Life’s Hard Questions March 30, 2008

1.  When is Dora going to give up the map, get a GPS, and stop needing us to constantly repeat the directions?  The episodes can be cut down to only a few minutes and we can all do without the shouting and staring.

2.  When are Handy Manny and Kelly going to take their friendship to the next level?  Am I the only one who notices the sexual tension there?

3.  When is Ming-Ming from the Wonder Pets going to have to attend speech therapy? 

4.  Where are The Backyardigans’ parents and why do they let their kids play outside alone all the time?  Plus, don’t they ever get tired of fixing snacks for all of those kids every damn day?

5.  Why, why, WHY does Otis from Barnyard have udders when he is a BOY?!?

6.  When is Diego going to encounter a rain forest animal that ISN’T friendly?  Odds are, he should have been eaten by something by now.

More of Me Being Pathetic March 28, 2008

I try really hard not to talk about my television obsession on here.  I mean, if you like it, you watch it.  You probably don’t want to read about it.  But I was so pumped by American Idol this week that I have to humiliate myself a little bit.

I’ve been a fan of David Cook since the auditions.  I like his style of music and for some reason I think he’s adorable, even though he looks like he speds more time on his hair than I do.  I thought maybe I favored him at first because he used to live in Tulsa, so I was routing for the hometown boy.  But I really look forward to hearing him sing each week.

But this week?  His version of Billie Jean made me want to throw my panties onstage and scream like a teenager.  Granted, I was watching from home, so it would be my stretched-out granny panties being flung towards the tv, which Squeaks would inevitably scoop up and put on her head. Thankfully I was DVRing the show, so I have been able to play the song over and over again.  I could break down and order the song from iTunes, but then I would miss the goodness that is drooling over him onscreen.

So, yeah, I’m a dork, but it’s nice to have a tv crush again.  I got over Julian McMahon after he got too weird on Nip/Tuck and I was needing someone to fill the void.  Who are your tv crushes?

When The Lights Go Down in the….Country March 26, 2008

As I was sitting in the living room last night, enjoying a bowl of popcorn and some DVR, our power suddenly went out.  And ever since last December and the ice storm, I’m terrified of losing power.  I’ve got this irrational fear the the power will stay out forever.

So I lit a few candles and settled in for some reading in the dark, when I heard noises upstairs.  I’m sure these noises are normal old house sounds that I just can’t normally hear over the hum of the fridge and the waterfall sounds of the fish tank.  But my creative mind went crazy.  I just knew someone had cut my power off and now they were upstairs, waiting to attack me.  A look outside showed me that my neighbors had power, which further fueled my fear.  I decided to act all brave and get my handgun, when in reality I’d do better pistol-whipping someone than actually shooting where I aim.

I called The Hubby at work.  He’s laughing at me, but told me it’s smart to have the gun nearby if it makes me feel safe.  I tell him I want a hip holster so that I can feel like an old west gunslinger.  He realizes he married a crazy woman.

I call the electric company.  The assure me that someone is on their way to check it out, but they don’t know how long we will be without power since they don’t yet know the problem.  I resign myself to the fact that it’s 11:00 and I can sleep through the power outage, rather than sit around and wait.  But first I decide to do a bad police drama-style search of the house.  My 9mm and I stormed into every room, ready for a fight.  And of course there was nothing

As I got in bed, I called The Hubby again to give him the update.  While we were talking, the power decided to come on, go off, come on, go off….you get the idea.  But I sounded like an episode of Family Guy:  Yay!  It’s on….ohhhh off…..ON!…..off…..on!….still on!….ohhhhh off.  It took awhile, but we finally had power back before I went to sleep.  In the dark.

Oh, Easter March 23, 2008

Easter weekend is usually a big deal for my family, probably because they’re all super-religious.  We usually spend the days before coloring endless amounts of eggs.  On Easter Sunday we eat a huge feast, then hide eggs for all of the kids to find.  It’s always so much fun and I look forward to it every year (except Easter 3 years ago when I was pregnant and kept running from the table to puke, but that’s the only exception).  Well this year, a big kink got thrown into our plans.

