way home from work tonight during my 15 mile commute. I just couldn't stop eating them. I almost stopped at Dollar General to buy more in case I ran out. But I have no cash and was running a little late so I didn't.

OK, off to make some banana bread. We have some seriously overripe naners!

Aaahhhh.....

Feeling a bit better and more refreshed. I took today off of work and kept Paige home with me this morning until about 11am. Dropped her off at Sandi's in time for lunch and nap, then came home and was a huge bum! It was so nice to be home alone in a quiet, semi-clean house, with most of the laundry put away! I did do the sheets and towels and hung them on the line. I cooked a decent meal (chicken noodles and veggie skillet thing) and Paige even ate some of it! I just got done with 26 minutes on the treadmill and I'll be taking a shower soon. One less thing to do tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow is going to be a crazy day work-wise, but my dad is coming up to watch her so I don't have to worry about daycare drop off and pick up. He's going to start coming up here every other Tuesday to watch her until the end of the year. Gives him something to do to occupy his time. However, it's a scary time to be in schools, and very small part of me is glad he's not teaching right now, just wish he could have left on HIS terms. Anyway, I digress...

Tomorrow, I have a car seat apt. at 8am, then have to pull together the materials for the booster seat presentations, meet my co worker for lunch, then off to the elementary school for the presentations. I enjoy those presentations, especially with the kindergarden kids. Once we get up to the 2nd graders they start to get mouthy.

Prayers for the familes affected in Pennslyvania. I can't even imagine.

I'm Drained

This working mom thing is bringing me down. Now I know the SAHM thing is not for me, but I just wish Mike had a different job so that he could help out with drop off and pick up. I mean he will when he has to (like when I'm out of town for work, or have to work late), but even one day a week where he was in charge of drop off and pick up would be nice, but it's just not possible where he's at right now.

But work has been very draining lately. The morale is horrible; the crap that other people can get away with makes me sick. For example the admin manager had her 40th (yes, 40th) work anniversary the other day so she brought in a bunch of food. Obviously she has way too much time at home and at work because she brought so much food she had to use a dolly to bring it in to the office and spent an hour of work time chopping veggies, cheese, sausage, and setting everything else up. My office is right by the break room so I could hear her chattering to everyone that came in about her anniversary and longevity check that came in over the weekend. IT WAS SO ANNOYING. This is from the same manager that yelled at our secretary for taking too long to put flowers in a vase. I slammed my door shut after about 10 minutes. I just can't tolerate that kind of shit.

Today we had an preparedness exercise (like a simulation or rehearsal) of a plague release by terrorists. We had to pretend that it really happened and open up a mass clinic to dispense meds to those exposed. I'm the Public Information Officer which does ALL of the media work, so I'm in what's called the Emergency Operations Center or the EOC. It was a huge joke. It was a mess. Completely unorganized and totally chaotic. My boss tried to do her best, but she's supposed to work closely with our Emergency Management director and he's an incompetent piece of shit. He really fucked the whole thing up. Later on we were supposed to share our thoughts and I said if we ever have an emergency here and have to open up and EOC I'm scared of what will happen. I spent tons of time preparing for this and making sure I knew my stuff and we spent the whole time trying to get organized.

Got back to my office a little after 4pm (quitting time) and realized that a co worker and I are supposed to present to an elementary school Tuesday afternoon on booster seats and we haven't done a thing to prepare. Not a big deal, but I'm off on Monday, and have a car seat apt. and meeting Tuesday afternoon. So I very quickly ran off 125 copies of a letter to parents, 125 color copies of a booster seat coupon, but still have to go over the cirriculum with my co worker, make 125 copies of a few other sheets, and find the stickers we pass out and video we show. I have about 2 hours on Tuesday to do this, plus catch up from being gone for a few days. I'M SO STRESSED!!!!!!

Plus I'm getting a cold. At least my dad is coming up tomorrow to watch Paige so I won't have to drop off and pick up. He also offered to cook supper tomorrow night and I'm sure he'll do laundry if I leave directions for him. He's a good dad.

Ho Hum

Nothing too exciting to report. Let's see, I'll do a quick recap of the past few days.

Thursday: worked and then had a mom's night out with this mom's group I joined. It's through moms.meetup.com, and all of the get togethers are in Green Bay. It's mostly SAHM so most of the get togethers are playdates during the weekdays, but I've been to a few of the mom's nights out. It is a really fun group and it's making me even more anxious to sell our house and move! Anyway Thursday night was a night out at this pottery painting, jewerly making place and I made a bracelet for my mom from Paige. It had silver balls and charms that each said hope, faith, love, family and a cross. Kind of fitting for what we are going through right now.

Friday: my usual day home with Paige. She slept until 9:45 am!!! WTF?!?!?! Of course, she didn't nap that day, but not for lack of trying on my part. Oh well, at least I got to sleep in!

Saturday-Sunday: at my parent's house for my mom's birthday. She really seemed to like the jammies I made for her and the bracelet I made Thursday night. She of course had to wash the jammies right away just to "freshen them up", but I know it was to rid the dog cooties off of them. She's not a dog person. Paige was fairly well behaved there, didn't nap again on Saturday. We went out to eat that night and was pretty ancy. Luckily my dad has the patience of a saint and took her outside and walked around with her. Sunday we went to church where she was as my mom put it "active"; I put it as she was a hellion. The lady behind me even said "looks like she gives you a run for your money." I just nodded and agreed! Got home from church, fed her lunch and left for home. I was pretty anxious to get home. It's just kinda stressful being there when my sister is there. We're both so moody and push each other's buttons. Sunday I came home to a dog smelling dirty house and was not pleased. Mike had a friend over for the weekend and they went....FISHING!!!! The friend has a dog who must really stink because our house smelled like a kennel. So I had to jack Mike up for sitting on his ass for 2.5 hours after his friend left rather than rid our house of the dog stentch and hair all over. So Mike took a cranky Paige downstairs and attempted to keep her squawking to a minimum while I vacuumed and cleaned our floors like a crazy woman. I was sweating. Not fun.

Anyway, yesterday and today were just usual get ready, drop Paige off, work, pick up Paige days. Yesterday I was super lazy and didn't cook so we had Chunky soup! Today I got home early and actually cooked a decent meal, pork chops, rice and mixed veggies. Paige of course didn't eat, but seemed to be alright with leaving the kitchen and playing in her room while we finished up. Maybe we're making progress in that area.

Ok, this turned into a long blog. I know I know, I should just blog more often!!!!

Lost and Found

Lost: one semi-sweet little girl

Found: one drama queen who hits, sasses, screams, squawks at EVERYTHING her dad and I say and refuses to eat.

The past few days have been pretty bad. I keep wondering what are we doing wrong? Is this just a phase or is this how life is going to be? Is it going to get worse? Is it because she's tired? If she's tired, why doesn't she sleep more? And the real kicker: WHY WON'T SHE EAT?!?!?!?!

Last night was one of the worst nights with her. She actually had a sassy day at Sandi's and had to sit in time out there. That's really unusual; she's normally an angel there and I think this was only the 2nd time she's sat in TO there. We got home, and as we are walking in, she didn't like something I said and hit me, so automatic 2 minute TO. She of course screamed the whole time. So I don't know if she was mad at me the rest of the night or what, BUT I COULDN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT LAST NIGHT. It was awful. Every word I said, every move I made I got sassed or squawked at. I can't really even describe it.

Every supper is a battle. We had leftover sloppy joes last night and I told her all she had to eat was the bun. What kid doesn't like buns? Well ours I guess. She refused so we said if you're not going to eat, then leave the table and the kitchen. She actually took that pretty well and played on her own for a bit. She kept asking for peanut butter or pasta, but we said no.

This one takes the cake...I pulled up to Sandi's the other day and all the kids were outside eating fruit snacks. I said, wow, I thought you didn't like fruit snacks. I know dumb thing to say, but Sandi was like "really, she eats them here." We can't get her to touch them at home. What kid doesn't eat fruit snacks? Do you know how utterly frustrating it is to KNOW she eats something at Sandi's but not here? UGH!!!!!!!!!!!

Long Weekend

It was the usual Friday-Sunday, but it felt like much longer than that and here's why:

Friday: My usual day home with Paige. It was hmmm, how shall I say this...interesting? She has suddenly developed a bossy and defiant streak. The terrible two's have arrived at our house! "I want Cheerios. I want pudding. I want pasta. I wear brown shoes. Mama, watch out. Mama come here!" We're working on her saying "please" like "Mama can I please have Cheerios?" But it comes out like this:
Paige: "I want cheerios!"
Me:"What do you say?"
Paige: stares back, knowing full well what to say, but won't say it
Me: "Please? Say I want cheerios please"
Paige: (who normally copies my every word) "please"

UGGGHHHH!!!!!

