Saturday, December 18, 2010

Piping

Here are some videos of Hubby piping and Quint enjoying it. These are the Great Highland Pipes. These pipes were made for playing outside and the Scots would play them in battle to scare the fool out of their enemies. When played in a valley, you can't tell where the player is, and it seems like you're surrounded.



And here's another video of Hubby playing the small pipes. Small pipes are softer and more suited to playing inside.



And here's a third video that I think of as "how to unwind at the end of the day".

Don't worry Aunt Julie, we know where the balls for the ball popper are. Sometimes he wants to play with the balls and sometimes he just wants the music. And when you tip that thing over when it's running, all the balls shoot underneath the couch. Which is also fun to watch!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The way things are supposed to be...

We firmly believe that God is looking out for us and that all our weird events have happened for a reason. That is NOT to say that we will ever know or understand the reason behind some of those things. But lately, I think I figured out one small thing.

The weekend of Quint's birthday party, Hubby was supposed to take a whirlwind road trip to his mother's town for a family reunion. He was to leave at like 4am Sunday morning and be back Monday night. But at 4am, after having gotten up, showered and dressed, he woke me up. He said he had this huge sense of foreboding. You may remember that I blogged about his Sept foreboding. As a result, he didn't go. Hubby has a very reliable gut.

Recently, I put it together that it was that particular Monday night that we got pregnant with our second baby. Now maaaaaybe we still would have gotten pregnant that night, but as my friend Suzette pointed out, after all that driving, "events" weren't very likely to happen.

So God wanted us pregnant right now and specifically that day. Makes me wonder what's in store for this little baby of ours!

Monday, December 13, 2010

weekend review & joys of parenthood

Saturday morning, the weather channel said that we would be getting snow and temps in the teens. So as soon as Hubby woke up, I bolted out the door to go get some ice melt to put on the driveway before they ran out. I got there in plenty of time, seeing how they still had a huge pile of the stuff. It was also 52 degrees out. Eh...

I reorganized a bunch of boxes of stuff and put plastic storage bins I had been storing inside, out in the garage. Seven of them! Which made room inside for the scads of toys that a friend at work gave me on my last day on Friday. Since my tax class is finally finished, I finally have time to start clearing up all the stacks of junk that have slowly been collecting in all the corners over the last couple months. For the first time in a long time, we can see the feet of the wooden chair/clothes tree in the corner of our bedroom. Hubby asked where the husband pillow was. I thought for a minute, and said that it's been on the futon since Quint was about 4 months old. I used it for nursing. Has it really been that long since that corner has been cleaned out?!

Over the course of the weekend, I ran the dishwasher twice (after collecting stuff from everywhere) and washed probably 8 loads of laundry. Weird stuff. Like the canvas tarps we had spread out on the deck. Three loads of hanging clothes - I was surprised we had that many hanging clothes. Of course, one whole load was the throw up clothes. More on that later.

Saturday night, we had a friend over and he and Hubby took down the four poster bed in Quint's room. I had been lobbying for this since before Quint was born and I finally got my way. I wanted more floor space upstairs (where it's warm) for Quint and I to play this winter. Soon we will be a family of four and no one expects us to provide really nice guest accommodations when we're a family of four in a three bedroom house. This bed is really pretty, really old, and as a result, has limited use. It's full size, and if you're over 5'5", your feet constantly hit the bottom footboard. Plus the mattress sits at dining room table height or higher. Most people need a step stool. Anyway. So this thing is finally coming down!

The guys are up there doing their guy thing with the power screwdriver. Which seems to be slipping a lot from the sound. A few minutes later, they come downstairs and say that the bed can't come down today. They've stripped out a screw and need a different drill bit to finish. I had been napping under an electric blanket. I sit bolt upright and offer to go buy the bit. They both look astonished. It's 45 degrees out, with a steady rain and a lot of wind. Lowes closes in 30 minutes. I put on a cap to cover my hair and rocket out the door with the drill bit in my hand.

The guys refuse to read the directions for the new drill bit. After a couple minutes, they determine that the new grab-it drill bit is worthless. I dive in and ask politely, "can I try it?" They both slowly turn to look at me, small pause, and our friend says, "sure, you can give it a go". Keep in mind, I am half the size of one guy and 1/3 the size of the other. I get down there with the new bit and try to turn it very, very slowly. It comes out about a quarter to half an inch and won't turn any more. But now we can grab it with a wrench and keep twisting it. I unscrew the rest of the screws because "I can fit in there better". Yeah. Right. I keep the speed low on the drill and none of the rest of them slip.

I'm gloating here because I certainly couldn't gloat then! Not only is that stinkin' bed OUT OF MY WAY!!! But I managed to finish the job properly! And better than the men - shhhhh I didn't say that...

Now there's so much room in that bedroom, it feels like 3 times the room it was! I found myself making snow angles in the massive floor space. I've also put together the toddler table and chairs and Quint and I have had some fun with that already.

Saturday night, it rained and rained and rained. Then Sunday, it froze and snowed and snowed and snowed. Well. At least by Tennessee standards. It didn't cover all the grass, but it did make the slope which is our street a lovely ice slick. After church, I was extremely glad that I didn't have to go anywhere. I had bought my groceries on Friday.

I showed Quint the snow on the back deck and he said, "oooooo" a lot. Monday morning, I showed him out the window and he said, "oooooo" a lot and bounced up and down.

Today, I started my job at H&R Block. That is to say, our first orientation was today. I had an ice covered slope to get out of our neighborhood and about 16 degrees outside. With my luck going as it has lately, I did not want to brave taking Quint to Priscilla's. She lives at the top of a windy, very steep slope, that will be just as covered in ice as our street. Non-neighborhood streets are usually not so bad. The worst part us usually getting out of your neighborhood. I asked Hubby to take Quint. We were both extremely snappy with each other this morning and that conversation didn't go well. So I finally convince the Ohio boy to take the more dangerous trip with our son and he goes out to scrape off his car. While he's outside, I call Priscilla to make sure she's open. She is, but at 8am, no children have arrived yet. Or maybe that was the doorbell she just heard.

Quint has been acting whiney and clingy and has a bit of a boo-boo lip. He acts like he wants a nap, which is odd. I'm holding him on my hip and he coughs a bit. It sounds funny. I look at him and ask, "are you getting sick, honey?" He promptly coughs once more, and then vomits on both of us. Thankfully, I did not jerk him away from me, but rather cupped the end of my sweater to catch it before it hit the carpet. Quint now can't go to Priscilla's. Ten seconds later, Hubby comes back in from defrosting and scraping his car. I tell him, Quint just threw up, he can't go to Priscilla's. He drops his head in defeat, then snatches the fuzzy hat off his head and violently throws it behind a chair. I'm with ya, honey. But I'm covered in vomit as well. Thankfully, blueberry yogurt smelling vomit. Not really unpleasant. And I'd taken my anti-nausea pill about 20 minutes before. I strip off our vomit clothes in the bathtub, change him, and put him down for a nap.

I dress in office clothes (the vomit clothes were comfy, snuggly, house clothes) and leave for my orientation at "The Block". It takes two tries to get out of the driveway, but going from the garage, you can get some speed up before you hit the slope. In the street, my wonderful 12 year old Lincoln Towncar did amazingly well! It has traction control which is kind of like "4 wheel drive-lite and only in a pinch". Taking the same philosophy as unscrewing the screws Saturday night, I very slowly made my way up the hill. The next busier street wasn't a whole lot better, but the next busier street after that was fine, as was the highway and the rest of my journey.

Orientation was interesting, and they were having technical troubles, and other troubles because it didn't occur to anyone, including me, that we'd need a Social Security card to start our new job (duh!) and as a result, they let us go early. Once that many things keep going wrong for 2 hours straight, just throw in the stinkin' towel! The roads were A-OK once I got back home. Our street had completely melted between 10am and 11:30, in 14 degree weather, which seems unlikely, so I bet the salt truck did our street. I ran back home to get my Social Security card at 10am.

