Adventures OF Mommyhood

Short (SHORT) stories

2010-09-20T09:57:00.003-05:00

Wow, I haven't posted since May! YIKES!

Well, I'm freaking out over what to do when I grow up. (Well, technically, when Erica grows up.) When Kindergarten started, I really started freaking out majorly.

Nothing seems quite right. I had thought of a few choices: Finish my fiction book since I already have it half done); publish children's Bible curriculum; write short devotionals for publications like "Daily Bread."

Well, nothing seemed to quite fit, didnt seem quite right. Even though I really want to right my novel, I agree w/ Andrew's assessment that I should start small and work up to that.

WITH ALL OF THIS SAID... I of course am in love with the Disney Fairies. I love me some Tinker Bell. Ask me anything and I would have the answer for you w/o even hesitating. Also... I know lots about Erica's other character movies and toys (ex: my little pony, strawberry shortcake).

So an idea came to me the other day. Andrew wants me to start small... What about writing something for a kid's magazine?!? There's an entire magazine dedicated to the Disney fairies. Another one, named "Sparkle Magazine" that has lots of characters involve, like My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake.

WITH ALL OF THIS SAID... I'm going to try my hand at short stories. But before I can get serious about a real story/article, I need to freshen up on my craft.

So with my blog now, I'm going to be writing little short stories. Really short. And my daughter will be my editor! Hehehe. Not really editor, but I'll read them to her and if she understands and likes it, I know I'm going in the right direction.

If anyone actually reads my blog anymore, you could help by giving me three things. That's how we come up with stories at home. I give Erica three things and she has to make a story with those things. And she'll do the same to me. The three things can be totally random, which makes for a really interesting story.

Meez

2010-05-20T09:04:00.003-05:00

I've recently discovered Meez. Its kinda fun, I'm starting to like it alot.

I've used Zwinky since its creation in 2006. And I'm a die-hard fan. I love it SO MUCH, and Erica and I would play together. We'd sit at different computers, make our outfits, then chase eachother around Zwinktopia.

But then a few months ago I started getting Trojans on both computers from using Zwinky.

SAD!

So we need to stop using Zwinky. I'm so tempted to go back to it, but its not good for my computer's health.

So I'm trying to find something new. Its not easy, b/c nothing is as great as Zwinky.

I do NOT like WeeWorld. The clothing is ok, and its fun to travel around the different worlds. But the rooms stink, and its almost IMPOSSIBLE to get points. Very very difficult. PLUS, to really advance in the game you need to make "friends" with tons of people. Sorry, but no. When I'm playing something w/ my daughter, I don't make friends w/ strangers. Its just her and me. That's it.

I've tried other things. A lot of them you need to pay real money in order to really play the game. No thank you!

So I finally stumbled upon Meez. Ok, so the rooms there stink too. And its kinda slow getting the images to load. BUT... the outfits are super cool, and the animations are too. And what I love best is... Its easy to earn money/points!

My current Meez was created with Erica. She's supposed to be Tinker Bell. There are other fairy outfits too, but I need to play some games to get points before I can buy them.

"Well, that can't be good"

2010-05-02T22:42:00.002-05:00

Here are some of my recent Facebook status messages. I'll insert additional info as needed...

(Saturday night:)
I DON'T UNDERSTAND! We've had the central air on all day set to 70 degrees. But its 77!!! And thats just the first floor. Upstairs is always hotter by 3-5 degrees. I know it could be worse and that maybe I'm spoiled. But I hate sweating when I sleep. AND, if we're paying $ for the electricity to run it, it should work right. Otherwise its like we're wasting $

That night I'd had a miserable time falling asleep. I started in my room, went to Erica's room, went to the living room, eventually fell asleep. Then when I half-woke up, I went up to my room. Then back to Erica's room, and finally to the living room again.

It was horrible. It was in the 80's inside. It got hotter as the night went on. I thought at night it was supposed to get cooler?

Anyway, It wasnt working the next day (today), so I turned it off and opened windows. Finally at 9:00ish at night, Andrew and I went to the basement where the inside part of the unit is, and we checked to see if the filter was too dirty/dusty/whatever. Just as Andrew pulled out the filter, he said "Well, that can't be good..."

(Today/ Sunday night)
So I just figured out why the central air wasnt working. Andrew took out the filter to see if it was dusty/dirty/whatever. And water POURED out! Just 2 months ago, we had people come to service it/ make sure it was ready for use. The guy even put new parts in so we'd have no problem. Now, if it breaks the first time we turn it on, shouldnt they come out free of charge to fix it? I'm gonna call and DEMAND it. Its their fault! Either the guy messed up royally, or he didnt see where there was a problem starting. Right?

Andrew doesnt think that they'll come out free of charge to recheck it. But they should. I mean, REALLY! We pay them every year to come service it, to make sure it'll be ready for the summer. Why do we pay all that money if they're work doesn't work?!?!?!

We don't have the money to get it fixed. We really don't. No amount of scrounging our bank accounts will add up to enough money to get this whole thing fixed and set right.

I think I'm gonna scream. Or puke. Or run away crying.

FREEDOM!

2010-04-30T08:56:00.001-05:00

My child finally went back to school Thursday. I was so tired of being stuck at home. I (jokingly... mostly) told Andrew on wednesday night that I was gonna send her to school whether she was better or not. But really she was better... Enogh so that she was being sassy again.

When I took her in then, I talked briefly to the teacher. And I got to see the baby chicks that the hatched at school!

Then I went to Starbucks. AWE, pure bliss. And I used a gift card, so if Andrew reads this: I didnt spend cash/credit.

Today I'm using my freedom to get a haircut. Yeah!

And its almost 10:00, so gotta go!

I do believe in fairies! I DO! I DO!

2010-04-27T15:37:00.002-05:00

We are in love with Disney Fairies. Meaning Erica and me... Not Andrew.

Funny part is that when the Tinker Bell movie first came out, I thought it was ridiculous, cuz in Peter Pan she tries getting Wendy killed. Great gal, huh?

But we're hooked now. We're reading thru the books. The big ones, not the tiny 15 page ones. I think we've read 8 so far, and the first two are HUGE books, 200-300 pages. And since all but 4 of the fairies are not in the movies, I found pictures of the book fairies and printed them out with name and talent... AND I printed a map of Neverland.

I feel like I understand Tinker Bell now. (Yes, that's how pathetic this is, that I feel for a fictional character!) In the first book "Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg ," Tink is talking with Mother Dove, and she starts crying about how Peter Pan broke her heart. Awe, poor girl!!!

But I'm hoping she falls in love with Terrence. He's in the books and movies. He really likes her, but she's so caught up in herself that she doesnt seem to notice. He gets brownie points though, b/c in the next book "Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand," Terrence uses the wand to make Tink love him... but then realizes that he wants her to love him for him, not b/c of a spell. So he gets the spell reversed. Unfortunately she's still oblivious to him, but I'm holding onto hope.

We have dress up clothes. And tons of toys. Teeny fairies the size of your thumb. And I'm so obsessed that I drew a huge poster of Pixie Hollow, with Home Tree, Mother Dove, Havendish Stream, fairy-dust mill, and more. So we play with them on the board.

Now I've gone too far! I'm getting 2 books from the library... One is an encyclopedia of fairy life. The other is a history of Pixie Hollow.

How absurd!!! I can't believe someone actually wrote them... And even more shocked at how giddy I am to read them!

We started the encyclopedia-type one... And I got teary-eyed when I saw the beautiful picture of the home tree.

Wow, I'm losing it!

Because of this fairy-frenzy we're in, Erica's been watching Peter Pan over and over and over since she's been sick. Not the cartoon version (though I did pick that up from the library today). Its the real people version made in 2003. I actually LOVE it, so I don't mind watching it with her.

I think she's watching "Peter Pan" right now... and I think I'll go join her... and then read more books!

Sick Days

2010-04-26T18:53:00.002-05:00

Poor little Erica is sick again. I feel so bad for her... And for me too! Cuz I'm worried about what's wrong with her.

Not worried per say. It's just that, I have NO IDEA what's wrong with her! She has a fever, though not too high. Around 102.4 or so. At first that was it, but now she's coughing a bunch. Someone suggested that Strepp is going around... but I can't get a good enough look at her tonsils to tell. And besides, she tells me that her throat doesn't hurt. (She had strepp once, awhile ago, and she definitely let me know then that it hurt.)

It started Saturday afternoon with sleeping for hours and then she got the fever. Then Sunday morning she seemed fine, though we stayed home from church anyway. But in the afternoon, she slept so much again and then toward evening got the high fever again. That's when the cough started up. Today (Monday) I kept her home from school, though she seemed totally fine this morning... And yet again, she got sleepy and coughy in the afternoon, and now has her fever back (Though only 101.8).

I really want her to go to school tomorrow. Her class has a field trip to a dairy, where they'll get a tour of sorts and then ICE CREAM! She'll be so sad if she misses it.

So, to take her or not to take her, that is the question.

?????

Make-Up Monday Part Two

2010-03-22T11:54:00.002-05:00

November 17 was an important day, though I didnt know it until the 18th. Wednesday the 18th I was driving with Erica and she was talking and talking and talking... She likes to talk! And I was zoning out, just saying "Okay, yeah, uh-huh." She was talking about who-knows-what! Anyway, at one point she started saying: "Mommy, do you remember last night when I went to sleep?" Yeah. "Do you remember that I didnt want to pray cuz I was too tired?" Yeah. "And you said that I should pray when you left the room." Yeah. "Well, I asked Jesus into my heart." WHAT!!! That shook my out of my zoning. I wasnt sure if I'd heard that right, so I asked her to say it again. And yup, thats what she had said. It makes me laugh cuz I think: "At least she told me!" Though why she waited until the next night, I'm not sure. But she totally understood what she was doing. And she didnt do it just cuz someone was making her do it. I'm so happy for my little girl.

Then came Thanksgiving. I traveled down to Georgia with my parents for the holiday, to visit family... mainly, my sister. It was so good to see my Abby! And my aunt, uncle, two cousins and their respective families. Got to use a Wii for the first time... now I'm REALLY wanting one.

Good grief, I wish I could remember more. I'm sure lots happened between Thanksgiving and Christmas...

Well, Christmas was hectic, as always. But nice anyway. We had Church on Christmas Eve. Pastor's talk put Erica to sleep. Hehehe. Andrew had been leaning forward, and Erica had been leaning on him. She then fell asleep behind his back! Hehe, he couldnt sit back. He was stuck leaning forward the whole time.

Christmas morning we did the whole tree, presents, Santa thing. Then in the afternoon we went to Andrew's family. We spent afternoon and evening there. Then slept over at my parents' house, because the next day was Christmas celebration with my side of the family. We gals did the tradition of post-Christmas shopping. Each year we go to buy cheap-o decorations.

My sister had been up for Christmas. I'm trying to recall what else we did when she was up, but I cant remember.

Anyway, then one day we went to pick up one of our nephews, Peter. He is Andrew's sister's boy (the middle of 3 boys). Last year we had taken the oldest boy with us to Hershey Park, so this year we took Peter. It was super cold, but not nearly as bad as it had been the first time we were there. Erica and Peter had so much fun! They both were so well behaved and got along, even in the long car rides.

Peter slept over at our house, then the following afternoon we took him back to his house. We stayed the night there, went rollerskating all together which was fun. Overnight it had snowed a bunch, so we got to play outside. I enjoyed spending time with Luke, the youngest. He's about 1 and 1/2. I never really got to be with him much, cuz at all the family gatherings, everyone else wanted to hold the baby. Since he was born until this Christmas, I might have only held him half a dozen times! So I loved spending the two days with him.

We got home from that just in time to turn around and go to Church for the New Year's Eve party. Boy, I was so tired! But we made it until Midnight.

I dont recall much from January. Or February. Oh right... we had TONS OF SNOW! It was awful!!! Erica missed so much school! And she's at the age where that's a bad thing, b/c she absolutely LOVES school.

Her Birthday was in March. Yes, my little baby is FIVE YEARS OLD now!!! Good grief, where have the years gone?!?!? Her birthday was Tuesday March 9th. On the Saturday before it, we had my parents and Andrew's parents and grandparents over to celebrate. It was a Barbie birthday!!!! She got a beautiful dollhouse from one set of grandparents, and Barbies from the other set of Grandparents and great-grandparents. She loves it, and I'll admit: I love playing with Barbies too!!!

Then Monday the 8th we had her party for Church friends. We met at Burger King and I provided lunch, and the kids played for quite awhile. Then we went back to my house for cake and a pinata. It was a beautiful pinata! It was a fish, b/c Erica wanted an Ariel/Little Mermaid theme. The cakes I made for both parties were awesome too. I'll try to add pictures. For one party, I made a castle cake. For the other, I made the ocean with an Island in the middle.

On her real Birthday, she went to a friend's house from school. That was really nice. It was fun talking to another mom and realizing that all the crazy things that Erica comes home to say, Sarah goes home and tells her mom too! Example: They've started saying "Magoo." I have no idea why, and it drives me nuts. Now I know she picked it up from school.

Well, gotta go. Erica wants to have an easter egg hunt!

I'll add pictures later!

Make-Up Monday Part One: Facebook vs. Blogging

2010-03-22T10:15:00.003-05:00

Haha. What a make-up this will have to be!

I've been gone for so long. Since November, I think. And its ALL my sister's fault. She signed me up for Facebook, and I've become addicted to it. And its not even all that great. I prefer blogs SO MUCH MORE. But here I am, dissing my blog.

The reasons that blogs are better:

You can easily search through your archives. So when Erica's Kindergarten registration form asked "When did she first crawl? Walk?" I was able to find the info easily by looking through archives. With Facebook... nope, not gonna happen.

And with Blogs, you can write SO MUCH MORE. I can write paragraph after paragraph after paragraph, no problem.

Oh, and I can do cool layout designs on my blog. I used to LOVE making new headers and backgrounds. I'd spend hours on it, and it made me so happy! Cant do that with Facebook.

The only real pro to Facebook is that its much easier to keep track of what your family and friends are up to. In just one place (your wall), you can find everything from everyone.

I want to get back to blogging! Today is my start...

I feel TERRIBLE!

2009-11-13T10:58:00.002-05:00

When I started this blog, I wanted it to be a "scrapbook" of sorts, chronicalling Erica's growth, changes, events, etc. And I'm VERY disappointed in myself for not keeping up with it.

Boo on me.

This was a horrible week. I stayed up late every night watching Criminal Minds reruns on TV. Then I had trouble waking up. Erica wasn't late to school at all, but we had some close calls. And then while she was at school, I was so tired that I didn't get much done.

Now its Friday. I'm looking around my house thinking, "There's so much to do!!!!"

I think what I need to do is write out a schedule for myself. An hour-by-hour schedule. I did that in college, so I know that I can do it. Just gotta start...

Well, I gotta go. Hopefully I'll add all kinds of pictures and updates soon.

Hmm... which costume to choose?

2009-10-15T23:59:00.002-05:00

I've fallen in love again with Zwinky. Awhile ago, when I actually blogged consistantly, I would always update my Zwinky person. I really think its the best Avatar I've seen out there. I mean, isn't the girl just so cute?

Anyway, I've been designing Halloween costumes for her. In case you can't tell, the costumes are:

Clown

Robin Hood

Strawberry Shortcake

Pumpkin

Woman of the Woods

Sailor

Fairy Princess

Gypsy

I haven't decided yet which one is my favorite. They all have such good qualities to them!!!

Star Table

2009-09-30T13:40:00.002-05:00

Its almost October. Only a few hours away. So I'm changing my blog template to the halloween theme. Yeah for template designs!!!

Next, I have apologies to make. Wow, I haven't been blogging! Its terrible. I really need to catch up. Awhile ago, I did "Make-Up Mondays," where I would catch up what happened over the weekend. Maybe I should start doing that again, but making up for a whole week!

Now to the title of this post...

Erica LOVES preschool!!! I'm so happy for her. And I'm proud of her too. I was really worried that she'd be a trouble maker in school. Not that she's a bad kid; she's just REALLY active and likes to talk alot.

But on the fifth day of school, she came home with great news: She had gotten to sit at the star table! What is the star table, you may wonder. Every day, the teacher picks a student who has been doing a good job. And that student gets to sit at a special table and also gets a special stuffed animal for the day and night. My little Erica got this on just the fifth day of school!!! I was so proud!

Yesterday again she was at the star table. Each time, the teacher wrote a special note for her too. This one said: "Dear Erica, You are doing such nice work. I am proud of you."

And Erica tells me that she's never had to sit at the time out chair.

PLUS, she came home with a special prize. From what I can understand, they each have a calendar at school. And each morning they are supposed to update it by crossing out the previous day. That way they know what that day's date is. And Erica did her's all the right way and got a prize for it. [I'm not really sure how any kid could mess it up. So I'm wondering if its for attendance instead. But I'm not sure.]

I am really looking forward to parent/teacher conferences. Its not for a little while though. But I'm excited to hear more from the teacher's point of view.

Well, that's it for now. Gotta go!

School Daze

2009-09-10T10:32:00.000-05:00

Erica had her 1st day of Preschool yesterday. Yeah! Well, almost yeah.

We were all prepared, very excited. Erica went to bed early. Unfortunately, she woke up around 10 PM screaming. She said something was ringing in her ear. And I thought: Uh-oh its an ear infection. She cried and cried and cried.

I called the pediatritian. He said to give her Tylenol. And that if she didn't get better, take her to the ER. Great. Well, I tried to settle her down. We watched Dora while I held her. I did something naughty-- I gave her Benadryl to make her sleepy. Nothing worked.

So at midnight I took her to the ER. I explained first that we'd have to wait a long time but she wanted to. After 15 minutes though, she got tired of waiting. And she was getting drowsy too. So we came home [before even signing in!] and she fell right asleep.

I planned on just keeping her home from school. It was a sad decision to make b/c of it being the first day. But I thought it would be for the best, and that way I'd be able to take her to the Dr when they opened in the morning.

Because of this, I didn't set my alarm. I just slept and slept. Well, at 8:18 she came to me and woke me up: "I'm ready for my first day of school, mommy!" The silly girl was already dressed!!!

I asked and asked if she felt okay. She didn't even remember going to the hospital. She didn't have any pain at all. So I decided to take her to school. Which starts at 8:30. And it was already 8:20. YIKES!!!

She scarfed down cereal and we ran out the door. [All the pictures were taken after school, not before.] I got her there only 2 minutes late. The teacher hadn't started anything yet, so all was good.

Preschool was great. She had a blast. To celebrate, Erica and I went out for lunch. Afterward though, I called her Dr to make an appointment to check her ears, just in case. Wouldn't you know it... she has a serious ear infection. The Dr was surprised that she wasnt screaming still.

