Three and half years later...

Back in 2006 my New Year's resolution was to find long lost friends. Well, after three and a half years, the invention of facebook, and a lot of determination I have met my resolution.
Here's a linkage to my post from January 19, 2006 . Well, I am happy to report I have found Kate! Yay! I am so excited! You cannot know the joy I feel being reconnected to her again. She is well, married, two kids, living back in Minnesota and loving life. She has been looking for me all these years too so we're having a lot of fun reconnecting! It's amazing what a little time and determination will bring about!

Blessings!

That's how he rolls

Guess what, another Baby Butter story.

Are you tired of them yet?

Too bad.

I'm sitting at the computer but the screen is not what holds my attention. Instead it is my 1 year old son sitting on the floor in the kitchen. Throughout the day he has managed to push 5 hotwheels, 2 fire trucks, and three police cars in there. Earlier while I was cooking supper he quietly played with his hotwheels. Then we played with his firetrucks together. After super is when he pushed the 3 police cars in. He crawled along the floor with a car in each hand, then once they were right where he wanted he crawled back to the other room where the other cop was patiently waiting his turn and took him to his friends. For over five minutes now the police cars have been pushed from one end of the kitchen to the other and he's even managed to push all three at the same time by sandwiching them together. How adorable is he??!! I could watch him play all day.

He also likes to talk to the boy in the mirror in his bedroom when he's suppose to be sleeping. Today, i put a very sleepy boy in his bed and went to my own to relax and read a book. Before too long I could hear the jabbers. Lots of da-das, ma-mas and ba-bas. He makes other sounds that resemble words too. For instance the other day sitting in the doctor's office he said "breakfast". Tall Doc was impressed I believe.

These days won't last forever though. I'm so glad I get to stay home with him and watch him learn new things!!!

Winding Down

Peanut counted down the last days of school in May and now she counts down the last days of summer. She's ready to go back to school. Ready to start the 4th (gasp! did I just say that?) grade. And I'm ready too.

Not that having her around has been a burden. She hasn't been. She's a fantastic big sister helping me when I need it. She is getting a little whiney because we've run out of places for her to go. She hit two church camps and a girl scout camp, all of which were over with by the first of July. Now she sits at home bored most of the day because her mean mean momma won't let her watch tv non-stop. Although, I'm being nicer and letting her have it on for 30 minutes here and there during the day. A lot of her friends are in daycare or some sort of program this summer so her friend choices have been limited.

But really, the reason I'm looking forward to school starting is the routine of it. I'm sure I'll be griping about it before too long, but right now I'm looking forward to the whole day with just me and Butter. Then at 3:15 telling Peanut to do her homework before her friends come over and if she left it at school then I guess they can play TOMORROW after she finishes it. It's "unfair" I know, but like I said, I'm a mean, mean momma.

Seventeen day, counting weekends, until the first day of school. We can make it.

Baby Butter Turns One

As strange as it may seem the boy has actually gone and turned one year old this weekend. He started walking this week taking several steps each day. Mostly this is done around meal time when he feels he must check out what is on everyone's plate and taste it for quality assurance. His sister, Peanut, walked for speghetti so it's only fitting that he walked for french fries, yes?

We celeberated his birthday Friday night with family coming in from out of town. We had invited a lot of friends and family in the area but for one reason or another they were unable to make the event. Such is life in the summertime. But we had a blast! The weather was perfect in the mid 90s and the food was delicious if I do say so myself. The older children played in the pool and Baby Butter even got in for a few minutes and played too. His 10 month old cousin, Graham Cracker was the only kid not to swim but he didn't seem to mind.

Visiting with Nickel's family (mine live too far away to drive over for an evening) was fun. We hadn't all been together since Christmas. There was talk of politics and vacations and jobs and money and plans for a fall gathering at a family favorite camp site.