Once back home, Hubby went to work. He said Quint hadn't seemed really to feel bad, but he did have a second dirty diaper. Very odd. As is typical now, Quint was a complete whiney butt for me where he didn't whimper at all for Hubby all morning. He whined constantly unless I was on the floor playing with him. Motrin helped some. And he had two more dirty diapers. So clearly things aren't quite right with little boy's guts. I haven't broken the news to Hubby yet that Quint probably will need to stay home again tomorrow due to his guts. I'm sure that will go over well.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Greensleeves and dancing

Quint really likes it when Daddy plays the bagpipes. The first few seconds are a bit squeeky, but it gets better. Watch Quint's reaction each time Daddy stops playing and then restarts.



Quint is nearly 15 months old.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

I PASSED!!!

I took my H&R Block final exam yesterday and I passed! Woohoo!!! They've just officially offered me the job and I accepted. Huge relief after all the effort and time away from Quint. Keep in mind, I'm still looking for work, but this is a great way to keep a little money coming in, afford to keep our spot at Priscilla's, and possibly network to find a full time job. .

So tonight I get to be at home with my little boy and just love him up. Tomorrow, I pick him up early to love him up for the weekend (and get shots - shhhh don't tell him). With my class over, I'm now free to work on Christmas cards, putting up the tree, cleaning and organizing the house and whatnot.

My last day at my old job is tomorrow. Yesterday, my department took me out to a great restaurant for lunch. Today, my work bought everyone cupcakes to honor my time with the company. At the all staff meeting, I made sure they didn't point me out when they were introducing new employees and saying goodbye to one other employee. Some folks were surprised at this, but I didn't want it. I didn't want to cry in front of people. I didn't want to be asked "so what are you planning on doing" and I don't have any non-depressing answers. I have several bitter answers. I didn't want to advertise those either.

The one absolutely WONDERFUL thing that has happened this month is that MY SISTER IS PREGNANT!!! She's only been trying (off and on) for 13 years!! I am sooooo freakin' excited!! I never in a million years thought we'd be pregnant at the same time and it's going to be so fun! We'll have 3 little kids nearly the same age! She's 8 or 9 weeks behind me, so there's no worry that we'll deliver at the same time. And once I give birth, I can mail all my maternity clothes to her. If she has a boy and I have a girl, I can send her all my little boy clothes! The day she told me changed my entire outlook on life for over a week. A wonderful lightening of my spirit.

Here's more pictures of my little guy.

Aren't those feet cute!!!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

15 weeks pregnant (tomorrow)

The big news this morning is that I'm feeling definite fluttery movements from the baby! Apparently, she's bored this morning and wanting one of us to move around. Odd that I keep thinking of it as a her.

In other news, Quint can now go both up and DOWN the stairs safely by himself.

Tonight is the final in my H&R Block tax course, so wish me luck and therefore a job!

This is my last week at my job and I'm looking forward to afternoon naps and house cleaning next week. I really am looking forward to the house cleaning! While taking this class, the household chores have fallen off the list of important things. We still do laundry, buy groceries and vacuum, but there's a whole lot of neatening that needs to happen. There are a lot of toy parts in the wrong rooms. And a lot of stuff that needs to go into storage in the garage while waiting for baby #2.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

14 weeks pregnant - HEARTBEAT

We got to hear the heartbeat at the doctor's office yesterday! I had given the nurse a quick list of all the crap we've been through lately so she was glad to give us something nice and happy. Once she found it, we just hung out for a while and listened to that little heart bang away. It was good to have something positive to smile about.

We've got the ultrasound date set for January 28th to find out the sex. That seems like a really long time from now!!

Right now, my little baby is the size of half a banana! Maybe I'll start to feel the baby move soon! Last time, that happened at a really loud Steven Curtis Chapman concert. I'm sure Quint could feel the loud sounds. And me jumping up and down and such....

We'll see when I can feel something this time!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Please pray for us

Things keep going wrong around here and we would greatly appreciate everyone's prayers for our continued safety, health, and the health of our cars. Both cars were in the shop this weekend and now yesterday, my car is trembling and the service engine soon light has come on. Which is going to cost us money. Again. The bad things happening to us are small, but they're frustratingly regular.

Let's list some good news:
My trembling car did get me to court this morning, which went well.
I only have 4 more tax classes before I'm done with the course!
My son is happy (for the most part), healthy, and usually a cuddly joy.
My morning sickness is getting less and less.
My husband is a great partner when lots of unpleasant things happen and usually just jumps right on fixing them.
My husband sees it as his job to help me keep my chin up.
My husband spent the morning doing particularly annoying laundry (fluffing and hanging) and was about to vacuum the house when I last talked to him.
My husband must have picked up the sea of baby toys in the fireplace room for that to be feasible.
Hiring discussions for H&R Block will start on Wednesday.
My boss and replacement are in an all day training thing today along with most of my department.
Our second car gets out of the shop today.
We get to hear the baby's heartbeat tomorrow!

OK, so that's a good list!!

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Random stuff

First of all, the court date got moved and WE GET TO HAVE THANKSGIVING AFTER ALL!!!!! Huge sigh of relief. So now we're working on packing everything up so we can leave tonight and travel while Quint sleeps. That would be awesome. We can leave as soon as I get done with my quiz in tax class.

Tax code crap for the day:
If the expenses in (1) and (2) exceed the gross rent, a vacation home loss may be claimed. But operating expenses and depreciation may not create a loss. If these expenses are greater than the gross income minus the expenses in (1) and (2), they must be carried forward to next year.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Rockstar baby!

Ain't my little boy cute!!! These are one of his aunt's glasses that we were playing with. Their visit was the bright point of this weekend. Bright points are really nice!

And few and far between for me lately. The sky continues to fall around here. Friday I was witness to a crime and the court date is the day after Thanksgiving. That means that we can't go to my mother-in-law's for Thanksgiving. And I was really looking forward to that! We were going to have Christmas while we were there too! So this robber has stolen a visit with family and essentially TWO holidays!!

I've called the DA to see if we can move it and am waiting for a call back.

Pppffffftttt!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Rapt attention

Yesterday our little man did something cute - I KNOW BIG SURPRISE!! Hubby's bagpipes had been sitting all day where Quint could reach the mouthpiece. Several times he'd stop by there and try to blow or suck on the mouth piece. So when Hubby got home, and Quint was done with his snack, Quint went over to the bagpipes and patted them. Hubby asked, "do you want me to play those?" Big grin and giggle. So Hubby picks them up and starts to fill the bag with air. Quint races around the coffee table and tries to scramble up into the recliner. He can't get up there yet, so I pick him up and set him in the chair as if he were an adult. The whole time Hubby played his bagpipes, Quint sat perfectly still, little hands folded, with a grin on his face. The video camera was upstairs or I would have gotten some video of that.

Yesterday at Priscilla's, Quint had a run away nose that Priscilla said was yellow. I never did see a yellow nose run yesterday, but I got to spend the day with my baby and get some things done around the house. When he napped yesterday, I napped and slept like the dead. One other time while he was awake, I had the darndest time keeping my eyes open. I asked my sister later, "do you think that's just depression making me want to sleep so much?" She said, "that sounds more like pregnancy fatigue." Oh yeah! I AM pregnant! That would explain it.

My miracle nausea drug worked in 12 minutes recently. TWELVE MINUTES. And that's from dangling off the bed, drinking soda through a straw, trying to hold very, very still all the way to getting in the shower. That stuff is great!!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Monday, November 15, 2010

Lotsa laughs

Lotsa laughs on 11-3-10. Quint is 13 months old

Comprehension - 14 months

I've got to start being more mindful that Quint understands nearly everything I say. There's this Veggie Tales silly song with the line "I ain't got no belly button". It's really a very funny song and a spoof on hip-hop love songs. Click here to go watch it.

Last night at some point when Quint's belly button was visible and he was playing with it, (in the tub or during a clothes change) I started singing this song. "I got to tell you something. I ain't got no belly button." He looked up at me, and his eyes said he was clearly shocked! "You don't have a belly button?!" was clearly what his face said. I quickly said, "it's just a silly song, son. Of course I have a belly button," and showed him mine. He looked relieved and played with my belly button for a minute.

