Did Someone Say Chocolate?

No brain for titles

Cody went to a friend's place yesterday for a sleepover. Apparently, they slept for a big whoopin' fifteen minutes before being woken up for breakfast. They went out to some donut shop for breakfast and saw two movies at the theatre. Imagine. Cody is pretty cranky now that he's home and the lack of sleep is hitting him. I'm tempted to send him on back to his friend's house so those parents can deal with the monster they enabled.

I don't feel well today. I laid in bed until 4 o'clock finishing some book Doug thought I should read. It's been pouring all day which I love, but just makes for a dreary day. Even Daniel had a three hour nap! I've got some work to do tonight that I brought home from the office, I'm hoping to plow through that pretty quickly. We're looking forward to this week because Sarah's results from the child study center testing will be read to us at our appointment on Thursday. It'll be interesting to see what they all have to say.

We're having fried chicken with pasta tonight and Doug's on his way back with it, so I gotta run. Have I mentioned how awful I've been eating lately and how I desperately need to jump back on the low carb wagon especially before we make a decision about having another baby!! We could be baby making this fall! How scary is that!

New version

Bear with me as I spend the next few days messing around with this newest version of MT. We're trying to figure out this whole registration/comments thing. For now don't be alarmed if you don't see your comment appear right away or if you are asked to register...we have some preferences to set and an update to complete. =) Truthfully I'm not sure why I'm even bothering if I'm switching this blog anyway. Heh. I'm a sucker for punishment I guess.

Daniel

Heh, I sat here all geared up to update, then I realized I just don't have anything to say. I've had to stop prep on my other blog for now. I'm a bit annoyed at our host. Verve usually contacts us back pretty quickly, but not this time. It's been at least a couple of weeks since Doug requested the newest version of WordPress and pMachine and we've heard nothing back. Annoying. I feel like I might be waiting for nothing. I'm also seeing some people that use pMachine switch over to Word Press, so I guess that answers my question as to what the preference is.

I used to have another blog for about a year and a half on blogger as some of you may remember. Well, Doug had this thing about my freaking underwear, I swear for the first year of our marriage every time the man would fold laundry, he'd do it with a pair of my panties on his head. He'd stand there folding for thirty minutes with my underwear on his head until I'd notice him, then I'd pounce the crap out of him for it. He thought it was quite amusing.

Well I get home from work the other night and he mentions that he got some pictures of Daniel today. He often takes pictures for me so I can see what Daniel was up to that day. Well...get a load of this...



What is it with my freaking underwear? lol He's got a few other shots where he has them spread out over his face and on his head. I think his father taught him to do that just to get me going. =)

Daniel's been eating table food for just over a month. Consistently for about two weeks now. He still eats rice cereal in the mornings for breakfast, more out of convenience due to time issues in the mornings, but other than that, he's all table foods now. We're pretty happy about it. I had been avoiding feeding him soupy foods because I didn't think he could feed himself yet (and he still refuses to let me feed him anything other than baby food). He mostly dives in with his hands so I try to stick to finger foods. Well his teacher thought his applesauce was part of his lunch the other day, so she gave it to him with a spoon and he fed himself the entire container. We're pretty thrilled to discover he'll do the same thing at home when given the chance!



It's pretty cute to watch those big bites go in.

He likes to stand up on things now. It gets a reaction, anyone who sees him immediately tells him to "sit down". So now that's what he says in response. We say "sit down!!", he says "si dow". He even gets the little hand out to point along with us. I laugh under my breath about it, it's pretty comical. Here he is telling his daddy to sit down!



Even little chairs are fun to stand up on.


He gets so excited whenever we put on a video or let him watch the Wiggles. I find he's a lot more responsive to parts of the shows. For example, on one episode of the Wiggles, Capt. Feathersword is teaching Wags how to fetch. Wags plays a trick on the Capt. making him think the stick is magic. Well never fails, Daniel busts out laughing every time the joke is played. I love seeing those reactions, it means he's getting something out of the conversations, not just the music! He's also repeating words on his Einstein videos and animal sounds. Very cute. I think he's doubled his vocabulary in the past week. It's amazing, once they start, it's just a ball rolling at that point.



Daniel's latest loves are raisins, carrots, veggie crackers, potatoes, fruit loops and noodles. He drinks two full cups of milk a day, 2-3 cups of water a day, rice cereal and toast for breakfast, soup, veggies, fruit or leftovers for lunch (lots of cold finger foods for lunch at school though) and whatever we're having for supper. He snacks throughout the day on just about everything. We're definitely blessed with a good eater! I do need more ideas though for things I wouldn't normally think of to feed him...what does your toddler love to eat?

Random cuteness:

*bangs head into desk*

Okay, I'm sitting here trying to get going on some work I brought home to do, meanwhile my wacko husband is sitting here beside me downloading new sound files for his email. I have to say it....EMAIL SOUNDS ARE FREAKING ANNOYING! I could rip my hair out! Actually I think I will rip my hair out! GAH GAH GAH!