After everyone had filled their bellies with hamburgers or hotdogs, potato salad, deviled eggs, apple-berry salsa and cinnamon chips the cupcakes were brought out. Baby Butter was loaded into his chair and a loaf-sized cake set before him. But he was still eating a cinna-chip and cried when daddy tried to take it away.

After he made the chip disappear though he focused on his cake. We laughed for over 30 minutes as he ate it, diving face first in the cake and coming up to chew, swollow and breathe before diving again back into the cake.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BUTTER!!!

My Job

I had a hard time making myself get ready for work yesterday. It was the 4 night in a row and for this part-timer it was wearing on my nerves. I kept telling myself the sooner I got there the sooner it would be over and then I could enjoy my 4 days off! This did motivate me to be 2 minutes early to work.

We were over staffed up front where for some oddball reason I was working. I've been in the book department solomente for quite some time now and loving it. But last night I was scheduled up front, I think it was because the manager was nice enough to give me Saturday off and had already scheduled someone for books. Where was I?... yeah, over staffed up front. So I asked the manager if I could go back to books where we have a huge project of taking misplaced used stickers on the spine of books and moving them to the very bottom. She told me to go for it and they would call me up as they needed me. So off to books I skipped. I skipped, I tell you!

The book person leaving and the book person coming on were standing around talking to I talked to them for a few minutes. There was stocking for the book person and she just wasn't sure where she was suppose to put two little firetrucks. I checked out the price for an associate and told her I'd take them home. Baby Butter has a bithday coming up in a week and he loves cars and trucks!

I began the mundane job of peeling stickers when I noticed a middle aged woman with short blonde hair walk in with her tall teenage son and a short middle aged pacific island woman. The pacific island woman was looking for a particular book. She knew the title and the author and they were in the right place. Suddenly she sees the book she wants and the tall teenager grabs it and hands it to her. The smile on her face was of pure pleasure. This was the book she had been looking forward to reading. I watch them as they walk back up to the front all smiles.

Seeing someone get that excited over a book that we had in stock made working that 4th night in a row worth it.

Back Again.

Peanut, the ever so eager adventurer is back from her second week at camp. This time she went all the way to Kansas. She managed to fall down and skin her knee, hurt her wrist playing tether ball, and got bit by a crawdad. It was a blast she said!

While she was gone I cleaned her room. It was a pit but is beautiful once again. She was excited when she got home and saw it all sparkly clean! "I LOVE MY ROOM!" she shouted. I laughed, all I did was haul a large trash bag of trash out of her room and sorted. I'm glad she knows how to appreciate some else's hard work though.

Baby Butter is happy his sister's home too. He didn't quite miss her but he did look around for her a couple of times not sure why she wasn't playing with him. He played in her room today after I vacuumed but wasn't quite finished cleaning. He found a box that was just his size so he stepped inside it and sat down.

So tomorrow is the 4th of July. It's also Saturday night so we'll be heading to church tomorrow evening. They plan is to go to CiCi's pizza afterwards and chow down on some pizza and goodies and then head out on 412 to some place I'm not sure I could find on my own to watch fireworks. I just hope it won't be 114 degrees. If it is we might skip the fireworks and just hop in the pool. Provided it's up by tomorrow. Nickel and Peanut are working on it now!!!

Happy Independence Day!!

The Visit

There's a reason that adult children usually don't live with their parents. Just like the teenage years adults drive each other crazy if confined to the same house for more than a few days. But all was good. One good thing out of the visit was some awsome pictures!!

My neice AllyCat makes me feel old. She just turned 15! She's going to be driving in a year!!!

Baby Buttter played in Nana and Papa's pool one afternoon with his cousins. The water was cold but they didn't care!
Butter and Uncle LeeLoy were racing to see who was the fastest. Uncle LeeLoy was picking them up and Butter getting them out. Butter won. Uncle LeeLoy picked them up AFTER he went to bed.
Playing with Papa. They were quite good friends!!
Baby Butter knows exactly what to do with cake! He can't wait until next month when he gets one all to himself!!!

