Thursday, March 27, 2008

Spring Break Slide Show

I could not figure out how to do both slide shows on one post so here are 2 posts for 2 slide shows enough pictures to last awhile I hope.

Slide Show Easter

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Weather, Teeth, and waking up!

OKay I have been stalling because I really wanted to put some great Easter pictures on here. However Rob's latest home project is he has a PC running and sharing the monitor with the mac. I don't know how to switch between them so I can't get to the mac to get the latest and greatest pictures off the camera and into the blog! So with that said I shall bore you with what has happened in the last week....
It was Spring break last week, so we did not have school. We were able to go to Book Babies at our library twice last week. I really enjoy it although I wish they would read a book! They sing songs and do finger plays. I did realize that the Book Babies is for newborn - 18 months, and Joy did turn 18mo on Wednesday last week, but instead of being the youngest at Toddler Time we went ahead with the easier to do Book Babies (time is better and I don't know what to expect at Toddler Time).
On Tuesday we went to the Rodeo Carnival and Livestock show. Joy rode a few of the rides and seemed to have a good time. I told myself all morning before we left don't forget the camera, but you guessed it I forgot the camera, so no pics of Joy on her first Carnival rides.
Joy also had her first guest sleepover in her room. Lily came and spent the night on Tuesday- Wednesday so that her Mom could attend school, since they had seperate Spring Breaks she needed someone to watch Lily so she could go to classes and not have her sister take off work. Since Lily wanted to sleep in Joy's room I let her knowing it would most likely mean that Joy would wake up in the night. She did around 5:00 she woke up and I went and rocked her and gave her milk. Then she woke up again around 6:30 at which time I just gave up and got her up. What's a half hour anyway?
On Wednesday we went to a park then Monkey N'Around we met Rob for lunch at Taco Cabana then the 3 girls came back here so Joy could nap and Lily and I watched a few movies. After nap we went to the Library's Fun Day which included Clifford, Lilly and her Purple Plastic Purse, balloon animals, face painting and some other stuff which we did not do because we got there later in the day due to the necessary nap. After the library we went to another park this one across the street from the library. We then returned home since it was after 5:00 and Rob was home already. I then left Joy with Rob and Lily and I went to a bookstore then to dinner with her Mom and Aunt. I figured out I can do 2 kids so when Joy has a sibling I think with more confidence now I can manage.
Thursday we took it easy and did the Book Babies and then lunch with Rob and a quiet afternoon at home. Friday was a lazy day at home. The library was closed and doesn't do Friday book babies anyway, but Joy was also acting very tired around 9:00 and she was extremely fussy so I sent her to bed. She slept for about an hour. This is good because every day last week she was up around 6:00, I think she is teething and the weather has been extremely cold in the mornings. So between those 2 things she hasn't slept well all week. This also means I did not sleep well all week! Sorry if I have been a grump to you this week now you know why. Again on Saturday she took a morning nap for about an hour.
Easter well that will have to wait since it is time to get Joy up. Oh the reason I am posting at 7:00 in the morning is Joy was up at 5:00 crying on and off. I finally got up around 6:30 to straighten my hair since I can't just wash and wear my hair. When I was finished with my hair I went to check on her and she was laying down asleep again or at least quiet so I left her there, and came in here. So that is my story for this morning. I hope your days are better than mine is starting!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Happy Blog Birthday to me!


I realized at some point in the last week that it has to be close to my anniversary/birthday for blogging. I just looked it up and it was actually one year ago Friday I wrote my 1st blog. So Happy 1st Blog Birthday to me. Now I am curious since I added my counter who is reading this. I know I have some family that are lurkers (Dad, Mom, Cousin Lynn, Sister-in Law Dotty). I also know I have some friends who read (Michelle, Geneva, Scott, Electric Monk) now who are the others that are lurking? Go ahead just curious who you are and what you like/why you continue to read. Here's something fun (for me at least) come out of your lurking and let me know who is here, and what your favorite post is. What you like and what you want more of. I am not a writer, but I do like to keep my audience happy. So go ahead let me know what you like, and if you want what you don't like, but please keep it constructive criticism!

