Happy New Year!

Life Update for 12/28/08

So, Christmas has come and gone. I remember more of what Nicole got (bath crayons, a puzzle, TONS of clothes, a real goldfish she named “Bubble”) than what I got actually. I suppose that’s how it’ll be for a while now. That’s not all bad. :)

We celebrated Jenny and Kelly’s birthday on Friday night. We’re all turning 30 but as I have a late birthday (September) I get to be at the end of the pack making the leap. That’s not all bad either. We had Graeter’s ice cream and I loved every bite. Made a mental note to stop in more frequently even if a single scoop is 2/3 the cost of a half gallon at the grocery store.

Jim’s side’s Christmas at our house was a bust for the most part. One aunt and uncle cancelled that morning because their oldest and his wife were in labor. Jim’s mom and stepfather got their load re-routed and didn’t make it a priority to come north anyway so they didn’t show. A boyfriend didn’t make the trip so that left just four visitors and us. Not all that exciting, unfortunately.

Nicole is HUGE into two things this week: 1) riding in her new Radio Flyer wagon and sitting at the computer and typing on the keyboard (not a problem as it’s not attached to an actual computer as it’s still in the shop). Lots of cute pictures but no computer to download them to!

As of today I’m over 1/3 done being pregnant (14 weeks). Not really showing yet but still very tired. Being pregnant is different this time as I’m obviously aware that I’m pregnant all the time but I am so busy with life, work, Nicole, etc. that I go for long stretches where I forget. That’ll be different when the baby starts moving and I can feel it though. I need to go back two years ago and re-read my Nicole postings. I have a doctor appointment next Friday that the whole family will attend and I think we’ll find out the gender in February!

still alive!

I’m off this and next week (2 weeks!!) for the Christmas and New Year holidays. This is the third year I’ve done it and will be sad to see the tradition end next year when my vacation time is eaten up by maternity leave.

Some notes on what we’ve been up to:
1) our computer has a virus that is quite persistent and required us to actually take it into a shop for repair. As a result, I’ve not had access to the internet to read/post. I’m using Jim’s work computer now

2) We are errand crazy around here. We’re gone for hours a day for last minute Christmas shopping, new drivers licenses, etc. Nicole is so used to going that she grabs my hand to go bye-bye if we’ve been home too long.

3) We’re watching Weeds on DVD thanks to Lisa and Kendall. First season was only so-so but the second is shaping up okay. We’re really looking forward to Heroes which is our next series to watch.

4) Tonight we head to Mom and Dad’s and tomorrow everyone comes here. Mom’s having turkey and we’re having roast beef which was much more expensive than I thought it would have been. I’ll be roasting my first turkey ever when we host Jim’s family on Saturday. I baked a blueberry buckle this afternoon and already started on the baby jello molds (in red and green of course!) for dinner. I’m really really really hoping they set right. I’m nervous- they’re what I’m counting on the “that looks great!” for.

It's Raining Clothes!

I put a onesie on Nicole today that had a turtleneck top and was clearly too short to be snapped and be comfortable (y0u could see it stretching). So, into the outgrown pile it went. I wondered though what other winter treasures were in boxes in the basement that are 24mo. in size that might fit so we took an adventure downstairs, brought a full bag and box upstairs, and started the sorting process again.

Holy crap did we find a lot of stuff.

Thanks to hand-me-downs she's gotten, Nicole's wardrobe just got injected with 4 new pairs of jeans, 2 jammies, about two dozen shirts, 2 pairs of tights, 3 dresses, 6 SUPER cute sweaters, and a pink Bengals sweatshirt.... And that's just what I remember!

While I was in a clothes sorting mood I fetched all my "outgrown" clothes (clothes I shrunk out of when my thyroid went wack-o) that now might be perfect for my not-yet-materity-clothes worthy body. I'm growing at a smaller pace with baby #2 which isn't all bad as most of the things that came out of the bags are still pretty stylish and I predict I'll get another 2-4 weeks out of them at this rate.

I know it's dumb but I'm really excited for us both to model our new outfits. It's like shopping without spending- what a feeling!

Parenting Advice

I hear over and over “don’t read parenting advice” but I like to be well-rounded and be exposed to ideas that are different than my own experience or intuition so I get a weekly email newsletter that I trust. This week it covered two topics that I cocked an eyebrow at: hitting and punishment. Here’s what it said:

Some children surprise with another kind of force — hitting, especially when they're frustrated. The most likely target: you. It's counter-intuitive, but this is actually a sign of trust. A 17-month-old child knows that you're a safe person to show just how upset and frustrated he can get.

Jim and I talked about this last night – Nicole has a bad habit of getting frustrated at Jim and hitting him (often in the face). She rarely hits me though and I’ve only seen her hit other kids 2-3 times ever.

I have a 1 offence tolerance for this activity. The first time she does it she gets a stern look and a firm reminder that “we do not hit”. The second time now results in a 1 minute trip to the time out step (as I have a hard time reasoning the spanking (hitting) as punishment for hitting). She knows what that step means and won’t dare get off of it though she whines the whole time. When she’s done we make her tell Daddy sorry and give him a hug (which she always does).

The kicker with this that we don’t quite understand is that even if Jim follows these steps it doesn’t mean as much. In fact, he’s noticed that there are times that she hits him and then immediately looks to see if I saw her do it. We both consistently follow the same punishment routine but it “sticks” more with me. Is it my tone? My seriousness? My refusal to even crack a smile as I watch her howl with frustration? The fact that I'm her primary caregiver and she doesn’t want to disappoint me? Not sure…

You may also notice that your child occasionally but very deliberately disobeys your orders. You say, "Please stay away from that vase," and your toddler looks right at you, reaches out, and touches the vase, or plucks a flower from it. You know he got your message, so rather than let the defiance become a big deal, experts say to simply ignore it whenever possible. In fact, it's important to try to avoid a confrontation with every little issue.

This advice doesn’t fully gel with me and I’ll admit I'm still learning as I go so maybe I'm wrong. If she does some things, like yell, that I don’t like, I can ignore her. My logic is that I don’t want to validate that her negative action deserves attention. I think this is what the babycenter.com people are getting at here too. However, when it comes to deliberate disobeying, especially on something that I want her to learn (ie you’re not to touch other people’s delicate items in their house, or you don’t put your finger into light sockets, etc.) I think she needs an actual response, not just to be ignored. I'm focusing on their last line “every little issue”- I don’t do this, I only make a stink of “important” issues (see above examples). Not sure if this is “right” or “wrong”.

AMY – I’d appreciate your weigh in here specifically!

Maybe Viki knows....

There is a finite number of [good] Christmas songs that they play on the radio so of course you hear many versions of the same song in a day. As you can imagine, some renditions are [much] better than others. Sometimes I think, “now why did you put your own dumb spin on that perfectly good classic?” but I’ll admit maybe I'm just old fashioned, especially when it comes to Christmas.

This previous thought lead me to think maybe that idiot with his own version finished recording it and said “damn, that’s how it was meant to be written!”

Which makes me wonder: Does every artist think that their adaptation of a song is the best? Can they listen to the radio and all the other versions and admit that in comparison, their attempt really did miss the mark? Or is every singer deep down biased to their own voice and their own “twist”?

Hea-ven

Someone in my office brought in these store-bought cookies that are absolutely amazing. I do not normally like peppermint but these little suckers are chocolate chip with periodic white chips that have tiny peppermint candy balls that add just enough to give the whole cookie a special taste. A Christmas-y twist on an old classic. Thank God the kitchen is like a 3 minute walk one way now or I’d be back getting another about every 15 minutes.

Weekend of 12/12/08

We’re back to a hectic schedule but it’s going okay, keeps things interesting.

