Snow vs. Powdered Sugar

It snowed here last night ya'll. As in white stuff, from the sky, that was still on the ground when I got up this morning. Crazy, huh? I took some pictures of it, but didn't get a chance to look at how they came out. Oh, and it is only 45 degrees here right now. Wind chill makes it 37. Have I mentioned that my Grandparents are on their way here, right now, to escape the coldness in Nevada?

*******

In other news, I thought I would show you some more pictures of the holiday cheer I have in my life right now. This one is not big, but it is at my office, and as this is where I spend a majority of my waking hours I needed a little something.


What do you think of my cubicle. Comfy, no? Eh, whatever. It works. I am like one of seven out of seventy that does not get an office, but who's counting? Not to mention that I am about as low on the food chain around here as you can get.

Oh and take a look at the break room here....
Just gaze at all of the temptation that I am having to overcome......




And there are still two more weeks until Christmas......

Oh.... Christmas Tree

We decorated our Christmas tree this past weekend, and in attempt to make this blog a bit more festive I thought I would show you a picture. We ended up buying a new tree this year, one that is a better size for our living room. Or more specifically one that is better suited to the ceilings in our living room. For those of you that have not yet been to our home, the ceiling in there slants to some ridiculous height of 400 feet or so. Last year we only had a 6 1/2 ft tree, that we put up on a table but that was more for the crawling little thing we had in our house.
Take a look at this one and let me know what you think. It is a 'themed' tree. Or, I guess more accurately a color-coordinated tree. Everything is either blue or silver or white. What do you think of these themed trees? Don-e grew up with themed trees, whereas I did not. Everything was free game for our trees. But most especially honored were all of the ornaments that we, as kids, made. There is were my concern comes in. What to do with everything that our kid(s) make? Any ideas? I love our tree, but I also love the look of good ol' fashion hodgepodge.

Amoxacillan

Elijah is on his first round of antibiotics, ever. Poor baby. He has a form of laryngitis and a sinus infection. The good news is he slept through the night last night, which was the first time in more than a week. I am hoping that a good nights sleep will go a long way to making him better faster. The form of laryngitis that he has is manifesting as a terrible cough but the doctor also gave us a really good cough medicine. I think that is what made the good sleep happen last night. For the past few nights he has been coughing so bad in his sleep that he will wake up throwing up. Pretty gross, and not a pleasant way to wake up, I'm sure. I just have to admit that I am very VERY glad he slept through the night, because I got to sleep through the night. I was turning into a zombie, only without the whole 'eating people' thing. Not to mention the heartburn I have had because of all the coffee!!!

On another note, I think I will be writing out the events of Don-e's heart thing, as the two of you that read this suggested. I don't keep a personal journal, at least not very well. That is what the point of this site is. A way to document our day to day lives. I also was to write the story of Elijah's birth. I started it shortly after he was born, but reliving it always kinda overwhelmed me. I am hoping that enough time has passed that I can get through writing it now!!

Oh, and also... Elijah said 'I love you' for the first time this weekend. And that sound, the one you are hearing right now... that is the sound of my heart bursting.

Todays...

Thanksgiving is in two days. TWO DAYS!! Can you believe it? I can not. Unfathomable to me. This year has flown by in a way I never imagined possible. And there are no signs to indicate that this break-neck pace will slow down for next year. Sometimes I think that Don-e and I's life together has flown by so fast because we have had non-stop stuff ever since we got married. Almost everything that is said to be stressful on a marriage has happened to us in our short four years together. Moving across the country? Check. Buying a house? Check. Having a kid? Check. Severe illness? Check. Starting a new business? Check. Financial hardship? Double Check. Lost jobs? Check. Relational Issues? Check. And this isn't even a completely comprehensive list. Sheesh. I just got tired writing that. And another three minutes, gone. *Poof* But then I think about where we might be had none of these things happened. And I wonder how bored I would have been. I wonder how strong our marriage would really be had it not been tested time and again. I guess I am telling you all of this to inform you that things are still very very crazy for us, but we are good. So very very good.


Now, I know that eons ago I promised you the story of Don-e's heart thing, but really, at this point it is old news. No one really cares anymore, do you? He has been 100% completely released from his cardiologist with a perfect health report and no indication of any residual damage. They still have no idea of the cause, or what fixed it for that matter. But I suppose if anyone were still really really interested in the story I will write it. Just leave a comment on this here post and I will provide. Those of you who know me know I aim to please!!!