So now she's taking medicine. She hates the taste, and hates the eardrops even more. But I don't want it getting any worse.

Right now Erica is at preschool again. Its everyday from 8:30 to 12:00. And since its 11:30, I need to wrap this up so that I can pick her up.

Toodles!

Ugh!

2009-07-07T07:09:00.001-05:00

1. I am so tired of hearing about Michael Jackson. Can something else be on the news. PLEASE! Yeah, it was a shock that he died. Yeah, he had a big music career. But is everyone forgeting all the crap he was involved with? And regardless, this news coverage has lasted long enough.

2. Erica's been sooo grouchy lately! Perhaps because of the full moon? Or...

3. Both Erica and I have colds. Ugh. We keep coughing. Not fun.

4. We had a good time at 4th of July picnic. Erica got two baby toads and brought them home. The problem is that the toads arent eating. At least, not that I'm seeing. I gave them dried frog food; they didnt eat it. I gave them mini crickets; they were afraid of the cickets and kept hopping away. I fed them ants; they were afraid of the ants too! I gave them little worms, lightning bugs, dead flies, even blueberries and bananas. Nothing!

5. I'm having trouble with my knees again. Its terrible, getting closer to what it was when I was in college: it had been so bad that I could hardly walk. And then I totally freaked out when my jaw started locking again. I had serious trouble with TMJ in high school, and went thru therapy and surgeries for it. Well, it got better, but never perfect. It stopped locking, but since then I've always had pain and my jaw still always clicked everytime I'd open and close my mouth. STUPID JOINTS! All of my joints are too loose, and that ultimately is whats causing the trouble.

Well, enough ughs for now.

Wow

2009-06-25T20:02:00.002-05:00

I was just checking up on my celebrity news...

Today, Farrah Fawcett AND Michael Jackson died. Whereas Farrah has been sick for awhile, the news of Michael Jackson was shocking to me.

Not that I ever liked him in the least. Far from. But I'll keep my opinions to myself for now. Its just terribly sad when anyone goes.

Beat the Heat

2009-06-23T15:35:00.001-05:00

So, as I've made mention in years past, we get ants in our house. Some may come from the front of the house or the sides. But most come in from our sunroom. Its so frustrating each year. Ants are my enemies!!!

This year, I thought I'd found the perfect solution. (I dont remember what its named, though.) I sprayed all around the sunroom and in the windows / doorway too, from the inside AND outside. For extra measure I also set off a fogger in there. And I made a decree: NO FOOD IN THE SUNROOM!!!

This took care of the problem for the most part. Or so I thought.

I was just in the sunroom to close the blinds. (Love the neighbors, but dont want them seeing inside the house.) Well as I was doing so, I noticed some type of dirt on the ground. Lots of it. Upon looking closer, I saw that it wasnt dirt... It was a bunch of dead ants! They werent dead from poison though... It was the heat! That room gets above 100 degrees during the summer, and the floor especially gets hot. So the ants met an excruciatingly hot demise... Or something like that.

I dont feel bad for them at all though. Serves them right for tresspassing onto my territory.

Awake

2009-06-20T23:24:00.001-05:00

I cant sleep. Thus, I am mobile blogging. I already spent 20 mins facebooking from my cell. I think my hands are gonna cramp-up. Ugh.

I went out to CVS at 10:30 for cough med for Erica. She was coughing so much that she couldnt sleep. Of course, when I got home, she was asleep. Oh well.

Thats why I'm awake. But I think I'll try to sleep now.

Buenos noches!

Recital Videos

2009-06-11T09:02:00.009-05:00

Here are some videos. They’ve been a pain to upload. Ugh.

Anyway, the first one is of the song “My Thumbs are Dancing.” It was the song that only Erica’s class performed. They did a fantastic job. I took this movie from backstage in the side wings. I used my old camera, b/c Andrew had the good one in the auditorium, so you’ll notice a clicking sound throughout the video. You’ll also hear Erica yell “Mama!” when she sees me. The moms and I all started laughing. So funny.

[I'm having difficulties. So I ended up having to split the video into 2 sections, then upload it to Photobucket. Hence, it will be slightly different to view than the first one.] The second and third videos are of “Nearly Missed the Rainbow.” That’s the song that Erica’s class did with the other young classes. It was chaos, yet somehow my Dad managed to stay focused on her for the majority of the time. Erica is wearing blue, has her blonde hair in a bun. She's towards the back, behind other girls. And you can pick her out if you look for the one who's biting her fingernails. Ugh.

More Recital Pictures

2009-06-11T06:48:00.007-05:00

More Pictures! Yeah!

In the previous post, I mentioned that Erica was kind enough to share her coloring books, games, toys, and snacks with the other girls in her class. So here's a picture of them huddled on the ground to color. Have you ever heard of Crayola's "Color Wonder" products? They're amazing! The markers only color on special paper. So if she were to accidentally [or purposefully] color on herself or her costume, it wouldn't leave a mark!

Now I suppose I'll pick up where I left off... I need to talk about the actual performances.

In some ways, we were extremely lucky with how things went together. One of Andrew's good friends from church was actually working at the recital, in charge of lighting/sound/other AV type stuff. And Erica does now Shannon [that's his name] a bit as well. And so, before she went out onto the dark and creepy stage I was able to assure her: "The stage is going to be dark when you walk out. But don't worry! Mr. Shannon is taking care of the lights. And he's going to turn the lights on for you so that you can dance!" And so, she wasn't afraid at all. I also assured her many times: "This is all about having fun! Yes, we want you to try your best. But just try to have fun out there. You'll do great."

I really was shocked at how well it went. I was never really worried about Erica freaking out. [She had earlier at rehearsal... but that was just b/c her shoes broke. Stupid Crocs! Why spend all that money if they're just gonna break!] But she got over that quickly, and the performance was hours later. Anyway, I was saying how shocked I was. BECAUSE-- all of the girls did so well! None of them freaked out, none of them cried, none of them ran off stage, none of them stood still in fear. They all danced and had fun!

Their first song was called "My Thumbs Are Dancing." It was for just their class. They did a pretty good job with it. At one point, they were supposed to join hands and dance in a circle. Well, they got to the holding hands part, but then one of the girls got confused and left the circle to move onto the next part of the dance too early... But their teacher had been right. It was cute and we all loved it, no matter the problems. At classes, I'd get so stressed out when she'd mess up. But at the recital she was just so cute.

Another funny thing about that song... The mothers stood offstage in the

wings to watch. And Erica spotted me somehow. And she shouted: "Mama!" We all busted out laughing. But Andrew assured me that no one in the audience heard that part.

Then we headed out into the halls again to wait. It wasn't as long of a wait then. They soon had their second dance. It was a combination of all 3 young classes. The 3 y/o, 4 y/o, 5 y/o classes. I knew it would be chaotic; that's a lot of kids and they had only practiced all together twice before. But it was crazier than I could have imagined. Somehow, the music started before all of the kids were on stage... All of the youngest ones were still offstage. So they had no idea what to do. They just ran out and picked any old spot to stand. I could hardly keep an eye on Erica, and I was just off to the side watching. Somehow my father managed to video her through most of the song. I'll post videos soon too.

But none of them seemed to mind the chaos of it. They were still all so happy. [By the way, there's a picture of this towards the top of the post. I only managed to get a picture of her back. She's wearing blue and is farthest away.]

Not long after that was the final curtain call. All of the performers ran out onto stage to bow. Since Erica's group is the shortest, they were last to come out. So you may be able to see her in this picture. She's in the front row, far to the left. Okay, you really can't see her. But I'll try to add a movie clip soon of her coming out onto stage, and she's quite visible on that.

When it was all over, I quickly cleaned up the markers and toys. Then I took Erica into the auditorium to meet up with our family. She was so thrilled that everyone was there! I cannot begin to explain how thrilled she was. She kept laughing: "My family is here!" And Erica got a bouquet of flowers. I knew that there was no way I'd be able to bring any b/c of the craziness of the day. So I had called my mom to bring some. And it just thrilled Erica so much! She really felt like a ballerina b/c she got flowers for her performance.

We took some pictures there [obviously, since I have several of them posted], and then headed to our home for dinner/dessert. It was a good meal, but really easy. I had put meatballs and marinara sauce into my crockpot that morning, so they were nice and yummy by the time we got home. I also had lunch meats for sandwhiches. Erica specially picked out chips and pretzels for the party. My mom brought salad and Andrew's mother brought fruit salad.

But the best part-- to Erica at least-- was the cake. We got an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, and Erica had picked out the design for it herself. I had wanted it to have a ballerina on it, but when she saw the design of the Disney Princesses, she was adamant about having that one. I figured it was her party and I shouldn't fight her on it.

So, in conclusion, everything went well. It was a fantastic day. I'm so proud of my little girl!

Recital! Recital! Recital!

2009-06-09T19:46:00.004-05:00

Isn't she beautiful? She was quite the prima ballerina

So, where to begin? I suppose I can start by saying that Saturday was a BUSY day! I had to clean the house and get all the food ready for the party afterwards.

Then we left at 12 to be at the school by 12:30. [It was held in a high schoool auditorium.] From 12:30 until 2:00, they did some practicing. Mainly just practicing the curtain call, where everyone comes out to bow.

They practiced that many times, then had them all sit where they were on the stage. [Hence, the picture of Erica sitting on the stage with some of her friends. They lady standing is their teacher.] Then they went over the order of events, did mic checks, and other stuff.

We got a break from 2:00 - 3:00 to do whatever. I thought it was best to get out of the school for a change of scenery. We didn't have time to go home or anywhere else, so we just stayed in the car. I took my laptop so that Erica could watch a movie while resting and having a snack. Even though it seems boring, it was actually good for her. The rest of the day was so crazy. And the movie was good... it was a Strawberry Shortcake movie where the girls all learn a dance and then perform at a recital. Fitting, huh?

At 3:00 we went back inside. Erica got changed into her pretty blue costume. I did finishing touches on her hair... She had to have it all pulled back into a bun. UGH!!! That was the worst experience of this whole thing. I tried ALL WEEK to figure out what to do. Nothing ever worked right, and she always took the clips out after I put them in. She kept promising that she'd keep them in on recital day, but I doubted it... Well, Erica was true to her word. She didn't mess with it the whole day. And I did a perfect job getting it put back. I'm still totally shocked as to how that happened.

The recital began at 4:00. I stayed with Erica the whole time. [Remind me next time NOT TO BUY A TICKET for myself! Jeesh.] The parents had been told that we could stay with our kids backstage or leave them there with their classes. Well, its good I stayed with her. There was NO ONE there to watch over the kids. [I wouldn't have expected it anyway, but we had been told that there'd be volunteers back with the kids.] And no one brought anything for their kids to do or play with during the waiting time. We began sitting around 3:00 and the ending curtain call at 5:30.

I know my child, though, and knew there was no way she'd survive the time without something to do. I took coloring book and 6 markers, 2 toy horses and prince and princess, memory, bingo, a card game, and a snack. Well, all these kids came crowding around when they saw the stuff. But what was I supposed to do? Keep it hidden so that they wouldn't get jealous? No-- Erica needed something to do. And my child, such a good girl, was willing to share with everyone. ... Well, the 6 girls in her class. It was funny watching them, since there were only 6 markers and only 5 pictures in the coloring book that werent already finished. But all in all, that was great.

... ... ...

I know I'm giving such unimportant information. The key part of this all is: How did she dance? Well hahaha. I'm not gonna tell now. First of all, my fingers are cramping. Second, I have chores to finish. But mostly because I have 'video' of her dances that I still need to upload onto the computer from my other camera. So I'll get to that later.

Look-a-Like

2009-06-03T20:44:00.000-05:00

Tis the season for fresh fruits at the Amish stands. Erica and I go quite often.

A few days ago we were there and saw her dance teacher-- small world. And then, the last time we were there, I saw a girl who was around 8 years... AND SHE LOOKED JUST LIKE ME AT THAT AGE! I almost laughed about it, but didnt want to freak her out. It really was neat though.

ANYWAY...

Erica's dance recital is Saturday. Eek! I hope it all goes well. Keep your fingers crossed.

Travesty

2009-05-25T21:53:00.001-05:00

Oh, horrors of horrors!!!

I went to load pictures onto my comp, only to find that ALL of my pictures mysteriously disappeared from my camera!!!

How will I survive? Oh the travesty!

On another note, our Memorial Day was good. First to my family, for my neice's 1st birthday party. My rents had a kid pool and slip&slide for the kids They were so cute to watch. Then off to Andrew's family. LOTS of kids to play. Anyway... I had a great day. It was oddly relaxing for such a busy day.

My child wont sleep though. She had a short nap coming home, and that was enough to revitalize her.

Ah, well.

Dance

2009-05-19T22:17:00.001-05:00

I'm so excited! Erica's dance recital is coming up soon!!!

I know that I shouldnt get my hopes up... She may get scared and not even go on stage. But I'm doubting that'll happen. She's been on stage at Church many times and has loved it.

Tonight at class, the teacher sat them down to talk about it. She asked if any of them were scared. A few said yes, most said no. Then my silly child said: "I'm afraid of storms!" Then all the others chirped in about what does and doesn't scare them. Jeepers. (Actually, it was cute and funny.)

Now I'm thinking of next year. We got info about their options. She can continue with the general 'creative mvt' class. OR choose from tap, broadway (which includes singing and acting), or jazzy hip-hop. She loves pretending to tap at home... So I'm considering that. I just worry it might be too much for her.

Any thoughts?

Accident

2009-05-15T09:04:00.001-05:00

Abby and Mommy were in a car accident. They're both relatively OK, but Abby's car is totalled. I'll give more details later, when I'm at my comp. Texting is too hard!

Bye-bye

2009-05-14T14:25:00.001-05:00

I bid a sad fare-thee-well to my sister... Who is at this very momment driving to Georgia.

Yesterday, she and I spent the day together. It was nice. (I love my daughter, but...) It was good to be just Abby and me. Erica spent the day with my MIL.

In other news: Erica and I spent the morning decorating her room. She wanted it to be fancy, cuz her fav books now are 'Fancy Nancy.'

also... I've discovered how to use the internet on my cell. (which I'm doing now.) Its not easy though, cuz I dont have a fancy Blackberry or anything But I'm exploring the possibilities.

Well, adios for now!
#END

Email Blogging

2009-05-12T10:19:00.005-05:00

I'm trying out "email blogging." If I can figure it out, that'll be SO COOL! This post is via email, so if you can read it, then I have succeeded. Yippee!

* * *

My test was successful! Awesome. See, one of the reasons for my lack of blogging is that I'm hardly ever at my laptop anymore. I can check email on my cell phone, so I'm not getting on the internet daily to check it anymore. But with email blogging, I can post from my phone! I know there's a way to text-blog, but it looked more difficult.

Now I'm on Blogger. I want to add pictures... cuz I'm SOOOO behind!

There are Easter pictures here. One is of Erica at an egg hunt. The other is her with cousins Joshua, Peter, and Luke. [Sorry to my side of the family... I forgot to take pictures at our gathering. Oops.]

There's also a picture of Erica with her new bike. I seriously thought my husband was crazy when he took her to buy it. I thought "There's no way she'll be able to use it! She's too young!" She never even had learned to pedal her tricycle. But wouldn't you know it... she took to it like a pro! Now she goes so fast that I need to run to keep up.

The last two pictures are from my family's gathering over this past weekend. My sister has decided to move to Georgia, so we had one last Hurrah. I'm gonna miss Abby a lot. But I love you, twin!

OH. MY. WORD.

2009-04-29T23:40:00.003-05:00

Its been insanely long since I've posted. I keep meaning to... but just don't get around to it. Grrr.

There's so much to say...

*Easter was great
*Erica got a new bike. Yes, a REAL bike with training wheels.

UGH! I'm so disorganized that I can't even think of what else I needed to say. Crazy.

I'm thinking of starting mobile blogging. Hmmm... I wonder...

Pictures

2009-04-07T10:30:00.003-05:00

For Erica's 4th Birthday, I had put together a collage-type thing of Erica growing up. I thought I'd share it.

More pictures and random things are at my extension site: More About Our Daily Adventures.

WHERE HAVE I BEEN?!?!?

2009-04-02T12:33:00.003-05:00

I can't believe its been so long since I've last written. Wow. There've been so many times when I thought "I need to blog about this!" but then didn't get around to it. So as I'm sitting here now, I honestly can't think of any of those things. Urgh. Well, I'll try...

*Erica's doing an AWESOME job at dance class. A huge improvement from the drama before. The week after the big blow up, I sat out of the class to see if she'd behave better w/o me. Not the case. So then I had lots of thinking to do. I felt bad, b/c I was starting to make this not-fun for Erica. So I just changed my mind about it all, figured that having fun is the most important part. Each week now, as we're driving to class I ask her lots of questions: What's your favorite part of dance class; which is your favorite song; are you excited to see your friends? And I tell her over and over again that she's a great dancer and she can learn to be a great listener too. Its been working wonders. In between dances, all the girls run to their parents. I make sure to give a positive, then a 'work on this' followed by another positive.

*I have my CPAP now. What's that? Its a Consistant Positive Airway Pressure machine. It's what I use for my sleep problems. Yes, my tests are finally all finished and done with. The results? My constant fatigue is from sleep apnea and hypopnea. Most people know what sleep apnea is... a person stops breathing in their sleep. In most cases, its not really dangerous. Your brain just momentarily wakes up your body to start breathing again. You don't actually remember waking up though; its not a total awake stage, but enough to pull you out of deep sleep. I have some of those issues. My major thing is the hypopnea. A person doesn't stop breathing with this one, but the throat closes so much that not enough oxygen gets through. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it: This disruptive pattern of breathing generates disruptive sleep patterns, the consequences of which being that those individuals may exhibit increased fatiguability, lethargy, decreased ability to concentrate, increased irritability, and morning headaches. Basically, those individuals are extremely tired due to their inability to get a good night’s sleep. Wow, that's totally me!

*Erica and I have been playing games non-stop. Well, thats not completely true. But still, we love playing games. That's one of the things I love about her growing up. Infant/toddler is nice, but preschool age is awesome. Sure, she's a drama queen but oh well. Anyway, I was talking about games. Our favorite game is Yahtzee Jr. I personally LOVE Yahtzee. Andrew will never play with me b/c I always win... his excuse is that its a game that is pure luck and no skill. That's not completely true, but he won't concede. So for Erica's BDay, her grandparents got her lots of games. A Colorforms weather game, 'Princess Charming', 'Monopoly Town', and 'Yahtzee Jr.' They're all fun. But like I said, I'm a Yahtzee lover. Its not nearly as complex as the regular thing, but its still fun. I just love rolling dice. Its so much stinkin' fun!!!! Anyone agree with me on that? Gotta love rolling dice. Erica's so cute: When she rolls, she shouts: "Gimme a yahtzee!"

