Saturday, June 10, 2006
I have no idea why...
and it's pointless to even wonder, I guess. But here's the interesting behavior of the day. When Emma saw me dipping fries in the ketchup cup she wanted to dip too. So I let her. The thing that makes this odd is that she won't eat ketchup, she refuses. So what she did was dip the fry, lay it down, dip another fry, lay it down. She was making a neat row. Then she was inspired to dip both ends of the fry. It was all good because Mommy carries wipes ;) Oh, and she never did eat one.


Benadryl induced
I can never take enough sleeping pictures. She woke up this morning with a serious runny nose. Hence the Benadryl. Her mood was not so great today, but everyone allowed that she was feeling pretty crappy. She did hit a big goofy spell during dinner which was pretty entertaining. I just hope she's better in the morning.

Outfit of the morning
She started out in this one. I had to change it because I couldn't cope with how the pants were falling down around her waist. I don't think she's losing weight, but it seems like many of these 18 month outfits are not fitting well around the middle. They're just too loose. I changed her into another new 18 mo. outfit that ended up having the same problem. Oh, and it bears mentioning...I actually pulled out the iron for the top in this picture. That's a good sign that she'll only wear it once ;)

Thursday, June 08, 2006
CNN.com - 'Painstaking' operation led to�al-Zarqawi - Jun 8, 2006

I hope it made yours. I shed no tears for this cowardly butcher. He specialized in terrorizing and murdering civilians. Say what you like about the despicable Muqtada al-Sadr, but at least his militia would face off with soldiers. al-Zarqawi's methods were pure cowardice. It takes a real "man" to butcher and behead someone whose arms are bound. Good riddance. I hope he enjoys his raisins in hell.
Sigh
Sometimes I really wish I could blog about my job. It would make this place twice as interesting. And give me more stuff to blog about. But I've seen what can happen if someone takes exception to you, whether it's a legitimate beef or not. Jobs are not something you ever fool with over an internet squabble, but some people will cross that line. I've seen it on many websites and over a myriad of topics. My job is what provides health care for my baby and that's not something I'm willing to risk, even for blog material. I wish I didn't have to be so paranoid, but I'm sure many of you understand.

Mean people suck.
Store visit
It's been a while since we stopped by the store because Emma gets so bossy about wanting to go outside. But we went anyway and she did get to go outside. She didn't go down the sidewalk as usual; this time she wanted to cross the street and go to the courthouse. Then Daddy took her to the bank to show her off to his girlfriends there. She came back with two suckers and a balloon. I believe this is the first time I've let her have a sucker...



Cool...
A local artist has an exhibit on display. When went by to check it out I was really surprised to find that one of the pieces depicted M's store. It was one of two that had already sold at the reception on Sunday. It turns out a couple that lives in the house across the alley from the store bought it. I thought we ought to take a picture. The title of the piece is (My town's) Treasure.


Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Cars
Blogger is being weird tonight so excuse the tardiness...

As Emma was eating her strawberries I was munching on Corn Pops. She saw the ad on the back of the box for the movie Cars and got all excited. She kept saying "cars, cars, cars." I grabbed my camera and true to form she quit. But you do get to hear her say "cars" at least once, as well as "mommy" "daddy" and "box."

Leftovers
From the weekend. Here are Em and Dad before we walked over to the playground...


These flowers were in the field next to the playground...


On Saturday she found another pair of Daddy's shoes that she could put on and walk around in...

Monday, June 05, 2006
Quick hits
It's June 5. We have to build a fire in the woodstove tonight. Emma is back in her flannel pajamas and has her heater plugged back in and turned on.

I took down the high chair this weekend. I cleaned it up nicely so that it's ready to sell if we never get to use it again.

No, the taxes aren't done.
Europe swag
Our family takes good care of us. These are our gifts from Noni and Popi and Aunt K. and Uncle B. Woo hoo!


Fishin'
This was a gift from Noni and Popi's trip. I can't remember if it was actually from them or Uncle B. and Aunt K. They each gave her a new puzzle. She took right to this one:

Our fun family day
M. invited me to go for Sunday brunch for our Anniversary (on Noni and Popi ;) I told him I would on the condition that we go to the playground afterward. He agreed. We had a wonderful time taking advantage of the benefits of having two adults to supervise the tallest slides.

Here she's getting ready to go across the wobbly bridge...


Here's the medium length tandem slide...


My baby in blue...


Her first slam dunk...


For the first time she actually gripped the chains so we could pretend like she was swinging...


Here's the tall triple slide, she giggled the whole way down...

No grilling tonight
We are experiencing technical difficulties.



The bird poop all over the side tables was the first sign we had trouble.
Toothbrush sucker
This is the most popular use for OUR toothbrushes...holding them under the water and then sucking them. She dribbles so much water down her shirt playing this game that I make her wear a bib.


