Aaaaachoooo!

Allergies are punishment enough in and of themselves.

It's been baking hot out here, and baby's and my alleriges are going full throttle!

I can't wait for winter now... and I am sure 6 months ago that I was wishing for the heat to come here! Never satisfied I tell ya!

Ooooooo! Thunder.. it might rain.. that would be nice. Every time we see the sprinkler on here we see little dollar signs coming out instead of water, weird isn't it?

Is C for Cookie? If you have been watching Sesame Freaking Street as much as I have you will say HELL yes it is. hehheeh.... sorry... But I did find this GREAT rap song... Tell me if you like it...

Updated my pics on flickr, if you want to see them, I need to have you added to my contacts. Email me and let me know if you want to be added. You have to create a free account there.

had to do it

I just had to write something to say that I have an entry for 6.6.6

By the way Happy birthday P!

Where are these people from???

We are back home, and never leaving again. It seems like every time we travel it ends up horrible! We had a good time, and the lil one was fine in about 2 days since we got her on an antiviral asap! So anyone that ends up with it, get the kid *or yourself* on an antiviral.
I am tired, just unpacking, and trying to stay out of the heat. We got spoiled in Seattle with the cool breezes and the rain, the endless glorious rain! Here we are huddling in front of the fans and outdoor sprinklers...

In other hilarious news.. as we were driving to our friend's house to pick up the dog, we were driving by a house.. the kids were playing outside.. the dad was sitting in a lawn chair, and the mom was..... (THIS IS FOR REAL) she was SHAVING his back in the FRONT YARD.....
I almost fell out of the car laughing so hard.

When it rains it really pours!

So here we are in beautiful Seattle, the setting of Grey's Anatomy... and we even got in a hospital (well the doctor's office at the local hospital.. sorry no Mc Dreamy) Anyway... about 1 day after we got to town, the lil one has CHICKEN POX... so that's how we're starting off vacation. The lil one has all her medicine, and all her family around her, so she will be better soon.. just itchy now...
Please send some get better soon vibes my way! Thanks

Summer's almost here!

I've updated more pics on my Flickr acct, so if any of you want to see more pics of her royal cuteness you can swing by there.

My MIL and FIL came by this weekend to visit. We had a great time. We went on a day trip to the mountains, and then the next day we had a BBQ, and on Sunday went to church.

Only a few more days and we are off on vacation again, this time it's only a 2 hour flight, so I am confident that I can keep her occupied for 2 hours.

I will try to update some pictures while we are gone, but if not, see you in June!

Gah!!!

I can't believe the girl is 9 months old today. It just seemed so quickly that I found out that I was pregnant, and then had her, and then saw her roll over and smile. It's going by too fast. I am glad she is growing up, but could there please clue me into where the slow down button is? I feel like time moves faster the older I get. I think it's true.

Onto other great news. The mother's group (MOPS) that I am a part of... I am now their publicity person. I am the one that write the bi-monthly newsletter and gets advertising. I am very excited! I can't wait til September when we meet up again. I have so many ideas. This is good, since I still can spend tons of time with the baby, but still get my creative juices going.
I love working on the computer, sometimes I think I am just such a geek!

The Worst

*EDIT : the corporate office called, and they are going to mail us "certificates" and would like us to try the place again, and let them know how it did. I think we will do it again. But if this happens again. we.are.never.going.there.again.
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If there is anyone out there still reading this and thinking "hmmmm I wanna go out to eat tonite with my honey... hmm where should we go?"

before you answer that question.. let me tell you.. never ever let yourself go to Biaggi's... it was awful. There is one other place called Bare Bones in Maryland that rivals it.

Today D and I were thinking about having a day out sans baby girl. So we went, and our friends babysat. We were very excited. So we get to the place (I can't even say the name now without wanting to puke) and we order the stuffed mushrooms for appetizers, and get our drinks. Our waitress looks a bit frazzled.. but the place wasn't even half full. This should have been our sign to leave after the appetizers. The next sign should have been that it was about THIRTY MINUTES to get our meal. People that came in 15 minutes after we did had their meal before we did. My iced tea by then had all melted to a nasty watered down version, and D and I were fuming and ready to leave.

Well along comes Mr. Manager in his tie and nice pressed shirt, and says here are your plates, and sorry about the delay..

Any of you that know us know that we are polite and we say we understand. We are still at that point looking forward to the food. It all smells good around us.

So we get the plates and what do we see????
D’s looks edible. Well that turns out not to be the case. It turns out that the noodles were so dried out that we couldn’t tell if they were cooked or not.
If you think that we are snooty about our food let me just tell you about my meal.

I ordered the Penne Sardi… if anyone goes to the link of Biaggi’s up there you can read what it’s supposed to be… well mine looked like a pool of oil and breadcrumbs… it looked like a pig vomited in my food. It was so sick. I am not even pregnant anymore and I thought morning sickness was coming back.
I asked the waitress, when she came by to ask how things were, “ I thought this was supposed to be a tomato sauce?”

