It's almost Christmas!

Wow, it's been a really long time since I've blogged! It's been busy around work with students trying to get enrolled in spring classes (why won't they learn not to come in at the last minute?). Also, the end of the semester came and went, so I had finals to compose and then grade. But now things are starting to wind down. Don't get me wrong, we'll still be pretty busy for a while and then the FRENZY will bust out right before classes start, but we've been pretty low key today, which is nice.

We've had some sickness at our house this past weekend. Austin was sick Friday night/Saturday morning with a stomach bug and the he passed it onto me. I didn't get as sick as he was, but I just felt gross and ended up going home early from work yesterday. The rest did me some good, though, because I feel a lot better today. The one remaining area of sadness from this weekend of sick? Our house. Our house is a wreck right now, because I haven't felt like cleaning it up! We're hosting Christmas for my side of the family on Christmas, which means I need to get it in gear and pick up before Thursday! We're supposed to go to my in-laws' tomorrow (weather permitting) so I'm going to try to do a bunch of the work tonight, hopefully!

This morning, Nick and I both dropped Austin off at daycare. Nick needed my car because his was at the shop getting repaired today. His driver's side window fell off the track or something, which is really not so good in weather like this! Anyway, while driving from the car place to daycare, Nick (who was drinking a pop) burped and said, "Excuse me." We started chatting and then suddenly I was distracted by a noise from the backseat. My darling son was saying, "Eerrrrr! 'Scuze me! Eerrrrr! 'Scuze me!" over and over to himself! What a great trick to learn! He is so funny and perceptive!

Some of Austin's other new "tricks":

• If you ask him what Santa says, he'll say, "Oh, oh, oh!"
• If you ask him what the Count (from Sesame Street) says, he'll say, "Twee, Fouw...AH! AH! AH!"
• He will sing "Fwosty! Sno-man!" (Frosty the Snowman)
  
• He will sing "Santa town!" (Santa Claus is Comin' to Town)
• He gets very excited when you talk about cows and loves to make the moo sound.
• He also gets very excited when he sees or hears trains and does the "Choo chooooooooo!" with his arm.

He is too cute and funny!

Notes from the Dollar Tree

Just another reason that Cecilia and I are totally soulmates. I decided yesterday to blog about strange things I overheard people say this weekend while shopping, and what does she blog about Saturday? The EXACT same thing! Why are we almost living the same life??

Anyway, I was shopping at the Dollar Tree (I know, hey big spender!) this weekend and overheard a few interesting tidbits. First of all, everyone kept talking about how they were "stockin' up for the BIG FREEZE!!" I guess I was out of the loop, because I didn't even know we were having a big freeze. It did freeze last night, but it's really not the kind of weather where you can't possibly get out of your house for necessary supplies and such. But, hey, while you're at the Dollar Tree, why not stock up, just in case? It won't cost much!

Our cashier, Rhonda*, was ringing up the people ahead of me. They were interested in buying some votive candles, but the man didn't want to buy them if they cost $1 each. He asked Rhonda how much they cost and told her to take them off the order if they were $1 each. She replied, "They don't cost no dolla!!" Whew. At a measly $0.33 each, he was happy to be able to buy all 6 red and white votive candles. I'm sure they will make a lovely addition to his holiday decor.

This same cashier was completing the order of the same customers. Their total rang up to something like $20.17. Then, they threw her a curveball: the man wanted to pay with cash AND his debit card! Drama ensued, because Rhonda didn't know how to do that! She had to ask "Miz Judith*". Luckily, Miz Judith was able to step away from her cash register and help Rhonda with the transaction. The man wanted to pay $4 cash and put the rest on his debit card (??). Once the transaction was completed, Rhonda exclaimed, "Well, how about that? I learned something new today." I'm willing to bet Rhonda has a lot she can learn. The woman customer said in response, "You learn something new everyday, sometimes..." Really? Everyday sometimes?

My very favorite quote heard in the Dollar Tree happened right before I checked out, though. There was a lady checking out in Miz Judith's lane and she was chatting with the guy behind her, who obviously knew her. They were talking about her youngest child and how old is he now and he's 4 months and he has a couple of teeth, etc. Suddenly, the guy said, "So, I hear your sister found Jesus." The woman said, "Yeah...she's kinda weird..." I think everyone in both lanes kind of stopped and gave them a funny look, because that's not something you hear all the time! "I hear your sister found a new job," or "I hear your sister moved," are more common, but "I hear your sister found Jesus"? A little unexpected!

*Names changed to protect the awesome.

Austin-isms

My mom keeps telling me to write the funny and cute things that Austin does down, but where will I ever do that? It's the age of technology, so this my "baby book" for him, I think! Plus this way, I get to share the stories I have about him, so here are some of the latest cute things!

• He really likes to talk about and touch the letters on his wall that spell out his name. Often, after a diaper change, I stand him up on the changing table and we spell out his name, touching the letters. Now he has started to learn the order of the letters and will say them at other times. For example, when we're coloring, sometimes I will write out his name. Sometimes after I say, "A...." he chimes in with "U....S...." It usually stops there but occassionally he keeps going with more levels. The cutest part is that he ALWAYS finishes with "AU-TIN!!!"
  
• He applies this same theory to counting these days. If I start with "1..." he'll say "2...3...AU-TIN!!!!" I love how "Austin" is the finale for all lists, apparently!
• He is really starting to say so many phrases now. He seems to be really comfortable saying 4-word phrases these days! Recently, I've heard "I want blue, Daddy!" (referring to crayons), "I want more milk!", and, just today, "I want an apple, Mommy!" I know these are all "I want..." phrases, but wow! Impressive!

I know there are more, but I'll have to post them later. I think I hear him waking up from a nap!

All About Me!

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. Career Specialist -- I was one of the student workers at the Career Center at Millikin University for 3 years. That job was great, especially because my boss Ray was hilarious! Isn't it interesting that I now work in the career area at Heartland? A little foreshadowing!
2. Detassler -- Oh boy. I did this for 3 summers and it was HARD work! I made good money (for a 13-15 year old!) but I hated it!
3. Sales Associate at The Limited -- I think I actually ended up paying them to work there because I bought so many clothes during my seasonal employment.
4. Line Worker at Schlotsky's Deli -- I could really whip out those sandwiches!

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Selena
2. The Wedding Singer
3. Elf
4. Any of the Hugh Grant movies -- Notting Hill, Love Actually, Bridget Jones, etc.

Four places I have lived:

1. Elwin, IL -- Hugest town ever. Okay, really it's like one street big. Many an hour was spent riding my bike up and down the street, playing in the park, and hanging out at the underpass. Good times in the 80s! Just watch out for that hole by the side in the road...you just might get your foot stuck in it!
2. Decatur, IL -- Technically, I did live in Decatur while attending college. I lived in a dorm the first two years and then in the Alpha Chi Omega house for the last two years. Ahh, the sweet smell of soy!
3. Normal, IL -- My first apartment on my own during graduate school. I didn't know that I was moving in the "ghetto" of Normal, but after Decatur, it didn't seem too bad!
4. Bloomington, IL -- I've owned two houses in Bloomington (not at the same time or anything! Don't get crazy!) and I really do enjoy living here! I know it's not as happenin' as like Chicago, but it's a great sized town for me!

Four TV shows I love: This was a hard decision after the first three, because I am a TV addict! I do love way more shows than this!
1. Lost -- I cannot wait for it to come back in January!
2. The Office
3. Gilmore Girls
4. The Closer

Four places I’ve vacationed:

1. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (hurricane honeymoon!)
2. South Padre Island, TX (Spring Break #1)
3. Panama City Beach, FL (Spring Break #2)
4. Orlando, FL

Wow, my answers for that one are waaay more boring than Cecilia's!

Four of my favorite dishes:

1. My dad's lasagna -- always so delicious!
2. Taco Pie
3. Quiche
4. Desserts! :)

Four sites I visit daily:

1. Babyzone
2. Google Reader
3. Facebook
4. RefundCents

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Hanging out with my friends laughing about something
2. On a warm, tropical vacation with NO hurricanes present
3. Shopping with a huge gift card at a store where things actually fit!
4. On a date with my husband having a great meal

Four people I am tagging:

1. Erin
2. Um....
3. Cecilia's already done it...
4. Uh.....well....

Okay, only Erin, really! Sorry, I have very few blogging friends!

