FUNK

I suppose I'm on vacation from blogging at the moment.
I'm in a bit of a funk lately.
What have we been doing?
Finding good deals off of craigslist.
We visited baby Conner for the first time today.
Friday night I went out on a MNO...
we had a scavenger hunt and later went to dinner.
I had fun.
Tomorrow we've set it up to do the horseback riding at 4pm.
Hopefully I shall snap out of this funk soon.

Yard Work

A few snapshots of them working in the yard together...

Gymnastics

Lady Bug is very much enjoying gymnastics. I think instinctively I picked the right thing for her. Though she has only attended three classes she has really shown a marked difference...not only in her participation but physically and socially. Today she let the teacher touch and help her! This is so perfect to help her build confidence and to trust people. I'm so happy I made the decision to take her. For her, it is the right thing. Her favorite activities are the balance beam (which she refuses help with and is a little over-confident about), the bars, and and the foam pit. We will definitely be continuing with it.... well after a little break for swim lessons.

Someday Sunday

Today I woke up with a surprise.. my birthday wasn't over. Lying on the kitchen table was a large shoe box with a pair of nice, leather boots in them. For the most part I was bemused because I didn't know what they were for. Then I see a card from Dear that tells me that at 4pm I had a two hour horseback riding lesson. I was really surprised. I had already had an instinct about riding horses earlier that week but when it didn't come about on Thursday I had to struggle and come to terms with that, for once, I was wrong. Well I wasn't and I don't know what was stronger... happiness over going horseback riding or happiness that I was indeed right. (maybe the latter) Well, long story short.. I didn't go. The instructor called and said she couldn't do it and so we plan on rescheduling.

Dear finally got to work on his yard..which probably made the neighbors happy. Aidan helped as well. McMama took her to the dollar store to buy a plastic rake and so one little girl had a very nice morning hanging out with her Daddy. Of course her "helping" consisted of raking the leaves Dear had just put in a pile back out of the pile... but... hey... they both enjoyed each other. I loved watching her trail along behind him chattering happily. She even helped him with his tools when he had to fix something. It is scenes like this that make my heart happy. I MISS those weekends...those simple stay around the house, rake the leaves, hanging out with the kids weekends. Is it next year yet?

Later...

McMama and I ended up having an adventure downtown... and then Dear and I went clothes shopping and then out to dinner.

* It is so NICE to own clothes that fit and look good.
*McMama got Ainsley a rake as well.. so she "won't be left out" :-)

Happy Birthday Again!

'

We skipped out on the whole cake thing yesterday because we were too FULL from dinner. So, tonight I was sung to and had two cakes (The first is an ice cream Carvel cake b/c I love them and the second is a regular, yellow cake for all the cake eaters. They both were good though. YuM!!) Oh, and for my birthday I also got a Tiffany lamp from Dear and a portable radio from "the girls." What a good birthday I've had!

Bouncy Bouncy

Went to a playgroup meetup today at an indoor bounce house. We had so much fun we stayed longer than anyone. Aidan, to my happy surprise L-O-V-E-D it... She just ate it up. Ainsley stayed in a good mood except for maybe the last 20 minutes. Dear even came for the first hour. I shall definitely be returning with the girls..

My 28th Birthday.. no wait I think I'll be 26!

The day started out with a lovely breakfast John prepared for me....

Then John, Me, and the girls went to the aquarium and had a picnic lunch. Of course I used the opportunity to take photos...
Ready to go have fun!! The girls exploring nature.
They look a lot like sisters here.

My Ainsley

I love this picture. I don't have a lot with me in them.

After that there was a little drama. Apparently I had a 2 o'clock appt. for a complete spa treatment. However, no matter how much I tried to convince myself to just go.. I couldn't. I am mortified.. MORTIFIED by my physical self and the idea of being naked with people seeing, touching, scrubbing me all over strikes me with such horror and mortification that I seriously just tear up thinking about it. So, in spite of my best efforts to love everything he planned... I had to say "No" and make him cancel. It's official... I really am NOT a proper female.

