American Idol

It's that time again. I'll admit it, I'm an AI addict. This season the judges are saying this group is the most talented ever, but I'm not sure I can agree with that when you consider Chris Daughtry and Melinda Dolittle and Cat McPhee in there, but there are a few Idols that do stand out for me. From the women, Carly Smithson is my top pick. That girl can really sing. And she has the most amazing blue eyes. I'm glad that the makeup dept. has changed her eyeshadow colour from that awful yellow/brown she puts on herself, though. It did nothing for her. She's looking hotter every week.

For the men, my top pick is David Archuleta. I have to admit that I have a mini crush on the guy. Something about him reminds me of Brian, though I can't quite put my finger on what it is. He's sooo frickin' cute because he's so humble and he completely blows me away with his voice.

David Cooke is my second choice for the men for singing He completely rocked out on Day Tripper, though I'm not sure what the weird tube on the microphone is. He started off as a bit of an uggo, but somehow he's gotten a bit more attractive. I guess that's what a good stylist will do for you. On looks alone, Michael Johns floats my boat, and I like his voice because he reminds me a bit of Michael Huchens from INXS, but I don't think he's gonna be the last man standing.

I like Brooke White because she's such a sweetheart. Kind of like the Melinda Doolittle of this season in "niceness" (though obviously her singing doesn't compare), but what the bloody hell was that she was wearing on Tuesday night?? that was fashion road kill if I've ever seen it.

Jason Castro is completely forgettable for me for some reason. I think he's a decent singer, but I just can't get into him at all. Maybe I just don't like his face. I agree with Randy regarding his performance of "Michelle". It was just alright.

I like Sayesha Marcado a lot. She's got a great voice and she's really cute, but I guess I was expecting a bigger sound from her. Something more Gloria Gaynor or Diana Ross or something. I was really surprised when she was in the bottom 3 last week and I don't think she deserved to be there over Jason. What's up with you America?

I like Chikezie. He's probably my 3rd choice in the men for pure talent. There's no question that he can sing. I didn't enjoy his performance on Tuesday night, though. It was a bit too "ho down" for me with the whole harmonica bit and the steel guitar.

Christy Lee Cook is, in my opinion, going home tomorrow night. She's probably the best looking contestant this season, and I do think she can sing, but the poor girl keeps choosing the wrong songs or maybe it's just the way she countries it up and the fact that I'm not a huge country fan. We'll see how this plays out.

Ramiele Malubay is a fashion disaster! What the hell was she wearing? Awful. In the past I've thought she was a good singer, but she is getting a little boring. Her performance on Tuesday was completely average for me. She tried to change the arrangement a bit, and I didn't hate it, but it didn't have me jumping up to dance in my living room. Though I have to be honest, The Beatles isn't really my cup of tea. I've never really connected with their songs.

Amanda Overmyer is somewhat unique because she has that raspy, gravelly, Bonnie Tyler/Rod Stewart kind of voice, but something about her performances bug me. She reminds me of a drunk aunt doing bad kareoke at a wedding whenever she performs. If you turned the sound off and just watched the visual, it's a bit embarrassing to be honest. It's just a good thing this is a singing competition.

So that's my Idol opinions for today. I'm sure I'll be blogging incredulously tomorrow when someone other than Christie Lee Cook, Jason Castro, or Amanda Overmeyer get booted off.

All by myself...

Well, technically I'm not all by myself, I have the cats and the boy with me, but my hubby has gone to a conference in California for the week so I am taking care of the family all by myself. We spent the weekend on quality family time. On Friday we went to Hill Country Pasta House for family date night. The food isn't all that great, but we like that it's out of the way and not too packed. It turns out that my old friend, Curtis, is bar tending there, so I caught him up on all the latest gossip and introduced him to my boys.
On Saturday Trent and I napped together on the couch, something I never do. It felt so great to take a nap! I need to do it more often. Saturday night Brian and I took Trent for a long walk in our neighbourhood while we enjoyed a beer and wine, and listened to country music on the iPod attachment on Trent's jogger. It may sound like a lame way to spend a Saturday evening for some, but we had so much fun together. I know I've said that I don't like country music, and that's still true to a degree, but I actually do enjoy listening to it when Brian sings to it, even though he's completely tone deaf, because it makes him happy. Country music reminds him of his dad and brother, and that makes it cool. So while you won't catch me ever listening to it on my own, I'm starting to open up to it a little more.
Today, after Brian left, Trent and I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and picked up a new shower caddy, a nutcracker, and some white sheets, then we went for a long run again. That makes 7 days in a row that I've worked out, which is totally unheard of, and I'm not doing it to meet any kind of weight loss goal, but rather, because it's been very convenient for me to be active this past week. During our run Trent passed out in his stroller which enabled me to take a quick shower before he woke up. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon playing in his room. Trent really loves the Beatrix Potter blocks that Daz and Mel sent him. He giggles so hard when I build him a tower with them and he pushes it over. The game we like to play is where I build the tower, and Trent knocks it over before I get he last block on! While Trent played I took some pictures of him.
Trent passed out pretty early this evening, and I'm hoping that doesn't mean that he's going to get up super early in the morning. Right now he and both the cats are sleeping next to me. It sounds like a great idea, so I think I will join them :-)

Scorcher

Today it feels like the middle of a Texas summer. Ok, not quite, maybe a summer in Spain. But it's HOT. Like 92 degrees hot!
Today Trent and I went for a long run in our neighbourhood. Well, wen I say Trent and I, I mean I ran and Trent pretty much slept. It was hard to keep going on the moderate hills we encountered, but I just talked to myself like a crazy person. I figured if anyone heard me they'd think I was talking to Trent. It worked. I ran the whole way. You might be wondering why Trent was home on a Friday... He had a couple of "blow outs" at daycare yesterday and they were concerned that he might have a stomach virus. So he was sent home and isn't allowed back until Monday. That's fine, though, because we get to spend the whole day doing fun stuff together! He hasn't had any stomach issues since arriving home yesterday afternoon, so today is pretty much just a play day for both of us.
Friday is also family date night. I so look forward to it! Hangin' with my boyz, sipping a 'rita or a wine, chillin' over some good food. Brian's going to a conference in California all next week, so Trent and I need to get our daddy time in as much as we can over the next two days.

Mixed Martial Arts - update

So I've been taking MMA twice a week for 2 weeks now. It's much different than Kung Fu because there are no forms to memorize. The entire class is spent working with a partner using a bag or a kick shield and doing drills. As we do the drills the instructors correct our form. The corrections are really cool because you really can tell the difference between how you were doing a kick, for example, and then how much harder you can kick with corrected form. My usual bag partner is the wife of one of the instructors. She's really good and has an awesome kick! Holding the bag for her is a good work out because I have to tighten my abs to absorb the impact. I bruised my index finger knuckle on my right hand in class on Tuesday during a punching drill. It swelled up massive and at first I thought I might have broken it. I just stuck it out in the class and continued with the drills, then iced it down when I got home. The swelling went down and left behind a nice green bruise. In addition to the bag drills we do a lot of core training to strengthen abs and upper body. I can actually tell that I'm getting stronger because when I went to the gym I had to add more weights to all the machines to get a good work out. I'm not sure if I'll stick with this particular school yet or not. I like the small classes, but I feel like I need to work toward some kind of goal so I can measure my progress. Not having belt levels to attain is a bit of an issue for me.

Birthday Boy!

Sunday was Brian's Birthday. He started off his weekend with a birthday gift basket from my parents, and a late night dinner with me and Trent at the Chinese place up the street from us. On Saturday the weather was beautiful and Brian got up early to play soccer. He played a fantastic game, and on the way home, took advantage of the convertable and felt the wind in his hair. Saturday afternoon we went to Costco for Brian's favourite lunch treat. A $1.50 foot long hot dog and coke! Best deal ever. We ran into a work friend and his kid at Costco and spent a few minutes catching up.
When we arrived home Bri's parents were here. We prepped for the evening's festivities and I picked up the cake at HEB.


The cake was awesome. It looked like a regular cake, but under the frosting was all cupcakes. Brian LOVES cupcakes so this was the perfect cake for him.
Our guests started arriving around 7pm and we had such a fun evening with the perfect amount of people. We grilled burgers, drank beer and wine, and some of us played hot potato on the trampoline. Nick and Kitty brought their new dog, Dexter. He's sooooo cute. My favourite picture of the night is this one---

Trent's getting the hang of this partying thing. He's practicing for kindergarten.

On Sunday, Brian's actual birthday, he slept late, opened presents, did some yard stuff with his dad, played indoor soccer, and then went to dinner at his favourite steak house. A perfect ending to a very fun birthday weekend.

Visit http://picasaweb.google.com/keylimeypie/BrianSBirthday02 to see more pictures from the evening.

Bite me!

On Saturday night we were hanging out with Trent, just listening to the radio and chillin' on the couch when Trent decided that daddy's finger would be a good thing to chew on. Brian was surprised when instead of soft gums he felt something sharp on his finger!

TRENT HAS A TOOTH!

It must be quite a relief for him because he wouldn't let us even look at his lower gums a few days ago, but now he's quite happy for us to stick our finger in his mouth and feel around for teeth. There's only one at the moment but you can tell the one next to it is ready to surface. How cute he's going to be with two teeth! The only bad thing is that we won't see his gummy smile for much longer.

