Life Happens

New Blog

2009-08-25T15:08:00.003-05:00

Hey all - I have moved my blog.

The Schneider Family blog can now be found here. Please update your favorites if you have it saved.

All of our archived blogs are on the new blog as well as the most recent ones.

From the Hills of WV to the Zoo in St. Louie

2009-08-25T08:22:00.006-05:00

Tobin and I went on our first road trip about a week or so ago now. It was to my Uncle Mike's house in WV. I was having nightmares before we left that he screamed the whole way. I was getting a little terrified...one of mom's clients sent a gift along. It was a sun that plays classical music and was chew toy ready. Tobin loved it. He did extremely well for the long drive there and home.

The trip to see my Uncle was bittersweet. My aunt recently passed away and we were there as some support for my uncle & cousin. The church where Nyla (my aunt) played the piano held a memorial service for her. It was a very nice and emotional service. Tobin & I missed the last bit, he was getting fussy we went downstairs.

My cousin John (13y) was incredibly sweet and gentle with Tobin. He said this was the closest he had ever really been to a baby and his first experience was a good one. Tobin was just as enamored with John.

Yesterday we spent in St. Louis. We finally had our appointment with the Shriner's. We agreed to let them do some DNA testing, they are doing research to help find the gene that causes clubfoot. They took blood form all three of us and as detailed family medical history as we could give them. We did learn some interesting stats though: 1 in 1,000 babies will be born with a club foot, more boys are affected then girls, and the right foot is affected more then the left. We hope our DNA helps them along with the research.

Overall we had a very positive experience at the Shriner's hospital. Tobin has new shoes and new braces on his feet. We learned that 1) the Denis Browne Splint (the bar) we were using was to short 2) his club foot wasn't at enough of an angle. His new brace isn't was I was expecting from Dr. Deppe's description, but better then what Tobin had. This Dobbs Brace keeps his feet in the correct positions, but allows for his feet to move independently from one another. We don't know yet if he will be able to crawl in them or not yet, we will just have to work on that.

The Good/Not-so-good news...Not-so-good, he has to wear the brace & shoes 23 hours out of the day. The one hour out is for bath times and stretching exercises on his foot and ankle. The good new...after three months of this he will be weened to wearing them only at nap times and bed time. That is like a 6m to a year earlier then we were expecting. We go back to the hospital in 3 months for a check up and the any adjustments.

We are adjusting yet again to the new braces and shoes. It always takes a few days to get in the groove of things. Here is a picture of what his brace looks like:

After all that, we took Tobin to the St. Louis Zoo. Three of his favorite things: people, outdoors, and animals. We were there about 3 hours and still had a lot to see.

What Difference A Little Surgery Makes

2009-08-06T19:49:00.005-05:00

Amazing...

Tobin's foot when he was born...

Tobin's foot after 7 months of casts, shoes, bars, and surgery...

We are all getting used to Tobin being in his shoes with the bar again. He had his feet (in the shoes & bar) pulled up to his face in the carseat and was growling at them. Our appointment with the Shriners was pushed out the 24th...two more weeks...

We went swimming today and Tobin was in heaven. He was so excited to be back in the water. He didn't stop moving from the time we got in to the time we left.

He also got a bath this evening and he was just as excited as he was to swim

He Has Teeth & He Knows How to Use Them

2009-08-02T13:47:00.004-05:00

That would be correct...Tobin has teeth...not a tooth...teeth as in more than one...he has two. His bottom two front teeth are coming in.

Conversation a few days ago in the truck when Chris sticks his hand in the back to play with Tobin:

Chris: Oh crap his teeth are sharp

Me: I told you they were

Chris: I thought you said you could just see them

Me: I told you they were out

Chris: I guess I didn't realize they were out-out. He almost broke my skin. When did you tell me they were out?

Me: A few days ago when I said his teeth are out and they are sharp.

Chris: Oh.

Tobin is still on that cusp of just about doing everything. He is definitely sitting on his own now, fewer & fewer face plants from a sitting position ever day. He wants to crawl so badly, he works real hard at it.

Wednesday is the final day for his cast...WOO HOO!!!! We (him probably more than us) are so ready for it to be off. Our conversations kind go like this:

"I bet when he gets that cast off he will..."
"When that cast is finally off we can..."

After the cast is off he will be corrective shoes. He will have a flat bottom pair, these are for the day, and a pair with the bar between them, these are for night. Now these shoes are not cheap. So we applied to the Hadi Shriners to help us with the cost of the shoes. Our insurance covered most of his Doctor appointments and surgery, but they don't cover the cost of the shoes. Thank goodness our application to the Shriners was approved. We are meeting with the doctors on August 17th in St. Louis, I will let you all know how it goes.

I have a jobby job. I will be working at Fitness 19. It is within walking distance from our house, so I will not have to drive to work. I will also be working evenings. This means Chris will have bedtime duty with Tobin everynight, and we will not have to pay for daycare.

I think that is all the news we have right now.

Tobzilla & Other Bits & Pieces

2009-07-27T13:57:00.005-05:00

I got my hair cut...woo hoo...loving it

Before:

After:

Other news...we sent an application the Hadi Shriners to help us with the cost of Tobin's corrective shoes. They are super expensive and are not cover by our insurance (get this...if he lad leg braces those would be covered, but corrective shoes are not) and thought we would give the Shriners a shot. Our application was approved and we have an appointment to meet with them in August. The count down has begun...9 more days until Tobin's cast is off. Hopefully this is his last cast. We plan to spend the next few days after that at Papa Phil's pool.

Bella only has about 2 weeks until school starts...I think Tobin will miss her.

I am looking for work...BOOOOOOOOOOOOO! There is a fitness place opening right by our house and I interviewed there...seems like it it went very well. If I work there, I can walk to work and on days that my schedule overlaps with Chris, I can take Tobin to the children's center they have.

Now...Tobzilla:

I didn't really believe it...

2009-07-14T12:35:00.015-05:00

My friend Jessica says Tobin's looks change every time she sees him. She said if you put him with a line of other babies, she's not sure she could pick him out. I didn't really believe it until this past Saturday. My little boy looks different, although I think I could pick him out of a pack of babies.

Not radically different, just different. A little more little boyish, less babyish, I guess.

I was feeding him Saturday afternoon, after he was finished he was sitting on my lap talking and playing with my face when I notices it. He smile was a little different, the look on his face was different, the way his face responded to me was different.

I see him everyday, so it takes me a longer to notice the changes in him. This got me to looking at pictures from after he was born until recently. He has changed so much, yet not at all...

Newborn:

2 Months:

4 Months:

6 Months:

A little different each time...he is growing up so fast. Glo-Worm is sitting on his own now. He can pull himself up even with his cast on. He can rollover...he gets stuck in the cast sometimes. When the cast is off, I think the crawling is going to take off, he is so ready to be mobile. I love his slobbery kisses, his snuggles, his smile...

Life is good.

Clingy, Cranky Baby

2009-07-09T14:59:00.006-05:00

That is how I am so affectionately describing my son today. Monday he got some shots and the one in his right leg is...kinda stuck I guess. It's hard and looks bruised. We called the doctors office & they said that was normal. The nurse said it could talk days or a few weeks to work it's way through. Since this hasn't happened before, we are thinking that the cast is holding it back. I am thinking also this is the reason for the "clingy, cranky baby." This mood is on the heals of him getting up way to early today (5am)...made a cranky mommy today.

Bella passed her swimming lessons to move up to Guppy and has gotten to jump off the diving board and she loves it. I am glad she is doing so well.

Here is a video of me & Tobin talking

Rock Around the Clock

2009-07-01T08:06:00.005-05:00

Since Tobin's surgery, he has decided a later bedtime is in order. I have a love/dislike feeling about this.

Love: that we can go places without him being too cranky and ready to go to bed. That I get to spend more of my day with him.

Dislike: I miss that little bit of me time before we went to bed. That he can't decided exactly what time to go to bed.

I think we are settling into the 8p-ish area, but it has varied from 7p to 10p.

A few weeks ago we went to Wendy's house for Bella & Leland to swim, they had such a good time we are going back tomorrow.

Over the weekend we got Tobin one of those thingys that you can put in the seat of shopping carts and such. He loved it. He was so excited about seeing everything around him, he couldn't decided what to look at first.

This was just too cute...

Ninja Puke

2009-06-22T14:00:00.005-05:00

We have a new term for the throw up from Tobin that happens & you didn't know it. Ninja Puke. This tends to happen when we are holding him and walking around and we come across it with our bare foot generally. Ninja Puke can happen anytime, anywhere and usually is running down your arm before you know it.

Chris' mom got us, or Tobin to be exact, and Exer-Saucer. He loves it! Once we got batteries in it and he figured out how to move and make the sound he was in heaven. It is a great distraction for us. Know we can sit down to dinner & eat, I can do things around the house. Wonderful!

This past Friday (the 19th) Tobin had outpatient surgery, minimal risk, on his ankle for his clubfoot. They went in and cut his Achilles tendon, correctly positioned his foot and then cast it. He will wear the first case for 4 weeks then we go cut it off (the cast not the foot) clean his foot & leg up then recast it for another 2 weeks.

He has been wearing special shoes with a bar between then to correct his club foot, but his heel just wasn’t lengthening like they thought it would. So good news, he hasn’t had to wear the shoes since the 9th, bad news will be in a cast for 6 weeks out of the summer & he loves swimming.

Tobin’s surgery went just fine. We got there and after they got him all checked in he fell asleep. The nurse came and took him back to surgery.

Dr. Deppe said they made a cut in his tendon (not all the way through like I thought, just enough to loosen it up) and it looked really good. He said it had already dropped into a better position. Chris asked about repeat surgery, Dr. Deppe said that 90% of children with club feet need the initial surgery, of that 90% only 3% has to have it again. After the casting is finished he will have two sets of shoes. One pair will be to wear during the day. This will keep his foot in the correct position, but allow for his development such as crawling and walking. The other pair will be like the ones he has now. The will have the bar between them, but will only have to wear them when he is sleeping

Tobin is in a great mood and doesn’t seem to be effected by it at all. I told Chris we are so lucky to have such a good natured baby. He could be the whiniest, crying baby ever through this whole foot thing. He just takes it as it comes and goes with it. No fuss, well hardly any fuss.

Here are a few recent pictures Glo-Worm:

Edit: Perri...we asked the doctor about the cast covers because we really wanted to take him swimming. Dr. Deppe said he would recommed not to for this first go around. He said with the little incision he didn't want to risk even a small amount of water getting in there and causing an infection. he did say with the second cast we could get one of those

Busy, Busy, Busy

2009-06-16T07:09:00.004-05:00

We have busy the last few weeks. Bella started her swimming lessons, which she LOVES! She is doing very well in the class. I think she will pass to go on to the next level. She is talking about being a lifeguard when she gets older, and thinks is is super cool that Aunt Andi & Uncle Chris were lifeguards.

Tobin & I are going to a Born to Read class on Wednesday mornings. He LOVES it. It is a very interactive class. We sing songs & dance and read stories. I think he has a crush on one of the little girls.

Bella & I made zucchini bread. My brain is till trying to comprehend that she DOESN'T like zucchini bread. She didn't like the smell, she didn't like the taste, she really didn't like it.

Tobin's cousin Lakelyn giggles at him like he is the funniest thing ever. Every time she sees him she laughs at him. We all visions of them blaming each other for what ever mischief occurs.

Forrest turns 17 today.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY FORREST.

I am totally addicted to facebook.....arrrgghhhhh....farm town, quizzes, commentd, pictures...I love it all

The Everlasting Balloon

2009-05-28T12:27:00.009-05:00

Five months and 4 days ago, MC got Tobin a balloon with a super cute outfit. This balloon is still going. It has finally started to deflate a little but, but it is still going strong:

We had a busy day yesterday. We went to Born to Read at the Library and Tobin loved it. It is a very interactive reading program for you and your baby. We danced & sang and read a story and loved on the other babies. Glo-Worm thought it was great, he laughed and giggled the whole time.

