I'm Still Alive

Yes, I'm still here, just super busy (but aren't we all). Just need to watch my personal computer time at work because apparantely Big Brother is watching us. There were rumors that they are recording and monitoring our phone calls as well, but our computer people say that's not true. I think it is true, but what do I know?

Life is busy. Still plugging along on the weight loss thing. Kind of slacking in the exercise department the last week or so as I have had lots of mom's group stuff in the evenings. I'm not weighing myself, but my clothes are fitting better so that's a good thing.

Still not preggo which sucks the big one. Everyone in my mom's group is announcing that they are preggo or they are about to deliver. It's starting to piss me off. I actually cried last night at a moms group get together when one of them announced she is pregnant-and she's a friend of mine too. If I'm not this month, then Mike is getting tested, I don't care if he doesn't like it. I had bloodwork done in July which was normal, so the next step is to have him tested. He said let's try another month or 2, well it's 2 months, so step up big guy.

We had to surrender Duke at the end of July which was heartbreaking. 3 days later we adopted a wonderful lab/retriever mix named Dutchess. She is the best! She adores Paige and follows her wherever she goes. She has no manners and is a jumper, but we are working on that. She's about a year old and has the sweetest temperment, very mellow and laidback. We are keeping her in a crate during the day and meals, and she is going in there on her own now when she wants to be left alone.

I can't believe it's September already! I'm loving the cool weather. I thought it was supposed to be in the 70's today so I picked out a dress for Paige. Well she got up early and CRANKY and Mike had the oh so fun task of getting her dressed and off to the sitter's. He tried to convince her that it was too cool for a dress, but no dice. That girl would live in dresses if I let her. I'm sure she got cold, but she won't admit it.

We went to the Milwaukee zoo this past weekend which is about 3 hours away-it was awesome. I don't have the pix in photobucket yet, but I'll post them when I do. Here are a few recent ones:

I think I posted them on FFF but oh well. OK back to the grind.

2 pounds down, 48 to go

YAHOO, I lost 2 pounds last week! I exercised a total of 2 hours, dietician recommended 2.5 total per week, so I think 2 in my first week is pretty darn awesome. I ate 5 fruits and veggies 2 days last week, and 4 the other days.

This week so far, I walked for a half hour Sunday night while Mike gave Paige a bath, and then did a 35 minute aerobics video last night. Paige was sitting on Mike's lap playing computer games, but then as soon as she saw me getting ready to work out, she decided to do the video with me. It was so darn cute! She kept up with me the whole 35 minutes, even did the stretch at the end! We did a lot of grapevines at the beginning and when we weren't doing them she would say "I wanna do a grapevine mama." When it was done, she wanted to do it again, but I said we were done for the night! I think I'm taking tonight off. We have to get her flower girl dress repaired tonight for my cousin's wedding in a few weeks. She's the flower girl in that one too. We're going to the same lady we used for the alterations, I'm hoping she's a miracle worker because this dress is destroyed. In my saving money mission, I'm too cheap to buy a new one. I thought I could repair it myself, but no dice.

I may lose 10 pounds tomorrow at work. We are doing car seat appointments all day in 95 degree heat. YIPEE.

We had a very productive weekend. Again in my saving money mission, I decided we don't need to pay $30/month for a storage unit which holds our crap. So I asked my parents to come up and watch Paige Saturday AM and they did while Mike and I took the truck to our storage unit. I love that man dearly, but some days....well some days I don't like him so much. Saturday was one of those days. Earlier in the week, he gets the bright idea that we should re-list our house and therefore should keep the storage unit. Um, no. Not right now. So then we get out there and I start to make a goodwill pile, a keep pile and a going to the dump pile. I was brutal, if we didn't need it, it was going to goodwill. We kept the baby stuff and Christmas stuff. As I'm putting stuff in the goodwill pile, Mike suggests that we have a yard sale. WTF MAN?!?!?! No, I said, we have babysitters for Paige and I don't want to rent tables, price stuff, organize it, advertise a rummage sale and then sit outside while people paw through our stuff. When we are done having babies, I will have a done having babies rummage sale, but I'm not having one to sell our useless crap. Then he got slightly huffy, whatever. Then he sees his prized car stereo system that is easily 15 years old and says he's going to put that in the truck. It's one of those that takes up the whole back seat so no one can sit there. Apparently, the car seat in the truck suddenly became invisible and he forgot the fact that we do occasionally take Paige (and Duke) in the truck. UGH!!!!! Then he says he's going to sell it. So I told him he has a month to get rid of it and if it's not gone, I'm taking it to Goodwill. I'm still not sure where it ended up. It's probably hidden in our garage somewhere. So we took a truckload to the dump, a truckload to Goodwill and a truckload back to our house. We cleaned out and swept the garage, and then loaded this stuff into the corner of it. This is where having a 3 car garage really pays off. We can fit the truck, my Taurus, our boat and tons of bins in there. I'm rather disgusted that we spent $30/month for the past 2 years to store stuff we actually threw away.

