Just a bunch of randomness

We've all been sick for the last two or three weeks so my blog has gone pretty much untouched. I still love you blog, I just haven't been feeling you lately. The problem is that when you have a house full of sick people the most exciting things that happen are going all day without a fever! or nobody threw up today! It just doesn't make for very good blogging. So, here's what's been on my mind lately in no particular order. And trust me, this isn't very good blogging either.

1.) The best time of day to go to WalMart is between the hours of 8 and 9am. You get the whole store to yourself, employees are still friendly at this hour and nobody cares that your three year old is running around SHOUTING AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS BECAUSE HE SEES TOYS! TOYS EVERYWHERE!

2.) I heart the Pioneer Woman. Did you see her on Good Morning America yesterday? She is adorable. Four million people a month visit her blog! Who would have thought you could get famous from writing about your day?!

3.) Speaking of Pioneer Woman, recently I made her beef sandwiches and both recipes were REALLY good although we liked the one with soy sauce the best.

4.) I made a chocolate pie this morning and CANNOT stop thinking about it.

5.) Our little girl will be turning a year old in two weeks and I CANNOT stop thinking about that. Also, everytime I see a preggo it makes me stop and observe a moment of silence while I tell the voices screaming in my head that I want one more baby to shut up.

6.) Speaking of Emma, this morning while I was cleaning Jake's poopy bottom, she pulled out a wipey and started trying to help me. When I told her no, she grabbed his big toe and bit it. She's got three of the cutest (and sharpest) teeth on the bottom of her little mouth now. Jake never bit. So far, no member of our family has gone unscathed by Emma's little teeth. What to do?

7.) Let's talk about Survivor. I still heart Colby. I know he won't win, but I hope he does. The people on the "Villian" team are a bunch of bozo's except for Boston Rob. I have always wanted to go on Survivor but I don't think they would ever pick me. I do have one friend that I think could get on based solely on personality. The country would fall in love with her. Kara, I know you never read this blog but you should totally try out for Survivor and split the money with me.

8.) Have you seen the Nestle Tollhouse break apart cookie dough that has a layer of gooey chocolate in the middle? I have.

9.) While watching American Idol the other night, I told Mike of my love of the Brian Adams song "Heaven". This morning he found a cd of Brian Adams and played it for me. I have a sweet hubby.

10.) I've totally decided my next career path should be as a children's book writer. Any ideas on how to get started? Peace out.

Hallelujah!

If anyone is interested Target has Coke and Coke Zero on sale for $3.66 right now. I'm just sayin'.

DIet Diaries

Almost there! My goal is to weigh 125 by March 12th which is Emma's first birthday. That was my pre-pregnancy weight and if I achieve it I can scarf down as much of her birthday cake as I want. So, I've got about three weeks to shed these last two pounds and keep them off. I think I can! If only I could get back to working out. I'm ashamed to say today was my first workout day in about two weeks due to injury and illness. Unfortunately, the shoulder that's been giving me trouble is now aching again after twenty five minutes with Jillian Michaels this morning. So sad. I will do my best to work through it though. Here's to getting in my favorite Lucky Brand jeans just in time for summer in Central Texas when it'll be too hot to wear them!

I'm calling this the Coca Cola Conspiracy of 2010

Here's the deal. We love us some Coke products. Mike is old school and drinks Classic Coke while I have switched over to Coke Zero in an effort to decrease my caloric intake each day. I know that soda isn't good for us but we can't seem to give it up. It has no nutritional value, is so acidic that it can dissolve a penny over time and has a taste that really can't be described. Come on, try it. Sprite tastes like lemons and limes. Dr. Pepper tastes kind of nutmeggy or like some other Thanksgiving spice. Coke? I can't think of anything to compare the taste to. But Coke, I just can't quit you.

HOWEVER, I refuse to pay the price that you're asking for yourself these days. I need your caffeine riddled fizziness like a puppy needs a bone, but $4.69 for a twelve pack? I think not.

For quite some time Coke products have been on sale in our area and we stocked up every time we went to the store. We were starting to look like hoarders. Our supply is running low though. Dangerously low. We're on our last 24 pack of Coke and Coke Zero and sadly I've noticed that not only is Coke NOT on sale anymore but the makers of Coke have actually jacked up the price.

Dear Coke Makers,

Price gauging in this economy is mean-spirited and unkind.