Trent seems to be feeling better these days. There was a couple of weeks recently when he was just so fussy in the evenings and nothing we did would make him happy. After a visit to Nurse Grace, though, he's much happier. He got some meds and now he's back to being his usual sweet and funny self.

I just wanna stay in shape and kick some a$$

I've been sitting on the fence for months now about going back to Kung Fu. I really liked the health benefits of it, and the accomplishment of attaining a new belt, but the massive amounts of material were bogging my brain down. It takes a huge commitment to learn all of the katas and forms in kung fu, and I just don't have the time to dedicate to it. And because I've been away for so long (2 years or so), I'd have to re-learn all of the material. Granted it might come to me faster than the first time around. But something was stopping me from taking the plunge.
On Tuesday I opened the front door and a flyer fluttered into the house. I picked it up and read it. It was advertising a new martial arts studio 2 minutes from my house. I picked up the phone. Sean spent a good 15 minutes talking to me about what the classes teach and asking me what my goals are. I told him I wanna stay in shape and kick some ass. At that moment I realized what's been holding me back on returning to kung fu. I didn't want to memorize katas, I just want to get a great work out and in the process learn some self defense moves to take down even a 200lb man if necessary. Sean assured me that the mixed martial arts (MMA) class was the thing for me.
So last night I tried a class for free. We started with the usual warm up, then got right into the material. The instructor, Rob, asked me what my background was in. I never told Rob I had done any martial arts before but he picked up on it. There was an uneven number of people in the class so one of the other instructors held the bag for me as we went through the different exercises, and he gave me awesome feedback correcting my form as we went along. It felt so good to punch and kick again and it was surprising how much my body remembered. I was able to put a lot of power into my kicks and with a little correction, was able to actually move him off the spot he was standing. I left the class feeling really good.
SO I signed up for mixed martial arts. I'm gonna give it 3 months and see how I feel about it, then possibly move to Brazilian Jujitsu. It looked fun. I stayed and observed a bit of the class last night. Lots of grappling and wrestling. Right up my ally.

Stepping stones

This weekend Trent and I worked on a little creative project. We made a stepping stone with an imprint of Trent's left foot and right hand. You can see from the imprint that he was a little confused as to his role and rather than placing his hand neatly onto the cement and leaving a nice impression, he stuck his fist in and grabbed. It looks more like a paw print than a hand print, but I think it makes it all the more cool.

We plan to make one each year and put them in the front or back yard.

The weather here has been awesome and Trent and I spent a lot of time outside. We went for a walk on Saturday while daddy played soccer, then on Sunday we ate lunch on the patio at Mama Fu's, then we hung out outside with daddy while he changed the oil on the Subie, and socialized with the neighbours who were also out tending to their front yards. Afterwards we went for a long walk again so daddy could finish up the oil change. We stopped at the park in our neighbourhood and Trent played on the swing for a few minutes. That was his first time on a park swing and he seemed to like it.

All you germs out there better listen up!

Dear Cooties,

I don't understand why you insist on seeking me out when I've expressly asked you to leave me alone. I have no interest in your minuscule little lives and furthermore I go out of my way to avoid contact with you. Yet you persist.

I find this behaviour to be sycophantic and pathetic. Just because my family and I frequent the places you like to hang out, like daycare, restaurants, and even the office, does not mean I'm issuing an open invitation for you to latch onto me and take me down. I have not invited you into my home, yet you insist on invading it anyway. Where are your manners?

So here it ends, Cooties. I am armed with a variety of chemicals to take your asses out! I will not quit until I rid you from every hard surface I come into contact with. Moreover, I am taking pro-biotics so if you do make it into my person, you will be overrun by my badass immune system, and if that fails me, then you will be subjected to medications beyond your wildest nightmares. This is war, you little bastards. You hear me??

Soccer mom?

This weekend's photo shoot indicates that I am only a mini van and window sticker away from being a soccer mom!
But you know what? I want to be a soccer mom! Whatever! pick your jaw up off the floor. One of the hottest and most fun women I know is a soccer mom. Sheeit! I ain't ashamed.

Here are some pictures:

Milestones

Trent's hit a new milestone recently. He's been eating solid foods now for about 6 weeks. Well, by solid I really mean pureed goo. It's been a learning experience for all of us. He's developed some preferences, for example, he really likes bananas, and we've found that if we alternate banana with bites of carrots, squash, sweet potato, and green beans he'll happily eat all of his veggies. Though he's not a huge fan of peas, which makes me sad because I love peas. Last weekend he got to taste pizza crust for the first time. He mostly just sucked on it and enjoyed the sensation of being included in the adult festivities. Two evenings ago he tried his very first "solid" food. Some banana (what else?) flavoured puffs from Gerber. They melt in your mouth so there's no hazard of him choking on it. The first one he ate he got this look on his face like "Woah! what the heck was that? that's weird!" then he eagerly opened his mouth for another one... then.... same face. Then we sprinkled a few on his tray and let him feed himself. That was interesting, and it took everything I had not to help him by putting them in his mouth, and he managed to get one in his mouth all by himself! what a big boy! The rest ended up on the floor.
Last night at dinner, Trent enjoyed sucking on a big chunk of bread while we ate dinner. It was rather messy, and due to the colour of the bread, it wasn't a very appetizing sight, but I really enjoyed him being a part of our Valentine's dinner. Dinner with the two most important people in my life. What could be better than that?

One year ago today...

One year ago today, Brian gave me the greatest Valentine's day present ever. One year ago today, our offer got accepted on our new house! We moved into the house in April, while I was 6+ months pregnant. You might think it's a bad idea to move houses in the middle of pregnancy, but it actually makes perfect sense if you are planning to move in the near future anyway. I mean, why wait until the kid is here? you wouldn't be able to set up a cute nursery in the current house because you're gonna move anyway, so what's the point? plus, you'd have to not only pack your own stuff, but all the stuff your kid now needs. That's a lot of stuff. And looking back on the first few months with Trent, if we'd had to do that, it would have been damn near impossible to do it without someone taking Trent off our hands while we packed. Having a new house before the baby arrived enabled us to set up his room, decorate it, and settle into our house so that when he arrived it wouldn't be such a big upheaval. We were able to tweak and organize things to make our lives easier when the baby arrived. So there is some logic behind doing that. Brian was talking to a co-worker the other day who is in a similar situation. I'm glad he got to pass on the things we learned. And I really hope that their move goes as smoothly as ours did.

So we haven't quite been in the house for a year yet, and we've done a few minor modifications so far. One was the dining room floor, mostly out of necessity because we had a cat accident in there. Well, not so much of an accident as a miscommunication ;-) Anyway, the carpet is gone and a gorgeous wood floor lies in its place. The next big thing we tackled (and by "we" I really mean me, with a little help from Tiff) was removing the ugly green wallpaper from the bathroom, texturizing the walls and painting them a nice calming blue. I also made an enhancement to Trent's room which includes a roundabout and three roads converging, painted on his ceiling, and adorned with hot wheels stuck to the ceiling. Trent laughs every time he sees it. That makes it worth all the neck pain from painting it. I can't imagine how Michael Angelo felt... I wonder if he had a good masseuse. In addition to some aesthetic changes, we had some minor repairs to make. The biggest one being the ceiling in the game room from when the air conditioner leaked. The patch job looks like crap and needs to be redone, but we've been procrastinating on that and will probably continue to do so until we move out!
This year we have one major renovation planned. The back of the house needs a covered porch. I think it will make the back of the house look less "boxy". And it will also be nice to sit out there on some comfy wicker furniture and sip my wine while I supervise Trent playing on the trampoline ;-)
I also plan to plant a tree in the back yard to scatter my Ember's ashes under. I can't bear the thought of parting with his ashes yet, but I know that it's part of the healing process, and this will help me let go.

So here's to another happy Valentine's Day! We're celebrating with a family dinner at my favourite steak house this evening. And I might make Brian his favourite cake for dessert.

Life with Trent

Trent's now 7 months old. I can't believe how fast that's gone. Looking back over the past 7 months, the sleepless nights, the evenings of trying to figure out what's wrong with him and why he's screaming his head off are all but distant memories. I remember thinking during those times that this can't be my life. That surely this will get better, but it's so hard to imagine anything beyond that moment. Brian and I seemed to live hour-by-hour, waiting for the next challenge to throw itself at us. People who have kids told us that it would get better, easier, and harder all at the same time. And it has. It all comes down to experience. When Trent was brand new, Brian and I were unskilled, unprepared, and uneducated in parenting, as are most new parents. But as time passed we've become skilled in understanding what Trent's needs are based on his habits, his schedule, and the types of noises he is making. We are able to predict his needs and prepare for them before they arise. This has made all of our lives easier because now Trent doesn't need to cry to communicate his needs to us, resulting in a happier baby and happier parents. We now are able to resume our social life and take him along with us. This weekend was a perfect social weekend for us.
On Friday Trent went to daycare and I spent my day doing exactly what I wanted, including running to the gym, working out, and running back - an awesome way to get your cardio without having to run on those awful machines. I went to the outlet mall, then to Costco with Barbie, then prepared for an evening in with the girls. Trent hung out with us for a while and Aunt Andi gave him some food, then he politely went to sleep so that we could eat dinner.
On Saturday, Brian went to play soccer while Trent and I hung out at home. Then we all went out to the Chocolate festival at the culinary school where we met up with Nick and Kitty. Sadly, the chocolate was running out so instead we went to The Domain and I discovered Gelato! I can't believe I've never had it before. We sat outside of the little chocolate shop and were joined by some other friends, then we took a stroll through The Domain, basking in the gorgeous weather.
Saturday evening we met up with friends at Mandola's where we had freshly made pizza and I had yet more Gelato! Trent tried his first taste of pizza crust! he's just growing up so quickly. After dinner we went to the Draft House and sat in the beer garden where we were joined by Mike and Tara, then afterwards we headed back to Mandola's for dessert. Brian took his to go, though because Trent was due for a feeding and was being very patient and didn't fuss at all.
Sunday I got a run in on Town Lake, then Trent, Brian and I went to Michelle and Brian's baby shower in Lakeway. Trent was perfectly content as he got passed around the crowd and even took a 2 hour nap while we ate BBQ.
When we got home the three of us snuggled up on the couch and watched a documentary about the sun and Trent and I passed out.
We've learned that with a little preparation, we don't have to miss out on our social life. We just had to figure out a way for Trent to fit into it. And he's doing an amazing job. We're so proud of our little monkey.