The only blessing to having him do this right now is I know come tomorrow I won't have to hear another Homer fucking Simpson clip for at least the next few months!

Geesh

Okay that was one royal beating that I'd care not to ever repeat in my lifetime. We arrived at 10:30 for an 11:00 morning appointment...we got out of there about 2:15. We even got to sit there while everyone went to eat lunch. Just shoot me.

Daniel just came around so I could catch a whiff...gotta run. More later.

To Dallas we go

I have an appointment tomorrow at the US*CI*S for immigration stuff. Joy. I guess we get to go eat at Cheesecake Factory again. Pity ya know. *snickers*

We watched "liar liar" tonight with the kids. I swear it sounded like Sarah was about to piss her pants laughing so hard. Jim Carey seems to be her real cup of tea. Not mine...small sips is enough for me. Shudder.

Had a bit of a Homemade Gourmet party at work today. We were contributing to a Tsunami Relief fund we have set up at work and had a good turn out. It did end up eating up a lot of my precious time that I really didn't have today, but oh heck, I can't resist the stuff!

Daniel woke up this morning with a snot nose smeared from one end of him to the other. I'm not sure if he'll come down with a bit of a cold or if it's his molars again. I've noticed he gets red cheeks and a runny nose each time he teethes and on bad occasions he gets a bit of a sore bum. Well within the past week, I've noticed two new molars, he's got 12 teeth now! All the better to chew that table food with my dear!! And chew it he does! He's ate so much in the past couple of days, I wonder where he puts it all. Gerber graduates makes these veggie cracker things and he LOVES them. He's always bringing his bowl over to me for re-fills. Sometimes we can get him to sign for more or he'll say "cracker", but a lot of time (especially with his father), he'll just throw the bowl and holler. Not a good sign, but I do secretly giggle at how he communicates sometimes, mind you I never let him see me laugh about it. We always re-direct that energy into language and words LOL! Yup, I know we're doomed!

Well wish me luck tomorrow...I really need them to re-consider their decision to DENY MY WORK AUTHORIZATION. ha ha! Bastards. They so screwed up and made their decision based on thinking my file was closed, when in fact we paid 110.00 to re-open it back in October. What's annoying about this whole thing is it can't be appealed nor can a simple telephone call be made...nope, it's all the way to Dallas in person to be cattle called and processed like livestock. oh I just wish all this shit was done. Do you know that I can't even get a freakin' Mervyn's store credit card with my current status the way that it is. How pathetic is that. I guess it's better than a couple of years ago when I had no TX license and I couldn't even use my own credit card for lack of ID. oh Bah, just wish me luck. =) Night.

Nuts!

I love snacking on mixed nuts (in the shell) at night while watching tv. They mostly sell them around Christmas time, so I always try to have my fair share of them. Well just to show you what my husband is like...I mentioned to him the other day that I'm out of nuts, next time he goes to the store, pick me up some. Well this is his "some"...



The man is crazy. There are eight pounds of nuts in this bag! He cleaned out the bin at the store. It's either an act of kindness or a sign he got tired of buying a bag of nuts every week. Heh.

Because it's been so long since I posted any pictures (bad me), I ran around the past couple of days taking pictures to post.

Here is a shot of our new shelves we got for Christmas (two are from Doug's dad). Doug was finally able to clean out all those boxes of books in Sarah's spare closet! Notice, however, that Doug has taken to putting "junk" on the shelves already and Daniel thinks it's a shoe rack!! Geesh those two.


Some day I want really nice hardwood shelves with lights and hand carved trim etc., matching desks would be really nice too! We have ZERO work space on these desks we have, but we knew they weren't our forever desks anyway when we bought them.

Here is Miss Bella


and Mr. Dexter


just for sake of adding some cuteness. I can't believe Bella is getting some grey already, she's not even 3!

Anyone care to place a bet at how long before I kill our anniversary plant?



Yikes, it's hard to believe my other place used to be covered in plants (long before Doug ever came to visit mind you). I had house plants all over the place in my living room. They all grew beautifully, I never had a problem taking care of them until I got hooked on the freakin' internet. Heh. I started playing that Clanlord game and my whole house went to hell! Oh well small sacrifices one makes to meet the man of her dreams LOL! Now I can't keep anything alive.

Here's Daniel at school yesterday. His hair looks like it's slicked over...it's because when he eats toast in the mornings, the butter makes his hands greasy, then he runs them through his hair. He's went to school looking un-bathed all week long LOL. You can see though that he's having himself a box of raisins! Yay Daniel!



I love peeking in on Daniel when he's playing in his room quietly. I think it's so cute how he has his own little space in the house now!



"I see you Mommy!"



Doctor - "Does he like to imaginative play...like with trucks & cars?"
Me - "Oh yes, for sure. He even makes the noise with them now!"


I made him a ramp today for his trucks to speed down and he thought that was just hilarious!!



Crazy baby!
Well if you made it this far.../good karma to you.

