Christmas and 2008 catch up

It has been so long since I last posted, I have to try and remember where I left off. Thanksgiving came and went and it seems that Christmas came all too fast. Work was crazy since we were shipping vaccines as fast as we could package them (it seems every parent was getting their children vaccinated for the new year!) and I still had all of the shopping and decorating to do at home. Christmas was wonderful though and it went flying by. Miss Attitude - formerly Sweetpea but in her new role she isn't always sweet :) - loved everything she got for Christmas. I think the thing she enjoyed the most was the days off of school. Even though she likes learning, she has discovered the joy in playing ALL day again.
We have spent the last several days digging out from the piles of presents that we were blessed with from our wonderful families. I am looking forward to a great year. I received a new camera (oh my hubby is wonderful) that I can't wait to learn all of the things it can do. Miss Attitude has too many toys to even name, and hubby is playing with his new Xbox 360. So instead of words - here are a few pictures to share our joy of the holiday.

The "kids" (my cousins and Miss Attitude)

My uncle and Miss Attitude had a lot of fun with a can of whipped cream!

Every now and then she still looks like an angel :)

My family waiting anxiously to open presents - the people not in the picture were the ones slowing us down!
Miss Attitude and my Dad (see where the name comes form?)

True joy when you get the one gift you asked Santa for!

Even the cat loves Christmas!

I hope everyone's Christmas was equally fun filled!

Pumpkin Carving

During the pouring down rain we went and shopped for pumpkins. The best part of getting pumpkins is that you get to carve them. We carved three pumpkins and once it gets dark I will take some cool pictures of them lit but in the meantime here is Sweetpea's favorite part of carving.

She loves the pumpkin guts! She pulls it all out and digs her hands in it, makes "pies" out of it, and generally just makes a huge mess! I love carving pumpkins too, so I don't mind at all.

Thoughts to ponder

I don't usually discuss politics. It's a touchy subject for many people and something I don't like to argue about. I have my opinions and I will tell you what they are if I am asked directly, but I prefer to stay low key.
One thing that I do feel strongly about is that all people should vote. There are too many places in this world where people can't express their opinion that we MUST take advantage of this liberty. I always vote, no matter what (even in the primaries).

With the upcoming election, there has been constant coverage on every medium we have. One thing I enjoy listening to occasionally is NPR (National Public Radio). They always have interesting stories and are my entertainment when commercials and songs become annoying. Today I heard a story produced from York, PA (not far from where I live).

In this story, the radio gathered six people from several races to discuss the racial implications of the presidential election. First, they focused on the prevalence of people who fly American flags outside of their homes. It was widely agreed that people who are white, often have flags flying yet people from other races rarely do. They asked the Hispanic and black participants first if they had a flag and why or why not. All four of the participants indicated that they did not fly flags. Some of them indicated that they feel that America does not treat them as full citizens so they can't fly a flag to show their allegiance. Others indicated that due to the way they are treated by others, that they have no desire to fly a flag.

After the flag discussion, the participants were asked how they feel the possible election of a black man to president will change the country. A white school teacher indicated that she is excited to see Obama take office and feels that non-white children will then have a wonderful role model to follow. Her sister in law then expressed her fear of Obama taking office because she is worried about the reaction the minority population may have. She is worried that a false sense of entitlement and revenge will result in acts of violence against white citizens as pay back for years of oppression during slavery. A black man in the audience then indicated that while he doesn't expect that reaction, he does fear too much celebration that may lead to destruction of property and violence if the authorities try to disband the gatherings. He was also concerned that if Obama is not elected, their may be a general revolt from the overall feeling that the election was rigged. Finally, a black woman indicated that her ultimate fear is that Obama is elected but then assassinated in office. She feels that this will lead to all out chaos in our society.

The funny thing I was thinking while listening to this story is that I had not really considered these aspects of the election. I understand the significance of a black man running for office, but I didn't think of what might happen if he did/didn't win. I have considered the stance of both parties on multiple issues and I have made my decision of who I plan to vote for. At this point I don't see anything changing my opinion, but I still found this discussion very interesting.

How I love to torture myself

This weekend I entered in another 5K race. There were two important differences in this one though. First, I would be running alone. My friend who always runs by my side was unable to attend since she just had surgery - I guess that's an excuse of sorts. This means that I had no one to stay with me as the rest of the pack runs swiftly by or to keep me motivated when I reach the point of exhaustion. The second thing that was different is that my family (Chris and Sweetpea) was attending as well. For some reason this induced a good set of nerves in me. I already knew I wasn't going to win and that I could only hope to finish well for me since I am not a fast runner. I run these races strictly for finishing them. Each race that I finish drives me forward in my quest to be in better shape. I know if I can run 3 miles today then maybe tomorrow I can do 4.