Saturday night we went to a baseball game with Paige and my mom's group. There's a team in Green Bay of college boys home for the summer. Can we say yummy eye candy? We may go this Friday night with a mom and her husband from my mom's group that I've gotten to be friends with. He's a doctor, so she stays home and money is no object. But she's really nice and so is he. I'm not 100% sure I should go because our American Cancer Society Relay for Life is Friday night and I "should" work at it to get people signed up for anti-tobacco stuff. We'll see. The game would be more fun so I'm going to ask our seamstress tonight if her daughter can babysit on Friday night.

This Saturday we are getting Paige's 3 year old pictures taken at Sears. I hope they turn out. We're getting them taken a few months late...ooops.

Work is slow and boring and my boss is gone this week. This day is dragging on. I got here at 9am and haven't really done anything. At least I get to leave at 2:30pm for my therapist appointment.

OK, off to look busy.

My ya yas

really are the best. Thank you all for your words of encouragement and understanding on my last blog. They made me cry and appreciate how awesome you all are!!! YA YAS RULE!!!

So I had my dietician appointment yesterday. It went fairly well. The information she gave me wasn't really earth shattering, but it was good to hear. I am going to focus on portion sizes (measuring out food before I eat it), eating more fruits and veggies (at least 5/day) and getting 2.5 hours of exercise a week. I need to eventually get down to 1400-1600 calories a day, and she thinks I've been eating about 2200 calories/day based on my food journal. Holy crap. And I was trying to be good about what I ate because I knew I'd have to journal it and show it to her. How many calories was I eating before the food journal. I don't really want to think about it I guess. But for right now I'm just going to focus on fruits and veggies because eating those means I'll be eating less of the other not so healthy foods, which means less calories. I'm not counting calories right now. I'm going to read food labels so I'm aware of what I'm putting in my mouth, but I'm not going to obsess about it.

So being the anal detailed list kind of person I am, I whipped up a calendar for myself to help keep me on track. On the top of each day, I'm going to write in what I'm going to cook for supper. It's not necessarily going to be a super healthy one, but just a meal so I'm not scrambling around the kitchen at 5:30pm trying to defrost meat and figure out what I can cook based on the ingredients I have. Oh and keep Paige entertained. Then I have a space to write in the amount of exercise I get per day and a numbered column (1-5) for fruits and veggies. Every time I eat a serving of fruits or veggies, I check it off. I have it posted on my fridge so I see it every time I go in the kitchen. I also asked Mike to pick up more fruit at the grocery store last night and I cooked green beans from our garden with supper.

I'm meeting with the dietician in 7 weeks so I'm hoping to lose 11 pounds by then. I think I'll be able to do it. No, I WILL DO IT!!!

Therapist is this afternoon. I'll probably bawl the whole time. Should be interesting.

Off to go drink my smoothie...2 servings of fruit in there...YAHOO!!!!

Could They Make it Any more Difficult?

My god, I've spent the last hour on the phone with my insurance company, therapists, dr. office, and a hospital. All I want is to see a therapist and nutritionist to help me lose weight but my god these people all make it so difficult. First call was to insurance to check on benefits, coverage and providers for this stuff. Dieticians are covered as long as they are through a hospital or clinic that is takes our insurance. Easy enough, I'll just go through one of the hospitals in Green Bay. The guy I talked to wasn't 100% sure, but thought I'd just have to pay $30 office visit co pay. Therapy is covered as long as it is one of their therapists, again at $30 co/pay. There is one clinic in town that they cover with several therapists, so I call to make an apt. and the secretary isn't in on Wednesdays or Fridays. WTF?!?!? So I go on the internet to find a dietician at a hospital in Green Bay. One of the hospitals is Bellin and I know they take my insurance, but I call the insurance company back just to double check and this time I talk to someone who tells me that if they provide the dietetic services as an outpaitent service at the hospital, I have to pay for everything up to my deductible ($1500) then 20% for everything after that. WTF?!?!?! If it's at a clinic, then I only pay the OV $30 co/pay. UUGGGHHHH. But she says even if they (the hospital) charges $100, insurance might only allow $50 and I'd only have to pay $50. But she couldn't tell me what they allow because they are in Minnesota and I'm in Wisconsin. Again WTF!?!?!?!? So I call Patient Scheduling at Bellin and hold it together and don't break down crying while asking to see a dietician for weight loss. I mean do you have any idea how embarrassing this has all been? And the chick tells me I need a dr. referral to see a dietician for weight loss. Well Jesus F'ing Christ, now I really lose it. Just what I need. To pay $30 to see my dr. so she can tell me yes indeed you really are fat and I will refer you to a dietician, who we still don't know how much will cost you. So I hang up and break down crying. After I compose myself 10 minutes later, I call the ob/gyn's office that I just saw last week and ask them to make a referral to Bellin for weight loss. Again humiliating. But the chick I talked to was very sweet and helpful and said the dr. will do that for me. So now I wait to hear back from the therapist and Bellin to see if they will see me. I just tried calling my mom to vent, but no one is home. I put the do not disturb sign on my door and forwarded my calls to voicemail. I'm tempted to go home sick this afternoon. We'll see.