More later...
I have a bunch of posts with pictures to catch up on but Blogger photo uploading isn't working now. I'll try again later.

Meanwhile...it's been a busy 24 hours. I never got to post last night because I drove to Dulles International Airport to pick up Noni and Popi. Their flight from Frankfurt was delayed five hours so they got to spend seven hours in that hellhole. Aunt K. was able to get them another connecting flight from Detroit to Dulles, but they wouldn't be arriving till 10:40 p.m. So they missed their ride home. Aunt K. also reserved a rental car for them but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it sounded like a bad idea. They would be way too tired and wasted to be making the two hour drive home after 11:00 p.m. So I decided the safest thing would be for me to go get them. Plus it saved them $121 and having to return the car to a local airport the next day.

Emma and I drove the 1 1/2 to their house first. I attempted to feed her supper, let her play for a bit, did her bath and laid her down around 7:45 p.m. At 8:30 I grabbed her up and put her in the car for the trip to Dulles, thinking she would go to sleep for the ride. NOT. She alternately chattered, whined, sang, cursed and screamed the whole way up there. She FINALLY fell asleep in Manassas, 20 minutes from our destination. Oy.

After we picked up Noni and Popi and headed home Emma played in the back with Noni. That child never went to sleep until we were home, nearly 1:30 a.m. Needless to say, today has been a barrel of laughs.

Emma also has a rash on the back of her arm that concerns me. I made an appointment to have it checked at 3:00 p.m. today. Basically they gave me the go ahead to try hydrocortizone and we'll see if that helps. It doesn't seem to bother her in the least, she's not scratching it or paying it any mind. But the rash continues to grow. Now we'll see if the medicine helps.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
The significance of the Sprite
Excerpted from my journal, October 12, 1993. Items in parentheses were added for clarification...

It began the night I went to the County Fair, September 1. I didn't even want to go. Last year I felt very uncomfortable and out of place there (I had gone to M's county fair as a guest of M's mom last year. They have a fair parade and picnic at their house. It's a bit of a local event; tons of people there). And then I was practically deserted around the time to go to the fair. But this year K. (M's brother) needed me to bring over rings for the Lion's Club ring toss. I was pretty much obligated to go. I did take my volleyball clothes along so that I had the option of cutting out and coming back in case things began to look bad.

The dinner was good. I was already eating healthy foods then.

It began in small ways, but first let me describe our relationship up to this point...

I only ever saw M. at work. Mind you, I took great care to go when he was there. We talked about all sorts of things. Joked, sparred, one-upped. I really connected with his sense of humor and his mind. He never gave up anything personal. During the summer I did tell him one or two personal things, but not without great embarrassment and awkwardness. I wanted him to know about my divorce and why. I showed him the clips about Don's trouble. Not that I went to any great lengths to explain, I just showed him the clips. He never, ever gave any indication that he was interested in me. He went about his business as usual. Occasionally I would be given hope by one little scrap, but it probably wasn't intentional or even conscious on his part. OK, bearing all this in mind, we shall proceed...

At one point before dinner I was sitting on the couch talking to K., who was sitting in a chair. M. came in and sat on the couch about three feet from me, and I was thrilled! See what I mean about scraps? He had gotten my ticket for the fair ahead of time so I wouldn't have to stand in the long line. We all had dinner and watched the parade. He was nice enough to let Catherine and I sit on the back of his truck. After the parade everyone was splitting up to go to the fair. I started to get worried because it looked like I was going to be deserted again. I was standing in front of the house talking to Catherine's kids when M. came out of the house and sort of stood behind me. I continued talking and finally he said, "So, you ready to go to the World's Fair?" I was going with him!

He stuck with me the whole evening. We walked around the fairgrounds a few times, we tossed rings. After spending five dollars he won a one liter bottle of Sprite. We talked about all sorts of stuff. Long about 9:00 p.m. he asked me what time I had to be at work the next day. Able to take a hint I told him it was probably time I should leave. We ran into his dad on the way back to the house. I went inside to the bathroom and was rehearsing to myself how I would say goodnight. Something like "Thank you for hosting me this evening, it's been a pleasure."

I stood there talking to his relatives a few minutes. He sort of sat and waited for me. When we went outside he went toward his truck so I followed him to give him my rehearsed speech. When I started to say it he said that he'd walk me to my car. Wow. This was starting to take on a different tone. I had parked on the road instead of in the yard, which seemed to exasperate him a little. As we neared the car we were reduced to nervous chit-chat. I approached the door and turned around; he moved up. He sort of hugged me and when we separated he kept my hand. I don't even remember what was being said at this point, but then we kissed.

Can you imagine what I felt? My crush of over a year was kissing me. And it was totally unexpected, out-of-the-blue. I was reeling. To punctuate the moment, people leaving the fair in passing cars were hooting and hollering and whistling at us.


Happy Anniversary M.!
Thank you for 12 wonderful years!