Monday night: closed on the lot behind us and watched intently for Max’s picture to arrive
Tuesday night: Jim’s Christmas party in BFE
Wednesday night: off!
Thursday night: visit with Max, Lisa & Kendall! :)
Friday night: out with friends to dinner and arcade
Saturday: taught, annual Christmas party (my contribution was a 21-potato mashed potato bowl – geesh is that a lot of peeling!)
Sunday: errands, cleaning, bowling

Highlight of the weekend (this shows how lame I am. Also, forewarning that this might be TMI): Nicole pooped in the potty! It was on Sunday morning and she started making “that” face. I asked her if she was going “poo poo” (which I do every time I notice she is as I want her to be aware of it) and she responded “I poo poo”. I then asked if she wanted to go to the potty and she shook her head yes. So, off we went. I hadn’t pulled out the kid potty yet so she had to get held on the big one which she wasn’t totally sure about. However, she did squeeze one out and I took her off to show her the fruits of her labor. She got excited and wanted to touch it (ewww!) which I obviously didn’t let her do. Problem was, I was excited and quit paying attention and looked down to see she had peed a nice puddle on the hardwood floor. Oh well. It’s a start! She’s only 17 months old (as of Thursday) so I suspect this is the first step in a several month journey. Hooray – perhaps I'm not so crazy in expecting to have two in diapers for a short stint!

Happy 32nd Birthday, Jim! :) I love you!

Probably overreacting but...

Every time I see a house with the black light-looking lights (psychedelic?) I think to myself, “those people must sell pot”. I envision the decorations as kind of a “red light” of sorts.

Christmas and Mom Status get me again...

Can't help it when happy stories about little girls, their dads, and Christmas come along... the eyes have no choice but to well up!

blowing off the dust

Jim is mean and is making me clean out some of my “stuff”. “Stuff” includes the boxes of pictures from HS forward, old report cards, mementos from retreats I went on, etc. I, of course, feel no need to part with these things in general but apparently we need more space (uh, don’t we live in a 3700 sq. foot house?!) so I started rummaging through the boxes he brought up.

After some thoughtful consideration I agreed to get rid of all items related to teaching high school English (what my degree is in that I never actually did beyond student teaching). Jim’s right, I think/hope, if I ever do this it’ll be years from now and the things I created when I was 21 probably won’t be as good as the new stuff I’d come up with.

I also, *gasp*, threw away several dozen pictures. Some were duplicates, some were just bad shots, some were of things best for Nicole not to find one day. I did find an entire envelope of triplicates of Sarah W’s wedding that I'm going to give her doubles of.

I pitched some short stories I wrote but kept a notebook filled with poetry and essays. Some of it was actually pretty good.

I also decided to keep, for better or worse, three letters from people I once dated. One was an ex-boyfriend that made me roll my eyes (at myself- did I really buy into his CRAP?) after reading his card, another was an ex-boyfriend that just had very sweet things to say that made me smile, and another was from a guy I went out with that really “time stamped” the period of my life (he was talking about things like “if you’re hesitant about dating me because of what the Dayton crowd might say…” – good lord, I hope I was smart enough at the time to write back that I could care less what others say) and it made me laugh at my youth. (can my UD girls guess who these guys are??)

I'm only 2 boxes in and have three to go. Who knows what other treasures will turn up. I'm certain I’ll find autographed HS playbills and the like buried in there somewhere……

Weekend of 12/5/08

The weekend was a good one. Nicole did two particularly cute things I’d like to record. I'm finding that the cute things she does now fall more into a category of her being such a little person but [trying to] do big kid/grown up things.

1) My mother (and father) gave her St. Nick presents last week – an Elmo pop-up book and a Christmas calendar with one piece of chocolate hiding behind a pull tab for each day of December. She’s been giving me one of those calendars for as long as I remember. So, each day I’ve let Nicole have a little piece of candy. This is HUGE for her because she gets sweets like twice a month (we’re mean, I know) and before this calendar she didn’t even know what the word “candy” was. Anyway, it didn’t take long for her to catch on to what was happening. Friday (the 5th) I sat down with her in my lap with the board and we looked at the picture and searched for the flap that said 5 on it. Once we found it and she got her chocolate she happily ran away to suck on it. After dinner she drug me back to the counter where the calendar was and pointed, grunted, and danced. I explained to her that she already had a candy for the day and she “only gets one candy per day”. Her response, clear as a bell, “one more”.

2) Saturday night we had dinner at a Mexican joint where they bring you chips and salsa to munch on before your meal arrives. Nicole had a cup and was sitting in the booth next to me. I let her suck on a dry chip while Jim and I munched. We were talking so I didn’t pay attention that she was paying attention to us so I was startled when she suddenly stood up on the bench. She took her chip, leaned across the table and dipped it into the salsa bowl like we did. From there on, every bit she took got a dip before she ate it.


GOOD LUCK TO LISA AND KENDALL THIS MORNING! YOU’RE IN MY THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS! See all the cute things you get to look forward to?!

Enjoying a day off work

I have made HUGE Christmas shopping strides. I finished up Nicole (I think…) today with my purchases of a magna doodle, farm animal puzzle (wooden with the plastic knobs to hold the pieces by), and bath crayons. She already has some elephant slippers, an outfit and books waiting for her too…. I also got Grandma’s tea kettle & mom’s perfume. Forgot to look for Jim’s ___, but I have time.

I got irritated at the lady at Hobby Lobby who insisted I needed 100% cotton material for my sewing project. That’s not what I wanted but figured she knew best. I should have called mom who told me what I had initially picked out would have worked fine. So, I went back out to my favorite fabric store (that I should have gone to in the first place….) and bought what I wanted. I even got the little tag that says “Specially Handmade by Karen” on it to attach to the finished product. :)

This morning was rough - I had 2 hours of B-A-D cramps to the point that I couldn't move from the couch (being vertical was too painful) and actually called the doctor to come in for a check-up. Of course by the time I got there at 10:30 I was perfectly fine. BLEH. This good visit negated the need for my previously scheduled second visit on 12-15-08 where Jim and I were going to hear the heartbeat for the first time. I felt really guilty as it was happening because he wasn't there, but I got to hear the heartbeat by myself today - 160/min.

Official!

I’d done it before of course but, for the first time ever, I wasn’t nervous. I was actually… excited. I even went to the extent of recording a 45 second video of it happening on my camera and took several pictures of the finished product to make sure I had the right lighting and as little glare as possible. The photo needed to be clear enough for the card I was making. Fortunately, the shot came out okay.

The outside of my card read “10, 9, 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1…” and when Jim opened it up it said: “ready or not HERE I COME” with the double-lined pregnancy test pic taped to the left. Yeah, he was pretty surprised. Just stared at it for a bit then looked at me with wide eyes.

:)

So there you have it – the new news in the family! We’re officially due on 6/28/09 (I'm 10.5 weeks along) and we go to hear the heartbeat for the first time on Jim’s birthday, 12/15.

I feel, in order, tired, hungry and cold all of the time. Physically I’m really good 95% of the time and the other 5% I'm a little car sick, have stomach cramping, or feel a bit lightheaded. I’ll take it though- nothing to complain about!

Learning the hard way

Thanksgiving was good – we went to my aunt and uncle’s who had the house all done up for Christmas. Much of the partying was done in the basement where the TV and game room reside. And, where the “kid” Christmas tree is (you know the one with the homemade ornaments). Nicole hadn’t seen a tree before and kept wanting to touch the ornaments which I did not want her to do. Here’s what went down:

First time she touched I told her “no, you don’t touch the tree”.

Second time she took an ornament off I hung it back on the tree, held her hand firmly at her side and repeated she was not to touch the tree.

Third time she went for it I smacked her hand, sat her in my lap and told her “No, Nicole, you are not to touch Christmas trees.”

The second she stood up that little girl touched and ornament again just to spite me. A more audible smack on her hand ensued this time and brought actual tears and a few sobs. My grandmother moaned that I “hurt her feelings”. She has to learn though. It only lasted a few minutes and ended with me hugging her and reassuring her that she’s loved. (awww.)


Since then I put our tree up. It’s like there’s an invisible force field around the base of it. Nic won’t get within 5’ of the thing.

They put their tree up at the sitters and were quite impressed she hasn’t gone for it. Clearly she can be taught! Even if it cost a few tears.

first and last black friday morning

Look at the time of this post. I've been in line for a half hour and have probably another hour to go. People are surprisingly polite but I can assure you my time and sanity is worth even thirty dollars in shipping from kohls. Whew!