Glad it's the weekend

It's Saturday. The weeks are really flying by. I have some small goals set for this weekend. We'll see if I actually get to them. I was all set this morning to run out and buy the paint for our bedroom, but my smart husband talked me out of it. I'm just too busy at work with year end/audit stuff and he knows I come home from work and feel like doing NOTHING. I think we have settled on a color for the walls. I'm not 100% sold on it yet though, but I'll at least paint a wall and see how it looks. It's a color called "Suede" from Ralph Lauren. It's a sage/hunter green. It's a bit dark, but you know me, I'm not totally opposed to lots of color so what the hell! I really had trouble choosing color for the trim and bathroom. The bathroom is a pastel/minty green which I hate. Trouble is the counter in both bathrooms is a veragated light green color (gotta luv the 70's), so I said screw it, let's pain the cupboards the same dark green as the bedroom walls and we'll just leave the lighter green wallpaper for now. Less work and it'll match anyway (at least I'm hoping it will).

Daniel is out eating soup for lunch, Doug's getting ready to take the kids out for their Saturday afternoon errands and I'm hoping to tear apart our closet and chuck some things to trash where it belongs. We desperately need more room in there.

Arnold came over for a quick visit today, his owner right behind him. Doug went out to speak with him. Apparently his family has refused to take Arnold after finding out he jumps over chain link fencing because that's all they have as well. He's looking at a solution such a screen that would attach to our fence extending it further upwards. Hopefully that would work, so the dog wouldn't have to be chained up all the time. I'm conflicted as to what to do. With the doghouse in place and no proof that they don't feed him regularly, there isn't much animal control would do accept in the end it would just cause neighbor problems. If we all live here for the next ten years, then I don't want trouble with the neighbors.

I've been working on a new blog, this time using Word Press with the help of Trish. I haven't linked the new blog yet because I'm still trying to figure out the whole registering process out and I want to make sure when I post something password protected, that it truly is protected. It's hard to test that here at home because Doug and I are from the same IP address...Oh well. I also did some reading and saw that pMachine Pro has become the pMachine free, so that really interested me a lot! The one feature that I really prefer about pMachine is the fact that when you click to make a comment, then post your comment, it gives you the links to go to previous/next/main blog. I hate on Word Press that you literally need to back up three pages or re-enter the blog. Drives me nuts. Anyway Doug has emailed our host to see about getting the latest version updated, so I can try that out first before launching the new blog.

18th mos WBC

On Tuesday we took Daniel in for his checkup. He had some snacks and played a bit in the waiting area for about ten minutes, then we were called in. Daniel stiffened right up and screeched as soon as he saw the nurse. We took him in the room, got him undressed so we could weigh and measure him. He was not a happy camper about that at all.

Weight: 26lbs 9oz (50-70% -that's quite the range if you ask me, but that's what the nurse said, so whatever)
Height: 35" (off the charts on his height)

We weren't expecting any shots this visit, but the doctor advised us that the prevnar supply is back up, so they're going to immunize kids between 1-2 with it again. Apparently, babies should be done at 2, 4 and 6 months and again by the time they are 2. When Daniel was born, there was a shortage, so they only did high risk babies (2 & 4 mos). Now that the supply is back up, they are back to immunizing all babies again. To me, either you need it or you don't, damn well supply it or don't. Don't feed me this bullshit all the time that they need it, then they don't or we have it and then not. It just makes me wonder about the whole thing. Some stupid ass company is making money and calling the shots (no pun intended).

As I was talking with the doctor, Daniel had crawled down on the floor and had buried his little face between the stroller and the wall. I thought he was just being silly or hiding. After a few minutes, I looked at him and saw that his face was all red..I thought crap he's choking or something. I picked him right up and saw that he wasn't choking at all, he was crying....silently. Big tears...he was scared. I felt awful! He snuggled with me the whole time the doctor examined him, crying. He wasn't happy. It didn't get any better when the nurse came in either. Fortunately he didn't cry long after the nurse left and shy of not really feeling well last night (could have been the shot or teething, he had real red cheeks, who knows), he's been fine since.

The doctor asked a series of questions that scans development and autism and based on my answers and his observations, our pediatrician feels Daniel has about zero percent chance of being autistic. I'd like to be able to say I'm relieved...but development issues weren't picked up in Justin or Sarah either until much later in life...mind you Justin and Daniel are very different as babies...Oh I don't know, I think I'll always worry a bit, but whatever. Right now he's fine and he's learning new things all the time. This time next year, I'm sure he'll be running all around and talking up a storm.

I wish I had some pictures to share, but we've literally barely taken any this month. It's awful! Oh well it's late and I'm tired...

okay

If I were you, I wouldn't want to help me either. It's time consuming.

I did search all over WordPress help and was able to figure out that all comments have to be moderated. For whatever reason though I seem to remember being on someone's blog from WordPress that I commented on and it didn't hold my comment in no queue to be moderated, so either I'm missing something or there is a plugin out there somewhere. I've been all over the Wordpress plugin archive, through the help forums and I'm not seeing anything that can help me. I did jump through all the hoops for a blogroll plugin that ended up not being able to read my export file anyway. Sigh. I wish I had more training in this stuff. I can't imagine having to moderate every single comment. I guess they do that because of spam, but geesh. I wish MT had the ability to password protect entries and ask for registration.

