Smiling Spider

This was pretty cute.

All is well. I still haven't found my camera *tear*.

E loves school. She has learned SO much. Every day she comes home with a new song.

We went to the dentist this week. E got a DinoFlosser (floss with a grip shaped like a dinosaur). She's been walking around with it for 2 days, and at night she sleeps with it under her pillow. What an odd child I have!!

Lost

I have somehow managed to misplace my camera. So, until it can be located, I will not be posting any photos.

I must say that I am at a loss. I hardly ever misplace things. I have this weird thing that's called putting-something-in-the-same-place-every-time-so-I-never-lose-it syndrome. Some people mis-diagnosis this and say it's OCD. I disagree. But that's not the point. Now that I've lost my camera I feel as though my brain might explode. I won't be able to accomplish anything today until I have located my camera and placed it in it's proper home.

If you have seen it or know of it's whereabouts, please contact me ASAP. I have so much I need to get done today and I feel as though my day is ruined.........

Pictures

Me, Nat, D and Skip at the O's game

Our trip to Pittsburgh... the first picture is looking out over Pittsburgh, the second is E running through the hose in Nat's mom's backyard, and the third is from the Children's Museum.

These are from our trip to New York... Janmarie with her cake, and JP's Eagle ceremony.

These are from our trip to SC. The first two are with Auntie Lulu at her PhD party. The third is with Goolsby's son (E had just gone tubing and here she's "driving" the boat.)

And who could leave out E and her friends at the Wiggles concert. (It was actually pretty fun.)

(Sorry about the formatting. It's a little hard to control.)

Tearing My Heart Out

After a wonderful weekend spending time with Tia and Oompa (and my family and Brian) I left to come home and E stayed up there. She's staying the week because her daycare is closed and Tia offered.

Well, I talked to her yesterday evening and she says to me "Mommy, I want you to come pick me up." "I can't," I say. "But I WANT you tooooooo....." And then my heart was ripped out of my chest.

I talked to her this morning and she seemed in a much better mood. She had made herself some chocolate milk (the all-time best comfort food). She had climbed the ladder at the playground (very exciting!) She reported many details to me, then politely asked if I would like to speak with Tia. While I was talking to Tia, she said "Oh, wait. I forgot." Tia handed her the phone. "I love you, Mommy." "I love you too, Doodlebug." -- and my heart was ripped out of my chest... again.

I miss her. But I'm glad she's spending quality time with Tia and Oompa.

To Antietam (again)!

Nat's mom is in town for the week. Her birthday is today, so my mom is making dinner tonight and Nat and I are attempting a lemon meringue pie. Then tomorrow we are headed to Antietam for a wonderful weekend with Tia and Oompa.

E spent her first night without a diaper on last night... and guess what happened! She peed --- in MY bed! I guess that's my fault. But whatever. I tried. She hadn't peed in her diaper at night for 3 weeks, so I thought it would be ok. I guess that's what I get for thinking.

My blog isn't currently allowing me to post pictures. So I will do a separate post later of just pictures.

Peace!

Uber Prepared!

So I'll be heading up the road tonight... we'll be staying at Tia's, then finishing the drive up to the Rivenbark's house tomorrow morning. Some friends of the kids will be riding up with me and E, so the car will be a little cramped, but I think it will be a good trip.

I started prepping for the trip on Tuesday. I made a list of things I need to get done before I leave - like stop at the bank, stop and get gas, go to the grocery store, pick up E's meds... stuff like that. Then I made a detailed list of things I need to remember to bring - like clothes, shoes, socks, underwear.. the normal things -- and then things I tend to forget - phone charger, deoderant, cords for the dvd player, Chesney and Blanket. The reason why I'm telling you this is that I make lists so I can be properly prepared for a trip like this, and Nat things I'm crazy, obsessive, and a little bit anal. Why can't it just be that I'm prepared? (Or as I like to call it "uber prepared.")

I went to the store last night to pick up some snacks and stuff for the car, so I wouldn't be tempted to get food when we stop for breakfast or for gas. I picked up some granola, trail mix, apples and bananas. I also made some homemade lemonade (with my leftover lemons) for the trip. I tasted it this morning and it is quite tart, so I hope I remember to sweeten it up before we head out.