Michaels to go (I need suction cups and can't wait) but my fingers will do the shopping the rest of the morning.

Prepping for the Holidays

So the new job transition is going. I have 3 demos I'm scheduled to present in a week and a half (one for a major client) and I’ve never done one in my life! I'm getting time sheets from all the guys on a daily basis, and yesterday my art was hung on the walls. Things are starting to settle in…

I LOVE going to my old side of the office - literally a chorus of "I love you, Karen" or "I miss you, Karen"'s ring out. Even our president was taken aback. Other thing that makes me happy: our food bonanza at work where everyone brings in something (often lunch, yesterday was tacos) to share. Today Bryan and Luke (2 of my IT guys) brought in calzone type things. They went out of their way to let me know they specifically made me veggie ones instead of just meat (I noted in a training once they had only ordered "boy pizza" with meat everywhere and not a green thing in sight). I love my co-workers.


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Thanksgiving is tomorrow. I changed my signature at work to include a little graphic of a pilgrim hat. After work I have to go shopping for the ingredients to waldorf salad (my contribution to the meal tomorrow). I eager to start playing Christmas music and leisurely shop on Friday.

I bought a lot of discounted decorations post-Christmas last year so there’s a lot more to do on Friday in addition to putting up the tree. I have a wreath for each window in the front of the house and garland to adorn all the stairways. I'm keeping my eye on some 4” tall nutcrackers that I want but they’re running about $100/ea even with the half off discount I saw at Garden Ridge. I want them for either side of my fireplace.

Last night we planned (shock I know) what we’re getting everyone for Christmas. Jim wrote everyone’s names down and I had him record the items I’ve already bought and we tried to fill in the holes which was lukewarm successful. Nicole got excited because all the names we kept saying out loud were people she knew so she’d repeat (“Nenna! Nenna! Mary! Mary!”) and look for them on our picture wall.

I probably won’t have time to blog very much so my wishes for a hearty Thanksgiving to you and your family!

Weekend Report & Nicole Habits

This weekend made me excited about a 3-day workweek. Friday was pretty mellow – we finished up Amazing Grace (B) and went to bed at a reasonable hour.

When I woke up on Saturday, however, I was SICK. I think I had some sort of stomach virus because I went from freezing cold wrapped in an afghan to burning up and laying in a tank top on the linoleum sweating. My stomach rolled with so much pain it made me nauseous. I had to miss school as a result and I couldn't really get off of the couch until about noon. Of course, 24 hours later I'm just fine like nothing happened at all. BLEH.

I did muster the energy to go to Spencerville for the family Thanksgiving. It was a good time but overall relatively short since we had to leave promptly at 9:30 am so I could be home in time for The Wizard of Oz at the Aronoff Theatre. It was pretty disappointing in general though the kids in the audience seemed to dig it. During intermission Mom and I talked Christmas and I was frustrated to learn that my great idea for my grandmother (a digital picture frame) was already in her closet for her. Grrrrr! That does save me from getting up at 4am on Friday for the deal I spotted at Meijer for them.

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Curious Nicole habit: the child doesn’t sit, she prefers to squat. By squat I mean in a catcher’s position with her thighs touching her calves and her butt an inch from the ground. Why anyone would like to stay like that (especially when sitting is literally so close!) is beyond me, but she does it all the time. I think she might think she’s rebellious because I don’t tell her to “sit down” (ie in the bathtub) if she’s squatting versus I do if she’s full out standing.

The other thing Nicole has done lately is hit when she gets mad. If you tell her no to something she wants or take something away she can’t have she gets mad and swats at you. With anyone other than us our first reaction is to grab her arm and hold it firmly at her side while telling her “you are not allowed to hit”. I don’t release her arm for several seconds and normally that will stop the bad behavior. If she tries to hit Jim however one of us will ask her “are you hitting?” and she turns instantly sweet and looks at him all lovingly and says “hi dad” and pats his chest gently. Obviously she’s not fooling us but it’s funny to see her change her tone and try to cover up her negative actions.

First post from the new office

So, I made it. I'm here in the new digs and hopefully it’ll be okay. The office is really big and is on the corner of the building so I have a tremendous view, though it’s behind me. I brought all my furniture so the room’s getting a homier feel to it. It’ll be better when my art’s on the wall and everything’s unpacked.

I also had my first IT meeting as a leader of this new group. I took a list of the first 15 things that need to be accomplished (of course all need to happen right away) and the news was broken to the rest of the company – many of which seemed relieved that someone was going to be taking control.

Still no plan in place for official job transition so I’ll be doing both for several months. Since I didn’t get a phone until 4:55pm and was moving all day, I didn’t get the chance to listen to any of my 18 new messages from the day. I'm not so enthused to listen to them today, truth be told. Ah well… someone else’s problem shortly.

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Happy birthday Tom & Dave!

Moving on Over

1 aspect of my new job that I don’t like (and there are several…) is that I have to move offices. My company is pretty great in that most everyone has an actual office – a space of our own with a door we can close. I actually have one of the biggest offices thanks to my tenure but even better than that it’s right in the center of the office. I get to see people coming and going and they often stop to chat which I enjoy. The office is large enough that I have a desk, filing cabinet, couch, 2 trees, and art that fits just right on the wall. I also have a wall-length window that’s probably 15 feet long.

See why I don’t want to leave?!

My boss says that I have to physically move to the other side of the building near the people I'm going to support/manage. This logistically makes a lot of sense, I know, but that’s on the other side of the building and will put me alone as they're out 70% of the time. Though I'm not complaining, I thought it a little strange that the guy who’s supposed to be my new boss moved out of the only office in that department and into a cube so I could have the office. Again, not complaining as I really did not want a cube, but wondering what kind of tone it sets over there….

I guess on the up-side, I do get to take all of my furniture, including the couch, to the new office. And it does have a window. I just don’t want to be out of the mix and I LOVE my current space. I'm trying to delay as long as possible but there’s pressure to move me TODAY. Boooooo!

For the Record

Christmas in September is unnecessary.
Christmas in October is pushing it
Christmas in November should not begin until Black Friday. Period.

With this guideline in mind I'm shaking my head at the radio stations that have already flipped to all Christmas all the time. EEK! You’re cheating Thanksgiving!

The only exception to this is Josh Groban’s O Holy Night.

Lots o' stuff...

So, things have been busy here – some updates:
1) I decided to take the other job. I feel really unsettled about it because of the money thing, but I'm hoping that I enjoy it as much as I expect to. There are some final things I still want to negotiate out with them (ie keeping my pretty office with the windows, couch, door…) and I'm hoping they’re open to it.
2) We didn’t end up going to Kabuto for dinner but made stir-fry at home. Jim said he was going to make it but somehow I ended up doing it myself…. Hmmmm… It was nice to be at home though for a relaxing evening
3) This weekend was very busy- Jim went out with Sean on Friday and we went to Tom & Meghan’s on Saturday night. Sunday saw us at Erin & Scott’s for lunch. *whew* Thank God Nic was well-behaved and that our friends are kid-patient.
4) Bowling was bad – lost ¾. My 91 in the second game didn’t help with that. We were in first place but after that performance we won’t be any longer. :(

What's Up

Things with us have been pretty busy. Lots going on socially and financially that have lead to long nights and long conversations:

1. Our social calendar is back to crazy. Last Friday we had 5 other couples from the neighborhood over and the last one didn’t leave until 2am after about 5 bottles of wine and 50 bottles of beer. I was exhausted the next morning when I got up at 7am to go to teach.
The next night we had Sean and Jessy over for games, of which I lost all. :(

2. This weekend we have 2 game nights and one luncheon scheduled. The weekend after that we head to Spencerville for Thanksgiving and rush back so Mom and I can go to a play. The activities never seem to stop!! But we want to do them all so it’s our own fault for being so busy.

