The one not chosen

He would've been such a cute cow, but he'll be cuter as a monkey.

I just have to look away.

I'm going to bed. I can't watch anymore. Maybe a miracle will happen in the last few minutes. Maybe not. Goodnight.

Let's go, Ags! Beat the Hell outta Arkansas! Kickoff is at 6:30 pm and it's being televised on ESPN 2. Do you know where I'll be at 6:30?    

Not in front of the tv, unfortunately. My mom wants to go to the Fair, but you know I'll be in front of the tv by halftime.

Right now, we're 3-0 and hopefully in a few hours, we'll be 4-0. Cross your fingers!!

Looking forward to Halloween

I'm in Houston this weekend. Yay for visiting my parents. Anyway, my mom had bought Christian some Halloween costumes-a cow and a monkey. We tried both of them on him and had a great laugh. Christian loved being the center of attention so he didn't mind.  We decided on the monkey. My mom and I are going to take him to get some pictures made tomorrow with the costume. I'll scan them and post soon or maybe I'll just wait for Halloween to show them. :)

A Weekend without Christian

Christian spent the weekend with my parents so J and I could attend his cousin's wedding and so Christian could have some fun without his parents.

The wedding was so cute. It wasn't huge like ours, but it wasn't too small. She is from Hawaii and he's Hispanic so they had Mariachis and Hula dancers. So much fun.



But we missed this little guy.



Tomorrow we're spending our Labor Day at the zoo!

Update on us!

I had an interview the first week in August for a 4th grade teaching position and I got it. Since that day, I've been working my booty off to prepare for the school year. So things are great for us.

Christian is doing good. He's growing like a weed. Right now however, Christian is a bit under the weather with a fever. We think he picked up something at daycare.

Mission: To get Christian to eat healthier

Solution: SuperFoods by Annabel Karmel

Yesterday, I made two of the recipes in her book: Tiny pasta with swiss cheese, spinach and corn and Finger-picking chicken balls. They were delicious. The pasta you couldn't even taste the spinach. (Even my picky husband likes the recipes.) Unfortunately Christian didn't get a chance to taste them because he's been very sick and feverish the past day or so and he doesn't want to eat. They are in the refrigerator waiting for him to feel better.

Tiny pasta with Swiss cheese, spinach, and corn

-3 tablespoons orzo or other small pasta
-1 tablespoon unsalted butter
-1 tablespoon all purpose flour
-1/2 cup milk
-1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese
-2 cups fresh spinach, stems removed
-2/3 cup cooked frozen corn

Directions: Wash spinach and put in saucepan with a sprinkle of water. Cook until tender (3 min). Squeeze out all water and put spinach aside. Cook the pasta according to the package. Melt butter, stir in the flour and cook 30 sec. Gradually whisk in the milk to make a smooth white sauce. Bring to boil and let simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese until melted. Combine spinach and cheese sauce and puree in food processor. Stir in the coked pasta and corn. Enjoy. This can be frozen for later use.

Finger-picking chicken balls

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup grated carrot
• 1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled and grated
• 2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
• 1 chicken bouillon cube, crumbled
• all-purpose flour for coating
• vegetable oil for frying

Directions: Before starting to cook, prepare all ingredients and set aside. Heat the olive oil in a pan and saute half the onion and the carrots for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Useing your hands, squeeze out excess liquid from grated apple. Mix together grated apple, chicken, sauteed onion and carrot along with raw onion, parsley, bread crumbs, bouillon cube and chop in a food processor for a few seconds. With hands, form the mixture into about 20 balls, roll in flour and fry with a little oil until golden and cooked through (6 minutes to be safe). Can be frozen for later.

Good news!

I have a job interview next Tuesday. Woo hoo!

100 Books

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here.