On a more recent note, I have started working again in a real live job. I even get a paycheck every once in a while. This did come about out of financial necessity, apparently almost dying is expensive, but I would be lying if I told you I do not enjoy it. I love the sense of accomplishment that there is in gainful employment, so much more than is ever received from 'just being a mom'. Not to say that it wasn't deserved, just isn't received. The company is called Brigham Oil & Gas, and is an oil and natural gas exploration company. It is really interesting work, and I learn something new everyday. I will share more on it soon, as well as all the other exciting things that are going on in our life!

Living Life

Just wanted to touch base with everyone out there in internetland to let you all know that we are in fact, alive. Doing well even. Don-e is feeling very good most days and has gone back to work on a full time basis. Elijah is doing great and has learned just how good screaming the word 'no' can feel. And I am hanging on. I wish I could report that I am good, but I am not quite back to that point yet. I don't have a job yet, which is making money very very tight, but I do have several good prospects. I promise that I will record the story of Don-e's hopitalization, just not quite yet.
I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend, and if you do so, please pray for my brother. He leaves Tuesday.

Ever wondered how to make your life more exciting?

Take a trip to the emergency room on an otherwise normal Thursday evening, and then stay for the next week.....

The full story to come soon, but I just don't have the energy yet.

Here's your pepper spray...

Ya'll I am terrified.  We have our very first women's self defense seminar this weekend and I am scared to death.  Logically I know that it will be awesome, but that logic is just not translating to my gut.  The gut keeps doing summersaults anytime I think about it.  And as it is the day after tomorrow I am thinking about it a lot.  We have gotten a huge response for it, at last count we were close to 50 paid-for attendees.  That being said, we have no choice but to be great.  Because I go to church with these women.  I work for some of them, I call some of them friends.  

Ugh.

I taught a self defense class once upon a time, but it was pretty close to a disaster.  It was through the dojo where I trained, and was working for at the time.  We got a pretty poor response, about 6 women, and I wasn't told until the very last minute that I was actually teaching the thing.  And by last minute I mean after the women had been waiting to begin for about 10 minutes and I had tracked down our head instructor to tell him to get a move on only to be told, that no, you are teaching.  Get to it.  

It did not go real well.  

Don-e on the other hand as taught many of these, to great success.  Our studio was actually known in the town we are from for having 'hot' instructors.  Women ranging from 15 to 80 would sign up for our classes just for the chance to be handles a bit by them.  Don-e was one of them.  Needless to say he is not nervous.  The man is a natural born teacher so I suppose this would be no different for him.  But I am not sure that I won't be sick.  Hopefully just not while in the middle of it...

Something about a jet plane.

So you all know my brother right?

                            

Well, meet PFC Morgan Miller, aka Jimmy, aka MJ.  He is a sniper in the Army, 4th infantry division based in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  And he is deploying September 1st.  A month from now.  I will not see my brother for a year.  I am not sure that 9 words strung together to make a sentence has ever made me want to cry more than that.  I will not see my brother for a year, and in that year I am sure that he will live through the closest thing to hell on earth that we've got.  He is 19.  He is 19, and one of the greatest men I have ever met. 

 

I have a question to pose to all of you.  When is the last time you thanked a soldier for their service?  Have you ever?  Well, you should.  You need to.  I don't really care what your stance on the war is, and it doesn't really matter.  The men and women who give even two years of their life to defend what this country is, and what it stands for, deserve every honor that we can give them.  Even if it is you stopping them on the street to say thank you.  

We are going to Colorado to see him one more time before he goes, and to pick up his car and personal belongings.  He wants to store all of his things at our house while he is gone, plus we still only have one car so he is letting us drive his.  Great guy, huh?  We are going to fly out (on a jet plane) August 22nd and drive back that Sunday.  

Oh and did I mention that we are not taking Elijah with us.  That it will be the first time we have been away from him for more than a few hours.  And we are going to be gone for an entire weekend.  AN ENTIRE WEEKEND!!!  UGH.

                                                               

Thank you M.

Going back...

So it appears that I am going back to work.  By work I mean an office job, where I am paid a decent amount for the hours that fall between 8 am and 5 pm, give or take.  For the past 

year-ish I have been watching a little boy who is two months older than Elijah during the day.  

