MommaMo

Hello again

2010-06-13T22:00:00.001-05:00

Well hello again internet. It's been a while. Life gets in the way of life sometimes, but I'm always here. So here's a quick update since the last time that I posted:

- House - done! Moved in October, crazy painting ensued the first week we were in, and then just regular moving stuff. To date still have some things in boxes, but who doesn't these days? Latest projects around the house included three new trees planted (two in the back yard, one more to the front), Mo wall has been hung, new tv and new entertainment center, and installed cabinets/countertop/utility sink get-up in the laundry room.

- Sadie - so. much. fun! She's got a vocabulary that is growing exponentially on at a daily rate. Running all over the place. Loves giggling and making any animal sounds that you can name (if she knows it, otherwise you get a blank stare or a monster sound).

- Church - topic of long ago but is now up to date. We've started going to a church that just opened up really close to our house and Thomas has been involved in playing drums with the worship band on an every-other-week basis. Fun stuff. Still feeling it out but feels good to be around a group of people who aren't completely self-centered like the rest of the world seems to be lately.

- Food - no longer vegan. Kind of put that on the back burner when we moved. Things got fairly chaotic and that was just one thing that I thought could be sacrificed. I would love to go back, to have a more conscious decision in what I eat, how I feel, and how I impact the world. I'm just not there yet commitment wise.

Enough for now. I'll probably be keeping these pretty short for sake of time. But it's always good to get your brain empty once in a while from everything the world throws at you, you know?

Oh - and FLORIDA at the end of the week! Woohoo!

A record in the making

2009-08-28T22:15:00.000-05:00

For nearly two months now, I have been writing down in a little daily planner/assignment book every dinner that I have eaten. If it was some great concoction that I whipped up of junk in the pantry to an actual planned meal (gasp!), great eat outs (love you Mochi Kitchen!) to run of the mill hungry and cheap Taco Bell, I wrote it down. Every night. Well, with the exception of maybe three nights in the span of the sixty that have gone by since I started - I was way too busy to remember three days back what I had eaten. Moving, building a new house, and chasing after my now one-year old daughter may have something to do with that.

Then, the few nights like tonight come along where I feel like I blew it. I ate dinner. I ate a vegan dinner, or at least knowingly vegan (some bread may have had eggs, milk, butter, in it, but I won't die...). But the fact that I have to write down that I ate an ENTIRE medium sized pizza from Domino's is a little shameful. Oh, did I mention the half of a box of bread sticks with marinara? Or the Dr. Pepper I had to drink with it? Yeah, that blew my whole concept of write-down-dinner-so-you-don't-eat-like-crap plan that I was aiming for totally out of the water. Oh well.

I have noticed though that I no longer have the guilt factor attached to my eating habits. Just because I may have even a bit too much (ok, way too much) tonight, I won't mope about it tomorrow and starve myself with just a measily lettuce and tomato salad. I realize that my body was telling me that I was hungry and it needed food. I may not have given it the best quality of food, and I acknowledge that. I no longer obsess about how many carbs or calories or grams of this or that I had and then try to balance it out with the items I eat the next day. I eat because I'm hungry. I eat because I need energy. And 90% of the time I'll eat pretty good. The other 10% can be split between the "could have added more veggies to that homemade pizza" or "should have had brown rice instead of white rice" category.

Maybe one of these days I'll be brave enough to post my dinners list on here. If I don't feel to put down at how the list started and turned ok, then not-so-good, then better. The typical rollercoaster of being busy. But that's for another post, when I have more guts to post.

Short post

2009-08-25T08:45:00.000-05:00

Lame, I know. But better than not posting anything.

House status - the exterior only needs a sprinkler system, sod, and paint. The interior got plumbing finished out the other day so we only have electrical finish out, paint touch up, carpeting, and baseboards. Woohoo! (Of course, minus the few issues here and there that have to be fixed before I sign anything.)

Sadie status - insane. Lovable. Crazy. Sweet and giggly. AND WALKING! Well, you may not count a few steps on her own while chasing a her pink lego dump truck wagon walking, but I do. So nyeh. And she's a master at devouring birthday cupcakes, seeing she's already spoiled by having two birthday parties!

Veganism status - going ok. Not wanting to eat meat for sure. Not really missing cheese, although rather frustrated when certain Mexican restaurants have cheese in every stinking menu item. Even their rice had cheese. A litle overkill I think. On a more positive note, the cupcakes that I made for Sadie's second first birthday party were a hit! They were from a recipe for vegan fluffy white cupcakes (just Google it) and I added vanilla frosting on some, chocolate on others. I found that most frosting is vegan, as long as it isn't the cheesecake, buttercream, or milk chocolate variety. That leaves vanilla, "classic" chocolate, confetti, strawberry, lemon, etc. The list goes on and on. But I found that Duncan Hines had a better selection than Pillsbury or Betty Crocker. Go Duncan! (Probably not intentionally vegan, but I'll take it.)

Me status - pooped from birthday parties, travel, work, building a house and all of the financial finnaggling that's associated with it. And last night the house alarm was going off at 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning for no reason. Then I guess the U-verse went out because the alarm keep beeping the rest of the night. Luckily, Sadie didn't wake up at all - considering that one alarm pad is about 10 feet from her crib.

(No) fear of flying

2009-08-12T23:15:00.000-05:00

Thank goodness we leave tomorrow for our trip to St. Louis. I can't wait! A break! Woohoo! A break from work, from new house stuff, from daycare, from laundry and household chores, from driving around with the same idiots on the roads. You know what I mean. This is the first vacation that we've gone on since February. It's going to be Sadie's first flight too and hopefully a peaceful easy-going one - so think the naive new parents. We'll see. She's usually pretty good. But then again there are those times that you can't prepare for. Luckily, the flight leaves around 7 pm, so Sadie should still be awake but getting sleepy. Just the right time to peak her interest quietly at all the new surroundings. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes.

Too long, so busy

2009-08-09T21:45:00.000-05:00

It's been a while - but no time lately to write, or even gather my thoughts. Between work, the new house going up, planning vacations, planning birthday parties (Sadie's almost 1!), being sick, bla bla bla. The list goes on. Unfortunately, I have let myself go a bit lately in the sense of no me time. No time spent enjoying the things that I like to do by myself for myself. Sans hubby. Sans kid. (Love you Sadie!) Sans timeframe. None of this have to be back by three o'clock so I can do the next thing. Just good old time wasting fun. And enjoying it. Nope, not much of that lately. Always go go go. Maybe I just need to find a book and go to some park to truly get away from everything, including myself. Not to mention the lack of energy I have lately, which could be partially due to my super crappy way of eating - still vegan (for the most part, the occassional milk-containing chick'n nugget may find its way onto my plate), but definitely not the healthiest. I think I have been eating WAY too many grains and breads lately and not enough veggies to keep up some particular nutrient that my body is screaming for to regain its energy. Oh, super food, where are you? Why aren't you on my plate right now, first and foremost, right on top of everything else that seems to be on top of my plate lately?

* speechless *

2009-07-22T22:30:00.000-05:00

I am speechless. Luckily not wordless though, so I can write this blog. We drove by our lot today to see what all has been done to the house since we last went over there (Sunday, a mere three days ago). Low and behold - POOF! There's a house. A house that's more than sticks. In just hasn't even been three whole weeks and they've already poured the foundation, roughed in the plumbing/electric/gas, framed the two story behemoth, have put up sheeting, have put siding, and now have all the windows in but one. If I blink between today and tomorrow, I may miss that they completely finish the house. At this rate, I might start sending out invitations for Sadie's birthday party to be held at the new house!

On a side note, green bell peppers stuffed with couscous, corn, and diced tomatoes for dinner - perfect!

Ying and yang

2009-07-17T22:00:00.000-05:00

Too many things have been irking me lately.... so let's start to name a few.
- Not having access to a full sized computer for a week or two to get on the internet. Meaning to every site that I want that work does not block. Meaning not pocket sized and missing flash content because I'm trying to read it on my phone.
- Not doing a good job, let alone even a crappy job, of balancing time between work, family, Thomas, packing/moving, and myself. Yes, I come last. And sadly work has come first for the past week. Poor Sadie did not have a mom all week.
- Facebook not working properly on my iPhone. It works fine sometimes when I open it through the free app, but then other times nothing works and I have very limited views (like viewing only three entries max on the initial screen). Argh.
- Not being able to log in to Flickr because my SBC Global account is all jacked up because we moved.
- Slightly straying in my veganism, but still staying vegetarian. The occassional item while eating out has butter or cheese in it, but I won't die or go ballistic over it. But haven't asked for meat of any sort on any occassion.

Now for some good news of things that have been going some what well lately.
- Sadie is now 11 months old! 'Nuff said.
- I'm a year older. Damn birthdays. But not much to complain about because everyone tells me that they jokingly hate me... I'm still younger than them.
- Our new house is being built at lightning speeds! Just this week we have had the concrete foundation poured, framing put up, and roof framed out. Go! Go! Go! (chanting rhythmically in the background)
- Planning a few day trip to St. Louis to see the in-law family. Not many people have seen Sadie since she was born unless they have flown in to see us or live near us. Needless to say a visit is much overdue.

More later, but have much to do on the internet now that I do have a full size pc and a full screen!

So stinking busy I can't smell it anymore

2009-06-27T22:30:00.000-05:00

I've been SO busy lately. I haven't even had time to check my email using a full sized keyboard. (Stupid iPhone coolness.) Work has been very busy. Thomas's work schedule has been very busy. Sadie has been crazy and awesome and the best ever. She can walk around holding just one of your hands now and either flailing her other hand in the air like she's waving, or just trying oh so hard to reach to get your pants or shorts or the wall or anything to balance her out. And she's so funny when she walks too. Her feet are pointing outwards like a ballerina in second position and her legs are all wobbling. The best part is her butt sticking out the back like she has some J.Lo booty shelf action going on back there. So funny. And her seventh, yes seventh, tooth is now poking out of her gums.

Oh, did I mention the new house? We (meaning the builder) got the permits approved by the city. Woohoo! So Thomas and I (and Sadie in her car seat in the car, if that counts) drove by and checked out our lot to look at it probably one of the last few times it will ever be empty. And the builder had actually started moving dirt! I never knew I would be so excited about moved dirt, but I am. They haven't truly graded the lot or broke ground or started the framework for the concrete slab yet, but they did mow the weeds, move some big rocks out of the way, and dump a truckload or two of dirt to help even out the front yard trench/slope the lot had previously. Awesome.

She's mobile!

2009-06-16T21:30:00.000-05:00

Awww........... crap. She's mobile. Sadie is now walking around our bedroom on her own pushing her little flip-up car walker. So funny how clumsy she is with her legs and feet, but so funny with her butt sticking out. Amazing. Truly amazing. Little girl, you make me laugh.

Another class (and probably a few pounds)

2009-06-14T22:30:00.001-05:00

I took part two of my vegan cooking class this past Saturday. Awesome. So full of yummy, easy to make food. And so delicious. After coming home I rifled through my cookbooks some more to can more ideas of things I wanted to try in the next week or so and started putting together my shopping list.

As for our housing situation, we are officially homeless! We closed on our house on Thursday, but we don't have to move just yet because we rented back the house for a month. We also had our pre-construction meeting with our builder. Such a no nonsense, straight shooting type of guy - great for his field of work, and we really like him. So if things go quickly with city permits and paperwork, and no crazy weather gets in the way (too much, at least), we are looking at mid-September for the house to be completely done. Woohoo!

Sorry so short this time around Internet, but my bed is calling. More to come later fo' shizzle.

Woot Woot! June is great so far!

2009-06-10T20:00:00.000-05:00

June is great for everything! The weather that just rolled through was great - thunderstorms, high winds, possible tornadoes, woohoo! Seriously, I love drastic gloomy weather like that. So relaxing and washes everything away emotionally and mentally. Ahhhhh......

On another note, we are in the process of closing on our current house, have a meeting tomorrow with our builder for our new house, and I have a meeting with a graduate advisor at UTA because I am considering continuing school to obtain my Masters degree. I also had a phone call advising session this morning with an advisor from another school in Colorado that I can complete my Masters through online courses. I'll let you know how all of those things go.

As for Sadie, well, she's crazy. She is almost walking. Right now we describe her stage of walking as zombie walking, no longer the monkey walk. Monkey walk is where she required her hands in yours up above her head. Now she's at zombie walking - where she feels comfortable enough to walk around with her hands in yours with slight pressure for balancing all forward and in front of her. Awesome. And she's fast too! Her little feet would kick up dust like Pig Pen from Charlie Brown if we had enough dirt on the floors.She can transfer around her crib while standing and even get most of the way around our coffee table in the living room. Crazy. Luckily I have started jogging/walking/working out/jogging/walking after work at the little gym in the building. At first it was for me to get back to being active. Now I think I subconsciously started because I know I'll have to keep up with Sadie tearing through our house soon. Oh wait.... not our house much longer. More like the in-laws for two to three months (Hi Le!), and then our new house in the fall with TONS of space. Our new house will be about 2.5 times the size of our current house.... and we could house a separate family upstairs and only have to share the kitchen as communal living space. Anybody want to visit/stay? We probably wouldn't even notice you there. Sad, but true.

As for my Vegan journey, I attended a cooking class hosted by The Cancer Project with my sister-in-law Kristie this past Saturday. It was awesome. Great food. Great inspiration. Good to know that there are other people out there doing this "vegan thing" for purposes of better nutrition, better health, better environmental responsibility, and being a better person overall. The biggest thing that I have noticed among vegans (not like they are aliens or weird people or anything), but in general their personalities are a lot more pleasant, caring, open-minded, and hospitable/generous with their time. Awesome. (Have I said that word enough lately?)

A much needed break and bacon!

2009-05-30T18:45:00.002-05:00

The past few days were a nice break from the usual. My brother flew in from his completed tech school with the Air Force and decided to stay with us for a few days instead of flying directly home. It was great and really good to see him again. And even better, he got to see Sadie again. Last time he saw her was February, and she has changed so much since three months ago. She's crawling, talking, giggling, showing her personality, eating everything in sight, and going crazy for the most part. Awesome.

On a quick side note, my veganism journey is going well.... but there have been many times lately that I begin to think about how much I used to love eating out at Chick-Fil-A. Oh how I miss you chicken! But I've been good and have not folded once. Not even for a quesadilla. (Although I do admit that last weekend I had a slice of veggie lover's pizza at a party that had cheese on it - it was a small skinny piece and there wasn't much else to eat, but I won't die so it's not the end of the world.) I'm still trying to perfect the skill of frying tofu - still unsuccesful to this point - I end up with small crouton like crunchy pieces. Argh. Oh well, keep trying. Also, I had tofu bacon this morning with my pancakes for breakfast - not too bad, but definitely needed syrup to get the right flavor.

As for our house, we're waiting to hear back about the plan changes that we had made and to get a copy of the plans in our hands so we can meet with the builder in the next week or so. After that, things should get rolling quickly - hopefully. I'll be sure to keep you posted. And in terms of selling our current house, we close in 11 days! Holy crap! Such a big feat in life. It'll be interesting.

Much more later, but for now I must attend to the biddings of the Mo!

I'm on a streak

2009-05-20T22:15:00.002-05:00

I've been on my vegan streak for exactly one month now. And it hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong - I miss cheese. But not so much missing the meat or milk... although today's meeting over lunch was catered by Red Hot and Blue and their banana pudding was very very tempting, but I resisted. Go me.

Today is also the end of our option period with our potential buyer of our house. We haven't heard anything yet, but we're leaning towards "Woohoo! Sold!" for sure seeing our home inspection the other day went very well. Minor things that didn't necessarily have to be fixed, but we fixed them anyway for less than $25. Yeah the little things.

Sorry so short, but maybe the next one might be a little longer.

Oh - did I mention that Sadie can now pull herself up to stand, can traverse along the couch and her crib while standing, and has her first big front tooth poking out now? Yay!

A new endeavor

2009-05-14T22:30:00.000-05:00

So I have a new "thing". I've decided to become vegan (for the most part - not going to go crazy if the small piece of bread I have has eggs, but will choose to buy eggless/milkless bread when shopping). I've been doing pretty well. I feel better (minus work beating me up, crazy deadlines). It's been interesting in exploring all sorts of new foods. My favorite so far - sloppy joes made with barbeque sauce and tempeh. Yummy! I've also decided to start trying to write down my dinners. Key word there is trying. Some nights I'm just too hungry to write it down. So I've altered that concept into taking pictures. Hooray for food porn! Yes, that's the correct term. Just do a search in Flickr for "food porn" and you'll start drooling all over the keyboard and your stomach will be screaming FEED ME FEED ME! WHY DO YOU TAUNT ME?! So here's a picture of the dinner that I cooked the other night of what Thomas and I had in what I think was a very well rounded meal.

- Veggie burger on whole wheat bun with romaine lettuce and mustard. Could have used some tomato, but I was out.
- French style green beans - not too bad from a can.
- Hi-Pro-Tatoes. A recipe I got from "101 Things to Do with Tofu". Interesting. It's a version of garlic mashed potatoes, but without the milk or butter. Use canola oil and some extra firm tofu (and the garlic) mixed in a food processor until smooth, then mix it in with the potatoes. Yummy.

Any other ideas? I'll be sure to post more pics seeing it keeps me accountable too.

Oh, and Sadie is now 9 months old, crawling all over the place, has 4.5 teeth (half because one is almost all the way out), is tall according to the doctor's stats from today (75-90% percentiles), we're under contract for building our new house, and we currently are debating between the two offers that we received just today for people to buy our house. Phew. And ... and ... and... ... ... you get the point. More later... and more pics!

A quick blurb

2009-04-29T23:30:00.005-05:00

I've been inspired. Thanks Kristie. I need it. And who better to look up to/forward with in this journey than you? For those who don't know, I've gone vegan. No. It's not a plague, no I'm not crazy. I'm serious. I needed to do something for me by me. And what better way than to treat my body the way it should be - with thought and purpose. I've been at it for about ten days now, a few slips here and there, but I'm no going to the extreme that the world will end if I have two or three dark chocolate covered soynuts mixed in with my can of mixed cashews/brazilian nuts/almonds/walnuts (and whatever else was in there - yummy). I may have had egg in some bread I had for a pbj the other day. But I'm not worried about it. I'm approaching this in the things that I buy will be looked at closely to go as vegan as I can without going extreme. (Hooray for reduced fat crescent rolls!) I've noticed that I have felt a bit lighter in my step, and a bit lighter on the scale too. Stupid work pants falling off again. Woohoo! But overall I feel that I have a more positive up-beat look on things. .... And in comes the head cold/allergies that are keeping me up at night. Oh well. (No, it's not the flu, or swine flu, or crazy cow flu, etc.) I'll keep posting how things are changing for the better (or the worse, but let's hope not) as time goes on. All I can say is thank you to Kristie and thank you Internet to reading my ramblings. Good night..... zzz .... mmm.... salad for lunch tomorrow already in fridge ready to go .... mmm.... zzzz.....

Oh.... and did I mention? SADIE IS MOBILE!!!! She's crawling now! First response - woohoo! Big girl! Awesome! Second response - Oh crap! Move stuff out of the way! Put that up! Get out of the way cat or you'll get your tail pulled! Haha.

Growing up

2009-04-02T19:30:00.005-05:00

My little girl is growing so fast. Thomas took a picture of her today as she was standing on her own. Granted she was holding on to the bench, but no human hands were around. She's getting really good at it too. Last night we were playing and she was bouncing on her legs and giggling. So smart.

The funniest thing was last night when I went in to check on her after about 20 minutes of laying her down to go to sleep. Just to make sure. A habit I will probably never break. She's too darn cute to not get that last look at her and smile before I head off to bed myself. Anyways, I go in to check on her. Normally she'll curl up on her side and kick her musical seahorse a few times and fall asleep facing the wall. Not last night. Nowhere near that position. She was on her stomach, arms sprawled out, face smooshed into the bed, and her butt sticky straight up into the air. Hilarious. I tried so hard to not wake her up while holding back the guffaw that was building up inside. Instead I took a few pictures. Check out her Flickr page (www.flickr.com/photos/babymo) for all of the fun. But I'll give you at least one good one here. Enjoy.

It's like a drug

2009-03-30T23:15:00.000-05:00

It's like a drug. A bad one. A very addicting one. It's the housing itch. So many new houses for sale. That's not even including the new construction homes. Thomas and I have had quite a few talks lately about our lovely but getting little and full and cramped home. It's great for the three of us, but there are a few things that are needing some changes - soon. (1) Get the damn cat box out of the bathroom closet. Argh. (2) It would be nice to not have to put our Guiter Hero drumset in the office everytime we are done playing. If we don't, the cats chew all over it. (3) It would be nice not to leave Sadie's bouncer and jumparoo and blankies and boxes of toys to where you can't walk to the fish tank to turn the lights on. The list goes on and on. Don't get me wrong - I love our house. It's modern. It's comfortable. But with more people comes more stuff.... and unfortunately less room.

So we've been looking. I need a yard. I need a bathroom that I don't have to stradle the toilet or stand on it or stand in the tub in order to close the door. (Which explains why I never both to close the door in our master bath - NO FRICKING ROOM.) I need a laundry room where I can actually move with out hitting one of the four doors that are within elbows reach. I want a bigger kitchen. I love my kitchen now... but I can't fit anything else in there. And it's not very lending to entertaining guests because of the layout. We have found a few to narrow our search down to. Now it's the viewing, weighing all our options stage. Keep in mind this is all contigent upon selling our current home. Yes, home, not house. It's more than that. It's our first home together. We've put hours and hours and hours into this house fixing it up and laughing and watching movies and arguing over PlayStation games and cleaning the closet once every six months (maybe). You get the idea. So that's where we stand - in the middle of looking and trying to sell. Isn't that typical?

TPS Reports (aka quick status update - yes I'm still alive)

2009-03-24T22:45:00.000-05:00

Sadie is getting so big and learning so fast. It's crazy. She's talking/babbling like you wouldn't believe, growing, eating, pooping, playing, sleeping, and overall being the best baby ever. I'm allowed to say that right? She's my baby, I'm here momma, I'm supposed to say stuff like that. And I mean every word of it.

Work has been crazy busy - numerous deadlines, lots to do. Good stuff. Not to mention tax season on top of that for job numero dos. Phew. And Thomas has some crazy deadlines at his work requiring weekend work and second shifts here shortly. But it'll all soon be over. Then we can go back to "normal", whatever that may be.

Workout/Exercise has been fairly good. I've been participating in these bootcamp sessions after work. It's fun, it's different, and I have no excuse not to go because I'm already at work. I haven't seen much change yet, but at least I'm getting out there and doing it. And having other people there to encourage/push/shove me along is always helpful.

Moms groups - awesome awesome awesome. Lots of meetups everywhere - from coffee conversations to bunko groups to martini nights. Awesome. So much fun. And great to know that there are other busy moms out there that need an outlet for life like I do.

Sorry so short, internet, but this is all the time I have for now. Maybe more posts of substantial news and thoughts will come after tax season and after all of these deadlines at work. Just maybe. (But don't hold your breath on that one.)

Some time used wisely and a new program

2009-03-08T17:15:00.003-05:00

Do I dare attempt a post? Yeah.... I'll give it a shot. Work has been crazy busy - and that's both jobs. At least Thomas and I have enjoyed as much of the weekend as we got together. We've done a bit of shopping at Grapevine Mills the other day. We bought Sadie some shorts and new shoes, which she has lready figured out how to undo the velcro and chew on her shoes when she gets her feet to her face. Yesterday, we met up with some friends for dinner and a movie at their house. It was a good just to get out, get away from the house and work, and relax and do something different than just coming home and eating dinner, watching tv, play with Sadie for two minutes, then off to bed for all of us. Today, we doodled around in Southlake for a few shops in there. It was a really nice day to be walking around outside. Sadie greatly enjoyed it.

On another note, I've started a new (yes, yet another) workout program. The husband of one of the ladies at my work is a personal trainer and holds group bootcamp sessions twice a week right after 5:00 pm, so there's no excuse for me not to go. I'm already there. I just have to change my clothes and actually leave my desk on time. (Which lately has been a little hard to do - STOP SNAGGING ME LAST MINUTE, PEOPLE!). I've gone to two sessions so far and I love it. I'm actually jogging. Yes, jogging. My big lump butt is jogging. I know I don't have a lump butt, but it emphasizes my point that I'm jogging. The last time I remember jogging or running was my freshman year of high school for my competitive soccer team. Yeah.... ten years ago. Ten stinking years. Holy crap. Now, don't assume that I've been a lazy turd since then - I have eight years of marching under my belt, and then a full summer of DCI marching... but never any jogging/running. The sessions are fun - lots of different exercises to make up a full body workout each time with weight training, resistance training, and cardio all rolled into one session. Awesome. I'll keep it up for at least the month that I paid for. Now the question is will I eat properly to help the weight loss effort along, or will I totally botch it and eat out and enjoy my Wing Stop once a week? Hehe. We'll see.

Don't we all love Elmo? Or at least agree that he's demonic?

2009-03-01T17:00:00.001-06:00

We went to see Sesame Street Live: Elmo's Green Thumb this afternoon for my nephew's birthday. There were a TON of kids there. Holy moley, too many kids for my taking. And of course, about halfway through the second half of the show you could tell that it was every kid's nap time. Cranky cranky cranky. But still all good. It was a cute show, a little creepy at times, but overall good. Sadie enjoyed all of the bright lights and music. I'm sure that that is all that she got out of it. But she wasn't fussy or anything. And that's surprising, considering she was sick the past few days vomiting everywhere. She just had to clear out her system - now she's back to her normal self - happy, playful, hungry, crazy.

In other news (as if where really news, if so we should all run for the hills), shopping for clothing stinks. Nothing fits right, and right now everything, in my opinion, is ugly as ever. So boring and drab, or even the other extreme as to who the heck would wear that moments. After reluctantly sorting through racks and racks of clothing, all I found this weekend was some good old plain Jane solid color v-neck t-shirts. How lame. I don't think I am ever going to get rid of the plain Jane look I've always had. It sucks. I try so hard to not necessarily be trendy, but spice things up a bit. And nothing works. Then I get frustrated and end up going shlumpy everywhere. Argh. Any suggestions? Anyone? Tim Gunn? Stacey London? Hello? Internet? HELP ME!

Weird twists in movies

2009-02-21T22:30:00.000-06:00

Every watch a movie and get to a point where you take a second and ask yourself what the hell is going on? How did we get to this point from where the movie started? I was watching 1408 with Samuel Jackson and John Cusack... yeah, that movie took a rather odd turn. Didn't expect any of that. And for those of you that are one day going to watch it, I'll not spew the details. But for those of you never going to see because it falls in that odd category of movies that I notice only I enjoy and rarely few others, well..., it's not that interesting. It's like they (they being the directors, film makers, writers, etc) tried to do two movies in one. Eh, whatever. It occupied me for at least a while instead of watching crap tv. Enough said.

Our first trip

2009-02-15T21:15:00.001-06:00

We went down to San Antonio this weekend to see my brother graduate from basic training for the Air Force. It was awesome. We weren't able to see the entire ceremony (it's a three day affair), but did see the flight units do a quick parade on the field as they marched by and showed off a little of their drill routines. Sean was relieved to get at least a few days of "town pass", meaning he could leave the base - the first time in eight weeks. He needed to get away so we went to Target and Walmart and Red Lobster and then did some sightseeing in San Antonio along the Riverwalk and through the Alamo. He had never been there so it was fun. My mom liked it as well - she had never been either. Sadie did really well for her first trip away from home and away from her normal routine of eating and napping at certain times. Overall the trip was great. Tons of pictures, of course. Now Sean is off to tech school for about two to two and a half months, so we'll be able to see him near the end of April or beginning of May. That will be nice. It's good to see that he has found something that he's interested in and puts his heart into. And I'm proud to say that my brother is serving our country in the world's greatest air force, the United States Air Force. **Smile** For his position he is training for, he most likely will not be shipped out overseas for quite some time, if at all, which is nice to know. All the best of luck to him... and I'll see if can mail him a few more Butterfingers to keep him going.

My little SadieMo... and family.

2009-02-08T22:15:00.001-06:00

The wait is almost over. Most people don't truly appreciate the idea of having family close. It's rough when they're not. It hits hard when I realized that I get to see my mom and my brother in just a few short days. It's been forever since I've seen them. Six months to be exact. (Minus Sean's overlay in December, but does 15 minutes count as a true visit?) Then I realized, after going through a stack of pictures, that it's been six months since my mom has seen Sadie. It's one thing to see pictures, but for as fast as Sadie is growing and learning, my mom's nearly missed everything. No interaction. No response of laughter heard from a picture. It's sad. Things shouldn't be that way, for anyone, anywhere, ever. I plan to remedy that with a trip in a few months to Florida. A good break for us in terms of work and routine, and a chance for the rest of my family to meet Sadie for the first time. Hopefully not the last for years and years, but perhaps we'll make a yearly Florida trip from here on out. Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but nothing can replace having her in your arms, playing, tooting, giggling, smiling, laughing, sneezing, sleeping, taking a bath, wiggling, rubbing her eyes, eating your hands, or looking at you with a big happy face full of wonder. That's my little SadieMo.

More I can't believe it things

2009-02-02T22:30:00.000-06:00

Here's a quick list of some recent I can't believe it items:

- My nephew is now two years old!
- My friends had their baby 10 days ago.
- Another friend had her baby today, at 8:07 pm to be exact.
- Another friend is due any minute... she was having contractions when I talked with her husband on Saturday.
- Yet another acquaintance is due in the next few days.
- My sweet little potato SadieMo is over 5 and a half months old!
- I get to see my mom in 10 days - woohoo!
- I get to see my brother in 11 days - woohoo!
- My mom and my brother get to see Sadie in 10/11 days. My mom last saw Sadie in August (August.... dang, that was forever ago). My brother got a 15 minute sneak peek while a flight had an overlay in December (December.... dang, that was forever ago too).
- My cats are crazy and snuggly and love to jump on my chest and back as I try to lay down on the couch or bed.
- I think I have allergies. I have never had allergies before, but these are definitely the symptoms, and Alavert/Claritin D helps battle them fairly well.
- The roads iced over... just last week.
- Two days after the ice, it was 79 outside.
- It's so easy to spend a good bit of money unexpectedly on Sadie, especially when she needs some long sleeve shirts and some new pajamas and pants.... she looks good in everything.
- It's getter harder to keep going to the gym - everything seems like the same routine.
- I haven't lost any weight even though I've been going to the gym three to four times a week and have completely changed my diet to portion controlled healthy meals. Argh.
- It's already February.

Yeah... that's all I got for now. Maybe more later. Maybe a better post next time. But, as you can see from the above list, I'm a bit scatter brained and can't stay focused on one concept for too long. All the more fun for my (rare, few, and far between) readers.

I can't believe it

2009-01-27T06:15:00.001-06:00

No, it's not "I can't believe it's not butter". I can't believe how fast Sadie is growing. It's crazy. I haven't weighed her at the breastfeeding center for quite some time, not even at home on our junk-o scale while holding her, then getting back on the scale without her (still scary) and doing the math. Well, I decided to tease my brain a little and did the math. Holy cow - after doing it three different times, I still got the same answer. She's at least 16 pounds and had at least one reading where it was 16.5 pounds. (I'd like to note that my scale is a piece of junk, isn't very consistent, and only displays weight in half pound increments. It's very finicking so if your feet are exactly centered or you are standing slightly leaning forward or backward, you get a different answer every time. Annoying, I know.) Can you believe it? 16 pounds! We joke that she has finally surpassed Red as being the fatty of the house... but then I weighed Red and he's in at 17 pounds. He still keeps the title of Fatty of the house... for now.

Also, Sadie has been gnawing and drooling buckets on everything in sight and/or within reach. It doesn't matter if it's your hand, her hand, or Blue's tail, if she can get she will try to eat it. She's getting really good at eating solid foods and loves trying to chew the spoon in half. A few of her favorite foods is bananas, peaches, and "apple oatmeal" - mixing the single grain oatmeal with 100% apple juice. It's so funny when you give her the first bite and she's not sure what flavor to expect. The expression on her face screams "What are you doing to me? What is this? Ew. Ew. Ew. Oh. This is good. I really like this. This is really good. More! More! More!" Then you can't shovel the food fast enough from the little bucket or jar to the spoon to her mouth before she tries to steal the spoon from you or starts eating her hands trying to get that last little bit off of her face into her mouth. As if the world will end in two seconds and there will be no more yummy food. ... Crazy girl... But she's the best and we love her to pieces. Even if she tries to attack us with her one tooth that is poking through the gums on the bottom in the middle.

Cubes are so depressing.

2009-01-20T16:30:00.001-06:00

I feel like a caged animal. Cubicles are not my thing. I don't mind a small office - and I mean small. You could stick me in a broom closet for all I care. I miss my beautiful office in downtown on the thirteenth floor with door and window and gorgeous view and beautiful modern furniture. How many offices do you know that have black hardwood floors in their entrance/lobby? But being sub-contracted out to another company for a while, I'm in a cubicle. I don't do cubicles. So mass produced and impersonal.

Well, I can at least change that last part. I decided to decorate my cube a bit and will continue to do so with small odds and ends here and there as time goes by. But for now, this is what I have. What do you think?

It was cheap to do to - $10 in fabric and some sewing pins/T pins. Easy cheesey. And it looks really nice. At least better than the ugly gray faux tweed on the rest of the walls. I know it needs to be ironed a bit more, but I don't feel like taking it down right now to do so. The wrinkles will eventually work their way out. But for now it at least adds a pop of color and some interest in my otherwise boring cube.

Metal!

2009-01-19T18:45:00.003-06:00

I would like to welcome everyone to the side of me that most people don’t know, and if they do, they don’t know very well. I wouldn’t say that I’m ashamed of this side, but it’s definitely been low key for the past few years.

I’m a metal head.

I love metal.

I’m not talking the physical metals, but the music. It deeply intrigues me. So technically profound. Most people say it’s just beating the drums really hard, thrashing on a guitar or bass, and lots of screaming. But it’s more than that. So much more. Here’s a view for you – could you play a metal song on guitar? How about on drums? Or sing/scream one metal song? Could you play through an album? Could you last through an entire show? Welcome to admiration. It’s fricking nuts how these artists put forth their talent(s).

I agree that metal is not for everyone. I also state that I am not fond of all types of metal, but I will give them a good listen. It’s one of those things that I’ll take if given, but not particularly as for type of things. But, man, can a few good metal tunes in a row really turn your mood around from sour to fuck the world to ah, that’s much better because I just drove home and left everything behind while double bass pedaling the floor near the brakes while on cruise control going down the highway while screaming some good lyrics. That’s what metal brings for me.

I am not particularly for the Satanic side of things, but I will listen to what people have to say. It’s a free country with free speech, so give people the minute they all deserve to voice their opinions and beliefs, regardless if those opinions or beliefs coincide or completely contradict your own.

So I invite everyone to maybe take a few minutes and do some research on iTunes or Rhapsody or whatever method you use to get your tunes to find some metal and give it a try. Believe me, not all metal sounds the same. So give a few different songs and different bands a try. Be careful though, you just might like it.

Long time, no post - well, really just too stinking busy

2009-01-10T08:00:00.001-06:00

Hello, blog. I'm Jenni. Remember me? I'm not surprised if you don't. With holidays, parties, drinks with friends you would never have dreamed drinking with (more on this later), lack of sleep, watching Sadie grow like you couldn't believe, sort of changing jobs, gearing up to start job number two at the same time, lack of sleep, new PS3, Guitar Hero games, making dinner, lack of sleep, planning for my brother's boot camp graduation, cleaning the house, Six Flags, finally taking down the Christmas lights and decorations, working out at least 3 one-hour classes a week, ... oh, did I mention lack of sleep?
Let's delve into each of these topics, at least for a quick blurb about most of them.

Holidays - enough said. Family and presents and planning events. Always fun and more often than not leaves you winded after everything settles down.

Parties - Christmas parties and birthday parties out to whazoo. And all over Timbuktu. We've been everywhere from Aledo to McKinney. Some were good, some were really loud - but that's just that particular circle of friends. Oh, and baby showers! Lots of babies! I know two to three women about to burst in the next three weeks, and another friend is due in May. Crazy.

Drinks with friends you would have never dreamed drinking with - let's just say this. Church youth group chaperone/mentor figure. The same guy that married Thomas and I. His wife, him, and a friend we've known since high school and our youth group days. All playing Texas Hold'em in our dining room, taking back beers and Crown & Cokes, then playing a bit of Guitar Hero till four in the morning. Fun stuff. Odd, but awesome all at the same time.

Sadie - that should be all that I have to say. But I will elaborate because she's a monster (in a good way). She's definitely teething now that she has two little tooth buds sticking out of her gums - one up and one down. Weird. Most people say teeth come in in pairs, but we'll see. She's focusing, reaching, and grabbing everything. She's talking like a bad auctioneer. She holds her own bottle, for the most part, and makes feeding her extremely convenient. She's trying different flavors of "real" food - well, baby purees, but close enough. She's had bananas, applesauce, and squash. Yummy. She knows to start making noise when you pat her mouth to make her go "whaa whaa whaa whaa" everytime you pat. She has the coolest pacifier leashes that I bought from a store on Etsy.com - OhMyMommyClementine. Sadie has three leashes wth skulls and crossbones in black/white/pink, pink/white/black, and brown/pink/white. Awesome. Last note - holy crap she'll be five months old next week!

Sort of changing jobs - I "started" work this past week. See, I got hired on to one company to be subcontracted out to another. Well, the project was a little behind at the second company, so I did a little work at my parent company. This Monday I started at the second company as a contract employee representing my parent company. No more 13th floor office with door and window and beautiful view of downtown.... now into the land of cubicles. But it's not too bad. Haven't done much there in the past week because the project is still a little slow, but it should pick up in the next week or so. (There's only so much time you can spend doing "research" on the internet without getting insanely bored.)

Job number two - This time last year, it was job number one. But now it's number two. Yay tax season! No more crazy 60 hour work weeks while growing a bun in the oven like last year. This year I am working only Saturdays at the tax office. That's what happens when you work somewhere else 40 hours a week like a normal person. We'll see how it goes. Oh, quick mention, I think it's awesome that the tax office is going green - we've set up scanners and now only print one copy of the return for the client while everything else is digital copies. Unless you've been there, you won't understand the massive amounts of paper and folders and time to pay someone to file all that will be saved.

New PS3 and Guitar Hero - I'm lumping these two together because it's something that Thomas and I have been talking about for a while and finally got as sort of a Christmas present to ourselves, and a birthday present to Thomas. Tons of fun playing an hour or so the past few nights.

My brother's boot camp graduation - My brother joined the Air Force and is in boot camp for eight weeks. He graduates in the middle of February and we'd like to go to the graduation ceremony. My mom is going too. Trying to get details of when the ceremony is, getting my mom's flight figured out (fly to DFW or just to San Antonio?), hotel, travel time for Thomas, Sadie, and I by car, getting that weekend off from work, etc etc etc. Lots of planning, but we're definitely going. I wouldn't miss it for anything.

Six Flags - We went with a few friends to Six Flags last week for one of their birthdays. It was fun. The weather was really nice. Thomas and I decided to get season passes in hopes of entertaining ourselves for the rest of the year with no excuse of why we couldn't get out and do something. Here's an interesting about Six Flags - it was Thomas and I's first date, before we were even dating. Quick background story - we met in high school at band camp before school started for the year. Thomas came up to me and introduced himself (that took guts back then). A few days later after more camp but not getting to know him too well (because he played drums and I played saxophone then), he asked if I wanted to go to Six Flags with him. I asked my parents and they said ok. That was the beginning of Thomas and me. Now, we've been married for three years and have a crazy nearly five month old daughter. Nuts, huh?

Working out - I guess you can call it a New Years resolution, or at least close enough. I've been going to workout consistently for the past few months, minus a few oddball weeks in there. Heck, I was even working out twice a week consistently when I was pregnant up to 38 weeks along. I have found that the easiest (for now) way to make myself go without fail, and to get Thomas to go with me, is to go to some of the classes the gym offers. We've both put the classes into our phone calendars so we know for sure we need to leave work and get going. We've done yoga, mat pilates, and a cycling class together. Other classes that I like going to are Body Works (a dumbbell workout set to music) and Step. Fun stuff. I like the changes that going is making for me - having a "regular" schedule/routine of something, getting away from everything else for at least an hour, getting more in shape. Too bad it hasn't shown squat on the scale yet, but I think I'm in that weird change out body fat for muscle phase where the scale doesn't reflect because muscle weighs more than fat. We'll see.

Last, but not least, but definitely the least of - sleep. I've been sleeping like crap lately. I can't figure out why. Probably just stress. And Sadie is teething, so about four days out of seven, she wakes up in the middle of the night and wants to chew on something or is hungry again. I can't sleep in past 8:00 am, if that, because my body won't let me. (Word of warning to those who want kids - kiss sleeping in goodbye - once they are up, you are up too. At least until they are old enough to occupy themselves with some toys in the morning on their own.)

Ugh. Enough yip yapping. (And scrolling back up, that was a lot of yip yapping.) On to my weekend tasks of laundry, dishes, cleaning the house, working out, and maybe, just maybe, taking down the Christmas lights and decorations if the weather permits. Oh, sleep? I gave up on that.

Merry Christmas ... bla bla bla...

2008-12-28T23:15:00.001-06:00

Yeah, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays... soon to be Happy New Year. Holy crap it's already 2009! Holy crap a whole year has gone by. I can't remember if I scratched my butt in the past year it's been that crazy. Being pregnant, having Sadie, playing with Sadie. Finishing my certificate as a half-masters type of deal. Thomas finishing his masters. Buying a new motorcycle. Wait... I digress. That list of stuff is for a post in a few days.

As for Christmas, it was great. It was our first Christmas together as a family and Sadie was a little over 4 months old. Can you believe it! Four months! And she's growing like a weed, and learning so fast. She can hold her bottle, reach for toys, she'll tell you a whole story (or quietly scream it, really). It's nuts. We got pictures with real Santa and then some with Santa Cow at Chick-Fil-A. Of course, we couldn't resist the cow costume from Halloween. She got so many cool toys and outfits. Spoiled already, I tell ya. And I wouldn't change it for the world.

It sucks we didn't get to go to Florida as previously planned, but maybe it was for the best. I'm not particularly fond of not seeing my family but once a year, if that. If it's more frequently, it's only one member at a time. Luckily, we did get to see my brother a week ago, even if it was for only 20 minutes. We should be seeing both him and my mom in February when he is done with boot camp, before he starts tech school. That will be a nice visit, granted Thomas and I aren't swamped at work. We'll see.

Overall, great Christmas. A few parties with friends, plenty of family gatherings for meals, board games, and movies. Now it's time to get back into the swing of things with work and daycare and what not. Especially with working out. I've sort of slacked off a bit in the past week or so. My excuse that is acceptable for some of that - I was sick. So was Thomas. So was Sadie. We all had crud stopped up in our heads. But now we are all clear, minus the occasional cough or so. Not too much to worry about though. As for exercise, I'm really trying to stick with it... but I don't know if I'll make my goal of 150 by January 1. I'll be really fricking close... but not quite. I'm planning to set small obtainable goals for the upcoming months to make it something not too unreasonable. For example, trying to go the gym everyday is great, but I get a bit burnt out, then stop going for a week. Now my approach is try to go 4 days a week. Whether it's a class (which I have found these easiest to commit to because they are scheduled at particular times) or just good old regular cardio somehow, or trying to get Thomas to join me to lift weights, something's gotta give in getting this going. Maybe once a routine gets going I can better stick with it. I'll be sure to comment more on this as the weeks go by.

For now, that's all I got. But more later in terms of a New Year's post/2008 recap. There's plenty to add to that post, so I'll be sure to add tons of info there. As if the internet really cares, but it's good to get it out there. For me at least, if not for anyone else.

A mix-mash of events.... and Santa Cow

2008-12-21T10:30:00.002-06:00

Lots of things have happened in the past week. Lots of unexpected things. Let me start my list....

1 - My brother Sean started Air Force boot camp in San Antonio on Wednesday. The Air Force flew him out on Tuesday. He didn't know until he was handed his plane tickets that he was having a short layover in DFW. He gave me a call and we arranged to pick him up from one flight to see him before he left for his next one down to San Antonio. Thomas, Sadie, and I drove out to the airport to chauffeur Sean from one terminal to the other. It was good to see him, even if it was for only 20 minutes. And he got to see his niece again. Aww. Sadie loves her Uncle Sean.

2 - Secret Santa party number 1. I am going to whine for a moment - doing a Secret Santa/White Elephant type of party requires GENDER NEUTRAL gifts. It irks me that somehow lotions and body sprays become familiar items. Buy a fricking gift card! Let's just say dudes with purses at the end of the night is a little bit scary. I wasn't too thrilled with my reed diffuser in sparkly gold vase for it. Thomas left with a t-shirt from some lawyer firm. I told him he now has a good workout shirt. Translation - it will never get worn.

3 - Secret Santa party number 2. Speaking of that sparkly gold vase reed diffuser... yes, I admit, I am a regifter. It saved my from buying some other gift. And, oddly enough, Thomas ended up with the gift card that we had brought. I went home with a Starbucks card. We all need those sometimes.

4 - Thomas was driving by a local Chick-Fil-A and read their sign - "Pictures with Santa Cow Dec 20 11 -2". Awesome. Funny, really, because Sadie was a cow for Halloween. So, as cheesey as we are, we dressed her up in her cow costume and got a picture or two of her with Santa Cow. We then undressed her to her regular clothes and got a "regular" picture with Santa Cow, although I'm not sure how "regular" Santa Cow is, but hey what the heck.

5 - Sadie got pictures with the "real" Santa. Well, at least the hick version. We went to Cabela's (think like Bass Pro Shop). So Santa had his big chair/sofa set up for pictures with a tree next to him ... with all the dead stuffed taxidermy deer and elk behind him. Kind of gross. Kind of creepy. But luckily you can't see them too much in the pictures. She didn't seem too afraid of Santa, but I think she's too young to be afraid of anything right now. She didn't fuss too much and we actually got her playing with Santa's jacket fuzzy cuffs in one of the pictures.

That's enough for now, although I am sure that I could continue on with a bazillion other things. I will spare your reading eyes. Just for now. Next time you might not be so lucky.

A special day has passed

2008-12-14T09:00:00.003-06:00

Or at least it was a special day to me. December 9th, 2007. Yes, last year, I know. The day that I decided to take a pregnancy test after having a miscarriage the first attempt. I was nervous to say the least because I hadn't had a period since the miscarriage, although the doctors said that it might take some time for my body to recooperate. I admit we were still trying because it was something that both Thomas and I wanted. Well.... it came back positive. I was estatic. We decided not to tell anyone for a while for fear of having a repeat experience of the month or so earlier. The first people we told were my parents when we saw them for Christmas. We told them on Christmas Eve. They were happy for us. When we got back home, we told Thomas' family. They were happy too.

Fast forward a year... I have a sweet four month old Sadie MoPie. She makes me laugh at the smallest things and her biggest achievements as each day passes. She's already grabbing toys, being very alert, and talking up a storm when you play with her. She is such a happy baby. I write these blogs and take pictures for her Flickr page so I never forget these moments. But I will never forget the moment I found out I was pregnant with her over a year ago.

Side note - Yes, I did say four month old Sadie MoPie. She's now four months old! It's crazy. I can hardly remember if I slept in the past month - especially between working out a lot and hosting Thanksgiving, to playing with Sadie and starting a new job. Her first Christmas is around the corner and it's going to be a blast. She has no idea what's about to happen, although she did enjoy the lights on everybody's houses as we went on a walk earlier tonight.

Hey, parenthood! Slap me in the face, why don't ya!

2008-12-13T09:45:00.001-06:00

The day had come and thankfully had passed. That day when it hits you harder that you could ever understand that you are a parent. That day was Thursday this past week. Not quite the best way to have parenthood smack you in the face, but it happened.

Preamble: Sadie's been a little under the weather since Monday or so with a tiny tiny cough and a little stuffy nose/runny nose (depending on the time). Then her cough got a bit deeper and more coarse. So Thomas and I cranked her humidifier to high during the night and that seemed to help a little bit. We put her to bed Wednesday night with a small cough but she didn't seem to mind because she went right to sleep.

Thursday was a different story. I wake up, shower, get Sadie to feed her and then get her ready for the day. She wasn't too interested in eating, but she ate a bit. Her nose wasn't too stuffed up. She seemed happy and playful as I changed her diaper and her clothes for the day. Thomas takes her to daycare in the morning, so I left and went to work. That was around 7:30 a.m. Around 9:30 a.m., I get a call from the daycare.

Daycare lady: "We wanted to let you know that Sadie is fairly sick. She's thrown up three times this morning, is full of mucus, coughing, and having trouble breathing. Her fingers are turning purple."

My thoughts: SHIT!

My response: "I need to talk with my boss to see if I can leave. If not, I'll call Thomas and see if he can get Sadie."

My continuing thoughts: SHIT! Poor Sadie! Be strong Sadie! Don't die!!!

Yes, I realize a little overkill, but if it's your first child and only her second week at daycare, what would you think? So, yes, parenthood hit me hard. Luckily, my boss was very understanding and said I could work from home the rest of the day. I picked up Sadie and went to the doctors with her. Thomas met us there. Little punk hardly coughed since I had picked her up. The doctor checked her out, said it was just a common cold, and to watch her. No more turning colors, which was good. Sadie threw up because she was swallowing all of the mucus that she was coughing up. Having trouble breathing was because she couldn't quite cough it up in one go. But she's good now. No issues. Small cough, but even smaller than what she had earlier this week. Woohoo!

All in all, Sadie is doing much better and eating everything in sight (or at least trying to, including my bicep as I write this post). It just sucks that parenthood had to hit so hard, especially that way. Yuck. Oh well. Makes us stronger. Luckily I'm not a worry wort so I never got into the mind set that something may have been wrong with her internally. She's too good for that.

On a quick side note, I called my mom to let her know what was going on with Sadie. It's a little hard when she's five states away to stay in the loop with everything, but we do make the effort to talk at least once a week. I told her that "MoPie was sick". Her response, other than the obvious, was interesting. She asked where I got the nickname of MoPie from. Mo = Moore, Pie = from cutie pie, etc. So MoPie. She laughed and said she either brainwashed me or influenced me subconciously. I asked why. She said her nickname for me when I was little was JenniPie. Like mother, like daughter - even without knowing.

Perseverance and unexpected support

2008-12-06T12:00:00.001-06:00

First point: perseverance. Setting out to do something and really sticking to it. That's what I've been doing. Minus 3 days around Thanksgiving and three other miscellaneous days in there, I have worked out everyday since the beginning of November. I've done step classes, dance (salsa, zumba, etc) classes, body works classes (dumbbells and body resistance moves set to music), yoga, and mat pilates. I've walked really fast on steep hills on treadmills, even jogged a few times for 5 -10 minutes. I know that that's not much, but it's a start. I honestly can't remember the last time I truly ran. Seriously, it's been at least five years... I didn't even run for warmup when I was on tour for Summer 2004 with DCI corps Kiwanis Kavaliers. It's all been because of my feet. They crack, they stretch, they ache, they pinch in unnatural ways. They still do to a good extent, but no where near what they used to. I think being pregnant and having all that extra weight on them for a few months helped. Or maybe I'm smoking something. Either way I can jog now. (Assuming I really want to, rather than just doing it.)

I have set forth a goal for myself by the end of the year. When pregnant with Sadie, at my peak I was 192. I'm not ashamed of that. I admit that that's the most I had ever weighed in my life. But all for a good reason. My goal is forty two pounds less than that by the end of 2008, and I'm almost there (within two to three pounds, to be precise). The hardest thing is really trying to stick with it, especially because I just started a new job this past Monday. So working, then picking up Sadie, going to the gym, making dinner, etc etc etc., is a lot for a day's work. But I've gone every day this week except Wednesday. A little break every now and again is good. I go every Saturday and Sunday because I really don't have an excuse not to. So far I have found that classes are the easiest motivators for me... you can look like a fool and no one cares, plus seeing each class starts at a set time, there's no putting it off to go later. You either show up or you don't. Oh, did I also mention that I take my lunch everyday to work with snacks throughout the day... fruits, crackers, a healthy lunch, juice, water.... much better than scrambling about for fast food just so you can eat. I've noticed that when I think about the food I'm putting in me, the more I appreciate it, and the more I conciously decide to eat healthier items. Ok, enough on that... for now.

Second point: unexpected support. I guess I am just fearful of the day when I'll run into that one person that thinks pumping breastmilk is disgusting, unnatural, and awfully offensive. I've decided that those people can kiss my ass. My getting skinnier ass, I might add. Thursday this week I went up to Oklahoma City for a meeting for work. We (my boss and I) left at 7 am to drive up there. We got home at 5:30 pm, so it wasn't too long of a day. The hardest part was I had to bring my pump with me. No comfort of my office with a door and blinds that I can close to have some privacy while I pumped. I had to find public restrooms that had wall plugs so I could plug in the pump to use it. My pump does come with a battery pack, but it requires 10 or 12 AA batteries, and I just didn't even think to fill it before I left.

But what suprised me the most was the verbal support I received from the few women that enterred the restrooms while I was pumping, standing awkwardly at the sinks. I'm trying to cover myself up in order to not flash the world, but none of them commented on that aspect at all. One lady asked how old my little one was and was proud of me for pumping while away from my baby. Another lady told me a quick story about how her daughter did the same thing for her baby. The most awkward spot to pump though was at a gas station bathroom. It was at least big enough to have a few stalls, but the only plug was next to the sinks. Two older ladies walked in to use the restroom and I was only setting up. I starting pumping while they were in the stalls and one lady started laughing. I was like "what the hell? I hope she's not laughing at me." She came out of the stall to wash her hands and said she was laughing because the pump noise startled her, but after she listened to it for a minute she knew exactly what that noise was. Both of the ladies said it was great that there was the option to pump electrically now. They said they both had trouble manually pumping back in the day. (They were both in their 60's at least). It was nice to have the support in such an awkward situation. But I did miss my office. It's good to know that people are too weirded out by pumping, especially when the "trend" of this generation is breastmilk and not formula. Hooray for boobies!

Thanksgiving and Family

2008-11-29T08:40:00.002-06:00

Yes... a typical post that I'm sure a bazillion people have made in some respect in regards to the holidays. Oh well. Here's my version.

We hosted Thanksgiving this year at our house. It was nice having family over - although a little cramped with 11 adults and two babies. But it all worked out. Despite ruining our turkey - before it was cooked. We left it out over night instead of putting it in the fridge to thaw. Now, don't get me wrong, we had it in one side of the sink in ice water that we were adding ice to every hour. But when we woke up Thursday morning ... poo. Luckily we had someone available to run to the store to get one that was not frozen and on our way we went. I found a recipe online that called for chicken broth and champagne. It was good and tender and juicy. Yummy. Now we have leftovers for a few days (which I'm sure most people do). My parents are sending me a packet of curry mix to make turkey curry because that is something we have always done with leftover turkey... and something that Thomas loves. I have never cooked it before myself, but we'll see how it goes.

We had our immediate family over and some grandparents. Unfortunately, some of our other grandparents were not able to make it because they were sick and didn't particularly want to drive four to five hours to meet people to make them sick. Thomas and I have decided that we will drive down to see them sometime soon. We took a few pictures last minute, but here's one of my favorites. It's a generation picture - four generations total. Awesome. Happy Turkey Day.

P.S. As for working out, I've gone just about everyday for either strength training, cardio, or a class (yoga, pilates, step, etc), minus a three day span in there when I was totally pooped and ended up cleaning the house. Does cleaning the house count? I think it should - vacuuming and sweeping on crack (aka super speed mode because I didn't allot enough time to do it all) is definitely a workout. My sister-in-law and I even worked out yesterday (Black Friday) for two hours straight in a mix of dance classes, pilates, yoga, resistance training, and cardio in general. It was awesome. But I'm not sure if I burned enough of that sweet potato casserole off yet. :-)

Busy and a new job

2008-11-24T09:30:00.001-06:00

Is it possible to have been so busy really doing nothing? I guess so. I look back at last week and realize that all I did was go to the gym and go to one meeting for my new job (more on that later). How does a whole week go by doing only that? Oh... I didn't mention that I went to the gym every day, sometimes twice, for classes, strength training, and personal training appointments. Then came home and cleaned the house, played with Sadie, worked on a project for some Christmas presents that I'm making, and made dinner. Wheew.

In the world of Sadie-dom, I took all last week making sure she is comfortable with bottles again because that's what she'll be getting when she goes to daycare starting next week. I also have made sure she is good with formula in case I run out of supply for the day for her. She's good in both departments. No issues whatsoever. Ok, well, maybe one small - stinky, really - issue... gas. She can beat the biggest dude you can imagine on gas. And then she smiles and it's all adorable from there on out, regardless if your nostrils are burning or you may feel like you need to vomit in your mouth a little. That's my sweet little Sadie for you.

Now to details on my new job. First off, let my just point out that this is something that I have thought long and hard about in terms of working and having Sadie. I love being home with Sadie, watching her grow and be silly and changing diapers left and right. But my brain is going total mush. And as an educated person, I can't take much more of it. Neither can my wallet. I've been better, but when there is nothing to do around the house, and you've already went to the gym, shopping is all that is left. Don't get me wrong - I don't blow money left and right on total frivolous things... but there are all the small things here and there that I think I need that slowly gnaw my wallet to pennies. If I have a job, my brain will thank me and so will my wallet, in more ways than one.

The job itself is awesome (or so I hope, I'll update more next week after I have been there for a few days). I actually did the interview in the middle of September for the position. Played the waiting game since then because I was in no hurry to truly start with Sadie being so little. The company offered me the position and I start next week. Sadie will be 3.5 months, so I've been home to enjoy her for sure - to the point that my brain doesn't go total mush. I'll be doing environmental and GIS consulting type of work for an engineering consulting firm. Let me clarify why this is awesome to some extent - I'm not an engineer. I'm a biologist with GIS training. The company sees a lot of potential in how they can use me to their advantage in numerous projects that they are running and are looking to do in the future. Awesome.

And back to being busy.... I love writing in circles.... Thomas and I are hosting Thanksgiving this year for the immediate family and some of the grandparents are coming too. It'll be the first time they get to see Sadie. I have the camera ready to go. Hosting calls for more than just having the seats, plates, and silverware ready. It requires a full scrubdown of the house so people don't see how dirty it normally is. It requires that even the closets be somewhat orderly in case you need some random item of them and you need to actually get to it or, heaven forbid, ask someone else to venture into the depths of the messy closet to get it for you. To me, that's unacceptable. So my tasks over the next few days include a good scrubdown and a full organizing/cleaning up spree of the weirdest things - like closets and undersinks. But I have to give credit to hosting - it at least forces me to clean those places that would otherwise not ever be touched until some other big event or great great boredom sits in.

3 Months and a Wedding

2008-11-17T08:45:00.004-06:00

Holy crap! Sadie is over three months old now. She's grown so much. According to our inaccurate-but-will-have-to-do-for-now bathroom scale, she weighs about 13.5 pounds. Keep in mind she was born weighing 7 lbs 12oz. She's almost doubled her weight! What an oinker. She's still really tall/long - her pajamas are size 3-6 months, her socks are 6 or 6-12 months (depending on which style), and yesterday she was wearing a pair of pants that are 6-12 months. It's nuts. She's learned so much too - she can roll, she likes tummy time (most of the time), she smiles, she'll tell you a whole story in Sadie talk, and man can she load a diaper (or three) at a time! She likes to let us know in her own (smelly) way that her systems are good to go and functioning correctly. She's getting much better at bath time and likes it when I splash around her. She loves her swing, her jumparoo, her musical car mirror, and especially her ladybug - it plays music and flashes lights. (And you can tell my brain is going mush because my sentence structure has gone down the drain.... they all start with she!)

We have some family pictures that are now a bit fancy - one of our closest friends got married this past weekend so Thomas was in a tux, I was fancy schmancy, and Sadie was in a cute little dress. See? So cute.

Growing - inside and out

2008-11-13T09:45:00.001-06:00

So sleep has been my enemy the past few nights. Not so much that I hate sleep, but more along the lines of the sleep that I am getting is crap. I don't mind waking up at 2 or 3 in the morning to feed Sadie and change her diaper. Especially because we've been putting her to bed by 9:30 or 10:00 and she sleeps till about 8 or 9 the next morning. So about 10 hours with waking up only once - I'll take it. The downside is I'm losing sleep. But I can't complain too much because the sleep before waking up and the sleep I get once she falls back aslepp hasn't been the greatest anyhow. All sorts of weird dreams and can't get comfortable in the bed, etc etc. Maybe I'll get Thomas to take over for a full night tonight since he has tomorrow off. Maybe then I can get some solid sleep. Maybe then he'll see what I go through every night. It's just one of those things that you don't get until you do it yourself. He hasn't been forced to experience it yet. That's gotta change.

On a lighter note, Sadie had some more rice cereal two nights ago. She's nuts. She knows the spoon is coming to her face and opens her mouth. Then immediately closes her mouth and turns her head real fast right as you are about to give her a spoonful and SPLAT on her cheeks it goes. Then she laughs because you are laughing and smiling. Oh - did I mention she laughs and giggles on a regular basis now? She is such a happy baby. Other times, she can be a super cranky baby when she has a huge gas bubble stuck - like the other morning when it sounded like Hell opened up in her bedroom and demons were screaming. I should have recorded it and sold it to cities to use as their warning sirens for tornadoes (or hurricanes.... haha, long story, another time). She loves eating her hands and trying to suck on her palms as if there's a nipple somewhere in there.

Did I mention how big she is getting? Her pajamas are a size 3-6 months and fit perfectly. No way that those are going to last on her until 6 months. I bought her some new socks because she kicks off all of the short ones. I have some that I really love and can't find them at any store. Poo. So I've been hunting for ones that she won't kick off. I ended buying a pack from Target, but they are size 6-12 months. And they fit. Slight elf toe, but not like she's sticking her feet into shoes and walking yet. Can you believe it?! Crazy! And she'll be 3 months tomorrow. Woohoo! Mini-birthday congrats to her!

Last but not least, I've been working out every day for the past two weeks - minus one day for a break (and the weather didn't allow me to walk). I've been walking on trails and at parks, hiking, at the gym on the elliptical cross-trainers, lifting weights, doing a lot of body resistance training. Awesome. I'm on the hunt for a pair of jeans that actually fit because the pair I bought two months ago are falling off my butt, even with a belt. The other pair of jeans that I have are sagging too - and those are the ones that I was wearing when I found out that I was pregnant with Sadie nearly a year ago. I'm so fricking proud of myself. Now I just need to keep it up and not eat crap and be lazy because I don't feel like it. I have so much more energy now that I have been constantly active. I love it. Now if only I can convince Thomas to join me in my activities.... yeah right. But a small hope never hurts.

A great adventure

2008-11-09T12:45:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we decided to do something new. Go somewhere new. It was awesome. And we only did about half of it. We went hiking with some family members at Eagle Mountain Park. It was definitely hiking - no paved pathways, trees and brush overhanging paths everywhere. Some of the paths were really steep, others fairly flat. Some where through wooded areas, others through open meadows. Some up the sides of hills/mini mountains, while others along the lake shoreline. It was great fun. Especially watching Thomas carry Sadie in her Snugli carrier.

On another note, Sadie had her first taste of rice cereal the other night. As well as sitting in her high chair for the first time. It was a complete mess but so much fun trying to shovel little spoonfuls of cereal into her mouth. She got the idea of the spoon without any problem, but kept spitting out her food to taste it a few more times before swallowing it. Silly girl. Here's a few pictures.

Wake up, go to sleep

2008-11-06T09:15:00.003-06:00

So I've been awake for over 4 hours now, and it's only 9:00 am. Sad. I know. No, Sadie didn't wake me up. I just woke up and was awake. Normally I would say that that sucks, but I decided to make the best of it. So I checked on Sadie, and she decided to eat from 5:15 to about 5:40, then I got dressed and went to the gym. Yes, the gym. I got there a couples minutes after 6:00 am. I walked up the stairs to all the cardio equipment, got on an elliptical cross trainer, and went to town. I was actually awake, energized, and pumped up during the whole thing. Awesome. Plus, listening to an oldie but goodie Static X's Wiscons Death Trip cd, I was truly pumped. I didn't realize how fast my legs were going until I looked down at them. I was going about 160 strides per minute. Which is pretty darn fast without holding on. Some people go insane and go about 200 strides per minute. But they look like they are holding for dear life. Not my preferred style if you ask me. Then I did some core strength training. Go me.

I also plan on going walking this aftermoon. I've been pretty good about walking at least once every other day. A few days ago I was going to Chipotle for lunch. I walked there. No point in loading up Sadie in the car and driving the not even half of mile there. I don't even think it's a quarter of a mile. So I walked. It only took about 12 minutes or so. A few weeks ago I had to run to our city's permit building/water tower to get a permit for our shed. Yeah, I walked there too. That was maybe three quarters of a mile one way. I know walking isn't much compared to running eight miles a day or what not, but it's something. It's been time outside, away from the tv and internet (don't worry internet, I still love you), and it's been great taking Sadie with me. She really enjoys being outside. All the sights, sounds, smells, and sensations - she loves them. By the way, we are now 15+ days of 6.5 hours or more of solid sleeping at night. The past two nights I haven't even gotten up to check on her. And for the count, we are 3 days of 7.5 hours or more. Two nights ago was 9 hours straight! Woohoo!

That morning

2008-11-04T09:45:00.002-06:00

It's been a full year. I've survived. Part of me didn't. It was a part of me. I loved it. It didn't have a name. It didn't have an idea of what the world is like. It didn't have a gender. It had a purpose. It had somewhere to call home. It had a home to come to. It had a family to meet. But it never got that far in its plans. Something was wrong. Something out of my control. I was deeply saddened that that part of me didn't want to join me. Couldn't join me. Couldn't come home. Couldn't meet its family. Couldn't fulfill its goals, dreams, aspirations, or purpose. But I loved it. I still do. I can't forget it. I won't let myself forget it. A bittersweet memory, but all for the best.

On November 3, 2007, I woke up to what no one should ever have to go through. But come to find out that it happens nearly 25% of the time. I was pregnant when I went to sleep the night before. My little growing beanpole stopped growing. Something was wrong. It didn't like the world. Or it didn't like the environment I was providing for it. Or it just knew it wouldn't survive. I woke up not pregnant. I had a miscarriage. It was horrifying. I tried to act strong and in control of myself. I faired pretty well with going to the doctor's clinic, then being told to go the hospital because they thought it may have been ectopic, which could have posed further problems for me if things weren't checked out. I could have bled to death if not taken care of properly if it was truly ectopic. I looked ok but was checked in for an overnight stay for safety precautions.

It was devastating. I was so deeply saddened and taken back by what happened. I was a healthy, young woman. What did I do wrong? Nothing. Just something wasn't right. It took me a few weeks to really admit the fact that I can't act as strong as I do without being that strong. But I can't put up a stone wall to every horrible thing that comes my way. So about two weeks after the event, I came to terms with myself that it was truly out of my control. All I could do was keep staying healthy and taking care of myself. Wait for the next round when my body would be able to support another being. Give my body some time to recover. I was so in love with the little beanpole, I was torn between its loss of life and trying again.

Here's a note of how weirdly in tune I am with my family, even though they live in Florida. That same morning, a few states away, my step-dad woke up and asked my mom if she had ever had a miscarriage because he had a dream about one happening. They weren't too terribly surprised to get a call from me later that day saying I was in the hospital for overnight surveillance because I had a miscarriage. They were sad and felt horrible for my loss, but they kind of had a weird heads-up moment. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see them until around Christmas. I could have really used my mom's support then especially, but a phone call will do. I saw them a few weeks later and it was nice.

Then a month later, on December 9th, I found out that I was pregnant again. I was ecstatic. I was scared. I didn't want to go through another horrible morning like a month before. But this one stuck it out, no stops, guns slinging. And now, writing this a year after that morning, I have my sweet little Sadie to laugh with, hold, snuggle, get barfed on by, get peed on by, nap with, and love. I will never forget my first beanpole, nor how it made me grow as a person inside.

Changing Times

2008-11-03T18:00:00.001-06:00

Does anybody else get weirded out by the time change? It just puts me off kilter when one day it's daylight at 5:00 pm, whereas the next is pitch black by 5:00 pm. It makes me question if my clocks aren't three hours off or something. At least it's done over a weekend so everybody can have a day to adjust. How bad would it suck if it were between a Sunday and a Monday? Yuck. I can bet that a bajillion people would be late (or early, depending on which time change) to work.

So that brings me to a funny story about me from this time last year. Last year was the first year that the government had decided to extend daylight savings time. That was nice, a few extra days of extended daylight. Until you realize that you have one of those "smart" clocks that you've had for a few years now. Which by the way weren't updated to the new time changes. So, dummy me, I don't pay attention to when the time change is supposed to happen, I just relied on my clock. Well, that particular day I had to be at UTA (yes, on a Sunday... dumb class project) at 9:00 am. So I set my alarm to get up at 7:45 am to give myself time to shower, get ready, and drive out to Arlington. One of the other students in the class calls me at about 8:20 am, and asks where I am. I told her at home getting ready to leave. She told me that I was already 20 minutes late. I was like what?! Yeah, dummy, time change was last night. Stupid "smart" clock. Time for a new one obviously. So then I rushed my happy little butt up to UTA to finish the project. The professor make a remark about me being late, but then again he didn't say much past that because other people didn't even bother to show up at all. Funny thing is that the previous weekend I did the same thing about thinking I was on time for something, but was actually late. And that was just because I thought the event started later than scheduled.

On a side note, Sadie quite enjoyed the time change yesterday - she was out like a light by 9:30 pm tops. I was even able to put her in her bed and she slept until about 4:30 am without waking up once. Then I fed her, changed her diaper, and but her back to bed. And she was fine until "regular" wake-up time for the rest of the day, which today was around 9:00 am. Woohoo!

Halloween

2008-11-01T17:40:00.000-05:00

My favorite holiday of the year. Nothing like dressing up like an idiot (in most cases) to beg for candy or at least laugh at all the little kids. Sadie's first Halloween was great. We went to a friends house for a party and we all dressed up. Sadie was a cow. Thomas and I were cowboy/cowgirl. See?

On another note, Sadie is now going 10+ days in terms of sleeping 6.5 or more hours per night. Granted I still get up every three hours or so to check on her to make sure she hasn't face planted into the sides of her crib. But that's ok. First time moms get a break on somethings... don't they? We're still learning. Like learning how to modify a jumparoo seat with a small blanket and a pillow below to make it snug enough for Sadie to sit it. Don't get me wrong - she loves to bounce and smack the rolling rattle thing. And the music makes her smile and giggle (if that's what you want to call it), especially when the monkey or the elephant sound effects kick in. That's until she wears herself out and decides to fall asleep.

What we love paying for

2008-10-29T12:15:00.002-05:00

Yes, that's right, paying. No, not playing or praying. Paying. I have a gym membership to LA Fitness. I have for about three years now. Hardly used it at first. Then got a bit better at going when I was unhappy with myself in respect to my level of fitness and overall outlook on life. Things got a little better. Then got worse and I stopped going, but kept paying. I signed a contract for one year for a personal trainer. It was good the first few months when I was able to really make a weekly schedule and stick with it. Then school, jobs, and life in general changed. And my trainer left. So I had to switch to a new dude - no problem, the new trainer was good too. But I wasn't feeling like I was getting anywhere. Yes, the pounds were coming off and I started looking a bit better, but I wasn't too happy inside. And that's what really matters.

Then I got pregnant. Awesome! But that changes how you need to workout and do particular movements and stretches. So I switched trainers again. This time to a lady who had previously trained other pregnant women and who worked out a lot herself when she was pregnant with both of her two kids. So I was thinking this may work out a bit better. And boy did it! My trainer is awesome. I've been with her since last November. I even continued a contract for sessions with her, knowing I would have to take some time off when Sadie was born and start back up again. I've even met with her outside of the gym - she used to do a boot camp type of series in a local park. I did that until I was 38 weeks pregnant. I felt great. I had tons of energy. My pregnancy was near effortless and I contribute a lot of that to having stayed fit and active throughout. I've met with her at my house and her house for personal sessions as well. And I met with her today at the gym for one of the official sessions that I've been paying for and accumulating while I've been pregnant and away from the gym. Let me just say I love paying for someone to kick my butt for me. I love someone encouraging me to better myself. I love someone who makes me feel good about myself whether I'm near my goal weight and muscle toned body or not. I love paying for my trainer. But that's not all she is to me. It's sad to say, but I would not change it for the world - I love paying for my friend. Thanks Julie!

In a perfect world

2008-10-28T08:55:00.001-05:00

I try not to follow trends for the shear fact of following them to be “in”. But I do follow them and participate if there could be a possibly great outcome for me. With that being said, numerous articles, blog posts, and discussions in general lately have been focusing on budgeting and monetary issues. I don’t have but a few issues of blowing money left and right, but I’ve always seem to be okay afterwards. Seeing that the three of us live solely off of my husband’s income, I think we’re doing just fine with two cars, two motorcycles, a baby, a house, and the normal variety of bills. Oh, did I mention that we are putting nearly a full week’s pay into savings every month automatically? It doesn’t even see our checking account - direct deposit to savings accounts ius awesome. Did I mention that neither of us have any school loans/debt from school? Woohoo. We do have a few small odds and ends on either Home Depot or Lowes credit lines, but all on 12 month no payments no interest deals that we pay off later without any problems. Our biggest problem is the random Target or Walmart runs, or the “ooh, look what I found – that’s cool – I’m going to get it” item that ends up sitting on the shelf somewhere and no being used. It’s got to stop. I’m working on it.

In a perfect world, I would only spend money on groceries that I know I would eat, necessities (bath supplies, etc), and bills. Yes, and unfortunately, bills. Some are required – mortgage, electric, water, alarm, house phone, and internet. Yes – the internet is required – unless you live on campus and can mooch off of the school all the time. Not here though. Other bills are comforts – cell phones*, tv, gym memberships, satellite radio, Netflix. *Cell phones – piss me off. You have to have them these days just to function. But to most people, they are an umbilical cord. Do you really need to be able to check your email on your phone or surf the web for an addition $40-50 a month? You lazy bastard – go to a computer! If you need directions to somewhere, write them down before you leave. Duh.

So yesterday, I spent my entire morning on the phone with Dish Network and AT&T. Dish Network is a bunch of crap, but sadly I won’t live without it. I was looking to switch to a lower bill somehow – drop some channels, view programming packages etc. Because paying nearly $100 a month for tv that we watch maybe 3 hours a night during the week and a little bit on the weekends (minus the multiple hours spent watching football games) isn’t seeming worth it to me anymore. So by browsing Dish’s website, I noticed a few new packages, etc., and called to switch the services I was paying for. But, come to find out, Dish Network is crap. The new lovely packages that would chop my monthly bill in half are NOT available to current customers. Translation – loyalty has no value anymore. Bastards. And what’s worse is that to be considered a new customer, you have to not have Dish for at least 6 months. Ridiculous.

AT&T is a whole other pot of crap. We have to have a home phone line for the alarm and the internet. Fine, no problem. Love my internet – we’re already on the lowest plan for the speeds that we want. Slow internet is not cool. The only calls I ever make from our home line are to order pizza and the occasional service call for some other issue. The vast majority of incoming calls are solicitors. And even then, it’s maybe 10 times a week max that my home phone rings all week – yes, I mean week. So I called AT&T to drop my services to the bare minimum – I don’t need long distance – that’s what cell phones are for. I don’t need call waiting – most people have my cell number anyway. Come to find out that when I called, the old plan that we were on was the same price as the lowest new plan, but with only half the features. So why have I been paying for features that I am not entitled to? Don’t you think that somebody would have noticed that at AT&T and called me to update my services? No. Jerks. So I moved some features around and changed plans, and saved a whopping $3. Great, enough to buy that one extra roll of toilet paper per month that I’ve been desperately needing. Translation – not enough difference to even phase me, but hey $3 is $3, so I’ll take it.

So what expenses do you think you could cut back on? What bills do you think you could really live without? I’m sure if I wanted to really make a difference I could do without Netflix, or the gym membership my husband never uses, or eating out so much, or all the tv channels I don’t watch, or the random Target runs for crap that I don’t need. Heck, even the gas for those Target runs is something that I can cut back on… granted I live about 1 mile from Target, but hey – gas is gas. Time to reevaluate my needs versus comforts – especially if we need to save more for our little SadieMo. Or pay off our house. Or hopefully move in about 3-5 years and be able to pay for more than half of our new house in cash. That would be nice. In a perfect world.

Pumpkin squatting

2008-10-25T20:00:00.004-05:00

It's the only name I could come up with to describe the position Sadie was in when I took the following pictures of her today at the FW Zoo. She's not able to sit up on her own just yet, but she does try. She just needed a little assistance from a nearby pumpkin.

On a side note, we (the fam - Thomas, Sadie, and I) went to the FW Zoo today with K and her boys to meet with one of her friends and fam. Fun stuff. It was fun. It'll be even more fun when Sadie can participate more than being pushed around in her stroller or the short while that we carried her around outside of her prison, oops I mean car seat. I feel like we just cart her around in that thing. I need to get her out more often. But I do miss my hands at times to do with as I please. Ahh - the joys of motherhood.

Sweet Tooth - and I don't mean sugar

2008-10-25T20:00:00.003-05:00

So life has been a bit rough for me lately, particularly in not getting things done that I want to do. Example - sleep through the night. Now I realize that my previous post stated that Sadie was sleeping through the next for the most part.... that was until Thursday night when all hell seemed to have broken loose. Then Friday was horendous... Friday night - unbearable. I ended up sleeping in her room on the floor for the two hours of sleep that I did get. *Quick note - this isn't the first time that I've ended up on her floor. But now the pieces have fallen in places that let me see the whole picture. Sadie is teething. Crazy, I know, especially at such an early age. But it's true - all the signs point to it. The drooling. All over the place. The fussing. The new ear piercing cries that she has learned, particular next to my head when I am holding her. The hard time to eat and wiggle simultaneously. The fist and finger chomping and sucking. Oh, but I love her dearly, yessiree Bob. Let's just hope she doesn't learn to chomp too much just yet. I don't want to feel like I have great hooters that serve as chew toys... just yet at least.

Sleep is nice, but ...

2008-10-21T13:40:00.001-05:00

Sadie has slept through the night twice in a row now. Which is fantastic, and worrisome at the same time. Let me explain. Fantastic - woohoo! I can get some sleep and not have to wake up every few hours to change her diaper, listen to her cry, or feed her. Worrisome - ditto the last sentence. After nine weeks, I've gotten used to waking up every few hours to check on her. If she's quiet for too long or I haven't visually checked in on her, I get worried like something is wrong. And my poor boobs get really full. I may have to start trying to pump in the middle of the night because after about three or four hours of Sadie sleeping, I'm super full and can't sleep because I can't roll around to get comfortable without squashing myself. Argh. But, overall, I'm glad Sadie is learning how to sleep for longer periods of time. She needs all the rest she can get seeing she's growing so stinking fast!

On a side note, job hunting sucks when there aren't that many positions in the field I want to get in. And it sucks even more when people take FOREVER to reply back. What's worse is when people don't let you know that the position has already been filled. Jerks. Oh well. I called one place yesterday that I interviewed with, only to find out that the position was filled. Suck. Then I called the people that I interviewed with first, which has now been a full month since the interview. They say the want me, but have to make sure that they have enough workload to bring me on - meaning they are waiting to land a few more contracts with other places first. Then, this morning I get an email from another place that has been taking its sweet precious time in getting back to me, saying that they have my resume and it will be reviewed "in the next week or so". We'll see. I'm hoping to get something lined up because at this point I feel that all of my hard work through school was a waste of time and too much money. Argh. Somebody please hire me!

Ahh.. the Halloween spirit.

2008-10-19T23:00:00.000-05:00

My favorite time of year. The decorations, the fun, the weather. Awesome. Today, everybody (Paul, Le, Patsy, Eric, Kristie, Derick, Jackson, Patrick, Brittany, Thomas, Sadie, and I) went to a pumpkin patch with a corn maze out in Grapevine. It was fun. Sadie wasn't too happy at some times, but that can be contributed to her being sick and throwing up all over me twice since yesterday, probably from her shots. But she was really good overall. We decided to carry her around outside of her car seat because we cart her around in that thing like she's hazardous material. Which she is at sometimes, especially when she fills diapers left and right, so full that there's no white to be seen, and at times even explodes out of it, oozing everywhere and filling her belly button. Gross, yet hilarious at the same time. All she thinks, probably, is that all systems - check. Haha. Glad to know her innards are working properly. I got a few good pictures on our camera, but what stunk was that our battery was just about out so I had to be very selective when I used the camera. But that's why everybody and their dog has cameras, so I'll just get a few other good pictures from the ones that everybody else took today. Ahh, family sharing at its finest. Hooray for Halloween!

My sweet Sadie

2008-10-18T18:15:00.001-05:00

Sadie had her two month check up yesterday - weight check, length check, head circumference check, general vitals, all followed by a few shots. She was fairly good through most of it, until the bandaids at the end. Little punk doesn't realize that it's not the bandaids that hurt, but by the time she registered in her head that her legs hurt from the shots the bandaids were on. Oh well. She's good now. Actually, she's been a bit difficult today. I really want to make sure she is familiar to eating from a bottle in case I'm gone somewhere for a long time, but I can't get her to take a bottle lately. That's regardless of the bottle type or size, nipple type or size, or even how warm or cold the milk is. Argh.

Other than that, it's great to have Thomas home from two weeks out in CA for work. Too bad he came back sick. :-( Lots of thinking to do about a few things and time is not a pressing issue, but definitely one of that factors that is influencing my decisions lately. Oh well... more later.

Is it possible to breed superheroes?

2008-10-17T11:05:00.002-05:00

I went to check on Sadie last night while she was sleeping just to make sure she hadn't face planted into some weird position in her bed. And what do you know? She did, sort of. She's learned how to roll over from her back to her sides to almost her stomach, and get's stuck like a little turtle on the backside of its shell. Well, she rolled so much in her crib that she wiggled her way enough to turn 270' around. She was past the reverse direction from which I laid her down in. Super strength in such a super little lady. She will also kick the snot out of your lap and stomach if you don't watch how you are holding her. Two months and stronger than American Gladiators. Maybe she's hiding something from us... maybe she was born on Jupiter and delivered here as my little SadieMo. Who knows. .... Sadly, my small developing bruises do. :-)

Welcome

2008-10-16T12:15:00.002-05:00

Welcome to my first attempt at blogging. I'm hoping to get an outlet by writing, well typing really, everything down and getting it out of my head. And to voice my opinion on things - especially when nobody cares to listen or ask.

Quick tidbits about me. I'm a first-time mom to my beautiful daughter Sadie and my husband Thomas' best friend. You could also tack on there the comfiest spot in the house to sit on according to my cats Blue, Red, and Murphy. I used to be insanely involved in marching band - participating in high school, participating and teaching throughout college. But, sadly, not so much any more. College courses and jobs had slowly taken over the time required to maintain that passion. Oh well. Next. Which lately has been home decorating/organizing, which I believe sprung from nesting when I was pregnant with Sadie. But even that has come to a near end because every room in my house is now painted, decorated, fixed up, organized, etc. I admit my closets are occasionally a mess because I just throw things in there, but they do get their "spring" cleaning at times.

I used to be into a lot of fitness activities - racquetball, workout sessions in the park, personal training sessions at a gym three times a week. Of course, that has all fallen to the wayside. I do try to go walking about 2-3 times per week in an attempt to get back into shape. Sadly I was more fit when I was pregnant than I am now two months after Sadie was born. I was the fit preggo lady still working it twice a week until 38 weeks pregnant. And then *poof* no sleep, no time, no energy for me - it all goes to baby! But that's slowly changing as I'm getting the hang of how this mommy thing works - and Sadie is getting better at it too. Enough of that note for now though.

I'm curious to see how often I actually use this blog. Will I be a crazy fanatic and post every day? Or more? Or less? Or much much less? To the point where I forget my login? (That's happened on a few things for me lately... preggo brained still, I tell ya!) We will just have to wait and see.