Saturday: Guess what Mike did? If you said fishing, you're correct! I'M SO SICK OF FISHING AND CAN'T WAIT UNTIL HE STOPS GOING AT 5AM AND IS TIRED THE REST OF THE DAY BUT WON'T ADMIT HE'S TIRED. I needed some interfacing for the jammies I'm making for my mom's birthday present this Saturday and needed to get out of the house, so I took Paige to Walmart in Green Bay. She was actually quite good. Got home, fed her lunch, put her down for a nap, then volunteered at our church picnic all afternoon selling raffle tickets. Got home, and took Paige back up to the picnic for supper. Visited with some people we know, played at the park for a while, then came home and put Paige to bed. Mike went out in the garage to fix the Saturn, I went to turn on the kitchen faucet and as I shut it off, the handle popped off and the water kept running. I yelled for Mike to come in NOW and he luckily got the water to stop, but declared that we needed a new faucet. UGH!

Sunday: I take Paige to church and rather than come with us, Mike goes to Green Bay to get a new kitchen faucet. I'm still slightly peeved about that. He could've waited the hour we were in church, but nooooooo. But luckily Paige was good again in church. She got a little ancey a few times, but quiet and well behaved overall. Mike takes WAY too long in Green Bay and doesn't get home until almost lunchtime. So I put him in charge and it takes Paige an hour to eat lunch because he kept negiotiating with her. But whatever. I put her down and sit down to read the paper and watch football. About 2pm, Mike's cell phone rings and it's his dad. Him and Mike's stepmom are on their way to Green Bay to see Mike's step sister and then us, and their car is broke down in Green Bay. Mike gives them a tow truck phone number and heads down to Green Bay for the 2nd time in one day. Paige is still napping, but I lose it. I was so hoping for some time to myself, or at least for Mike to take over with Paige after her nap, but NOOOOOOO. And of course Mike or his dad had no clue if they were going to see the step sister or come straight here or whatever. Neither option was that good. They opt to see the stepsister and work on her car. Mike calls from her college and says they're going to just take a look at the car and they'll be leaving in about 15 minutes. I'm like, yeah right, but whatever. So about 10 minutes later he calls and says they're going to be at least a half hour because her car is overheating, and I go "oh you don't say! I KNEW THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!!!!!" But they eventually all got to our house around 5:30 or so, and the step sister is carrying a huge laundry bag and the stepmom informs us that she needs to do laundry here. I'm thinking, huh? Are you going to pay me for it? But then she says they'll fold our laundry in return, which was much appreciated because we had at least 4 loads to be folded. I guess they had already worked it out with Mike, but he hadn't informed me of that. So we cooked pizza for supper and Paige ran around full of piss and vinegar showing off for them. I said that to her and Mike's dad said "oh no she's not showing off..don't call my girl a show-off." I said, "oh she sure is showing off" We went back and forth about 3 times before I finally dropped it, but it really chapped my ass. Um, I'm her mom, I know her BETTER than anyone else. So I got her in bed and worked on my sewing the rest of the night so I wouldn't have to talk to Mike's dad.

Today: They spent the night so they were in my way this morning, and Paige was extra-emotional and throwing fits left and right, so it was not a fun morning.

But we have a few fun things coming up. My dad called last night needing something to do tomorrow so he is going to come up and watch her and then we're going down to their place on Saturday for my mom's birthday. Mike isn't going because he'll be........FISHING!!!! But he said that it will be one of the last times he goes fishing for a while. I say IT will be the last time he goes fishing.

A Friendship Poem to My Ya Yas

Are you tired of those sissy "friendship" poems that always sound good,but never actually come close to reality? Well, here is a series of promises that actually speak of true friendship. You will see no cutesy little smiley faces here-Just the stone cold truth of our great friendship.

1. When you are sad -- I will help you get drunk and plot revenge
against the sorry bastard who made you sad.

2. When you are blue -- I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

3. When you smile -- I will know you finally got laid.

4. When you are scared -- I will rag on you about it every chance I get.

5. When you are worried -- I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be until you quit whining.

6. When you are confused -- I will use little words.

7. When you are sick -- Stay the hell away from me until you are well again. I don't want to catch whatever you have.

8. When you fall -- I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass.

9. This is my oath..... I pledge it to the end. "Why?" you may ask;
"because you are my friend".

Friendship is like peeing your pants, everyone can see it, but only you can feel the true warmth.

Love ya girls!

Rummage Sale Update

OK, it's been a couple of days, so I don't remember everything, but here's a summary. I think I spent around $40 on Friday and got 4 pairs of pants, a dress, 3 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of winter boots, a Blues Clues computer thing, a Leap Frog Phonics bus, a puzzle, 2 Rachael Ray cookbooks, a couple of Dr. Phil books, a Rubbermaid storage thing with 3 drawers, a shirt for myself, and a TON of books. She has plenty of clothes now!

Our weekend was a lot of fun. The wedding was really nice, and we hung out with a really fun couple. The husband was the other groomsman but his wife didn't stand up, so her and I kind of hung out when the guys were busy with wedding stuff. Saturday before the wedding, I shopped at Kohls and spent over $300. I'm returning quite a bit though, I just can't afford that. I couldn't help it though, they have such cute clothes!

My work conference was OK, some of the sessions were really good, others really boring. It was a four hour drive home, so I was SO GLAD to get here! I missed Paige so much! She changed so much in the few days I didn't see her. It's amazing how much she is talking.

I am such a klutz. I was getting gas today and tripped over the hose as it was plugged into my gas tank and actually fell down! I landed really hard on my left arm and it's really sore now. I have a digusting bruise on my knee, and my right ankle is sore too. I just about died, but I don't think anyone saw me! I was planning to go into the gas station to get a bottle of water, but changed my mind in case the person working saw me!

I am officially at my heaviest weight and I am so disgusted with my body. I'm contemplating starting WW again, but I'm just not sure if I can committ to it. If I hate my body so much and am disgusted with it, why can't I commit to a weight loss program? I must have food issues.

On that happy note...off to bed. Mama's tired!

Let the Madness Begin!

WHO HOO!!! Our citywide rummage sales started today, so I was 2 (yes, 2) hours late for work today. 1 hour was due to me not getting up until 7:15am and Paige being an overall whiny, crankypants this morning, and the other hour was rummaging.

We're broke as a joke right now, and only have $40 in our checkbook. I raided Mike's coin jar last night and picked out all the quarters and paid in quarters at 2 of the sales and for lunch today at Subway! I'm going to take out $30 to get me started at the 7am sales tomorrow morning and then run to the bank when it opens. I'm going tomorrow with a friend from work.

Today already I spent $18 and got Paige brand new snowpants, about 10 books, 3 tops, a Wiggles movie, a Little Tikes doll highchair, a winter hat, and a sweater for me! I can't wait to go tomorrow!

Mike is standing up in a wedding this weekend a couple of hours away so he has off of work tomorrow. He's going to drop Paige off at my mom and dad's tomorrow morning so I can rummage without worrying about getting back in a hurry. Then he's heading down to pick up his tux and get to the rehearsal. I'm driving separately and will probably stop and see my parents and Paige on my way down. Then I'm heading straight to a work conference on Sunday afternoon that runs until Tuesday, so I won't see Paige from Friday until Tuesday. I'm going to miss her and Mike so much! Well we're not sure if we're going to the conference because my boss didn't register us and it's full, so we'll see if they'll have room for 3 of us.

OK, it's 4:01, 1 minute past quitting time so I'm outta here!

I Say Darnit (and other Paige-isms....)

Paige has been talking so much and saying such funny things, I have to try to remember them. A few from the weekend:

"I say darnit": after farting, I asked her "what do you say" and I usually get a "scue me", but for some reason last night it was "I say darnit" and then she had to repeat herself over and over. It was pretty hilarious.

"I lay down mama's boob": after squirming around on my lap while rocking before bed, she finally found a comfy spot, and declared that it was on "mama's boob." Now she says it every time I rock her.

"I AM!!!!": after me telling her to put the puzzle together, she gives me this huge look full of attitude and proclaims "I AM!!!!!"

"Paige took a poop in her crib": fairly self explanatory, said to Mike after a nap. Luckily she was wearing a diaper!

"I got snots": again, fairly self explanatory, followed by one of the following several actions: walking up to Mike and wiping her nose on his shirt, wiping her own snot away with the back of her hand, or sucking the snot back in and whining "Paige can't blow" when I hold a kleenex up to her nose and tell her to blow. UGH!