After that we signed Bella up for summer reading. After so many books she gets coupons for stuff.

Then we went and got the oil changed in the car and a quote to get the brakes fixed. YIKES!!!!!!! Highway robbery I tell ya.

Today not so busy. We are taking it easy today. Playing on the computer, watching TV, ironing, napping (wishful thinking)....

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-27T08:28:00.005-05:00

I was telling Chris the other day that I remember our first Memorial Day together. We had only been datinga month or so and at the time his grandfather had a house down at Eddycreek. We went down there for the day...it was a nice day warm but not hot...

Anyhoo, we went out on the boat for a little bit. While we were out Chris spotted some driftwood he wanted. So there I am hanging off the back of the boat to grab the driftwood for him and full of grace that I am...I slipped & fell in. This Memorial Day was just a memorable. We took Tobin swimming for the first time. he LOVED it. He was kicking and blowing bubbles and just loving it.

Summer vacation has started. Today we are going to the library to sign Bella up for a summer reading program after that we are going to the YMCA to sign her & Glo-Worm up for swimming lessons. Plus we have all sorts of other errands to run today.

Tummy Time

2009-05-22T07:38:00.002-05:00

My little man is getting ready to crawl...so close yet so far away

Need a "Wee" Bit of a Laugh

2009-05-21T07:19:00.000-05:00

Read this about Sophie

My Sweet Baby

2009-05-19T16:26:00.006-05:00

My sweet baby is starting to look like a little boy...makes a mommy sad.

I don't always recognize the changes in Tobin as much as other people since I am with him all day long. Recently one of Chris' uncle's passed away and we were getting ready for the funeral and after I got my little Glo-Worm dressed...I realized he was looking like a little boy and not a baby anymore.

He is growing so fast and doing things now. He can balance himself on his shoes just holding onto my thumbs (he has been adventurous enough to start letting go), he is so close to crawling, and he is so close to sitting on his own. All these things make me so glad I didn't have to go back to work. The idea of some stranger getting all of our firsts broke my heart, now we get to experience them.

Chris is getting lots of QT with Tobin. Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings I have working at the salon (little extra pocket money) leaving the boys to fend for themselves. Wednesday have been a little rough, Chris has been at work all day & is tired and Tobin is starting Crank Master T time. Saturday's I think have been pretty smooth. They are getting their rhythm with each down and are having a good time.

Glo-Worm loves being outside. While we wait for Bella to get out of school we go to park a lot. He loves to swing and walk around the park. All the old men stop their fishing to talk to him.

I am going to be watching my niece this summer. We are planning swim lessons for her and Tobin (she is very excited), a reading program at the library for both of them, we are going to try to spend as much time outside as we can. We want to paint some pictures (which reminds me, the painting I told you about is an earlier post...coming along nicely...just need to find time to finish it), maybe do some baking. I am real excited about spending the summer with her.

Okay...one more story...I completely forgot all about this. I have a history of being pulled over for speeding (yes I have a lead foot, think the Wolverine-ish chick in the X-men after he fills her all up with the metal goop). I have even been
pulled over for the window tint on my car. We recently got pulled over for laughing.

So here is what happened. We were driving North on Boeke in the right hand lane. Suddenly there is a cop right behind us (we were actually not speeding or anything)no biggie. Now, there are two kids on the sidewalk, one on the actual sidewalk and one walking on the curb playing with a ball. Chris swerves a little to the left hand lane because he thought the kid on the curb faltered. Just as he swerved the cop had tried to move into the left hand lane. Then as we moved back into the right hand lane the cop tried to pass us there. So, he gets in the left lane and passes us stops waits until we pass him then pulls us over.

He then comes up to Chris' window and asks how many kids we have in the car. Chris replies "2, did you see the kids on the sidewalk?" The cop asked for license, registration & insurance and says "I guess you thought that was funny." A rather cryptic comment. While I am getting the registration for Chris, Tobin is in the backseat screaming because he was starving Chris was talking to the cop and I hear him ask for the stuff again and says "this is the third time I have asked." We get him the info and walks off. Now we are analyzing what happened. We did indeed laugh about the cop not in the "ha ha look what we made him do", but in the "ha ha what is he doing? confused kind of laugh." Mr. Cop comes back to the car and says "I apologize for my attitude a moment ago, we are busy this weekend and lots of people are out." He then proceeds to explain that we are not to swerve unless something is actually in the street (which Chris thought there was). So that is how we got pulled over for laughing.

TBN Hasn't Scolded Me Yet...

2009-05-04T08:50:00.005-05:00

...for the very long period between posts. It must be because she was to busy at work.

The last few weeks have been busy-ish. our nephew Forrest spent last weekend with us. We picked him up Friday and we spent the whole weekend outside. Okay little clarification...last weekend meaning the weekend before this dreadfully dreary weekend.

Sunday we went to Audubon Park and the Ranger had a hawk out, we also went to Papa Phil's to help get the pool ready. Tobin loved being a naked baby...i.e. no shoes.

Here are a few pictures from the lovely weekend:

Having Bella during the week has been a lot of fun. In fact i will have her until the end of the school year. She is such a good big cousin. She wants to help with Tobin all she can and she does, she loves to play with him. We want to more things then our schedule allows for us right now. She gets to my house between 8a&9a, at that time Glo-Worm has gone down for his first nap. After that we having feedings, tummy time, then Tobin's second nap & Bella's rest time, finally lunch then we are on the road to Boonville. After we drop her off at school, Glo-Worm & I have been hanging at City Park. I read or crochet while he sleeps, when he wakes up we take a walk or swing. We have also been going to the library and I have been reading to him. Then we pick Bella up, go back to E'ville, at this time guess who's ready for another nap (I wish it was me)? It is busy, but we still manage to have a good time.

This past weekend we were going to go to the new Menard's...didn't happen.. We pulled into the parking lot & kept going. It was sooooooo busy. We ended up going to Princeton to eat at Tim Allen's Awesome BBQ. Sunday, we went to the Giant Flea Market, TBN was there too...look what she found:

All-in-all we have been having some good times. I am ready for the warm weather to stick...all this rain is so blah...blah...blah...

Ahhhhh The Smell of Spring in the Air

2009-04-23T15:53:00.003-05:00

I am sick of the rain, but there have been a few bright spots the last few weeks.

I loved being at my mom's Saturday and playing with my nieces & nephew with the hose.

I loved going to the park with Tobin, while Bella is in school.

I loved going to the playground with Bella after we got home from school.

I love that soon I can turn off the heater and open the windows and air the winter stink out of my house.

There hasn't been a lot going on lately.

We are going to a party this Friday for Chris' cousin and I think Forrest is going to spend the weekend with us.

Come On Get Down With The Sickness & Other Odds and Ends

2009-04-13T09:49:00.009-05:00

So we have had our first round of family sickness. Chris came home not feeling so great. He had a stuffy nose and scratchy throat. Not long after that Glo-Worm started fussing and tossing his cookies every time he ate (still going on). Yesterday morning (like 3am) I woke up and my throat was scratchy. Luckily for Chris & I it is not lasting very long. I already feel a little better today. I can't wait for a real round of sickness to get us...okay yeah I can wait.

Tobin had a great first Easter. Grandma Cynthia got him an Easter basket with this duck that makes the greatest quacking noise (Glo-Worm loves it) and a movie and some sweets (mommy & daddy are helping him with those). Papa Phil got him a tiger shaped blanket, I think he will like it once it is washed. We went out to Chris' Aunt Mary's to visit with the Schneider's. Most of them hadn't seen Tobin yet, so he got loved on a lot. He didn't have his regular naps yesterday and he did really good for being over stimulted and tired. We wanted to get his picture taken with the Easter Bunny, but the smallest package was $25.00. So, we made our own Easter Pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Now here are two pictures, do you know who my kiddo looks just like?

The last three nights Tobin has been sleeping in 4-5 hour stretches! I LOVE IT! The first night I put him down at around 10p, I woke up at about 12:30a thinking he should wake up soon and went back to sleep, when he woke me up it was almost 3a. I can so get used to this. Hopefully this will go on and on...

This last week was mu first full week with Bella. This last week was also hectic, lots of doctors appointments and other errands and then getting Bella to Boonville for school. I am hoping this week is not so crazy.

I have a few more fun pictures of Tobin for you:

Now for your funny bone:

The middle picture, the first is Chris(4y) & Carrie(21m) on 8-14-1974, the second is Chris(8y) 11-1978, & the third is Chris(7m) 3-1971.

The look-a-like...Grandma Cynthia.

So Many Things Accomplished

2009-04-03T12:03:00.005-05:00

I have a been a busy little bee this week and it's only Hump Day...think I might take a break today.

I had a list:
1) Take truck in to get brakes fixed & power steering fixed (possibly have the fog light fixed)
2) Type up some receipts (rent payments)
3) Call the Water company for possible leak at the end of our driveway (this busted a few years ago)
4) Go to store get trash bags and starch

What I go done
1) Completed, except for the light. They wanted $190 to replace the light. The part was $140 by itself & the rest was labor
2) Finished...in fact typing up one more after this
3) Done...no leak. What prompted this call? Just before I had Glo-Worm, the upstairs bathroom started backing up. I called the water company then because we had noticed water standing at the end of the drive way like before when it busted, but no one ever came. Then I had Tobin, was adjusting to staying at home...yadda, yadda, yadda. Anyhoo, we had Kent (they guy who renovated our basement, he is super handy) take a look at it. He said it looked to him was backed up outside. So I called the water company Monday, they said no leak. So I called Roto Rooter and Kent was right, backed up outside. They fixed the backing up part yesterday & today are finishing that up and then they are going to fix a drain in the basement. Chris & I learned the hard way to let the professionals do the plumbing! Our plumbing has been plumbed.

Okay so I actually started this blog on Wednesday & now it is Friday...got a little side tracked. There was a whole other paragraph but the bloggy thing wasn't saving...so I am picking up where I left off...

So, Tuesday was the first day I had Bella for the day. It started off wonderful, Bella was great with entertaining Tobin, we had an Easter egg hunt, then it was nap time. Bella laid down at 10a for, when she got up she said she didn't feel so great. Then off to the bathroom to toss her cookies. After that she thought she was okay & still wanted to go to school. Off we went, we were almost to Boonville when she she says she thinks she is going to be sick. Before I could pull over I hear "Oh, snap!" When I got pulled over and got out to help, bless her little heart...she tried to catch her sickness. No school. We got her cleaned up and brought her back to my house. She stayed home the next two days with fever. Poor kiddo. She was back today and a great helper again. She helped me get the covers to CD's of music folded & in the cases.

Yesterday morning since it was so nice, Tobin & I went out. We went to Micheal's, Target, visited Chris @ work, had lunch with Granna, went to the salon, finally we went home.

Chris just mentioned the most wonderful thing in the world. He said he might try to be the one to get up with Tobin at night on the weekends. I think we are going to try it out and go from there. This would be so nice.

Looky at these great pictures of my niece & nephew

Eating Healthy

2009-03-27T12:09:00.002-05:00

My new best friend is Lickity Split: Health Conscious Meals for People on the go. Okay maybe not best friend, but near and dear to my heart. Okay maybe that is still a little much...how about just good for our hearts?

We decided after a very good presentation by a nutritionist at Chris' work. Instead of dieting, which never sticks, we are trying to change our eating patterns. Portion control is the big thing for us. So far so good, the food has been tasting and the recipes fairly easy. She has it broken down into a weekly schedule: Monday is Slow Cooker night, Tuesday is pasta, Wednesday Oven/Exercise/Eat, 15 minute meals, 30 minute meals and a pizza night.