People watching

Cool River is the perfect place for people watching. I don't normally frequent the place because the food is overpriced and average, at best, and people smoke nasty ass cigars in the bar there. Thursday evening, however, I made an appearance there to hang out with my girls, Barbie & Michelle and see Brian's band, Suede, play. When we arrived there was one booth front and center of the stage open, but it had a reserved sign on it. Not one to be deterred by a sign, I figured we'd sit there till someone told us to move, which they did. The manager was super nice about it and let us stay until their guest arrived. Barbie innocently told the waitress "oooh! I didn't know we could call and reserve a table in the bar!" the waitress replied "Welllll.... this guy spends a LOT of money". 'Nuff said. When the guy arrived we moved down to the pool hall where there was an open table and ordered appetizers. Meanwhile extremely curious as to what type of guy's ass cool river was kissing. I suppose we weren't surprised when a middle aged, overweight man sat at the booth. We were maybe a little surprised that he spent almost the entire evening alone, though. His evening was peppered with visits from the manager and the very attractive waitress, who we assumed were puckering up in an effort to part this rich fool and more of his money. And he was visited once or twice by one of the many "cougars" at the bar that night.
Thursday at Cool River is Ladies' Night. For some reason that place attracts a strange crowd. After appetizers we positioned ourselves off to the side of the stage with a primo view of the dance floor and prepared to be entertained. And boy were we! Middle-aged women gyrating in small groups, the occasional man in the mix dancing with his lady, and all the men lining the dance floor seemingly "shopping". Every now and then you'd see some lucky man get invited onto the dance floor to gyrate with the cougars. More interesting, though, was the scene at the front of the dance floor. Now Suede is a pretty good looking band. There's definitely a few pieces of eye candy on the stage and a couple of the guys work it for the ladies, touting their junk in tight pants or making eye contact and winking at the crowd. This night was no exception. We watched on with amusement as the women batted their eyelashes, tossed their hair, and shook their T and A, all the while trying to look nonchalant like they weren't tempting the band to look at them. One girl even indicated to her friend that she was going to take the singer home. We marveled at her confidence, but laughed our asses off because she had less chance than a snowball in hell. Just for our own amusement, though, we made our way to the front of the dance floor and did our own flirting with Brian and cracked up when the dirty looks flew in our direction.
Meanwhile, off the dance floor I observed the subtle changes in the crowd dynamics as the night drew to a close. The men looking more desperate. The women coming from the bathroom in freshly applied lipstick and smelling of mouth wash. Here and there you could see phone keypads being prodded as phone numbers were being exchanged, and perhaps an occasional lucky guy scored a hookup, but for the most part it seemed that the groups that arrived together left together.
This was Suede's first time to play Cool River. I hope they do more frequently.

What language do they speak in England?

I swear this is a legitimate question asked of me by my hair stylist this past week! Followed up by "is it German?"

Really.

Lucky for her she is an excellent hairdresser. In her defense she is from Central America, and English is her second language. After my initial shock (which I hope I did a good job of disguising) I didn't want her to feel stupid, after all, she did have a razor in her hand, so I told her that there are many languages spoken in the UK, including Welsh, Hindi, and Albanian, due to the influx of refugees from Kosovo in the not so distant past, but the official language of England was English (Duh!). And that in school we are also taught French, and some schools teach German and Spanish, too.

After thinking about it, I wondered if I could identify which counties spoke which language. For example, I have always assumed that in South and Central America, everyone spoke Spanish or Portuguese, but after Googling it, I found that they might also speak French, Dutch, or English as a first language. So I, too, am a little ignorant here.

But I thought for sure that England and English were so very obvious!

Fairy dogmother?

We've had a house guest over the past few days. A cute furry one named Harley. It seems lately that our house has a revolving doggy door on it... last week we put up Maverick and his mommy for a few days and this week Harley. We love that our friends trust us with their beloved pets and feel comfortable bringing them over.
Maverick is the most well behaved dog we know. He's smart, sweet, obedient, and extremely cute. Those actually sound like qualities I was looking for in a man back when I was on the dating scene ;-). Our experience with Harley has been quite colourful. He's also sweet and cute, he also appears to be quite smart, but obedient he is not. At least not yet. He's still a puppy and hasn't learned the limitations imposed by humans on when it's not ok to lick someones face, or when putting your huge paws on the baby might not be helping as much as he thinks it is. He is very gentle, though.
Trent loves Harley. His little face just lights up whenever he sees him, and Harley has really taken to Trent, too. Trent lets out huge belly-laughs whenever Harley comes near him, and giggles whenever Harley licks his hands. He doesn't know quite what to think when Harley licks his face, though. You can see the confused look on his face as he tries to figure out if he's cool with it. Then he'll smile and giggle.
The cats aren't too enthused about Harley. Nikki's spent most of the time upstairs hiding and Onyx has periodically ventured downstairs and stalked him from high ground while growling and hissing at him. Harley doesn't understand that he's in their house and they rule. But Onyx is being very vocal about letting him know that.
Last night Harley cuddled with Trent while Trent napped and it was the perfect Kodak moment:

HOTY Awards

Brian started off 2008 a strong contender for the Husband Of The Year (HOTY) Award. Early on in January, he stepped up his parenting and effectively became a single dad for the week that I was sick. Then, for my Birthday he arranged a gathering of close friends for a fun evening on the Patio at NXNW, followed by a romantic dinner the next day at my favorite sushi bar, complete with baby sitter. A strong start in and of itself. Then on Friday Brian surprised me with plans for a romantic mini-break in Houston! You might be thinking that Houston is NOT the place to go for a romantic getaway, but you'd be dead wrong.
On Saturday morning we packed up the car and headed to Houston where we stopped off at the Grandparents' house to drop off Trent. Then Brian's dad chauffeured us downtown to our hotel, the Magnolia, rated Houston's #1 romantic hotel. Our room was gorgeous. Very modern with a king sized bed with crisp white linens and a down comforter, Granite counter tops in the bathroom and a large garden tub.
We started off with a quick orientation of the hotel amenities then indulged in the rooftop hot tub and pool. There were a few people out there partying and hanging out in the hot tub so we joined in the conversation and spent a good hour or so socializing. Next we headed down for the free happy hour where we sat and talked as I sipped my wine and Brian drank his beer. After happy hour we went back to our room and got ready for dinner, then went down to the milk and cookie buffet to pick up bedtime milk and cookies for when we got back.
Brian's dad had made reservations for us at Sambuca. Houston's #1 date spot according to City Search. They were not wrong, either. It was awesome. The ambiance was perfect. Dimly lit and cozy with a live jazz band serenading the diners. We spent a short while at the bar as we waited for our table. The bartender let me sample several wines before I chose one, which I thought was wonderful customer service. Our time at the bar was briefly interrupted by a drunk guy who engaged me in conversation and within 2 minutes revealed he was a racist, satan worshipper! Thankfully I was rescued by the hostess when our table was ready.
We had one of the best seats in the house, right near the stage. The music volume was perfectly balanced so that we could hold a conversation, but loud enough that nobody else can hear you. The food was amazing. We started off with some Begniets stuffed with proscuito and mozzarella, a very unlikely combination, but they were so good! Imagine the sweetness of a begniet combined with the saltiness of proscuito and complimented with the creaminess of mozzerella. For main course Brian had a steak which came with mashed potato croquettes and I had the Seafood Infusion. The Seafood Infusion was a fish lover's delight. It was a tower of different seafood on a bed of roasted potatoes. It had Mahi mahi, scallop fritter, portabella mushroom stuffed with crab meat, and a fillet of sashimi-grade tuna cooked rare. All of my favourite seafood in one meal, cooked to absolute perfection. We lingered over dinner and listened to the band. We only momentarily thought about what Trent was doing, and for one evening enjoyed being not somebody's parents, but just us.
The next morning we slept late (late for us is past 8am) and got up to a leisurely breakfast at a restaurant just a block away from our hotel. Then we took a stroll around downtown Houston before returning back to reality and back to parenthood.
The moral of this story: The destination is not important in a romantic weekend; The company is the only thing that matters.

