WBW: Bad Fashion

Today I bring you the best of my bad fashion. I have to say I don't think I have any pictures of my absolute worst outfits, so here's the best I could dig up...


This was sixth grade circa 1988, so you can understand the rolled up jeans and ugly geometric patterned sweatshirt.


And then there's this one. What do you say about a picture so ugly?
That's my mom, sister, and me on the end. (1984?)
It's not really a bad outfit, it's just baaaad in so many ways.
But this picture makes me laugh so hard when I look at it!
Go ahead and laugh and tell me that you like my hair, my big buck teeth that took 8 years of orthodontics to fix, my mom's cool humongo glasses, and how my sister looks like a boy.

And he keeps on growing

We've made it to 6 months alive! (and I mean Mommy and Daddy)


I finally feel like we've got a good rhythm to Holden's days.
He's eating and sleeping about the same time each day.
He sleeps all night.
He's stopped crying all the time.
He can sit up by himself.
He loves his toys and and will play alone or with Sophie for a awhile.
Of course his favorite place is still in Mommy's arms.
Mommy is a very popular around here.

So we went for his 6 month check up Friday and everything is well except his weight. He only gained 2 oz in 2 months. He went from his normal growth curve at 50% down to 10%! Of course I am concerned. He had been doing fine up until now, so we're not really sure what happened... he's probably using up more calories now that he moves around so much more and was just not getting enough food to replace them.
But we're going to fatten him up now. I want him to be a little dough boy. The doc wants us to keep nursing and start feeding him 3 meals of solid food a day. We'll go back in a month and see where he is then.

How do you get the kids to stop crying and whining so you can cook breakfast on a Saturday morning?

Put on Dora of course!

Where, Oh Where Can My Archie Be?

Archie has been gone for two and a half weeks now. Usually he comes back home within a few days. We saw him around that first week he was gone, but now there's no sign of him. We have looked and looked and called his name. We have put food and water out a few times and it was gone the next morning. But was it Archie or another cat??
I wouldn't mind him being an outdoor cat except he doesn't have any front claws to climb or protect himself.
I have been worried sick and keep hoping he'll come to our door meowing to come in.
As each day goes by and he doesn't return I wonder if he'll ever come back.
I keep going back and forth between hopefulness and sadness. I feel hopeful going outside and looking for him, putting food out and waiting for him to be there in the morning.
But then I start thinking he's gone for good. It's been almost three weeks and it's time to realize he's probably not coming back. And then I just cry. I really want to be wrong about that, so I go back to being hopeful...

COME HOME NOW ARCHIE!

way back wednesday

This week's theme is "school spirit"...what you did in school (band, cheerleading, sports, etc.).

So first we have me, the track star in high school.

Before practice my friend Cynthia and I would always hide under the bleachers for a quick smoke before our workout.
I also did cross country for awhile but found it got in the way of my pack-a-day Marlboro reds habit, so I had to quit. Cross country that is.

And I also played the alto saxophone for many years. I was pretty good at it too. Was in marching band, but really liked jazz band more.

I had to put the picture with the guy next to me (Mike) because I had the BIGGEST crush on him for a year! He was soooo cute and I got to sit next to him!

And here I found a picture of Dwayne. Now if you know anything about him you know he's the big hockey star, but apparently we don't have any of those pictures here. I did find this one of him playing soccer in his youth.

I don't want to dog my husband too much for this picture, so all I can say is "nice hair dude!" I guess it was cool back in 1982.

booze, trunk, dishes

SPF this week is:
1. your favorite alcoholic beverage
2. inside of your trunk
3. your dishes

I have a couple of favorite drinks, but I am a beer girl at heart. But good beer. Not that Bud LIght, Miller Light crap that pretends to be beer. Let me tell you those Canadians and Europeans really know how to do beer right!
Here's my current fav, STELLLLLLLLAAA!!


Here's the inside of my trunk...

And Dwayne's trunk...