Instructions: Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - X
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - x
6 The Bible -
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

total: 2

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - x
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy –
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller -
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare -
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier -
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien -
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk -
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger -
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - X
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot -

Total: 2

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell -
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald -
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens -
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy -
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky -
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck - x
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll -
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame -

Total: 1

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy -
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens -
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis -
34 Emma - Jane Austen -
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen -
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis -
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini -
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres -
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden - X
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne -

Total: 1

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell -
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - x
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez -
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving -
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins -
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery -
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy -
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood -x
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding -
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan -

Total: 2

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel -
52 Dune - Frank Herbert -
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons -
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen -
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth -
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon -
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens -
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley -
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon -
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez -

Total: 0

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck - x
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov -
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt -
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold -x
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas-
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac -
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy -
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding -x
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie –
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville -

Total: 3

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens -
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker -
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett -
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson -
75 Ulysses - James Joyce -
76 The Inferno – Dante -
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome -
78 Germinal - Emile Zola -
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray -
80 Possession - AS Byatt –

Total: 0

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens -
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell -
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker -
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro -
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert -
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry -
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White - x
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom -
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton -

Total: 1

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad -
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery -
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks -
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams -
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole -
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute -
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas -
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare - x
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - x
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo -
Total:2

Grand Total: 14

Don't give up on me!

I know it's been a long time since I last blogged. Things have been up in the air for us for so long. And I don't see an end in sight. We're not having marital problems or anything like that. We just picked up and moved our lives here to San Antonio and things are crazy. I don't have a job and I don't think I'm going to find one. Because I was the one making the bigger income, it's going to hurt us. Hopefully, things will get better soon. For the time being, I've been hanging out with my baby who's not so much of a baby anymore. He's more of a big boy.

I'm hoping to start blogging more as things get better for us. Please send me some positive thoughts that I get a job soon. Otherwise, I'm going to totally stress myself out. Thanks!

Lifetime Fitness

J and I signed up for Lifetime Fitness yesterday. It was long overdue. We both need to do something to get ourselves in better shape. I'm looking forward to using all the facilities that they have to offer, especially the child care facility.

Last night, I worked out for 40 minutes. 20 minutes on the elliptical and 20 minutes on a treadmill. Great start for me!

Today Christian and I will be going to Toddler Time at the Library and then afterwards I'll be heading to the gym and Christian will be headed to the child care center.

I really hope this works out for us.

Update on everything

Moving
We moved all of our stuff May 22nd up to San Antonio. The stuff that we don't need immediately is all stuffed into our storage unit. The rest of our belonging are here at my ILs house. We've moved into the upstairs on their house. We took over 2 rooms that are connected with a bathroom. Hopefully, we'll be here for about a year and then start looking to buy a home.

Old Job
My last work day was June 5th. I got a great goodbye gift (a snowglobe and a pen). It was really hard to say goodbye to my coworkers, but hopefully I'm on to bigger and better things.

New Job?
I've started the hunt for a new job in San Antonio. I've applied at a school district and yesterday there was a job fair for that district. And it was awful. There must have been at least 300 people and only about 20 available jobs. Hopeless. I really don't know what I'm gonna do.

Baby
Christian is wonderful. I've been enjoying the past few days that we've spent with each other. He's such a ham. So dramatic.

Hubby
Today is J and my 2nd anniversary. It's been a great two years and I'm so happy to be able to spend today with him, especially after living apart for 3 1/2 months. I've missed him. But that's all behind us now. Thank goodness.


Coming up: Cooking School!

Moving day

We've been working on loading everything up since about 8 am. We were packed and ready to go at 4 pm. We're currently en route to San Antonio. It's been a really long day.

Moving Updates

Closing was moved from Wednesday to Friday (tomorrow) due to J not being able to be here Wednesday night. So we're closing bright and early tomorrow morning. I'm resting my hand tonight because I'm sure I'll have to sign my name at least 50 times tomorrow.

The past few days I've been having issues with the fridge. It wasn't cooling or staying cold. I called J about it and he didn't really believe me. I really wouldn't care so much since we are moving, but the fridge is staying and I don't want the new homeowners getting pissed cause it's broken. So I convince J to call someone to come out and look. It turns out our fancy-schmancy refrigerator is run by a computer. And the computer board went out and needed to be replaced. $250 later, it's fixed.

Tonight the new owners are coming to inspect the house to make sure we have everything fixed up. Hopefully everything will be to their satisfaction.

We've got a UHaul for tomorrow and we should start our journey sometime around mid-afternoon. Then I've got a long day of unpacking to do.