Way. More. Tired.

Well, Heartland and my son conspired to make yesterday's tiredness seem like a cake walk! Austin woke up at 11:45 p.m. crying last night and just was inconsolable for about a half an hour! Luckily, Nick came home from his bowling league soon after the crying began and was instrumental in helping calm the boy down. We still don't know what happened or what was upsetting him! We decided to let him sleep with us, but that's always a challenge. I typically don't sleep very soundly when Austin is in bed with me or both of us because I'm always subconsciously "monitoring" him to make sure he's not falling off the bed (we've been there...twice!) or something. It took Austin a long while to settle into a comfy place on the bed, apparently, so I'm going to guess that we all got to sleep around 1 a.m.-ish or so. That's pretty dang late, even for me! Then, to keep the fun rolling, Austin decided it would be fun to wake up at 5:30 a.m. and continue on his upset jag from the previous night! Buddy!! What is the deal? From 5:30 until we left for daycare around 7:30 a.m., he oscillated between happy and terribly sad/distressed. The only thing that seemed to consistently cheer him up was playing with the "Moov", a.k.a. the Smooth, which is what we call the lotion. He really liked it and wanted to rub handfuls of it into my sheets. Awesome, but not really the activity I wanted to partake in this morning!

I dropped him off at daycare and he was pretty crabby, but I know he's in good hands over there. I'm really, REALLY hoping that the change of scenery helped and that he's back to his normal happy-go-lucky self tonight! I'll even settle for quietly crabby, as long as we can all get some sleep!

I say that Heartland also is in this conspiracy to make me even more tired because we had an orientation today and it was hell. Pure and simple hell. We are down one advisor (because someone chooses to take vacation time to go to HEALING SCHOOL during one of the busiest times of the semester -- thanks for that!), and Lindsay is still feeling like death warmed over, so really we're down 1.5 advisors. Plus, they haven't yet hired another half-time replacement for Jenn, so TECHNICALLY, we're down 2 full advisors right now. The students weren't the worst I've seen at all, but there were just so many of them and they kept coming. We probably saw all 37ish of them in a short 2 hour period, in addition to the students who just came in and weren't a part of the orientation. All of this makes for a VERY LONG DAY, and I get to teach the Zumba class tonight! I had fun doing it on Monday night, but I'm just not feeling it tonight with all the tiredness. I hope it goes well!

Sorry for the whiny, complaint-filled post, but this is my day! Hopefully I will be able to post more cheerful things tomorrow (maybe I'm following Erin's rough day pattern?)...

So. Very. Tired.

As I'm writing this, there are people waiting in our waiting area to be seen by one of the advisors here at Heartland Community College. Which, basically, for the last week has been me and Cecilia. Okay, okay, Gayle is here now and The Farbs has been here all day, but it feels like just me and Cecilia.

It's suddenly become a madhouse around here today, and it was a lot of the time last week. Everyone is in the mad rush to register for the spring semester...hey, students, we started this enrollment period on OCTOBER 7!! Next time, plan ahead! Lindsay, who is the third of our group, has been out with the barfs since last week! She did attempt to come in today, and we love her for that, but we want her to feel better! I told her this morning, though, that it just goes to show how much work she does around here because we definitely feel the difference without her!

I would make this post longer, but I don't have time!

Austin's new great love...

Now I get to share with you the new love of Austin's life...the Shark VX3 vacuum cleaner! Nick bought this for me for Christmas at my request and gave it to me early (yay!). I really have to a plug in for the Shark here. It's great! I like it because it is much quieter than the regular vacuum, works really well, and it so light and easy to move around. It's really handy for cleaning up after a meal or something, and because it's so easy, I get it out more often than the big vacuum.

Anyway, Austin is completely in awe of this thing. After most meals (and sometimes just at random times), he runs up to where the Shark is plugged in and excitedly shouts, "Bac-oom! Bac-oom!" He doesn't stop until I help him get the Shark out. Then he pushes the button to start the vacuum, and we're off! Mostly he likes to help me push the Shark around, but sometimes he gets crazy and takes off on his own with it! When we're done, the only way I can get Austin to separate from the Shark is to say, "Okay, it's time to put the vacuum to bed! Night night, vacuum!" Then he helps me put the vacuum back in its spot and gives it a big hug and a kiss on the handle! I'm telling you, the Shark is his true love!

Thank you, makers of the Shark VX3, for making a product that my son loves so much, because now I have a little helper who has found his cleaning soul mate!

My child's archenemy...

My child has an archenemy. Now, you might be thinking, "What?? He's only (almost) 20 months old! Who or what could be his archenemy??"

Well, I'll tell you. It's toe-sock-fuzz. Yes. My son absolutely HATES toe-sock-fuzz (TSF) with a passion. There is a catch, though...he only hates it when it is IN HIS BATHWATER!!! It terrifies him!

I have to admit, I don't really want to sit in a tub of water surrounded by a lot of fuzzy bits of sock, but it's not so much scary to me. Austin won't even get INTO the tub if he sees any type of fuzz floating in the water. This has happened a couple of times now. Once, I don't know if it was specifically TSF, but it was small, it was something that used to be fuzzy, and it was floating by him in the bathwater. Yikes.

Two nights ago, we staged a war against TSF, and we were victorious! On this day, Austin had been wearing black socks from The Children's Place. These are particularly known for creating excessive amounts of TSF, which I failed to remember. I got his bath ready, stripped him down, and put him in the water. At the exact moment that his feet hit the water, the TSF was released from the toes and started floating everywhere! Austin immediately started making the whiny/cry-type noise that means, "MOM!!!! I'm scared of the fuzzy black things in the water!!! Don't let them TOUCH ME!!!!!!!!" My reaction was, "Oh great! How am I ever going to scoop ALL of these fuzzy things out of the water? This is going to take forever!" I contemplated emptying the tub and starting again, but I really didn't want to waste all that water. I tried to explain to Austin that the TSF is nothing to fear, and that it's just small pieces of cotton. He wasn't buying. I tried showing him that it didn't hurt me when it was touching my hand, but no dice. Finally, I resorted to attempting to catch all the TINY pieces of TSF floating in the water and toss them out while Austin sat naked on the side of the tub, cowering in fear.

I eventually wised up and started scooping the TSF out of the tub with the shampoo rinse cup. This did waste some water, but was much more efficient for ridding our lives of the dreaded TSF!! Everytime I scooped, I said, "Look! All gone!" However, Austin would not be fooled. He would scan the water and spot the one MICROSCOPIC piece of TSF that still remained in the water (or something else that wasn't actually TSF but just some piece of something floating in the water) and point and make that whine/cry noise, so I would go back in with my trusty cup and attempt to scoop it out!

We finally beat the TSF and reclaimed the bathtub as our own and the bath was taken! We were victorious!! However, don't come near my child with any TSF...it is his kryptonite!

Cookies for...the elderly?

Today is my late night at work, which means I don't have to go in to work until 10 a.m. This is also Cecilia's late night, so lately, we've been doing some errands together in the morning. It's AWESOME to be able to do some shopping without our children with us! Don't get me wrong...we love our kids to death! However, shopping with kids is very, VERY different from shopping without kids! An example:

Without kids:
You can spend 20 minutes agonizing over which ones are the PERFECT Christmas ornaments for your tree, and how many should you get, and what about this color, and do I like the sparkles or the plain, and why don't these reds match, and let's just get the ones we first picked up anyway! Sometimes you need the time to process and weigh the pros and cons of each type of ornament!

With kids:
OHMYGOSH if this child doesn't SIT IN THE CART I'm going to LOSE my mind! Austin, sit down! No, sit! Please sit...here's a cookie! Did you drop your cup? Where's your cup? Do you want to sit with Grayson? Okay, hold on! No, don't LAY on Grayson! Don't pull his hair! Please don't scream in Target! Okay, how about another cookie? Do you want to sit with Cece? Can you sit back in our cart? ALRIGHT, THAT'S IT! I'm belting you in the seat and we're leaving! Oh...what? Ornaments? Whatever, I'm just grabbing these...

So we were at Target. Right when we got in there, we immediately felt out of place because we were there with all the stay at home moms and their kids! It was like we had a bright neon sign flashing above our heads screaming out, "WORKING MOMS!!! Our kids are in daycare right now...and we don't even work until 10!!" I have to add in here that I totally respect and completely admire stay at home moms. I couldn't do what they do...it's harder in its own way than being a working mom! This is just a joke that we have at work about how we're working moms who are bad mommies because we don't have the time to bake cookies, do craft projects, and prepare a homemade fresh fruit tray for our child's parent-teacher conference day!