That's all I can think of for now.

Our weekend was pretty low key. Paige has a cold, so we didn't want to do too much because she was quite tired and cranky. Mike ended up catching it and *knock on wood*, I still haven't. I catch all of her illnesses, so I'm shocked and avoiding Mike like the plague for fear of catching this cold. Anyway, Friday was our usual stay home and be bums day. Saturday morning, I went to a few rummage sales, then to Sam's club and grocery shopping in Green Bay by myself. Mike took Paige fishing, and then we went to the park after her nap. Sunday morning, Mike went fishing most of the morning, I took Paige to church ALONE, and then we played outside that afternoon. She just loves her sandbox and swing! She was so good in church and it was good to know that I can handle her alone. Then yesterday, we were major bums. I started working on the pj's I'm making for my mom's birthday. Knit is such a pita to work with. I can't get it to lay flat.

And now I'm back at work and procrastinating so I better roll. Hugs and kisses!

Saint Sara

Yep, that's my new name. I feel that it's well deserved after putting up with annoying FIL since MONDAY NIGHT!!!!!!

FIL and MIL have been divorced for about 5 years now and both are remarried. FIL is remarried to a woman we'll call "B" and she has 2 daughters, one already in college and one starting college next week. She's (Sara) going to school in Green Bay and is moving in today. So FIL drives Sara's car over here on Monday night to make sure it runs good. Tuesday, Mike has off from work because it's his birthday so they go fishing all day. Wednesday, we both had to work so FIL stayed at our house all day, and I took Paige to daycare. There's no way, I'd leave her with him, he's so useless. So I get home and he's got the TV cranked up to about 50 because he must be going deaf or something and he immediately wants to love and kiss on Paige and she wants no part of it. Well long story short, it was an extremely frustrating night until Mike got home from work because the TV was super loud, he kept falling asleep and snoring, Paige was whiny and I was trying to get supper ready and have everything done at the same time; not easy for me when I'm alone and we're cooking brats, potatoes, baked beans and corn on the cob. FIL is diabetic and when Mike asked him what he had during the day, he said a couple pieces of zucchini bread for breakfast and pudding for lunch. Pudding for lunch. Yeah, that's a healthy meal, especially for an overweight diabetic. He had to take 4 ibuprofen and 2 Vicadin just to go fishing with Mike on Tuesday because he has so many aches and pains. He kept calling Paige "my little girl" which really irritated me. I'm like, did you carry her for nine months? Did you puke several times a day for 3 months? Did you push her out of your vagina? No? Then she's NOT YOUR LITTLE GIRL!!!!!!!!

Aaahhhh, much better. Long day at work today, I'm working until about 7pm tonight at one of our school's orientation nights, encouraging people to sign up for our walking program. I WILL be in chat tomorrow!

Take My Quiz!!!!

Take This Quiz - http://www.quizyourfriends.com/quizpage.php?quizname=060828160305-889819&

Back to Work

Well, OK, I've been back to work for almost the whole day already, but I'm finally just now getting around to blogging.

Madison was good. The conference was kinda boring, but it was nice to get away for a few days and be alone. I went shopping and spent too much money, as usual.

Weekend update:
Friday: went to my mom and dad's for the morning and Paige's nap, then to Oshkosh to visit a friend and her little one for a few hours. It was fun, but a lot of driving. Of course, Paige didn't nap at my parent's house, and fell asleep in the car on our way back home around 5:30pm. I knew I had at least an hour to probably 1.5 hour drive ahead of me, so I didn't know if I should let her sleep until we got home, then put her to bed right away, or stop in Green Bay and wake her up. I called Mike with my dilemma and we remembered that DUH she'd have to eat supper, so we decided I'd stop in Green Bay at her favorite restaurant to eat. She was so good, I decided to brave Joann Fabrics with her, against my better judgement at 7:10pm that night. But she was SO GOOD!!! I couldn't believe it! I was picking out fabric to make pj's for my mom for her birthday next month and couldn't find any I liked. Paige kept saying "how 'bout pink, Mama? how 'bout blue?" She kept telling the fabric cutting lady that those were "gramma's jammies" so I'm hoping she doesn't let the cat out of the bag in front of my mom!

Saturday: Mike went fishing in the AM, got home right before Paige's nap. Him and I had a very nice :) afternoon, then met some friends at the zoo and went out for pizza afterwards.

Sunday: I slept in thanks to my wonderful hubby, then had pancakes for breakfast. Spent the day playing with Paige. Lots of fun! She was in such a good mood, especially when we played outside.

I can't believe how much she is talking! She is just a little chatterbox!

Quick Update

Didn't want to leave you all thinking I was ready to jump off a cliff after last night's depressing post.
1. I got the checkbook balanced! WHO HOO!!! And we actually have money! Double WHO HOO!!!! We'll see how long the money lasts.
2. Paige woke up at the respectable time of 7am today and was in a good mood. We had a nice morning.
3. Just got done meeting with my boss and bitched about the idiots I work with. Hopefully something will get done about it.

I miss my ya yas big time! I'm blocked at work and can't chat here. Not sure if I'll be able to make it in this Friday either. Is there another site that we could try? Hugs and kisses!

Allow Me For a Moment...

to bitch, piss and moan about the following: (and in no particular order of importance, just as they come to me)
1. Rascall Flatts "What Hurts the Most" playing on POP radio. Huge pet peeve of mine. If you're a country artist, release country songs. Don't get greedy and cover it up by saying your music appeals to all.
2. Paige waking up at 6:15 am yesterday and ME HAVING TO WAKE HER UP AT 8:45 AM THIS MORNING. What's up with that? We put her to bed and down for naps at the same time every day.
3. Paige's lack of interest in the potty. I think she'll be going to kindergarden in diapers.
4. The fact that our house has been on the market for 1.5 years and I am starting to seriously wonder if it will ever sell.
5. The fact that I get a small twinge of longing when I see a baby, but I know we're not ready yet. I want a baby, but I'm not ready for a second child.
6. Paige asking Mike for something after I've already said no.
7. Paige totally ignorning me and not listening.
8. Paige shushing me, telling me to stop talking, or telling me to leave her alone when she doesn't like something I say.
9. How I've been depressed the past few weeks and wonder if I need to up my happy pill dosage. I'm just exhausted at the end of the day and have no energy.
10. How Paige is so well behaved for everyone except me and turns into a monster when I'm around.
11. The fact that I can't get my checkbook to stay balanced.
12. Everyone and everything at work is irritating me. I work in the cradle of idiocy.

OK, I think that's about it. Wow, that feels good.

Quick weekend update:
Friday: my sister came up to spend the day with Paige and watch her while Mike and I went to a concert with another couple. The concert was just Ok, I had more fun talking to the wife who is due with baby #1 in October. My sister seriously irritated me with her digs about how much TV we let Paige watch.

Saturday: Paige was a total monster in the morning, so I decided to hit some rummage sales. Was a little afraid of leaving her with Mike in the mood she was in, but he said she was really good. She just needed to be left alone, which is something that doesn't happen when anyone from my family visits, especially my sister. Highlight of my weekend was when I found a sandbox for Paige at a rummage sale. Marked at $15, asked the lady if she'd take $10 for it and she did. SCORE!!!! Actually the highlight was fitting it into the trunk of my Taurus. It just barely fit. Stopped to get sand at the hardware store and waited anxiously for her to wake up from her nap so she could see it and play with it. She LOVES it! I'm so excited! Got a shirt, a few dresses, books and a Big Bird movie at the sales.

Sunday: Slept in thanks to my wonderful hubby. Laid around like a bum around the house, put Paige down for a nap, had a little afternoon fun with the hubby =), and took Paige to the fair to see the animals. She really liked them, except for the chickens, roosters and turkeys who scared her with their loud clucking and gobbling.

Going to Madison tomorrow for a conference and am staying 2 nights. I'm kinda looking forward to getting away for a few days, but I know I'll miss Paige like crazy. My grandma lives about an hour away from Madison so I'm meeting her for supper tomorrow night. She'll be 80 soon, but you'd never know it. She's so sharp.

Aaaaahhhhh....I feel so much better now. Off to catch CSI Miami and see my boyfriend, David Caruso!

The Crankies

The crankies seem to have taken over our house for the following reasons:
One of Mike's ears has been sore for a few days, I insisted it was infected, we ran to Green Bay to a FastCare Clinic, and it turns out it wasn't infected, but he did have a Duke hair in there. Yuck. So no infection, no meds. Plus he has a mouth full of canker sores, and is crabby from those.