I'm ready.

Wordless Wednesday

Closing in 7 days

We should be closing on our house next Wednesday and moving out next Friday/Saturday. It's crunch time and I'm getting really nervous. I'm just so scared that I'm going to get a phone call saying they are backing out.

On the other hand, I'm so excited. In about a week, we'll no longer have a mortgage to worry about and electricity bill, water bill, etc. This is gonna save us about $1,400 a month since we'll be staying with J's parents. We'll be paying off some credit cards and saving for a down payment for a new house in San Antonio.

We've been packing for about 2 weeks already and there is still much to do. Wish us luck!

First Haircut

Look at those curls! They're gone now. Sniff, sniff.




Well, not totally gone. But Christian did get a much needed haircut last Saturday before his birthday party. He was really good during the haircut until a teenage girl walked in and then he started "flirting" and trying to get to her. So I only have pictures from before she walked in. After I was too busy holding him still to get any pictures. He just got a very minor trim. I love his curls too much to do anything drastic.

Broken Windows: Rowdy neighbors or a botched break-in?

So I was out of my house all last week from May 1st through May 8th. We came home last Friday. I got to the house first since we were in separate cars.

As I walked in from the garage, the first thing I felt was a spider web in my face. Yuck! I wondered how on earth that got there, but quickly dismissed it and went on with unpacking and waiting for my boys. Then I noticed that the AC was running which was odd because when I left it set for 95 degrees. But I didn't think about that too much.

About 20 minutes later, the boys walk in and start unloading J's car. It's already late about 9:30 and we hear the neighbors having a party outside. Christian is wired from sitting in a car for 4 hours so we let him wander around the house while we finish unloading. Once everything is settled down, J notices that part of our crown molding in the kitchen is falling (just barely). We figure that it's just the house settling. So we decide to turn on our soaker hoses for the night to moisten the ground.

As J's walking outside and I'm at the dining room tables inside, I noticed there's a piece of glass on the floor near the table. I scooped up Christian and yelled for J. We both noticed it at the same time. There was a hole in our double paned windows.

J called the cops and kept inspecting the gash. And then used a flashlight to check out the rest of the backyard. There were fast food wrappers all over and our patio chairs were strewn out the yard. We immediately suspected our neighbors kids.

We've always had issues with our neighbors. They are constantly throwing crap into our back yard. (I remember when I was a million months pregnant and I was outside picking up chicken wing bones and beer cans so the dogs wouldn't get them.) They've wrapped our house, etc, etc, etc. They are awful.

The cops arrives. We tell him what we know and he's off next door to ask them some questions. The cop come back and agrees with us. The neighbors are admitting to their kids being in our backyard with some of their friends a couple evenings, but not to breaking the windows. We have no proof but the cops really thinks it's probably them. We get a police report for our insurance and off he goes. We taped it up and have plans to get it fixed this week.


But the story gets more complicated.... That all happened Friday night. Well, on Saturday my dad and J are working on the house and yard while my mom and I and baby are getting ready for a Mother's Day bbq. While J is outside, our neighbor on the other side comes by and to let us know that she was broken into the previous Saturday. Someone threw a piece of concrete into her sliding glass door and took her TVs, lap tops, stereo, and jewelry.

Did someone break into her house and then try to come for ours? We know that nothing was stolen from our home. Our computer, TVs, video game systems, etc are all accounted for. I have no jewelry of value other than my engagement ring and wedding rings which I always have on. So we don't think anyone was in our home. There was glass on the ledge of the window which wouldn't have been there is someone had crawled through. The blinds weren't messed up which they wouldn't been if someone crawled in, etc.

We don't know what happened.

Swine flu vacation

We're still in San Antonio. Hopefully, we'll be here until Friday and then head back to the Valley.

I'm getting a glimpse of what my life will be like in about a month when we are here permanently. Christian is adjusting well. He's sleeping awesome and taking good naps. My only concern is his eating, but it seems like he's coming around.

I've decided that I need to get some sort of schedule for the summer. Not like a rigid, official schedule. but some sort of balance.