Back to Target. We walk in and, once we make our jokes about being working moms, notice that there is a table set up with a sign that says, "Free Refreshments" with coffee and cookies being handed out. Okay, I know it was like 8:45 a.m., but I didn't have any breakfast and was starving. I thought, "I'll get one cookie and that will be my 'breakfast'." (Please hold all comments about poor choices -- we've ALL had a cookie for breakfast now and again!). I stood in the little line behind several older ladies and another lady in a wheelchair. Finally, it was my turn. A man started to come up and try to get his refreshment, but the lady behind the table said, "Hold on," to him and turned to me. I said I just would like one of the cookies please. She handed it to me and said something like, "This is Holiday Helpers, serving our elderly and disabled guests..."

What?

Was I not supposed to be partaking of the refreshments?

I kind of said, "Okay..." and turned to go back to Cecilia. We both tried to figure out her comment (which was said in a tone...not mean...but there was a definite tone). I started kind of getting irritated because if the cookies and coffee were ONLY for the elderly and disable Target patrons, can we get a more clear sign or something? Or could she have just said, "I'm sorry, these are just for the old/rollin' peeps in Target today." I mean, would that have been so hard?

As we continued through the store, I kept feeling embarrassed/irritated. Then, as we walked on, we both started to notice that there were an awful lot of elderly and disabled people in the store. We began to wonder if this was a special "Elderly/Disabled Day Out" kind of day at Target.

That would be just my luck. To be the one non-elderly, non-disable ass standing in line for a cookie when they're supposed to be for people NOT like me!! I can hear the crowd murmuring, "Who's that ass in line taking the elderly/disable people's cookie? That's really nice!"

But, Holiday Helpers, can we put up a more explanatory sign???

My Thankful List

Erin made one, so I thought I should give a list of some things I am thankful for, as well! So here you go:

• My son. I cannot tell you how in love with this kid I am. He constantly amazes, impresses, and entertains me! I am so thankful that he is a healthy (especially after that lump fiasco!), happy, smart boy! He has added something to my life that I didn't even know was missing before, and I will always be thankful to him for that!
• My husband. I know I often times give Nick a bad rap via stories or get annoyed with him for things, but overall, he is a really wonderful person, husband, and especially father. I do love him and his love for me is also obvious, but, most of all, I have fallen in love with him again because of how he is with Austin! I never, NEVER have any doubts or fears about Nick's feelings towards our boy!
• My family. As Erin said, I have been so lucky never to go through any awkward, not-getting-along times with my family (well, nothing major, anyway!). I know that I can always call and talk to them or get support and that is something that I enjoy!
• My friends. Finally, after having so many of my friends move out of town, I have some friends around me again! I COULD NOT get through the day-to-day without them, and who else would listen to my craziness?
• Our finances. We are by no means rolling in the dough, but when I think of how bad off so many other people are, I feel very thankful for what we have. I need to remember this when I start freaking out!
• My career. I finally have a job that is actually my career! I love what I do, even if I get annoyed at times, and I can see myself staying in this position (or moving up within the area) for a long, long time.

I know there are so many other things to be thankful for (my cool new house! Zumba! Smoothie King!) but I'm going to end my list there. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Thanksgiving Past

I was thinking today of a past Thanksgiving that made me laugh. Actually, it was the day before Thanksgiving. It must have been 2003, because Nick was working for Nicor Gas as a meter reader. It's weird to think that it was that long ago that he had that job, but it was! I'm pretty sure he stopped working for them before we were married, which was in 2004, so I think that puts this story at 5 years ago.

We were living in the MLK house and had been for just a year. Erin came up that Wednesday to spend the night and help me get ready for Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, I'm smiling thinking of this already! That Wednesday I must have taken the day off of work, too. It was a horribly snowy, blowy day, and Erin said that she drove up listening to Christmas music. This wouldn't have been so bad, except at some point during the blizzard-like conditions, she listened to that Trans-Siberian Orchestra song that gets all crazy at the end...you know, "Carol of the Bells".

(Note: I just spent like 8 minutes trying to find the title of that song. Know why it took so long? Because I was searching for it as being performed by the Mannheim Steamrollers or Bay City Rollers. That's not right. Every year I forget the name of that flippin' group!!)

Anyway, the combination of the wind and snow and that song's frenzy at the end led to Erin gripping the steering wheel and squinting to try to make out the road. She was exhausted by the time she got here! It was like having your own personal soundtrack playing where the music really matched (and enhanced!) the intensity of driving in the snowstorm!

She got to my house and we went to 2 Pals Pottery to paint Christmas gifts for Mom, I remember. That was fun! It was all warm and cozy in the shop with Christmas music playing and the snow coming down and we were painting pottery! What a down home kind of day! After completing our pieces, we proceeded to drive to Walmart to get the supplies we needed for Thanksgiving dinner. Again, it was still snowing terribly! We finally made it over to Walmart and ran, RAN to the door, only to find a Walmart worker standing at the door yelling to anyone and everyone, "We are closed! We are closed! We have no power!" She was waving her arms all around and yelling out to the masses...it was a production to say the least! You couldn't see or hear her until you got right up to the door, which meant we had to RUN our butts back to the car through the blizzard once more. I remember getting into the car and turning towards Erin and we were both completely wet and windblown and looked like we'd been inside the blizzard or something! Picture red faces, hair all over the place, heavy breathing, and snow like IN your ear. That was us! We immediately died laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation (seriously, it was hilarious the way the lady was screaming out into the blizzard!) and decided we'd go to Jewel instead of Walmart because we did need the stuff for dinner!

As you might imagine, EVERYONE IN TOWN was at Jewel, since half of Bloomington-Normal was apparantly without power, so it made it a fun challenge to park and get through the snow. I think the snow was letting up at some point, because we didn't have quite the insane wind in our faces as we were in the Jewel parking lot. I do remember having a tough time manuvering the cart through the many inches of snow, though! We made it in, got our food, and got home successfully.

To top off our evening, Erin and I decided we'd be nice and shovel the driveway before Nick came home. Nick, as you remember from the beginning of this post, was working at Nicor as a meter reader, meaning he walked from house to house entering numbers from people's gas meters. Poor guy! The city was pulling the mail carriers off the road because of the weather, but Nick and his coworkers had to keep going! He definitely had a long day that day and came home exhausted! Erin and I managed to shovel enough of the driveway so that he could get in (or maybe we did the whole thing? I don't remember). At the time, we only owned one snow shovel, so whoever wasn't using it had to use the regular, metal, dirt-digging shovel, which really isn't meant for shoveling snow!

This might have also been the same year that found Erin, Nick, and I pulling out the hide-a-bed and all piling in to watch TV on Thanksgiving night (Faith Hill concert, anyone? Talk Sex with Sue Johannson?). Plus, I KNOW we hit the Black Friday sales the next morning! That's a whole different story!

That was a really fun holiday! Now that we're all grown up with husbands and kids and other obligations, I don't know if we'll have another time when Erin gets to come up and stay for an extended period of time over a holiday like that, especially where it's just the two of us out having an adventure, but those are memories I'll always enjoy retelling because those were such good times! Love you, Erin!

And here's a preview!

So, we did the pictures tonight at Sears and....here's a tiny preview just to keep you interested!

He did SO great tonight! We had a much better photographer tonight. Our two ladies on Monday weren't bad by any means, but tonight we had Daisy who was just AWESOME! Austin was a little bit whiny at first but Daisy pulled out a bouncy ball and got him smiling! I, of course, bought a little more than I thought I would, but they turned out so well! Plus, since I bought the CD, I can upload pictures to Snapfish or Shutterfly or something and print them out myself!

Enjoy the cuteness!

Christmas List

I can't believe I left the last 2 questions blank...what happened to my brain at that time?

You can't get enough of me today, can you? Here I am, stealing from Cecilia's blog...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Wrapping paper unless I have a cute gift bag that someone else already gave me that I'm reusing (because I'm cheap like that).

2. Real tree or fake?
Fake!! It's so much neater and, once again, then you don't have to buy one every year (see the cheap reference above -- this will be a theme).

