I have a new appreciation . . .

for my handsome hubby. Staining the deck boards STINKS! I only did four of them today and it was not enjoyable. I think I may still be high. (That is a little bit enjoyable ~ lol) Let's just tear down the deck and move, I say!

Speaking of moving . . . I was searching for houses today and found one that was a "showcase house" which means that it usually has about 6 pictures of the inside of the house. One of the pictures was of the living room and had some guy lounging out in a recliner. Doesn't that seem a little trashy to you? Does the guy come with the house? Wouldn't you say, "Hey, jerkhead, move your tush and get out of my picture!". And speaking of moving . . . Chad aka Boomer ~ if you need some place to dump your boxes after you move and unpack, we probably wouldn't hate to take them off your hands!

I went to New York Burrito with Eric and Angie for lunch today. It was yummy in my tummy. That place is like for Angie like "Cheers" was for Norm. We walk in and everyone yelled "ANGIE!" and then they had her order waiting for her on the counter. I felt like I was with NYB royalty! ;)

The kid is trying to chew on our router, so I better post this before I lose my internet connection. Or lord, now she's dumped over the trash and is trying to crawl inside of the garbage can. Never a dull moment! Now, where's my camera?

Hump Day Update

Adam suggested to me that I wait until the end of my blog entry to title my entry since so many times I go off on subjects other than my subject line. Well, today I'm just giving my blog the simple title of "updates". Not that a lot has happened in my life that would require updates. So here's more "random thoughts" . . . or mama musings, if you will.

Alyssa has an addiction to remotes. She loves them and will do just about anything to get to one if its within a 20 ft radius of her. So I've been searching different stores for just a plain old baby toy remote . . . you know, a big clunky thing with a few buttons that she can push and drool on. Do you think I can find anything? NO! Okay, there's one remote that will teach her how to do algebra or tell her geographical information about all the cities in Italy, but I just want a plain, old school remote! They don't have any of the basic "old school" toys that they had when I was a kid. Even the ever popular "ring stacker" has to be updated with a rattle in the top ring. My theory is that THIS is why kids develop ADD . . . because from age 1 month they are constantly overstimulated by bells, whistles, music, and lights. BRING BACK THE OLD SCHOOL TOYS! The ones that require you to use your imagination to make them more exciting. And with that, this "soapbox mama" steps down and moves on.

Speaking of Miss Alyssa ~ last week was a BIG week for her. She got her first tooth, learned to say "hi", figured out how to wave (on command), sat up in her crib, and learned to work the "spin the starfish" lever on her crib aquarium. Which is super cute until she's doing it over and over and over again at 11 PM when she's supposed to be asleep.

I read an article today about a woman who had filed for divorce after finding out that her husband was gay. Actually, she wanted the marriage annulled because she found out that he had just married her to get US citizenship. The husband was fighting to keep a prenump that would give him "spousal support". I can't imagine how you would feel if someone "duped" you into marrying them just so they could become a citizen if they were interested in someone the same sex as you, but then to be gay! Yikes! To quote myself in college ~ "what a kick in the pants".

Side note, did you know that Pamela Anderson just became a US citizen a few months ago? The things you learn watching "Ellen"!

Is it time to go to bed yet?

Baby Names

I was talking to my sister this morning and she told me that her cousin Kate had a baby boy a couple weeks ago. They named him Kaer Effen. Pronouced like Kye Er and Steffen without the "st". It supposed to be a combination of Kate and Eric (the parents') names. Interesting idea . . . I think I'll suggest Chram Koch for our next child . . . its got kind of a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Too much TV!

I'm starting to think that I watch too much TV since this blog is going to be about TV shows and my last one was, too.