So a great big THANK YOU goes out to all the supporting players involved in the surprise and execution of this weekend, you know who you are! And most of all, a great big THANK YOU to my amazing HOTY husband, who's thoughtfulness goes beyond anything I could have imagined or hoped for.

Weekend in review

This past weekend brought with it so many things to celebrate. It started out on Friday morning when I attended the wedding of my BFF and now BFF-in law, Barbie and Scott! It was a really short and sweet ceremony, surrounded by close friends and family. There were some tears of joy and a lot of laughter.
That evening Brian, Trent and I went to NXNW where Brian and Andrea (Cameron Road) were playing. We spent the evening surrounded by our close friends and celebrated another awesome year of life.
On Saturday, my birthday Trent and I spent some time with Nana and Grandad on the webcam and Trent demonstrated his newly developed motor skills as he sat up unassisted for quite a long time. He giggled as Grandad made silly noises and watched Nana intently as we chatted. On Saturday evening, Brian served me cheese and crackers and wine while I spent some quality time hanging out with him and Trent, then he took me out for a romantic dinner at my favourite sushi bar while Aunt Tara and Uncle Mike spent time with Trent. After we picked Trent up we watched a movie and I happily passed out in front of the TV, stuffed full of sushi and sake :-)
Sunday was another relaxing day. I set up a makeshift photo set in Trent's room and shot pictures of him as he played. Here are just a couple. You can view the rest in his gallery.

Another day wiser

As I stare down the barrel of another birthday it's time for a bit of reflection. Time is just whizzing by so fast now and it seems my body gets older but my soul remains the same. Thank goodness that there's someone around who's as immature as me - I'm talking about Barbie, of course. The only person who appreciates it when I send her a picture of my poop (which I did just yesterday). I remember thinking how as I got older the years seem to get shorter. Mike Harris explained to me one day that if you look at your age as a fraction it makes sense. And it really does. I just remember when I was a kid how the years seemed to go on forever, when I was 10 years old 1 year = 1/10th of my life. Now that I'm older, 1 year = 1/nth of my life and that bottom number just keeps growing and growing. After he told me that it made so much sense to me. SO thanks, Mike. Who knew you were such the wise (ass) man?
I'm now at that point in my life where all of my friends are married and having babies. I remember being in my 20's and thinking how far away that all seemed. Spending all my evenings downtown in bars. What's awesome is that I still have many of the same friends from back in those days. They've grown up with me, so to speak. Now my evenings consist of dinners with the girls, hanging with my boys and cats, and watching my little boy sleep so peacefully in my arms. I remember thinking in my 20's how boring that life would be. How I couldn't imagine being too old to go downtown every night. And now I really AM too old! Now 6th street has no appeal for me. I've traded in the evenings of yelling over the music to get myself heard for intimate gatherings on the patio of NXNW or some other kid-friendly venue to listen to my friends play. I've traded in Tequila shots for a nice glass of Chardonnay. I've traded in my wild moonings at Esther's Follies for trash talking in the back of a Pedi-cab on 4th street with the girls. I've traded in trying to dance on packed dance floors while trying to avoid some guy trying to dry hump my leg for two-stepping around my living room with Brian and Trent. I'm pretty happy with the way things have turned out.
This year I was given the best birthday present ever - news that Trent will be getting a cousin, and the wedding of two of my favourite people in the world. Life does not get much better than this.

Things can only get better...

Well, after two weeks of feeling like crap, I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm not completely done yet, but at least I can leave the house and not have to worry about where the nearest loo is. I managed to get some chores done this weekend as well as spend plenty of quality time with my boys. On Friday I got to chat with mum and dad, who have been enjoying their new Nintendo Wii at home. On Saturday Trent and I got passport photos done in preparation for our trip to Switzerland and Spain. Today I gave Tiff a haircut and we got to check out Mike & Tara's new house. It's been several months that we've been trying to make it over there, but I have to say it was well worth the wait. It's simply breathtaking and I am so looking forward to seeing it finished and spending time with them there.
We learned some other exciting news this past week, though at the risk of letting someone else's cat out of the bag, I'm not at liberty to say what it is. I can say, though, that Brian and I are over the moon.
I posted new pictures of Trent on his gallery today. He's now sitting up all by his big boy self! He can't get to sitting position on his own yet, but when you put him there he stays for a while before he loses his balance.

A rocky start

Clostridium difficile. It's everywhere. In every human and animal, on every surface. It's on your counter tops, your toilet seat, your car keys, your steering wheel, your door handles. Everywhere. It hangs out in your digestive tract, seemingly harmless, blending in with all the other bacteria. But it's a two-faced little bastard! It lies waiting for an opportunity to strike. To rapidly multiply and put out toxins that attack the lining of the intestine. My body presented this opportunity after I was prescribed some antibiotics for a sinus infection in late December. Antibiotics destroy bacteria. Both good and bad bacteria, including the bacteria that normally keeps these little bastards at bay, and so they took off! The first few days were no big deal, in fact I didn't even realize there was a problem. Just some frequent bathroom trips and I figured hmmm, must have eaten something that didn't agree with me. Then New Year's day came and I have what appeared to be the most ferocious hang-over in the world, over seemingly small quantities of alcohol. I had taken a shot of Mamajuana, the drink from the Dominican Republic, but so did others. I assumed I must just be getting too old to handle booze. The two days after New Year's Day were marginally better, though I was starting to suspect I had IBS. Then on Friday all hell broke loose in my digestive tract. I was in more pain than I was in after taking the castor oil to get Trent started! Seriously. More abdominal pain than labour! By Saturday morning I was ready to die.
On Saturday afternoon Brian arranged for Trent to go hang with Aunt Jenn while he took me to the emergency doctor. A blood test revealed my white cell count was really high (1230), which indicated some kind of problem, but it was the (excuse the too much information here) stool sample the next day that revealed the true problem. For the next 3 days I didn't get out of bed except for the frequent trips to the bathroom. In a cruel twist of irony, the very thing that causes this condition is also the thing that will help me get better. Antibiotics. Today is Wednesday. It's taken 4 days since starting the meds to see improvement. Today is the first time that I've been able to sit up and actually focus on my computer screen without getting dizzy. Today I feel a million times better than I did yesterday, but I still feel absolutely awful. The worst part in all of this is that I haven't been able to hug Trent in days for fear of passing it on, and because I'm too weak to even lift him up.
In all of this, Brian's been holding the family together. He's single-handedly taken care of Trent and me, kept the house in order, cooked, cleaned, made runs to the store, and kept the cats and fish alive.
This isn't the start to 2008 I had in mind. I am optimistic that I'm just getting all the bad stuff out of the way so that I can have a fantastic year. The last 3 years have been amazing and I hope this year will continue the trend.

A very Stead-Bauman holiday!

Where to begin? We spent so much quality time with those we love this holiday season that it's restored my holiday spirit. I don't remember a Christmas I've enjoyed more than this one. We set off for Houston early on xmas eve and arrived around noon, just in time to lend a hand in the kitchen as Joan was preparing the xmas feast. Mum and dad got their very own ornament on the Bauman tree this year, plus an identical one to put on their own tree at home. The usual Bauman tradition is to open presents on xmas eve, then open the "santa" gifts on xmas day, but my family has always opened gifts on xmas day. This year my Texas family adopted my family tradition and opened the gifts on xmas day, which meant so much to me. I remember as a kid rushing down the stairs with the joy of xmas morning on my face and as I opened each gift running up the stairs in delight to my parents, who were having a (very early) morning cup of tea in bed, and showing them what I got (like they didn't know!). I dearly want Trent to follow this same tradition so that I can see the joy on his little face on xmas morning after all the anticipation.
On xmas day, Joan relinquished her kitchen to me and mum and leant a helping hand as we whipped up a traditional English meal. Not a traditional English xmas meal, because that would involve turkey, which we already had at Thanksgiving. Instead, mum and I did roast beef and Yorkshire puddings with, roasted and mashed potatoes, Paxo stuffing balls and Bisto gravy, followed by a Triffle made with spice cake and pears, Bird's custard, and whipped cream. We even popped the xmas crackers and wore the silly paper hats, as is the tradition in England.
It took us almost the entire day to get through all the xmas presents under the tree. We opened them one by one, which is not how we do it in England, but I MUCH prefer this way because you get to take your time and savor the moment. Then in the evening we opened the "Santa" gifts.
Trent was the picture of a perfect little boy the whole day, napping, eating, and playing with both sets of grandparents.
We headed back to Austin on boxing day. During their visit, my parents took Trent out for walks every day, sometimes twice a day and he came home happy and ready for some food. We cooked meals at home and went to a few key places for dinners including the Salt Lick, which my parents had never experienced and both agreed was well worth the long drive. We shopped for electronics that are more expensive in England and my parents stuffed all kinds of goodies into their suitcases when they left, including a Nintendo Wii, an Ipod, and all the cool things they got for xmas. We got dad a Kodak digital picture frame, which we pre-loaded with pictures of Trent, our wedding, and pictures from our last visit to England with them. We got mum a gorgeous multi-gem necklace and earrings, and both got various other small presents, including their favorite thing, a mug with a picture of Trent each. Now they can enjoy seeing his little smiling face every morning with their cup of tea. We had so much fun shopping for xmas presents this year because it was the first time that we've not had to worry about mailing something and having it lost or broken.
New year's eve came so quickly and we had all our closest friends over to celebrate with us. At 6pm Austin time we gave Aunt Glenys and Uncle Terry a call to ring in the new year as we listened to the chime of Big Ben and watched the firework display over the River Thames. I always get so sentimental about Big Ben. It wouldn't be New Year if I didn't hear his chime. We ran in the new year in Austin with a round of shots which I most certainly should not have done because I spent my entire new year's day over the toilet in one manner or another. Fortunately Trent chose this day to be the model baby and he hung out with his Daddy, Nanny and Gandy most of the day.
During their stay, Mike and Tara came over with their new Wii and mum and I went several rounds with some tough guys on the boxing game. It was absolutely hilarious to see mum boxing. We played tennis and bowling, too and afterwards my parents were hooked. The evening before they left, we played Wii for many hours on their new console.
And now comes the sad part of the holiday. Time to go home. We dropped Trent off at daycare and Nanny and Gandy said their tearful goodbyes, and as I tearfully left them at security at Bergstrom, I left bawling like a big baby, but consoling myself with the fact that I'll see them in September when we meet them in Spain after our trip to Switzerland for Benoit and Nadia's wedding.