I spent yesterday at Urgent Care with Squeaks.  She had been running a fever of 105 degrees since the night before, and that was after taking Motrin.  She was miserable, we didn’t sleep at all Friday night and every time she coughed she cried.  She spent the night in my arms, whining “Mama”.  So I bundled her up and off to the doctor we went.  I just knew she had the flu.  The amazing doctor at Urgent Care was very gentle with her, checking her lovey, “Ted”, over before her.  They did a strep test and a flu test, both of which came back negative.  I was so thankful for that, and the fact that her lungs were clear, as this was very much reminding me of a year ago when she had RSV and pneumonia.  The doctor determined that she’s just got some very bad infection so he put her on some antibiotics and a cough syrup/antihistamine.  I was scared to give her the cough syrup, as I was told it could cause excitability in young kids and we didn’t need any more reasons to lose sleep.  Thankfully Squeaks is like her mama and if a medicine says it might make you sleepy, it knocks you out cold.  She took her medicine and then slept through the night.  At one point I got up to check on her, just to make sure she hadn’t OD’d on the meds and something bad had happened.  But she was fine, just resting up.

I was really hoping she would feel good enough today to go to the Easter festivities at my parents’ house.  While she’s doing much better, she’s still not feeling up to her normal self.  I made the decision to keep her home today.  Since The Hubby was stuck working today, we decided to celebrate Easter next Sunday.  We’ll color and hunt eggs then and Squeaks will never know the difference since she’s only two.  So for today we’re cuddling up in our pj’s on the couch, playing with the new toys in her Easter basket, and watching Happy Feet.

I hope everyone else has a better Easter (or just plain old Sunday, for that matter, if you don’t celebrate Easter).

Home Sweet Home March 22, 2008

We are finally back from our vacation and we had a wonderful time.  We went to Texas over the weekend for a family reunion.  It was a great time, full of cards, ping pong, and catching up.  Squeaks had a blast playing with her cousins and I really didn’t see much of her, as she was running with the kids all of the time.  We stayed up way too late and slept in.  I was very sad when everyone left to go home.

But we didn’t have to go home yet!  We went over into New Mexico to see some old friends of ours.  They have an 11 month old little boy that we hadn’t met yet, so it was high time we saw them.  We spent a lot of time catching up and laughing while the kiddos played together.  One day we drove over to Carlsbad Caverns and took the tour there.  It was amazing.  I’ve been to caverns before, but this one was really neat.  Plus, Squeaks liked it, which shocked me.

We’re home now.  I’m really sad that our trip had to end and I really miss all the people I got to see again.    But I am glad that I can sleep in my own bed again and not an air mattress on the floor.  I’ve got some great pictures that I’m in the process of uploading now, so I should have some for you soon.

And I forgot to mention just how great Squeaks was.  She traveled in the car like a champ.  Only once did she get upset and it was in the last 20 minutes of the drive to Texas.  Other than that she was amazing.  She was polite and sweet everywhere we went and she wouldn’t stop kissing people (which probably explains why she’s sick now — again).  Now I can’t wait for the other trips we’re taking this year!

Blah. March 12, 2008

I left work after only an hour on Monday because Squeaks passed her stomach virus on to me.  To spare you all the details, it was horrible.  But apparantly I also got something on top of it that she didn’t have.  I’ve been running a really high fever and have hurt all over.  If I had a cough, I would think I had the flu.  So I’ve spent the last 2 days in bed.  My fever finally broke this morning, so I’m forcing myself to try to get up and do something.  I’ve got a lot to do before we leave for our trip on Friday, so I’ll try to keep you updated, but getting sick really put me behind!