I know there's much more to be said... but I just can't think of it!!! I'll try to post again soon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

2009-03-13T13:47:00.007-05:00

I'll be changing the header soon for easter/springtime. So I thought I'd just post a quick picture of the birthday header. I'm really addicted to making headers.

SO, my darling is now 4 years old. She's such a big girl now. Awe!!! Her birthday was actually the 9th, but I am just really delayed in writing about it... So much has been happening around here.

The party was Saturday the 7th and was a 'crayon' theme. I spent HOURS making coloring/activity books for them, including coloring pictures, mazes, and even bingo. You'll see a picture somewhere in here of Erica and her cousin Joshua coloring in them.

I tried to decorate some too along the theme. I used yellow and green cups-- the crayola box colors. [Though Erica wanted plates and napkins that had colorful balloons on them, I figured Okay, Why Not.] I set her "Mr Cranny" on the table... though removed him when it was eating time. And at the Dollar Store, I had found a giant yellow crayon so I just had to get it. Then, interspersed along the table were little crayon boxes. The kids were each allowed to take one then.

You'll see my awesome cake in some of the pictures. Yes, I'm awesome! That thing was SO HARD TO MAKE!!!! I thought it looked easy enough-- haha, jokes on me. It was excruciatingly difficult and took up SO MUCH TIME. The cake book that I found the idea in suggested to refridgerate the cake between frosting, which would make it easier to put on subsequent layers. That was very true... but just added to the time. The final step was to add colored icecream cones to the top, to look like crayons sticking out of the box. Quite clever!

One thing that I put together for them-- not crayon related-- was a scavenger hunt. Well not really, since they're so young. But we put prizes out in the yard and gave them each bags to go and collect as much as they could find. They had fun doing that. Erica was a sweetheart and shared some of her prizes with her younger cousin, Peter.

Some of the prizes were punching balloons. I love those things; I got them just as much for myself as for them. HeHe :-) Do you know what I'm talking about? The balloons blow up really big and are connected to a long rubberband, and you can punch it back and forth really fast? Hopefully the picture will help exlplain it, if you don't know what I'm refering to.

OTHER RANDOM NOTES:

-I really thought about Erica's crazy behavior at dance class. The week after that one horrible night, I stayed in the waiting room to see if she'd do better without me. Well, she didn't, not at all... but at least I wasn't stressed from watching. Then this past week, she did a FANTASTIC job. I'm not really sure what the diference was. All I could think was that perhaps it was because only three other girls were there this week, instead of the normal 7 or 8.

-Erica had FOUR shots at her doctor's checkup. Poor child! And we didn't have her normal doctor this time; instead it was one of the more unfriendly doctors. He just walked in, said "Hold her and grab her hands," and then he stuck her with four needles and left. GRRRR, I was not happy with him. And of course, neither was Erica. She cried all afternoon. [Surprisingly, this was the day of her great dance class. I wasn't even going to take her, b/c she had been so upset. But she insisted on going.]

-I mentioned before about going to a sleep specialist because of always being tired. Well, that doctor set up a time for me to have a sleep study. So I went overnight to this sleep lab... but the rooms were so nice, more like hotel rooms than hospital rooms. Yeah, I was hooked up to tons of wires. My legs, arms, chest, nose, and 9 on my head! But the doctor working with me was so nice. We had lots to talk about, which was good because it took over 45 minutes to attach all the wires. That would have been long and boring if the guy had been silent. Anyway, I slept very well. Really, I did. I haven't gotten the results back yet; for each minute that you're hooked up, they record 2 pages of information. So that's a lot to look thru! But he said that somethings going on that I'm not getting enough oxygen. Aha, that would do it.

More on that later. My computer battery is about to die. Eek!!

Crayon Fun!

2009-03-06T23:55:00.001-05:00

Erica decided on a crayon-themed birthday party. Why?

Last weekend [the final weekend of February], Andrew was away with guy friends. SOOO, I decided to hang out with my 'rents for the weekend. Yes, I crashed their house and mooched off of their generosity. What can I say... :-)

On Sunday, we decided to have a fun trip to Easton... to visit the Crayola Factory! I bet you never heard of it before, huh? Yeah for living in Pennsylvania!!!

Its amazing, really great for kids to enjoy. Its not just some run-of-the-mill museum. Sure, there are exhibits and timelines of Crayola's beginnings. But there are so many hands-on activities. There's no way I can include ALL of the pictures from the trip. But I'll try to add a few. [Okay, more than a few!]

I'll try to explain some of the pictures. For example, to the left <---- there is a picture of Erica 'dancing.' They have a room that transfers your movements into a kaleidescope of fun colors. We were fortunate that the place wasn't very full that Sunday, so we had a chance to get Erica's picture w/o other kids in the room as well.

She enjoyed painting a treasure map. We dipped a roller into green paint and then brushed it across a map-template. Then we pressed a piece of paper over top [as you can see my mother doing] and the picture transfers.

Erica also LOVED LOVED LOVED making a puppet. She gave him a crown, arms, and legs. I drew the face for her. She was very proud of her king.

There were lots of other things then. They had window/walls that the kids could draw on with marker. She liked the chance to actually draw on the wall. Sorry, I'm not sharing the picture of that. There was another craft that she wasn't quite good at. Then we looked into CRAZY mirrors. Definitely not sharing pictures of that... though I did like the ones that made me look skinnier. Ha ha!

There was a play area for younger kids. It was nice for in-between times. She has a very short attention span, and in addition she's extremely active! So in between some of the crafts, she went to the play area to run around.

One activity involved melted wax. ...I'm having trouble thinking of words to describe it, so look at the picture to the left. <---- There were many different colors of melted wax. They had papers to design and would stick que-tips into the wax to use as a paint brush. That was neat.

Then we used modeling clay which you could shape and color with markers. Not easy at all! We're so used to play-doh which is soft.... This stuff was really hard to roll out and shape. Plus, she got marker on her shirt AND IT DIDN'T COME OUT IN THE WASH! I'm not happy about that at all.

I forgot to mention the sidewalk chalk. There's a nice big area to draw with chalk. Erica walked right past it though. I'm not quite sure why, b/c she loves the stuff. Maybe its "familiar" and she wanted to move onto new things.

We watched a crayon-making demonstration. That was fascinating. The guy gave each kid a crayon and a wrapper to try and wrap themselves. Erica's turned out rather well.

There's a HUGE giftstore there [big surprise, huh?]. The entrance has a wall with all of their colors shown. That's the picture to the right ---> with my parents and Erica. The store was great! There are so many more options than you'd find at Walmart or KMart or wherever you shop.

I picked up a Birthday present for her. She hasn't seen it yet; its a surprise. But my parents bought her a shirt and let her pick out a crayon buddy. She picked a yellow crayon. She has now named him "Cranny." She really loves that thing. She wants to take him everywhere!

There was lots else, but its 1 AM and I still have so much to do for Erica's birthday party!!! Eek! Its tomorrow. [Actually, that's today!!! Its Saturday now!]

I NEED ADVICE!!!

2009-02-24T20:12:00.004-05:00

So, I'm at Starbucks right now. I had a HUGE falling out at home and needed to get away. [Granted, my trip to starbucks was preplanned since last week.] The falling out was not with my hubby however. In fact, he was fantastic. I love it when he's there for me, to be my strength.
My falling out was with my daughter. We were both bawling our eyes out. I think I've even burst some blood vessels on my eyelids.

Let me explain. Hmm... where to start...

Well, my previous post I told that Erica got a haircut because she was goofing off at dance class. Well, that wasn't just a one-time thing. She's been like that for weeks. Its so embarrassing to have the "bad kid in class."

So I went early tonight in order to talk with the teacher. I told her my concerns and wondered if Erica was really doing as badly as I perceived it to be. Well, the teacher was really nice and reassuring. One thing she said was that last years group had been even worse. And she also reaffirmed my thought that Erica NEEDS to go to preschool next year to get that structured envirement where she needs to learn to follow instructions.

I was feeling better then. And was really optimistic for the night... During the day, Erica and I practiced each of the 3 dances several times. She had fun and did everything SO WELL. Really, she was doing everying almost perfectly. She was excited to go to class tonight.

It started well... she did all of the stretches with the class and was a real darling. THEN the trouble came. The first dance they worked on is called "nearly missed the rainbow." Her favorite thing, between all of their three dances, is a part in this song where they get to walk. Yes, walk. But they do it as a cute funky walk. Well, the teacher told them that for the recital, they can't do that. So from now on they're gonna do the dance by marching in place at that spot.

SHE GOT SO GRUMPY! She's a little drama queen to begin with. There was a lot of pouting, arms crossing, stomping, hands on hips, growls, etc.

And I could have overlooked that... or at least forgiven it.

BUT... this child must have some sort of "oral fixation." Now that the hair can't get in her mouth, she's decided to put her hands in her mouth. And not just that... THEN SHE STARTED SPITTING IN HER HANDS AND RUBBING IT ALL OVER HER FACE! I'm not joking. And of course then all the parents were ticked at her-- and me-- because when they hold hands in a circle, Erica gets her germs all over the other little girls!

I called her over to me, put antibacterial stuff on her hands, but she just kept doing it. I kept warning then that if she didn't stop, she wouldn't get to watch her movie tonight. But the spitting continued. And she didn't participate in any of the dances. She just kept goofing off, even when they moved to a different song.

So when we left, I told her no movie tonight. She started crying and crying. And then I started crying and crying. When I got home, I cried to Andrew and he listened to me and understood... or at least acted like he did [which was fine with me]. Then he listened to Erica. And he did calm her down some.

With the story now told, I'll get to the advice part. Really, I just don't know what to do. It's so embarrassing to me. I get so frustrated. I'm afraid that I'm gonna take the fun out of it for Erica, but on the other hand she does need to learn b/c of the recital coming up. Is this really no big deal and I'm overreacting? Ugh!!!!

So, what to do:
a) Stop taking her to class but make Andrew take her
b) Pull her out of classes all together
c) Just let it go and don't make a big deal
d) Take her but dont sit in on class; wait in the waiting room

[PS: It's Wednesday morning now. I'm calmed down. I think I know what I'll do... but I'll still take opinions!!!]

Proactive or Impulsive?

2009-02-18T17:50:00.003-05:00

At Erica's dance class last night, she didn't dance... Instead, she chewed on her hair the entire time. I was getting more and more upset and annoyed. And I told her to stop doing it and dance instead. OR ELSE...

So, I was just so sick and tired of always trying to get her to stop doing it. So after class, I took her straight to a haircutter. And now she can't reach any of her hair to her mouth.

The End of problem.

So, was I being proactive? Or just impulsive?

[Before and After pictues added]

Birthday Countdown!

2009-02-17T11:50:00.003-05:00

Erica will be turning FOUR soon! Yes, thats 4!!!

Okay, well there's still a little while. Her birthday is March 9th. But we're starting to think about presents and parties and stuff. So, in honor of this momentous occassion, I've changed the header of this blog to a birthday theme.

I'm at the library now w/ my daughter. She had a class, so I've been working away on the new template. However, the battery on my laptop is about to die, and there are no outlets nearby.

So adios for now!

HAPPY V-DAY!

2009-02-15T08:19:00.003-05:00

Back in the day, my sister Abby and I ran another blog called "Just a quick question." We asked ridiculous questions to make people laugh. Here's one from back then...

Valentine's Day. That time of year when you are either:
a) intoxicated by the love of your life
b) wishing you had a different love of your life
c) desperately single and wanting a love of your life
d) livid by the whole idea of needing a love of your life

And of course, if you do have someone to share this special holiday with, what are you expecting from them? you know, even though you may not admit it, exactly what you want as a present. and if that significant other doesnt get it for you or gets something different, theyre in the doghouse.

so, what's your preference of v-day gifts?
1) it better be chocolate! i'm so sweet, and he/she should know it!
2) anything but chocolate... does he/she think i'm so fat that i just want food?
3) flowers. and they better be roses. beautiful roses, and lots of them. i'm worth the $$$
4) just a nice card. something from the heart. maybe a self-written poem...
5) dinner out. no distractions, just us enjoying champagne and a very elaborate meal.

Oh the things they say [Part 2]

2009-02-10T16:58:00.002-05:00

I posted before about "oh the things they say."

Well, here's another. Except, I'm not talking about things that Erica had said, or other kids for that matter. Nope, I'm talking about adults. Well, one adult.

My sister was visiting a little bit ago. While here, she and Erica and I went out for Breakfast. Really, my daughter was super behaved. Sure she's energetic, but she wasnt jumping around or pounding the table, or crying/screaming/whining. She was great.

Towards the end of our meal, an elderly couple was seated in the booth behind us. The wife was sitting on the opposite side of Erica, and something must have ticked her off... though I'm not sure what. Anyway, she switched seats with her husband in order to get away from Erica.

And then she said, "I hate kids."

What the?!?!?!?

I felt like saying, "Yeah, so do I. They're just awful, aren't they?"

Let me back that up w/ explanation: I LOVE MY CHILD. And in general, I like other kids as well. No hate going on. BUT I thought to say it just so the lady would know I'd heard. But I just let it go. Erica hadn't heard it; my sister hadn't heard it. And I was actually way too shocked to say anything.

Good grief!

Well, gotta go. Erica has dance class tonight. Last week she was SUPER-DUPER good. I'm hoping for a repeat of that tonight.

Never thought a twisted ankle would make me laugh

2009-01-28T23:07:00.006-05:00

[I finally uploaded Christmas pictures. You can see them all at this seperate page.]

I seriously thought my husband was crazy. He wanted to take Erica ice skating last Friday. The girl is only 3!!! Okay, well she's almost 4 and is VERY tall and active for her age. But still...

Truth be told, I was just plain old scared. I'd only gone once before, and that was with Andrew. I fell A LOT and it was quite embarrassing. I was afraid to embarrass myself again, and I knew that since Andrew would have to help Erica, he wouldn't be able to help me out.

But I went anyway. I couldn't stand the thought of missing out on seeing my daughter doing something new and exciting.

We actually went into Lancaster, to the baseball stadium for "Lancaster Barn Stormers." Lovely name, huh? Anyway, during the winter they put up an outdoor skating rink. Its cheaper than other places. And luckily that night it wasn't too cold. I think it was around 34 degrees. Cold, but not in the teens like we had been having.

Erica was so excited. She just wanted to walk out on the rink by herself! Andrew went first, to warm up. I actually had to grab Erica from going out alone, she was so impatient. Then Andrew took her around once. It was a LONG once-around. They were so slow, b/c she realized it was "fun" to fall down.

Then they got me; I was so scared! Thank goodness it wasn't too crowded, so I spent that first time around grabbing onto the wall of the rink. Such a wimp, I know. But then after Erica and I rested so Andrew could skate alone, we all went out together. Meaning, no more wall for me!!! I was so so so so so so scared! You have no idea. And not just scared for myself; scared that I would fall and hurt Erica.

But it was amazing! I got the hang of it rather quickly. Of course, I'm still no pro. Not at all. And more amazingly, Erica did a fantastic job. Sure, she kept falling on purpose... but between Andrew and me, she never fell hard. Andrew kept giving her chances to skate alone, without holding our hands. I can't tell you how much that freaked me out! I just imagined my child breaking a bone. By the end, she was able to go quite a long distance by herself.

I'm so proud of my little girl! I really am.

Anyway, I didn't fall the entire time. I was so proud of myself. BUT WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT... at the very end, right as we were exiting the rink for the last time, I slipped and fell!!! Good grief! I still have no clue how I managed to do that. Cuz I think I was actually holding onto the railing at that point. But no, I slipped and got myself all cold and wet on the ice. But I just laughed. I laughed and laughed... I just found it hillarious that I was good the WHOLE TIME, up until the very end.

I twisted my ankle when I fell. Yeah, yeah, I know that's b/c my skates weren't laced tight enough. Its my own silly fault, of course. But I wasn't really upset about it. I still think its funny.

SOOO... you may be wondering: Where are the pictures? Yeah, totally stinks. I took my "old" camera b/c I didn't want to break the "new" one. Plus the "old" one was small enough to fit in my coat pocket. But as soon as we got there, I realized that the batteries were dead. Stinks, I know. And what stinks more is that when we left, I found the "new" camera in the car!!! Ugh.

* * *

I know I'm a terrible blogger. I take such huge breaks between posts. But I want to remedy that, really I do. Blogging used to make me so happy. I know, I know, that sounds lame. But its true. So it would probably lift my spirits some to get back into this.

I originally started cutting back b/c of my book. Well, I'm at about 200 pages. WooHoo! Still so much more to go, though. I had taken a big break from that too, but I'm back on track now. I spent a few days totally editing it all, so now I'm up to speed and ready to continue. I just need to figure how to manage my time better in order to fit everything in!

Oh, the things they say

2009-01-09T00:15:00.001-05:00

On Wednesday morning, Erica turned to me and gave a big sigh, then said: "It's so hard being a grown up."

Oh, if only she knew!

So, its around 12:30 AM. I'm wide awake. I had been asleep, but Andrew dearest decided to come up to bed 2 hours after I had... and then woke me up!!! Ugh. In his defense, I had been snoring loudly [or so he says].

I have a doctor appointment set for Monday. For so long, I've been having trouble with extreme fatigue. Its only getting worse and worse. And since Andrew is sick of my snoring and thinks the two may be connected, I'm going to the Doctor to demand answers.

To make matters worse, I'm having trouble breathing. Its so weird, and just started this week. I have trouble breathing deeply. I'll take a deep breath but it won't make it down to my lungs. So I'm short on oxygen, making me yawn all the time, making me even more tired all the time.

Well, I'm gonna try to sleep again...

A sickly Christmas

2009-01-04T09:58:00.004-05:00

Ugh, you wouldn't believe my Christmas.

I got sick. Some sort of stomach virus thing. Luckily, it wasn't until the day after Christmas.

Christmas morning was great fun. Erica had left out cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer. She was so excited to see in the morning that they were gone... and Santa left a thank you note for her. "Erica, Thank you for the cookies and carrots. Have a wonderful Christmas. Ho-Ho-Ho. Love Santa."

We opened our family presents then. It was a nice time.

Then headed out to Andrew's grandparents' house. His whole family was gathered. We had a great time there too. We played lots of games, which I enjoyed. Much better than sitting and watching football or something. We discovered that Andrew is King of Connect Four.