There's this new show called "Property Ladder" on TLC that I am quickly becoming addicted to. Basically it follows first time "flippers" as they purchase a property and then totally renovate/redecorate to try to sell it for a profit. I think that would be such a fun thing to do! And they seem to make pretty good money doing it. Anywhere from $20,000 - $80,000 in about 3 months time. Nothing to sneeze at! Although I'm not sure Omaha is really a great location to do something like that and try to make good money. The $80,000 place was in Malibu and sold for a little over $700,000. So first you have to convince a bank to give you a loan for over $600,000 and possibly max out multiple credit cards to buy new stuff for the house, but STILL! Wouldn't that be a blast? I think it would be a good thing for me to do since I like to repaint rooms every 6 months or so. I would get to decorate and then sell it instead of decorating over and over and over again. The show makes me want to grab a crowbar and start ripping my own counters out and cabinets off the wall. (Don't worry, HH, you don't have to hide all the tools when you go to work ~ I won't REALLY do it. BTW, do we HAVE a crowbar? ;) )

I love "Beauty and the Geek", too. The show just cracks me up. Those girls are so dumb and some of those boys (mostly Richard) are so clueless when it comes to girls. Last night the guys' challenge was to see which guy could get the most girls to give them their phone numbers in 30 minutes at a mall-type place. I love that Chuck "played it up gay" to win the most numbers. Kind of funny that girls are super willing to give their digits to gay guys, but not so willing to give their digits to slightly (or drastically in Richard's case) nerdy guys. This morning on Regis and Kelly they were going over who was going to be on the show on Monday and Regis announced that Richard from B & the G was going to be on. He has this puzzled look on his face like "why is this guy going to be on MY show?" I can't wait to see how Richard acts on R&K and Regis' reaction to the guy who in my opinion has to be THE DORKIEST GUY on the PLANET! I wonder if he's really that dorky or if he's playing it up . . .

Real World

Okay, I have to confess . . . I'm a "The Real World" junkie. Or at least the first and last episodes. I love watching them all meet for the first time and then say their goodbyes. The stuff in the midde I could take or leave. Anyway last night I caught a rerun of the first episode of the new season and the drama is in full swing right off the bat. The second night they are in Austin one of the roommates gets hit in the face in a drunken "brawl" and fractures a bone in his face that is going to require surgery to fix. Ouch! Does that really happen in "real" life?! I'm kind of sad about the whole thing because the guy was quickly becoming a favorite of mine because he had a kick-arse Boston accent.

I started wondering last night, does MTV give these people fake IDs or how can they all go out clubbing and drinking when most of them are only 19 or 20 years old? Are there really that many bars that will serve people underaged? Do they ever get in trouble after the show airs if they are serving minors?

This may be the season that I watch religously . . . although I think I think that every season. One of these times, though!

Weird Dreams

I had several weird dreams between 3 AM and 7 AM this morning . . . not an unusual thing for me, but I kind of had 3 separate dreams that intertwined, which was a new thing.

Dream 1 ~ Chad invited a bunch of people over to his new house to discuss ideas that he had for his next book. For some reason he was writing under the name "Shawn J. Bring", so my suggestion was that he write under "Boomer J Bring". I thought Boomer was the perfect author name for him. Maybe I'll start calling him Boomer. :P

Everyone who was at Chad's book get together then moved on to have dinner at a ridiculously expensive (and BAD) restaurant, which was where Angie came into my dream . . .

Dream 2 ~ Angie had had someone from work pass away, so she was really upset over that. We were sitting next to each other at the restaurant and she started screaming about not wanting to eat the green goop that was on her plate because she didn't know what it was. (I didn't blame her because I think I saw mine move a couple times).

Dream 3 ~ Adam and I got in a HUGE fight. We were at my parents house and were staying in my old bedroom (that's now my parent's bedroom since they added onto the house). Adam had his fan plugged in, but he was mad at me, so he took his fan away, so I went and got my old fan from the basement, plugged it in and locked Adam out of the bedroom. The next day we were sitting on the couch and he was trying to talk to me about our fight . . .

Enter Angie and the connection between dream 2 and 3 and Angie called crying hysterically and said she needed to go shopping and spend big bucks. I told her to come pick me up and I'd go with her. But she never came to pick me up (maybe she didn't know I was in Harlan?)

Back to the Adam dream. We started heading home and still weren't talking when we saw David K having car trouble at his parents' house. So, we picked up Dave to take him back to Omaha with us and I was happy because I didn't have to sit in the front seat with Adam anymore.

I don't remember what we fought about, but I do remember that I didn't even want him to kiss me goodbye this morning because I was so ticked at him.

Thoughts from Saturday

I’m bored, so figured I would blog and wouldn’t you know that our internet is being a big poo-poo head. So I’m blogging in Word and then I’ll copy and paste it into a blog entry later on. I wonder if the fact that there have been up to three Cox trucks parked on our street at various times this afternoon has anything to do with my internet service . . . or lack thereof.