The extra income allowed me to be able to stay home, and eat on a regular basis, but it is stopping in 3 short weeks.  His parents are wanting him in a more structured pre-school type setting starting when he turns 18 months.  He will be so exactly 3 weeks from today.   I am excited though.  A second, full income will make things way more comfortable around here, and on top of that I am excited about joining the real world again.  

 

It was really hard to take at first though.  I mean, I have watched this kid for most of his life. Since he was 4-months old.  I watched him learn to sit up, to crawl, to walk.  I taught him what a doggy says, and how to sign 'thank you'.  And more than just being about me, he and Elijah are like brothers.  They play so well together.  I almost think that they are slow to talk because they have their own language, much like twins do.  Don't get me wrong, they have also learned to hit, and shove and bite on each other, but I think that has made them all the more like brothers.  I have threatened his parents that I know where they live if we do not stay in contact with each other, and let the boys get together often to play.  They feel the same way.

 

Our little family is going to miss having our Thae-Thae-Shaney-Ney on a daily basis, that is for sure.

*thump* *thump*

"testing..... testing........"

"anybody out there................?"

Well, hopefully.  Although I can not blame you if you've decided to leave me.  It has been days since I posted last.  But in my defense anything that I would have written would not have been worth reading.  I don't know what happened to me, but it was bad.  Real bad.  There was such anger, and, and.... anger.  I was just mad.  At everything.  And anything.  But, I think I am past that.  A big part of getting past it was seeing my family.  Until I moved here I never knew how much my family centers me.  My husband and my son make me flourish, but my mom, my brother and my sister ground me.  The people I come from give me my base to be who I am.  And so now I am going to celebrate that with pictures!!

To start us off, the hotness.  It is blinding.

This is my brother.  In case you haven't had to listen to me brag about it, he is a sniper in the Army.  It was amazing to see what he could do with the low-grade weapons we went shooting with.  I would love to one day see what he can do with is 50-cal.

This is my mommy, my baby and my Papa.  

These right here, these are my people.  And my sister looks like me, not the other way around.

My Grandma and this kid that was following us around our whole trip.

It doesn't get much cheesier than this.

Four generations right there.  And some of the best salmon I have ever had.

******************

More to come later, but I have to go get ready to take this kid that has shown up in my house and done something with my baby to his 15 month check-up. Eeeck!

Please don't call CPS.

Ahh... it is good to be back.  Those weeks of working while taking care of my boys were crazy.  I really did enjoy the work, but I am also enjoying the non-work!

Things are really good with us.  Not a whole lot is going on really.  My nephew, Christian is in town from Chicago visiting for a few weeks.  His Mom, Don-e's sister, will be here in July so we are looking forward to that.  Don and Michelle celebrated their 30th anniversary on the 10th, so congrats to them.  

Oh, we are (hopefully) going to Reno for the Fourth of July weekend.  My brother will be there visiting at the same time so we will (hopefully) get to see the whole family.

This last weekend we went out with some friends on their boat.  It was Elijah's first time, and while he wasn't a big fan of the lifejacket he had to where, as you will see in the picture below, he had a really really good time.  Hence the request that you not call CPS.

Hello My Peps.

I am not pregnant.  And a little frustrated about it too.

Blah.

Moving on.....

How is your day?  All is well over here on this Eve of Memorial Day Weekend.  It is very hot though.  I am pretty sure we are going to beat the heat by swimming as much as possible this weekend.  Thanks Don and Michelle!

The crazy busyness is as crazy as ever, but our friends will be home next week, and I am pretty sure I will miss the working.  From what they have told me though, they are having a great time.  I actually googled one of the beach towns they visited in Italy to be able to show you pictures but for whatever reason got a bunch of porn so I got scared and slammed the computer closed.  

The kid is saying dog pretty much constantly now.  Only he doesn't say the g, and every time he says it he had to say it 15 times right in a row.  But it is cute, and we are one word closer to the 10 he is supposed to be able to say by 15 months.  Oh, and if you play patty cake with him he will do the 'roll it' part and the 'mark it part'.  The cuteness around here threatens to consume us all.  

Tonight we are going to a movie in the park with some friends.  Should be fun, I am just hoping that we don't get some freak rain storm with as humid as it is today!

No time to talk.