That night, we headed to my parents' house and spent the night over. My sister was sick w/ a stomach thing. So she was quarentined to her room. [But she did come out the next day.] Also there were my brother, SIL, 1 nephew and 2 nieces.

So in the morning, the kids woke up to find presents under the tree. Kids are so cute! I love it. We had fun watching the kids play, and playing games of our own as adults. The day was great... Until bedtime.

I got sick. EEK! It was awful. Some sort of stomach thing. I was so upset, b/c we were staying over at my parents' again, supposed to have another family gettogether the next day w/ extended family. But, in the morning we had to pack up and go home. I was really dissappointed, though in a way glad to get home and sleep away the sickness.

I also missed out on other stuff. Sunday morning our choir performed and I missed it. There went months of practice to waste. And worse, I missed out on seeing Erica and her friends singing. Then Andrew took Erica to another gettogether w/ some of his family. There, he found out that some of his family was sick too... so I probably got it from them, NOT from Abby.

Anyway... I have a picture at the top of this post. Its Erica in her bed with her NEW bedsheets from Christmas. Aren't the cute? We love Strawberry Shortcake.

I'll add more pictures later, probably at my other site. I'll leave a link when it gets done.

MERRYCHRISTMAS!

2008-12-24T13:48:00.000-05:00

Erica is so excited about Christmas. We all are.

I have so many things to say,but no time. I promise to update after the holidays have calmed down.

Until then, everyone have a wonderful Christmas!!!

I'm dreaming of a white Thanksgiving...

2008-11-29T09:13:00.001-05:00

First, I need to tell you what an awful mother I am. I hope that I didn't scar my child for life.

Let me set the scene: It was Monday night and Andrew was out, said he'd be late. Well, the house was A MESS, really awful. And though it was all Erica's junk, I knew that I'd get it cleaned up faster w/ her out of the way. So I got her ready for bed and was just about to close her door goodnight when Andrew came home. He called upstairs: "Why is she going to bed when all of her toys are out?"

Now, I was frustrated by that. I'd had a long and difficult day, and the last thing I wanted was to be second guessed. So I called down to him [not in a yell; just loud so that he'd hear] to explain: "I just want to get rid of her."

Oops, big mistake!!! She heard, of course. And started crying and crying and crying. She threw herself into bed and tried to hide. Oh, I felt horrible. Absolutely awful. I'm such a jerk!!!

I went into her and tried to calm her down, explaining that that wasn't what I meant at all. She calmed down and then came w/ us downstairs to clean up. [I think/hope] All is forgiven.

Now to the snow.

Well, we'd been having a little bit of snow here and there, but nothing at all that accumulated. Just flurries.

We woke up Friday [the 21st, not as in yesterday] morning to TWO inches of snow. And just an hour later it was up to THREE inches. Of course that's not terrible bad, but considering that the snow was so late in coming last year, I was shocked to have so much this soon.

So I have a picture here, and a movie clip too taken on my camera. Took forever to upload.

Sister Abby was over. She came Thursday night, then she and a friend and I went out for a midnight movie. Twilight. SO SO SO SO good. Loved it. I've read all the books; Stephenie Meyer is an amazing author. So talented. Anyway, the movie was great. There were a few things off, but not major. I think, though, that if people watched the movie but hadn't read the books, they'd be a bit confused at parts.

I've actually seen a second time since. Last night I went out with my friend to see it again. Just as good the second time, if not better.

Thanksgiving was good. Okay, it wasn't actually white outside like my post title says. The snow had all melted away by Thanksgiving. But still. Anyway, had a good time. Went to Andrew's parents' house, joined w/ all his relatives. It was nice; I like his family.

Well, I gotta go. I'm gonna try to change this blog's template to something Christmas-y.

Halloween

2008-11-06T21:42:00.002-05:00

I'm out for the night... and have wasted the whole time trying to work on this blog's template. And its still awful. But I need to get other stuff done now before Starbuck's closes!!!

Eek!

So, I don't have time to type, even though there's tons to say.

For now I'll just share two pictures from Halloween. Erica was a farmer, and I dressed to match-- no pictures of me, though.

"But I don't have my Debit Card"

2008-10-27T10:37:00.002-05:00

I've been gone so long, and so much has happened. It's terrible that I've been so absent.

Anyway.

Wednesday was my birthday... and Abby's too. So we went to a restaurant called "Shady Maple" for breakfast. Its free on your birthday. Abby, Erica, and I went together. It was yummy.

Before we left home, Erica had found a quarter. I told her to bring it along, b/c I knew the place had a gift store and probably had some cheap-o things for kids. Sure enough, they had a rack of candies for a quarter. She picked something out, I gave her the quarter, walked her to the cashier, and said "You can pay for it."

And what did she say to me? "But I don't have my debit card."

The cashier and I had a good laugh at that. I guess I don't use cash enough that she didn't know the quarter was to pay with.

Oh goodness.

Psycho

2008-10-11T18:44:00.002-05:00

Before I get to my Psycho conversation, I guess I should talk about the important stuff first.

At 10 this morning there was a knock at the door. My, am I glad that we were up and dressed already! [Saturdays should be lazy days, right?] Anyway, I look out the window and see a police man. I was immediately a bit apprehensive. Not scared in a "did I do anything wrong?" B/C I know we didn't do anything illegal.

Apparently someone [most likely drunk] crashed their car into 4 or 5 other cars in the neighborhood last night, ours included. HOW DID THAT NOT WAKE US UP? Not sure. Anyway, it was our old junky purple car; not nearly as the new green one would have been.

They hit our car with so much force that it pushed the car back several feet; their "mazda" metal sign/sticker thingy fell off, so that helps the police a bit I guess.

Two things "funny" about it. First of all, not even 5 minutes before the cop knocked, Erica asked "Where's the purple car?" I didnt really look outside but just dismissively said, "Maybe Daddy parked it somewhere different." Other thing. There was a note from a neighbor on our windsheild, who was quite mad at us. He wrote something like "Please DONT park your car in front of my driveway. It makes it hard to get out when I need to leave for work at 3 AM." Andrew wrote a note back to them explaining that our car was hit and pushed back that far; he didn't want the neighbor people to hold a grudge against us for no reason.

OKAY, now to the Psycho stuff...

I love my library and being able to get movies for free. I'm able to watch movies that I normally wouldn't b/c of the renting price.

So, when I saw Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" I decided to check it out. I got it home and looked on the back to read what it was about [of course everyone knows about "the shower scene," but besides that I had no clue] and saw that it was rated R. I've never seen a Hitchcock film so I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but figured it couldn't be that "bad" since it was made in 1960.

Oh. My. Word.

I had the thing figured out as soon as she got to the hotel. I think we're so used to "psychological" stuff today that the outcome came as no shock. In fact, I almost had to laugh at the end when a doctor spent 2 - 3 minutes explaining what/why it happened.

I'm being vague, b/c I don't want to give anything away. Though I'm guessing if you haven't seen it yet, you probably won't ever. Okay, so the guy running the hotel has duel personalities, the other of his mother whom he killed several years previously. So its his mother personality that kills the gal in the hotel.

And Oh. My. Word. The shower scene was laughable. Completely different from movies today. We're so used to blood and guts, and so it was funny to me watching special features and having them explain that the movie was done in black and white b/c it would be too horrific for the audience to see it in color. THE WOMAN DOESNT EVEN GET CUT! Of course, they try giving that impression. But you never even see a mark on her body. The only blood is whats mixed in with the water going down the drain.

Another interesting tidbit I picked up from special features... Psycho was the first movie to show a toilet. In fact, they were worried going before the ratings committee that it would be a problem. "Oh no, not a potty!"

So this leads me to wonder, what other scary movies from the past are really not that scary?

"I couldn't have dreamt this up, so it must be real"

2008-10-03T17:05:00.003-05:00

I was watching one of Erica's movies with her-- Hello Kitty. Its actually the Hello Kitty characters doing famous stories, and one was Gulliver's Travels. When Gulliver is tied down to the ground by the midget people, he says "I couldn't have dreamt this up, so it must be real." That cracks me up. You'd think it would be the oposite: This can't be real so I must be dreaming.

Another "movie" story to share. Well, not really story. Anyway... Erica is still taking her dance classes. Two classes ago, she was so wild and didn't pay attention. She wouldn't do what the teacher told them to do. It was frustrating for me to watch. [Though Erica really is picking up on this stuff. I've found her trying to teach the different moves to her stuffed animals.] Well, this week I didn't want that to happen. So I told her that if she was really great and listened to her teacher, we'd go to the library afterwards and she could pick out a movie. If she didn't behave, she wouldnt be able to watch a movie that night. WOW, that really worked. She did a fantastic job. In fact, at one point the teacher had them all try to do their dance w/o her help, and Erica was able to do a lot of it by herself. Great job!

ANYWAY...

I did it again. Yup, I went an extremely long time w/o blogging. Ridiculous.

But on the plus side, I've gotten a lot of writing done. I really needed to focus on my book. Its nice to get lots done. I'm actually getting somewhere, you know? Still TONS left to do, but I'm really in the writing mood.

AND ONE MORE THING...

I've been doing preschooling with Erica. I am continually amazed at how much fun she's having with it. I'd been making my own worksheets, and having one for each day. But she has so much fun that she wants to do all the other worksheets for the week on Monday already!

September's focus was primarily on numbers 0-5 and shapes. You can see an example worksheet over to the right. I tried to have my worksheets combine both things. So here, she had to color in the correct number of shapes. [She hadn't gotten to color 3 yet.]

Well, gotta go. I'm leaving tonight to go see my sister and mom. We're having a girls day out tomorrow. Yeah!

Where Have I Been?

2008-09-27T09:08:00.003-05:00

The answer is: I dunno!!!

Wow. I really want to blog regularly. I just don't seem to be able to. Ugh.

Well, tonight [Saturday], Andrew and Erica are going away for a picnic type thing. I'm taking a personal day :-)

I'll be heading out to Starbucks. There, I shall visit all my blog friends. TTFN

**UPDATE**
I'm at Starbucks now. Lovin' it. Trying to make my blog rounds. But what I REALLY REALLY need to do is work on my "book." I need to get at least a chapter done. I have all of these ideas mapped out in my head... I just need to get it onto paper. [Well, not actually paper; Word Document.]
Do you love the new template? I'm lovin' it. Halloween is my favorite holiday. I feel weird admitting that. It should be Christmas or something. But I just love all the decorations and costumes! Question for you though-- the ghost background, are you seeing it w/ a white background or purple? On my computer and Andrew's, its white. Which its supposed to be. But for some reason, my Dad's computer shows it as purple, which is WAY TOO MUCH since the header is purple. Hmm.

Busy week

2008-09-19T09:53:00.002-05:00

My week started out completely empty... and then filled up completely.

Well, Monday actually was free. So I did preschooling things with Erica. She now knows to identify numbers 0-3. She's getting better at shapes [some of the trickier ones], and she's learning food groups and fitness.

Tuesday was busy. But for the life of me I can't remember why... ... ... This is going to drive me nuts! Okay, I remember one thing now. She had library class. But there was more than that too. Had dance class that night as well. But I know we were gone almost all afternoon... I just can't remember why.

Wednesday my MIL came over to take us shopping for some fall/winter dresses for Erica. So we went to the outlet stores in Lancaster. Had a good time. We stopped at Carters, and there were NO dresses there, except for about 4 or 5 Christmas dresses. Not what I was looking for. But they had good deals on pajamas. Then we went to Children's Place. Awesome deals! I got her shoes for just $1.99, which is a great deal. Also got 3 different dresses, and one other dress then from Gymboree. That night then we had Church, where I teach the preschool / Kindergarten age group.

Thursday we went to visit one of Erica's friends, Dylan. He had his tonsils removed a week ago-- and he's only 3!!! Anyway, he's been kept away from people [even his brother!] and from activities, b/c if he screams his stitches would rip. And the boy can have a temper sometimes. So Erica picked out Play-Doh that we bought for him and we took it over as a "get well" gift. I thought it would be a nice and calm thing to do. Which it was. The two of them had a great time playing. No fighting... until we went outside to play. They started fighting over shovels, so I decided to call it quits. But we were there for a good hour, so it wasn't really cutting things short.

Today [Friday] our neighbor and her 3 month old are coming over for lunch. I feel for her sometimes b/c they don't have family nearby, and she's home alone most days. I remember how boring it can be, and at least I'd had family and church friends w/ kids the same age. So, they're coming for lunch. I should actually be cleaning my house right now. Eek. Then at 3:00 my Dad is coming to get Erica and take her for the night. He's gonna take her to visit my Grammy who lives in a Retirement home. Then he'll take her back to have dinner w/ my Mom, and Erica will spend the night at their house.

Tomorrow then, we have a big ultimate frisbee tournament. Andrew and some other guys from church are hosting it. We've had an amazing response. Last year we'd had 8 teams... This year we are filled to the max with 12 teams, and had to turn away 4 teams! [Just don't have enough fields to have them all.] So, this is why my parents have Erica. Once I'm done helping out there, I'll go pick her up... I'm also going to stop by the Children's Place in Reading to see if they have any more shoes on sale!

Well, I must go. As I said, should be cleaning.

Adios!

Monsters!... and other stuff

2008-09-04T10:12:00.005-05:00

Erica is so scared of monsters. Its getting rather hard to deal with. Okay, VERY hard to deal with. I try to remind myself over and over that I myself was once a little kid who was afraid of monsters. But trying to remind myself of that doesn't really help too much.

It all started when she began having bad dreams. I'm not sure what they're actually about; she doesn't really tell me. But I'm positive that she's having them, not just using it as an excuse to get me in the room during the middle of the night. Because she'll wake up some nights to use the potty, then go straight back to bed w/o any crying. Yet, the nights she has bad dreams, she'll wake up and cry and cry, not wanting to be left in her room.

She doesn't have bad dreams very often. In fact, she'd gone quite awhile w/o any. I wasn't having any trouble AT ALL leaving her in her room to fall asleep. Then Tuesday night she woke up with a bad dream. Ugh. So of course then last night, she was so scared to be alone in her room. I sat with her for awhile, then said I had to go start the dishwasher. [Which, I really did have to do.] After a few minutes, she started crying for me again, banging on the door. So I went back in and sat with her again. Then I said I had to go brush my teeth. She didn't cry too bad that time, just whined a bit. I stayed put in the bathroom, not making ANY noise, until I was sure she was asleep. She slept the night through fine then...

Oh wait, no... she did get up. But that was just to use the potty. She had no trouble going back to bed. Thank goodness.

ANYWAY...

*I'm telling all of that mainly b/c I needed to pass the time while uploading another movie clip. It is from Erica's second dance class, which was this past Tuesday. I have the entire "dance" that they're learning. And, by mistake, I forgot to stop recording when it was over. So you'll just see my legs there at the end. You can just press 'stop'... sorry. How embarrassing. At least I didn't say anything silly while it was recording.

*My family had gone away for vacation two [??] weeks ago. I posted pictures that you can look at to see how our time was.

*I've started preschooling Erica. Once it gets to Kindergarten, I'm NOT NOT NOT homeschooling. I definitely don't have the patience for that. But since we're sending her to dance class, we can't really afford preschool too. Besides, it's a bit early for that anyway. She won't do kindergarten until 2010. [Wow, that just seems crazy. I'm getting old.] Anyway, we just started this week. It's been going okay, I suppose. We've done numbers 0, 1, and 2. Yes, she can count already, but hadn't been able to recognize the written number. But she can now; she's even starting to write the numbers. 2 is much harder to write than 0 and 1 though. We're also learning about food groups. I'd been doing the food pyramid with her before, but realized she didn't really understand why we put cheerios and pretzels and bread all together. So today we had a tea party, all fancy and dressed up. And we made play-doh foods to "eat." All from the grains/carbohydrates group.

The plan is gonna be something like this: Monday and Tuesday learn at home. Wednesday no formal learning, just a related activity. Thursday learn at home. And Friday go to the library to find books relating to what we've learned.

*Well, the video clip uploaded. But I'll share one more thing. My child cracks me up sometimes. When something happens or someone says something that's funny, she'll laugh. But then she'll go on and on about it. How to explain... um... Well, say that Andrew trips over her toys that she's left all over the floor. She'll laugh, and then say something like this: "What if my toys were messy, and Daddy tripped on them, would that be funny? That would be funny. Hehehe." It's hillarious that she does it... but it gets kinda old too. Cuz she'll say it OVER AND OVER AND OVER until you answer her "yes, that would be funny."

Alright, well I guess thats it for today.

Buh-Bye!

Angelina Ballerina

2008-08-27T23:03:00.003-05:00

Well, we've been watching movies and reading books about Angelina Ballerina nonstop lately. Erica's so thrilled.

How did the first class go? According to the teacher, it was one of the best "first-time classes" she's ever had with this age group.

There were three girls total; there are supposed to be 5, but for one reason or another, the other 2 didn't show up. The small number was good though. Why... b/c the more kids, the more distracted they get. Example: one girl does something silly, then they all do the same silly thing. They would take shoes off / put shoes back on. Walk on tip-toes. Sit on the heater [urgg... and get their outfits all dirty!]. And play with their skirts. Towards the end, I had to take her skirt off b/c she was messing with it too much.

They started with some rules. My darling Erica answered the question of why they shouldn't play with the mirrors. She said, "So they don't break and fall on us." Funny answer. After rules, the began lessons by doing stretches. Then the did some march-skips around the room. Erica liked doing that. The teacher started to show them some beginning ballet steps. The first thing: stand with your heels together and toes pointed outward. Easy, right? Well, my child cannot do it. She either doesn't grasp the concept -or- she's afraid she's gonna lose balance and tip over. Probably both of those things, actually.

Erica loved going up to the bar [is that how its spelled? the railing on the walls] and kicking her leg back and forth. Funny girl.

They started to learn a dance. It's to the tune of "Morning Has Broken." They start by pretending that they're asleep and then wake up. If I have success uploading the video clip, you'll see what I mean. You'll also see that sometimes Erica did as directed... and sometimes she did her own thing.

Parents have the option of sitting in on class or relaxing in a nice waiting room. I'm not sure which I'll do. Both options have pros and cons.

Stay in Classroom: I can see all the moves so that we can practice at home; if she needs a potty break, I'm there to take her; she won't start screaming b/c I'm not there [not likely though].

Go to Waiting Room: I can bring things along to do, like read or write; I can actually relax for 30 minutes; Erica is often better behaved when I'm not around; Erica won't always be running over to me to talk; and most important-- I won't be tempted to step in. Parents are under strict order to stay quiet and leave the kids to the teacher.

