Number 400; Also, the New Year's Post

Wow -- I can't believe that I hit 400 posts on this thing. Amazing.

I was just going to post my New Year's Post now, because I will be in the car all day Jan 1st and won't be able to fit a post in, I'm sure.

So, here is what I was going for it 2009:

1. Pay credit card down under $3000
2. Lose 20 pounds (why not?)
3. Pay off remaining student loan that is not rolled up into my consolidation loan (stupid loan that I forgot about!)
4. Get rid of all the misc. shit that is cluttering up my house. Okay, I guess that could be, get more organized.
5. Save $500

What happened:

1. A-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAHAHAHHAHAAHAHHAH!!!! Hell no! I'm happy if the damn thing is under 10k right now. Stupid medical expenses and baby stuff.

2. (see crazy laughter above); I am still hanging onto 20 pounds from being pregnant. D'oh!

3. YESSSS!!! Finally! I did do this. It wasn't too bad.

4. Nope, not this either. It's slightly better, but not by much

5. Fail

So, what for 2010? Hmmm....

1. Seriously, lose 20 pounds (which is the remaining baby weight); then I will stop looking 5 months pregnant and my pants will fit again
2. Pay credit cards down under 5k (tax refunds will help this significantly)
3. Save $500 for realz


I think that I'll just go for 3 for now. Maybe I'll come up with more.

I'm sorry that we won't make it to EC for New Year's. Sounds like it's going to be a good time. But, we'll have a fun time with my parents and cousin too. We always do. Maybe next year we'll be able to go.

Have a fabulous night tomorrow! and Happy New Year!!

Maybe a long break...

I really have lost my desire to blog lately. I don't know why. I love to read blogs, but I just don't really have much to stay. Maybe I will have to come up with some new ideas.

Anyway, I'll be around...just on an extended break. Until I come up something fresh. :)

Merry Christmas!

6 months and growing!

Ryan has his 6 month checkup today. He's growing up so fast!

Weight: 16 lbs. 8.5 ounces (which is 25 - 30th %)
Length: 26.75 inches (which is 50th %)

And Head Size: 46 Centimeters (which is 90th%)


So, he continues to be a giant head on a skinny body. But, he's SOOO cute! :)

He loves solids and he gets to start to eat more foods now that he's passed 6 months -- he can start to try meats and more 'stage 2' foods. I'm thinking turkey and sweet potato puree is on tap for Thanksgiving! :)

He still can't have the "allergy" foods -- like fish, shellfish, peanuts (or all nuts), egg white (who knew?). Egg yolk is ok though. He also gets to start 3 meals a day -- the breakfast, lunch and dinner thing. Next month, he can start on cheerios, so he can learn to chew stuff.

Fun times! :)

Things to do before I die...

See the Foo Fighters live and in person.

Their concert at Wembley Stadium was just on PalladiaHD.

I love this concert. It's so amazing.

I guess another thing to do would be to actual meet Dave Grohl in person too. Add that to the list. I should make a list. A real list. A bucket list, if you will.

I'm 30 now, you know. I'd better get working on that bucket list.

I've been toying with the idea of starting a new blog. One that is more about my life with Ryan, instead of my random crap. Plus, while I do love this blog, there's so much of the time after Branden died. I do want to remember all that stuff, but I did some crazy ass shit then that I would never do. I was broken. Broken hardcore then. Now, much better. So, I'm thinking about leaving this behind and starting fresh. I've got a name picked out for proposed new blog, but I'm still mulling it over.

I would really like our next house to have an office alcove in or near the kitchen. That would be outstanding.

Little boy has been wonderful. He's such a wonderful little guy when he's well rested. And such a cranky little stinker when he's not. Bedtime has been around 6pm for a long time now. And he sleeps close to the whole night, when healthy. When sick, the plugged nose has a tendency to wake him up earlier. But, it's AMAZING how much sleep and sleep deprivation affect you. You get sleep, you are amazing. No sleep and memory really suffers. My memory is still horrible. It's a TON better since he started to sleep through the night, but most of the pregnancy and the first couple of months are just a blur. If I didn't have the blogs, I wouldn't have memory of anything.

So, that's another recommendation. Keep a blog or journal while preggo. Oooh! That reminds me. I had intentions of creating a stuff I loved/hated during pregnancy and baby times. I should work on that. That would actually be a project. Maybe I'd use it for an opening post on proposed new blog.

Hmmm...lots to think about. Now, to finish laundry and maybe some more bejeweled. maybe...

Apparently, you don't have a lot of extra time when you have a baby...

More so that I am lazy and don't post. I have been reading a lot of blogs recently and kind of wish I was more...I don't know...more entertaining, I guess. More informative. More bloggy, as it were. I have an idea of a post I would like to make, but it's just a matter of sitting down and doing it. The post of "what I used/what I didn't use" for Ryan. A baby stuff post. Although, since I formula fed, my post would differ greatly from, say, Kristine's, but she makes things work differently for her. Which is fine. Just using her as an example of someone who's "goods and bads" would probably be different from mine.

The main thing that I have been doing in the past almost three weeks since I posted: Working my butt off.

Work has been CRAZY! I am just finally starting to catch up on stuff. Hopefully, by the end of this week, I will have caught up all the way. Which would make me very happy. I hate looking stupid at work. And being behind always makes me look stupid. Lots of overtime though. Extra money is nice.

I got my new lappy, got a virus and completely hosed the whole thing in the past three weeks, causing us to have to restore to the factory settings. Which meant we would have lost three weeks of Ryan pictures, EXCEPT for the dumb luck factor. I saved all the pictures onto my Photobucket AND onto a flash drive to take to work. So, the only thing that we really lost was some of the video that we took of Ryan. And the good ones were posted to Facebook, so they aren't really lost. Good times all around. I have decided that one of those times that those fake websites came up that is "scanning" your computer, I clicked in the box, instead of just closing the whole browser. I did it before I could think. Oops. Stupid jerks.

Now, I run AVG.

Ryan has gotten SO big and more grown up in the past three weeks! It's amazing how fast they change. He's eating some solids. He enjoyed sweet potatoes, peas, winter squash, but not green beans. That or he doesn't like the taste of the Gerbger baby food. Near as I can tell, it's just the veggie and water, but he hasn't been as enthusiatic about it as he was with Earth's Best. Either way, I'm going to make my own, because they don't cover many veggies in the baby foods. Lots of fruits. I'm going to wait on the fruit until 6 months, I think. Learn to like the veggies first. Then, fruits.

He's also almost sitting up on his own now. We haven't made much progress in the crawling or rolling area, but that's okay.

And, finally, we have started to ignore him at night, in the hopes that he goes back to sleep. AND...for the past couple of nights, it has worked. I love it, because, even though I wake up, I don't have to get up. Soon, I will be sleeping all night again. At least until the next little peanut comes along.

I love sleep.

Decisions, decisions

I've decided that since we will almost certainly be not having a baby in 2010 (I would prefer early 2011), we will bump down on coverage for this year. The company gives us $2000 to use, so as long as we don't go over that, I'm not terribly worried. All Ryan's checkups are 100% covered, because they are preventative. My one that I have for sure next year would be if I do get preggers, I hopefully will not have more than $2000 in maternity appts. I could always go back and re-calculate from this year.

But, like I said, Ryan is covered, because those are preventative and Jake is done with going to doctors. He's had allergy testing, a scope and something else, all that led to the conclusion that he is pretty healthy. Just has tonsil problems sometimes.

I also am still carrying my AFLAC insurance, which is pretty sweet. When the next little one does arrive, I can use it to claim my hospital stay -- and it pays you cash, which is just the same as money! :)

I'm also going with the 7 day elimination STD -- remember all my bitching about that?!?!! They are changing it, so it's not so horrible for people to go out of work for longer periods of time without burning mega vacation. That sucked.

So, now, I can use all the extra funds to pay for daycare. Or part of daycare anyway.

The cold is not so bad. I didn't get hit as hard as I did last year.

We're going to Luxemburg this weekend. Jake has a gig in GB on Saturday night. I am trying to do laundry right now and I'm just tired and want to go to bed. Oh well. Buck up!

The joys of having children

means you pick up their illnesses when they have them.

Well, maybe. I do have a tendency to get sick this time of year anyway, so it COULD just be a coincidence, but Ryan has a cold, my Mom has a cold and I am starting to get one. Suckage.

Then, two nights ago, overnight, he coughed like two times and that was the only peep I heard from him from about 7pm until 6:30am. Last night, he was crying a bit at 10:30 and then again at 3:30 and 4:30 and then really going at 5:15. But, nook in his mouth now, he's quiet. So, here I am, waiting for him to decide that he's really hungry and not just needing something to suck on, like the nook.

Oh well, at least the cats are fed. I will be super tired today, however. Not fun.

I saw a super cool idea last night on one of my cloth diaper blogs that I read. Someone took a picture EVERY DAY of their baby for one year. "A Year of *insert baby name here*" it was called (I can't remember the baby's name right now). They put the baby in the crib or on a bed (it was just a plain sheet) and printed out the date -- they must have just printed out the numbers 0-9 and the 12 months and interchanged those. I wish I would have seen that sooner. A totally sweet idea.

So, it's annual enrollment time down at ol' Fidelity. I need to pick what medical plan we are going to use this year. The current one we have is going up $47.81 a paycheck (that's almost $100 a month, if you're playing a long at home). I current pay $243.90 a paycheck, so you do the math. So, I could drop back to the next level, which would save us $4300 over the next year, but we would have to pay more out of pocket that the plan we have now. And we could use that money to pay for his one day of daycare instead of having it be an extra expense like it is now. But, I get nervous. And I would like to have another baby soon. Like, get pregnant again next year. Those appointments aren't "preventative medicine", those are maternity related, which means that we're paying for them until the deductible is hit and then we're paying 20%. Even if we would have the baby in 2011 and I could change insurance types again, would that be more than $4300 in savings? I really have a lot of math to do here.

Jake, of course, just wants to hear the bottom line, even though he always says to me "we can talk about this". As long as it's not money related. I'm a bit concerned with the money stuff. I don't think that paying $500 on one card a month is viable anymore. Which really sucks. Maybe $500 all together. There's more math that I need to do there too.