Because he will soon start to understand what I'm saying, I've already told him that he is going to be a big brother. I've even explained what that means and will do so many more times before #2 gets here. Right now, he obviously doesn't get it.

Also this weekend, one afternoon when I knew he needed a nap, I just asked him. "Do you need a nap?" And he actually said, "I do" with one quick nod. He still shrieked as if tortured when I first put him down, but that only lasted for like 3 minutes then he was OUT! We're working on the phrase, "come here" while trying to not associate it with "or I'll get you" which makes running and chasing happen. He also requested to go outside to play. Outside he walked all over the place and went up the deck stairs several times. Once back inside, he chased Hubby around our kitchen/living room race track. Then after a few minutes, they switched and Hubby chased Quint, all while Quint quacked like a duck. He is so darn cute!

We also worked on going DOWN the stairs. He's great at going up the stairs, but horrible at going down the stairs. We moved the baby gate at the very bottom of the stairs to three steps from the bottom. That way he could climb them and learn how to go back down by himself. I'm not that worried about him falling down three carpeted stairs. He did manage to get back down several times by himself.

At the park, he learned to both climb up the slide steps and then go down the slide. He hasn't mastered the "sit on the edge and put your feet in front of you before you go down" part. A friend took some video on her phone. That I can't get to install here on this page. I'll try again later.


My camera is busted, AGAIN, so my most current photos of Quint are trapped on my phone where I don't know how to get them off. I've been taking still pictures with my video camera and I need to post some of those.

Quint is 14 months old today! He will feed himself solid foods for Priscilla, but not so much for us. He will eat broccoli for her, but refuses for us. He's starting to feed himself more and more though. He only occasionally will only eat spoon fed goo. The other day, he actually stacked one block on top of another and looked astonished that it stayed. He is completely weaned!

The very last time he nursed was funny. In the middle of the night he was incredibly upset about something and we couldn't figure out what. Maybe it was a nightmare. At wit's end, I plugged him in to nurse, knowing I didn't have any milk. Hubby asked about that and I said it still works as a pacifier. After a few calming minutes, he let go and sat up. He turned at looked at it, touched it with his finger, and his little shoulders fell a bit. He reached for my shirt and pulled it down to cover me. Hubby and I exchanged a look. A minute later, as we walked by a sippy cup of water, he lunged at it. I handed him the water and he drank about 4 ounces in a minute. Oh! He was actually thirsty! And had learned that Mama is not the source of drink any more. He hasn't tried to nurse again since.

He says several partial words like ugry for hungry, ank oo for thank you, el-cm for welcome. Mostly, he's still pointing at things he wants to eat. And he's starting to get object permanence. It no longer always works to hide the Vanilla Wafers under a blanket.

Lately, with the daylight savings change, his sleep schedule got out of whack. There for several days, he would go down for a "nap" at 6:30 and not get up again. Until 5am. When he awoke with a very dirty diaper and a determination to be UP for the day. FIVE AM!! He doesn't need to get up until 7 am on weekdays. And on Saturday morning, the best way to make parents hate life is to joyfully wake them at 5am, and then scream, SCREAM, for a full minute before finally falling back to sleep for another 90 minutes. So for several days there, we distracted an extremely sleepy toddler until at least 7:30 pm before we would put him to bed. Finally, this morning, he didn't wake up until 6:30 am. Much better.

He's a very sweet, loving boy, who will sometimes plant a hug on you as he passes through the room. If I'm laying on the floor, he will come and crash his head on my body for a hug. (This is great if you're prepared for it!) The other day, he layed down with me for about 2 minutes and repeatedly kissed the arm I had around him. Very, very sweet!

So that's what our little guy is up to at 14 months old!

Friday, November 12, 2010

And yet again...

Yesterday, Hubby saw a car that he wanted to buy, but couldn't test drive it because there was only one attendant at the car lot right then. So today we go back to drive it and probably buy it. We go out to lunch beforehand for a little lunch date. Very fun lunch date.

We pull up to the tiny car dealership on the old lot of a gas station and Hubby doesn't see the car. Yup, you guessed it! It sold this morning. The same car that's been there for weeks that Hubby has been trying to talk me into - gone from one day to the next.

Back to square one.

Again.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Laugh for the day

Today, we tried and are trying to buy a car. We thought we had it nailed down and drove 30 miles away to go "pick it up". Good thing I didn't just leave Hubby there like we thought about doing. There were SEVERAL small things wrong with it, including not having the original key, not having any programmable keys (we would need two) and not having even one key fob for remote entry (we would need two). Those things right there add up to $300-500 to replace. And that wasn't all. And he wouldn't budge on the price.

So we're back to square one for the big car hunt. I spent 10 minutes online with craigslist and found 10 or so cars within a 3 hour drive that we might be interested in and emailed them to Hubby. Have I mentioned that I'm delighted that Hubby does all the hard stuff on car buying?! There were two others here in our own town and he drops by one to see the powder blue car. Hubby's not thrilled with powder blue - he says it's an old woman color (?).

So he goes to check the thing out. It has an awesome price, which should have been a clue. It was owned by a smoker, the first key they gave him wouldn't open the car, and last but not least, IT WOULDN'T START! Oh, look at that, there's no battery. And no spare. What else have you poached off the car? Five Arab guys can't be bothered with details like that because their buddy just arrived with the Taco Bell. See ya.

Yup, that's my big laugh for the day. Kinda pathetic.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Tax code crap for today!

Self Employment Tax:

If the amount of your Net Earnings is $106,800 or less, multiply net earnings by 15.3%. Enter the result here and on Form 1040, line 56.

If the amount of your Net Earnings is more than $106,800, multiply your net earnings by 2.9%. Then add $13,243.20 to the result. Enter this on Form 1040, line 56.

Deduction for one-half of self-employment tax. Multiply the above result by 50%. Enter the result here and on Form 1040, line 27.


Make sure to not miss that extra 20 cents there. Which is odd seeing how they tell you early on to round every number to the nearest dollar before you put it on any kind of tax form. But don't forget that 20 cents!

Who comes up with these calculations?! Really! $13,243.20?!!

I'm off to class, but I'm going to drown my sorrows in a #1 from Chick-fil-a on the way.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Tuesday update

Quint had a fever of 101.2 yesterday and Priscilla called to say come get him. When I got there, he was burning up and being politely sequestered. He was in a highchair with some toys and everyone else was on the other side of the room. No real symptoms other than the fever. He's home today with Daddy. He seemed fine as frog hair today, but he can't return to daycare until he's 24 hours from symptoms.

Of course, I would rather stay home with him (Mom), but I don't have any more sick time. And while they are letting me go (which makes me not care how often I am home sick or otherwise not present), I am trying to get a different job there at the same company, which means I need to be present, smiling, and presentable (hair combed and actually pay attention to what clothes I put on) as often as possible.

I did a toy rotation this morning, so he was exceptionally entertained when I left for work. When the ball popper plays now, he dances by spinning in a circle. It's more like he's doing a one footed basketball pivot over and over, but it's still cute! It's November (2 months after his birthday) and I've just now rotated all the new toys into use.

Last night, I forgot to take my nyquil again and so was up coughing and coughing and coughing from 3am to 4am. Loads of fun. Why do I keep forgetting that?!

Our check arrived so that we can go buy a new car. For years, YEARS!! Hubby has been very proud of the fact that we've bought several Grand Marquis for about $7k with 70k miles on them. No, we have not bought seven of them. So we're looking at 2004 models of Grand Marquis with between 60k and 80k miles on them and have found several for $7000-7500. Odd how those numbers still work after 10 years of cars. Anyway. With the amount that insurance is giving us for the wrecked Grand Marquis, this will put us about $2000 in debt to buy the car. If that car lives only 5 years, and we financed it for 60 months (we won't) that would work out to a car payment of $33 per month. Or $400 per year. That's an awesome deal!

But with me soon to be out of work, and pregnant, he's starting to get panicky and look at cars that have a MUCH shorter life span. Like 2003 models with 108k miles on them. Cars that cost $3500-4500. His logic is this will leave us with a little cash left over instead of going in to debt right now. So for $500 cash now, we'll have an exponentially more used car? That doesn't make any sense! I've tried to be very firm that I absolutely do not want a car with more than 100k miles on it. I've tried to tell him to buy one of the 2004 models (all 3 of those are good choices). I'm not sure he will listen to me, though. So if any of you readers out there think you can influence him, please give him a call at home today and tell him to buy one of the 2004 models!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Things are better!