So, I have been slacking, I know.  But I am SO busy.  See, some friends of ours are in Europe for 3 weeks this month, and while they are there I am baby sitting their company.  They own a tile distribution company, but all I am pretty much doing is answering the phone and sending out quotes.  But oh-my-lands people, I am not used to working.  I guess more than that I am not used to working with two little children running around all the time.  But I am loving it.  I have missed working, or more specifically I have missed having tangible results for my efforts.  Anyway, if you don't hear from me much until June 1st you know what I am doing.

In other news, we bought a car!!  Well, actually we bought an SUV.  We had a 2006 Toyota Corolla, that we loved, but we owed almost $13,000 and were paying almost 18% interest.  I know, I know, some of you just had a heart attack.  Get back up off the floor, because we sold it.  We just broke even on it, but at least we are out of it.  So anyway, we have been looking for something a little older, for a lot less money and a way lower interest rate.  And we found it.  What we got is a 2003 Kia Sorento.  It only 

has 73,000 miles on it and we have a connection to a dealership here, so we got the thing for $7,750.  Which was the dealers cost.  Pretty great, huh?   

 

Hey, just cause I am curious as to who is reading, leave me a comment will ya, and let me know you stopped by.

My Project

Hello all, I am here to share my project with you.  I am working on 'fixing up' our yard.  For those of you that do not know, our house in on 1/3 of an acre, so we have a fairly large yard.  There just isn't much to it.  I took pictures to show you!!

This is a bed that I put in earlier this year at the back of our house.  The window goes into our office/spare bedroom.  Our backdoor is to the left of the brick.  The plants that are coming up are some bulbs that I got from one of our neighbors and my father-in-law.  I could not begin to tell you what they are.  I think one of the varieties is a hybrid iris, but there is another somethingorother in there too.  The problem with this bed is that

 both of these flowers need way more sunlight than they are getting here.  I think for this year I will leave them where they are, to see how they do.  I will just need to add some more color with something that will do okay in the shade.

This bed is to the left of the back of our house.  We have these horrible bazillion feet tall bushes that surround our entire backyard.  We measured it out and with these things we lose 20 feet of yard space.  This is the space left when we took out one of these horrible things.  Don't yet know what we are going to do with it, but it is hideous and has to change.

This is just some cute kid that keeps hanging around here.  

After some many weeks of him just being here I think we might just keep him.

This is the front of the house, to the left of the front door.  These are some kind of holly bush that were here when we bought the house.  We are not a big fan of them, but we think we might have come up with a way to make them okay.  There is some room in the bed in front of them, and the front of our house really needs color, but again, there is very little sun so we are going to have to find something that will work in the shade.  Anyone have any suggestions?

I am very excited that we actually are going to put some work into the yard this year.  I will keep you updated on the progress, and if you have any ideas and suggestion please let me know!

Pictures. Finally.

 

So, I know it has been something like three weeks since Elijah's birthday, but here are some pictures for ya'll.

It took Don-e days to get all of the frosting out of his ear!  Happy Birthday little man!

                              

Breast Cancer.

I know it has affected everyone, everywhere.  I have lost family members to this disease.  I have a surrogate aunt who is currently battling this disease.   How has it affected you?  Click on the link.  Sign the petition.  Create a little character.  Help fight breast cancer.

Why doesn't Starbucks deliver?

Because I could go for a lot of coffee right now.  A lot.  

Our weekend was wonderful, but very very tiring.  That kinds seems to be the theme for my life right now.  Bleh.

Seattle was beautiful, even with the snow, and the wedding was wonderful.  I owe you all lots of pictures, but I haven't even started unpacking yet, so you will just have to wait a bit longer.

Happy Tuesday!

Hello World.

So I feel a little bit like my world is out of control.  Do you ever feel that way?  For the last five weeks we have been going almost non-stop.  It has been a love/hate thing for me.  I have been the happiest I have been in a long time, but at the same time it seems like sanity is just out of my reach.  Oh well, I guess I will have plenty of time to rest when I am 80.  Bring on the insanity!!

