My Random Thoughts & Life in Missouri

Potty Training is Hard But it is Working!

2012-01-23T15:06:00.002-05:00

Don't go poopoo on the floor, nooo! she says. She is repeating what I say. "Don't go pee in my panties! Nooo." says Kara. Or, she also sees me about to step in the shower, she is telling ME, "Don't go pee in the shower, momma...Nooo." I tell her, "Don't worry, I am already potty trained, and I won't go pee in the shower."

But she is really getting it. She knows where NOT to go potty and to wear her panties with out going pee in them. So far today, Kara has gone pee two times in the potty and stayed dry til 11am this morning. She started to pee in the panties but we were close to the potty she finished up in the potty. I got her cleaned up and new panties to put on.

Today we have been playing music that I found on the Huggies website. A Potty dance song in different versions. We now have the songs downloaded on our computer desktop, to play all day. Today is dedicated to all potty theme, potty training. We're going knock this out and get it going, this is one determined momma!

Her preschool will also continue the potty training with her wearing the panties! They are on board too! At preschool they will help her learn tomorrow on her school day. I am glad they are there to help with Potty training. If we had to switch tomorrow to the pull-ups, for preschool to use, then it is like taking steps backwards and loosing all the hard work of today. Plus she has some classmates also using the panties and potty training. This will encourage each other and see one another use the potty. All together being potty trained and maybe have it sink in more.

She is also making the connection on her own. She is confirming with me this thought process she has, in her little toddler mind... "Momma goes potty, Dadda goes potty...Ellie (one of her friends) goes potty..." and I tell her "Yes, we are all potty trained! Now it is your turn, Kara to get potty trained! Let's learn how to go potty and try our best not to pee or poo in the panties!" Then Kara says, (in her cute toddler voice) "OK! let's do it!" To have this little conversation and hear that she is ready and we are doing it...this was one of the best moments for me as a mom!

Yay! she just went potty for the third time this morning! She going pee. It is 11:41am and we have the whole rest of the day to go; so far just the one minor pee accident in the 1st pair of panties. Kara is doing so good! And I, being the mom, am her potty cheerleader! I am overacting the happy/excitement, making a big deal that she just peed in the potty! GOOD JOB KARA! YOU DID IT! I AM SO PROUD OF YOU! YOU CAN DO IT!!! clapping our hands. Then we go to the computer and play the potty songs again and dance around.

So far so good. I am back to the blog, and it is 1:12pm. We had lunch and she's still dry on her panties! We are doing so well with this potty training day. I am still anticipating the poo moment. She hasn't done a poo yet today...normally by now. I KNOW, this is T.M.I. especially if you are just reading this blog and NOT a parent of a toddler, this blog is not very exciting. But I am really writing this for myself to look back on years from now, and document the day of triumphs! Also I write this particular blog for my other parents out there in the same boat.

Trying to potty train a toddler is SO HARD to do. We (the adults) just have to stick with it. Truly an experience as a parent and an experience as the toddler! We are both learning. I just have to stick with it and keep being the cheerleader and encourage the potty times. Even when Kara just sits on the potty and doesn't actually "go", I still tell her, "Thanks for trying, you did a good job!" Keep it positive.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-07T22:32:00.000-05:00

This year Christmas was small and just celebrated by the three of us. I decorated our tree with Kara. She is a toddler, so all the ornaments she hung up, were in the same section of the tree, at her eye level...So I would coach her in where to put the next ornament; and how these all look better, when spread out along the tree. She had so much fun hanging each one up. Later as the weeks progressed we would get an ornament here and there from people. She made a few ornaments at preschool and I made one at my work and she made another at our church. First thing Kara would do after coming home, with a new ornament, was go directly to the tree and want to hang it up. Photos are shown to see her ornaments.

I made the candy-cane ornament at my work, and Kara hung it on the tree.

The sparkly peach ornament Kara made in Preschool! So pretty.

The little snowman ornament, Karas preschool teacher, Ms. Lauren made for everyone.

Kara made the green ornament with stickers that says, "Peace" at our church.

As a fun little detail to Santa stuffing the stockings, I left out Santa's hat by the fire place (shown in photo), as if he left it behind. I told her, "Look! Santa left us presents in our stockings. Oh and look! He forgot his hat!" Something that I did forget this year was to put out cookies and eggnog! If I would have remembered to do that, then I would also need carrots for the Reindeer...but we were out of carrots anyway.

Kara made a present for us, at her preschool! It was so sweet to have our first gift from our daughter as something that she made at school. She is 2 1/2 and this will be the first of many school crafts to come for many years through out her school years. Those are the special gifts that I look forward to as a parent. This crafty present she made was a snowman with buttons and a little snow-hat. The Snowman was made from an old sock! Haha!

Holidays 2011

2011-12-28T22:39:00.005-05:00

Back at the beginning of December, we went to church and there was an announcement to bring the kids by on the following Saturday morning, to be a part of the next Church service. The Kids were all going to be able to hang an ornament during the ornament ceremony. I am not sure really what the special service was called, if there is something other than calling it the "Ornament Ceremony". Basically there was this tree shaped, wood frame to hang up ornaments on. During the church service the kids went up in pairs hanging up one of these special ornaments.The kids were all paired off as a young kid and an older (4th grade or so in age) kid to guide them up on stage and hang the specific ornament. In doing this, there was a special meaning behind each ornament, which was explained while the kids would hang the ornaments on the "tree".

I was so proud of Kara! She was one of the kids involved in the Ornament Ceremony! She was the first kid up with a little boy, and she hung the first ornament! This photo is of Kara, while we were waiting in the other room before church, to gather all the kids together, and go in for the Ornament Ceremony.

This is the only photo (below) I got of Kara and the older boy, Scott, hanging up their ornament! So bummed. It turned out blurry. They were first two kids up on stage, and I didn't get a chance to have my camera ready! It was so quick when it happened and they sat back in the pews.If you blinked, you missed it!

Here is the "tree" with all 24 ornaments hung up. (photo below)

After all 24 ornaments were hung by the kids, there was a small reenactment of The Nativity Scene or Christmas Story. Mary, Joseph, the Three Wise Men, and the King were all played by Kids from church and in cute costumes. There was even a Baby Jesus! The guy who plays the piano, and helped with coordinating this special service has a baby boy, who was used to play Jesus. And the young girl, who was playing Mary dressed in a simple robe, and macasons for shoes, she held the baby the whole time keeping him calm. The baby was so well behaved, and didn't cry, and just sat quietly in "Mary's" lap.

Who is Santa?

2011-12-17T18:10:00.001-05:00

Going with the Christian religion of Christmas and how we are celebrating Jesus being born and it is his birthday...How does Santa Clause tie into this all? The presents, I can see as gifts to give one another in relation to this being a birthday celebration and rejoicing the miracle of Jesus being born. The Chirstmas tree is of a Pine tree vs. some other trees, like an Oak tree, because it is a tree that has kept its leaves/needles all season and the other trees have all fallen bare. The pine tree is what is still full of life and still green in the dead of Winter. So the Christmas tree makes sense too. This holiday gets mixed up a lot between the Santa Clause version and the Baby Jesus being born version. The Commercialized Santa version usually dominates, and gets out of hand. It's so fitting that Santa Clause is in the Mall, as we are all starving for Christmas shopping and listening to the Christmas music for two months long, and drinking the Eggnog.

We took our daughter to the Mall to see Santa Clause and get the photo opp done. We are not eliminating the whole Santa Clause/Eggnog version at all. I love this part of the season. I just don't want to forget the importance of celebrating Jesus being born on Christmas Day as well.