So much to say... So little time

2008-08-21T08:42:00.002-05:00

We're leaving for vacation today... going with my family. Well, all but my sister Abby. She's in Las Vegas. So totally not fair!!!

Anyway, I've been so busy. Last week was our church Day Camp. And this week I've been trying to get everything ready for the trip. Buying what needs to be bought; cleaning the house before we leave; doing laundry; packing; etc etc etc.

*Day camp was fun. I didn't actually teach any kids this year. I helped with the morning skits and song time. I love making a fool of myself on stage... though I'm glad Andrew wasn't there b/c I couldn't have done it with him watching.

*Oh oh oh, I never mentioned that Abby and I had gone to the Stephanie Myer's new book release party at Barnes and Noble. Her last book of the Twilight series -- Breaking Dawn-- came out. We're in love with the series, so we went. FANTASTIC BOOK! Phenomenal.

*Also, when I was at Abby's place, we went to a movie before going to B&N. Not just "a" movie. We went to see the newest Batman movie-- Dark Knight. Oh My Word! It was SOOOO good. Loved every minute of it. Completely. I've heard rumor that Heath Ledger might be nominated-- even win-- an Oscar for his role as Joker. Well, he would deserve it! Even though he's no longer around to accept the award, he still deserves it. Fantastic. Plus, I love Christian Bale. He's a hottie.

*As you can tell from my picture, Erica is going to start dance classes. She's SO EXCITED to be a ballerina. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. Her first class is next Tuesday night.

Well, I'm off. So much to do!

So much to say

2008-07-31T10:28:00.006-05:00

I have so much to say. I'm a dork. I was planning on blogging more consistantly, and that didn't work out too well. Ugh.

So, yes, tons to tell. Let me see...

1) Erica and I have started eating by the food pyramid. I spent hours online trying to put together a game plan. I found The Mayo Clinic's website, which gives you a chance to enter age, weight, height, etc and personalize your pyramid. I, unfortunately, have to eat the minimum amounts alotted. I'm hungry a lot, but I am getting used to it. It's going really well. I also tried to find a food pyramid for Erica and eventually found one for ages 2-6. PLUS, I found a book at the library called "Showdown at the Food Pyramid." It's hillariously funny. King Candy Bar, soda, cookie, etc, come to take over the food pyramid and kick out all the fruits and vegetables.

2) I've gotten over the novelty of Erica knowing how to talk. You know, when they first start, you just love it and keep track of all the words they learn. And then its just so exciting to hold conversations. Well, I still love holding conversations... but the kid talks nonstop. She's constantly giving commentary on life. [It is cute, though, just constantly going on and on.]

3) I'll often let Erica play by herself-- thank goodness! But I'll call to her every once in awhile to ask what she's doing. When she says: "Shhh, its a secret," I know we're in trouble.

4) Last Monday Erica and I went out to Aunt Abby and went to the zoo. It was really hot, but we had a good time. Amazingly, they had a really big playground, so we were able to take a break for awhile. I'm glad I'd had the foresight to bring lots of water bottles.

5) If you're looking for a movie to watch, I strongly recomend "Lars and the Real Girl." Its absolutely amazing. I just loved it. Loved it loved it loved it. And as a side note... has anyone else out there thought that Ryan Gosling and Ryan Reynolds are basicly the same? Seriously. They've both played in similar type movies, their acting styles are the same, they have the same first name, and they do look a lot alike. Through most of "lars," I was thinking it was Ryan Reynolds. Nope. If you are looking for a Ryan Reynolds movie, "The Nines" is pretty good.

6) Had my dermatologist appointment last Friday. The spot on my back is OK. Good. But my point for mentioning this is that he just told me... THE SUNSCREENS I'VE BEEN USING ARE NOT PROTECTING MY SKIN FROM HARMFUL SUNRAYS THAT CAUSE SKIN CANCER! Um, okay, and why didn't you tell me this sooner? I did, by the way, have a melanoma removed? He gave me a pamphlet to look over, and told me to look for anything with zinc oxide in it. If you are interested in this at all, you can read a news report on it.

7) You can tell we live in Hicksville, right... We had a community fair recently and Andrew's friends joined in with the 'Outhouse Race.' Yes, you read that right. Outhouse. Each team of 4 was to build an outhouse... not a workable one, but a big box kinda thing. And decorate it by a theme. There's was "A Royal Flush Takes the Pot." HaHa. They decorated it with cards, and dressed up as King, Queen, Jack, and Joker. Oh dear.

Well, I'm sure that there is lots more to say. But I think I've met my time limit here. I'll try not to be gone as long next time.

Oh the PAIN!

2008-07-17T09:13:00.002-05:00

I'm in so much pain. I don't know what happened. Must have pulled a muscle or something.

My lower back is killing me. I can hardly walk. Sitting is killer. Trying to get from sitting to standing is pure torture.

I tried doing some Pilates moves to loosen up my back, but that was insane. Didn't help at all b/c I couldn't even do any of it.

And I have a million things to do today. So sad.

You can skip this and go to the previous butterfly post.

Its much more entertaining.

Is "cocooned" a verb?

2008-07-15T22:18:00.006-05:00

Erica and I cocooned our own caterpillars. It was so exciting!

We had found a little green caterpillar outside; Andrew joked with Erica and said it was a huge green snake that was gonna eat her! She started screaming, and to try to settle her down I explained: "No its a caterpillar. Should we put it in your bug kit?"

So we did. And would you believe it-- THAT VERY DAY, it started its cocoon. I was shocked.
At first I didn't realize what it was doing. I thought the thing had just died and was starting to decay. See, everytime I've seen a picture of a butterfly cocoon, the thing was hanging upsidedown and was brown and oval.

This thing... well, you can see it in the first picture. It had attatched itself to the side of the container. It spun a small white thread around its "belly" from one side to another, to keep it connected. Then it got all horny. HeHeHe. Really, there's little spikes and stuff to it; and it stayed green.

Well, Erica and I made a trip to the library. I love that place. And we got tons of books on caterpillars. I wanted to figure out what this thing was. AMAZINGLY, one of the books we found was dedicated solely to this guy [gal]. Its a small cabbage white butterfly. The book even told us how to tell if it was a boy or girl.

So we waited and waited, checking everyday to see if it "hatched" yet. Then one morning, a week and a half later, there she was! I was so sad that we missed seeing it come out. But it was still exciting. Erica was thrilled. She was able to tell me that it was a girl.

We found another caterpillar too. Raised that one as well. I was afraid she wasn't gonna make it. Sunday night I was showing the cocoon to a friend. I had the lid off and was pointing closely to it, b/c you could actually see the wings underneath the cocoon. Well, Erica was so excited and jumped into me; my finger poked hard at the cocoon and knocked it off the wall.

I was afraid that either the shock of the fall would have killed her OR the fact that the cocoon wasn't held in place would keep her from being able to work her way out. But alas, today when we came home, she was out and flying all around in her jar.

It was such a fun experience. I wanna do it again and again!

A near-death experience

2008-07-12T18:19:00.002-05:00

First of all, let me say... I know no moderation. Seriously, with me there's no moderation. Its all or nothing, baby!

This is true in many aspects of my life. And recently very true about Blogging. I'd said that I was gonna "cut back" to just one or two days a week. HA! Yeah, we've all seen how that's turned out. And to make matters worse, I can now check email on my cell phone, so I don't even get on the internet for that anymore.

My sister and I had a girls' day Sunday with our best friend growing up, Janelle. We were talking about Facebook, which my sister had talked me into joining and I absolutely hate. Seriously, what's the point? Why leave a message on their 'wall' when you can just email?!?! ANYWAY... Janelle said that Facebook has become part of her morning routine.

And I've decided that I'm gonna do that too. Erica's old enough now that she can eat breakfast alone while I go downstairs to Blog.

AND NOW, TO MY POST TITLE...

Okay, so I'm a bit melodramatic. Yup, a drama queen. It was not a near death experience. But still, a very scary situation. Here we go...

Erica and I were driving Wednesday night to my parents' house. I was driving back roads, though they weren't too backroad-ish that I had to drive slow. I was going rather fast, with my cruise control on. Thank God for cruise control. Anyway, I would break at big curves and then just hit the 'resume' button. Well, after one particularly curvy curve, I decided that I'd use the gas peddle to speed up b/c 'resume' would take too long. I go to push the gas peddle down...

MOTHER OF PEARL!!!

[That's my exclamatory phrase of choice]

My gas peddle is missing! I'm going insane. I've lost my mind. Check me into an institute. Something has to be wrong with ME that I'm imagining that there's no gas peddle. I'm moving my foot all around, trying to find it. I'm freaking out. [Though conscious enough to know to resume cruise control.] I start to doubt myself. Maybe the gas peddle is on the other side of the break? I move my foot over there. Nope, not there either.

Thankfully the cruise control is able to get me to a place that I consider safe to pull over. It's a long driveway into a construction site. I immediately whip out my cell phone and dial my Church. [Erica and I had left from there. Andrew had been there too but had a different car.] I was hoping, hoping, hoping that he was still there. I doubted he would be. Wow I was freaking out.

Pastor picks up. I ask: "Is Andrew still there." He's like "I dunno. Hmmm... Don't see him. Let me check the parking lot. His car is still out there." I practicly yell: "GO GET HIM! DON'T LET HIM LEAVE!" Pastor asks me if everythings okay. Now, at this point I still think I may be crazy. I'm not gonna tell him my gas peddle disappeared. So I just say: "GET HIM!"

While he's gone getting Andrew, I finally get out of the car to look at what's going on. I sigh relief: I'm not crazy. The gas peddle had broken. It was just laying there on the ground. I tried picking it back up, and it just fell down again.

What happened after that isn't significantly important, so I won't give the play-by-play. Andrew came to meet us. He was able to fix it by snapping it back onto the cord/wire thingy. He showed me how to fix it in case it happened again. [Yup, I was wearing a skirt. Thank goodness we were on back roads.] But I talked him into letting me take the other car since it was gonna be an hour drive.

Did I mention, THIS WAS OUR NEW CAR!!! Yup, our 2008 Ford Escape. Haven't even had it a full year. And the thing broke! Ugh.

I'm at Starbuck's now. Did you know, if you buy a giftcard and registar it online, you get lots of benefits LIKE getting free WiFi for 2 hours each time you visit!?!?! How awesome is that! So, though I came here to work on my book [which is coming along nicely], I'm using the internet. I'll do lots of blog stuff, catching up.

Swiper, No Swiping!

2008-06-19T10:25:00.000-05:00

My daughter is a swiper.

A week or so ago, I went out with Andrew's family. Erica and I were then looking in a store at different games. I let her pick two out: Dominos and Bingo. Anyway...

I get home, AND FIND that she had put another game in my purse while I wasn't watching. She kept begging to play it, and I kept saying over and over "It's not ours-- we didn't pay for it!"

So we went back. I could have just secretly put it back on the shelf. But that would have taught her nothing, or worse would have taught her that she can get away with stuff w/o any repercussions. I had her stand in the customer service line and then hand the game back and say "Sorry." The lady working was actually a bit shocked that we were honest enough people to return a $6 game. She thanked Erica for bringing it back.

---In Other News---

I've been gone for awhile. Ha, no kidding! When I said I was gonna cut back on blogging, I didn't mean this much! Ouch. And the only reason I'm online now is b/c Erica has a program at the library right now.

Summers are busy times. There are so many more activities to do! The weather makes it nice to go to the park. The pool is open. The library has tons of programs; at least 3 a week. And I've started with a Mommy's Group.

When do I have time for anything else?!?!

I've been trying to focus on my book... which was my reason for cutting back on Blogger. I'll admit, I haven't gotten as much done as I should. Like I said, there are SO MANY activities!

I promised Erica that I would take her to the pool if she behaved well during Library Time. She's doing swell. We have our lunches packed and we'll be going there then. Actually it doesn't open until noon, and her thing here is almost done [10:30]. The pool is actually at the park, though, so she can do slides and swings first.

Again, SO SORRY that I've been gone so long. Its so awful, I know I know!

Feeling Awesome

2008-06-03T10:20:00.003-05:00

I'm at the library right now; Erica has a 'class.' I decided to check my library account just to see if anything else is due soon... AND TO MY SHOCK, I found that something was still checked out to me that I had returned a week ago! And it was overdue! Holy Cow! So I checked the shelves and sure enough it was there!!! They had shelved it w/o scanning it first. I took it up, explained, and they took care of it for me. Good thing.

So, I'm feeling awesome. After months and months of feeling tired all the time, I finally have energy. WooHoo! I had gotten that B12 shot. Plus, I started taking a new vitamin supplement. Its One-a-Day: Active. There are special things added to it to help give you more energy. Fantastic! Between the two, I'm feeling so much better. One thing I found out quickly was that you REALLY REALLY need to take it with food. Ick, I didn't do that one day and about an hour later thought I was gonna puke.

Anyway. Lots and lots to say. My brother and his wife just had a new baby girl. This is child #3 for them. Erica and I went down Friday to visit, and I was glad to be a help to them. I'd only had three hours of sleep the night before [eek!] but was determined not to be a lump on the couch. So I did all their dishes and made lunch and dinner. But we did have a bit over an hour to just sit and chat while Caroline slept and the others played.

The drive home was AWFUL!!! Before we even got onto the highway, Erica was asleep. I was so glad. But she woke up 45 minutes later screaming. She was in hysterics. She never told me exactly what was wrong, but I think she'd had a bad dream. Anyway, I got off the highway and found a parking lot to stop at. We sat in the grass while I tried to calm her. UNFORTUNATELY, she saw a McDonalds w/ a playground. She started pointing and crying to go there. I decided okay, b/c I was willing to do anything to calm her down. I let her play for about 10 minutes then said we were gonna leave. She started crying for a hamburger. We'd had a decent dinner at my brother's house, but since happy meals were on sale for #1.99 I said okay. We had to wait in line, and then she ate and played more.

Finally left, but 20 minutes later she screamed: I HAFTA PEE! I HAFTA POO! I was a bit ticked that she didn't think of this at McDonalds. It took me awhile to find somewhere to pull over, but we finally did. She peed but didn't poop. I asked and asked if she needed to but she said no. Back in the car; 20 minutes later she starts screaming again to use the potty. I was ticked. Found somewhere to pull over, and she went into the potty but didn't do anything. She started laughing and it made me so mad! I felt a nice bit of revenge when the automatic flusher flushed on her and got her all wet. [I know, not sanitary.] I told her she wasnt allowed to talk the rest of the way home. We should have been home at 8:30... we didn't get back until almost 10. Ugh.

It was frustrating while it was happening, but now I can laugh at it.

Erica is done now. So I can't stay much longer. I'll try to visit other blogs later today while she naps.

I'm a horrible blogger

2008-05-20T10:15:00.002-05:00

Yes, it is true. I am a horrible blogger. Not only do I neglect making regular posts, but I hardly ever visit my other blogging friends.

I've been conflicted over how I should be using my time. My sister told me that I REALLY need to work on my book and get it submitted soon. I have quite a bit written [somewhere between 120 and 180 pages, depending how it would be translated into book format], but still have so much to go. There's lots of plot points left to cover, and most books today are 300+ pages.

But yet, even with that in mind, I haven't been putting enough time into writing. Like I said, I've been conflicted, b/c adding into that mix is the fact that I'm a SAHM. My daughter needs attention and loving. I should probably be working more on alphabet and numbers with her. And, even though its been cold and rainy the past few days, the weather will be warming up, meaning more outside time.

Yes, conflicted.

I need to come up with a scedule and stick to it. I was originally thinking Mon, Wed, Fri work on book; Tue, Thur, and weekends [as permit] on blogging.

But as I sit here thinking, I'm realizing that that really isn't enough time dedicated to writing. It'll break the creative/writing process, taking days inbetween.

I won't give up my blog altogether. I may just have to say, once a week. Find an hour or two on weekends, perhaps, that I can dedicate to blogging. Maybe Sunday afternoons; Andrew has baseball practice and Erica takes naps.

I don't know what will happen, but I need to figure something out.

Great Wolf Lodge

2008-05-17T11:20:00.017-05:00

Wow. Andrew's parents, Erica, Andrew and I all had so much fun.

The only downfall: my throat continued to feel raw... and worse, Erica got sick too. We had been planning on leaving Friday night, but left around noon instead. Which I guess really wasn't that much difference. Anyway, we were able to get to her pediatrition while they were still open [why do Dr's close early on Fridays?] and she got medicine.

That aside, let me tell you about all the FUN we had!

We got to Scotrun [the town it's in] around 5:00 and stopped at a Friendly's to eat dinner. Then off to the Great Wolf Lodge. The place is amazing when you first see it. I really wanted to get a picture from the outside, but never had a chance to. Sorry! I did take pictures of the inside lobby, and those will be posted here.

After unpacking, we got ready for swimming. Upon first looking at the waterpark, it seemed a tad bit smaller than I thought it would be... but when you really look at it, its packed full of many different things to do. All of the slides/tubes are very close together, to make the best of the space.

There's a wave pool. That was nice; it waves would be on for maybe ten minutes and then off for ten. There was another pool area with slides just for little kids. Erica did these slides first. There were five total, ranging from short&strait to long&curvy.

Once that was "mastered" we moved on the the big jungle gym type thing. There's a huge structure with tons of nozzles, hoses, water buckets, water guns, etc etc etc. When you climb to the very top, there are two slides you can take down. They were much bigger than the kiddy-pool slides but Erica decided to try it. She loved it! One of those slides was a big more twisty than the other, and on that one she did tip over and bang her cheek. But that didn't stop her from going on the other one again and again.

Of course, there are more adult / older kids' tubing slides. The first time I went down them, I screamed. The one drops you into a big bowl-shaped structure, and you go round and round before being sucked down the bottom. I liken it to going down a toilet. Well, I went down head first and it freaked me out so much I screamed: "Mommy, help me!"

The pinnacle ride is one you actually go down on a raft. You need enough people to add up to over 200 pounds, b/c at one point you get airborne, and if there's not enough weight, you'll crash. Anyway, Andrew and I went down together; it was tons of fun.

Besides that, there was also a lazy river; you could just sit in your tube and float around and around. Also there were lilly-pad plastic floating things that you tried to walk on to get over the water. And a pool with lots of basketball hoops. Is that everything? ... Oh, and two hot tubs, one just for adults! That was nice.

At nighttimes, kids can gather in the lobby for a "show." I have a picture of it; if you look close, you can see Erica in a yellow shirt, sitting in the front. The animated plastic animals, trees, people tell a story and sing. Afterwards, a staff person reads a story to all the kids. He was very animated; good at telling stories.