Paige was generally miserable all weekend and we finally figured out why today.....the 2 year molars seem to be making an appearance. YAHOO.

I worked at a car seat check on Saturday and it sucked the big one. The instructors are so nit picky and anal, and rather than telling us this new rule about the angle of infant seats over email BEFORE the event, they wait until we've installed the seat tight, and belittle us in front of the parents and make us re-install the seat, and then hem and haw over the recline. BTW, in the past to make sure the seat is at a 45 degree angle, we make sure the base of the car seat is parallel to the vehicle frame. Now the manufacturers of the car seats are saying to rely on their angle indicator alone. Well if we rely on that, the seats are too upright and baby's heads are going to be flopping forward. I finally told one instructor I don't care about the manufacturer's rules, I care about the baby's safety and I'm not sending these parents home in a seat that upright. GRRRRRRR.....

I got fucked on ebay. My Gap Jeans only sold for $15, 2 pairs of shorts for $10 and the real kicker a pair of Old Navy pants in size TALL ONLY SOLD FOR .99!!!!!! I'm so pissed. I looked at the listing and it looked good to me. I gave the measurements, had two pictures and clearly labled them as tall, and I have 79 feed back comments and they're 100% positive!!!! AGH!!!!

My parents and sister are coming tomorrow so Mike and I have been cleaning tonight. It's a Holy Day of Obligation and I forgot to call my church to find out when Mass is tomorrow and I'm sure I'll get the not going to church lecture. I just don't feel like dealing with them.

Paige whined, fussed, threw tantrums and clung to me all weekend. Mike spanked her last night after she sassed me over and over (not too happy about the spanking BTW because she kept saying "Dad spank Paige" and tonight we finally put her in time out for the first time. It seemed to work pretty well. She sat on the kitchen chair for 2 minutes. It all started when she insisted on taking 2 cups of water to bed, we said no pick either the green one or the purple one, she picked the purple one, we put the green one away and all hell broke loose. She screamed and would not calm down, and would not sit on my lap to read books before bed. We said come and sit on mom's lap before I count to 3, or you're sitting in time out. Well she sat in time out.

PHEW. I feel much better.

Paige Brag

Paige is talking up a storm, it's so darn cute! Her new word is "yeah". So we are having conversations back and forth, and she'll answer Dora when she asks questions. I love it! This morning when I went into her room to get her, the first thing she does is rub her eye and say "booger in my eye." I said "you have a booger in your eye?" (while trying not to laugh) and she goes "yeah." Her and Mike have really bonded a lot the past few weeks, so that's a relief for me.

Our weekend was quite boring, but relaxing. I worked Saturday morning, and then we all hung out at home the rest of the day. Mike was going to go fishing Saturday afternoon and evening, but I convinced him not to. Paige started saying "my go wif? my go fishing?" and pretending to reel and it was breaking my heart. So Mike decided not to go.

Our living room TV pooped out on Saturday so we headed to Green Bay to buy a new one. We debated back and forth of whether to get the nice HDTV, flat screen blah blah blah TV now, or wait on that one and get a cheapie $120 one. We got the cheapie $120 one. We are stretched so thin right now there's just no way we could take on another monthly payment. We ended up getting a 24 inch RCA that's actually really nice.

We were quite productive in Green Bay. Made a couple of returns at JCPenney's and bought a bunch of towels as a wedding gift for some friends getting married next month. Returned a bunch of stuff at Kohl's, and picked up a skirt (hopefully) in my size for this same wedding. Paige was in a mood and I wasn't able to try it on. Next headed to Old Navy to make even more returns and picked up a shirt and capris for Paige and shorts for Mike all for $17 on clearance AND on a gift card. WHO HOO! Then to the play area where I yelled at a boy who was way too old to be in there to be careful around Paige, and then to Moe's one of our favorite restaurants for supper. Paige was tuckered out and actually fell asleep while I rocked her. That NEVER happens.

I listed some workout tapes and DVD's on ebay over the weekend and some clothes today. Two of the tapes sold already, and I'm hoping everything else does, especially the clothes. They don't fit me right and are too nice to give away. One is a pair of Gap long and lean jeans so they should sell. WE NEED MONEY BAD!!!! Gas is $3.05 and rising.

I think I might work at a car seat check on Saturday morning and then we're thinking about taking Paige to the zoo on Sunday.

It's Freaking Hot

I feel so bad for Mike and anyone else working outside today. It's 95, feels like 103 and is suppposed to get up to 100 today. That's just way too hot. The dew point is 75 and our humidity is 59%. UGH. I actually feel even worse for Mike because he has to go in and out of air conditioned buildings all day. Going from 100 outside to 70 inside is just not good for you. And the sad part is it's about 65 in my office and I'm wearing a sweater.

We had to take Paige to the doctor on Friday. Thursday after her nap, my sitter called my cell phone and said Paige was limping and wanting to walk as little as possible. So Mike picked her up and he said putting her in the car seat was a nightmare. I got home and she sat on my lap all night. It was so sad. She refused to straighten her right leg, put weight on it and absolutely didn't walk all night. We gave her ibuprofen for the pain. Friday she seemed better, walking on it and not screaming when we changed her diaper, but we took her in anyway. After doing a bunch of tests on her legs and right hip, the doc. thinks she may have pinched a nerve. Makes sense because she kept saying "Paige cold" on Thursday night which was so weird because she was actually quite hot from sitting on my lap all night. She knows what cold means so we couldn't figure it out at the time, but it makes sense now. We figure that her leg was tingling and numb and she thought it was cold. Poor girl. But she's back to 100% now and not limping; thank goodness, I was a nervous nellie mom.

Saturday we were a bunch of bums. We didn't feel like doing anything so we all just hung out at home and actually napped while Paige napped. Sunday morning Mike went fishing and then we went to a friends house after her nap.

Is writing thank you notes a thing of the past now? We ALWAYS wrote prompt, personal thank you notes after receiving any kind of present when I was growing up and I still do today. A family member graduated from high school this past May and we gave her $10. We got a TYPED thank you note from her at least 6 weeks later. LAME. Even worse, was the thank you note I got on Saturday from a friend for the money we gave her at her wedding IN FEBRUARY!!!! I felt bad about writing thank you notes 3 weeks after my birthday because I thought that was too late. As I'm writing this, I'm remembering that I never wrote Terri a thank you note for the Jack's Music Show DVD's, so I'm eating crow. BUT, I do have a few things to send her as a thank you in return.

OK, back to work. I'm so bored at work and I do have things to do, I'm just not motivated at all.

Recovery Day

Well what was supposed to be a nice relaxing day to recover from our crazy "vacation" turned out to be a chaotic one. Mike is on vacation all this week so he went fishing early this morning and got home around noon.

Paige decided today was not a good day to catch up on her sleep and was up at 5:50 am. Luckily my dad was here so he got up with her. I slept until about 8am, only because I could occasionally hear Paige screeching for me and my dad shushing her. She was in fine form again today, refusing to have anything to do with my dad and only wanting me.

I laid her down around noon right before Mike got home. He ran up to the grocery store, got home, put some stuff in the chest freezer and proclaimed that it was broken. ACK!!!! So we managed to get all the meat in the upstairs freezer and decided to scrap the rest. Mike hustled down to Green Bay (a 40 minute ride) to buy a new one, and called me when he got there to have me check the electrical outlet. Turns out it is probably the outlet and not the freezer so that's good. But we'll have to call an electrician, and the freezer is kind of touchy.

Paige also decided today was a good day to only nap for an hour so she was super cranky this afternoon, which made for a LONG day. Luckily she was happy playing outside in her pool for a while this afternoon. She also played with Mike and my dad for a while tonight after supper which was nice since she avoided him so much earlier in the day. We had a lot of tantrums today since she was such a crank and I literally collapsed on my recliner after I laid her down.

I'm really hoping that she sleeps late tomorrow morning. Mike is taking her to daycare and then down to a friend's cabin to fish tomorrow and Thursday. Hopefully she'll get back on track soon.

Thank God We're Home Part 2

What a crazy couple of days. We left Friday to go up north for Mike's mom's wedding reception party. Mike got done with work about 4 hours earlier than normal, so we left around 3:15pm and got there between 7:30-8pm. Mike's brother, SIL and 2 daughters got there right after we did so with all the commotion, Paige didn't go down until about 9pm, but she went down without a peep so I was happy. We were staying at a B&B across the lake from Mike's mom's house.