Maybe I'll just work less today and do my calculations. I also wanted to take a longer lunch and run to Kohl's. I've got 30% off and $10 Kohl's cash. I want to try to find Ryan a winter coat that he can wear all this winter. 12 month coat, here I come!

4 (and a half) month checkup

It was yesterday. He did pretty well. He's getting to be a calmer baby -- much calmer. Right now, he's sitting in his rocker chair thingy, playing with a stuffed Pooh bear and rubbing his feet together.

He was 15 pounds, 12 ounces and 25 1/4 inches long. He grew an inch and a quarter in a month and a half. That's a lot of growing. I measured him at 3 months, since he didn't have a doc appt and he was 24 inches then. He did really, really well with the shots this time. I was proud of him.

He had his second week of daycare yesterday too. I was less pleased with them. They must have told the morning baby teacher that I come before 7:15, because she was there already when I showed up. She was a very grandma-type. So, that was nice. But, I told her I was going to pick him up at 2:45. I was a little bit late, but right as I walked in, she was laying him down for a nap -- WHY DIDN'T SHE DO IT SOONER!!!! So, I was a little frustrated by that, because then he missed a nap. So, he's been a tired baby since then.

Plus, he had a cold and probably doesn't feel that great to start with.

Oh well. Poor little Ryan.

But, he's going to start more rice cereal for solids and then by 5 months, we can start to try veggies and once he's into the veggies, onto fruits. So, Jake and Mom will have to start to try those during the day. Which means that I should sew the cushions for the high chair, so he's got a nice place to sit. It's really cute Sesame Street flannel that I found at Hobby Lobby. It's pretty sweet.

Anyway, off to make the baby sleep again. he needs his beauty rest.

So...summer?

That's okay Mother Nature. We didn't really need summer anyway. That week of 90 degree weather in August was good enough.

Putting long sleeves and pants on my child in July because the high was 60 was okay too, I guess.

Whatev, I say.

We passed four months last weekend. The sleeping continues -- there are good nights and bad nights, but that's okay. It's a process, learning how to sleep. The napping process continues as well. he's getting better in the mornings, but the early and late afternoon naps continue to be 30 mins, which means that between 5 and 6pm, he needs another 30 minute nap. And that's okay.

I will say that the sleep deprivation of having a new baby kind of makes you forget exactly how bad you felt. I mean, the two night before last, I got more than 4 hours of sleep in a row for the first time in four months. Do I really have a memory of all that waking up at night, etc, etc? Not really.

I'm thinking of maybe trying to convince Jake to try to have a 10-10-10 baby (which, of course, means January 2010), but other than that, there's no rush. And 1-1-11 or 11-11-11 baby would be sweet too. Or 12-12-12. Then, we're all out of sweet dates until 2-2-22 or 2-22-22. 3-3-33, 4-4-44. 5-5-55, etc. You get the point. "Magic Calendar Days" my HS Latin teacher used to call them.

Work is going ok. The deal that merges my company and another Milwaukee based company Metavante closes Oct. 1. Then come the layoffs. I don't think that I'm really in danger of being laid off, but I'm worried about all of us.

I got a new laptop yesterday, for my birthday next month. Jake lets me use things right away. It's an MSI Wind Netbook and the best part is that it's PINK!!! woot. It's really nice. I'll miss the apple lappy, but this is good too.

Well, Ryan is taking his morning nap, so I should take a shower before he decides to make it 30 mins, instead of the 2 hours that need probably needs.

Will I EVER learn?

So, the instant I mention something about Ryan sleeping through the night, guess what? he stops.

I am hoping it was just a one time set back. He was kind of fussing last night and Jake has this idea that his squacking a bit equals him FREAKING out. That is NOT freaking out. His making goat noises is him freaking out.

So, I went and put the nook is his mouth and rolled his sleeves down and then he freaked out. Also, i was VERY tired and was PIST at Jake for forcing me to get up, when Ryan probably would have gone back to sleep on his own. So, the monitor will be quieter tonight, so Jake can't hear it but I can.

Then, I can make up my own mind about getting up.

However, I am SUPER tired, so I will probably get going to bed shortly.

My Sister-in-law's Big Fat Christian Wedding...and the rest of the weekend

This is RUL long...you've been warned.

Well, the wedding weekend has come and gone. And, as always, all of my frustrations leading up to it melted away when we were there, because I was pretty much the only sane person in the car on Friday night, between the rehearsal and the dinner.

Let's re-cap, up to that point.

Thursday -- I was off. I took off because I felt so yucky at the beginning of the week that I couldn't get much done. So, I cleaned up and packed and ran errands, etc. etc. I also took Ryan up to work again, so he could see people and I could drop off the treats I said I would bring for the food day. Once he ate, he was not so fussy and let people hold him. Before that...look out!

Thursday night, Grandpa watched Ryan while Grandma and I went for mani/pedi's. It was good. I got red toes and pink french manicure. They looked good.

Friday -- got up at 6am to finish getting ready (I had several loads of laundry left to do) and finished packing. We were ready to hit the road at 10am, which was excellent. We are usually running horribly late and it drives Jake insane. Drove to Chicago and made it there before noon. It was really easy. The room in the hotel was not ready when we got there, so we had to wait. We went and got lunch with Jake's Dad and hung out in their room for a bit. Ryan hit his breaking point right about the time that the room was FINALLY ready (an hour and a half after we got there -- thank you Hampton Inn for putting us in a room that was occupied before we got it) and we quick had to set up the pack-n-play so he could take a nap. He was better after a nap. I got ready for the rehearsal and dinner and we left Ryan with my parents (they were bringing him to the dinner later). I wish he were more like Jameson and could just sleep whenever and chill. He's so high maintenance.

end re-cap.

So, we drove to the rehearsal with Jack and Betsy (Jake's parents, for those of you keeping score at home). We left the rehearsal at 5:45 to drive the 10 mins to the dinner at Giordano's. Josh and Kristine and Jameson followed in their car. Somehow, we had the wrong one (there are many) and we couldn't get the bride or the groom to answer their fracking phones to figure out where we were supposed to be. And the wrong Giordano's has TWO (TWO!) addresses, so when we entered the next address, it took us in a circle. So, we tried to go back to the hotel and tempers were flaring at this point. The bride and groom still did not answer their cell phones. We were driving somewhere (I don't even remember where we were going at that point) and VERY suddenly, Jack pulled off the road we were on, leaving Josh in the dust. And it took them a while to get turned around and back to us. I took this opportunity to figure out where the hell we were supposed to be going. I called the place we had been at and then asked them where "the one up the road" was (in Oak Brook. we were in Westchester.) I called that one to make sure the dinner was ACTUALLY there. Got the address -- the TOMTOM wouldn't take the complete address and so our destination ended up being the bridge over 294, right by the hotel. So, we went back to the hotel (by now, everyone was really irritated, including me) and FINALLY someone noticed that the bride's ENTIRE family hadn't arrived yet. It was around 6:30 at this point. So, I talked to the groom and said, we're at the hotel, just tell me which way we turn out of the hotel lot.

So, in the end, the directions for the place we were supposed to be at were: Go back to the hotel, go past the hotel on 22nd St, until you get to the place.

I'm still not sure what happened, but I was really irritated that nobody noticed we weren't there by 6:10 and it took another 15 mins to get a call back. Who doesn't notice that the bride's parents are missing at 6:05?

Anyway.

The rehearsal dinner was good. Ryan was fussy and hot in his car seat. Then, he ate and was better. Then, he pooped a bit (and he hadn't pooped in 4 days by Friday), but didn't finish and was still a fuss. We went back to the hotel and he went to sleep. I went to sleep and Jake went out with the guys for the bachelor party.

Saturday:

This is where the big news of the week comes in: RYAN SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT NOW!!!!

He picked a hotel in the middle of Chicago to start sleeping through the night. I thought that he was going to wake up, but he just fussed a bit, took the nook and kept on sleeping. I, of course, could not sleep, for the fear that the instant I did, he would wake up. He slept from 9pm to 6:15am. Jameson on the other hand (poor Josh and Kristine) decided not to sleep until 12 and woke up at 6.

I got up with him a little before 7 and took him in the lobby. J&K were in the lobby getting coffee, all dressed and ready for the day already. I sat there and found a little bit to eat and they started asking me if I was going to breakfast. I said yes. They said to me that it was in 3 minutes. I said, what do you mean -- breakfast is at 8. Basically, they changed it to 7 and I missed it. So, I threw on clothes, left the baby with Jake and went to eat. I had the same breakfast as Brooke -- giant berry pancakes. This would prove to be a mistake later in the day. Breakfast was good, but I was tired and in need of caffeine.
So, I got back, found out what was going on with hair and took a shower. Then, I got my hair done and half way changed my clothes. My hair was really cute and it was off my neck, which made me happy. I barely saw Ryan or my parents or anyone that day though. That sucked. We went to church and got dressed, did pictures, watched Brooke get married. Afterward, Kit told me that he saw me laughing up there. In point of fact, I was either smiling at him, so he would feel better or I was grimacing because my feet were killing me. I was only slightly insulted.

Ryan was CRAZY fussy during the ceremony and the rest of the day. Jake had to stick a bottle in his mouth until right before a picture, otherwise, he was crying. By 7pm, he had had enough and my parents took him back to the hotel, since we couldn't leave. But, by 9pm, we were back, because the reception ended about 8:30. The food was good, the cake was okay and I didn't dance, which I am ALWAYS okay with.

But, Ryan was asleep by 9pm again and didn't really wake up until almost 7. It was good. We got up, had breakfast, got dressed, packed everything up and hung out a bit. Then, we said good-bye, as I wanted to stop at teh Carter's outlet in Kenosha (BTW, just go to Johnson Creek. PP is ridic.) and we had to pick Maggie (YES!) up at 1pm at Mitchell Airport. So, the exit for the outlet mall in PP is ridiculous, as was the mall. But, Jake's mom gave us $100 GC, so I spent about half of it on some winter clothes for Ryan. We got McD's for lunch and then found out that Maggie landed about 20 mins early. I don't think she was waiting too long, but we rolled up and had her hop in the car.