What do you think this says about us??


And our beautiful dishes...

We registerd for these for our wedding and they are nice looking dishes, but apparently not Jackie-proof. I have chipped and broken about half of them now.
We once had a set of 12 wine glasses but I managed to break every single one of those in about 6 months also!

Numbers

9 is for how many days Archie has been gone now.
He's never been gone this long before. His last record was 7 days. Please come home now Archie! I know you're out there because we've seen you twice. Give it up and just come home! I'm sure your girlfriend will still be there when you come back.

60 is for how many crunches I did today. I ROCK!

1 is for the first day of school for Sophie and Holden. They're in a Mom's Day Out program for a few hours a week to give me a little much needed break. Who do you think was crying today? Not Holden, he did pretty well. Not Sophie, she walked right in and started playing with the playdough. It was Mommy! Feeling a little sad and empty, and a tad bit guilty for leaving them. But it sure was nice to have some peace and quiet alone time.

23 is for how many dollars I made selling the rest of my maternity clothes today. Not very much but better than nothing. I don't ever want to wear those clothes again!

1000 is for how much money we've donated so far for Katrina victims. I can't say much more about this because I get really upset and start crying when I think about about those poor people. Just so unimaginable what they're going through.

5 is for how many hours sleep I got last night. And too bad I wasn't doing anything fun either. I just couldn't fall asleep. What the?? Our kid finally starts sleeping through the night and now I can't sleep. Go figure.

253 is for how many days till we're celebrating our anniversary in Mexico! By ourselves. Can you tell I'm excited?!!

Splish Splash!

We were takin' a bath!

Looks like I need to shave my legs!
Just kidding. (Although there was a time in my life when I was granola...)

Sophie and Daddy had a great time playing in the tub!
Can you see the words they were spelling? I think Daddy needs to go back to grammar school.

When I came into the bathroom a very excited Sophie announced "Daddy's peanits floats!"
"Yes, yes it does Sophie."

way back wednesday

It's another rendition of Way Back Wednesday.
This week's theme is BFF (Best Friends Forever)!
In junior high I remember signing BFF on all the notes my best friend and I wrote to each other.
My first junior high best friend was Tali. Here we are in the Happy Hands Club. Kidding.


And this was my next junior high best friend. Rachael and I were best friends for many years. We thought we were cool switching our swim suits like this. I can't believe I'm posting pictures of me in a bikini on the internet! But hey, I was only 13. (BTW, I'm the skinny one with no boobs.)


Here is one of my best buds in high school, Ari. And of course I picked a picture of us at our finest.


Here's Ari, me, and my other best friend Marsha on spring break in Padre. (note: I had to really dig for a presentable picture of us on Spring Break)

And our matching tattoos we got there...


This was one of my other best friends in high school, Cynthia. We liked to sneak cigarettes together in the bathroom at school. Sadly, she passed away at 18.


So there you have it. The best of my best friends. And some really embarrassing pictures. But I know that's what you wanted to see.

Happy Happy!

Happy Happy!
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.

How big is Holden?

How big is Holden?
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.

So big!
I'm learning how to sit up all by myself.

It's Raining Snot!

Blow. Suck. Blow. Suck. Blow.
That's what I've been doing all day long. Sophie needs to blow her nose every ten minutes, or sometimes she just sticks her finger in and tells me she has snot & boogies on it. And other times if I'm lucky she'll just wipe it somewhere herself. Thanks for taking care of that yourself Sophie.
At lunch she caught one on her fork after she sneezed. Classic.
Holden can't blow yet, so he has to be sucked. I personally think the snot sucker is a fun little toy to use. Too bad Holden doesn't see it that way.

