Hot water

No need to fret any longer. The hot water is back. My husband, with the help of the neighbor, was able to remove the old water heater and put in the new one. There were a few issues, as there always are with such jobs but all in all it wasn't bad. So we saved the money on hiring a plumber for the installation. We got our rebate from Uncle Sam today which paid for the water heater. Yea!

Bear had his 15 month checkup yesterday and all is well. He is perfect and healthy which I already knew. I had a hair appointment today and she cut Bear's too but I forgot to snap a picture. I'll try to remember to do that tomorrow. It has just been hectic the past few days. I had lunch with my Tuesday group today. I felt bad since only one other lady brought her kid and he was much older but Bear did pretty well. Then the hair appointment was right after so he was a little wild by the end. And of course his diaper leaked at the end of the hair appointment and soaked through my jeans while I was trying to hold him for his cut.

The days have been flying by. I have plans tomorrow night and the next. I was invited out tonight but declined. I stayed home and cooked dinner, re-potted my herbs I have been growing, and helped my husband clean up the garage from the carnage of the water heater install. What can I say? I lead a wild and crazy life. Its weird how people find out you are staying home and start coming out of the woodwork wanting playdates or just to hang out. Its pretty cool though. My laundry still needs to be folded and I am 143 posts behind in my Google Reader but I am really enjoying staying home so far.

Modern Inconveniences

Modern conveniences aren't really all that convenient. In some ways they are downright inconvenient. Like the garbage disposal that we have replaced TWICE in the past 2 years. The first time was when we bought the house and the existing garbage disposal sounded as if it were trying to cough up a hairball with a giant chainsaw inside of it. It literally shook the counters and the dishes in the cabinets. Then a few months ago the replacement died due to what we believe was an issue with the electrical wiring in the kitchen. My husband could probably explain it if you were dying to know.

There is also the light switch in the kitchen which no longer can be used because of something to do with the wiring, again. Oh and when the transmission went out on the dryer. Did you know that dryers have transmissions? And that they cost almost as much to repair as replacing the cheap piece of crap dryer? Let not even begin discussing car repairs or the A/C that we spent $375.00 on this past fall.

Perhaps they should call them Modern Expenses or Modern Give Your First Born Child to the Repairmans. Why am I so upset with all the conveniences of modern life you ask? Could it have something to do with copious amounts of leaking water and no hot water? Why yes, my hot water heater has officially died. We have done 2 separate and unrelated repairs to it in the previous few months but alas it has given up the ghost. So now the hunt for the new improved hot water heater has begun. And my husband is at work. So I have spent my morning searching for the right price, size, in stock, appropriate gallonage, energy efficient hot water heater. Yeah, that isn't working out so well. I called one well know department store that rhymes with Tears after finally finding a water heater that meets all of our criteria only to find they won't be able to get that particular water heater in until May 6th. Now I don't know about y'all but I am rather fond of hot showers, clean dishes, and clean clothes. And waiting over a week is not acceptable. Oh and BTW it will be $200.00 to deliver and install a $400.00 water heater.

So my husband is on his way home so he can double check my measurements and head over to some other local hardware stores to see what they have in stock and he will be working on replacing the water heater by himself. My husband is an exceedingly handy guy with all the appropriate tools for any repair job. However, there is still always something that doesn't fit right or line up in any repair job. Not to mention maneuvering a 150 lb hot water heater onto a 24 inch platform in the garage sounds like a lovely time. And he gets to take off work to do it. This has all the makings of a long day. Oh and Bear has a pediatrician appointment at 3:45.

And the winners are...

The time has come to announce the winners of the Bloggy Giveaway's carnival.


Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:

61 38 Timestamp: 2008-04-25 21:57:00 UTC

That would be Merry and Lilith Silvermane.

Congratulations, Ladies! I will be in contact with you via email to get your addresses and confirm your earring choice.

Happy Friday

Well it is the end of my 1st week as a SAHM. I meant to post yesterday but the day got away from me. My husband is better. Spending Wednesday loading him up with Gatorade, chicken broth, Excedrin, and Probiotics paid off and he went back to work Thursday. I am so glad cause I love my husband but Wednesday was a loooonnnnnngggg day. I had a great day Thursday. I got the cupcakes baked and the house cleaned up. One of my friends stopped by and hung out with me and Bear until my husband got home.

We went out to eat and then us girls took off for our women's group and my husband stayed home with Bear. We had a great evening. I couldn't have picked a better group of women to get together with. We are all pretty new in our friendships but we all share some common issues in our pasts.