I was SO happy that she came up here to see us. I had a really good time and I miss her to death. Sister from another mother. Yakkers hung out with us on Sunday night -- we made food and watched Grandma's Boy. Yakkers went home about 8 and that was right about when Ryan went to sleep. They played Bubble Bobble on Wii and I played Zookeeper on her DS. I went to bed about 10 and they not long after.

On Monday, we lazed around a bit and then went to the baseball game. The crew lost and there was some jackass from Chicago wearing a Cardinals t-shirt who was yelling stuff and generally being belligerent. He was SUCH a jerk. He had served overseas too and I guess that makes it okay to be a stupid idiot. I will let Jill know that when she gets back. Ryan stayed with my parents and ended up taking a two hour nap at their house. WOW! Then, we went shopping and he fell asleep again in the mall. I got two shirts for $30 at Express and a bra and undies for $26 at VS. Good shopping for me! :) We made more food and watched Beerfest when we got back and then it was bed time for me.

Jake took Maggie back to the airport on Tuesday morning. I wish that we could move down there. I really do. I don't care about being here at all. Seriously. If Jake hadn't gotten any job when we left RF, I would have considered it VERY much. Heck, I consider it all the time.

So, there it is. I don't have many pictures, because I was busy with wedding or Ryan. Too bad. I love to take pictures.

Ryan has continued to sleep through the night since Friday. Which is AWESOME!! I love it!

Bring on fall. It's almost here.

Daycare for the little boy

So, I went and toured a daycare today and I really liked it. It was on the block that my aunt and uncle used to live on and next door to the old folks home that my grandparents lived until they passed away. It's a quiet little neighborhood, which I really liked. I saw a mom coming out and asked her if she liked it -- she had both her kids there, so I took that as a good sign.

It's a bit pricey, but it is Milwaukee and I think that being in a group setting would be good for Ryan -- get some interaction with other kids. For one day a week, I think it would be ok. Now, we just have to come up with the monies to start him there, I think.

I should probably look at other places, but I am unenthusiastic about the whole search and this one is pretty much right on the way to work for either of us. Jake could drop him off and I could pick him up...Plus, it was very nice. It was clean and they have lots of activities for the kids to do. I met with one of the infant room teachers, and she was really nice.

I have off now until Tuesday. Tomorrow, I need to get all the laundry done, start packing, make my s'more bars for work, go up to work for an hour or so, clean up the house and get the "bedroom" upstairs ready for Maggie and get my nails done for the wedding this weekend.

Hopefully, Ryan will take good naps for me tomorrow. I will probably be up at my normal time and just get going right away. I should be doing some of this stuff right now. Maybe I will go straighten up the upstairs tonight and then that will be done. Ryan is already sleeping for the night, so I don't need to worry about him until, like, 2am.

Okay, here I go...

One year ago (well, tomorrow)...

and since I can't guarantee that I will remember to post tomorrow...

Last year, September 1st was Labor Day. I was off. It was great.

Jake went into work for a bit that day and I went to take a shower about noon. I used the last digital pregnancy test in the house, to get rid of it. That way, I wouldn't have babies on the brain and I could just chill after the two miscarriage year.


So, I used it. and turned on the shower and grabbed my towel, etc. and went to look at the test. It was finished running. It also said: PREGNANT.

WTF?!!!

Thus began the adventure that will be the rest of my life.

It's been ups and downs and I wouldn't change a thing. Not one single thing. Because this little guy was meant to be here. He's way too cute not to be here.

Also: I can't wait to do it again. :)

I still want a girl.

Do you find this odd?

So, I have Google Reader and I have blogs that I like to read. Is it weird that Blogger recommends my own blog to read to me? Because I think it is.

Anyway...

The transition to the crib was fine in the end. No big deal. We're working on naps.

Little boy still wakes up at night. Some nights, it's ok. Other nights, I'd like nothing better than to strangle him and go back to sleep...but, instead I throw things and swear and feel a bit better. And then I pick him up and feed him until he falls back to sleep.

I'm just not sure why...he always seems SO hungry when I pick him up. We think he's in a growth spurt right now too -- eating a lot and sleeping a lot.

So, Mom hurt her back, mostly because she just wasn't taking good care of it while watching him. It's better now, but she's not sure that she can watch him three days a week anymore. I'm not real sure what to do here. I knew that it wouldn't last forever, but I thought that she would at least make it a year. I'm thinking of asking my aunt if she would watch him one day a week and offer to pay her what it would cost at a daycare, which the one daycare that I've sent in something to is about $50 a day. I just don't know if she would be able to do it. I doubt it. She always seems VERY busy with David and Michael (my cousins).

My other thought was that she and Jake could switch off watching him for three days and two days...one could take three one week and the other could take three the next.

And my final thought is that I could just quit my job and stay home with Ryan all the time. Which wouldn't be that bad. Too bad I need my job. Maybe when we have the next one, we will be debt free enough that maybe I can stay home longer. I wish I could find something that paid well that I could stay home and do.

I hate my job. Actually, I hate that it's so inflexible and it's becoming even more inflexible. I would never want to work from home and watch kids at the same time. I did that one day this week as a test and NEVER AGAIN!! I was totally destroyed by 4pm. Next time, I will just take the day off. If it's unpaid, it's unpaid. it is what it is.

Maybe I could be an exotic dancer three nights a week. That would pay good, right? LOL! :)

The Couch to 5k program has hit a snag. In that, I never have the time/energy to do it. Which frustrates me. What I need to do is clean up the back room this weekend and then I would stay more on track. maybe I should be picking up back there right now...hmm...

Oh well. I still have weeks before the Discovery Run. I'm def going to do it. I'm actually looking forward to it.

Okay, I'm going to clean up some shoes in the back room and then take my lappy upstairs and lay in bed. hip-hip-hooray!

Part 3

I think that we've been successful here with the nighttime sleeping. Some nights he sleeps longer than others. He wakes up after about 8 hours to eat like a pig, but other than that, he sleeps like a little angel.

Like last night, for instance. He feel asleep about 8pm (maybe a little earlier) and slept until 4:30am. Then, at 4:30, he woke up and was very hungry (and angry) and took down 6 ounces in no time. Then, he went back to sleep and was sort of fussy at 6:30am. But, we just needed to have a new diaper, and he went back to sleep for another hour, which made Daddy very happy, because he didn't have to get up until 7:30 then.


And then there are nights where he wakes up crying at 11:30 or 12 and just needs a nook in his mouth to go back to sleep. Or he'll wake up to eat at 2am.

It's all a rich tapestry.

Now, we just need to work on getting him to nap in the crib, instead of the swing. But, small steps. Small steps.

More people that I know are having babies, which is really exciting. Makes me want to have another right now!!! :)

Okay, I can wait a bit. Like I've said before, as long as we are under $3k of CC debt, we will probably try again.

I also just started a Couch to 5k program this week. It's supposed to be a slow transition into running a whole 5k. So, I'm giving it a try, with the end point being the Lakefront Discovery Run 5k (instead of the 15k). It's Oct. 31st and this program is 9 weeks, which is around Oct. 18th or so. A couple weeks where I can try to keep running until the event.

I am really trying to lose these remaining 15 pounds. Then, we will see where I am then. Maybe I can just keep going and see how much weight I can lose. Maybe I can get down to 175 like I want to be.

I'm starting to worry that Ryan is allergic to cats. He sneezes a lot and rubs his eyes a lot too. I really hope his isn't. I would be really, really sad to have to get rid of the cats. A little part of me would die.

Anyway, I guess that's all. I've got babies on the brain even more now. :)

Transitioning to the crib, part deux

Perhaps I should have mentioned this in the previous post, but Ryan spent his first three months sleeping in a pack-n-play. First, in our room and then around 2 months, we moved the pack-n-play to just outside our door.

When you have to feed a baby every two-three hours, it really is just easier to have him sleeping the room with you, especially when the only other bedroom is downstairs. Stairs that have to be gated off to keep the crazy, hungry cat out during the night.

So, anyway, this is where Ryan has been sleeping. Up until I finally just decided that he's learning to sleep in the crib, right meow.

So, last night, I had a very tired baby on my hands. He took a nap from 6:30 to 7:30 and then went to SLEEP sleep at 8:30. At 9, I put him in the crib and he slept until 11:30. I thought he was hungry, so I put the nook is his mouth and went to make him a bottle. When I came back, he had FALLEN BACK ASLEEP. So, I slowly backed out of his room, put the bottle in the fridge and went back upstairs. He didn't wake up until 4:30. Then, he ate a bunch and went back to sleep until I accidentally got him up at 6:30. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when I can just leave him in the crib, because it's Jake day to watch him.

All the crazy crying: My vote is sleep deprivation. Mom had him sleeping a TON today and she brought him back at 4:30 and he only stayed awake long enough to smile at me a bit and eat 4 ounces. So, he's been napping for about a 1/2 hour now. Which is fine. He'll get up, we'll change him, feed him, burp him and put him back to bed. It will be amazing. I hope.

Now, we just have to get Jake to attempt to put him down every 2 hours, whether it looks like he needs to or not. I hope Jake gets it tomorrow. I think that my mom has finally understood what I have been reading about. Now, we just need to get Jake. :)

I'll keep updating as we go. :)

Transitioning to the crib

It's about time. I should have done it while I was still home from work, but alas. Lesson learned. The next one will probably be in his/her crib a lot sooner.

So, we started last night and Ryan was still recovering from Sunday, I think, because he went to bed at like 7. And slept only until 12:30. Then, he wanted more food. Then, he sleep until 4am. I got up and fed him just two ounces, hoping that he would just go back to sleep until 6am and then I could get up with him.

Instead, he woke back up at 4:45 and at that point, I was so tired that I just put him in his swing and let him go until whenever. I dragged myself up at 6:30am to get ready for work.

I'm hoping tonight is a bit better. Maybe he will be asleep here by 9 and maybe will sleep until 4. I can hope, right?

I gotta figure out how to get him to sleep through the night. Or what I was doing right before I went back to work. Whatever I was doing then was totally working. If only I could remember.

I read the Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby book, and it's got really, really good advice, except for one problem for me: I don't have a baby that has a problem going to sleep right now. I have one that won't stay asleep. DAMNIT! I meant to give him his meds before bed. Shit. Oh well. Whenever he wakes up tonight, I'll give them to him them. dang. Anyway, what?

