been busy

Last week was non-stop it seemed. Well, except for Wednesday, but I was so tired.

Monday I had a wisdom tooth pulled. I had chipped it when I was pregnant and the pain was getting really bad and not tolerable or controllable anymore. Monday night, we had a nice Father's Day dinner with my step-dad, David. It was his first Father's Day with us. He is so entwined into our lives now that it is hard to believe. He takes great care of my mother and it seems he really cares about all of us. He claims Joshua to be his grandson and not Mom's. Joshua loves his Pops. Tuesday night held a meeting for Jeff & I. These meetings are going well and we are meeting less often. Wednesday, my mouth hurt, just like the surgeon said it would. I felt like I had taken a good hit to the jaw. Thursday, I finished up my bra for our Pink Bra Contest benefiting Susan G Komen. The contest was Friday night at Pappa G's in Watagua. Our team did awesome....we raised $840!!! Instead of just taking donations at the door, we asked people to buy tickets to vote for the pink bra they liked the best. It worked out great. We have two other Pink Bra Contest that will be scheduled this week. Saturday...it was so freakin' hot outside. We didn't do much...except ran for the nearest A/C. Saturday night, my mother's neighbor asked if they knew anyone who would want a trampoline. My mother called and Jeff and I were interested. We went down to "look' at it Sunday...and then came home with it Sunday. We had to call in help....many thanks to Jeromy, Josh & Daniel....we cut some limbs off a neighbor's tree that were hanging in our yard and attempted to take out a Crape Myrtle. The chainsaw died, not sure what went wrong. Once it is fixed up, we will finish taking out that tree. The trampoline is in the backyard and Joshua loves it. He thinks it is his for some reason - it is really mine. :)

Potty training has temporarily come to a halt. Joshua can home Friday with a bad diaper rash. It has gotten worse over the weekend. He has no interest in sitting down on the potty and is walking funny because it hurts so bad. He is big on Mommy, Daddy or whoever is available kissing owie's/hurts...so the conversation with Daddy goes:
"My butt hurts, Daddy."
"Your butt hurts. I'm sorry. It will get better."
"Kiss it, Daddy." As he pats at this bottom.

Snapshot Sunday is obviously delayed again. Perhaps I should just call it Snapshots and post on any day.

wooo potty time

Thursday night one of the shows I watch didn't come on and the other was a rerun. So Joshua and I sat down in the study floor to go through more papers that have piled up. I swear I have been working on this study and piles of paper since before Christmas. The pile never seems to end. It doesn't help that I suck at organizing. I was shredding paper and Joshua was studying the shredder from a distance. He picked up a paper out of the recycle box and wanted me to shred it. As the shredder is "eating" the paper, he's like, "no, my paper", that isn't how it works, we can't get the paper back, the machine eats it, I explain. He seems to understand and I go out shredding. In a minute he brings me several papers and says, "eat it". So we shred those and he seemed to understand that the machine "eats" the paper. It is amazing to me how he figures things out.

Since we got back from Arkansas this past weekend, Chanci keeps wanting to be let out in the middle of the night. I am not liking this at all. I am not going to be getting up and down all night to let her in and out. So, since Jeff went to work Wednesday morning, at 4 a.m. Thursday morning, Chanci wanted out. Not a major problem, I get up at 5:30 anyway. She was only out for about 2 hours...she is out that long on the weekend and some week nights anyway. Well, Friday morning she wanted out at 2 a.m. I am tired and ticked that I am having to get up to let this "stupid-a**" dog out. I didn't know it was about to be raining. When I got up late at nearly 6 a.m., I went to let her in. Well....it had been raining and she was one pi**ed, wet & muddy dog. I had her wait in the sun room, partly to dry off and partly to clear a nice path back to her crate. She came in, refused to go in the kitchen for a drink so it was straight to her crate. Muddy paw prints from the back door to her crate. Good thing the living room is hardwood & the carpet in the bedroom it gross anyway. The mud she brings in normally cleans up pretty well off of it anyway. Perhaps, just perhaps, she learned her lesson and won't be asking to go out in the night tonight. And if she does, I will probably curse her all the way outside where she will again stay until I get up.

Tonight, when we got home from dinner with my sister, Joshua and I were playing in the living room. I kept asking if he was ready for bed and of course "No!" was always the answer. Right at 8:30, I asked if he wanted to do potty-time. He responded, clapping his hands, "yeah, yeah, potty time, yeah, yeah". And as we headed down the hall to his bathroom it was, "woooo potty time, woooo, yeah, potty time". He was so freakin' excited about it, it was hard not to laugh. And I was tired of waiting for him to go, I was trying to get him to get up so we could go put on a diaper...and he was refusing to get up...suddenly, the music started. He peed, but honestly, most of it got on his shirt....yuck! He apparently wasn't sitting just right. After he went, he said, "see pee-pee" and stood up so he could see it. Sounds gross and it was. After his diaper, we went back in to flush it down the toilet. Again, he waved and said bye to the pee. I swear that is his favorite part of using the potty. But secretly, inside, in quiet, I go "wooooo, we pottied, we pottied, woooo, yeah, yeah, we pottied!" and my guts do a happy dance while my heart does backflips!