Paige slept fairly well Friday night, woke up cranky, but the wheels quickly came off on Saturday morning. Got to Mike's mom's house around 11am, tried to get Paige to play in the lake or the sand around it and she screamed the entire time. She was totally clingy and whiny and Mike and I quickly reached the ends of our ropes. Mike's SIL and I went back to the B&B so our daughters could nap. Paige took a good 2.5 hour nap so I was hoping she'd be in a better mood, but my hopes were quickly dashed. We tried the lake/sand thing again, but she screamed the whole time again. We gave up and just carried her around until she was ready to run around. We got the kids back to the B&B and Paige was in bed around 9:30pm.

Unfortunately, Paige woke up kinda early Sunday morning and was pretty cranky on Sunday. Sunday we all went up to Hayward to spend the day with Mike's dad. Unfortunately, I woke up late Saturday night/early Sunday morning with the runs from some bad food I ate at the party. The stomach cramps and runs got worse all day and peaked around 5pm and Paige was extremely clingy and whiney and poor Mike had to take care of her and I both at his dad's house. We went to this zoo for a couple of hours around lunch time and nap time, so Paige missed her nap and really started to fall apart late that afternoon. We ended up leaving around 5:30 pm, and had Paige in bed by 6:30 pm. She slept like crap, was up every hour, except when her and Mike slept in a recliner from 2am-5am. She slept for another hour after that maybe so this morning was a real treat.

We went back to Mike's mom's to fish and Paige actually had a pretty decent time. She caught a few fish all by herself and really seemed to enjoy it. Finally around 11:30am we were all at the end of our ropes so we left. The car ride home was the car ride from hell. Paige fell asleep about 10 minutes into the 4.5 hour ride so we thought we were doing well, but NOOOOO...., she wakes up about a half hour later, and ends up crying, screaming and whining the rest of the trip. It was just awful. She was so tired and just totally beside herself. We got home and snuggled for a few minutes, then she picked at her supper, threw a couple of tantrums and we got her to bed around 6:30pm. I wanted to get her down sooner, but my dad came up tonight and Paige was pretty excited about that so I couldn't put her down then.

She's been sleeping for about an hour and we've heard her cry out a few times already. I hope she sleeps well and sleeps late.

The weekend had some really good things and bad things. I've described the bad things already. The B&B that we stayed at was so nice and the owners were so sweet and friendly. It was nice to hang out with Mike's brother and SIL after the girls went to bed. We had the perfect set up. We were staying in the lower level of the B&B and there was a living with our two bedrooms off of it. So we'd put the girls down in each of our rooms, then hang out in the living room and watch movies. Paige and one of her little cousins instantly bonded and were best buddies the whole weekend. Her cousin is 5 months older than her and where she went, Paige went. It was so darn cute! And I know Mike's mom and dad really enjoyed having us around, even though they have no clue what it's like to have little kids around.

Phew!!!! Better head back upstairs and to bed. Good sleeping vibes for my little girl tonight!!!!!

Not Quite Unscathed

I hate the stomach bug!!!!

Mike called me on his way home last night and says he's not feeling good and thinks he has the same thing Paige and I had. Does it ever end? I think not. Luckily, he didn't seem to have it as bad as Paige and I. He laid on the couch most of the night, but managed to take out the garbage, make his lunch, and work on a fishing rod. I felt a little bad for him, but walking from our bedroom to the living room was exhausting for me, so I figured he'd be ok. He ended up going to work today even though he looked really tired. Stubborn mule.

I get home last night, and listen to a message from our realtor. Another agent in her company is going to drive by our house and if they like it, they'll want to see it the next day (today) around 5pm. I hate this house selling BS. Now with it being summer, we have to get the inside and outside of the house ready to show. So I'm thinking we'll have to spend all night getting the house clean and ready to show, and Mike calls to tell me he's sick. So I called our realtor back and said, even if they do want to look at it, tomorrow night is not going to work. Luckily she was ok with it and said she'll schedule them for next week. I'm so sick of all this crap. Monday she called and said she set up an appointment for a showing on Tuesday, called the client back to confirm, called me back about 10 minutes later and said the client cancelled already. UGH!!!! Shit or get off the pot, people.

At least we have Paige, she's such a blessing and full of life. We played outside for quite a bit last night. She'd rather dump water out of the pool and use the pool water to water flowers than actually play in the pool. It's pretty darn cute.

Sickness Update

Paige was sick Thursday night-Saturday night. Sunday morning around 3am I woke up with stomach cramps and spent the next 6 hours puking and pooping. I have never had stomach cramps that bad. I was breathing and moaning through them like I was in labor. Ugh, just awful. After that all ended, I spent the rest of the day either laying in bed or on my favorite recliner in the living room sleeping or watching TV. Poor Paige knew I was sick, and kept trying to come by and would say "mama sick" or "mama sad." Then if I seemed to be doing better she'd say "mama sick all done!" I had to tell her, no mama's still sick, but she disagreed. Poor girl, she's had a rough few days.

So I kept her home with me until about 9:30am yesterday watching this new Elmo DVD 3 times in a row! At least it was on the DVD player so I could watch TV. Finally she started asking for her little friends at Sandi's, so I dropped her off and spent the rest of the day lounging and watching WAY too much TV. I watched Animal Precinct, Dog the Bounty Hunter, and about 4 episodes of Baby Story. I got a burst of energy in the afternoon and vacuumed, swept my kitchen floor, washed and hung 2 loads of laundry outside. After I picked up Paige, she played in her pool while I watched her for about an hour. Finally I couldn't stand the heat so I brought her back in.

I had been craving mac and cheese all day so I made some for supper and inhaled it! It tasted so good!!!!! Paige had her peanut butter bread; now she's off of jelly. Silly girl.

I'm just amazed at the things she's putting together. We were downstairs looking at pictures on the computer and Mike was complaining that the TV remote wasn't working. I'm like, put batteries in it. So he did and lo and behold the remote started working. Eventually our Kodak software program on our crappy computer quit working so I told Paige we couldn't look at pictures anymore because the computer wasn't working. She started saying something over and over that I couldn't understand and I eventually figured out that it was "batteries in it, batteries in it". I was like, no we can't put batteries in it! Smart girl!!!!

Poor Baby Girl

What a sense of timing toddlers have. At 11:30pm I hear Paige crying and it doesn't sound like she's settling back down, so I go out in the living room ask Mike to get her up, I go pee, and I hear "hey honey? she puked." I'm like, great. So I stumble back to our room get my glasses and head into Paige's room to assess the damage. Mike is already stripping her bed and seeing what has been hit by the puke. Paige has it in her hair and all over her jammies. So I comfort her while attempting to get out the puke with a washcloth. Poor girl was so upset and shivering that I just didn't have the heart to stick her in the tub. She didn't want anything to do with Mike so I held her in the recliner until about 2am while sleeping on and off and then finally laid her down. She went down without a peep and slept until 9am this morning. WHO HOO!!!!

She has some sort of sickness, because she was rather lethargic and clingy today and only ate a half a bowl of oatmeal this morning. She took almost a 2 hour nap, then slept on my lap for another hour. She seemed to perk up after the second nap so I drove about 20 minutes to a rummage sale a co worker was having. We were there for about 10 minutes when Paige started throwing up all over herself in my co workers garage. It was horrible and so embarrasing. She threw up EVERYWHERE, including my hands when my co worker ran inside to get paper towels. The saving grace was that I got a pair of jeans shorts, an outfit, a bunch of puzzles and books for $2.50. She's just trying to get rid of the stuff; love those kind of rummage sales!!!

So we got home, I cleaned her up, we played for a bit because she seemed to perk up again, and put her down around 7:45pm. She went down without a peep and Mike went over to a friends house tonight. I told him that if Paige throws up again tonight, I'm calling him and he needs to be in the car on his way home before he even picks up his phone! I cannot comfort her and clean up puke alone.

I hope she feels better soon. It's like she wants to feel better because she'll want to play like her normal self and then the next minute she's crawling in my lap for some cuddling.

Nothing Exciting

Ok, I really have nothing to blog about, but I know I'll get yelled at by a certain pregnant ya ya who works in a school, has three daughters and a hot hubby.

Paige slept until almost 8am today so once again, I didn't get to work until 9:30am. I'm so lucky that my boss is so cool about that kind of stuff. Every once in a while, we get the lecture about being at work from 8a-4p, but public health work just doesn't really fit in those hours and she knows it, but she has to give us the speech just so she looks good to her boss. Anyway, I'll make up the time when I work this Saturday at the car seat check.