Have I mentioned that things in general are a tiny bit better? My class still sucks and I have a pitiful teacher BUT I have contact with a wonderful teacher who has taught me enough to hope that I might pass the class with her help.

Also, I had amazing nausea that would take over half of my day and keep me from getting little chores (or big chores) done in the morning. But now I have a wonder-drug that stops the nausea in it's tracks! It doesn't make me sleepy or anything else weird, it just STOPS THE NAUSEA!!! It's amazing!! I might start to gain some weight now.

So between those two things, there's been a lightening of the weight off my shoulders. I have hope that I can pass this class, and I don't have to spend so much time each morning holding down the floor, waiting for my stomach to stop rolling.

Quint started doing a new trick this weekend! He started stacking blocks! Usually, the playing with blocks goes like this: I build something tallish and he knocks it down gleefully. But this weekend, both with the big rubbery blocks and with the smaller wood blocks, he stacked them. Once even, he stacked a tall skinny one on top of a small skinny one, making a really tall, skinny thing. That's a level of co-ordination that he hasn't had before. When he put the tall skinny on top of the short skinny, he was amazed that it stayed up. His eyes lit up and he smiled and clapped!

Also, now that he can hear better (tubes put in his ears) he can say a few more things and understands a whole lot more. He can actually say "cat" now instead of "dat". Now, when we ask him if he's hungry, he can say something that only Hubby and I understand as "hungry". He understands when we ask him if he would like a nap, a diaper change, a drink, or to go upstairs/downstairs. It's warmer upstairs and there are different toys.

Because he is walking so much now, we'll find parts of toys all over the place. And occasionally, we'll find non-trash in the trash. I finally found the purple ball to the ball-popper in a drawer in the kitchen. Perhaps we need a lid for the kitchen trashcan. A sippy cup was in the trash in his bedroom. Lots of things get put in the top of the diaper champ. I've bought him some new containers for him to put things into. This weekend while I was holding down the futon with my lovely cold, he brought me, one a a time, all the tubes of desetin, lotion, and whatnot from the upstairs changing table. Stupid me, I told him to go put the desetin back but didn't check to see if it got back. Hubby found it under our bed later. The most alarming aspect of this new trend is that Hubby's State Guard beret is missing. He only needs it once a month, but we can't find it. Usually, where ever he takes it off when he first comes home, it sits right there for a month and we know where it is when he needs it again. This month, it went missing. Wonder where Quint put it.

I'll have to start finding all the parts to the toys each night so things can't get too lost. That ought to be fun! Maybe just the critical toys. Like the stool we have with his name carved into the top. The wooden letters can be taken out. I need to find his whole name each night. We can buy more balls for the ball popper. Does it really matter if a few blocks go missing? He's not really playing with the puzzles yet. We certainly don't have 26 refrigerator letters any more.

We've got to start working on teaching him to go down stairs, soon.

Friday, November 5, 2010

List for this weekend

Find Fall centerpiece and take to work.
Find camera warranty.
Sew button back on Prince Charlie Coat.
Store bottles.
Make baby food.
Clean tub and shower.
Put video on various thumb drives and mail them.
Wipe out fridge.
Put away all laundry.
Cook pork chops!
Gather breast pump to return to E.

Monday report: Yup, the one in orange is the only one I got done this weekend. It would help if I ever looked at this list again. It would also help if I wasn't very sick with a cold all weekend, with a 13 month old wanting lots of mommy-time. I did WASH some laundry. And I did put scrub free on the shower once.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

10 weeks pregnant and other stuff

This pregnancy seems different in several ways, some of them blessedly different.

I'm at 10 weeks. Yesterday at the doctor's office I learned that I've gained about 3 pounds, but apparently I'm just more dense because my pants need a belt at times during the day. At other times, I can't keep them buttoned.

I'm cold all the time so far, but then again, it just turned cold outside and I've got a cold. So perhaps all bets are off on that. I'll have to look up when I started to feel warm while pregnant with Quint.

The biggest difference which is WONDERFUL!!! is that I haven't actually thrown up due to morning sickness! I hate throwing up. Hate. Hate. Hate. Instead, I'm nauseous until at least noon. And might be nauseous at any time for any reason. The doctor gave me some anti-nausea medicine which I left at home this morning - DUH!

Ding! (subject change)

Quint still refuses to feed himself soft, chopped vegetables despite the fact that he does it most days at Priscilla's. Tuesday, I tried in vain to get him to eat some mixed vegetables and all I got was a crying child and a frustrated mama. Finally, I dumped his mixed veggies in the blender with some peas and then he gobbled it up as I spoon fed him. So during one of my two evenings a week, I spent 30 minutes trying to get my son to do something that I know he can do, but refuses to do with lots of crying. I decided that forcing him to do this for himself can wait until I get done with my tax class.

Yes, I'm probably coddling him and am going to extra trouble to keep him from crying (lousy reason to not do something) but I've got enough stress in my life right now. I'd much rather watch TV on the floor while Quint wanders around the house playing with and carrying toys. Especially when he will come find me every 10 or 15 minutes just to give me a hug, cuddle for 30-60 seconds, and wander off again. Golden. I'd much rather get dinner out of the way and get to floor time. I'll become a hard-a$$ mom again in a month.

Quint really started walking everywhere Oct 17, 2010. My good friend with a granddaughter 2 weeks younger than Quint came over to visit Oct 16th. That little girl, Ava, was walking everywhere and Quint couldn't keep up. The very next day, Quint was walking nearly everywhere.

Ding! (subject change)

I took my mid-term in my tax class last night. The wonderful substitute from Friday helped me prepare for the mid-term, and I'm sure I made as high a grade as I did because of her. But I only made a 77. Not so hot. So I still have to work my buns off.

Ding! (subject change)

There's an Administrative Assistant position open upstairs at my work. I could do this job, seeing how I've been an AA before anyway and I've applied for it. I hope they consider me. There might be a slight pay cut, but staying with the same company would be ideal. Please pray that I get that job.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Tax Code Fun and anti-nausea med

Here's the paragraph that I read Monday in class that, in my slightly hysterical, sleep deprived, extra stress state of mind, made me nearly both laugh aloud and bang my head upon my book.

Itemized Deduction Limitation
If a taxpayer's AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) exceeds $166,800 ($83,400 if married filing separately), his itemized deductions may be limited. In such a case, total itemized deductions are reduced by 2/3 of 3% of the amount by which his AGI exceeds $166,800 ($83,400). Itemized deductions will never be reduced by more than 80% of the amount by which they exceed the taxpayer's medical expenses, investment interest, non-business casualty and theft losses, gambling losses and certain charitable contributions.

Did you catch all that?! Did your calculator start to smoke?

In other news, the doctor gave me a prescription for an anti-nausea medicine! I hadn't even thought about asking for that! Basically because the old drugs would just knock you out. It's hard to feel nauseous when you're unconscious. But this one is supposed to be different. Key words being supposed to be. I'll try it soon on some morning when I don't need all mental pistons firing.

The lights are ON!!!

Last night, I was feeling pretty low. It was the start of yet another very long week where I wouldn't get to see my son much. Plus I've got a mid-term in my tax class on Wednesday. I managed to cry a little on the way home, just because I needed it. Soon after I got home, my sister called. I wasn't really in the mood to talk, but I hadn't talked to her in days. Boy am I glad I answered! She proceeded to tell me an ER story that had me howling for 30 minutes. I'm sure I'll get some things out of sequence here, but I'm going to try to tell the story for the entertainment of any who read this blog. My sister's delivery is SSSoooooo much better than mine will be.