I read another blog this morning about a lady who is doing a cleanse that is basically a vegan diet, but she talked about how she got a sinus infection after about a week and her doctor told her it was because of her cleanse. I've had a stuffy nose since yesterday, and I'm thinking it could potentially be from my cleanse (though I'm done now), but I also cleaned out my gutters Tuesday evening and it could be the fact that I'm allergic to cleaning out my gutters.

Lemonade and the Zoo

At the end of Day 3 I had already lost 10 pounds, and so decided that this was enough. Sunday night I had some orange juice and soup. Monday I spent most of the day drinking oj, then added in some fruit. Now I'm having fruits and vegetables and soup. Last night I had some rice too. It's been a good thing. I feel better... sleeping better at night, no caffiene during the day, and I've lost about 13 pounds total.

I'm heading up to New York this weekend to see the Rivenbarks (which, by the way, I'm really excited about.) So we'll see how I manage in the car and up there. E is also really excited about going.

Last week E went to her first day-camp and had an awesome time. It was Safari Week at the community center and she got to go to the National Zoo last Thursday. Her favorite thing to see was the elephants and enjoys re-enacting them washing themselves and laying down. It's really stinking cute.

Day 3

It's been almost 72 hours since my last meal. I feel pretty good. I've been sleeping a long time at night. But I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. I woke up too late to go to church this morning, so we'll just be going to Sunday School. T gave me a hard time yesterday about not making it to the worship services. And I actually feel kind of bad this morning about not making it.

Speaking of which... I saw T, and her foster son, M, and a lady from T's church yesterday. They came down for a camp meeting, so "we" had lunch at Stoney's. I, of course, did not eat. I'm really proud of myself actually. That was a huge temptation and I resisted. I didn't even lick my fingers off after removing the fried part from E's shrimp. I find myself having to think constantly about what I put in my mouth. Last night E had mac and cheese. A couple of noodles squirted out of the bowl last night when I was making it and I would normally have popped those in my mouth. But I didn't, I just threw them back in the bowl.

People have said that the 2nd and 3rd day were the hardest. Day 2 wasn't too bad for me, so I don't know what Day 3 will hold. I do know that I had a really hard time Friday night when I went to pick E up from my mom and dad's house. They had steak, corn-on-the-cob, and fresh homemade bread. It smelled fantastic.

Insane in the Brain

I'm piggy-backing on a fast that my good friend DW finished this week. It's the Lemonade Fast. DW did his for 10 days. I think I'm just going to do mine for 5... just to see how it goes.

Anyway, I started last night with the salt-water flush. Nothing happened. I drank a laxative tea this morning. Nothing happened. So I'm curious to see what will happen once things start happening. I started drinking the lemonade this morning. It's not too bad. A little spicy.

I did some research in preparation for this and I think this will be really good for me. I have a couple of reasons why I'm starting this fast, the main one being that I think it will be a good kickstart to the diet I'm putting myself on. The other reason is that I'm hugely dependent on caffiene to get me through the day. It's an addictive and expensive habit to have, and it needs to stop.

There are also beneficial side-effects from this fast. It cleans out your system, and we all know that with the way I eat my system could use a good cleaning out. It helps clear up your skin. It helps with PMS, cramping, etc.

They recommend that you remove snack foods, junk foods, etc. from your house. I didn't do this because I have E and Nat. So I'm just going to have to have a strong will-power. I know I can do it. The hardest part will be to resist the urge not to finish E's dinner when she's done. Last night I made her a pb&j. She just eats the middle part, so there's always the crust left over and I've always eaten it. Nat took one for the team and finished it last night. What a good friend!

That's enough for now. I plan on doing a daily update on how I'm doing. The thing that stinks the most right now is the HUGE caffiene headache that started about 7:00 this morning. Gah!

YOUR FACE!

I wish I wasn't so lowsy at posting. There are so many things I need to update on and I just haven't done it. I think all the time, "oh, that would be a good thing to blog about." Yet, as you can see, I haven't posted anything in a while.

E has a dr appointment today to check up on her ALLERGIES. I took her to the Allergist a month ago and the dr said she's pretty much allergic to the outside world... trees, grass, pollin, mold... I asked if there was anything I could do to help with her allergies - use different filters, get a HEPA filter, dust more frequently. He said, "You can move to Antarctica." Wow! Helpful!