OK, the therapist office just left me a message on my cell phone. They do accept my insurance, so one step in the right direction.

In case you are wondering why I'm going through this trouble, I must tell you that my eating issues are emotional. Jenny Craig, WW, etc. just won't cut it for me. I eat for emotional reasons that I just don't want to get into. I have realized that I have a very addictive personality.

But I can't go on like this. I'm embarrassed to be out in public sometimes because of how heavy I am. I can't even hardly look at the pix from my sister's wedding because of how big I am. The photographer posed me behind Kristin for the picture of just me and her and put me in the back in the group pictures and I know why. I look like a whale standing next to her. The family picture of us is especially disgusting, my mom dad and sister are twigs and here I am the giant yellow whale.

My bloodwork came back from the ob/gyn office and everything is normal so I guess that's good. Even my lipid panel and glucose are normal and healthy which is good considering my weight and how fast I've gained. The next step we discussed was having mike's swimmers tested. I guess we'll talk about that tonight. She is also going to look at my operative report from March 2005 when my ovarian cyst was removed. Hopefully nothing serious happened from that.

AF is due anyday now so I'm just waiting to find out if I'm pregnant or not. I'm so emotional so I probably have PMS and the old bitch is on her way.

A Plan

So I met with the new ob/gyn in town yesterday and really liked her. We talked about my inability to get knocked up and she doesn't really consider me infertile yet because we've been trying for 9 months. If it's been a year, then we start talking infertility. But I decided I want to be a bit more aggressive and am having blood drawn tomorrow for testing. If my tests come back normal, Mike has to have his swimmers tested. That would be interesting. If those are normal, then I have that test where they shoot dye into your tubes. I've heard that's painful, so I'm hoping all is normal.

Well actually in a weird way I'm hoping they find something wrong with my bloodwork-well something that can be fixed with medication. What if everything is normal, but we just can't get pregnant for some reason? This month I didn't do any opks or anything, we just tried and tried and tried and tried this past weekend. It was very enjoyable!

I stayed home with Paige last week and just loved it. Her sitter was closed for the week. It is so hard being here. I actually told Mike last night that I want to be a SAHM. I would love to be home with her-I can't even believe I'm thinking that. But do I really want to throw away my career? I do like my job and am proud of the fact that I'm good at it. Money would be extremely tight, we're not even sure that it's possible. All I know is that I loved last week and that it's been a horrible adjustment being back at work this week. We tossed around having me go down to 3 days a week. I'm waiting for my boss to be in the right mood for me to approach her. We shall see.

OK off to eat lunch and then car seat apts. this afternoon.

Excavation Awareness

OK, most days I love my job, but the county in their infinate wisdom decided last fall that all employees will be required to take a monthly online safety course. I guess this is our "wellness program." Lovely. So most of them have been relevant to my work, but last month was Work Zone Safety (basically it only applied to the Highway Dept. employees) and the one I just took was Excavation Awarenss, about different types of soils and trenches. WTF? And there's a quiz after each one that you must get at least an 80% on to pass. Thank god I've passed all of mine so far. If I would have had to sit through this excavation one again....yikes.

OK so my mom's group is starting to chap my ass again. When I first joined we had about 50 members. When it hit 80 members a few months ago there was talk of closing the group off to new members, but the organizers said no. Now we are up to 94 members and we get at least 1 or 2 new members every week. The meetups are filling up so fast that unless you are sitting on the computer waiting for a new one to show up and RSVP for it, you'll never get in. Most of them fill up before I can even check my yahoo email at night. Ridiculous. I emailed 2 girls I've gotten to be friends with bitching about it last week, and one of them invited me and the other to her house last week for supper. It was really fun, except Paige was rather clingy. We were there for about 2 hours and Paige didn't warm up to the other 2 girls her age until about 10 minutes before we left. The other 2 moms feel the same way, so we'll probably just keep getting together on our own. I'd rather do that anyway than a big meetup with like 25 moms and kids there. Paige doesn't do so well at those either.

Now there's a thread on the board about not immunizing your kids, and if you know anything about me, you know that will get my blood boiling. Immunizations work people! Have you heard of anyone getting polio in the last 20 years? No? Well there's a reason!!!!! And I personally think it's great that new vaccines are coming out. I wish the rotavirus vaccine would have been out when Paige was a baby so we wouldn't have had to go through that week of hell of her having the rotavirus. That is a nasty disease, not to mention dangerous with the risk of dehydration. I must share with you this post which drives me nuts:

"I have chosen not to immunize my children. At this point I am fairly comfortable with that. There some immunizations we probably should consider, particularly tetanus. The chicken pox vaccine is not one I want my kids to have. I think it is far better for them to be exposed naturally. But these days, that will be hard to come by.