Last night Adam and I went to our first “Couples Bridal Shower” ~ Adam was a bridal shower virgin until last night and I realized that the only ones I’ve been to were either for me or given by me. I never been just a regular ‘ol guest. Anyway, the shower was really amazing. The hostess had all these AMAZING appetizers to eat. I figured since it was at 6:30 maybe they would grill or something, but she had all these dips, fruit, little quiches, crackers, cheese, fondu, meatballs, and these cut out cookies that looked like they came straight out a super high class bakery. She should totally be a professional caterer to the stars or something. Made me feel very unsophisticated. Angie babysat Alyssa and Alyssa told me that she had a FANTASTIC time playing with her (and Eric once he FINALLY decided to show up). She feels bad that she cried when it was bedtime.

Adam went to Lincoln this morning with Gordon to work on Ben’s car, so its just been Alyssa and I all day . . . same old same old! After lunch we went and got gas and Alyssa experienced her first automatic car wash. She went from awestruck to hysterical crying a couple times . . . I don’t think it was a big hit. We finished up Father’s Day shopping for Adam and then hit the grocery store. I watched “Finding Neverland” while she was napping this morning and this afternoon. What a touching and sweet movie. I love the Peter Pan story, so figured I would like this movie, but it was a lot more involved that I expected. Two thumbs up!

And speaking of movies . . . I’m quite distressed about the fact that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are getting married. Its just such a weird situation and it just really doesn’t make sense to me. I feel like he’s using her for some reason.

And speaking of Tom and Katie leads me to think about my “US Weekly”. Angie says that she got hers yesterday, but I STILL haven’t gotten mine and I’m hopping mad! It’s the perfect afternoon to curl up and catch up on gossip. I would be surfing the internet, but said internet seems to have gone AWOL.

Forgiving and forgetting? The MIL saga continues . . .

Its been a tough week with regards to my relationship with Susan. I thought we were making headway, but it always seems like one step forward and two steps back. After a long talk on Monday I thought I had communicated to her that fixing our relationship had to be a two way street . . . she/Mike had to give a little and take a little and Adam and I had to do the same. But maybe I was wrong in my thinking. Maybe it is all my fault.

Today she called and said that she was thinking that Adam doesn't really have any issues with her, its just the fact that he knows that I do and he loves me so much that he's siding with me. And I guess ultimately picking me over her, which is something I never intended to do. I find myself wondering if that is true . . . is it really me that's causing all this drama?

She brought up holidays ~ a new topic of discussion. She was really hurt because we had my parents over for Mother's Day and didn't invite them over, too or didn't bother to go over there after Mike planned a special dinner for her. I had no idea that Mike was planning anything special for Mother's Day for her or I might have tried to work something out. But as it stood, my parents came up to celebrate my birthday because it was the day before and my first Mother's Day. It was really important to my mom to be able to celebrate that with me, so it was more about me than about her. But I don't think Susan realizes that ~ how could she, I never talked to her about it, but there's another example of assumptions making things complicated. She said how it made her sad that we never do anything with them on Christmas Eve; we always go to my cousins'. Which isn't true because last year we spent the evening with my family. Does that mean that she wants us to split our time on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? Or does she want to get us all Christmas Day and part of Christmas Eve, too? I've given up celebrating with my family on Thanksgiving and Easter both so that we could celebrate with Adam's family. We've stopped doing our memorial day and labor day traditions because Adam's family has BBQ/picnics on those days. So basically, the only thing my family "gets" is Christmas Eve. Sure, I go to church with my parents on Easter morning, but its not the same. I don't remember the last time I got to have a traditional holiday (other than Christmas Eve) with my parents ON the actual holiday.

Its really starting to bother me how she's starting to pull my parents into our "confrontations" and she's bordering on putting them and their lifestyle down. My mom has heard me say plenty of nasty things about Susan and could easily have agreed with me and put her down, too, but she's always encouraging me to give her a chance and to give her the benefit of the doubt, so why can't Susan do the same thing. Both sets of parents are never going to be equal. Both are loved, but differently . . . there's no way that they could ever be the same. Its like the love you have for children. You love each child, but in a different way because of their strengths and weaknesses. They are individuals, so you love them uniquely.