Fun with trampolenes

Mum and Dad have been here for a few days now and I'm just loving every moment. We've shopped, they've walked the neighbourhood with Trent, we've hung out and watched telly, made delicious dinners, and spent quality time together. Brian went to Houston a few days ahead of us so that he could spend some time with Kev and also help with some things around the house. On Friday, mum, dad and I all went and played on the trampoline. It's just so funny to think how much fun I had jumping around with my 60+ year old parents. I imagine the neighbours thought we were nut jobs. I got some pretty cute pictures, which I will post on picasa after xmas.
Today we finished up our xmas shopping, got to see Scott and Barbie for a short visit, dropped of some gifts for Ethan, and had a stop and chat with Mike and Tara. We have just finished loading up the car ready to take off early tomorrow for a very merry xmas with the whole family! how very exciting.

It's finally here!

December 20th! This date is even more important than Christmas. Why? Because my parents are arriving today! Trent will get to see his Nana and Grandad for the first time! I can barely stand to wait for their flight to land.
Brian and I have been on vacation for the past week (well, since December 10th for me) and we've been busy doing projects around the house, including cleaning out all the junk mail that has accrued in our office, cleaning out the closet under the stairs, fixing the ceiling that's been stained and crumbling from that leak we had a few months ago, painting a mural of sorts on Trent's ceiling, and Brian has taken on the 30k service on the Subaru, rather than paying $400 in labour for the Subaru dealership to do it. It's been a very busy week. Add to that the fact that our little munchkin is very sick. He has RSV, which is a virus that affects the respiratory system and is rather serious in infants. He's hanging in there with some breathing treatments and cough meds and a lot of TLC. In addition to the breathing problems, he's also got some projectile vomiting and diarrhea.

I'm so excited to see my parents! I can only imagine how they're feeling, waiting to meet their grand child.

Misadventures in tree trimming, etc.

Trent got sent home from daycare on Thursday because he threw up and with all the bugs that are going around that place they didn't want to take a chance. Of course, that meant that he couldn't go on Friday, either. So we've had a LOT of family time over the weekend.
This is the first year in many that I've actually mustered up enough holiday spirit to deck the halls... well, not really the halls, but the front yard. I wrapped both the trees in lights and also the bay window. It looks decent. Of course, nothing compared to the other houses in the land of Stepford. But it's an honorable mention at least. This isn't the tree trimming I alluded to in the title of this blog, though. The misadventure I'm referring to involves Brian's good intentions in being a good proactive and responsible home owner. The big tree in our back yard has been touching the roof since we moved in, and on a windy day you can hear it scraping if you stand in the closet.
Brian diligently set about it with the tree saw and cut away some of the branches, but managed to get the trimmer stuck in the tree about 25 feet up. Not a big deal, right? But the ladder is too short to get on the roof so we couldn't climb up there to free the trimmer, and besides, both of us are a little intimidated by heights. So Brian, problem solver that he is, decides that throwing a rope, weighted on one end, over the branch so he can pull it down, thereby releasing the trimmer, would be the next course of action. Only we don't have a rope. But we do have a 100 foot extension cord. So he enlists my help in tying a small log to one end of the cord, and he throws it into the tree. And it never came down. At this point he's getting a bit pissed off and I'm having a hard time controlling myself from laughing my arse off. He yanks on the cord and it doesn't budge. I have to go indoors so he can't hear me cracking up. When I compose myself, I assist him in getting the extension cord out of the tree, thankfully it did eventually come free. Then I watched, all the while trying to hide my amusement as he tried using numerous household items to free the trimmer. A broom that was too short, a fishing rod case, throwing logs at the branch imprisoning the trimmer. Eventually my amusement gave way to annoyance because he was becoming obsessive about it. I eventually convinced him to leave it for the evening, go out with his friends, and fuhgeddaboutit. I kind of wish I had taken a picture of the extension cord and the trimmer stuck in the tree. It was funnier to see it than I can do justice in this story.
The next day, Brian borrowed Scott's trimmer and was able to free ours from the tree. A happy ending. And a big thank you to Brian for taking such great care of our home. When I met Brian he was pretty useless around the house. He could barely do the dishes and forget about any kind of maintenance. But over the years he's become very handy, thanks in part to our great friend Mike, who is the handiest person I know.

In other news I'm off work for the rest of the year. Well, when I say off work, what I really mean is that I'll be checking in daily to ensure there are no critical issues for me deal with, and after handling any necessary crises I'll be spending my days leisurely. Today, for example, Trent is at daycare and I plan to work out, have lunch with Mike, get a pedicure, and finish up my xmas shopping. Doesn't that sound like the best relaxing day? Last night, Brian helped kick off my official vacation with a delicious trip to my favourite sushi bar while Aunt Tara spent some quality time with Trent. We're so lucky to have such great friends.

I could spend some time today sending out xmas cards... but I'm just not inclined this year. So please, nobody be offended when you don't get a card from us. It's not that I'm not thinking about you. It's just that my time has become very precious and I'd rather spend it elsewhere.

And finally, an update on Prince William. On Sunday he looked like he might not make it again, but I repeated the steps previously taken, and today he's right as rain. Prince William just keeps on ticking.

Only 9 days until mum and dad arrive... and counting. There's so much I'm looking forward to this holiday season.

Get the lysol!

Trent's been rather ill this past weekend. On Saturday night he threw up all over himself in his crib, all over me the next morning, and pretty much all over everything as Sunday progressed. When you see that much stuff gushing, your first inclination is to shove something over the hole to stop it. But you can't do that with a baby. I found myself in the line of fire a few times, as did Brian, and each time, we tried to just "aim him" at something washable. We ended up with a rather large pile of laundry on the living room floor.
The doctor told us it's a virus that's going around. It's funny that whenever a person is sick, no matter what the symptoms, it's always "that bug that's going 'round". We kept him hydrated with Pedia Sure and fed him only breast milk. He seemed to be very lethargic on Sunday and slept a lot. If it didn't break our hearts to see him like that it might have been quite pleasant. On Monday he was still vomiting and had a massive throw up while we were running an errand, completely soaking himself and his car seat. Luckily nobody but Brian and me saw it, so we escaped the accusatory stares of the know it all, more experienced parents who think I'm a bad mother for bringing my fountain of puke to the store.
Today he seems fine, though, and it turns out it was "that bug that's going 'round" because all the babies in daycare are out sick today, too. Of course, he wouldn't be sick if he didn't insist on shoving everything in his mouth! I suspect it will be many years before he learns that lesson ;-)

Long live Prince william!

It's been four days since reports came in of local Austin woman, Amanda Bauman, saved Prince William from a near fatal brush with Swim Bladder disease. William was reported to be resting comfortably at the palace over the weekend and sightings of the prince from outside the palace have been few and far between. Prince William declined to comment on his condition. His brother, Harry II, however, did grant us an audience for a few moments and explained that William was feeling much better and has resumed his normal eating and working out activities as of yesterday. William's daily activities include a well balanced morning meal, followed by a vigorous swim in the palace aquarium, and a relaxing on the rocks and in the garden his brother.
Now hailed a hero by the royal family, Amanda declined the reward offered and simply said "Anybody would have done the same. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time".

Austin woman saves Prince William!

