its been awhile

Wow, its been awhile since i posted. i have lots of life developments to share. hmm... where to start...

well, first of all, i'm posting some pictures. This first one is her going down her slide-- she likes putting her monkey at the bottom and knocking him over when she slides down. its so cute.

Now to the real updates-- I'll start with monday. Clairissa came over so that erica and reagan could have a play-date. it was a lot of fun. erica had a little bit of trouble sharing her toys though. actually, it was just her favorites that she had trouble with-- her monkey, her strawberry shortcake chair [also seen in the picture to the left], and her purse. So, i had to hide those things.

tuesday, i went out to Toys 'R Us to look at things for Christmas. I picked out the kitchen set that erica is gonna get as a gift from Andrew's parents. Its nice-- not too complex, but not too simple. then i went looking for a christmas dress for her. i wanted something green. Dark green is a holiday color, isnt it? I thought it was. Well, i went to at least 6 stores and couldnt find anything for her. Granted, Babies 'R Us had one green dress, but they only had size 12 and 36 months. Erica wears 24 months. So, i couldnt get it. The dress we ended up with is a lighter shade of green, but its so beautiful. I'll post a picture of it sometime soon. I'll get one of the three of us and finally get an updated profile picture!

hmm... what was wednesday? Golly, it was a busy day. The night before, andrew was asking if we had any cookies in the house. so i decided to make some; abby's giving erica a strawberry shortcake cookbook for Christmas, though i have it at my place right now. there was an awesome recipe for cut-out cookies that you bake with a popsicle stick in them. how fun is that! [picture to the right.] During erica's morning nap, i mixed up some cookie dough. i refridgerated it until she woke up. then she "helped" me. she dumped some flour on the counter and helped me roll out the dough. we used a star-shaped cookie-cutter; i placed it on the dough and she pushed it down and pulled it up. i placed them on the tray and pushed the sticks in them. Then i gave her sprinkles to put on the cookies. she was doing a good job-- until she discovered that they tasted yummy, and she started eating them instead of putting them on the cookies. So, only about five cookies have sprinkles. They are REALLY good and super-fun. and since its a rather simple recipe, its not too high in calories.

ANYWAY... erica was being rather grumpy after we were done with that. really really grumpy. i took erica to the Dr. And guess what? She has strep throat. Well, its not 100% definite, b/c they didnt do a culture test. But the Dr was pretty sure thats what it looked like. So, she's on medicine now. I took her to the dr b/c i thought she had an ear infection; she's been tugging at her ears and sticking things in them. And she's been ULTRA cranky. her ears are fine, but the dr explained that since the throat and ears are connected, she might be feeling some discomfort there.

Wednesday night abby came over. She has a teachers conference in Lancaster. we spent the night together; went out to the place where her conference is so that she could register early; its mobbed in the morning. then we came to my house and watched reruns of "Heroes." Golly, i love that show!

Thursday was low-key. The most excitement erica and i had was going out to walmart. we came home and played outside for a short while. its really been warm the past few days. but we didnt do much b/c she wasnt feeling good. That night we went out with abby for a little while, but i didnt stay out for very long b/c erica was just getting so grouchy.

Friday is today. we havent done too much. i feel really guilty for going out so much when she's been feeling sick. so we're taking it easy today.

No plans for tonight and saturday yet. who knows what we'll do...

monday, my Mary Kay lady is coming over. I'm thinking of becoming a Mary Kay lady. What do you think? I've always wanted to do it; i love makeup, and helping people pick colors and learn good application tips. I dont plan on really making tons of $$ doing it, or trying to work my way up to earning a car. But, even just a little bit of extra cash would be good.

well, i'm gonna go now.

happy weekend!

[side note: i inserted pictures. They appeared when i uploaded them, but now i cant see them. hopefully blogger will stop being silly and let you see them...]