On a funnier note, Mr. Daniel was pretty funny today. He loves watching the Wiggles. We have a few episodes recorded on the DVR for him that he watches over and over. Doug and I had finished watching our show and as Doug was flipping through the recorded program list, Daniel was attentively watching and watching...flipping his eyes between his father and the tv. When Doug turned the Wiggles on, Daniel literally did a flying jump and yelled out very clearly "YAY". He proceeded to dance around stomping, jumping and clapping his hands, all the while giggling like crazy. He was clearly very happy. Doug and I laughed our heads off. Oh to be that young and carefree again!

He gets what he wants across clear enough usually, but still not with words. For example, if he wants snacks, he goes to his cupboard, grabs his plastic dishes and proceeds to throw it at/near one of us, then gives a little yell. Apparently his father responds to this, I do not. Heh. I talk and sign to him encouraging him to use words to ask not yells and action. Oh well. I think verbal language he is just delayed on. Doug was too when he was young. Daniel seems bright enough and energetic and happy, so I'm not all that worried about autism or anything, but it'll be nice to see the doctor again tomorrow morning for his 18 WBC. It's encouraging to hear the doctor say "he's just fine, stop worrying".

Arnold got loose again today and jumped the fence. Thank heavens the balls in the yard were already picked up. Of course the neighbors weren't home, so Doug carried Arnold back over the fence to chain him up again. We saw Arnold gulping water from our dirty old rain catcher. I figured he had no water over there. Doug said when he chained him up, he had about a three foot radius where he has beaten the grass down running back and forth and the entire area is covered in his shit. They aren't keeping him clean nor providing him with fresh water. Doug said the dog keeps tipping his water over. They just need to give him something heavier for his water. None of this really surprises me. The only reason we've been quiet and tolerant is a) he's not been in our yard this week and b) they were supposed to be giving the dog to her brother out in the country. I think Doug is going to go over and talk to them to find out their intentions and if they aren't finding the dog a home, then we're calling someone. It's just mean.

Question - Wordpress

Okay, quick question...forget the last one, I changed templates out of frustration. My wordpress blog won't publish comments. They wait for moderation even though I have that clicked off. Any ideas as to why that happens?? Where should I look? Also, I have my blog roll imported into Wordpress, but for some reason it won't sort how I want it too. I'm clicking and clicking, but it won't save, it wants to always sort alphabetically. Any thoughts?

Nothing new around here

Still plottin' around with a new template in WordPress. Not having much luck, but partly it's because I don't have a block of a few hours to sit with it. I do have a specific question if someone knows the answer. I have a 3 table template I'm using with two side bars and one top bar. The top bar I can put a "background wallpaper" image there, but I haven't had much luck sizing a photo to look right in there. I've tried all sorts of pictures and none of them look right especially because the two side bars and the middle editing area remain in the same spot and the three overlap. Any idea of what I need to change to make those side bars drop down lower on the page? I know this is complicated to explain in a post. I'm just a bit frustrated. I see other people change their templates all the time. I managed to mess around with MT because it's all in html and really all I did was add a photo to a side bar and change my colors, that was easy. I guess I could do the same thing in the new WordPress template I'm messing with, I was just hoping for something a little more unique. I printed out the template so I could look at it more clearly and make better consistent changes. My browser is also a pain in the ass because it doesn't refresh the way it should and IE doesn't read CSS very well. Oh well. Maybe I'm destined to stick with MT.

We've been watching the third season of 24 this week. Getting ready to go watch a few more episodes when I put Daniel down for his nap. I've been feeding him less and less babyfood. For a couple of days now, he hasn't had any babyfood with his meals, but sometimes I end up feeding him some fruit afterwards because it seems like he's not eating enough. Part of me doesn't want to keep feeding him jars of food after he's done picking at his table food because I don't want him to always rely on that coming. He's very.slow at eating. An hour later and he's still picking at his meals. If I take it from him, he'll cry if he's not done, so suppers/dinners have become pretty grueling affairs.

Arnold is still chained up next door, I guess they don't plan on doing much about/for their dog afterall. Morons.

Sarah's appointment went pretty well. It was an all morning ordeal, but at least we go back in three weeks for the results. The doctor seemed to be leaning towards autism even though I feel her and Justin are very different. In filling out all of the paperwork while she was in her testing, I felt like a lot of the answers directed towards childhood trauma and depression. We'll see though, too early to say anything yet. I have no idea. It's tough having children that don't develop and mature like they should. It's hard to watch and it's hard to learn as a parent. You want them to fit in and have friends who truly like them, yet there is always something that separates them out.

Well I'm going to go watch tv now.

Excuse my French

I hate fucking dry cleaners. There I said it! I HATE THEM I HATE THEM I HATE THEM!!!