As the race started, I already regretted being there. It was a small field of runners (about 85) so I had an uncharacteristic spot near the starting line. I prefer to line up in the back of the field since I know 90% of the runners will pass me. In this race though, Sweetpea kept encouraging me to get close to the front so I could win. She wanted me to come in second since I told her there was no way Mommy was going to win the race. As we all took off the pace was fast as always and people were soon leaving me behind as the slower runners fell into their places.
At about a quarter mile in, I was tired and only my will kept me going forward. I was tired, the sun was beating down on me, and I really didn't feel like running. I vowed to make it past Chris and Sweetpea who were waiting for me at the bridge crossing and at least look like I was doing well.

Well I made it past the bridge and then I made it to the 1 mile mark in 10:10 (which is good for me). Now I just had to make the loop before I could head back for the finish line. At this point there were 2 women in front of me and no one behind me. I couldn't see anyone at all behind me and even though I knew someone was back there somewhere, the thought of coming in dead last was not pleasant. I just kept running hoping to do well and even if I came in last, I would know that I had tried. After I made the turn, there were no more splits to tell me my pace. There wasn't any water either (which I was very upset about, I count on that water station 1/2 way through the race). I headed back for the bridge where Sweetpea was waiting for me.
As I came across the river bridge, there is my beautiful girl hanging on the end of the bridge looking desperately for me with a very concerned look on her face. I took out one earphone so I could hear her and what words of encouragement do I hear? "Mommy, you're in last place!" Oh she is so sweet!

Chris gave me some much needed water and a smack on the butt along with an enthusiastic "Keep moving!" and they were off to the finish line to cheer me in. I only had about a half mile to go now and at this point I wasn't going to stop. I made it around the last few blocks and I headed for the finish line. As I came down the home stretch the other faster runners are there clapping for you and telling you what a good job you are doing. As I get to Chris he encourages me to sprint for the finish because I can make it in under 35 minutes if I hurry. I summoned up all the energy I had remaining in me and I sprinted as best I could to cross that line. My final time was a speedy 34:42:59. Yes, that 1/100th of a second is vital to my time! This was my fastest 5K yet and I am amazed at how far I have come since I started this quest. My first 5K in April I finished in 38:30 so I have cut almost 4 minutes off my time. Maybe by the end of next year I can be under 30 minutes - oh how happy would I be then!

Faux pas and more..

How has technology and the Internet changed our lives? Here are 2 examples...

The other day we were leaving a parking lot and Chris (DH) did something stupid. I would tell you in detail what it was but as soon as he realized it, he made me promise I wouldn't blog it. I of course laughed and said "Well I'm going to blog you saying that!"

The worst faux pas of the week belonged to me and I am of course going to share it anyway. I really can't be more embarrassed then I already was when it occurred.

I was asked to present at a meeting that I used to be a regular attendee to, but I haven't gone since I was promoted. I am very familiar with the majority of the people there but there are also many new faces. The atmosphere there is always one of joking around and good natured fun even though the participants have changed. Before I could begin the training I was presenting, there was general discussion of a new(less then 3 months with us) girl that abruptly left the company. She was a very young (22) and very attractive blond Russian immigrant (so she had the sexy look and accent to go with the sexy name). One of the men(Mr Funny) that supports the same area she did jokingly said "She must have left because she was tired of me leering at her all day, along with the rest of the building." We all laughed and moved on with the meeting.

After the meeting I returned to my desk and I wanted to share this story with my friend and co-worker who also used to be a regular attendee. I opened up the IM function we have for office use and clicked on what I thought was her name (starts with a J) and instead I clicked on the name of Mr Funny who made the comment (also starts with a J). I then typed out the whole story before hitting enter. You can imagine my surprise when the reply I received was from Mr Funny instead of my girlfriend. I was mortally embarrassed and had to tell him who I intended to send it to and why. Luckily for me, he has a great sense of humor and I didn't say anything offensive (imagine if I had said something like "That Mr Funny is such an a@@hole"). Even so my face was as deep of a shade of red as you can get!

I learned my lesson from this and I will be paying closer attention to what I click prior to hitting Go. It could have been worse, I think I got off easy on this one!

Have any of you ever made this type of mistake?
Ever been told - you can't blog this because they didn't want everyone to know about an incident even though we all do stupid things?

Back to the real world

The last week has been super busy and wonderful all at the same time. Last week we were on vacation. We went to Virginia Beach for 4 days and the left on the 5th day and went to Busch Gardens for 5 days. It was a wonderful vacation. We all got some sun and only hubby got a little burned (oh thank the Lord for SPF 45 and 55 sunscreen by Neutrogena) Speaking of the Neutrogena, I have to say the dry touch sunscreen is the BEST ever. It not only leaves you with a powder soft matte finish instead of greasy shiny skin but it also doesn't give me an allergic reaction. I'll take non red itchy burning skin anyday, the dry touch is just a bonus. I'm telling you - this stuff is worth $9 a tube (for the small size).
So now we have returned and I'm getting caught up on work and home and with my blog reading. It is the start of another busy week and we are all trying to recover but I'll be back soon to fill in the details of the last week.

