The Hamilton's

Weekend Update

2012-01-08T20:57:00.001-05:00

I feel like I need a weekend after my weekend! (Kind of like needing a vacation after vacation!) Yesterday, I got up early and went to Weight Watchers to weigh in. I hadn't been since December 10th and needed to show my face. I did well through the holidays and actually lost a little bit of weight. :) (Hopefully that isn't just from having a kidney infection that caused vomiting!)Lacey & I went to a Girl Scout event from 11:00 - 3:00. A couple of the troops in our Service Unit put on a "Beach Party" for all the troops in our Unit. All of the girls in my troop (10) made it. They played games for the first 90 minutes, took a lunch break, then crafts. I was beat by the time I got home since I'd been on my feet for the whole 4 hours. But, I couldn't sit down and put up my feet. There was a party to attend. Justin is heading into the Air Force on Tuesday and we needed to celebrate with him. :)Rick & Kristina had a party at Trinity Church Hall with family and friends. Food (potluck), a DJ/Karaoke and lots of fun. The Hall has a little back room that's a play area and they stayed back there almost the whole night. A couple of young cousins were there (11 and 9) and they all played really well together. I think it's the latest my girls have ever stayed up. We left around 11:00, I think and Leah fell asleep when we turned into our neighborhood.You'd think I'd decide to make today a quiet day, right? Wrong.The girls have both said recently that they want to have their own rooms. They've shared a room since March 2010. We started this morning at Lowe's, buying painting supplies. The "playroom" needed a new coat of paint before we could move Leah's furniture in. I painted for a few hours this afternoon. Then, as soon as the paint was dry, we started moving the furniture. We still have to hang pictures and shelves back up, but it's mostly done. So....Lacey wanted to sleep in Leah's room. On the floor. She had a bed set up. Then, she decided to go back to her room. And, Leah decided she wanted to be on Lacey's floor. Now it's 9:20. Lacey is usually asleep by 8:30 and Leah by 9:00. They will be so tired tomorrow. I've yelled too much and feel horrible about that, but I was really thinking after all the work today I'd like to sit and watch DH while sipping a glass of wine. Frustrating to still be fighting them at 9:20.Hopefully tomorrow night will go more easily. Leah has promised to sleep in her room then.

Computer Issues

2012-01-03T20:01:00.002-05:00

Our family computer (desktop) has needed some "attention" for a while now. The last time we had it cleaned up was in 2008. It was one of those things on my list for ~~weeks~~ months. Ridiculous. Yesterday morning when I was on the computer, I got a warning message about a "bot". So, I called Hunter - the guy that fixed our computer back in 2008. Dropped it off today. He said he found several issues and he took care of and told me we should get a new hard drive, too. The new hard drive will be about 3x as big as the old one, so it will be like a new computer to us. :)

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T19:29:00.003-05:00

I've been considering new year's resolutions over the last few days, but haven't taken the time to write them down. So, I'll do that here.

1) Make a real effort at this blog! (More time blogging, less time Facebooking.)

2) Take better care of myself. This includes several different things: get to bed earlier, make time to exercise, eat more fruits and veggies....less sugar, wash my face each night.....you get the picture.

3) Organization! This was on the list in 2011, too. I know I did a little better, but need to build on it more. (I wish the rest of my family was on board with organizing, too.)

4) Do better with keeping the house picked up.

Let's see how I do!

New York

2011-07-10T09:41:00.003-04:00

I’m in NY for several days for a client’s convention. This might be the least favorite part of my job. We have a booth/table at the Exhibit Hall to advertise the client’s insurance program. In my experience, most members – regardless of the client – avoid the insurance booth. So, it makes for a long, boring day. The hours at this particular convention used to be 10 hour days. By myself. Thankfully, this year they scheduled a 3 hour break in the middle of the day. This was likely done because of complaints from others last year. We would be there for 10 hours and the attendees were off touring the city we were in. They were not coming to see the booths! Anyway, that 3 hour break made a huge difference yesterday (the first day).

I used to attend another convention for a large client that wanted (and needed) to have several people working the booth. So, there were others to talk to and do things with in the evenings. Lots of touring the cities we would visit, etc. When I’m by myself, I tend to just enjoy the silence of a hotel room at night; a glass of wine; what I want to watch on TV; room service; and no bedtime battles (or bedtime Olympics, as some of my other mom friends call it).

I got here on Friday afternoon. After checking in at the exhibiting area to make sure all my things arrived, I headed back to the hotel. A nasty rain storm was coming and I had no interest in being out in it. After just hanging out for a bit, I ended up doing the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. (Love that workout…and I’m still a little sore today.) Then, I ordered room service (salad and wine) and settled in for a night of TV. Not very interesting, but quite relaxing.

During the break yesterday, I changed clothes & put on my walking shoes…..and, walked for 3 miles. I was hoping to stumble across a good store to buy gifts for the kids, but didn’t see anything interesting for them. So, it was just a good exercise walk.

Last night was pretty much a repeat of Friday night. There was an opening reception that I had a ticket for, but I never really attend those things. By the end of the day, I’m pretty done with people. And, other than just a couple of people, I don’t know anyone. I probably should go to these things. I feel guilty when I don’t. But….oh well. It’s done now.

We joined Netflix a couple of months ago & it is awesome being able to download movies and TV shows. There wasn’t anything on live TV last night, so I just found things on Netflix.

I got an iPhone last week, so I’ve been playing with that quite a bit. It has something called Face Time, which is basically a way to video chat with others that have an iPhone or iTouch. Since I already had an iTouch…..I was able to chat with Butch & the girls last night. Very cool. I gave them a tour of the hotel room and showed them the view from the window. Lacey loved all of it. Leah was too sad about Mommy not being home to enjoy the call. She just kept telling me to come home.

Still 2+ hours from my break today. I'm planning on walking again. This time I WILL find something for the girls. I have a better idea of which stores I want to go to.

Weekend Update

2011-06-27T07:32:00.002-04:00

Monday comes, and I can never really remember what we did all weekend. Ridiculous.

We thought about going out on Friday night, but didn't call ahead of time for our sitter, so we were out of luck with that.

Saturday morning, we headed to the gym. I was getting ready to stretch when one of the child care workers came out to find me telling me Lacey had lost a tooth. My response was "and she's wigging out?". The blood really freaks her out. Apparently she was just crying, but they thought they should get me. So, I stretched in the child care area while she rinsed her mouth out and calmed down. (This was tooth #5, by the way.) Pictures to come.

We went home to get the kids changed for their swim lesson and drove out again - the opposite way. Swim lessons the last 2 years have done wonders for my kids. I'll have to do another post on that.

Home again. Thinking about going out. Called the sitter, but they were out all day and didn't get the message until 8:00ish, so another night at home. Instead, we cooked cheese tortellini with chicken sausage. So good! Since the weather was so awesome (low humidity), we enjoyed the deck again.

At some point, Leah either left the back door open, or didn't close it tight & the wind blew it open....and Alex got out. (I need to post about the new cats!) We didn't realize she had gotten out until a couple of hours later when she showed up on the deck ready to come back in. Apparently, it was a fun outing because she keeps trying to sneak out again.

Lacey woke up early on Sunday - I think because she remembered the tooth fairy would have come. So, she came bounding into our room at 6:45 with a big smile and showing us her dollars. :)

Both girls started asking to go to PaPa's to swim almost immediately after waking. We gave in late morning thinking we'd let them swim for an hour or so, then head home to get stuff done. Getting them out of the pool was much more difficult than we thought it would be! I guess an hour isn't enough. But, we did get back home and managed to be a little productive. I think the house is cleaner than it has been in weeks.

After dinner, the girls & I walked over to see friends. The kids played while I chatted with Donna. The plan was for me to walk home and leave them for a bit, but once we started chatting, it seemed silly to walk back home for such a short time.

Then, it was just a typical Sunday night. Ironing clothes for today, etc.

Hello Monday.

Kindergarten....come and gone!

2011-06-25T17:01:00.012-04:00

So hard to believe that I will be the mom of a 1st grader next year! Since I have been so lame with posting updates here, I thought I'd just do a quick one (hahaha) about the whole school year for Lacey in one spot. I truly can't believe I didn't do a 1st day of school post!

First, we went to an open house so Lacey could meet her teacher & see her classroom!

Here's the official picture from the first day!

And, just to compare....here she is last year starting pre-K!

She barely looked back when she hopped on the bus this year! She sat on the bus with Brittany (who lives across the street) all year. We were really lucky with that. Brittany is in 5th grade and is great with Lacey. http://www2.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

In October, the school had Trunk or Treat. The kids all went around to about 50 cars getting treats. Lots of fun & chaos! Lacey was Alex from The Wizards of Waverly Place and Leah was a pumpkin.

I volunteered for the trip to a pumpkin farm and had a great time with all those little munchkins. I had Lacey & 2 other little sweethearts in my group. We went on a hayride, the kids got to milk cows, we saw baby pigs, pig races and more!

I tried to go on the spring field trip, too, but the school is lucky enough to have lots of volunteers...and they all need their turns! Since it was at a swamp, I'm okay with that!

In June the school held a mini-relay to go along with Relay for Life. Lacey & I decorated a shirt for her that read "In Memory of MeMa" and "In Honor of Aunt Annie and Uncle Steve". The kids walked around the school 4-5 times, while some of the teachers blew bubbles and squirted them with water guns.

Here are Lacey & Haley holding their class sign.

Trying to avoid being squirted by Aunt Kristina (I mean, Mrs. Lacey)!

The end of year picnic was held at Gilbert Run Park. It was H O T!!!!! Heat index was above 100 degrees that day. It didn't slow the kids down, though.

Here's Lacey & her BFF.

They had tons of fun running around. Lunch was set out earlier than planned because of how hot it was --- figured everyone would want to get out of their early. After eating, the rental place for peddle boats opened up and despite the heat, Lacey HAD to get on one. We lasted about 20 minutes!

On the way out, Lacey wanted to pose...and got a little silly!

She had a few more days of school after the picnic. Can you believe the last day was scheduled for a Monday? Ridiculous. We ended up keeping her at home that day. I would have sent her, but none of her best buddies were going and Grandma & Poppy were in town....so we kept her home to visit with them.

She had another awesome report card! I'm so proud of how she's done this year. She's reading ahead of where expected and doing really well with math, too. Comments on report cards through the year were things like "model student", "attentive & ready to participate", etc. It's so awesome to hear these kinds of things as a parent!

And, now....it's summer! Butch is spending lots of time with her and she's talking about being bored. :) Typical kid, right?

McNeel Family Reunion in West Virginia

2011-06-15T08:21:00.004-04:00

We spent the weekend in West Virginia at a family reunion with the McNeel side. Some people hadn’t seen each other in more than 20 years. The last time I had been to West Virginia was nearly 8 years ago when we came to my cousin Kevin’s wedding. Rick & Kristina hadn’t been in around 25 years. This is something we’ve talked about doing for a few years, but getting schedules together for 40+ people is pretty difficult!

Butch was out of town last week visiting colleges in Tennessee. Rather than flying back to DC or BWI, he flew into Charlottesville, VA --- which was sort of on the way to the reunion. The girls and I drove to Charlottesville on Thursday night and stayed at a hotel. It helped to break the trip up. And, if we hadn’t done that, we would have needed to wake up early on Friday & be in the car by 7:00, which didn’t sound fun. Instead, we had a “girls’ night” at the hotel, room service for breakfast (the worst I’ve ever had) and the girls got to swim in the pool for a short time.

The girls & I were happy to see Butch & get on the road for WV! The place we rented is an old house on a farm in the middle of nowhere. The original part of the house was built in the 1800’s. The drive up the mountain, leading to the house was a bit scary……very narrow…so much so that I can’t imagine what we would have done if we’d met someone else coming the other direction. And, the drop off was steep --- with nothing there to prevent the fall.

We finally arrived at the rental house a little after 3:00. Dee Dee, Bucky and Dad arrived pretty soon after we did. Aunt Annie & Aunt Jeannie were waiting to say hello. Everyone else trickled in through the evening.

We knew we’d be sort of roughing it by staying at this place, based on reviews that we’d read online. But, short of really roughing it (campground in tents), it was the only way we’d found to get all of us in one place. We were able to stay up talking & hanging out without anyone having to drive back to a hotel room.

Poor Leah was so exhausted by the time we were getting her to bed (11:00 pm) that she was sobbing & screaming. Some of the kids were sleeping in tents & she wanted to do that, too --- with me. Since we didn’t have a tent….and there was a perfectly fine bed….sleeping in a tent wasn’t happening!

Saturday morning, we finally got ourselves organized enough to get out of the house. It was nearly 11:00 before we were out the door. We caravanned to Aunt Jeannie’s and visited for a short time there. Then, back in the car to drive to Renick, where Mom’s family lived.

We knew Grandpa & Grandma’s house wouldn’t be the same, but we still really wanted to go. It looks nothing like it used to --- not even the backyard is the same. However, standing across the street, looking at the house brought back memories. The stairs that lead from the street/sidewalk up to the house look the same for the most part. However, we all agreed that when we were kids, it seemed like there were many more steps! The hill doesn’t look nearly as steep now. I can remember being so scared walking down those steps to get the newspaper.

My cousin, Tammy & I walked up to the house to see if anyone was home….sort of in hopes that they’d be open to us walking around on the lawn….or maybe even an invitation into the house. No one answered, though.

We headed over to a little spot where we could check out the Greenbrier River and the kids could get their feet wet. (They were disappointed that the house was supposed to have streams….but when we arrived we were told they are “wet streams” and are dry now.) Tony (named after my cousin who died much too young) is 20 months old and all boy! He waded into the water a bit, then came to a spot where it dropped off to about 2 feet…and he fell….stayed under for a couple seconds. A guy who was going out on a row boat grabbed him since he was closest.

After leaving the River, we drove past Aunt Ruby’s house. I have no memories of it since I was quite young when we would go visit and play there.

Next stop was the cemetery to visit the graves of Grandpa & Grandma and other family members. Then, off to the American Heritage Music Hall, which was started by Aunt Jeannie & her friend, Charlie years ago.

Back to the farm for dinner & visiting……

Most everyone that wasn’t already staying at the farm had already arrived. Oops! (Our touring around took longer than we thought….and we started later then we had planned!) It was so great to have everyone together. (Although, I should say “most” everyone…since there were several family members that couldn’t come on the trip.)

The farm had a zip line and in addition to the kids enjoying it, my nearly 74 year old Dad tried it! Dee tried to talk him out of it, but he wasn’t listening. He ended up with just a minor “boo-boo” on his knee.

Uncle Tom went, as well! I did crafts with some of the girls. Lots of people played cornhole and went riding on the 4-wheeler.

We had a huge spread for dinner – hamburgers, hot dogs, macaroni salad, potato salad, fruit salad, veggie tray, 3 bean salad, baked beans, etc., etc. Followed by too many desserts!

Thankfully, we had time to get in some pictures before the storms came.

With all the rain, we weren’t able to have a camp fire & roast s’mores! Lacey was almost in tears about this. It was also the first thing she asked for the next morning!

The kids had a fabulous time playing with their cousins and running around in the country. Leah didn’t want to wear shoes the whole time we were there! She claimed that walking on the rocks in the driveway felt good. Crazy girl.

The last day, Lacey said she wanted to stay longer. And, one of the kids (I think it might have been Cameron) said he wanted to stay for 1 more day of fun!

It truly was a great time. It was so great to have 4 generations together. These types of events never seem to be long enough. You don’t have enough time to talk to everyone you want to. Before we knew it, we were back in the car driving home to Maryland and reality.

We’ll need to start thinking about the next one before long…….

Furniture Painting

2011-04-17T13:11:00.005-04:00

The girls have needed some additional drawers in their bedroom for quite a while. We'd sort of looked around for inexpensive furniture, but weren't finding anything that inexpensive that didn't look really cheap. So, we considered waiting for yard sale season.

Then, I remembered that my dad still had the old furniture that was mine....and before that, it was Dee's. A dresser, chest and desk with hutch. I wonder what year it was bought in?

Well....here is the dresser before doing any painting.

And, here is the finished product.

Well, it's really almost finished. One of the drawer pulls was broken and we're going to take one from the desk (unpainted so far...and won't be in the same room). I still need to go get the pull from Dad and paint it.

And, here is the chest that goes with the set.

I was planning to buy new drawer pulls, but finding them in the right size (2.5 inches) is really difficult. When I could find the size, there wasn't much to choose from.

It turned out pretty well, but it took a lot of time. In fact, everything else in the house suffered since I was spending my time painting it.

I had first gotten a paint sample from Lowe's and used it on the dresser. I went back and bought a quart so we'd have enough for the other pieces. Much to my dismay, Lowe's messed up. The quart didn't match the sample. The same color was written on the can, so I know I pointed to the right color....but somehow they messed it up. So, I ended up having to put an additional 2 coats (of the "new" stuff) on the dresser. Annoying!

The girls are thrilled to have a mirror in their room now. :)

Weekend Update

2011-04-11T08:12:00.003-04:00

I haven't done one of these in a long time, huh? Sorry ya'll. No excuses.

I honestly can't even remember what we did on Friday. Oh - nothing! :) I was exhausted and went to sleep at 9:30 - soon after the kids did.

Saturday, I left the house with the kids before 9:00 to head out for a stop at Starbucks and take the girls for haircuts. Lacey had been begging to get hers cut shorter (shoulder length) for a couple of weeks. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that her BFF, Mallory, has shoulder length hair. And, anything that big sister does, Leah wants to do, too. I told them that it had to be enough to donate, or they'd have to grow it some more. (I just don't see the point in cutting so much hair off if it's going to be wasted.)

Locks of Love requires 10 inches, but Pantene has a donation program that only requires 8 inches. And, both girls had enough for Pantene.

They love it and I do, too!!! So cute. Lacey's looks good when it dries naturally, too, but she wants it straight. Luckily, since it's so much shorter, it doesn't really take much time to do it that way.

After we left the hair place, we stopped at a dance store to buy their new tap shoes for the recital. It's not until June, but pictures are in May and both girls say their shoes are too tight. We had no luck with shoes. They didn't have either shoe size in the right color. Ugh. I spent some time yesterday checking around online, but didn't have much luck with that, either. I might have to see about having the store order them.

Then, we headed to Toys R Us to buy a birthday gift for a friend of Leah's, who was having a party on Sunday. Bought more than just for the birthday girl, though. I'd promised them if they could be good with all of our errands, they could have something small.

From there, we headed to Bowie for swim lessons. This was the 2nd week for the girls this season. It's a different teacher than they had last year, but they are doing great with her, too. Both girls swam on their backs for a bit this week. :) We're driving them about an hour because last year, I couldn't find anything local for private or semi-private and Lacey hadn't done well in group swim before. Right after I had signed them up for this 6 week session, I found out about a new place - much closer to home - that does semi-private and private lessons, too. I need to check on it since a 20 minute drive is much better than an hour.

On Saturday, while we were running our errands, Butch went to our tax accountant to have the taxes done. Nothing like the last minute. We don't normally do it this late.

Saturday night, we went to eat at The Green Turtle. (Sweet Potato Fries....yummy!) Then, a quick stop at Target for a couple of things before heading home.

Sunday was Payton's party, so the girls and I left at 10:15 or so. We stopped by Kristin's new place (she moved back from Fairfax recently) to drop off some Fiesta party supplies for a party she's planning for a friend. (I saved them from Butch's 40th birthday party....8 years ago.....I just thought it was stupid to toss them all.)

Payton's party was a princess tea party at a tea room. I've been there several times and the only time the service has been really good is when it's before noon. Otherwise, it's slooowww. And, it was slow yesterday. But, it was a super cute party. :) And, the food was good.

Butch spent the entire day doing yard work. The entire day. The crepe myrtle is now pruned. They grow so crazy that I'm always scared to do it. But, it needed it badly.

The girls went across the street to play with neighbor kids later in the afternoon. Lacey wanted to walk with them to the gazebo in our neighborhood....which is about 1/2 mile from our house. That part didn't bug me too much, but the gazebo is right at the main road. It's really hard to balance letting your kids grow up and have some independence with keeping them safe....yet not being over protective. I decided Lacey could go because one of the neighbor kids is very dependable and she's about 11 or so. I knew Brit would take care of her. It ended up not being an issue since they decided not to walk. Lacey & Leah went to our other neighbors house for a little bit instead. :)

And, then.........the weekend was over. Much too quickly. I was packing lunches and getting clothes ready for today MUCH TOO SOON!!!

Kramer (1994 - March 7, 2011)

2011-03-13T15:12:00.004-04:00

Last week was a difficult one. I made the difficult decision to euthanize my Kramer.

I'd moved into a studio apartment in March 1994. I had been out of college a little over a year and was excited to have my first very own place. Toonces had moved with me to my parents' house, after I graduated from college. And, he moved with me to Alexandria, too. However, I was 23 and had a very busy social life....which resulted in Toonces being by himself quite a bit in that little studio.

While I was in PetSmart one day, they had a cat adoption fair. Kramer was such a sweet, beautiful kitty and I couldn't turn away. He was so playful. His crazy personality is what resulted in his name (he's named after the character on Seinfeld).

This is one of the earliest pictures I have of him.

Toonces was not immediately happy that I had adopted another kitty. And, I'm sure there were times when he wondered why he couldn't have been an "only child". :) But, there were lots of loving times between them. (This picture is when they were both at their heaviest....I mean healthiest.)

Kramer was a Maine Coon. One of their traits is being talkative. He fulfilled that part, for sure!!! In fact, he & Toonces slept in the basement because of how noisy he would be through the night.

A few years ago, Kramer was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. I've learned that it is pretty common in elderly cats. He was on medication from then on. However, he never really gained much weight back. When he was healthy, he was 17 pounds or so. He'd dropped down to 6 in recent weeks. He hadn't been able to jump on furniture in a few months and he didn't do very well on stairs anymore.