Ironically, it seems that there is currently a strain of pertussis (whooping cough) going around in the area. Yes, I mean Green Bay. My child has been unwell with a cough that has grown progressively worse for three weeks. Only today did the pediatrician say that perhaps she may have whooping cough. Of course there is no treatment for it. While it is dangerous for an infant to have this condition, it is not deadly to older person. I do have to say that if my daughter does have whooping cough, it is a scary illness to witness, because the coughs are lengthy and often provoke vomiting and the appearance of not being able to breathe.

Despite the possibility that she may have an illness that we could have immunized against, I am not sorry we did not. It is important to remember that immunizations 'wear out' so we as adults are not necessarily immunized.

There are concerns that each parent has to consider when deciding to immunize, or not. For us, a family history of a particular condition helped me decide against it."

So even after your kid has a vaccine-preventable illness, that still doesn't change your mind?!?!?! UGH!!!!!

OK off my soapbox.

Our weekend was fun. Had a mom's group playdate on Saturday morning which was fun. There were 5 moms and 9 kids so it was just the right size. Came home for lunch and nap, then back to Green Bay to visit Paige's best friend Grace. They had a blast together and we got home way too late! After Paige's bath, she didn't get to bed until 10pm.

Sunday morning went to church and grocery shopping. Paige was so excited ("I'm so exciting!" her favorite phrase) to do Kid's Gospel at our church. They take kids 4-4th grade back into a classroom in the school during a part of church and they have their own reading, songs, and craft. They are usually gone for about 20 minutes which is kind of nice. I've always gone back with Paige since she's only 3, but she wanted to go by herself yesterday. At the end of church, the priest calls the kids up to the front so he can look at their pictures and oh and ah over them....he's a sucker for the little ones. Then the kids walk out with the priest. Well Paige missed the bottom step down and fell right in the front of church in front of everyone. She was so upset and we were way in the back so it took me a couple of seconds to get to her. It was so heartbreaking to see my baby's face all scrunched up and crying...she was still walking up the aisle, but she was so sad. Poor girl. She was rather whiny during grocery shopping so I think she was pretty sad about it. But after a good lunch and nice long nap she was much better in the afternoon. We played outside and then had brats on the grill for supper. MMM...love summertime food like that.

And now I've been at work for an hour and all I've done is that stupid online course. I should probably go be productive. Later ya yas!

Tired

What a long day; left the house at 7am, didn't get home until 10pm. I met with 2 of my legislators in their offices (well, their staff people). Had an appointment with a third, but his office was dark and locked up. Rude. The public hearing started at 1pm and I didn't get to speak until about 5:30pm. It was a long afternoon. But it was awesome because us smoke free people outnumbered the opposition by at least 4 to 1. They were getting so frustrated, it was great!

Busy couple of days ahead of me. My sister's bridal shower and bach party on Saturday, then we are meeting some friends at the zoo on Sunday. Next week is just crazy at work. Monday night a seamstress is coming to my house to do the bridesmaids dress alterations. I did my first tanning session yesterday, was hoping to do another one tonight, but didn't get back to town in time. Will have to go tomorrow since I have a month unlimited, have to take advantage of it. I have to call my hairdresser to reschedule today's appointment (for the 2nd time, had to reschedule one from last week!). AGH! Also have to get a girdle/shaper thing for the wedding since the seamstress wants me to wear it on Monday when she does the alterations. The fun never ends. Oh and I have to make a dip for the shower on Saturday.

Had dinner last night with a couple of friends with my moms group. These two girls are super cool and I'm so glad we met and became friends. We're supposed to have a playdate tomorrow but I think I may cancel on it since life is so crazy right now, I need a day at home to veg. Well veg as much as I can chasing after an active 3 year old.

Off to bed!

The Classic Dames Test

This is me:

Your Score: Myrna Loy

You scored 16% grit, 19% wit, 28% flair, and 47% class!

You are class itself, the calm, confident "perfect woman." Men turn and look at you admiringly as you walk down the street, and even your rivals have a grudging respect for you. You always know the right thing to say, do and, of course, wear. You can take charge of a situation when things get out of hand, and you're a great help to your partner even if they don't immediately see or know it. You are one classy dame. Your screen partners include William Powell and Cary Grant, you little simmerpot, you.

Find out what kind of classic leading man you'd make by taking the Classic Leading Man Test.

Link: The Classic Dames Test written by gidgetgoes on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Fun!