The good news is that he's still sleeping through the night! He is a much cuter baby now that Mommy and Daddy get some rest. I had forgetten what it feels like to get solid sleep (you know it's been like 8 months since I've slept more than a few hours at a time). Let me tell you sleep is flippin fantastic!!
Before children, I was a champion sleeper. If there were an Olympic event for sleeping I would totally medal! 15,16 hours at a time, no problem. On the weekend I would actually have to tell Dwayne to wake me up by 2pm. Otherwise I would have slept through the entire day and well into the next night. Sleep was one of my favorite past times.
Gone are the days.

It's Been 3 Days!

Three nights actually. Three nights of Holden sleeping. Sleeping throught the night.

We put him down at 8pm and he woke up at 3:30 the first night- awesome! Then 4:15 the next night- awesomer! And last night he didn't get up until 5:00!! The awesomest yet!!
Of course this may all fly out the window in a few days, but I am LOVING it now!

Miss Sophie has caught a cold. Ugh, ugh, ugh! She has been sneezing on top of Holden and fondling his pacifier when I'm not looking. grrrreeeat, I'm sure I know who will be getting the cold next.

It's Way Back Wednesday!

First off, let me say I finally got my scanner! Yahoo!!
And this week's WBW theme is "Picture Day" so here's what I dug up.

This is my fifth grade picture:


Here's tenth grade: (and for you Canadians, we also call this sophmore year)


Too bad we don't have any school pics of Dwayne, I thought it would be cute to post both of us up here.
If you want to play WBW too, go check out The Kept Woman's page.

The Lum darlings

Here they are...

Holden's chillin out in his hot tub. He just finished his wine and cigar.


Somebody likes to walk in Daddy's shoes


Holden's dinner

I've been tagged twice now

So here goes.
List ten songs that you are currently digging. It doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're no good but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the ten songs in your blog. Then tag five other random people to see what they're listening to.

1. Baby, I'm Back (Baby Bash & Akon) I love to dance and workout to this song!
2. I Put Myself Together (Charles Brown) very awesome blues song
3. Don't Cha (Pussy Cat Dolls)
4. Vehicle (Bo Bice) you know he ROCKS
5. I Don't Wanna Be (Bo Bice) his version is way better than that other dude's on the radio
6. My Body, Your Body (LSG) this song makes me horny
7. Glue (Mappari)
8. Galaxy Bounce (Chemical Brothers) I like to trip acid on this song. Just kidding, it gets me in a real groove when I'm working out
9. Bad Day (Daniel Powter) got this free from iTunes and it's gooood
10. If I Could Turn Back Time (Cher) this always reminds me of that Will & Grace episode when Jack meets Cher

Now I tag Carrie C, Jennifer, and Lori. And anyone else who hasn't already done this.

My day, my weekend, my life

My day:
Not so great. Had a nice playdate and lunch with friends, but Holden doesn't want to nap today. Argh! That means he's crabby, clingy, tired, and not the bundle of joy I want him to be.
My weekend:
Great! Got a babysitter Saturday so Dwayne and I could have some much needed relaxation time together. We went oot on the boot for many hours. Beer. Fun. Sun. Tube rides. Sore butt.
My life:
My friends I have gotten off the lazy horse and started working out! It feels great! A big stress reliever and I can listen to my ipod & be in my own little world for half an hour.
I've dusted off my elliptical cross trainer and started using it again. The only trick is finding the time. Best time is when both kids are napping, but that gets tricky making it actually happen. Next best thing is one child naps and the other gets stuck in front of the tv with a Baby Einstein movie. And last choice is wait til they're all in bed. I don't like that one as much because it's too late and then I'm all keyed up when I need to go to bed.
But life is not perfect so I'll take what I can get.

Way Back Wednesday and more

This is Way Back Wednesday! You're supposed to dig out old pictures from your birthday this week. Since I still don't have my scanner yet my pictures suck. I had to take pictures of pictures and they just don't turn out all that great.
But anyway, here I am.
This is my 24th birthday (just last year, *wink, wink*)
I was teaching first grade and my students sang "Happy Birthday" and surprised me with a cake!



