Holy Crap!

I cannot believe I haven't left a post since June!  I think I have a pretty good excuse, however...a new baby!  The little one decided to arrive ten days early, September 4 at 10:32 p.m.  Mr. Jeep and I welcomed a handsome little man into the world.  We will call him E here (and we call him that in real life, too).  He just turned two months yesterday, it's hard to believe. 

Mr. Jeep and I had to get used to having a little boy in the house, since our only experience has been with little girls.  To say LC loves her little bro is putting it mildly...she cannot get enough of him.  I am not complaining, because it could be the other way and she could hate him, but at times I find it very annoying how loving she is toward him.  At times I think it is suffocating, but it's also very sweet and like I said, it could be worse...much worse.  LC is also very helpful, which is also very nice. 

Unfortunately, I had to go back to hell work this week.  I took eight weeks off for maternity leave.  Let me tell you, it is not enough.  Even the twelve weeks that a lot of women get is not enough.  This is one area that the US majorly fails at.  Some friends of ours have relatives that live in Prague and they get a whole year off.  And I'm pretty sure it's Sweden that gives women three years off and they're guaranteed their job back.  That would be heaven! 

So anyway, I went back to work on Monday and it sucked, as expected.  E is in daycare on Monday and Wednesday.  My MIL watches LC and E on Tuesday and my parents watch them on Thursday.  Friday E is home with me and LC is in school.  I think I cried the entire way to work on Monday after dropping E off at daycare.  I almost went back in, grabbed him and went home.  Believe me, I thought long and hard about it.  No one can love him or take care of him like I can, plus he's so little.  But, not working is not an option at this point.  So, I'm suffering through it and I know it will get better.

LC goes to preschool three days a week.  She loves it and is looking forward to kindergarten next year.  It's hard to believe she'll be five in March.  Seriously, where does the time go? 

The doctor gave me the go ahead to get back to running almost four weeks after E was born.  So, of course, I went out and ran three miles.  Nothing like easing back into it.  (do you hear the sarcasm?)  Up until this week I was doing pretty good with my running.  But this work thing is really getting in the way.  I've been so tired this week that I haven't been able to get any runs in.  I've registered to run the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving.  It will be interesting to see how that goes.  I figure I'll just push through it.

Hopefully this will become a more regular thing for me and I won't be away for four months.

Three Months and Counting...

My due date is was officially three months from Monday.  I’ll never understand why doctors, books, and others always say that pregnancy lasts nine months.  People, it’s ten.  A normal pregnancy lasts 40 weeks and last time I checked, 40 weeks was ten months.  So whenever I hear someone say nine months, I always correct them.  Why have false senses of hope? 

It was pretty hot and humid here all weekend.  Our air-conditioning is still on.  As far as I’m concerned, this year it can stay on all summer.  Usually we only turn it on when it’s really hot and/or humid, but this year there is an exception. 

We had a pretty busy weekend.  It started Thursday evening with the big dress rehearsal.  LC was great.  I have to admit I was a little nervous for her, especially since it was her first time on a stage.  But, she did great.  Yesterday was the first night of the recital (it’s a two night deal).  She was the second act to go on (after a long and agonizing tribute to Michael Jackson).  We were told that the kids couldn’t leave until the recital was over and I think I was more stressed out over that fact than anything else.  Some of the mom’s volunteered to be backstage helpers (God help them) to keep the girls entertained.  The recital ended up being three hours long…yes three hours long (and not a three hour tour)!  There was an intermission halfway through and Mr. Jeep and I noticed that parents were signing out their kids.  We kept going back and forth as to whether or not we wanted to leave.  In the end we decided to stay.  At the very end all of the dancers come onto the stage for a final bow.  LC was great!  She loves the stage.  When I went backstage to get her she was lying on the floor watching a movie that one of the mom’s had brought.  She said her favorite thing was dancing…of course! 

We had to do it all over again on Monday night.  We didn’t get out of there until almost 10:00 p.m.  That is late night for me, let alone LC!  All of the girls did really well again and it was very entertaining.  Now we have the summer off from dance class.  We’ll see if LC wants to do it all over again come September.