I Got It

The Regent that is. Well I ordered it anyway. I can't believe I'm buying this huge ass car seat, but I have to. Paige is the size of an average 5 year old and has outgrown the Evenflo in Mike's car. She's close to outgrowing the Marathon in my car. So we're putting the Marathon in Mike's and the Regent in mine. After she outgrows the Marathon, I'm not really sure what we are doing. Evenflo is coming out with a convertible that is supposed to harness to 50 pounds and 50 inches in July; that's supposed to run about $100. Hopefully it will get good reviews because that might be my only option.

The weekend went well. Lots of driving, but Paige had a great time and was very well behaved overall. The packing and unpacking was a pain in the ass, but not as bad as I thought. I wish we wouldn't have had to drive 2.5 hours one way over to Mike's grandpa's house on Sunday for his brother's going away party (going into the Air Force) but we left Paige with my family and made the most of our time together. Wink Wink. Twice actually.

We got back in time to go to the Memorial Day Parade in town where Paige got a ton of candy! She had a blast picking it up and putting it in her wagon. She liked most of it except when the semis went by and honked their horns.

Now I'm back at work trying to catch up from being gone so much last week and my boss keeps dumping crap on me. I'm taking off Thursday to go testify at a hearing at our state capitol in favor of 100% smoke free workplaces throughout the state, including bars and restaurants. The Tavern League will be out in full force so it will get nasty, but I'm excited about it. It's so ridiculous that we have to pick and choose where we will eat because some places allow smoking. Sorry, your food may be good but I'm not exposing my child to that crap that comes out of your cigarette.

Stressed

Never again will I be a matron of honor. This is so stressful. And the kicker is that I know I'm making it more stressful than it needs to be. I feel like I have to be the activity director for the night, and I've never gone out in the town we are going to. So I have no clue which bars are fun, or even where they are. I just have this bad feeling people are going to be looking to me to direct them where to go. Why am I feeling like that? Adding to my stress is the fact that not only do people not respond in the first place, but they DON'T RETURN PHONE MESSAGES!!!! WTF people?!?! How hard is it to just take a minute out of your day and say yes I'm coming or no I'm not coming. You have my cell and home numbers. I have voicemail on both. Grrrrr.....

My period started today so we are going to be trying for our 8th month. I think that's all I'm going to say about that or I will start crying.

We are going up north this weekend to my sister's and her fiance's cabin and I guess it's still quite primitive. They have no stove, so we are bringing our little grill. We're basically camping in a cabin. We have to bring our own sheets, towels, blankets and all of our food. Also lawn chairs. This should be interesting. I'm so stressed about packing all of this stuff. Part of me just wants to stay home but then I know we'd get bored hanging around the house all weekend. I just hate packing and unpacking. Plus I'm such a homebody, sometimes going away for the weekend stresses me out. I have a bad feeling about Paige too. I'm sure she won't get enough sleep and be a real bear.

I don't know what to do about Paige. She is so defiant and just plain doesn't listen. What am I doing wrong? She makes everything difficult. I have to go pick her up soon from the sitter's and as awful as this sounds, I just plain don't want to. I wish I could sit here alone in peace and quiet until I go out for coffee with my mom's group tonight.

OK, off to enjoy about 10 minutes of peace and quiet.

5 AM

OK let's play a little game of Jeopardy. 5 AM is the answer, guess the correct question.
1. The time our coffeemaker kicked in this morning
2. A time I consider middle of the night
3. The time Paige woke up this morning

If you guessed option 3, you are correct! #2 would also be correct if the truth be told. Let's keep this little quiz game going. Paige's mood this morning was:
1. Full of sunshine and light, AKA my little ray of sunshine
2. Mellow and content to sit in front of the TV
3. Bucky and ornary as all hell demanding that dear old dad make pancakes

Again, option #3 would be correct.

After dear old dad said no to pancakes, what happened next?
1. Paige made them herself
2. She threw a holy fit and refused to fall back asleep until 6 am when Mike got up and released her from her jail cell aka her bedroom
3. She watched cartoons

That would be option #2. You would have thought we were pulling her toenails out one by one the way she was carrying on.

Last question. After Mike took Paige to the sitter's I woke up at:
1. 7am
2. 8am
3. 8:45 am

That would be #3. 8:45am. I am such a slacker! I love to sleep!!!!