There's a "Cub's Club" for kids; a room where kids can draw, play games, do crafts, etc. Erica went there for a storytime and craft Thursday afernoon. Its very much a place for kids. They have a special thing where you can get a magical wand and use it to solve puzzles and games around the hotel. It was too above Erica's level though. Oh, and an arcade. One night, Andrew and I stayed out after his parents and Erica went to bed, and we played games. I beat him twice at skiball. Ha ha!!

They also have a spa. Awe... Bonnie [my MIL] and I had massages. It was fantastic. So relaxing.

All around, a GREAT time.

Complain, Complain, COMPLAIN AGAIN!

2008-05-13T20:00:00.003-05:00

Seriously, what else can go wrong? [Probably a lot, actually.]

I've got strepp throat. What's with that?!? I wonder if I picked it up at the Dr's office Saturday? I've been running high fevers, and my tonsils are swollen and covered with spots. Ick!

So I went to the Dr AGAIN today; I got antibiotics to hopefully fix this up before vacation. YUP, vacation! Leaving tomorrow [Wed] afternoon to go up to The Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos. I'm so excited for it... but really hoping I'm not still feeling awful by then.

Complain, Complain

2008-05-10T17:26:00.002-05:00

I've been complaining FOREVER about my chronic fatigue. I most likely think its from pernicious anemia, which has affected most of the ladies on my mom's side of the family. But the doctors I've seen just push that aside: pernicious anemia isn't hereditary. [Yeah right: great grandmother, grandmother, mother, Aunt, 2 cousins.]

So, I specificly set up an appointment with Dr N--- at my family practice; I know she's very nice and would be the most likely to give me a B12 shot. I went with an arsenal full of reasons why I should get one. I had a huge speech prepared. I wasn't gonna leave w/o getting my way.

Yeah...

She is SO SO SO SO nice! I hardly had to say a thing and she was like: "Okay, lets get you that shot."

I'm thrilled.

Now let's just hope that that's what my problem was. Hope that I get my energy back up!

Makeup Monday

2008-05-06T10:07:00.002-05:00

I used to do "makeup monday," where I'd catch up on what happened over the weekend. Golly, but today's Tuesday. Oops.

We had a good weekend. Went well. Started with a 'date night' Friday. Andrew's parents watched Erica so that the two of us could go out. It was nice. We went to a small pizza place then went to see a movie. Our little town's rinky-dink theatre was only playing one movie: Iron Man. I was not too thrilled about seeing it. [About time alone with Hubby, YES. But not that particular film.] I'm not a huge Robert Downing Jr fan. And not a big fan of some of the 'marvel comic' movies. They're often too fake and unbelievable.

Well, Iron Man was GREAT. I recomend it to you. It was much more 'believable' than lots of other comic-based movies. And the one thing I really liked about it was the change you saw in the lead character. He started the movie as a real jerk kinda guy, but after an "a-ha" moment, really changed around.

Saturday was nothing much. A lot of cleaning and gardening.

Sunday was quite eventful. We traveled over to New Jersey for my cousin Dan's senior recital. He's a percussionist, and apparently very good, but I'd never heard him play before. I was so glad we went. He really was great. I'm very proud of my little cuz.

I had every intention of being more descriptive, but I"m at the library and my laptop battery is about to die.

WHERE HAVE I BEEN?!?!

2008-05-01T11:09:00.002-05:00

Wow. Its been awhile. Let me give an excuse... my laptop keeps freezing up when I'm using the internet. In fact, I've been trying hard to make blog-rounds, but I only ever happen to visit two or three blogs and then 'bam,' my computer freezes. So, sorry if I haven't been by your blog recently! I've started from the top, started from the bottom... so those in the middle probably haven't been visited for a long while.

So, what have I been up to?

-Went to a writers' conference last Saturday. It was great; really inspired me. I'm trying to write at least 2 pages each day. Okay, maybe I should aim for just one a day. So that's taking up my time. But I'm so excited. I have over 100 pages now. GO ME!

-Its been a bit chilly the past two days, but before that when we were having nice weather I was taking Erica out a lot. So that had me away from my comp.

-I've been teaching my daughter's age group on Wednesday nights. Granted, there's only four to six kids a night. But I normally spend a lot of my free time Tuesdays and Wednesdays getting ready for it.

-FINALLY got to visit my brother's family in Delaware last Sunday. [You may recall that whole debacle when I was supposed to visit w/ my sister, but Erica and I got insanely sick.]

-My sister has been pressuring me into Facebook. So a lot of internet-time goes into that.

-I watched "The Breakup" this morning. SO good. It got a lot of bad reviews, but I liked it. It made me cry, which in my mind is a good thing.

-Erica's been needing a close eye recently. She's developed a love of cutting things; so I need to make sure she doesn't get her hands on important papers.

-Guess what?!?!?! I've lost around 8 pounds. I didn't want to say earlier that I was starting Weight Watchers again, for fear that it would jinx me. But now that things have been going well, I shall share. I'm so incredibly excited!!!

-My fatigue has not been getting better at all; I have a doctor appointment scheduled with the nicest doctor at the practice, and I'm gonna beg for a B-12 shot. It can't hurt me at all; it'll either do nothing OR make me better [which is what I'm hoping for].

-Erica got a hair cut. So cute! The back was getting long in some parts but not in others, so it looked really uneven. Plus it was just so hard to comb out the knots. So I took her to get it cut. And I really like it; she doesn't get knots in her hair and its incredibly easy to comb.

Well, I guess that's all I'll share. There's much more, but I don't want to go on forever. Besides, my daughter is wanting some lunch.

Adios!

Pictures!

2008-04-22T19:50:00.005-05:00

Playing with play-doh

I LOVE this new
play-doh kit.
Sometimes I play
with it more than she does!

A decorative umbrella
that I bought Erica
at Philly's Cherry Blossom
festival

Easter

Erica with her cute
easter bunny!

What Husbands are good for

2008-04-15T10:16:00.002-05:00

Nothing.

Just Kidding! They're good for lots. There's lots I appreciate about my Hubby, but probably the most important is his strength. No, I don't mean muscles. Though he does have some and is rather strong. But more of an inner strength, that when I need to feel strong, I can lean on him.

Example: Remember awhile ago when I went camping with friends and almost died in a fire? [Okay, exageration. We caught the fire in plenty of time.] Well, that weekend we had all gone for a hike through the snowy woods. I have terrible knees, and the stomping around thru the snowy forest was just killing me. My knees gave out several times. Anyway, I was starting to cry like a wimp, and just felt embarrassed in addition to in pain. Andrew was running around with the other guys, showing off and trying to knock down trees. But he noticed I was lagging behind, and he came to me and walked with me the rest of the way, holding my hand. Which is a BIG DEAL, b/c he doesn't like 'public displays of affection.'

Anyway, to this weekend's example...

We had a work day at church saturday, doing all kinds of spring cleaning. I didn't go early, b/c I was gonna bring pizza for everyone at lunchtime. Andrew and I decided what was gonna be ordered: Domino's was having a special of getting 3 full-sized pizzas for a certain price. We figure "full size = big." Nope, that's their deceptive title for "small." So when I went to pick up the pizzas, I was shocked. They were so teeny-tiny, and I felt awful. I was so embarrassed to take them. When I arrived, some people were laughing about it, whispering about it, upset that there wasn't enough for everyone.

I was mortified. So embarrassed. Even though it wasn't completely my fault, I felt like it was b/c I'm the one that brought it. So, I kind of hid upstairs in the bathroom trying to stop my tears. Andrew and Erica eventually came to find me. And he was so nice. He didn't at all tease me. And he said I could go home with Erica if I felt like I needed to get away. He gave me a hug and helped me calm down.

Thanks hunny!

[I don't want you to think that all those people were mean and judgemental. I was making it all worse in my mind than it really was. Andrew told me that they didn't really mind at all, and got some leftover barbeque out from the freezer and heated it up, so they all had plenty to eat. But I just had gotten myself so worked up.]

Busy

2008-04-14T11:50:00.003-05:00

Had an extremely busy weekend. I have lots of things to talk about... and lots of other blogs to catch up on.

But my daughter is pulling my arm, trying to get me to play a game with her. So I must be off...

Have a great day everyone!

Le Morte D'Arthur

2008-04-08T08:49:00.005-05:00

Favorite school subjects [well, more accurately, topics that I loved learning about]

-Ancient Egypt. I was fascinated by them, especially all their gods. Not that I believed in any of that, but I did find it fascinating to learn about. And all about the many pharoahs, the pyramids, the sphynx, etc.
-Roman Empire. Not their gods, though. I found Zeus and others quite annoying, actually. But I liked learning about their architecture and things that they built. For some reason, I loved the aquaducts.
-The Vikings. Okay, okay. So they were in all actuallity very mean and cruel people. Oh well, I loved their ships and their outfits. And I found something quite intriguing about their conquests.
-The Romantic Era. No, not "ooh, la la." The romantic era took place more during rennsaince time, but looked back to medieval times, towards the great epic heroes and adventures. And of all these stories, my favorite was King Arthur. I was fascinated with ALL THINGS Arthur. My high school senior research paper [a 20+ page ordeal] was mostly based on King Arthur.

Because of this, I've always wanted to read Le Morte d'Arthur. It's one of my life goals. However, I just never had a chance. Well, I decided that now is the time!

When I got it out from the library, the main librarian guy said to me: "Wow, your getting serious now. I've started reading this dozens of times, but never finished it." I must admit, its hard to read. Its written in very old english. But I'm enjoying it anyway. Really, I am.

I want to share a quote with you, which I just laughed at: "And Arthur was so bloody, that by his sheild there might no man know him, for all was blood and brains on his sword."

[End note: When I was in high school, there was a made-for-tv movie titled "Merlin," and I loved loved loved it. Well, I just searched it, and found it on imdb. I've GOT to find a way to get my hands on a copy of it!]

Everybody Everywhere!

2008-04-07T00:10:00.004-05:00

Clean Up

Everybody Everywhere

Clean Up

Everybody do your share

When Andrew came to me Saturday and said, "We're going to pick up trash," I was none too happy. I was grossed out at the thought of touching trash left out by other people. By the end, I was enjoying the time.

There's a little river at the bottom of our street. Erica likes to go down to see the ducks. Unfortunately, people have made such a mess down there. Bags, bottles, papers, wrappers... someone even dumped a COUCH into the river! [We didn't pull that out, though.]

Andrew decided that we should be the ones to clean it up. I didn't quite agree... but now looking back, its to our benefit too b/c now there's a clean area to walk with Erica. It's not perfect; we couldn't possibly get all of it; everytime we thought we were done, we'd find more. But we filled up several trash bags.

I feel like I did my part for mother nature. And we had some good family bonding time.

On a totally random note: I wanted to change my blog template a bit. Didn't get a new header put together; but I did get some new background ideas. What do you think? I have the squiggles up now... should I use a different one?

[Oh, and an update: I actually DID put together new header options. What do you like?]

Family Night

2008-03-31T19:58:00.003-05:00

Okay, so it wasn't a "planned" family night. But amazingly, neither of us had other plans tonight. So the 3 of us had tons of fun.

After dinner, we started playing games. Zingo [so fun!], Memory [Dora themed], and Guess Who.

Then things just got crazy. I'm not exactly sure what started it all. But we had jumping contests. We used Erica's play golf clubs, and put two down on the ground. She had to jump from one to the other, and after each time we moved them farther apart. She made Andrew jump too; and when he got tired, she made me. Then we decided to see how high we could jump. Andrew held one golf club a bit above the ground, and moved it higher and higher. Erica is SO FUNNY! She started tumbling over them, doing funny flips. And then we did the limbo. That I was really bad at. Erica won every time.

Going to bed didn't go as well. Every night, I read to her a few books, then Andrew tucks her into bed, and I sing a few songs with her. Anyway, right now we have books out from the library about monsters. They are so cute! We've read them several times, and she's really liked them. But tonight she seemed to be getting a bit freaked out. Anyway, when we were done reading, I sent her to get Daddy from downstairs. Well, just a minute later I hear her screaming and running back upstairs. Poor Andrew, he had no idea that she was already a bit scared. Well, he jumped out and said Boo and she just flipped out.

But we got her settled down... took about 5 minutes, but it happened. And now she's sleeping.

Good night, everyone!

Rude or much --AND-- Another front door fiasco

2008-03-28T11:31:00.004-05:00

Erica had her swim class again today. She did much better, mainly b/c the water wasn't nearly as cold as last week. Though, she was wearing a shirt on top of her swimsuit to help keep warm. Anyway, she was getting very good at kicking her legs and paddling with her arms.

Afterwards, we went to Weis grocery store. I was VERY disappointed with my visit. I don't think I'll be going back again. First of all, they did not have a very good selection of things. It really surprised me. The kicker was checking-out though. I went to use self check-out. As I was walking up, there was an employee standing there pushing some buttons. But then she walked away. So, I went there to that spot, b/c the others were all occuppied. And as I'm unloading my groceries, another employee came up and said in a very rude tone: "Someone's already here." I looked around, wondering how I could have missed that someone was in front of me. Here, she was talking about the other employee that had been standing there a minute ago. She said something else rude, I can't recall what. But I replied to her: "No one was standing here, and the "aisle open" light is lit up." She didn't even apologize for her rudeness.

Then, as I was checking out at another spot, she wanted to close down that lane too. But she waited. She was standing at the end of the lane; I didn't actually look at her, but I assumed she was bagging my groceries for me. Nope, she didn't. Now, I know that at self-checkout its SELF done and you're supposed to bag your own. BUT, I've been there before that an employee was stationed there to bag groceries for people. This lady just stood there though, being rude.

I was very upset. So I went across the street then to get some coffee at the local cafe. I needed to let off some steam. [Okay, if I'm being honest, I had been planning on going there anyway. But instead of leaving right away, I did sit for awhile and look thru magazines as Erica played with toys. They're kind enough to have toys there for little kids.]

MOVING ON:

Remember me saying Erica opened the door up for a stranger a few weeks back? Well, here's another fiasco... She pulled out her snow pants-- from LAST YEAR. They only reached down to her calf and was skin tight on her. No shirt, no coat. And put on her high heel dress up shoes. "What was she all dressed up for," I wondered. She was going outside to color with sidewalk chalk-- in the rain! Silly girl!!!

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

2008-03-24T14:53:00.001-05:00

I was scoping out people magazine's website, and found a thing about Halle Berry's baby. Namely, things that she's bought for the nursery. All I can say is: What a waste of money!!! You can look at some of the things too if you'd like.

In Other News:

I was informed by my sister that I MUST open a facebook account. So, I have. But I've got NO CLUE what I'm doing.

Blogger is so user-friendly. Can I hear a what-what?!?!?!

I'll get more info to you when I have the whole thing figured out

Happy Easter

2008-03-21T14:19:00.004-05:00

Randomness

2008-03-20T21:50:00.003-05:00

So, I have several things that I need to catch up on. Jeepers!

1) On my sidebar, I have a little paragraph telling what my blog is about. One of the things listed was "visits to the dentist." It's been ages since I've actually talked about that. Well, here we go... Erica had her first dentist visit! It was so cute. My girl was so brave! Andrew had his appointment, so I took Erica along. She got to watch him have his teeth brushed and she sat on his lap so that she could have hers done. She chose orange-flavored toothpaste and got to wear sunglasses. She kept her mouth open the whole time! The dentist tried VERY hard to explain the importance of letting us brush her teeth at home. I thought it would lead to a huge improvement. ... Not so much.

2) Erica had her 3 year check-up last Friday. I swear, her pediatrition doesn't like kids! He was in and out within 3 minutes!!! Now, before you lecture me on finding a better doctor, let me explain that he is not her normal doctor. Its a practice of 3 different people, and her doctor was out for the day. [She had been scheduled to go in Monday, but I totally forgot about it! So I had to reschedule last minute.]

3) We've been getting LOTS of books from the library about Easter. Cute ones, like Hello Kitty, Care Bears, Winnie the Pooh. And some religious themed ones. We've been doing all sorts of preparing for the holiday. Totally slipped my mind though to do Easter Eggs! So we did that today. I found a neat idea in Parents Magazine-- put colored tissue paper in a cup and fill it with hot water; set the egg inside it, and the dye will color the egg. I thought it was a great idea, b/c Erica could help w/o burning her little fingers. She was able to stuff the tissue paper in, and also spoon the eggs into the cups. Unfortunately, not all of the colors worked. Pink and Purple were the best. I was surprised that blue and red didn't work too well.

4) I've gotten out of my reading-kick and into a movie-kick. I've been getting TONS of movies out from the library. Some highlights: Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium. A good movie for Erica and me to watch together. Things We Lost in the Fire, with Halle Berry. Its such an emotional movie, but in a good way. 30 Days of Night... can't believe I'm admitting that. It was icky, but good. I did get Beowulf, though didn't watch it yet.

5) I'm SO tired all the time. Its awful. I need to get to the doctor and say "Give me a B12 shot now!" Not sure if it'll actually happen though.

6) Speaking of doctors... I think I need to go to my dermatologist again. [I'd had a melanoma removed from my arm sometime July '05.] Well, I have a new 'thing' on my back. I waited over a week now to see if it would go away, but its staying. And looks an awful lot like a mole. I know for positive that its new; it was never there before. [Awhile ago, I had a "scare" about one on my jawline... but looking through pictures proved that I've had it awhile.] I'm trying not to worry. Its probably nothing. But I tend to really get melodramatic about these things and expect the worse. "Oh no, the cancer has spread through my whole body and I only have six months to live!" No, no, no, no. I need to tell myself not to worry.

7) Erica has swim class starting up tomorrow. I'm excited. Unfortunately, we didn't get into the same class as her other little friends. But it will still be good. Its been awhile since we did this before, so it will be exciting to do again.

8) I will end with a shout-out to all the preggies out there. I know several pregnant chicks right now. Both of my SILs. My neighbor. College roomate and fellow blogger, Debbie. And another fellow Blogger, Crazy Working Mom. [Sorry if I missed any others!] And also... I'm normally not a huge celebrity follower. But babies make me happy, so congrats to all the pregnant celebs out there! [As I hear, J.Lo just had her twins.] I'm most excited for Nicole Kidman. I've always hated Tom Cruise ever since he left her. So I'm so happy now that she's finally got a new Hubby and is having a baby.

I did not teach my daughter to do that

2008-03-17T14:15:00.005-05:00

Knock Knock... Who's there?

2008-03-12T07:00:00.002-05:00

There are certain times as a mother that your heart just stops. This is one of those times...