I've had these two goldfish, William and Harry ever since I bought my first house. Named, of course, after the princes. Harry is Harry II because the first Harry died of Ick very early on, but William is the original.
Yesterday I came downstairs to feed the princes when I noticed William floating on his side on the surface. I held my breath for a moment thinking he was dead when he swam back down to the bottom. He seemed to struggle to get down and when he did he was exhausted and just floated back to the top. This continued for several hours. Periodically, William would go into his rock house and rest so that the ceiling would keep him under the water, and one time I found him wedged down the side of the rock house with one fin on it holding on upside down. I thought for sure he was a goner. But I couldn't just let him die. He's Prince William!
I called Mike, who used to work in an aquarium store, and the fish guy at PetSmart. Did some googling, and found that poor William had what seems like Swim Bladder problems. A condition that would kill him if I didn't act quickly. So I picked up some Quick Cure at PetSmart, not sure if this helped but it couldn't hurt, I hooked up an air pum and aerated the water, did a partial water change, and fed William some frozen peas. Yea, peas. Apparently that helps release whatever is causing him to retain oxygen in his swim bladder.
After a couple of hours, William started to look better. He struggled less to get to the bottom and spent less time on the surface, although he did still end up there if he stopped flapping his little fins. I crossed my fingers and left him alone for the night. When I woke up this morning, William greeted me in his usual manner. He swam to the side of the tank where I usually feed him, and wagged his tail and opened his mouth for food.
It's probably too early to celebrate at this point, I suppose he could still take a turn for the worst, but as of right now he's acting normally and I do not have a fish funeral in my immediate future.
Way to fight, Prince William! You at least live to see another day.
What's kind of cute is that the whole time while he was sick, Harry II kept hanging out very close to William, as though showing concern for his buddy. I'm probably just projecting human emotions and mannerisms onto my fish, but it sure did look that way to me.

Giving thanks

It's the holiday season. I'm usually grumpy during this time of year because I can't spend it with my family. In the past 15 years I have spent only one xmas with my family. But this year I have an unusual amount of holiday spirit. Why? because for the first time since I moved away from England, my parents are coming to visit me for xmas! I'm I'm even feeling festive enough to contemplate xmas lights. Yea, you heard right.
This past week was American Thanksgiving and as is the tradition, Brian and I packed up the car and headed to Houston. Only this year we had an extra person to pack for who takes up an entire trunk. Talk about high maintenance! This thanksgiving was particularly special because Kev and Darice came in from Indiana and spent the night with us in Austin. We hit the outlet malls the next day before making our trip to Houston. Trent was an absolute angel on the trip there, and despite some bad weather, we made it there safely and in one piece.
Thanksgiving dinner was awesome as usual. Joan went really gourmet this time and made the most awesome stuffing. It had Italian sausage in it. We did a Guinness Turkey with Rosemary and Garlic pesto under the skin that turned out amazingly well. Although we did manage to set the oven on fire. Thankfully it was contained and we did not end up a holiday statistic or go to the ER. It makes for a good story, though.
Thanksgiving day, my father in law thought he'd be a smart ass and tell me to go ahead and spit my olive pips into the fire. I figured since he was so serious I'd call him out on it. The moral of that story: Don't tell Amanda to do something unless you mean it. ;-) It was pretty funny because when I did it he was mid-sip on his beer and didn't have time to stop me. HEHEHE. That also makes for a good story.
On Friday we went to the mall to brave the holiday shopping crowds and later, as the boys watch football, Darice and I snook away for some girl time and got a pedicure. That was a really nice break. We took some Bauman family holiday pictures by the tree and that evening we went out for a nice Italian dinner. Trent, again, behaving like a perfect angel. It was really cute to watch grandpa taking him to the bar and showing him off to people. You can tell he's really proud of him.
Sadly, Kev and Darice left on Saturday but Brian and I stuck around for another day to maximize the Grandma and Grandpa time with Trent.
The drive back to Austin was much less hairy than the drive to Houston and Trent was once again a really great traveller. We're really proud of the little guy.

The new era of romantic

In my old life it used to be that a romantic evening consisted of dinner at some swanky restaurant with wine and expensive cuts of meat. When you have a kid it's really easy to let the romantic stuff slip out of the picture. You're both so focused on raising your new human that you forget to take the time for each other. But not my husband. Our alone time has become more precious and he makes every effort to spend quality time with me. Just a small example of this was Sunday evening's activities. I cooked dinner while Brian rocked Trent to sleep. We put him down for a nap and ate dinner at our new kitchen table by candle light, listening to the country music station. After our meal we just hung out and talked. I drank a glass of very cheap, but satisfying wine, and Brian danced with me around the house, which is a very common occurrence in our house these days. Having Trent, while very challenging at times, has brought us even closer together. We realize how much we truly depend on each other, and when the other is not around, how awful life would be without them.
Sometimes I miss my old life. Times like yesterday when I was so stressed out I actually had a sobbing melt down. But today all's right with the world again, and my sweet, sweet husband, knowing I had a rough day yesterday, bought me flowers to cheer me up.

Roll with it... (work related rant)

Lately I've been extremely stressed out about my job. It's Mainly because I HATE it. I used to love my job, but lately I've been feeling a lot of resentment toward my management chain because they're pushing these initiatives that don't make sense to me, and impact our customers adversely, in my opinion. I'm repeatedly told that I don't have to agree with the decisions, but I have to get the pom-poms out and get behind it with enthusiasm. WTF?

I've been assigned to multiple teams where I have to analyze, strategize, recommend, and publish information for others in my organization to use as best practices. I'm being encouraged to "think outside the box", but when I do, I get slapped down by budget constraints and resource issues.

I've been looking at other jobs, but nothing is floating my boat, and I just can't take on anything new at this point in my life. With having a major change in my home life, I just can't handle a career change as well. So today I made a decision. It's not life altering, it's not an earth-shattering revelation or anything, but I think it's going to make the difference in my stress level, so I'm going to try it out.

Starting January 1st, I'm going to just roll with whatever (seemingly stupid) initiative my management chain pushes down to me. I'll alert the stakeholders of any decisions that impact them, sit back, and let them fight it out between themselves and not get in the middle. When they come to a decision, I'll roll with it. It sounds like I'm being apathetic. And I guess I am. But so what? I've said many times, and I'll say it again, my goal in life is to be happy. That's it. It's perfectly simple. So when I'm in a situation that doesn't make me happy I need to take steps to get back to my happy place. My happy place at this point in time is to do my job to the very best of my ability, and at the end of the day forget about it, go home, and spend some quality time with my boys.

Today, as I was getting all worked up over some new policy that I don't agree with being pushed on me, it occurred to me that getting pissed off and all heated up about it isn't going to change anything at all. So why bother? Why not just do what they tell me? Why not just roll with it? Would that make my life easier? you bet your arse it would!

The truth of the matter is that I do love working for this company on many levels. I love the flexibility, I love the environment, I love my immediate team and the development team, I love the pay, I love the location, I love that I can work from home, I love the perks like discounts all over the city, I love the benefits... there are so many great reasons to work here. So I'll continue to monitor the available jobs here, and until the ideal one for me shows up, I'm going to shut up, smile, and focus on the great things about my job instead of getting worked up about the small amount of negative shit.

I am going to ROLL WITH IT!

And as I was writing this, I realized that I don't need to wait until January 1st to implement my "Get Happy" plan. I can start NOW!

Wee Man and Me

The weekend was interesting for both Brian and Me. Brian spent two days in College Station racing his car around the Texas World Speedway. This is the second time he's done it and he came home very excited at his improvement over the last time. His instructor drove the exact same car as him, and was very impressed with Brian's skills.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... Trent and I spent the weekend together, just the two of us, peppered with appearances from Aunt Barbie and Uncle Scotty. On Saturday morning he got up around 6am and didn't want to sleep anymore, so we went and played in his room for an hour. We got through all the flash cards that Aunt Renee has given him. They're really cool. Each one has a letter of the alphabet, and on the flip side an animal that begins with that letter. On each one I gave Trent a little bit of information on the animal, such as whether it's a mammal, reptile, amphibian, insect, or bird, and where that animal comes from, and any other relevant bits of trivia I could remember. It turns out I know quite a lot about animals :-). Next we had story time. A pop-up book of Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit. I love Beatrix Potter stories. Then we tossed the plush soccer ball around for a bit.
On Saturday afternoon we went to Kohl's and met Aunt Barbie. I bought Trent two cute outfits for school, then we went to Costco to pick up some necessities. After Costco, Trent and I took a 2 hour nap in front of the telly, then when we woke up we went over to Aunt Barbie's house where she made us a delicious pork roast and mashed potato dinner, and Uncle Scotty hung out with Trent.
On Sunday Trent woke up around 7am and we played in his room again. We did flash cards again. There are a couple of animals I need to look up so that I can give him accurate information. Narwahl and Quetzel. We watched some Sunday morning TV, and later on did some shopping. Then we hung out until Brian got home around 8 that evening. While I enjoyed spending quality time with Trent, it was nice to have Brian home.

Fluke

Whatever it was that caused Trent to sleep for 10 hours on Monday was obviously NOT the solid food. Now I'm beginning to think he was a bit under the weather from the immunizations. The reason I think this is because for the past 2 nights he's been waking up every few hours and has been inconsolable. I try not to feed him at night if I can get away with it because I want him to sleep through the night, and he seems to eat out of habit rather than need at this point. But the last 2 nights I had to. That is if I wanted to get any sleep for myself.

To make matters worse, I've come down with some awful cold/flu. It's completely knocked me on my arse. I haven't worked out at all this week. Usually I just power through it and go for my usual runs. I've always felt that running helps flush out all the crap, but this past week I've been all week and achey to even try. Wednesday seemed to be the worst day. I feel marginally better today. It seems whatever I have might have passed on to Brian. He's been complaining of a sore throat today, which is how mine started. Speaking of which, when this thing started, it wasn't a traditional kind of sore throat, you know the one where it's kind of scratchy and sore... it felt more like someone was trying to strangle me. What an awful feeling. I kept putting my hands to my throat to try and loosen something that wasn't there.