My sister is an ER nurse in a hospital. About 45 minutes or an hour before the end of her shift, the episode began. We're going to call our 80+ year old male patient Skippy. Sis answers a land line call from one of the guys in the ambulance who asks to speak with the doctor. There is an odd, loud howling in the background. Sis hands the phone to the doctor saying "good luck on hearing your caller". The howler (Skippy) is on the way to their ER. They can't really figure out what's wrong with him other than he seems to be crazier than bat sh**. Once he arrives, they have to put him in 4 point restraints just so he'll stay on the bed, while he repeatedly says, "please let me out of HHHHHEEEEEEEELLLLLL!!!" at the top of his lungs.

Skippy's relatively calm 83 year old wife is with him looking dismayed. She says that he's normally not like this at all! He spends a lot of time volunteering and is one of those pillar of the community types. Skippy keeps telling them that the bell is still ringing. There is no bell. There's not even any machinery dinging. Sis asks how long he's been like this. Ten days. Ten days?! You've been dealing with this for 10 days! Well, she says sheepishly, I hoped he would snap out of it. They've been married for over 60 years, so she knows this man.

THE LIGHTS ARE ON!!! Skippy says. He keeps writhing around on the bed, only being held on the bed by the restraints. Rather athletic writhing. Skippy also has the strength of ten thousand heroes at the moment. At one point, the sweet wife tries to hold his hand to calm him and he nearly crushes her hand by accident. With all this commotion, they can't even start to examine him. They can't even get a blood pressure or a urine sample, in order to start to try to have a clue as to what's making him crazier than bat sh**.

Sis tries to reassure the little wife that if this is a fairly recent phenomena, then it might be something simple. Apparently urinary tract infections can make old people crazier than bat sh**. They've seen it lots of times.

All this ruckus is hysterical to my sister primarily because her shift is ending in just a few minutes. She will not have to deal with this guy for the next 4-6 hours. It's one of those laugh or cry type moments. But with each new piece of drama, she gets even more tickled and is having the darndest time continuing to act professional.

They do manage to get a wrist band on him with the regular bar code on it. He's fascinated with that for about 10 seconds. Sis has an idea. She asks the front desk lady to print out a whole page of those bar codes on paper, not stickers.

The entire ER is getting to hear all about the fact that the lights are ON! (like this is news or alarming), the bell keeps ringing (does it toll for thee?), and "let me out of HHHHHHEEEEEEELLLLLL!" As in most ERs, the patient areas are separated by thin partitions that certainly aren't soundproof. Some of the other patients are looking dismayed and weary of all the high volume information bulletins (really, are the lights on? Because we weren't sure).

Sis finally snags his attention and says, "here, hold this for a minute" and hands him the page of barcodes. Immediately, he is fascinated and becomes perfectly still and totally silent. Everyone in the ER stops to stare. The lady in the bed next door whispers, "what did you DO to him!"

One of the other nurses asks, where did you learn that? Did they teach you that in nursing school? No, says Sis, I learned that when I worked in the 2 year old room at daycare.

A few minutes later, Sis and the doctor are staring at Skippy (the bar code page has worn off) and trying to figure out where to start. Sis suggests a blow dart, just for starters. The sweet wife of Skippy says, delightfully surprised, "oh you HAVE those? Like on Wild Kingdom?" Well, the drug works the same, but we won't be chasing him down with a jeep to administer the drug. The doctor says to Sis, you didn't learn that at this ER, did you? Well, no. But the doctor agrees that it's a good place to start.

Skippy has started howling as well. Sometimes hitting one of those really high notes that only dogs can hear.

At some point in his ravings, Skippy has said something to indicate that he finds one of the nurses hot. Sis walks into his area with the blow dart syringe on a tiny tray. Skippy pauses for a second, looking at it, and then goes completely ape-sh**. "THE LIGHTS ARE ON!!!" As if this would get him out of a shot. Sis is looking into his face when he practically shouts this and she completely looses control. She starts one of those snorting uncontrollable laughs and has to set the tray down out of his reach. She asks the hot nurse to come in and "shake it" for a minute. Skippy will look that direction and Sis can administer the blow dart. This works!

When Sis leaves at the end of her shift, Skippy is calmly rocking in his bed (and four point restraints), still saying "the lights are on" and "I can hear the bell" under his breath. The wife is sitting nearby looking relieved and dismayed at the same time.

Now my sister's delivery of stories like this is second to none, and definitely better than mine. But I hope I have entertained you just a smidge.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Haven't blogged in days

Since I haven't blogged in days, I thought I'd just catch y'all up on a few not interesting things.

Wednesday, I had a job interview that I'd really been looking forward to. It is a church secretary position. Great interview, looks like it would be a great job..... 2 large hitches. #1 It's a 40 minute drive one way from my house. That would mean an extra hour apart from my kids each day. #2 The job pays $10k less than I make now. With two kids in daycare, and some small cuts to our budget, that means we would have just barely enough to get by. So perhaps that lovely looking job is a no-go. Even if they raise the pay, I'm not sure I want to drive that far each day.

On the way home from that interview, I became really ill. I had to pull over and have Hubby come rescue me. I threw up for several hours and had severe chills and a raging headache. Definitely not morning sickness. Things were some better Thursday, but I was really behind on my eating. I stayed home and recuperated. No one else has been sick at home.

Twice in two days, it has been EXTREMELY handy that I know how to parallel park my big ole Lincoln. It has saved me time, stress, time, and stress. I KNEW that would come in handy. It only took me 15 years to learn, but hey! I 've got it now!

We've got tons of company coming in this weekend for my husband's best friend's wedding. My Father-in-law and brother-in-law will be "camping" in an airstream out back, using our bathroom and shower facilities. A friend, his girlfriend, and her 18 month old little girl will be in the house with us. I'm all excited about how prepared I feel to host an 18 month old over night. I'm very excited to meet the friend's girlfriend as well. I'm looking forward to getting their names straight as well. Whenever I ask my friend what their names are, I get 3 or 4 versions of Elizabeth or Isabel. Like the girlfriend's name is Elizabeth, most people call her Izzy, but our friend calls her Lisa. Or is the daughter Izzy? Our friend says he is actually Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, which just confuses things further.

With as much time as I've spent away from work this week, and the short-timer's syndrome that keeps getting worse, I really just don't want to be at work. Some of our guests are already at the house and I wanna be there. But I have to work today and then I have tax class tonight.

I obviously skipped tax class on Wednesday, so now I'm behind. Or I should say, more behind. The homework for each class is taking longer and longer to complete and right now stands at about 4 hours of reading and exercises. Exactly when am I supposed to spend 2 hours a day working on this ...stuff? Just skip 2 hours of sleep a day while I'm pregnant and seem to need about 12 hours of sleep per day? Skip work and get in trouble or get my paycheck shorted or both? Skip time with my sweet son? Absolutely not! And looking ahead, it doesn't appear to get easier. Soon we will stop filling out tax returns by hand and start filling them out on the computer, but I bet that won't cut down the time it takes to prepare for each class. If anything, it will reduce the flexibility of being able to do homework anywhere. But if I ditch the class, then I ditch my Plan B of working tax season and still having income while I'm pregnant. I still have 17 classes left. The mid-term is next Wednesday, just after we've had all this company.

And because I was so sick on Wednesday, I didn't take my medicine Wednesday night. That means I skipped an anti-depressant pill. Which means I'm a little down on top of all that previous paragraph.

Anyone got a super-duper solution to my hours in the day and tax class problem? Maybe someone farther away has some better perspective.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Good News!!!

Our car insurance people got back to Hubby this morning and it was good news!!! Finally! Some good news. They're going to give us $5100 for our 10 year old Grand Marquis!! Fantastic news!! We're looking at a 2004 Grand Marquis for sale for $7500. So we won't have hardly any car debt.

Also, there's good news on the nutty neighbor front. Since we moved in, we've had a nutty neighbor catty-corner from our house. In his yard, just for fun, he keeps a 6 foot Jesus, 4 foot angels on either side of his driveway, plus a smattering of 5 or 6 foot tall angels scattered around the yard. Also there is a nice collection of tombstones (no joke) both in the front and back yard. Each tombstone, upon installation, creates a flurry of wheel barrow and shovel movement around the yard. Last time, though, I strongly suspected that there was nothing in the wheel barrow, he just kept moving it and walking around with a shovel. There's a 40 foot wooden cross in the back yard. There's an enormous eagle sculpture on his roof where the eagle is just about to land on a huge sphere. He has slowly formed a mosaic over the majority of his driveway. He has installed stepped terraces over his whole yard. Just after the birth of my son, he installed two coup-alas on the top of his house to look like church belfries.