The Nativity scene with Mary and Joeseph and a couple of farm animals all huddle around to see the baby Jesus. Their faces are lit up with pure joy and happiness of this miracle that they just witnessed. If a virgin girl, named Mary lived today in 2011 all of the sudden was pregnant and had a baby boy...people would not think of this as a miracle. People, today, would speculate that "Mary" drank a little too much one night, at a party, slept with some guy, and doesn't recall it. Then 9 months later is having the baby. BUT way back in BC times this other virgin, named Mary, becomes pregnant and it is called a miracle. I never really got that part of the story. But anyways, I DO believe that Jesus was born and that Mary IS his mother.

I also am curious with the stories of what Jesus was like growing up as a kid? Some how the Bible covers Jesus being born and then skips a couple of decades to when he is older as a young man and he then goes on the cross to die for our sins. I want to know the rest of the story and what he did between those two big moments... of being born and dieing on the cross...?

Back to Santa Clause, his name is Saint Nicolas and also Chris Kringle. There are many stories explaining his existence and the background is all covered in different movies from generation to generation. I enjoy the magical side to a child believing in Santa and all the fun times it will be watching our daughter grow up with that glimmer in her eye, and hopes to see reindeer in the sky on Christmas Eve.

I think I will continue to celebrate Christmas with both versions of Christmas intertwined to be able to celebrate it all. We can go to the church services on all 4 Sundays in December during the Advent calendar and learn of Jesus being born and at the same time we can decorate our pine tree and hang up stockings on the fire place. I will even do the photo opp at the mall and see Santa.

The funny part, is our daughter (she's 2 1/2) tells me that Santa lives in the mall, and goes to church too. That made perfect sense to me. Santa is always seen at the mall, why would we think he lived way up in the North Pole where it is snowing all year round and in some Mythical place? We never actually see this place, but the Mall we have seen him in countless times. Why couldn't Santa live at the mall, he is always there around this time of year. Of course he goes to church too. Why would he not go to church? Maybe this would tie Santa into the gift giving side of Christmas...in that the presents that he leaves for all the little girls and boys are birthday gifts in celebrating Jesus being born. This would then tie the two versions together. I guess I am just grasping for some answers to be able to celebrate both and believe in both to combine them together this way.

I am about to raise this little girl of ours, together with my husband. with many more Christmas times to go. I need to know how to celebrate with both Santa and Jesus in the mix, and how to pretend and be the parent. This has been going on for generations. I am doing what many before me have done... and it is scary that parenting doesn't really come with a manual. We (parents) have to just figure out Santa Clause and other kid traditions, as we come across it all. We'll take her to church and teach her the Biblical holidays as well as the imaginative commercialized holidays. She is going to have her own assumptions, like Santa living in the mall and going to church. And I am going to just roll with it and play along.

Out of Luck With This Pot Luck

2011-12-09T05:12:00.000-05:00

I have not been to a Potluck in years! I love baking a dish to take to a potluck and bringing something along that is homemade. I also love eating what others brought for their homemade dishes. Potlucks are a fun gathering of people and their signature dishes. We are going tonight to a Potluck with our church that we just start attending recently, and it is at 6:30pm.

I have the perfect recipe in mind to make my Orange bowl, yams, topped with mini marshmallows! Only I work all day today till 5, and get home in time to basically grab our daughter and head over to the potluck. There isn't time to even try to make a side dish. It seems lazy or cheating, maybe both, to head to the local deli and buy a pound of something "homemade" instead. I have seen it done a dozen times where the person buys Potatoe Salad from the deli and throws it in a bowl with surran-wrap over it; like they made it themselves! Or some people, straight out, buy a deli dish and bring it to a potluck in the original container with the label on it and plop a spoon in it, to serve up and share!

I think those sorts of times are falling on me today. I am going to be "one of those" people. I am going to stop by the deli on my way home at 5:30 pm today, after work, and buy a side dish! Gasp! Question is thow, do I put it in a pretteir dish to present it? or Do I just stick a spoon in the container and have people serve themselves a dollop of deli bought food?

It's 3:56 A.M. in the morning...I am racking my brain, tossing and turning over this, dreaming about it. I'm doing too much thinking and not enough sleeping! This blog is my thought process and my "therapy" to get through the acceptance that I am going to buy a side dish to bring to this Church Potluck. I think if this was a friends house we were going to and they knew we both worked today and so on, I would easily just pick something up from the deli and bring it along. But this is our new Church! Are there expectations here? Are the people going to even notice that we brought the deli dish? Are other people there going to also bring deli dishes? Am I going to show up at this Potluck with the only deli dish and everyone else brings a "homemade" side dish? UGH!? The stress of being new and wanting to make the yams!

Then it is 4:02 in the @#!*ing morning...and I need to go back to sleep!... FINE! I am going to the deli and buying a nicely presented deli dish or platter, and I am sticking a spoon in it. People will bring baked goods and people will bring deli-baked goods. Food is food, and it will all be eaten and we will all be Merry.

Numbers! Crazy Amounts All Day Long!

2011-12-08T14:16:00.004-05:00

Today has been a whirlwind of numbers! I can't believe all the crazy amounts and numbers of everything I came across today. Breaking this blog entry into 3 parts to my day of numbers.

Part I of the Numbers Whirlwind:

Starting off with a dental appointment, I wasn't going to be covered with insurance for my check up because it is not officially 6 months later, until the 23rd of December! It is 6 months after June, but not quite the time slot of getting the next checkup/cleaning. Technicality. I was already there for the appointment and what was covered was Xrays and not much else. So I get the Xrays done and a reading of my teeth with some doo-hicky blue light gizmo. (Photo of my actual teeth above) The readings tell the Dentist that I have 7 cavities!? WHAT!? I don't know about that! I decided I need to get a second opinion, and see how many of these 7 cavities are actually necessary for fillings... and which are just being counted as a number detected by the doo-hicky blue light gizmo? This is so hard to think that I have 7 cavities!? I have had one cavity in my entire 33 years... and now 7? So that was my first big, crazy number for my day.

Part II of the Numbers Whirlwind:

The next crazy number I came across today was the 2 bags of potatoes, I had to peel for a recipe I used for dinner. As I am peeling one pound of potatoes, I'm realizing that I could have substituted the bags of potatoes for pre-made Mashed Potatoes instead. Why was I making mashed potatoes from scratch? and WHYwas I just starting the process of all this peeling and so forth at 6:30p.m. ? This recipe was a meal for two people, and calls for ONE POUND of potatoes! I was up to my ears in mashed potatoes!

By the time I got to the step mixing with my electric mixer in the TWO bowls, my emotions were getting all mixed up as well! I was getting so upset while blending this all, and it already being 2 hours later, and to see that the amount of mashed potatoes I had just finished making was for a serving size of 12 people or so!

The recipe was to make Potatoes and Ground Beef Gravey. It was so gross, and way too much to eat in one meal. The plate was just Mashed Potatoes and gravy! I didn't understand how we could just eat Mashed Potatoes for dinner. Normally this is a side dish with an entree and a side of veggies, not to be eaten as a meal all of its own! This was absolutely ridiculous.

Courtesy of the Emealz plan I have been following for the past year now. A meal plan for TWO...not 12. All my other recipes that I have followed through Emealz has been fine and no big deal. Like the other day, I actually made a Quiche! It turned out great! The Quiche was actually from the same week that this meal is on. This recipe for the potatoes must have had a miss print in the number of potatoes? I can't get over how annoyed I was, making a pound of mashed potatoes! That ruined my whole appetite and my love for Mashed Potatoes. I don't want to see or hear the mention of Mashed Potatoes for a long while.

Part III to my crazy numbers day.