LC before the big dress rehearsal

Dancing Queen

LC has been taking ballet since September.  They’ve been working toward the big recital for the past nine months and now the time has come!  This is some serious stuff folks.  I guess I didn’t know exactly how serious some of these psycho caring parents are.  LC’s ballet class is one night a week on Thursday.  I can’t complain because it is only one night a week.  In the nine months of observing the behavior patterns of the other parents, you learn some interesting stuff.  Mr. Jeep and I trade off on taking her and due to the pregnancy, I’m not always up for going, so Mr. Jeep is kind enough to do the deed for me.  He’s wonderful!  As usual, the two of us have come up with nicknames for most of the parents (this is what we do when we don’t know someone’s name…doesn’t everyone?).  Here’s a rundown of some of the whackos parents:

Angry Mom:  She has two daughters, one in LC’s class and one in the class after LC’s.  The daughter in LC’s class is probably 3 years old and she is super cute.  But, man, does she give Angry Mom a run for her money.  That 3 year old has figured out which buttons to push on Angry Mom to make her head spin.  Angry Mom is also a teacher, which makes the whole situation that much more scary.

Never on Time Mom:  (she could also be labeled “Needs to Be Counseled on Birth Control Mom) She has three daughters, one of whom is in LC’s class.  The class is only a ½ hour long.  This woman regularly arrives 15 minutes late to class.  At that point, why bother?  Not to mention that her kid has been there maybe a total of 4-5 months out of the 9 months, if that.  She doesn’t work, and proudly states that fact to anyone within ear shot, so why can’t you get your kid there on time?  Plus, she’ll go next door to the pizza place and get herself a slice of pizza and eat it by herself while the other two kids are complaining they’re hungry.  Great parenting.  She’s pregnant with her 4^th (hence the needs to be counseled on birth control).

Stinky Mom:  This is a doozy.  Her kid’s not even in LC’s class, she’s in the following class.  Stinky Mom wore a leather Scooby-Doo jacket all through winter.  Awesome!  I won’t give it justice by attempting to describe it.  It as black with purple and orange and the entire back of it was covered with a giant image of Scooby-Doo.  She’s very scary looking also.  So much so, that I can’t look at her.  It makes me very uncomfortable.  During my first trimester, when every smell or sight of food made me want to hurl, she came in and sat right next to me.  She reeked of cigarette smoke and something else so bad that I thought for sure I was going to blow chow right there.  If there had been more than 5 minutes left of class I would have moved. 

Delinquent Mom/Grandma:  This child is in the class right before LC.  This event happened a couple months ago and I wanted to smack the shit out of Delinquent Mom/Grandma.  I label it Mom/Grandma because I’m not sure which person is the mom and which person is the grandma.  They’re both A1 assholes.  Anyway, the little girl’s class got over and she came out looking for her mom/grandma.  They were nowhere to be found.  The little girl then made her way outside and was standing in the parking lot screaming and crying for her mom/grandma.  Other parents rushed to help her, but the girl was so distraught because no one was there.    Finally Delinquent Mom/Grandma showed up and took her home.  Mr. Jeep told me that apparently the same thing happened last week.  Only this time, Asshole Dad (I’ll get to him in a minute) came to the rescue.  From what Mr. Jeep gathered, Asshole Dad is a neighbor of Delinquent Mom/Grandma (wouldn’t you love to live in their neighborhood?) and called Delinquent Mom/Grandma saying that her daughter was crying uncontrollably because no one was there.  These morons couldn’t wait a ½ hour for their daughter’s class to get over and had to go home.  Someone needs to call Child Protective Services.  As a side note:  Two weeks ago, Delinquent Mom/Grandma had a t-shirt on that said “Good Girls Go To Heaven, Bad Girls Go Everywhere”.  She’s a gem.

Asshole Dad:  His daughter is in LC’s class.  I’ve never seen the mother.  I’m guessing she’s probably at work when class is going on.  His daughter refuses to stay in the room while class is going on.  She’ll open the door and keep coming out of class, which disrupts the whole class.  He will sit there yelling at her to get back in the room or else.  I’ve never once heard Asshole Dad talk nice to the daughter.  

Disorganized Mom:  Her daughter is in LC’s class.  Most of the time her significant other brings the daughter to class.  This is the only mom whose name I actually know and I have her phone number.  She lives in our neighborhood somewhere.  She’s a very nice person, but just a little odd.  Mr. Jeep and I can’t figure out the relationship between her and the guy that brings the daughter to class.  We have learned recently that he’s not the girl’s dad.  And it appears that there is a significant age difference between Disorganized Mom and her man.  He looks about 15 years younger than her.  I call her Disorganized Mom because she never seems to have her stuff together.  For example, the ballet recital is a two day event – Sunday and Monday.  She never bought tickets!  The parents have to be there and you have to buy a ticket.  The Sunday event sold out, so I’m not quite sure what’s happening there.  Very strange.