Please understand, he is not religious. He's just a nut. This is the same guy who during neighborhood yard sales will loudly advertise that he has underwear for sale. He refuses to shake hands, too.

We have a home owners association that prohibits all of these items and they're sufficiently scared of him and wouldn't say anything to him, much less fine him, for years. Finally, there has been a court order forcing him to remove all that stuff. And the amazing thing is that YESTERDAY HE MOVED ALL THE STATUES, TOMBSTONES, CROSSES AND THINGS!! It took him all day with one hireling and they took a sledge hammer to a couple of the tombstones.

All us neighbors were calling each other to report what we could see out of our windows while peeking and not obviously staring. I set up my camera and would zoom so I could more closely examine things. Awesome!!!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Why I hate Obama (today)

Here's the stupid aspect of the tax code for today. Yes, I'm wasting 11 minutes when I could be studying to tell you the utter idiocy of the tax code. I have just barely resisted the urge to have a daily stupid tax fact aspect of my blog because really, who cares. It will only spread my anger for the tax code to other people and I don't need to spread the hate.

A few definitions first:
AOC = American Opportunity Credit (and education credit)
MAGI = Modified Adjusted Gross Income
MFJ= Married Filing Jointly (get your mind out of the gutter!)

The following is directly out of my income tax course book. Things in parenthesis are my commentary. The rest is actually in the book, I swear.

Calculating the AOC

The AOC is available up to $2500 per eligible student on the tax return. The amount of the AOC is the sum of:

1. 100% of the first $2000 of qualified education expenses pad for the eligible student
2. 25% of the next $2000 of qualified education expenses pad for the eligible student

The maximum AOC which may be claimed for 2009 is $2500 times the number of eligible students on the tax return. (In case you've got more than one kid in undergrad work at the moment)

Up to 40% of the AOC may be a refundable credit.

(Translation: We thought it would just be too d*** easy to calculate something with either a flat maximum or a flat percentage so we threw in both. Because we certainly don't want to make this easy for anyone, right? Let's make the tax code sooooo complicated that people just stop reading it and then we can put in whatever stupid s*** we feel like, including a raise and nuclear missiles for my buddies. And instead of just choosing refundable or non-refundable with no consideration for logic, let's make it a percentage refundable!!! That will really make people throw up their hands and stop trying to get this credit. Yeah, let's make it even more complicated so we never have to pay out. )

(Then it gets better!)

Income limitation

As mentioned on page 9.3, certain levels of the MAGI reduce or eliminate the AOC. We covered the definition of MAGI on page 9.3. Now let's look at its effect on the AOC.

The AOC is phased out for clients with MAGI between $80,000 and $90,000 ($160,000 and 180,000 for MFJ). THe AOC is not available to clients with MAGI above $90,000 (180,000MFJ)

(So instead of just picking a MAGI and saying "above this number, you can't get this credit", the decided to phase it out. That means there's this complicated formula that only applies to people who have a MAGI within this $10,000 range. )

(It then goes on to explain the forms - yes multiple forms - you must fill out to calculate all that crap. Keep in mind, determining if the student is eligible is easy. Determining if this expense is eligible or not is easy. It's all the crap later!!)

(And this WHOOOOOOOLE thing is only valid for tax season 2009 and 2010. That means only between when the obimination was elected and the mid-term elections. Hopefully all this stuff really WILL go away in 2011, but I bet not. That would be too sweet.)

Smaller things

Thursday, I had two job interviews so I wore a suit. A suit which oddly shrank during the day in the belly and thigh area. Perhaps it was that entire bag of candy pumpkins I've eaten over the past 4 days.

So the first interview turned out to be a pyramid scheme. I realized this about 5 minutes in and didn't have the guts to be rude and just leave. They were selling investment products which were only a little fishy at first glance, but might have been legit. But there's this one word that never goes with my personality: sales. So I listened to her pitch and enjoyed the manicured landscape outside. On my way out the door, the threshold bit my foot and broke my shoe. So I had to leave there barefoot. Thankfully, the parking lot wasn't hot to the touch.

In a nutshell: waste of time and broke my shoe.

I repaired my shoe admirably with some black duct tape back at the office.

My second interview was with H&R Block. They had a job fair and interview session. Thankfully, I was #8 on the sign in sheet and was in the first wave of interviews. I might have been the only one there in a suit. The interview was really more like a visit. My interviewer went from sitting forward tensely writing to leaning back, shoulders down and writing when she found out I had my masters. She asked me 5 questions off their interview questionnaire and I got a ranking of 3 on all of them. Hopefully, this was on a 3 point scale.

I was so tired when I got home at 7pm. Quint had just gone down for a nap and he didn't get up again before 9pm. I sooooo needed some down time so I refused to study and just read my Diana Gabaldon book in my fuzzy, comfy sweats. I was trying to think why I was so tired - I got a great night's sleep last night.

Oh yeah! I'm pregnant! When I was pregnant with Quint, in my first trimester, I would come home from work, hold down the couch for 4 hours and then go to bed. Now, instead, I'm going to class or playing with Quint. That might be it!

Hopefully I'll hear the heartbeat on Monday and it will all seem much more real. Some days I forget I'm pregnant. And a lot of the time, I'm just uncomfortable which makes me really not look forward to the next 8 months. But once I view the baby as a baby, I'm sure that will improve my outlook.

This morning Quint and I got up early so we could play some. At one point he was toddling across the living room, and I asked, "Can you come give me a hug?" He grinned, toddled over to me while flapping his arms like a bird, and crashed his head onto my lap in a big hug! Awesome!!! I don't know who taught him that, but that is awesome!!! So my morning was better for a few baby hugs.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Tidbits of good news!

On my H&R Block Tax Preparation course, I will be able to use my text book on both the midterm and the final! This is by no means a guarentee that I'll ace it, but it certainly does help! So now I know I can highlight the fool out of that book and make sure I know where to find everything.

My other good news is about Ivy Pearl. Last night, Hubby and I were driving in our rental car/pimp mobile and we went over a bouncy part of the road. I felt the walnut size fetus and placenta bobble up and down! You know those pink, hard rubber balls that everyone had as a kid? It felt like that was inside me bouncing around. That's my baby! When I was pregnant with Quint, at my 8 week appointment....skipping parts..... I felt the walnut size hard ball which held my baby and was sooooo excited!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

And then....and then.....




Oct 19th, Tuesday morning, I rear-ended two SUVs. Stop and go traffic. They stopped, I went. Couldn't swerve because of stopped traffic in the lane to the left and large SUV in the lane to the right. One passenger went to the ER, but her car companions didn't seem that worried about her. She had lower back pain and had been sitting in the back seat.

Quint was home in bed. My cell phone was on the coffee table at home. So I borrowed the off duty cop's cell phone and woke up my husband. So he had to dress himself, and Quint, and then take Quint to Priscilla's before he could come rescue me.

The car did its job. This is why we buy big huge cars. With this much damage, I didn't have a scratch. The airbags deployed but didn't scratch me. The wheel did not touch my belly at all. The worst that can be said of the car's performance was that the airbags caused a whole lot of smoke. That's what drove me out of the car at high speed.

Hubby had a feeling that I'd have a wreck that morning when I was about to leave. He didn't say anything about it because I've been kind of fragile lately. You know, extra hormones, extra stress, etc.... Hubby handled it extremely well. No (extra) guilt was induced. He was light hearted (proportionally), matter of fact, logical, and let me cry on his shoulder. Usually when he's concerned about something that he can't control, it comes across as angry. There was none of that. I had told him on the phone that the car was probably totaled, so he was ready for that. But his first view was of the back of the car.

He said, "Honey, that doesn't look so bad. Why do you think it's totaled?"
I said, "You haven't seen the front yet."
When he did see the front, he said, "Oh."

So we're shopping for another Grand Marquis. In our married life, we've had two Grand Marquis, one Crown Victoria, and one Lincoln Towncar. If you think about it, those are virtually the exact same cars. We really like what we like.