3. We have decided to buy the lot behind us. We walked it with the developer and it’s 1.3X bigger than our current lot. Joe thought that for our purposes it’d take about $1000 to clear it out and prep the ground for sod (which’ll probably be another $1000). It’s the right thing to do long term but makes me sigh over another 5-digit check to cut.

4. This land purchase comes at a precarious time of me getting offered a new job (still with my same company, just doing something other than what I do now). It’s a job that I created, proposed, and pushed and would change me from sales to sales (of something different) and project management. I'm VERY interested in doing this but would be at a 15% reduction in pay. It’s that fun debate of how valuable is liking what you do. Jim gave me one of the best compliments last night as we talked it through – he said that he ultimately wants me to be happy at my job but likes being able to tell others I make more than he does and, above this, thinks I'm worth more than him in the marketplace with my skill set. Because of this, the idea of me choosing to make less frustrates him. Especially if I could go some place else, do something I’d like to do, and make more. It makes me feel guilty for wanting to accept. It makes me want to find a new job. It makes me unsure of the “right” thing to do.

5. On a high note, today is my 4th wedding anniversary. We got a few cards/emails and my mom called today to wish us well. Grandma T. had us over last night for dinner which Nicole and I thoroughly enjoyed (she was a BEAST in how much she ate!) and we’re going to go to Kabuto, a hibachi grill, tonight for dinner to celebrate. I think Nicole will get a kick out of the cooking action. :)

Horsey!

Jim can no longer lay in peace, if he does a munchkin crawls on him and expects a ride!

Listen around the 40 second mark for Nic to say "ready" (as in "ready? set? go!"). She gets out the ready and the go but never the "set" - those darn S sounds!

Facebook Friends

I'm on Facebook now which means that people have started to ask to be my friends. At first I was flattered by those who wanted to see what was up to and keep in touch.

Then the remote people started popping up.

You know, those people you didn’t really care about while you were IN high school, much less 10 years later. I'm still scratching my head as to why they care what I'm up to? Or is this really just a game for people to feel popular and have 100+ “friends” listed on their profile?

I got one from a client today that I had to look up - I forgot why the name was even familiar. I'm not convinced I want clients to see my social networking information without spending considerable effort to find it.

We talked about this at length on Friday and Tom P. ironically sent me an article about it that morning. It all goes to show that having friends isn’t always a good thing. Read on….

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-11/pl_brown :
Thanks to Facebook, I never lose touch with anyone. And that, my Friend, is a problem.

The political world and Our world

Part of me wants to continue writing about politics (or nothing at all) so that the good banter continues. I love my diverse friends! Especially when I find out that spouses don’t necessarily agree on the issues like Jim and I don’t. More evidence that we’re “normal”!

Side note – if you don’t often read backwards the post from the 4th has gotten quite a bit of traction that’s worth checking out and weighing in on.

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A little blurb about some personal heartburn… as you know we have the lot behind us that is currently empty and not actively being sold. We had discussed buying it from the owner but he wanted $55K for it and we just weren’t willing to shell out that kind of money for a plot that’s largely unusable. Several (about 4) other neighbors were in our same position – had land they wanted to buy behind them but couldn't reach an agreement. Their situations turned into a new neighbor which has led some of them to feeling frustrated or, in one case, misled. Our next door neighbor is so mad about the position of the house that was put behind him that they’re getting a lawyer and are considering moving.

The developer is looking to work on this lot and make it sellable by the end of the year so now we have to make a decision as to whether or not we want to buy it or if we want a neighbor. It's proven that houses go fast in our neighborhood - our subdivision alone has over 20% of the active building permits in the township! We’re trying to learn from the hindsight of our peers and are taking our purchase opportunity more seriously. The new offer on the table is $45K and he doesn’t seem likely to budge on it. His pitch is that WE could sell the home to Ryan Homes and have a house built on it or, when it’s time for us to sell, it would be a good bargaining chip for our potential buyers. Really, of course, our plan is to buy the land and do nothing of the sort – we’d be buying it so a house DOESN’T go up.

The cost to develop the land is estimated at $5000 and there will be additional expense of seeding/sodding it and adding to the sprinkler system to include it in the reach.

While we’re leaning towards the purchase I'm feeling the weight of yet another five digit check being written and our savings constantly being depleted. This puts off my porch project by another several years. : (

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Welcome, Cortny! I’ll aim to entertain!

The next 4 years....

So the “other guy” won. Jim and I talked about the election results and he made some great predictions of which I'll summarize:

The economy is in a slump, consumer confidence is down, the war in Iraq is dragging, Americans are generally unhappy with the status quo. One of two things will happen:

1) Obama will be the savior of the country. His plans will work flawlessly, he’ll get reelected as things steadily move towards the better and at the end of 8 years will walk out of office in glory for the marvelous job he did fixing many of our problems. This of course isn’t that challenging to do since we’re so low as is; nearly anything is better than where we’re at. But still, he’ll get full credit and infamy for taking us in the right direction.

2) At the end of four years things won’t be any better. Obama will claim that Bush put us so deep in a hole it wasn’t realistic that he could fix it in four years. It’s not his fault things aren’t better. American’s will nod and say “yes, things were bad, you’ve only had four years…” and his reelection campaign will head on a platform of “I’ve stabilized us, the bleeding is done, we’re on the path to healing”. No one will blame him for not doing squat.

I have a lot of hope that the confidence my fellow Americans have is founded and that things will get better. I honestly don’t buy that it’ll be as amazing as he touts (or that the American people believe) but I also think it can’t get that much worse. I think that my religion might deepen as a result of all the praying I’ll be doing – that he doesn’t get assassinated, that pulling out of Iraq pre-maturely won’t lead to another terrorist attack, that my hard earned money isn’t spread around to those who don’t deserve it, etc.

I hope #1 happens. I want to see some of this [positive] change he’s been talking about. And if it does, and we’re on the right path, I’ll vote for him in 2012.

You knew this was coming...

Some election day reflections:
1) I got up this morning at 6:04 but really I was awake since 5:45 – I wanted to make sure I got up on time to vote. I'm highly motivated to have my voice heard.

2) The polls didn’t open until 6:30 (as I discovered when I got there at 6:09) and there were about 20 people waiting. By the time I left at 6:42 there were probably close to 75 people in line. This makes me SOOOOOOOO happy!

3) Apparently I registered democratic when I was 18 because my mom has gotten 3 calls from the Obama campaign in the last month (of course I no longer live there) which she has fielded. She even got a hand-written 2-page letter back from one woman – props to the Obama campaign for a highly personal touch.

4) A guy behind me said that he looked up the sample ballot last night and was surprised to see six people on the ballot for President (versus the two he was expecting). "I never heard of these people!" he exclaimed. "You've probably only heard about one," was another guy's response. SO TRUE.

5) I thanked the lady who was checking my ID for giving up her time to work the polls. She told me she was being paid but would do it anyway and encouraged me to volunteer. So I did. I think that voting is something really important so I wrote my name down to call me for the next time they need workers. I would have no problem taking a day of work for that.

6) There was this cute older guy about 70 or so I think that was tearing off ballots for people. Unfortunately he wasn’t very agile and kept ripping off part of the bar code at the bottom which meant that the completed ballots wouldn’t scan in the machine. People were getting frustrated which was unfortunate but understandable. I gave one guy a very sharp look though when he started bitching about it. My position is – you can do it yourself (aka volunteer your time) OR you can complain but you can’t complain about others who are trying to help you and make unintentional mistakes.

7) More than anything, this election has frustrated me for WHY people are voting. I’ve researched the issues, watched the debates and read several articles on both candidates (from several sources). I feel informed in my decision. Over and over again you hear cases of people voting not for any issue but because of the elements that people hiring for jobs (which is essentially what we’re doing) aren’t allowed to consider – race, religion, and gender (primarily). Lisa knows someone who is voting for McCain because Sarah Palin is from Alaska. It fires me up to hear how many black people are voting for Obama simply because he’s black. Many shows/newspapers have brought to light that these people don’t know hardly ANY issues like their stance on abortion, immigration, taxation, etc. but pledge blind allegiance to their own gender, race, whatever. That irritates me beyond belief.