I spent a good part of my session with Jackie today talking about my struggles with my relationship with Susan. She pointed out how difficult it is to forgive someone who has hurt someone that you love as much as I love Adam. I don't ever want to see him hurt and I don't want him to ever have felt pain and because in my eyes his parents have caused pain, I'm holding that against them. And I'm expecting them to do it again, so I put up a wall and I look for the negative spin on everything they do to be prepared. I'm afraid of Adam being hurt, me being hurt, and Alyssa being hurt. I need to forgive and move on and try to forget. Jackie said that it may take years. I wish I could just wipe my memory clean. I wish I could put all the bad and hurtful things I feel in a box and throw it off a bridge to be washed away and never seen again. I don't want to feel this way anymore. But now I've started moving from having anger/dislike towards Susan to having anger/dislike towards myself because maybe it is all my fault. Maybe the root of our problem is that I have a bad attitude and that I'm making Adam chose between me and his mother. Now I have a whole new set of "bad" feelings to sort through ~ now there're centered on me instead of her.

The Star Wars experience is complete

Eric, Angie, Chad, Adam, and I went to see Star Wars Episode III today. How was it? In one word . . . powerful. I walked away thinking that it was very powerful. There's something about hearing the theme music and watching the opening credits scroll into the distance that makes my heart pitter patter and makes my stomach do little flips. But I think the experience overall put me in a funk. Its made me think a lot about "what's his name" because he was the one that introduced me to Star Wars in the first place. Which leads me to think about our relationship, which puts me in a bit of a funk. Its funny because I don't remember the second one doing this to me. Granted it was a couple years ago, so maybe I just don't really remember. Or maybe its because the third one leads into the "original" trilogy, which I'll always associate with that time in my life. Whatever it is, I'm in a funk.

Lite-brite

I always wanted a lite-bright when I was younger. When I worked at the daycare in Omaha the kids had to fight me for lite-bright privledges . . . now I can play from the comfort of my own computer!

Let's Play!

Mark's birthday

Yesterday was my brother's birthday ~ the big 4-0! I'm feeling kind of bitter about his birthday as he didn't acknowledge mine at all. I know at least the past 2 years he's called and wished me a happy birthday even if he knew that I would be out (because it was margarita night!). But I love him and I wanted him to know that I was thinking about him. But I didn't REALLY want to talk to him. And I REALLY didn't want to talk to Christi if she would happen to pick up the phone. Although since no one is supposed to know that she's there, she probably wouldn't pick up the phone. Anyway, I called his cell phone around lunchtime thinking I might catch him, but I got his voicemail (I hope it was his ~ it was the general cell phone lady talking) and left a message. Now I'm wondering if he was screening his calls. Not that he would have any reason to, but it still crossed my mind. Ugh. I wish that I could pick a time in my life that I really loved the way a person in my life was and keep them that person forever. I would pick 19-20 year old Mark. Or maybe Mark around the time of my wedding. . . that was a good Mark, too. And still older than me so that he could still be my big brother.

Bird Poop that Boggles the Mind

We have three spots of bird poop on the front door . . . am I the only one who wonders how that happens when there's an overhang "protecting" the front door? I guess poop angle and wind speed/resistance probably help. There's obviously something better I could be doing than musing about bird poop.

I have renewed my adoration of Sunkist. Adam was drinking it yesterday at lunch, I took one sip, and BAM! I'm hooked. I could drink it all day long. Maybe if I poured my water into a Sunkist bottle . . . naw, probably wouldn't be the same.

Damn there was something else I was going to blog about (I had three things on my mind when I sat down) and now I can't remember the third thing. Maybe I'll make it up . . . OH! I remembered!

I got these "Cake Doctor" cookbooks from a friend of my mom's as a wedding shower gift. Its kind of a cool concept because each recipe makes this fancy-pants dessert recipe from a cake mix. So this morning my mom called and asked if there were any recipes in there that she could make with a lemon cake mix that she had found in the cupboard. So I pull out my cake doctor, dust it off because I hadn't opened it since my shower almost 3 years ago and take a gander. Its CRAZY how detailed these recipes are "scrape the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula" "turn the oven off". This last one put me over the edge and I was thinking that it was dumbest thing in the world to have a step on a recipe for turning off the oven, but then I realized that I have been that person who realizes 2 hours after she finishes baking something the oven is still on. Maybe that Cake Doctor isn't as dumb as I thought . . . maybe she's smarter than the average baker!