I'd been preparing my girls for a few months so that when the time came, they wouldn't be surprised. They knew he was old and sick. And, they loved to care for him.

A few weeks ago, when he was going downhill again, I knew that he likely wouldn't snap out of it this time. On Friday, I thought about taking him to the vet, but was actually hoping that things would just happen on their own. I've been through making that decision twice in the last few years and was hoping not to have to do it again. Every morning, I would wake up wondering if he was still with us. On Monday, I got him out from under the couch (where he'd been hiding for days) for his medication and noticed that he was opening his mouth - like attempting to get more air. We left for the vet shortly after that.

The vet guessed he had fluid on his lungs, and possibly was in heart failure. While he wasn't "in pain", he was likely very uncomfortable. (I always remember when my mom had an "episode" of not being able to catch her breath....after her cancer had spread to her lungs. We were trying to calm her. Afterward, she said "you have no idea how scary it is to not be able to breathe.")

I talked to him for a little but and snuggled and loved on him. And, I stayed with him while it happened.

The girls are doing fine. Lacey was more concerned about me (with my tear-filled eyes) when I told her. Leah just commented about him being in heaven with Frisbee & Toonces. However, the next morning, Lacey saw the computer....where his picture was our background...and sobbed. We've since changed the picture.

Kramer - Christmas 2010 - laying with his catnip toy from Santa.

Germs

2011-02-18T12:42:00.002-05:00

Wow, what a year it has been with illness at our house. We were fairly lucky through December, but on NYE, Leah had a slight fever and seemed to be getting "just a cold". The following week, she & Lacey both threw up and the next day (Jan 7) were positive for Strep throat. (I never knew that Strep could make you vomit, but my BFF's kids tend to throw up when they get it.)

The next week, Leah threw up at daycare (Jan 12) and came home early. Kids have to stay home for 24 hours after they've been sick (fever or vomiting), so she was home on Thursday, too. It appeared to be a weird "one and done" thing, or maybe upset tummy from antibiotics or something. And, I seem to have picked up either a bad cold or strep around that time, too. I took a full dose of antibiotics that I had gotten on another doctor's visit and didn't take. (That urgent care center always prescribes something....but, I really didn't think I needed it that other time.)

We seemed to be doing a little better for a week or 2. Then, Leah threw up at 4 a.m. on Feb. 2nd. Sadly, wasn't a "one and done" thing. That poor girl did it about 10x in 6 hours. Then, a couple of additional times throughout the day. Ugh. What a day. I consider myself lucky, though, because she seems to be pretty good about not making messes! While kids can't really make it to a toilet fast enough, if you give her a bowl, she does well with using it!!! So, the whole day I was cleaning big bowls and switching them out for her.

She decided to share her germs with me. I got it a couple of days later. Luckily, no vomiting, but "the other". And, I laid on the couch for 2 straight days. Literally. No energy. No appetite. Fever off and on. Miserable. I really wasn't back to normal for about 5 days.

Then, we had 1 normal week (of no sick days and no snow days) before Lacey was sick again. She had a fever on Feb. 13 and I took her to the Ped After Hours. She was negative for strep, but the doctor thought it looked like it and prescribed Augmentin (since she'd JUST had strep a few weeks before, they wanted to give a stronger antibiotic). It tasted especially icky. Even with special flavoring from the pharmacy. And, Lacey only got 2-3 doses before I couldn't fight her anymore. I rationalized that (1) she had tested negative; and (2) she hadn't complained of her throat hurting much. I called the After Hours Tuesday night to see if the lab results were back and they weren't. She went to school Tuesday and Wednesday, but had a fever again on Wednesday night. I called the After Hours place again....the lab results were positive for strep. :-(

They changed the antibiotic to Amoxicillin. She normally takes that fine, but I think since the other had been so bad, she just had that in her mind. Wednesday night, we fought and talked and negotiated for an hour. Butch held her down and I squirted it in. Lacey spit it out. Ugh. What a night. She finally took it on her own.

I had punished her for not taking it easily by taking away all "screen time" (TV, computer and Wii). By 9:30 on Thursday, she was bored. She took her meds. She got the Wii. And, we agreed she'd get 50 cents for each dose. That will give her $10 at the end to buy something fun at Target.

Seriously, these germs need to go. We've been spraying with Lysol, washing hands, using Purell, wiping down everything (toys, tables, remotes, phones) with Clorox wipes. Ugh. But, they keep bringing things home from school and daycare.

When I read recently that cold & flu season is worse this year, it was no surprise to me! Many of my friends with little kids are having similar problems this year.

Funny Conversation with Lacey

2011-02-10T12:35:00.004-05:00

This happened this morning:

Lacey: We live in Earth.

Me: Yes.

Lacey: I'm glad we don't live in England. I don't want to speak Spanish.

Me: (Struggling really hard not to laugh and hurt her feelings.) They speak English in England. They speak Spanish in lots of places - like Spain and Mexico.

Lacey: Oh.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-28T21:34:00.011-05:00

Christmas Eve

Now that it's a month after Christmas, I'm struggling to remember everything! Chuck and Nancy came to visit for the holidays and had arrived a few days before Christmas. On Christmas Eve, I was trying to get all the gifts wrapped early because the evening was going to be so busy.

We went to Aunt Marilyn's mid-afternoon for her open house and for the kids to see Santa!

I love getting to see him there each year. When he sat down, Lacey walked right up to him and sat down. All business and ready to roll! Leah was pretty shy with him, though.

It was nice getting to visit with Aunt M and Gil, plus Shelly, Tammy, Rick and everyone.

We left there and headed to church. While we weren't very good about making it to church during 2010, I made a real effort at going during the weeks leading up to Christmas! I didn't want to be a ChrEaster (who shows up only on those 2 holidays). It was the Family/Children's service and I usually really enjoy that. But, the girls seemed to be more wound up than usual and since we got there a bit late, we were spread out some. I was sitting with the girls. Butch, Chuck & Nancy were in other pews. So, trying to keep them behaving and settled was all on me and a bit stressful...even in the Children's service!

It was awesome to walk into the house after all that and smell an amazing dinner cooking in the crock pot! I had prepared a pot roast with potatoes and carrots. Yum-o!

Christmas Eve is also Butch's birthday. This picture is courtesy of an almost 6 year old photographer, Lacey. I love it!

A tradition that we had growing up was opening 1 gift on Christmas Eve....and it was always new pajamas! We do the same for the girls now. They're young enough that they haven't figured out that it's always pajamas! They get to open a 2nd gift on Christmas Eve, too and that (so far) has always been a new ornament.

This was really the first year that Lacey could handle writing the whole note to Santa. It was great to see her deciding what to write and writing it all herself.

Once they were in bed....well, still lots to get done!

Christmas Day

The girls woke up a little before 7:00, but we had warned them ahead of time we wouldn't wake up Grandma & Poppy any earlier than 7:00. So, they played upstairs for a bit while we all got ourselves together.

Santa's gifts that were under the tree weren't wrapped, and the girls saw their new Barbie dolls right away...along with some puzzles and things. Lacey actually said "This is the BEST Christmas EVER!" before she had even opened one wrapped present! Once everything was opened, they realized that Santa had left something else....wrapped....over by the TV.

I think the picture shows it all! They were so excited about their new Barbie house! They played with it all morning.

We hosted Christmas dinner at our house so the girls would be able to keep enjoying their things. In our family, hosting dinner doesn't mean taking on the responsibility of the whole dinner (thankfully). We prepared a turkey breast in the crock pot (turned out delish, if I do say so myself), gourmet sweet potato casserole, mandarin orange salad (thank you, Nancy), stuffing, gravy & rolls. Others brought mashed potatoes (Dee/Buck), green bean casserole (Rick/Kristina) and southern MD stuffed ham (Dad). Fabulous feast.

I love our holiday feasts.

After dinner, we opened gifts; and then posed for several pictures. We always try to remember a cousins picture. There is usually a serious one, and a silly (crazy, weird, scary) face one.

Dee & I often remember to get a sister's picture, but I don't think we have many of us with Rick.

The girls were exhausted by the end of the day. Who am I kidding? We all were!

Family Vacation 2010

2010-08-26T20:15:00.008-04:00

The first week in August, we went on a BIG family vacation to the Nagshead, NC....Dad, Frankie, Dee, Buck, Kristin, Paul (her man), Kyle, Rick, Kristina, Jessica, Justin, and the 4 of us. Whew. We had to plan it a year in advance so we could get the dates locked in for everyone. It's not easy coordinating schedules with so many people. And, with so many people, we needed a house that was big enough for us all.

I was really surprised that the girls were not big fans of the beach. They did okay the first day, but were ready to go back to the house after about 2 hours. After that, it was a bit of a fight to get Lacey to go. She wanted to just play in the pool. I think that is mostly due to the swim lessons they've taken. They really wanted to swim, not play in sand. :-)

We took them to the aquarium to do something a little different. They weren't terribly interested in that, either. Although, once we got to the sharks, they were mesmerized.

Another day we went shopping and out to lunch in Duck with the girls. They got their hair done.

There was a ridiculous amount of jelly fish while we were there! Disgusting. I realize that without the tentacles, they can't sting you, but they are still gross! Paul & Kyle got stung when they decided to chance it on the 1st or 2nd day. After that, they stayed out. Wednesday, the jelly fish were gone. Not a sign of them. But, by Saturday (our last beach day), there they were again.

Saturday, Butch & I just took turns going to the beach since the girls had zero interest in it. It was nice to have a little time out there without having to entertain kids or watch them or do anything.

Butch, the girls & I shared a room. Initially we thought they'd have their own room, but I knew I'd end up sleeping in there anyway (strange place and all), so we decided to save money and get a slightly smaller house. Next time, I think we'll make sure they have their own room. It was way too crowded since the bedrooms aren't all that huge. I felt disorganized the entire time. Our room was on the same level as the kitchen and "party room" (aka dining room). The kids (and I) sleep to white noise anyway, so it wasn't too bad. There was only one night where it was LOUD. Considering how many nights we stayed, that isn't too bad, right?

We did family pictures one night. Everyone wore white shirts & khaki shorts/pants. It started out a bit rough for Lacey and me. She (the fashionable 5 year old) did not like the "uniform". Not one bit. The shorts I had for her were long (to her knees) and finally I agreed to cut them off if she'd stop fighting. (Everyone was waiting for us at this point.) Even after she was dressed, she said she didn't like the clothes. I told her Aunt Dee Dee had decided (not totally true) and did she want to hurt Aunt Dee's feelings by telling her she didn't like it? That did the trick. (Then, a week or so after we got back, she actually picked that outfit out to wear it. Little stinker.)

We weren't sure that Rick & Kristina were going to join us. Kristina started having terrible troubles with her back a few days before we left. She even ended up in the ER the night before because the pain was unbearable. Lots of drugs helped her feel comfortable enough to ride in the car for a few hours and she had a good few days there. However, by Thursday or Friday, she was having a lot of pain again. And nausea (thank you, pain meds). So, they headed back a day early. (Lots of doctor visits since then & we know she has a ruptured disk. She'll be having surgery in a few weeks.)

Justin wasn't supposed to come....since he was living in Tampa.... too far to drive & unable to get off work. For a few weeks before, he was giving a lot of thought to moving back to MD, though. When he gave his notice at work, they didn't have him work the 2 weeks. So, he was free to come! He got there on Wednesday and stayed until Friday. It was a great surprise!

What an awesome time. Truly. And, it was so great to see the girls having such a good time....enjoying time spent with family....and with us not focused on work.

Vancouver

2010-07-17T21:29:00.001-04:00

In mid-July, I traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia for a client’s convention. I had a booth there to promote the insurance program we manage for their association. Booth hours were long and the time didn’t go quickly since attendance was down a bit and members never seem to be looking for the insurance booth. But….we are there to support our client. I bought wireless internet from the 2nd day on because I needed something to do. Yes, I played on the internet some, but I also worked a ton on emails, etc.

Most days, by the time the exhibiting hours were done, all I had energy for was dinner, TV and bed. Honestly, I kind of look forward to that with business travel, though. I don’t often get a quiet evening to myself! By the time the girls go to bed, I’m usually about ready for bed myself.

One awesome thing about this trip was getting to meet “an old friend that I’d never met”. (I stole that quote from her!) I met Angela online at our babycenter.com community when I was pregnant with Lacey. (Our group all had February ’05 due dates and we were all pregnant with our first babies.) She lives outside of Vancouver and took the train in to meet me for lunch one day. She’s now the 4th “Sweetheart” that I’ve met in person! I really enjoyed lunch and didn’t want to go back to work!

The last work day there, the exhibits closed at 1:00. I packed everything up, then headed back to the hotel for a little bit to rest. Once I found some energy, I walked, and walked, and walked. I walked about 30 minutes to a ferry, took that over to Granville Island and sort of putzed around there looking in shops. Then, took the ferry back….walked another 40 minutes or so before stopping to get dinner. I went to the restaurant that Angela and I had gone to and ordered take out. They brought the food out in a canvas shopping bag! I sort of felt like I was stealing when I walked out with it. Awesome, though.

The flight back the next day was fine, except I had to go through customs in Toronto and only had a short layover there. Not enough time. I waited 35 minutes for my luggage to come, then had to get in the customs line. Thankfully, they pulled me out of the line to rush me through. Also, thankfully….my connecting flight was delayed. I was going through security at 5:30, which was the time that connection was supposed to leave!!!

I got home late Wednesday night (10:00ish). Then, Butch left on Thursday morning at 7:00 for a guys’ trip in OK City.

The most challenging part of that is that work has been extremely hectic. And, the girls are home from daycare on Thursdays and Fridays for the summer. So, I had to take off. I managed to get a little bit of work in those days, but I know I’ll be paying for it next week.

Butch gets home tomorrow evening. It will be so nice to have our normal routine for a few days!!!

Update on the Kids

2010-06-08T16:29:00.002-04:00

Swimming Lessons....
The girls have been taking swim lessons for about 10 weeks now. Lacey has taken group lessons in the past without much success. I’m not sure how much of this was due to her being shy or her being able to see us there or what. I had been trying to find someone to come to dad’s house to teach them – thinking that in a familiar place, it would work better. I had no luck with that – after looking around since last year. Then a friend told me about Kids First Swim Schools. The closest one is 45 minutes away. They can do private & semi-private lessons. We love it. The pool water and air temperature are 90 degrees. Parents watch from behind a window (that the kids can’t see through). Both girls are doing really well with getting used to water in their face, learning to float, etc. We’re going to keep them in lessons through July, then we’ll likely stop for this year.

Last Sunday, they got into Dad’s pool for the first time this year & they loved it. Leah still can’t touch the bottom of the shallow end, so she needs a float or someone holding her. But, she’s all about jumping in. Lacey was floating all around the deep end with a ring on….no fear. They both were doing great with getting their faces wet or going under.

At swim lessons last weekend, Lacey started putting her head under for 5 seconds. That’s one of the things that she has to do to go to the next level. She did it over & over. It’s so awesome to see her confidence grow. After they spend about 20 minutes in the (very) shallow end (which is maybe 3 feet), they go to the deep end (5 feet or so). Miss Holly has 1 of them sit on the side while she works with the other one practicing supported swimming. On Saturday, Leah fell in. Scared me to death. Holly was with Lacey and didn’t see her at first, but then grabbed her & pulled her up. Leah didn’t cough, cry or anything. And, when it was her turn to get back in, she did without any problem.

Our lessons have been on Saturday afternoons and it makes for a crazy day. We are in La Plata at 10:00 for Leah’s dance/gymnastics class; then drive an hour from there to Bowie for swimming. We’re gone from the house for 5 hours. Starting in the summer, their lessons will be on Thursday mornings and I’ll be happy to have our Saturdays back!
*************************************************

Dance/Gymnastics....
Leah still loves her dance/gymnastics class. Their teacher has taught them a little ballet routine and next weekend, they are supposed to perform it for the parents. I’m thinking that might be an experience! Leah does it fairly consistently, but she prefers for Butch or me to be right with her. The other little ones do their own thing for the most part. Gymnastics is her favorite part, I think. She’s such a little monkey. Last week, she did amazing with all of it. She did the dance everything she was supposed to, did everything Miss Kristen had them do, then did everything (really well) in gymnastics.

Lacey’s recital is coming up at the end of June. I’m hopeful that she’ll actually dance in the recital this year. Last year, she wouldn’t even do the dance or any of the practice drills in front of us when Miss Nisha would call the parents in to watch. This year, she has done it every time we’ve been invited in. She still tells me that she doesn’t want to dance in front of anyone, so who knows what the recital will bring!! She’s told me she doesn’t want to dance next year, but she does want to do gymnastics. If she still feels that way after the recital, I won’t push her….she can do whatever she wants to do. But, it will be hard to let her quit since I can tell she enjoys it. So You Think You Can Dance is one of her favorite shows….party because she dances along with them while watching.
*************************************************

School...
Lacey’s last week of pre-K is this week. I can’t believe the school year is done already. I had a conference with the teacher last week & he was very complimentary of her. He said she is a role model for others in class and called her a “high flyer”. You know that makes me proud.

Next year, she’ll be in full day kindergarten. We’re hoping to be able to avoid paying for before and after care. If she stayed where she is, it would be $100 a week and she’d only be there for an hour in the morning and 40 min. in the evening. Butch can get her off the bus every day. And, since I work at home 2x a week, I can get her on those days. Unless I find someone in the neighborhood, I guess I’ll have to work later hours and head in after getting her on the bus.

Laptop/Wireless Issues

2010-06-08T16:25:00.002-04:00

I was doing pretty well updating while the kids were falling asleep for awhile! Then, my laptop’s wireless connection started messing up. They have tried to fix the problem at work numerous times with no success. When they asked to have it (again) and this time to send it away for 4 days, my boss said “we’ll just order you a new one”. That was about a month ago. It arrived about 2 weeks ago and I still don’t have it. I talked to the tech on Friday & he said I’d have it Wednesday.

The wireless connection is pretty important for me to be able to work from home. I’ve been getting by for the past several weeks, but it’s certainly not ergonomically correct! The modem is in the corner of our family room. There is no desk or appropriate place to work. So, I use a TV tray and the couch on my remote days. I can’t wait to be able to work from my desk or a table again!

You should hear more from me now that I'll have a new laptop with no issues!

Lacey's 5 Year Old Well Visit

2010-04-06T13:16:00.003-04:00

Lacey had her doctor's appointment this morning for her well visit. She was 43 lbs and 44.75" tall! Her height is near the 90th percentile and weight is 50th percentile. Dr. Jill said her growth was awesome...nearly 3 inches in 1 year. Wow.

Lacey's been coughing and sneezing a lot lately. Dr. Jill confirmed she is having some mild problems with the pollen. Apparently, it gets worse each year due to additional exposure, so she might be a kid that has it bad later in life. (Like Rick, who has a terrible time with pollen now.)

She had to get 2 shots....chicken pox booster & MMR. She looked so pitiful with the first (chicken pox), then to have to get the MMR (which burns) afterward is just mean. :-( She cried, but got over it fairly quick. On the drive back to Miss Lisa's, she said "my shot doesn't hurt anymore".

I was going to take her to Rita's, but convinced her to wait until after school so Leah could go, too.

Next for her is blood work. I am so not looking forward to that. Leah had it done and did great...but she's the one that doesn't seem to have issues with pain or fear. Not sure when I'll get the courage to take Lacey in for the blood work.

Tidbits

2010-03-27T15:40:00.005-04:00

We went to the Hospice Easter Egg Roll/Hunt this morning. This was our 2nd year going. They changed the location this year because the other church was already holding an event for this date. I hope they go back to the old one for next year. It was much better - more spread out - more scenic, etc. Last year, they had a much bigger moon bounce and they had pony rides. But, because the location didn't have enough space...those things were gone. We didn't stay as long this year, but the kids enjoyed the egg hunt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tomorrow, we have another Easter Egg Hunt. This time it's with the 7th District Optimist Club, that Dad belongs to. I think it's a better location, so that will help. And, an old high school friend usually takes her daughter there (she's 4, I think). So, it will be good to finally see her. (We've been talking about it for about 4 years!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I went to NY on business Thursday-Friday. We were celebrating 30 years with one of my clients. Crazy to think of spending all that money for me to fly up, stay overnight and come back...just for dinner. But, it's worth it for the relationship. I was happy to be back in my room at 8:59, just in time for Grey's! And, I actually slept without waking up from about 10:30 to 5:00. I can't believe it! Then, I dozed back off for another hour before coming home.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yesterday afternoon, I went to Lacey's school to help with their "spring celebration". Those kids are so cute. The "party" had to stay inside since it was rainy and cold outside. But, the kids had fun, anyway. That was their last day before Spring Break.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Speaking of Spring Break, Lacey's and Butch's aren't the same week. Annoying. They overlap by a few days, but that's it. That's going to make it difficult to do trips in the future since I won't want to take them out of school. We talked a little about going up to Pittsburgh for just 3-4 days this year, but the girls are starting swim lessons next Saturday & they are too expensive to miss. Plus, we have entirely too much to do around here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lacey did swim lessons through the community a few years ago. Then, we signed her up again last year. She refused to do any of it. She was still in the midst of her shy phase. Plus, the classes are only 30 minutes long and there are 5-7 kids in a class. So, there is very little 1-on-1 time. I've been searching for someone to do private lessons and had no luck. I did find a place about 40 minutes from here that does private or semi-private lessons, though. The girls are signed up for semi-private lessons together. I think that will work okay because Lacey tends to be more "careful" and Leah tends to just "go for it". I think their level might be about the same. The teacher is a young woman who teaches kindergarten and the person I spoke with said he calls her the child whisperer because she's so good with little ones.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm realizing I should probably stop typing since I need to do some laundry before heading out for "Mom's Craft Night". It's with some of the women from my "meet-up" group and one of the mom's is pretty crafty...she has these events every few months to help those of us that aren't very good at crafts. :-)

More later!