The Rest:  The rest of the moms seem like nice enough women.  I have discovered that they’re very cliquey.  I think because I don’t go every week I’m not allowed to be part of the group.  This is fine by me since the closer we get to the recital, the more like stage moms they have become. 

Dress rehearsal is this Thursday.  This is another area that irritates me.  LC has to be at her dress rehearsal at 4:00 p.m. – fully dressed, hair done and all her make-up on.  I get off work at 4:00 p.m.  So I will be leaving work two hours early so that I can pick up LC from my parents’ house, get her dressed, do her hair and make-up.  Apparently it’s no big deal if you’re a working parent.

Throughout this whole adventure I keep reminding myself why we’re here…LC loves ballet.  It is the closest she will get to being a princess and in her world this is the best thing ever.  We will continue to do ballet until LC decides she no longer wants to do it.  I try not to complain in front of her because I don’t want to ruin it for her.  The things we do for our children.

Is This Nesting?

I’ve always thought of myself as being a somewhat crafty person.  I love to make things.  I guess my outlook is that why buy something when I can make it for probably less than what it costs and have fun at the same time.  My grandma taught me how to sew when I was really little.  We would cross-stitch, do latch hook projects, needlepoint, embroider (we did a lot of embroidering), crochet, general sewing…you name it, she taught me how to do it.  As a side note, my grandma used to always quilt and this is one thing I never tried.  She made the most beautiful quilts I’ve ever seen, even to this day.  I would sit and watch her quilt, but never tried it myself and for some reason never had her show me how to do it.  I still kick myself to this day that I never had her teach me. 

In addition to sewing, I also make birdhouses.  Let me rephrase that, I used to make birdhouses.  I haven’t made one in quite some time.  The area that I had in the basement to make the birdhouses was relocated when we started our basement finishing project and I haven’t made one since.  Plus, with LC I just don’t have the time.  Although I always tell her that when she gets a little older I will teach her how to make a birdhouse and we can make them together.  Something she is looking forward to very much.  I’ll have to post some pictures of the birdhouses I’ve made.  I used to think about selling them, but never acted upon it.  Someday I will.

I do a lot of wasting time reading on the Internet about different craft projects and always bookmark them or save them for later.  I’ve wanted to make a purse for a long time and finally came across a great looking project that appeared to be very easy, especially for my first one.  I found it at Made by Rae and it’s called the Buttercup Bag.  I made it several months ago and instantly loved it.  I made a few alterations to the original (which I will post at another time) and decided that I wanted to make an enlarged version because the first one was very small, as most people had mentioned.  Ever since I made the first bag all I’ve been thinking about is what is going to be my next project?  LC and I have made so many trips to JoAnn’s in the past month that it’s crazy.  The only drawback to my creativity is that I’m cheap.  I won’t pay full price for fabric.  So I usually wait until fabric goes on sale or wait until I have a really awesome coupon. 

I’m currently in the process of making the Buttercup Bag in an enlarged version.  I’m really stepping outside the box on this one with the alterations I’m making.  I started it yesterday and I’m hoping to have it finished by the end of the week.  I only have so much time in the evenings to work on things, so that’s the reason this one will take a little longer.

In my never-ending research I’ve come across a ton of ideas for baby things.  The drawback being that I don’t know if this baby is going to be a boy or a girl.  So I guess I’ll have to wait it out until the baby is here and then decide which projects I want to tackle.  I know one of them is going to be a super cute baby bath towel.  I came across the idea at Grace Violet.  I’m really excited to make one, so I think I’m going to go with neutral colors and try it out.  Plus, someone in my office just had a baby and I’m thinking about making her one.

The really fun part about all this creativity is that LC is very interested in everything that I’m doing.  I’m hoping I can pass onto her what my grandma passed onto me. 

Ahhh, the weekend

I have six hours left until my weekend begins.  I am so excited!  We're going camping this weekend at one of our favorite state parks.  It's a recreation area and there is so much to do there.  I'm hoping the weather will be great and not incredibly hot like it has been for the past few days.  Even so, it will still be nice to get away for a few days.  Normally we go up to Mr. Jeep's family cottage for Memorial weekend, but due to some family "issues" that occurred during hunting season in the fall, we will not be going up there.  It's a very long story, so I will not bore you with the details.  Memorial Day weekend at the cottage is never fun for me anyway.  It's not just immediate family that goes, it's also extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.).  It's way too chaotic for me and I usually end up being in a bad mood.  So the "issues" that happened at hunting season are fine with me, and Mr. Jeep.