I learned that Lentils don't really have stones, it just means that they should be washed. I am thinking for the new to Lentils peeps, that would have been easier to say then "picked over for stones."

This will hopefully help us to lose some weight. We are walking whenever the weather is nice, Tobin loves to be outside. Bella and I are going to start doing some yoga, she is very eager to learn.

On our way to feeling healthier!

New Neice, Music, Time Management and the list goes on

2009-03-26T08:20:00.004-05:00

First off: welcome to the family Kye'ana Nye Lakelyn-Marie Stott (that's her big brother Forrest holding her)

Second: Happy Birthday to Kaidyn

Third: Much to my excitement I as able to take a vinyl of children's songs from when TBN and I were little and a cassette tape from when Dubby was little and have them transferred to CD's. I have spent the last couple days getting the lyrics together for when I make copies for the family. The best was the vinyl, Barry Louis Polisar has a website that has all his lyrics and I could just copy and paste then. The album is called I Eat Kids & Other Songs for Rebellious Children. The Cassette I had transferred is call Bellybutton, by Heather Bishop. Big boos to her for making you pay to get her lyrics. Okay so the cassette wasn't a total wash on the lyrics. The cassette came with a copy of them, but was to large for me to just scan. Yes I am lazy and tried to take the easy way out, but I ended up typing them all in. Now all I have to is make CD copies for the family.

Fourth: Okay new mom's explain me this...how did you ever get anything done during the day with a new baby? I have been trying and trying and trying and...well you get the point. Just when I get something started or am right in the middle on something Tobin starts crying. He has been doing better this last week about laying down for a nap during the day (which is how I am getting this typed right now), so hopefully that will help. Any other tricks you can share?

Fifth: Woo Hoo! I get to spend the next six weeks with my fabulous niece Bella. Her daycare provider is going on maternity leave and TBN entrusted me with her daughter. This is exciting for a couple reasons: 1) Bella cracks me up and I love spending time with her 2) It let's me stay home a little longer with Tobin

Sixth: Okay so at some point I am going to have to get a job. We did our budget I really don't have to make to awful much on a weekly basis, so I looking for some part-time work. After some thought, it was decided I would need part-time of an evening so we would not have to pay for daycare. I am thinking about applying at the video store withing walking distance from our house.

Seventh (I told you the list goes on): I have decided to paint my own picture for my living room. With the completion of our basement and the rearrangement of the entertainment centers (love not having a TV in the living room), I have a blank wall. It's not a huge wall, it's a decent space between two windows, but it was covered up by the entertainment center so there was no need for art. I thought about it and have looked all over, but nothing was good enough or called to me enough or was just plain old too expensive if it did. So, for less then $20 I am going to paint my own picture. I will post a picture of the picture when it's completed.

I believe the list has been completed.

Grown Up Talk

2009-03-21T10:13:00.009-05:00

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE staying home with my sweet boy, but I miss grown up talk. The thing is, when I get a chance for grown up talk, all I talk about is Tobin. I realize this is because I spend almost 24 hours a day with him and my world revolves around him at this time, but I miss grown up talk about things other than my kiddo.

Speaking of which, I do have something to talk about. Chris & I had a date night last night (major thanks to Wendy & Jeremy for babysitting.) The plan was to go to the movies then out to eat (my choice since it was for my birthday), it almost kinda went that way.

We were starving when we left the house to take Tobin to Wendy & Jeremy's, so we stopped at Hardee's and got simple cheeseburgers to hold us over until after the movie. We went and saw Watchmen...LOVED IT...not a kid movie at all, not even sure I would let teenagers see it. This movie was 3 hours long, by the time the movie was over we had to come back by the house so I could pump. Then we noticed the cheeseburgers were still holding us over...hmmmmm...to eat or not to eat. After some thought we decided we needed to eat a little something or we (meaning me) would be awake at some crazy hour of the morning wasting away to nothingness. Now, the problem is its late (after 9p...yes this is late for me now), places are closing and we aren't super hungry so making a decision on were to eat is nearly impossible. We end up at Wendy's (the restaurant not the babysitting friend) for dinner. Okay, not the sit down grown up talk dinner I was really looking for, but we went inside not the drive thru.

I can't believe how much I missed my little man in the 4 short hours we were gone. I was so glad to get him. Here are a few new pictures. It is amazing how quickly he is changing. Chris' sister, Carrie just had a little girl and she is about the same size as Tobin was when he was born, my kid looks ginormous next to her. I can't believe he is getting so big already.

Chris is already teaching Tobin how to bribe me:

First Official New Mom Freak OUT

2009-03-13T12:02:00.005-05:00

Okay so the other night, I am awakened about 11p by the rain. Not just any rain, fierce rain with wind that suspiciously sounded like a freight train to me. I keep looking out the window (without my glasses which kinda adds a little more surreal, scary quality to what I am seeing) and the trees are just a blowing. The rain is pounding the windows, I have never been much for storms anyhoo, but this one freaked me out. I firmly believe it was the sound of that wind.

We received a video monitor for Tobin's room, looking over to see how he is doing, I realize now might be a good time to put on those glasses. Tobin is fabulous, sleeping like a log. For some reason this isn't good enough for me. I went and checked on him two times (by the way you couldn't hear the rain or wind in his room). Sitting in our room struggling with the thought of whether or not I should to the basement, the storm subsided.

Let's see, 2 1/2 months about time for the new mom freak out.

I have one more bit of Happiness to add to my last post:

Tobin rooting on my cheek and then sucking on my chin.

A Little Piece of Happiness

2009-03-11T09:21:00.007-05:00

Happiness: Chris started a new schedule today, 7a-4p. This couldn't be more perfect with summer coming.

Happiness: Spending last Saturday with my family, even with a trip to the emergency room.

Happiness: This picture of my little man

And this picture of my nieces & nephew

Happiness: Watching Tobin try to figure out how to eat & suck his thumb at the same time

Happiness: Watching Chris & Tobin play together

My Kid's Got Jokes

2009-03-06T16:13:00.004-06:00

So Tobin and I are sitting in his room this afternoon. He is propped up facing me and we are "talking" about our day.

This morning we went to the Doctor about his foot. I explain to the doc that this momma is not happy. It doesn't seem like his very expensive shoes are doing anything. In fact it seems to making his foot worse. The doc looked at me like I was crazy, he said Tobin's foot looked fine. The nurse said that his foot looked fine and sends me to the shoe store where we bought the very expensive shoes (why? is my thought, shouldn't they know how the darn shoe works???). So I go to the shoe store. They say he foot looks great and gave me a few tricks to try to keep the shoe on. Glo-Worm is a little Houdini at getting those shoes off.

Next we weren't sure what we were gonna do, so we called Granna. We took some lunch to her and visited for a little while.

So back to my boy's jokes. We are sitting there discussing our day, discussing what to have for dinner. All of a sudden Tobin's face screw up like he is about to scream like a five alarm fire. I ask him what was wrong, the face all of a sudden slides into the widest smile ever! My kid's got jokes!!!!

Happy Birthday to Me

2009-03-03T17:48:00.003-06:00

I love my birthday. Some say its because I am a middle child, I prefer to think of it as a day you are allowed to be totally self involved.

Today was a nice day. Chris took the day off to spend with me. We had lunch at Ma Ti's (China Bistro) with my f-i-l. Yummy goodness even with Tobin crying his head off (turned out to be an itty bitty burp, then hunger.) From there we went to Deaconess for a weight check on my little man, Tobin is a hearty 12lbs 5oz. From there we went to borders, and from there we went and walked around the mall.

Tobin has been a bit fussy today, I think it's because he slept a lot yesterday and has hardly slept at all today.

Our final stop was to the rug store. We found one we liked and they let us bring it home to try it out in our living room. Chris thinks we need one with more color (says the color blind one)! So we are going to take it back.

Tobin is hungry, so much for being totally self involved.

Thank you so much for all the Happy Birthday Wishes!

Coo

2009-03-02T10:54:00.006-06:00

Hee hee...my kiddo is starting to "talk." He has had some pretty amazing adventures if what he says is true.

He already likes to talk on the phone:

The last weekend was great. Chris has Friday off, so we had a 3-day weekend together. We had dinner with some friends, got a new table for the basement (with some pretty imaginative maneuvering by Chris & Rodney), installed a new faucet in the kitchen.

All-in-all it was a great weekend

Grrr Arrgh Update

2009-02-26T15:01:00.003-06:00

Okay so it wasn't the bank that wasn't working.

Apparently we just needed to reboot out router. Although, very confused as to why it only affected the one website and not all the others. So not the techie on that.

Anyhoo, website fixed, bills been paid, getting ready to pay somethings off...WOO HOO!

Rhonda: no I didn't have the card from H&R Block. We have a lady that does our taxes and they are direct deposited into our checking account. It was my checking account that I couldn't get into.

General Blah: one of my most favorite clothing stores is closing this week. Most of my most favorite clothes came from District and very distraught that they have to close. I went in today & found the cutest shoes and a skirt for a total of $12. The have this really groovy oval table for sale for $20. I think it might be too big, but I am going to have Chris go check it out after work and if he thinks it will work we are going to buy it for the basement as an entertainment center.

Grrr-Arrgh (not the Mutant Enemy kind)

2009-02-25T07:46:00.000-06:00

I like my bank, they are a good bank. I have had good customer service with them, no major problems ever.

Today I am frustrated like no other. We got our tax refund last week and the website has been down everyday this week. I know I can still go spend our money, but I would like to pay bills, which I do through the website.

I hate when things don't work like they are supposed to.

Random:

Mom & Dad's...You got any great tips on sleep training your babies? I need to start working on that with my Glo-Worm

My Sweet Little Glo-Worm

2009-02-23T11:11:00.011-06:00

Proof he does cry

Tobin Dancing

Two Months Already

2009-02-18T08:06:00.004-06:00

It has almost been two months since Tobin has been in our lives. Some days it seems just like yesterday that I had him and others like he has been in our lives always.

Everyday my heart swells with just a little more love then I had the day before for him. He is so cute when he sleeps with his mouth in a little heart shape, and when he gets that crooked little smile like he is dreaming of something so wonderful. He gets the biggest smile when you play with him.

I couldn't imagine my life without him.

My Husband's Best Friend...

2009-02-13T10:48:00.004-06:00

...was put to sleep yesterday. This was a very hard (but easy at the same time) decision to make.

Jax was 11 years old and a great companion to Chris. They had the same personality, they would growl at you until they get to know you and then are extremely loving. Jax had been going down hill for awhile now, Chris was keeping him going with patience and care. Rosetta was keeping him young. I think this last cold snap was too much for his body to take. He stopped eating, drinking, moving, he stopped living before his body did.

Chris asked me to call the vet about putting him to sleep. We couldn't stand to see him that way and I am sure Jax was ready to go. Chris was with Jax when they took care of him. Chris said no sooner had they injected him that he was gone.

We took Jax out to my father-in-law's and buried him there with his stuffed bear (he carried it around like a little baby). This has been heartbreaking for us both, more so for Chris.

Rosetta is lonely without Jax already. She is going to live at my mom's with her two dogs, Bart & Isaac.

Merry Christmas...A Little Late

2009-02-08T10:51:00.004-06:00

For Isabella's Christmas present I told here we were going to have a Spa Day and the Salon. She has been so excited about this. I finally got things set up, although it was a month late, and went yesterday.

Chris took Tobin for the day...being baby free for a few hours was as exhilarating as it was scary and a little lonely. Bella and I had a great time. She knew exactly what she wanted: Black toe nails with hearts painted on them, bright red lips, and mascara. She looked just like a Princess.