3. When do you put up the tree?
The weekend after Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take down the tree?
Pretty soon after Christmas...usually by New Year's Day or so.

5. Do you like eggnog?
I think so, although I don't drink it much.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
I'm going to say my My Little Pony nursery or my Barbie Ice Cream Maker? However, I did also the receive the ever-popular ROCK TUMBLER!!!

7. Hardest person to buy for?
My dad for sure.

8. Easiest person to buy for?
Austin. He likes it all!

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
I used to have one? I think I have one still somewhere, although we may be missing some pieces.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Now that I have a child, mail. Prior to having Austin, I would buy cards but usually forget to send them out!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Anything from my mother in law! Sorry!! I mean, "Cotton Candy Note?" What is that about?

12. Favorite Christmas movie?
Elf!! Also, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
October! I like to be done early...it's my own personal challenge to myself.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Hell to the yeah. Please see the cheap theme above.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Sugar cookies, those "wedding" pecan cookies, and any other kind of cookies!!

16. Lights on the Christmas tree?
Is this a yes or no question? Or color? I say yes, and I do purple lights with red ornaments.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey and Merry Christmas Baby by BB King

18. Travel at Christmas?
Only to Decatur or Lewistown

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
Of course

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Multicolored star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Christmas morning, but maybe one on the eve

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
Grinchy people or crappy weather! I like snow, but only pretty snow.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
Bright jewel tones OR blue and silver and white (but not together)

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
My dad's lasagna!

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
I don't know still!

26. Who is the most likely to respond to this?
Lindsay said her answers while I was typing this, but also Erin might steal it for her blog!

27. Who is the least likely to respond to this?
No one.

28. Favorite thing about Christmas?
From childhood, my favorite thing was staying up to go to the Christmas Eve service and watching the 10 p.m. news. Judy Frazier (is she still alive?) always did the "Santa Watch" during the weather and I LOVED that! Then, we'd all get in the car and drive around looking at the lights, especially the Santa House, before going to the service. I did love that Christmas Eve service, too, especially when we'd be singing Silent Night by candlelight and the bells would ring. Then we'd blow out the candles, the lights would come on, and it would be CHRISTMAS!!! But, you had to go home and go to sleep!!! That was always the hard part!

Now, my favorite it also the Christmas scheming that goes on and watching people open their presents. It's too much fun!

I resisted...mostly!

Today at work, we celebrated someone's birthday. Apparently, her birthday is next week, but since she won't be here, the goodies were brought in today. Someone brought in a large, marble sheet cake with whipped (WHIPPED!!!) icing and a box of a dozen or so doughnuts. Also, one of the gals in Student Records won breakfast from a local radio station, so at the same time that we were singing Happy Birthday and cutting the cake (at 9:30 a.m., for the love of God!!), her doughnuts, coffee, bagels, and cream cheese were delivered!

If you know my office, you know that we freaking ALWAYS have food. It's kind of ridiculous actually. The birthday celebrations got so bad (and frequent) over the last couple of years that, starting with 2009, we're enacting the "Happy Birthday Month" Day -- one day of food for birthdays per month. Thank goodness is all I can say to that! I'm sure there will be other food brought in at other times, but at least we won't have cake 7 times a month like we seem to now!

Anyway, I was really proud of myself this morning. I TOTALLY resisted all food! I was enjoying my pumpkin spice coffee (brewed at work, not Starbucks, unfortunately!) with my English Toffee Almond creamer and didn't partake in the food at that time. Later, I did have a SMALL piece of cake after lunch, but that's been it! Yay! Also, if you let the food sit out in the break room long enough, it either gets completely eaten or it gets kind of dried out and becomes less appealing, so if you can just hold out for a while, usually you don't have as big of a craving!

Yay for me! I'm celebrating this as a victory and, even if you're reading this thinking, "But you shouldn't have had the cake!", I hope you can see my victory, too! :)

I'm such a lazy blogger...

I know. I'm totally falling off the wagon of blogging. Sometimes, I just don't have any funny stories! Or, more accurately, I tell the few people who read this blog the story in person or via phone and then who wants to just read the same ol' blog after you've heard the story? I've gotta work on conserving my funny antics!

Tonight, we are trying Take 2 of the Christmas photo shoot. We decided to go with pictures of just Austin, mostly because I couldn't come up with coordinated outfits for the three of us fast enough! Monday we attempted these pictures, and Austin was HAVING NONE OF IT!!! He did not want to have the photographers even look at him, let alone take his picture! We finally convinced him to sit on the floor and play with some blocks and the gal snapped a few pictures, but most of them are of him looking dead into the camera with an, "I hate you..." type look on his face. Nothing says Merry Christmas more than that!! We'll see how it goes tonight. If it's not much better, you might be getting a holiday card from The Grinch!

Family pictures

Forgive the darkness of these uploaded pictures. I had to scan them into my computer last year because I didn't buy enough poses to get the free CD of pictures!

I've booked us not one, but TWO appointments with Sears to get some pictures taken in a couple of weeks -- one for all three of us and one for just Austin. I figured I'd cancel the session we don't need, depending on whether or not we decide to all be in the pictures. Last year, we had the CUTEST family picture done at Portrait Innovations, along with a really sweet one of Austin by himself. By the way, I love how he smiled in this picture -- a wide open mouth without teeth smile is the cutest, except maybe if you're over the age of like 2...then we're just looking at someone with a probable history of poor dental hygiene.

So here's my dilemma this year...do I go for another whole family picture or just Austin?

Pros for whole family:

• It would be nice to have an updated family pic that we could put in a frame. We really never had pictures of the three of us, because someone (usually me!) is taking the pictures.
• I'd like to send it out with Christmas cards to family and friends, especially those we haven't seen in a while.
• If we don't do one with everyone, I think I might feel sad that we didn't later!
  

Cons for whole family:

• Getting all of us there, dressed, and looking GOOD in the picture can be a challenge!
• What the heck do I make us wear? You know we have to wear something that coordinates AND I'm thinking something holiday-ish would be nice, since this will be our "holiday" picture.
• If I come up with outfits, can I find something that we either already own or to buy that will work? It's not so easy to find a specific type of shirt that looks good and fits right, especially for me sometimes!

This takes some thinking...you're welcome to weigh in on this decision in the comments!

Brrrr!

Okay, it's cold.

We were getting pretty spoiled last week (was it just last week?) with the GORGEOUS 75 degree weather in NOVEMBER, for Pete's sake, so now that it's like 35 degrees out, it seems horribly cold. I don't completely mind the cold weather. I don't love it, but I'd rather be cold than hot. When you're hot, you are just HOT. It's hard to cool down sometimes, and I always feel like feeling hot and sweaty makes me so much less attractive than normal! If you're cold, you can put on more layers or get a blanket or something. More importantly, there's no excessive sweating involved.

Me + sweating = not a good situation.

On another note, Cecilia and I became certified Zumba instructors this weekend by attending a 1-day Zumba workshop! This workshop consisted of an hour-long master Zumba class which kicked our asses and then a full day of learning the basic moves and working on them. Frankly, at about 2 p.m., I was ready to just learn the rest of the info via a DVD or website or something. My legs and feet were totally yelling at me in agony, and we had to spend quite a bit of time sitting on a hard, wooden gym floor. Not the most comfortable! Overall, it was fun and interesting, and I'm glad we did it so that we can now teach Zumba classes! I've already started choreographing routines in my head when I hear fun songs! Watch out, future Zumba students!

Stealing from Erin...

Erin stole this from some blog, and now I'm stealing from her!

My Guy
1. He’s sitting in front of the TV. What’s on the screen?
I would guess Bears football, Crossing Jordan, COPS, Mythbusters, or some sort of video game!

2. You’re out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad?
Ranch, although he usually doesn't get salad!

3. What’s one food he doesn’t like?
He is not a fan of pancakes and waffles.

4. You go out to the bar. What does he order?
Bud Select/Budweiser, Jack and Coke, Jagermeister and Red Bull

5. Where did he go to high school?
Graduated from Bloomington High School

6. What size shoe does he wear?
12-13

7. If he were to collect anything, what would it be?
Firefighter stuff, apparently tools now (?), Bears stuff, hunting stuff

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich?
He likes things like the meatball sub from Subway -- big, fatty, hot sandwiches. His ULTIMATE favorite sandwich? The McRib from McDonald's!