Playing with Nana's taters. He got them out and licked them every chance he got! Don't worry, they were washed first!

Peanut was at church camp, that's why there aren't many pictures of her. But here she is with TwinA and PreacherMan (red shirt) getting baptized in the swimming pool!

OMG

I found out today that I've been linked. This website has linked me as "...fun new find....great mommy blog..." I know, crazy huh?

Well, I should probably update it once in a while then huh?

Let's see...what's going on?

Well it's the first week of June and Peanut's ready for school to start. Her momma is SO mean and making her turn the tv off from 9am to 3 pm everyday. AND she has to read for about an hour. AND her momma bought her a summer workbook and she has to do a page in it almost every day! So mean.

Baby Butter isn't walking solo yet, but he pulls up on everything and walks along furniture and with a helping hand. He'll be asking for the keys to my camaro anyday now. That makes me wonder where my keys to the camaro are. Hmm....

The kidlets and I are heading to T'quah for a few days. Peanut's going to church camp and Butter and I are staying with my parents. My brother and his boys will be at my parents too while his wife and daughter are at camp with Peanut. Big Bro and I grew up at this camp and have many fond memories there. I'm hoping to spend time with some friends while I'm there. But some of these "friends" haven't returned my phone calls and I'm not going to beg to see them so I'll just be sad that they don't want to see me and go on my merry little way with the ones that do.

Hopefully I can squeeze in a trip to Sam and Ella's. Haven't been there in a while. A side trip to Muskogee will be fun because they have a Hastings and I can check out their used book selection and see if they have anything I want to use my employee discount on! And I don't know what else I'll find myself doing. I'm not making too many plans so that I can fly by the seat of my pants!

Ok..picture time. Let's see what's new and actually on my computer they're not named so they'll be random pictures...

Here's a good one. Back in March we went to the Wichita Zoo. Peanut was pointing out the wolves to Butter who as you can clearly see was very interested in what she had to say.

Peanut on her skateboard. She's been trying to teach me but I don't practice as much as her.

Ok, last one. Butter loves his teddy bear. He sleeps on him every time he goes to bed. He has a lion too but he loves his bear the best!

True Love

True love is coming home when it's dark outside and always finding the front porch light on.

Turning ( ? ) years old

So my 17 year old friend, NotSpears, and I were talking at work last week about working the same days and nearly the same shifts last weekend when another co-worker happened upon our conversation. He didn't pretend to not listen and quickly asked me if I was in school or something. I laughed and said no. Then he asked how old I was. I smiled. I love this game.
"How old do you think I am?" I asked with a coy smile.

He furrowed his brow a little as he gave it some serious thought. He knew not to over guess because women don't usually like that but he didn't want to guess too low either. "Twenty." He finally said without hesitation.

I flashed him a million dollar smile, "You, my friend, are my new best friend!" He blinked not really understanding my response. "Actually," I continued, "my birthday is on the 11th and I will be 30." His eyes bugged out of his head. He just could not believe I was THAT old.

It's become our new game at work now. Customers, his friends, come up to the register and he quickly asks, "How old do you think she is?" I've got several different answers but mostly they're under 23. I love my job.

New Pics

Peanut on her skateboard.


The other night Peanut was entertaining Baby Butter. They sure were cute! Eww!! Girly kisses!

Face Time

I love my job. I work more then I want but it's a fun place to work for the most part. I mean, it is still a job and I deal with the public the whole time I'm there so it has it's moments.

But I ended up picking up an extra shift last week for a girl who had family in town and worked 3 days in a row. Holy cow, I know! That's too close to full time for this SAHM wannabe.

I get lots of face time with the kids. Butter and I stay home most days only running errands one or two days a week if need be. I get face time with Peanut after school. But working nights and weekends does take away from my face time with Nickel and I don't care if we have been married for almost 10 years I still want and crave face time with my man dang it!