I'm a minority?!

I've never thought of myself as a minority, I've always thought of myself as just a regular person . . . I'm pretty plain as you can get. Blonde hair, blue eyes, raised in an upper middle class family in a small town, college graduate, married, child ~ just your plain Jane. But then today I read an article about a breastfeeding protest that took place outside ABC's studios in New York after Barbara Walters made a negative comment about a woman that was breastfeeding on an airplane next to her. I think it said 250 women went to the protest and openly nursed their child in front of the studio to get back at her. Now, I think that's ridiculous in itself, but what got me was there was a line in the article about how mom who breastfeed in public can be grouped into the same group as multicultural couples or gay couples being ashamed to walk down the street hand in hand because it makes other people uncomfortable. Now personally I don't have a problem if someone wants to nurse their child in public ~ more power to them, but I don't really feel comfortable with it. I've only done it once and I didn't feel ashamed or like I was doing anything wrong. I don't think anyone (other than the people sitting at the table with me) noticed, but they could help but notice my child who was screaming because she was hungry. I don't feel like I'm expressing myself very well, but it just made me stop and think when they compared breastfeeding, which I had always considered the best thing I could do for Alyssa, to something like homosexuality or mixed couple/marriage. Not saying that those are wrong, but I think about all the people that are against homosexuality and gay marriage and it just makes me sad to think that something that I do could cause those feelings of anger and hatred towards me. Because I've always been accepted and done the "right" thing or at least the non-controversial thing.

Patience is a virtue that I'm not sure I have . . .

I'm feeling very impatient today.

I have a really long list of errands to run, but I know I won't get everything done today thanks to beautiful Miss Alyssa. I love her, but she makes it more complicated to run out for a couple things. Makes me wish that we had some teenage girl in the neighborhood that I could pay to watch her for a couple hours. She just went down for a nap, so I would probably be home by the time she woke up. *contemplates leaving her with the dogs . . . *

I get all gung ho to work on projects around the house, but now that we're semi-seriously talking about moving, I'm not so gung ho anymore. Now I want to start packing! Or cleaning and throwing away like a mad woman; one of the two. I'm trying to find little projects that need to be down whether we move or not . . . like yesterday and recovered the lid of the milk jug thing in the dining room. It looks sooo much better without that dead animal looking thing on top of it! (Although the current cover doesn't really match anything because I used material from Alyssa's curtains. And now that I think about it, the yellow that the jug is painted doesn't match the dining room either. Guess someday I/we'll have to repaint the jug and recover it). I'm torn now between painting Alyssa's toy box and painting the bookshelf in our room. The toy box is in Alyssa's room and said Alyssa is sleeping, so that's kind of out of the question right now. The bookshelf needs to be sanded and Adam is my sand king, so that's kind of out of the question. I guess I could do the sensible thing and do laundry. That needs to be done fairly soon . . . we don't run the risk of being buried alive by opening the closet door, so its not too bad yet. And back to the toy box (running all over the place today), I was going to paint it to match the walls and then put dragon flies on it like the border on part of the nursery. But since we're talking about moving, then I have thoughts of trying to make her next room a little more general and grown up ~ something that we can live with until getting bedding and whatnot when she's ready for a big girl bed. So then maybe I want to wait and see what color we go with. I want to look into Wallies . . . I think they would be a great solution to me. Cheap and removable so that you can easily change decorating style if you need to. If only I could "wally" my house!

I'm jealous of Chad . . . he gets to move into his new digs in about a month. Maybe he'll let me pack for him so that I can get this moving bug out of my system!

I think I'm going to call and see if I can move my fitting at DB to this evening so that I don't have to take Alyssa with me. Then I could hit NFM for Newlyweds Season 2 & 3 (HOO FREAKIN' RAY), maybe Pier 1 to get a shower gift for Christy and Jeff, maybe the mall to exchange Adam's YELLOW! shirt that I got him that he's too chicken to wear. (not really, its really an obnoxious shirt now that I got it home, I was just trying to branch out his wardrobe).