OK, if anyone ever asks me again to be a matron of honor, I will run kicking and screaming like a bat out of hell. This bridal shower/bach party has turned into a nightmare. People just don't respond, it's so rude. So now I have to call 11 people, most of whom I don't know to ask if they are coming and are spending the night at the hotel I booked. Also how many people do you want to share the room with, 2 or 4? Last night was just awful. I had to look up 11 phone numbers online and over half are unlisted, so my sister is getting those numbers for me. Then be a weird coincidence, one of the girls invited calls me while I'm trying to check my cupboards and recipe books to plan my suppers for the week as Mike is on his way to Walmart and wants to know if I want to add anything to the grocery list. This chick (we'll just call her V) is firing questions at me left and right while Paige is sitting on the counter top eating raw egg noodles (or noo-noos as she calls them). How many people are coming? How many did you invite? When is the shower? Oh I wasn't invited to that (thanks Kristin for putting me in this awkward position BTW). When is check in time? How much is the room? Where are we eating? And the kicker, are we going to any strip clubs? WTF? Um no. I couldn't tell if she was serious or not, but after telling my sister that, I guess she was. I guess she likes to check out naked men. Whatever. Diferent strokes for different folks. So now I have to check with all the bridesmaids to make sure they are spending the night in the hotel and who do they want to share a room with? I have to call a tanning place so I don't look like an albino in the dress. I have to call a seamstress. I have to get a shaper thing to suck in my belly fat. AGH!!!! Calgon take me away!!!!!

Shout outs to my peeps:
Meredith: that website is disgusting. Thank god that perv is far away from us.
Koren: I have a swim dress. WTH, we're moms. Who do we have to impress?
Elisa: Allergies suck. You sound just miserable, I feel so bad for you.
Terri: Happy birthday Ellie!!!! How is she doing?
Linda: Happy birthday Rebecca!!! She is so darn cute!

OK, guess I should get some work done. I've been here for an hour and have accomplished nothing.

The Nanny Diaries

This is the book I'm currently reading. Well one of them. I got the Nanny Diaries at a rummage sale on Saturday and started reading it right away, even though I'm in the middle of another one called Night's Landing. The Nanny Diaries is hilarious! If you get a chance to read it, you really should. There are a couple of things that irritate me though: the nanny's name is Nanny, and the couple she nannies for has the last name of X. That's it. Just X. It's weird. Other than that it's really good. She nannies for a super rich couple in NYC and the authors really seem to be picking on rich, upscale families whose parents don't spend any time with the kids and name them hoity toity names like Grayer.

Ugh, I'm waiting for someone to quit using the copier so I can use it. I can hear it from my office and it's just cooking away. I need to go make some copies before I can talk to a coworker in the Extension office. Oh, it's quiet, maybe the Copy Hog is done.

Holy crap Desperate Housewives was so good last night. I can't believe I have to wait until September to find out of Edie is really dead, if Carlos and Gabby are going to get back together and if Bree can pull off the pregnancy/raising her grandchild thing.

Paige is now 39 pounds and 41 inches. I can't even believe it. She's the size of an average 4.5 to 5 year old.

I had a blast rummage saleling this weekend, especially on Saturday when I got to go alone. I took her on Friday and she was not so good. She kept taking stickers off of stuff and moving the toys all over. It's like control yourself child! I got her a ton of clothes for this summer and a bunch for this winter already too.

Friday was not such a good day. Krista and Linda heard all about it in chat on Friday...thanks for letting me vent girls! Paige was not good during the rummage sales. Then we went to the park for a playdate with my mom's group and she wouldn't let go of the death grip around my leg for almost an hour. Finally I gave up and hauled her out to the car with her screaming bloody murder. It was so embarrassing. Here I have like one of the only kids in daycare almost full time, and she can't leave my side to go play on the playground equipment? I just wanted to leave but I didn't because it was in Green Bay (a 40 minute drive) and I didn't want to waste the time and gas money to stay for 5 minutes. All of the other kids were playing and having a great time, but not mine. I could see if she was maybe 1 or so, but not at 3. It was awful. And her dr. apt. was at 3:30pm, I scheduled it for then because she had been waking up from her nap at 2:30 pm for months now like clockwork. She takes a while to wake up so I thought 3:30pm would be a good time. Well wouldn't you know, she parties in her room for almost an hour after I laid her down, and I ended up having to wake her from an almost comatose-like state at 3:20pm. I carried her out to the car and was about 5 minutes late for the apt.

We were gardening fools yesterday. Mike and Paige planted the garden and I planted about a million flowers. They all look really nice.

OK, my copies are done so I must get back to work. Good times!

Survivor

I know some of you may have already seen this, but it is just hilarious:
The Next Survivor Series - Mothers Day Series!



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THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES:

Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks.

Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes.

There is no fast food.

Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of "pretend" bills with not enough money.

In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week.

Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send cards out on time.

Each man must also take each child to a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment. He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Urgent Care (weekend, evening, on a holiday or right when they're about to leave for vacation).

He must also make cookies or cupcakes for a social function.

Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times.

The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done. There is only one TV between them, and a remote with dead batteries.

Each father will be required to know all of the words to every stupid song that comes on TV and the name of each and every character on cartoons.

The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, which they will apply to themselves either while driving or making three lunches.


Each man will have to make an Indian hut model with six toothpicks, a tortilla and one marker; and get a 4 year old to eat a serving of peas.


Each man must adorn himself wit h jewelry, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep their nails polished and eyebrows groomed.

The men must try to get through each day without snot, spit-up or barf on their clothing.