So, Saturday night I opted to skip church and get some face time with Nickel. What did we do? We did what married people do. We went to Walmart. Peanut was having none of this so we dropped her off at church but took the boy with us. He behaved himself quite well and didn't ask for a single thing!

Today people were calling in right and left at work and I was called and asked to fill in a slot. I declined, I was still getting face time with my family and I'm glad I did!

Closing out 2008

Well, as we close out the books on 2008 it's nice to take a look back. There were a lot of ups and down and we're not just talking about my weight either.

In 2008 I went from working full time to part time. And it was good.
I went from working part time to being a stay at home mom full time. And it was good.
I went from being a stay at home mom to working part time nights and weekends and not having to pay daycare. And it was good.

In 2008 I became more involved with my church. And it was good.
My best friend moved away. And it was good (for her).
I made new friends and strengthened other friendships to fill her absense. And it was good.

In 2008 labored for two days and had a baby. And it was good.

Tall Doctor gave me some blood pressure meds when Baby Butter was a week old and I dropped 50 pounds of water in a week. And it was SO good!

Peanut still likes Baby Butter. And it is good.

In 2008 I started reading books that I wanted to read again. And it was good.

I spent more money then I made on new books. And it was good.
My house is a wreck but Christmas vacation will be over soon and all will be as it should be. And it is good.

I hope 2009 is just as good as 2008 was and even better!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

Enchanted

Tonight at church I was cleaning up the communion stuff when Pastor T, Peanut's pastor, peeked his head in through the window and asked if she was in the room with me. She was not. He smiled and told me that he thought Peanut was mature and pretty special and that she needed to be in a movie, a movie about her because her stories are "enchanting". I smiled and thanked him for the compliment and he went on his merry little way.

After he left I got to thinking, Peanut does indeed have a way of enchanting people. I often thought it was just her parents and grandparents she enchanted at a young age. Though I'm immune to some of her enchanting ways, as parents are apt to learn after half a dozen or so years, she still has her moments.

Sometimes I get caught up in the hum-drum of life and get annoyed at her little stories she repeats over and over from the back seat of the car or across the room. Sometimes I cut her off or assume I know what she's going to say. But when I take the time to really listen she does come up with some nuggets of wisdom or anecdote.

Sometimes I need to be reminded that life will still be there and I need to pay attention, I need to be enchanted, before she grows up and conquers the world.

Working Mom

I really like my new job. It helps that I've been practicing staying up until midnight for the last few months.

There are 3 supervisors to the peons. They're all very different but I'm getting along with them. One of them can be a bit of a smartalec, I probably would've used a different word there but my momma sometimes reads my blog. Don't get me wrong, this supervisor is very nice just makes me feel a little dumb sometimes. I almost hate asking questions but when your customers are standing there staring holes into your head it's just quicker to ask and be done with it.

My schedule is pretty nice though. I worked Monday and Tuesday of this week. Took 2 days off. Worked Friday and Saturday. I'll work Sunday and Monday of next week then take 4 days off and work next Saturday. I just hope I don't forget how to open the register during that 4 days. I haven't got my schedule for the week of Christmas yet. But seeing as how I usually work the days around the weekend I suspect that'll hold true for that week as well. I should find out in a day or two if I'm wrong.

So far I've spent more then I've made. But in my defense, it wasn't ALL for me. I did buy a few Christmas gifts. Having an employee discount to one of my favorite stores ROCKS! Getting a carmel machiatto for half price rocks too!! Gotta love the person who thought a coffee shop in a book store was a good idea!!

Books By Mail

So I'm totally in a reading frenzie these days. I've read the Twilight Saga 2 complete times through (including the partial Midnight Sun posted on Stephenie Meyer's website) and have read Twilight and Breaking Dawn (the first and last book of the series) 3 times each. Yeah, still totally love that series.