Anyway

Later we all went out to dinner (Mutti included) to Loves. I expect we shall be returning b/c we really enjoyed the food and ourselves. Ainsley was such an angel at dinner. For the first time we just gave her a plate of food and didn't piece-feed her. She loved it and sat there happy and quiet the whole time. Aidan was good but she's starting to get a little loud when she talks so to help with the toddler energy we took them outside while waiting for our meal.

and then the day ended with a sunset and a kiss...

It was a really nice birthday.

Thoughts

Stuffing myself with ham. helper stroganoff is NOT the way to lose weight.. says me who takes a bite while I type.

I cannot believe it but John is actually taking tomorrow off for my birthday. I found out today he actually put in the time for it two weeks ago. I cannot wait to see what is in store for me tomorrow. Whatever it is I will try to be really happy about it and (even if I don't like it) remember to be thankful he actually is making an effort. Though, note, I'd like to know why he starts making an effort when I stop caring? Go Figure!

Went over to Jessica's house today. It was nice to get out of the house of course. I unfortunately had to leave Ainsley behind. Dragging her out at naptime just isn't working with her personality. It will be great when she moves to one nap a day.

Aidan is starting to look older to me now. I keep getting glimpses of an adult face peeking at me when she looks at me a certain way or at a certain angle.

I've discovered Ainsley looks good in yellow. Until this point I have never bought anything yellow because Aidan is too pale to wear it.. now I can buy it.

I like the AT&T commercial where the man takes the little girl's monkey with him on a business trip and takes pictures for her. It's so sweet I get teary. I can see John doing that. He so loves his girls or as I always tell him he's such a "great girl daddy." Is that insulting to a man?

Happy St. Patty's Day???

Seeing how as I live where I live...how could I forget? It's odd... because of the connection to my birthday I always loved St. Patrick's Day. I used to say it was my holiday. Now, I could not care less. Same goes for my birthday really. The last few years I've put up a token fight to still make it special but its true... as you age it just isn't as important. Now, I just think of birthdays as an excuse to get something expensive I want. Wow... and I said it would always be a BIG event. Does this mean I am now officially grown up? ;-)

My Day or Why I am not a proper female...

I hate shopping for clothes.. and I mean H.A.T.E! In life, I am a relaxed, go-with-it kindof person (with a few exceptions) but when I shop for clothes I end up a wreck. Sounds stupid? Yeah, I know... it is. But somehow I always end up half crazy with frustration, tired, and near tears. Today, to my UNenjoyment (lol) I was shopping for 7 hours.. by myself.. looking for clothes for the girls. They have NO summer clothes and it is already hot down here so I went to Carters, Target, and every single store in the mall (that carries kids clothes anyway.. okay, take out Strasbourg Children or whatever... WAY not in my price range) Why was I so upset?

Well...

1.) Apparently the seasons hits are plaid capri with polo shirts. That's fine and dandy but EVERYTHING was plaid Capri and polo shirts. How many do you need?

2.) There were really only 4 colors of anything to choose from dark pink, lime green, orange, and blue. Mostly everything was in the dark pink which I like but why would I want their whole wardrobe to be in dark pink? What happened to purple? Why is on this season's &*%^ list?

3.) I agonize over sizes.. I don't want to be there in the first place so I definitely do not want to RETURN... egads!... so I will take 30 minutes comparing and judging to determine the proper size. Life would be SO much easier if all the companies got together and made ONE size chart instead of every brand having their own sizing... You HEAR me Carters??... You're the worst!!.. Your sizes are two sizes LARGER than every ones!!!

4.) I felt like a skank... yes I did just say that... I hadn't taken a shower last night and my hair was all greasy and yuck.. and I have no clothes that really fit me (partly 'cause I never shop for any..do you need to ask why?) so I look like a dumpling in everything.. I felt dirty and semi-embarrassed about how I looked.