8) I feel like I'm a vital voter because I live in a swing state. It would, as Martha stated, be annoying to live in a state where your vote is hardly a whisper (ie Oregon).

9) At the end of the day I voted for McCain. I’ve come a long way though from a few months ago when it actually made me nervous about having Obama in office. The research I've done has helped but so has the influence of my friends. The people I know and respect are educated and informed. I know if they’re voting for Obama it’s because they truly believe in what he and his team stand for and not just because of the factors listed in point 7 above. I'm especially reassured by the people who put their time, effort, public endorsement and money behind their position. While I’ll conceded that a McCain victory is doubtful, I don’t feel dread about his opponent in control.

10) Before I go on, let me admit that I know this is immature. On Saturday we had dinner with friends who are voting democratic. They joked that my vote cancelled hers. Since I conceded that my candidate most likely will not win, I'm okay with my vote just being a cancellation vote. BUT, I don’t want it countering Kristi’s vote. No, I'm reserving my cancellation vote for a guy I know who’s so close-minded Obama it’s hard to have a conversation with him. I respect my friends who, while they don’t side with me, will concede to the “other guy” having a valid point on X,Y, or Z (like I do with Obama). This guy has such thick blinders on and spews inaccuracies that “prove” his point, that I’ve lost respect for him and would be fine not maintaining our acquaintance relationship. So, ____, this morning was for you.

Halloween!

Our little Honeybee!

Halloween was a fun day. We got home a little early from work, had dinner and dressed Nicole. She seemed to sense that something bigger was going on and was really in a good mood.

When I took her outside she bounded down the front walk and would not stop to have a formal picture taken (what you see above is one of the few she was actually sitting still for and was taken at 8:30pm post-excitement). We went to all the lit houses while Jim passed out candy. Since she’s not shy she had no problem walking up to people and it only took about 2 houses for her to get the gist of what was going on. By halfway through we had a system – I’d ring the bell and she’d pound on the door.

Lots of “awww’s”, one blue dum-dum lollipop drooled down the front of her costume, and a bucket partially full of stuff Jim and I will mostly eat later, we came home. Jim said there were only about a dozen trick-or-treater’s that came to the door – that’d be 12 more than last year so hooray for progress! I took Nic to Mom and Dad’s and we got home about 9:00. So much excitement led to a 9am wake-up! :) no complaints!

Taboo Subject - How I'm voting on the Issues

So there are several major issues up for vote in Ohio next week. I took the time to research them yesterday so that I’d know how to vote “intelligently”. I used the Enquirer’s review of the issues as my basis for information gathering. Here’s some general summary for my Ohio friends:

Issue 1: This issue extends the ballot deadline from 90 days to 125 days. The good news is that it seems this would make the process more streamlined to put new issues on the ballot – it also gives more time for proponents and opponents to collect petitions for their side. It has no formal opponents. The bad side is that if a law were passed in this time period (which would be longer) it’ll take until the next year to get taken out of law. I'm voting YES on this issue.

Issue 2: This is the Clean Ohio issue that was originally passed in 2000 and is up for renewal now. It does not raise taxes and is funded by state-issued bonds. It has successfully “helped to conserve 26,000 acres of natural areas and wildlife habitats, preserve 20,000 acres of Ohio farms and revitalize 173 abandoned, polluted former industrial sites”. It has no opponents and appears to have no downside. I'm voting YES on this issue.

Issue 3: The water rights issue, this simply puts into constitutional law a law that is already in existence and has been upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court several times. It says that water (lakes, streams, wells, etc.) on your land is yours and that while you can use the resource (for irrigation for example) you can not restrict it from others who have rights (ie you can’t build a dam and not allow people downstream not to use the resource too). Opponents only oppose it because it’s “redundant” not because they don’t like what it says. I say who cares if it’s a law it can go into the constitution to make it more firm. I'm voting YES on issue 3.

Issue 5: Payday advancement has gotten HUGE nationwide. Locally in Cincinnati Check-N-Go is a large company that employs 6000 people state-wide by providing cash advances to people who need them. What happens in general is that individuals post-date checks and are willing to pay a premium on the money they borrow. For example, they’ll write a $115 check to get $100 now and the CNG company will cash their check at the later date. Some times what happens is that you simply use your paycheck as collateral to pay back some of the money but it’s more like a traditional loan. It’s been shown that APRs can get up to 391% to people who don’t repay these loans on time and rack up fees on top of high interest rates. Opponents to this (the loan companies themselves mostly) claim that with lower and restricted rates (8%) they won’t have enough revenue to stay in business and 6000 people will lose their jobs. If this goes away banks will become the primary loan source with short-term (ie 3 month) loans as their primary replacement offering. Banks ARE restricted by law to mainain "reasonable (<10%) interest rates .

This is a little tougher. I'm traditionally FOR business as in my opinion businesses employ people who then have money to buy things (spur the economy) and pay taxes. Unemployed people with no money can do neither. As the “personal reference” for friends/family who have used these services (we get the calls of “have you seen so-and-so lately? Can you please tell him/her we’re looking for them?”) I know first hand the vicious cycle that owing money can get you into. Also, as you can imagine, these institutions really harm your credit which makes getting future loans difficult (one friend was paying ~20% interest on his truck loan!). Institutions like this enable people to make and continue to make harmful financial decisions. On the other hand, there are a lot of people in 1-2X binds that will responsibly use these services and it’s good they have the source to do it.

At the end of the day I'm voting NO to this issue so that these businesses can charge what they want and put the responsibility on the people for making their own decisions (they know the terms when they agree to the loan) and living with whatever consequences their decisions earn them.

Issue 6: Bringing casinos to Ohio. The premise that Ohio is losing out on taxes, revenue and the jobs potentially created by building a mega-casino in Wilmington, OH (about 45 minutes northeast of Cincinnati of I71). This company would become in the top 5 employers in the state and would open the doors to other casinos being added in other counties. The taxes paid by said casino would be split between all 88 counties in the state and it’s projected that it’ll draw as much as $850 million in revenue per year. As you can imagine, the Ohio Visitors and Convention Bureau is all for it as are the residents of Wilmington who fear major job loss with the departure of the DHL hub in the city.

Opponents worry about increased gambling addiction, traffic congestion (which will require additional highway/roadway spend to expand), the well-noted loopholes that state that the 30% tax rate the casino would currently spend has the right to change (reduce) to match whatever future casinos pay, and the lack of a gaming license fee.

Obviously the key here is if we allow this industry to start in Ohio what will the benefit be? The risk with taxes is IF an Indian casino would come they pay no taxes so this casino would match and there’d be no taxes. Experts say the likelihood that an Indian casino would come is slim and even if it did it would be years and years of processing to get it approved. The other downside is that they wouldn’t have that initial gaming license fee with is normally a hundreds of millions of dollars number. That’s a lot of money to miss out on.

I just don’t like the idea of people having another opportunity to waste their money. While this seems completely contradictory to how I'm voting on Issue 5, my first-hand experience with my mother and father in laws hobby (and their complete lack of a retirement savings at age 60) makes me resilient to letting others get in that boat (where my taxes then pay for their healthcare and living via Medicaid). I am therefore voting NO on Issue 6.

You asked for 'em: OUTTAKES

I don't want to carve no stupid pumpkin!

Ohhh this feels kinda weird...

Did you really let me sit on this counter alone? Kick ass! I'm on the counter with a pumpkin!

When I pound on this thing it sounds funny! Listen while I keep pounding!

Wait, this thing comes off?

Does it fit back on too?

I'm thinking about spitting this candle out...

Expanding my mind (?)

I looked up information on Kabbalah the other day. I read an article about Madonna who’s an avid follower and realized I didn’t know the first thing about the religion. So, if you’re interested, here’s what the official Kabbalah site (http://www.kabbalah.com/01.php) has to say about what Kabbalah is:

Kabbalah — the world’s oldest body of spiritual wisdom — contains the long-hidden keys to the secrets of the universe as well as the keys to the mysteries of the human heart and soul. Kabbalistic teachings explain the complexities of the material and the nonmaterial universe, as well as the physical and metaphysical nature of all humanity. Kabbalah shows in detail, how to navigate that vast terrain in order to remove every form of chaos, pain, and suffering.