************************
And in totally unrelated news...
Thanks for all the suggestions on what to take in case you have an emergency get-out-of-the-house situation.
We are planning on getting a fire safe and doing a fire safety check this weekend.
Everyone in that house got out safely, but they lost everything.
The fire was started because the man accidently left his gas grill on.
Here's a little news clip about it. Take a look at the video clip and you can really see how much damage was done.
http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=3722455&nav=0s3ddKs7

Filthy mouth

As Sophie is carrying her baby around today she drops her and says "Oh fock Baby."
"What did you say Sophie?"
"Fock. Fock Baby."

I wish her father would keep his filthy mouth shut, as this could be the only place she has ever heard this word.


I told Sophie that we should say "fudge" instead of "fock."
"Fock" was her reply.

What would you take with you?

Last night at 2am we get a call from our neighbor. She told us the house behind ours was on fire!
We jumped out of bed to go check it out! You can't see this house because of the woods between us. When we got outside we could see the orange flames above the trees and lots of smoke. You could hear the fire crackling and other assorted noises. It sounded like a helicopter at first, but we realized it was the sound from the fire engines' water hoses.
I am silently FREAKING OUT at this point!
You know it's a big fire when you see the flames above the trees! (these are not small trees)
"Dwayne, what do we do?!? Is it coming this way?? What do we do?!?"
The scariest part for me was not knowing if the fire was coming through the woods towards our house. We couldn't see far enough.
And then I start worrying if everyone got out of that house okay.
And what should we do? Should we wake up the kids and leave? Should we stay and see what happens? Should we call someone? The wheels in my head are spinning so fast it made my stomach hurt.
We decided to wait and see what was going to happen. We got the cars out of the garage just in case we had to run for it. If the fire did come through the woods we knew we would have plenty of time to get the kids, pets, and a few other things and leave.
And then I started thinking I should pack a bag just an case we have to evacuate.
But what do I bring along???
I first think I should grab some extra clothes and toiletries for everyone. But the kids were sleeping and I didn't want to go in their rooms for the stuff and wake them up unnecessarily. Then I thought I'd grab our photo albums, but there are too many to take them all. OK, I'll just take the computer that has all the pictures. But it's not a laptop and is that just silly to rip out your big computer from the wall and bring it along?
So I got nowhere with the bag.
We watched and waited outside for awhile and it seemed like the fire was slowing down. Much less orange glow and crackling, and lots of water hose sounds.
We waited longer and finally decided it was most likely not going to come our way.
So we went inside, but there was NO WAY I could go to sleep! My mind is going a thousand mph and I'm too scared the fire will pick back up!
I keep thinking about this bag I might or might not need to pack. And maybe not tonight but sometime I might need to. And then, what would I grab if I only had a few minutes?
Sometime later, after we were sure it was going to be okay, we drifted off to sleep (maybe 4am?)
But then I had horrible nightmares about our house catching on fire! And I couldn't get the kids in my dream.
What a night!
In the morning I told Dwayne to drive by the house on his way to work and call me afterwards. He said the house burned to the ground. Everyone got out safe! thank goodness! It was a big house and luckily it was all contained to their house and lot. I guess all the rain we've had and no winds last night really helped.

So we are going to be doing a big fire safety check around our house this week- check smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, escape routes, etc. And make a plan if it were to happen to our house because you never know...
But I still keep thinking about this bag I should have packed!
So my question to you is: What would you take with you if you had to evacuate and only had 10 minutes to pack a bag??

It's Friday again! (and you know what that means)

It's another round of Stuff Portraits Friday (SPF).

This week's categories:
1) your ride
2) a mile away
3) the reason you love where you live

My pictures this week aren't the best, but that's what happens when you try to cram the night before.

My ride:


My brand new Volvo SUV! llllllove it!!

A mile away:

The County Line BBQ... everybody says it's great. I don't like meat or bbq, so I wouldn't know.