My parents are coming to town tomorrow and we're all going to Jay and Kari's so that mom and dad can meet Janson. Would it be really rude of me to ditch Alyssa with them and then go run my errands? Probably . . . oh well, there's always the weekend and nothing needs to be done RIGHT NOW. Except for the Newlyweds DVD. ;)

It takes a village?

I've been thinking about the saying "Its takes a village to raise a child" a lot lately. I belong to a chat group of moms who had babies in October. I enjoy the group because these women are going through the same thing I am and I get a lot of good ideas from them. Its also nice to know that there is someone else out there that is ready to pull their hair out because of something that their child did (or didn't do as the case may be). I think its really helped me be a more relaxed mom to have this resource. Its hard being kind of in the middle of generations when it comes to babies. We're the first of our friends (for the most part) to have kids, so I can't turn to friends for advice (although I have some awful good ears out there that have listened to me ramble on and on). Its been a long time since most of my family has had a newborn, so its hard for them to remember how it was. I do have Mark and Janna, but I feel weird about calling them every day and saying "she's doing this, what do I do?!". Its so much more reassuring to go to place where I have 50 moms to give feedback to me or where someone else has experienced it before me and I've read about it, so I've been prepared. Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Back to the saying . . . before I had Alyssa I didn't realize that there were so many drastically different views on child rearing. Belonging to this board has opened my eyes to so many different views on breastfeeding vs bottle feeding (and today someone brought up soy vs regular formula), co-sleeping vs crib sleeping, CIO vs NCSS, vaccinating vs not, infant discipling, diapering, when to start food, jarred food vs table food ~ the list goes on and on. And even with all the different views and the different stands I believe that each person is doing the best for their child, their family, and their situation. Sure, there are choices that people make that I am appalled at and don't agree with for Alyssa, but who am I to say that its really the "wrong" choice. So, it got me to thinking about the whole village raising a child thing. If I see our born in October board as a village, I don't think this saying is right. I think its more like "it takes every villager to raise their child". Can you image that tension if a village actually only had 1 child and everyone had to agree on how to raise that child? Heck, sometimes its hard for Adam and I to agree on how to handle something with Alyssa. I know this quote probably isn't as applicable in the US as it is in other countries where they don't have the options that we have, but I guess I've just been really blown away since becoming a mother at the different views that are out there. Before I thought everyone was basically the same . . . sure, there were a few "out there" people that did bizarre (in my eyes) things, but overall I thought everyone was the same. And maybe overall everyone is because there are only a few people I have met who I disagree or don't understand their parenting stand. Just kind of interesting to me.

Grrrr IE!

I'm starting to hate Internet Explorer . . . I see things all funky with this stupid browser. I may break down and let Adam download a new one for my computer. *pauses so that Adam can do a little jig when he reads this*

I went to church with Eric and Angie this morning. Pastor I gave a "Star Wars" themed sermon ~ it was really, really good. I love his sermons ~ the visual aides help keep me focused. I feel like since we've started going to St. Mark's I've really been listening to the scriptures that are included in the services. Maybe its because its always a pastor that is reading them instead of back home where just members of the congregation would read it. There's something about seeing a pastor at the front of the church talking to you that commands a little more attention and focus that just regular old Joe Schmoe reading something from the front.

Joe Schmoe . . . I loved that show. Speaking of Eric and Angie they got us addicted to that show. Probably not one that Spike can do any more episodes of because its pretty well known now, which is too bad. Adam and I watched "Beauty and the Geek" on the WB last week ~ I think it was Wednesday night. That's a pretty good show (for a lame reality show by Ashton Kutcher anyway). Its about time we have something to fill up our empty Wednesday night since Julio's get togethers are few and far between these days. Maybe they will start becoming regular again since Angie only works until 6. Although its not as easy for us to go out anymore with the youngin'.

Its almost Alyssa's bedtime. I'm not ready for Sunday to be over with. I love the weekends. I love having Adam home with us ~ and not just because I can dump Alyssa on him and hit the computer for hours on end! He's a good guy to hang out with.

Joey's new 'do

The before shot


The after shot


Oh my poor baby!!! But she's good for some comic relief now. :) Renee said that the haircut takes years off her life and makes her look like a puppy again. I wonder if that's why my dad shaves his head every week. :P

Moving?