She replied, “ Well there is tomatoes in it.. you just have to mix it up”…
MIX IT UP??? WTF?? Am I the damn chef?

Ok so I do mix it up.. all the so-called sauce settles back to the bottom.. it is no match to all the oil and fat fighting to get to the top…

So I try like 2 bites, and the noodles are all greasy and they are either dried out or not cooked…
What D and I think happened is that someone forgot our order.. and then left it either in the oven or just under the heat lights or whatever they have nowadays.. and we got screwed.

So when the check comes I mention to the waitress that I couldn’t eat it as it was too covered up in oil and it wasn’t tasty.. she asks me what she could replace it with, I tell her that we are going to see MI3 (which was excellent by the way) and she said ok and went to get the check…

As she leaves us with the bill, she looks at me and says “I hope this didn’t ruin the experience.”
IF she had just shut her mouth it would have been fine and we would have not been as peeved I think. But HELL yes it DID ruin the experience.

She should have comped the meal. We also probably should have complained to management. But you know what. Even if they gave us free meals I don’t think I will ever go there. It was that bad.

The Bare Bones story is for another day. But it too was awful.

And I will post about what a great flick MI3 is later… even though Tom Cruise has gone a little bit overboard in his personal life the movie kicked ass… I recommend watching it in the theater!

Sorry if there are any typos!

More freaking pictures of the (cute-as-a-button-totally-adorable) child

(so hungry...must eat!!!! and then I'm going to a BBQ)

I am going to the city, and I look too freaking cute!

I can't stop

she is just too cute!

IDing every stinking animal? what next ???

This is so true... Well in my opinion... and if you read the 6th paragraph down you will understand why. I don't usually get into politics (cause I learned that it's not polite to do that in public) but I couldn't help it, and the author of this site is just so dead on on this issue.

Read on and let me know what you think. if you want to :)

Unretired and cute

Ok since there is popular demand. I won't retire. Just cut back a lil for the summer... the lil one is now a little drama queen. D thinks she should be a Gerber model. She loves to pose in her new outfits.

Moo

Oh it's been great weather lately. I am glad that I have less allergies here than when I was in Texas. I am ready to be running around outside than cooped up inside.

I think I might not keep updating this as much any more, busy with the kid and hubby and all the projects around the house. If there is anything important to me I will update, but otherwise I just don't have much to say I guess. Not that I had too many readers.. lol

Big Favor!!

Hey there everyone.. I have a big favor to ask you... if you go here to Genuine's blog and post a comment.. it will really help out. This story real hit me hard, and if you can show support via a comment I would really appreciate it, and I know the family would also.

Doing this will help a family purchase a plaque with their son Ben’s name to put in the Memorial Garden at the Anschutz Cancer Center. You can help with that too. For every comment Genuine gets from you today on this post, he will donate one dollar to the Steadman’s so that they may buy the plaque in Ben’s honor. Help me get to their goal of $240.00 for the price of the plaque. He’ll show them each of your comments, so take a moment and show your support. If you want to read about Ben and his life, please go and visit the Steadman's site here. He was a 6 year old boy who has a lovely family.

Oh lovely Cheeseburger

Shivani and me

Ammuma, Appupa, and Shivani at the park

So baby and I went to get the mail today... beautiful day, a little windy...

We had a nice surpise in the box... the mothers group that I go to 2 times a month sent us a veggie tales tape... and I know what you are all thinking.. but S loved the songs.. she just thinks it's fabulous.. and the lessons in there are just good. I would rather have her watch that than the million episodes of What not to Wear (WNTW) that I love to watch.. I should totally enlist myself for that show... WNTW not Veggie Tales...

Also at the mailbox we saw that Appupa(gramps) sent us the pictures we took when we were on vacation. Can't wait to see them!

There is some type of Gourd singing a love song to a cheeseburger... weird... even in my dreams I would have never thought of that... S is mesmerized

House Blahs

OMG... D is reading Three Cheers for Tacky to the lil one... it's oh so adorable... well toot.. she just decided that she was going to have a fit and that she MUST eat RIGHT THIS SECOND when it was so cute.. the reading I mean...

she is wearing her mickey outfit that ammuma and appupa got her.. and MOM it's still BIG on her... so it will be a while before she fits in the 12 month old clothes...

So actually made a good (if not somewhat bland) dinner, and he topped it with SALSA.. sorry about the caps.. but I guess salsa on plain rice is good... I grew up with lots of spices on everything... but it was good...