A March Weekend

2010-03-06T19:54:00.003-05:00

We've been having a nice quiet weekend and I love it. We did absolutely nothing Friday night. Lacey fell asleep pretty quickly (8:30 or so) and Leah (as usual) didn't fall asleep until 9:00ish. I'm pretty sure that that will be the case until her naps are done. And, they won't be done until she's in pre-K (another 18 months).

I stayed up for a bit & watched Ghost Whisperer while sipping a glass of wine. (I bought a new one that I had at Bonefish Grill. I don't like it as much as I did at the restaurant!)

I had plans to go to the gym today for the Turbo Kick class at 9:30. But, Leah had a slight fever again (100.3) and has had a slight cold for over a week, so I took her to the doctor for a 9:00 appointment to check out her ears. That is so frustrating. I know body temps fluctuate through the day, but 100.3 seems a bit high for that. When she had her bad ear infection in early December, I asked if her ears hurt & she said "no". So, obviously, I can't count on her answers. Anyway, her ears and everything else were fine. And, the temp was gone. I told Butch I'm putting the darn thermometer away. I just wish she would answer me honestly on whether things hurt and things would be much easier.

I digress....

So, I didn't make it to the gym for my class. Leah & I met Butch & Lacey in La Plata for Leah's dance/gymnastics class. This week, he went to her class while Lacey & I went to Target.

When we got home.....I tried out the new treadmill! Hooray for me! It's pretty awesome. I didn't realize when we bought it that it has built in fans. :-) Nice little feature. I walked for 30 min., with a little bit of running mixed in at the end to boost the calories burned. It felt great to get in a workout.

I'm hoping I can get on a schedule of doing that in the morning. On office days, that will be tough....like 4:30 a.m. tough. So, if the kids don't sleep well, it won't happen. On work at home days, it would be about 6:00 a.m. We'll see how it goes. I know that's the best time of day for me to really do it.

We got the girls outside today for a bit. The high today was supposed to be in the low 50's, but I don't know if that happened or not. It was windy, but the sun was shining brightly. Love it! It does wonders for my attitude.

We managed to fold lots of clean laundry, and do 3 more loads. Yikes. Laundry is like rabbits with multiplying. Especially with kids.

Once the kids fall asleep, I'm planning to watch a little more TV before bed. I'm hopeful for an earlier sleep time for Leah since she had an early & short nap today.

Tomorrow, I will hit the treadmill in the morning. I was hoping to have us all go to the park for late morning fun & a picnic since tomorrow is another nice day, but Butch has to go to work for an Open House from 11:30 to 3:00.

Tomorrow night we are having dinner at Dad's house. We'll head over sometime in the afternoon to visit a bit. I need to figure out what our contribution to dinner is. He's got ribs and chicken; Dee/Buck are bringing potatoes. Maybe we'll bring salad or something healthy like that.

[Speaking of salad, Leah-Lou loves romaine lettuce. Amazing. She dips it in Ranch, but she'll eat mine (in light creamy ceasar), too. Lacey has tried it a few times after seeing Leah eat it.]

Lacey's 5th Birthday

2010-03-05T20:50:00.006-05:00

Wow. I have a 5 year old. It's been 5 years since our lives changed by having a baby!

Lacey had entirely too many celebrations! (Although, now that I think about it, it's kind of cool to have 5 celebrations for your 5th birthday.)

On her birthday, I woke her up by whispering in her ear, "Happy Birthday" and she woke up with a huge smile. She was so excited. I sent pink iced donuts to Miss Lisa's for morning snack. (I only wish I'd saved one for myself!) Then, for school, I sent pink iced cupcakes. They were bought at Food Lion. (You have to send store bought things these days because of allergy issues.) I had never seen Food Lion's pink.....wow......I should have taken a picture. They were shocking pink. Hot pink. Crazy pink.

We let Lacey open up presents from Grandma & Poppy and us before dinner. For dinner, we let Lacey pick what to do....she picked Bert's! Always a win. Once we were at home, we had Pinkalicious cupcakes.

(Have you realized, yet, what Lacey's favorite color is?)

The rest of the week went by normally.....

On Saturday, Lacey had her first "friends" birthday party! It was awesome! We had it at Flips, which is where they take gymnastics. Several kids from daycare came and a few from dance class. Including Lacey, there were 11 kids and that was perfect. Mr. Ken (the teacher) was amazing with the kids. I've seen him with babies before, but not the bigger kids. He has a gift.

They did a couple of things that really put Lacey at the center of attention. What a difference! A year ago, she probably would have been in tears, or close to it, at being watched by everyone. But, she did well....enjoyed it!

After an hour of running, playing games, being silly and wearing themselves out, we had cake and ice cream before opening gifts.

The first thing she opened was from a girl at dance class. It was a ballerina Barbie. Lacey said "I already have her!". Lovely. Hopefully the mom wasn't too offended!

On the way home, Lacey fell asleep and stayed that way (in the car) for 2 hours. Her party had wiped her out, apparently.

Some of the family came by that evening for dinner (Ledo's Pizza) and Carvel Ice Cream Cake. We were missing several, though. Rick, Kristina and Kyle were at a pool tournament. Bucky hadn't been feeling well, so he stayed home to avoid getting anyone else sick. So, it was quieter than normal

And, I should mention, those little french braids in her hair....I did them. My first attempt. Didn't look great, but I didn't think it was a bad job for a beginner. :-)

Wrist Injury

2010-03-05T20:41:00.003-05:00

Throughout last summer, my right wrist had been hurting. Sometimes it just ached. But, when I would push open a door, or do a push up, it was terrible.

I finally called a doctor and went in for an appointment in September to see an orthopedist whose specialty is hands. He did some x-rays and didn’t see any “secondary damage”, but seemed fairly sure that I had torn ligaments. A couple of weeks later, I had an MRI. As soon as the radiologist started putting the dye in my wrist, he could tell (on the x-ray) that I had tears in my Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex (TFCC) and he showed me where the tear was. It was pretty cool to see, but I didn’t really know what it meant for me. And, I still had to do the actual MRI, which honestly wasn’t too bad. I think I was lucky to be laying on my stomach – so I couldn’t look up & see how I was confined.

(Sort of digressing here, but I remember Mom going for one of her many MRIs. It was during a thunderstorm and they kept losing power. So, she’d be in the middle of having an MRI done, and it would “stop” with her inside. And, they’d have to start over again. And, again. And, again.)

When I went back to the doctor a few days later, I knew I was in trouble when the first thing he said was “I haven’t seen a tear this bad in a long time”. Why, thank you. At another point, he said my wrist looked like that of someone that had played in the NFL for 10 years. Thanks, again. (And, where is all that money I earned?) The tears were old & new and who knows how I actually injured myself. Sometimes surgery is needed, but he felt that at my “young” (ahem) age we should try to avoid it unless it was really necessary. I think at some point I will end up needed it, but he is hoping to push it off a bit since technology is improving so much with these things.

He prescribed a brace for 2-3 months. Remember, this is my right wrist….and I’m right handed. It made things interesting for sure. But, at least it wasn’t a cast…I could take it off to take a shower, etc.

The follow up appointment in December was a weird one. He told me that it had healed….just by moving my wrist around and pushing in certain areas. And, when I asked about hurting in a different area, he told me “that’s the arthritis”. I thought “secondary damage” was arthritis? And, that I had no secondary damage? I was confused, but he seemed rushed & it wasn’t all really registering with me at the time. So, I have no idea. He told me to stop wearing the brace so much. (But, if it is healed, why do I have to wear it at all?) And, to do some exercises with my wrist to help loosen it up…..then come back for a follow up in 2-3 months.

I don’t wear the brace at all anymore – unless it’s hurting & I want to make sure it doesn’t do anything weird when I’m sleeping. I think that’s only happened once or twice since the last appointment. I try not to do much that could reinjure it, though. It’s frustrating. Cleaning is much more difficult because of that repetitive movement and the strain on my wrist. And, I know this sounds weird, but I would just like to be able to do that. Yes, I would like to be able to clean the bathroom. I feel like I’m making excuses when I get Butch to do it. Yet, I don’t want to clean it myself & cause a new injury that leads to surgery. And, working out is challenging because many of my workout DVDs and the classes I do either do push ups or things very similar that require a lot with the wrist.

Things like this really make you feel old. On top of this issue, I’ve had a shoulder injury for quite some time that needs to be looked at. Lately, I can’t sleep on my left side without having a lot of shoulder pain. I think it's a shoulder impingement.

I have an appointment for a follow up on my wrist & on my shoulder in a couple of weeks.

Blizzard 2010

2010-03-05T20:29:00.004-05:00

It’s unreal that we can have a blizzard here two times in one winter. But it happened. They were predicting up to 3 feet for some places in the DC metro area. We decided to pick the girls up from daycare early so we wouldn’t have risk driving in nasty weather. The schools had all closed for the day, too, in anticipation of it. In our county, it was a teacher day (kids weren’t going anyway), but the teachers ended up “off” as well. It started on Friday, February 5th late in the day and kept going for nearly 24 hours.

These storms always make me nervous. We have trees on 3 sides of our house. They are all really close to the house & quite tall. With the weight of snow (or ice) and blowing winds….and a ground as wet as ours is (from all the other rain and snow this season)…..well, you get it. I worry that a tree will fall on the house. Or, that a tree is going to fall & cause us to lose power for an extended period of time. The only source of heat we have is electricity. And, we have a well, so if we lose power, we lose our water source as well.

When these worries come up, I take a few precautions. The heat goes up, up, up. It gets very warm in here and I wear short sleeves because of it. But, my logic is that if we start off at 76 degrees, it will take a lot longer to get “too cold” for my girls. Leaving the house to go stay elsewhere isn’t an option when the roads are covered with snow. The other thing we do is fill the tub with water (to use for toilets) and fill up pitchers with drinking water. Happily, these precautions turned out to be unnecessary since we didn’t lose power. But, it made me feel better.

There were plenty of people that lost power, though. At the worst, about 8,000 were out of power. My brother-in-law, Buck, works for SMECO. He spent years as a lineman – out in the weather and fixing down lines. Luckily, he’s in management now, so he’s at least not out in the cold. But, he still works extra hours and gets a bit cranky. Dee said she had to tell him at one point “I know this sucks, but it’s not my fault”.

We ended up with 21 inches at our house.
Butch shoveled the driveway a few times on Saturday (while it was still snowing). Even with doing that, he spent 5 ½ hours shoveling on Sunday. We joked about buying a snow blower, but we’ll end up not having a snow like this (fingers crossed) for another 8 years.

I really enjoyed watching the birds....and Kramer did, too.

Our street is a shared driveway and the HOA doesn’t plow it. One of our neighbors has a snow blower & takes care of it. Somehow this is figured into our dues, but I don’t really understand it. I need to ask about it soon. I think we pay “extra” for it….which doesn’t make sense because if “neighbor” bought a snow blower and it’s paid for now…why do we pay extra each year. I’m assuming that that extra amount is passed on to him. I guess for his time? But, the neighbor across the street and we (well, Butch) help with the snow blower, too. I do need to check on that.

During this storm, he was out of town. We found out later his wife was in town….and we wish we knew that…..since Butch could have stayed up with the street throughout Saturday. By Sunday, Butch & I decided we really needed to get someone to plow it. A snow blower isn’t designed to handle 21 inches of heavy snow. We did hear through the grapevine that neighbor’s wife said she was not paying for a plow. Thank you. Next time, let us know you are home & it won’t be needed.

On Monday, neighbor’s relative came to use the snow blower. It was working, but having a hard time keeping up with it. A family friend who has some piece of equipment (forgive me....remembering the names of those things is not high on my priority list) was able to work us in, thankfully. I hate the “stuck” feeling. The other neighbors split the cost with us, so we weren’t totally footing the bill.

Schools and the Federal Government were closed on Monday and Tuesday. Then, we got more snow. For our area, they were calling for more of a wintery mix. That’s how it started on Tuesday night. Thankfully, we only ended up with another 4 inches or so. But, with that extra bit, schools ended up closing the rest of the week and the Federal Government didn’t reopen until Friday.

The schools stayed closed for the entire week. Miss Lisa generally follows the Federal Government, so she was open on Friday. Lacey & Leah were happy to see her and the kids.

The following week, schools were open, but opened late for a few days. I worked from home almost the entire week. Commuting was a nightmare since in DC there is nowhere to put all of that snow. Even on the beltway, you could be driving along with 4 lanes, and all of a sudden, it was down to 2. You can imagine the accidents.

Here it is, March 5....an entire month later......and there is still snow in our yard. Most places are snow-free. But, not all. We are expecting highs in the 50's this weekend and into next week, so I'm hoping it's all gone soon!

Sleeping Arrangements….and Sleep

2010-03-05T20:25:00.003-05:00

So, you are already aware that sleep has been rough in this house since December. Mostly it’s due to Leah. Though, it seems the nights that she sleeps well, Lacey wakes me up.

We had been planning to do some room shuffling since Leah was out of her crib. The “nursery” is typically pretty cold. It’s usually about 2 degrees colder than the rest of the upstairs in the winter. I think this is because it hangs over the garage by a few inches. Also…that room is the smallest one, so it makes sense that it should be the guest room. The plan was to move Lacey from her room to the existing guest room (biggest after the master); move Leah to Lacey’s old room; and make the “nursery” the guest room. (Got all that?)

But, with Leah’s sleep issues, we decided to put them in the same room in hopes that having Lacey there would help her sleep. Even when I was pregnant with Leah (and maybe before), I thought it would be nice to have them share a room (if our 2nd ended up the same gender). I wasn’t sure about making the switch, but Dee suggested it and it reminded me of my earlier thoughts….so we took a chance.

We also ended up buying Leah a full size bed so she’d have more space. (Of course, I have more space when I have to come in & lay down with her.)

We weren’t sure it would be a permanent thing. But, they both seem like they really enjoy being in the same room. No, it’s not really helping with the sleep problems that I can tell, but maybe that will come in time.

Up until recently, I was laying down with Leah to get her to go to sleep. I know, I know. A no-no. But, it got her to sleep. My intent was to leave when she was really groggy, but I have always been so tired that I fall asleep. Then, I wake up 45 min. later, exhausted and unable to do anything except go to my bed.

In early February, I decided I’d had enough. Leah (and Lacey) earn points if they go to sleep in their bed – without me (or Butch) in the bed, too. Leah usually lays on the floor next to me (while I’m on the laptop) for a while, but eventually she gets into her bed when I remind her of the points (and the prizes that come after earning those points). The 3rd night, she slept through the entire night. I was amazed, but skeptical. Good thing I was skeptical….because I think that's only happened once since then!

The room is PINK! And, we have pink Christmas lights draped over the closet door. That makes for an awesome night light. It’s quite cute and we have finally decided they are staying together. I think they’d both hate it if we separated them now. We ordered beds that are going to be delivered next week. I'm excited to see it more "complete". Then it will be time to start hanging pictures and things! (I'll include pictures once it looks complete.)

Even though the sleep isn’t better (yet), it’s nice being able to be on the computer for a bit in the evening. During the week I catch up on work emails. And, I’m not going straight to sleep after Leah falls asleep. I can actually stay up and watch a show if I want. And, strangely enough, I think my body is getting used to waking up 3-5 times a night. I hope it can get used to solid sleep again soon, though.

Leah’s Ears

2010-03-05T20:21:00.003-05:00

Just before Thanksgiving, we moved Leah from the crib to a twin bed. She’d been waking in the night and one of us would end up rocking her for an hour (or more). It’s hard to sleep in a rocking chair. So, we decided to move her to the twin ….. my thinking was she’d either sleep a little better…or, if she didn’t, I could at least just climb into bed next to her & doze off. The transition to the twin went well initially. In fact, she actually slept better for a few nights and I started to think that she was just cramped in the crib.

Around this time, she caught a cold. But, she still slept alright. Until the week after Thanksgiving. She started sleeping poorly and one night, when she just wouldn’t fall back to sleep and was super fussy, I gave her Motrin. She crashed within 15 minutes. Obviously something hurt and even though she had no fever, I took her to see Dr. Jill the next day (December 3rd). She had a double ear infection. Jill said “wow….she’s not complaining?” Nope. Other than the sleep issues, she was fine. She was happy during the daytime hours. Her ears drums were “bulging”. No wonder her sleep had gotten so terrible.

She was on an antibiotic for a couple of days, then developed a fever and a rash (which was only there for an hour or so). I took her back to the doctor that Saturday and they changed her antibiotic.

Then, the day after Christmas she developed a fever again. We were leaving the next day for Atlanta, so I didn’t want to take any chances. I took her to the After Hours Pediatric place. Her ears weren’t terrible, but there was still fluid and it was cloudy. It’s supposed to be clear. So, back on an antibiotic.

After the Atlanta trip, I took her in for a recheck to make sure she was clear. She still had fluid, but no infection. That lasted a week. We went back exactly 1 week later and got antibiotics again. By this point, I was sure we’d end up going to see an ENT and ending up with tubes.

(All this time, her sleep was awful.)

Leah kept running a low grade fever, even on the antibiotic. And, I was heading out of town on a business trip…unsure if Butch would have the intuition to know if she needed to go back. Dr. Jill changed her antibiotic again for us.

When I got home from my trip, Leah still had a low grade fever!!! (The most it ever hit during most of this time was 100.5 or so…and that was rare. Usually it was below 100.) I took her back to the doctors and she was given an “all clear”. Huh. No fluid. Probably a virus.

On the way home from the doctor’s, she threw up. I hate the smell of that. I think it might be the worst part of parenting. (Well, it’s either vomit or the lack of sleep.) Thankfully, she never threw up again during that illness!

She had until the end of February to totally clear up the ears & have them stay clear......or it was off to see an ENT. Luckily, her ears have been fine. Too bad her sleep hasn't improved!

Business Trip: Des Moines

2010-03-05T20:18:00.002-05:00

My company sent all of us to Des Moines for 2 very full days of sales training in January. I was sleep deprived when I started this trip and was much more so by the return.

Wednesday, I flew to DSM via Chicago. I got up at 4:30 a.m. to catch my flight. DSM was having an ice storm that day and our flight form Chicago was canceled. I was traveling with another colleague….and when we arrived at our gate, we ran into 3 other colleagues. Our flight was the 3rd of the day to be canceled and the most flights through the afternoon were full…our next option was a 9:00 p.m. flight. One of the guys (Matt) is from Chicago & suggested driving, so that’s what we did.

We waited 2 hours to get our luggage. Matt rented a Cadillac Escalade and the 5 of us piled in. Surprisingly, the drive went pretty well. There was only a 30 min. or so section where the I-80 was slushy. By the time we got into DSM, the temperature had warmed enough that the roads were just wet.

I’d been in my room for about 30 minutes when the power went out. Lovely. A dark hotel room. I wished I had freshened up as soon as I’d gotten to the room! Oh well. I tried to freshen my make-up, then I walked down 12 flights of stairs to meet up with the others and we headed over to the reception. It was a nice event and the best thing was spending time with Tonya and Mindy, who I rarely get to see. (Tonya is my best friend who lives in Charlotte.)

Luckily, by the time we headed back to the rooms, the hotel had gotten the issues with the power fixed. Apparently it happens fairly often.

We had to be downstairs for breakfast at 6:30 a.m., then started meetings at 7:30. There was a short break before our “Summit” (recap of 2009, talking of what to accomplish in 2010) started at 2:00 p.m. Another break (1 hour) before starting the reception & awards dinner. (Tonya & I just laid on her bed and chatted….I had a hard time standing back up by then!)

The dinner was good. The motivational speaker was amazing (though a bit crazy in my humble opinion). And, the awards section was long. We were seated (for dinner) at 7:00 and it didn’t all end until 11:00. Considering I’d been in a seat most of the day for training, and had such an early start that morning, I was beat. Completely. Off to bed.

Another short night of sleep since we had to be downstairs at 6:30 to catch a bus over to the office. (There were about 50 of us, so they had rented a bus.) Quick breakfast, then training started at 7:30….and went until 3:30. They really need to look at breaking this up a little more because I don’t think anyone was getting much out of the training by Friday morning.

Everyone was flying out Friday night, but I had decided to stay until Saturday. I was planning to have dinner with Mindy, but we were both exhausted and she hadn’t seen her husband all week, so she headed home. I had tried to change my flight, but they wanted to charge me the change fee, plus the difference in airfare. No thank you. They did, however, bump me to first class.

Friday night, I was in my PJs at 5:00. I ordered a pizza and wine from room service. The plan was to watch a movie, but I didn’t think it was worth the money since I didn’t know when I would fall asleep…and maybe miss the movie. I just watched NCIS (3 hours of it) while chilling out. And, I have to say, it was awesome. I think I turned out the light around 9:00 and slept fairly well until the alarm went off at 5:30.

The girls (and Butch) were happy to see me when I got home that afternoon. They made a sign to welcome me back:
How can that not make you smile?

Atlanta (via Fort Mill, SC)

2010-03-05T20:16:00.002-05:00

We left December 27th to visit Steve & Marilee (and Cooper & Samantha). Butch had seen them in June, but I hadn’t seen them since December 2006. It’s unreal how time flies by. We decided to drive for many reasons. Airfare, flexibility of when to leave, being able to have our van (and car seats for the kids), etc. My friend, Tonya, lives in Ft. Mill, SC, which is a little more than halfway. We drove from our house to hers the first day….7 ½ hours. We stopped at a McDonalds about halfway down to let the girls play for a bit and get rid of that energy. Because of the short time we had for the whole trip, we had to get back on the road the next day. But, it was nice to stay the night at her house and get in a little visit. (Of course, with Leah’s sleep issues….and the fact that neither kid sleeps well when we travel…..I didn’t get much visiting time. I was out for the night when it was time to get the girls to bed.)