Part of her present was to go out to eat after the salon. When I let her choose...she chose McDonald's. Not my first choice, so I recommended Gattitown (think Chuck E Cheese only better). She was so on board with that she let Chris and Tobin meet us there later. We had such a good time. Good food, fun games, great memories with my niece.

Here are some pictures of our day:

Bella has the other two pictures.

Feed, Burp, Hope for Sleep...

2009-02-04T09:35:00.003-06:00

...this has become my existence. Not complaining...OK maybe a little bit. Being at home 24/7 with a newborn is hard work.

Feeding, burping, changing diapers, trying to figure out what a crying baby wants after you have done all of the above...then starting all over again.

Tobin and I are trying to make more outings, but it never fails...we get somewhere and he is hungry even if I just fed him 10 minutes before. The idea of being able to eat a meal is gone. I get food ready and he is awake and wanting my attention.

I love those times when Tobin just wants to be held. He makes the cutest little noises. When he gets hungry he will rub his face against my chest and snort like a pig. When he yawns, he makes a little noise when he catches he breath.

We have started tummy time, which he hates and cries the whole time. I put my face close to his and talk to him and have toys to try to distract him. No avail, tears the whole time. From what I understand this is pretty normal.

Parenting and being a stay at home mom is a full time job.

Trees

2009-01-29T14:20:00.005-06:00

Some pictures from the icy/snowy weather:

We got our power back about 6pm last night. Most of my family is still without power and stuck at home.

2 Days In A Row

2009-01-28T08:20:00.002-06:00

I have managed to get on the computer.

We are without power again. Our power went out at about 1am this morning...hopefully it doesn't take a week to come back. Tobin and I are spending the day at Chris' work. They have a room set up with a TV and computers for their employees and that is where we are hanging out.

Tobin is wide awake...which is happening more and more. This means longer sleeping times at night....WOO HOO! He is recognizes my voice and is starting to follow things with his eyes. We are getting some actual smiles...adorable!!!!!

Best Laid Plans

2009-01-27T14:34:00.007-06:00

Each time I make an attempt to update you all...Tobin decides he is ready to eat & not go back to sleep. Although I am getting pretty good at one-handed typing.

We did some renovations to our basement just before Glo-Worm was born. We finally got it set up as our family room and using it as such now. We are making the living room more formal. We moved the large TV to the basement, the entertainment center is getting moved to our room and our entertainment getting move to the upstairs hallway for storage.

Here are some pictures of my sweet little man:

And Baby Makes Three

2009-01-08T13:33:00.003-06:00

Thank you for giving me a little leeway on my posting. I meant to be back here sooner, but Tobin has distracted me a bit.

Being a mom is by far cooler then being pregnant. I know it was mentioned in another post that being pregnant was by far the coolest thing ever, being a mom beats it hands down. I love to hold him, change him, just be in the same room with him. I love that Chris can't seem to change a diaper without Tobin peeing on himself. I love that he is pretty relaxed kid. He lets us know when he wants something or doesn't like something, but over all he likes to hang out.

Tobin and I are getting the hang of the whole nursing thing. Major thanks to the Lactation Department at Deaconess. They are fabulous. They called the first few days we were home to check up on us, and they have a store at the Women's Hospital that you can go in and they will watch and make sure you are nursing correctly. They will also check your baby's weight. Tobin is a cluster feeder. This does wear a momma out, so far there is no rhyme or reason to his feeding pattern and the doctors tell me I am just to feed him on demand right now (demand being the key word). I am hoping that soon we can start getting on a more regular schedule.

Chris and I both decided a long time ago that we are not letting the baby in the bed with us. Not only is this dangerous, but we are both very restless sleepers and no telling what would happen. For the last few weeks Tobin has been sleeping in a bassinet and is really good with it. There have been a few nights where he has wanted nothing to do with it and will only sleep on me, which means no sleep for the momma. Next I want to start putting him down when he is almost asleep and then let him soothe himself to sleep. Up to now we have been holding him until he falls asleep. We can't seem to help ourselves, we just love holding that sweet little boy as much as we can.

As promised here are more pictures for you:

Glo-Worm has Arrived

2008-12-27T08:44:00.004-06:00

Our kiddo has a schdeule of his own. We had the induction schedule for December 26,2008 and he decided he wasn't down with that.

Tobin Phillip Schneider was born December 24, 2008 at 10:15a. He was 7lbs. 2 oz. and is 20 inches long.

Mom and baby are doing great

I will post more pictures later

Imminent Arrival

2008-12-23T10:48:00.003-06:00

So, I went to the Doctor today. I have dilated another cm and 80% thinned out...Dr. Walker asked me what I wanted to do.

DUH! I told him I wanted to have my kiddo.

This Friday, December 26, 2008 we go in for me to be induced!!!!!!!!

I am waaaaaaaaay excited...although there is a small part of me going "Holy Crap I Am Gonna Have A Kid On Friday!!!!!!!!!"

I started my leave as of tomorrow, so I (Chris is on vacation) am off for the holidays and can enjoy them. It will be a few days before I get back to you all...and then we will have pictures of Glo-Worm!!!!!!!

Laughing All The Way

2008-12-19T10:11:00.006-06:00

Have you seen the Elf Yourself?

Chris and Ruth Elfed...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

And stealing from another Blog...some fun facts about Chris:

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? House, Remington Steel, Mission Impossible, CSI

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Chipotle Ranch or French

3. What's one food he doesn't like? Peas

4. You go out to dinner. What does he order? Hamburger with Fries, most of the time. When he is feeling a little crazy he might order chicken with fries.

5. Where did he go to high school? Mount Vernon, IN

6. What size shoe does he wear? 11-12

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Comic Books

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? Peanut Butter & Jelly

9. What would he eat every day if he could? Reese's Cups and Nutty Bars

10. What is his favorite cereal? Cocoa Puffs

11. What would he never wear? I have never seen him wear pink...hmmmmmm????

12. What is his favorite sports team? None - he is not a sports kind of guy

13. Who did he vote for? He would have voted for McCain/Palin if he was registered

14. Who is his best friend? Me...I love that.

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? Repeat myself a million times

16. How many states has he lived in? Actually lived in would be 2 (Indiana & Kentucky), but he was in the Navy and spent a lot of time in other places

17. What is his heritage? German

18. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what would it be? Chocolate cake with chocolate icing and chocolate syrup...with a little chocolate dipping sauce on the side.

19. Did he play sports in high school? Swimming

20. What could he spend hours doing? Playing Hero Online

21. What's something cool about him? He is going to start training for a Triathlon after the first of the year.

Chris...Did I get these right?

Schneider Family Christmas 12/13/2008

2008-12-16T19:29:00.002-06:00

Isn't Time for the this Kid to come out yet?

2008-12-11T15:05:00.005-06:00

I love being pregnant, don't get me wrong. I have had an easy pregnancy, but I am ready for Glo-Worm to be born. I am crazy to know what we are having and to meet my kiddo. I can't breathe, get comfortable, I dream of the heartburn I used to have, and have I mentioned can't get comfortable?????

We had a doctor's appointment today. I am 2cm dilated, and am some percentage effaced (I can't remember what he said). The doctor thinks Glo-Worm will be born between Christmas and New Years.

Not much longer!!!!!!

P.S. The Name Stealer did NOT take the middle name as well, just the first. Granna also informed me that there are a lot of Tabitha's in the newspaper, so guess it's kinda coming back in style. Also, because there are already votes on our poll, I can't change the name for the Girl.

Name Stealers and Belly Pictures

2008-12-03T09:24:00.005-06:00

First The Name Stealer. As you know we have had the name Tabitha picked out for a girl for quite some time. I liked this name and liked it even more that it was Chris' suggestion as a girl name. You also know that we have been kicking around the idea of Ricki for a girls name as well. We have been on the fence...did we want to stick to Tabitha Lorelei, or go with the Ricki Lorelei, or did we want all the names Tabitha Ricki Lorelei...the decision was made for us by The Name Stealer.

I really and truly get to call her a The Name Stealer, because she is someone I know and have talked repeatedly about the names we had chosen. Lo and behold when she has her little girl what does she name her...Tabytha. Sure the spelling is different, but the name was stolen right out from under us. Chris tried to make me feel better by stating we were probably going to go with the Ricki anyhoo...I told him that was not the point. People you know shouldn't steal names from you, it's bad etiquette. If it were someone we didn't know or knew distantly...I would probably fume a little bit & be done and feel secure that if we wanted the name Tabitha we could still use it. So now, Tabitha Lorelei is officially off the the table and if we have a little girl her name will be Ricki Lorelei.

I have some more belly pictures for you. These were taken by Andi's friend Jada:

Turkey Day

2008-11-27T08:22:00.003-06:00

I have so many things to be thankful for this year:

*A husband/partner that loves me no matter how insane I get sometimes and seems to have infinite patience with me when no one else would.
*A family and extended family that are just the best. I could not ask for more, they are always there when needed and love unconditionally.
*A beautiful pregnancy. I have been so lucky and blessed with a smooth and easy pregnancy and can't wait to bring Glo-Worm into our family.
*All the small things we take for granted, things like a roof over my head, food in my belly, running water...

Give your loved ones big hugs and kisses today and tell them how much you love an appreciate them.

MySpace Comments at GlitterBell.com

Snot

2008-11-17T19:27:00.004-06:00

You are asking yourself if that subject line really says what you think it says. Your eyes returning it time and again to make sure that is really what you are reading. It is, that is what we are going to talk about today, Snot.

This Snot falls under the category of "things no one tells you about that happens during pregnancy." Luckily I have a family that loves to share everything and I wasn't surprised at most of the things that have happened during the last several months. The Snot took me by surprise.

There are all sorts of documented biological reasons this happens:

"You may experience occasional nosebleeds and nasal stuffiness due to the increases in blood volume and the effects of the hormone estrogen, which causes your nasal membranes to swell."
-A. Christine Harris Ph.D The Pregnancy Journal

Even knowing this, there are still massive amounts of Snot in my head and nasal membranes (I like that word, membrane, the more I say and write membrane the more I like it, hmmmmmmm...). After all these months I am still amazed and astounded...

...excuse me I had to get some of that Snot out of my head. Oh yes, I am still amazed and astounded by the quantity of Snot one person can possess.

A typical day

-Wake up...Blow my nose
-Brush my teeth...Blow my nose
-Get out of the shower...Blow my nose
-Put my contacts in...Blow my nose
-Get dressed...Blow my nose

Okay, so you probably get the point, and that is just part of the first hour of my day. I breathe...therefore I must blow my nose.

I am completely full of Snot. I wonder if that is similar to being full of poo (I am practicing not using my curse words)? Does this mean with the Snot I have undoubtedly swallowed (say it with me...ewwwwwwwww) that Glo-Worm is going be a Snot? Has my mucus turned my kiddo into a little Snot? These are just a few of the questions I ponder about the Snot coursing through my body.

Sorry, got a little off track...hopefully the swollen membrane (hee hee there is that word again) thingy ends soon after Glo-Worm makes an appearance.

Speaking of Glo-Worm...not much longer now. Mere weeks and our little bambino will be here. Any guesses when I will have our baby? There is already one prediction that Glo-Worm will be here 7 days before my due date (12-24-08)...any other predictions?

Isabella's 6th Birthday

2008-11-16T18:57:00.002-06:00

The Belly is Getting Bigger, & Bigger, & Bigger...

2008-11-11T19:07:00.004-06:00

Okay, so when I did my little video of my belly for you all, what was that last week or something? I thought my belly was big. I think my belly doubled last night while I was sleeping. At work today I caught a reflection of myself from the side and the thought that ran though my head was, "OH my goodness I am HUGE!" (yes I think in capital letters). The next thought was, "I don't think I was this big when I went to bed last night."