I am shopping at the store to buy a few things, and the Toddler Pull-ups for Kara are on sale for $9.47 in size 3-4. Then the size of 4-5 is at the regular price of $15. These are the same exact training pants and about the same size. The 3-4 size comes as a 40 count package and the 4-5 size comes as a 33 count package. So I logically am going to buy the 3-4 size (Kara fits both size ranges) and pay $9.47, saving me $6 and getting 14 extra pullups!

I am now at the check out counter and the register rings these up at the $15 price. Uhh, NO! These are marked $9.47? The cashier and I go over to the shelf, and she saw the price for $9.47 and says she can price change that for me...So I grab a second package to be able to get two of the 40 counts at $9.47 each. In the end I got 14 extra pullups and saved $12! SCORE! I was so happy for their price mistake.

To wrap up my whirlwind day of numbers, that is 7 questionable cavities, 1 pound of potatoes made into 2 large bowls of Mashed Potatoes, for a meal for 2 people, and a $12 savings on Pull-ups, and 14 extra or free Pull-ups with that deal. Crazy day of numbers indeed. I am the only one who can count, apparently. The Dentist is counting a few too many cavities. The recipe provider at Emealz is counting way too many potatoes to feed two people. and The Pullups training pants is giving away pullups with the miss-marked price deal.

Darn, Shoot and Shit...

2011-11-14T15:00:00.000-05:00

What is a bad word these days? I have my 2 1/2 year old telling me, "that's a bad word, momma" when I say "shoot!" Then I also will slip up and say, "Shit" and she knows that is a bad word also. I think what ever the word, it is how it is used as being a bad word. Instead of saying "Shit" (nationally known as a bad word along side other various bad words) we could say "shoot" or "Darn" or "Ah Crap," These alternate words are also considered bad words, to some people who may hear you say it...like my little girl.

The use of the word "Shoot" is said in a bad way, usually out of frustration, anger or from stubbing your toe, and the word comes out. Try replacing the word with "Chocolate!" and it seems silly and not a word that sounds right. In the end, it is just a word we say at the heat of a moment. Darn, Shoot and Shit!

When I was younger, I use to say "Fudge." That should be considered a bad word since I was using it as a bad word in replacement of the "F-word." If I had said the F-word instead of Fudge, I would get in trouble by my mom for having a "potty mouth." So now I am a mom, and raising a little girl, and I want to know and understand the uses of bad words and how any word can be used as a bad word because of how it is used in a bad way and not meant as a nice word. The meaning and context used in saying Fudge is still used in a bad way, making it a bad word.

We really can't get away with saying ANY word, in the heat of the moment and after stubbing our toe, etc. Little kids are listening and are very observant... they are trying to differentiate what is alright to say and what is not. They are still expanding their vocabulary and not knowing what those bad words are, to not say. As the parent, telling them "Shit" is a bad word and to not say it. Then as the parent, we say those words and they hear us, and wonder why we just sad a bad word? We should not be saying it either. When ever I do slip up and say a bad word, whatever the word may be, it is definately bad when my little girl corrects me telling me, "that's a bad word, momma." I then tell her, "yes, you are right, that is a bad word and I am sorry I said it. We are not suppose to say bad words."

I'm a PC...

2011-10-06T10:46:00.005-04:00

I'm a PC. Without the technology of Apple Macs and where it is today and where it is going tomorrow, the technology of PCs would not be the same. So in away, I guess I'm a MAC and a PC in relation to the modern day question of: "Are you a Mac or a PC?" and People either reply as, "I'm a Mac!" or "I'm a PC!" With the technology introduced through the brand of Apple and inspirations and great visions of Steve Jobs and his team of nerds. LOL. In the end, we are all MACs.

This is a photo I came across, from 1984, showing Steve Jobs (Chairman of Apple at that time) introducing the newest computer at the time, an Apple IIc. Pictured above is: Steve Jobs, chairman of Apple Computers, John Sculley, President and CEO, and Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple.

In this photo (above) you can see the excitement on Steve Jobs face! From day one, going into recently in 2011 almost 20 years later, Steve Jobs, never lost that excitement for new technology and sharing it with the world... and launching the next, big, thing out there, that Apple was creating! He had this passion and enthusiasm for technology.

I remember when my lil bro, Robert, was in Kindergarten, they were the first class to get a computer set up in the actual class room! This model pictured above, is 1984 intro of the "new Apple Computer" with the rainbow apple logo in the corner of the monitor was what he had in his Kindergarten classroom. Morro Bay Elementary had a computer class room separate from the class rooms. So when Robert's Kindergarten class (1989) got the computer; there was a big celebration, to reveal the computer... and it was such a big deal.

I also remember back in the late1980's and early 90's that I liked printing stuff, because I got to tear off the dotted sides of the paper! It's so silly now, to look back on. LOL Now I hate printing something, because it's wasting my ink! and I usually try to print in "Grey-scale" mode, to save on the colored ink.

The Apple products have really lead the way, for all the other brands to piggy back off of. My use of the: HP, Dell computer, Samsung monitor, Virgian Mobile: touch - screen cell phone, and every other gadget that I use on a daily basis is only possible from the technology of Apple MAC products.

Mr. Steve Jobs, you helped create the fun and excitement to technology. A boring beige computer with the small, rainbow, apple logo, morphed over time to colorful apples and awesome gadgets with touch screens and "There's app for that" technology. You helped bring the world into the future!

Thank you, Mr. Jobs... for all the inspiration and technology that you have helped mold our future of what it is today, and what it will be tomorrow.

Here is an article summing up all that Steve Jobs did in the technology world. Left click with your PC computer mouse or on your Apple touch-screen Ipad... touch this link: (haha) STEVE JOBS ARTICLE

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

Savey Shopper!

2011-09-26T10:30:00.001-04:00

I love watches and am very particular to how they look and what features are on the watch. I really rely on the watch having a date displayed, and also like the watch to have an easy clasp to take on and off. Surprisingly it is hard to find those two features on one watch and for it to be attractive on my wrist. I had been looking around for the perfect watch for about a year, since 2009 actually. In 2010 I started seeing watches in a pretty rose gold metal. I really liked this new trend and kept an eye out for my perfect watch to also now be in rose gold color. This was getting harder to find.

Around the fall of 2010, I was at the mall with my friend, Julie, and we walk past the store window display at the Fossil store. The watch on display caught my eye. I went inside to try it on and see how much it was. This watch had all the features I was looking for, and it fit nicely on my wrist! Only the watch was $105 bucks. It was not too expensive, but expensive enough to where I had to wait and budget for that, or look online for the same watch at a cheaper price. Until then, I kept an eye out for other watches I may like. No other watch was as good at the Fossil watch I was saving up for.

Andrew and I have been credit card free for 3 years or more and have been really good with budgeting and using an "envelope system" that we learned from Dave Ramsey. (That's a whole other blog to talk about that!) With this envelope system we budget our money every 2 weeks and work in items we are wanting to get, by moving amounts around and cutting back. My watch was now this item that we needed to fit into the budget and save up $105. In the mean time we also looked on Ebay and Amazon websites for the watch to be sold for less. Seems like I would get close to getting this watch and then other items came into play that were more important to pay for and budget out...like getting our trees in the front yard chopped down...that pushed my watch money back even more!

So August rolls around and the watch is on amazon.com for $89 I couldn't believe it! I was so excited and it had free shipping! Andrew said let's get this now, and order it for your birthday! It was a perfect time to finally get my pretty, rose gold, watch with easy to use clasp, and date display!

A few years back I was shopping at Marshall's discount department store and saw a Kenneth Cole watch that I liked. The price tag mentions how much the item regularly was sold for and then the discounted price that Marshall's is selling it for. This particular watch was regularly $195 and selling for $29. I bought the watch then and there, I didn't have to wait to budget my money for that Savey Shopper find!