This is a busy weekend...kinda. Tomorrow morning, provided it doesn't rain, I am meeting my new teammates. My sister, Stephanie, and I have joined an existing team for the Breast Cancer 3-Day. We are now members of the 60 Mile Mamas. These women have done the race before, most of the more than once. And they know the ropes and I am looking forward to meeting them. After that, shopping and a trip to Burleson to (hopefully) see a new baby.

A-B-C-D

Today at work our portal (our main system which hold every-freakin-thing possible) went down. And then came up for 5 minutes and went down. And came up for two minutes and went down. This is pretty much how it was all day until 5pm when they took it down for good. Seems an update didn't go well. All of this made for an incredibly unproductive day. There will be lots to do the next few days to get caught back up.

Joshua had a great day. He has been singing "A-B-C-D, Now I know my A-B-C-D's" over and over again. He often sings the song and has now changed his version to this. He has gone through periods of singing L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-A-B-C and then for a while it was A-B-C-D-E-W-R-S-L-M-N-O-P. His newest version is very cute. It makes me laugh that he is catching on the last line about knowing his ABC's. He also has his own version of Twinkle Twinkle that he sings. He has been Daddy's buddy the last couple of days and it ain't bothering me one bit. It is nice to get to do a few things without him standing right up under me. And it has been a while since he has taken to Daddy so well.

We had a slight plumbing issue tonight. Jeff did get it fixed and the crisis was resolved. We have this extra faucet in our kitchen that gives you this nasty tasting water...like all the good stuff was taken out. It was leaking and he just bypassed that part of the pipes since we never use it. At least that is my girl version of what happened. We followed this up with pancakes, eggs & sausage for dinner all of which I made....and it was tasty as usual. I make a good pancake if I do have to say so myself.

Been a long day of waiting around and I am heading to bed.

have you seen my keys?

Today was my first day back at work after 6 days off.....I am tired. And I am told that I will need to go back to working my regular hours again starting tomorrow. We also have a big lunch meeting tomorrow....sounds to me like they are buttering us up for something.

I have lost my keys. The last time we had them was Sunday evening. And now....I don't know where they are. We have looked all over the house, checked both the car & the truck and nothing. Jeff left me with his house key, mailbox key & truck key. I will tie them together with string in hopes that I don't lose them too.

Joshua's cough seems to be much better today. Thank goodness. I stressed all day thinking that the daycare was going to call and I would have to go pick him up. I am stressed that it will happen in the next three days too since Jeff will be gone. I really don't want to miss more work. I think the time I have needed off in the last two weeks is why they have put me back on my crappy shift. (It is not a crappy shift...after all, it could be worse.)

Now, I am just looking forward to Thursday night when the final Grey's Anatomy - Private Practice crossover comes on. But in the mean time, I must sleep and work.

the walls are falling down

Today, we prepared for the task of ripping out the wallpaper in our second bathroom. We have purchased (what we thought was) everything we need to re-decorate. Given how well some of the jobs were done by the previous owner, we expected a lot of difficulty removing the existing wallpaper. But surprisingly, the old ugly wallpaper came down pretty easy. The largest wall peeled right off in large strips. The border paper on the painted wall was put on with some heavy duty glue and took some soaking to get off. The larger wall is now down to the drywall and will have to be textured to match the other walls. A quick trip to Lowe's and we have the stuff that should texture the wall similar enough to the other walls. We will work on that part tomorrow as it got too late today.

Since Joshua's bathroom is all torn up, he had to take his bath in our big tub. At first, he didn't want to sit down. But once he did, he played and bathed and then didn't want to get out. He also has started shrugging his shoulders when he doesn't really know what else to do or say. It is pretty cute to see his little shoulders go up and down.

My cousin and his wife stopped by today. I had Valentine's things for Adam and when they got here, I couldn't flippin' find them. I was so frustrated. But of course, 15 minutes after they left, I found them. No big deal, I have to swing over to their house tomorrow afternoon. I am stressing over a shirt that I borrowed from Christina that I can't get a stain out of. I have been trying for months on this stain. I have tried many different things and this afternoon, my mother suggested another one. I will have to see how it comes out of the wash. I don't think she needs this shirt since her works uniforms have changed, but I am still bothered that I can't get it out.