Last Thursday, I actually had the novelty of being able to shower without being bothered by my child. Really, its a rare occassion for mothers of young children. Erica was happily seated watching a movie, so I look advantage of the time.

I take my time. Awe, so wonderful.

Right as I'm getting out, I hear the doorbell. Hmm... I think, either: a) my MIL is REALLY early, or b) I took much longer than I expected.

I hurry to the window and look out; no car. I figure I'll just ignore the doorbell; its probably no one I really need to talk to. As I'm about to call downstairs to Erica to come up to me, I see bright light...

SHE HAD OPENED THE DOOR TO THE STRANGER!

I heard the woman say: "Honey, is your mommy here?" So, I took a bit of consilation in the fact that it was a woman. But still. Now, you must understand that I was in condition to come downstairs. I shouted "I can't come down right now," all the while trying to figure out what to do if she nabs my child. She says, "I have a paper, I'll leave it here. Sorry." Then she tells Erica to close the door, and she leaves. I shout down to Erica to close the door too.

Then I call her upstairs. We have a very serious conversation about not opening the door when Mommy isn't there. I'd like to think that she understood me. She did say "I'm sorry," even though I wasn't yelling at her or blaming her. I knew it wasn't really her fault; she didn't know any better. And besides, she probably thought it was her Nan at the door; we were expecting her to come, but not for another hour. That's why the door had been unlocked to begin with.

Well, I learned my lesson: keep the door locked at all times! And I think Erica learned her lesson as well.

Happy Birthday!!!

2008-03-11T07:42:00.005-05:00

So, Erica had a Birthday party for her little friends on Friday. And of course, all 4 of them were boys. We don't have ANY girls around that are her age!!! But she doesn't seem to mind. I have a video clip of them singing "happy birthday to you"... but you'll only count 3 friends; Clairissa had to leave early with Reagan.

I mentioned that I was gona do a Candyland theme. How so, you may wonder? Well, first of all, I was able to buy plates, napkins, cups, banners that have tootsie rolls all over them. The design must have been discontinued, b/c they were all on sale for 25 or 30 cents!!! Her cake was especially decorated to look like the game. I used Starbursts as the path. And there were gingerbread men from the game on the cake. And lollipop forest.

We played a game "pin the gumdrop on the gingerbread man." I drew a huge gingerbread boy and then cut out circles that the kids had to try to put on it while blindfolded. Our lunch was grilled turkey sandwhiches, cut out like gingerbread men.

Last of all, I put together activity booklets for them, using pictures of the game's characters. We played Bingo. And there was a blank gingerbread man and they got to glue little foam shapes on to decorate him. And then there were just other pictures and things to color. King Kandy had four different birthday cakes, and they had to pick the one with three candles. And Princess Lolli had several different kinds of candies, and you had to pick out all the lollipops.

Have I ever mentioned that I love Birthdays? All that effort may seem extreme, but it was worth it!

I started to lose my voice Friday; all that talking to the kids, giving them instructions and stuff. The job was completed Saturday when we had my family over to celebrate Erica's birthday.

My SIL and her 2 kids came early, around 3. [My bro couldn't make it.] We used that time before dinner to play the same games from Friday. Actually, Andrew helped lead them in the games while I worked on making dinner. Home-made pizzas. I've finally found the perfect pizza dough recipe, and it was under my nose the whole time in my Betty Crocker cookbook! Anyway... I made one white veggie pizza, one ham, one pepperoni, and one plain cheese. It was all ready then by the time my parents got here at 5. [Abby showed up later, around 6:30.]

After dinner, we had cake. It was an ice cream cake I bought, b/c I didn't want to bake another cake. I'd already made the one for Friday and also cupcakes for Sunday. But it was good; everyone loves a good ice cream cake.

Then she opened presents. Thanks everyone for the gifts! Andrew and I gave her our present then too, even though her birthday wasn't until the next day. We got her Princess dress up clothes. And she loves them!

Pictures:

1) Candyland cake. Erica is wearing a 'candy' decorated shirt. 2) The gingerbread man game. 3) Erica's cousins: Evelyn and Nathaniel. In the kids' goody bags they each got play doh. 4) Prince Nathaniel and Princess Erica riding in a royal carriage... or a tricycle. 5) Andrew, me, the birthday princess

Mommyhood Confessions

2008-03-09T20:26:00.003-05:00

UPDATE: I am SO over this. Well, for the most part. I was just having a bad day, that's all. BTW: my Hubby is TOTALLY fantastic. He did all the dishes AND laundry last night! Erica... well, she's still being needy. But thats okay, she's only 3.

First, a side note: Erica's party was so fun! Went well-- except that I lost my voice from trying to talk over the kids at Friday's party and Saturday's party. Once I get the pictures and movie clips transfered to my computer, I'll tell more.

I've shared mommyhood confessions before. But they were all light-hearted... like "I don't always button all of her buttons" or "I gave her animal crackers for breakfast."

Here's a not-so-pretty one.

I'M SICK OF TAKING CARE OF OTHER PEOPLE'S NEEDS!

I feel like all I ever do is take care of my husband and daughter.* They need this or that... constantly. I'm constantly hearing what people need me to do. WHAT ABOUT MY NEEDS??? I'd like to get away more often than just once every-other-week. And it would be nice to have someone answer my beck-and-call. To make a request and not be hastled about it.

I don't always want to do play-doh. I don't always want to cook dinner. I can't always drop what I'm doing to put in a DVD right away. I don't want to make all the phone calls. I don't want to change diapers all the time. [Oh wait-- she's potty trained! So change that to, clean the pee that missed the potty.] Fill an empty cup with more juice or water or tea. Get out the snack foods-- which I know people shouldn't be eating anyway. Put her in pajamas, read a book, put her to bed.

Can I get a week to just be me? Not a mother or a wife? Does this make me a bad person?

*Of course, these demands are more so from Erica than Hubby. [And in this rant and rave, I forget that he does all the laundry for me. He helps a lot more than other husbands do. I am thankful... This was just all a rant that I needed to get out... And my rants aren't always the most rational.]

What have I been up to??? Being sick, that's what

2008-03-07T00:21:00.003-05:00

OH MY GOSH! I've been gone forever!!! And I have this big story that I've been meaning to share. But I've come down with a cold now, so I was feeling a bit miserable. But now I need to type and catch up, b/c ERICA'S BIRTHDAY IS THIS WEEKEND! Oh, and I decided to go with a Candyland theme.

I vow never to go to Abby's "International Night" again. Her school's preschool and kindergarten put on a show each year. Each class studies a different country and then does a presentation about it with songs. The last time I went, I got lost in Philly and was pulled over by a police dude on a bike.

This time, I did make it there with no dilema. Erica and I both went; we met Abby at 3:00, when school let out, so that we could help her get her classroom ready. Then we went to Burger King just so that Erica could play in the play area and get her wiggles out.

Back to the school then. My parents showed up too. It was a nice time to see everyone. And Abby and I had planned to leave Saturday morning to drive to Delaware to see my brother's family. So fun! [Oh, important fact: Andrew was gone for the weekend on a men's retreat.]

Well, my tummy felt funny towards the end of Int'l Night. I thought it was just stress. Oh, it was so difficult getting Erica there and keeping her out of trouble!!! [Here's my example story: On the way there, I stopped at Wendy's drive-thru just to pick up something quick to eat. I asked her if she wanted anything. "NO! I wanna go see Abby!" So, I order my nuggets. As soon as I'm done, she screams "I wanna hamburger!" I try explaining that its too late. "I wanna hamburger!" I ask if she wants a chicken nugget. "NO! I wanna hamburger!"]

Erica and I settled into Abby's apartment for the night. I slept on the couch; Erica slept on the floor in a sleeping bag. Abby decided to join the slumber party and slept on the other couch. Oh, it took Erica so long to settle down and fall asleep. I thought she'd never conk out. But she did, thank goodness.

Unfortunately, she woke up at 12:30. Actually, to be accurate, she didn't wake up. She was having a nightmare, to my best guess. She started with some wimpers and worked herself up to full screams. She was pushing her hands over her belly and legs, as if trying to push something away from her. Well, I sat up to pick her up and hold her, when I felt that feeling. You know, the feeling you get right before you have to run to the potty and empty your stomache's contents. So I said "Abby! Take Erica!" And I ran.

By the time I was done, Erica was awake. I asked her if she had a bad dream and she said yes. Not sure she actually knows what a dream is though. I let her sleep on the couch with me then. I felt so bad for her. We got some more sleep... but an hour and a half later she started up again with her nightmare. Same thing happened: I sat up to take care of her and got that funky feeling in my belly. I ran to the bathroom... and Erica woke up out of her dream and ran after me. Not the most fun thing in the world having a kid tugging at you while you're being sick.

When I was done, I walked her back to her sleeping bag... and she proceeded to puke all over it! Luckily I had a trash can nearby, which caught most of it. She wouldnt settle down after that. She just wanted water... which made her sick again.

THANK HEAVENS Abby had a cartoon movie. We played it so that Erica could watch and then doze off to sleep. Somewhere in there I got sick a third time. She was getting sick over and over; I lost count.

My sister was fantastic. She let me sleep while she watched over Erica. And once daylight came, she went to the store to buy us medicine, gingerale, crackers, and some other things. We tried taking it easy; I knew I'd have to drive home eventually, and didn't want Erica or me getting sick in the car. [Yes, unfortunately we were not able to go to Delaware to visit my brother.]

Around noon I ventured home. Erica was so tired from the sleepless night that she dozed off. We spent the rest of the weekend then in bed or on the couch watching movies. Ugh.

To end on a bit of a positive note, Abby's gonna upload a video clip of Erica from the Int'l Night. Kinda cute.

My new favorite author

2008-02-28T22:15:00.002-05:00

I go through phases of loving certain authors. I'll devour everything by one author, then move on to another, then another.

My kick now is Jodi Picoult. I've heard of her and seen a lot of her books around, was always fascinated, but never read any. I didn't want to spend the money buy the books. [This was before I became a die-hard Library fan.] So the first one I bought was The Pact, b/c I could get it paperback and cheaper than all the others. I didn't 100% love it. I liked the author's style, but the whole topic of suicide was just to depressing, and I came to really dislike the female main character.

Anyway, I decided to give Jodi Picoult another chance. I got My Sister's Keeper out from my library. This was the first book I'd ever heard of by her and really had grabbed my attention. I had high expectations... and the book was far better than I imagined. You can check out the link for a more detailed description, but basicly its about an older sister who has leukemia. The parents purposefully had another child just to use as a donor for the sick child. So this younger sister has gone through many operations and finally has had enough... she refuses to give up a kidney. So she goes to a lawyer to file for 'medical emancipation' from her parents. Anyway, it was fantastic. And the ending caught me completely off guard. She just hits you with it! And I cried and cried. It was fantastic.

I hurried back to my library for another book. I 'ordered' one to come in from another library, but it wasn't in yet and I just couldn't wait. So I picked up Plain Truth. I wasn't too thrilled about getting this one, but it was the only one that they had in at the time.

My reason for not wanting to read it: the setting is Paradise, a small town in Lancaster county. I don't live quite near it, but I'm familiar with the town. Anyway, its about the Amish. And I thought, "how is this woman gonna know anything about the Amish?" But she did a good job. Got a few things wrong though. [Oh first, the premise: a dead baby is found in a farm, and a young single Amish girl is acused of the crime.]

Here are the mistakes:
1) First to mention is Lancaster County Court House. I'm pretty positive from my time as a juror there that murder cases are not tried at county court; they'd be taken to the larger courts in Philly. And she writes that the lawyer gal walks out of the courthouse disheartened and sits on the steps, watching the trees blow in the wind. Umm... not so much. There aren't really trees out there; just a few that the city planted to try to look nice. And you wouldn't be able to hear the leaves rustle in the wind; Lancaster City is a CITY, very loud and crowded. Lots of cars honking.

2) The Strasburg Railroad is NOT a working railroad. Its a tourist thing. I went there not to long ago with Erica and some other family members. You can take a 45 minute train ride for fun. Kids like it; not too exciting for adults. Anyway, the author said that the main character traveled across state leaving from the Strasburg Railroad. Nope, not so. Its been a tourist thing since 1958.

3) This is my favorite. She said that during the Amish teens' wild years, they'd sometimes go to the nearby Turkey Hill to buy beer. My first reaction was "Yeah Turkey Hill!" My second reaction was... "Wait! You can't buy alcohol there!" For those not aquainted with it, Turkey Hill is a chain of gas stations. That's where I was with Erica when she said her rude little thing to the guy behind us in line. They make their own ice cream [which is great] and iced tea, among other things. But they're definitely not selling beer; you can't buy beer in PA at a gas station, or a grocery store for that matter. Only "state stores," places specificly set aside for selling alcohol. [Out to eat, of course, you can still get your margarita or whatever. But to buy cases, it has to be at these stores.] It's nothing I ever really thought of growing up; though, my family doesn't drink alcohol. But I remember the first time I saw cases of beer at a gas station out-of-state, I was shocked and said, "Mom! Are they alowed to do that?"

Those are just trifle little things. In all, I think she captured Lancaster County quite well. The book was fantastic; though was definitely at an advantege being Pennsylvania Dutch. I don't speak it, not even close. But I do know a few sayings that did pop up in the book. Would any of you know what it means for a person to say: "I'm all ferhoodled" ???

Dare I say it?

2008-02-22T14:02:00.002-05:00

Cross my fingers... I think Erica is actually potty trained. [Except for the nighttime. We're working on getting her to give up her bedtime cup of water.] She rarely has any accidents; she's only had two... and both of those were when we were away from home. We started her out with one of those small ones that you can put anywhere; now she's onto the real potty. This was so much easier than I thought it would be. Though, I did figure that when she felt ready she'd let me know. That's why I never pushed it earlier.

On to something else...

So sorry that I haven't visited other blogs recently. [Maybe I'll try to later today.] I'm hosting a tea party for some gal friends Saturday, so I've been planning for that. Plus, I've had lots of different things going on other days this week.

To my disgruntledment, it snowed today. And it will overnight as well. I normally like the snow, but I'm so worried that I'll have to cancel the tea time... AND WHAT WILL I DO WITH ALL OF THAT FOOD?!?!?

Prison Break

2008-02-19T11:10:00.002-05:00

My daughter decided to make a break for it... Meaning, from her bedroom.

She woke up around 4 AM Monday morning; I heard her cry to get out, pound on her door, and then she just quieted down again. I figured she just went back to bed, realizing her efforts were in vain. Andrew kept insisting she must have gotten out of her room, but I didn't really hear anything, and I figured that if she'd gotten out, the first thing she'd do would be run into our room to climb up in bed with us.

Well, after ten minutes or so Andrew got up to look... SHE WAS GOING UP AND DOWN THE STAIRS! I followed her downstairs... Here, she'd been taking trips up and down, taking all of her bed time things down to the couches in the living room. Her pillows, blankets, animals, dolls. Its amazing that she didn't fall!

She screamed about going back into her room, so we just took her in with us. It would have been pointless to lock her in her room again, b/c she knows now how to get off the door knob cover.

[I've since put another one on, and she hasn't gotten thru that one yet.]

A slight disappointment

2008-02-15T08:55:00.002-05:00

No, not with Valentine's day. Then again, maybe it was. We had a good dinner and family time. But then I went with Erica to our community kids' club where I help out. Erica goes with the preschoolers, and I work with the 5th grade boys. [Whose idea that was, I'm not sure.] One of my boys is SO awful. He's ADHD to the extreme. I have trouble being sympathetic with it; I don't have much tolerance for it. I've dealt with things worse, but I was able to control myself. I know, I know... his family situation and things are probably far worse than mine ever were. I need to work on my attitude. But anyway, it made for a rather disappointing end of V-Day.

But, positive notes on V-Day: I got my hair cut. It's about time! I didn't get it any shorter, but it needed to be thinned out. My hair is so thick that it gives me headaches. So every so often I have to get it thinned out. Feels much better now.

Hubby bought Erica and I both a pair of Crocs. Thanks Andrew! I wasn't expecting that.

Anyway, my title was referring mainly to today. I was supposed to have a mom's group, but for various reasons it's been canceled. [They are good, valid reasons, which I do understand.] I was really looking forward to handing Erica off to someone else for an hour and being able to converse with adults. Yes, last night she was with someone else, but considering how awful my time was dealing with that boy, it doesn't really count.

So I'm kinda down now. I could take Erica to the library today. Or go shopping for some things Andrew needs. But now I'm in a mood to just sit here and wallow.

Not that that would be good for me. We'll do something today; I'm just not sure what yet.

[UPDATE: I did go out to Target with Erica to get stuff for Andrew. It was good to get out. Anyway, my little girl is SO BIG! She used the potty there. I'm so proud of her!]

Happy V-Day!

2008-02-14T09:04:00.004-05:00

First, if you want to answer a random valentine's day question at Just Another Quick Question, you can head on over. And you can see a cute picture of a smurf cupid.

Moving on... Valentine's day started off nicely here at home. Erica woke up before Andrew left for work, so she got her present this morning. She got a pack of red cups with hearts on them. I've been wanting to get her more regular cups; she's getting to be a big girl and doesn't need sippy cups all the time. She also got a pack of candy hearts. I had picked out a heart necklace and bracelet. She was thrilled with them. [Unfortunately, the necklace didn't even last half-an-hour. Its one that clasps in the back, and she tried pulling it off-- thus breaking it. The thing was only a dollar, so I'll pick up another one today.] Her favorite gift was a special chapstick; its a big thing, and came with stickers and gems to decorate it with. She really liked putting the stickers on and is proud of herself for making it look so nice. All morning, she's been walking around with it. [Which is good, b/c the cold weather has made her lips so dried and cracked. She's been picking at them, making her lips bleed.]

She's given me the perfect gift: she's potty training! Finally!! Its fantastic. And I owe it all to Reagan. We got together with him and his mommy on Monday to go to Kidz Escape. We had a fantastic time. Anyway, he's potty training, and I think that made Erica want to as well.

Now, on to my Hubby. I made him my own card. He didn't get it yet... but here's what it said:

I love you...

More than you can ever realize.

I will love you always and forever.

God brought us together,

And I know that He has something wonderful in store for us.

Ah, the things they'll say

2008-02-12T08:43:00.001-05:00

First, I apologize for being gone so long. And for not getting pictures put up. The time's just getting past me I guess. I'm still all tired and out-of-it; taking my iron supplement pills aren't helping at all. This is not fun at all.

ANYWAY...

To my daughter. She says the funniest thing sometimes. I must share one. Actually, it was rather rude, but so hillarious.