Speaking of Birthday's my Mommy just had another one, and the birthday dinner was here at my house. If you look back a year you can see her big birthday bash from last year part of the reason I remembered my blog b-day. I actually think I finally pulled off a family meal without getting frustrated with anyone from my family. Now unless you are Rob you are thinking what you get frustrated with your family. Yes, I do quite frequently, we all have our quirks and mine is easily frustrated with family (okay one of my many, many quirks). I actually actively did things a certain way so that my frustration level would be low to begin the dinner. I set everything, and by everything I mean EVERYTHING up during Joy's nap. I had the condiments in containers, I had the table set, I had the burgers ready to be cooked, every little thing was thought out and done before anyone would arrive. This prevented my sister who is Martha of our family to not take over or feel she needed to in my kitchen. This was my dinner not a joint effort so I did all the work, and I believe I did okay. The next frustration I sometimes have is my Mom and Grandmother whom I love come early to everything! By early I don't mean a few minutes I mean a couple hours sometimes. I understand, they want to see Joy, but I am usually not prepared for them when they arrive. Well on Friday I had everything done ahead of time like I said and I gave the dinner time as 6:00 and said come when you want before that. So whenever they arrived was fine. I also did some pre-checking into when they would arrive. Oh and for my Mom and G-mom I don't mind you arriving early just let me know so I can be prepared! The evening went well and with few glitches I still had to get up from the table a few times to get things, but mostly because the table is not wide enough for all the stuff and the people! I do love my table though. My mom took a picture while I was finishing up, but I don't think I got one on my camera so sorry no pictures from dinner. I do have some Present pictures though, maybe some will make it on here later.

Well another thing that reminded me that it was my blog's b-day was our church's Easter Egg Hunt. Last year I sat Joy in front of an egg and let her pick it up on her own terms. This year I prepared her for the hunt! Yes I actually bought an Easter basket a little early and we practiced. So it's finally her turn to really hunt for some eggs, and her age group always goes in the playground area. I never thought of this as a problem, it was actually a great idea. Well let me explain what happened to change my mind... Joy was geared up we talked about eggs and she knew where they were, she was ready to hunt. We went into the playground with all the other 3 & under kids and we were doing good, she picked up 4-5 eggs then she was there in the shadow of the new playground equipment. She went from saying eggs, to saying wee (her word for slides and all things that you say wee on). Uh-oh come on Joy focus Mommy wants the stuff from inside the eggs. I moved her to near where the tunnels are, she thought about it and started into a tunnel. No, Joy eggs, remember eggs? Finally we go to the last unrecognizable to her play structure area and I think we got a second wind, and she picked up one more egg, or maybe a really nice older girl felt pity on me and handed it to her, either way we had more treats for mommy. In the end I also tossed a few more eggs in the basket since the area was full and most of the kids had lost interest. It was fun, we had a great time, and I can't wait til next year, maybe she won't be as distracted by the wee. Rob videoed the whole thing and I got a couple pictures. Oh and she did get to play on the wee after words. In all it was a successful egg hunt. I hope she has a little more focus next Sunday! I might let her keep what is in her eggs here! Although the Easter Bunny has some specifically for Mommy and Daddy!

When I get a chance most likely not before Thursday I will get the pictures up. Until then let your imaginations run wild with the pictures in your head.



Friday, March 14, 2008

If I must...

I must say I am debating posting these pictures for 2 reasons; 1 I don't really love the cut. 2 I just look bad in the pictures. However I know Geneva kindly asked, and I do have some pictures of Joy and her latests "toy" So here it is pictures I don't want to share, but I will but G you owe me, you must now put some pictures on your blog!



This is the reason I am not happy, you can kinda tell here that he butchered the sides, when he "thinned" my hair he really just created this really short layer that already annoys me. I am thinking in a couple months I am calling a lady from church who is a hairdresser and asking what she can do to help me fix this. I just fear if I don't like what she does I see her every week! *Sigh* this is why I never get my haircut!

Here we are in the bathroom our new favorite play place.

This is Joy's potty. She will lift the lid, she will sit on the edge, she will take apart the potty. However, she will NOT sit on the potty over the hole. That's okay I wasn't expecting her to go potty today, just want to get the idea in her head for later.

She will also apparently put her foot in the potty. I told her no on that one, thus the surprised look.

Now when she realizes I am taking pictures she will ask to see the baby on the camera. I was trying to keep her from doing this until she was much older. Someone else must have showed her the baby. Oh and the video camera she also wants to see the baby on, but we can turn the viewer around on it, so she can watch herself. It's actually kinda funny.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

I got a hair cut!!!