So I'm OK, the grape is OK, and Quint and Hubby were home in bed when it happened.

Baby names

Alright, alright. Here are some easily pronounceable, yet fake, baby names so we can refer to my little lentil more easily. Tomorrow, it will be a grape, by the way. And the grape is doing great, despite any traumatic activity involving air-bags. This is the safest my baby will ever be.

OK, so for a girl, let's call her Ivy Pearl
For a boy, let's call him Murphy or Marty.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Family Resemblance

The Daddy
The Mama

Quint


Easily walking



Here's a recent video of Quint easily walking. He now frequently will walk about this far and when he falls, complete the journey crawling. He seems to only start a walking journey when he was standing anyway, like playing at the coffee table. So far, he doesn't seem to go from sitting to standing to walking, yet.

If you haven't seen the pumpkin patch pictures, look for the next oldest post!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Pumpkin patch - 13 months old!

Quint is 13 months old! So here's his photo shoot.
My church has this annual pumpkin patch in the front yard. It's a busy road and they bring in huge 18-wheelers of pumpkins that they sell as a fund raiser for the youth group. Each year, the photo opportunities seem a little nicer than the last. Or perhaps I've just noticed that because I now have a child to photograph there. This top one is the best of them. They had this scene all set up. All I had to do was plunk my son in the middle and hand him a warty pumpkin to distract him. This was also the best looking straw I had ever seen! It was practically white it was so clean and fresh.

Below is Quint at one month old, last year. It's hard to get good shots with a baby who can't hold up his head or smile yet. Pretend he's mid-operatic monologue.And now back to smiley pictures!


Find the baby!
We're all a bit disturbed by a pumpkin as big as my son.


The end!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Baby Names

Hubby was apparently horrified that I had put tentative baby names on the blog. Apparently, he thought it was a big secret to keep until the actual birth. It would help if he would tell me what the big secrets are.... He's all concerned about someone stealing the name or trying to talk us out of whatever we pick. So for everyone who remembers the names that we thought was a good idea a few months ago, please mentally replace them with Ganieda (girl) and Seamus (boy).

I should have known better than to tell him anything about the blog. He disapproves of almost anything I put on here. Including, I'm sure, that sentence!

We've been talking about girl names for years because the boy name was already decided. Here's the rejects:
Any flower names
Any spice names
Anything that you have to correct the pronunciation once people read it aloud.
Anything that you have to immediately spell aloud if anyone is writing it down.


You've always got to make sure that you don't give a child a name that they'll live up to. Madeline (Maddy) could really live up to her name as a teen. Constance could be a deceitful witch. I don't like the name Devon because it's too close to demon.

OK, I've just spent 6 minutes looking up bad baby names. Here are my favorite
Mitermayer - it's another word for thingamabob but seems like it should live on my dad's toolbench.

Murphy (comments by someone else)
It's just one of those names that's fun to say and will fit on basically any type of man: alcoholic, saint, young, old, mysterious, open...

Yes, the first association I want with my little baby's name is "alcoholic." You can never be too prepared for the future!

Really Tired

Really tired here today. But it's my own fault. I've been going to bed late and then inexplicably waking up early. Like 5:30. Occasionally I manage to get up and do something productive like study, but not that often.

On the other hand, I watched Groundhog Day again last night. I love that movie. I love the different phases he goes through. The one night stand phase. The try to get Andi MacDowell phase. The suicide phase. The piano phase. The saving folks phase. And finally the benevolent phase which finally gets him out of the loop.

Hubby is in Ohio for some Masonic thing. I have a friend coming over tomorrow evening for a girl's night visit. Hubby will be back Sunday, probably before noon. Quint gets tubes in his ears on Monday. I have an interview with AccounTemps on Tuesday. An interview with a temp agency is a very different kind of interview. There will be testing and long conversations about what I'm looking for. They'll try to find me a temp job, permanent job, or a temp to perm job. Thursday, there's the job fair with H&R Block which will be more like a real job interview. I've borrowed two suits from a friend so I'll even look nice!

I'm starting to suffer from short-timer disease which is really not good 8 weeks before my last day on the job. Also, they're replacing my computer on Monday. I really wanted them to wait until after my last day, but no. So I've got all my music (which really piles up over 5 years) on thumb drives and I need to go through and preserve my internet bookmarks today. Especially my job search ones.

In just 10 days I go to the doctor and maybe will get to hear my baby's heartbeat! That will make it much more real. Let's focus on that.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Hmmm....

Yeah, don't have a good title for this one. Or a good, cogent plan here at the onset. And this is likely to be depressing for all you loyal readers, but maybe I can put some hysterical spin on things and cheer myself up in the process.

So what I really want right now is a big, swinging porch swing to put in front of my house where I have no, real porch. I could really use some downtime with cookies, gently swinging, watching leaves fall, while my son does something safe and fun nearby. Several problems with this plan. I don't own a swing. Or a porch. So it would have to sit in front of the garage door very near the cat pan. And my son doesn't know what to do with himself on an aggregate driveway. And our lawn has no grass. Our lawn is patchy moss, sticks, leaves, mud, and a smattering of pretty green weeds.

Last weekend when I needed to hose off several things in the yard, I took him with me. I brought along the awesome table of musical buttons for him to play with. But he's seldom been in the front yard. Mainly because of the lack of a lawn. So he hung onto the little table and watched every move I made instead. At times I would relocate him and sit him down somewhere else, and he would not move a muscle. Well, OK, he did pick up a stick, wave it around, and then try to chew it. And aggregate is heck on the baby knees, so I don't see him crawling anywhere on that stuff.

Anyway, I need at least a 30 minute vacation. The combination of emotional things is not really working for me right now. That's the combination of being out of work and being pregnant minus the joy of having heard a heartbeat or something else doctor approved/verified. Very stupid and despairing conversations run through my head.

Emotional me: WWHHHHHHHHHYyyy haven't I found a job yet?
Logical me: Because you've only really been looking for a week, dingbat!

Emotional me: WWWHHHHHHYYYYyyyyy don't I feel pregnant?
Logical me: Did you forget the weakness and nausea from this morning?

Emotional me: WWWWWHHHHYYYYYyyyy haven't I felt the baby move yet?
Logical me: Because you're not even 7 weeks pregnant!

Emotional me: WWWHHHHYYYYY can't I seem to get anything done?
Logical me: Have you forgotten that you're pregnant? Lower your standards - NOW!

Emotional me: WWWWWHHYYYY can't I visualize this new baby yet?
Logical me: Because it's barely a tadpole! And it's not like you recognized Quint when he first popped out of you! You knew he'd be a baby, but you were surprised that you couldn't have picked him out of a lineup at 5 hours old. The baby is a THING UNSEEN! And it won't be seen until at least May!

Emotional me: WWWWHHHYYY am I so tired and fatigued?
Logical me: Has anyone told you that you're pregnant, loosing your job, and perhaps you're a little down?

Also, some realistic, if a bit discouraging facts:
After Thanksgiving, I probably will not get a job until January. No one really hires during the holidays.
If I find no other job, I'll have this job until Dec 10. Then no one will hire me until January.
I might get hired somewhere between January and whatever point it becomes obvious that I'm not just fat, I'm pregnant. No one will hire me at 7 months pregnant.
I don't really want to start a job until 6 weeks after the baby is born.
So, in all likelihood, I might find a job between now and Thanksgiving, between New Years and March, or after July.

*Ding!*

Here's a completely un-related funny! Scott here at work and my boss are very firmly Democrats. My boss is also black, so during the Obama campaign, she and Scott would chatter on and on (and on!) about how wonderful Obama was and wouldn't it be great to have a black president and blah blah blah. Everyone remembers those conversations. They both knew that I was a Republican and very politely left me out of the conversations. At times I would enter into the race conversation and say things like, "Does it have to be THAT black man? How about Eddie Murphy? How about James Earl Jones? I might actually vote for Morgan Freeman!" She was bouncing off the ceiling for WEEKS after the election. And yes, it is a very good thing that little black boys and girls can now dream about being president one day. If there's a country left by the time they become of age...