Today my Dad came in from out of town with his mother and we went out to lunch at a great Mexican place then out for coffee. They got plenty of time to visit with Bear and we had a great time. They left about 3:30 to head to my sister's house 2 hours away. I will head down there tomorrow for my niece's pool party. My husband informed me this afternoon that he is going to work tomorrow so it will just be me and Bear heading down. But I did get some happy news today. I won a $25.00 gift certificate for gas from A Southern Mamma's Musings.Very exciting.

So much for relaxing

I had planned on hanging out with Bear and relaxing in our jammies today but alas it didn't work out that way. At around 1 a.m. I awoke to the bathroom light blaring into the bedroom and the water running in the bathroom. That only means one thing. My husband is sick. Really sick. I spent the rest of the night bringing him cokes, water and aspirin while listening to him throw up.

He was running a fever of 102.4 around 10 a.m. so off to the store I went for Gatorade, chicken broth and Probiotics. I have spent the day doing laundry, chasing my child, and tending to my sick husband. I made a second run to the store when I realized I forgot to buy stuff for the dip I am making for my women's group tomorrow night. Fun stuff.

Men are such babies when they are sick. I know he doesn't feel well but he has been asking me to do stuff non stop all night and day. I want to feel sorry for him but I can't help but be a little miffed that the last 3 times I was sick like this he trotted off to work and left me home with the baby. Yes he could have taken Bear to daycare so I could have at least been sick by myself but he was always running late and didn't think it would be a big deal for me to take care of the baby while dying of the stomach flu. Sorry, I just had to hop up on that soapbox for a minute. I knew you guys would understand. Now if you will excuse me I need to feed Bear dinner, heat up more broth for my husband, put fresh sheets on the bed, and make cupcakes for tomorrow's group.

Day 2

I had every intention of posting yesterday and waxing on about the joys of motherhood and staying home. But between being thrown up on, entertaining a 15 month old while waiting for the dog to get groomed (3 HOURS people, and I had an APPOINTMENT), a trip to the mall, laundry, cooking dinner etc, I hadn't had time. Oh and of course trying to enter the Bloggy Giveaways contests. It was a busy day. Bear is still not 100% better. Every day he starts out good and appears to be doing better but by the mid afternoon he has thrown up on me. I mean a direct hit right down the front of my shirt. Couldn't have done better if he aimed on purpose.

But it has been good. I got a lot done yesterday. This morning we got up and took Rocky to the vet for his annual checkup. Bear thinks having Rocky in the car is the funniest thing and laughs the whole time. It is so cute. I am waiting for the pest control guy to show up at 1 p.m. for the quarterly pest killing. Yippee.

Tomorrow I plan on taking it easy and hanging out with Bear in my jammies.

Bloggy Giveaways Carnival - Jewelry by Erin

Happy Monday and Happy Bloggy Giveaway Carnival week. For this round of the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival I am giving away a pair of earrings to 2 lucky winners made by Erin of Beading Mom and Jewelry by Erin. She makes beautiful things at extremely affordable prices.



Please visit Erin's site at Jewelry by Erin and come back and leave a comment listing your favorite pair of earrings. Check out the earring section and the clearance section as she has many great pairs under clearance. I will pick the 2 winners on Friday, April 25th at 5 p.m. Please make sure I have a way to contact you. No duplicates, please.

UPDATE : Erin has some new earrings designed but not added to the Jewelry by Erin website. You can see the new earrings here.

Open to U.S. residents only.

Pinch me

It still really hasn't sunk in yet. It's still the weekend and I have been doing all my usual weekend things like grocery shopping, getting a pedicure, going to church, etc. I still feel like I need to get Bear's diaper bag ready and his bottles made up and labeled for daycare. I guess it won't feel real until tomorrow morning when I wake up and can just snuggle with Bear in our jammies instead of rushing around like a mad woman to get out of the house. Which is good because he is still under the weather. Every time I think he is doing better he throws up on me. Lovely. But at least I am not freaking out about how I am out of sick leave and wondering if the daycare will send him home tomorrow.

Friday:


Monday (or at least what it looks like in my mind's eye):


I need to pinch myself.

* Make sure to stop by tomorrow. It is time again for the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival. I will be giving away 2 pairs of earrings from Jewelry by Erin.

And that's a wrap...