This weekend was Elijah's birthday.  One whole year has gone by.  And what a year it has been.  We threw him a birthday party on Saturday, but I think I ended up getting the best present of all.  I haven't shared a lot about my family yet, but they mean everything to me.  They absolutely ground me.  If I could be immersed in them everyday I couldn't be happier.  Needless to say, living so far away from them has been horrible for me.  But, on Friday night around 10:30 we were sitting on the couch watching a movie with some friends that had come into town for the birthday party.  Then the door bells rings.  Our first reaction is anger, because if whatever jerk is on the other side of that door wakes up the baby, they are in for it.  So, Don-e goes to the door, and I went to the dvd player to pause the movie.  (We never know where the remotes are anymore.  Thanks 'Ligh!)

So anyway, just as I am starting to look up from the entertainment center my Mother walks into my living room.  Yes, my Mom, the one that lives some 2,ooo miles away.  She had found some plane tickets on sale and decided to surprise us!  I know, amazing, right?  And you want to know what the first thing out of my mouth is?  The first words I say to the woman that birthed me, that I hadn't seen since October?  

"Oh, shit."

Classy, huh?  What can I say.  I am awesome.  But, even after that wonderful reunion, we had a great weekend.  She only got to stay until Sunday evening, but we had a fun, relaxing weekend.  She spend way too much money spoiling my child, but he loved it.  His birthday party was almost as tiring as his birth (ha, I kid) but so much fun.  I will share pictures soon.  And, we are flying to Seattle for my cousin's wedding this weekend.  We leave Friday.  But, to all you robbers out there, don't even think about 'stopping by'.  Our friends that live in Fort Hood are coming to stay for the weekend to keep Hero company, and they are bringing their big dogs with them.  The big dogs that spent all last weekend beating up my pitbull.

                        

I leave you with a picture from the birthday party we went to last weekend.

Only about 3 weeks late...

    



So, I never showed you Easter pictures.  Sorry..... Our kid, he is a champion egg-hunter.  Even though the little girl that you can barely see in the last picture kept trying to steal his eggs.

In other news, Elijah gets to go to his first birthday party tomorrow.  Not his own, but the daughter of some friends of ours that is also turning one.  It should be fun.  I heard mention that there will be play-doh involved, and Elijah has never experienced the stuff.  I guess my kid is neglected.  I can't wait to show you pictures of that!

Ugh.

Have you ever had to correct something on your credit report?  Anyone?  Yeah, well we are in the middle of it right now.  Some stupid California bank has something reported incorrectly on 

Don-e's credit from a car loan that he had before we were married.  Such. A. Pain.  I have had to write twice trying to dispute this thing, make a billion phone calls, and we are still no where closer to having it fixed.  Plus we are trying to do some movings around with our finances, and this thing is holding that up.  Pain in the butt.

Anyway, I have had my rant, so on to other news.  

This past weekend was so much fun with my brother and sister.  I haven't seen either of them since last October so this was  a big deal for me.  MJ, the brother, got here late Thursday night and we had a pretty relaxed weekend.  He is an infantry soldier so relaxing isn't something that he gets to do often.  On Saturday we went into downtown Austin and did the touristy thing, which was fun.  Don-e and I haven't gotten to know this city very well so it is nice when we have an excuse to do so.  Lycia, the sister, didn't get here until Sunday evening, as she was really only here to help a friend move.  They both left Monday afternoon.  Wah.  Elijah loved being with them though!  Yeah for no more stranger anxiety!

5MinutesforMom

Click, go, enjoy....

Because who doesn't love the perfect pair of jeans?

Baby Fever

So, yesterday in my post I mentioned that we have decided to start trying for another baby.  Did you catch that?  No?  Go read it, I can wait....

Anyway, yes, we are going to start trying to get pregnant again.  And by trying, what I really mean is we are not going to prevent it from happening.  In case you didn't know, Elijah was not a 'planned pregnancy'.  We had just moved to Texas, didn't have steady income, didn't have health insurance, and were using birth control.  I just love God's timing, don't you?  But, of course, God provided for us in amazing ways and here we are, mere days away from a first birthday.

Before we had Elijah, and had thought that we had our life planned out exactly the way it should go, we wanted to start trying for a second child when our first child was 6 months old.  That gave the first baby 6 months of breast feeding and would make our kids around 15 months apart.  Our goal was to be done having kids by the time I was 25.  That would mean that we could retire when our youngest was in college, or I was no older than 45.  Sounds pretty perfect, no?  Let me just tell you than last October, when Elijah was 6 months old, I went a little crazy inside at the idea of having another baby.  Maybe a lot crazy.  So, we re-worked our plans, Elijah weaned himself around 8 months, and we decided that we just didn't want our kids any farther apart than 2 years.  That means we have to be pregnant by the end of July.  Which would mean that our children will have been born in the same month.  The same month my birthday is in.