So here are a few new belly pictures for you to enjoy or giggle or out right laugh at:

On a totally random note...I voted for the first time ever this year. I called Chris after I was finished and was feeling ridiculously proud of myself. The whole experience was a good one. There was a super nice lady behind me that chatted with me while we waited. There was a funny old man behind her that was making comments about the people that were up at the voting thingys.

Also totally random...I have fogotten how much I like York Peppermint Patties.

Little Overwhelmed

2008-11-06T14:52:00.005-06:00

Yes I am, a little overwhelmed. The Commercial side at WOW! got us this for a baby present:

Not pictured are a few other items. A stroller (one of those small, light weight, quick & easy ones), a grooming kit, some snack containers...just all sorts of things. Their thoughtfulness and generosity made me a little weepy.

Speaking of weepy...I had a full on mental breakdown this past Monday...and it happened at work...and I had to pawn the guy off on a co-worker. Let me digress a little bit, there were a couple items leading up to this. First, I was the big dork that completely forgot about the time change and got to work an hour early. Which turned out to be a good thing, because there was no one to take some of the calls that I take. Well it turned out, everyone had a really good time Saturday night and every lost their debit cards and everyone had to call in on Sunday. Second, on average I take any where from 75 to 110 calls a day, I had 155 calls between 7a and 3:30p Sunday. Yeah I was pooped. Third I come in on Monday...all the people that were to hungover to call Sunday...were calling Monday. I felt like I hadn't even left work from Sunday. My wall of self-preservation was crumbling like a bad game of Jenga. One call, from a guy that was just a total booty head tore that last brick out. My wall was gone, nothing left to shield me. I cried for 15 minutes and had to take another 15 minutes to get up the gumption to get back on the phone. I was really worried about breaking down again.

I completely rationalized the breakdown though. I hadn't had enough time to recover from the previous day, and I am over 7 months pregnant. I thought, "Well, you haven't really had a huge uncontrollable crying jag all this time, you are probably about due."

We went to see the the Perinatologist today (the prenatal specialist) and had an ultrasound done. Glo-Worm weighs 4lbs 5oz, and doing wonderful. We couldn't see a whole lot since there wasn't a lot of room in my belly and Glo-Worm is taking up what room there is. From here on out we will be talking to which ever pediatrician we choose and an orthopedist about Glo-Worm's foot. Glo-Worm was of course completely non-cooperative with the nurse trying to do the ultrasound. Whenever she tried to get pictures of anything, Glo-Worm would move. With the lack of room and stubborn baby, we didn't get any new pictures.

Thing 1 and Thing 2....Maybe Thing 3

2008-10-30T16:30:00.005-05:00

Thing 1:
We had another doctor's appointment today. So far, once again, so good. Everything seems to be progressing at a nice (and sometimes unnaturally fast) rate. Chris got to see Glo-Worm do a serious MMA kick to my belly this morning. I wish you could have seen his face. It was definately a "priceless" moment. Glo-Worm tends to be very still whenever anyone wants to watch or touch my belly (even me sometimes), so for Chris to see this was awesome.

There have been a few request for my pictures of my belly. I had some time today, but no one to take pictures for me...so here is a little video clip pf my belly:

I forgot to get a picture of this from our baby shower. My nephew Stephen made this for us from the play-doh:

Thing 2
Do you remember way back when, I wrote about the Pregnancy Journal The Best Friend got us? Well, anyhoo, it has been a great source of information for us. On of the things I like best is all the quotes in the book about having kids and parenting. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Never try to make your son or daughter another you; one is enough! - Arnold Glasow
Children are natural mimics - they act like their parents inspite of every attempt to teach them good mannner. - Anonymous
Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanagable - Plato
The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any. - Fred Astaire
I have found that the best way to give advise to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it. - Harry S. Truman
Whatever you are, be a good one. - Abraham Lincoln
A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
The thing about having a baby is that thereafter you have it. - Jena Kerr

Thing 3
I have really enjoyed reading a new blog. It is from a guy that used to work with Chris and is a ref at Andi's Roller Derby matches. I added a link to my sidebar, but if you get a chance to read...Andy Z & family are quite an entertaining read.

WOW!

2008-10-22T09:23:00.004-05:00

I didn't realize until just this moment...I am going to have a kid soon. Okay, I mean yes I have know for 29 weeks that we are going to have a child, but the reality just kinda hit me today. I, we, are going to be parents and have the amazing opportunity to help mold a person. This is such an awesome responsibility and am so glad that Chris & I have each other to learn how to do this together.

I am sure we will make mistakes along the way (as much as I would like to think we are perfect, I know that is far from the truth), but hopefully we won't make any huge ones.

We are truly excited to meet the little person in my belly. To know if we have a boy or a girl (which reminds me...the gap is closing on our poll - 11 boy & 9 girl), what our Glo-Worm's personality is going to be like (think I have an MMA winner in there), what will our kiddo look like????? We love not knowing almost as much as trying to guess.

Being pregnant has been one of the most exciting experiences of my life. I have enjoyed everything (some maybe a little less than other: sore hips yuck, heartburn like I have never experienced before). I love my big belly (that is the only time you will have hear me say that), I love feeling my kiddo move around, I love that the love of my life and I created something so special after all this time.

We love that our families are so excited to share this experience with us. We can't wait for Glo-Worm to meet the most loving of families and be surrounded for its entire life with that love.

Baby Shower

2008-10-19T16:56:00.004-05:00

We had the best time at our baby shower yesterday. The Blog Nazi, Andi, and Paula did such a great job putting it all togeher. We had yumminess to much on: mini cheese cakes, mini cinnamon rolls, brownies, cookies, mints and nuts. We got to spend lots of time with our family and friends.

Edit: I got to wear a tiara...

Here are some pictures:

Sadness

2008-10-16T08:21:00.005-05:00

It is with great sadness that I share with you the Squirrrel died last night. Chris came home from work yesgterday and said it was obvious that Squirrel hadn't eaten or had anything to drink all day and was barely moving. Chris had him wrapped up and on a heating pad since he was so cold.

When I got home I took Squirrel for a little while and sat with him wrapped up and kept warm. We feed him some of the formula we started with and Squirrel started moving and being playful again. We were so hopeful that we had turned a corner. We placed Squirrel in his box and went to bed.

This morning Squirrel was gone. We are both pretty sad about this, we had already had great plans in a where to keep him in our house.

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The Blog Nazi has informed me that there are request for belly pictures. We shall see what we can do for you.

The Best Friend and Squirrel

2008-10-14T18:32:00.003-05:00

I can't tell you how excited I was to see The Best Friend this past weekend. The visit was way to short and I had to share her with way to many people, but at least I got to see her. Becca (The Best Friends Daughter)looks like she was born and bred in California and a total gerber baby. She has a sweet melt your heart smile.

I got a couple hours of QT with The Best Friend and hoping that maybe I will get a chance to go visit her...

I know I promised a video of Squirrel drinking his formula, however I already need new batteries for my camera. They take a special battery and they are almost $20, so we are looking for the special battery we can recharge. I do however, have a couple new pictures for you.

Class

2008-10-05T09:29:00.003-05:00

We signed up for the the "Prepared Childbirth and Baby Care Class" offered by the Women's Hospital. This last Thursday was our first class...and it was fun. It was fun because Chris was being silly. I love when he is silly.

Just for the record, we did pay attention to everything the nurse was saying and paid attention to the video that was shown.

The video had some strange graphics in it. It was all CGI kinda stuff with the lead ins to new topics and the baby looked a little Linda Blair (Exorcist) to me. Then the people in the video were kinda funny too. We made jokes about them and the animation.

After the video we did a breathing exercise. Nurse Hatler told our "Coaches" to place their hand on our chests to count the number of times we breathe...Chris placed his on my boob. Nurse Hatler caught him.

I have a new video of Squirrel eating (he is the loudest eater ever), but the batteries are dead in the camera...I will share later.

Do You Remember...

2008-09-27T10:35:00.009-05:00

...about a month a go I posted a blog about the present we got for Charlie?

Well Charlie finally remembered to bring Chris' birthday present to him (yes, Chris' birthday was in August...only a month late). This is what Charlie got for Chris:

Yes, that would some "cucumber bread" for Chris' birthday.

We had 2 doctor's appointments this week. One with the Specialist about Glo-Worm's foot. Again he stressed not a lot we can do about it right now and that it wasn't very severe. He told us that a few weeks after birth an orthopedist would put Glo-Worms foot in a cast, then at some point after that they would go in a cut the Achilles Tendon. The scar tissue that forms when it heals will basically form a new Achilles Tendon. One this heals and after the cast comes off then Glo-Worm will sleep in some booties with a bar attached to them. This will only be while sleeping and will have to do this until about 4 years of age. Our other appointment was just a check up, Dr. Walker says I am doing great, my weight gain is good, Glo-Worm's heart beat is good, all-in-all things be good!

Glo-Worm is moving around like crazy. I have been trying to determine if our kiddo is going to be a night owl or a morning baby...ours is an all hour kid. So, far there is no set time for nap time in my belly. Our kid likes to party like a rockstar in there.

As you know, we have no idea if Glo-Worm is a boy or a girl. We are definite on the boy name...however, mom tossed another idea for a girl name in the pot. So if we have a girl our possible names are Tabitha Lorelei or Ricki Lorelei (Ricky was my father name). What do you think?

Squirrel is doing great. He is getting more and more curious about things. After we feed him we let him walk around a little bit on us and look around. So far, he has not gone crazy about trying to get away from us or anything. Squirrel is kinda like our dogs; he loves his ears to be scratched and his belly rubbed. We are going to keep him. We are going to start looking for cages for him. We are also looking for a name for him. I think we should just keep calling him Squirrel, Chris wants to name him One-Eye. Chris already had squirrels named Rocky & Bullwinkle. Please post your thoughts to some name ideas for Squirrel.

Note to The Blog Nazi: I agree with you about the last two sentences on the Piercing Quiz. That doesn't quite jive with me.

Meet Squirrel

2008-09-21T10:17:00.003-05:00

Wind, Power, Squirrel, and Puppies

2008-09-21T09:41:00.012-05:00

So last week...yes it has been a whole week now...we had that crazy wind storm (Chris noted that if this was bad to us, how do the people in the hurricanes feel). Our Power went out at about 11a last Sunday...and 6 whole days later...Friday at around 11a we finally got power back. There were only 4 house without power on our whole block and 3 of them...were empty. Chris called everyday to check the status..."we are working on it"...so finally he called and got a little nasty with them. Not sure if it was just our turn or if nasty really works.

We were worried the first few days that Squirrel might not survive. We just couldn't keep him warm enough. He was trying all sort so of places to get warm:

Since we had no power we were trying to heat Squirrel's formula up with hot water and we putting containers of hot waters in his box for and laying him on top. He wouldn't eat and hardly moved. Chris' dad got his power back Monday night or Tuesday and let us borrow his generator. We were pretty excited to have come semblance of power. We had Squirrel's heating pad plugged in, the refrigerator, a lamp and a TV. Before that we going on candle and oil lamp light. So now that we are back in power...WOO HOO...Squirrel is thriving! Both of his eyes are open now. Friday morning only one was open and he running around in circles. He opened his other on later that day. He is pretty darn sweet. I think we may end up keeping him.

I finally got some cute pictures of our puppies too:

Jax with his Bear:

Miss Rosetta:

What Kind Of Piercing Are You?

2008-09-21T09:32:00.000-05:00

Prety Darn Accurate:

You Are a Nose Piercing

You are stylish and you have an eye for what looks good.

You are up on trends but not trendy. You have your own sense of style.

Overall, you are a very visual person. You appreciate beauty of all kinds.

You are always decorating or designing. You need your surroundings to look good.

Even though you make sure to present yourself well, you are mostly an observer in social situations.

You watch people carefully and get to know them well. And you tend to keep your observations to yourself!

What Piercing Are You?

