Category: Misc

Thank goodness it's Friday. I am so relieved to know that I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning. Though Tabby will get us up just after the crack of dawn, I'm sure.

It has been a very long week. Instead of occupying his normal position working at home, Matt has been doing training all the way accross town two days this week and all of you with little kids know that an upset to the schedule is no small thing. And in addition to that, there have been some personal and work-related things that have us stressed and overwrought. I am not at liberty to discuss any of these things openly, but nothing so far is affecting us very directly, just causing us worry and stress.

On the lighter side, our weekend calendar is pretty clear and the plan is to spend a lot of time relaxing. I also want to take our poor neglected pooch outside and get him (and us) some much needed exercise … and spend some time working on Christmas cards (have to get that photo taken!) and other holiday-related things that I'm behind on (including a blog theme, maybe??). I'm thinking it would also be nice to do some more involved cooking that I don't have time for during the week. We'll see how it goes!

Have a great weekend.

• Happy Veteran's Day. Thanks to all of the men and women who work so hard to protect our amazing if flawed nation.
• Thanksgiving is getting close … yay for 4-day weekends and turkey!!
• This has been plaguing me since I first saw the man: Is it just me or does Obama sort of look like a grown up Jimmy Brooks?!! Matt thinks I'm nuts.
• Karaoke night was supposed to be Friday. We had 6 signed up at one time (maybe 7) we're down to 2 (including me). I cancelled it. I'm bummed. This happened to the last pottery night too! From 9 down to 3.
• In her 20 months on this planet my daughter has had no less than 4 pairs of Converse sneakers. She also has two in reserve (one bought at a garage sale, one bought on clearance for $12) for growing feet. Still, she MUST have these!
• My sister-in-law sent us a recipe for Chili Cheese Dog Pizza … I will have to try it and see how it turns out. I am very curious.
• I understand a new season of Top Chef is starting soon. Awesome!
• I really need to change around this blog theme, but I am being lazy.
• We are making Cap'n Crunch Chicken for dinner tonight. I am jazzed.

With nothing on the calendar we managed to very successfully fill practically every minute of the weekend. Friday night we got together with my family for dinner and many hilarious rounds of Taboo (punctuated by my dog's explosive flatulance – I bought him cheap dog food because I couldn't make it to PetsMart and we paid for it).

Saturday we took Miss Tabby to tumbling. She enjoyed it once again, except the being told what to do bit. She just wanted to run around like a crazy baby and climb on everything. Then Matt headed off to purchase the wood for Tabby's toddler bed and Tabby and I went shopping with my mom and sister. Tabby was good as gold all day while we hung out but of course didn't nap. She conked out in the car on the way to dinner and when she woke up she was ravenous. So ravenous she wouldn't eat and made quite the scene in the restaurant, freaking out and crying (not her usual MO) until I fed her a fruit leather. Then she inhaled half of the contents of the table. Sesame chicken was a huge hit.

Sunday was work day. Tabby got us up early and we got to work on the house … laundry, dishes, etc. We did errands and lunch with my sister (who doesn't have a CostCo membership) and once again, Tabby missed out on her nap. We spent the late afternoon cleaning out our basement (a necessary first step towards finishing it) and by 5 PM Tabby was in bed … for the night. Neither of us could believe it. I guess we wore her out.

For my final performance of the evening, I made Barefoot Contessa's Banana Crunch Muffins (minus walnuts). YUM.

I was thrilled as I assessed the upcoming months to see how little we have on the calendar. Totally manageable. Of course there's plenty to do with Christmas coming up and we've got our hands full with some other things that are going on, but still … less on the calendar is good anyhow.

In other news, I seem to be a bit better since hitting second trimester. I am nauseous less … I'd hate to jinx myself by saying it's gone away entirely though. I think I'm less tired too. I've actually felt human a few times and freaked out about this or that thing I've totally let slip (housework, maybe?). I really need to get on the ball because a lot needs to happen before this kiddo arrives … like finishing our basement so Matt has an office. That would be lovely.

Tabby turned 20 months old on Tuesday and I am just in awe over her. She is such a little chatterbox right now and is getting amazingly good at making her needs known by stringing together 3 or 4 words at a time. Please and thank you are even among them… sometimes. Potty training has stagnated and she doesn't seem to have the least interest in even trying. I am reluctant to force the issue, but I would love to get her out of diapers before the baby is born. Might be a fool's errand, but I am thinking it is doable, since we recently realized that she is staying dry (?!?!) overnight. 3 out of 3 nights suveyed. Surely not a coincidence given the amount of fluids she drinks even close to bedtime. I would also love to get rid of the binky before too long. She is way attached to it though and I admit to being a bit chicken in the matter. It looks like a long struggle.

The weather has been amazingly mild here so far. Usually we have at least one snow by Halloween, but so far nothing. The Farmer's Almanac predicts we're in for a chilly, snowy couple of months, though. Good thing I bought new boots.