The reason I love where I live:



I have many things I wanted to post, like pictures of the lake or my favorite places in Austin, but since it's too late to go out around town I'll stick with why I love where we live in Austin.

I love where we live because:
We have a big yard where deer come visit us frequently.
It's a one of a kind house, no cookie cutter houses around here.
You can walk around naked and don't have to worry about neighbors seeing, and vice versa.
We have privacy but still live in town.

Has it been 5 months already since I squeezed him out my hoo-ha?

Yes it has been five months! Funny how I remember those labor pains oh-so vividly like it was yesterday.

Happy Birthday to Holden!

Let me tell you what my 5 month old likes to do now (besides keep us up at night).
He likes to roll around on the floor and chew on his toys. He smiles when the toys squeak! He laughs when you lift him up high or tickle him. He can coo and talk and blow raspberries.
His favorite person is Mommy. He cries if she's in the room and not holding him. (how dare her!)
He likes when big sister Sophie plays with him and reads him stories.
He eats baby cereal now and thinks it's yummy!

Progress on sleepy time:
I gave up on the crying-it-out method after two days. It sucked and was really increasing my anxiety level. And it only worked 1 out of the 7 naps I tried! He would just keep crying, one and a half hours with no end in sight...I mean how long are you supposed to let them go for?
Anyway, I feel like a better mom now. I've established a better naptime routine and have really been cuing in on when he is tired and ready to go down. Since it's been raining the last few days we've been staying at home which makes it easier for us at naptimes.
He still does not know how to fall asleep on his own. And the longest stretch he sleeps at night is 3-4 hours. So we still have a ways to go...
But I've just started reading this book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby and I'm hoping we can make some progress soon.

Baby steps towards a full night's sleep!

Do use you a pontee too?

I love the way Sophie sometimes gets big or unfamiliar words mixed up.
Today she was staring at my tampon trying to remember what those fun things were called.
"That's your pontee Mommy?"
"Yep, that's my pontee Sophie."
"You put that in your hiney Mommy?"
"Yep, gonna put it in my hiney Sophie."

hee hee hee hee

Some of her other funny words:
paterkiller for caterpiller
mazagine for magazine
cubice for ice cube
brushtooth for toothbrush

She's been a hoot lately. Loves to make up her own words and people.
We were playing legos the other day and she knocked a tower of them down. She says, "Don't worry J.J. will get them."
"J.J.?? Who is J.J. Sophie??"
"Yeah, J.J. Cocoa."
We know no one by this name.
Silly goose!

My darlings

The source of my overflowing joy and neverending stress.




Pretty darn cute, eh?

9:30

What's so great about 9:30?
That's how late we slept in today!!!
If you have youngins in the house you know this is a big deal.
Usually it's 7:30 or 8 when we get up (sometimes much earlier), and a few times we've even slept in til 8:30.
But 9:30!!!!
The secret ingredient to a good night's sleep?
Wine.
Give them all wine and they'll sleep in.

SPF OCD

This week's SPF (brought to us by Kristine) is about your OCD tendencies.
Pretty apropriate for someone like me.
The categories this week:
-your horrible habit
-something you obsess over
-something that causes anxiety

I had an especially hard time with the last two since I obsess over EVERYTHING and I have many anxieties!
But alas, I narrowed them down to my all time top obsessions and anxieties.
Here they are:

My horrible habits: (not really that horrible)

Target- my major addiction. And Target is good. Just not spending all your money there every week.


And my other major addiction- the computer.

Something I obsess over:

My big ugly crooked nose. This has been an obsession since I was about 12 and started getting made fun of.
And you know your nose never stops growing! Well mine just keeps getting bigger and crookeder every year.
I see a nose job in my near future.

The worst of my anxieties: (remember?)

Ahhh, it makes my heart race just thinking about them.
I drew the picture myself (pretty good dontcha think?) because THANK GOD I didn't have a real one to take a picture of.