Oh yeah. I need to read the book again for better advice. Find what I'm looking for. Maybe buy the "No-cry sleep solution" book too. ????????



What else is new and exciting?

Ryan will be three months on Thursday. I can't believe that it's been three months! And if you can't believe that, then you won't believe that I'm ready for number two already...well...not RIGHT this second, but if we are under $3k by March on the credit cards, we'll go ahead and start trying anyway. Really best for the next one to be born in the winter. Preferably in early 2011. That way, insurance is totally worth it for the year. I just want to get this out of the way, for lack of a better term. That way, I can lose all the weight and not worry about whether or not I will be able to lose it all before we try again. I'm just going to try to be back to where I started by the time Ryan is 1. That's only 15 pounds. Small steps. Maybe try for 5 pounds by the end of the year.

Well, I'm going to put Ryan in his crib and pick up a bit around the house before I head up to bed.


Later!

Random

1. Birthdays:

I was wishing people on Fbook Happy Birthday this morning and it occurs to me that I turn 30 in a few short months. With the whole new baby thing, it has fallen to the back burner a bit.

I'm thinking that a party is probably in order at the house, since A. 30 is pretty big and B. we haven't had a "house warming party" as it were. Even though we have been here for two years.

I will consider it and see what I feel like doing. I suppose that it depends on how Ryan is going with sleeping and stuff. He'll be 5 1/2 months by then, so HOPEFULLY, he'll be a better sleeper than he is now.

2. Sleeping babies:

We've kind of gone backwards a bit with the whole sleep thing this week. He was going to sleep around 8 - 8:30 and sleeping until 4 generally. The past week, it's been a struggle to get him to sleep or stay sleeping -- like he'll fall asleep around 7:30, because he's so tired, but then he's up by 8:30 again, because he's hungry. Then, bottle and back to sleep. Then, back up at 2am for more food. Then, up before 6am, mostly because his diaper is soaked and that is uncomfortable. BLAH!!!

So, I'm tired, because I'm the one who gets up with him.

I've come to the conclusion that this was probably the worst possible timing to have a baby -- Jake has to work so hard in the summer and it was really difficult with Ryan being a newborn in the same time frame. By the time that Ryan is sleeping through the night and napping well, Jake won't be busy darn busy and tired all the time. Oh well. I've kind of started to plan the next one in my head and I'm thinking that Jan - Mar 2011 would be good.

3. F-ing Credit cards:

We'll probably try for the next one just as soon as we get rid of the stupid CC debt. Frickin' credit cards. And we haven't even been billed for Ryan's hospital bills yet. Which is another $1000.00 that we haven't got on our cards yet. I'm not even going to bother telling Jake, because it stresses me out and I don't want to talk about it. Oh well. We'll try our best to survive. A lottery win would be nice too though. :)

4. F-ing cats:

For some reason, the cat (little) jumped right on my face this morning. Causing me scratches and pain and yelling at 12:30am something along the lines of "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!?!". It hurt!! I have 5 little points from claws and a scratch right on the side of my nose. She didn't come back up to lay with us the rest of the night. I think I scared the crap out of her. I have no idea what the hell was going on. I wonder if she was running around in the dark and just flew up onto the bed and right onto my face. It sucked any way you look at it.

5. Getting rid of the shit in my house:

I really, really, really want to have a garage sale at the end of August to try and get rid of a bunch of our stuff (like sell it). Whatever is still here at the end goes to Goodwill. If we could get a car payment out of it or something, that would be sweet. Plus, there are SO many things that I can think of that I would like to get rid of. It would make me happier. Jake too, prolly. I started going through books upstairs in the bedroom. I want to put stuff somewhere when I decide that it will be apart of this garage sale, but where, I don't know. Maybe the Corolla will sit in the driveway for a couple of weeks and I'll borrow the tables from my parents and just put boxes on them, in the garage. I'll have to be careful, because I don't want stuff to start living in there. A couch from downstairs is also going -- the brown peacock one that I brought with us from college that Mariel left me. If we could make $200 - $300, that would be perfect for me. More is better. Less is okay, but I'm kind of hoping to get a car payment out of this. Or water bill payments to the city.

Well, I suppose that I should think about taking a shower and getting ready for the day. Jake will be up soon and he usually gets ready and runs away. I think that I'm going to attempt to go to the bank and close our savings account and open a new goal savings for Ryan and another just to have. He's sleeping right now. If he wakes up around 8 am, I will probably try to run up there around 9am, because then he'll be awake, but will have eaten. It's all about timing.

"2 month" check up and other things

Ryan had his 2 month check up today -- and let's face. 2 months sailed two weeks ago.

But, that's okay. She's got a busy practice. My next appt is 4 months, almost on the nose. Hmm...I wonder if that's okay for his next round of shots. I should ask.

But, it went as well as could be expected. He had 4 shots. He didn't like them. He cried, very pitifully. I felt terrible. But, he's better now.

He's 12 pounds on the nose and 23 1/2 inches long. Still long and skinny-ish. Quite a big boy now though. Now, we just have to work on those tummy times, getting him to lift that head and roll over. We kind of stunted him by not doing tummy times consistently when he was younger. But, she showed me how to teach him to roll over, so maybe he will learn that faster.

So, 60% for weight and 75% for height. He's good. He gets Tylenol every 4 hours for the next 24.

And, I didn't have to go back to work!

Speaking of work, they accidentally pulled too much money out of my paycheck, so I am supposed to be getting a check cut to me today for the difference. SWEET! $220 too much -- so I'm all about that. And I don't owe anything more for benefits, which is okay with me too. AND, I can keep the AFLAC insurance for our next baby. Because, $2000 free dollars -- I'm ALL about that. :)

Well..."Free"

But, I don't have the check yet. Which is dumb. Fedex hasn't been here yet, but I don't really know if they got my money out the door yesterday -- maybe it will not be here until tomorrow.

Well, I'm off to finish my project in our bedroom to get rid of books that I don't really care too much about, but want to keep. And here I go!

Decisions

Today, just now, while trying to keep Ryan calm -- he's been up a lot today and screaming a lot -- I decided a few things, which I hopefully will accomplish over the next year (god, I just wrote week! I wish!)

First:
1. Lose at least 50 pounds, if not 75.
Okay, I know this is really, really difficult, but I need to do it. I still have 15 pounds of preggo weight sitting on my frame and I probably could have lost 50 then. So, 50 to 75 anyway. I would like to be a normal size with room to spare the next time I am going to get preggo, so I have some room to get "fat".
I'm not really sure how I am going to do this, but I may go talk to my doctor, since I am having some other body problems and ask how I go about doing this task. My other body problems I think are cysts in my wrist and knee, both on the right side. The wrist doesn't hurt, it just looks like I have a bone in the wrong place. The knee hurts when I kneel on it and that sucks.
But, I know that I will need to do SOME sort of hard core exercise, I'm just not sure what. And I'd like to talk to a nutritionist, I think, to see what would be healthy to eat. I try weight watchers, but I have a tendency to not eat very healthy with WW. I can't follow the points thing anymore. In college, it was okay, but not now for me. I really need to be told what to eat. :)

Whoops. Jake and I both gave Ryan his meds within a 2 hour period. He'll be fine. Maybe he needed the double dose. :)

Anyway, I've been eating salads and stuff for lunch everyday, to trying to kick stuff my self, but, I really need to fit a aerobic activity that I enjoy -- running just isn't my thing, unfortunately. So, I've gotta find something. Rollerblading is out.
Here's why:

It's June 2005. I've been in River Falls for a month, by myself, while Jake is working in EC for the rest of the summer and I've started my crappy job at US Bank. I decide one night after work to go rollerblading around the area, to keep up what I had been doing in EC before the wedding. So, I put on my shorts and tank top and head out from the apartment. The apartment building is on a big ass hill, but I think that I will be fine. About half way down, I realize that I am in deep shit. So, I try to make it across the street and onto the grass of the people across the street. About 2 feet before I make the grass, my feet come out from under me and I land ass, elbows and head onto the pavement and SLIDE for a good foot on the pavement. There was a grease mark for MONTHS after. So, I crawled onto the grass, praying that nobody saw me do that, because I didn't have ANY clue what I was going to do at that point. I have NO idea what I look like, but I know that I hurt. I go back up the hill, into the apartment and call Jake, hyserical. I could barely talk. He hightailed it from EC to RF (which is an hour) and I laid on my stomach on our bed and tried not to think about it. My elbows were both bloody, my brain hurt and my butt was one big case of road rash. Jake did his place to clean me up and we went up to Hudson to find some bandages for me, but I was in rough shape. I woke up in the middle of the night that night and felt like I was going to fall over.

I couldn't go to work the next day, because I could barely sit. I had to go to the medical clinic in RF and I saw the doctor. Well, first the nurse took my temperature which was 102. My body was so traumatized, I actually had a fever. Crazy! They prescribed some medicines and treatments and sent me on my way. I spent that day laying on the couch at home. It took a good week or two for my butt to heal -- I remember showing my parents around the 4th of July in Green Bay what my rear looked like -- RIDIC!! My elbows took longer and the scabs ended up coming off at some point, so I have scars now from it. And a terrible fear of rollerblading. I tried in Tosa when we lived in the apartment there, but no go. Too nervous. The end.

And that's why rollerblading doesn't fly anymore. Too bad for that. I loved rollerblading around the bike path.

I guess I could take up biking, but I would need a new bike stat. Maybe for my birthday, but get it early -- like now, before winter hits. In the winter, I can always walk on the treadmill. I'll talk to Jake about it.

2. pay off our stupid credit cards -- they are a little ridic. The Cap One, we need to pay off before January 1st, because we have no interest for a year, but if we haven't paid it off by then, all the interest will accrue, which would be bad. The US Bank one isn't so bad, but paying it off is a slow process. So, we'll give it a year. Hopefully, this time next year, there will be less than $500.

I think that's it for now. those are sizable enough, I think.

My "Clever" Ideas

the quotes are to insert Jake's opinion.

I have the great idea that we sell the house, get rid of all our stupid crap that we don't need and move into an apartment to save money. Then I don't have to work. ha ha!