During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings, but never once complain or slow down from other duties. They must try to explain what a tampon is for when the 6-yr old boy finds it in the purse.

They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.

He will need to read a book and then pray with the children each night without falling asleep, and then feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair each morning by 7:00.

They must leave the home with no food on their face or clothes.

A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor's name.

Also the child's weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labor, each child's favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up.

They must clean up after their sick children at 2:00 a.m. and then spend the remainder of the day tending to that child and waiting on them hand and foot until they are better.

They must have a loving, age appropriate reply to, "You're not the boss of me."

The kids vote them off the island based on performance.

The last man wins only if...he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment's notice.

If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years...eventually earning the right to be called Mother!

Is It OK...

to admit that I just really don't like my own child right now? I know a big part of it is that she's not sleeping well and is so tired. She's like her mama, when she doesn't get enough sleep she is a complete basket case. And the crankier she is, the more I avoid her. The more I avoid her, the more she wants to be by me and acts out to get my attention. The more she acts out, the more I avoid her. It's a vicious cycle. It's so frustrating, it's like if you are so damn tired, then SLEEP for crying out loud! There is no law stating you have to wake up at 6:30am every day or only nap for an hour or so. Sleep if you're tired!!!!!

Well I'll probably get the bad mom award for admitting that I actually enjoy a night or two away from my child on the BBC boards, but what are you going to do? I know what works for me and my family. Paige and I are not attached at the hip nor do I think that's healthy.

Oh I forgot to mention the Mother's Day presents that she made at Sandi's house last week. That Sandi must have the patience of a saint. Who else is willing to make 4 different Mother's Day crafts with a group of 2-4 year olds, mostly girls? UGH. Anyway I got a cute beaded keychain with a charm on the end that says "#1 Mom", a card with her handprint that she decorated with stickers, a windchime with a wooden flower that she colored and 4 chimes hanging off of it, and a flower made out of cupcake liners, her cut out handprints and a pipe cleaner for the stem. Her picture is in the middle of the cupcake liner. Too cute. I need to get a hope chest to start keeping all of these things. They are too nice to throw away.

Terri-I've been thinking about you so much these past few weeks. How's Ellie doing today? You guys are in my prayers.

Way Behind

It's May already...holy crap. I'm so behind on this blog. Between crazy work, Paige's party, my sister's bridal shower and her wedding, life is just nuts. At least Paige's party is over, so 1 down, 2 to go.

Thank you Meredith for the Happy Birthday to Paige on your blog. I tried to sign in and leave a comment, but blogger was acting funky. Happy belated birthday to Ella!!! And can I just say, you must have the biggest heart of anyone I know. Here you are already busy raising 4 kids of your own and you are willing to open your home to 2 more kids in need. I couldn't do it. Do you need more boys clothes? I can certainly hit some rummage sales for you!

Mike has had tendinitis in his wrist the past month. He's been doing PT 3 times/week and tomorrow is his last one. He's feeling much better thank goodness. He has been quite the crab since it happened. Can't say I blame him.

He was able to put new floor in our living room before the tendinitis developed and it looks so nice in there. We got new lamps too and the living room looks so much nicer. We just need to find an area rug.




Those were taken before the new lamps were up. I should take another one. The new lamps make a world of difference.

We had new neighbors move into the lower part of the duplex next door to us. They are a young boyfriend and girlfriend, mid to late twenties and probably some of the nicest people I've met. The girl has a 3 year old daughter from a previous marriage and her and Paige are best buddies already. It was in the 80's yesterday so I filled up Paige's pool when I got home from work, and Ava (the 3 year old) came over and they splashed around in the pool for at least an hour. Totally wore Paige out so she was crabby the rest of the night. The only thing is is that she has a huge meltdown whenever we have to go inside after playing with Ava...she wants to keep playing!!!!

I had a nice Mother's Day. Mike got me 4 hanging flower pots for outside and they are so pretty. He sort of gave me the day off too...took care of Paige as much as he could so I could sit around and read and be lazy. It was pretty nice. She has a cold and hasn't been sleeping well so she is so cranky and tired. I think we are entering the terrible 3's. She has been downright defiant and just sassy lately. Good times.

She got a 2 wheeler bike with training wheels for her birthday and has been just loving that. We're going to try to go for a bike ride/walk every night. She does pretty good on it!!!

If you get a chance, watch this video today. You might pee your pants!!

Venting

OK OK I know it's been ages since I've blogged...life has been CRAZY! Between updating our house and work...yikes.