My Gran had her 80th birthday party at my parents house this weekend. So my whole family was there. My oldest brother and his wife taught E to say "YOUR FACE!" So my sister-in-law, Mandy, says to E, "Go tell Uncle Rick - YOUR FACE!" This went on for a while and it was pretty cute. E was saying "IN your FACE," which is something I say. Anyway, yesterday I went to pick up E from her friend Aubrey's house and E and Aubrey had drawn ALL OVER themselves with marker. Awesome! So I say to E "You know you're not supposed to draw on yourself." And she replies "But Mom, they're TATTOOS!" I say, "They're MARKER." Her reply... "They're TATTOOS, in YOUR FACE!" I almost lost it. But I didn't. I went and got a wet paper towel and wiped her off. She looks up at me with her big doughy eyes and says "Thanks, Mommy. I love you!" Dangit! She knows how to make me melt.

Oh, by-the-by, Rick and Mandy are on a cross-country journey and are blogging about it. Check it out!

One last thing

For those of you who don't know, I took E up to Children's because of a cough she has had for the past 6 months. They decided to treat her for asthma. And wouldn't you know??? The treatment's working. She no longer coughs and the night-waking has significantly reduced. What a blessing!

We are going to see an allergist in 2 weeks. Then back up to Children's for a follow-up.

It's tough

How do you explain death to a 3 year old?

I've been struggling with this. Last week Nat (my roommate) lost her father. E was asking why Nat was crying, so I told her the truth. I said "She's sad because her Daddy died." So E walks right up to Nat and says "Did your dad died?" I burst into tears. I felt so bad. What can I do? The only exposure E has had to death is from The Lion King. Nat was very understanding, but it doesn't change the fact that I don't know how to talk to my child about death.

We ended up spending last week in Pittsburgh. All I can say is that Nat has a really amazing family. E was rather attached to one of Nat's cousins...

Long overdue!

I apologize. I have been remiss in my posting. We went to the Rivenbark's a month ago (or more?) and I have been meaning to post pictures from that weekend. These are some from the maple syrup tour we went on...

This is an absolutely adorable picture of E and Al...

They could be sisters!

Just Another Day

E is such a 3 year old. Taking a look back at the arguments we've had over the past couple of days makes me smile.

My dog Sable is a girl. And no matter how hard I try to explain this to my PARENTS they don't seem to understand. It's always "Did you feed him?" or "How old is he?" And I promptly explain to my parents "SHE'S A GIRL". I understand that she is a Boxer. I also understand that the one tooth she has jutting out from the bottom of her mouth makes her look very masculine. But SHE IS A GIRL.

Yesterday was the first day I had to explain this to E. I don't remember what she said to get this argument going, but it went something like this.

E: Benny is a girl. Sable is a boy.

Me: No. Benny is a boy. Sable is a girl.

E: No. Sable is a boy.

Me: No. She's a girl.

E: No. She's a boy.

Nat: Well, actually - by definition - SHE is a girl.

E: (gruff and under her breath) She's a boy.

GOSH! She's stubborn! I don't know where she gets that from. But I can't say that I blame her.. I mean my parents don't even get it.
_____

E and I are very excited because this weekend we are headed up to New York to visit the Rivenbark family. I'm a little nervous about spending 6 1/2 hours in the car with the new and improved potty-trained E, but thank goodness for potty chairs and portable DVD players. It should be an interesting trip.
_____

E and I went to see Horton Hears a Who! this past weekend. Too cute. And E did a great job sitting through the whole movie. I was so proud.

Real Quick

Just to update you on the past week or so....

I was away at training last week up at Ft. Belvoir. It was a fairly good time... I learned a lot, I got to meet up with my brother for dinner on Monday, and I met up with Abby for dinner on Tuesday. Then Thursday night rolls along and Mom calls and says that E is running 103 fever. So I drive home Friday morning. E and I were stuck in the house all weekend, so I cleaned the house. And not just any cleaning. I mean CLEANED. I washed the walls in some places. Mopped all the floors. You name it, I did it. Well, now I'm sick. Though whether it's from stirring up the dust in my house or whether I caught it from E I couldn't tell you. I'm running a fever, though it's not as high as E's was, and my head is throbbing, and this morning when I got up my sinuses were full. Good times. So I'm working from home today. I feel kinda bad because we have lots of stuff going on at work, and that means my boss gets stuck with most of it. I was able to connect to the intranet from home though so it's basically like I'm at work.