Well I am all done. No more work. No more daycare. It's all over. It's hard to believe that it was only 9 months and 2 days at this job. Bear did pretty well today considering he was still sick. I got up at 2am and gave him more Ibuprofen and some formula and that seemed to help. The daycare said he only threw up once today and had some nasty diapers. He was pretty listless and lethargic all day.

I did my exit interview at 9 am and they took my ID. I checked in my keys and my parking pass. The rest of the day was cleaning out the office and going over last minute details with my replacement. Several people from my department took me out to lunch and Starbucks to celebrate. It was all a little sad and a little anticlimatic at the same time.

My boss left from lunch and my replacement had to leave early so with nothing more for me to do I took off at 3:30. They said all the goodbyes at the daycare and we came home. Bear is down for a nap and now I am going to catch up on all the posts from today.

If it wasn't for bad luck....

So within minutes of hitting the publish button on my previous entry after calling my husband, of course (he was remarkably restrained in his comments) the phone rings. It is the daycare. Bear is throwing up they say. No, I don't have to come get him yet they just want to give me a heads up. Well at that point it was 1:30 and I figure he will probably continue to be sick knowing how his previous illnesses have gone. I call my Mom who lives 2 hours away and explain that we may need to do a baby exchange because I have to go to work tomorrow and my darling husband won't be coming home tonight due to work.

She explains she can meet me half way but only after 10 p.m because she has an obligation until 9 and then will have to drive the hour to meet me. 30 minutes later the daycare calls back and explains Bear is still throwing up, can I please come get him? I finish up with the lady I am training and call my Mom to explain that I will just drive all the way to her house tonight so I can get Bear there at a more reasonable time and then I will leave when she gets home. I get to the daycare and explain my situation; husband out of town, mother 2 hours away, can't miss work, etc. They take pity on me and tell me that if he isn't sick in the morning and not running a fever he can come back tomorrow. Great! I call my Mom to tell her not to worry that I won't be coming after all. Then I call my husband to fill him in on the situation. While on the phone with my husband Bear throws up all over himself and the car seat. He and the car seat are soaked with what can only be described as something akin to spoiled cottage cheese. Luckily we are only about 5 minutes from home. I pull in, scoop Bear out of the seat, strip him and toss him in the tub.

I can tell he is feeling bad because he just sits there and looks pitiful. No splashing or playing with the bath toys. I get him all scrubbed down and into a fresh diaper. I laid a towel down on his bed and give him a bottle of water and some Ibuprofen because at that point he is burning up. I got the car seat scrubbed down and changed out of my nasty work clothes that got covered when I got Bear out of the car.

As of now he is sleeping peacefully and seems to be cooling down some. Lets hope tomorrow goes better. Please pray for the fever to break and the stomach bug to pass at least until I can get through the day tomorrow.

Stop and Go

So I was on my way back to work from lunch today and I was running a little late. Near my work is a building with a road running through a parking lot. There is a stop sign but it is basically a one way stop because there is no where to go but right or park in the lot. I typically pause at the sign and continue on because there is no thru traffic. Well today there was an RV parked by the sign and cleverly parked beside that was a cop. You've heard of speed traps well apparently this is a running the stop sign trap.

I did pause but I didn't wait the full 2 seconds or whatever so he pulled me over. Right in the parking lot of the building across the street where I work. He gets all my information and goes back to his car and leaves me stewing there. OK there may have been a few tears. Mainly because I gave my husband a ton of crap about a ticket he got a few weeks ago (His 5 or 6th ticket he's had since we've been together) and now here I was going to have to eat crow.

The cop finally comes back and tells me that he is going to give me a warning. Apparently he also has the same birthday as me in the same year. How weird is that? Anyways he made a big deal out of how cool that was and gave me the upteenth warning about stopping fully and let me go. I'm still all freaked out by it. I don't do well with authority figures even if they are the same age as me. My heart starts pounding and my hands are shaking. Its been 20 minutes since I got back to work and my hands are still shaking. How sad is that? I guess a career path as a hardened criminal is not in the cards for me.

Sprung

I rescued my package today from the evil clutches of the Post Office. I drove by on Tuesday and it didn't look terribly packed but unfortunately the parking lot is an illusion because its about 4 times the size of the post office. I walked in and the line was to the door. I may have cursed a little more loudly than under my breath and turned around and walked out. So today I set out with a plan. I left the office at 11 am to beat the lunch crowds. The line was not quite to the door today but it was still about 10-15 deep with 1 postal worker. There were six (I counted) counters but only one worker who was also handling the drive through.