Nothing too exciting happened today. It was SO HOT!!! Paige played in her pool and watered a bunch of my flowers for me. It's supposed to be 95 this weekend. That's just way too hot.

Duke has been peeing on our sedums so some of the branches are dying off and I cut them tonight. Well I ended up butchering most of them and they are quite sparse now. Oh well, I know they'll grow back. While I was in the process of butchering them, my sister called me to tell me that one of our favorite Friends episodes was on. The one where Ross, Rachel and Chandler are trying to haul Ross's new couch upstairs and Ross keeps yelling "PE-VOT PE-VOT PE-VOT!!!!!" I can hear it in my head and am cracking up. Thank goodness Mike is working dilligently on a fishing rod and isn't watching me crack up to myself in front of the computer. He'd really think I was wacko then.

Mike and I will be married 5 years in October already. I can't believe it, it's gone so fast.

Raise Up Your Hands

OK I'm currently jamming out to Rascall Flatt's "Me and My Gang" in my office and it reminded me of a cute thing Paige did last night.

I was jamming out to this same song last night on the way home from picking her up and said "Dance with Mama Paigie!" And the line "raise up your hands" comes on and I look in the backseat and there's Paige with both of her hands up in the air!!! I just about died laughing!

My stupid palm pilot is still giving me a hard time. I tried to get some Word documents to sync onto it yesterday and now it won't even sync Adobe documents. It keeps telling me there's one unresolved file that won't sync and I've deleted every document! I don't know what it's trying to sync, but it's really getting on my nerves. I shut down my computer and logged back in about 5 times yesterday afternoon because that seems to be the computer fix it solution around here.

It might get up to 100 degrees this weekend so I might die from heat exhaustion. I'm supposed to work on Saturday at a car seat check in Green Bay and if we're outside, I'll leave. There's no way I'm cramming my 5'10" body in a 2 door vehicle and pushing and pulling on a car seat and it's straps to get a good install in 100 degree heat.

I did Pilates again last night. First I got sucked into an episode of Dog the Bounty Hunter at 8pm and another came on at 8:30 but I forced myself off my ass and did the Pilates. It's pretty fun. A good workout, but you feel refreshed afterwards, not ready to pass out.

Paige woke up at 5:30am this morning-what's up with that? Doesn't she realize her mom is not a morning person?!?!?!

Are We Ready?

I've been thinking alot about if/when #2 will come along. Mike and I had decided a few months ago that we were going to wait a long time. I keep thinking about the pros and cons of it lately and people keep asking when we're going to have another one. Well last night we got to talking and decided we're going to start ttc in the fall. It was weird!!!! I couldn't believe we were actually talking about having another baby! Then I laid awake for the longest time wondering if I was truly ready. All I could think about was how hard it would be. Like now, it's fairly easy to run errands with Paige; I plop her in the front of the shopping cart and sing or talk to her in the grocery store and she's a happy camper for a good 20 minutes or so. With a baby, what do I do? Put Paige in the front part and the baby carrier in the cart and only buy as much that will fit in the cart? What about unloading my car with the groceries and then putting them away? That's quite the adventure now, I can't imagine it with two. And getting two ready in the mornings and bring 2 to daycare? And paying for 2 in daycare? And when Paige goes to bed, I'm ready to crash from the long day, not take care of a baby! And how am I going to get up in the mornings with her if I've been up all night with a baby?!?!!???

Aaahhh so many questions, but I know I don't want to wait too much longer. I don't want a huge age gap between Paige and her sibling, and I don't want to get too out of the baby loop. I know Paige would be a great helper though. She's so sweet with the babies at her sitter's house. She loves to be helpful! And once the newborn part is over, I'd love to have another baby in the house!!!

So, anyway, we shall see.

Our other big news is that Paige ate peas tonight!!!!! Our neighbor has a ton of them in his garden so we picked them and Paige ate some raw ones! We were so proud of her! She kept asking "eat peas?" when we got in the house, but we had to cut her off so her body wouldn't go into shock at digesting a vegetable. So we said "eat peas tomorrow" and she seemed ok with that.

Just got done with 25 minutes on the treadmill and I think I'm going to bed soon. I slept like crap last night and am so tired. But we have so much to do. I need to balance the checkbook, fold and put away 3 loads of laundry, read yesterday's paper, and call a couple of friends. UGH. There's always something!!!!!

Mama What Are You Doing?

The sentence of the day. Actually it was more like this:
Paige: "Mama what are you doing?"
Me: "I'm (fill in the blank)"
Paige: "Mama what are you doing?"
Me: repeat
Paige: "Mama what are you doing?"
Me: "Paigie I just told you what I'm doing. What are you doing?"
Paige: "Mama what are you doing?"

AGH!!!!!

Today was all about sentences.
"What's that noise?"
"Where's Dad go?" (my personal favorite!)
"Mama what are you doing?"

We played in the pool for a while, went to the pharmacy and grocery store, and then back outside for more water fun.

I hate our pharmacy and would love to report them for a huge HIPPA violation. I was there to pick up my Lexapro and there was at least 5 other people around and the lady working looks at her computer and says "you want your lexapro refilled?" I'm like "uh yeah." And the chick standing next to me looks at me like I'm whacko or something. I was SO EMBARRASSED and PISSED OFF.

Mike is up north for a wedding for a friend from high school so it's just Paige and I. We're going to a friends house tomorrow. They have a little girl whose about 18 months and they have a nice swingset so it should be fun.

10 Things About My Day

OK, I'm on kind of a 10 things theme, but I came up with this brainstorm earlier tonight. Here's 10 things about my day:
1. I didn't get into work until 9:30am this morning, 1.5 hours late.
2. Paige slept until 8:10am, hence #1.
3. I got my palm pilot to sort of work today, thank goodness. I thought I fried the thing by leaving it in my hot car all weekend. Now it will only sync documents in Adobe, not Word, but at least it turns on!
4. Our 2pm car seat appointment was a no show so I wasted an hour picking up seats, loading them, waiting for her, and coming back to the office.
5. We are going to be switching insurance from Mike's to mine so I emailed our "administrative coordinator" back and forth a bunch of times today to get more info on it.
6. I started our charcoal grill and actually cooked on it a little bit! I started the potatoes and Mike finished them along with the marinated chicken breasts. YUM!
7. I let Paige play with the hose and get soaking wet so I could putz around outside.
8. I'll be doing a Pilates DVD as soon as I'm done blogging.
9. I changed one of the blinkies on my signature since I flipped Paige around in her car seat over the weekend.
10. Paige and I watched Sesame Street for a few minutes this morning while she ate a waffle. I would have let her sit there all day on my lap, but we had to get going.

OK, off to do some Pilates!

10 Things

Stolen from a few of my ya ya's blogs. List up to ten things you want to say to ten different people. Do not state who these people are. Do not confirm or deny any comment speculation.
1. You are my precious angel and I would die if anything happened to you.
2. I'm sorry I've been such a bitch lately. I love you so much.
3. I can't believe you're expecting another one! WOW!!!
4. I think you are a total hypocrite.
5. What crawled up your ass and died this past weekend?
6. I'm so glad we are friends; I had so much fun a few weekends ago!!!!
7. I'm sorry we've drifted apart, but I guess it happens. Our lives are so different.
8. Thank you for being such a good friend to me and my family during this horrible time.
9. You are a horrible and hateful person and fate will bite you in the ass someday.
10. You are a huge thorn in my side and I cringe when I hear you coming down the hall.

PHEW that felt good!!!!

Paige slept until about 8am this morning! Thank goodness. She seemed to be caught up on sleep when she woke up. Other big news: she pooped on the potty last night!!!!! It's slightly gross how it happened, but here goes. She wasn't wearing a diaper last night because she has this recurring diaper rash that refuses to go away. Mike suggested that we put a diaper on her and said no, not yet. Well doesn't she start to poop on the carpet about 5 minutes later. Oops. So Mike asks her if she wants to poop on the potty and she goes "OK" and takes off for the potty, sits on it, pushes a little and poop came out!!!! It was totally gross and disgusting and I made Mike clean it out. I still don't know what he did with it.

OK, off to see if I can get a hold of my friend who is expecting #2 in January! Her dd will turn 2 in August. Can you say, YIKES?!?!

Thank God I'm Home

What a crazy weekend. Saturday I drove 3.5 hours round trip for a bridal shower for an old college roomate, who is actually marrying a good friend of Mike's that stood up in our wedding. It was pretty fun, and nice to be with the girls!

