Connection lost

We are having serious internet problems at home (I'm blaming DirectTV for messing something up when they hooked up our service on Sunday). So hopefully I can get up and running again soon.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this!!

http://blog.pigtailpals.com/2011/08/waking-up-full-of-awesome/


I might be a slight feminist. I never really, realized it until I took a class on Feminism in college...not by choice, it was a Humanities class of some sort and the professor chose to focus on feminism for the semester.
I would not have done well in the 1950's, I do not believe that the woman should stay home while they man goes to work (though Steve would have no problem being a stay at home dad!). Maybe b/c I have 2 sisters and we are all 'strong' women. I want Presley to grow up this way too! I would probably vote for a woman president b/c she was a woman!...don't judge, there are people who WON'T for her b/c of that same reason! (Let's face it, I don't vote anyway!)

Who are we to judge?

I saw a homeless man on my way home from work the other day, standing on the corner with a sign asking for money. I always want to give money to these people but I don't b/c I figure they are going to buy alcohol or smokes with it. Plus, I've seen on those Dateline shows about the homeless people who can earn quite a bit of money standing on the streets collecting money (with a poor, skinny dog next to them....that makes it even harder to say no to them!)
However, then I began thinking.....who cares how much money they make in a year? And what if they really don't make any money! If they are willing to stand on a corner and beg for money then they are full-time bums. If they spend all their hard earned money on food, smokes or beer....then that is their right. No one gets to tell me how I spend my money, why should we judge them on how they spend theirs?

Miss Independent.

Ok the girl is independent. She has to do everything on her own. EVERYTHING!
- I closed the door that she wanted to close herself....she opened it and closed it again.
- I turned off a light that she wanted to turn off herself...she turned it on and turned it off again.
- I picked her up and put her in the bathtub (which caused a screaming, crying fit!) b/c she wanted to get in the tub herself....so she got out, then got back in.

Four years

Married to my best friend.

The person who knows me better than anyone else.

The man who gave me our perfect little girl (who is also the biggest challenge of my life).

The guy who can fix the kitchen sink, remodel the bathroom, make me dinner and help me shop for clothes.

Who will laugh at me when I'm funny (or when I think I'm funny) and argue with me, just to argue.

He will agree to disagree and help me with my fantasy football team.
He knows that I think food can make everything better and I know that he could never spend enough time in a home improvement store.
Stephen, I love you! Thank you for being the most wonderful and understanding husband and father. We are very lucky to have you in our lives. XOXO!

Random Ramblings

- Our anniversary is Thursday, my mom is watching P on Friday night so we can go out to dinner. I asked Steve where he wanted to go and he mentioned Zombie Burger. Really? How romantic. Needless to say, we aren't going there. He even said he would trim his nose hair for me. Wow! I'm lucky! Don't be jealous ladies!
- Presley has done pretty good at potty training over the last couple days. We aren't pushing it but she stayed dry almost all day at daycare! So I guess at this point, we need to be better about reminding her and stop being lazy about the whole thing.
- She has such an imagination! She changes her babies diapers, all the time. The amount of diapers and wipes we go thru for her babies is dumb. If her baby poops, she barely holds the diaper and wants to throw it away.
The other day she wanted to go to the store. So she got her purse and baby...then brought her shoes into Steve so he could help her put them on. I asked how she was going to get to the store, and she simply said 'momma's car'.
- Tonight we were at Target and P stopped at the baby sandals and said 'Look, so coo-te!'......in a completely high-pitched, fake voice. It was SO funny b/c she is obviously copying us.
I was crying at Extreme Home Makeover the other night and looked over at her, she was fake sniffling, squinty eyes, pretending to cry like me!

Scary

I work with a lady who has two teenagers in highschool. The stories she tells about highschoolers these days are SCARY! It makes me want to homeschool my kid and keep her in a nice, safe bubble.
I remember in middle school seeing a girl bring her birth control pills to school and I was appalled! I was too innocent for that. Now girls just go get the morning after pill....just in case! Why get birth control?
And a girl at their school took a picture of herself topless and sent it to a boy....who sent it to his friends. Well, you know it doesn't end there...now everyone has seen this picture. And this happens ALOT, boys and girls taking pictures of themselves.....HELLO!!! With technology, Facebook, Youtube.....why are kids SO dumb??
Seriously? It makes me sick to my stomach. What is wrong with kids today....and their parents? That's why I was good in highschool, I didn't want to disappoint my parents! Why are kids NOT scared of their parents anymore? So I'm hoping that I can raise my little girl to be confident and smart (there are enough Teen Mom's on MTV already). And I'm asking the parents of the all little boys out here, please raise them to respectful and caring (Let's avoid the Jersey Shore douchbags).

Are you ready for some football?

Saturday we had Brock, Jackie and Ava (who just turned 2) over to watch the Iowa game! Hoping to watch the girls play together, eat some food, drink some beers and have a lot of laughs! It was good Iowa comeback game!

The girls actually didn't play together that much, they got along fine but mostly played independently. They were so cute together with their curly hair!

That night we thought about going to Beaverdale Fall Fest, but it was a little chilly so we got together with Brock, Jackie and Ava and went out to dinner instead. Dinner with two 2 year olds, is not nearly as relaxing as we were hoping it would be! HA! They both had a time out, they both threw food on the floor....but overall it was still nice to get out of the house!

Sunday we had a Packer party! My uncle David from Colorado and his girlfriend Steph, mom, dad, Holly, Sam and Boston came over to root for the Pack! It was a good game! Another victory for us! As always we had way too much food, but I managed to eat a little of everything (ok, ok...ALOT of everything)

P and B, nervous about the game!Or watching a cell phone commercial.

On a side note, Presley did very good about using the potty this weekend! Again, we didn't push it. She wore her pull-ups and told us when she needed to go...and the smile on her face when she does is awesome! She is SO proud of herself!

And she has to do EVERYTHING herself. "I do, I do!" She wanted to help me with laundry, but she had to do all of it (hmm....maybe I should use this to my advantage!), I turned off the lights and she ran back in there and said "NO, I DO!". She turned the lights back on and then turned them off again. I should be thankful that she wants to do things b/c I'm sure it won't last long however, it does take more time for everything we do.

Potty time

P is by no means potty trained. On the weekends she might spend 4 hours a day in big girl underwear. Sometimes she does good, other times...not so much (like Saturday when she peed her pants twice). I always ask her 'what are you going to do if you have to go potty?' and she says 'tell mama'! She might sit on the toilet 5 times in an hour and never go, and 10 minutes later pees her pants. FRUSTRATING, which is why we haven't been pushing it with her.
However, last night when we got home from dinner she ran in to her closet (her pooping spot) but she had a pull-up on! So nope, we got her on the toilet and she went potty so good! Put her diaper on, she ran in the closet and pooped.....we can only ask so much from her!


Tonight we were at our nephew Austins football game and she says 'mommy, I go potty.' Here she was telling me she needed to go potty and there was little I could do. We even asked her if she just wanted to go in her diaper! 'No, I go potty'. Great, so the options are the porta-potty's near by....which was NOT going to happen, or trekking it up to the school to see if it was unlocked, hoping we could find a bathroom.....all before she peed in her diaper. So I took a diaper with us (not confident this was going to happen) and off we went. We finally found the bathroom (as I'm looking around for a diaper changing station, which I realized they don't have those in highschool bathrooms, duh.) Took her DRY diaper off, put on her toilet and she went! I was so proud that she was able to hold it for that long, especially since I didn't believe her! LOL! I guess we should really give her more credit!

Sweet overload

We were lucky enough to inherit Andrea's (P's babysitter) Sweet Street collection! It's awesome! Little houses and stores, with little people and all the needed accessories! There are 4 boxes of this stuff, most of it we haven't dug out yet! It is perfect for a little girl, heck I wish I had this stuff when I was a kid!

Do not be surprised to walk into our basement and see me and Holly down there playing with this stuff. Just saying....it could (and probably will) happen.

Steve, being the ultimate handyman and father decided to build P a table for the basement, the perfect size for all this! He also hung up a cool little picture holder for her art work under the window!

We made sure to put out our American flag today in remembrance of the 9/11 attacks 10 years ago. Today I have avoided the anniversary specials on TV, after watching it Friday night I just can't watch it again. I remember working at Von Maur that morning, then family and friends started calling and rumors started spreading. We had no real access to TV or radio, so all we had was the phone calls. The mall closed early that day and I drove straight to my mom's house. The last thing I wanted was to be by myself. The coverage was haunting. We will NEVER forget!

P Pics

I felt like I hadn't taken pictures of P for a long time, so today I got the camera out and followed her around. She was not fond of the paparazzi but I was still able to get some cute ones of her (without her pouting, hiding behind her hair or running the other way).