Mindless Drivel March 9, 2008

• Squeaks has been hit with yet another stomach virus.  I walked into my MIL’s house today after work to pick the kiddo up.  She ran over to me, said “My tummy hurts”, then vomited all over me (and most everything else).  I’ve been spending the day cleaning puke and doing the piles of laundry that have resulted.  I hope tomorrow is better.  And Alison, sorry for the details!!
• I really need to update my blogroll.  There are quite a few on my list who no longer blog or have shut their blogs down completely.  Plus I need to add some new ones.  And I’m also stalking all of your blogrolls, trying to find who you like, so I can start reading them as well.  Like I have time for this.
• We are going to Texas for a family reunion.  We leave next weekend and we get to stay gone for a whole week!  We’re going to hop over to New Mexico to visit some old friends we never get to see and meet their new baby.  It’s not the most exciting vacation, but I’ll be so glad to get away.  We broke down and bought Squeaks a portable DVD player.  It’s going to be a very long drive and she won’t fall asleep in the car anymore.  I’m hoping she’ll watch a lot of movies to pass the time, but I’m also hoping she’ll keep the headphones on so that I don’t have to hear 7 hours of Go Diego Go.
• We watched the movie Beowulf tonight.  I was really excited to watch it because I remember reading it in my senior English class and loving the story.  Either I don’t remember the story correctly or they took some major liberties with the plot, because it was a lot different than I remembered.  My favorite part was when The Hubby said, “All they do is kill demons and then get drunk.  Sounds like a pretty kick ass gig.”
• I’m in need of some good books to read.  I love mysteries, thrillers, and medical thrillers.  I’ll even do some romance, as long as there is good storyline and not just gratuitous sex!  Anyway, I have this Barnes and Noble gift card to spend and I’d like to do it before the trip so I’ll have plenty to read.  I love authors like Janet Evanovich, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Linda Howard, Erica Spindler, and the likes.  Let me know who you like or what book I must absolutely read.  And fiction, please.  I don’t want to learn when I’m reading for fun! 

Wake Me Up When She Turns Four March 7, 2008

The last two days have resulted in battles that have caused me to remove all candy from our house.  And I love candy.  Perhaps it’s where she gets it.  It sucks, but it had to be done.

Yesterday:  Squeaks loves M & M’s.  We bought her a little Easter egg full of them when we were at the store last week and we’ve been letting her have a few here and there.  Yesterday morning I fixed her breakfast and before she had eaten any of it, she was begging for “M’s”.  I told her she had to eat first, then she could have some.  We only discussed this every 10 seconds for the next 5 minutes.  She finally starting shoving food in her mouth so that she could have her candy.  At one point I had to go to the bathroom.  She followed me in there and kissed me, then ran out of the room.  I knew something was up.  I heard a sound that sounded suspiciously like M&M’s hitting the floor.  Sure enough, she had climbed on the table and gotten her candy.  When I found her, she was shoving as many in her mouth as she could before I could catch her.  I made her spit them out, then I threw the rest away (okay, so I actually hid them and ate the rest later, but the other way sounds better).  She got in big trouble for defying me that way.  I was hoping she got the message and we wouldn’t have a repeat.  Yeah, right.

Today:  I fixed her breakfast and she started begging for a sucker.  I keep a bag of DumDums in the house because I use them to bribe her to sit still in the shopping cart at WalMart.  Most mornings usually start with her asking for a sucker, and she usually forgets after she has breakfast.  Not so today.  I told her she had to eat her food, then she could have a sucker.  It seemed like she got the message.  Then I caught her throwing her breakfast in the trash.  When she started asking for a sucker, I told her that she did not eat her breakfast, so she couldn’t have a sucker.  This resulted in her asking to eat, as she obviously thought eating would make the sucker appear.  I told her she wasn’t getting more food because she threw her breakfast away without eating any.  This went on and on.  The next thing I know, she has fished her breakfast out of the trash and IS EATING IT!  Aaaagh!  I guess she wanted that sucker pretty damn bad!

Now please don’t go saying that I obviously don’t monitor my kid well enough.  I was trying to get ready for work while this was taking place this morning.  And she moves fast.  But I just can’t believe how defiant she can be.  I knew two was full of problems, but this is one issue I didn’t forsee.  I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

Happy Birthday to Me March 3, 2008

So today is my birthday.

We celebrated it Friday night with our friends.  I drank waaaaay too much and woke up the next morning to see that my sweet Hubby had set out water, Excedrin, Tums, and a trash can next to me for hangover help.  Let’s just say I needed the water and the Excedrin, but my stomach held up like a champ.  It was so nice to act immature again, if only for one night. 

Saturday night we celebrated with my family.  We cooked out at my parents’ house and just visited.  Last night we got together with The Hubby’s family.  So when my mom called me this morning to wish me a Happy Birthday, she caught me off guard.  I forgot it was my birthday.  We had done so much freaking celebrating that today was just another day to me!

In the gifts category, my sweet Hubby got me a CHI iron that I’ve been wanting forever!  He also (jokingly) got me a wireless headset microphone to use with my karaoke machine.  I told him that leaves me free to play some awesome air guitar while I perform.  My parents gave me money to get a massage and I’m using what’s left for some music on iTunes.  And then Hubby’s grandpa got me a gift card to Barnes and Noble.  I’d say I made out great this year!