Whoooo's been playing with my toilet paper roll?

Whoooo's been playing with my toilet paper roll?
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.

Hmm, can't imagine.
Could it be the two year old I left upstairs by herself while I was putting the baby to sleep?

Nat and AC Slater

Nat and AC Slater
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.

Do you recognize him?!?!?
That's right, it's AC Slater from Saved By the Bell!
Our dear frind Natalie met him down in San Antonio on the Riverwalk.

Day 1

I've decide to *cringe* try the faithful ole "crying it out" method with Holden.
Results from Day 1: first nap with the babysitter, 2nd nap- screamed and cried for one hour straight but finally fell asleep for 45 minutes, 3rd nap- screamed and cried for one hour 15 minutes then I went in to feed him since I knew he wasn't going to give up and he was hungry by then, he fell asleep in my arms, I laid him down and he cried for another 45 minutes...this is going well so far dontcha think?...Daddy finally picked him up and he didn't sleep again till bedtime.
We have established a good bedtime routine and he falls asleep easily after I nurse him.

We'll go for round two tomorrow.

I already feel like a lousy mother and it is VERY HARD to listen to your baby scream for an hour! I just keep telling myself this will be better in the long run. He should cry less and less each day over the next few weeks.
I hope I'm going in the right direction here. Please let me know if any of you have tried this method and tell me it works!!
And thanks for all the advice so far.

BTW, evidence I am stressed out and have lost my mind: I forgot to change Sophie's diaper THE ENTIRE DAY. I didn't realize this until she had pee leaking out the back pockets of her shorts around 4pm.
OOOOOOPPPSS! Well, it didn't kill her. And dang those Pampers can hold a lot of pee!
I'll try better tomorrow.

pigtails

pigtails
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.

I've been waiting a long time for this.
Pigtails!
She kinda has enough hair now. Of course they only lasted about 20 minutes

Boo hoo hoo

That's me crying.
Man, I'm having a lousy day!
My sister and family just left today after a great 5 day visit. I'm sad. That's part of the problem.
Then there's the hormonal part. Aunt Flo's gonna be coming to town soon.
And then there's the biggest problem. Holden.
This kid is killing me! Physically and mentally.
He sucks at sleeping.
It takes about 30 minutes to actually get the kid to sleep, and then he's up 30-45 minutes later. VERY frustrating!
At night we're lucky if he sleeps 3 hours at a time.
He's usually overtired and cranky because he wants to go to sleep, but can't.
We've tried the cereal at night and on the good nights he'll sleep a 3 hour stretch.
It doesn't seem to matter where he sleeps, he won't STAY asleep.
He's a needy crabby guy and I'm mad at him.
I know that sounds awful and it's not his fault. Yes, logic tells me these things but I get so upset and frustrated with him. I feel like an incompetent mother.
Why can't you just go to sleep Holden? Why do I have to hold you and carry you all day long? Can you just please give me a break?!?
And when I do get a little break I dread going back and dealing with the crying baby who can't sleep.
He's not a very good nurser either. He likes to play tug-o-war with my nipples and he usually wins. Let me tell ya that it DOES NOT feel good!

I tried trading babies with my sister. She has a sweet little Hailey girl that can fall asleep by herself, and doesn't scream and cry for an hour, and sleeps, and is just a good natured baby.
My sister did not want to trade. They're driving back to California and she knows Holden screams in the car.
Darn it.

People told me "Oh, it will get better after 3 months."
I'm still waiting. He's 4 1/2 months old now.
Will it get better? Will I feel better? Can I be a better mom?
I really would like to enjoy being with my baby. And I DO love him. I do, I do, I do. But at the same time he makes me so mad. It's hard for me to just suck it up and do my job as a mom when all I want to do is escape.

They're done!

Click here to see pictures from our trip.
Now my next venture will be to print them all!

Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad

We're BACK!