Okay, it's not realistic.

I was talking with a friend this weekend and found out that Nathan Hale is actually a decent school...so, it might be worth just buying a bigger house right in the area where we are -- as long as it has room for a pool and has a fireplace. And a good kitchen. And a basement. Not too much to ask, right? Or, we could just add on to the house we have too. It's worth thinking about. We're not really going to move for at least 2 years. But, I like to plan ahead.

I think that my nesting is happening post-pregnancy. I think the house is so dirty and gross all the time, it drives me crazy. So, taking my dad's advice, since he just emptied out his house, pretty much, I decided that I'm going to find all the clothes that I have been meaning to give away and go through them all, to enter them into ItsDeductable to put them on next year's taxes. Once all the extra clothes are gone, I am moving onto the other random crap in the house. I want to get rid of half of the crap that we have, at least. And the brown couch. Once Ryan gets more big boy toys, etc, we will need the room, definitely.

Anyway, I should probably go to bed. I have to get up some time tonight with the baby, I'm sure.

It wasn't as bad as I thought!

I got up with Ryan at 4:30 this morning and he fell back to sleep long enough for me to shower and get stuff ready to take with me. Jake got up around 6:45 and I was out the door at 7. I wasn't even upset. Ryan slept fairly well last night, so that helped.

However, Jake had kind of a rough day with him. He pooped his diaper full, threw up and had a bath (for said throw up) all before 8 am! Jake did take him over to the Tosa store to meet them, since we didn't have a chance to do that before. Then, around 3pm, Ryan was SCREAMING!!! at him and he called to check with me to make sure he hadn't forgotten to do something. People at work could hear him screaming over the phone! Whoops! But, Jake just put the green soothie paci in his mouth and he took that like his life depended on it. Now, he's sleeping. I did get my dinner (salad with blueberries) and I have crackers if I am hungry later (which I will be). So, I'm just hanging out until he's awake again. Which, he probably will be shortly, since it's almost 5pm. He looks destroyed though. I hope he wakes up fairly soon, so i can feed him, change him and get him to sleep for the night.

Mom's first day tomorrow -- 7am (bright and early for her!). Jake just needs someone here, so he can finish getting ready for work.

Work was fine. No big deal. Just fell right back into step. I'll be taking all my work back tomorrow and figuring it out, so I can really go on Monday. The other ladies in my group all have time off this month, so I need to get up to speed pretty quickly.

I am hoping that Ryan will sleep until 5am for me -- 4:30 is just a might bit too early. I'm really tired right now and I have to keep going with him until he goes down for the night OR Jake gets home. He's sort of twitching, so I don't think it will be too long. And if I panic, I can always call my dad to see if he will come over.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'm off to finish my internets before he wakes up!

And here we are...

Back to work tomorrow. I'm not sure why I'm still up now. Prolly trying to stave off the inevitable. Tomorrow will come, no matter if I'm ready or not.

I got all my stuff ready to go, pretty much. New pics to take back with me and other random stuff.

We'll see how it goes. I'll prolly cry a bit. I know I will. I cry at lots of things now. It's ridic. These hormones need to go away!

I'm sure I'll have more to bitch about tomorrow, after the day is over.

Cross your fingers for me. I'm going to bed.

Gearing up...

to go back to work!!! WAAAAAH!!!

I'm really not looking forward to it. From what the girls say, the new system that I have to remember how to use makes work go much, much faster. Like, they are finishing at noon, even with me not there. Oh boy. That's not good. We'll see what happens. Part of me is thinking of maybe just getting a job at Quad Graphics and working second shift or something. Then, I can walk to work and spend more time with Ryan. Especially since I think that Dad won't be working at our work much longer and I was not loving the place before I left.

Oh well. My first two days back are Thursday and Friday and I'm sure that those two days will be spent resetting passwords and reading emails from two months. I think that I'll be ready to go on Monday.

Ryan is quickly closing in 2 months and everything they say is true -- babies fussiness ramps up until 6 weeks and then it starts to drop off. It really is true. Ryan has gotten a lot better in the past week and a half. I'm not sure if we're just dealing better or if he's getting better -- probably both. And the past couple of days, he's started to sleep longer and take more naps during the day. Last night, he slept 6 1/2 hours at once! YAY!! Of course, I couldn't fall asleep until 10pm, despite being insanely tired. I think I was a bit overtired.

We were at Jim and Loni's new house, which was really, really nice. Makes me want to move right now and find a bigger house. With a pool. Jake now wants a pool. I know that they are difficult to keep up with, but that's okay. It's totally worth it in the summer. I have always wanted a pool, so this is really a good step in the right direction. And in theory, we could put one at the current house, BUT, the house is too small, so no deal. Jake's friend Kenny is selling his house, which has a pool, but it's a small pool and it's WAY over in Glendale. IDK. Maybe. I'd have to look at it again. I'd rather get something out in the sticks a bit more. Maybe out toward Sussex.

I really did want to move into Tosa before Ryan (and whoever else) was in school, but everything that I am reading about the Tosa schools does not make me feel like it's worth it anymore. I'm thinking that New Berlin (just going west and a bit south) would be good OR going out to Sussex area would be good. New Berlin might be more affordable. Well, I will probably be calling our real estate agent this winter and see what she thinks we might have to do to get the house sold quickly. It is a really nice house, but it is just so tiny. If we could do what my parents did and rip the roof off and slap on a new second story, with another bedroom and maybe two bathrooms -- one for a master suite and one to have and THEN a walk in closet, and add that pool, I would stay. But, I bet we could find a house like that for cheaper by selling and buying a new house, you know?

Oh well, they are just thoughts for the future. Maybe the nearer future. I would really like to move before we have another kid. Or before we even try for another. So, let's move now. ha ha! :)

Time to eat some breakfast, since the boy is sleeping.

I should really just get used to the 5 AM wakeup

because in another week, that's probably when I'll be getting up. Especially since I doubt that Ryan will be sleeping throught the night yet. Unless a miracle happens. He sleeps pretty well from 8pm to about 3am (he will just wake up once in this time frame and eat for 10 mins or so and then back to sleep). After 3 am, all bets are off. I've never had him sleep past 5am, where I didn't have to get up, take him downstairs and swing him. Like now. And even then, he's grunting and squeaking in his sleep, because he's trying to fart and is not having an easy time of it. Poor baby.

I'm sure he'll have his daily poo this morning too, which is sort of what I am waiting for...

Fart, fart. Squeak. That's my morning so far.

We have plans to go back to Summerfest today. I did not get to look around on Sunday at anything, because my parents didn't want to leave until 1pm and then Ryan was being a hand full right up until Jake started to play. Then, he feel asleep for a couple of hours, but I was kind of stuck listening where I was until 4:30. Then, eating took place. Then, we left. I did get a t-shirt on Sunday, but I didn't get to do my usual look around of the whole grounds. So, I want to go back.

I was seeing what my dad was up to, but I think that he's going with work people, since he was trying to get me a ticket from work. He didn't say that specifically, up I inferred it from what he told me.

Fart fart fart. Squeal. Fart. Grunt. Squeak. Squeal.

So, Jake is going to leave work around 2 and we're going to head down together with Ryan. We'll probably try to meet Dad down there. They have a pretty good ticket deal today -- I just have to go back and buy another (hopefully) non-winning Summerfest lottery ticket. I guess if I win, I buy another, until I don't win anymore. Unfortunately, my mom isn't coming over today, because she's going to the baseball game, and Ryan is already pissing me off. I do everything I can think of and half the time, he is still screaming. I really hate it.

So, now he's crying, so I'll try something new. When I came downstairs, he was sleeping. Fucking jerk.

Sleep is a pipe dream

No, really. Pipe dream.

Currently, I have been awake since 3:30am. I'm not sure how we get this baby to sleep during the night, instead of during the day. I really should be sleeping now, but it seems like the instant I lay down to sleep, the boy is awake. He knows....

I am really up because I was hungry, so I was eating some strawberries.

I spent most of yesterday working on some stuff for Brooke's shower on Saturday. I figured out how to make cut out chocolate chip cookies. I will share the secret soon. I also made the fondant hearts that I need for the cake. I hope that I made enough. I may need to make more today, so they can dry overnight. I still have oreo truffles to make (those are easy!) and more cookies to make (again, easy). I boiled my eggs for the deviled eggs and will probably make everything here and finish it in Luxemburg.

I also found M&Ms that are close to Brooke's color (turquoise), and so I bought $20 worth and made little tulle bags with M&Ms in them and tied them with turquoise ribbon. I will post pics, if I remember.

I also did a bunch of cleaning yesterday. There's more to go, but it can wait until next week.

I am going to the baseball game today and I don't really want to. I would rather just send Ryan with my mom (which was the original plan) and have the day to myself to get stuff done, but alas...

It should be fun, I am just tired. So, they'd better win and make it worth it.

I will probably make the truffle part of the oreo truffles before I go to the game and then coat them afterward. I need to test my coating with them to make sure it is okay. I may need to get white chocolate and dye that instead. I think the candy coating I have is vanilla. Which could turn out okay.

Okay, I'm going to attempt to go back to sleep for a bit this morning. I have a feeling, like I said, the instant I lay down to sleep, Ryan will wake back up. He really needs his medicine, but I'd rather let him sleep.

Oh, woe is me! :)

Resting Baby, Peaceful Baby

So, Ryan ended up going to the doctor's office today and getting some meds for reflux. We gave him a dose around 6:30 and then he had some dinner until 7. He's been sleeping since. Really sleeping. He hasn't woken up once crying and/or screaming in the middle of sound sleep. I feel relieved for him.

We give him what amounts to Zantac three times a day, before he eats (or while he's eating).

Unfortunately, work did not turn my paperwork in on time and BCBS doesn't have him in their system yet, even though work has Ryan listed as a dependent. So, the prescription is $92.00. Which is doable. I'm a little frustrated with work for not turning stuff in on time for me. Very frustrated. Plus, they were emailing me at my work email, which I haven't checked (until today) for 2 months. The benefits person in FL claimed she didn't get my faxed paperwork, but my benefits are updated, so someone found them at some point. I know that the claims will be back dated to the date of service and he's covered since May 13, 2009, but I'm still frustated that now I have to tell the billing area at the pedi's office to hold off on sending claims until they get him in the system, or they will end up resubmitting everything.