The drive from her place to Steve & Marilee’s was about 5 hours. Not too bad, right? We stopped at a Waffle House for lunch – because I’d never been to one. I thought it would be pretty good diner food….not so much. Oh well.

The last time Lacey & Samantha met, they were about 18 months old, so they had no memory of each other, yet they were fast friends. Inseparable from the start. They had a sleepover the very first night.

One of the nights while we were there, we went out to dinner. Steve & Marilee had hired a babysitter. I knew my kids wouldn’t go to sleep easily with someone new…in a new place, but it was worth some adult time. Dinner was great…as was the wine. J But, I was entirely too full to enjoy a drink after dinner. That was annoying since we headed to a bar after dinner.

When we got back to the house, we headed downstairs to the family room area….but that is past the area where the kids were “sleeping”. As soon as Leah heard us, she was calling for me. It actually worked okay for me since I was so tired and so full. I was able to get to bed without feeling too guilty. (I may have it rough with sleep at home, but it’s worse when traveling with them!)

Marilee & I took the girls to see Princess & the Frog – awesome movie. Leah came with us because I knew she’d feel left out from the girls if she didn’t. She fell asleep (thankfully) about 30 min. into the movie.

We had a nice time catching up with them and letting the kids get to know each other. I wish they didn’t live so far away. The trip was too short (only 3 nights there), but we wanted to get home a couple of days before having to return to work. So….off we drove to Ft. Mill on New Year’s Eve.

We stopped on our way to Tonya’s to see a friend of mine that I know from an online mom’s message board. I’ve “known” Becky for about 2 ½ years and wanted to see her in person since she lived somewhat close to Tonya. It ended up being pretty far out of the way, but it was still good to meet her and her husband….and kids….and see their house.

We didn’t get to Tonya’s until around 7:30. Dinner was frozen pizza….easy & perfect! I had intentions of getting my monsters to bed and staying up with Butch, Tonya & Ben. No luck. I fell asleep getting my kids to sleep. When I woke (around 11:00), everyone else was in bed!

We left fairly early the next morning since it’s nearly an 8 hour drive home. The drive home was much worse than the drive down! Everyone was tired and cranky and tired of being in a car.

We stopped at Cracker Barrel! That food is so good. Full of calories and fat, but yummy! Then, we were back in Maryland. You know that feeling when you are so ready to be home? We had it. But, we had to stop at the grocery store for milk! Ugh. While Leah & I were in the store, Butch & Lacey picked up Ledo’s pizza. At least we didn’t have to cook.

It was a great trip….but there is nothing like your own bed.

Merry Christmas!

2010-02-11T21:29:00.007-05:00

(It seems quite silly to be blogging about Christmas when it's now March. But I do want to have all the big things written down somewhere.)

Christmas is so much fun with kids! And they are so much fun at their ages. Chuck & Nancy didn't come down this year, so it was just the 4 of us on Christmas morning. Butch started the casserole before we came downstairs so it would be done when we finished with gifts. (More on the casserole later!)

Lacey & Leah were amazed to see all the gifts under the tree! (What kid wouldn't be?!)
They immediately started digging in. Santa had wrapped the really big gifts and it took them a bit to realize there was something BIG to open. I'm glad they didn't realize it right away since Lacey was so into her new bike that I'm not sure she would have kept unwrapping right away!

And, yes...Santa brought them bikes. Lacey's is a big girl one with training wheels. Leah's is a Radio Flyer trike that has a handle on it that we can push until she learns how to peddle on her own.

At some point, the timer went off and Butch checked the casserole. He thought it still needed to cook more, so we put it back in. Checked it a bit later and it still wasn't done....I then checked the recipe & realized he had set the timer for 30 min.....instead of 1 hour. Huh. No wonder it wasn't done!

Somewhere around noon, we headed to Rick & Kristina's house. I love holidays with my family. I know what a lucky person I am, too....to have a family that I really like to spend time with.

We had a fabulous dinner! I usually try to take a picture of the food & somehow didn't get that done this year. We had roast beef, stuffed ham, sweet potatoes, broccoli casserole, salad....and I know I missing things!

And, then the cousins opened up all of their gifts, while the rest of us watched
Every year....or most years....for a long time, we get a picture of the cousins. The past several times, there have been serious pictures with everyone smiling, then the less serious....silly face picture.

I love those "kids".

Christmas Eve 2009

2010-02-11T21:15:00.007-05:00

The holidays are always so hectic. And, Christmas Eve is one of those days where I feel like we run around a bit much. But it seems worth it all in the end.

I had to work (from home, luckily) until 12:00 and daycare closed at 1:00. Aunt Marilyn had invited us to an open house for the girls to see Santa. (She has a connection to him through her brother!) He is amazing! So, we picked the girls up & drove to Indian Head. For those that don't know, it's about a 30-40 minute drive. The girls got changed into their Christmas dresses, then sat with Santa and posed for pictures.
We had planned to only be there for an hour or so to allow time to pick up pizza before church (at 5:00). That didn't work out!

We ended up visiting longer than we had planned. It's just too hard to leave when you don't see someone often enough. By the time we left, we knew we'd be late for church (40 minutes back toward home). While Butch was in Ledo's picking up our pizza (in La Plata), it dawned on me that there is a Methodist Church right in La Plata that we could go to. So, that's what we did. It was okay. The 5:00 is supposed to be the "children's service" or "family service". At Mt. Zion, our regular church, this means that the service is really done for the kids. It incorporates them and makes it more fun for them. However, at the La Plata church, I felt like it was just a regular service that was more tolerant of noise. Live and learn, right? Next year we will be at Mt. Zion, I think.

After church, we headed home for pizza. In case you don't know, Christmas Eve is also Butch's birthday. We had birthday cake for him after the pizza and he opened his gifts. I had gotten him an iPod....finally he decided he wanted one!

Then, we switched back to Christmas mode. :-) The girls get to open 2 gifts each year. One is usually PJs and the other is an ornament. We got them new robes this year, too.

Something new happened this year! Lacey was able to write a note to Santa!

I can't believe she's old enough to do that! I love it!

Daycare Christmas Party

2010-02-07T12:52:00.007-05:00

The Daycare Party was Tuesday, the 22nd. Miss Lisa's daughter had written a play about the animals in the forest taking care of a little tree that was lonely. Sort of a Charlie Brown tree. Lacey's best buddy went out for her part before Lacey (with her sister) and "froze". Lacey & Leah went out and Lacey refused to do her speaking part, too! Oh well, they were cute! And, when the time came for singing, everyone participated.
Santa came - arriving on a fire truck! No surprise to me that Leah was the first one to run up to him. That girl has no fear.

It was a bit surprising that Lacey went up right after Leah! She sat on his lap for a few minutes and talked.The kids had picked names a few weeks before for a gift exchange. Miss Lisa had also gotten them gifts. And, Miss Lisa had helped them to make gifts for us. They were little bags that had been decorated with fingerprint painting and it said a hug was inside. Inside the bag was a piece of yarn that was as long as their arms are wide. It was a very sweet gift that we'll be keeping.

December 2009 (Pre-Christmas)

2010-02-07T12:17:00.013-05:00

Lacey & Leah headed to the dentist in late November & I was amazed at how well they both did! Lacey did fairly well last time, too, so I shouldn't have been surprised. Leah sat by herself in the chair & let them do what they needed to. They told us that Lacey's bottom teeth (middle) were both loose, so she got quite excited about the tooth fairy coming at some point.

Leah had a cold at the end of November and by the first week in December her sleep had deteriorated enough that I took her to see Dr. Jill. She'd had the cold for nearly 2 weeks by that point. As it turned out, she had a double ear infection - both ear drums were bulging. Dr. Jill called her a tough cookie, considering she wasn't complaining. Poor baby.

We started with winter early here this year! It was really just a dusting, but we don't normally get snow so early. This was December 5th. It was just enough for the kids to explore, but not to cause issues with driving.

Just wait until the pictures from future snow storms! Yikes!

Butch & I had taken off on December 18th to take the girls to see Sesame Street Live. For anyone that doesn't know, Leah is a huge fan of Elmo. She loved it! Lacey enjoyed it, too, but not nearly as much.
We had planned to go see the Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes on Saturday, the 19th. Dee, Kristin, Lacey and I were going. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans for us....a blizzard. We got 16 inches at our house. It snowed for 24 hours straight. Unbelievable.
Saturday morning, we knew we weren't going to the show. They didn't cancel it, but they did give refunds to those that couldn't make it, so at least we got our money back.

We stayed inside that day since it was so windy and cold, but made it out to play on Sunday.

Lacey isn't much of a daredevil, so she wouldn't go sledding in the backyard (big hill). Instead, she liked the mound of snow made from Butch's shoveling work.
The snow wasn't packing very well (too powdery), but it worked okay for a snow castle.
And, Leah didn't like going into the snow since it was so deep. But she had fun with her sandbox toys.

We had lots of fun throwing a tennis ball for Brady into the snow. She'd hop through the snow & see the hole where the ball went....then dig for it. Made for a tired dog that night.
I have some great videos from that day, but have never had luck uploading them to blogger for some reason. I'm really not sure why, but I try to do it an 2 hours later, it's still trying to upload. So, I'm giving up. Maybe I'll put them on Facebookor email them out.

Catching Up

2010-02-07T12:15:00.001-05:00

Okay, okay....I know. Way behind. Not sure how that happens. And now I have so much to catch up on. I'm trying not to skip through things because I'm thinking about having this put into a book for the kids to be able to keep. So, just know that you are going to see a lot of posts here & many of them are old!

Princess Tea

2009-11-28T13:37:00.004-05:00

There is a little place in La Plata called The Royal Tea Room. I went last weekend with friends for lunch. I'd heard from friends that they will do a "princess tea", which seemed like a great idea. I thought about doing it for both girls, but Leah is just a little too toddler-ish to be expected to sit through something like that. So, when I made the reservations, I just included Lacey. It was Dee, Kristin, Kristina, Jessica, Grandma, Lacey & me.

Grandma had bought Lacey & Leah play jewelry sets, but the earrings kept breaking. Lacey has wanted earrings for a while and I've been telling her when she turns 5 she can have them. Well....I decided yesterday was a special day and thought she could get them to show off at the tea. Grandma, Lacey & I headed to the mall. On the day after Thanksgiving. Amazingly, the parking wasn't too bad. And, the crowd wasn't too bad.

Lacey picked pretty pink earrings. Here she is getting ready to get it done. (Yes, she wore her Snow White dress for the Princess Tea.)
She was crying after, so I don't have an "after" shot for you. But, she really recovered quickly & was happy with them.

Here is Lacey smiling at her special Princess Tea snacks. They did a great job for a little girl. The owner came out before hand to ask what she liked & didn't like so we could make sure Lacey would be happy with her treats. There was a star shaped turkey sandwich, a heart shaped peanut butter sandwich, a little hotdog, grilled cheese, etc. Yum-o.

The whole gang.....Jessica wearing Lacey's special tiara....

Lunch with Santa

2009-11-28T13:24:00.005-05:00

It seems that I am always saying "I can't believe how long it's been"....when I post. But, I think I have new motivation. I found out that I can have my blog put into a nice book. That will be awesome to have done for the kids. Motivation.

Today we went to Lunch with Santa through the 22nd Annual Hospice Festival of Trees. We apparently went in the wrong way because we almost missed lunch! We spent a lot of time in the room with Santa and a very cool train set up.....and the lunch was down the hall! But, we got to eat even thought they had already put the food away.

The girls were great with Santa. I was amazed that neither one was scared or nervous.

Lacey told Santa that she wants a bike for Christmas. He made sure to talk to her about not riding in the streets. ;-) Leah wasn't very talkative with him, but has said "Elmo" anytime someone asks her what she wants.

The girls got their faces painted....and Grandma joined in the fun as well!
We walked through the hall where all of the amazing trees were. Wow. They are beautiful.

Almost Heaven....West Virginia....

2009-10-08T09:27:00.003-04:00

….Blue Ridge Mountains…Shenandoah River…

I remember listening to that song on the drive to WV long, long ago when I was maybe 4 or 5. We all piled in the station wagon to go visit Mom’s family. No car seats. Just kids all over the back of the station wagon.

Aunt Annie – Mom’s sister – had lived in Houston for years. I know if I try to guess, I’ll be wrong. 25 years, maybe? Anyway, she & Steve retired and moved to West by God Virginia January 1st.

Dee & I have been trying to coordinate a visit for quite some time. We finally went the last weekend in September. We drove one route and Dee/Buck took a different route. They had left about 20 minutes earlier than us….and we made it to Annie’s about an hour earlier than them. Even with stops for kids.

The girls were good on the drive. And, we were driving through beautiful scenery after only about 2 hours into the drive. Butch said the drive was easy & good….until the mountains. It was still pretty and all….but was more stressful.

This was the first time Annie had met Lacey & Leah. As we were pulling into the driveway, Lacey --- who used to be so shy --- said “Aunt Annie’s gonna love me”! And, as soon as she got out, ran over to give Annie a big hug.

That evening, we just relaxed on their front porch. They have a feeding station for the deer, so the girls “helped” with filling that up. Then we waited (not for long) for the deer to show. The girls stayed fairly quiet, but even when they made a loud noise, the deer just looked up to check things out.

Unfortunately, it rained the entire next day. That was our only full day & we were supposed to go to the park. I’d made a trip to Michael’s and picked up crafts to entertain the kids, so they were set. And, later….we let them put on their rain boots & coats to go splash in puddles (although, I don’t think they really splashed much).

We had spaghetti with Aunt Annie’s homemade sauce on Saturday night. Yum-o! She uses brown sugar in her sauce. I do, too, but obviously not as much. I think I’ll add more next time I make it.

Sunday morning we had a big breakfast before packing the car up and heading out. I’m so glad we went. I asked Lacey what her favorite part of the visit was. She said “everything at Aunt Annie’s was my favorite part”. Sweet girl.

I’m not really sure how to describe it, but I felt somehow closer to Mom during that time. Partly the visit to West Virginia and partly Aunt Annie – who seems so similar to Mom.

I know we’ll head back for a visit again before too long. Soon, we’ll be planning our “reunion” for all of that side of the family. Can’t wait!

Family Room

2009-10-01T11:34:00.005-04:00

The other day, Butch asked me what I thought about having a small version of our Christmas party. We haven't had one since before I was pregnant with Leah -- partly because of the mess 2 kids create & the stress trying to keep the house clean in preparation for a party would create. But, we both would like to try again this year.

We've also been considering a switch from DirecTv to Cable since I think we can get a good deal. (We have cable for the internet, so we might get a price break if we do both with 1 company.)

These are the things that prompted me to try rearranging the furniture. To do what I was thinking of, we would have to re-route the cable/DTV wiring, so we need to know where it should go before having the cable company come out.

And, this new arrangement allows some of the kids mess to be hidden a little more. Yes, I realize we will still have a mess. And, I'm fine with having a messy, lived-in house while our kids are little. However.....this might work well.

Remember when looking at the after pictures that the TV will be moved to the opposite corner. I'll mention where in a picture below.

View from the kitchen -- near the sunroom -- into the family room -- before:
Same view -- after:
View from kitchen -- entering from the foyer -- into the family room -- before:
Same view -- after:

Behind the couch (yes, I need to organize it, but will wait to make sure we like this before doing so...and will wait to get the TV moved from there first, too):

Standing behind the couch, looking to the kitchen. The corner to the left is where the TV will go.

I think this could work. What I'm not sure of is having the couch facing the kitchen when you are watching TV. But, I think it will be okay. And, I know that the kids toys will still end up in the middle often, but at least there is a true play area to "hide" it when needed.

Thoughts?

Summer is Gone

2009-09-12T08:40:00.001-04:00

Wow. Summer is done. August flew by. And, I haven't posted anything on here since the end of July. So, I had to take a look at my pictures to figure out what all you've missed. :-)

At the end of July, we went to Chesapeake Beach. I had taken one of the Thursday morning's off when the girls were home with Butch. I'd hoped for a few hours of fun before coming home for a conference call. But....the weather wasn't great....drizzling off and on, so we only stayed about an hour.

There was this little stream that the girls were playing in a lot.

And, Lacey loved looking for sea shells.
I found a couple pieces of sea glass, too.

The beach is called Brownie's Beach. It's not usually too crowded & was free....until August of this year. They have added a per person fee now for non-county residents and for the 4 of us, it would be over $30. Not bad, except the kids sometimes only want to stay for an hour or so.

Like this visit. Lacey was happy to keep playing & looking for shells, but after about an hour, Leah was pointing to the exit, saying "Mimi, done pool". And, since it wasn't a great day, she won.

I'm sure we'll go back next year....$30-35 isn't too bad to give the girls some fun. :-)

One of the things I'll miss most about summer is the fresh corn! I think Leah will miss it, too! She can finish an entire ear on her own .... and still ask for more.

At least we will still have a few nice days this week. I love the Fall & all the festivals there are in the area, too!

Church

2009-09-12T08:39:00.001-04:00

One weekend in August, Butch went out of town. I decided to be bold & try the kids in the gym childcare. It worked!!! Neither kid even looked back at me. I got in an hour workout.

The next morning, I tried them at church. It's been ages since we have been. The main reason we hadn't been going is that the girls were not fans of the child care there. Since I send them to Lisa's 5x a week, I wasn't willing to have 1 of our 2 days spent with tears from going to child care.

However.... they did great at church, too! I had them in the church with me for a few minutes. When it was time for the children's sermon, Lacey didn't want to go up for that. Leah was another story. She walked right up...never looking back. Sat down and listened and watched the kids. So cute. Then, she followed the other kids back to me. I walked them to the child care & they went in pretty easily.

We went back a couple of weeks later. Leah again walked right up for the children's sermon. Lacey wanted to, but was afraid, so I went up to the front pew to sit with Lacey. They fussed a little about the child care on that day, but eventually stayed without tears. We've missed 2 weeks now because of dad's party and family camp with Chuck & Nancy. I'm planning to go back this weekend, but with Lacey's cold, I'm not sure I'll put her in the nursery.

Lacey Started Pre-K!

2009-09-12T08:15:00.007-04:00

In April, I had registered Lacey for school. But, Pre-K in public schools here is really designed to help kids that need it (financial, ESL, etc.). So, Lacey was considered category 3 and we weren't sure she would get in.

Her friend, MK had gotten in (she had been a premmie). Leading up to MK starting, I was telling Lacey that MK would be going to school and we didn't know if she had a space, yet. She wasn't happy about that! So, I was glad when we found out there was a space for Lacey! She started on Tuesday.

I wasn't sure how she'd do. She has always been so shy. But, the last month or so, I've noticed her coming out of her shell more. She did better at dance class and gymnastics class. I was debating on whether I should go watch her get on the bus.....or if that might make her more nervous. I went.

I also wasn't sure how Leah would do. Everytime we talked about school or the bus, Leah would say "me, too!". Um, you aren't old enough. Sorry kiddo. But, she did okay. Of course, she now insists on taking a book bag/back pack to Lisa's every day.
Listening for the bus....
Lacey & her "best buddy" MK:

She did great! Climbed right on with no fear!
Sniffle, sniffle. I was close to crying, but stayed in check because Miss Lisa was there. Honestly, I'm sure I would have lost it if she wasn't.

Her class is afternoon, so she is no longer getting a nap! It's been 5 days with no nap. You'd think she'd be passing out by 8:00. Nope. Still fighting sleep. One night she fell asleep around 9:05, but that has been the earliest. I was talking to another mom at the open house last week & she said her son had fallen asleep before 6:30 that night.

On Wednesday, I went to my first Open House. The only bummer about it is that they prefer you don't bring kids, which makes sense (noise level). But....after the "meeting", there wasn't anyone in the classroom to show us around. So, the parents that brought their kids had a tour guide, but I didn't. I just wandered for a couple of minutes. I got to see the dress up area that Lacey talked about. And, I saw her cubbie. She is the only kid in Pre-K with a name beginning with L. I thought that was odd.

Lisa was closed on Thursday & Friday (knee surgery). Lacey didn't want to go to school, so I told her the police would come get me if she didn't go. She got dressed then. She was like that again at the school, but she went in. Poor Leah didn't get much of a nap because by the time I got home, there was only about 90 min. before I had to get Leah up to pick up Lacey. So, on Friday when Butch was home with them, we decided she could ride the bus from Lisa's. It at least gives some extra time for Leah's nap. Turns out that MK was riding the bus from there, too. (We can't change the stops or the bus at this age.)

So....1st week of school is done. She did great and I'm so proud of her! Of course.....she already has a cold. It literally started last night.

Gymnastics

2009-09-07T18:54:00.006-04:00

Both girls took gymnastics classes this summer and loved it. Lacey took a bit of encouraging each week, but each week, once she got into it she didn't want to stop. There were only 3 kids in her class. Some weeks, it was only her.
Practicing for a cart wheel.
Hand stand.....

Getting her medal!
I signed her up for classes again for the fall. She's taking dance lessons again, too, so she'll be a busy girl!

Leah absolutely LOVED her classes! She had a few in her class. There were a couple of boys that were OUT OF CONTROL!!!! It drove me crazy because the mom never bothered to do much with correcting them. Annoying.

Balance beam...

Forward rolls....

Back flips....
Getting her medal....
I signed Leah up for a Mommy & Me combo class for the fall. It's 25 min. of ballet and 25 min. of gymnastics. She missed the first class since we were at Family Camp, but she'll go this Saturday. Can't wait!

Trip to Pittsburgh

2009-07-27T14:14:00.005-04:00

Chuck & Nancy had hoped to visit for Lacey's dance recital, but he'd had surgery (on his knee, that turned into a little bit more) a few weeks before, so they decided not to come. We were overdue for a visit to Pittsburgh anyway. :-) So, we planned to go for 4th of July.