Seriously, oh, it was horrible... I hated it. This is why I make the girls wear their clothes until its indecent... lol

Don't I sound so silly? Oh the horrors I must put up with!! HaHa

On a lighter note... I ended up with cute clothes.. Aidan stayed up late and tried them on... I deliberately bought them all slightly too large because I don't want to go shopping again anytime soon...we are actually keeping them all except 1 pair of shorts... We'll try Ainsley's out tomorrow... Also, I got really cute shoes for the girls...Though I own only two pair of shoes (cheap sneakers and plain black flats) for myself I tend to get a kick out of buying shoes for them.. weird...

Whew, I'm done.. no more shopping! I do still have a few more things to get them but not so much that it'll be too stressful... I think.

Meetup Fun

Enjoying Nice Weather

Whine- itis

Ahhh, the splendor of a cranky, demanding girl who has decided to test the adults to see how much she can get away with...if only she wasn't SO loud... and where did that piercing screech come from?

Let us not forget the older, "I too, Mommy", "My turn Mommy", defiant but hey, aren't I being cute?, let me think of whatever naughty thing to do to get your attention girl... I wonder how parents who work deal with these attention cravings from kids... it must be 10 times worse...I'm with them 24/7 for heaven's sake...well, subtract sleeping hours and such

busy busy

Overflowing septic system... lots of sewage in the house.. ripping up girls' carpet... their room for now just down to the concrete... will have to spend money to rip up bathroom... find reasonably priced flooring... ugh ugh ugh

Husband's place of employment laying off people... have no clue if he's next or not... hoping not... obviously

The occupants of this house at this moment is not suffering from any illness... which is a first in a long time

I went to a meetup.. had fun... may make a few friends out of all these women

Today was "package day" Mutti received three new things and I received my shelf.. yay... am happy with it so far

Found and bought a tub of counter bears... the kind with different sizes and weights... Aidan will be 2 1/2 in April... planning on "Half Preschool" to start May 4th... I really need to start planning... I think my procurement stage was successful but now it's time to move onto stage 2

Life has been crazy... life has been busy

In Hospital

Admittedly it wasn't as bad as I first envisioned. When told I needed to go over there and that she would need to stay for a night or two I immediately saw movie scenes with teeny tiny babies hooked up to all manner of machines. My imaginings were much worse than reality though I would not care to repeat it...

In Actuality....

The bad points

My teeny tiny girl was in bed with her arm in a splint to hold the iv in... Sunken eyes, red-rimmed... The look of betrayal as they hurt her was hard to take...Those little arms reaching for me to save her from these horrible people...every three to four hours they wake her to make her cry...so frustrated when she JUST went to sleep and they came in loud and rude and refused to come back later...I know its just a job people but what if it were your baby...Worry that maybe its something besides the virus keeping her bicarbonate count down...no sleep....not being able to take her walking around because she was contagious...the nurses wearing gloves, masks, and aprons like my baby had a disease...worry and frustration when she refused to eat or drink anything... the head shaking from the nurses because she isn't better yet... my heart wringing because I cannot fix it myself.. seeing other kids there, not wanting to see them... looking away and knowing that mine is lucky and will be going home soon ... Sunday's wait to be released (Dr. Ramos didn't show up until nearly 3pm!)

The good points

Happiness when Little Bit is obviously starting to feel better... realizing that in spite of the situation John and I both were getting a rare opportunity to just be with her....never experienced that before...discovering Ainsley's personality all over again without Aidan there to take away attention...watching her just BLOOM with so much undivided attention...wow!... heard so many new words out of her... her hamming it up to make us laugh... learning to my joy the no matter how much of a drama queen she likes to be, she really is a very easygoing girl... gratefulness it was the easy-going daughter there and not the other...

Sick Baby!

Snuggling
Feeling Better!

(blowing out the breath)

We're back... we're tired... I'll think about it all tomorrow...