Sometimes I hate insurance companies...

I am very happy about my sleeping baby. His little eyes were just red rimmed all the time -- like he couldn't get enough sleep all the time. So, we shall see what this does. Even if it cuts the screaming in half, it's totally worth every penny.

In other news, my little eating monster weighs NINE POUNDS SEVEN OUNCES!!!! He's gained close to 3 pounds since May 27th. That's ridic. Totally ridic. I'm very happy that he's gained a good amount of weight, but that's probably a little too much. And the doctor said that we may have to go to a bit more regemented on the eating and only feed him 3-4 ounces every 3 hours, just to slow down the eating. The poor baby wanted to eat all the time, to calm the acid -- like if you ever have drunk milk for heartburn. Poor little guy.

So, hopefully, his weight gain will slow down now, with the meds. I have my real doctor's appt on Monday with my pedi (I saw the doctor filling in for her today) and he has to get his next hepB shot. Poor little guy.

Well, I really need to go to bed now. Or at least go to sleep.

Crazy Storms and Overtired Babies

Yesterday, our little screamapillar was back. He hasn't been around in a couple of weeks. He's still sort of around, but I am starting to think that he might be a little sick with something...his little head is SOOO warm -- I've not felt it that warm before. But, I don't have a good thermometer to take his temp right now and I'm not going to subject him and me to a rectal temperature taking. Besides, that will probably cause him to poop on me or something.

However, I am mostly thinking that he was just having a bad day yesterday. He was definitely overtired, because he didn't get his regular naps in yesterday in the morning or the afternoon...and he didn't fall asleep until almost 10pm last night. He was pretty good all night. And he's farting, so gas can't be too terrible for him.

The only other thing that I can think of is that he might have a little bit of silent reflux. He had reflux right when he was born, but most babies have that. But, he's been a little more "spitty" than usual the past couple of days. Among other things.

Then, the thunderstorms! They don't bother him -- he gets more fussy about his diaper and eating -- but they were loud! There was a crack of thunder that had to be right over our house last night. Lighting was impressive too. And there's water in the basement -- well, really, there was. Now, there's just wet carpets and a few wet boxes. I have to go turn on fans later today, to dry everything out. We really need to think about actually regrading the house, so the water runs away totally. We're on a hill, so it shouldn't be too bad with the water.

I got my hairs cut yesterday -- it's pretty short. Check out my facebook for pics! :)

Happiest Baby on the Block

OMFG...most amazing book evah!

So, yeah, if I know that you are having a baby (whoever "you" is), you are totally getting this book from me. I wish I had had it right from the beginning. I bought it from Target yesterday and I have had a pretty content baby since I read it.

Of course, I did change his formula back, so that is probably a contributing factor as well.

But, the book has a really great method for calming colicky, fussy babies, which works even for my mildly colicky baby. The basic theory is that babies, due to having to have a large head to contain a large brain to survive infancy, are born about three months too early and have to go through this period of the "fourth trimester". They aren't really ready to live outside the womb, but if we were preggo 12 months instead of 9, babies wouldn't fit through the pelvic opening because of their heads. It's a squeeze at 9 months, you know? So, the whole idea to surviving the first 12 weeks with any baby is to imitate the womb as much as possible, after their other needs are met (eating, changing, etc.).

I have to re-read my copy of the book, because I just sped through it yesterday afternoon, getting the main points. Now, I have to go back and gleen the finer details. However, right now, it's 1:15am, so I should probably go back to sleep.

The trouble with formula...

So, I was thinking that Ryan was a little too fussy and gassy on the Good Start Gentle Plus, so I changed to Enfamil Gentlease last week. He proceeded to have a really good day on Friday -- was farting all day, had a good poop, etc. Then, Saturday rolled up. Good lord -- he hasn't been this screamy since the breastmilk.

So, basically, fuck Enfmail. Besides, Nestle sends me $11 coupons. I have big plans to run to Target this morning, as soon as Ryan goes to sleep long enough to let me shower, and get a can of Good Start again. I will probably try to find a can of the Protect Plus, which has some cultures in it and stuff, and see if that will help with anything, but if I can't find that, I'm just going back to what we had and good from there.

I wish there was a way to flush out his system to get all the stuff that's making him feel yucky before I start the stuff that he was okay with. And if I have to run to Target unshowered, then I do. I won't be the end of the world. I'm going to have to run in sweatpants anyway. It's the only pants that I have that aren't maternity jeans.

I tried to go to Old Navy and buy bigger stuff yesterday, so the only good thing were said sweatpants. so, I need to get working out. Jeez.

But, I just don't know what to do for this gassy baby. I wish he could just have a gigantic poop plus fart. That would be awesome. Even if we were in public. I'd be okay with that. I just got a burp out of him, so maybe that will help.

I also finally figured out how to get his cloth diapers on him, so I think that we're done with the disposables now. I need to put in the big insert, instead of the newborn, because his legs are so skinny. This creates the bulk needed to get the elastic around his legs tight. He looks a little ridic, but they fit now, so I'm okay with it. ha ha!

Okay, he's quiet for now, so I'm going to hit the shower before he decides that he's going to scream more.

WAAAAY overtired

I hate it when I get overtired AND Jake is overtired the same night. Makes me want to smother my child. Okay, not really, but it's really hard spending 24 hours a day with him. If we didn't have Jake's parents around the week of the 4th of July, I might just go back to work on June 25th, since I'll be cleared to return on the 24th. But, I'll take all the time that I wanted to take. We'll make it through.

Dang it, he's awake again! Jake got him to sleep around 8 and now he's alive again. Darn it. Oh well, I suppose that I should feed him again. He didn't have much between 6 and 8 and he's probably fairly hungry. I'll just have to wait until he's yelling at me to get him up. Sometimes, he just grunts for a while and then goes back to sleep.

I think that I've decided that I want to put peony bushes where the rose bushes are out front. I just don't want the rose buses around that much. Maybe. I'm not sure. Seems like a lot of work right now.

Okay, he's getting to the point where he's really awake. Off I go!

New baby, new life, NEW LOOK!

Okay, so I am combining everything here. I even made a fancy banner. It doesn't look amazing?! :)

I really do have to thank Julia for pointing me toward the website where I got the new template -- but, I only found the website because I did "view source" on her webpage to see if I could figure out where she got the template. I think that I may have picked the same one.

I'll be adding lots of fun, fancy things as I can. :)

Thinking of combining everything together...

Since my life as a pregnant person is done for now, I was thinking of combining my blogs, while leaving the pregnancy once for posterity. What I really should do is print out all my posts and put them in Ryan's baby book, so we have them for always. So I have them for always.

My life and my life as a mom are pretty much one and the same now, so I guess I could just go with this blog and do some updating. Maybe I will do it in bits and pieces, of course. Having Ryan does not always equal a lot of time to get things done, you know?

Poor Ryan is slumped over with his head equally slumped over right now. I should probably go fix him. There, all fixed. Hopefully, he will sleep for an hour to two. He seems like he's going to be awake, which is FINE with me -- it means that he sleeps tonight, which means that I sleep tonight!

He's definitely getting a bath tonight. He's peed on himself 3 times today and pooped on himself once. A bath is in order. Plus, it seems to calm him down to go to sleep for more hours than just 2.

Having a baby is definitely a TON of work, and I do miss my life previous to having him, but you have to get the new "normal" and go with that. I still am the same person I was before, but now I have this little person that I have to take care of who depends on me. I'm not too used to such a thing -- having someone really dependent on me for all their needs, but it's slowly getting to the point where I am adapting.

I am actually really surprised that I don't have PPD -- I thought for sure that I would have it. I definitely had the baby blues, but I am doing pretty good. Having a happy baby is a plus and really helps with the blues too. Some days are harder than others and nighttime is really hard for both Jake and I -- we were REALLY used to sleeping for a long time and neither of us handle it well some days.

I'm going to stop by work tomorrow to show him to everyone and also to fax some paperwork to Jacksonville, FL (which is where my work HQ is). I know that I'll have to take him around everywhere, so I'll probably be there for a while. Oh well. Dad will want to show off his grandson to everyone. I should probably just bring him in the stoller, so I don't have to carry him around the whole time tomorrow.

4 years!

Jake and I have been married for 4 years today! Holy crap! And due to Ryan's recent arrival, I barely remembered that today was our anniversary. I doubt very much that it's even on Jake's radar. That's okay. He'll feel guilty.

Ryan is very awake this morning...

I can't believe that it's been 4 years. Seems long and short, like always. I'm already making plans for 5 years next year, when Ryan is 1 and can handle a weekend with Grandma and Grandpa while Mom and Dad maybe take a weekend trip somewhere fun. We'll, I'm dreaming of doing that anyway. Making plans might be stretching it.

I'm trying to think of something simple to get Jake today, but I don't know if anything will come to me. Once mom gets here this morning and I get a nap in, I'll probably take an hour and run over to Target and then to the grocery store by myself. And it will probably be amazing. But, I should probably make sure that Ryan has something to eat while I'm gone. Just in case he freaks out hungry while I'm out.

I wish I had more to say on this day about marriage and all that, but my mind is totally destroyed by baby stuff. And by baby stuff, I mean, lack of sleep. Being married is good. The first year in the hardest (especially if you haven't lived together before) and after you get past that first year, things seem to get easier, IMO. But, Jake and I lived through the most ridiculous first year any couple could have probably have. So, after that, everything seems easier, no matter what, because it's not as bad as Fall 2005 through Spring 2006.

I'd really like to go to upper Michigan next year. I've never been up that way, and it looks pretty good. Plus, they have cherries. :)

I'll update here too!

So, I did get a good chunk of wedding invites done before Ryan arrived. I have the invite part glued into the fold-y part and glued the jewel decorations on each. I also printed out the enclosure tops and the RSVP card and all of that is stamped.

I just need to wait until June to get the final information for the invites and finish printing and getting them together. Which is good, because I don't think that I would have been able to do this, if it would have been needed to be finished sooner that the beginning of July.