9. What would he eat every day if he could?
A McRib sandwich and mashed potatoes.

10. What is his favorite cereal?
He doesn't love cereal, but his favorite would be some sort of Cocoa Puffs.

11. What would he never wear?
A Cowboys jersey -- I'll second that one, Erin! Or a Packers jersey. Or nail polish, even on his toes for a joke!

12. What is his favorite sports team?
We just talked about this the other day. It's the Bears, the Cardinals, and the Celtics.

13. Who will he vote for?
McCain

14. Who is his best friend?
I would hope me, but if we're going with guy friends, I'll say Charlie and Brian Buhs.

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn’t do?
Get on his back about MONEY!!!

16. How many states has he lived in?
One.

17. What is his heritage?
Not sure. I know that he gets so tan that once someone asked him if he was Mexican...

18. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake?
He doesn't really enjoy cake (he's crazy!). He says the kind he would eat is chocolate, but he enjoys pies more. I think cherry pie.

19. Did he play sports in high school?
He played baseball in junior high (and maybe high school?) and some football in high school.

20. What could he spend hours doing?
Playing video games, that's for sure! Sleeping, too, and playing with The Boy!

Happy Halloween!

Well, it's Halloween! We're very excited to have Aunt Erin and Uncle Danny up to visit tonight! I'm going to (hopefully) take lots of pictures and will have lots to share after tonight! Austin is going to be a puppy, which he is very excited about. Every time he sees his costume, he says, "Puppy!" so he knows what's going on! I'll keep you posted!

Hi.

Just wanted to share this!

I'm still here!

I love that I wrote that. Because it's not as if the handful of people who read this blog don't talk to me...every SINGLE day, regardless of whether or not I blog! But, just for kicks, I'm still here!

We had a pretty good weekend. Friday night there was a brawl at the YMCA between me and some old bat named Dorothy from the childcare center. Let's just say this...am I still a member of the YMCA? Yes. Is Dorothy still an employee of the YMCA? No. Aw yeah! That's how I roll! Don't mess with me, my kid, and my entourage (a.k.a. Cecilia)!!

Anyway, back to the weekend, which will seem oh-so-bland compared to the Friday night shenanigans! Austin and I cleaned the house on Saturday for a good part of the day. Nick did some garage work when he rolled out of bed that afternoon, too. Then, not much else happened. We played out in the yard, which was chilly but fun.

On Sunday, Austin and I met Cecilia, Memphis, and Grayson at Target for our monthly "10% off" day. We did some pretty good shopping! I went with a goal of getting some specific things, including sports bras, black shoes (because I need more!), cat pee pads, and a potty seat. I ended up with...cat pee pads and a potty seat (among other small random things). What happened to all the things I was going to get for myself, you ask? It's the same every time. When I go out to buy something for myself, I have a hard time finding anything that works! I'm going to do some online shopping and see if I can't come up with something, though, because I NEED the sports bra and shoes pretty badly! I promise!

Austin and I then hit the Dollar Tree where I bought our Halloween candy -- I know, enticing, right? Come to our house for gross peanut butter chews, Tootsie Rolls (sorry, Mom!), Dum Dums, and sad PAL gum. You're no one's pal, PAL gum. You lose your flavor in like 4 chews. I have to get that kind of candy, though, so I won't eat it! I suppose I could invest in nicer candy that I don't love, like Skittles or Starburst, but I was really interested in spending just $1 per bag! Oh, those lucky trick or treaters who come by our place! I'll act really friendly to make up for the poor candy selection, I promise!

I also WRAPPED CHRISTMAS PRESENTS on Sunday! Can you believe it? I have 2 people DONE and 1 person on the way to being done already! I love getting stuff ahead of time! Heads up, visitors to 13 Timberview Drive...no peeking for presents in our house!!

We wrapped up Sunday with a delicious pork chop dinner and some attempts at Zumba in the basement. Austin didn't really want me to work out, though, and insisted I hold him the whole time. Zumba is hard enough, but trying to do it with a 25 lb. weight on one hip is pretty impossible!

Fall Weekend!

Nothing is better than a fun fall weekend! We had a great one this weekend! While Daddy worked his butt off (poor guy!) and slept while he could, Austin and I went down to the Twin Cities of Elwin/Decatur to visit with Gramma, Papa, Aunt Erin, and Uncle Danny. These people are always a good time, and I figured it would be good to get some family time in, since we're heading into the tantrum phase! Oh yes, it has started!

Anyway, we went down to Gramma and Papa's house on Saturday morning. We had time for a quick visit before loading up the car and heading to meet Erin and Danny to follow them to Black Bart's Pumpkin Patch! It was a fun time! There were rows of pumpkins to choose from, a corn maze, a hay bale maze for little kids, goats, a shop, and some other fun things. Austin's favorite thing of all? The "GRA-GUR!!!!", or tractor, if you're not familiar with Austin-speak! He LOVED the tractor and kept going back to it to play!

Enjoy the pumpkin patch pictures!

18-month appointment today!

Austin has his 18-month dr. appt this afternoon at 4. He usually does really well at these appointments, so I'm not worried! I know they dr. will ask us how the talking is coming along, so last night, Nick and I attempted to make a list of words Austin says. We weren't sure if we had to include ONLY words he initiates (for example, he really won't say "knee" on his own, but when we talk about parts of the body and I ask him "Where's your knee knee knee?" he'll point to it and say, "Knee knee knee!"), so we left those out. We're erring on the side of less words. Even doing this, guess how many we came up with?

About 61 words! Wow!

The "typical" number of words kids can say at 19-24 months seems to be around 50-70 words, so our boy is there already! Go Austin! Just like his mommy...

I did a quick search for this topic, because I wanted to see what the average number for 18 months is, and I found these posts by other moms in a discussion of what is "right" for 18 month olds:

• "Our doctor said between 4-10 single words at 18 months is normal."
• "At her Parents as Teacher evaluation and 18 mo ckup they both said around 5-10 is great..."
• "What to expect ... the toddler years" says they should be able to use 3 single words.
• "My pediatrician said he likes to see them have 6-8 words. But in the same breathe, told me if they don't have exactly that many not to worry about it too much as long as I see them trying."

I guess we're okay, then!

Fun in the car!

This morning, as we were driving to daycare (or "school", as we like to say!), Austin was playing with his toy remote control. You'd think, by the way, that if you give these kids the fake, toy version of something electronic (cell phone, remote, digital camera, etc.) that they'd be happy to play with that one and then would leave the real thing alone. Not so much! And why? The toy versions are way more colorful and tend to do more things with better sound effects!

Anyway, so we're driving to school and he's playing with the remote. He was pushing random buttons and making noises. He finally got on a pattern of flipping this dial around. When you flip it, you either get

• the "weather channel", where someone says, "What a nice day!" in either English, Spanish, or French,
• the "sports channel", where a man yells, "GOOOOAALL!", or
• the "music channel", where you hear Yankee Doodle, This Old Man, or The Itsy Bitsy Spider.

He was in a rhythm. He'd flip to the weather channel and listen to the words, flip to the GOAL! and say "Oohhhhhhhh!!!!!" to echo the guy (while looking at me in the rearview mirror), and then flip to the music channel and DANCE IT UP in his carseat! This kept up for a good majority of the ride and it was so funny to watch! Then he started mixing it up -- mixing the "channel" order around. Finally, he threw in more. After listening to the person announce the weather, especially when it was in another language, he'd babble incoherently, mimicking the person!

I tell you, this kid keeps me entertained! We'll see if he's as into this toy on the way home!

My new boyfriend!

I am currently dating the Smoothie King. Yes, we started our relationship yesterday on October 9, 2008, and we are continuing in a hot and heavy manner today! It was love at first sight for me, really, and I think the King felt the same way! We are looking forward to many more blissful dates together and to celebrating anniversaries for years to come!

You laugh at this, but I am serious. We just got a new Smoothie King moments...MOMENTS away from Heartland, and wow! I've never had Smoothie King before, but it's so delicious! Now, it is expensive, so I don't anticipate this become an every day event, but it is really tasty.

The smoothies are so fruity and refreshing! I have to recommend the one that, so far, I've enjoyed the most. Today I had Pineapple Surf. Here's the description:

Pineapple Surf®

Whoah, dude. Get your buds prepped for a mondo wave of pineapples, strawberries, kiwi and our vanilla protein blend. It’ll turn any straw into the pipeline you’ve been waiting to ride.