Well the election is over. Aside from being glad that all of the direct-mails and commercials will stop bombarding me, I am glad to see an end in sight to the era of W. I was not a fan of his (and Cheney's) attacks on our civil liberties and their spending habits (resulting in big government). Obama certainly has a steep climb ahead of him. I was not sad to see him win, but I am not firmly in the cult (I use “cult” here truly not to be derogutory, but really for lack of brain to come up with a better term) of Obama, either. I tend to back off and get all skeptical when someone's super popular (except with Harry Potter – he rocks) … just how I am. I sincerely hope he is the change our country needs and will do wonderful things during his term. I enjoyed his acceptance speech as well as McCain's concession speech (thought it was very classy). Now I wanna know what kind of puppy the Obama kids are getting.

I was also quite keenly interested in some of our local issues … and was overall disappointed. I'm not really for raising taxes, but a couple of the best ammendments in my opinion sought to raise taxes for good purposes and I had hoped they would win. But it seems like anything that even hinted at more taxes got killed. So too bad for disabled people and school kids. You're SOL until the economy improves.

Also … am I reading this right?? Is it true that on the same day of these big historic changes that we as a country passed 3 ballot measures to ban gay marriage? One in CALIFORNIA no less? I will never fully understand people. I understand that voting Democrat and approving of gay marriage don't necessarily go hand and hand, I just thought, y'know … birds of a feather and all.

Anyhoo, now that I've alienated all my readers, I will traipse off to kick puppies and such. And re-do my blog theme.

Tabby has gotten some NASTY diaper rash. All thanks to a bug or something giving her dierhhea. Last night she was up and down all the time, screaming and crying from the pain. She only wanted mommy and she wiggled and kicked when she got into bed with us and cried when she wasn't in bed with us. I didn't get much sleep.

So today I opted to take one of my 2.5 remaining vacation days and stay home with her. I was way too exhausted to be of any use at work and I wanted to be in control of the hourly diaper changes and cream applications I thought were in order. Her sitter is great and super vigilant, but she has other kids to watch too. Plus, Matt was at training all day so he couldn't go get her if her sitter needed us to.

So we stayed home. It was a leisurely, pleasant day. Cool and sunny outside and we did a whole lot of nothing. Watched Baby Einstein and Disney Channel ate leftovers. Played with the dog. I did laundry and kept the kitchen neatish. We went to the library. She was very clingy and tired so we cuddled and napped. I think her rash is improving, but it is hard to tell. Luckily her diapers are better.

I'm exhausted from being so needed all day and though I did a decent amount of housework the house looks awful. Cluttered and dishelveled. And I'm so glad Matt's home.

Happy election day! We'll be watching Indecision 2008 and cheering on … Jon Stewart. Hope y'all voted.

No SNL cast, but I'm here, to give you updates on my weekend.

Halloween was great and we got up Saturday and hung out as a family. Made oatmeal, did the dishes, etc. etc. Then we got ready to go to tumbling. I thought it started two weeks ago, but it actually started last weekend and we missed it since we were in UT. Tabby loved it though and though she wasn't big on the sitting still parts, she puffy-pink-heart loved the balance beam. And the climbing over things, etc. etc. I'm very glad it was only 30 minutes long though. It's like trying to herd cats with kids that little and I was sort of exhausted after it.

After tumbling, we got lunch and I went against my “I shouldn't eat crap” policy and indulged my meat cravings and accompanied my husband to Smash Burger. Their burgers are so good and I don't know or want to know the calorie count. Then we dropped Matt off at my parents' house so he could help my sister load up her furniture for The Big Move to her new apartment and Tabby and I put in an appearance at the beauty shop where my mom gets her hair did so Tabby could get some face time with her public (they kinda love her there). Then we went to Pet.Co where Tabby flipped out about the mice (in a good way) and we picked up litter for my sister's bunnies. I did not get dog food for Loki because I am a bad doggy mom and I forgot.

God this is boring, but on I will go. Then I drove back to my parents' house to continue the moving help. As per my evil plan (and cuz I can't lift anything, really) most of it was done. But we hung around there a while while it got finished. Tabby was sleeping in the car (I was within like 10 feet of it at all times, no worries). And she woke up about the time we pulled into Kelly's parking lot. Tabby and I acted as forepeople as everyone else schlepped stuff and nominally helped out by building DVD storage boxes and making helpful suggestions about the placement of this and that. Continue reading “Weekend Update”

Contrary to my grumpy facebook status update, I do plan on voting. I actually had a whole post written about how I plan to vote despite my ambivalance about my choices for our nation's highest office (I just chose to write about my night with Tabby instead). Like jury duty, I consider voting to be a part of my civic duty … part of everyone's civic duty. I've spent lots of time reading up on all the candidates and all the issues. So much so that I am starting to make myself crazy.

The ammendments and props I have no problems making up my mind on, but these wild card candidates leave me at a loss. Who knows if what they say is true. Who knows what they'll do once they manage to get elected. Too much power for mere humans, me thinks. As far as these presidential candidates go, I've gone from wanting to vote third party, to not wanting to vote at all (my dad says these two are separate but equal) to thinking seriously about voting for a candidate I swore I'd never vote for.

But for better or worse, I am filling out my ballot tonight and dropping it off by Friday (cuz I hate standing in line for HOURS at the polling place) because I am lucky enough to live in a country where we can vote … and the vote actually matters (I think). Hooray for my flawed America. You vote too, k?