It feels good to be home.
We had a wonderful trip although it was not much cooler in Toronto at all!
Now we're just trying to get back and organized. You know how it is after being gone for so long...piles and piles of mail to go through, loads and loads of laundry, many groceries to buy, suitcases to be unpacked, the knee-high grass to be cut, oodles of pictures to download...
And lets not forget all the blogs I need to catch up on! I managed to squeeze in some quick computer time while we were away, but couldn't read nearly as much as I wanted to.
I'll have lots of pictures to share as soon as I get enough time to go through and organize them all!

***********************
Our trip started at Dwayne's mum's house. Soooo relaxing...she lives in this cute little town that you walk around almost everywhere, leave your doors unlocked, but still have enough amentities to keep you satisfied.
We played at the little beach, walked the downtown, ate good food, drank GREAT beer, and visited with family. She watched the kids so we could actually SIT DOWN FOR A MEAL! Unheard of around our house. She handled Holden's screaming fits like a pro. Sophie was ecstatic because almost nothing was off limits at her Oma's house- she could dig in her make up and lotions and potions, splash and play in the water buckets, and got lots and lots of lovins!
(CAN YOU PLEASE MOVE DOWN HERE TRUDY??!!??)
Sophie had birthday party #1 there. Clifford cake for her, good food and beer for the adults. She got to meet her cousin Emilie and loved playing with her! And somehow scored a lot of money for a two year old on her birthday.

***********************
After a few days there, we headed to the city to Dwayne's dad.
Sophie loved playing with family there. Her family included her Grampa & Lori, her uncles Kyle, Andrew, and Darryl, Astro the dog, Simba the cat, and Bert the talking bird. Never a dull moment for Sophie- she laughed and played with them all!
We visited a little farm one day where she was delighted to see and pet the sheep, goats, ponies, and almost caught the geese. She's still talking about that farm.
She had party #2 on her actual birthday. A Dora cake this time and plenty of presents to open. We also got to meet the extended Lum family.
And she finally got her "stinkin" balloons!
I got to play with Wayne's cool expensive digital SLR camera while we were there, the Olympus Evolt. And I absolutely need one now too!! (It's that DES- digital envy syndrome that Kristine's talkin about).

***********************
More stories later...

Adios Amigos

We're headed out tomorrow for our big trip to Canada, better known as the land of "Eh?" and BEER and "oot and aboot" and other funny things.
Hopefully I'll get a little bit of my sanity aand patience back as I pawn our children off to the grandparents and drink lots of good beer!! That's my plan at least.
We'll return the 19th so I'll come back loaded with lots of pictures and stories about beer and loonies and beavers. And of course Sophie's 2nd birthday!
Dwayne has informed me that the relatives have live computers that I can use so I'll be checking in...

I'm losing it here

Today I am losing my mind.
I went in the bathroom and shut the door and screamed "FUUUUUUDDDDGGGEEEE!" as loud as I could, except it really wasn't fudge I said, it was the real "f" word.
I've had it with my daughter.
She can't play nice at all. We went to a friend's house this morning so the kids could play. Yeah, that went over well. First Sophie wanted me to hold her, which is ok except I have a baby to hold and take care of also.
Then when she's playing I hear her crying and saying "that's mine" "That's not yours, that's Sophie's" "Mine, mine!" etc. When actually none of the toys were hers.
Then she starts pushing the other girl. PUSHING! I did not raise her to push other kids. But did she listen to me when I tried telling her that we don't push our friends? And when I tried to reason with her why we don't do that?
Oh, that would be the day, when Sophie actually listens.
Everytime I asked Sophie a question or offered her something, I was given the the nice reply of "No" or "Uh uh."
OY VAY!!
I am so glad we are leaving on vacation this weekend. I'm dropping the kids off at their grandparents and leaving. I'm heading straight to the bar and I'm not coming back!
I think the other reason I've lost it is the lack of sleep night after night.
Did I mention that Holden sucks at sleeping and taking naps? He does.
He takes piddly 30 minute naps throughout the day, usually woken up by his sister's crying. Then at night he's so tired he cries. And it's not the sweet little cries you hear from many babies, it is the SCREAMING LOUD CRY that could only come from my children. (This is a little payback for being so loud myself I suppose).
So yes he CRIES and CRIES at night until he finally falls asleep at 11pm or so. This is an unacceptable bedtime for my baby.
And when he finally gets to sleep, it doesn't last very long. He squirms a lot at night, wakes up, and is forever losing the pacifier, so I am up about every half hour sticking it back in. I know a solution would be to not let him have the paci at night, but after the hours of screaming he likes to suck on it to get to sleep. And we are so tired of the crying by then, neither of us dare take it away for fear of him starting back up again.