Jeff and I decided that we would go out for a Valentine's dinner since we could. Joshua was asleep when we got to the restaurant and slept all the way through the meal. When I stood up leave he woke up but still was pretty out of it. He slept all the way to Lowe's. We made him wake up since it was so late. I feel bad, he didn't have dinner and didn't eat good all day, except for snacks. We will fix him a good breakfast in the morning. I am worried that he is coming down with yet another cold. This angers me beyond belief. I did a breathing treatment tonight, but he didn't want to sit still for the entire time.....only for about 5 minutes. He could have used another 5, but oh well. I think tomorrow night, if we do one, I will trap him in his high chair and let him color....perhaps that will help ride out the 10 minutes.

Tomorrow Jeff and I are going to have our taxes done. We are just hoping that we don't have to pay....we will have to wait and see.

Good Bye January, Hello February

Saturday, was a pretty good day. My mother and I went running around....well...shopping....but not for fun stuff....just diapers & wipes at Sam's & the grocery shopping. That afternoon we headed over to my sister's to hang out for a bit. A bit turned into late for me. Joshua brought his MagnaDoodle that he got for Christmas over. He now says "magadoodool" It is so cute! We fixed dinner and decided that we wanted ice cream so my sister and I headed to the store to pick some up. When we got back, we dished out ice cream. Joshua seen that E & K got their own bowls. I fixed one bowl for he and I to share. Well, he got all upset. And wanted the whole bowl to himself. So.....we wrapped him up in a towel and gave him his own bowl. One scoop and a spoon. He was so excited. He ate it very well...sometimes with the spoon. When he got down to the melty part at the bottom of the bowl, he was sticking his fingers in and then slurping it off his fingers. It was funny. When the finger slurping no longer worked to get the last bits of ice cream out, he proceeded to try to lick the inside bottom of the bowl. He thought is was good stuff. I didn't get pictures of this because I was too busy monitoring the situation so it didn't become a bigger mess. Next time....I take pictures.


Jeff got home about 3:30 this morning and we slept until about 8:30. Joshua woke up and jabbered to himself until about 8:45. We all got up and had breakfast and then Jeff and I began cleaning. Jeff got the whole kitchen cleaned up. The counters sparkle and you can see your reflection in the floor. I worked in the office and filled our inside recycle bin with paper and filled the shredder with paper also. There is still a lot of work to be done in the office, but it is getting much better.


My mom came by for a little bit. I have been needing to make the pillow and blanket for Joshua's bed. I bought the material back in October but haven't really had the time to be still to do it. More like, I need someone to keep Joshua busy while I work on it. But anyway, Mom came down and helped me get my fabric set up and I stitched them both. He is now the proud owner of a space themed blanket and pillow case. This is his first big boy pillow....well, if 14 inches square can be a big boy pillow. I used all of the remaining material for the blanket and it is a good size blanket, much more than just crib size. (Note we still use the Noah's Ark sheet. We only have three sheets we use.)





This evening, we watched the first half of the Super Bowl. Then headed out to grab a bite to eat and pick up new drip pans for the stove. We got the drip pans at Wal-mart (which was basically empty) and got back home with them only to find that the 8 inch pan does not fit our stove correctly. They are going back to Wal-mart tomorrow. I don't think we can cook on our stove until we get drip pans and we ain't putting the old nasty ones back on! We looked around online and found a website that sells factory drip pans but they would cost us $60. We will try looking somewhere else first.

20 months

Today, Joshua is 20 months old. 20 months. And he was full of energy this evening! He gobbled down dinner yet again. Jeff was getting himself some more mac-n-cheese and Joshua said Daddy and pointed at his plate. That made the third helping of mac-n-cheese for the boy. Each helping got smaller and smaller. He wanted more and I said no and offered him go-gourt which he sucked down. He even ate his meat, chicken, tonight. He has been an eating machine lately. He seems to think that he is always hungry. And if we give him something, he eats all right. Jeff at dinner even looked under the table and said "well, it ain't coming out his toes". It was funny. Everyone keeps commenting on how slim is face is getting, so it must just be that he is growing. He went through this several weeks back, where we just couldn't seem to keep him full. He was happy to go to bed tonight.....oh yea....this morning he made it out of bed and all the way to our room without fussing. It is cool that he is getting himself up but no cool that he can open all the doors so easily. He even closed he and I in our bathroom and the opened the door. And the bathroom door latches really well.