Anyway.

E and I went to Shelley's on Monday. We had a great time. E and I took some pictures with Shelley's camera. I can't wait to get a good look at them. Shelley is putting them onto a cd for me. I'll post the best ones here.

Gotta run.

E's new bangs

(What about the bangs? Are they shorter?... Are the bangs shorter?... THE BANGS)

I took this picture in the car this morning. E got a new haircut yesterday. It's nice to be able to see her eyes again.

The past couple of weeks have been kind of hectic for me. E was sick last week, and I was sick this week. Hopefully by tomorrow's party we both will be fully recovered. I'm still feeling some residual sleepiness, but that's partly due to E's night waking. Last night she fell out of bed twice. And then she was having nightmares about monsters. Last night she yelled out "MOMMY, MOMMY, I'M SCARED." So I roll out of bed, into her room, and I ask her what's wrong. She said "The monsters are getting me." So I pick her up and rock her and tell her that I will keep her safe, that she is just dreaming, and the monsters aren't real. What else can I tell her?!

I'm really excited about this weekend. It will be really nice to hang out with family and friends. I got no special orders, so I went into Blue Wind yesterday and asked for a cool mix of beers. The guy who helped me pick them out said that if I showed up at his house with this selection of beers he would give me a standing ovation. So I'm hoping they'll be good. I also picked up some stuff to make margaritas per my mother's request.

Dan's baby

Sorry Liz. I just read your comment today.

They had a baby girl. Aubrey Claire. She's a cutie. If you click on the link from my previous post and scroll all the way to the right, there are a couple of pictures of her. I think she looks like Katie, but with Dan's coloring.

I'm going to see them this weekend. I can't wait!

Oh What a Life

Good weekend. Friday night E stayed with a babysitter, and Kristi, Amber and I went to the new Mexico restaurant where I exchanged phone numbers with the manager. Marco (the manager) called me the next day to see if I would like to go to dinner later in the week. This should turn out to be interesting.

Mom picked E up Saturday morning and headed to my brother's house in VA to "tickle some fat rolls" -- that would be my nephew. Also on Saturday I attended Dave's wetting down. We were supposed to catch a charter bus to Annapolis, but when the charter bus showed up an hour and a half late we found it was smaller than the bus that was ordered, and so the 40 people who showed up couldn't fit on the 24 passenger bus. We ended up at the Green Door, which was... fun.

Last Thursday E and I did some "sitting" for Shelley. I included a link to some of the best of 600 or so pictures we took that night. http://www.logcabinstudios.tv/family.htm The pics of me and E are about 20 pictures to the right.

I also found out last week that as of next week I will be promoted to a GS-13. I'm totally psyched!!! My parents will be hosting a promotion party at their house on the 8th of March... chili cook-off and ping-pong tourney. Also, if you would like to participate in the cook-off I request that it be turkey or chicken based (though this is not required). I will be purchasing the beer/wine/liquor, so if you want something special, put your orders in early.

My Nephew's Quilt

I talked about a quilt I made for my nephew a while back. I finally got around to getting the pictures.

Ah... Tuesday

I realize that I haven't posted in nearly 2 weeks. Well, I'm sorry. Nobody's perfect. (And yes, I have an attitude... I get it from my daughter.)

Not much has gone on in the past couple of weeks. Two weekends ago we went up to Rick and Mandy's. E made it the whole way in the car with no potty accidents!! I was really proud of her.

I started a new quilt last Friday and after a weekend I am nearly finished. I will post pictures of it when I'm done.

Work has been pretty busy. There are lots of things going on. I'll be taking on more responsibility and hopefully I'll get a promotion out of it. We shall see.

That's all for now. I'm going to try to take some pictures of E tonight... we're going to get our toenails done (so exciting!)

Good News!

Dan and KT had their baby on Monday! I haven't talked to them yet, but I heard everyone is doing well. Just wanted to let you know...

We're 26!

We went up the road for Tia's birthday this past weekend. It was pretty awesome. It was really nice to see everybody. E especially enjoyed seeing Praetorian - they love each other.

(I miss you, Nick ;-) )











I have a couple of funny E stories....