Okay this may not be as exciting as it sounds, but it's rare for me to get them. If you have seen my hair lately you will understand how bad I need one, but I just can't figure out the time to do things for myself. I get a weekly dinner out with friends, and I feel guilty if I take more than that. I also dread doing it because I never know the person who is going to cut it and I just get nervous they won't do what I want. I also hate sitting there with virtually nothing to do. Well tonight was better than some. I got there and kinda told him what I wanted (shorter and easy to care for). He chopped some off before even washing my hair I think he said pre-cut I dunno. Anyway we went to wash it, and this is one of those things I like but I don't. I like someone massaging my head, I don't like when the chair and the sink and my head don't fit right. Tonight it was all comfortable, I actually got to enjoy my little head massage, all while watching a strange ad/runway show. I was actually not thinking about the hair washing but the strange things happening on the tv. Then it was time for the cut. He seemed to know what he was doing, he asked some more questions, he commented 100 times on how much hair I had. He said some things I agreed to but have no idea what he said. Finally he was done and I am semi-happy at the moment. He straightened my hair, which I like, but I am not sure if it will look good not being straightened (goodbye sleeping til Joy wakes up). We will have to wait and see. In the mean time, it does look good at the moment. The rest of me does not look so good I think I forgot my Claritin last night grrr, I hate it when I forget it, I suffer for days! Anyway I will see if Rob will take pictures and if so I will scrutinize them to not find one I like and then that will be the end of that thought. It's the thought that counts right?

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Plagiarized Blog

Okay I was curious today about a friend's blog history so I went back in time 2 years to see what she was blogging about at the time. I continued to read for 2 more "months" then had to go help Rob with more of the yard work (the last bush next to the house is gone!! No more attack bushes! Anyway in January '06 about 3 months in to her blogging experience she wrote the following. Yes I am stealing it from you Michelle cause I love it! I agree with every word and like she says if you don't like it you can unbookmark me now. I didn't want to just put a post because some people (my Mom) I know would not be able to follow the link, that and I could not get just that one entry to come up to link to. So here is my plagiarized blog for today! My comments are in purple!

From Michelle THEY OUTNUMBER US NOW
i've done some searching today, and for the life of me i can't find any site that explains the "rules" of blogging. what are the grammar requirements? how long or short should a blog be?? what can you post?? what should you post?? do you know if you are "blogworthy"? I never actually searched for the rules, but sounds like something I would do if I started blogging for a reason other than updating family & friends.

in no order, here are some insights into me & my blogging. (but for those who know me the first should come at no surprise)

i was NOT a english major in school, nor did well in the required grammar class i took; i barely scraped by with a 70. my blogging will reflect that. if you are a grammar whiz, un-bookmark my blog - i promise i'll disappoint you. I am with you there Michelle, but I cheated and took regular English instead of the honors English so I could do better than a 70.

a big reason i blog is to get out feelings my three year-old and my almost two year-old just can't understand. most days they are the only two people i talk to, and not to slight them, but they just don't get what i'm saying sometimes. forgive me (not really) if i do post something i'm feeling that day about losing my only sibling, my brother (50 days ago today). honestly i'm pretty messed up about it, so i us MY online diary to express myself. My reason to blog started as an update for friends and family, it's slowly becoming my journal of life.

i may post twenty random thoughts without one of them being funny. and if they happen to be funny, kudos to the way i typed it out, because most of the time nothing i post is intended to make you laugh. i don't post to be funny - if you only want to read posts that make you laugh, don't expect my blog to fulfill you in that way. Ditto!

also, i'm not trying to impress anyone - even my fellow bloggers on my links list. i'm certainly not trying to lure others in to reading my blog with my creative writing skills - i ain't got any. i know after a while, my "link friends" will stop reading & commenting. one day our blogging fun will end, and i'm cool with that. in reality, i blog to procrastinate my time away. the time i spend blogging should in reality be spent on cleaning my house, or spending time with my kids. so in other words, i know someday my blogging will stop abruptly - probably when i kick out this third kid.... i'm not posting to have lots of people i don't know read my blog. if i bore you, let this be the last post you read. but honestly, i don't think i've lost my audience - stacy and bufkin are still reading.... Michelle I am glad you continue to blog, sometimes I wish for more updates than you give me, and if anyone (Geneva) ever wants more updates from me just give me a poke, I have just forgotten or feel nothing is exciting enough to blog on. I am working on not caring, but that part is a little against my nature. I care, but I am enjoying my more random blogs more than my strictly Joy updates of the beginning.

another thought on how long someone reads a blog/has a blog. a few years ago, about 15 girls from the BSU years of 1993-1997 participated in a yahoo group. we loved the group. we had tons of interesting conversations. well, sadly, members of the group stopped posting and it died. may p31ladies rest in peace. we are joyful though - most of the girls who were a part of p31ladies blog now!!!! Can someone please convince more of my friends to blog, I do enjoy reading them so much!