Tomorrow I want to have a plan about changing up some of the rooms and PAINT.. painting the baby's room gave it personality... so I want to think about doing our room the guest room and all the bathrooms...WILL not touch the living room other than to repaint it white.. it's got like 18 foot ceilings.. I don't want to do a color.. and it's just a huge project...

we'll see.. the first prioity house-wise is to get the trees in the front planted... the irises and tulips are starting to bud.. so spring is right around the corner.. well after it stops snowing here...

ah house ownership... so rewarding and yet so many levels of frustration!

Oh yeah before I let you go... did I mention she peed on me.. but it was my fault... I guess when she decided jumping on mommy was a fun exerecise.. I should have made sure that she had a "clean" diaper on... it was a good laugh and we both had to clean up and change clothes... ahhh the good times!

Shades

Here are some snapshots of our trip.. this was a great trip, and Shivani really got to bond with her ammuma and appupa (grandma and grandpa)... it was hard to leave since they were all so teary eyed! Don't you just love the shades? Very adorable, that's my girl!

Long vacations!

ahh vacation... it's nice... and we are staying a lil bit longer with grandma and grandpa.. having a good time, and since D was so nice.. we get to stay a bit longer... :)

Hope everyone is doing well.. it's going to be in the 70s this weekend here! yeah!

Sigh...we made it

We made it... which in and of itself isn't a huge deal... but the first time that I fly with a 6 month old, we are delayed 2 hours which felt like 2222 hours... and then once we get to the state in which we are visiting on the east coast... we are like 6 inches from landing when all of a sudden the pilot pulls the plane STRAIGHT back up into the air.... kinda freaked me out, but it was because another plane was on the tarmac still... everything delayed.. luckily no harm... than goodness.. the flight attendants doted on baby, and totally helped me out and made my flight bearable even with the delays etc... baby girl was just fine.. upset a little bit because mommy did not get her the bottle right at the stroke of 3:30.... but otherwise just played.. she slept like 30 mins on the flight..

My parents FINALLY got high speed internet... last year i was dialing up when i visited them.. so there was only one post when i was on vacation...

we miss d, baby misses daddy... but we will chat with you soon!
Hope anyone travelling with kids really needs to... it's really tough, and definitely draining, but to see the smile on grandpa and grandma's face was SO TOTALLY worth it.

Sorry about any spelling or other grammatical errors...

Tips please

Edit 2/19/06 : Do I need a bassinet for a 6 month old.. she doesn't lay in the one at home... She only lays in her crib at night? The doc said to give something to drink to the baby on takeoff and landing..? Anything else.. and yes we are flying coach... I wish we were getting in firstclass, wouldn't that be nice. It's like that line from Jerry Maguire, " First class used to be a better meal, now it's a better life"!

Any tips on flying with a 6 month old? Anything essential that I should bring with me? What worked for you? I have always been the person that never wanted to sit next to the "kid" on the plane.. especially the one that was crying.. and now that it's going to be ME... I just wanted to know what's worked... Any advice is appreciated.
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So D is recovered, took some time off work, and is on the mend. It was kinda worrisome, but I just wanted him to feel better. So I made sure that he walked around more, held the baby. I hope he is feeling better.

The baby has liked having D home all week. It's been funny, anytime D comes up to her, she lifts her arms up, thinking she is going to get picked up. He thought that was funny, and kept walking up to her, and then away.. she kept lifting her arms up and then let them down.. and then when she figured out what daddy was doing, she started to get upset and fake-cried, then she was picked up and giggled like crazy.

I wish there were jobs that we could be at home for. I am glad I get to stay home and see my baby grow up, but I know that there are days that D wishes he could see more moments. I know there are also days that I wish I got to spend more time with adults and work. I think that this is the best for now, and maybe when she is a bit older that I will work as a nurse.

Thanks for all the comments for D's recovery! Each and everyone was appreciated.
D's co-workers were so awesome and send him a bouquet of yellow (Texas) roses! It was so nice, and family and friends sent cards. We are so lucky with the family and friends we have!

Update on the Hubs

Ok so D had a "gallstone attack"... very painful, from Friday late night into early Saturday morning.. he has had these before.. and though they are not life threatening it is very painful.. this is one of the things that you can equate with the pain of childbirth.. it's also similar to trying to pass a kidney stone...
anyway so sometime in the afternoon on Saturday he calls a family friend (read : doctor) and she tells him to get checked out in the local ER.. so off we go.. and when we get there we wait.. they do their x rays and all that fun stuff.. and then we find out he will get admitted.. and last night to this morning is was feeling better.. the gallstone was passed..

The surgeon comes in to look at all his numbers, and while they are going back to normal, they stated that it was better that the gallbladder come out.. so about 11:30 or so.. they went off.. he was really nervous.. but did well.. the doctor was done in about 1 hr. Said the surgery went very well.

Before baby and I left, he was able to eat dinner, and take a walk around the hospital with us. He is very sore, (understandable) but ready to come home and rest and be around his girls!

Thank you for all your thoughts, prayers, and support!