Ingredients: Pineapple, Strawberries, Kiwi, Protein Blend, Turbinado, Vanilla, Honey

That was a tasty one! We substituted orange juice for the kiwi and it was fantastic! Yesterday, I tried this one:

Berry Punch™

Here’s a flavor that’ll knock you out. A right hook of raspberry. A slam of strawberry. A big jab of blueberry. All blended into a delicious Sorbet Smoothie that makes you wonder if there should be a legal limit for berries in one drink.

Ingredients: Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberry Sorbet, Electrolyte Mix

Also delicious! There are so many options and things you can do to personalize your smoothie that the possibilities are endless! If you have one by you (I love how I post that, as if I don't know the minuscule amount of people who read this blog and live in either Decatur or Bloomington/Normal!), I highly suggest you give it a try sometime!

We're MOVED!

Not unpacked totally, not cleaned yet, but moved! Whew! I'm hoping to whittle away at the unpacking more each day. It's getting there!

For just 3 monthly payments...

So I want to know...what is your favorite infomercial product out there right now?

For some reason, I am enthralled by infomercials and those products! I can watch an infomercial from start to finish and really get excited about the product! I think that in my next career, I might have to be an infomercial host. Not necessarily the person who shows you the product (although I could do that, too!), but the host, who is CONSTANTLY AMAZED by the stellar performance of the product! Come on, peeps, you KNOW I could pull that one off!

I'm curious. Those (3?) of you who read this blog...what is your favorite product out there right now? Not necessarily favorite infomercial, but product. If you were going to get something for free, what would you get? Right now, I'm enjoying the Nu Wave Oven. Takes up some counter space, but cooks things oh-so-quickly and easily! Apparently, it uses less energy and lets the fat drip out of your food! Amazing!

I'm also amazed by the Mighty Putty!! Does it REALLY fix leaks and hold up to a billion pound?? How? How can putty be so mighty?

And, finally for now, how about that awesome GT Express 101? Who doesn't watch that infomercial and start wanting to make everything into little pocket food? I know I do!

We're RENTERS!!

Yes, after 6 years of being a homeowner, I am now a renter...at least until 9:30ish a.m. tomorrow! We closed on the MLK house on Friday. Frankly, I expected a little more excitement on the part of our buyer, but whatever. She bought it, I hope she likes it, she can be however emotional or non emotional she wants!

Tomorrow morning, we have our final walk through at Timberview at 8 a.m. followed by our closing at 9 a.m. I'm so excited to finally be able to get in there and start moving some of our things over! We've been boxing and packing for what seems like a long time (hello? A good chunk of our stuff is at Mom and Dad's house!), and I'm ready to unpack, clean, and GET ORGANIZED! I feel like my life has been so out of whack for so long, and I'm really counting on this move to get me back on track in a lot of ways! No pressure, Timberview move!!

And an update

Okay. Nick just got a call from his supervisor, saying that he is recommending they keep Nick on for 3rd shift. However, he will be getting a $0.50/hr pay cut. When it's all said and done, that's like $1040 less per year, but I think it's the principle of the thing that is bothering Nick, and I understand! He has worked for that company for around 11 years, and now a paycut? Not his fave, but at least he's still going to be employed there, right?

Still not freaking...

It's always something.

Well, so far, it's not so bad, but isn't there just always something? Today, Nick got a call from his coworker, who is also named Nick! Let's call him Nick2, just so we don't get confused. So Nick2 calls to tell Nick that they're restructuring and making cutbacks at work. There's a word I never like to hear!! Allegedly, according to Nick2 who talked to the site supervisor Steve, they're reducing the guys on 2nd and 3rd shift to just one guy per shift full time. Nick2 said that Steve said they'd be keeping Nick on and giving him his choice of either 2nd or 3rd shift, and then filling the other spot with Nick2.

Now, this sounds good so far, right? Yes! However, about 20 minutes after telling me this, my Nick says something like, "Hmmm. I'm wondering if they'll even offer me the job because they know I'm looking at other jobs!" Oh boy. Now you've done it! You've gotten the Emily Anxiety Factor started! Because, for as much as I maybe don't appreciate his current job since it's far away, it's still a full time job!! And he needs that!

I guess Nick is thinking that his work will call him today to talk to him about this, but so far (at 11:30 a.m.) they have not. Let's all think positive thoughts that my Nick ends up still employed full time after all this, okay? You do that, and I'll try to not freak out. Deal?

More Celebrity Lookalikes

Okay, people, you're not exempt from this game! Here are some more of my family members and friends and the celebrities they look like!

Here's Erin. Sorry the pic is so blurry! I like that she also has an African American woman in her lookalike list. That must be where Austin gets it! But please, please notice the strong resemblance to Aharon Appelfeld...


Here's Mom. She actually got decent people in her lookalike! Nice work, Mary!


Coming soon...Dad and Nick, if I can find decent pictures of them!

Saddest. Lunch. Ever.

Wanna know what I'm having for lunch? It will make you sad, a little. I'm having turkey lunchmeat. That's all. No bread, no bun, no sandwich, but just turkey lunchmeat.

I did wrap it around a mozzarella cheese stick, though. I think that makes it look fancy, myself!

This is what happens when you do not plan ahead, people!

And, no, Lindsay...this is not a pudding day! :( Boo.

Celebrity Lookalikes?

So I found this place online where you can upload a picture and it will generate a list of celebs you most resemble. Apparently, my child looks MOST like Condoleeza Rice and Diana Ross...interesting. I had not noticed his resemblance to black women.



I, on the other hand, look like all of these women...and Ashton Kutcher?

The latest

Well, it's Monday again. I really don't mind Mondays, because I love my job! I also love coming back to a place where my friends work and where I can get some good adult conversations! Not that Austin isn't stimulating (or Nick, for that matter, but he's usually asleep!), but sometimes, I need to not be looking after anyone for a while.

It's quiet around here today. Many people are either out or coming in late. Luckily, we're in the slow time of the semester, so we haven't been inundated with students in the last couple of weeks, which is nice!

Currently, there is a lot of weather-related talk going on outside my office. There is a lady who works in our suite who seems to be OBSESSED with all things weather! Don't even get her started during the wintertime, either, because when snow is on the horizon, EACH PERSON who comes through the doors gets asked something like, "How's it looking out there? Is it coming down yet?" It's like being in the audience of some sort of weather game show or infomercial or something! Anyway, with all the rain from Ike this weekend, you KNOW there was lots of discussion!

I'm still sick! Blech! I'm going to guess sinus infection, maybe, because I do have more sinus pressure and snottiness (sorry, I know). I'm starting to develop more of a cough, although it's not completely all the time still. Last night was rough. I didn't fall asleep until 2 a.m. and then was up almost every half hour on the hour coughing and blowing my nose! I may resort to either stronger OTC meds or a trip to the doc-in-the-box to try to weasel and antibiotic out of them. We'll see how today goes.

That's it for now. I might post more later, but maybe not. Not a ton of new info from this weekend...just hanging out! Oh, we did buy a new living room set for our new house, which was exciting, so yay for that!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my 4th anniversary with Nick! That's 4 years of marriage, people. We've been together for 7 years. And, yes, we did get married on September 11. You know, it was a Saturday in September that worked for our location, and we thought, "Hey, let's have a happy memory associated with this date instead of just a horrible one!" Some people were appalled, especially one travel agent from AAA (side note: we did NOT end up going with her for our travel agent! We like customer service skills!). But the world doesn't stop for tragedies forever, folks. We remember, but we move on. So we did!

Marriage is working out. There are good times, bad times, and neutral times, but overall, we're doing pretty well. It's interesting to experience the ups and downs and then look back and think, "Huh...we did make it through that horrible period. Well, good for us!"

Right now, we're in the "We have a young child plus we both work 2 jobs so we're really busy and maybe I'll see you around the bedroom sometime but maybe not but whatever," part of our lives. There are some awesome, fantastic times in there, really! However, we have also fallen victim to the "we never get to go out together" situation that a lot of people face. But we're making it work!

So, here's to us. 4 (really 7) years into it, and we still mostly like each other and have things to talk about!

Just kidding...I love you, Nick!

The sickness has set in...

Ugh.