Like today he got up around 8 and ate breakfast. Then by 9, we were out and about. We ended up shopping and looking around until 11:30. Once we were back, Christian ate a good lunch and went right to sleep. He's been sleeping since about 12:30 and it's already 1:30. I'm hoping he'll stay down until 2:30 and then we'll just play here until J gets home at 4:15.

By the time I move here for good, J will be on an extended schedule which will mean he works until 6, but he'll only work 3 days a week and on Saturdays.

I'm starting to really look forward to this summer. Now if only I could find a job for the fall then I'd really be able to have a relaxing summer.

Swine flu sucks...

This blows. My school district just closed down starting tomorrow and will supposedly be closed until Tuesday, May 11th. That means 6 days out.

I'm sure we are going to have to extend our school year an extra week or so to cover the time lost.

This whole situation sucks because we're closing on our house May 20 and moving out the 23rd and I was going to have to stay with my grandma until school got out the 5th of June. Now I'll probably have to be with her for 3 weeks.

The upside of this mess is that I'm going to San Antonio and spend the week with my husband. And also I don't have to take my darling child back home on a plane. Ahhh, the small things...

I must be crazy

Christian and I are flying to Houston tonight. We have scheduled Christian's party for tomorrow afternoon and I volunteered to fly instead of drive so I could help out my parent's with the preparations tonight. The last time I flew was in December and Christian was a terror. Now I know that tonight is going to be much worse. I just know. He's going to be antsy and wanted to be put down the whole time. Not fun. Thankfully, it's only an hour flight. Wish us luck!

Stats: Then and Now

April 29th, 2008:
Height: 20 3/4 inches
Weight: 8 lbs, 6oz

April 29th, 2009:
Height: 28 1/2 inches
Weight 20 lbs, 14 oz

What a difference a year makes!

I hate my ped

Yesterday was Christian's 12 month appointment. The appointment was scheduled for 5 pm.

I decided to arrive early at 4:30 because I had new insurance and wanted to give them time to process. Christian and I went to sit in the waiting area.

As soon as we sit down and Christian starts exploring, another woman in the waiting area lets me know that a kid JUST threw up on the floor where we were sitting. I immediately swoop baby up. And guess what happens when you pick up and newly walking toddler and want to carry him? Yep, the hysterics begin. He's crying and kicking and scratching.

That lasted for 30 minutes when they finally called me back at 5:00. We head back to the weighing room (stats later). After being weighed and measured, we go to another little sitting room and wait for an exam room.

Five minutes later another mother and toddler come in. He's a sick toddler. His mother just puts him down and he wanders to the play area and starts playing with all the toys where Christian was!!! WTF? I swoop him up again and hysterics start again! But I wasn't having Christian play in the same area where the other kid was playing. Seriously, that mother should have been carrying her son or containing him in some way. Don't just let him wonder over to my healthy child.

So I'm holding him...and holding him...and holding him....and holding him....until 6:05. By this point, I'm exhausted (I've already had a horrible day.) and my back is hurt and I'm just pissed. On a normal night, Christian would be eating dinner and settling down to some quiet playtime before bath. Not screaming in the doctor's office.

Finally, I just reached my breaking point. I walked out. At the front, the office manager (who happens to be the ped's wife), she asks me if everything's okay. I tell her no. I've been waiting for over an hour. I want another appointment where I won't have to go through this again. She offers no apologizes and no explanations. So we're scheduled for sometime next week. I'm not even sure what day. I already lost the appointment card. I'll just have to call them next week.

Seriously. Is this the way other peds operate? Thank goodness I'm moving and will be finding another ped. Next week's appt will be Christian's last with him.

Happy 1st Birthday!

A year ago today, I became a Mommy and my life changed dramatically.


Happy Birthday, Goobie!! You are the light of my life.


(Pictures to come this weekend. We're partying it up on Saturday.)

ENT Results...

...are perfectly normal. It must have been a bad test or bad behavior from my darling son. Whatever the case is, I'm beyond thankful. This is a huge load off my shoulders.

No news yet

We're still waiting for Christian's test results. I talked to a nurse today and she said that he hasn't had a chance to look over them yet.

I hate playing the waiting game.

Today's the day

Christian's second hearing test is in an hour. We kept him up last night until 11:30 and woke him up at 4:30. So hopefully he'll fall asleep during the test.