So I bought new clothes back in November. After hand washing a blouse and hanging to dry (just like instructions said so), it shrunk on me. I was mad, it was the first time washing, so I took it back to the store and they refunded me my money, but they were sold out of the shirts, so I couldn't get a replacement. Ghrr. I decided then that I was tired of ruining my clothes and that getting them cleaned is more convenient and worth it in the long run. F'n HA!

I took my few items that needed cleaning to the same place Doug goes for all his shirts. One of the reasons I went to this place is because they had cleaned a two piece dress of mine and lost a button a month prior to this, so I had hoped they'd fix it for me if they still had the matching button and because they are really close by. Here's what all happened with my first drop off:

Day 1 - drop off 3 items to be cleaned and the dress for replacement button. Pick up 5:30 the next day.
Day 2 - Picked up two cleaned items. Advised button could not be matched and "oops, forgot to have you sign a release for the pin on sweater". Pick up 5:30 next day. Bill $9.97.
Day 3 - Discovered one garment had huge cleaning stain on the center back.
Day 4 - Sent Doug to drop off stained shirt and figured on grabbing sweater next day.
Day 5 - Sent Doug to pick up cleaned shirt and sweater. Got shirt, Forgot sweater.
Day 6 - Discovered cleaned shirt was now missing a button.
Day 7 - Send Doug back with shirt to be fixed AGAIN and pick up sweater. Couldn't find sweater. Calls later to advise found sweater.
Day 8 - On my way home, I stopped to get my items needing them this week to wear. Already frustrated with them, I inspect the first item in front of the woman casually explaining to her how many times I've had to come back and forth for one drop off. The sweater was covered in someone's hair and had some white crap that I dusted off. Looked as if they just pressed it, but whatever...I was about to put it away when I discovered all of the little stones in the pin were completely gone. I gasped and pointed it out to her. She says "yeah, that's why we have you sign a release".

Well holy shit I saw red. I very slowly said "I am not angry at YOU, I know it's not YOUR fault, I am NOT going to yell at you, but you are going to listen to my frustration. I let her have it from point A - to point B. Do you really think I would have left the damn sweater there to be cleaned if they had of told me all the stones would fall out. The pin is not something that can be removed, it's attached to the neckline of this sweater. I love this sweater and it pisses me because it's now totally ruined and un-wearable! They don't even have anymore of them at the store. I'm beyond angry about this, I felt like I wanted to shove my sweater down her f'n throat.

It's been a long day at work and this was not a good way to end my day. I realize it's not this girls fault and I swear I didn't yell at her, but she knew I was upset about it all. It cost me almost ten dollars to run back and forth to that fucking place for what?! To have my damn clothes ruined? I haven't even looked at the other shirt yet that was being fixed for the second time, I'm scared to. I aught a take my sweater receipt back to them and insist on them paying for it or at least refund my cleaning bill for all the grief they caused. Stupid dry cleaners. I take back what I said, it's NOT WORTH it for me to have my clothes dry cleaned. GHRRRRRRRRRRR!

Tell me you have a dry cleaning horror story and that it wasn't just my bad luck! To top it all off, a co-worker is telling me I overpaid to begin with.

Long week, about to start another

Edited to add: Word is still froze up on me after I tried to open a screwed up file, so please ignore typos, I'm not fixing them tonight!
It's been a pretty busy week. Haven't had a lot of time for updating lately. Doug and I have been watching our shows at night after Daniel goes to bed, then it becomes too late for updating (as it is now actually).

We have an appointment with a pyscologist tomorrow morning for Sarah's evaluation. It'll be a beating, but a long awaited one! I just read online that at minimum the appointments take two hours, the first hour is just family history etc. while Sarah sits out in the waiting room. Then we get to sit out in the waiting area to fill out more forms while Sarah goes in for testing. I'm very anxious to see what this Dr. has to say. On the one hand, it'd be nice to be told it's all in my head, but something tells me it's not. Sarah has made huge leaps of improvements since she started 7th grade, so we'll see.

On the Daniel front, he's still experimenting with new foods which we're both thrilled about! Tonight's supper was the first time I didn't have to feed him baby food! He actually ate enough chicken noodle soup and peas/corn that I didn't feel I needed to feed him any jars. He still won't eat chopped fruit yet though, he fed his pears to the dogs. They were quite happy about that! He also cut another bottom tooth about a week or so ago. That makes ten now. He has his 18 month check up on the 18th of this month. Who went ahead and gave my baby permission to grow up so fast anyway?

Doug and I had our 3rd anniversary on the 5th. I took a few hours off of work so we could run away to eat at the Cheesecake Factory! Yum. We are such total suckers for that place. We are a tad obsessive ya know, when we find something we like, we just can't get enough!

The kids have been a bit of a handful lately. We're glad they are back in school now! It seems they love their Christmas presents so much, god forbid if we tear them away from their activities for a moment of help! Geesh. Sarah's lost her tv twice so far for her tantrums. You would not believe the way this girl can be unless I could actually video tape her. She kicked the wall bare foot (textured wall at that) so hard the other day, I had to look twice because I thought for sure she either broke her toe or put a hole in the wall. Sadly, since Christmas, her behavior has went steadily down hill. I had a chat with her about it and explained that the way she is acting now is totally different than what it had been leading up to Christmas and this sudden change only makes me think she was "acting good" so she'd get presents and now that she has her presents, she doesn't care anymore. She gasped! I mean like that's so unbelievable or something. ha ha. Oh to be twelve years old again. Geesh. yes tomorrow will be an interesting day!

Justin is becoming more and more full of himself. He is so Mr. Teen Boy Who Knows Everything. He's so smug. One of these days *shakes fist in the air* - to the moon Alice!! Cody is a Pain.In.The.Ass. He picks and picks and picks and gets Justin going, they both get into trouble and Cody is left sobbing that life is so tough. He's always looking for loop holes in the rules and always tries to get away with breaking them. Unbelievable.

On a more positive note, they mostly did good on their report cards. Justin did awful on his final exams, but his overall averages were fine. Sarah did well on all her marks and Cody was marginal only due to an awful last six weeks. That boy has such potential if he'd just give a damn. I foresee trouble from that boy in the future.

Hmmm what else can I bore you all with? We had lots of action this past week from Arnold. Had him in our house in the laundry room at one point. It was FREEZING outside and he wouldn't stay home. He totally continued to jump the fence to our house all week. He just wouldn't stay home. We stopped feeding him a couple of weeks ago thinking that probably was a mistake no matter how bad we felt for him. We kept him warm until around ten'ish, then our neighbors finally got home, so Doug went over to explain what had been going on all night etc and that we had him inside. The guy came over and got him and thank god put him in the garage for the night and not outside.

We've had a few conversations with our neighbors about the dog and during one of them, Doug said the guy was thinking about getting in touch with a cousin who lives out in the country about taking Arnold. He recognizes at least that the dog needs more room and he can't possibly keep him chained up all the time. Well unfortunately Arnold continued to jump the fence so we began putting him in our dog run (fenced in area behind our house) so we can at least contain him somewhat so we can let our dogs out to pee etc and the kids could play in the yard safely. Well yesterday he figured out how to jump that fence to our amazement!

The breaking point for me was when I heard ungodly noises, yelps and growling from the back yard, then a bunch of yelling from the kids and Doug and as I checked out the window all I saw was Arnold rolling on the ground with little Bella with her neck in his chomps. I thought I was going to swallow my heart. I freaked. Doug caught him thank god and threw him back over the fence. It quickly became apparent that they needed to do something NOW to contain this dog. I marched over there this time. It was my first time meeting her. She seemed friendly enough and apologetic, but it was a difficult conversation because I could tell she doesnt' speak English well. Sigh. Well, with Doug's help, she chained Arnold back up and that's where he still is now. Assumably, she has seven brothers who all want Arnold. Fine whatever. The line got drawn for me when I saw him try to eat Isabella. Thankfully she's okay. A little freaked out, but no broken skin. Had she been injured, I'm not sure what I would have done when I went over there!

Well my hubby just trotted off to bed and this post is too long as it is.
/goodkarma to those who made it this far

#$%!#@%

Does ANYONE out there know how to edit a freakin' template using Word Press? It won't let me save changes and any new uploads I send are not showing up. It seems I downloaded Kubrick and that's all it'll let me do. I guess I need to just delete the whole damen thing and start over. My god how frustrating for something that is supposed to be so damn easy.

Our guest

It seems we have ourselves an overnight guest tonight.



I know it's hard to see him, but that's the best shot I could get without opening the door. We didn't have any luck keeping Arnold out of our yard today no matter how many boards we put up. He was determined to come over and come over he did...all day long. The neighbors finally came out around supper time to assess the problem. Doug went out to talk with him. He reassured Doug that his father was going to help build a pen for Arnold on the other side of the yard. Doug didn't feel in any way they were looking to "give the dog away". That sucks because if and when they do build this pen, Arnold isn't going to be able to visit with the pugs through the fence anymore.

Anyway, the neighbor guy had come out to re-tie Arnold to a tree with a stronger rope and Doug asked him not to on our account. We'd rather put up with Arnold in and out of our yard than to know he's over there crying from being tied up. So the guy agreed to not tie him up and that's how come we now have an overnight guest. I guess he'd rather sleep on our back step than their's. Doug thinks we may have confused the dog by feeding him. I never thought I'd feel so badly for feeding him, yet I'm wondering now if they fed him yet today because he's been over at our house all day, so I have no idea if he's even ate yet. Sigh.

Tap tap tap...

Yooooou Whooooooo Laura......don't leave us hanging like this girlfriend. Did you have those babies yet or are you just hiding?!! =)

heaven

By the way, I slept until noon today....Mmmmmmmmm! (technically I got up with Daniel for a bit so Doug could sleep, then I went back to bed, but still...NOON people!)

I need to clean now and shop later. This blog crap is just a huge stupid distraction to what really needs to be done around here. Doug has the kids all out again today until supper time. Normally that's great and well it is, I just need to get off my ass and get something done. I have no work tomorrow, it's our holiday! Wooo! How great is that?

Frustrated

Why are photo editing softwares so difficult and confusing to use? I've manged to get two words put onto a photo I want and that took forever. I've followed the stupid directions the Kubrick guy gives for putting a personal header on my blog and HA, it's still not working. I'm not even sure that's the photo I want to use anyway, I was just experimenting. Doesn't matter because I can't even get it to work. Sigh. I should just hire someone to do my template and save myself the big fat headache of it all.

Oh I never did get any response to my earlier question (that probably got lost in all my updates lately)....pMachine or WordPress? Why? What is the biggest difference between the two? I've checked other blogs and some have surprised me as being pMachine. I had thought them to be WordPress. Maybe I should just update my MT template and not bother with something new. My goal is to password protect only certain entries and to require registration, seems to me WordPress is the one that does that, right?

Veggie boy

Since Daniel ate table foods on Christmas, we've been trying him out on other things daily. Some he'll try and refuse, some he won't try at all and the odd thing here and there, he'll try and like. Today I opened up some Campbell’s vegetable soup for him to try. It's probably not the best thing for him to eat, but I didn't have any leftovers and I didn't feel like cooking. For a long time, he just played with it. I didn't think he was even going to try it, but to my delight while I was eating my lunch, he started licking the spoon and as soon as he realized it tasted okay, he picked out the veggies and ate them all. I even dished him up a second helping!! All I ended up feeding him for baby food at lunch was some fruit!

Look at this messy boy!






Yesterday I took down our tree as I mentioned in an earlier post. I feel like we didn't have it up for very long, but our house ends up very disorganized when Christmas stuff is out everywhere. Mind you our gifts have been put away since Christmas day, so that's not the real issue, it's everything else. Gift bags, ornaments, wrapping paper, tags, candles, cards etc. Just a mess. Oh well, holidays are over for another year and this past one went pretty well all things considered. I felt pretty busy and overwhelmed at times, but I believe a lot of that is carried home from work.

While I was watching Arnold out our back kitchen window yesterday, Daniel decided sneaking out the front door and playing in the road sounded like a grand idea! Yes, I hate to admit it, but I caught my one year outside in the road. I'm incredibly lucky nothing happened to him and I feel absolutely horrible about it. We knew he discovered how to open doors this week and we had put on door knob protectors on a few of our doors, but not the front door. He's never tried to get out the front door before, it was always the back door that was an issue. I knew he was in his room playing blocks and I was in the kitchen watching Arnold jump the fence back and forth. I had sent the kids over next door to tell them what their dog was doing. The kids and I all came back through the front door, I know it was closed.

Well I watched Arnold for a few minutes, then went in to peek on Daniel in his room. He wasn't there. I've already learned as soon as he's not where I thought he was, I yell out immediately "where's Daniel". Justin was sitting on the couch in the living room, he said he's not here. When I came out around the corner I saw the front door wide open. You have NO IDEA what a freak out that causes me. I ran out the door and there he was running up and down the road having a blast. OMG. I ran out in my housecoat to snatch him up and I noticed a neighbor down the street had come to the end of his driveway, so he must have heard him and was coming to check it out, thank god. God knows what would have happened if I hadn't of went to check on him when I did. I would never forgive myself if something happened to Daniel all because he got out from under my watch.

We bought more door knob protectors and are going to put hook locks up high on all the doors. My heart and nerves can't take another "close call" with this child and the road. I feel with all of us in this house, we watch him really well. We play with him a lot and really it's only a small, one level house, he shouldn't be able to slip past us like he does, but shit he does. It's scary. Has your child ever got out past you?

Latest on Arnold

As I mentioned in my earlier post, Arnold had managed to jump through the fences and trap himself between our back fence and our neighbor's back fence. The situation has actually worsen. At will, he has been jumping back and forth between his own yard and the neighbor's in behind us through a broken piece of the fence. You can see the crack he's fitting himself through. I'm so worried he's going to get himself stuck or hurt. He comes and goes as he wants.


So today Doug and the kids had just gotten home and Justin was out jumping on the trampoline when he yelled to us that Arnold was in our yard. We both ran out, pugs right behind us...surprisingly they didn't attack one another, just barked. Arnold ran around like nuts pretty excited to be visiting! Doug caught him, but not before he managed to pop Cody's giant kickball that he got for Christmas. Doug got him back in his own yard with Arnold struggling all the way.

We decided the neighbors needed a visit. Doug went to tell them that their dog was jumping into ours and our back neighbor's yard at will and that he's going to get hurt and he's chewing up our balls etc. The guy came out to see where the dog was getting out at and Doug pointed it out and explained that Arnold just wants to come over and play, he gets excited when the kids are out. Doug showed him the big kickball he broke, but the guy didn't offer to replace it. So that was that.

Justin came in about ten minutes later and said they were tieing Arnold up. I thought Oh god. Doug went out to check on him. Arnold was whining his head off, he was VERY unhappy. Doug said they have him tied up to a back corner of their house on the other side with barely enough rope that Arnold could peek around the corner. I was sick to my stomach. It pissed me off so much. It's bad enough they neglect the poor thing and now their solution to a broken fence is to tie the dog up so he can't even enjoy our company through his fence.

After I finished putting our Christmas lights away off of our tree, I decided to go out with the camera to see if I could see Arnold. To my delight, he had broke himself free. His collar didn't even fit him, looks almost like a cat leash they used to tie him up with!


The advice I get from work is to call the boxer rescue. I checked their website today and unfortunately unless the dog gets picked up from a "time limit" pound, they can't take anymore boxers. The other solution I was offered was to literally kidnap the dog, find it a home. I'm not sure if I have it in me to do that. I've stopped sneaking him food. I think it is confusing him, but now I'm tormented wondering if he's hungry. Sigh. Assholes. Why can't they just pay attention to him?

New Year's Meme

Snatched from Laura.

1. What did you do in 2004 that you'd never done before?

Ate at the Cheesecake Factory! Yum.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don’t normally make resolutions. I can be disappointed with myself enough without actually saying I’m going to do something, then not doing it. I always have “to-do’s” and “goals”, that’s as far as I go.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Doug’s step-brother’s wife had a baby in April. My co-worker had a baby in July.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No, but I was extremely bothered by the death of a little boy at Daniel’s school. I still think about him.

5. What countries did you visit?

I wish I could say Canada.

6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?

Energy.

7. What dates from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

7/16/04 – Daniel’s first birthday and his party that weekend.
Why? Because it was a great party and we had almost Doug’s entire family together for it.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Hmmm. Maybe losing a little weight after discovering carbs were my enemy.
I got a promotion at work in December.
I didn’t strangle my kids for all their bickering.
We built the garden I wanted with barely two clues to rub together.
We painted and re-decorated four rooms in our house.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Being cranky and tired for no good reason.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I tripped over the baby gate and that pain was pretty bad. I thought I broke my foot, but x-rays came back good.
My back has hurt a lot this year.
I don’t remember really getting sick this past year though. Wooo!

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Buggy cover for Daniel
New bedding
Material for Daniel’s curtains
Tv for Sarah’s room
Trampoline for back yard
Clinique makeup
New clothes

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Doug shows each and every day that he loves me and the kids. His patience alone deserves a party!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and disgusted?

Right now my neighbors are on my shit list. Other than being upset at work a time or two, no one has really disgusted me that I can remember.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Food, mortgage and van payment.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Winning my first auction on e*Bay. Heh, how corny!

16. What song will always remind you of 2004?

A Mother’s Prayer, anything sung by the Wiggles. Ugh.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder? Maybe more “moved in” sorta speak. Sadder sometimes because Daniel is growing up so fast and we can’t make a decision easily as to whether we should have one more. Happier sometimes because we are so blessed and have each other.
b) thinner or fatter? Same actually, although at different times throughout the year, I was thinner. But I will be again.
c) richer or poorer? Probably richer. We both got raises and Doug taught an extra class over the summer.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Organizing and volunteering.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Griping.

20. How will you be spending New Year's Eve?

Watching 13 going on 30 with Doug and the kiddos.

21. Did you fall in love in 2004?

I’m totally loving my hubby, does that count?

22. How many one-night stands?

Not.

23. What was your favorite TV program?

Ooo tough one. American Idol, ER, Clean Sweep, 24, Third Watch

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

No new hates this year!

25. What was the best book you read?

How awful, did I read anything this year? Ooo Maybe the Harry Potter, Order of the Phoenix.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Clay Aiken

27. What did you want and get?

Laid? He he…Let’s see, what did I not get?

28. What did you want and not get?

Video camera or new digital camera
New kitchen appliances
New computer
Covers for the furniture

29. What was your favorite film of this year?

LoTR

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Turned 32 on my birthday. Bah. We went to Dallas Aquarium, West End Market, Farmer’s Market and Cheesecake Factory. We also went to a Mall over there for a bit of shopping!

31.What one thing would have made your year measurably more satisfying?

Making a baby?

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?

Oh good lord, none. If it’s loose and comfy, it’s mine!

33. What kept you sane?

Having my husband listen to me when I needed it.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I can never put names to faces, however I’m liking Michael Moore for all he does!

35. What political issue stirred you the most?

Let’s just not talk about politics, go read my hubby’s blog.

36. Who did you miss?

Family and few old friends of mine from Nova Scotia.

37. Who was the best new person you met?

No comment.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004.

You get back what you put in.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

You’re my life’s one miracle
Everything I’ve done that’s good
And you break my heart with tenderness
And I confess it’s true
I never knew a love like this ‘till you
-miracle, Celine Dion

You know it's comfy when...

Help!

Word Press or pMachine? Why? Any links to templates/styles? I'm really struggling with that right now. Also, I really want pop-up comments and I don't think it's going to happen with either interface.
tia!

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Happy New Year everyone! I wonder what 2005 has in store for me?