We were at a store buying iced tea for Andrew. [I can't stand the stuff.] It was our turn up to the counter, and Erica turned to the guy behind us and waved her finger at him. She told him: "Its our turn, NOT yours." After hearing that, I bent down and hushed her. She looked up at me and said: "I'm not talking to you; I'm talking to him."

[Update: I finally did get some pictures of the Baltimore trip added on the previous post.]

Baltimore

2008-02-07T11:45:00.000-05:00

I FINALLY GOT THE PICTURES TO LOAD!!!

Finally, I'm gonna tell y'all about my trip to baltimore, the last monday of January. Hopefully I'll get all the pictures uploaded; Blogger hasn't been agreeing with me lately about pictures.

We went with Andrew's sister Beth, her husband Robert, and their kids Joshua and Peter. We met up and Joshua rode in our car so that he and Erica could watch a movie as we drove. It was funny: Joshua was telling us stuff that I don't think his parents would have appreciated.

Anyway, we got down there sometime around 10:30 I could be totally wrong on that; it was so long ago I don't quite remember. The first thing you come across is a large water area with sting rays and little sharks. Erica wasn't too thrilled; she was actually being whiney. [In her defense, she had been sick few days prior.] She just wanted to go see turtles, and tried running away from us; she just wasn't interested in those sting rays. THANKFULLY, there was one big sea turtle swimming around in there and we were lucky enough to see him just as this 'fight' was going on.

Then you go up an escalator to an area of lots of fish. She liked some of them, but again wanted to just run ahead. Thankfully, there were some of the fish that we had hyped up before going: starfish, seahorse, clown fish, etc.

Then there was a 'rain forest' area. It's really quite neat. Lots of trees, birds, lizards, flowers, etc. While up there, we let them sit and rest, and got out some cookies and drinks for them. We probably shouldn't have b/c the animals could have got crumbs that were dropped, but we made sure that they didn't leave any cookies lying around.

We went back down then to the fish exhibits. Thankfully there were lots of turtles for Erica to see. We also saw all of the sharks. By saying "all" I mean, not many. I was very dissappointed; sharks are my favorite part of the aquarium. We took a break then for lunch. Golly, they charge so much money for food! But they know they can get away with it, b/c people don't have any other choice.

After lunch, we went to see the dolphins. That was by far their favorite part. We didn't go in for the actual dolphin show; it costs extra $$, plus we didn't think they'd sit that long. But as the show was going on, we watched through big windows that look into the pool. It was really neat.

Then we went to the frog area. Tons of frogs; Erica loved it. And she got very picture-happy. She stood in front of all the big frog posters to have her picture taken. I'm hoping to get one uploaded here. I'm not having much luck at the present momment.

There was a section where the kids could put their hands in a small pool of water and pick up shells and things of that nature. We did that for several minutes. They really liked it.

One of the newer things at the aquarium is an Australian section. We went up there; also very neat. Lots of fish, turtles, and crocidiles/aligators.

That then concluded our time in the aquarium. I really wanted to get a souvenior for Erica: a shirt or stuffed animal. But Andrew said no. I'm still kinda sad about that.

We walked outside for awhile then. Went into one shopping center and bought some ice cream as a snack. Erica and I shared strawberry; quite yummy. We walked around more then, chasing seagulls. Joshua took turns pushing Erica in a stroller. It was comical to watch.

That just about concluded our day. We left to drive home; Erica slept the whole way. She was really tuckered-out. All-in-all it was a great day. Towards the end Erica really was getting tired and cranky, but I still think she enjoyed it. She still talks about it a lot.

Well, my pictures still haven't loaded. Ughhh!

very distracted

2008-02-04T12:55:00.001-05:00

I've been very distracted lately. Hence, my little hiatus from blogging. Our baltimore trip was last Monday and I still have not gotten pictures posted. That's my goal for today... or tomorrow.

Anyway, after our trip to the aquarium, we got Finding Nemo out from the library. Erica's been loving seeing the fish and other animals and saying "I saw them!" Quite cute.

Unfortunately, the girl has lost it somewhere in this house. You'd think it would be easy to find... but I still can't locate it. Its due back tomorrow; I'm in big trouble if I can't find it. I do NOT want to get on the librarians' bad side, since I go there all the time. If we can't find it, I'm gonna tell Erica that we're not getting any movies out again.

That gives me an idea... maybe this afternoon/night, I'll tell her she can't watch TV until she finds it. That should motivate her. She always likes to watch something while I'm making dinner. Hmm, I'll have to try that out.

UPDATE:
We did find the movie-- THANK GOODNESS! When I came with Erica to the library today [Tuesday] to return it, I saw the oddest thing: An amish man talking on a cell phone and typing away on his laptop computer. Hmm... can't quite fathom that one.

Template withdrawal

2008-01-29T11:22:00.000-05:00

First of all-- Baltimore trip went well. Had its ups and downs, but good overall. Once I get pictures loaded on Hubby's computer, I'll write about it all. Right now I'm at the library. Love the library; Free WiFi. Erica's in a little class/play time right now and so I get free time.

I feel like changing my template. I have so many different options to use. The snow still seems like the best option since its winter, but I like playing around with things. Hmm... What to do???

***Update***

I've decided to change it to a Valentine's theme for the month of February. My two options are shown via the aforementioned link.

You're lucky you're reading this

2008-01-27T20:43:00.000-05:00

Went camping this weekend with a bunch of friends to the one guy's cabin. Had a great time. We're very lucky that we were up watching a movie until 1:30ish, or else we may have died in our sleep.

Yes, you read that right.

Perhaps I'm exagerating; who knows what would have happened had we not caught the fire in time. Somehow, the fire place's tube that ran to the chimney cracked and started a fire in the walls. Scorched many poor lady bugs. Anyway, the guys went into full gear, and all the gals were proud of their men. They had to tear a hole in the wall and douse it with water.

There was so much smoke. My hair still smells and I shampooed it twice AND added tons of good smelling gel to it. My pillow was so smokey that when I went to sleep it made my eyes sting.

After that, the weekend wasn't too bad. Had some fun.

UPDATE on Erica... My parents and Andrew's parents took turns watching her this weekend. ANd she developed a nasty cough. Which she lovingly has passed on to me; she had started with it Friday night and I'm just starting today. No fever though.

Tomorrow we're supposed to go to the Baltimore Aquarium! Yeah for that!!! I just hope she's feeling up to it. I've been so excited; we've been planning it for awhile now. Erica will love seeing the huge sharks and other animals. I love sharks. Hopefully, I won't cry when I'm there. You'll have to read a post that I wrote a LONG while ago to understand what I mean by that.

Will update later.

sick day

2008-01-23T15:50:00.000-05:00

Today's a sick day. Not for me though; for Erica.

I'm not exactly sure what's wrong with her. Only symptoms: high fever, lethargy. She's definitely not her normal self. She's just laying around. All day long, that's all she's wanted to do.

We were out this morning, went to the library. I needed to return some books/movies. I took my laptop, b/c she likes playing computer games. But even then, she wasn't having fun. She just wanted to leave and come home. That should have been a clue.

I didn't realize it till later. I put in Bob the Builder for her to watch, and then watched Hairspray on my laptop. [Good movie; there was a smile on my face the whole time.] My movie was ending when I realized: she's still watching TV. I hadn't realized that her movie plays over and over and over again. And anyway, its not like her to sit for so long. She loves moving around.

So I went over to her and touched her back. Burning hot.

We're taking it easy now. Just laying around; I don't want to stress her, especially not knowing what it is that's wrong. Hopefully not the flu. Ick!

"My hand smells funny"

2008-01-21T12:48:00.000-05:00

My daughter. I never know what's going to come out of her mouth... and she's not even 3 yet. [Though its quickly approaching!!!]

She came up to me this morning while I was working on my laptop [more on that to come]. She put her hand in my face and said, "My hand smells funny." And it indeed did. I asked her why it was smelly. I shouldnt have. Her reply: "I stuck my hand down my diaper."

YUCK!!!

Anyway... So I love my laptop. Its great; I can work anywhere. So this morning as Erica was playing, I sat on the couch to work. I'm gonna start teaching a preschooler group Wednesdays [which will include Erica; hopefully that won't be a problem]. I'm coming up with all my own material, so I have a LOT to do. Granted, preschoolers can't be taught much; their attention spans are so short that they can't sit thru long lessons. So I'm coming up with games, snacks, crafts, etc to go along with the lessons. And lots of hands-on things that they can do to interact with the lesson.

Example: We're gonna talk about the stars, sun, moon. I'm gonna cut out pictures of those things and give them to the kids. So when I talk about stars, the kids with stars will put their stars up on the picture of the nighttime sky. Our craft that day is simple, but good for them. We're gonna make play-doh stars. Yes, quite simple, but little kids love play-doh.

One of the positives about having Erica is that I can test this out on her before the Wednesday comes up. The negative is that she may not listen to me during the classtime b/c I'm her mom. It's always easier to pay attention to another adult than their own moms.

Blog Rounds

2008-01-19T08:30:00.000-05:00

I made my blog rounds-- FINALLY! Got to just about everyone. [Raj-- I couldn't get the comment page to open up. So here's my comment: I really liked Pan's Labrynth as well, though it wasn't exactly what I thought it would be.]

My doctor called me back Thursday. He told me my blood work results. Said this was okay, that was okay, bla bla. And I was feeling a bit low. Then he said "but it does appear your anemic. So take such and such amount of iron."

WooHoo! I was right!

I bought iron supplements. And also B-Complex vitamins. I'll let you know how I'm feeling in a few days once it kicks in.

I'm worried about Hubby. Poor Andrew has work concerns. He couldnt sleep last night. I hope all of it works out okay. [More on this later-- not sure if I'm supposed to really be sharing it.]

FOUR HUNDRED!!!

2008-01-15T14:49:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it. Wild. I'm at my 400th post! Wow, I've been blogging for a long time.

Its been a fun 400 posts. I've loved being able to track my daughter's growth as well as other random happenings of our lives over the past 2 and 1/2 years. And I'm so thankful for my readers. Okay, I have a TOTALLY different set now than I started with. But I'm still thankful for all who did and currently do leave nice comments for me.

Moving on...

I was to the Dr today. I saw a different guy than normal; he's new to the practice. And I'm not liking him. Not very nice 'table side manner.' And he tried arguing with me that I was never anemic. He looked at my previous blood work and said, "It was all fine." To which I tried to be not too sarcastic and said, "Yeah, that's when it got better; check before then." Which he then did and found he was wrong. Though no apology.

After that little discussion, he did a strep test and it was negative. Then told me to get wrist braces to help my hands from going numb. Then he was gonna send me away, and I said "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE FATIGUE? Its getting so bad I can hardly take care of my daughter." [Truly, it is that bad.] Again, he really didn't seem to care. But he ordered blood work anyway. I hope it turns out that I'm anemic again, b/c I wanna prove him wrong.

SO SICK!!!

2008-01-14T21:07:00.000-05:00

Okay, so quite awhile ago, I was anemic. Tired all the time, lack of energy, light headedness. Well, all that is back again. Added to the fact that my hands keep going numb. Not a good thing.

I've finally decided that I NEED to go to the Dr.

I also have a nasty throat. My tonsils have red splotches on them. I'm REALLY hoping I didn't get my sister sick. [She was visiting Sunday and we shared a drink.] She's had strep throat many times over the past months. So I'm guessing maybe she actually gave it to me.

I wanna curl up in my bed and just drift away. Ugghh.

It's 7:20 and the house is silent

2008-01-14T07:20:00.001-05:00

HALLELUIA! HALLELUIA! HALLELUIA-HALLELUIA!

HALLELUIA!!!

[courtesy of Handel's Messiah]

I'm talking AM this time, not PM like the previous post. Anyway, its 7:20 and my daughter is still sleeping. YES!!! She's been getting up so early, and its been driving me nuts.

So when she woke up at SIX AM this morning, I was very ticked off. I went in there, told her I'd sleep on the floor next to her... and she fell right back asleep.

And she's still sleeping. YES!!!

Today I'm going to the mall with her to get her picture taken. [Not the mall I normally talk about; one in the Reading area.] Andrew's mom is gonna meet us there so we can visit together and have lunch. Should be a good day.

I may stop at Barnes&Noble beforehand, just to get coffee. I have giftcards for there, so I don't have to worry about the $$

Well, I have lots to get together. I'll visit blogs soon though, promise!

What time is it?!?!?!

2008-01-11T20:45:00.000-05:00

It's 8:45

My daughter is asleep; the night should just be starting. Its a Friday night, people!

But I may just be heading to bed. I'm SO tired!!!

Maybe I'll at least read a book.

G'night!

Lies

2008-01-10T08:43:00.000-05:00

I wanted to blog about this for awhile now, but never got around to it. So I will now.

I had read in a Parent's Magazine an article about toddler's lies. The writer said that you shouldnt be upset when toddlers lie. Its okay for them to.

Now, I'm okay with that in the scenario that they make up fascinating stories. Erica saying there are monsters in the room [which thrills her, not scares her] is okay, b/c she's using her imagination. Or when Andrew comes home and asks what she did that day, she may say she didn't do something that we did OR that we did do something we didn't. Her memory still isnt the best, so she might not actually remember what we did in the morning before her nap.

THIS SAID, the author of the article took it a step farther. She said that its okay for toddlers to lie about doing something bad OR not doing something they're supposed to. So, a few months ago when Erica lied to me and said that Daddy told her she could have something, I should have been okay with that. She doesn't know what she's doing, she doesn't realize its a lie and therefore is wrong.

To that, I say "WHAT?!?!?!" No way. My daughter knew she was lying. She asked Daddy for a snack. He said no. She came upstairs to me, tried to look cute, and said "can I have a snack?" I knew Andrew said no, and asked her what Daddy had said. She replied "Daddy said yes."

She knew she was lying. Maybe not that it was called a lie, but that what she was saying was not true. She lies other times on purpose, knowing full well of what she's doing.

Luckily, my daughter doesn't lie much. Most of her lies are about her diaper being dirty. Which is annoying, but not too major. I don't get too upset by it. But I do make sure to tell her "That was a lie. You shouldnt lie to Mommy or Daddy."

What are your thoughts on the whole issue?

Rendezvous

2008-01-09T07:14:00.000-05:00

My sister and I rendezvoused last night at Barnes and Noble. It was kinda a coincidence.

Unfortunately, they were two seperate B&N's, 1 hour apart from eachother. So sad. It would have been nice to be together. I was working on my book and could have used her input.

I got a descent amount done. I had a bit of writers' block at one point in the story, so it was good to cross that hurdle. I was working with pen and paper, not my laptop. A few reasons why: Erica was watching a DVD on it at home; my battery would have run out anyway; sometimes I just seem to work better on paper. So what I did was print out the last few pages of what I'd written so that I'd have an idea of where I was and where I needed to pick up.

Sometimes I think I'm crazy! My main character is a guy. What do I know about how guys think?!?! But my inspiration came from three other characters/people, all of which are guys. And to complicate things, he's an artist. What do I know about art? Absolutely nothing! Which is why I love wikipedia!

Well, I gotta go. I'm in the middle of typing up what I wrote last night.

[Erica is currently playing "guess who?" by herself. This girl can play Uno and Guess who! She's so smart.]

JAQQ2

2008-01-07T19:01:00.000-05:00

Trying to get JAQQ2 up and running again. If you like what you see/read, leave a comment and pass the word around!

Hobbies Part 2

2008-01-07T07:47:00.000-05:00

I mentioned a few posts ago about my hobby of crocheting. Well, here are my pictures!

Erica is sitting on my blanket. Notice the wave effect of it. Nice, huh? I couldnt get a picture with her eyes open. She always says "cheese" and wrinkles her nose and squints her eyes.

The other picture is my washclothe. Cute, huh? Its just a little thing. I thought to do it b/c Corinne mentioned on her blog an exchange. I'm not gonna enter, b/c I'm really not that great. But it made me want to make one anyway. So now I use it when washing my face. Works well.

Now I'm off to play Candyland, which is one of Erica's favorite hobbies. I think that will be the theme of her birthday party. It should be easy to pull off, don't you think? I'm already coming up with ideas. If you have any, let me know! It's coming up in exactly 2 months! Yikes, 3 years old!!!

[Anyone else having trouble uploading picts, or is it just me? Blogger wouldn't let me, so I had to upload them to Photobucket and then copy the HTML and put it here. Ugh!]

I wanna be a care bear!

2008-01-06T16:14:00.001-05:00

I wanna be a care bear!

Oh it'll be so great to be a care bear!

I can't wait to be a care bear

and do the things that care bears do!

Oh I wanna be a care bear like you!

You do?

That's the opening song to the old care bears DVD's that we have. I love it. So fun to sing. But it poses a good question... DO YOU wanna be a care bear? And which one?

Funshine- He loves to joke around and have fun

Wish bear- She loves relaxing and daydreaming.

Grumpy- He can be a grouch, but does like to help others

Love-a-lot - Loves to fly a kite on a perfect afternoon

Cheer bear- She likes to make her friends smile

Friend Bear- She loves painting beautiful pictures

Birthday Bear- Loves parties and celebrating with others

Tenderheart Bear- He loves spreading love and telling others that he loves them

Share Bear- She loves to share while playing with her friends [not shown; is a purple bear with two lolipops on her belly]

Good Luck Bear- He likes hoping for something good to happen

Bedtime Bear- Happiest when he's snug in bed and having a sweet dream

If I could be a care bear, I'd want to be Wish Bear. I'm happiest when I'm relaxing and day dreaming. Thinking up a novel is a type of daydreaming, is it not?

Hobbies

2008-01-04T23:33:00.000-05:00

I was reading Corinne's blog; she loves to knit. It gave me the sudden urge to pick up my crocheting. Its been months since I've done it. And I totally forget what I'm doing. The pattern is complex, and I'm at a loss for what all of the directions and abbreviations mean.

I think I've got it now. I finished two rows of my blanket.

Then I worked on my book. Yup, my book is coming along. I'm loving what I'm writing. I really hope that someday it can be published. I just need to finish it first. Who has the time, really? Now with my wireless internet, it might be easier, b/c I keep my laptop upstairs.

Speaking of laptop, earlier today Erica and I were downstairs and she was watching a movie on my laptop. While she did, I exercised. *GASP* Quite amazing. I used her trampoline, which really gets the heart rate going and is good for legs. Anyway, then I did other stuff too. I didn't time myself, but probably added up to 45 minutes. Need to do this more often and make it a hobby!

Good night!

Pictures

2008-01-03T21:44:00.000-05:00

I'm in the process of posting Christmas pictures. So far, only three have made it up.

Click here to check them out

[Shown here: Erica and me jumping on her 'fumpawine' at my parents' house.]