Last week E and I spent some time in doctors offices because she's had this cough for about 3 months now. The doctor gave E an antibiotic and a steroid to take. The first time I gave her the antibiotic she threw it up and said it was yucky - thus the antibiotic became "the yucky medicine". The steroid is a liquid and tastes sweet, kind of like fruit punch. E really likes it, she sucks it right down. Monday evening I tell her it's time for her to take her medicine. And she says, "I'm not sick." cough. I said, "You have to continue taking your medicine until it's all gone." She lowers her chin to her chest and looks up at me with a look that would make Hitler quiver and says, "Fine. But I don't want the YUCKY medicine, I want the REAL medicine." My daughter is hooked on "the juice".

The past couple of days have been BIG days in E's life. We have quit nap-time. And she's no longer wearing pull-ups during the daytime, she's in panties now. Both have their ups and downs. The biggest "down" is the fact that she's not wearing pull-ups - she hasn't quite figured out that you're supposed to poop on the toilet ALL THE TIME (she's done it maybe 10 times in her life.) The other day at Miss Lori's they were outside playing and she walked up to Miss Lori and said "I pooped". She was wearing panties. Yesterday she was staying at Grandma Kit's house and Kit ended up putting her in a diaper by the end of the day (because she'd peed through the 2 pair of panties I sent her with). We get home and I'm cooking dinner, and E says to me, "I pooped and peed in my pull-up." I said (kind of in a disgusted tone) "Where are you supposed to go poopy and potty?" She says, "On the tooooy-let." *pause* - in an irritated tone, "I thought I told you that." *pause* "I'm pretty sick of this." Isn't it cute? My daughter is turning into me.

Quilts

Recently I have been a very busy lady. I've been getting to work around 6:30 am so that I can leave by 3 pm and be at basketball practice by 3:30. We generally have games 2 nights a week which means I don't get home some nights until after 9. In my spare time I've been quilting with my friend Kristi. I've gotten some more done since I took this picture.....

I'm making a queen size quilt for my bedroom. These pieces are just the purple-green, and green-purple pieces. This past weekend I finished the red-yellow pieces, and hopefully this week I'll be able to finish the yellow-red pieces. Then I'll be ready to start piecing the quilt together. It's been a lot of fun. I've learned a lot about quilting, and I'm totally addicted. I've planned so many more quilts I don't think I have time in this lifetime to do them all.


My next quilting adventure is learning how to Applique. I've picked out an applique pattern that I want as a wall-hanging for my kitchen...




Cool, huh?





I don't have any new pics of E, but I'll try to take some this week. She's definitely growing some more. She eats like she has a hollow leg. She sleeps like it's going out of style. And her 3T's are becoming too short, which is a shame since I feel like I just bought them.

Happy New Year, Ella!

Dan W made me cry with his letter to his in-utero baby. You should go read it if you get the chance. It's the muddyblogging link to the right. I've been meaning to write E a letter for a while now, but it never felt like the right time. So now I'm going to copy Dan and write a letter to E.

Dearest E,

It's the third of January 2008 and you are three years old. Those three years have been the best of my life. You mean the world to me. I love your smile. I love your laugh.

And you are such a goof. The way you describe things cracks me up. Yesterday you got to take a toy to Miss Lori's house. I asked you what toy you wanted to bring and you said "my picture". I was utterly confused. "You're picture?" as I looked over at your wall covered in pictures. "That one?" I asked pointing randomly at a picture on the wall. "No mom," you said, but it came out like AHHHHH! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! "Ok, umm..." was all I could muster. "My picture thing," you said - like YOU OBVIOUSLY KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. YOU'RE JUST DOING THIS TO IRRITATE ME! Finally, in exasperation, you raise your hand up to your eye and push the pretend button on top of a pretend camera. Oh... you're picture thing... now I get it.

You love music, which I love about you. You're favorite thing to listen to is a toss-up between the music from The Lion King and the music from Ella Enchanted. You also love to sing, at the top of your lungs, WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU! It's awesome. Especially in the enclosed space of my car.

You are an awesome kid. I can't wait to see what this next year brings. We will (hopefully) finish up potty training before our trip to Italy in October. We are working on colors, and letter and number recognition. This summer I hope you will start swimming lessons. You hold your breath under water so well in the bathtub - 13 seconds is your record.

I love you more each day. All my love, Mommy