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.

Ladies' night

What a fun night! Brian and Trent had a boys' night in while the girls and I unleashed ourselves on downtown Austin. We started off the evening at Donn's Depot, our usual starting point, where we ran into our friend and cantankerous old fart, George. I hadn't seen George in over a year so it was a real treat to see him. Next we headed to Cuba Libre for some Mojitos and appetizers and discussed our next move. We were almost convinced to go to the Yellow Rose, but we thought we'd save it for another night when Barbie could hook us up with free admission. Next we took a pedicab (which is one of those chariots attached to a bicycle). We squeezed all four of us into one and heckled the drivers as we went from the Warehouse District over to 6th street where we visited the Ivory Cat. Kenny and Matt were playing and Andi and I shook our asses on the bleachers to some Bon Jovi, which interestingly, sounds pretty good played on a piano.
Next we walked down 6th and popped into some weird bar just off of 6th and San Jacinto and it turns out we knew the bass player in the band there. Somehow we got free drinks, I think the doorman hooked us up, but they were not very good, and we soon left. We took a spin through BD Riley's and then took a stroll eastward on 6th to see if anything grabbed our attention. We eventually ended up at Coyote Ugly, where Barbie dared me and Andi to dance on the bar. Never to turn down a dare we picked out a song and up we got. It's good to get this stuff out of your system every once in a while. We ended our evening Back at Donn's Depot, of course, no evening would be complete without some T and A, so we hollered out of the car at Brian Lee who was playing at Mother Egan's. Sadly he missed the show ;-). Murphy's Inlaws were playing at Donn's. Fortunately, we arrived right when they went on break so we got some good hugs and a quick chat in with them. I hadn't seen the Inlaws since before I was pregnant so we had some catching up to do! And finally, the cherry on top of the cake... Casey Yager! What an awesome night.
On a slightly mushy note, I just wanna say I absolutely love you girls and can't imagine my life without you. You're truly better than sisters to me (though that isn't hard given the competition ;-)).

Look alike?

There are very few pictures of me from when I was a baby. Most likely my father kept them all when he and mum split up when I was 3, and now that he's gone, nobody knows where they went. Below is one of the surviving pictures of me, I was around 4 or 5 years old, I'd guess, because it's a school photo. I see so much of Brian in Trent, but I also see so much of me, too. Take a look at the pictures below and judge for yourself: