Hello again

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!

Short post

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

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

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?

Ying and yang

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

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.

Woot Woot! June is great so far!

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!

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

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!

Growing up

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.

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

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

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?

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!

Our first trip

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

A special day has passed

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!

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.