Another outdoor project

It seems that hubby and I have a weakness for projects outdoors. We have spent hundreds of hours (and dollars) doing outdoor projects. When we moved into the house it was brand new and it came with blank dirt (or at least they told us it was dirt - if you saw it you would think otherwise). One of the rules of the development was that you must install 6 bushes in the front of your home within 1 year of moving in. Since I was pregnant when we moved in we didn't do anything the first spring. We did spread straw on the lawn(when I was 9 months pregnant and no it didn't induce labor) over the new grass seed after they finally put in down in the end of June in 100+ degree weather - needless to say it didn't do well. The following spring we rented a tiller and a post hole digger and went to work installing bushes. Over 30 of them. That's right we are crazy.

Since then we have done numerous other projects (deck, small edging walls, more bushes) and every year I say "NO MORE OUTSIDE PROJECTS". Once again that has failed me (and it was my idea to do this - I think all the digging is getting to me).

At the bottom of our driveway there is a corner that is very rocky - okay it's just worse then the rest of the yard which qualifies as slightly rocky - remember the so called dirt? Well I've been eyeing it up and since we just had a new tree planted right above this spot it seemed like a good time to get started. After waiting several weeks for the never ending rain to cease, I jumped at my chance this weekend.

Here is what I started with (ok I already started digging but you get the point). Notice the stones in the corner - no grass growing here.

and here is where we ended after 2 days of digging..

Now those flowers just need to get busy growing and fill in those bare spots. The best thing about this bed - it is right next to the driveway so I see it every day.

A colorful afternoon

Yesterday was one of those odd days when the sun is shining on one side of the road and pouring on the other side. It was prime rainbow weather and we were lucky enough to see 3 different rainbows. As we were driving to swim class I told Sweetcheeks to keep and eye out for a rainbow. As we walked into swim class, there it was a beautiful rainbow. She was so happy to see it we bounced into the pool. When we left that rainbow was gone and the sun was shining brightly but as we drove home another one appeared which was even better then the first because you could see all of the colors this time. We watched it fade as we drove towards home discussing just how lucky we were to see 2 rainbows. The ultimate surprise came when we arrived at our house. There was a double rainbow waiting for us. I ran inside and grabbed the camera as soon as I could, so here it is..

it was a beautiful day.

A case of spots?

Here is what happens when your child has strep throat and is quarantined inside for 48 hours so she doesn't expose any other children..

Craft kits become make-up. Needless to say she was feeling great as soon as the antibiotics kicked in. It was a long day 2 and finally at 5pm I kicked her outside because she was an uncontrollable ball of energy.

Oh my, has it been that long?

Life as always has been hectic and while I am a great lurker on other people's blogs I have been neglecting my own for quite some time. Looking at it today I realized that I haven't posted anything since March. March - sheesh so much has happened in there it's hard to even imagine catching up. So here's the quick update and as the days go on and nothing else exciting happens I'll work on filling in the holes. I'll try to keep them under their own headers though so I can be somewhat organized versus rambling on and on...


Oh and in case you were wondering(burning at the top of your mind right?) that Project 365 was not so great. At first it was fun, then it became stressful, then I just dropped it all together(like I need any more stress in my life). While I do have about 2 more weeks of pictures then I actually posted, you will probably never see them. Instead I'll just post the fun ones. Maybe more like project 12 (one for each month?).

3/365

I'm a bit ashamed to admit, this is what our refrigerator rountinely looks like...it's empty. Basically, I prefer to go grocery shopping only out of desperation. I have to say that I did take the time to clean the refrigerator and organize it before taking this picture. I not only wanted to hide the fact that there was a sour cream lid stuck in the back of the refrigerator under a drawer for almost a year, but it has been on my to do list for about the same amount of time. So it appears that this Project will not only keep me motivated to track our routine lives, it will force me to clean the refrigerator. Hmm, maybe this should be a Works for me Wednesday post too?

In case anyone is concerned that Sweetpea and hubby are wasting away to nothing, I did go shopping immediately after taking this picture. We now have food to sustain us a few more weeks until the refrigerator returns to the pictured state.

Mom's Fix-it service

One day my Sweetpea will look back remember all of the fond times we have had together. Hopefully she won't reflect back and wonder why Mom was always fixing things instead of playing with her though.

I once again spent a portion of the weekend at my MIL's house fixing things for her. This time I was building a radiator cover (she has those old large metal radiators). I do think it turned out rather well but I will spend several more hours there next weekend filling in nail holes and staining the wood edging on it. I am a one woman fix it crew (with some help from the hubby when I need lifting/holding help). I even have my traveling bucket of tools. FYI - I am not for hire though, I provide plenty of free labor to keep me busy year round.