I waited 10 minutes while she helped a woman who was apparently shipping each and every thing she owned individually around the country. Finally a man in the back office got off the phone and came up front and said he could help those that only needed to pick up a package. I got to be third in line in his line. By the time I walked out 20 minutes into my visit the original postal worker was on her second person in line. No lie. That is ridiculous.

It was worth it though. My winnings are fabulous ....



If you haven't been to Petit Elefant yet you should go now. She reviews amazing products and hosts the best giveaways.

Snail mail doesn't pay

I received a notice in the mail today that my mailman tried to deliver a package but it has insufficent postage. I will need to go and bail the package out of mail jail and post bail of $1.30. This is the first time in my 27 years on earth that I have had to go pay extra postage to bail out a package. I don't really care so much about the $1.30 but I do care that I will have to waste no telling how long standing in line at our notoriously slow post office to get the package. On freaking tax day no less. Only one of the busiest mailing days of the year. Of course I won't actually be available to drive over to our post office tomorrow because I have an appointment scheduled during lunch so I will have to wait until Wednesday. It does not say how long the post office will hold the package. Grrr....the U.S. Postal system sucks. That is my 2 cents for the day or my $1.30 in this case.

The countdown continues

Nothing much going on. Although this is my last official week of work. That is cause for celebration. I am just so sleepy today that I don't feel overly excited. We didn't do anything this weekend but errands and cleaning but I feel like I ran a marathon. I have quite a few things I need to finish up before I go but I am just so unmotivated. The reality that this time next week I will be sitting at home watching reruns of Made or the Hills during the day has not yet sunk in. I am dreading my last day at work and Bear's last day at daycare. I hate all the goodbyes and stay in touches.

I have plans next week for my new found free time. Including getting Rocky groomed and a vet visit for Rocky. I am not at all looking forward to manevering my very excited pug and my very excited child in and out of petsmart and the vet. Plus the pest control guy comes Tuesday so the house will have to be clean and I will have to be dressed. The following week Bear has his 15 month checkup. I am excited to see how much he has grown. It seems like he recently hit a growth spurt because he now looks a wee bit like Steve Urkel in the pant/sock area. And his belly hangs out of the bottom of his shirt. But he is in that weird in between stage on clothes where the bigger stuff hangs off him and the smaller stuff looks like it shrunk in the wash. It is rather unfortunate.

In other news, my child isthisclose to walking. We are talking 7-10 steps at a time before falling. I am in serious trouble. I am not prepared for this.

Advice for my son

To my son,

Accept responsibility for your actions. Don't cast blame on everything and everyone around when you make a mistake. Don't use past mistakes as an excuse for future mistakes. Step up and help people even when they don't deserve it because you are the bigger person. Always be respectful but do not confuse that with trust. Trust is earned but respecting others shows good manners. Always stand up for the little guy. Never forget where you came from or those that helped you get where you are. Appreciate the things life gives you and tell people about it. Love your family no matter what, God gave you these people for a reason. Every once in awhile, take one for the team. Always buy from a child selling something. Don't second guess yourself, your first instinct is usually right. Stand up for yourself and your friends. Don't tell other people's secrets. Never loan someone something you aren't willing to lose. Don't let yourself get backed into a corner, always have a Plan B. If something is too good to be true, research it. Be honest with people even if it makes you look bad. Don't take love for granted. It has to be worked at. Try looking at situations from the other person's perspective. You don't have to go to college but find something you love and work at making yourself better at it. Spend as much time with your children as possible. They will help you find the joy in the small things. Never place a bet on something you aren't 100% sure of. See the world it will help you gain perspective. There is nothing free in life. You or someone else will have to pay for it some way or another. The world is not fair or just, the sooner you learn this the better off you will be. Learn moderation, too much of anything is bad. Get plenty of sleep, things are usually better in the morning.

Love,

Your Mama

* Inspired by Alice's Wonderland post

Appointments

One of the biggest adjustments for me becoming an adult has been appointments. Paying bills was a big adjustment too but there is just a special annoyance that comes with making and keeping appointments. In the next month I have an orthodontist appt, a vet visit for Rocky, a grooming visit for Rocky, Quarterly Pest control, Bear's 15 month checkup, a hair appt, and my yearly OB/GYN visit. All in one month. Then in June I get to go to the dentist.

I hate opening the mail box and seeing those little reminder cards. I think we have entirely too many appointments these days. Now some of them I put upon myself like the hair appointment or Rocky's grooming but it all needs to be done. They all need to be done. They all represent a phone call to schedule, somewhere I have to be, and more importantly, money I have to spend.