Fish Murderer

2011-09-26T10:03:00.002-04:00

(photo found online, this is not a photo of my actual fish. it looked like this fish)

I wake up with Kara and do our morning routine of getting her a cup of juice or milk, make a sandwhich for Andrew to take to work, let the dog outside and feed the beta fish. One morning however the fish was laying very still on the bottom of the bowl...I fed it anyway and decided to check on it in a little bit after I did a few other things around the house. Well, fast forward to the evening time, I had forgotten all about the fish and quickly went over to the bowl to still find our fish lying on the bottom of the bowl? I thought fish floated on thier back when they die? Why was this fish at the bottom? I was pretty sure it was dead, either way.

So here is how it played out on my Facebook Page. I made a post on my wall,
"My Beta Fish sank? It didn't float like other fish? Why is it dead? and why did it sink? :(

My friends wrote back in response:

OLIVIA: Are you sure it's dead?

ME: Lol well if it was alive...then it got a rude awaking as i let it swim down the toilet drain. Oops! Never had a fish sink to the bottom before...always seem to float when they die? Mr. Fish wasn't moving at all.

KIM: Maybe he was napping? LOL

ME: I feel so bad now...I just murdered a fish...Karas fish!? It had to hace been dead? The beta was on its side not moving and I wiggled the bowl and feed it...no reaction from the fish.

KIM: Don't feel bad. I'm sure it was dead.

ME: At least Kara doesn't even realize what happened. It will be fine and we can get a diff one tomorrow. Each morning it is routine to say hi to the fish with her and feed it…

then on a side post about not wanting to do dishes....

Carmel: did your beta die of accidental detergent spillage?

Me: No? I think i used a sponge this time when i cleaned the bowl out and changed its water...it

was the only difference that I did that could of killed Mr. Fish.

Carmel:How clean is your sponge?

Me: Prob had remnants of soap on it...poisoning my fish? I feel like I'm on trial here?! I admit

it...I am a fish Murderer!

Carmel: haha no worries, kara won't know the difference!

Strangley, the night beforehand, I had a dream about the fish. I actually dreamt that I had a freshly cleaned fish bowl and went to put my fish back in to find there were two blue beta fish in the bowl...? I knew if I left them together they'ld fight and went to get another bowl and fill with water...this dream was so detailed...then i grab one fish and it had a bite out of its side and the other one was dead. Woke up and didn't know why I even dreamt that...and now fast forward to tonight...my fish in reality is dead and I want to get another blue beta to replace it.

Strange how we can dream about something and it only makes sense later on when we look back on it and try to interpret it. Sometimes it is sort of a premonition dream, like this dream was.

The Transportation Museum!

2011-09-02T14:28:00.000-04:00

The Train wheel is almost as tall as Andrew! Some were even taller than him on other train models.

Took Kara to the Transportation Museum the other day. She is a big fan of a kids T.V. show, Thomas the Train. In her eyes all trains are named Thomas based on the show and story books that we read. So when we went walking through the Museum and saw all the old trains, she kept on saying, "Hi Thomas!" and "look a green Thomas, and a red Thomas!" We tried explaining to her these are all trains and not all are named Thomas. That didn't register much with our 2 1/2 year old. The rest of the day she continued calling all the trains Thomas! It was cute.

Then in the lower half of the Museum there is a section being built and set up as a completly new area. ONLY it is at a stand still for the most part. The building of this new area is not getting finished because the museum only can build as they are funded and volunteers or donations come in. Clever bit on their part is to have a kids train ride for people to ride around in the new section. Basically showing us what will be there in the future and how it is not all finished. This yanks on peoples heart strings in hopes for them to leave donations. If the kids train ride was not in that area, then people wouldn't even see that part and want to donate. So we rode on the kids train and looked at all the new area and how it wasn't being finished.

Then we went inside where the Cars are all kept on display. The old fashioned cars are mostly from Hollywood and displayed here in Missouri?! I don't know the connection with LA and St Louis how these are here and not on display back in California instead? For instance there is the Black old fashioned car called a 1967 Ghia. Next to the Ghia is a cardboard cutout of Dean Martin, along with a back drop of an old hotel that was used in a movie of his.

Then there is the Wacky looking Firetruck that use to be used as a promo vehicle for the LA Fire Department. The "Fire Bug" it is called and was driven in parades and around LA as a funky promotion bit for the LAFD. Why is it here in St. Louis at the Transportation Museum? I don't really know.

One of the cars on display I have never seen anywhere else and is so pretty in its sparkly red paint! I LOVE THIS CAR! This car is called, DiDia 1960. I love the curved back windshield and the wheels that match in Red. I love the fins, and the car as a whole. This is one unique car. I am glad these photos came out good enough to show its sparkle. I took these photos with my cell phone!

Kara!!!

2011-09-02T14:24:00.000-04:00

(NOTE: blog was written on 07/21/2011 never posted it)

Kara is so fascinating to watch grow in to a little girl. She is learning to count and knows her ABCs, she speaks in 5 word sentences, and the cutest of all, she says, “please and thanks Momma” Kara also says, “I sorry” when she knows she was bad. That’s her cuteness buffer from not being able to be mad at her; I just have to know that she isn’t “bad” she just didn’t know any better.

For instance, the day, she had a pen and drew on our sofa cushions! I told her NO!! Kara, that is very bad! Only use pen on paper! Do not draw on the furniture…She says, “I sorry momma” and later that day she would see the sofa and point to it, saying, “Bad! Bad” I just would tell her, “yes I know that IS bad and we don’t draw on furniture. Ok? And you can only use pen on paper. I love you, and you are not in trouble.” I want to let her understand that I am not mad at her for doing that, and she does know that it was bad to have used the pen on the cushions.

The other day I was getting dressed and I am putting on my makeup, and Kara is behind me counting, “1,2,3…1,2,3” I wasn’t sure what it was she was counting and I turn around and she looks up at me, grins, and stops counting…I turn back to finish getting ready and she starts counting again? I then realize my underwear had black polka-dots as a pattern and she was standing behind me, counting all the dots. So hilarious!

Now that she is two years old, Kara speaks in complete sentences and is getting easier to communicate with, in knowing what she is saying. This morning, Andrew came home from buying a spool of twine at Lowe’s. He needs the twine to tie up all the branches we are trimming away for the yard waste to be picked up on Wednesday. Yard waste comes each Wednesday to pick up trimmings from the curb and like for it to be bundled up with twine. Andrew gave the twine to Kara to look at and told her this was twine. She says, “Ooh, Twine!” Our dog was by Kara and she says, “Look Duke, I have twine!” it was a funny 5 word sentence she said. I really don’t even think Kara knows what twine is… or what it was for, she just was an excited two year old with a spool of twine in her hands.

She cracks us up all of the time with moments like these!

It's a Coupon Craze!

2011-09-02T14:15:00.003-04:00

(NOTE: this blog is from early August, I came across in my blogs to edit and never posted)

I finally checked out the Extreme Couponing T.V. Show. These coupon peeps are crazy. OK, I get that they are buying a shopping cart of groceries worth $246 for only $6 or so after paying for most with coupons...BUT! Do you REALLY NEED 46 boxes of cereal stashed under your bed? One lady on that show does! She's a coupon freak! Now some items she bought with coupons is useful like all the mens deodorant for her 3 teens and a husband in the house, fine go stock up! But the shelf lined with canned soup and under the bed stash of cereal boxes? hmmm. I think if she and other coupon peeps are hording the items and bought these only because of the coupon, they should donate most of these items to the local food pantry! Save aside about 10 boxes and give the rest away! Seriously!