But I've also been reading some other books too. Some vampire books, some aliens, some warewolves, some this, some that, all fiction and paranormal in some fashion. However, I have started The Shack by William Young which is a man who spends a couple of days with God in, you guessed it, a shack. Anyway, just finished the forward and am looking forward to getting started with this book.

Seeing as how up until tonight I was unemployeed I didn't exactly have a lot of money just hanging around for me to spend on books. I tried my local library. I won't say it sucks because my momma said if you can't say anything nice then don't say anything at all... so I'll not say anything at all. Then my brilliant, smart,and wonderful friend Abby Normal (you know how I love to protect the names of the innocent- she knows who she is) suggested this website called Paperspine.com.

It is wonderful. It's like Netflicks, but for books. You sign up for how many books you want to recieve at a time and then for a monthly fee you they'll send the books on your queue for you to read. You read them and send them back in the postage paid envelopes and a few days later you get another book! How cool is that!

The ONLY part that sucks is the days you have to wait while books are in the mail. But I guess that's the reason you should sign up for 2 or more books. That way you're reading the next book while you're waiting for the one that's in the mail.

This system is SO much easier then spending $80 a week for a half dozen books that barely last you a month and then take up a ton of space in your house. Now if you get a book that you fall in love with and never ever ever want to part with you just email the company and tell them what book you just have to keep forever and they'll let you know how much it'll cost ya, if you're ok with that they'll just charge your card and you live happily ever after.

The End.

Epilogue-
Uncle Joe thinks I can't write a post with using the word "baby" in it. And so I had to make sure this post had "baby" in a couple of times even though it had nothing to do with my "baby".
:)

Well Meaning, but Annoying Questions

When I was pregnant with Baby B well meaning people said lots of dumb things. They asked lots of dumb questions. One of the questions that got on my nerves the most was, "Are you sure you're not having twins?".

Um, yeah, pretty sure. We only hear ONE heartbeat and we only saw ONE baby in BOTH ultrasounds. But thanks so much for asking. I feel as big as beached whale and you just confirmed that I look it too. You're the best! Positive. Just one baby. Smile. Bat eyelashes.

I thought once I had the baby that the stupid questions would stop. I was wrong. Thanks to my job for laying me off when I was 9 months pregnant, Nickel and I made the decision for me to stay home until we couldn't make the house payment and even then it'd be some pud job, nights and weekends, probably starting after the first of the year. The weeks started flying by and then the well meaning people started asking their questions again.

"Are you working yet?"
Do you think taking care of a baby 24/7 constitutes as lying around? Sure my house is a mess but it's not like I have hours and hours of uninterrupted time on my hands. I have to feed the baby, burp the baby, play with the baby, change the baby, rock the baby and put the sleeping baby in bed. Then, only then am I able to get about 15 minutes of housework done before the baby wakes up and we do it all again. I barely get a flipping shower 6 days a week (IF I'M LUCKY!!!) No, I answer, not yet. Smile. Bat eyelashes.

The first, oh, maybe 12 times you answer this question it's not so bad. But it becomes painfully annoying when you spend all your free time during the day telling people NO, I'm not working, I'm doing the SAHM thing. I fought long and hard for this kid, I'm not ready to turn him over to a stranger to raise.

But now, since EVERYONE AND THEIR FLIPPING DOG WANTS TO KNOW;

YES. YES, I HAVE A JOB NOW.

HAPPY?

Something To Talk About

Baby B has found his voice box. When he's awake he jabbers almost non-stop. He's got lots to say you see. And of course he has a captive audience because who can refuse him? That's right, no one. Not even the puppy dog on his crib's bumper. He's really good at the short "a" sound. I've been working with him on the "m" sound but he hasn't quite put the two together to say Ma yet. Give him time.

He also is a mover and a shaker. On Halloween he rolled over from back to belly and has gone back to belly a couple times since but more often then not he just gets stuck on his belly. But he won't be stuck for long. Nope this kid kicks his legs and occasionally gets them up under him! As soon as he figures out how to lift his belly up off the floor I'll be in BIG trouble.