so, here's what i believe blogs should be about: any darn thing you want it to be about. please blog about things that are not funny, grammatically incorrect or just plain dumb. tell me about the things you are struggling about in your walk with the Lord - because trust me, i'm going to tell you. tell me about the stupid kids who live next door to you & how fun it is to be a homeowner. tell me about how ticked off you are your car is a broke-down mess. or, tell me how exciting it is to watch your six month-old get up on all fours and rock back and forth. know that i'm there with you; i've been in the working world and know how stupid people are; i've had a car i wish i could have traded in - and odds are i've just finished cleaning up poop that leaked out of ethan's diaper, or have just sneaked in to watch my kids peacefully sleep. Here you go Michelle, I am very frustrated with my car, and the fact that their is no chance in sight of getting a new one short of going back to work full time. I don't want to do that because I want to be with Joy, but that is a huge frustration in my life right now. I see so much I want and we need, that we can't take care of because I choose to stay home. I don't see this struggle with some other families and it feels a little lonely at times. That is my struggle at this moment. That and stupid people at the grocery store. Luckily Joy keeps most of her poop in her diaper, although I think she is back on the slightly constipated side (the little balls of poop!) She drinks juice every morning and eats fruit all day! What can I do to help this!

so anyway, there are no rules i've found. blog away about what you are all about. Thank you Michelle, you put it very nicely! You can look forward to my quest to find a grocery store that does not upset me.

Oh and for randomness I have an appointment at a hair salon on Tuesday at 8:00 YEAH I am getting a hair cut!!!!!

My Grocery Store Rant

I am one of those people who choose their grocery store by location. I want to go to the store closest to me, and unless that store has a bad smell, sticky floors or some other very obvious reason not to go there I go there regularly.
My current grocery store is the Kroger that if I was crazy enough I could walk to, and probably get home with the ice cream still frozen on a mild temperature day. I also liked the store when I first started going there. The HEB down the road, which I have only been to once. I was not impressed by, no reason just really didn't want to be there, why go twice as far for the same stuff?
With that said let me tell you the things I don't like about my grocery store:
  • It doesn't carry YoBaby yogurt the yogurt I want for my child, because it is whole milk yogurt and no added sugar.
  • It also does not carry the new "snackable" lunchables, which are the right size for an easy Joy lunch.
  • My bags each week weigh a ton. You think I am exaggerating? They have on more than one occasion decided to put the half gallon of milk with the gallon of milk. Sobe's which are made of glass and about 4 is a good bag of them, they will put 6-8.
  • The bags have mixed content. Frozen items will go with canned goods. Canned goods will go with dairy things. Meats will go with fruit (that one weirded me out and I washed the fruit 10 times better than usual!). In general when I come home I never know what I will find in what bag. So those days when I am in a hurry to just get the cold stuff in the fridge or freezer I must go through EVERY bag to be sure nothing frozen is with a pantry item. No quick glances because I will and have missed items that way. That is my biggest pet peeve with the store.
  • I am also no longer fond of the employees they have I can't recall the last time one has started a friendly conversation with me while they check out my groceries or whatever. I am lucky if they even talk to me at all. I think last night all the girls said was do you have a Kroger card.
Now I can overlook most of these things. I go to Target for the food I can't find at the grocery store. I no longer live in an upstairs apartment so the heavy bags are not as detrimental as they use to be. The rude employees, they are everywhere so I guess sometimes you just have to hire these people, but they could at least try and train them to be nicer!