My boy and I are sick. He's had a runny nose for a couple of weeks that has "gone green", and not in a good way! He's also had this gross cough for a week or so that has motivated us to call the doctor and take him in this afternoon. It probably will be something that just has to run its course (and, really, I hope that's what it is because we don't want it to be something more severe), but sometimes you just need the doc to check out your kid, you know? Kind of like an official, "You're Doing It Right!" stamp of approval!

In the last 2 days, I have developed the stuffy head/runny nose/sneeze kind of thing that I always enjoy. So far, I'm managing to avoid the coughs, which I hate THE MOST!! I'm going to try to head this one off because I'm too busy to be sick, people! Sick + moving + work + toddler = BAD COMBINATION!

Stay healthy!

I'm thinking...

I'm trying to think of something good to write. I feel as though I've inundated you all (that's right, all 3 of you who read this!) with lots of house talk lately. I can't help it, it's the big topic of our lives for a while! We're getting close, though. We went couch and TV shopping this weekend. Couch shopping is hard, though! I wish all the places that sold couches could be in one giant warehouse, and then I could pick out the ones we like and sit them side by side so that we could more easily compare! Unfortunately, I don't think that's going to happen, so it's back to the ol' memory way. It's tough to pick something when there are so many nice options! Hopefully, I'll be able to do some internet looking, too, and that will be able to help us make some decisions.

As far as TVs go, I think we know what we are wanting on that front. This is really Nick's domain, as I don't care all that much. Don't get me wrong...I LOVE TV!! Please reference my 90210 posts below for evidence on this. However, I would be okay watching a much smaller TV than my husband. Since it's more important to him (and since, let's be honest, I'll probably end up having more input on the couches), let's give him this one! As my sister once said, "Let the guy get whatever TV he wants (within reason) and then he'll shut up about it!"

Hear, hear!

Home Inspections...So Far, So Good

Yes. So far, no major issues with the home inspections on either our house or our new house. Our new house is great. Only a minor thing -- needs a new electrical outlet upstairs in a bathroom -- and a carbon monoxide detector needs to be hung up downstairs. Otherwise, everything looks great. The A/C is pretty old, but we have a home warranty that we get for a year from the sellers that will cover it if it poops out. Also, we can continue the warranty at a fairly manageable cost if the A/C doesn't kick the bucket within the first year.

As far as our current house goes, I think things look okay. Jean was there for a few minutes while the inspector was there today and he only pointed out one thing to her. Apparently, the pipe that runs from the A/C to the drain was missing. An easy fix, I've been told by Dad. I told Nick, and he said, "You mean that pipe that Danny and I broke while putting in the new water heater?" Oh yeah! That one! I guess that could have been fixed a while ago, huh? Hey, if that's the main problem, we'll be good! We also need to hang up our carbon monoxide detector. We have one, it's just not up on the wall. The inspector has to come back later to inspect outside because it's so rainy today, but I'm crossing my fingers that everything looks okay!

We're getting closer...

Um....what now?

This is a copy of an email I got a while back. I've gotten a couple like this, and I'm posting this one for your interpretation and enjoyment:

From: Ethell McGhee
To: Emily Miller
Subject: vicinal wherever nude plentiful profit

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cottonseed graft.

Hmmmm. That's a puzzler.

Exercise = BAD!!!

My poor boy bumped his head last night in a big way! He was standing up on our recliner (yes, I know, not the safest of all things to do!) and Nick and I were BOTH standing right there. Nick tossed a t-shirt at Austin and, after it landed on his head, he laughed and went to move it or throw it down or something. This motion apparently got him off balance and he fell BACKWARDS OVER THE ARM OF THE RECLINER!!!! I saw this almost in slow motion and tried to grab for him, but just didn't get there fast enough! He totally whacked the back/side of his lower head area on the freaking foot pedal of our elliptical machine! Damn that thing!!! I knew exercise was bad for you!!

Luckily, Nick is an EMT. Unfortunately, Nick also freaked out and started YELLING, "Sh*t! F*ck!" This did not help the situation regain any sort of calm. I picked up our boy and held him while he cried -- so sad! Nick got it together and started checking Austin's noggin out. It was red but not overwhelmingly bumpy. Nick got an ice pack and tried to put it on Austin's head, which did not go over very well. Later, though, the ice pack was on the floor for a minute and Austin did go grab it and put it up on his head/neck while saying, "Ow!" in his little baby voice!!! My boy!!!

I did my part and ran him through my own version of a neurological test by asking him all the things he knows. He successfully identified all body parts that he can identify, said all the animal sounds he knows, and pointed out Mama and Daddy and Kitty. Whew! Crisis averted!

Nick also gave him a clean bill of health, and we checked on him multiple times during the evening and night. He seems fine this morning, too, so I think he's okay! Poor guy! I felt like Mother of the Year, though, letting him fall like that! See? Exercise is bad!

The new 90210

Okay, get excited, because here comes another 90210-related post! Last night was the premiere of the new version of 90210. I most certainly did DVR it and watched almost the whole thing, until I fell asleep in the recliner. Here are the highlights:

• You can almost, ALMOST pretend that you're watching a continued version of the original, because you've got Kelly Taylor, Brenda Walsh, and Nat Buccichio (spelling, anyone?) kickin' it old school on the new show. Also, there are some "all grown up" kids from the original on the new version, including Erin Silver and a brief glimpse of Hannah Zuckerman-Vasquez.
• Kudos to the writers for including the line from the teacher regarding Hannah Z-V, "Wow, she looks like she's 30 or something!" because you know Andrea was at least 30 when the original premiered!
• There's the promise of more to be revealed with the whole Kelly-has-a-son storyline. Who is the father? Also, is Brenda staying in town long term?

Some of the things I wasn't in love with:

• Why do all these people who are like 15-16 years old on the show dress and act and look like they're about 28 years old?? I mean, these people look way cooler than I ever did! Let's be honest, they also look cooler than I do now, too!
• Also, we're really going to start Day 1 of school with Ethan getting a BJ in an SUV right in the school parking lot? Come on...that's taking it a little far!
• I felt like there were a couple of things that just came out of nowhere and didn't go anywhere. For example, Annie sneaks out to go to the "not-so-sweet-sixteen" party for Naomi. Her parents realize she's gone and dad goes to try to track her down at the party. Later, she's getting ready to go on a date with a boy from school and calls her mom for permission. There is no mention of the sneaking out. Is she in trouble? Has she been reprimanded? Jim and Cindy Walsh would NEVER have let that behavior fly!! They would have sent Annie directly to Paris for the summer with her best friend as punishment!

We will see about you, new 90210. Can you rise to the challenge of providing entertainment like the original did or will you fizzle out?

90210 -- The Marathon

Oh, what a marathon it was! In case you are unaware, the original Beverly Hills 90210 had a 24 HOUR MARATHON of episodes on yesterday. 24 hours, people!!! That's some good tv! I did not catch all 24 hours of this marathon (my mother just cringed at the thought of me watching 24 hours of tv!), but I did watch a lot of it! Nothing is better than the high school 9-0 episodes on in the background of your day. Nothing.

I have some thoughts about some of the 9-0 episodes, storylines, characters, etc. that I'd like to share here. Some of these came from my sister, too:

• Sometimes, all you need to do to solve racial tensions is DANCE IT OUT while wearing spandex dresses and military boots. Trust me.
• It also helps to have a scrawny white kid rappin' on stage while this DANCE FOR UNITY takes place.
• If you are drunk at prom and you have like 325 friends in your group, don't you think that a few of them could, I don't know, be on the LOOKOUT for Mrs. T so that you don't get caught leaving drunk? Let's plan it out a little better, people!
  
• Okay. Donna Martin got drunk for prom. Now, I'm not a huge stick in the mud, but when the rule says, "Don't get drunk for prom or you won't be allowed to graduate," and then you get drunk for prom, let's not be so haughty and go around the school saying, "Come on! Donna has never done anything wrong! I'm sure they're not going to keep her from graduating just to make her a scapegoat!" I'm talking to you, here, Brandon Walsh!!!
• Also, kids, walking out on finals to make a point? I'm not sure that would really work. But let's say you tried it anyway. And then you and your large, chanting-off-beat crowd did manage to push your way into the school board meeting...don't take that high and mighty tone with Superintendent Ep-HARDT! I would be kind of irratated if this high school senior guy was getting all snotty on my ass if I were the superintendent!
• Are you telling me that in the whole senior class of 1993, Steve Sanders and David Silver were the ONLY PEOPLE with last names starting with "S"? And David Silver actually wasn't even technically in that class! So just one "S" person? Isn't "S" one of the most common name letters?
  