Well... there's a lot of baby proofing still to be done, so that's where I'll be for a while.

Ta-ta!

My new obsession

My house looks like a pit. The children are fed but only to shut the up. The laundry is piled as high as an elephant's eye. The tv goes unwatched. And someone told me Halloween was last week. Hmm. How did that happen? All I know is one day I started reading Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and 4 books later (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn) a week had passed. Hmm. Whoda.

The movie comes out in 16 days. I think I'll read this first book, the one that inspired the movie, again. You know, for grins and giggles. ;)

Just a quick note

I have a couple of blog posts rolling around in my mind.

The kids and I went to my parents' house on the pretty side of the state for a 4 day weekend while Peanut was on Fall Break. It was a lot of fun.

I ate shrimps with the Joes. It was very nice. I miss them!

My house is a mess. I need to fire the cleaning lady because she's lazy. She says the pay sucks anyway.

My Biggest Fear

I'm the mom. I'm not suppose to be afraid of anything. Peanut and I have been in situations where neither of us were comfortable but as the mom I took her by the hand and boldly lead us through the situation. Moms can't show fear.

But there are times, late at night when my fears overcome me. Usually it's from a lack of sleep my mind will imagine all these worse case senarios and it's hard to shake them. What is my fear, my greatest weekness?

Loosing one of my children or husband.

Most of the time it's the furtherest thing from my mind, but I'll happen along a normally fun website to read something devestating. Someone loosing a child. Someone my age loosing their husband. And I become paralized with fear.

What if I lost my job so that I could stay home because God knows something's going to happen to my baby? What if I was too tired one morning and didn't get up to tell Peanut I loved her and something happened on the way to or from school? What if I'm in my car and a drunk driver slams into my car hurting them or Nickel?

I want to live in a bubble where nothing bad happens. Where no bad thoughts enter my mind. Where peace and love are the only things my family knows. But that's not on this Earth. So I'll do what I do when Peanut is scared, I'll take a deep breath and pretend I'm not scared because that is the only way I know how to deal with fear.

It's A Big Year

Peanut is in the third grade. I think this must be a big year because people keep telling "it's a big year". Third grade is when you start getting letter grades on all your papers and report cards. Third grade is when you learn to write in cursive. Third grade is when you take the big state tests. Third grade is when I realized she was determined to grow up no matter what my opinion was on the matter. Hmph.

A couple of weeks ago Peanut brought home her first progress report. The grades were where I expected them on some levels but way off in other areas. I quickly realized she doesn't quite seem to be taking school seriously. I mean, it's a big year, doesn't she care? I guess that phrase means nothing to her.

Her father and I discussed the importance of making good grades with her. We told her it's not about who hands in the paper first, but who hands in the paper right! She nodded in agreement and said she understood. We increased study time in the evening but still papers flooded home with Ds and Fs on them. Concerned that the teacher had not commented on her progress I made the phone call and made the appointment to talk to her. This momma don't like Ds and Fs. The teacher was very kind. We spoke of things that could be changed at school, areas that she needs help in even though she passed the BEAR test. I left the meeting feeling satisfied that everything the school can do to help Peanut out in fact will happen. But now comes the hard part. Lowering the boom, cracking the whip, and buckling down at home about homework and study habits do not come easy to me. I will be the first to admit that my husband and I have a pretty relaxed style of parenting, within reason of course.

I guess this is an important year. This is the year I've learned it's important to stay focused, even when I'm distracted by other things (Baby B, computer games, etc). I've learned that after the after school snack comes homework and no amount of whining or pleading will change that. I've learned that there are free online resources I can use as bargaining chips for her to earn tv time. I wonder what other lessons I will learn this year, because you know, it's a big year.