I remember as a kid thinking how glamorous it would be to be an adult. No curfew, a car, I can eat whatever I want. But then you realize that even though you don't have a curfew you still have to get up and go to work every day. And having a car means buying gas, getting inspections and registration, oil changes and maintence, not to mention car insurance and car payments. Eating whatever I want hasn't worked out so well since my metabolism has slowed significantly since I was a kid. It is a lot of work to be an adult. No wonder the drinking age is 21. You need some kind of reward for becoming an adult.

Ok. Enough negativity. I am just grouchy because I scheduled 2 of those appointments this morning. I did get some good news this morning. I won a book from Magan over at Fried Okra. I love her blog. I am super excited to read my new book when it comes in. Oh and its Friday and my husband is supposed to come home tonight so thats exciting too.

An Open Letter

I have a suggestion for any budding restaurateurs or someone looking to go into the fast food arena. Just because it is called fast food doesn't mean it has to be fried, on a bun, or made up entirely of 50 billion fat particles held together by salt and artificial sweeteners. Seriously. Taco Bell, I appreciate you thinking outside the bun but your food is still not exactly nutritious.

This has become a serious bone of contention for me over the past few days. I am trying to eat healthier. I promise. But I am also in charge of picking up the baby from daycare and caring for him all evening once we get home. This is the same child who reacts to his car seat at the end of the day like an animal hit by a tranquilizer dart. I cannot be expected to drag his dead weight with his little head lolling around into a healthy eating place because you refuse to put in a drive thru. On my way home I pass a Sonic, Jack in the Box, Chicken Express, Taco Something or Other, Wendys, McDonalds and Whataburger. Yes, I know McDonalds and many other fast food places carry salads. I am not impressed. I expect better.

Yes, I do know where the grocery store is. Please refer back to my sentence about the 22lb of dead weight. Its practically child cruelty to have to drag him into the grocery store. I am not asking for much. Just a place that serves good healthy salads, soups or nice deli sandwiches with a drive thru. My favorite place on the way home does a half avocado with chicken salad and a cup of soup or a side of fruit (real mixed fruit with kiwi and strawberries not mandarin oranges from a can). But alas, they have no drive thru. Please help a girl out.

**P.S. I could use a drive thru Starbucks too please, KTHX.

Flying Solo

So my husband is still out of town. He thinks he may be back Thursday or Friday. Till then I am single parenting it. It hasn't been too bad yet. Bear has been exhausted the last 2 days when he got home so he went to bed early. I still didn't sleep well last night. No nightmares just lots of tossing and turning.

My fingernails are almost chewed to nubs and I don't even know why. That is usually my first signal that I am stressed. I subconsciously chew and I hate it. I have tried everything to quit but nothing has worked. If you ever meet me in real life you can tell how stressed I am by the length of my nails. It is a nasty habit but cathartic none the less.

I think I am just ready to be done at work. I know I am down to less than 2 weeks but it actually is stressing me out the closer it gets. I have a million things to finish up before I go but I can't work late because I have to get Bear from daycare or else pay the $1.00 per minute penalty. Not to mention stressing a wee bit about reducing our income in a less than ideal economy. There are so many things coming up that need to be paid for outside of our normal monthly bills like doctor co-pays for mine and Bear's upcoming doctor visits, contacts, Rocky's annual vet visit, home owners insurance for the year, birthday/mother's day gifts for family, gas for our Florida vacation (my parent's are paying for the condo and its our 1st vacation in 3 years), etc.

So now I am watching American Idol, which I am not that impressed with tonight. I wasn't blown away by anyone. Although I did like Jason Castro's version of Over the Rainbow. I am really ready for my shows to come back from this whole writer's strike thing. I'm just not that into reality tv and competitions. Oh well, less TV means more time for other things. Like digging 50 million weeds out of my yard.s

Dreams

I had a nightmare last night. One of those ones that freaks you out so much that it leaves you fuzzy headed all morning because your mind is still trying to process the dream. The farther you get into your day and your normal routine the less scary the dream becomes. All morning I have been off so to speak. Just out of sorts and nervous. I think part of it was that my husband is going to be out of town for the next few days and sleeping alone in the house with a baby is a little scary.