I'm going to have my phone glued to my hand until J calls me with the news. I've already got butterflies in my stomach.


Update: The test went well. Christian slept the whole time (thankfully). J and him here out in 2 hours. The ENT was going to call us late this afternoon or early tomorrow morning for the results. He didn't call today. So hopefully, we'll hear something tomorrow (pun not intended).

2 week ENT follow up

Today was Goobs's tube follow up with the ENT. After we checked in, he had a hearing test. He didn't like it. He kept squirming around and trying to pull the things from his ears and crying. The audiologist (is that what's she called?) said that she thought she got enough from him.

About 20 minutes later, our ENT and the audiologist come in and tell me that he passed his left ear hearing test and failed the right ear hearing test! Doc thinks he just didn't sit still long enough. He also told me that I would definitely know if he was deaf in one ear. (Would I?)

Now we have to go back on Monday for another procedure where they will sedate him and do a more extensive hearing test.

(At first they scheduled me for the second test on May 7th, but I cried and told them I couldn't wait that long. I would be too stressed out about it. So the audiologist took pity on me and squeezed us in on Monday.)

I'm so scared. I have so many questions running through my head. Could he really be deaf in one ear? What will we do? Can it be fixed? Did the tubes cause this? Would I have noticed deafness?

I'm going to go to pieces.

*******************************

That was posted yesterday at JM. I just did a quick copy and paste so that I could keep my blog updated.

I'm feeling a lot better, especially after hearing from Kel. (Thank you, Kel!) I'm pretty much sure that the test they did wasn't worth a dime and that he can hear. Last night, I spent about an hour testing him. I'd whisper on his right side or bang something on his right side, and he always turned his head or acknowledged me. He wouldn't do that if he was deaf, right? And if he is, we'll get through it. But I'm not going to worry myself sick until I know for sure what's going on. I just can't take it.

And I'm so thankfully that I have such a great husband. Next week is our state-wide testing and I just can't take any time off. So he's taking time off his job to stay here in Harlingen and take Christian in for his procedure next Monday. Then that afternoon, he'll drive back up to San Antonio for work on Tuesday.

April 23rd, 2009

... was the day that Goobie officially started walking.

Before that day, he'd take one step here and there, but not more than 2 or 3 steps. Well, yesterday, I picked him up at daycare and he was walking the halls in the center with his teacher. She was holding his hand. When he saw me, he let go of her hand and walked about 5 steps to me and then laughed because he was so excited.

My baby is growing up. Sniff, sniff.

Goob's Surgery

So we've been fighting ear infections and fluid in ear FOREVER! It started last August and has been continuing until now.

Our ped originally prescribed Claritin Allergy meds last October. It didn't help with the fluid. The infections would clear with antibiotics. The fluid won't budge. So in December, ped prescribed Claritin AND Nasonex spray. Still didn't work. Finally in January, he referred us to see an ENT.

The whole time during this process I was freaking out because I was worried that his hearing and speech development would be behind. The doc even mentioned Goob going deaf. Hello, don't say stuff like that to me. I'm a hypochondriac and I always overanalyze.

We finally got an appointment with the ENT for mid February. We confirmed that he did have fluid in the ears and beginnings of an infection. Doc prescribed heavy duty antibiotics. And we had a follow up in March. Fluid was still there during follow up. So it was time for tubes.

Tube surgery was scheduled for April 9th. We had to jump through so many hoops to get our insurance straighten out, but thankfully we got it all in line. (It's all out of network so we ended up paying a pretty penny.)

So last Wednesday night, my parents came in to be with me during the surgery and afterwards. They arrived late and we all went right to be. Goob had been asleep since 8. And I was instructed not to give him any thing to eat/drink after 12. And wouldn't you know that he woke up at 1 am?

He was very stubborn and wouldn't go back to sleep. And of course once he was awake, he saw his grandparents and thought it was time to play. Finally, finally, finally, my dad got him to sleep around 4 am. Enough time for me to barely get back into REM sleep before I had to be up by 5:45 to get to the Ambulatory CEnter at 6:30.

We arrived at 6:30. Goobs came in his pjs. He was happy as a clam with his grandpa.



And a water bottle.




Around 7, they called us back. My mom and I went to the pre-op and changed him into his hospital gown and talked to the docs.