An Evening Out

When Nickel and I first met he asked me if I was one of those girls that tried to change people. I swore to him then that I was not and have tried to keep my promise these last 10 years. When we moved to E-Town, shortly after getting married, I found a church and started regularly attending. Peanut was born and it became a girls thing for us to go to church Sunday mornings. I would ask Nickel if he'd like to go but never made a big deal out his saying no. Years have gone by and I still don't push, but I still ask. I hope one day he surprises me and says, Sure, why not.

I don't attend a Sunday morning church service very often anymore. I've instead traded it for a Saturday Night service my friend Christy invited me to. I instantly fell in love with the worship, practical teaching, and the people. After service Christy, Peanut, and I would go out to eat most weekends. Soon though our little group merged with other friends that were doing the same. I look forward to the dinners almost as much as I do church service itself.

Nickel isn't a people person. He often comes off as snobbish to people that don't know him but in reality he is just very uncomfortable. I think he looks forward to Saturday night as much as I do just so he can get some alone time.

Tonight I left Baby B with him. I figure Baby B's just going to be in the nursery the whole time and I'd rather him spend that time with daddy instead, no offence to nursery workers (he'll be there soon enough). I had not intended on going out to eat with the gang because I only had $10 and that wouldn't buy me and Peanut a meal at most resturants but Peanut wanted to come home and play with her new cat and the gang was celebrating a birthday for one of the girls so I decided to go. I dropped Peanut off with Daddy and Baby B and headed downtown to Napoli's for some yummy italian food. For almost two hours 12 of us sat around the table enjoying good food and good company. The children's pastor and his oldest daughter joined us tonight. He kept us entertained with stories about Facebook, telemarketers, and buying strange things at Walmart.

By the time I got home both my kids were in bed fast asleep and Nickel was playing a video game on the playstation. Even though I was "alone" tonight was one of the best evenings I've had in a long time. Every mom should get a night where she goes out and doesn't have to change diapers, talk about Hannah Montana, or worry about a thing in the world!

I'm thankful for a husband that likes his quite time as much as I like my social time. Balance is a good thing.

Holy Zs Batman!

Baby B slept through the night!

Nine straight hours. It was total bliss.

Why am I still tired?

New Additions

Peanut & Butter are excited to welcome thier baby cousin Graham Cracker to the family!!!

Sleeping in

Baby B is a wonder baby, but he doesn't sleep through the night. He's close but his little internal clock has this 2 am setting that I can't seem to reset. On occasion he'll wake up earlier then 2, like at 1:30 and last night he overslept a little and didn't wake up until 3. But without fail since the night he was born, we get up around 2 every night. We've been working on resetting the 4 am setting and most nights he'll sleep until 6. Last night he did well, woke up at 3 and again at 6. After getting up at 6 I was too lazy to up him back in his bed so he slept with me. Around 8 he started squeaking and I hollered for Nickel who was up and about. Nickel took him and I got to sleep for another hour. It was total bliss.

We have a lazy day scheduled. Yesterday was busy with lunch with some friends, a wedding, and church. Today, there's nothing that I have to do. I might try to think of something just so I can get out of the house and have some quite me time. It makes staying at home with the baby all week easier if I get out by myself on the weekends.

****************

Peanut signed up for Girl Scouts last week. We went to this big event at a local play ground place. There were a million school age girls there. It resembled Dante's 5th ring of the Inferno. (Please note it's been years since I read the Divine Comedy and cannot remember what each ring actually stands for and I'm too lazy to Google it because I was just trying to make a funny) Anyhoo, for two hours I sat and endured the torture of listening to the girls gab, squeal, and gripe about the bus driver that lives in some obscure little town. The children weren't so bad though, they were playing and having fun. I found out that the meetings are every week. Should be interesting. I'm sure Peanut will have lots of fun.