Today, in honor of Joshua's birthday, Jeff and I went and seen a movie. Marley & Me. I read the book and cried and I cried at the movie. Jeff and I were talking that Joshua will probably be about 8 when Chanci leaves us. That is if I don't kill her first. Joshua got this Melissa & Doug puzzle for Christmas from my brother. It has fish and a fishing pole with magnets. Chanci ate the fishing pole. Now, we don't let Joshua play with it. He doesn't mind, but I do. I can sympathize with the movie because our dog eats just about anything. When Joshua was a baby and would have spit up episodes on his outfits. If I left it lying around, Chanci would come along and eat it. She loved the taste of formula. She never ate a bottle but probably would have, had she been given a chance. I don't give our pets much blog time, but they are good pets. Chanci is huge. Weighs about 125 pounds and is the biggest scaredy cat I have ever seen. She scares people off, but they don't realize that the worst she will do to them is knock them over....when she leans on them. Yes, she is a leaner. And has a whipping tale that Joshua is learning to dodge well. And our cat, well, she is a brat. She thinks she rules the house, but she doesn't. Her latest thing is chasing the reflection from the trash can lid. The lid is stainless steel, so it shines some. And when you open the lid, the shine moves on the wall. She attacks the wall trying to get it. Joshua thinks this is funny and will encourage her by opening and closing the lid.

Joshua has been finding random things funny lately. Like, mega blocks turned upside down. Why that is funny, I don't know. But he will laugh at it. And I have taught him to "come over here and lay down so I can tickle you". He will come over and lay down on the floor and wait for me to tickle him. It is so funny. He kicks his legs up and wiggles all over. It is so funny and a great distraction when things are not going well. It is hard to believe that soon enough we will be playing a small birthday party for a 2 year old. I am already working on cake ideas. Last year, I made a pirate cake that was just adorable. This year....well....you'll have to wait and see....but it is going to be great!

Jeff and I also picked out a paint for the bathroom today. We will get started on that project in the next month. We have to take down wallpaper that is in there. The first of the green striped rooms is coming down. Our sea life bathroom accessory set it so cute. I didn't really get to anything else today like I had planned. Mostly because I am hurting again today and my blood pressure is up. Up to 141/80, which is really high for me. My head just hurts and there were a couple of times today when I could feel the blood pumping in my head. I am hoping that it will fix itself in the next two days or I will go to the doctor.

It is still Saturday, right?

We had a busy Saturday. Lots of running around. We had lunch in Irving at Sweet Tomatoes. Went to Kohl's for my mother and wound up spending some of our Christmas money on new pillows.....more on those tomorrow. Went to the fairly new ToysRUs/BabiesRUs combo store....much to small on both stores. I prefer the bigger, full size stores. Where they actually carry things you see online and not just a condensed version of it. When we were on the BabiesRUs side, Joshua was in the back of the buggy....you know the part where you shouldn't let your children ride, but everyone does anyway. And he reached for something, shifting the balance of the buggy and the balance of himself just enough that he went down. He smashed his mouth on the buggy and blood started coming out of his mouth. I thought he had bit his lip, no....he cut the inside of his lip/cheek and banged up his top gum. We got him calmed down. Rinsed him mouth out with some cold water. And he is just fine now; however, when I put him to bed, his mouth was bleeding again a little. That is our first bloody accident. Whew....we made it to 19 months old before it happened!!....go Mommy, go Mommy. It is sadly good that we have had two ER trips and he wasn't bloody or broken either time. At ToysRUs, Joshua spent his Christmas money on some Crayola Brand things. I will post more once he uses them.

We made the trip back to the Fort Worth side of town and stopped in at home for a bit. I talked to my neighbor across the street. I have been reading on our HOA website about break-ins and attempted break-ins in our neighborhood and wanted to see if she had seen it. She hadn't and we talked for a few. She was telling me that the guy three houses down from us was in his garage working a couple weeks back. He went in the house to fix himself a sandwich and when he came out, he seen the guys jumping into a van in front of his house. They took several of his tools including his saw. I have noticed a lack of saw noise in the last few weeks from his house. He thought he heard something and went out to check and sure enough he had heard them taking his stuff. The HOA site said someone was attempting to break into a house over by the school and the guy was in the back of his house and thought he heard someone banging on his door...he did....it was two guys trying to break in. He called the cops and by the time they got here, the guys were gone. What is my neighborhood coming too? The stuff online says that the break-ins and attempted break-ins were where there was no car parked in the driveway and happening between 9am-11am. Lovely. I can only pray that my house doesn't look appealing.

Tonight we met up with my brother and sister-in-law at Joann's so my sister-in-law, Mandy, could give me some scrap booking tips. I am going to be working on a photo/scrap book and have decided to do it by hand. After we left Joann's, we were in the truck and Joshua and Jeff were playing. All of a sudden, Joshua swung his arm back in my direction and accidentally popped me on the arm. Popped me like you would back-hand someone. It hurt/stung for several seconds. Jeff was laughing so hard, I think the only things that kept him in the seat was his seat belt. We also decided that we would just go grocery shopping tonight while we were already out and didn't have to worry about it tomorrow. Bad idea. Joshua was so done with this day before we got there. He fussed and threw fits throughout our entire 20 minute stop. I took him out to the truck while Jeff checked us out at the grocery store.

I am working on editing pictures....so be sure to check out my flickr.