The current obsession

is with this toy. Some of the eggs are missing and they were my sister's (now age 39) and then mine. My mom kept them and Vi likes to carry the halves around. There is a later model that is yellow made by Playskool in the 1980's, but this was made by Child Guidance Toys in the 1970's that is a blue carton. That is one we have. I was looking to buy her one, but they are going for $100 on Ebay!

Late Thanksgiving Post

When I was at the gym today (Yeay I made it) I started thinking I have so, so much to be thankful for. Both in a material sense and non-material sense. Even little things from my childhood. Yes, I have some childhood issues like everyone else, but Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to reflect on all the good things, don't you think? I think being a Thankful person (of which I have always been) serves a person well in life.

I am thankful that .....
I grew up in a small town. It's influenced who I am today.
That my parents ate dinner as a family, took us to church, exercised as a family, and went to the library.
That I spent loads of time in the outdoors and love it.

That my husband and I are both employeed.
For health insurance.
For a reliable car.
For heat and clean water.
Washer and dryer in my home.

For my husband of nearly 10 years that loves me a lot!
For my sweet baby girl that was a blessed miracle of the highest magnitude.

For crazy little things like Diet Coke, peanut butter, the internet, the TV show "LOST", sunny days, and long naps (as if).

Holiday Pictures

I wish I had some to post here. We don't have the Holiday decor up yet, but I hope start tonight. P promised if I got all my 'other' work done, he would help me tonight. That's big of him. I took Vi to JcPenney for Holiday pictures today at 9:20 a.m. I made the appointment ages ago, to get the 2nd appointment of the day so that we would not have to wait. They are notorious for running late at that location, but it is really close to my house and not in a mall. Vi has had her picture taken five other times there with success. She is not an easy person to photograph.

We waited for 45 minutes (AUGH) and VI ran around and tired herself out. Once in the picture area, she bawled the entire time results in very.crummy.pictures. I bought a few and spent under $15. I made an appointment for Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. to come back, but frankly, we're done. I do the Christmas cards using christmas shots from Wal-Greens for .50 cents each. And they are very nice.

The funny thing is that I have a very similiar pose from my childhood with the exact same crying face. I need to put them side by side in a frame.

Too busy

So I haven't posted in like a million years (actually it's been a few weeks). December is upon on and as you know, things becomes even more accelerated until January. Right now I am actually resting (aka sitting down) watching Vi toddle around the living room and read book to herself while drinking a Diet Coke and P looks up vacation spots on the computer. P wants to take just a vacation with us aka adults. I don't think I can leave Vi, even though I know it would be really good for us. But my mom and sister are dying to watch her. THe concerns are that my sister works and my mom is old and becomes tired. Also, they are four hours away so I would have to meet them and drop her off. We are considering Disney (We went once around 5 years ago and it was suprisingly romantic), Hawaii (too far & expensive), and the Smnokey Mountains. I for one, would love a vacation to lay around, eat, read, and exercise for two hours per day.

We went to Grand Rapids for the Holiday. MY mom was pretty upset, but 9 hours round trip is just too far. It was my husband, his two brothers, their GF's, GF's mother and brother. We just came back around two hours ago. It's great to have Friday off too and I have so much to be Thankful for.

Cleaning

Growing up we always had a messy house. It wasn't 'dirty' perse, but just oodles of clutter everywhere. Piles of magazines and newspapers in the living room, laundry ready to be put away all over the dining room, bunches of crap on the kitchen counters, clothes on the bed in the spare room, and just lots and lots of stuff. My parents never threw anything away. IF they got something new like a stove, the old one went immediately to my Grandpa's house in the country and was left in the garage in 'case they needed it'. (that is why even though my Grandpa has been deceased for 6 years, his house and garage is full of my parent's old stuff).

I am not a great housekeeper. Coupled with feeling crummy, my husband working 60+ hour weeks, working on his thesis, the baby, me having to cook often, and trying to fit in exercise, I"m too tired to get much of anything else done except keeping the kitchen up and trying to keep up with the laundry.

P has been begging me to hire someone. Honestly, even in this economy, I couldn't find someone. They wouldn't wash windows or wouldn't do this or that. Ugh! I finally got a recommendation. She comes once a week for three hours and charges $75. She picks up toys and neatens up and will do laundry! But I have to remind her of this. She's not perfect, she calls me about every little thing and prefers cash because she has no bank account. But it takes the crushing burden off of my shoulders when I just can't keep up with everything.

If only I didn't have to sleep.

Teething

I've been trying to get Vi to take her nap all afternoon. Daddy too. At daycare they go down at 12:30 and she sleeps until 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. It's 2:22 p.m. and she is still awake. Screaming at the top of her lungs which is something she seldom does. I reached into her mouth (I'm brave) and felt a big hard nub on the left bottom jaw. It appears to be a molar, even though the cuspid isn't in yet. I just gave her Tylenol and a teething biscuit and she is lying on Daddy. It's so nice here (for NOVEMBER!) the patio doors are open. I have a bladder infection and the Ciprofloxacin makes me feel like garbage so I cleaned the kitchen and am sitting on the couch trying to keep the contents of my stomach down. THe laundry is running of course as well.

You know the saying nothing is certain but death and taxes? It should be laundry, death and taxes.

It's NaBloPoMO

DUh! And you can already see I've failed! It is 70 degrees and Fabulous here - we took VI to the park and I we are in shirt sleeves. Loving it! VI loved playing in the leaves.

namoblomo

So I think this is the month out of the year when you can challenge yourself to write every day of the entire month. Wow! Some nights I barely get to brush my teeth before collapsing into bed of exhaustion.

I need to go to bed because the time change has me all messed up. Plus VI was kind of whining at approximately 5:00 this morning, so I didn't get back to sleep.

We're getting a new washer! How exciting! NOt really! Our old one isn't spinning at all and the cost of repair is almost as much as a new one, hence the replacement. We went to Lowe's on Saturday and it actually was a fairly painless process. This time we purchased a front loader, so this will be a bit of a change. I had a front loader when we lived in the UK and I hated it. I hated springing for an extra $200 for the gloried plastic stand to raise it up to a comfortable level for loading, but we did it so my back wouldn't break.

I'm exempt from doing laundry until Saturday when it is delivered.

Happy Halloween

Vi had three events to attend this Halloween; a daycare party, a community center party, and Trick or Treating. My friend had picked her up a Monkey costume that was looking for but later - at Cracker Barrel store (I was buying a gift card - I don't eat there) and they had their costumes 50% off so I bought the Bumble Bee!

I had a really difficult time getting a good shot of her.