For thousands of years, the great kabbalistic sages have taught that every human being is born with the potential for greatness. Kabbalah is the means for activating that potential.

Kabbalah has always been meant to be used, not just learned. Its purpose is to bring clarity, understanding, and freedom to our lives — and ultimately to erase even death itself.

Sounds a little hokey. Anything that claims to know the secrets of the universe makes me a bit skeptical.

Anyway, I kept reading through the site and in general didn’t learn much. Boo to their webmasters. One thing that I did make note of was the multitude of books written on the subject. I think that when I'm done with the trilogy I'm currently reading (I'm 1/2 way done with the first and the third's not yet written) I might go borrow one from the library.

For Martha (and Katrin)

Here's a post not about spiders. It's about pumpkin carving.

This sucker was hard to break in to! I had to pull in the hired guns.

Here we are scooping guts. Nicole wasn't afraid to touch them, in fact at one point I pulled 4 seeds out of her mouth. She's sneaky...

All empty!

"What's in there?"

This design was more challenging than I'd hoped. The size of the pumpkin was the ultimate downfall. Part of the inside snapped where the wall was thin and I had to break out the toothpicks and perform surgery. : ( Nicole seemed pleased though.

"Melmo!"

Maternity Ward

On Sunday we all got up, ate waffles and raspberries and got ready for church. Seemed like an ordinary Sunday. When we got back from visiting God, I made ravioli for lunch and Jim got Nicole’s highchair tray to serve her portion.

“What’s this?” he asked pointing to about 2 dozen black dots along the edge.

Upon further inspection we discovered they were tiny, little baby spiders. I'm not one to get grossed out about bugs so we cleaned and disinfected and generally thought it was weird but oh well. That “oh well” opinion changed when we sat down at the table to eat and saw hundreds of baby spiders burned up in the sun on our kitchen table.

Apparently we were hosting a pregnant spider in the mum that Grandma gave me. The plant, which was sitting in the center of the kitchen table, was coated in spiders. Some brave ones had left the plant and died on the table top, others made it to the floor and lined the hardwood under the window sills. I wouldn't go so far as to say there were "thousands" of them though it'd spice up this story even more, but several hundred (600?) is a pretty accurate guess.

We swiffered, vacuumed, removed all plants from the room, Clorox wiped, and vacuumed again on our hands and knees with the hose. What started out as the end of Charlotte’s Web (when all her babies head off into the world) turned into Honey I Shrunk the Kids with us crawling around inspecting every nook and cranny of the kitchen for little spiders. I think we got them all except for some stubborn ones (that appeared dead) deep in the air vents that refused to get sucked out.

End of the day it surprises me more that this has never happened before than it happening at all. How many spiders live in your house you’re unaware of throughout your life? Doesn’t it seem reasonable, even probable, that eventually one of your tenants is knocked up? Unfortunately even with this logic Jim has requested approval on all “outside plants” being brought inside the house.

Fruit

A lot of food companies like Kraft, General Mills, and Tropicana have been trying to get around raising prices by other creative means in the last several years. A common tactic is to change the actual package size so that the consumer gets less but pays the same. Ice cream for example used to be a half gallon portion and is not in many brands any longer, filling a potato chip bag half full of actual chips and half with air is frequent.

As I ate my kiwi this morning though the thought occurred that fruit growers don’t really have that luxury. A kiwi is a kiwi. They can’t shrink the product size, change how much it costs to transport it, or repackage it differently. They can pay their workers less, use more pesticides to keep crop counts high and other things that are “bad” to keep costs low, but changing the actual product portion isn’t really an option.

And this particular kiwi came from New Zealand. It can’t be cheap to ship a bunch of perishables from New Zealand to Ohio. I bought this thing for ~$.33; doesn’t that make the actual product cost of this piece of fruit like a nickel? Shipping this baby, even in mass quantities, has to be like 3X that cost when you take fuel prices into consideration. The profit hardly seems worth the effort of transporting it, storing it, paying import taxes, etc.

I guess I'm just surprised that my kiwi isn’t like $.50/ea by this point. Though I'm glad it’s not.

WaHoo!

I filled up at $2.37/gallon this afternoon!

Learning the world around her

Some words Nicole picked up recently: rainbow, mommy, cracker, Elmo ("melmo"), and Grandpa ("papa"). Plus some "oldies" - turtle and duck- for good measure:

Call me a mean (educational) mom, but I frequently quiz Nicole on what she sees now. When we read her Sesame Street music book she points to Elmo on each page. We're working on Oscar, Big Bird and Ernie too which she gets about 60% of the time. No more looking at books just to hear a story. Fortunately she doesn't seem to mind... yet... Movie below is the Elmo search. If you don't know Elmo he's the red guy on the pages:

She knows 12 body parts and 2 animal sounds (snake and sheep).

Jim was most impressed on Saturday though when Nicole took the initiative, without being asked, to pick up the string cheese wrapper, take it to the trash bin (we have a pull out cabinet), throw it away, and then close the door. So helpful!

Jim and I talked about her growing up now that she often follows directions, knows where important items are (cheese is in the refridgerator in the bottom drawer, crackers are in the pantry, etc.) and knows how to correctly use real objects like tissues, hairbrushes, etc. Tonight Jim asked what she wanted when she started getting fussy and she said "mommy" and walked to the door that I had left from. Makes me tear up some times because while it's exciting to see her learn the old helpless days are over. She's already on her way to not needing me [as much]. :( It's so cliche to say but so true...

Weekend of 10/19/08

This weekend was a full one. On Thursday Sarah F. came into town for Lisa’s baby shower. She, Sarah W., Lisa and I all hit up the Olive Garden where they had the “requirement” of charging me $3 for salad since I ordered an appetizer as my entrée and salad apparently doesn’t come with appetizers, even if it’s only for one. This turned into a big hoopla and probably 2X more salad than we normally would have gotten was ordered so we could make the most of the $3 it cost us. Ah, immaturity. :)

Saturday morning I had to teach and then I hauled ass up to Troy to make it to Lisa’s for the shower. The pending “emergency” that caused me to go so fast was her announcement of what gender the baby is. They waited for me to get there and it was a good thing – I won the door prize for guessing correctly!

On Sunday we took Nicole to the pumpkin patch to get her Halloween gourd. There were a LOT of pumpkins and most had pretty good dimensions/faces to them. Jamie/Jason/Ryan met up with us during the process and once everyone had collected their pumpkin we headed up to pet the ponies and pay for the goods. Nice hour-long relaxing adventure.

One of the funnier moments was when I asked Ryan to hold Nicole's hand for a photo opp. Well, he was sweet enough to comply and Nicole promptly took off, pulling him along with her. Jim counseled that he might as well get used to a woman dragging him along.

Bowling was frustrating. We won’t go into detail about losing ¾. :(

Next Season's Dancing with the Stars

Happy Friday, Everyone!

New Business Idea

I had a dream last night. Stay with me here, I know people go “ugh” when blogs start this way….

There was a company that allowed people to sell their organs upon death. For example, if I died via a car accident I would have a pre-determined price on my heart, kidneys, eyes, etc. This company would collect my organs and store them until a buyer came along that was willing to pay the price I set for the organ. 20% of the selling price went to the company for a commission (since they are doing the holding/storing) and 80% of the selling price went to a benefactor of my choice.

The business model answered the supply and demand for organs that are not currently being met in a timely fashion via the traditional organ donation programs. Here, if you need a kidney you don’t have to wait for your turn on the list; you shop for one and pay what you’re willing to pay.

All in all not a bad business plan.


I thought about it more though and I think that if this would ever happen there would be a sharp decline in people giving up their organs “for free”. Why donate if you can sell and make Little Johnny an extra $2000 for your lung? This would really hurt people of lower income who could’t afford to buy them from an even shorter list of available organs.

Tom P told me about prisons in China being suspected of being organ mills where they are [accused of] killing people just to take their organs and give them to the rich. Holy cow!