We finally broke down yesterday and turned our air-conditioning on.  It was so humid and hot that we couldn't stand it any longer.  I really don't like turning the air on because I feel so cut off from the rest of the world.  We spend from about October - beginning of May with the windows and doors closed, why would we do that in the summer months, too?  I have to admit that it made for some nice sleeping temperatures, though. 

LC came down with Strep throat last weekend.  I took her to the doctor on Monday and found out that's what she has.  Luckily she's not running the super high fever she was running.  I just feel so bad because her cough is horrible.  The doctor's appointment wasn't so great.  She was fine until the doctor wanted to look in her mouth.  I finally had to hold her down while he looked in there and he immediately said, "Well, that's why she didn't want me to look!"  It took two of us to hold her down while the third did the throat culture.  It was very traumatic for both LC and me.  So now she's on Amoxicillin and hopefully on the road to recovery. 

Have a great holiday weekend!

Random Thoughts and Ramblings

I know, I know…I said I was going to be more diligent in my posting and it looks like it’s been almost a month since I’ve posted anything.  What can I say?  Life…that’s what I say.  Anywho, my post today is going to be random thoughts that I’ve been thinking about and general ramblings of things that I find annoying interesting.

1.     There is a woman that works in my building that drives an early 2000 Dodge Stratus and everyday she puts “The Club” on her steering wheel.  Let me paint a picture of said vehicle:  faded gold in color, rusted and appears to have been in several accidents.  I seriously want to stop this woman one morning and let her know that I don’t think anyone is going to try and steal her ride.  This is especially true since there are brand new Mercedes, Cadillacs, Range Rovers and various other high-end vehicles that park in the lot.  Maybe I’ll take a picture one of these days of her vehicle and post it on here.

2.     Speaking of work (which I try very hard not to do), I work in a very small office.  We moved at the end of November and in this office you can hear everything that goes on and everything that is said.  Having said that, I really don’t care to hear about someone’s pap smear while she is talking on the phone.  Seriously…take your cell phone and go in the hallway or into a conference room and shut the door.  Or better yet, save that conversation for when you’re not at work.  So annoying!

3.     Last Thursday evening I almost called the cops on some creepy guy that was standing across the street from our house.  Mr. Jeep had left to go to the store for something and I had been in the basement working on something, LC was in bed.  I went into the living room to start watching my Thursday night shows and noticed that there was a guy pacing back and forth at the bottom of my neighbors’ driveway across the street.  There weren’t any lights on in our living room so he couldn’t see me, so I sat down in the chair and started watching him.  He kept walking up and down the sidewalk and would stop directly in front of our house and just stand there staring.  Needless-to-say, I got a little creeped out.  I called Mr. Jeep on his cell phone and told him what was going on and he said that he had seen the neighbor talking to two guys before he left.  I still was on high alert that something suspicious was going on so I got out my camera and proceeded to snap a couple shots of the “creepy” guy.  Just as Mr. Jeep pulled into our driveway, the neighbor returned with another guy and the “creepy” guy joined them.  Mystery solved, but I was ready to take action.

4.     I swear I should start building an ark.  I think we’ve had three sunny/dry days in the past ten days.  I thought April showers were supposed to bring May flowers.  April around here was pretty dry in comparison to how May has been.  Plus, it’s been so damn windy.  I’m starting to feel like Dorothy.

Get Out of My House

We have a birdfeeder and birdhouse hanging in our flower bed and under a tree outside of our living room window. LC and I filled the feeder two weeks ago. Since then, I haven't noticed any birds eating the seed. LC noticed when we filled the feeder that the birdhouse had a nest in it. I told her not to touch it because there might be birds inside. I've seen birds flying in and out of the birdhouse and I figure they've got a cozy little home going on. They're sparrows, by-the-way. Yesterday I was sitting in the living room and I could hear birds chirping, so I went to the window and looked out to see a female cardinal on the feeder eating the seed. I then noticed a sparrow poking her head out of the birdhouse. She seemed a wee bit uptight that the cardinal was that close to her home. Next thing I know, I'm assuming her hubby swooped down and was flying around the cardinal. Mr. bad-ass hubby kept himself between the cardinal and the birdhouse. He was seriously stressed out! I think the cardinal could have cared less. All she wanted was her food. I thought for sure I was going to see a bird brawl right then and there.

Back off buddy!