All About My Sweetie

2008-09-10T11:09:00.004-05:00

I stole this from Perri's blog. I figured it was appropriate since we just had an anniversary

All about Chris and me

1. Who is your man? Chris, Christopher (add a Lee to that if I am mad at him), Butter Muffin, Uncle Chris
2. How long have you been together? Married 4 years
3. How long did you date before you got married? About 18 months
4. How old is your man? He just turned 38
5. Who eats more? He does
6. Who said "I love you" first? He did.
7. Who is taller? Depends on which shoes I am wearing
8. Who sings better? Not a clue. I sing all the time, he hardly ever sings. I am not sure what kind of singing voice he has. Honey you need to sing for me.
9. Who is smarter? Depends on what the topic is
10. Whose temper is worse? His.
11. Who does the laundry? We both do...when we have the time
12. Who takes out the garbage? He does
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do.
14. Who pays the bills? I do.
15. Who is better with the computer? Depends on what we are doing
16. Who mows the lawn? Hands down him. I hate yard work
17. Who cooks dinner? I do.
18. Who drives when you are together? he does. I very rarely drive when we go somewhere together.
19. Who pays when you go out? Whoever gets to their wallet first.
20. Who is the most stubborn? We both are...
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Depends on how upset we were.
22. Whose parents do you see most? I think we are pretty good about sharing the parental time.
23. Who kissed who first? I think we just kinda kissed each other.
24. Who asked who out? He asked me out.
25. Who proposed? I did at McDonald's while we were at lunch one day
26. Who is most sensitive? Me
27. Who has the most friends? Me - no contest.
28. Who has more siblings? I do, 1 Sister & 2 Brothers. He has a sister. His family is by far larger than mine though. You can't fit them all in one house at the holidays
29. Who wears the pants in the family? We are decent about deciding things together. Sometimes one of just gets a little overwhelmed with life and leaves all the decisions up to the other one.
30. How did you meet? We worked together. I was actually dating someone else when we met, but we were work buddies. After that relationship didn't work out we started dating. We went to a going away party for a mutual co-worker, my friend Kathy thought I was little tipsy (wasn't nearly as tipsy as I pretended) and she insisted that Chris follow me home (we lived not far from each other.) He asked me to a party the next night and we have been together ever since.

Looky What Chris Found

2008-09-10T10:36:00.003-05:00

Sunday morning Chris comes walking into the bedroom with a rag in his hand. All I can see if is the brownish thing (I really thought it was dog poo, I was really trying to figure out why he wanted to show me dog poo. It was early yet, my mind wasn't fully functioning.) It turns out this is what he wanted to show me:

It is a fox squirrel. Apprently they can get quite big. We have him in a box right now with a heating pad. We have come baby animal formula that we are feeding him. After it's eyes open and it's a little stronger we are going to take it out to my father-in-law's or my mom's house (they both live in the country).

So How Did This Happen?

2008-09-05T09:38:00.004-05:00

We went from being so crazy busy in August, to hardly a thing in September?????

August went something like this:

Doctors Appointment
Birthday
Dinner Party
Wedding
Birthday
Doctors Appointmnet
Birthday
Birthday Party
Dinner Party
Visit to F-I-L
Visit Aunt & Uncle in town
Miss Baby Shower
Birthday
Graduation
Graduation, Welcome Home, Birthday Party
Birthday
Doctors Appointment
Visit Mom at work
Mini Pow Wow

...and now September

Set Up for CMC 10K (which I have to work after)
Bridal Shower (missing due to work)
Birthday Party
Dinner Party
(2) Doctors Appointments

That's it. It feels almost like a let down. I am so used to going, not having anything planned makes me bored. we did, however, use this time make a window for a friend of ours. I think it turned out real nice. What do you think?

Five Things I Love Right This Minute

2008-08-28T12:19:00.012-05:00

1) Our new camera. Chris' mom got me...ummmm...him a new camera for his birthday. Our previous camera was pretty good and the new one makes the old one look ancient. The pictures are sooooooooooooooooo much better. Funny it even has our name one it...

2)Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies and Tropicana Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice. I am going to store here in a little bit just for these two items. The thought of them is making my mouth water.

3)My nephew Kaidyn is a total camera ham.

4) I am loving that I can feel my kiddo move. It feels a little alien, I told Chris I wish he could feel exactly how it feels to me. If he is real patient he can feel Glo-Worm moving around. It's still pretty faint to him, but feels big to me.

5)I love that my husband has called me three times already today. Two of the reason's he could have waited until her got home (which I am glad he didn't) and one was to see if I wanted to have lunch with him (which I didn't, not real keen on facing the world today).

Bonus:
6) I am off work today with no plans what-so-ever. There is not a single place I "have" to be, not a single thing I "have" to do...nothing. There are things I want to get done today, but if not...not going to stress about it.

Dubby's Graduation

2008-08-22T18:50:00.003-05:00

I want to reiterate again...just how proud I am of my brother. Out of a class of 100-ish there were only 12 honour graduates and Jacob graduated 4th academically while still receiving expert on the fire range. Boonville is very lucky to have such a smart young man on their force.

Here are some pictures from his graduation today:

Have I Mentioned How Proud I Am of My Brother?

2008-08-21T09:16:00.003-05:00

Jacob has been away all summer long at the Police Academy. I have always been very proud of him and very excited for him to be doing something he really wanted to do. He will be a great police office. He very solid and practical and super smart.

My little Dubby will graduating with honours this Friday. I knew he did well and was graduating with the honours...but had no idea how well he had done until I read this:

"Jacob is graduating with an honors certificate, one of 12 out of a class of well over 100. To get this you had to have an average score of at least 95% on all written tests and score an expert level on all practicals. To top that... he is graduating fourth in his class, earning extra recognition for "outstanding academic achievement"."

It made me cry (not that hard lately) with happiness that he had done so well.

Congratulations Dubby!

Glo-Worm and Birthday Party

2008-08-17T10:42:00.003-05:00

We got some new pictures of Glo-Worm. i think my kid is pretty darn cute considering there are no real features yet...got a great black & white grainy profile. We went to the specialist this week. He did a pretty intense ultrasound and determined that Glo-Worm's right foot is slightly club footed. He said that there was nothing that we could have done to make this happen, nor could we have prevented it...pretty much luck of the DNA. The doctor was sure that it was very slight and nothing to be concerned about. He seemed to think Glo-Worm may have to wear some special shoes. We have a follow up appointment in September.

This past weekend was Sophia's 2nd Birthday. She is growing up so fast. Her birthday party was at the Boonville Spray park...it is a great place...all the kids got to run around in the water and on the play ground. There were cupcakes with Elmo on them and presents. Sophia spent a lot of time with her shopping cart and stuffed Elmo she received. We took Kaidyn with us and he would have stayed there all day if he could have.

We kinda forgot that Chris' birthday is this coming Monday (yeah tomorrow)so we have a busy but relaxing day ahead of us. We are going to spend the afternoon swimming at his dad's and then we are going out The Blog Nazi's for dinner with the family. My Uncle David is town from Iowa and it is always wonderful to see him.

Next weekend, Dubby graduates with Honours from the Police Academy. I am very excited about being able to. We are all so ver proud of him. He reminded me several times yesterday not to lose my ticket.

Doctor's Appointment #3

2008-08-03T21:39:00.004-05:00

So Friday we had another doctor's appointment. We had our ultrasound first. My mom and Chris' dad went with us. Chris' dad loved it he had never gotten to see one before. Glo-Worm was flippin' and floppin' all over the place. It took the nurse forever to get all the pictures she needed. Glo-Worm is weighs about 8oz. right now. That's right he weighs as much a cup of water. It is amazing to me.

I am at 153lbs. That is an 8lb weight gain from the beginning. I am about half way along and think that is pretty good.

After the ultrasound we to talk to the doctor. He said that it looks like one of Glo-Worms footsie might be a little club footed (is footed a word?). I did a little looking around about that, and mostly it sounds like one of the feets might be a little pigeon toed. Since I was pretty pigeoned toed when I was kid...not too freaked out about this. It's pretty darn amazing that the doctors can see something like that already on an ultrasound.

Catch up

2008-07-21T11:32:00.005-05:00

I know, I know it has been sooooooo long since I have updated. So here are several items for you.

The first and personally my favorite is this:

On July 3rd Charlie (a Friend of mine from work)asks me to ask Chris what Chris planned on getting him for us birthday. Keep in mind that Charlie was going to be turning 22. So this is the e-mail that followed:

Me: Charlie would like to know what you plan on getting him for his birthday on the 14th. He requested you not get him the same thing as last year (nothing) or a swift kick in the Booty!

Chris:Tell Charley that I plan on getting him an orange. This will help for when his voice is changing and it gets so sore from him trying to talk in a big boy voice.

Me:Charlie admits that was really good, you got him. He also says, “Seriously what are you gonna get me?”

Chris: tell him I will get him something with 2 wheels that could save him a lot of money on gas

This is what he received:

My other friend from work Sharayah had her little baby boy Saturday - Adian Patrick:

Chris and I finally started with our baby registry. I have found the whole thought of doing the registry very overwhelming, so much so I kept putting it off. So I finally thought...Let's just get this done and then I can forget about it. So we went this last week and registered. Seeing as how we have nothing we had to start from scratch and get all the big stuff. DONE!

Okay so Chris brings home some zucchini from work so I can make some zucchini bread for him. So, I get started with shredding the zucchini and I think man this has tons of seeds in it. But, I was kinda on auto mode and dismissed the thought. I made the bread. The next morning I cut three slices (to take to work) and two more to toast with some cream cheese. YUMMY!!!!! So I sit down to toasted zucchini bread and take a huge bite and realize it doesn't taste right. It stated very "earthy", OK like dirt. I tried another bite and still nastiness. I called Chris at work and asked him:

Me: Are you sure that it was zucchini you brought home?

Chris: Ummmmmmmmmmmmm...

Me: I am pretty sure it is cucumber that i just made zucchini bread with. So you now have two loaves of cucumber bread.

Chris: laughing his booty off.

Yes folks I made two loaves of cucumber bread without realizing it. Chris' only defense is that he didn't pack the bag of "zucchini" someone at work did it for him.

I read that Soy milk was to help Glo-Worms memory. I figured that since I tend to...oh say...let my ball bounce on my thoughts and Chris has no memory to speak of, I had better hedge our bets the best I could. So, all Soy milk for me. This is actually a good thing since I have been wanting milk to drink and am lactose intolerant.

CMC had their company picnic last weekend. Chris & I both had two tickets from work, so we took two of our nephews (Forrest & Stephen) with us. We had a good time. We rode (ok they rode, I rode the Merry-Go-Round) all the rides in the morning part and we spent the afternoon in the water park. it was a good day. We went to the Roller Derby that evening. We were exhausted when we got home.

Doctor's Appointment #2

2008-07-04T11:27:00.005-05:00

We had our second Doctor's appointment this past Wednesday. Dr. Walker user a Dopplar thingy and found Glo-Worm's heartbeat right away. It was good and strong. (Whew!)

Our next appointment is in four weeks and at that time Dr. Walker said we could find out the sex of our little Glo-Worm. We told him we didn't want to know.

I gained 1lb. in the last month...I thought for sure it was more like 5lbs, but the doctors scale says differently.

HAPPY INDEPENDANCE DAY!!!!!!

MySpace Graphics at GlitterBell.com
Birthday Comments

Presents

2008-06-29T14:18:00.012-05:00

I love presents and love even more that we are getting baby presents.