My STD insurance is odd, but they are paying me. I'm just not sure for how much -- probably four weeks and then 3 prorated days, it seems. They said I'm approved from May 25th to June 24th. Which is like four full working weeks, plus a day or two. We'll see what I get paid for.

I guess I don't get my first check until the 15th of June, except I'm pretty sure that the note said my first check was being sent on June 5th, so who knows! It's all a mystery. But, if you managed to go three weeks overdue on this insurance, you would be paid for a lot longer. Today is the last day of my 21 day elimination period, which is why I start getting paid Monday. However, since I didn't give birth until May 13th, there's extra play in the numbers, seemingly. Like I said, we'll see what happens.

So, when I was home Wednesday (the 13th) with my early labor pains, our neighbor's garage was broken into and I heard the assholes doing it -- I just thought it was our neighbor messing around, since it was right around the time he usually leaves. I did ask Jake about his door and Jake did go shut it before he left for work that day and managed to scare whoever was stealing stuff, but they still got away with a ton. I felt really badly about it -- any other day and I would have been all over that like stink on a monkey. Sigh.

Okay, I really need to get a move on the day and then probably take a nap.

Time off from work is good

I like being home. I wish I could be home all the time. That would be sweet. My mom and Jake are not going to want to do that trade off thing forever, so maybe it's worth the investment to try and have me stay home for him (and whatever other children may come along).

I am thinking of maybe taking courses in medical transcription and doing that from home part time, for extra money. And maybe, if it was worth it, working full time at home.

I would like to find a job that I'm not an independent contractor for, like my mom. That's too much. I would want a job where I was an employee.

But, we'll see. The program I found online that a girl I knew from college did (which I should ask her about) is $3000 and comes with a free lappy, which would be sweet. I certainly couldn't use my Mac, but if I was doing that sort of thing, I would want a separate lappy anyway.

The one my Mom did is $3800 and does not feature a free lappy. But, her program was very good and very hard.

So, I'm just not sure. I feel like maybe I should just do traditional classes for that sort of thing too. IDK. Just something I'm thinking about while I'm at home. Maybe I'll go do some more research right meow.

Got nothing better to do.

UPS tried to deliver the rest of Brooke's wedding invite stuff, but we were at the doctor. They will try again tomorrow, but I am thinking of just going to pick it up tonight. Better to have it in hand, since this is the biggest part of the order.

Okay, off to do more things.

Summer...to Spring? ish?

So, our gutters on the north side were clogged. Again. For the second year in a row.

So, how many times will it take us to remember to clean out the gutters on the first nice day we have in the Spring?

Next year, I hope I will remember standing out in the pouring rain, under an umbrella, holding the ladder for Jake while he tries to clean out said gutter. It was cold. And I was wet. Plus, he tried using the hose to spray the crap through, which it was too clogged for and then he threw the hose on the ground still on, which I proceeded to accidentally spray myself with.

Whoops!

In other news, the Brewers have been good the last three games and it makes me happy! I def enjoy the games more when they win. As is true with most things in life -- when you win at things, life is better. ha ha!

I also started and finished my last mock-up for Brooke's wedding invites. I want to have most everything sitting here and waiting for me to print out and cut and paste together when I'm home for 9 weeks, just watching a baby. So, I think that I have most of it completed -- there are a few things here and there that I need more information for, but I can still ask for that and go to town. I think that I'm going to have to take the printer upstairs, because it's kind of loud and if it keeps waking the baby up, that will piss me off. Or I could go downstairs. Either way.

I think that they are pretty cool, BTW. I wish that I would have done something like this for mine, but that's okay. They are def more formal that causal, but when the wedding is a church wedding plus reception at a different venue, I think that calls for a more formal invite. They are also simpler -- I don't have the tools to do something more elaborate, you know? if I had a super nice printer and a good graphic design program, I could potentially make something more fancy. I'd need a lot of practice and learning for the design part though. Maybe someday, I'll take the time to learn. I guess I could use GIMP, but it's SO not user friendly. Too bad Photoshop is so DANG expensive!

I almost wish it would be something I could do for a living -- making wedding invites, but I don't have enough graphic design background to do really cool things. I wish I did. Oh well. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. :) For now. I can dream! :)

Easter Fun!

Okay, most of my fun is derived from eating at this juncture, so this post will be devoted solely to the amazingness that is brunch at Brocach Irish Pub.

They have two locations -- one in Mad-town, which is kind of a dark little hole in the side of a building, very close to Monona Terrace (which means that next time you're at State Music Convention, it's probably worth a stop by) and the second in downtown Milwaukee. The Milwaukee is much, MUCH lighter and brighter than Mad-town and it's in a developing area right on the river on the slight north side. It's about 1800 Water St. If you know where Trocadero is, then, Brocach is about two blocks up.

The menus are different at both places and I DEF prefer the Milwaukee brunch menu -- more choices that don't involve meat. I like meat, but sometimes I like a good mushroom. Like yesterday. Biscuits with mushroom gravy for me!

It was a giant butter biscuit, cut in half and covered with mushroom gravy, two scrambled eggs (or whatever choice of egg you like), and potatoes. It was SO good! If only I could have had the mimosa with brunch. It was a real one too -- Trocadero last year made theirs with WINE and OJ. Wine? Really? Where's the champagne baby?

I can't wait to go back again for brunch. I don't know when that will be, but it will be sometime, for sure.

I totally could have eaten all of my food at breakfast, but I saved half the biscuit and three potatoes to take home. And I had them for lunch today at work. Guess what?! It was still JUST as amazing as when it was cooked. You know how gravy can separate a bit? Not this gravy. Oh my gosh. I'm drooling just thinking about it now.

So, anyway, it's a little pricey, but it's not any worse than, say, Red Lobster. Plus, it's much more delicious.

Pet Peeves

I will just say that the misspelling of a proper noun (specifically a NAME) is liek at the top of my list.

that is all.

Less grumpy post

Okay, just trying to get my big ole complaining post off of here.

Plus, Nims is here and it's totally AWESOME!!!

I had another week from hell at work. I mean, I get paid overtime and stuff, but it still sucks shit. Especially when you are working your butt off and your boss acts like you're in her office bothering her every 5 mins about everything. F that.

Luckily, I already had a half day planned yesterday, to watch basketball and hang out with Nimbies, which was very much needed. Jake has a thing that I have to take him to on Monday, so I have a half day MOnday too. Unfortunately, I have to work 4 hours on Sunday to make up the time. And, freaking boss had her door closed, so I couldn't bring the stupid laptop home to just work at home. So, I have to go in and work at my desk. Which is really okay, because sometimes that's easier.

Plus, Jake is going to help Jim and Loni move tomorrow and since I'm relatively useless in that area nowadays and I have to make up time, I'll just go to work and get it done. I'm not sure if I will work all 4 hours tomorrow or if I will use other time to make up for an hour or so. I don't know. We'll see how I feel about it when I get there.

We watched teh Marquette game yesterday and then went over to feed my parents' cat and then went to Red Lobster, which was sweet. We only go there when Nims is in town. And it's always delicious. They drank booze and such. I couldn't stay up for the Wisconsin game, which was sad, because I missed the really good games last night.

Okay, so there was a little complaining there, but not too bad. And it's my blog and I'll cry if I want to. ha ha! :)

Le sigh

So, finally, I have my wedding album back. And now, I can write my letter to them, expressing my disgust with their professionalism, service, quality, etc. etc. So, if you're getting married in the Greater EC area (or know ANYONE who is) DO NOT use Van Helden Photography. Under any circumstances. Spread the word.

They fucked up everything possible -- the guy was using a digital camera for the FIRST time on our wedding -- and they didn't even offer us a discount or a deal, since he was learning to use digital photography instead of the regular kind of camera. The woman was fine -- she had used the digital camera before. The proofs -- and they took 800 pictures (I know, b/c I asked) -- were only 250 or so and they were really the best they took and some of them were TERRIBLE. Blurry on the edges, some were completely out of focus. Which if he took two seconds, he would have noticed and taken a second pic.

Finally, when we did order pics from them, the prints (which were upwards of $5) had a stupid orange line on them, which they did manage to eliminate. But, too much money, too much time, too much effort on my part. 3.5 years is WAY too long to complete a wedding album. Which, as almost a final insult to me, they ordered the wrong fucking color. It's ivory with gold trim. We wanted the white, which would have matched our proof album.

Luckily, we have a good scanner and photo printer now, so I don't have to order pics ever again from them.

And I pretty much have plans to just disassemble the album they sent and make my own. The pictures that I picked I really love, but the ivory is horrible! I might still take her to work tomorrow, just to show people. Why not? I'm only having a baby in the next month and a half. Why not show off my wedding pics? ha ha.

So, long story, short: Find a friend or a smaller operation that gives you your proofs on DVD or CD, so you can print your own. And doesn't cost $1300.00. I have always said I would have rather given $1300.00 to Amy Bowen and had her do our photography. Or, do better research and make sure that the style of the photographer is something that gels with your style. And if you want something REALLY cool, check out the blog on the side, entitled "A Life in Transition". This is a friend in town, Julia, who makes wedding albums like books for a very reasonable price. I believe her business is J.Lorene Design. I don't know if she's taking new orders right now, but kept it in mind for the future. :)

Photos were one of my most important things I wanted for my wedding and I totally made a snap decision. Still, service and satisfaction are everything. And I really shouldn't have to DEMAND that the people return my photos after trading emails for 2 YEARS.

So, le sigh.

This, seriously, has been the LONGEST week ever. I swear the full moon was out to get me this week. I had one crazy thing at work after another. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday. I'm thrilled about that. :)

Nims is coming down for basketball a week from tomorrow. That means basketball, Red Lobster and totally sweet times. I even took at half day on the 20th to hang out, since if def will not be a snow storm this year. I can tell. I'm sure it will be, like, warm and 60. Maybe. That would be sweet.

Not much else going on. I just want to rage about the wedding album, because it was ivory. And I'm good at raging nowadays. All those horomones. :)

Always a Bride, never a bridesmaid (matron?)...

Until now.

Because I get to be in Brookie's wedding, which I am very excited about. And she picked out a fabulous dress last night, which I LOVE!!! It's totally better than any dress I had looked at so far. Click here and pick the blue/black combination.