Sunday I had every intention of going to church, but when the alarm when off at 7:15am and the house was quiet, I decided to not mess with it and fell back asleep until 10am!!!! That afternoon we went to a birthday party for a little girl who turned 2 a few days ago. We ended up staying until around 7pm and Paige even played in their sandbox!!!! She had a total panic attack when her sitter put her in theirs a few weeks ago. She loved it so much on Sunday, I'm tempted to go get one.

Yesterday I ended up taking Paige up to Eagle River (almost 3 hours away) to my sister's boyfriends cabin on a lake. My parents, sister and her boyfriend were there, and the weather was beautiful so I should have had fun, but I didn't. Paige didn't nap, and went to bed late. The sleeping arrangements were really goofy and when they got back from a friends house at midnight rather intoxicated, they woke Paige up. She was sleeping in the pack n play in the bedroom I was sharing with my mom. My sister tried to rock her back to sleep, but Paige wasn't interested. I finally kicked my dad out of the twin bunk bed in the other bedroom and brought Paige in bed with me there. That room was too small for a pack n play. Never again will she and I sleep in the same bed. It was a nightmare. She was awake for a good hour afterwards, so I was too. Then we woke up around 5am and were up for the rest of the day. She took a short nap in the morning, then we went to a parade, and came home. She did surprisingly well at the parade in spite of the loud noise and tons of people. We stopped at Subway on the way home and she ate a little bit. She did pretty well on the way home, just got ancey the last half hour or so. I almost fell over with relief when we walked in the door.

We really should not have gone. My sister was a total bitch to me, and my mom was a huge crank too. The ride there and back got really long and it was just a lot of packing and running around for the little amount of time we were there.

Poor Paige was so tired and hungry tonight that she inhaled her pizza and actually fell asleep while eating at 5:30! We let her finish eating because she was so hungry and screamed when we took the pizza away, then put her in bed by about 6:15pm. I had planned to give her a bath tonight, but I'll do it tomorrow.

Hopefully she gets a good night sleep and will get back on track the rest of the week. At least I only work tomorrow and Thursday.

Calgon Take Me Away

Can whoever stole my sweet child and replaced her with the devil please return her?

I am at the end of my rope. It has been an extremely trying week. She is a totally different kid this week. I mean she's always been a little pistol, but this isn't normal behavior, even for her. She's clingy, whiny, sassy, and insists on doing EVERYTHING around the house all by herself. Getting dressed and diaper changes have become a nightmare.

I know she missed me while I was gone and I think that explains the extra clinginess, but jeez, I've been back since Monday. I also know she's tired, so we've been putting her to bed extra early, but she lays awake and babbles until even later than her normal bedtime! UGH!!!! Today she was up at 6:30am and I was hoping she'd sleep until closer to 8am. It was a LONG morning.

Add that to the fact that I'm still adjusting to reality after my super relaxing weekend last weekend, when our biggest worries were to make it to the grounds for the 6:30pm show. I didn't have to cook, clean, do laundry, fight with Paige, drop her off, pick her up, get up early, put her to bed, etc. And I'm still really tired too. I'm thinking about napping while she naps today, but we'll see. There's so much to do around the house and we're busy this weekend. Tomorrow I have a bridal shower that's about 2 hours away, Sunday is a birthday party for one of Paige's little friends, and I might take Paige up to my sister's cabin Monday and Tuesday.

I've already washed and hung three loads of laundry outside this morning, attempted to keep Paige's tantrums and shrieks to a minimum, unloaded and re-loaded the dishwasher, cleaned the living room up from her mess this morning, sorted through a couple days worth of mail, cleaned the shower a bit, and filled her pool. I'm drained.

I still have laundry from last weekend to put away, take down, fold and put away the 3 loads of laundry hanging outside, do the sheets, towels, undies, etc., clean the house as it is completely disgusting right now, take out the garbage and attempt to balance the checkbook. Oh and wrap a couple of presents. AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

Country USA Wrap Up

OK, I had intentions of blogging every day at my friends house to give a report of the previous day's concerts, but that didn't happen.

Anyway, Montgomery Gentry was my favorite show. My friend, Erica, got the best pictures of them. I can't wait to get them back! Neil McCoy was good too, and Toby Keith was just OK. He's just too arrogant for me.

Erica and I had the best time together. We went last year too, but this year we really bonded. We never got sick of each other, and just had so much fun. We went shopping, went out for lunch one day, she took me out to breakfast on my birthday and went over to her boyfriends' house a couple of times. We giggled CONSTANTLY! I think her boyfriend and his cousin that stopped over thought we were smoking something, but we were just high on coffee, I guess!

VIP seats were totally worth it, even though we had some real losers around us. There was this one old bag who was extremely heavy and kept yelling at the girls next to her to sit down because she couldn't stand and see the screen or the stage because they were standing. She made a miraculous recovery during the Toby Keith show when she stood the entire 90 minute show. Interesting. She also yelled at the girls behind her during a slow song because they were talking too loud and she couldn't hear the music over them. There's a handicap section right next to VIP and she had a cane, so why didn't she sit there? We also had a couple of women in their 60's right next to us who didn't seem to appreciate our constant giggling, yee-hawing, and who hooing during the shows. Like Erica said, you can't tell me they have Montgomery Gentry's "Hell Yeah" blasting in their cars. But they stayed for EVERY show, even though the headliners didn't start until 10:30 and didn't end until midnight.

So I turned 30 on Sunday and I think I'm OK with it. It came and went and I don't feel any different. What are you going to do?

Paige really missed me! She has been extra clingy on me and wanting my constant attention. She was so cute tonight. We were pulling weeds and the dead flowers in my petunia flower bed and she insisted on putting on my old pair of gardening gloves because she saw me wearing my new ones. So I'd pull the weeds, put them in a pile and she'd pick them up (wearing my gloves) and put them in the bucket. When the piles got too far from the bucket, she asked that I move it. Of course, she was covered in dirt, but she looked so darn cute. We were probably out there for at least a half hour. It's amazing what will entertain them.

Off to bed. I slept like shit last night because I was used to sleeping from 2am-10am the past few days. I looked pretty rough today at work!

Country USA Thursday Report

Got there around 5pm, found our seats and ate some supper. Carrots, mashed potatoes and beef tips. I think I'm going to like this VIP business! Got a mug and got it filled with beer for free. I think I'm REALLY going to like VIP!

Josh Turner was the first show we saw. He's had about 3 songs out on the radio, but he has a really good voice. It's low and deep. His show was OK. Then Gary Allen came on at 8:30pm. He put on a great show! He's more of a rocker kinda guy, really intense. I loved it. Then Rascall Flatts came on at 10:30pm. WHOA!!!! Probably one of my all time favorite shows. They really entertained the crowd and those boys can sing.

Like last year, the grounds are set up horribly. There's only one exit, so you feel like cattle being herded out along with 40,000 other people. They have about 20 people directing you into your parking spot, but at midnight when 20,000 cars are leaving, there's no traffic directors to be found. There's about 12 lines of traffic merging into one lane, and you have to leave the grounds in the lane you're in. We got so lost last night because there's no signs directing you back to the highway. We ended up way on the south side of Oshkosh when we're trying to go north. Extremely frustrating.

The weather was perfect, unlike last year when it was SUPER hot. It was upper 70's with a hazy sunshine. The only problem was that it got pretty cold last night. We had light cotton jackets, but we'll have to remember our fleece pullovers tonight.

Tonight is Blackhawk, Billy Dean, Charlie Daniels Band and Montgomery Gentry. I CANNOT WAIT for Montgomery Gentry. They are so good!

Our seats are pretty good, we're about 23 rows back from the stage. I didn't bring a camera, but my friend did so hopefully we'll get some good pix!

States I've Visited

Stolen from my Ya Yas:





create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

My Week

I finally have pix of my new do, but they are terrible pix of me, so I'll post them in chat with my ya yas.

Paige has found her independent streak. I'm proud of her, but it's getting old and frustrating already! She'll be in the kitchen with me, minding her own business and she'll see me shut a door and will SCREAM "Paigie shut the door!!!!!", so I have to open it back up, she runs over and shuts it herself. She has to open and shut all the doors, and cupboards, and is helping us set the table now. It kinda just started over the weekend, so we're still getting used to it. Mike was gone for the weekend, so when we got back on Sunday, he wasn't prepared for this and got an earful from her!

I found out that my OB/GYN resigned suddenly last week, so I have to find a new one which I'm really bummed about. I liked having a female doc right here in my tiny little town. Now I have to find a new one and I'll probably end up going to one in Green Bay. There's only 3 females in one of the health systems we can go to, so I'm sure I won't be able to get in with one of them for months. I'm due for my annual in August. I refuse to see a male OB/GYN.