Our very first baby present is from Miss Olga (a lady I work with) she made us these super cute booties:

Then the other day when I was off and out doing errands all day (blech!) I come home and there is a box on my door step. I am thinking what the heck is that? I haven't ordered anything...oh goodness did I order something and forgot...hmmmm??? So I get the box still trying to figure what is all about, open it up and Laura K sent us a fabulous pregnancy journal:

We love it!!!!! It gives you daily updates on what should be happening to your baby, things that could be happening to your body, little facts about birth in other cultures and earlier in our history, and things like...Did you know? That no matter what your practitioner does it will not determine whether your baby has an innie or an outie. It is determined by the strength of the umbilical cord. I send Chris "Daily Glo-Worm Updates."

I also went to a baby shower this weekend for another girl I work with and they had these cute little boxes with mints in them:

LA DI DA...

2008-06-18T09:31:00.009-05:00

So...if any of you clicked on the link below to hear Tori sing and got an article on the Hydro Powered Car(which is pretty cool by the way)...oops sorry. I have fixed the link and if you click on it now you will go to the correct site.

Some fun stuff...

5 Reasons I Love Summer:
*It is finally warm
*Birthday Parties (we have lots of summer birthdays)
*Swimming
*Being able to open the windows
*AC for when it gets too hot

5 Reasons I Don't Like Summer:
*It's finally too hot
*Bugs (Especially the ones that like to sting or bite you)
*AC - it's almost always to cold
*Humidity
*Having to go to work on a really beautiful day

So no current updates on Glo-Worm yet. Our next doctors appointment is July 2nd, I will have more to tell you then. I am learning all sorts of stuff about being pregnant. I think the best book I have read is The Guys Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the First Year. I know this is a book Chris should be reading, but the guy that wrote it is so funny. I totally get his perspective of things. I am also reading What to Expect When You Are Expecting and While Waiting which has the ugliest baby ever on the front.

There is not a lot else going on right now. I had a great lunch with my mom last week. The Blog Nazi and her family will be home for good this week (which we are all very excited about.) The Blog Nazi and MC had their first wedding anniversary this week. My nephew Forrest just turned 16 years old. Soon he will be driving...YIKES! Chris has been riding his bike to work and we have saved a tremendous amount of money on gas. We went to the Roller Derby and Andi got sent to the penalty box 5 times...it was awesome. While we were there I got some great Keegan snuggles.

This was way fun...

Okay, I think that should about catch you up on our doings.

relay for life

2008-06-15T19:52:00.004-05:00

While I haven't particpated in the relay for life for many years now, I my friend Jessica has. The beautiful voice at the beginning of this clip is her daughter Tori.

Additional Tidbits About Our Glo-Worm

2008-06-07T08:15:00.003-05:00

I was trying to answer all the questions I had been asked so far in my last post and forgot a few.

1)Chris & I have decided we do not want to know what we are having. We think it will much more fun to find out when it happens.

2)Names...we love Tobin for a boy. This is the name of a relative of Chris' that we found one day at his grandparents house. We fell in love with right at that moment and have been stuck on it ever since. We are not so sure about what we want as a middle name to go with it. For a girl I really like Zola Lorelei, Chris hasn't weighed in on this name yet. I like the names seperately and together.

Last night we babysat Sophia & Keegan so Dubby & Andy could go to the movies. We had blast with them. Sophia was a hoot and kept us cracking up all night. She made the greatest face when I gave her a bite of a Cinnamon Roll. Her eye lite up like the 4th of July. Keegan was all smiles until he decided that he was hungry and a bottle just wasn't what he wanted. He was still tons of fun.

Our Own Little Glo-Worm

2008-06-06T15:26:00.004-05:00

Yes that is right folks we have our own glo-worm! Apparently it is 10 weeks along and will be due around January 1, 2009. We are thinking December 31, 2008 for tax reasons, and are confident that our baby will accommodate us in this matter.

Chris and I have known for about a month now, but decided to wait until our first appointment before we shared with anyone. Baby has a heart rate of 174 which the Doctor says is great. So far I haven't gained any weight. I went to the Doctor just before we found out I was pregnant and was at 145lb and am still at that weight. My iron is a little low so I will have to take an extra iron supplement on top of my Prenatal Vitamin. No morning sickness per se...more like all day nausea. I have been eating small snacks all day that keeps it under control. The doctor says I am OK to ride my bike and do yoga for as long as I can. So all-in-all it is a pretty normal pregnancy!!!!!!

We are absolutely over the moon happy!!!!!!!!

Pre-School Graduation

2008-05-23T15:41:00.009-05:00

Today was Isabella's Pre-School Graduation. It was pretty fun and short! They sang us some songs (you could hear Bella all the way in the back over all the other kiddos) and got a certificate. Here are some highlights:

As Promised Pictures

2008-05-22T11:07:00.003-05:00

These are pictures of the crocheting I have done and the repainting of our dining room:

My New Talent

2008-05-17T10:02:00.011-05:00

I think a few weeks ago I mentioned I was learning a new talent. At the time i didn't want to say what it was because I was making something for my nephew Keegan. Well, it is finally finished and I can tell you all about it.

I learned to Crochet. Not crazy exciting, but it is fun and it keep s me busy. I made an orange & camouflage blanket for Keegan, currently I am working on a baby blanket for a friend at work. My nephew Forest wants one in red & black and my friend Charlie wants on in green & white. I also made a scarf for Sophia and am going to make a scarf for Isabella (these two are the same colors but different designs). I am also working on a scarf for my father-in-law. I have pictures, but can't post them right now. I will add them when I get home.

Tribute to The Blog Nazi

2008-05-05T09:20:00.008-05:00

For many months now The Blog Nazi has been requesting a tribute blog in her honor. For many months I have been agonizing over the perfect words to celebrate the woman she is (not really, I just found the time to finally write it.)

Many years ago The Blog Nazi and I were vastly different (now we are just kinda different) and spent a good deal of our time arguing about everything. Even through all the fights I still looked up to her (partly because I was shorter then her.) Then one day she moved away...admittedly not that far...to the Westside. The fighting lessened. Then one day I moved away and discover the cliche "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" was true. I found myself missing The Blog Nazi, wishing she were close by, and wanting to spend time with her (I thought surely I was going a little crazy.)

Finally the day came that I moved back home. During this time is when The Blog Nazi and I solidified our friendship. There are so many thing about The Blog Nazi I love:
* She is loyal almost to a fault
* She is responsible for herself and sometimes everyone else
* She is strong emotionally and physically
* Loving
* Kind
* Witty
* Independent
* A great Mother

The Blog Nazi is a phenomenal woman and I am very lucky and blessed to call her sister and friend. My wish is for everyone to have their own "Blog Nazi." I wish your Blog Nazi to push you to become the best version of yourself, to tell you honestly you look horrible in an outfit, to be a shoulder to cry and laugh on, to tease you until you want to scream, and to love you unconditionally even though you are "wired" a little differently.

I hope your Blog Nazi gets all righteously angry with you when you feel you have been slighted, listens and offers advise for life's little (and sometimes big) problems. I wish and hope your Blog Nazi will get up at an insanely early hour to have coffee and chat.

Love you Big Doodie (aka: The Blog Nazi)

Ramblings

2008-04-22T14:16:00.004-05:00

Have a few things to ramble on about today...

Loving the Spring weather. Love that is getting warm enough to turn my heater off & not have to pay a gazillion dollars to Vectren.

Dislike that the last tenant in my rental house left with a huge Vectren bill. Luckily I do not have to pay it.

Love at work an getting a little noticed. Got to help in the "Nest" the other day and help the new people out. It was way fun.

Sad that Kelly left me at work to a new more better job.

Love Lars and the Real Girl it will make you laugh and cry all at the same time.

Disappointed the movie Conspiracy with my man Val Kilmer. It made us laugh out loud and it wasn't supposed to.

Love the Roller Derby.

Sad I can't get my schedule were I could play

Love that my Standard Poodle looks like a sheep

Remembering that I need to take her the groomers to make you look more like a dog again.

Like the extentions I had put in my hair

Thinking next time: sew them in or fuse them in, glue not so great.

C-R-A-P

2008-04-12T20:41:00.005-05:00

Yep, that is right my title is CRAP! We just got our taxes done and found out we have to pay the wonderful state of Indiana a hefty amount of money.

Let me tell you why this is CRAP...

When we had our taxes done last year we were pleased to discover that I wasn't supposed to be paying Kentucky State taxes since I didn't live there. Woo Hoo! Our tax lady said we should have Chris' work deduct an additional $20 per paycheck to make up the lack of taxes I was not paying so we would not have to pay come this year. I know you are asking yourself how this can be CRAP...I am getting to that.

The wonderful people that handle the payroll for Chris' work deducted 20% of his income per paycheck as TAX EXEMPT! That means for several paychecks before we noticed that something wasn't right and his payroll corrected the error we were not paying State taxes on 20% of his income. We finally got that corrected and hoped that it wouldn't affect us much and conveniently forgot about it for the rest of the year. And that my friends is almost all of the CRAP. Yes that means there is more.

So after me & the tax lady finally figure out why we owe so much, she discovers that he work isn't even taking out enough in taxes. State taxes should be about 3.4%. Chris and I checked his last few paychecks this evening and they still aren't taking enough out. TOTAL CRAP!

In the end we still have to pay the State the money, but it sure feels good to vent. I hope every one else's tax adventures aren't quite as CRAPpy as ours.

Looky

2008-04-04T22:08:00.003-05:00

I love the website to mom's office. They recently got up and running. It has such great information on it. They have a blog (which I am excited to share, that mom was the first to write anything).

Take a looky: AHA! Counseling

How cute are these?

2008-04-03T14:50:00.001-05:00

Sophia

Picture Page, Picture Page...

2008-04-02T18:09:00.009-05:00

I have been saving up some pictures you you

What kind of flower are you?

2008-04-02T18:08:00.003-05:00

I am a
Daffodil

What Flower
Are You?

You have a sunny disposition and are normally one of the first to show up for the party. You don't need too much attention from the host once you get there as you are more than capable of making yourself seen and heard.

It has been a few days

2008-04-02T12:38:00.004-05:00

I know, I know it has been at least 12days since my last blog. I have been a busy bee these last twelve days.

I did get my cleaning done that I spoke of last time. That Friday we had Isabella with us for the day. We had such a good time. She went to Chiropractor with me, then we went to McDonald's. When we got home she help Uncle Chris dig dirt while I cleaned. She helped Uncle Chris with lots of dirt. She was very excited about seeing a worm, but no amount of pleading would convince her to touch it.

As many of you know occasionally I work at Impulse at the front desk, plus I have been helping out at my Chiropractors office (my previous place of employment) doing some Data Entry. Their computer cashed about a month ago and before they could get all the info back in, the office manager broke her arm. That is where I am at today.

Last weekend we went to Andi's Roller Derby We had such a good time. I wasn't sure at all how this would play out. The first quarter everyone was a little hesitant to cheer (we didn't have a clue as to what we were cheering for.) The second quarter, everyone had a little more "Umph" in their cheer (we all had a better idea what we were cheering for.) The third quarter, everyone knew what to look for and the crowd was quite vocal. The Blog Nazi, mom and I sat in the Suicide Pit. So we were right on the floor (we had people in front of us to break the impact if a skater came flying at us.) The next day at work I told everyone they needed to go to the next match.

I have a new...

2008-03-20T14:41:00.003-05:00

...favorite CD. I love Kate Voegele. She has such an great sound.

I am off today and I really haven't done anything. I had all sorts of plans. I was going to do dishes, put laundry away. Admittedly, I think there is still time to do that stuff today...we shall see.

I have learned how to do something new. I can't share what it is yet because I making something for my nephew Keegan. When I am finished I will post a picture of it. I am very excited about it.

I received a message from The Blog Nazi requesting a tribute to her greatness...hmmm. Let's save that for another day.

I wrote a poem for my mom for her birthday:

Ode to My Soul Momma

My Soul Momma is so cool
But she never let me stay home
From school
She is tough but fair
And has great hair
I wouldn’t be the woman
I am right now
Without my Soul Momma
Saying “WOW...you can
Can do anything”
So an infinity of love
To the best Soul Momma

I am so lucky to have such a great mom.