We had "the talk" last night. The "are we staying or are we going" talk, not the "birds and bees" talk. I brought it up because I have baby fever baaaad. I want to wait until Alyssa is at least a year old because I was to continue to nurse until she's year old. Not that you can't nurse and be pregnant at the same time, but it can complicate things and its not that important to me to get pregnant right now. And I would like to be settled into a new house before having another baby. And as Adam pointed out . . . I wouldn't be able to help move if I were pregnant. (It would be like last summer's house painting all over again) So we started talking about moving . . . and we didn't really talk about staying in Omaha, we just talked about moving back East. (that's weird to me, you're supposed to say "back East", but that makes it sound like we've lived there before and I haven't) Anywhoo . . . I brought up the topic of looking into North Carolina as well as New Hampshire and Adam had actually had thoughts about NC, too, which was kind of weird. A sign, maybe? So Adam got on the computer downstairs to search for jobs and I got on the computer upstairs to scope out cost of living here compared to NC and NH and did a little checking into housing around NC. Adam was talking last night about moving as soon as August . . . I don't know if I'm ready for that. But I think there's always going to be a "let's just wait until after ____". We need to just bite the bullet and do it. Not that I feel like its the wrong decision, I just think its going to be a huge leap of faith. It would be a lot easier to just stay here, but I feel like we need to follow our dreams. We don't have to stay there forever if we hate it.

But I'm not really sure how I feel about seriously considering NC or NH.
1. Neither of us has ever been to NC. Adam has lived (and loved living) in NH and I trust his judgement.
2. NC isn't "New England" which is what I always dreamed of. But in my dream I lived in a little seaside community with a view of sailboats in the harbor out my front window, so that's probably not going to happen no matter where I live. (Unless we move to St. Thomas, and Adam did do job searches there!) Although a New England fall was in my dream, too . . . does NC get falls like that? Probably not.
3. NC isn't nearly as cold in the winter as NH. No 5 feet of snow from October - April weather there.
4. The ocean is warmer in NC ~ you can actually swim in it in the summer.
5. Cost of living is cheaper in NC (NC was about $5,000 more than NE and NH was $12,000 more)
6. NH is closer to a lot of "vacation" spots where we could go for a few days ~ Boston, Cape Cod, Washington DC, etc.
7. Dawson's Creek was filmed in NC as was "A Walk to Remember" ~ two of my favorites.
8. There are more job prospects in NC than in NH for Adam.
9. In NH we would be approximately 90 minutes from Paul and Pam, our only family out there. In NC we would be 8 hours from St. College and 11 hours from Meadeville. More family at a little more distance, but we could definitely spend holidays with the PA family whereas Paul and Pam would probably be more "get together for a weekend" type of family.
10. Wish I could think of a 10th thing to even out the list, but I can't.

Okay, so my list was supposed to be a NE vs NC/NH list, but I think it turned into a NC vs NH list. My list seems kind of silly, but it was on my mind, so I decided to put it down. And I would like to share these things with Adam, but maybe it would be easier to have him read them than for me to try to say them.

Subjects

Is it bad that I name my post a certain subject, then talk about that subject plus another 2 or 3? I can see how it might bother me if I was reading someone's blog that did that, but I don't really care when I'm writing. I guess I'm too lazy to do a post for each topic. Maybe I should just title my posts with the date or something . . . but that's so boring! Now I'll stop before I start talking about something else besides subjects. Man, I'm giving myself a headache. There I go again drifting off topic!!!

Bald Joey

Adam took the dogs to the vet yesterday afternoon ~ Lexi for an allergy appointment and Joey for her yearly check up. Dr. S said that we need to shave Joey for the summer. Actually, I think maybe Adam grabbed him by the arm, twisted it behind his back, and wouldn't let go until he said that it might be okay to shave Joey just so that he could come home and tell me that we HAD to shave Joey. :P Gaylen and John shave their Pom, so I guess it must be okay. And I trust Dr. S, so . . . Joey has an appointment to be "baldified" tomorrow morning. My baby is going to look so funny . . . poor little thing. Although she's a good 2 - 5 lbs overweight, so maybe shaving her will help in that department.

We're having Christy and Jeff over for dinner tomorrow night, which I'm looking forward to. I'm excited to talk wedding chat with Christy and we're planning on setting up some playdates since she'll be babysitting her nephew Colin (who is about 3 months younger that Alyssa) this summer. I called David's Bridal yesterday to set up an appointment to get my dress altered for their wedding. I figured it was early since the wedding isn't until the end of July, but I wanted to do it while I was thinking about it. Come to find out, I was actually cutting it close to get in to get my dress altered and they just barely managed to squeeze me in on Tuesday. Crazy! But I guess summer is "wedding season" and they probably have a lot going on. Glad I thought to call. Memo to myself to talk to Christy about shoes tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to their wedding.

I love hanging out with Adam's high school friends. I love that they have welcomed me with open arms into their circle of friends unlike a certain ex's friends that I actually went to high school with. That's another story all together, but its really nice to feel liked.

Sleep Positions

I read this interesting article in Cosmo a few years back that analyzed what type of person you are based on what position your body is in when you sleep. I'm a "flamingo" meaning that I sleep with one leg straight out and one leg bent at the knee and curled up kind of in the fetal position. I can't remember what that says about me, but I remember that I'm a flamingo. Last night when I put Alyssa down, she stuck one leg out straight behind her and pulled one knee up close underneath her ~ like a flamingo ~ before settling into a deeper sleep. I love when she does things that remind me of me or Adam . . . helps me remember that she really is half of me and half of him and that makes my heart happy. =)

I haven't done much today. I ordered Alyssa more changing pad covers since ours are getting pretty stained. As much as I wanted to buy the cute pink or purple ones, I got blue . . . just in case Alyssa gets a little brother in a couple years. Because it would be awfully tramatizing for a boy to find out that his changing pad cover was pink when he was 2 months old, don't you think? I ordered my dad a set of John Deere license plate holders for Father's Day. I bet he'll get a kick out of them . . . the perfect thing to hold his "JD Norm" vanity plate.

Joni called this morning and Mark got a new/old roommate. Yep, she's baaaaaaaaaack ~ the dreaded ex-wife from hell. And part of the everly optimistic Christi thinks "maybe she's changed . . . maybe she'll be a good person now and she'll be a good wife, mother, sister-in-law and she and Mark will live happily ever after". Maybe Mark and I are the same in this kind of thinking. He's scared to tell my Dad that she's moved back in . . . should be interesting since when/if we go out there this summer we'll be staying with him. What's he going to hide her in the closet while we're there? I'm sure it'll come out sometime. And I'm sure Dad will be disappointed. Glad I'm not in Mark's shoes.

Guilty Pleasure and Money Ponderings

My favorite current guilty pleasure . . . Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica on DVD. I got it for Christmas from Chris and I watched the entire thing within a day. I got readdicted after Eric and Angie were here on Monday and Eric was talking about how much he loved it, so I watched Season 1 again yesterday. Why do I love that show so much? I'm ashamed to admit it, but I do. And I absolutely can't wait for next Tuesday for Season 2 and 3 to be out of DVD. Tuesday will be Alyssa and my "outing day" for sure!

Speaking of DVDs that I love . . . I finished Dawsons Creek Season 5 and I can't wait for Season 6 to come out so that I can have all of them! I'm also thinking that maybe I need to start collecting Gilmore Girls on DVD. I haven't really watched that show all that much, but the episodes I have seen I've really enjoyed. I wish I could catch it from the start so that I would know what was going on.

And on to the money pondering section of my blog . . . why is it so expensive to register/get plates on a new car? Almost $1500 to register Gwen. Am I supposed to take out a loan to pay for that, too?! I need a car, so why do I have to pay so much for it? I don't NEED that box of Dove ice cream bars that are in the freezer, but I got those for free. Why can't I get a free car and pay for the ice cream bars? If only I ran the world.

I noticed today that Adam put stickers on the front drivers side window that spelled out Gwen. The thing is, I noticed after coming out of Target (and this was after I had gone to get the stickers for my plates) and I was convinced that someone put the stickers on while I was in Target. So the whole time I was pulling out of the parking lot and driving home I felt like someone was watching me. Creep city! I hope I never get a stalker. (And he put the stickers on on Monday; not while I was in Target . . . I get I'm not as observant as I think I am).

Thing that made my day today: I got a picture message of Angie in Vegas! I was so excited and I've looked at it about 50 times since I saw it an hour ago. I hope they are having a great time ~ wish Adam and I were there with them, though!