We have his 4 month Dr appt tomorrow so maybe, hopefully she'll have some wonderful advice for us.

Twist tie use #97

When you're at the lake and the clasp on your swimsuit breaks, a twist tie does the job very well!
This was a blessing in disguise because even though the swimsuit top was trashed, that meant I had a real reason to shop for another one.
And where do you go to find a cute, affordable suit? Target of course!!

Way Back Wednesday

This is a new game TheKeptWoman wants us to play on Wednesdays.
Today I share pictures from junior high.

Here I am in 6th grade...

Don't you like my sweater that says "HOT"? You know you want one.

And 7th grade (definitely had better hair this year)...


And then there's 8th grade or if you're Canadian you say "grade 8"

I think I looked better the year before.

The First Wedding...that never happened

Here's the requested story of the wedding that got called off/postponed 2 weeks before the date.
I'm trying to figure out where to start the story. It would take quite awhile to tell it all so I'll try and give it to you in a nutshell.
I was engaged to my love named Todd. I was 19 at the time and in college. Our love was very deep and INTENSE. We loved each other with every ounce of our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls. We couldn't stand to be away from each other and rarely ever were. (of course hindsight and a little growing up tells me this is called "codependency" and is unhealthy for a relationship, but we didn't realize that at the time)
We were engaged in the fall (you saw the ring) and everything was honky-dorey. Slowly as the year passed on, I became depressed. I had had a good friend pass away in the fall and didn't know how to deal with it, as well as some other inner issues with myself. Todd stood by me all the way. I received treatment with medication and therapy and began to heal. But somehow I had really dragged Todd down with me in the midst of my dark depression. So as I began to heal and realize that it was healthy for couples to be apart, he clung to me more. The more I tried to heal and have a life of my own outside him, the more he clung and resisited.
Round and round in circles we went. Our intense love, high emotions, and passion also brought on intense fighting and psychological undoings.
This was getting closer and closer to our wedding that we had been planning throughout the year. But we both thought things would get better. I mean we loved each other that's all that mattered right?
Well, along came June and two weeks to the wedding date. The invitations had long been sent out. The plans had been made and everything paid for: the church and pastor, the wedding dress, the reception hall, the cake, the dj, the flowers, the caterers, the bridesmaids and groomsmen, guest travel arrangements, etc.
But were we ready? We truly did want to get married, we loved and cared for each other deeply and longed to be together forever. But for as passonate and strong as our love was, so was our fighting. So when you are screaming and fighting at each other everyday and don't know how to deal with the changes in the evolving relationship, should you still get married? We decided the best choice was to postpone the wedding until we could get it together.
A very hard and heart wrenching decision to make, not to mention embarrassing too! Had to call all the guests and try and explain it. Not to mention all the wedding details/vendors to be cancelled and the $$ that was lost. And a whole lot of crying to be done.
And after that...
well let's just say I'm not married to him now. We never did reschedule the wedding because after months and years of being together and trying to piece back the realtionship the way it used to be, it just didn't happen.
So that would be the very short version of the story.

Now I'm happily married to my love, Dwayne. A much different kind of love- more stable and constant without the high degree of drama all the time.