We were supposed to leave on Thursday morning. But, Leah’s toe issues changed that. Butch was leaning toward canceling the trip, thinking it was just too much to deal with. But, I knew that Lacey was really looking forward to it. (So were Chuck & Nancy, of course!) Leah had been fine throughout her ordeal, so I knew she’d be okay with a drive and visit.

I hadn’t gotten all of the packing done before going to the hospital.....and it didn’t make sense to go home after being discharged from the hospital (heading south just to head north again). So….I tried to remember what all was still needed and we made a list for Butch. After packing everything up on Friday morning, Butch & Lacey headed up to the hospital to rescue Leah & me!

The girls were fairly good for the trip. Both of them slept a little. And, we really only had 1 stop (I think)…for food, bathroom, diaper.

After dealing with tracking down the medicine for Leah, we all got settled for bed that night. The 4 of us slept in the basement. There is a pull out couch, but I didn’t think the girls would do well totally on their own on the floor. So, we brought our air mattress, as well as the girls’ new princess air mattresses. We tried to lay them all out side-by-side. But, both girls were being momma’s girls and wanted to sleep right next to me. Butch ended up on the couch ….. Lacey slept with me and Leah was in her bed next to me. Amazingly, that first night was a pretty good night of sleep. And, since it’s dark in the basement, the girls slept late! (They needed that since it was after 11:00 when we go to bed the night before.) The next couple of nights’ sleep weren’t as good, but nothing too horrible.

On Saturday (the 4th), Chuck & Nancy hosted a little party with family. But, before that started...the girls "helped" Nancy pick some berries.
The weather was a little less than desirable….only about 70 degrees if I remember correctly. But, still a good day. We had the moon bounce set up for the kids (Lacey’s & Leah’s 2nd cousins were happy to jump around, too).

I was surprised at how much Lacey wanted to play with the boys. She seemed to really enjoy spending time with her cousins.

Sunday, was spent around the house most of the day. But, the girls were a little antsy, so we headed to the park early that afternoon to let them burn off some energy.
We ordered pizza that night and ate out on the patio. Lacey passed out on the lounge around 6:30 p.m. Later, we started a fire so we could roast marshmallows. Yum-o! Lacey just wanted them by themselves, but the rest of us were smart enough to want S’mores!
We had to be up pretty early on Monday morning since Lacey had swim lessons starting that night. The drive back went pretty well again….more stops, but not too bad. We got back home just in time for Lacey to go to swim lessons. There was literally enough time for Butch to change, get Lacey changed & them to leave.

Now that the kids are getting bigger, I can tell the trips will get easier. Hopefully next time, they’ll cooperate more with sleeping.

Leah’s Hospital Stay

2009-07-27T14:11:00.004-04:00

I think most of you already know these details since you are either on Facebook or talk to me often. But, in case there is anyone still reading this blog that doesn’t see updates elsewhere….

On Thursday, July 2nd, Leah woke up early (before 6:00). She normally sleeps in quite a bit later, so this was weird. I came downstairs with her and laid on the couch while she played a bit. She started fussing when Brady got too close to her & I thought Brady had just stepped on her foot or something. Butch was up by then & noticed it was red. After a closer look in better light, we realized her toe was red & a bit swollen, plus there was some streaking up her foot. At the time, I just knew that I’d heard streaking meant infection & was not good. So, I called the pediatrician as soon as the office opened & we had an appt. at 8:45. I was hoping we’d get antibiotics & be on our way. While Leah & I were out, Butch and Lacey took Brady to Rick & Kristina’s house.

You can see the streaking up to her ankle in this picture. (You can also see a strap mark from her sandles.)

Dr. Jill looked very concerned. It was an infected ingrown toenail. But, with the streaking, Leah’s issue was borderline needing IV antibiotics. So, she had the other doctor on duty come look. The fact that it had all happened so quickly (she had been running around at gymnastics the night before with no problems and we didn’t notice any redness), they decided she probably needed an IV. At least I was able to go home first & get Butch.

I called him when we left the doctor’s office. Thankfully, Kristina was able to keep Lacey for us. Butch met Leah & I at home and we headed to Children’s Hospital ER. Within about 90 minutes, we were in a “room” in the ER. They decided that she did need to be admitted and have an IV.

The first attempt at the IV wasn’t good. Leah cried (screamed) the whole time. Eventually, that nurse said the vain had collapsed and they’d need to do it again on the other arm. She screamed again while I walked to the other side of her bed (because she couldn’t see me). Another nurse came in for the next IV attempt & it was much better. Leah’s face looked like she might cry when the needle stuck at first. I just said “mommy’s here” and she calmed down. I’m sure it wasn’t hurting as bad either.

They decided not to remove part of the toenail. One doctor wanted to because she was afraid it would just happen again. But, the specialist thought that sedating her would be too traumatic & this might not ever happen to her again. So, they soaked her foot for 15 minutes, then lanced it. Ouch. Leah was not happy. Lots of stuff came out. (The only complaint I have about the hospital is that they failed to have that stuff cultured. So, we don’t really know what kind of infection it was.)

Next up was hooking up the antibiotics to Leah’s IV. She napped the entire time.

Eventually, we headed upstairs. Leah walked most of the way and was happy to be free, I think.

Here she is showing her "boo-boo". That pitiful look on her face.....playing it up....nothing more. She was fine before I said "show me your boo boo".

Butch stayed for awhile – long enough for me to go get dinner in the cafeteria. Then, he headed home to get Lacey so she could sleep at home.

I wasn’t sure how Leah was going to sleep in that place. She was due for antibiotics again around 11:00, so I thought I’d let her sleep with me on the pull out chair until then, at least. That went okay. But, after the antibiotics, they gave her the eye drops. (I think I failed to mention that she coincidentally had pink-eye, too.) She totally woke up after the eye drops, so I just let her stay with me. I think that worked best since the nurses were in every 2 hours or so to check vitals. She didn’t really wake up for any of that. I think she slept until 7:00ish that morning. The first thing I did was look at her foot --- streaking was gone!

Taking a little nap....

The doctor came in mid-morning and said she could go home that day, but that he wanted her to have one more dose of antibiotics (at 1:00) first. Butch & Lacey arrived around 1:30 or so. I think Lacey looked like she might cry at first – seeing Leah with an IV, but when she realized Leah wasn’t sad, she was fine.

Butch had packed the car up & we headed to Pittsburgh straight from the hospital.

We had to get the antibiotic prescription filled when we arrived. But, the first pharmacy we went to didn’t have it. It’s a strong one and not everyone carries it. So, we went to Chuck & Nancy’s and Butch called around….too numerous places….before finding one that had it. Whew.

Swing Set

2009-07-27T14:08:00.002-04:00

About a year ago, we started shopping for a swing set. We looked into the ones that you buy at Toys R Us, but while they were cheaper, the reviews showed that it took a long time to put together. I really wanted one from the Amish since the quality is so good & they put it together for you. But the cost was a bit insane.

Rick & Kristina offered for us to take theirs. Rick designed it himself & build it for Jessica & Justin…probably about 15 years ago. But, it was in good shape. We’ve been talking about it for months. Last weekend, Rick power washed it, then with the help of Dad & Kristina, took it apart. Apparently it was a long process. Saturday morning, Buck, Rick and Dad brought it over and started putting it up.

Lacey & I went to Lowe’s that afternoon to buy new swings for it. We still need to get a new tarp for a roof over the play house area.

The girls love it!

Girls Weekend - AST

2009-07-27T14:01:00.004-04:00

When I went to college, I spent 2 years at our community college – then known as Charles County Community College….or Chuck County U. It’s come a long way since then and is now the College of Southern Maryland. Anyway, I spent 2 years there, then transferred to Salisbury State University (now just Salisbury University).

On that first day at SSU, I ran into some friends from high school and got invited to a party. So, my roommate (Debi) and I went. It was a Pi Lamda Phi party. I had no intention of going Greek when I was preparing to leave for SSU --- it isn’t a big Greek campus. But, I met several girls at that party that convinced me that I should Rush & try to get invited to pledge Alpha Sigma Tau.

During Rush week, I met many people that became very good friends. Jen, Shannon & I were all invited to pledge AST. Shannon lived on campus in a different building. Jen lived off campus in a townhouse community (Cynthia Place). We pledged – along with about 15 other girls. It was the biggest pledge class ever, if my memory is right. In fact, the following semester, we couldn’t participate in Rush because the size of our sorority had reached the maximum allowed.

We spent lots of time being afraid of the sisters….waiting for them to come grab us in the middle of the night (I can’t give specifics unless I kill you after)….having to remember all of their names and greet them with “Good Afternoon Sister (Name)” whenever we saw them. With twins (Cathy & Carolyn) in the sorority, this made things pretty difficult!

After 1 semester on campus, Shannon & I moved in with Jen at Cynthia Place. It was awesome! J-D, Mike (a.k.a. Lude), and Ray lived next door. (They were from Pi Lam.) At some point some other AST sisters moved into some of the other houses and most of the community was filled with college students. We had several “Around the World” parties where each townhouse had a shot or shooter & the last one hosted the party with a keg. Good times, I tell you!

At some point….Jen had bought a cat while we were on break and we weren’t supposed to have pets. The land lord found out & we either had to get rid of the cat or move. Shannon & I couldn’t bear to get rid of our beloved Toonces. (Yes, the same dear kitty that I had until he died a few years ago.) So, we moved into another house in Cynthia Place. I can’t remember who we had as a 3rd roommate at first. But, eventually, Christy moved in. She pledged a year after we did, so we knew her through sorority.

When I graduated, I stayed in touch with my good friends pretty well. It was hard because most of them were still in college for a few years after me, while I was hit hard with the real world.

Christy, Shannon & I (and Jen at times) try to get together for lunch 1-2 times a year. Shannon now has a 2 year old and Christy has a 7 month old.

Then….along came Facebook. And, I was in touch with numerous other friends from college – some Greek, some not. One of our sisters decided to organize a weekend away for all of us to reconnect. We had it in Ocean City just a couple of weekends ago. Most of us are fairly local, so it worked well. But, 2 of the girls came from much farther….one from Florida and one from California.

Most of the girls went up on Friday, but Christy, Shannon, Shelly & I waited until Saturday since we had some Mommy Guilt. (Shelly pledged the year that Christy did, I think.) For the 3 hour drive, we probably spent 2 hours and 45 minutes talking about our kids! We tried several times to get onto a different subject, but it always came back to that.

We were on the beach by 1:00 p.m. Things change….I had on a very high SPF and my mantra was “Pale is the new Tan!”. However, 15 years ago, I would have had as little SPF as possible that would keep me from burning, but tan that skin!

After dinner, we went to Seacrets…which I could have done without. It’s a club and not the best place to have conversations. Christy was the first to leave….probably around 10:00 or 10:30. With a 7 month old, she was looking forward to a really good night of sleep. Shannon, Shelly & I left not long after her and we were all happily in bed around midnight.

We all (20 or so of us) had breakfast at the hotel on Sunday before hitting the road. My little group stopped at the outlets for a little shopping before heading home. Of course, I ended up buying several things for the girls at Gymboree and a big fat NOTHING for me. The life of a mom.

It was awesome, though! There is talk of making this an annual thing.

So, Facebook may be an addiction and time-waster in some ways. But, it’s so great to reconnect with people. I love being able to see what is going on in the lives of old friends.

Dress Rehearsal for Dance

2009-06-18T21:04:00.006-04:00

Tonight was dress rehearsal for the recital this weekend. They also did pictures tonight. I spent some time curling Lacey's hair......

Then, it rained....no, it poured.....the whole drive down. And, we all know what humidity does to pretty curls. So, it didn't last long! Still cute, though. And, she was all smiles before going out on stage.
But, then she had to go on stage. I don't think she understood - at all - what it would be like. Who would? And, I wasn't telling her in advance because I didn't want to freak her out. Maybe that was a mistake.

No, this is not a solo. :-) This is my sweet, shy little girl....not dancing.
She was sort of doing it here.

And...admiring her trophy.

Here they all are posing for their group picture.
Lacey was less than thrilled. Once I put my camera away and focused on getting her to giggle, she did. Getting her to do her individual pictures was slow going. But, she eventually relented & did a few.

I'm very proud of her for getting on stage, though. I really wasn't sure she would do that. She's telling me tonight that she will dance tomorrow at the recital....we'll see. She has a recital tomorrow at 6:00, then again on Saturday at noon. Whew. More pictures & videos to come!

Random Update

2009-06-13T14:37:00.003-04:00

I hadn't realized how long it had been since posting last (2 months). So what's been going on, you ask?

I joined a gym. It's the one that Dee goes to. It's a bit of a drive (25 min.), but it's a women's gym, which is kind of nice.....I didn't think I cared, but I do like it. And, they have an awesome fitness instructor who teaches Turbo Kick. It's a really tough workout, but it's fun & she is so energetic. I was doing her class 2x a week for about.....6(?) weeks. Then, the gym offered the "Get Ripped Challenge". It's a sort of boot camp that was M/W/F for 4 weeks at 5:30 a.m. for 45 minutes. I signed up & it was awesome. I liked getting a workout done at the beginning of the day and it was tough. I kept going to the Turbo Kick classes & added some cardio on at the end of each boot camp class.....thought for sure I'd see some great results by the end of 4 weeks. Nope. Nada. My body fat barely went down.

No, I didn't give up my chai lattes during that time. But, I did (for the most part) give up wine. Between that & all those calories I was burning, one would think it would have worked. I need to chat with Genelle about that. So, I'm still working out 4-5 times a week and I'm getting ready to give up my chai latte. It just isn't worth it!

What else?

We all had colds in May. I ended up going to the doctor and got a prescription for bronchitis. The same day I went, I picked the girls up from Lisa's to hear Lacey complain about her ear. I wondered, but decided to wait.....but by the end of dinner, she was crying every few minutes, so I took her to the urgent care and found she had a double ear infection. So we were both on antibiotics.

And, I've had some car issues. Remember that I had my car worked on because of damage from mice? Well, when I drove it at night a few weeks after getting it back, I found that some lights weren't working --- the backlight for the odometer and the light for the heating/air. A few days later, the SRS (airbag) light came on. So, I took it back in to the shop about 10 days ago. GEICO tried to argue that none of it was related to the initial problem. But, the repair shop convinced them it was. We just picked up my car yesterday. I stopped to get gas on the way home, then stopped at Ledo's to pick up pizza. The car wouldn't start when I came out. Butch came to pick me up & the car stayed. This morning, I was planning to have a repair shop (across from Ledo's) look at it, but it started. I was going to drive it to the gym to see if it would start after that, too. But, I had a flat.

So, I took Dad's car (which we've been borrowing) to the gym. Then, Dad & Rick came to change the tire for me. I drove it across the street & had the tire patched. ARGH! Hopefully it won't refuse to start anymore. I'm just going to use it locally for a bit.

Last Saturday, Butch left for Atlanta to do a college tour. He was gone all week. I got by okay, but I would not want to be a single mom! The kids usually insist on me for baths and bedtime, but Butch is usually doing the dishes or something while I handle the kids. Not last week! It wasn't too bad. The worst was that on Monday night, both kids slept horribly. So, I ended up getting very little (3 hours total?) of sleep. It didn't make for a productive Tuesday! I had to skip Turbo Kick because I was exhausted.

I promise to try to do some more updates in the next few weeks!

The Deck

2009-06-13T14:30:00.004-04:00

We've been spending some time on the deck now that the nice weather is here (well....when it hasn't been raining, it's nice). The girls like to have picnics on the deck (or "guck" as Leah calls it).

A couple of weeks ago, we decided we should grill out. We had a Jenny-O turkey tenderloin and grilling it sounded perfect. When Butch went out to get the grill cleaned up & ready....he opened it to find.....

Lovely. There was also a mouse nest....an empty one. Gross. When Butch tried to get the snake out (using a broom stick), it hid under the heating element. So, we left the lid open & just waited & watched while it slithered out. It finally got down to the ground & Butch chased it into the woods. While I wouldn't mind letting the snake die, I like that he kills the mice for us, so he was spared.

Back to cleaning the grill....only to find out we were out of propane. The tenderloin was cooked in the oven that night.

Calvert Wine & Arts Fest

2009-06-13T14:25:00.004-04:00

Last month, we went to the Calvert Wine & Arts Festival with the kids. It was interesting to try to taste wine while handling the girls! This was actually supposed to be a "meet up" with my Calvert Moms group, but we didn't see the others around.

We didn't taste much, but it was a gorgeous day out and they had a few bands playing. The girls had a blast.

Girl Time & Vineyards!

2009-05-02T19:17:00.006-04:00

Okay, I found this saved & I hadn't posted it! So, it's an oldie, but a goodie. :-) It actually all happened toward the end of April.

Last weekend was lots of fun! It actually started on Thursday evening when I picked up my friend, Barbie. I have known her since high school. She & her family moved to the west coast when she graduated (a year after me), so our friendship has been long distance for a long time. I was one of her maid of honors in her wedding 9 years ago...hard to believe it's been that long. Anyway, the last time I saw her in person was about 7 years ago in New Orleans. She & I met there for some girls time. She came to DC for work and I picked her up on Thursday evening to head down to Fredericksburg to meet another friend from high school.
I barely knew Sarah, but Barbie & she were good friends. By the time we go to the restaurant, it was nearly 8:00 (thank you, DC traffic) and we ended up talking long after we were done eating. By the time I got Barbie back to DC, then drove home, it was 1:00 a.m. That's extremely late for me! It was well worth it, though. I had a great time catching up and hope it isn't 7 years until the next time. Her boys are about the same ages as my girls, so we're hoping we can figure out a vacation together sometime.

Friday I worked from home and went to bed very early to prepare myself for our day at the vineyards!

There was a large group of us....6 "old ladies" (including Kristina, Dee, a few of Dee's friends & me) and 8 "young uns" (Kristin and several of her friends). As I was driving over to Dee's house to meet up with a few others, I was dancing & singing in the car. It was a GORGEOUS day and I couldn't help myself!

We got to Ingleside around 12:30 and started out with their barrel tasting. We tasted 2 Chardonnay's and 2 Merlots right from the barrel.
Then, we tasted all of the wines that they had bottled. The only bad thing is the guy that was pouring & telling us about the wines went entirely too fast. We either had to chug it or dump it. Not very good if you are really trying to decide what you like. After that we just relaxed at a table outside while listening to the band and munched on the very small selection of food they had.

We left around 3:15 to head to Belle Mount to taste a little more. That's also where we were staying the night - they have little cabins for rent. The tasting was a joke. The lady pouring wasn't even telling us about the wine and she was pouring such a tiny amount that we couldn't even really tell if we liked it.

We got over to the little cabins at around 6:00 and chowed down on all the food we brought. I ended up so full (from both wine & food) that I couldn't drink anymore for hours.
Our intent was to play games like Outburst, but those plans were messed up when our party was crashed. The other 3 cabins were being used by several couples in their 50's and then men ditched their wives to come plan LCR with us. Strange. They all seemed to be nice enough, but why their wives (1) didn't come, too; or (2) let them leave for so long is weird. And, Dee & I agreed the next day that we should have politely explained that we were there for girls time. But, we would have felt rude, so we didn't. Oh well, it was still fun.

Kristina, Lynn & I headed to bed around 12:30. Dee, Dana & Lisa came in at 1:30 and couldn't stop giggling, so we were woken up then. :-) No one had a great night of sleep given the uncomfy beds (for those of us that had one). Dee slept on the couch & Lynn slept on a twin size air mattress.

We've all agreed we need to try to do one in the fall again. Those of us that are married talked about needing to do one with the men.

Easter

2009-04-22T13:17:00.006-04:00

We had a really nice Easter here. Well, it could have been a little bit warmer, but at least it wasn't raining!

The night before, we colored eggs....

Lacey & Leah searched around the family room to find their Easter baskets! Leah was quite happy with her new sunglasses.
I was pleased that the Easter Bunny hadn't gone overboard on candy. :-) There were sunglasses, toothbrushes (ha), hair accessories, etc.....plus some chocolate. Leah got to have her first peanut butter egg!
We headed to Dad's house later that morning so we'd be there in time for Leah's nap. Sadly, she wouldn't sleep in the pack n play. Every time I tried to put her down, she screamed. I'm guessing she just wasn't used to it and hadn't been at Dad's in a while. Butch relieved me and took a nap with Leah. (I think he was hoping for that.)

I managed to get a couple of very cute pictures with Dad.
The girls had a good time on the swings.....

....and hunting eggs......
.....and checking out their loot.
Bucky handled the grill (as usual). We had pork roast, red potatoes, asparagus, biscuits, etc. All quite yummy!

Weekend Update

2009-04-22T12:56:00.005-04:00

Last weekend was a busy one! I took Thursday & Friday off because my friend, Tonya, came to visit from the Charlotte area. I picked her up at the airport on Wednesday & we just hung out at home that night.....well, Butch & I watched Lost while Tonya dozed in the chair.

Thursday was a quiet day, too. Tonya & I went to lunch at Red Robin before heading to the mall for a little bit of shopping....mainly for her to buy some athletic shoes that she needed. She & I headed to the gym for turbo kick that evening. (I love that class.)

Friday, we drove to Crofton for a "real" shopping. I walked out of Old Navy with a few things. Then, we met old friends (Cynthia & Susan) for lunch. We all used to work together.
Even though we finished our lunch before 1:00, we were in the restaurant until nearly 2:30! It was just too much fun to stop. I think we would have stayed longer, but we needed to get home.

That night, Kristina (and Rick) came over to babysit so Butch, Tonya & I could go to Alexandria to meet Yudha for dinner. Yudha is Tonya's ex-husband, but they have stayed in touch and are good friends. And, he's Butch's & my friend, too. I wish he & his wife lived closer so we could get together more.
Saturday's plan was for Butch, Yudha & Tonya to go rock climbing in Alexandria. However....it was not a great night of sleep (thank you, kids). That, combined with a little bit of alcohol, had Butch not feeling very motivated! So, Tonya took my car to Alexandria and climbed a bit....even though she had no stamina that day. Butch & I were lucky enough for both girls to nap at the same time, so we could catch up a bit on sleep.