It's really "I just had a baby" friendly, plus, it will look cute on the skinnier girls too, I think. IDK, I have plans to go look in person. I can't really try it on right now. It wouldn't make sense. We might just have to visit GB sometime soon and I'll drag Kristine down to Appleton to look at said dress.

Plus, Brooke is going to let me make her invites (as a gift, of course). I have several ideas (side note: I just got kicked in the ass from the inside) already, but it really involves buying things, which I should wait a bit on that. However, I'm thinking that it would be good to have everything that I will need by June 1, so I can get to work in the times that Ryan is sleeping.

Well, it's a good Saturday. I slept pretty well and there's LOTS of day to get stuff done today. :)

Random Thoughts

It occurred to me today, while on my daily perusal of F-book that I turn frickin' THIRTY this year. Geezus.

Thank god that I'll be able to drink. I certainly couldn't drink last year. And really all I did for my birthday was lay on my parents couch and eat the first real food that I'd eaten in a very long time. I was just glad not to feel like death for once.

I think my birthday is on a Tuesday this year? Or Monday? Mondays suck. And I can't even take it off, because I have no time left. Well, I am taking time right before Labor Day weekend, for Brookie's wedding (which I am IN! sweet!), so I need to try to conserve as much as possible.

I was also thinking this morning that I would never feel like I had slept well ever again. With the baby coming in May, it's probably true. Makes work really hard though. Seems like our tech lead (the position I had applied for back last summer and went to someone who was MUCH MUCH more qualified than I was) is thinking about retiring a year earlier than she thought, because her parents left her a nice inheritance that she can use to supplement her income for the year before she turns 65. So, she turns 62 in April, so she'll probably retire in 2011. Which is only two years away and frankly, it will probably be right around the time that I am ready to move up again. Although, I may get frustrated with the current job and look for something I can do part time at home, if need be.

The cat is perfectly fine again. We weighed him last week and he was 20.8 pounds, which is down a whole pound from when he had his teeth out. And you can REALLY tell the difference. A lot. He's much easier to pick up. I will probably make a habit of weighing him on the weekends, so we know where he is. Losing a whole pound in a month for a cat really is not good, but he was sick, and now we're just trying to keep the trend going. If he weighs 19 pounds by the end of the year, I think it will be a good thing. I'm really going to try hard with him now.

So...we're under a Winter Storm warning today. I didn't even know it was supposed to snow! oops! Oh well. What can you do? Jake went up to GB last night, to hang out with Josh. So, now he'll have to drive back through the snow. At least he has the good car for that sort of thing. Really test out that all wheel drive on that Saturn.

I suppose I should call him to see when he's headed out. I bet that he doesn't know that it's only going to get worse as he comes back south.

So, I have this cat...

So, the cat was doing okay over last weekend and then on Sunday -- not eating, just sitting under the table looking sad. So, Monday, I go into work for a few hours and then come home, so I can sit with him and watch him and stuff. We ended up taking him back to the vet on Monday afternoon. He was feeling so poorly that he didn't put up much of a stink, even for having his temperature taken! I was shocked. The infection that was his teeth spread to systemic, so they gave us different antibiotics and more pain meds. Pain meds = good at reducing fever. New antibiotics = bad. Gel consistency and tuna flavored = Mitchell spits back out

So, I had to get regular pills, which I have a much easier time trying to force down his little throat. And it's easier on him too.

But, he has lost weight. Like I would say another pound or two at least. I keep meaning to have Jake hold him and get on the scale and then just weight himself to see where Mitchell's weight is at.

So, he has cost us another $100. Plus, my mom was nice and picked up and paid for his new pills yesterday. Which are nicely coated -- not like the sample that we got before -- WTF? Why wouldn't they just give us the same? Whatev. We're considering trying a new vet next year for shots and check ups and stuff. There's one very close to our house, so it makes sense, instead of having to drive all over freakin' town. Maybe not so expensive.

I like the doctor at the current one, she's really nice, but the drive and the expense so far has not been good. BUT, $1000.00 for not having taken in the cats for a teeth clean in years, probably isn't too terrible. I just have to keep up on them more now. Well, Boo will probably be ok for 2-3 years, but Mitchell...not so much.

In other news, I figured our taxes wrong when I was guesstimating and we don't owe money!!! YAY!!! In fact, we are getting what I would consider a nice chunk of change back. And most of it goes right on the ol' credit card. Which is a good thing.

I am currently looking like I haven't slept in days. Which isn't true. The cat woke me up at 4am! (it's time for the gate to go back up at night) But, he doesn't need me to fill his bowl -- there's already food in there. He just needs me to pretend like I'm filling his bowl and then he'll eat. GRRR!!! So, then I couldn't fall back asleep. So, I laid in bed until 5:15 and then got up. Yuck. It's almost 7 and I feel pretty destroyed.

Big plans for the weekend though. Putting together a real closet for Ryan's room and possibly cutting into the wall in the back room to make a new utility closet for the vacuum and other stuff. We'll just leave a little space for towels and stuff in the bathroom. At a later date, we'll go back and cut a new linen closet into the space that we're not using from the old utility closet (but from the other side). My parents have a dumpster from the remodel on their house (which is AMAZING!), so we can dump the garbage in there. woot!

Last Monday, my parents had no roof on their house for a day. Last weekend, we checked it out and they had a roof back on and all the new outside walls framed. It was pretty impressive. As I've said before, I lived up there almost my whole life and I barely recognized it. Well!

Last night, we went back and they have 3 (?) skylights in the upstairs, 3 windows facing south and the framing in for all the new walls upstairs. It's amazing. Their bedroom is going to be huge, they are having a good size walk-in closet, a pretty sweet bathroom, featuring toilet closet (water closet?) and a HUGE second bedroom upstairs. It's giant. The bedrooms upstairs are bigger than the downstairs. The plus side is, if they wanted, they could make one a nursery/playroom for Ryan full time. One of the old ones, downstairs, I would think. Whenever they decide to give up the ghost and sell that place, I would probably buy it. Seriously. I never minded that house, the backyard is really nice and now that it has 2 bathrooms, it's amazing.

Too bad that by the time they sell, we will have our own sweet house and wouldn't be able to afford it anyway. haha.

I should probably start comtemplating what I am going to do on my cleaning binges today. I have been nesting EARLY. I don't know if it's so much nesting as just totally be frickin' annoyed by all the crap that is everywhere in the house.

Poor, expensive kitty

The cats needed their teeth cleaned. It's been a while for Mitchie and never for Boo. So, I make the appt and take them in.

I call around 2pm to find out if they did okay. And they did, the vet said. I make the appt to pick them up around 5:30pm.

We show to pay the bill. Which was $850.00. ...the hell?

Turns out, just like humans, animals can have terrible teeth too. And Mitchell is one of those cats. So, both canine teeth on the left side of his mouth are gone, plus one from the back. Plus, the 4 teeth the other vet had pulled out years before. Total of missing teeth: 7. The cats got their annual check ups, shots and stuff, plus the teeth cleaning. Boo cost us about 350.00 or so. That's okay. Mitchell was the 500.00 cat. Yikes. I'll remember this for next time. And by next time, I mean, Mitchell is going to have to have his teeth looked at every year.

Boo's teeth were fine. Coated with crud that they cleaned off, but fine.

So, they were bring the cats out to clean them up and pull off their bandages and stuff and they put Boo in her carrier -- which she HATES. HATES. So, she got pissed, which set Mitchell off and he freaked out. So, they couldn't clean him up. So, basically, they had to bring him out coated in his own gore, from the teeth that they pulled and had to leave the wound open a bit, because his teeth were SO infected. The doctor said that they were oozing pus when they went in. YUCK!!!!

Oops. I'm terrible. On the plus side, Mitchell was down a pound from the last time he was in and his bloodword was totally normal. Now, we just have to work on getting him down more. Under 21 pounds for next year. Cats shouldn't lose too much weight. I remember the summer I was gone in Shell Lake and Jake fed him for me. He lost like 2 pounds in a year or something and the doctor yelled at me for that. This is the point at which I gave up worrying about his weight. It was damned if you do and damned if you don't.

I have to give the Mitchell antibiotics for several days to clear up any remaining infection. But, since the teeth are gone, the infection will stop raging in his mouth, I'm sure.

I think the part that I feel the worst about is that his snaggletooth is gone. For those of you who have ever seen him, he used to have a tooth that hung out of his mouth all the time. That's one of the ones that got pulled out -- that was probably the worst infected tooth actually. I miss it. It gave him that "I'm a dumb kitty" look all the time. Now, he just looks normal.

Oh well. I'll get over it.

In other news, we have a pretty good plan in place for starting to pay off the ol' credit cards. I know that I write about money in the baby blog when I should be writing about baby stuff, but I can't help it.

Maybe I'll go write about finishing our registry today. Maybe.

Okay, now that the holidays are over, I'm tired of winter

It can go away now. I just wanted it to come out and play for the holidays. White Christmas and all that jazz.

Taxes officially suck this year. We usually get a large chunk of money back from WI and the Fed and this year, it looks like we will owe the Fed $200 and get $900 back from WI. So, net effect is that we win, but we were thinking that it would be like LAST year, when we were sitting on 3k, plus the stimulus. And we pissed it all away on stuff, instead of paying things off and spending wisely. Well, we were having a tough time last year, I suppose. And that was a big influence too. Who wants to just pay things off when you feel cruddy?

So, I guess that we'll just have to get used to being middle class now.

Once we get all our paperwork and everything, I'll review it all to make sure I didn't miss anything, but that's really how things are looking as of today.

So, I'll file WI pretty soon and then wait for the refund to come and then file Federal and pay them. Boo.

I also have decided that I want to start making/keeping a list of things we want in the next house. Plus, I have also been thinking about staying on the West side of Tosa...maybe even in the "West" part of the school district. There's no reason to move north now. It would make Jake's drive to work an hour on the best days, I think.

So, I'm thinking that staying around Wisconsin Ave and 80's or 90's -- close to the hospital area, I think. I mean, this is a few years away, but it's okay to start planning ahead. :)

AND, if we can find a house over there AND it's in the "East" part of the district, that's okay too. :)