I have noticed that my dreams have become more vivid since I got pregnant with Bear. Everyone talks about the crazy dreams you have while you are pregnant but for me it didn't end after he was born. I still continue to have extremely vivid and realistic dreams. I also tend to dream about the same things over and over again. My mother has a reoccuring dream about finding out that she didn't graduate from high school after all because she didn't have her all her credits. I have a very similar dream regularly except I am in college and it is the end of the semester and I am supposed to graduate but all the sudden I realize I never attended some of my classes. I need to take the finals but I realize I don't remember where my classes are or what time I was supposed to be there.

It is all very unsettling.

Things I learned yesterday or should have....

1. If you are going to tell your daycare you are withdrawing your child it is best not to tell them on April Fools Day. It will take you 15 minutes to convince them you are not joking.

2. If you are cranky and your spouse is cranky it is best just to not talk until one of you gets into a better mood.

3. Do not let your child nap after daycare until an hour before his bedtime. He will not want to go to sleep until 10pm.

4. Just ignore the co-worker who is driving you crazy and sending you emails saying that you make her sound stupid. She does not need any help from you to sound stupid. You only have 12 days left.

5. Yes, you will feel like a jerk when you call your housekeeper to cancel your cleaning service. The it's not you, it's me speech never works right.

6. You need to park further over in the garage so as not to knock over the garbage can in the morning when you leave for work.

7. Kashi crackers are your friend. Embrace this.

8. You are out of milk. Buy more tomorrow or else face dire consequences.

Who needs an excuse to buy cute jewelry?

OK, if the fact that it is super cute and made by a Mom to two absolutely adorable boys isn't enough, how about the fact that it is 50% off through April 4, 2008? I just picked up an adorable bracelet and earring set for $7.50. I love Beading Mom's stuff especially my turkey earrings I wore for Thanksgiving.

She is trying to raise money to pay for diapers so y'all please stop by and check out her Diapers Ain't Cheap Jewelry By Erin 50% off sale!! . The code for the 50% off discount is WOW. Even if you don't buy anything you can still get a gander at her newest adorable addition.

Click here to go to Jewelry by Erin

Wagons are overrated anyways

So I fell off the diet wagon as evidenced in my first blog post today. I climbed back on this morning and had every intention on staying on. I had lunch plans today with a women's group I meet with every other Tuesday. Some weeks there are just 2 of us and some weeks there are 10 of us. This week was supposed to be at a chinese place near my work. I had every intention of ordering something reasonably healthy.

So I arrive at the appointed time and pay the parking meter. I go inside and no one is there. Since I am not certain if we will have 1 other person or 10 I decide to wait outside until I see some other people. It is a beautiful day in the high 80's so it was nice to be outside. For about the first 5 minutes. Then I started to sweat. Of course I don't have phone numbers for any of the girls in the group since our communications are through email and at church. I wait, and wait and finally after waiting 15 minutes outside I decide I'm done waiting.

The lady that leads the group is notoriously late. Last time she didn't even show up but most weeks she is 15-20 minutes late sometimes later. I suppose I could have waited longer or gone inside and eaten by myself. But honestly I really don't care for the place and I don't want to pay for Chinese food I didn't want and tax and tip to eat by myself. So since I have already paid for parking and the only other places around are burger places, a burrito place, and a sandwich shop I decided to get a sandwich. (They are also more reasonably priced than the other options. I can get a 6 inch sandwich, chips and a drink for $5.50 and they are GOOD)

So that is the story of how I fell off the wagon again. I swear this story sounded better in my head when I was drafting the blog post on my way back from the sandwich shop. It always seems to lose a little something when translated from my brain to my fingers to the computer.

Moved

Today I read a story that broke my heart. A baby who is barely 2 months older than Bear that has a brain tumor and is facing a serious battle. You can read the whole story here. Please keep them in your prayers and if you feel moved to donate there is a PayPal donation button as well to help cover expenses. Now go hug your babies tight. I know I will.

I fell off the wagon....

and it felt good. I've done so well for the past 4 days on my new eating healthier kick that I treated myself to an ice cream treat at Sonic last night. One thing I do like about dieting/eating healthier is that you appreciate those little treats so much more. Last week when I was scarfing down cinnamon rolls, tres leches cake, chocolate chip cookies, and Betty Crocker chocolate icing out of the tub I wasn't really appreciating those treats. At least not in the same way that I do when I haven't had anything sugary in a few days. I feel the same way about eating out. When we eat out all the time I quit enjoying it as much.

I am back up on the wagon today, a new woman. I have my black coffee and a banana for breakfast.