So now I am joining the coupon craze, but keeping my sanity at the same time. I am inspired by these coupon clippers, but still look at the item I am buying to know if I really will use it? or will I buy it only because the coupon is in my hands? I was happy to be rung up the last shopping trip and I was just over $100 and handed over the coupons to the clerk and the final total was $92.63. Now, it is not the final total of $6 or so dollars, but I am a coupon rookie and still figuring out the game.

Here is what I learned so far. Schnucks Grocery stores has double coupons automatically that apply only to 40 cents or less...So if I have a yogurt coupon to save 35 cents, then it will ring up as 70 cents off! the yogurts are 58 cents or less to begin with?! Great deal. At our Shop-N-Save stores there are every Thursdays you get $10 off $50 or more spent on groceries. A trick to this would have to be spending the first $50 or so dollars on one bill and recieve the $10 off...then ring up the other half of the groceries for a second bill of $50 total to get another $10 off. My groceries will then save $20 off a $100 total.

The other day I had a box of Toasters Strudels in my freezer. The back of the box had a coupon for FREE Orange Juice, up to a value of $4 any brand. This was a huge coupon for me! I usually buy O.J. that is about $2-$3 never get the O.J. that is over $4. Sometimes I just don't buy O.J. because it is too expensive. So I went to Target to pick out the most expensive O.J. I could find. It was pretty fancy, the jug has a flip top lid to pour and a nice gripping handle to hold the jug as I pour...the O.J. is pulp free to be able to sip through Kara's sippy cup conviently and not get clogged, and it was a nice, family size portion of Juice! Guess, just guess how much this Orange Juice was?!!? The brand Tropicana, and it is 100% pure and natural, "Never from Concentrate" it reads on the jug. This juice was four dollors and sixty-four cents. I hand over my coupon for $4 off, paying just 64 cents for this FANCY O.J. This so far has been my favorite coupon so far. If one is able to actually have a "Favorite Coupon". HAHA

The Trickle Down Effect

2011-09-02T13:53:00.001-04:00

(NOTE: This post is from March 2011 I never finished it and found in my blogs to edit...)

Thanks to the trickle down effect, I got to work on time! I would have actually been an hour late this year. In past years for both the "fall back" and "spring forward" I have been good to switch my clocks in the house the night before as I am getting ready for bed. This year I completely forgot about the time change. I even had to be at work this morning at 7am, meaning that I wake up at O-dark thirty! The only reason I even woke up this morning was from my cell phone alarm going off.

Here is how it played out. Usually my cell phone is in the kitchen being charged overnight and plugged in. I don't usually use an alarm setting on my phone. Last Friday I was walking around the lake with my friend, Carissa. She is 9 months pregnant and ready to give birth any day now. Walking around the lake was to help get labor encouraged but it didn't work. Knowing that she is going to call me any day now, saying she is going into labor; I just knew to keep my cell close to me. So because of this I have actually had my cell charging overnight in my room and decided to try my cell alarm. With daylight savings time switching on my cell automatically it turned over to the correct time. I woke to the alarm and saw it was "4:30" being actually 5:30! I was an hour early to wake but at the same time on time to wake at the 5:30 real time. So I hop out of bed, get ready and go into work!

If it weren't for my prego friends due date being so close, I would have not charged my phone in my room. And because of it being charged in my room I happened to set the alarm, which I never do on my cell. Then I was on time to work. If non of this occurred, then I would have been an hour late to work! See how it all trickles down to it all connecting like this?! Pretty neat.

Classic Kid Discovery #129

2011-08-27T12:11:00.000-04:00

There are times when a kid discovers something "NEW" and something they figured out all by themselves. When in reality kids from generations before them have discovered the same sort of things. Something I like to refer to as a Classic Kid Discovery. Anywhere from the echo sound they can create in a public restroom... to popping the bubble wrap to make load popping sounds.

Kara is 2 1/2 years old and just figured out the art of blowing bubbles in her cup of water using a straw! She looks at me with excitement, and discovery of something so cool! "Look momma!" she says and blows more bubbles in her water cup. This is the transition from sippy cup to a cup with a STRAW!!! Opening up new possibilities. Of course she has on occasion used the straw before to drink her drinks, but not as often as now.

This was a moment of discovery, and something so amusing that she was giggling as she did it. A self satisfaction to have figured this out. Kids before her, dating back to the 1950's and even sooner have discovered this "talent" of blowing bubbles in thier drink with use of the straw.

I even remember my little brother (who is now 27) discovering this with his Chocolate milk in the same way Kara has discovered it. Both kids figuring out the inevitable. This is just one Classic Kid Discovery, among many more to come.

It is fun to watch my baby girl learn, explore, and find out how things work on her own. She is really becoming a Classic Kid. These are all kid things that we as the adult don't neccissarilly teach them. It is just things that Kids stumble upon and teach themselves.

What a DAY!

2011-08-02T01:49:00.000-04:00

This day started off with dropping Andrew off at the airport for his week of training in TX, for his work. Then I was close to my old work place and decided to visit with Kara. I had worked there when I was prego with Kara and changed jobs about a year after she was born. So everyone was glad to see how big Kara was, and mentioned how quickley time had passed.

Fast forward to 9am we are at the mall and I walked for an hour... doing laps around the mall with Kara in the stroller. It is now 10 am, the shops are opening, a good stopping point to let Kara play in the kids area. After about the 10th time of her going down the slide and climbing all over the place, we see the train ride show up. I saw a few moms gathering to go ride on the train with their kids. So I grabbed Kara to go partake in a really cool ride on the kiddy train. It cost $6 for us both to ride together. We had our very own train car to sit in. Kara is big on Trains right now, she loves Thomas the train and all types of transportation. This was a perfect thing to treat her to, for being so well behaved today. The train ride starts at the kids play area and goes around the mall in one complete lap and ends back at the play area. Kara loved the whole ride! She was waving to people shopping at the mall, and making the "choo choo" sound. Pure excitement for a two year old... I had fun too!

After the train ride, I popped into a store to find a pair of shorts. Sadly, none of my three pairs of shorts, that I already have, fit this season...Summer is practically over, so I really only need one pair to enjoy the heat comfortably. I hate that I even had to buy a pair of shorts at the end of summer. I made it the whole summer with out shorts?! odd. This pair I bought today were $19, couldn't go wrong.

Only sad part, was the store is called "Dress Barn." I never shopped there before. To me, it sounds like a horrible name for a fat people store...and I was now in that category of Barn sized people to shop at Dress Barn...

I grab the size 12 to try on...it was just snug and not comfortable to wear. This was that boarder line size of fitting but not really. I thought, well... I guess I need to try a 14?! Seriously? I then thought, Kara is right there in the dressing room, I can't let her see me sad over a number... a lousy size number! That would be the start of her being self cautious of sizes and such.

I laughed it off, saying "too small, lets go find a different pair of shorts." I tried on the 14 and they fit so perfectly...and she says to me, "Too small..." she was just parroting what I had said of the size 12s. She has been learning lately the differences in sizes like her hat is too big for her dolly, and my shoes are too big for her little feet, etc. So this is another size comparison and I try to play it off like no big deal, going to buy a size 14 because they fit just right. In the end, it IS JUST THAT. It is a number, a size, a secret number too. When I am wearing these shorts out in public, it is not labeled on the outside letting everyone know my size number. And for those reading this, who cares!? Size is size. No "Big" deal (haha pun intended). Fourteen, shmorteen! I am though going to get back to my size 12 clothes and stay comfortable there though. It is a new goal for me. I am not going to obsess over my weight and get into being a size 6 or 8...my idea behind the 12 is that most of my wardrobe fits there and I will save money if I stay steady at 12. Buying this one pair of shorts was $20, and if I have to go replacing all my clothes from 12 to 14 that will get expensive and be a waist of time. I just need to nip this in the bud and get back to a comfortable 12. So the thought of getting to an 8 is just as bad as the 14 in the sense of having to get all new clothes. Solution solved with walking laps around the mall with the old people and other moms pushing strollers in the mornings.