The good news is that Trent doesn't seem to be sick. No fever and no evidence of a sore throat, though he does have a snuffly nose. And speaking of snuffly noses, because babies breathe through their noses, and because they can't blow their noses, you have to do it for them. It's gross! I have such a huge problem with snot and bogies. To the point where I almost throw up at the mere mention. Imagine my horror when I had to use a bulb syringe to suck snot out of my kid's nose! Oh. My. God! seriously. Worst thing ever.

4 month checkup and adventures with solid foods

Yesterday Trent went to the doctor for his 4 month checkup and immunizations. He's hitting all the developmental milestones as appropriate and is in the 25th percentile for height and weight. It's funny because people ask me all the time how old he is, and I say 4 months, and they say what a big boy he is... apparently he's not that big. It must be just something people say, like an automatic response. Kind of like how people always tell you your baby is cute, even if it's not ;-).
Trent was such a brave boy when he had his shots. He only cried for about 20 seconds and then cuddled into my hair and was fine. It's really hard to see your kid cry because of pain. I'm glad it was so brief.
The doctor advised us to start Trent on solid foods now. While there is evidence that waiting to introduce solids will help ensure he doesn't get food allergies, there are no food allergies in either my or Brian's family so the chances are very slim that Trent will be allergic to anything. We're starting with single grain Rice Cereal to minimize any risk of allergies.
The first feeding went surprisingly well. We waited until the last meal of the day, which was right after his bath when he was nice and relaxed. He took to it right away. Never spit it back out and seemed very eager to eat more. After he finished the tiny portion we made for him, we gave him his usual late night feeding and put him to bed.
Trent woke up at 7:30 this morning. That's 10 straight hours of sleeping for him! Imagine my surprise when I woke up and it was light outside and I hadn't gotten up in the night to feed him! This was my first full 8 hours of sleep in many, many months.
A side observation: Trent's colic seems to have subsided quite a bit. He's much easier to handle these days and a week or so ago Brian and I celebrated making it through the rough early months. We feel like we've survived and learned a lot, and can now see the light at the end of what was sometimes a very dark and scary tunnel, dotted with brilliant rays of sunshine along the way.

Trent's 1st BBQ

This weekend, Trent threw his very own Barbecue for all those people who hadn't yet met him, and of course the regulars in his life. For the first time ever, we opened up our house to children and dogs as well. It turned out to be a very fun evening. The dogs were all very well behaved and played so nicely together in the back yard, as did the kids, who spent most of their time running around outside and jumping on the trampoline.
Trent seemed to have a great evening. He hung out with all his favourite aunts and several new people throughout the evening, only briefly hanging out with his mummy while he fussed a little. And at 8:30, right on schedule, he got his bath, boobie, and put to bed. The girls all hung out upstairs with me while I fed him, then Aunt Jen rocked him to sleep.
After most of our guests left we hung out with those who stayed behind and I played superheroes on the trampoline with Ethan and Brian (Lee) while everyone chilled in the back yard and chatted. Eventually we wore Ethan out and he passed out on my lap and cuddled with me, which we haven't done in ages.
Sadly, I didn't take many pictures. I guess cause I was too busy having fun.

BFF

As is the tradition, Barbie and I left the men at home in order to have a cultural evening at the Theatre. Our play of choice: "Tuna does Las Vegas". It was pretty good, but not as funny as previous ones, though the two guys who play all the characters are really good actors. When we arrived at the theatre and found our seats, we were amused to find that we were in a section all by ourselves. We looked over to our right and the section next to us was pretty full. It kind of looked like it was on purpose. Like we've been black-listed at the theatre. Like they knew that we'd spend the entire play belching and farting. And of course, not ones to disappoint, that's exactly what we did ;-) It's funny how juvenile we still are, even in our 30's. It's also funny that Barbie and I found each other, because nobody else thinks our bodily functions are amusing, but we get so much mileage out of it. If I believed in a higher power, I'd say we were thrown together as best friends purely so that we could have someone else in our lives that made each of us not seem so damn weird, gross, and plain childish. But of course, I don't believe in a higher power, so a more sensible explanation is that we became best friends because of these things.
This year, Barbie and I are celebrating our 15 year anniversary. Over the past 15 years we've fought and bickered on occasion, and disagreed, but we always know that no matter what, we'll always be friends, we'll always get over it, move on, laugh about it in a few hours. You can't put a price on that kind of friendship. I don't even have that kind of relationship with my own sisters, as evidenced by the fact that we haven't spoken in over a year.

So the point of this post is to let the world know how much I appreciate my BFF, Biker Barb. My partner in crime, my confidant, my enabler of childish behavior, the one who laughs at all of my jokes, the one who truly knows the real me, not just the persona that I let the rest of the world see. How truly lucky I am to have her as a permanent fixture in my life.

Galactagogue

It's a funny word, Galactagogue. Probably a word most people have never heard of. Only dairy farmers and breastfeeding mothers most likely know what it is.

galactagogue

noun

agent that induces milk secretion

Producing food for another person with your own body is no small task. And I've never given it much thought. But being in this situation I've made some interesting observations:

1. I'm very tired by the end of the day. This could be partially due to waking up in the night to feed Trent, but Brian spends about the same amount of time awake as me and doesn't seem to be plagued with passing out on the couch.
   
2. Taking Fenugreek (my galactagogue of choice) makes me and Trent smell like a Indian food and maple syrup. There are worse things to smell like.
   
3. There is a definite increase in production after 24 hours of taking Fenugreek, 2 caplets 3 times a day.
   
4. Supply wanes so easily if you are not religious about pumping on schedule when you're away from your baby. Even with the Fenugreek.
   

We're almost to the 4 month point. Our pediatrician would like to start Trent on solid food at 4 months because of his acid reflux. I have mixed feelings about this because I've read several articles that state that food allergies are associated with early introduction of solid foods, and very good evidence and explanation to support it. On the other hand, I want to do what's best for Trent's comfort, and of course, it would be nice to not have him throwing up every day. Of course, breast feeding wouldn't stop completely. The solid food would just be a supplement to that, but it would ease my burden of producing so much. So as appealing as it is to start him early, I need to make sure that it's the right thing for him and not the most convenient thing for me. Is it really that big a deal for me to go 2 more months chained to my pump??

I guess I'll talk to our pediatrician about these concerns before making a decision.

---

Baby steps...

yesterday I took the day off to hang out with the two loves of my life :-) Trent and I spent time on his activity gym gazing up at all the dangling toys and feeling all the different textures. Trent discovered cause and effect yesterday with a little help from mummy. I took his feet and kicked a toy to make the bell inside tinkle. We did this for about 5 minutes then moved on to something else. Later, when Trent was playing by himself, he very deliberately kicked the tinkle toy and giggled when it made a sound!

4 months ago if someone had told me I'd be excited about something seemingly so small I'd have been like "whatever". But it just made my whole day to see him developing right before my eyes.

Since we were both taking the day off, we had lunch at a new place over by the mall called Spicy Pickle. It was delicious. Then we bought Trent some new socks because he's already outgrown the ones I just bought him only 2 weeks ago. Speaking of outgrowing things, I've had to retire quite a few of his cute little outfits that my mum sent. He's already too big for them. It's a little bit heart breaking that he's growing up so quickly. This sentiment has caught me completely by surprise. It's funny how Trent is teaching me so much about myself and he doesn't even know it.
We finally have some cool weather here so Later on, Brian and I put Trent in some fleece PJs to keep him warm and went for a run in our neighbourhood. Then the three of us spent some time cuddling on the couch, Trent napping, while we caught up on all the stuff we recorded on our DVR.

I think Brian and I have enough vacation time to take every Monday off for the rest of the year. I think we might just do that. We had such a nice day :-)

That hubby of mine

I can't believe I forgot to mention Brian's little "accident" last weekend. He went to soccer. I can't remember what day it was, but Barbie and I were hanging out with Trent when Bri returned from his game, and he opened the door and said "ok... when you see me don't say"OH MY GOD!". Then he came in. I looked at him and couldn't really see a reason why I would say that, until he turned his head to the left and I saw a HUGE egg on the right side of his forehead! to which I said "OH MY GOD!" (exactly what he told me not to say). He had gone in for a header during the game and his head connected with another player's head who was also going for the ball. I wonder what the other guy looked like. After he iced it the swelling went down and after a week it's turned into a nice yellow/green bruise. Thankfully he didn't have a concussion.

Yesterday (Sunday) Brian went to an autocross, something he hopes to do more often because he just loves it. As I understand it, it's a bunch of car enthusiasts that get together and set up a track with cones in a large parking lot, then do timed laps. There are several divisions such as stock, street, etc. Brian came in third in his division and has won his first car racing trophy! He's extremely happy with the results and thinks that he can do better. You can see the results here: https://axwaresystems.com/axorm/files/SPOKES/2007e11driveway_fin.htm

Thanks to a specialized camera mount, he set up a video camera in his car to record his laps so that he can see where he can make improvements. His next racing experience will be in mid-November when he and Nick will go to the Texas Motor Speedway. I'm looking forward to taking Trent to see his daddy race when he gets a little older.