On top of all this I went grocery shopping after putting Joy to bed last night. I get there (7:45 on a Saturday) and first thing they don't have many carts in the store. If I had been thinking I would have gotten a gallon of milk and left to try again another day. So their is one line of carts I wait while the woman in front of me gets her cart. I was standing at a polite distance but anyone who looked would have known I was next in line. So she has her cart and this couple comes up and walks within two feet of me and gets their cart! HEY I WAS WAITING PATIENTLY! (Did I mention I was already in a mood?) Whatever, I hope their cart has a bad wheel, and move on to get my cart. I meander through the cheese and deli section, and get to the cooler with the berries. Joy loves berries and I like to get her some fresh fruit so I was aiming for blue berries. The same couple was standing with their cart blocking the entire cooler! Grrr, finally enough space to get the blueberries and go. Onward, no other major issues, the shopping is going okay, the TV's in the aisles baffle me, they could have spent that money on something like product research and asking me what I want in the store. I get to the baby aisle, I don't need anything but to go up the aisle to get to the dairy cheese case. I notice a fallen wet floor sign and as I get closer notice a yellow liquid puddled what would have been under it. I will let you guess what you think it was I am pretty sure I know (it's the baby aisle, you know diapers etc.) A little grossed out by the fact that no one seems to be around taking care of this immediately I keep going. The next happening was a mother and son team are shopping together. The son is about 13 in my guess and they both have carts. Neither looks full enough to warrant this but whatever. That is until the completely block my path to the aisle I am headed to. I did a little thumb twiddling until they finally noticed and moved on. Next I encountered a child skating around the store on those annoying skate shoes. She is pretty adept but is cutting people off left and right. I finally found the parent, it was a dad with his 2 kids (the girl and a younger boy) shopping alone, and obviously with a list mom made. The girl was the errand runner for all the missed items and dad and the boy were in a race car by the way the dad was driving (in fun for the boy, which I actually found cute). Anyway I finally finish my shopping and I go to check out. This is where I encountered friendly the cashier. No hello, no how are you, no did you find everything you were looking for, just when she was done in a somewhat rude tone do you have your Kroger card? I felt like she was reprimanding me for not having it out, and putting her out for having to even say that to me. Don't think that she was not capable of speaking due to some laryngitis or something, because she was constantly talking even answered the phone at her station to talk about a previous customer with whoever called. I leave the store without a goodbye. I was cold, I was tired and I am thinking of going twice as far down the road to check out the HEB. Maybe they can say hello. Problem is I get a discount on my gas for shopping at Kroger, is it worth the $0.10 a gallon?

Monday, March 3, 2008

Pictures, because I know why you really read my blog...

Okay here it is the reason why you came pictures of my Joy.

Let sleeping dogs and babies lie. But occasionally take their picture cause it's just so cute!

Remember this? Well here's the before....

And here it is with Giant baby in the middle of the village.

She did like the Noah's ark the best that day, she does love her animals!

The birds are allowed to be on top, but not the giraffe as Dad found out later.

See I really did some of the work in the yard! Be proud of me. (I don't think these pictures do it custice but can you see the 6in wall of dirt? It's now at the level of the sidewalk. Oh and we need gutters along there if we are serious about planting it! Ugh another cost!

Those dern railroad ties that started it all!

After Rob and I were wearing hats in the yard Joy decided to wear Daddy's hat. She will also now wear her birthday crown.



My little reader's library of books! She loves to bring a book to you and read. I have put a 3 book limit on bedtime. Usually one fun book and 2 night night books.

She is such a big girl reading and rocking herself at night!

Okay really what happened is she needed milk and so I put her in the chair while I went to get it and I came back to this cuteness! That's my Joy!
And so ends another blog of Joy. Enjoy!

Sunday, March 2, 2008

My Job

It's official I told my boss I won't return to my current job next year. I don't think this was a complete surprise because I just don't fit in with the crowd of teachers they have there. I don't want to say anything against the program since it is my church, however it's just not the one for Joy and I. I don't know if I am being a bit of a snob since I got my education in Connecticut and therefore have many of those Yankee ideas in my head. However, they seemed to do it right. They followed the research and well Texas just seems far behind. I was in a preschool in CT where they tried for and got their National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accreditation. This is a big deal if you are ever looking for childcare outside of home care then I recommend NAEYC accredited centers. I am now spoiled by this and believe all centers especially where I take my daughter should live up to this standard. I also like a little more communication about things, like at the beginning of the year letting me know what goes on and then updating if it changes. My two biggest complaints are they allow Joy to watch TV (something she does not do at home) and they give her a morning snack (again not at home). I also did not know about either of these things. I found out about the snack by looking in the window randomly. I first believed it was just that my looking in randomly found them eating snack randomly because some kid didn't have breakfast that day. I know I am naive. The TV just blows my mind, I see no reason to have a TV on for these kids. The crazy thing is when I mentioned one day that my child was watching tv with the 2's, the director was more concerned with the 2's watching it than Joy. I know I read too much and I follow what I read, some of it's a little crazy but the no TV for under 2 is something I really like, and have adhered to in my house. However, the policy of the PDO is that the kids under 2 are allowed to watch the Baby Einstein videos whenever, where the rest of the kids aren't allowed to watch anything other than the Christian ones. Now I am not complaining about the content just the fact that I DON"T WANT HER TO WATCH TV! Is that really so hard, it's in practically every parenting book you read these days no tv for under 2, and limited after that. *sigh* Okay I am done now before I say more than I want to. You may like the center I work at, you may think it's the best in the area. If it is I am disappointed in the area's PDO options. I do have my loyalty issues and most likely won't go to another PDO in the area. I may try the one right by my neighborhood, but not this week.
I am thinking of looking into a 2 day thing and doing sub work in the public schools in this area. I think I can handle 2 days now to find the right person or center for those 2 days!