Cookin with Emealz!

2011-07-20T20:56:00.006-04:00

Emealz makes cooking easy! Click the link to take you to this great site that helps plan out your week of cooking and it is customized to your eating type.

Specialty Family Meal Plans

Each week (Serves 7 meals for 4-6 people). You get to select the recipe/meal type that suits your diet preference and can change the menu type every 3 months. Selections of meal types vary from: Gluten Free, Low Carb, Portion Control, Vegetarian, Meals for 2, etc.

CLICK HEREto check out the Emealz yourself! the site has sample recipes for you to print off before signing up. It really does save money and help plan for the week what you are cooking.

Poem I wrote in 2008

2011-07-20T10:44:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to clean up my computer folders and I am looking through old word docs that I have written. I have a couple of poems and a wide variety of other things I have written. So the next couple of blogs here are old by a few years...I am just copy/paste all of the writings that I want to share on this blog. I have in mind that some day when Kara is older she can refer back to this blog and read through what her momma wrote about. Assuming this blog site will be around and also have all my postings still stored online...I sure hope Kara likes these when she is older.

A Man & a Woman in the Bookstore Café

May 21, 2008 Wednesday 5:30pm

Observational poem by: Martiel Hay

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

He gazes into her eyes

As she rattles on about something insignificant

He is mesmerized by her smile

And the green shade of eye shadow she has on

She leans forward in her seat

Anticipating his next word

He discreetly glances at his watch

The spark is dying down…

As he sips his hazelnut latte

She says something funny

Catching his attention

Still not sure how this blind date is going

He hopes to leave holding hands

She’s starting to get the first date jitters

And nervously tares her café napkin

As their date is coming to an end

They leave together from the bookstore café

Not holding hands

But just as good friends

To be continued…

2011-07-20T10:38:00.000-04:00

Here is a poem I came across on my computer. I wrote it back in 2006, 5 years ago. I had just moved to Missouri back then when I wrote this poem.

Poem by Martiel Hay Nov 09, 2006

Summer Day Confusion

The sun is blinding
Like a summers day
Or the middle of May
I want to go out and play
While the weather is not too cold
Or so I am told

It is November remember
The trees have gone topless
Dropping their leaves
And exposing their branches!
It is mid-November
But seems like summer
I am wearing my sunglasses
And running the AC
Can't you see
The confusion

With this the illusion?

Is it winter
Or summer
who decides
I feel warm and see blue skies
Right before my very eyes
It should be November
And it might be winter

It feels more like summer

Could have fooled me

As I turn on the AC

70 Q & As

2011-07-20T10:34:00.000-04:00

Questionnaire for bored peeps 07/2011

I've answered all 70 non important questions about me. Some of you, blogreaders, may find these fastinating to find out bits of info about me, others will click on the next blog to read. I don't mind. I was just bored and filled out the answers to all of these questions...some are pretty dumb and some are interesting. Such as how many states have I lived in? That would be 3, CA-OH-MO

1. What are your initials: MLH...Use to be MLK after a great man named Martin.

2. Name someone with the same birthday as you: The screaming baby in the plastic crib next to me back in 1978.

3. Last thing you ate: home cooked meal, I cook now and it is so easy! last night I made

4. For or against same sex marriage: for

5. I say Shotgun! You say?: Wedding!

6. Last person(s) you hugged?: Andrew

7. Do you believe in God?: yes

8. How many U.S states have you been to?: 24

9. How many of the U.S states have you lived in: 3

10. Ever lived outside of the US: no

11. Name something you like physically about yourself: The freckle on my pinky, oh no it is sort of fading away now, I have had this freckle for scince at least 1996! 10+ yrs later I can hardly see it.

13. Who is your best friend?: It's a tie between Genoa and Emily

14. Why are you still up?: 11:54, just got done watching a movie.

15. Who/what made you angry today?: my Blogger. I was trying to edit my blog earlier and got frustrated with it.

16. Favorite type of Food?: Sushi

17. Favorite holiday: 4th of July

18. Do you download music: yeah onto my invisible iPod!

19. What illegal things have you done?: Jay walked, etc.

20. Are you shy?: depends on the situation.

21. If you could have any car, what would it be? Toyota Rav4

22. Has anyone ever sang or played for you personally?: yeah

24. Do you like Bush?: I like the rose bush kind.

25. Have you ever bungee jumped?: nope.

26. Have you ever been white-water rafting?: no.

27. Has anyone ten years older than you ever hit on you? do creeps at a bar count

28. How much money ya got?: $3 and some change

29. Have you met a real redneck?: I reckin I have

30. How is the weather right now: Hot Summer day.

31.What are you listening to right now: The voice in my head reading these questions and then my thoughts answering these questions, and the sound of fingers typing the answers…and little Kara playing in the background…

32. What is your current fav song?: Lime in the Coconut (old) it has been stuck in my head and I need to get it as a ring tone!

33. What was the last movie you watched? Netflix Unknown, it was a plot with a twist type movie, liked it.

34. Do you wear contacts: no.

35. Where was the last place you went besides your house?: My friends pool! It was a fun time hanging out yesterday with everyone.

36. What are you afraid of?: crawlies

37. How many piercing's/tattoos do you have?: 2 piercings and no tats

38. How many pets do you have: 2, we have our dog Duke, and Mr. Fish

39. What's one thing you've learned?: Kara is amazing to watch as she learns and I learn right along side her.

41. What do you usually order from Starbucks: I love the holiday time when they have the Eggnog Lattes mmmm!

42. Have you ever fired a gun: yes.

43. Are you missing someone?: yes.

44. Fav. TV show?: Threes Company or MONK

45. Do you have an ipod?: iDon’t have any sort of iPod mp3 gadget…I need to thow, my birthday is next month?! Hint hint. J

46. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celeb?:a few actually? Cybil Sheppard, Jullian Moore, and Naomi Watts?

48. Who would you like to see right now?: my family in Oregon, I REALLY need to make a trip out there, haven’t been up there in a long while.

49. Favorite movie of all time?: The Princess Bride

50. Do you find yourself loved?: yes

51. Have you ever been caught doing something you weren't supposed to?: this is a dumb question, I am 32 and have never done ANYTHING wrong or got caught out of the entire 32 years of existence!?…yes

52. Favorite flower: Sunflower

53. Butter, plain, Kettle, or salted popcorn?: kettle corn, the kind made in the giant copper pot at the festivals.

54. What Magazines are you reading: Just whichever mag is in a lobby...

55. Have you ever ridden in a limo: on special occations.

56. Has anyone you were really close to passed away?: yes.

58. What's something that really bugs you?: the never ending laundry

59. Do you love someone now?: Of course!

60. Do you like Michael Jackson?: sure.

61. What's your favorite smell?: Peach colored roses.

62. Favorite basketball team: Lakers

63. Favorite cereal: Fruit loop necklaces!

64. Do you drive? Yes, I know how to make the metal box on wheels go!

65. What's the longest time you've gone without sleep?: 20 hours? New years related, we were up the whole night

66. Last time you went bowling?: last year.

67. Where is the weirdest place you have slept?: past out, in the shower.

68. Who was your last phone call?: with my friend.

69. Last time you were at work?: I worked the night of the U2 concert and was off at midnight, which was the same time 52,000 people were driving home from it and caused traffic for my commute home, never any traffic at 12am usually!

70. What is your favorite state to be? Content

What a week!