(bleh)

But, I think that I would be okay even if we aren't pregnant by then.  We have decided that after I finish the pack of birth control that I am on now, which is about 2 1/2 more weeks, I will not start another.  But, we will use some other form of control for the first month.  That will give me a chance to get back to a semi-normal cycle.  (so sorry to any male readers!)  That will put us somewhere in the first part of May.  And, like I said we are not going to really be 'trying'.  There will be no tracking, not temperature taking, no planning.  It will happen when it happens.  I have loved being a mom so much that the idea of starting it with this next kid already makes me a little sad.  Sad because it will be the last time.  We do not want anymore than 2 kids (sorry Grandpa Mick!).  We actually for a time considered stopping with Elijah, but as the title of this post suggests, I have got the fever!  Plus, we both have the most amazing relationships with our siblings and we want the same for our kids.  So if it takes us a little longer than we think, and we don't make the many deadlines we have set for ourselves, I will be okay.  Or maybe I just don't want to share my birthday month anymore than I already have to.  

Hello. How are you?

Ahhhh... crazy week.  I suppose I should say crazy life, but blah, whatever.  

Let us just hope that I actually write enough to be able to post it!

Don-e had a BUNCH of family in town this last week and it was crazy.  But so much fun.  I love having family around and this part of his is loud and chaotic, and perfect.  It was his maternal grandparents, an aunt, five cousins, and a cousin-in-law.  Because there were so many of them part of them stayed at the in-law's, and part of them stayed here.  Somebody even slept in the garage!! We had the best time with them though.  Don-e's oldest cousin and her husband are 6 months pregnant with their first, a little boy.  Most of all of the conversations we had circled around pregnancy and Elijah's birth.  It was really neat to sit down and talk about all of that time again.  Makes me anxious to do it again!  Which, by the way, we have decided to start working on....

On Sunday we visited a church that was holding an Easter egg hunt.  Our church doesn't hold any kind of activities other than service, so we went to the church of some good friends of ours.  Elijah did so well with the eggs.  We had gone to city-sponsored hunt last weekend, but that was a disaster.  There were thousands of people there, and even though they had it broken up by age, it was still a mess.  We were in a group of three-and-unders and parents were allowed to 'help'.  There was no helping.  There was looting.  Don-e said that he saw people scooping up armfuls.  Big armfuls.  Ugh.  But!  Yesterday's was so much more fun.  Smaller.  There were probably only 20 kids in our area.  Parents were actually letting the babies toddle around and get eggs themselves.  It was so much fun to watch.  'Lijah didn't get the whole, putting an egg in his basket, moving on to the next, but he loved picking up the eggs.  His Mom just kept taking them to put in the basket!  At one point a little girl came up to him and they were both playing with the eggs in Elijah's basket.  So very cute.  I can't wait until next year when he will be old enough for us to dye eggs and do a hunt in our backyard.

I am so excited, because my brother is coming to stay with us next weekend.  I haven't seen him since his graduation last October.  Come to think of it, I haven't seen any of my family since last October.  But, ever better yet, my sister will also be here for a day next weekend.  MJ has a 4 day weekend, which is why he is coming, and Lycia is driving out here with a friend who's husband just got stationed somewhere in southern Texas.  Remember me mentioning that I love family?  Yeah, living out here with very little family has been my own personal little hell.  I do not regret coming out here at all.  It was the best thing in the world for us.  I just wish my family would follow.  There have been talks of my Mom moving this direction at some point, but I don't think it will happen any time soon.  She has some stuff going on in her life that will hold it up for some time.  But there is hope!!!  Anyway, I will get a little fix this weekend, and then in mid-April we are going to Seattle for my cousin Noah's wedding, and the ENTIRE family (except MJ) will be there!  WOOHOO!

Here I am!

We are alive!  I promise!  All is well and good.  I just don't have anything to write.  No, that is not true.  Stuff has actually happened in my life the past week, I just haven't been in the right frame of mind to write.   But here I am, and I am going to try.  If it sucks though, it is not my fault.