He looked so cute in that little hospital gown. But hopefully, it'll be the only time he'll ever been in one.



Then one of the docs came and picked up Christian and started cuddling and tickling him and took him back. I loved that they didn't make this long drawn out goodbye. Just really quick. I got a little teary-eyed.

I walked back to the waiting room and sat down and called J and told him what happened. While I was still on the phone, the recovery nurse came and got me and told me they were done. It took less than 10 minutes.

It was a snap. But coming out of the gas was not. He cried and cried and cried for about 20 minutes. Finally, he was able to eat and cuddle with me and quieted down. About 30 minutes after surgery, I got him dressed and we were out of there.

He wasn't too happy about getting dressed. He really liked that hospital gown.


We left the facility at about 8 am. It only took 90 minutes from entrance to exit.

At home, he ate some pancakes and got his ear drops and Tylenol and went to sleep for several hours. By that afternoon, he was as good as new.

And I'm already noticing that he's a lot more vocal. We went to my Aunt's house on Saturday and it echoes and he was yelling and screaming just to hear himself. I think he liked the echoing.

The only set back was some minor bleeding on Saturday. I put his ear drops in and blood came out. Called ENT and he said it was probably infected and just to keep putting in drops. And the bleeding stopped!

We have a follow up appt on April 23rd. I'm so glad this is all behind us.

Long Overdue Weekly Pics: Weeks 39-49

Week 49: April 7th

I'm a bad mommy. I have no pictures between February 19th through April 7th. I'll blame the fact that I didn't have any batteries in my camera and that J just started his new job and I was adjustin to being a single mommy Monday through Thursday.

Week 42: February 17th


Week 41: February 10


Week 40: February 3rd


Week 39: January 27th

Please.

Still kicking

It's been awhile since my last post. Sorry about that. Things have been crazy around here. I'm basically a single mom during the week. And by the time I put my Goobster to bed, I can barely do more than stare blankly at the tv. I'm always so tired. Ugh. But we've survived for 3 weeks. We have 12 more to go.

This next week will be great. I'm on spring break from work. So I've been here in San Antonio with J since Friday. Then on Wednesday, I'll head to Houston and spend the rest of the week with my parents. J will fly to Houston to spend the weekend with me and then drive home with me. That evening he'll fly back up to San Antonio, ready to start the work week. Doesn't that sound complicated? But it works for us.

I hope to be able to devote more time to posting as I get more used to being on my own. I have some great pictures to share. My baby is growing so fast!! Can you believe we're only about 7 weeks from his birthday? Eek!

On another note, remember my post about going off the pills and to try charting to avoid pregnancy. Well, I'm very happy to report that our first month was highly successful. I didn't get knocked up! Woo hoo!



I have something else to say. It's highly embarassing, but I need to get it off my chest. I've already told J but he doesn't grasp the seriousness of the situation. So here goes, don't judge me too harshly. ....... I'm a Twilight fanatic. It's bad. Real, real bad. I've already read the books at least 4 times. I try to put them down and leave them alone. But I always keep getting dragged back into them. I was doing real well handling my addiction, until last Monday. At lunch, one of my coworkers brought up how they were filming the next movie. Well, that night I just had to go back and look through a few parts of the second book. I then couldn't put it down. I had to reread all the rest of them. Ugh. I have a problem. I think that I'm going to leave them all here in San Antonio that way I can't get to them.

First week-done!

So this past week was J's first week at his new job and back at his parents'. It was also my first week home alone with just Goob.

It went well. I did have a mini breakdown on Sunday evening, but I got through it. The rest of the week flew by. Goob and I really have our routine down pat in the afternoons. So that really helps. He's usually in bed by 8 and I'll have the rest of the evening to myself.

This week was a short week for us due to a local holiday. I got off of work yesterday at 12 and had today off. So Goob and I drove up to my ILs for the weekend. J's still at work now, but he'll be off in about an hour so we'll have all weekend to be together.

J's new employer is helping us sell our house and will help us buy a new house which is great. Within 20 minutes of J talking to the moving coordinators, we had two local real estate agent calling us to set up appointments.