Kindness

Perhaps kindness has not totally become extinct in our world like I thought. Today Baby B and I had to go to the post office. When we left the house he was in a wonderful mood. The short ride was quite. I manged to make it in the doors carrying a diaper bag, carrier with 11+ pound baby, and box to mail. The line was long, but moving. Baby B and I took our place at the end of the line at the door. THEN he decided he was not happy. I knelt down to talk to him to try to pacify him. People were watching of course. Baby B did not want his binky and would not calm down so I had to take him out of his carrier. Meanwhile people are coming up behind me and cutting in line all because I'm tending to my child instead of moving with the line. I was talking quietly to Baby B trying to calm him down. I commented to him on how we lost our place in line because he was crying. Not in a blaming way but in a "can you believe these rude people?" way. The people that cut in line either talked to people around them or stared at the floor. Meanwhile Baby B is still crying. After a few moments that felt like eternity to this mom trying to calm her son down, a lady from closer to the front of the line came back and offered to help me move my stuff to my place in line. She picked up my car seat and placed it in front of the first lady that cut in line. The two ladies my things were now in the middle of were nice enough to help push all my things along in the line as it moved while I held my baby.

Perhaps it wasn't how I would've handled the situation if reversed, but people actually came through and show some kindness. In the end and I was able to tend to Baby B and get my package in the mail.

Blogging

I'm in the process of trying to get back into the habit of blogging again. That being said I'm also trying to be a better blog reader. I attempted to visit a few friends today and realized that their blogs have moved without a forwarding address or have disappeared all together. This made me very sad. I know people come into our lives for a season and some seasons last longer then others. But just incase my friends are still out there stopping by to see if I'm posting from time time, I hope you are well and I miss you. Feel free to email me anytime!

Vaya con Dios mi amigos!

Trying out the SAHM thing

I didn't post this before, didn't want to say anything that could be held against me for the rest of my life and all that stuff, but the church I worked at let me go two weeks before Baby Butter was born. (yeah, totally helped my high bloodpressure-NOT!) I was the employee that had been there the longest, used the health insurance they paid the most of (their choice), and made the most money (though I was just working part time) and when a place of business has no money they let the most expensive person they've got go, even though that's the dumbest reason in the whole world. I'm sure it didn't help that I didn't attend church there (but I did attend special events they had there, but that wasn't good enough)... I'm going to stop this train before my mouth gets me in trouble though. (yeah, still a little bitter over being let go)

So Nickel and I are taking advantage of the decisions that were made on our behalf and I'm trying out this stay at home mom gig. The pay sucks, the hours are long, I'm on call 24/7, am awakened in the middle of the night every night, and I'm loving it.

Baby B and I stay home most days just piddling around the house in between naps (his, not mine) but we're always open to lunch with a friend or a few errands around town. We're hoping the little bit of money we managed to stash into savings will at least get us through until the beginning of the year. Of course what I really want is for Nickel to get a raise big enough to cover the shortage.

We're cutting back where we can, less eating out, no new clothes for no reason, stuff like that. I went to the Health Department yesterday and got us on WIC. Went to the grocery store last night and got $180 worth of food and formula for $6. Too bad it won't be like that everytime! I'm also looking for something I can do to make money from home. There are so many scams out there that I'm not sure which companies to trust. I spend a good part of my free time checking businesses out on the Better Business Bureau website. So far I haven't found one legit business I'm willing to do. I don't want to do sales (like Mary Kay or Avon) and I can't do phone calls because I never know when Daniel's going to sleep and wake up so my options are limited. So far, all I've really done is beef up my AdSense here but my traffic is down so we'll see. Maybe this will get me blogging more again.

But for now I'm just having fun where the hardest thing I do is hold a screaming baby while trying to fix a bottle and answer the phone.

Motherhood

Last night both kids were screaming at me. I had to smile and almost laugh because it was kinda funny. Peanut was upset because we insisted she do her homework (mean parents!) and Baby Butter was mad because he was super tired and hungry and it was just too much work to suck on that bottle! He's so cute when he pouts and cries!! Peanut, well, she's pretty funny too when she's crying over her mean parents making her do homework, but don't tell her that!