Guilty Pleasures

• Liking and listening to One Step at a Time by Jordin Sparks
• A little sweet at home in addition to my post-lunch mini candy bar
• Watching Dead Like Me with Jim in the evenings when I could be doing something “productive”
• Taking Nicole to the doctor and hearing from a professional that we’re not screwing her up (this evening!)
• Flavored French Vanilla cream in my coffee each morning
• Having dinner with “the girls” instead of hanging out with Jim/Nicole
• Painting my fingernails with a French manicure
• Blogging at Work

Everybody's 2 Favorite Topics

1. Today will be the last day of the year in the 80’s. The high is predicted for 81. 81 degrees in mid-October!! Really though I don’t mind, I really like my own fall wardrobe (lots of sweaters!) and I haven’t had the chance to break out much of Nicole’s new [to her] fall clothes because its been so warm.

2. I bought gas last week for $3.09 and was so pleased I called my dad while pumping. This week it’s dropped down to $2.68 in some places. Holy crap!

Somehow I suspect that there will be an inverse relationship to the weather and cost of gas in the upcoming month….

Nicole's Weekend of 10-10-08

On Friday night we got to babysit Ryann while my brother and Lindsay caught a movie. The girls played near and with one another all night. Here's a <2 minute video of the action:

Saturday we had to prep for the softball party at our house. Nicole was a big (read: insistent) help in getting the kitchen cleaned up.

When she was finished Swiffering she relaxed with a spin around the driveway.

The softball party was low-key but fun. Nic was mesmerized by Tom S.'s good looks. Meghan & I understand her crush.

Sunday morning we pulled out Nicole's new slide. Her friend Ryan C. brought it for her to the softball party since he's too big for it now. It was a hit!

My favorite part of her routine is the dramatic fall into the pillow at the bottom. We were on this thing for literally HOURS on Sunday.

Freaky Friday 6 - Mary Sightings

Writing these Freaky Friday posts is a double-edged sword. On one hand I like the opportunity to reflect on some of these ‘mysteries’ and to get the opinions of readers alike. On the other hand, I feel unqualified to talk about some of this stuff; in some cases even to give my opinion as I haven’t thought through the subject entirely to have a well-formed opinion on the matter. Maybe I shouldn’t even write until I’ve done that (thought it through), but who has time to sit for an hour and think about what-if’s?

So forgive me if my analysis is far from complete and my limited examples paint a small snapshot of the whole picture.

A subject that fascinates me are the [supposed] apparitions of Mary around the world. I’ve attended private, Christian-based schools my entire life and this was a subject presented as fact though lightly covered. In grade school we had Mary Day where a lucky 8th grader would crown the virgin with a wreath of flowers and ribbons while the whole school would sing Ave Maria in the “grotto” area between the school and church. That being a song that really touches me and the sentiment being so pure, this was always one of my favorite parts of the school year.

I know this’ll make me sound kind of dumb, but when I was young I used to pray for Mary to come to me. For some unknown reason in my mind I chalked my own mother up to be inaccessible for conversations on topics as important as getting your period. Surely the 2000 year old Mother of God would be more in touch. I promised to never tell anyone if she came and for a long while I believed that she actually might if I prayed hard and intently enough. I'm sad to report that she never showed.

I'm sure you’ve heard over the years of every-day items that look like the Holy Lady – water marks under bridges, toasted images in hamburger buns, window smears, etc. All of these I chalk up to coincidence and over-active imaginations, much like the game we play as children trying to spot a likeness in cloud shapes.

I also wondered if other religions had sightings of their leaders (Mohammad, etc). After several searches on Yahoo! and Google I didn’t find any articles about this at all.

As recently as this year one of the sightings by a shepherd-girl has been validated as real. Through the years several have been approved and dozens more are still under investigation by the Catholic church. In doing a little research for this post it seems that most of these sightings are to children. Some more than one child have seen (ie Fatima), others it’s just one girl seeing the light/woman and others around her see nothing at all. Some times it’s not a sighting that’s reported but a crying or bleeding statue. Still, approved or not, whole presence or just tears, people come in droves to make pilgrimages and pay their respect to the location where Mary once was.

I’ve never been to one of these places before. I’ve never been anywhere that I felt a real religious presence/peace. I think the lack of this is what still keeps me questioning a lot of religion in general. I have had moments of feeling my place in the universe as a whole. I experienced this thoroughly one night on a retreat in college and have never forgotten what that sensation was like.

So, at the end of the day, do I buy into Mary coming back to Earth for visits? When I watched the YouTube posted video of the crying statue (see link above) it gave me chills. I can't explain it. I'm assuming this was untailored video but how do I know? This skepticism is what leads me to say that if I had to give a black and white answer I’d say no, I don't fully believe. But I’d really really like to.

My Candidate, Myself

Here's an interesting article about people's unwavering political views. I'm happy to report that while I can be guilty of siding with a candidate in gray areas (where neither's answer mirrors my own opinion/solution I will support the guy I like better, McCain), I have on many issues (like most recently the AIG spending insult) sided with Obama if he's got it right.

Sept. 22, 2008 “Let’s make sure that there is certainty during uncertain times” — George W. Bush, 2008

Last week, I jokingly asked a health club acquaintance whether he would change his mind about his choice for president if presented with sufficient facts that contradicted his present beliefs. He responded with utter confidence. “Absolutely not,” he said. “No new facts will change my mind because I know that these facts are correct.”

I was floored. In his brief rebuttal, he blindly demonstrated overconfidence in his own ideas and the inability to consider how new facts might alter a presently cherished opinion. Worse, he seemed unaware of how irrational his response might appear to others. It’s clear, I thought, that carefully constructed arguments and presentation of irrefutable evidence will not change this man’s mind.

In the current presidential election, a major percentage of voters are already committed to “their candidate”; new arguments and evidence fall on deaf ears. And yet, if we, as a country, truly want change, we must be open-minded, flexible and willing to revise our opinions when new evidence warrants it. Most important, we must be able to recognize and acknowledge when we are wrong.

Morning Room

Ignoring our lived-in house... the teal room is our morning room off the kitchen. Long term I want to add more of a sitting area along the far left wall - a love seat, end table, and chair so it's more of a solarium.


If you look closely you can sort of see the wire pumpkins I put out on the island for Autumn.

Shopping during an economic downturn

I read an article this morning on how well Goodwill stores (and ones like it) are doing in this economy. The main point was that these stores are finding a lot more middle-class customer base than ever before.

The Salvation Army store in Dublin, Georgia, located halfway between Atlanta and Savannah, has seen its sales increase by 50 percent this year, said store operator Gary Spivey. The comparative affluence of his new customers is obvious.

"We're seeing a lot more middle-class and upper-class customers we haven't seen before," he said. "Without even asking, you can just look in the parking lot (at their cars)."

… According to Alterman, 75 percent of the company's customers are college educated, with an average income between $50,000 and $65,000. Thirty percent of its customers have household incomes exceeding $100,000, he said.

Here’s one manager’s logic as to why this is happening:

Consumers "can't change the price of gas. They can't change the price of food. They can't make the stock market go up again," said Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops. "But they can control the price of clothes and furniture by being a savvy shopper."

Makes sense to me.

I was surprised how many people in my office shop at secondhand stores like this. After complimenting a certain piece of clothing they’ll boast of their $2 buy at the Salvation Army store.

Locally we have been doing more selling on Craig’s List and have been shopping for higher ticket items (ie a piano) there too. My brother and his wife just bought a practically new Temperpedic mattress and a new playsest for Ryann off the site. I'm looking for a second-hand kitchenette for Nicole for Christmas. At $200+ brand new I'm having a hard time swallowing it.

I’ve talked about the $60 runs on ½ complete seasonal wardrobes and a $12 Radio Flyer tricycle for the baby at the recent mother’s sale. I find this very economical for Nic’s clothes since she only wears them for a max of 6 months before she’s on to something new and will never return to that item.