Things are moving fast!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Valentine's Day is winding down. It was very simple and low key and spent with my two boys. We spent the morning running errands and then we went to the movies. We saw Confessions of a Shopaholic. It was adorable. The Goob came with us and was behaving beautifully until the last 15/20 minutes and then J had to walk him around in the hallway. Now we've spent the afternoon at home. Goob is fixing to head to bed and J and I are going to enjoy a steak dinner. We've refused to go out since we're sure lines will be ridiculously long. And we also picked up some chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Yum.

Happy Valentine's Day!

February 23rd

J will start work on Monday, February 23rd...in San Antonio. That's about 5 hours away. And since I'm under contract until June 5th. We'll be apart. For 15 weeks.

I'm trying to not stress about this, but it's hard, especially since J is so excited to start his new job.

Something new

Well, I'm officially off of my birth control pills. But I don't want to get pregnant! I'm off of them because they just are not fun for my body. I'm moody, irritable, always hungry, etc, etc.

So I did some research, asked for some advice from some JM pals. I bought Taking Charge of Your Fertility and devoured it. It's an awesome book. So informative.

J and I have decided to give Natural Family Planning a try. I'll follow the Fertility Awareness Method from TCOYF. This is the perfect time for us to start. J is fixing to move in with this parents to start a new job and we'll only see each other on weekends. This will give me plenty of time to observe and chart.

Of course, we both know that we're taking a risk here. But we've decided that if I do end up getting pregnant (which I don't want to right now), it wouldn't be the end of the world. We'd welcome another baby, especially if he/she's as cute as Goob.

Wish us luck.

Ocho

Eight years ago, J and I started dating. We were both freshmen in college. Ahhhh...memories.

Here we are. We've been married for about a year and a half and we have the cutest baby ever.

What more could we want?

J got a job!

J was offered a job on Friday. Yay! But, it's going to bring a lot of changes. It's a lot to process for all of us. More on those changes later.

Waving

Tonight J went to get us some dinner. I fed Goob dinner and then we played on the floor. J returned. Goob got all excited and smiled at him and then raised his hand in the air, like he was waving. It was cute....unless he was doing the Nazi salute and in that case, not so cute. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

And then as I was walking in the bathroom to take him from J after his bath, he did it again!

Weekly Pics: Week 37-38

Week 38: January 20th

Week 37: January 13th (Not the best picture, but it's all I got. I was documenting his first time to eat real bananas. We get excited about the silliest things around here.)

Boys will be boys at any age.

A few minutes ago, I was sitting on the floor. My almost 9 month old crawled over to me, climbed into my lap, and put his head on my chest. It was awesome. I finally felt that he truely and deeply knew that I was his mama and that I would do anything for him. And then he burped. And then laughed at his burp. Boys!

Not Me Mondays!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Here are the things that I didn't do this past Saturday.

I didn't wake up at 7 am on Saturday morning when I have to be at work at 8 am and that work is certainly not 30 miles away. I certainly wasn't so late that I just threw my hair in a ponytail and threw on the clothes that I wore the previously night.

I definitely didn't stop at McDonald's on Saturday morning when I wasn't late to grab a delicious sausage biscuit.

I was not gullible and I didn't fall for L's joke that C wasn't at work yet when she was supposed to be there at 7 am and it was 8am. I certainly didn't pull over and have a freak out and call another friend to call C's mom and try to figure out where she was. I defintely shouldn't have known better to believe a thing that L says.

I didn't whine and groan all morning cause I was having to work on a Saturday.

I didn't get snippy with an older teacher when she got snippy with me. And I certainly didn't tell her to "get over it" when she wanted to argue with me. That was not me, my parents certainly raised me better.

I didn't go home and collapse on the couch for the rest of the afternoon. And I didn't jump for joy when Goob took a long nap while J went to a job interview.

I didn't force my husband to drive us 50 miles to get to a nearest Babies R Us cause they were having a sell on diapers. (Buy 2 value boxes, get a free $15 gift card. I promise you it was a great deal!)

I didn't have a melt down at BRU when I couldn't find my needed size. (A size 3, in case anyone wants to send me diapers.) And I did't make my hubby go and ask the associate to check in the back.

I didn't convince my husband to take me out to dinner when I just spent almost $100 at BRU. And I certainly didn't have dessert. Yum! Or not yum!