First and the most exciting in the entire world, is that Elijah took his first steps this past weekend!  It was amazing.  Just two little steps between Don-e and I but still the greatest feat to ever be achieved.  Oh, but we did not get it on camera.  Oh no.  The stupid thing was dead, and then when we plugged it in and tried to recreate the event super-baby disappeared into a pile of crawling mush.  All week though it has been amazing to watch him continue to try out this new trick.  He actually got three steps in a row the other day!

  

I have been thinking about the day he was born a bit the last few days, and while I will tell the story here, now is not the time.  What I  have been thinking about though, is how I need to make nice with someone that will have a baby sometime in the near future.  I would like to experience a birth from the other end of the table.  I'm pretty sure that my sister will have kids one day, but I am not sure that she will be open to very many people being in the room.  I might be able to sneak in at some point though, and I am pretty sure that at that point she wont be focused on chasing me out!

I win!

Rip Van Winkle ain't got nothin' on us.

I am so so excited.  For a number of reasons.  The first and very much the most important, is that little bitty 'Lijah slept through the night last night!  Woohoo!  That is the first time in months.  And it was almost 11 1/2 hours.  I know, I know, it is hard to contain the excitement, but you must.  We've been working on weaning him from eating during the night and I think it might be paying off!  I know it is a bit early to be counting my chickens, or whatever, but YEAH!!!

Secondly, I am going out to a book club meeting on Friday.  A book club specifically for young-adult women.  So, you know, if I don't do anything to completely embarrass myself there is potential for friends!  Of the local sort!  The only problem is that I have to drive myself to somewhere in south Austin, at night.  So if you haven't heard from me in a few days you maybe should call someone.

One thing that I am not excited about at this time is that I can not make this stupid thing upload a picture.  Argh.

The average bear has got me beat.

So sometimes I am not the smartest person out there.  I know, I know, this comes as a shock to some of you.  But it is true.  

Yesterday I went to make myself a cup of coffee only to realize that we were out of cream.  Now, just in case you didn't know, I don't "do" coffee black.  Or with powdered creamer if I can help it.  Powdered only happens in very dire situations.  So yesterday you can imagine my dilemma when I discovered our shortage of cream.  Oh, but wait!  We have milk!  All is not lost!  Except that the milk expired about a week ago.   But did that stop me?  Oh no.  "They only put those dates there as a precaution", I reasoned.  "I am sure that it is fine for weeks after that", I said convincingly.  Yeah, no.  Not a precaution.  Let me just tell you my toilet and I got very well acquainted.  I shall call him squishy.

Flat Broke

So, apparently having a blog is the thing for stay-at-home moms to do.  Don't feel like you are getting enough adult interaction during the day?  Blog.  Feel like you no longer connect with anyone on a personal and intimate level.  Read a blog.  Feel like you have no one to listen to the struggles that you face on a day-to-day basis?  Blog.  Then read a blog for advise on said topic. 

And I guess I am being very hypocritical by typing all of this, because hi, you are reading my blog.  One that I started for the simple purpose of expressing myself (i.e. preventing the need to be put in jail) when I feel like smothering the next thing that requires me to change it's butt.  And I read blogs regularly.  Well, I read two blogs regularly.    But I don't want that to be enough for me.  I struggle with all of the problems that I listed at the beginning of this.  But I don't want a band-aid type fix.  I want to connect with people on a very personal basis.  I want to be able to claim a few friends again. 

 

A couple of weeks ago a friend of ours from Reno that just got stationed at Fort Hood called and asked if I could give him a ride from the airport here out to the base.  I, of course, said that I could, but round trip it took about 3 1/2 hours.  And he didn't land here until just after 10 pm. After I had made the plans I thought about how it might actually be fun, but I was heart broken when I realized that there was no one here that I could call up to make the trip with me.  A few years ago there would have been a number of people that I could have called and the trip would have been a blast.  Good conversation, loud music and junk food.  But I don't have those kind of friends anymore.  No one that I could say would be an unconditional friend.  I don't even feel like there is anyone I can call at anytime when I need to talk.  Please don't get me wrong here, my husband is an amazing listener.  He is my best friend, and I can talk to him about almost anything.  But that is not the only relationship that I need in my life.  I want to be rich in friends.  I want there to be people in my life again that are close enough to just show up at my house, unannounced, and then help themselves to my fridge.  I want to feel like there is somewhere that I would be welcomed to do the same.  I just don't know where to find them.  Let me know if you here of a place that has them on sale.