While I justify shopping at places like this for her I don’t buy my own clothing at stores/outlets like this. I gravitate towards universal pieces like white blouses or floral printed skirts – the kind of stuff that is pretty generic and doesn’t go out (or in) of style. Therefore, if I spend $30 on a pair of pants from a first hand store (often a TJ Maxx type) I keep them for 6 years and feel I’ve gotten more than my value out of them.

It’s looking like Nicole will be a ladybug for Halloween – we just got a costume (The Children’s Place) from the babysitter yesterday that is too cute and on FREE loan!

Weekend of 10-3-08

• I had a birthday party at my aunt’s on Saturday with the family. Very nice time – fried chicken, mac n’ cheese, green beans, and of course cake and ice cream. :) I got some blouses and a skirt from my mom, a board game from Dad, a check from one grandmother and a potted plant from the other. “Nicole” (aka my mother) gave me a pretty beaded necklace.
• Nicole did a few fun new things – 1) she got a new tooth (top right molar looking thing – a bicuspid?), 2) when you ask her where her eyes are she blinks heavily, 3) she answers “Baa” to the question about what a sheep says. My dad was emphatic that she said “Grandpa” to him but I haven’t heard it yet. I measured her on Saturday and she’s 30 inches tall.
• Mom and I went to Garden Ridge on Sunday because their autumn stuff was 50% off already. 2.5 hours later I left with a new wreath for the front door, centerpieces for the dining room table, decoration for the kitchen island, a Halloween decoration for the front flower bed, and another hanging do-hickey for the morning room door. Jim rolled his eyes at all the stuff I “needed” and I told him that I refrained from buying the light-up eyeballs they had for 25% off, even though they might have looked good on the walk-way up to our door.
• We also finished up Stardust (A) and Sex and the City (B) on Saturday night.
• Bowling is okay. I sucked big time the first two games. Jenny and Jim absolutely rocked. We pulled out ¾ which ain’t shabby at all!

Freaky Friday 5 - Psychics

I attempt to be a practical person in many matters but the subjects of these Freaky Friday posts are about all the stuff that logical people can’t always rationalize. What I'm going to shallowly cover today is the concept of psychics.


Sure, I think all of us have experienced déjà vu before. I have to the point of actually stopping what I'm doing to look around and deeply evaluate the scene because it feels so familiar.

There are times I'm convinced that I’ve dreamt of things before I’ve actually done them. Perhaps the explanation is that I’m dwelling on a situation and my mind filling in the possibilities sub-consciously yet so completely that when reality plays out it simply aligns with one of the solutions I’ve already contemplated.

Maybe I'm just a little psychic. Who knows.

It seems really weird to me that someone can see the future. Free will and the butterfly effect cloud my mind with the improbability of this being a reliable source of fact. Likewise, seeing the past, past that is someone else’s past and not your own personal recollections (that do sometimes still feel very, very real in our minds), seems similarly sketchy. However, there is case after case that document people who have this ability – to see the past of people they’ve never met.

Here’s a 3-year old article about a psychic and police detective who have partnered for 30 years to solve crimes. She gets glimpses of people and has, on many instances, reported detail that was not made public and known only to the individuals on the case.

It’s hard to be a doubting Thomas when this is a known source of information that police use (routinely? I don’t know…) to actually solve mysteries. It’s hard to blow off the concept when I personally experience déjà vu (though my mind does wander back to the Matrix’s explanation not that I actually believe this).

Conclusion: I believe that the power to see the past exists but I don’t understand at all how it works.

$20,000 3-letter word

I have a big vocabulary which I directly correlate to how much I read. I find this a good thing, others probably find it annoying (like my brother, Mike) when I pull out a “big” word for something “basic” even though it’s the first thing that comes to my mind to describe the situation. In like fashion, I get geeked when people I know use one-off words that say exactly what they mean but aren’t everyday. For example, my friend Mark J. sent me an email today and in the subject he used the word “née”. Fabulous. When was the last time you heard someone use “née”?

Just in case you are interested, my favorite word of all time is brilliant.

I'm 29!

As my husband pointed out so eloquently in his card – the countdown is officially on until I join many of you in your 30’s. Yesterday, as many noted, was my birthday. In general it was a good day – I did the normal morning routine but had the joy of reading birthday cards and getting a massage gift certificate from my family (left in my car for me to discover by Jim). Nicole’s card read:

Hi Mom-ma,
I'm so happy it’s your birthday, not that you can tell because I'm happy almost all of the time (except when you and dad-da kiss or he tries a family hug).

I signed to dad-da what gift I thought he needed to get you because I think you need a little time to rest, as I can be a handful sometimes.

I love you very very much and look forward to doing this again next year.

Love you,
Nicole

My uncle brought me a no-iron tablecloth from he and my aunt. We’ll be having a birthday party for my cousin (9-29) and I on Saturday with the family. However, I did get some cake early as Jessica G. made me a beautiful one and left it at the babysitter’s for the kiddies and I. I got several cards, e-cards (Lisa's was particurally funny), emails, and blog comments- I definitely felt loved!

THANKS!

Oh, and for the record, I'm only having small pangs of “God, I'm 29.” I think it mostly stems from the fact that I really perked myself up for 27 and 28 being the best years of my life (and they were great). I don’t know what to expect for 29 but it feels so ADULT.

Bath Time Antics

Nicole really likes bath time. Our normal routine is to get her a fresh diaper, head to the bathroom and let the tub fill while we strip her down. She’ll always help out with the undressing part (lifting her legs out of her pants, pulling the shirt off from over her head, etc.) if it helps get her in the water faster. Once she’s in the tub she’ll hold her hand under the faucet to feel the water pounding down and splash around with her toys and water books.

Two things have evolved lately-
1) sitting in the tub she’ll now bend over and put her nose in the water. She used to suck water up which lead to coughing spells, but now she just dunks her face in lightly and comes up quite proud of herself.

2) Last night I closed the gate to the stairs and let her roam while I walked to her room to get the diaper. When I came back to the bathroom, a whole 30 seconds later, she was gone! That little bugger somehow climbed into the bathtub by herself! I pulled her out and watched as she tried again – raising up on her tip toes and swinging her left knee well over waist-level and onto the tub ledge while pushing up with her arms. Guess we won’t be leaving her to her own demise any more. Good thing I hadn’t started the water yet!

Weekend of 9/27/08

This weekend was blissfully unscheduled. I did make a to-do list but it included items like “write a thank you note to mom and dad” and “go to church”. We hit all but 3 of the 16 items which was pretty darn good.

I'm reading a new trilogy from Nora Roberts and I finished up book two, Black Rose, and started in on Red Lily. As always, I really enjoy her style of writing and this week I found myself going to bed sometimes more than an hour later than Jim because I was so engrossed in the novel. This Garden Trilogy has had several points that I find myself laughing out loud or just beaming because I'm excited about what’s transpiring in the book. Unfortunately Red Lily is turning a little bit hookier than the other two books so far (there’s a ghost involved) but the “real life” portion is great.

My good friend, Bill, was a neighbor when I was growing up. Medically he's not doing so hot.... He’s on the verge of being bed-ridden and has to stop in the kitchen to catch his breath (and he’s on full-time oxygen!) on his way from the family room to the bathroom 20 feet away. His wife drives me crazy. Mary doesn’t make the time to take him to the doctor, buy the food that he’s required to eat, or even come home when she says she will to help with dinner. Seriously, how selfish. As a result I had to go grocery shopping for him, which I didn’t mind at all, and bring the food and Nicole over for a visit last night. The good news was that Nicole was on her best behavior. She pet the dog, sat on Bill’s lap, showed him all her signs and body parts when asked, and gave him 3 kisses before we left. It was one of those times where I thanked her profusely for being so good all the way home.

We watched about an hour and a half of the debates on Friday. I thought it was a pretty good match up from what I saw – Obama presented himself very well confidence-wise and got some good points in. He said “John is exactly right” frequently enough that I thought it was kind of weird. I thought McCain harped too much on spending in the beginning but presented his policies well when he got to them. Honestly, I got bored after about an hour fifteen because it was all on foreign policy. I thought the moderator was terrible.