Party on Rocky

Holly had a 50ish birthday party for her dog Rocky. I know, she's weird but it was fun and there was a good turn out with 4 dog friends and many human friends attending! Rocky even wore a tie for the event!

My daddy and his twin brudder, aren't they cute!

Even the kids loved the party! Conor and Boston tried to tease the dogs from the other side of the fence, notice Rocky off by himself. He's a loner, a rebel.

Notice how Conor and Boston are the same size, actually Boston weighs more than Conor and he is 3 months younger!

After the party we went home and watched the Packers win their first game. Woot Woot!

Friday night, I made the mistake of watching a 9/11 special on TV. I wasn't going to watch it b/c I knew I would cry and I didn't want to spend my night sad. Then I thought maybe it would be good for me, to help me really remember what 9/11 is (was) all about. I was wrong, it didn't make me cry. It made me bawl like a baby, bawling tears on my couch. P was worried, she kept asking me what I was doing b/c she didn't understand my sadness! :(

Update

I know you all have been dying to find out about my lasik eye appointment...well the doctor I saw does not recommend me as a candidate for the surgery. Lovely. I knew that was a possibility but I know other people who have worse eyes than I do that have had it done, so I was annoyed.
If you know anything about eyes or how bad they can be....Steve's are -1.25 and -1.75........mine are -10 and -8.25.
However, I got referrals from 2 different people for another doctor that I want to see. BUT (BIG BUT here)....on his website they give you very detailed information on the process and necessary precautions you have to take....including not wearing your contacts for 2 weeks before the procedure (which I could do if I really had to, even though I get bad headaches at work when I wear my glasses) and NOT wearing eye makeup for a week. What? Excuse me? Not going to happen! I don't go out in public without eye makeup, it's not an option. I told Steve that I might not have this done b/c of that reason! Isn't that terrible, that that would be the reason I wouldn't have the surgery done?

Random

- A family friend's son David (the one who ate cuy) asked my mom the other day if Presley had a wig on. Is that a bad sign? Is her hair that big?
- Presley was pretending to put on make-up today. I told her she is way too pretty for make-up!
- I bought Cake UV vodka.....it's supposed to taste like white cake mix, and it does! Holly and I tried it tonight, with shots. We toasted to '5:15 on a Monday night'! Why not?
- Weather like this makes me wish I was still a runner! With our Dominican trip in February, both Steve and I will have to cut some pounds after Christmas! :) Maybe I'll become a runner again closer to December. (I'll dig out that treadmill in the basement)

Can you hear the squeals?

Do guinea pigs squeal? Well, P and I went with Pa, Holly and family friends the Riders to a Ecuadorian meal at Mi Patria on Friday night. Susie and David ordered the cuy (a Peruvian delicacy)! I tried a small bite, kinda like chicken.....only not.

It was great to try a new restaurant though and wonderful to hang out with everyone!

Saturday we traveled to Earlham to watch the Iowa football game and have our family fantasy football draft! The Iowa game resulted in a victory! Go Hawks! Presley and Ava played good together all afternoon!

Steve is in 3 fantasy football leagues this year....oh man. He did receive the traveling trophy for the league that he won last year.

Yes, it is as obnoxious as it looks! He wants to make a shelf to display it. (hopefully he's thinking in the garage?)

Sunday we decided to have a day of busy-ness! We got SO much done around the house! All the normal cleaning, 6 loads of laundry, I went thru all of P's clothes and boxed up all the ones she has grown out of, deep cleaned the kitchen, a trip to the grocery store. Plus, more work in the basement! (blinds up, hung the TV, got half of the new couch (the other half is on back order), railing up, door knobs on, finished painting, plus Steve made a floating shelf for underneath the TV)

Today, we wanted to have some time outside! Since we were so busy yesterday we didn't get to enjoy very much of the awesome weather we are having!

We decided to head out to Jordan Creek. We had a nice lunch on the patio at Bravo and walked around the pond.

Then while P had her nap (or quiet time), Steve cleaned the garage and I headed to Target for some retail therapy. Presley benefitted the most from this trip, like usual!

Our neighbor and one of P's up and coming BFF's, Bella was outside and Presley was SO excited to play. I love hearing them play and talk to each other! They both had to get their babies and strollers and were pushing them around the yard! Adorable!

If we continue to live next door to each other, these two are going to be trouble! :)