I think we can pretty safely say that most everyone is disappointed in Obama as a President. I feel much, much, MUCH more strongly about that of course, but I won't get into that. Scott and Jackie have been exceptionally quiet about Obama for over a year now.

The dollar taker on the coke machine is busted once again. I keep a box of change on my desk for just such emergencies and currently, I have nearly $40 in quarters in that box! There are three whole rolls of quarters in there. There's a sign on the machine that says that I have change.

Scott opens the box today to get change for his dollar. He sees all the rolls of quarters there and says, "Now THAT'S change I can believe in." I tilt my head at him. "Have you been disappointed by other change, Scott?" My boss snorts in the cube next door. Very, very long pause. Scott says, "I choose not to comment on that subject." I say, "I completely understand."

*Ding!*

Stupid aspect of the tax code for today:

Tie-breaker Rules
If a parent can claim the child but no parent does claim the child, the child is treated as the qualifiying child of the person who had the highest Annual Gross Income for the year, but only if that person's Annual Gross Income is higher than the highest Annual Gross Income of either of the child's parents who could have claimed the child. If the child's parents file a joint return with each other, this rule can be applied by dividing the parents; combined Annual Gross Income equally between the two.

I have come to the conclusion, just one week into this class that the government is the largest producer of red tape in the world AND if you just look at the tax code, the government would like to encourage all of us to live a more Jerry Springer-style lifestyle.

So in the above example, if a child lives with someone other than their parents, that guardian can only claim the child on their taxes if their AGI is less than either of the parents. I think that's right. So only if the keeper of your child makes less than you can they take the child credit. That's just great. Let's shaft the person who is being responsible enough to care for a child who isn't theirs.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Priscilla and Uncle Vester

On my ever growing list of things to do before baby #2 arrives is to finish Quint's baby book. One of the things I still need for the book is a picture of Quint's first care-givers. So I brought my camera to daycare today. I asked Priscilla and her husband, Uncle Vester, to stand beside each other and pretend like they like it. Easily done! Quint's in the highchair to get his breakfast. Please notice what Uncle Vester is doing. He's got the mallet from one of those pound-the-peg toys and is pretending to whack Quint. Priscilla is defending him. These folks are great. They love my son and manage to force him to eat solid food while he will only eat goo for me.

One of the things I force myself to refuse to think about each day (lately) is what if I'm out of work for so long that I have to give up Priscilla and loose our place there. She's very close by, she's wonderful, she makes him try new things and lets him try new things. Would I really be willing to let a 13 month old child finger paint?! Of course not! There's only 12 kids there, of every age, race, and even one special needs child. She's cuddly for Quint. Both her and her husband are really funny and joke with the kids. He takes fewer naps there because he can't stand to miss out on the more friends and better toys. To guard against me forgetting to pay each week, I keep a checkbook in the bag with a whole bunch of undated checks filled out for the right amount. She puts the receipt in the baggie with the checkbook. Keeping him there is even cheaper than the baby-warehouses where there are 12 children of the exact same age in the same room, with 4 revolving workers throughout the day. We would have paid MORE. When we first visited when I was still pregnant, Hubby and I exchanged one look and basically lunged for the application form and waiting list.

So basically, I really, really, really, really hope that I either find a job before I start showing, or that Hubby gets some other job in January that makes a little more so I could just stay home for a while.

Everyone's praying for us and our jobs and our babies, RIGHT!!!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

South Pacific

A friend of my sister's (who I've never actually met) said that the old movie South Pacific was really really great. As great as the Sound of Music and he didn't understand why more people didn't know this. It's even Rogers and Hammerstein!

So I ordered it from Netflix. A friend came over and we watched it. Now granted, we were playing with my 13 month old for the first hour of the show. But soon after the baby went to bed, we were laughing hysterically for all the wrong reasons. We had trouble following it while the baby was up because we couldn't understand the words of the songs very well. When a very large number of people are singing, the singers have to make a conscious effort to enunciate or it all just sounds like a great tune with mush for words. The first couple songs on the beach with a huge group of men (with bare, spindly hairless chests!) were great tunes of mush.

Maybe the 54 year time gap was to blame, but we had a hard time following the plot. There were lots of things that it seemed like we should have known what was going on, but they never actually said. Several times, when one character was asking another something like, "but honey, what's wrong?" we were thinking the same thing. And they never actually said. Finally, when they got to the song about "you're not born with this idea, you're taught to hate" we finally figured out that the whole movie was about overcoming racism. She couldn't hack it that he had Asian kids.

Things we thought were funny/mysterious which were not meant to be funny/mysterious:

The large tattoo of the of the ship on the one guy's belly was mysteriously missing for most of the scenes when he was in the yellow inflatable boat.

What's the deal with having an unbuttoned shirt tucked into your pants?

Why was ship-tattoo guy on the plane with the hole it it that he had to bail out of?

Why were there no permanent dwellings in the whole movie?

Is it really that common to use a tree with swinging grass doors as a shower in the South Pacific?

Why did some guy retrieve dinner mints out of a man's coconut bra at the end of the folly's show?

Why was it no big deal to be shot in the butt with a six inch long dart?

When Bob tells his sweet young thing that he can't marry her, why does he seem like the resulting drama with watch flinging has nothing to do with him? And what's up with the watch flinging?

What's with the finger-puppets song that the sweet young thing signs to Bob while her mother (who is partially bald with an extremely tight bun) sings?

The "French" plantation owner with the Asian kids is oddly multi-cultural - not merely "worldy" as the Netflix blurb says. He has an Itallian or South American name, an Italian accent, speaks "French" to his children who sometimes answer in Spanglish. ("no comprenno" seems a lot like Spanish, but not quite, and certainly isn't French.) The French guy seems to "lik-a da pasta" and have an accent like that. He typically calls one guy "my frien-da Bob". Why is that French?

Why do clothes washing machines live on the beach within about 10 feet of the surf?

What the shmo was the super duper secret mission?!

Maybe we'd understand it more if we were Asian. Or were 75 and remembered that time. We had a really good time for some really wrong reasons. ("Wow, look, another unappealing shirtless man!") We really thought we would enjoy a Family Guy version of South Pacific.

Friday, October 8, 2010

In the cat-bird path

Our kitty has been most interesting lately. I swear she knows I'm pregnant. Last time when I got pregnant, she started being a lap cat for the first time ever. Now, any time the baby is 3 feet away from me, she wants to lay on my lap, despite the fact that I may be standing. So that's really sweet.

On the other hand, she recently peed in the pack and play! Me and my super-duper pregnant nose figured this out pretty quick, but not quick enough to rub her face in it and spank her. Tomorrow, I need to pull the "mattress" out of it and hose it down in the yard.

Last night, she didn't come home. Typically, when she doesn't come home at night, she arrives then next day with either A-some wound from a fight (usually minus her collar) or B-with some dead or partially dead heartfelt gift which she deposits 6 inches from the door RIGHT WHERE your foot normally lands.

Since she didn't come home last night, I just put some kibble out for her in the usual place in the garage and went about loading up Quint for the day. After everything's in the car, I hear her collar bell jangle. I start to call her and notice that she's quietly sitting by the back garage door. Odd that she's not meowing to get in or get attention.

Then I see it.

She has something fist sized and brown in her paws and mouth. With dismay in my voice, I start thanking her for her lovely gift when.... it up and flies directly for my head! I have this clear image of a bird in flight with it's beak pointing directly at my eyes, it's face therefore looking like a big target! I duck, yell, and run out of the garage and start to laugh. (Of course our nutty neighbor is in his yard!) I look back at the cat. One very proud meow. THEN her eyes widen at a spot just behind me and she bolts straight for me! I leap out of the way! I see her climb the nearest tree in a flash of light and obviously attack the bird, which I can't decipher from the bark of the tree.

She fetches it back down and holds it down for me to appreciate. I laugh some more, thank her, again get in the car to leave. The last I saw of the bird - and the cat - the bird had made a low altitude flight to the side yard and Callie had arrogantly strolled after it, smugly smiling at the bird's fate. So I fully expect to find a dead bird near the back door when I get home.

I really wish she would just COME HOME at night!