So before I get put on notice from The Blog Nazi

2008-03-15T18:04:00.002-05:00

...I am updating my blog.

This last week has been awesome. I got off work everynight at 6:30p and it was still light outside! I got to spend some great time with my family.

I had dinner with my sister on Tuesday and my mom on Thursday. My sister and I told stories about me and Dramamine(sp), mainly about how drugged out i am on it and some amusing stories of me on it. Mom and I had great conversation at diner.

My Birthday!

2008-03-06T12:40:00.001-06:00

It's was my party

2008-03-06T12:32:00.008-06:00

We had such a good time Saturday.

I met my sister Michelle, my sister-in-law Andi, and my friend Jessica at the salon. We got mini manicures, our hair styled and make-up put on. We looked gorgeous!

After that we met my friend Paula and Wendy at Abuelo's for dinner.

We had such a fun girly time.

If you place your mouse over the pictures above it will show captions

Do YOU know what time of year it is?

2008-02-27T16:27:00.003-06:00

Yes folks, that is my not so subtle way of reminding that you my birthday is just around the corner. Only 5 days left until the biggest day of the year. I am very excited about my birthday this year...oh wait that is every year. Can you tell I am a middle child?I promise to have picture and stories after the weekend.

Wok & Other Things

2008-02-20T07:44:00.006-06:00

Have I mentioned how in love I am with my Wok? I already had an adventure with it and cooked in it.

The evening I got my Wok, I was seasoning it (put some oil it in it spread it around and heat it up until your pan burns), well after I was seasoning I really wasn't paying as much attention as I should and set the super hot pan on the counter. This is what my counter looks like now:Oops!

I made Stirfry monday night and it was so yummy. I cooked the chicken with soy sauce and Chinese Five Spices then added broccoli, snow peas, carrots, and celery. YUMMY! Chris even loved it, vegetables and all.

I have all sorts of new receipes I am going to try. I will let you know how they turn out.

I hired into my current job as temporary to permanant, well because we were supposed to be hired as permanant by this point the programs we use tend to lock us out every few days. This has been a source of endless frustration. I am using paper forms and other people have to complete my work. Then programs are changed and no one told us or showed us to use them. Finally I am getting calls for clients I don't even take or have been trained on yet. So, yeah really frustrated. Hopefully this will be taken care of soon.

Oh, exciting!!!!!! My birthday is coming up soon. I was singing a little ditty that makes me happpy and shared it The Blog Nazi...it went something like this:

Happy Birthday to Me
Happy Birthday to Me
Oh yeah it's my Birthday
Do the Hustle...

Then The Blog Nazi reminded me that I didn't know how to the hustle. I thought The Blog Nazi should teach me since she is older then me and wanted me to have the best Birthday ever. I was so right...she sent this link to me:

The Blog Nazi teaching the Hustle.

Not so fun, I have to go get a new drivers license today. I realized the other day it expires this year. <blech>

Wok-A-Wok-A-Wok-A

2008-02-14T17:35:00.005-06:00

Isn't it beautiful? This is my Valentines Day pesent from Chris. I am very excited about it. Several years ago I asked for a Wok for Christmas. I got a Wok cookbook, but no Wok. So, I have held onto this Wok cookbook in hopes that one day I would get the Wok to go with it.

Alas, I have finally got the WOK!!!!!!!!

Burlington

2008-02-06T10:21:00.003-06:00

Chris & I tend to attract pets. Since we both have busy with work and such we just don't have as much time to spend with all our animals (we were up to 2 dogs and 3 cats.)

In the past year, my sister took my cat Philly. I have had her since she was a kitten and she is about 10 years old now. She likes being an only kitty and having to share us with two other cats and dogs was not her idea of a good time. So, my sister took philly to her new house where she is living the high life of an only kitty.

Now, Ubu (another cat) I got from a friend of Jacobs. He was an odd kitty, very skittish and very submissive. He passed way this past fall of unknown reasons.

That left us with Burlington and the 2 dogs. Now Burlington is a great cat. She like to play, likes dogs, is a lap kitty. So why did we find her a new home? Once again, we didn't have the time to give her the attention she deserved, not that she was ignored, just not enough hours in the day. One of the ladies at work was thinking about getting a cat. So I offered up Burlington to her. I showed her pictures. She absolutely loves Burlington. She said B gets along fabulously with her dog and keeps them very entertained.

So now all we have is our puppies Jax & Rosetta.

Becca

2008-02-06T10:19:00.001-06:00

Here is a picture of Laura's daughter...Becca and Oreo Cookies

Some Work Stories

2008-02-06T09:41:00.000-06:00

At work I take what are called Lost/Stolen calls. This is a number people call if their debit card is lost of stolen. Now my company provides this service for 1200+ Financial Institutions (have to say "Financial Institutions" because Credit Unions get cranky when you call them a Bank), and my open spiel goes a little like this:

"Thank you for calling Lost/Stolen Card Services. Are you call you to report a card Lost or Stolen today?"

I have to actually ask if they are calling to report a card lost or stolen, because you would be surprised at how many people call Lost/Stolen to activate a card.

Here are a few othe conversations I have had since I stated working there:

"Thank you for calling Lost/Stolen Card Services. Are you call you to report a card Lost or Stolen today?"

"Yes"

"what is the name of you Financial Institution?"

"Ummm...I don't know it is somewhere in Delaware." (yes people do actually live in Deleware)

"Thank you for calling Lost/Stolen Card Services. Are you call you to report a card Lost or Stolen today?"

"No I need to get some information on my fathers account, he is in the hospital dying and I need to get this information now. I need to talk to someone"

"I do apologize sir, unfortunately I do not have access to that information. We are a third party that provides Lost/Stolen support for your Financial Institution."

"If my father dies without this information it will be all your fault!"

"Sir, I refuse to take that guilt trip. Once again we do not have access to that information."

"Well, I refuse to take a guilt trip when your father is the hospital dying."

"Sir, my father is already dead"

"I have a right to talk to someone about this account, THIS ISN'T RUSSIA!" (he hung up on me)

"Thank you for calling Lost/Stolen Card Services. Are you call you to report a card Lost or Stolen today?"

"Yes"

(Sometimes ou just can't find the person in the database. We can search by name and card number and sometimes checking account number. After we have exhausted all of our seach options and we still can't find them, people get a little testy)

"I do apologize, I have search several different ways and tried multiple spellings of your name, but I can't seem to find your account in our database."

"Well, did you try..."(list several ways for me to try to search again)

"Yes I have"

"I have been with XYZ Bank for 10 years, I know I am in there. Someone has my card and can take all the money in my account. I can't believe you can't find me. Have you tried...(once again giving me more ways I can't seach by)"

"We can only go by the information provided to us by your Financial Institution. I can't turn your card off if I can't find you."

"What good are you then?" (he hung up on me)

"Thank you for calling Lost/Stolen Card Services. Are you call you to report a card Lost or Stolen today?"

"Yes"

"What is the name of your Financial Institution?"

"Ummm...what do you mean?"

"What is the name of your Bank or Credit Union?"

"Oh...VISA"

"That is the name of the Bank or Credit Union you keep your money at?"

"Oh no...that's ABC Bank"

These are the types of calls and people I handle on a day-to-day basis. As I get more stories I will share them with you.

7 Things You May Not Know About Me...

2008-01-24T08:17:00.000-06:00

Someone read Andi's Blog on this topic and thought I should do it to...

Here are 7 random wierd or unknown facts about myself. It was actually a little difficult since I don't have any boundries and tell every one everything anyway...

1) I am totally scared of the dark. When Chris isn't here and I have to sleep alone, a light in the bedroom has to be on. Completely freaked out by the dark.

2) I love action movies, the more fighting the better.

3) I hate feet. Do not like my feet touched or other people to touch my feet. One year at thanksgiving my family held me down and smeared huge handfuls of butter between my toes. It was really funny you should have been there.

4) My guiltiest pleasure...I like to watch The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency. She is such a sarcastic B, but I love her.

5) When I was little I wanted to be a movie star. Now that I see how much privacy stars (even pseudo stars) don't have, I am so glad I didn't persue that career. Although I do occassionally fantasize about it

6) I taught my niece the most awful-est dance step in the world (her mom taught it to me when I little bit older then my niece is now)

7)My husband regularly check my roots for blondness

Great Deals

2008-01-23T11:55:00.001-06:00

I love shoes. I an a shoe-a-holic. I probably have about 55 pairs of shoes and I wear them all. I love boots, flip-flops, flats, strapy sandals, I love a fabulous stiletto heel. I especially love when you can wear a pair of shoes with several different outfits or you have an outfit you can wear with several different pairs of shoes.

I stopped by Target yesterday for a few items and found much to surprise a pair of jeans on sale for $7.50 and a hoody for $5. Woo Hoo! I love a good deal. Then I stopped by one of my favorite stores, District, to have a look around.

And then I saw them, the red boots. The were the perfect shade of red. Not maroon red, or brick red, or pink-ish red, they were red-red. There were only one pair of size 7 1/2 left and they were on sale for $19. YES! Mine-all-mine (I think I had an evil little laugh to go with it). I was so exctited, I of course had to get them.

Yes folks, they really are mine-all-mine!

Officer Dubby

2008-01-20T08:48:00.000-06:00

We are all so proud of my brother Jacob. He was sworn into the Boonville Police Department this past Thursday. We all got to be there to show support for him.

I think he is going to be great at his job!!!!!! Here are some more pics...

P.S. For the next few blogs look before this one...they are showing for an earlier date

The Best Thermos Ever

2008-01-17T11:56:00.000-06:00

I received this thermos set for Christmas. I was kinda excited, now I could take good coffee to work.

The first day I used it, I was so excited. It worked so much more better then I thought it would.

I filled it with hot (boiling) water in the morning while I was getting ready for work. I thought if I warmed the inside then it would keep my coffee warmer longer. Just before I left I poured the hot water out and filled it with my tasty coffee...mmmmmm!

I had some coffee after I got work and it was till toasty warm. The big test was when I wanted some in the afternoon. I filled it around 9:30a, when I poured myself a cup at 6:30p it was till warm. I was so excited, I went around the office telling everyone how fabulous my thermos was.

You should get one!!!!

P.S. This was a gift from my sister

Team Player?????

2008-01-17T11:40:00.000-06:00

Yes that would be me in a UK shirt. As many of you know I am not much of a sports person. I don't generally watch sports on TV or even have a favorite team. Usually my favorite team is the opposite team that everyone else is rooting for. I shall explain why I even own a UK t-shirt let alone 3 of them. I am getting ahead of myself...let me digress a moment and tell the whole story.

At work we have monthly "Team Player Meetings." These are meeting to share all the good things that are coming up in the next month and to praise the people that did good the previous month. All-in-all these are very positive meeting and unlike most meetings are actually quite fun.

It was decided by the powers that be, starting in the month of December, we could wear jeans the day of the Team Player meeting if we wore a shirt supporting our favorite "legitimate" team. My first thought was "well poop!" I had realized that I owned not a single sports team shirt.

My next thought was I could possibly borrow my nephews hockey jersey. I dismissed that idea, since he would probably need it the same day I did.

Then I remember that Jessica is a huge UK fan. She has been trying to convert me for the last year to a UK fan. I thought that I would go get a UK t-shirt & wear it to work just for her.

I trek over to Wal-Mart in Henderson for the UK shirt. While shopping I find one...more money then I really wanted to spend. Then I see it...a 3pack of UK tee's for the same price and the one shirt and that folks is how I ended up with 3 UK tee's.

I has been talked about since that what I really need is a Minnesota Gophers shirt. I think that would be perfect!