Saturday night was the Twilight viewing party at Dee's house. Lots of fun. Most of us had read the book, but a couple hadn't and still liked the movie. We had lots of good snacks, too.

This weekend is full of more fun for me. Kristin planned a girls overnight wine tasting party! We are driving down to Ingleside on Saturday morning and plan to be there for a few hours (they have their Spring Barrel Tasting that day. Then, we are heading to another vineyard for a quick tasting before checking into their little cabins for the night. More wine, board games, girl time. (Butch is going to catch on soon and start filling the calendar with guy time!)

When I get back on Sunday, I'd better not be feeling too bad! Butch is leaving for a conference late that afternoon and will be gone until Tuesday.

A Shamless Brag

2009-04-20T16:52:00.005-04:00

Miss Lisa sends home a daily report for each of the kids. Lacey's had a special note on it last week and I can't help but brag. :-) The picture is small, but if you click on it, it will enlarge so you can read it.

Our Weekend

2009-04-05T13:32:00.003-04:00

Lacey had her 4 year old well visit on Friday afternoon. On the drive, I prepared her for everything except shots...thinking she wasn't getting any. I promised her a prize (non-doll) at Target if she was good for Dr. Jill. The visit went pretty well. She was 41" tall (75th %ile) and 36.75 lbs (50th %ile).

I asked about nutrition - since Lacey is a very picky eater and has days where she seems to eat like a bird. I listed the meats she will eat (some kinds of chicken nuggets, shaved deli ham and hot dogs) and the veggies (none, except the spinach pockets). She does fine with fruits, dairy & grains. Anyway, Jill's response was "that's a pretty good list". She told me that compared to many picky eater lists, it's really not bad at all for this age. Whew. And, it's common for there to be days where a kid doesn't seem to eat much. She also pointed to her growth chart and showed how it's been very consistant, so no worries.

Then, I asked about this annoying constipation/withholding issue. When I told Jill that I'm sure Lacey gets enough fiber most days, she said it usually has nothing to do with fiber. It's withholding. It's mental/emotional. And, eventually she will get over it, but it might be another year or 2 before she does. Lovely. No health issues to worry about with it at this time, though.

After doing the exam, Jill explained that there would be shots. They aren't truly necessary until the 5 year old well visit, but if we waited, there would be 4 in one day and this doctor's office thinks it's a bit more humane to spread it out. So do I. Lacey had done so well in the fall for her flu shot that I was hopeful....but these 2 shots (Dtap and polio) apparently were more painful and caused lots of tears. So, mommy gave in & promised she could have another Barbie if she wanted one. If you have seen her collection, you would know another Barbie was not needed. But, I'm a softy.

Off we went to Target & Lacey had a nice little time debating on the dolls. Of course, her first 2 picks were $20 Barbie's and I said no way. She eventually found one she wanted that was a reasonable price.

We've had some rough sleep for the last 2 weeks or so. Lacey's sleep fell apart when she got sick. She started waking up around 3:00 or 4:00 and wandering to our room. I tried to take her back to her bed if I was awake enough, but when I was too tired to move, let her climb in. And, Leah's sleep has been rough because of teething. She's been waking up at 5:00 or 5:30 most mornings and one of us (usually Butch) goes in to rock with her until it's a reasonable time to get up. It's hard on work mornings for Butch & I to have time for our routines.

I can't fix Leah's teething issue, but focused on Lacey's. When we were at Target on Friday, I had her pick out a DVD and promised she could have it if she started sleeping better....staying in her bed and not waking me up. It worked. Friday night & Saturday night, she stayed in her bed and didn't call us at all. I feel much better today. And, she's enjoying "Happily N'ever After 2". Amazingly enough, Leah even slept well last night. She didn't wake until 7:00, so it was awesome!

Yesterday, we went to the 9th Annual Hospice Easter Egg Roll. The kids had a great time. Neither one was interested in the egg roll, but Lacey enjoyed the hunt. They had a big bin filled with bubbles and that's what they played with the most.
They had pony rides, which Lacey was quite excited about. I think she went on 2-3 rides through the day. Leah was yelling "neigh, neigh", but once she got on and the pony started moving, she was anxious to get off.

The Easter Bunny was walking around, but neither girl was very interested. At least Leah was okay getting close to him for a picture. Lacey didn't want to get that close.
We bought some raffle tickets for the kids raffle. They had 6 tables set up and you could pick what prizes you wanted to be entered to win. Lacey (of course) picked Barbie related items. With 6 tickets, we won 2 prizes. One was a 3 pack of Barbies and the other was a Barbie with a horse. Lovely. I told her she had to pick 5 of her old ones to send to Aunt Dee's for her toy bin. (She keeps toys for when my kids, and Buck's nieces and nephews visit.) Leah passed out in her carseat within 3 minutes and slept the whole ride home....then went back to sleep in her crib for 90 minutes after we got home.

Not much going on today. We had planned to go to another Easter Egg Hunt that the Optimist Club was doing. But, Dad wasn't going to be there and I wasn't sure if we'd know anyone. It's 35 minutes away and since we'd already done one yesterday, decided to skip it. I went to Target this morning & had some peace & quite while shopping and sipping my vanilla chai latte. Butch is doing a little yard work. Lacey is watching the new movie for the 2nd time and resting. I'm planning to get them both outside for a bit after Leah wakes up. The day is too lovely to be stuck inside.

Mice

2009-03-29T09:44:00.003-04:00

Most of you already know that I have had a mouse problem in my car. About 4 weeks ago, I saw the first signs....a mouse had chewed through a plastic food container that had some peanut butter in it. He'd also left behind poop. I immediately cleaned everything out of my car, but found no other real food source. Then, I took it to be cleaned.

A bit later, a mouse had chewed up Leah's carseat cover......right where the crumbs are dropped. Some other things happened that made me wonder. Then, I met some friends for lunch 2 Sunday's ago and came out from the restaurant to find styrofoam everywhere. The kids' carseats have some styrofoam in the bottom. I knew then that they were traveling with me.

Butch bought some old school traps. (I should mention we'd already bought poison traps, but had no luck with those.) He set 2 traps on Monday evening -- both on the floor of the car -- one in front & one in back. Within an hour, the front trap had "caught" (broken the leg of) a mouse. Butch was playing volleyball, so I was on my own. We'd put down trashbags under the traps. So, I picked up the bag and carried the mouse (who was not running from me) to the woods and set the little disabled thing free to fend for himself against predators.

By the morning, the other trap had caught another...this time really caught him.

We forgot to set the traps on Tuesday evening.

Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day and a Leprechaun had visited Miss Lisa's while the girls were napping. He left little baskets of chocolate coins for them. Apparently, I forgot to bring one of those in on Tuesday.

When I got in my car Wednesday morning, the little basket was there....the EMPTY little basket. But, I thought "maybe I dumped the chocolates in Lacey's dance bag".....because certainly SOMEthing would be left behind. The gold foil, some chocolate. SOMEthing. About 2-3 miles from my house, the car was heated good....and I could smell the chocolate. I looked down at my feet and saw a very small amount of gold foil.

I turned around and went home since it HAD to be dealt with. I couldn't handle it anymore.

I ended up calling GEICO and found that this issue is covered by our policy. I took the car to the adjuster at 1:30. They agreed to replace the carseat and have the dash removed to check for damage. When that appointment finished, Butch called to say Leah had thrown up. So, the mouse problem waited another few days.

Well, except making the car smell like candy canes. I was told my a mechanic that mice hate peppermint. So, we bought peppermint oil & soaked cotton balls...which we placed all over the floor near the dash and on top of the dash. Hopefully, that chased them away.

I finally got the car to the shop on Tuesday evening. There was some damage - just one part that needs replaced. It was due to come in on Friday & they hope to have the car ready for me on Monday.

We ended up having to rent a car, though. Butch went to DE this weekend for a volleyball tournament and I need something to get to the airport tomorrow since I'm going to NY for a 2 day trip.

I really hope the stupid mice are gone. The mechanic didn't find any nest or see any mice (alive or dead).

Next up: having a tune up done to check for more damage and getting it detailed to get rid of all those mouse germs.

Stomach Bug, Part 2

2009-03-29T09:37:00.002-04:00

Leah's stomach bug was last Wednesday. By Friday night, we thought we were in the clear for the rest of us. We were wrong.

Lacey kept complaining that her tummy hurt, which is somewhat normal, given her constipation issues. But, it seemed different....and the stomach virus was still on my mind. At 11:30, she threw up....pink yogurt all over the family room floor. I didn't feel great either....was cold even though it wasn't cold in the house. By 5:00, I knew I had it....the chills had started badly and lasted for 5 hours. I never vomited, but had other not-so-pleasant digestive issues.

Butch slept in the guest room. Lacey slept with me....but neither of us really slept. We still felt bad on Sunday, but at least the vomiting had stopped. I had a fever off & on all day.

The girls went to daycare on Monday and I headed to the office. At noon, I'd already decided to take sick time, but kept doing "1 last thing" and finally made it out at 1:30. It was Wednesday before I could eat without feeling nauseous.

What a week.

Stomach Bug

2009-03-19T08:30:00.005-04:00

Through Facebook on Tuesday, I learned that 2 of the daycare kids (siblings) were home sick. In fact, their whole family had it. When I picked up Lacey on Tuesday, Miss Lisa said that MK had been at daycare on Monday...and I guess it started Monday night. MK's sister came to daycare on Tuesday, but started with vomiting and diarrhea. Lots of exposure for all the kids. Miss Lisa ended up having taking M home because neither parent could come pick her up since the whole family was vomiting.

But, off we went to dance class and I tried not to think about it.

Wednesday, I was supposed to go to the office and was on my way in, when I had to turn around for a car issue (which I'll blog about later). I got home and came in to make some calls on my car. That's when I realized Lisa had left a message the night before...I guess while we were all in Leah's room...it said that she had started with diarrhea, but she was hoping it was something she eaten. While I was calling on something about my car, she called again. Still no vomiting, but making sure I'd gotten the message since I usually keep them home to avoid exposure when she's ill.

Because of my car issue, I had Butch turn around & pick up the girls to bring them home. He stayed home, too, so I had some flexibility with the car problem. I ran out for a 1:30 appt. on the car and Butch called at 1:45....saying Leah had vomited in her crib. Lovely. She'd probably done it awhile before since he'd laid her down for a nap at 1:00 and she was fussing off and on....probably saying "hello....I'm laying in puke".....

So, between that time & 3:40, it happened a total of 3x. She ended up eating crackers and drinking water through the evening...after a very short, 1 hour nap. She was so hungry & seemed fine for so long...we let her have a few bites of oatmeal later. Then, when I was rocking her at 8:00ish....everything came up. Yikes.

I changed her, thinking we were good. But, it happened again. We were out of clean sleepers, so I put her in some of Lacey's PJs that she'd outgrown. I told Leah she was getting big girl jammies and she smiled really big. Even after her rotton day and just throwing up, she still had a big smile. So sweet. She finally fell asleep in my arms and ended up sleeping through the night.

So far today, she's eaten yogurt, cheerios, bread and even had a little milk. I'm afraid to have high hopes, yet. But, I know from the others that it doesn't last more than 24 hours, so maybe we are done. Maybe. Send us some healthy vibes, okay?

Lacey hasn't had it...yet. I'm not keeping my hopes up there either. I heard from Lisa this morning and the only daycare kid that hasn't had it is Lacey. She is 1 of 7. Lisa said her husband even got a mild version. Lisa had it rough until 7:30 last night, but is only sore today.

Well, if everyone manages to stay healthy today....and if Lisa is open (and she's hoping to be), the girls will be back tomorrow. Lisa promised to scrub and disinfect everything again later today. I half-way want to keep them home just to keep Lacey away from it a bit longer. We'll see. I might end up doing that.

Random

2009-03-08T13:56:00.002-04:00

Butch is working this afternoon an open house at Ryken. He'll be back around dinner. The girls are in great moods today...thankfully. It's too muddy out, thanks to the snow, but we played on the deck for a long time. It's so warm. I am so ready for spring!

Yesterday we went to the library for a birthday celebration for Dr. Seuss. There were tons of kids. Lacey had no interest in the party & just wanted to go find the books and DVDs, so off we went. I'm looking forward to the little Amish market opening for the season. They set up at the library, so our Saturday morning tradition is to go to the library & market with the kids.

Other than that, yesterday was no fun. I don't know if it was mostly me (stressed and grumpy) or the kids misbehaving...or a combination of the two. I feel like all I did was yell at Lacey. She wasn't listening at all. Today, I made a decision to stay calm the entire day and it's worked well so far. She responds best when I'm calm. If she isn't listening, a count to 5 and a loss of a "point" usually does the trick. I need to remember that. Sometimes, it's just hard to do when they are pushing my buttons all day.

I went through our local events calendar yesterday to find upcoming events and wrote several things down on the calendar. I love this time of year!

My local HIP Momma's meetup group hasn't done much to include the working moms in a while. Most (probably 80-90%) are stay at home moms, so there has been lots on the calendar, but mostly weekday things. Anyway, our fearless leader has moved into her new house and is setting up new things. I'm looking forward to some time with the girls. Of course, the day they have scheduled our first Mom's Morning Out (breakfast) since November....is next Saturday....when Butch has to administer SATs. Oh well. I'm considering a sitter, but not sure it's worth it.

Lacey's going for her well visit in a few weeks and I can't wait to talk to Dr. Jill about the ongoing constipation and diet issues. Leah gets to go to the dentist for the first time next month, too. Yippee. Hopefully she'll handle it better than Lacey did at this age!

Is all of that random enough for you?

Exercise!

2009-03-08T13:47:00.002-04:00

I've been trying to get myself exercising (and eating well) for months now. I just can't seem to get myself motivated enough to lose the last 10 pounds from being pregnant with Leah. I think I've finally decided that exercise must come first....then the nutrition will follow. I bought a 10 visit pass to the gym that Dee goes to. I haven't joined before partly because of the kids and having to take time to go, but also because it's not really close. It's about 25 minutes from here. But, I need to do something.

They have a turbo kickboxing class that Dee & her friend love. I went on Thursday evening and love it, too. The instructor is really good and it's a HARD workout, which is what I need to get motivated. She teaches the same class on Tuesday mornings. Since I work from home on Tuesdays, that's going to be my lunch hour. Twice a week should get me moving more, right?

I had gotten into Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD. It's a great 20 minute workout. I'm just not great at sticking with it. Hopefully I can do that once each weekend and maybe another time during the week.

Kid-Free Time

2009-03-08T13:34:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago we tried a teenage babysitter for the first time. Other than official daycare and family, no one had watched the kids for us before. Lacey's old daycare provider, Miss Kim, has 3 daughters. The oldest is in college, the next (Alex) is 16 and the youngest is 15, I think. So, both the youngest ones babysit and I know they helped Miss Kim with the kids (played with the kids) when she ran the daycare.

Rather than try to have a teenager who the kids don't know get them to bed, we planned an afternoon date. We went to lunch and then to see He's Just Not That Into You. Very cute and so nice to get out.

Alex worked out great - both kids seemed to like her. She got Leah down for a nap without any crying or fighting, too. We're planning on doing this every 6 weeks or so. I don't think we can afford to do it more often. Although, we might alternate having Dee or Kristina watch them (if they can) with paying Alex or her sister.

Last weekend, we'd made plans to go to Bonefish (yum-o) with some friends of Butch's in Northern VA. I love that place. (Did I already say YUM-O?) It was good to see Victor & Mary, too. I don't know them very well, but they're sweet. The only negative thing (to me) is that they both play volleyball....which means that with 3 volleyball players, the conversation sort of kept going back to it. :-) I don't really mind...no interest, but I know Butch had fun.

Now that we've had those couple of dates, I can't wait to get out again. It's nice being able to have a conversation without having kids interrupt. As Leah keeps getting older, it's going to get much easier.

Publish Post

March Snow Storm!

2009-03-08T13:12:00.003-04:00

Well....we were thinking spring was just weeks away, but a snowstorm came our way from the south. If you don't live around here, you may not know....when the snowstorms come from the west, we (in Southern MD) typically don't get much. But when they come from the south...look out. It started around 2:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon and continued until around noon on Monday. We got somewhere around 10-12 inches, depending on where you measured.

Here is what we woke up to on Monday morning. The schools had actually decided to close the night before.
That was around 7:00 a.m. or so and it just kept coming.

Our neighborhood has a contract with someone that plows the main roads, but we live on a shared driveway. Luckily, one of the neighbors has a snow blower. In the past, it's usually clear before Butch can offer to help since he never has to leave for work. This time, he met Mike and they worked on it together. Then, Butch was able to use it for our driveway, too.

We have been horrible about keeping our bird feeders filled, but I asked Butch to fill them Sunday afternoon and I'm glad we did (so were the birds).

We eventually got the kids out to play. Lacey wasn't asking and Leah took a long nap that afternoon, so it was around 4:00 when we finally got out there. Butch wanted to take them sledding. Leah went for the first time & liked it okay, but didn't want to go a second time. Lacey liked it in January and was eager to go again. But, when she got snow in her face....all that changed. She hates to get water in her face (bath tub or pool) and has a fit about it. So, Butch ended up just taking her out front to play for a bit.

I thought this tree looked beautiful!
Butch was off work Monday & Tuesday since schools were closed in that county. And, he had a delay on Wednesday morning. Miss Lisa had all the kids - all day - on Wednesday since schools were closed in her county (scheduled closing...not because of the snow). She managed to get all of them bundled up for fun in the snow. I don't know how she does it.
By the end of the week, most of the snow was gone. The temperatures continued rising and it's 70 degrees as I'm typing this. It was the same yesterday - gorgeous! And, while I love the snow....a little anyway....it's nice to have it melt quickly. I couldn't live in a climate where it was on the ground for 2-3 months solid.

Snowstorm in January

2009-03-03T09:54:00.005-05:00

We got our first snow/ice that we could actually play in at the end of January. I had just started to think I could return Lacey's snow suit. (The Children's Place has a 6 month return policy that I love.)

I think we only got about 3 inches, but it was still fun. Butch got his workout in.

We eventually bundled the girls' up and took them out to play. Leah is very unsure and refused to put on mittens, so we didn't keep her out for long. Lacey was really enjoying it, though.

I bought a sled at Target that morning so we could get them out for sledding. I think Butch had just as much fun as Lacey. Maybe more. Lots of fun...and it turned out not to be our only snowstorm of the year!

Lacey's 4th Birthday!

2009-03-03T09:30:00.005-05:00

I can't believe that my little girl is 4!

Grandma & Poppy came for a visit. They arrived on Wednesday and Grandma gave Lacey her early birthday present....a new princess dress....Ariel as a human.
She wanted it on immediately & wore it to bed. I had to fight her the next morning to take it off and get dressed for Miss Lisa's. Then, she didn't wear it for the rest of Grandma's visit. Strange child. Now she's wearing it again.

On Saturday, Nancy and I took Lacey to the pottery painting place. Of all the things she could have picked...she picked a race car piggy bank. What? I tried (unsuccessfully) to change her mind. She is a true girlie girl. I can't imagine why she picked a race car. Whatever. It was for her birthday, so I just went with it. She did well initially with painting....pink and gray. Then, she just wanted to mix paints & not wait for it to dry, etc. Should be interesting what we pick up this week. (It's ready, but I haven't gotten there because of our crazy snowstorm.) I decided to paint a latte mug and get her hand print on it. Hopefully it turned out okay, too.

Sunday was her party. I thought about doing something to include some kids this year, but didn't feel like finding activities for them to do. Yes, I'm lazy. And, really....there are only 2 friends her age I probably would have invited. I'll wait until she asks to have friends over. We ended up just having family over for dinner (spaghetti with slow cooked sauce) and ice cream cake.

Yes, my girl is spoiled. I have a hard time stopping. I have a feeling it would be a little easier with a boy, but who knows? Anyway....she even asked "is this one mine, too?", because she was remembering Christmas & that some were for Leah and other people.

Of course, Leah wasn't neglected. :-) Miss Frankie (Dad's friend) got her a little Webkinz.
And, I had gotten Leah some new hair barrettes. (She is a bit obsessed with getting her hair done.) Uncle Buck was a bit obsessed as well...he put every single barrette in her hair.

In that picture, you can see Uncle Bucky's lovely attempt at Leah's hair. I think he may have missed his calling.
I didn't bother attempting to make a cake this year. The whole family loves ice cream cake from Carvel, anyway. The theme this year? Scooby Doo! Yes, he is still quite popular and Lacey loves him.
After everyone left, we worked on getting the girls to bed. Lacey was way over-tired since she didn't nap Saturday or Sunday. She had a big meltdown right before bed. I worked very hard at keeping my calm since my having a screaming meltdown with her would have just made it worse. She was overtired for much of that week, but finally got caught up on sleep and back to herself.

Chuck & Nancy left on Tuesday morning to head to Atlanta for a visit with Butch's brother's family. Lacey's cousin (Samantha) is 9 days younger, so a birthday party was held at their house this past weekend.

A Very General Update

2009-01-25T07:10:00.005-05:00

Not much has really been happening around here. The girls both had colds that started about a week ago. I kept Lacey home from daycare the Friday before MLK Day because she was so congested. Saturday, Lacey had a mild fever....which she still had on Monday, so I took her to Dr. Jill. It never got above 100.5, but I still thought that after 3 days, she needed to be checked. It turned out that she had an ear infection. She hadn't complained at all, so it must have been just starting. She still has a few days left of the antibiotics, but her cold is almost completely gone.