Country USA starts on Thursday and I'm really looking forward to it. It's just me and a girl friend of mine, and I think we'll have a lot of fun. We have VIP, reserved seats which is so nice. The good shows don't start until 4:30 or 6:30 pm, so we can show up later in the day knowing we have good seats rather than getting there early with our lawn chairs in general admission and sweating our asses off in 90 heat all afternoon. I can't wait to see Rascall Flatts and Montgomery Gentry. They're HOT!

OK, better get back to work!

A Good Day

It was so hot today, but we really had fun. My parents got here about 9:30 or so, and we played outside for a bit, then took Paige to the park. Got home, ate lunch, put Paige down, then I chatted with my mom for a while. Her and Dad are really doing well. This whole thing has been a wake up call for him and he really appreciates my mom so much more now. Their marriage is probably stronger than it ever has been.

So then I ran a few errands in town, got home and filled up Paige's pool. We spent the rest of the afternoon outside in her pool and running around the yard. She had a ball with Grandma and Grandpa!

Then my dad grilled potatoes and cheddarwurst on the grill and they were delicious! Paige even ate a whole cheddarwurst! Cut up and dipped into parmesan cheese, of course. She discovered parmesan cheese the other night when we were having spaghetti and has been hooked ever since. I have to put some in a little bowl and she dips EVERYTHING in there! Even my caramel corn rice cakes and banana bread. Yuk. But as long as she's eating other foods besides a PB&J, I'm not complaining. She even ate a bunch of grapes before bed. Do they go through a growth spurt at 2? If so, I think Paige is having one. She's eating constantly and seems to be sleeping a little more than normal.

This is like family weekend for me. My sister is coming up tomorrow and spending tomorrow night. Mike is gone for the weekend, so it's nice to have company here to fill up the time. Paige and I kind of get sick of each other when it's just the two of us.

No pix of the new do yet. I didn't shower today and was looking pretty rough so I sure didn't want anyone taking pictures of me.

It's supposed to be really hot again tomorrow so I'm sure we'll be out in the pool quite a bit again. I'm tempted to just put on my swimsuit and get in there with her! Don't want to scare the neighbors though.

She Sleeps Cont.

I finally had to wake Sleeping Beauty up at 8:30am this morning. Luckily she was in a good mood (but who isn't after sleeping for 12.5 HOURS!!!!), so I was able to get her ready in record time without it seeming like I was rushing her. I even got her little afro up in a ponytail!

Speaking of hair, in celebration of my upcoming 30th birthday, I decided to get a new haircut today. I was going in for my regular trim, and there's a picture in one of my stylist's books that I always look at but am too chicken to have it cut that way because it has bangs and I haven't had bangs since junior high I think. But today I decided to go for it. I'm still not sure if that was the right decision. My stylist really likes it (of course, she cut it) and she did do a good job with it, but it's SHORT. And as I was playing with it tonight it hit me: I have the same haircut as my mom. AGH!!!! I really am turning into my mom!!!!!!

I saw my therapist today and she helped give me a new perspective on turning 30. I'm trying to keep her words in mind. At least I'll be at Country USA on my 30th, having a good time.

OK, not really sure why this just popped into my head right now, but it's been on my mind since Monday night when I got sucked into an episode of CSI:Miami. Is it weird that I think David Caruso is hot? There's just something about his character, Horatio, on CSI that turns me on. Just had to get that out there.

She Sleeps...

UGH! I love Paige dearly, but she has the worst sense of timing. It's 8:10am here and SHE'S STILL SLEEPING!!!! Last week Friday, my day off and day to sleep in, she was awake at 5:45am What's up with that?

I've already called work twice, first to tell them I'll be in at 8:30 and then just a few minutes ago to say I'll be in at 9:00 am. Hopefully, I'll be there by 9am. Luckily, my boss is super cool about this kind of stuff, and I worked my ass off the past month or so for the 5K. Work is actually kind of slow lately and I've been really bored this week. Today I'll only end up being there for a little over 3 hours because I'm leaving at 12:15pm for a therapist appointment in Green Bay, a little shopping, and a haircut.

I heard her stirring a bit as I started to blog, but now I hear her on the monitor snoring away loud and clear. Little stinker.....

Books I'm Reading

After working at a car seat check in Green Bay on Saturday morning, I stopped at Barnes and Noble to pick up a few books. One of my message boards is for Catholic families and we're starting an on-line book study of "Catholicism for Dummies." I'm born and raised Catholic and it's scary how little I know about my faith. So I signed up for the book study and picked up the book. We're reading a chapter a week, and I read my chapter yesterday. It was GREAT! I learned more in those 10 pages than I ever knew growing up. I also picked up The Happiest Toddler on the Block as I feel like Paige and her sassy mouth are taking over our household and I'm not sure what to do about it. One of my girlfriend's at work brought me a book she read called "Raising Your Spirited Child" so I'm going to check that one out too. I bought a few books at rummage sales over the weekend too. I LOVE to read, and don't have nearly enough time to do it.

Our weekend was really nice. Friday was a beautiful day and we had a couple of high school girls (Abby and Carrie) come over in the morning that are going to baby sit Paige. Paige was of course her shy self but seemed to warm up to them towards the end. She even gave them a hug and kiss goodbye! Carrie came back over that night to baby sit so Mike and I could go see a band we really like. Paige was already in bed when she came over so it was easy money for her. She baby sits for a family that has 4 kids that are 4, 3, 2, and 1 so I think she'll be able to handle Paige! On Saturday I worked at the car seat check and stopped at Barnes and Noble. Also got myself a Starbucks latte. If we lived in Green Bay, I'd be at that store everyday! I LOVE Starbucks! I could get a coffee and read books in peace...aahh heavenly! Then we went back down to Green Bay that night to get some flowers and go to eat with some friends. Sunday I planted petunias along side of my house, and then daisies in a flower bed by my garden. Also did a bunch of laundry, played outside with Paige, and took her to the park. After supper, we were outside bumming around, and a woman was walking her little guy in a stroller and she came up to us and asked how our house selling was going because they have their house for sale too. I said it was going nowhere and we chit chatted for a while. Her son is two and I told her I have off on Fridays if they ever wanted to come over. It would be nice to have a friend in the neighborhood, they only live about 3 or 4 houses down from us.

Paige slept until after 7am this morning which was wonderful! She's been waking up before 6am and demanding to be out ASAP which makes getting ready for work quite the adventure. It was kind of nice getting ready without saying "yes that's mama's makeup, yes mama's drying her hair, no don't touch that, Paige put that down, just a minute, yes we'll brush your teeth, hold on I'll make another waffle, etc. etc. etc."

Better get some work done today. My voicemail light is blinking and my desk is a mess. Gotta love those Monday mornings!

I'm Tired!

I have worked so hard these past two days for this 5K walk/run that I helped plan. It was this morning. Yesterday about 9 of us set up for it all day, putting packets together, putting route and parking signs, kid's run signs, gathering all the supplies that the volunteers would need, etc. I was the volunteer coordinator, so I had to kind of know everything that was going on; where do the parking and the route director people go? where do the timers and the water stop people go? where should I put this or that when I'm done with it?, etc. Thank god it's over! We had a fairly decent turnout, about 100 people. I'm hoping for a lot more next year, it's so much work to plan one of those things. We have a 5K, 1/2 mile kids run, a couple of different raffles, food and water for the runners, kids activities like balloon making, t-shirt decorating, bean bag toss, and a cookout.

On another subject, people keep asking when #2 is coming along and we say a long time yet, but I'm seriously starting to wonder if we'll ever want another one. Me staying at home is not an option financially or for my mental health, and I can't imagine getting 2 ready for daycare and paying for 2 in daycare. Plus the extra work of another one. On the other hand, I get sad thinking that I'll never ttc again, find out i'm pregnant again, be pregnant again, or have another baby. I just don't know if we'll ever be ready to have 2. Paige is more than we can handle some days, and I don't know if I want a big age gap between our kids. I don't know how some women do it that have kids 1 or 2 years apart. I'd really like to have a boy for Mike, and I myself would like to raise a boy, I just don't know if we can handle 2 little ones.

Paige is in bed right now and my to do list is about a million miles long, but I'm going to sit on my ass and watch tv or read for a little bit and then go to bed. Luckily my wonderful husband is going to let me sleep in tomorrow. Paige has a cold and has been waking up at the god awful hour of 5:30 these past few mornings. But she has gotten used to our little routine of Mike getting her up on the weekends while I sleep. They eat pancakes together and then I wake up later and he cooks some for me. I'm a lucky girl!