(Wow. Saturday really wasn't my day!)

So many changes so fast

To make a long story short, since the last time I posted, my husband lost his job and our world flip flopped. He got laid off last Friday (1/9).

After spending a weekend in shock, he got to work looking for another job. He's got great experience, but he's been considering a change...out of the world of retail. Besides, the retail world is so scary lately with all the big box stores closing (Bye, Circuit City!). So he's exploring other options. Right now, he's got 5 big prospects. 3 are retailers. 2 are not. The 2 that are not are located in San Antonio, about 3 hours away.

Right now he's in San Antonio staying at his parent's house because he has an interview tomorrow. This was a job recommended to us by my grandfather. It's a management training position. There is a lot of growth in this company.

I think we both really want him to get one of these San Antonio jobs (the other he applied for last week and is waiting to see what they say). We've been living down here in south Texas for 4 years. We've always talked about moving and now it really looks like the opportunity might be presented to us.

Him getting the job is going to be a major change for us. He'll mostly likely have to start ASAP. We've discussed that he'll probably move to San Antonio and live with his parents while I stay here and finish up my year of teaching and put the house on the market. Then we've talked about not looking for another house for awhile. We'd like to live with his parents (they have a HUGE house) for about a year and save enough to pay off some of our debts and for a down payment for another house.

Lots to think about. Lots of new possibilites. If you can, please send us some positive thoughts for DH's job interview tomorrow and for our fresh start.

Weekly Pic: Week 36

Week 36: January 6th

Now and Then

May 2008

January 2009

Another resolution

I'm not going to spend time worrying about things that are not in my control. In Randy Pausch's words, I'm gonna be a Tigger, not an Eeyore.

Bad night last night

Goob went to bed normally. Ate dinner, played, had a bath, played, ate a bottle, went to bed. Nothing out of the ordinary.

J and I had some quality, playing Wii and reading. It was a nice night. We went to bed around midnight.

At 3ish, I hear it. The whining and crying on the monitor. At first, I didn't think anything of it. Sometimes he just cries in his sleep. But he kept at it. After a few minutes of whining/crying, I elbowed J. He went to get the Goob, I went to get a bottle. I thought he'd take a few drinks and fall back asleep. We put him in bed with us and watched tv as he ate his bottle.

He finished the bottle so J put him back to bed. J didn't even get out of the room when he started crying again. We put him back in bed with us. He got comfy and fell asleep. J noticed that he was asleep and tried to carry him back to his crib. This time he lasted 10 minutes and J and I were back asleep. Then he started crying again.

We haven't experienced anything like this since Goob was a newborn. It was awful.

We gave him another bottle. He just played with it. And then he decided that he wanted to play with us. He was smiling and giggling and trying to be a ham. We tried not to laugh since we were beyond tired, but you know how it goes.

Finally, we just decided to leave him in bed with us. Around 6 oclock, he finally went fell asleep until 9 am.

I think today he's been recovering from his lack of sleep. He took a nap from 11 to 12:15 and now he's been sleeping since 2:15.

Wish us luck that tonight is a better night.

Weekly Pics: Weeks 32-35

Week 35: December 30th


Week 34: December 23rd


Week 33: December 16th


Week 32: December 9th

New Year's Resolution

I've made several resolutions. I'm really going to work towards sticking to them.

For my family:
I'd like us to go to church more often. We're going to try to go once a month, and if that works out, we'll increase it.

For my household:
I'm going to do 1 load of laundry per day. I hate having to do massive loads on the weekends. It ruins my whole day. So one per day. I think I can handle that. And I'm going to try to follow the Fly Lady more than I have been.

For our finances:
I'm going to try and work on paying down our debts. I'd like to be able to pay off several credit cards.

For my blog:
I'm very hot and cold. I'll blog a lot one week and then not at all for 3 weeks. I'm going to try to post at least 3 times a week.

For myself:
I'm going to try and be more health conscious. I'll think twice about what's going into my body and how much activity I'm getting. I'm going to start a food log and document everything.

Hello 2009!

Happy New Year!

What an amazing year 2008 has been. Who knows what 2009 has in store for us?

(A resolution post coming soon.)