Sincerely Sad, Little Mama

Up until about three weeks ago I could find the 12 packs on sale usually for three packs for ten dollars. Which makes each twelve pack a little over three dollars which is totally acceptable to me. But now, the new "sale" price is three for twelve dollars. Math was always my worst subject but I believe that makes each twelve pack now FOUR dollars. Unacceptable. That is not a sale my friends. That is called sticking it to the little mama.

As much as I love Coke I am now drawing my line in the sand. I WILL NOT pay more than three something for a twelve pack. I'm feeling more and more anxious as I see our supply dwindling but I will not falter. If I have to find something else to replace the blissful feeling of my afternoon bubbly pick me up, then SO BE IT. It's a good thing we still have a pretty good stock pile of Girl Scout Cookies or I might really be hurting in a few days.

We have the sickies

We have been battling illnesses around here for the last week and a half or so. It started out with Emma getting kicked out of her class at Mother's Day Out Monday of last week. She was running a fever so she got to go hang out with Ms. Kathy, our wonderful director, for the last part of the day. I took her to the doctor the next day who declared that she had a cold. On Wednesday, she was still running fever so I had to stay home from work and she had to miss school. I actually thought it might be a nice day because Jake would still be in school and Em and I could have some mommy/daughter time. She decided to celebrate this time by crying and screaming and throwing a general fit for three hours. Good times were had by all.

That night she seemed to get better so we thought we were turning a corner. That's when Jake woke up at 9:45pm burning up with fever and talking out of his head. I got up six times with him that night and Mike got up a couple times too. It was almost like he was having night terrors or something. At one point, he was totally distraught because he said Zoe (our cat) was in his room playing with a piece of paper and he DID NOT want to play! So I pretended to pick her up and take her out of his room. In truth, Zoe was in our room keeping me awake by kneading my tummy.

Friday, Emma woke up with an enormous amount of goop coming out of her eyes. I finally got worried it might be pink eye so I called the doctor's office and got an appt. for the next morning. So Saturday morning we woke up, Jake told me his fever was back and I told him it wasn't. As I was getting them dressed to get out the door for Em's appt. Jake threw up all over us. Once again, good times. I have never been so sorry about thinking he was faking an illness in my life. Good thing we were on our way to the doctor. This time, he declared that Em had an ear infection and Jake probably had strep throat. He put them both on antibiotics and we had a nice, relaxing day back at home. Jake spent the entire day laying on the living room floor sleeping or watching Veggie Tales. I have to say, it was kind of nice. Usually, I'm chasing him around, refereeing things between him and Emma or hiding from them in a closet somewhere.

So now we're here and it's Wednesday again. We went to work/school for the first time in a week and I was there for all of an hour and a half before the director came in and told me to go take a look at Jake because it looked like he had pink eye. Great. Jake and I left school to wait for our fourth doctor's visit in a little over a week. I thought it might be kind of nice to have some mama/son time anyway. So I took him to get donut's and then we went home and went to the park to play. It was a great day! Up until the part where I took him to the doctor. Ever since he had stitches over Christmas he totally freaks out about doctor's visits. The doctor declared he had pink eye although I'm not sure he ever really saw Jake's eyes due to all of the screaming, hitting, kicking and thrashing of body parts that was going on. It was truly embarrassing.

And now Emma's back with a fever tonight and her eyes just as goopy as ever. Let's not even talk about my sore throat which I'm certain is Strep or Leprosy or something. Please, please let us get well! I wonder if the doctor will eventually just cut us off from coming to see him.

Wordless Wednesday

Valentine's Day, Shmalentine's Day

I've always had a love/hate relationship with Valentine's Day. I love the idea of it, but I really just feel like it's a made up holiday mostly for the purpose of stores making money selling us cards, stuffed animals, candy and balloons. I especially hated being in high school on Valentine's Day. Those stupid candy grams and flower grams they sell every year really got me down. I could, however, always count on my mama to send me one because she worked at the school. There is nothing like feeding off the insecurities of teenage girls by making them pray they get a pink carnation or some chocolate from that boy they like that still doesn't even know their name. Wow. It's almost like I'm still bitter.

I was single for 35 years before I met Mike. I mean I had boyfriends and stuff but most of them dumped me before Valentine's Day every year. That led to way too many Valentine's nights sitting at home alone in the dark except for some lit candles listening to every sad song ever recorded in the 70's, 80's and 90's. Just pitiful. My one wish for Emma and Jake's future romantic life is that they just hold off on dating until they're out of college. That's realistic, right?