Wellness check

Our company does a great job of providing us with the tools to live a healthy life. We have great insurance, even free insurance if you're willing to pay a little more out of pocket for your actual visits. They give us incentives to exercise by giving us money if we complete 6 weeks of physical activity, they give us money to quit smoking, or if you simply certify that you do not smoke. And every year, possibly twice a year, they bring in a bunch of medical people to the site cafeterias to take our blood pressure, measure our body fat, check our bone density, cholesterol, and blood sugar, coach us on what the results mean, and even give us a stress relieving chair massage. Who wouldn't want to work for this company?
Some days I'm really down on my job. I love my immediate team, and my development team is awesome, but I just hate all the extra bullshit that we have to do. Frequently these days I think about looking for a new job, possibly with another company, but when I weigh all the things this company does for us, in addition to very competitive pay, I realize just how good I really have it. I guess I can put up with a little bullshit if it means I get to live the way I want to when I'm not working. And besides, there's bullshit in every job... I know... it sounds like I'm trying to convince myself. Maybe I am. Whatever.
Anyway, at my wellness check, I discovered that my usually low blood pressure was rather high. High enough to be of concern. My good cholesterol was great, but the total cholesterol was way too high. High enough to be a risk factor. High enough that the wellness counselor told me to add more fiber to my diet. I checked my results from 3 years ago and discovered that my cholesterol has crept up by over 70 points! WTF?? So what's changed between then and now? I developed a sweet tooth during pregnancy... I'm sure the crap I eat is partially to blame. I also don't eat as much fish and vegetables as I'd like, so I'm sure that as some part in this. The good things I found out was that I have less body fat now than I did 3 years ago, though I weighed 2 lbs less back then. So obviously I've added some lean mass and given up some fat. The way my clothes fit confirms this, also. So it's not all bad. The blood pressure, well, I think the results are a little skewed because I had just mauled that huge breast pump bag from the south parking garage to my office along with my laptop bag and purse. I feel like a pack mule when I go into the office these days and it stresses me out. In addition to that, I'm having a hard time keeping up with the demands of breast feeding. That's stressing me out.
So what does all this mean? well, I need to take measures to correct the negatives, and use the positives as encouragement to not give up. So I'm going to add more vegetables to my diet, increase my fiber intake, and drink more water. That should help with the cholesterol. I'm not sure what to do about the stress. Deep breathing doesn't seem to do it. I exercise a lot so I can't add anything there. Massage? what I think I really need is the wisdom to know when to say "I've done my best" and just let go of something. I also need to learn to not handle my stress internally. I need to let it out. Explode. Get mad. I don't do that. I just deal.
So I guess even the negatives have a positive side... it's opened my eyes to a few minor adjustments I need to make.

Weekend Update and Baby Schedule

We had a great weekend hanging out with friends. We hosted a somewhat impromptu barbecue on Saturday evening. I made chicken and beef kebabs with Jamaican Jerk seasoning, and invented a new fried rice with only the ingredients Brian likes, which included pineapple, fresh ginger, and bamboo shoots. The recipe is, of course, a secret ;-). Everyone brought something to contribute, and Tiff made a yummy carrot cake for dessert to round it all out.

Incidentally, Saturday (Oct. 13th) also marked another important date... The date that Trent came into being as an embryo. Of course, we didn't know it yet this time last year. I still remember our "Oh shit!" moment when I took the test in early November. Of course, by this time we kind of suspected because I'd been nauseous for the tail-end of our honeymoon, so this was just confirmation.

We've been working on getting Trent settled into a new routine. It's been a little tough here and there, but we think it's starting to pay off. I got the info from the book "On Becoming Baby Wise". We have him on a relative feeding schedule now, which means we don't do the on-demand feeding, but rather we have him eat when we say so. Sometimes he gets hungry a little early and of course I feed him, and other times he doesn't want to eat, which is why it's a relative schedule, rather than a rigid one. On this new schedule, his bath time is between 8 and 8:30, and he eats and goes to bed right after his bath. Which gives Brian and I our entire evening back! We love it!
Last night he slept through the night... somewhat. We woke him up for his final feeding at midnight, and he did wake up and cry a few times in the night, seemed like every two hours or so, but we didn't feed him... Brian went in and comforted him so that he'd go back to sleep, and he made it to almost 7am without feeding! that's almost 7 hours of sleep for me. Granted it was interrupted sleep, but I tend to wake up a lot anyway, so it sort of counts as a full night's sleep for me.
Poor Brian was pretty beat this morning, though. He was the one hiking to the nursery every few hours. After Trent's 7am feeding, I snuggled with him for another hour and then took him downstairs so Brian could get some more sleep. I just couldn't resist cuddling with him this morning. He's just so happy in the mornings and looks so damn cute in his PJs that I just can't stand it!

Today was picture day at daycare. Can't wait to see them.

Horsing around

Yesterday I went out to Manor with Dana and her daughter, Meg, to take some pictures of Meg with her horse, Luca. Having been kicked by a horse once, I was a little bit intimidated when Dana's other horse, Van Helsing, came right up to me and gave me a friendly nudge. But you can't show fear. They can sense it! So I just looked him square in the eye, put my hand out, and pet him on the nose. Not so bad. He's a young horse, not ready for riding yet, but he's sooooo pretty. Here's a picture of him:
http://picasaweb.google.com/keylimeypie/Horses/photo#5120455069632342082


Meg rode Luca all around one of the practice fields and jumped him over all of the jumps. I was so impressed, especially when they put me on Luca for a ride and I realized how big he is, and how unstable you feel up there at first.

Here's a pic of me on Luca:
http://picasaweb.google.com/keylimeypie/Horses/photo#5120455095402145874

Dana and Meg are totally fearless around the horses. I suppose that comes with being around them all the time. I just made sure not to get to near to their back legs. It made for some great photo opportunities with my Nikon. You can see more pics here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/keylimeypie/Horses

Grusome!

Two old ladies were sitting in a bar having a few drinks when a Scottsman walked in wearing a kilt. Having had several totties the ladies were feeling rather bold. One said to the other "I dare you to ask him what's under his kilt". Never one to back down from a dare, the old lady marched up to the Scottsman and said "my friend dared me to come and ask you what's under your kilt". The Scottsman replied "och, lassie, I'd show ye, but are ye sure ye can handle it?". To which she replied "Young man, I'm old, I've seen some things in my time. Nothing surprises me anymore". So the Scottsman said, "I'll tell ye what... you bring your friend over here and I'll show ye!".

The two ladies gathered around the Scottsman and he lifted up his kilt to show them what was underneath.

"oooooh! look at that!" said one of them.... "It's grusome!"

To which the Scottsmand replied..............


"Look again, lassie.... It's gru-some more!"


LMAO!!!

Ass and Abs

So as most people know, breastfeeding = faster pregnancy weight loss. It's probably the one redeeming quality about it. Sure there's the "bonding" with the baby, but let me assure everyone, I would have bonded just fine without having to whip out my tits every couple of hours. Anyway, back on track... after the initial 30 pounds or so in 2 weeks I've been slowly losing weight. Nothing aggressive, not even noticeable, right. Maybe 1/2 lb a week if that. However, a couple of days ago I realized that my arse is turning into a back-crack. Oh I can hear you all now - "Poor Mandie, her ass is shrinking, booo-frikin'-hooo". But it IS a problem. All my favourite jeans and trousers don't look good. Where I used to look like "one of those rap guy's girlfriends", I now look like one of those rap guys. you know the ones, with the trouser crotch that hangs to their knees and the undies popping out the top? it's unflattering to say the least.
Some people might think that the solution is to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe. And wouldn't that be nice? but I'm a new mother. Firstly, I don't have the time to shop for a new wardrobe, and secondly, I have over 30 pairs of jeans and trousers that are super cute!

So yesterday I started working on the solution. An ass and abs workout at the gym. When you work out muscles, they get firmer/bigger, right? so that logic dictates that all I need to do is work out my ass and it'll fill up the back of my trousers. I did lunges with weights, squats with weights, and some leg extensions (I think that's what they are) when you push a weight straight backward behind you and extend your leg. I threw in my usual set of ab work to the mix, too. Then I did 20 minutes on the stair stepper at level 10 and sweat like crazy. I left the gym hot, sweaty, but feeling really good.

Today I am NOT SO GOOD. Today I am walking like I have the world's largest hemorrhoid, and don't even get me started on going DOWN the stairs. OUCH! Why can't your body tell you DURING your workout that you're doing too much and should perhaps take it a little easier?

Anyway, needless to say I might have to rethink the ass and abs workout and try a gentler approach, or maybe after the pain goes away, and I do it again it won't hurt so much?

In other exercising news, Andi and I are going to start training for a half marathon. We're not sure which one we'll do yet, but we need a goal to motivate us back into our regular running routine, so this is it. 13.1 miles and not a step more. Imagine my shock when Barbie committed to joining us on our first training run on Sunday morning! not that's she's committing to a half marathon, mind you... let's just see where this goes ;-)

Breakfast in bed

Just a quick brag on my hubby. Yesterday he took Trent downstairs so I could get some more sleep, which isn't unusual, we do this for each other in the mornings depending on who is more tired looking ;-). This weekend, though, Brian not only baked us cornbread muffins for breakfast on Saturday, he also served them to me, along with a nice cup of English tea, in bed on Sunday :-)

Brian's on track to receive a #1 dad, and world's best hubby mug in the near future. hehe.