• How in the hell did they get those big ass letters up to the Hollywood sign? I know that got a van, but wouldn't those letters still be enormous? And just those 8 people did all that work? I don't know if I buy that.
• Let's get serious, people. That Erica-Suzanne-Kevin storyline? Annoying!!

That's all for now, but I reserve the right to add to this list in a future post! Tell me some of your favorite 9-0 thoughts!

It's Friday!

It's been a weird, BUSY week. With selling and buying a house, the MANY phone calls between me and our realtor, meeting with the bank guy, and getting all kinds of appointments scheduled, I'm ready to just drop! However, I don't think I'll be able to do that until after we move, because there are still so many things to do!

Today will be a fun day, as my parents and sister are coming up to see our new house! Erin helped us pick it (forced us to, more like! Just kidding!), but Mom and Dad haven't seen it yet. I think (hope!) they'll love it as much as we do!

The rest of this weekend will be filled with my attempts to start getting packed and organized. I have a delightful hair appointment Saturday morning, but after that...PACK CITY will commence at 1528 MLK Drive. My goal for this move is to have ENOUGH boxes so that I don't have to resort to throwing things into garbage bags at the last minute, and to pack things fairly neatly so that unpacking is easier. We'll see how this goes. I'm strangely confident about this, though! I think it can happen!

We have no big Labor Day plans that I know of. Nick is working all weekend but is off Monday night, so maybe there will be some sort of event happening. We'll see!

So productive...

There are so many things to do in this whole "hey, let's buy a house!" process! Many calls between me and Jean, the realtor, have taken place since Sunday. Many. Like I'm considering making her one of my 5 people I can call for free, almost! :)

I feel like I've been productive during the past couple of days, though. I called my loan officer at my bank, Curt, to set up an appointment to get this financial ball rolling. I was supposed to meet him this morning at 8 a.m., which means I had to either find all my stuff I had collected before for my loan application (W2s, check stubs, bank statements) or I had to get that stuff collected again. Of course, I couldn't find my copies, so I managed to get most of it pulled together. Unfortunately, Curt had a dog-related emergency this morning and wasn't able to make our meeting. He's supposed to be coming to my work to do this stuff today, though, which is nice.

Also, I found a copy of something I got from Toyota because there's a recall on a part of my car. I got this thing so long ago and just totally forgot about it. I called the service department today, though, and I'm bringing my car in to them next week on Tuesday morning, so that will be taken care of!

I got a call from the home inspector that Jean hooked me up with, and that appointment is scheduled for a week from today, so that's done. I like when stuff gets scheduled and completed!

Finally, Nick just called me. He got called for an interview for a position with the City of Bloomington. I applied him for this Support Staff IV - CSO position. I think the CSO means Community Service Officer. I think it's mostly a secretarial/front desk type job with the police department. Now, it is 2nd shift, which isn't ideal, but if he were to get it, he'd be IN TOWN (a HUGE plus!), and he'd have his foot in the door and could potentially change shifts. We'll see. He's interviewing next week on Wednesday at 11 a.m. I think we're both happy with where he is for now, but we'll keep an open mind...

Oh my God, we BOUGHT A HOUSE!!

Yes. It has been a BUSY couple of days! The woman who saw our house on Saturday put an offer in for it on Sunday. We discussed it with Jean, the BEST realtor in the world, as far as I'm concerned! One part of the deal is that there's some First Time Homebuyers' program called AmeriDream that our buyer is a part of, so in order to make the deal, we have to pay a percentage to AmeriDream. Not a confusing concept, but this does result in us getting less in the end than her actual offer. Okay, the other contingency is that she has to close by September 26.

As in one month from today.

So when I heard that, I started to cry (shock of all shocks, I know!) because I couldn't imagine doing this deal and having to move in a month and having to go to a hotel or an apartment or something like that. After the initial rush of emotions, we talked through some logical options and came up with a few. Here's a tip. If you're ever in this situation, your realtor probably knows of some month-to-month apartments (even sometimes owned by her company) or might be able to get you a really good hotel deal.

Luckily, we don't need either of these options. Our buyer lives with her sister and has agreed that, as long as we close on the 26th of September, we can do what's called rent back, where we actually rent our house back from her day by day until we close on our new house. Whew! We went house hunting Sunday night and Monday and found one cute one that we thought was "the one"...until we found THE ONE!!! The first house was really cute and had the space we wanted, but it wasn't quite as cute as the one we ended up selecting.

Here's our (soon to be) house! We can't wait for the "paperwork" process to be done and to get all moved in! The MOST fun will be decorating and finally being able to buy furniture (slowly but surely)!

Life is exhausting sometimes! A.k.a. the long rambling post...

Well, here's our weekend so far. Austin and I had a great time at Parker's first birthday party today! It was hot out, but there was a tent (love the tent), so we all sat in the shade and watched the kids play. Delicious cake, good friends, cute kids...all in all, a great time! During the party, I got a call from a realtor who wanted to show our house this evening around 6:30. I agreed and went home to clean.

Let me say this. Having your house on the market is a game full of ups and downs. You're up when someone's interested, and your down when there's no action. You (or at least I) also get pretty tired of constantly feeling like I have to clean. Here's the thing: I like a clean house. I love a clean house! I love the feeling of accomplishment I get when I clean up my house. I don't love, however, having to go home and frantically clean my house by a certain deadline. I also don't particularly love having to leave the house whenever people want to check the house out. It's just kind of inconvenient sometimes.

Anyway, so the lady said they were going to come around 6:30 or 7. I told her to try to come around 6:30 since we have a young man who needs to get to bed around 7:30. She said she'd call me if they weren't going to make it to cancel. We cleaned, we left, and Austin and I went to play at Cecilia's. About 5 seconds after I told Cecilia and Rohrk about this, the realtor called to say that they wouldn't be able to be there until after 6:30 so they were going to cancel. She didn't want us to have to leave the house. This was at 6:27. I told her we were already gone, so if they could still come, that would be great! She agreed and they checked out the house.

Nick beat me home after the realtor left but called me to say that she had locked the garage door! Oops! I had to call her to come let us in, as we don't have a house key (we just go in through the garage door). Nick talked to her a little, and she told him that her client LOVED our house. The only thing she wasn't crazy about was the backyard because she has a young daughter, and it really doesn't lend itself to outside playing that much. However, she said that our house is #1 on her client's list, and that she hopes to make an offer this week!

In taking a lesson from Magoun, we're not going to get too pumped about this just yet. However, that's at least positive, and worth the cleaning frenzy/vacating the house!

The other thing that is a bit exhausting right now is Nick's job situation. He works in Peoria for not a TON of money, and with gas being so high, it's not really an ideal situation. I would say that it's really never an ideal situation to work and live in two different cities, but especially with high gas. He had a job interview at ISU this week and we just found out that he didn't get the job. What is the deal with ISU? We have applied him for job after job there, and he's been called for multiple interviews, but so far, no job offers! Why is ISU such a hard place to get a job? I mean, what is it, State Farm? Anyway, we have a couple more applications in the mix at ISU, but after that, we're taking a break for a while. The good news is that he just found out he's getting a cost of living raise of about $1 per hour (yay!) and that he might be getting some back vacation pay or something. That certainly takes the edge off of the job turn down! And with gas being down a little bit (for now...please stay that way!), we're not in an impossible situation.

I just realized how long and rambling this post has gotten. If you've managed to read it all, thanks for listening to my jumbled thought process!

My Boy

Last night, I was looking at a lot of my pictures from when Austin was just a tiny bean. He was so stinking cute, I just about couldn't handle it! Let me share a couple with you.

He is such a little peanut in these pictures! It's amazing to me how much he has grown and changed in just a little over a year. We talk at work, all of us with all of our little children, about how fast they grow and how old they're all getting. I feel like Austin has already grown out of so many stages of his life! And yet, I know that there will come a day when Austin will be like 16 years old and all big and huge, and he probably won't want to hang out with his dorky old mom all the time...and I'll remember when my sweet, sweet boy was just a baby who loved to play on the bed and read books and fall asleep with his soft, peach-fuzzy head on my shoulder.

And I'll think, "Where did the time go? He was just a year old like yesterday!"

Here's to enjoying every minute!