Anyway, there were a couple Valentine's Days where I remember going out with one of my also single girlfriends to laugh in the face of Valentine's Day. To show just how strong we were without a significant other. To look at all of the happy couples out there and say "we don't need your stinkin' happiness." "We are fine all by ourselves." I think we always ended up back in someone's apartment, drinking some wine, listening to every sad song ever recorded in the 70's, 80's and 90's and trying to not to cry in front of each other. Pathetic.

Top 10 songs to cry by on Valentine's Day/Night:

1 through 10.) All By Myself (various artists)

Thoughts? Would you add any other songs in there?

I've made peace somewhat with Valentine's Day since getting married. Although we really kind of treat it just like any other day. We were going to go out tonight but then both kids woke up sick so we'll stay home, make pizza and cuddle some babies before they go to bed. Not bad.

The thing I love most about Valentine's Day is that it's my daddy's birthday. And I can always find some cute stuffed animal to give him on this day. Have a Happy Birthday tomorrow Daddy! Love you.

I swear I'm not making this up

Here's a phrase I never thought I would hear myself say. "STOP MOVING! Go tell your dad you have poop all over your face!"

You see, the other night we went to our friends' house for dinner and a game night. Emma of course pooped her diaper moments after we arrived. So I asked my friend where she wanted me to change her diaper and she said that anywhere in their bedroom would be fine. I took Emma and laid her down on their bed, removed the poopy diaper and set it aside open face up. While I was cleaning her up her brother ran into the room and did a flying leap onto the bed landing face down in the poopy diaper. I have to say it was a very impressive leap.

He had poop smeared all over the lower half of his face including his mouth. It was by far one of the grossest things I've ever seen. He seemed to be okay until I screamed the above phrase and he realized what had happened. Chaos ensued. I was very proud of him for not touching his face or sticking out his tongue to lick it off or anything. He freaked and started crying but he did go find his daddy to tell him to wipe the poop off of his face.

Good times. It takes moments like these to remind myself why we don't go anywhere or invite people over more often. I really just was praying we could make it through the evening with no fleas jumping off of our kids bodies onto their kids bodies. I'm thinking our social lives will commence again when the kids are in elementary school. Until then, just email me.

Wordless Wednesday

The continuation of the flea problem

We did the flea treatment. I cleaned the house from top to bottom one night last week and the next morning I took our zoo over to our neighbor's house to stay in their garage for the day so the fumes wouldn't kill them. I have to say for one brief second I thought of leaving Brady tucked in a closet or something in the house but then I had mercy on his soul and decided that murder is wrong. Even if it would provide me with a clean house free from dog hair and fleas.

We treated both Brady and Zoe the night before with a new dose of flea medicine. Brady even got this super pill from the vet that a friend told me about. It was supposed to kill everything on him in thirty minutes and last up to thirty days. It worked too. For about twelve hours. Brady (and Mike and I) got our first good night's sleep in awhile that night because the dog wasn't waking up constantly biting and scratching himself while shaking our bed so much it seemed like an earthquake had hit.

But the next morning I noticed him biting at his tail again. We were thinking maybe he was just biting at old flea bites. However, yesterday Mike took the kids to the local jumpy gym to play while I was at work and he saw something on Emma's head. He picked her up to get it off and noticed that it was a flea. Seems our kids weren't the only ones jumping at the jumpy gym. I wonder how long it will be before local establishments start hanging posters of my kids up on the door with warnings about letting them come in.

How can we possible still have fleas? We had the house treated, the animals treated and I've been cleaning like Alice on the Brady Bunch for the last week. I just don't get it.

Wordless Wednesday

Move over Martha Stewart

Ever since we moved into this house I've been consumed by one thought. What am I supposed to do with an art niche? We don't really do art. Finally, the other day I went into Hobby Lobby and found these really cute red glass wall sconce thingy's that I thought would look good in there.

I brought them home and decided I liked them and then I started thinking about this pretty red vase I had also seen in the store. Two days later I took Mike back with me and we walked out with the red vase and three of its friends.



Originally, I was just going to put the larger vase in there and use the others to decorate other parts of the house. But Mike put three of them together in the niche and we thought it looked good. What do you think? Is it too much? Also, should I look for some sort of flowers or branches or twigs or something to put in the bigger vase? I feel like it needs one more little touch, but I'm not sure what that should be. Thoughts please.



I think we did pretty good. It's amazing what less than $100 will get you at Hobby Lobby. Now I'm just gonna sit back and wait for the people at Extreme Home Makeover to call and offer me a decorating job on their show.