2011-07-09T22:51:00.002-04:00

This is a blog that never was posted, and stuck in the "draft" part of my blog writing. I just now came across this and some others to post. Written June 6, 2010! So a little over a year ago, I wrote this and Kara was 15 months old. I'll have to find the photos and post along with this blog later.
**********************************
Sunday we went to the Rennasaince Fair with our friend, Carissa and her two kiddos. Kara had it easiest, being pushed around in a stroller the whole time, and being fanned to keep cool from the 80+ degrees out. We had a blast there. When we got there, we first checked out the pirate and juggler show. There was a lady pirate on stage singing a little ditty with adult humor mixed in it. The funny part was she had pointed out that her 2 year old son was in the audience...he was sitting over by us about three people over. When she started to sing the song, her son was singing right along word for word. He doesn't even know half of what he is saying means. Andrew and I took turns riding a camel, which was an experience I never thought of doing before. Riding the camel was a spontaneous opportunity. We ended our Rennasaince Journey with meeting the Queen and she granted Kara as Princess Kara, handing her an official Rennasaince scroll tied up with royal purple ribbon. My friend's daughter was also granted as Princess Ellie. The girls were honored to be given such a role. Ellie is older, 4 years old, so this was more exciting to be named Princess Ellie. My friends son, was also sworn in by one of the knights to be a Jr. Knight and to help protect both the Queen and her Village. The Knight had a large, shinny sword; and Carissa's son knelt down on one knee, while the knight touched shoulder to shoulder with the sword. It seemed so official and exciting!

Memories Are Captured

2011-07-03T10:54:00.001-04:00

Welcome to my new small business of Memories Are Captured ! I will help organize your photos or develop them off of your SD cards and can also create albums and other creative photo projects that you just don't have the time to do yourself. Let's create a photo calander for 2012 or a photo collage!

Come LIKE my page on Facebook: Memories Are Captured The link takes you to my page where you can contact me and place your photo order. I will create what ever you like using your photos and create unique memory albums for you to treasure. Memories Are Captured is a place for your photos to be transformed into something so memorable. Let me help tell your story!

Email me at: MemoriesAreCaptured@gmail.com to set up an order.

CHECK THIS OUT! So Clever!

2011-07-03T10:09:00.000-04:00

a-pool-in-the-river-for-everyone

The link above takes you to a website showing details of the this AWESOME, INOVATIVE, THE NEXT BIG THING, idea thought up by 3 Dudes who wanted to swim on a hot day in the River. This is so very genius of them to design this. These guys will go far in life and become billionairs if this lifts off of the drawing board! Some day soon, I hope all the rivers and lakes can get floating pools to enjoy the water better.

The idea is to have a pool in the river which filters the water of the river and keeps cleaner water for people to swim in than just the river water alone...most times it is not safe to swim in a river with all the gross water out there with its dead fish, and pollutants in the water. This pool idea also contains the people to an area and not having them in the vast body of water that a river has.

This is so brilliant! What a great way to use up natural resources and cool down the community in the hot summers. This is first being planned to be build and created in a New York River...but if this takes off there are so many locations for this idea of a floating pool to be used. There's the Ohio River, Chicago, Great Lakes, New Orleans, St. Louis, and others all over the nation to benefit from this floating pool idea. Don't forget the lakes too! This floating pool idea would work nice in parks with lakes!

DONATE to the floating pool project. Donate to this project of the Floating pool and help raise money in such an awesome, innovative, fabulous solution! Something as small as a DOLLAR donation can swim it's way to happiness and help create the 1st floating pool.

Living the American Dream

2011-04-10T15:45:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a perfect Saturday. Both Andrew and I were off work to enjoy a lazy Saturday together as a family. Rare indeed. I usually have to work on the weekends, so this was a treat. The Weather was so nice out as an added bonus to the day off. We were outside in our front yard, with the dog laying out basking in the sun. Kara was outside on the driveway with her tricycle and wagon, playing, as Andrew and I gardened. This day was straight of what I imagine the "American Dream" is. We own a house with a two car garage, family and a dog, playing in the yard on a lazy Saturday afternoon. We are so blessed, I love my life spent with Kara, and Andrew and Duke...can't forget the dog!

I can cook now! It's so easy with Emeals!

2011-03-08T10:19:00.002-05:00

FIRE, Too Close to Home

2011-02-09T21:53:00.002-05:00

Last night our neighbors house accross the street from us was on fire! I still can't believe my eyes. It was so scary to see in plain sight a fire blazing bright out of a bedroom window. We were all cuddled on the sofa as a quiet night in, watching Greek on Hulu.com and all of the sudden sirens drive up our street, and then stop. That is never a good sign when emergancy vehicles don't keep driving on pass your place. I peeked through the blinds, and leaped off the sofa with Kara in my arms, said a four letter word and Andrew then grabbed his coat and shoes to go outside to find out more. I was shaking...but at the same time trying to be the "calm and collected mommy" to Kara. She of course, is too young to even understand what is going on. Andrew was making light of it and showing her the pretty lights on the trucks as we watched out the window. It was hard to get to sleep lastnight.

The family that lives in the house is ok and no injuries, the father is out of town and it was just the mom and her two kids present. Luckily all ok and they spent the night at a neighbors house. The fire started from a laptop some how. Can you believe that? This is so scary to think, for it to just start up a fire and moments later the house is all burned up with four boarded up windows!? So hard to fathem, all that from a simple laptop? Wow.

This has actually been the THIRD time that I have been through this sort of fright.

The first time, Andrew and I were living in a condo complex and the apartment directly outside from our bed room window was on fire in the middle of the night. That was back when we lived in Grover Beach, Ca.

The second time this happened, Andrew was out of town for training and I had just moved to Missouri in an apartment complex. I woke up to the sound of breaking glass, look out my bedroom window, to see the truck parked outside was on fire! I called 911, as did some other neighbors apparantly... I asked the 911 operator, what to do, if I remained in my apt or evacutate? She said to stay indoors for the time being. I was so scared being alone and in a new to the area, I didn't know any one. I was afraid the truck was going to blow up, being on fire.

Even thow Andrew was out of town, his car was there park right next to the burning truck, with one empty parking space inbetween. What the heck was I suppose to do? It was so bizzarre and all happened so fast. His GTO, car, luckily was fine and no smoke damage, and the truck was a burnt up shell of a truck on melted wheels.

So last night seeing this fire across the street from our house was all too familiar and way too close to home, once again. I am so glad everyone was fine and had a place to stay the night at, but their house is going to need rebuilding, they will have to find a temporary place to live for now in the mean time.

Snow!

2011-01-20T20:59:00.001-05:00

Usually I don't mind the snow. Living in St. Louis, Missouri the snow seasons are light here. It is nothing like the volume of snow that places like Chicago or New York get. The snow here is light and melts away pretty quickly. I like for the snow to be enough to make a snow man and maybe sled down a small hill and then go away. Actually, I still have not tried sledding yet. One of these days I will.

The snow lately has been a little on the annoying side. As soon as the snow melts completely away, then another batch of snow comes and gives us 6 inches to drive through. It gets annoying to let the dog outside only to have to wipe his paws with a towel each time he comes inside.

Another part to this snow frustration is our fireplace. We have a friend who knows how to set up our fireplace to have the gas log insert. So the snow is putting off when exactly he can come over and put that together. In order for him to install it all and get it fully working; the snow needs to melt away... and also be a little warmer for him to do some of the installation outside. UGH! There hasn't been a long enough break in between snows to get him out here and fix up our fireplace.

I'll post some pretty snow photos soon...

Long day

2010-12-10T01:13:00.000-05:00

What a day! It's is finally over and out.
The day started out as a day off. Then about 11am I get a text message from my friend, asking if I was going to the department meeting? That was news to me!? I didn't know about the 2 o'clock meeting, so I quickly call up daycare to see if there is room to drop Kara off for a few hours and head out to work for the meeting. The meeting ended a little after 3:30pm and I headed home shortly after that. Picked up Kara from daycare. It was good to see her playing with the other kids there. I don't have her in daycare all too much, mostly just when times like today happen and I can't take her with me somewhere. Also she gets some daycare interaction at my gym, when I take her with me she is able to play with other kids there also.