Leah had a cold, too, but never got a fever. Her 18 month well visit was scheduled for Friday, so it was good to at least have her checked out. By then, her cold was about gone, too. She had a great doctor's visit - she is so easy. Dr. Jill always comments about it being her easiest visit of the day. She is 24 lbs, 4 oz. (50th percentile) and 32.5 inches long (75th percentile). I find the length kind of funny....I know it was accurate because she was really good with being still. But...I always think of her as short. The 18-24 mo. clothing from Old Navy and Gymboree; and the 18 mo. clothing from Carters are all long on her. Anyway....she got only 1 shot that day and handled it well. Not even a flinch.

I worked from home on Tuesday - Inauguration Day. Unbelieveable, but our DC office did not close. Apparently there is 1 person from one of our companies that lives very near the office & was being stubborn about it. So, my dept./division (15-20 people tops) was given the choice to work @ home or take the day off. The 2 administrative women were given "free" days off since they aren't able to work from home.

Butch & I watched the ceremony with happiness since the person we supported had won this year. I had chills watching him take the long walk out for the swearing in. By himself, in his thoughts. You have to wonder what's going through his mind at that point. Perhaps it was "don't let Justice Roberts mess up the words". :-) Truly an amazing day when you think of how far we've come with race issues. I don't believe that 30 years ago anyone other than a white man could have made it this far. I'm proud of how people are changing.

That day was also Winnie the Pooh day (I know because daycare celebrated it). So, I wasn't sure that they would talk about Inauguration Day. But, Lacey came home with this (held upside down):

And, she said that they watched the ceremony, too. I asked her if she had a good time watching it and she said - very enthusiastically - "I had fun!". She already knows who "Barack Obama" is....I'm working on the "President" part with her now.

We bought a new toy box/storage thing that Butch put together last weekend. Here are Lacey & Butch showing it off. It's got 3 bins, so we can attempt to organize the toys. Yeah, right. I'm the only one in the house that sees the point of that.

Yesterday, I took Lacey to see The Little Mermaid at the College of Southern MD. It was the children's theater, so lots of kids were in it. Certainly no Port Tobacco Player's presentation, but it was pretty good and Lacey loved it! What was strange is that the mermaid wasn't "Ariel". Her name was "Anemone". Many of the names were different - the prince was Theodore (instead of Eric). I'm not sure if this was an earlier, pre-Disney story, or if it's because of copywrite issues.

Not much is planned for today. Lacey is still asleep (7:30) and Leah cried around 6:30 - Butch went to her & she's been resting in his arms in the rocking chair ever since. This is how I've found some time to post here!

It isn't often that I get a picture of the 2 girls together...at least not a decent picture. So, here is a lucky shot.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-09T20:26:00.006-05:00

So, what else has happened since Christmas?

One of the days after Christmas, we (Nancy, Butch, Lacey, Leah & I) went to the Baltimore Aquarium. The girls had very little interest in the fish. But, then we went to the dolphin show. Lacey loved the show! They are so amazing to watch. Leah fell asleep a few minutes before we went in and slept the entire show. After the show, we went to the 4-D Experience of The Polar Express....that was awesome! Too bad it was only 15 minutes. If you have a chance to see something in 4-D, you should.

We headed for a quick lunch at Panera before heading home.

On New Year's Eve, we got Leah to bed, then headed to our neighbor's house for their annual party. It was nice to be able to go and not worry about coming home to put kids to bed since Chuck & Nancy were still here. I enjoyed the party, but in all honesty....staying home and hanging out would have been fine, too.
Chuck & Nancy left on New Year's day and it was back to work for Butch & I on Monday. The girls have had minor colds....and I have had it a little worse. It was a little rough for a few days and is now improving. Poor Leah seems to be getting a bit worse.

Butch is in Delaware this weekend for a volleyball tournament. He left early this a.m. and will get back tomorrow morning sometime. The day is going fairly smooth here.....although Leah wouldn't nap in her crib, so I was in her rocking chair for about 90 minutes. Most likely that was due to her cold. She's not usually like that. Luckily, Lacey was really good and played well on her own.

Christmas Continued....

2009-01-09T19:51:00.004-05:00

Christmas Eve was interesting for us at church. Both girls were in total mommy mode and wanting to be on, or at least next to me. But, mostly on me. They were both a bit grumpy, too. Leah wanted to be active and wasn't happy to be stuck in a pew. I'm not sure what Lacey's issue was. Luckily, it was the "family/children's" service, so there were lots of other noisy kids. Of course, mine seemed to be the loudest, but that might be that I was right there with them. Maybe the other parents felt the same about their kids. I'll hope, anyway. And, as with all the services since the "new" pastor (18 months ago) came to Mt. Zion, this was longer than it used to be. It was about 30-40 minutes with Pastor Phil, but it was an hour this year.

We drove 2 cars and after church, Butch & Chuck were stopping to pick up Ledo's pizza. Sadly, Ledo's had closed at 5:00. Church was over at 6:00. So, plan B was Pizza Hotline, which was also closed. Plan C was Domino's. It worked. After pizza, we had ice cream cake to celebrate Butch's 46th birthday! Then, we let the girls open 2 gifts each - PJs and an ornament. Lacey's ornament was a daddy bear and daughter bear (in a tutu) dancing. Leah's was a little girl decorating her dog with ribbon.

And, I got one for Butch this year, too. If I ask him what he wants for any occasion (birthday, Christmas, etc.), he sometimes says "world peace". Which, I can't provide. But, there was a beautiful ornament this year that was called "A Wish For Peace". I thought it was perfect.

Eventually it was off to bed for the girls. We stayed up & watched Narnia while Santa worked on stockings and things.

Leah woke at 7:00. We thought about taking her to the (unfinished) basement to play a bit so Lacey (really....Chuck & Nancy) could sleep in a bit longer, but didn't think that she would last long down there. (In our defense, we do have toys down there. And, the treadmill, a TV, etc.) So, I went to wake up Lacey, who was quite grumpy at first....until I said "Santa came!" and she replied "is he here?"!? She woke up Grandma & Poppy and was quite patient to wait while they cleaned up & got robes on. I'm sure that patience will disappear as the years progress.

Both girls were thrilled with the pink kitchen that Santa brought. You saw some pictures of this on the last post. Leah was thrilled when she realized there was a new puzzle for her under the tree....so sweet. And, Lacey loved the new Barbie (yes, another one). Lots of other wonderful gifts....some clothes, books, etc.

Rick & Kristina hosted Christmas dinner. We headed to their house after Leah's nap (around 3:00?).
Dinner was Yum-o! All the normal things....stuffed ham, the wonderful casseroles, plus roast beef and strawberry spinach salad. (Jess is peaking around Dad here....proud to be doing dishes!)
We do gifts only for the generation of our nieces & nephews, so they all opened gifts after dinner. Speaking of that generation, we try to do a picture of them all each year, too. This is the "goofy face" picture. I'm hoping Dee or Kristina got a good "regular" one for me since Kyle closed his eyes in the one I took. :-)
Dad announced around 5:30 that he was leaving to go to another party. Busy man. He & Frankie were heading out with some friends. So, we had to hurry & have him open gifts so he could leave.

We didn't last long after that since we had to get Leah home & ready for bed. But, Leah had other ideas when we got home. That pink kitchen was calling her name and she was right back to it! Eventually she gave in.....

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T10:37:00.003-05:00

We got a new camera the other day, so I am already on the computer checking out our pictures from this morning. Thought I'd share a few here. I'll write more another time.

This is actually from yesterday.

Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T09:10:00.005-05:00

The girls are at Miss Lisa's for the morning. I'm working from home. Although, I have received no emails all morning, so I don't think much work is happening!!! :-) I've sent a few, but obviously people are either off or not focused on work.

Just planning to do some last minute wrapping and organizing today. We'll be heading to church for the "family" service at 5:00. It's somewhat short & very kid-friendly. Then, we are picking up pizza from Ledo's on the way home for Butch's birthday dinner. I need to figure out the cake sometime today! It's crazy to get one with all the cookies here. But, a birthday deserves a cake. Maybe I'll just buy a few cupcakes or something.

At some point, I'll head to the cemetery to take the wreath and cardinal mini-flag that we got for mom's grave. I should try to do that early before the rain starts this afternoon.

Since I'm talking about Mom, I thought I'd share an email that she sent to some people on Christmas Eve 1998. I think it went to Aunt Annie, maybe Mike (cousin), Ruby, and Bobbie Jo. It's a very good Christmas wish and reminder.

Hi All, Well, here it is again, Christmas Eve! You would think I was 6 years old. I woke up this a.m. about 5:00 and was so excited I couldn't lay in the bed. Couldn't wait to get up and start wrapping gifts and just look at the Christmas tree. Of course, the most wonderful thing is (after having a treatment yesterday) that I feel so alive! GOD IS GOOD! My Christmas wish for everyone is: I hope everyone feels as good for Christmas as I do now. Just remember this little quote from Victor Hugo - "Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones, and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. GOD IS AWAKE!" Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.

Love You All, Judy

Fun Christmas Videos!

2008-12-22T07:58:00.002-05:00

You have to be patient with these. They take a while to load, but are quite entertaining.

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/AMRRQ1x0xEjPBd3UXpgW

and

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/k0F2nq3uYPPgZX9Z

Christmas Spirit Award!

2008-12-21T14:25:00.002-05:00

My friend, Melissa tagged me weeks ago for this Christmas Spirit Award. And, I'm lame, so just getting to it!

The Rules are simple:

You must be a true Christmas lover to receive this award.

The person to whom you give the award must also be in love with Christmas.

You must link back to the person who gave you the award.

You must list 5 things that you love about Christmas. If you can't limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space! :o)

Pass the award along to as many people as you like. That can be 1 or 45; it's up to you. But, you must pass it on to at least one person in order to keep the Christmas cheer going!

Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving them a comment on their blog.

And that's all! Pretty easy, eh?

5 Things I Love About Christmas:

~The tree and all the decorations
~Seeing Lacey's reaction to everything
~Cookies (a love/hate kind of thing)
~The music....I love singing along to it all in the car
~The excuse to have such a huge dinner with things you don't eat the rest of the year

Now I Tag:

Raechelle at (My New) Life Out Here
Gretchen at The Shierlock's

December Fun

2008-12-21T13:45:00.004-05:00

What else has gone on in December? Lots of shopping. Lots of stress. Lots of wondering how to get it all done. :-)

Miss Lisa was out sick (high fever, etc.) for several days. The first few days (Wed.-Fri.), she couldn't get a backup and had to use her sick days. So, Butch & I juggled as parents do. We thought things would be fine by Monday, but her fever had only gone away for hours at a time. She had a sub for Monday (until 2:00), but I was worried about exposing the girls to whatever she had. And, I was going to NY for the day, so Butch would have needed to leave work early to pick them up. So, Jessica came over & babysat for us. Miss Lisa called on Monday afternoon to let me know she'd been to the doctor and found out she had bronchial pneumonia. Yikes. At least she was on antibiotics then. We went ahead & sent the girls on Tuesday since Miss Lisa had a sub again & promised not to be downstairs near the kids. By Friday, Miss Lisa was back to her normal schedule.

On one of those days with the girls at home, Lacey was in the living room and I was in the kitchen. She yelled "mommy, I see animals". I went to check and there were several turkey vultures out front. Weird. I've never seen them in our yard and they were just wandering around.

One of those days, Lacey helped me bake cookies. I bought the kind that you just have to pick up & put on the baking sheet, so she could do it on her own.

Earlier in the month, I had to go to NY (different trip than I mentioned above). My good friend, Tonya, needed to go as well, so she coordinated her trip to be there the same time as me. I went up a day early & stayed in her room with her. We only had a couple of hours before dinner, but walked around a bit. Then, we had dinner with our corporate attorney - who is much more fun that you might think a corporate attorney would be!

I am late getting Christmas cards out because these children don't like to cooperate for pictures. I could have just used the professional ones alone, but I like to take some in front of the tree, too. Here are a couple that did NOT get used!
I was planning to go to church this a.m., but we had freezing rain. I wasn't willing to head out in that. So, I'm making some cookies. And, I finished the cards (minus a couple I need addresses for). I'm off tomorrow and Butch's vacation starts tomorrow. We're going to look at new cameras. That was our anniversary gift to each other ... and here it is 2 months later .... without the new camera! Hopefully we'll find a good one and get used to it before Christmas.

Off to finish cookies.....and play with Lacey since she's been begging for a bit!

Christmas Cookie Party and a Visit with Santa

2008-12-21T11:48:00.005-05:00

Yesterday we had an afternoon of parties! We headed to a friend's house for her annual Cookie Party (a few snacks other than cookies....but mostly lots of yummy cookies)! The kids had fun. It's hard because all of the toys are in her basement and that's where the girls want to be. But, all the adults are upstairs. Butch was in the basement quite a bit since there were only a few people we knew there and they are friends I used to work with.

Then, we headed to my Aunt Marilyn's house to visit Santa. Her brother was visiting from Houston and plays Santa. He starts growing his beard in April in order for it to be nice & long for Christmas. Lacey didn't want to get close to him at first. Leah was happy to see him, but not be on his lap.

In advance - sorry for the blurry pictures. We aren't sure if it was operator error or the camera itself.

Lacey wouldn't look at the camera.

We had gone into the other room when we were done. Santa wandered in a few minutes later and sat down. Lacey walked over to him and started talking again. I have no idea what the conversation was about, but she was very serious - so was Santa.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-21T11:26:00.007-05:00

I know, I know.....you thought I fell off the face of the earth. Or at least forgot all about you. I didn't. It has just been so crazy busy these last few weeks that blogging doesn't get done.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving week. Chuck & Nancy arrived on the Sunday before. Lacey was thrilled to see them again and Leah warmed up pretty quickly. Leah can say something that resembles Poppy or PaPa (for Chuck and my dad), but can't do Grandma, so she has taken to calling Nancy "Nana". It will be interesting to see if it sticks.

Tuesday (I think), I took the day off and Nancy & I went shopping. I wanted to get something new to wear for our portrait session on Wednesday. On Wednesday, our appointment for pictures was at 4:00. I thought this was a great time because we could get pictures done, then head to eat at Red Robin while waiting for them to print them. It didn't go that way. We were called back at 5:00. As you can imagine, Leah was not very cooperative after having to hang out for an hour. I had learned from another customer that they wait to even view your pictures was 30 minutes. So....the store agreed to hold the digital pictures for us to view on Friday morning. We headed to Red Robin for dinner, but Leah (and Lacey) weren't exactly thrilled to be eating out and confined.

Thanksgiving was at Dee's house. I had hunted down Butterscotch Brickle from Tastefully Simple and brought that as an appetizer (with apples). Yum-o! We had a very good linner (lunch/dinner) of stuffed ham, fried turkey, oven roasted turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, broccoli casserole, green bean casserole, corn pudding, mandarin orange salad, and rolls. So good. Even though I ate small amounts of everything, I was still stuffed. The whole reason for linner (at 3:00ish) is so we can let it digest and be able to eat dessert without bursting. We had a choice of 4 pies. Mmmmmmm.

Oh - I almost forgot - Dee burned her hand pretty badly while preparing food. She was planning to put a casserole dish on the stove top to warm a bit and checked to make sure the burner was off. She touched the burner and it was still on. Not the best thing to do. I do it all the time, but wow....she had a bad burn for a few days.

Friday, Butch & I headed out early with the girls to go see the pictures that were taken on Wednesday. We were amazed to see that there were several good ones.
This was an "okay" family picture, but not the best. The better one is on the Christmas card, so I'm not posting it here. :-)And, since Chuck & Nancy were in town, we thought we should get some with all of us.

That night, we headed to "The Square" in Leonardtown (about 30 min. south of us) for the tree lighting. It was nice, but we didn't last for the actual tree lighting. It was much colder than we'd realized and I was worried about the kids. Plus, we'd already seen everything and the lighting was still about an hour away.

After getting home, we got Leah to bed. Then, Butch & I headed out to meet some friends for drinks. We ended up back at their house and playing a drinking game of Uno.....not realizing how late it was. (I blame Butch. :-)) I had told him when we got to M and C's that we needed to keep an eye on the clock and not stay long. Nancy was sort of waiting up for us - to make sure that Brady didn't bark when we got home. Well....we got home around 2:30. And, I was super hungover the next day. So bad. Ouch. I think I got so excited to have a night out (they are so rare) that I lost control. So, Saturday, was spent resting. I felt much better after napping when Lacey & Leah napped.

Saturday night, "the girls" (Nancy, Dee, Kristina, Jessica, Georgia and I) took Lacey to see Beauty & the Beast at the Port Tobacco Players in La Plata. It was really, really good! I don't think I've mentioned to any of those that went -- I found out that the guy who played Lumiere is a senior in high school. He was the best! Lacey managed to stay awake for the entire show (until 10:40) and she really liked it. Afterwards, "Belle" was up on stage taking pictures with kids and surprisingly, Lacey went to her. I was shocked.
Oh - I forgot to mention that Lacey wore her Belle dress to the show. Many people commented on it.

Lacey was really wound up when we got home. I think she finally fell asleep around 12:20.

On Sunday, we got out the tree and Christmas decorations. In the afternoon, Lacey, Leah & I went to a birthday party for a 3 year old from their daycare. It was tea party & so cute!

Whew. I'm surprised I remembered all of that!

A Photo Tour; by Lacey

2008-11-04T10:21:00.002-05:00

What happens when you give a 3 year old a camera, you ask?

Redskins vs. Steelers

2008-11-04T10:18:00.004-05:00

Many of you know we are a split household here. I'm a Redskins fan and Butch is a Steelers fan. Leah has a jersey for each team. Rather than put her in one of them yesterday, I suggested she wear the winner's jersey today.

She's adorable, as always, but would look much cuter if she were in burgundy & gold. I hope Miss Lisa doesn't kick her out of daycare. ;-)

Halloween Fun

2008-11-02T16:23:00.004-05:00

Last weekend, we went to a Halloween party for the kids (and us). One of the moms I met through meetup.com hosted it. They had chili and some snacks, plus each of us brought something, too. It was a gorgeous fall day, so the kids played outside a little. It's nice to get together with other parents. Right before we left, the kids decorated pumpkins, too.

On Halloween, Miss Lisa had a party at daycare. The kids all dressed up that morning and went on a "parade" around the neighborhood. They had lots of snacks and treats through the day. When we picked them up, we got them into costumes so we could go to Dad's house for a quick visit. Dee met us there to see them, too.

Then, we headed back home for trick or treating.

Leah didn't last after the 1st house, though. She didn't like getting put back in the wagon and confined. She's too heavy to be carried and walks to slow to walk on her own. So, she & Butch handed out candy, while Lacey & I went to a few houses. Lots of fun this year!

Doctor's Appointment & Update on the Girls

2008-10-21T15:21:00.004-04:00

Leah had her 15 month check up yesterday. She was 23 pounds (50th percentile). I can't remember the height, but it was between 50th and 75th percentile, as usual. She had to get several shots....DTaP, Pneumococcal and Flu. She did awesome. No tears.

Lacey came with us so she could get her flu shot, too. I was amazed. First of all, when I took Leah down the hall to the scale, Lacey hopped on the "adult" scale as soon as we got there. This is the kid who had to be put on the baby scale....screaming....7 months ago because she was so scared. Then, I hadn't told her she was getting a shot. So, when I sat her on my lap, I explained. The nurse told her it might hurt for a second. She didn't flinch. Not when we told her, not when she got the shot, nothing. No tears. Awesome!

I talked to Dr. Jill about constipation & potty training. Lacey only uses a pull up for going #2, but I really want to get away from that. So, I told Dr. Jill I wasn't buying anymore. Her look said it all. If I do that, she will likely become severely constipated again. So....the next step is that they stay in the bathroom and that is the only place she can wear them.

After we left, we went to Target to buy Sleeping Beauty as a prize for the big girl. As soon as we got home, she lounged on the chair to watch her new movie. Not the best idea with the flu shot. Sitting still just let her muscles tighten up and made the soreness worse. She was a mess last night.

Leah....on the other hand...what shot? Seriously. She has always had reactions to the DTaP. This time, nothing. Amazing.

What else?

Lacey is excited for Halloween. She is going to be Snow White. (Thank you, Grandma.) I ordered her some little shoes and a wand to go with the dress and head band. I haven't given her the dress, yet, because I don't want it to be destroyed before Halloween. Leah is going to either be a ballerina or a Redskins cheerleader. Still debating ..... the weather may decide.

A Quiet Weekend

2008-10-21T15:14:00.002-04:00

Last weekend was a much quieter weekend than the one before. We really didn't do much of anything other than things around the house.

Saturday morning, I went to Curves to workout. I'm trying to make a real effort at using that membership. I get reimbursed for my expenses through work, but it is still a waste when it isn't used. So, I went twice during the week and again on Saturday. Go me! After I got cleaned up, I took Lacey out for lunch and to the pet store (only for cat food....).

Sunday, we made it to church for a 2nd Sunday in a row! Lacey told me before we'd left that she didn't want to go to Miss Kim's class, so she just went to the nursery with Leah. They both seemed to do okay, however, the nursery person (Miss Karen) said Leah was a little sad. Hopefully she'll adjust soon. I was really happy that the sermon was a good one. It's been a while since I've felt that way at our church. She talked a lot about having faith during these tough economic times and reminded us that it's all going to be okay.

I got out the crock pot on Sunday and made a pot roast. Mmmmmmm. Leah was not a fan. When I put some on her plate, she proceeded to push it all onto the floor. Oh well. What do you expect from a 15 month old?

20th High School Reunion, Birthday, Travel

2008-10-21T15:03:00.003-04:00

The whole month of September came & went with no posts from me! So, I'm doing my best to think of the "big" things that may have happened during that time.

My 20th high school reunion was on September 20th! I can't believe that much time has passed. This is a picture of classmates that attended.

It was lots of fun, but the wine really got me that night! I think my adrenaline was pumping it into my body faster than normal or something.

Several of my classmates, as well as friends from other points in my life, have gotten onto Facebook recently. It's a bit addictive, but lots of fun to reconnect with everyone.

Let's see....my 38th birthday was also last month. Butch left that day for a business trip to Seattle, so he wasn't here to celebrate with me. But, Dee brought over pizza and ice cream cake. Agnes had sent a birthday girl wine glass, which I made sure to use. It is now going to be a traveling wine glass since it makes no sense to put it away for a whole year. (I gave it to Dee for her birthday.)

Butch was gone for an entire week. I worked from home all but one day to help with the schedule. (If I'd had to go in each day, I wouldn't have been able to work longer than 6 hours due to daycare hours and my commute.) The week went smoothly, even though I'm used to Butch doing quite a bit around here. It's amazing what you can get done when you have to. When he got home on Sunday, Lacey was thrilled to see him, but Leah was a bit unsure. She just sort of looked at him, wondering.

Breakfast....and Forrest Hall Farm

2008-10-11T16:20:00.005-04:00

Well, I'm going to try to do short(ish) posts for a bit to catch you all up on what's been going on. I'll just start with today....

This morning, I got my butt up at 5:55 a.m. to get on the treadmill! It's awful to get up so early on a weekend, but I'm realizing that this may be my only time to get in exercise. I'm planning to try again tomorrow morning and may even try Monday....which means getting up by 4:45. Ouch.

After a 40 minute walk (while watching Without a Trace), I managed to get a quick shower before Leah woke up. Butch handled her & Lacey so I could do my hair and get dressed. Then, we headed to Mom's in the Kitchen for breakfast. I keep thinking I'll try something else on the menu, but their French Toast is so good, I can't help but order it.

We came home and relaxed for a bit. Leah took nap....I was hoping for 90 minutes, but she only gave me 30 minutes. Shortly after she woke up, we packed up the car for Forrest Hall Farm. This was our 3rd annual visit. The girls had a blast! I think we were there for about 2 hours and they didn't stop.

Leah and the Fireman

2008-10-10T07:57:00.003-04:00

I know I have been horrible about posting anything lately! Aunt Annie nudged me a few days ago and I promised to get back to it soon. It's just been really hectic lately - both at work and at home. Thought I'd do just a quick one today.

Since this is Fire Safety Month, Miss Lisa arranged for a visit from the local fire department. Leah was apparently fascinated by them.

A Weekend of Outings

2008-09-01T19:54:00.007-04:00

The end of our week was a bit rough. Lacey was home "sick" Thursday & Friday. It was an actual illness....it was constipation (again). (Sorry if TMI.) It's been a while since that has been a real problem for her - 14 months or more. Perhaps I just need to realize that any time she has a stomach virus with diarrhea, it will be followed with the opposite problem. I think she must just get happy to be able to control it again and controls it a bit too much? Anyway, she was in a great deal of pain for over 2 days. I was (and I'm sure she was) very relieved when she was feeling a bit better. Back on Milk of Magnesia for several weeks to make sure she forgets about the pain - otherwise we may be back where we started.

So....after that very (un)pleasant subject....on to our weekend.

I was needing (very much) a night out. Away from little ones crying "I need you". My nerves were really on edge.

My friend, Yudha was getting married - to Thanh. He is Indonesian and she is Vietnamese. I've known Yud for 15 years....I can't believe that! He used to be married to my best friend, Tonya, which is how we met. And, even after their divorce, we managed to remain friends. Probably because they managed to remain friendly.

Oops. I got off the subject.

Yudha & Thanh had been dating for years. They were together before Butch & I got engaged. And, we've been married for almost 5 years. (Yikes...has that much time gone by?) Apparently - and I learned this at the reception - he proposed in New York during a beautiful snow on a carriage ride. Very romantic.

The ceremony was at 11:00 a.m. and the reception at 7:00 p.m. I'm still unsure of the reason for so much time in between, but it may be a cultural thing. We didn't go to the ceremony because of that time difference. (This all took place about 75 min. from our house, so it would have been a long day.) As it turns out, their culture isn't like "ours" anyway with weddings. It isn't a problem to miss the ceremony. There were only about 80 people at the ceremony and 400+ at the reception.
The other very cool thing is that we got to see our friends, Annie & Troy.

We hadn't seen them in 2 years! They moved to the Eastern Shore a few years ago, so it's harder to get together. (Although, I learned that they actually aren't that much farther than they used to be. Perhaps it is more of an issue of both of us having kids now and life getting in the way.) It was fun to catch up, though. A little tough to talk over the music, but fun.

Dee babysat for us and the kids both did great for her. I told her I was going to have her come put Leah to bed every night because she slept so well! She snoozed until 6:10, nursed, then back down until 8:30. Nice.

Sunday we headed to Aunt Marilyn and Gil's house for a picnic. It was a perfect day - hot, but no humidity. She had all of us over....Dad, Dee, Buck, Rick, Kristina, Jessica, and us. Shelly & Tammy (cousins) were there, too - along with many of the littler kids.

Her backyard is amazing. (I told her I was going to hire her to come advise us on landscaping. She has a real eye for that stuff.)

There is a pool:

A playground...and not just a swing set....there is a big trampoline, a small one, a sandbox, an airplane/sea-saw thing, tetherball, monkey bars, volleyball, etc., etc.

And then there is the beautiful pond. It's amazing.
The girls had a ball and were on the playground almost the entire day. Leah has no fear of the water (pool), so it was hard to keep her in the pool area. She just kept walking to and would have walked right in by herself if we let her.

Dinner was really good. Aunt M. refused to let any of us bring anything to contribute, so it was all on her. (Aunt M., if you are reading this, we aren't letting you do that again.)

There were 3 birthdays to celebrate (3rd cousins of mine), so there was cake. Lacey was a happy camper about that. Everything else about the day was terrific, but cake, too?!

We were getting ready to leave after cake. It was 7:30 or 7:45 - Leah is normally in bed around then. But.....Gil said "stay for the fireworks". So we did. Lacey had never seen them before. She loved them. When they were done, she asked for more. And, Leah did great, too - no fears.

On the drive home, we expected that at least Leah would fall asleep. But she didn't. Instead, she decided to cry the whole way home. I felt horrible. It's a 35 minute drive and she really did cry the whole way - well, minus about 5 minutes. Oh well, she was fine once she got out of her carseat.

It was a really fun day.

Butch took Lacey out shopping with him this a.m. Then, he came home and I took her with me. We went to Red Robin for lunch, then to Target.

She is still having "issues" with tummy aches. I guess I'll call Dr. Jill again tomorrow to talk about it all. Hopefully she'll get back to normal within the week.

Shopping and Lunch with the Girls

2008-08-26T09:45:00.004-04:00

Daycare was closed yesterday since it was the first day of school. Miss Lisa always closes so she can focus on her own kids (smart woman). I had a $92 credit at Gymboree that couldn't be used online (stupid rules) and the store at our mall closed several months ago. So, I decided to venture out to Northern Virginia with the girls. And....my friend April lives near the mall, so I invited her & her little girl, Neela, to meet us.

You've heard me talk about Lacey's shyness around other little kids. Neela is the opposite! Completely! And, that was a bit overwhelming for Lacey. I'm not sure she ever spoke a word, other than the whispers to me.

April & I wanted to get pictures of all the girls, so I have some great (hilarious) shots of Lacey's shyness. Poor girl.

Neela wanted to do a silly face picture and Lacey was too nervous to give it her all:

Neela really wanted to sit by Lacey....Lacey wasn't so sure.

I love this one. She's almost smiling....

My goofy girl......

It was a fun day, though. It was nice to get out & the girls seemed to have fun. I used up my credit at Gymboree on some new things for Lacey. Hard to believe my girl isn't wearing "toddler" sizes anymore.

Mom's Morning Out and Sunday at Dad's

2008-08-26T09:26:00.003-04:00

We had a really nice weekend. I went out to breakfast on Saturday again with the Hip Momma's group. We were there for 2+ hours again! It's always easy to talk to other moms about your kids. And, I felt refreshed when I got home. I was in a really good mood. It's amazing what some fun girl time can do for a person. It shows me how much I really need to start getting that time.

I don't think we did much else on Saturday. Nothing that stands out anyway.

Dad's birthday was Sunday. We always struggle with gift ideas for him. Dee found out that when he goes fishing or crabbing with his friend Bobby, they don't wear life jackets. Neither of them can swim. This is not good. They both think regular life jackets are "too bulky". Um, hello? You can't swim. I think it's worth dealing with a little "bulky" to save your life. Anyway.....he told Dee about a life jacket that is thin - then if you fall in, you pull a string and it inflates. So....finally....an idea for a gift! Butch went out on Sunday morning to find one of these life jackets!

Rick asked Kristina "what if it doesn't work when he pulls the string" and Kristina's answer was "well then we will all be very rich since we'll be suing the company that made it"! This thing is a one-use deal, so it isn't like you can test it! Hopefully, he'll never even have to use it!

So, Sunday afternoon, we headed to Dad's house to celebrate his 71st birthday! Dee & Buck were in Ocean City for the weekend, so it was a smaller than normal group of us. We had a yum-o dinner, then ice cream & apple pie. Dad was happy with his gift, too.

Lacey had fun swimming with her Daddy that afternoon. I chose not to get in since the water was 78*. A little chilly for my taste. Therefore, Leah was cheated since Daddy can't handle both of them in the pool. Trust me....Leah was fine. She just ran around trying to do things she's not supposed to....like climb stairs and things.

I had to take this picture so I could show you how much Lacey dislikes water on her face.....just like her quirky momma. This is her getting out of the pool to come get a "paper towel". (All towels are paper towels.) I'm cracking up looking at this picture!

After a bit of swimming, off the backyard we went to swing.

Of course, I had to get a picture of Leah & her PaPa on his birthday!

Summertime Fun

2008-08-23T19:51:00.014-04:00

I haven't been very good at keeping up on the blog lately, huh? Work has been crazy busy and home has been about the same. Then, you add in not getting enough sleep (which I'll tell you about in another post).....and you end up with someone that has no time or energy to post.

We've had lots of fun this summer, though. And, I thought I'd update you on a few things that have happened in the last month or so.

I found a local group of mom's (the Hip Momma's) from meetup.com. (If you haven't heard of this and you're looking to make new friends, find people that have common interests, etc., check it out.) Anyway, many of them are stay at home mom's, but some are working momma's, too. I got together with them about a month ago for Mom's Breakfast Out and had quite a nice time. We were at the restaurant (Mom's in the Kitchen...how cute is that?) for over 2 hours.

Anyway........they do weekday play dates and things, too. Well, a few of them were going to a local beach on a day that the girls were home from daycare (since Miss Lisa was closed) and I took a vacation day. I only took Lacey so she could have some time with mommy. Lacey loved it. We really didn't make it to a beach last year, so it's been since our trip to the OBX that she's seen it.

This little find is on the Chesapeake Bay. The water is pretty calm and it's very shallow. (In the picture below, Lacey is kneeling.) The only bad thing is jelly fish, but they didn't seem to be too bad.
Next, was a trip to visit Chuck & Nancy in Pittsburgh. With 2 little ones, it ends up being about a 6-7 hour drive. On the way up, we drove to see Butch's Aunt Janet....just a slight detour. It's a good spot to stop since we get to see her, she sees the girls and we all get a break from the car so the girls can truly run around. (And run around, they did.) I don't know how I don't have pictures of that stop, but I don't. Maybe she does and will send them to us.

The drive went fairly well and Leah slept a nice chunk. However, Lacey didn't sleep one minute. Who doesn't sleep on a long car ride? Even adults do (as long as they aren't driving)! Nope, not my kid.

When we arrived, Lacey found her newest Princess dress waiting for her. It wasn't quite done....but as soon as the pins were out & she could wear it, she did. Love the goofy grin, huh?

On Friday, we headed to the zoo. I'd been wanting to get Lacey to a zoo for a while. It turns out, Nancy had been wanting to go to the Pittsburgh zoo for quite a while. So, of course, Grandma was thrilled to go. We saw lots of animals....although not many were too playful that afternoon. The polar bears were lots of fun - one kept jumping in his water with a red ball and swimming around. And, the sea otters were really cute, too. There were a few minor meltdowns, thanks to a 3 year old with no nap since Wednesday. Not too bad, though.

Getting nice family pictures when you have two little ones proves to be a bit tough....
Oh - this is what happened as soon as we got in the car. No joke. We were still in the parking lot.
On Saturday morning, we headed to Kaelin Farm Market. They are friends of Chuck & Nancy and Grandma was anxious to show off her grandkids. So, we walked around the store, waiting for Mrs. Kaelin to come to work. Just when we were pulling out, she drove in. So, we stayed in the car, but were able to say hello.

Then, off to Soergel's for a visit. They have lots of fun things for the kids, including a petting zoo and a little play area. Grandma was really wanting to go to another park, but the girls needed a rest before our afternoon fun began.

After a brief rest....off to see Wayne & Maria (and kids). Butch went to high school with Wayne. We don't always get to see them when we are in Pittsburgh, but always try. I really like hanging out with them. If we were closer, I'm sure we'd see each other often. They were actually heading to Ohio that evening for an overnight visit at her family's, but they still made time to have us over. There was beer, wine, chips and salsa, blueberry crumble, badmitten (where Butch & Wayne played against Wayne's 6 year old son....no joke). Lacey played with their girls' Sweet Street toys and thoroughly enjoyed her time alone. (She was much to shy to play with the girls.)

Unfortunately, while we were there, Lacey had an 'accident', which I later learned was the start of a stomach virus. Luckily, I had a change of clothes....I don't always have that. Poor kid. (This virus - or whatever - went on for 5 days.)

Chuck's birthday was Sunday! Great timing for a visit! They had a picnic with family over. Lacey was in heaven with Heather & Erin. (Lacey adores girls that are in their teens or so.) Nancy (of course) had tons of yummy food to enjoy. And, it was nice to catch up with everyone that we only see every once in a while.
We headed out Monday morning and were home by around 3:00.

Oh - while we were gone, I had Kyle (my nephew) house sit so that we wouldn't have to board Brady & have a pet sitter for Kramer. It all went fairly well. The only real glitch was that when Kyle arrived on Thursday evening, he couldn't let Brady out of her crate right away. Her hair was standing on end and she was growling. It took 30 minutes for him to feel safe enough to let her out. Then, she peed on the floor because she was so scared. Funny.

I took off the last Friday that Butch was off (and the girls were home) so we could go back to Chesapeake Beach. Both girls loved it. Butch agreed this little beach was a great find (thank you Hip Momma's). And we had a great time. Lacey was ready to go after about 50 min., but that was fine since we were getting tired chasing Leah. Leah had no fear at all. She was just heading straight into the water.
I forgot to mention that there was this butterfly hanging out that wasn't afraid of us at all. We could get really close to it and it didn't budge. In the first picture, you can see it on the left of Lacey.

We head to Dad's every weekend to visit, cookout and swim. Leah loves the pool.
I just realized how few pictures I have of Lacey in the pool this year! Guess I'll have to fix that tomorrow when we go to Dad's to celebrate his 71st birthday!

Swing Sets

2008-08-23T19:43:00.004-04:00

Earlier this summer, PaPa (my dad) bought the girls a swing set for his house. It's a big hit. Of course, even at age 3 1/2, Lacey is already "workin' it" with me.

Lacey: "PaPa has a swing set."

Me: "Yep"

Lacey: "Mary Kate has a swing set."

Me: "She does?"

Lacey: "Miss Lisa has a swing set."

Me: "Yep"

Lacey: "But, I don't have one. We need one. I want one like that." (....as we drive past one in the neighborhood.)

Wow. We're in trouble when she gets a little older.

Baby Whale

2008-08-21T09:34:00.002-04:00

I've been watching this news story for days and am so sad this morning.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26325489/

Tagged.....

2008-08-15T16:35:00.003-04:00

4 Places I go over and over

1. To the office
2. To Target
3. To my dad's
4. To Cosi

4 People who email me the most

1. My brother, Rick
2. Aunt Annie
3. My sister
4. Meetup

4 of my favorite foods

1. Pizza
2. Pasta (almost any kind)
3. Blue Crabs (or crab cakes or crab dip)
4. Ice cream

4 Places I'd rather be

1. Sleeping in my bed - for a solid 8 hours
2. Hawaii
3. Napa Valley
4. Right here

4 movies I can watch over and over
(I rarely watch movies over & over)
1. Elf
2. Harry Potter (any)
3. When Harry Met Sally
4. You've Got Mail

4 Places I have worked

1. Roy Rogers
2. Eye Care Center
3. Pic n Pay Shoes
4. Marsh (who has changed names at least 4x)

4 Places I have lived

1. Charlotte Hall, MD
2. Salisbury, MD
3. Fairfax, VA
4. Hughesville, MD

4 TV Shows I like

1. Lost
2. 24
3. So You Think You Can Dance
4. Tori & Dean, Home Sweet Hollywood

4 Places I have Vacationed/Holidayed

1. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
2. Hawaii
3. Napa Valley
4. OBX

4 of my favorite dishes

1. Mexican Casserole
2. Lasagna
3. Crab Cakes
4. Mango Chicken

4 sites I visit daily

1. February Sweethearts 2005
2. Baby Center
3. msnbc.com
4. Facebook

I've been Tagged.....Thanks Bink!

2008-08-15T16:31:00.004-04:00

Here are the directions:
1. Link back to the person who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Here are my 6 unspectacular quirks.

1. I like to have a fountain diet coke every day. Not just any diet coke. Not a bottle. Not a can. A fountain drink. The taste is so much better. Yes, I drive about 10 min. out to WaWa to get one when I'm at home. Yes, I still run out at the office if it's raining to get one. (My brother has this same quirk.)

2. I don't like to have water in my face. If I'm in the pool, I need to wipe my face off. In the shower, I wipe my face a dozen times with a wash cloth to get water from my face. My lovely 3 year old has this quirk as well. Leah doesn't care.

3. I'm a bit of a control freak. Yes, me. (LOL). I've had to really get better at letting go over the last 3.5 years since Lacey was born.

4. I put my make up on in my car most mornings. Before you yell at me - I do this at stop lights. However, I've had trouble lately with this since the 1st stop light hasn't had much traffic lately (which will change once kids are in school next week). And, the next light I usually have time at is no longer there. Rather than entering the beltway through a light, I now have a quick onramp. So, this morning, I put my make up on at home. Gasp!

5. I hate to watch live TV. Ever since being introduced to the world of Tivo and DVRs, I just can't stand to deal with commercials. It is a rare occassion when I actually sit to watch a live TV show.

6. ???
Because I'm exhausted after 6 nights of fragmented sleep (nothing longer than 2 hours straight), I just can't get my brain to think of #6. So, dear readers, I ask you......what is another quirk of mine?

Now to tag 6 fellow bloggers.....
Gretchen
Melissa
Carol
Shannon
Rachael
Dana

Visit from Chuck & Nancy and Business Travel

2008-07-16T10:35:00.006-04:00

We didn't do anything for the 4th of July. We thought about going to the fairgrounds since they had kids activities (face painting, etc.), but they were calling for storms that evening and Chuck & Nancy were due in the next day. So, we stayed home to get the guest room ready and clean up a bit. I'm glad we did since storms came through around 6:00 and we would have been caught in it. And, we were able to get just about everything done that we wanted to that day. I feel a bit like a "lame" mom for not doing something for the kids, but there is always next year.

Chuck & Nancy arrived around 3:30 or so on Sat., the 5th. Lacey was quite excited to see them. Leah was a little unsure. We had a yummy (if I do say so myself) meatloaf dinner and relaxed for the evening.

Sunday was Leah's birthday party, so we were at Dad's all day.

Then, it was off to work for me on Monday while Butch got to deal with bagworms. Yep. Disgusting. We had noticed on the 4th that our spruce seemed to be dying. Nancy noticed that there were "things" hanging from it and they were.....moving. Yuck. So, Butch headed to the nursery on Monday morning to find out more about getting rid of them. He had the fun job of picking/knocking them off the tree....then burning them. Gross. Then, he sprayed the tree (and others around the house) with the stuff he bought at the nursery. (Yesterday, I realized there are still some alive, so he gets to have fun with this again, too.)

Wednesday, I headed to New York for a short business trip -- just lunch with a client, so I was up & back pretty quick.

I took Thursday off so we could enjoy some time with C&N. We went to Solomon's Island for lunch.
On our way home, we stopped at Bruster's for ice cream. Yum-o. I'd never heard of it, but it started in PA, so Nancy knew it and when she saw it told us how good it is.

After heading home, to drop off C&N and Leah, we headed up to Waldorf to pick up my rental car for my business trip to Philly.

I left for Philly on Friday morning. The first night or 2 was okay. Having "me" time isn't something that I really get. And...the ability to sleep through an entire night isn't something I get either. So, that was nice. I had a nice dinner on Friday evening and a good night of sleep. Then, I got to work 9:00 to 6:00 standing/sitting in a booth all day. By myself. Blah. They brought in food/drinks at 4:30, so I had a nice glass of wine. Then headed to my room for PJ's, dinner, 1 more glass of wine and a movie (Made of Honor). I did the same thing on Sunday night, too. This time the movie was 27 Dresses. By now, I was ready to come home. But, I still had to work Monday (9:00-6:30) and Tuesday (7:30-1:00).

C&N stayed until Monday morning to help Butch as needed. He did pretty well, though. Leah was good and slept pretty well. She woke up once each night and he gave her a bottle. She should be fine all night without eating, but I usually nurse her at some point in the middle of the night, so it was only fair for her to expect something while I was gone. We'll need to fix that soon.

As soon as I could jump in the car, I ran. :-) Made it home in a little more than 3 hours -- plenty of time to go with Butch to pick up the girls from Miss Lisa's. They were both as happy to see me as I was to see them. It was a little tough getting Lacey to sleep last night. She didn't want me to leave, so I caved and fell asleep in her room for a few min.

And, today....I'm working from home - mainly so I can return the rental car. Back to the office tomorrow.