My Sweetpea was good and waited patiently in the living room playing electronic Yahtzee while I hammered away. The only visits I got from her were the numerous times she came running in to tell me she got another Yahtzee - I really don't know how she does it. Her highest score was 344, remind me never to challenge her to a game.

I do hope though, that since I drag her along to all of my projects that she will be able to install her own lighting, fix her floors, and all of the other stuff that needs to be done in a house when she is older. I consider myself privileged to have grown up in a family where we had to fix our own broken pipes, floors, etc since I learned how to do it too and that is my hope for her as well. Maybe one day she can even be the star on one of my favorite DIY network shows.

Here's the latest project..

Things around the circle have been very busy (which is of course normal) but we have also been painting the walls and installing a new hardwood floor in our dining room. This can help explain my prolonged absence (in addition to the fact that I actually have to do work while at work instead of blogging).

We began our project 2 weeks ago. We tore out the carpeting which was installed by the builder so it came up with almost no effort and our WONDERFUL garbage men took it in one large rolled up piece. Those guys are great and therefore are always on my Christmas list. We then painted the walls a beautiful deep green since we both love color in our house with a classic white ceiling. The trim is bright white as well. We may tackle a chair rail soon, but that won't be before Christmas at least.

We had decided that we wanted to install nail down bamboo (an earth friendly choice since bamboo is a grass that can harvested every 7 years or so). We went and bought all of our supplies, rented a pneumatic floor nailer and away we went. The first row was the hardest since we had to make sure it was perfect and square, but after that the floor sailed along beautifully. It took us about 8 hours to put it in (which includes all of the cutting, laying the padding, etc.). The hardest part was the final rows which had to be hand nailed and let me tell you - bamboo is not a soft wood - just ask the many bent nails in the trash can. Unfortunately when we purchased our wood, we had to order the two finishing pieces for the doorway. They finally came in this past Saturday and I was able to finish nailing down the trim tonight.

Sweetpea can now have her playroom back since the dining room table won't be residing there any longer and I can sweep all of the sawdust from our garage for the last time (until the next project begins). I can say that I am now very experienced in using the miter saw and the jigsaw. Here are some pictures of our dining room

Overall I love this floor! I was so happy with the quality of the wood and we are looking to put a dark cherry in our family room next.

Punctuation

Each night Sweetpea and I sit down to read a chapter or two of a book before bedtime (I am so happy to have moved up to the chapter ones). Sweetpea goes and gets the appropriate book and meets me in the "cat room" on the futon to read it. Last night I was putting a load of wash in the washer and she was in the room with the book first. She was looking through the pages when she told me she knew what "these mean". I was only half listening and I just said You do?. She then proceeded to explain what the punctuation marks mean. She described them all. The comma means you pause, the dot means you are at the end of sentence and you stop, the hook one means you are asking a question, and she forgot what the upside down i means. I was in awe because I just didn't expect it yet. See everything you need to know you really do learn in Kindergarten.

School is a lot of work!

With Sweetpea starting Kindergarten I have realized just how much work parents have to do to ensure their children are prepared for school. My day goes like this...
5am - wake up, get dressed, pack my own breakfast and lunch, go to work.
~3:30pm - leave work- go pick up Sweetpea at aftercare and get the daily lecture on how I don't pick her up soon enough.
~4:30 - arrive home and send her out to play while preparing dinner (if it's not a dance class or soccer night). Go through book bag for notes, check her conduct calendar for the day (and she better have a star - I expect perfection), and fill out any necessary forms, fundraisers, etc.
~8:30 - Sweetpea needs to be in bed and I should be leaving the room. This is after getting her inside to eat, chasing her and her friends around the house and moderating any disputes, and bathing her so she isn't the smelly kid in school. Bedtime involves reading books, listening to songs, braiding her hair and tucking her in with kisses and hugs.
~8:45 pm - DH comes home from work, we chat about his day, how Sweetpea was, my day, typical stuff.
~9:00 pm - bedtime (hopefully by 10 which never happens) - pack snack and lunch for Sweetpea, write notes to teacher about if she is buying or packing, write a note for when I will arrive to pick her up, add an envelope with extra money for a treat or drink at lunch. Arrange clothes (after making sure we have clean ones - do wash if necessary) for DH to dress her in morning, arrange all required bags on counter so nothing is forgotten and add notes for DH if anything special is required (i.e - lunch box is in refrig).

After all of the above is done I try to take 15 minutes for myself before heading off to bed. I suppose I will become more efficient at this whole process as the weeks pass but in the meantime I often wish for the simplicity of daycare where they did everything and all she had to be was dressed.