Random vent here: The car seat board on BBC drives me absolutely flippin' nuts. The majority of the posters are not techs and must sit their fat asses on the computer all day waiting for a question so they can chime in ASAP, act high and mighty and impress the unknowing OPs with their "vast" knowledge. They all have kids so I wonder what their kids are doing all day while these chicks sit around on the computer ready to pounce on a question. And not only can one person answer the question, a whole group of them have to chime in and repeat themselves so as to show off. ITS SO ANNOYING!!!!!! Especially this chick on my birth board. She kinda popped up out of nowhere on our birth board but is on the car seat one all the time. When someone asked a car seat question, I answered, then she answered and advised the person to ask for more info at the car seat board. WTF? Being a certified tech for 4 years isn't good enough? UGH!!!!!!

OK, I feel better now.

Mike thinks he has tendinitis. His right wrist is just killing him and he basically can't use that hand. He's probably going to the dr. tomorrow and his work will put him on light duty which means working crazy hours. Over nights, etc. Great.

I'm finally getting over this damn cold. I've had it for probably 2 weeks and it's a whopper. Sore throat, runny nose, aches, headache etc. I slept until 8:45am Monday morning. It felt wonderful.

Paige's party is in a month. I can't even believe my baby will be 3. She has been acting so grown up lately.

Got a positive OPK on Sunday and Monday nights so Mike and I did the deed then. Hopefully it works. I'm a late ovulater I guess. We've been BDing at the wrong time all these months. I'd be due in January which isn't ideal, but I'll take a healthy baby no matter when it comes.

My sister's bridal shower is June 2nd and I'm stressing about that. I'm waiting for one of the bridesmaids to finish making the bachelorette party invite and then I'm getting them printed and sending them out. I'm tempted to ask if another bridesmaid can get them printed and sent out. I really do not have the time to stuff and address 20 or so invitations.

My house is a mess. I don't know how in the hell we are going to get it cleaned up by Paige's party on May 12th. Just the basement alone will take one weekend.

OK off to relax a bit and then to bed.

Oh one more random vent...wtf is up with Sanjaya on AI? I just have a bad feeling he's going to win. He's such a pussbag.

Can you tell I forgot to take my Lexapro today?

OK, now I'm off to relax!!!

Really Cool Movie

Check this out if you get a chance. It's beautiful!!!

http://www.spiritheart.org/flash/inspirational/love_is_the_way.html

New Kitchen Pictures

OK, so we painted the cabinets this weekend, spray painted the hinges and put on new knobs from Friday night-Sunday night. We were really hauling ass!








I'm off tomorrow since I had to work on Friday. Thinking about heading down to Green Bay for a meetup with my mom's group but it's at 9am and that's awfully early for us to get going and out of the house. We shall see. Off to workout!

Window Treatments

Here is what we are putting up in the living room in merlot:
http://www4.jcpenney.com/jcp/ProductsHOM.aspx?DeptID=25437&CatID=41761&CatTyp=DEP&ItemTyp=G&GrpTyp=SIZ&ItemID=114a19f&ProdSeq=1&Cat=cordless&Dep=Window&PCat=Shades&PCatID=28537&RefPage=ProductList&Sale=&ProdCount=9&RecPtr=&ShowMenu=&TTYP=&ShopBy=0&RefPageName=CategoryAll.aspx&RefCatID=28537&RefDeptID=25437&Page=1&CmCatId=25437|28537|41761

This is the scarf hanging in the living room, it's not the exact one, but it's pretty close. Mushroom color:
http://www4.jcpenney.com/jcp/ProductsHOM.aspx?DeptID=25437&CatID=28619&CatTyp=DEP&ItemTyp=G&GrpTyp=PRD&ItemID=11046c8&ProdSeq=5&Cat=scarves&Dep=Window&PCat=Top+Treatments&PCatID=28418&RefPage=ProductList&Sale=&ProdCount=17&RecPtr=&ShowMenu=&TTYP=&ShopBy=0&RefPageName=CategoryAll.aspx&RefCatID=28418&RefDeptID=25437&Page=99&CmCatId=25437|28418|28619

I can't find the rod online that we are hanging the scarf from but it's very simple, it's muted dark metal.

So picture those window treatments in this room with a wood floor (instead of those horrible vertical blinds):


We also got 2 new pillows in that red color in the couch because Duke took it upon himself to chew a huge hole in one of our pillows the other night while we were sleeping. WTF?

I also need 2 new floor lamps in there.
Kitchen:
These shades in goldust:
http://www4.jcpenney.com/jcp/ProductsHOM.aspx?DeptID=25437&CatID=28538&CatTyp=DEP&ItemTyp=G&GrpTyp=SIZ&ItemID=117fbbb&ProdSeq=1&Cat=roman&Dep=Window&PCat=Shades&PCatID=28537&RefPage=ProductList&Sale=&ProdCount=24&RecPtr=&ShowMenu=&TTYP=&ShopBy=0&RefPageName=CategoryAll.aspx&RefCatID=28537&RefDeptID=25437&Page=1&CmCatId=25437|28537|28538

I don't think I'm going to do fabric valances in the kitchen...I want SIMPLE!!!!

YAHOO!!!!!