After picking her up, we went together to a mall for some Christmas shopping. I was at Victoria's Secret and tried a perfume on; I had Kara smell my hand and she licked it! I didn't expect that, it was so cute. I was buying for some of my girlfriends their Xmas gifts, to take with me when I see them in California. Even though we will be visiting the week after Christmas, I still think I should get them a gift. I got a really good deal on a box set of VS perfumes and lotions, so I can divide the set up to make individual gifts.

Kara and I were still out at the mall and it is now 8pm! I totally lost track of time and we were having fun together. Plus I still had to go food shopping before heading home. At this point it is already passed Kara's bedtime and one stop to grocery store isn't going to make it any worse. We get home about 9:30pm and I put Kara directly to bed, with her milk a read her book. Then I took the time to put away the groceries. By this time it is 10:30pm, almost 11 and I just now am sitting on the sofa relaxing with a glass of Eggnog, typing away. I need to get to bed myself, and end this long day on a good note.

Blog more later, for now it is sleepy time, and off to a deep sleep, dreaming about our California trip coming up.

BAD COSTCO!

2010-11-22T00:10:00.000-05:00

Black Friday is all about having a really good deal! Right? Well not with Costco. Careful with sales, it seems like a good deal but it is not necessarily. Currently (Nov.21,2010) there is a Costco Coupon for $30 off a Kodak camera...THEN starting Friday the day after Thanksgiving (black Friday) is a holiday coupon for the very same camera at $20 off!? What the heck!? so sneaky. I bet customers are going to buy more of the Kodak Cameras on Friday just because of the Black Friday fever, and having to buy something...than those buying the camera now.

Funny part to this all, is that the coupon for $30 off is valid thru the 28th! HA! so if you are going to shop at Costco on BLACK FRI use the $30 coupon and not the $20 one. So ridiculous. Becareful shopping the B.F. Sales, not all that it's cracked up to be.

I will be at home avoiding the crazy shoppers and decorating my Christmas Tree.

Kara, Our Little Lady Bug!

2010-11-05T09:46:00.002-04:00

Happy Halloween! Kara celebrated her second Halloween this year. This time around she was more aware of everything going on, and getting into it. She is 17 months old, and walking around carrying her candy bag, wearing her costume, and knows that these little wrapped items are CANDY! She had a tootsie roll in her hand carrying it all around the house, then discovered it was something to eat and was biting into it WITH the wrapper still on it. This was a little messy trying to get the remaining wrapper off for her to eat the rest of the piece of candy properly...as she was chewing a mouth full of tootsie roll, she said, "mmmm"... I got a kick out of it.

There is about half of her candy stash that she cannot eat, due to being a chocking hazard, or too chewy, or too hard. Leaving about half of her loot for us to nibble on here and there. It is a big bowl of candy just sitting on the counter in the kitchen, and it is hard not to just grab a bite sized chocolate or two...Eating these daily is not so good for the waist line.

I go all year not eating much candy, and then this past week is candy every day!? Talk about a sugar overload! I must get rid of this bowl or at least hold myself back from snacking on it daily! Kara doesn't eat it every day. I throw bits of candy into Andrew's lunches for his work. Anyone want some 3 Musketeers? or a Chocolate bar? Please? Help me eat some!?

Kara dressed up as a ladybug. I made her costume out of some felt from the fabric store and a cute set of red wings for her to wear. I also drew on her face with my lip liner, some antennas and a little bug nose. She looked adorable. When we went to trick or treat Andrew brought the dog along to walk with us. We started out having Kara walk but could barely get to the house next door fast enough, and I ran into the garage and grabbed her wagon. She liked being pulled in the wagon around the neighborhood collecting candy and seeing all the other kids in costume. Towards the end thow she wasn't wanting to get out of the wagon anymore to walk up to the doors. Andrew took her up to a few doors and most houses had people in their driveways sitting around fire pits with their candy to pass out. We had a blast and walked pretty far, farther than I had thought we would.

Mind Your Manners!

2010-10-06T01:23:00.000-04:00

I was playing with my daughter, Kara, earlier today and all of the sudden she had a perplexed look upon her face, I asked her what was wrong? and of course she is only 1 1/2 years old, so she can't really answer back in complete sentences. Then she goes to touch her throat, I knew she didn't have anything in her mouth, and was not choking on something. As the concerned mommy, I kneel down to her level with my face in front of hers...and then Kara let out a big burp! Gross! but cute at the same time. It was so funny, I never saw Kara burp before, I don't think she has? Well of course the baby kind of burps, where I use to put her over my shoulder and burp her as a baby, but this particular burp was a BELCH! nothing like a baby burp. I taken by surprise. After she burped, she seemed relieved and stopped touching her throat, and seemed fine. She just had a burp building up and didn't know what it was. We both didn't know what was going on. It was a funny moment, but alarming at the same time.

I am a first time mom, and learning everyday new tidbits to raising a child. Burps and all.

Poem Dedicated to my Daddy Kenny

2010-09-22T23:10:00.002-04:00

My Daddy Kenny taught me to write poems and use to write poems for me. I wrote this poem while sitting in a cafe. Miss you Daddy Kenny.

People watching as time slips by
I take a bite of my Quiche style pie
sip on a pumpkin turned into a latte
sit in a corner chair all comfy and cozy
as I watch the people enter the cafe
some come and go in a hurry and scurry
while a few sit and linger
unconsciously tapping a finger
I take another bite
savor the flavor
as the egg, cheese and artichoke
dance around my taste buds, this is no joke

A man across the way
looks like he'll be here all day
his feet propped up on the chair
laptop open as he vigorously types away
his hair tucked under a hat
and on his left arm a tat.

Three tables over, a lady sits
one hand holds a cell, in conversation
the other a sandwich, in devour

It's 37 past the hour
she pauses with the sandwich
a smile appears from ear to ear
whom ever she is talking with
she agrees with joy...
maybe it's a boy?
a secret crush
I wont tell, and keep it hush.

Farmville Game Tips

2010-07-30T10:56:00.004-04:00

I came across this article written all about the Game Farmville. Sharing with you the bits I found most important or helpful out of the entire article.

_________

...If you think you're not going to be able to check on your farm for a while, you may want to consider

planting crops like artichokes. These will take 4 days to mature, but you'll have an additional 4 days to

harvest them. This is a good way to keep your farm active if you're going to be away for a while. It's

also a good thing to keep in mind so that you know what kind of window you have to get back to your

farm before you first crop will start to wither.

Building Up

Once you start to get a handle on your planting and harvesting cycles, you can begin exploring all of

the other options FarmVille has to offer. As you advance in levels and build up your coin stash, you'll

be able to buy more and more items for decorating and enhancing the value of your farm. Some of

these are worthwhile investments, although many are just fun to play with.

That's what makes this game so great, really. It allows you to play at your own pace and turn your

farm into exactly what you want it to be. You can add structures, fences, animals, trees, vehicles, and

many other types of decorations to your farm to give it your own personal touch. That way, when

you're friends come to visit, they'll be able to see what a magnificent farmer you are.

SURVEYS

Paying cash for FarmVille dollars isn't the only way to get them though. At the bottom of the Add

Farm Coins and Cash page, you'll see multiple options for surveys and other offers that pay out

FarmVille cash. Some of them cost a small amount of money, but many of them are free. This is really

the best option for getting extra FarmVille cash. It's easy and you don't have to invest any real money

to keep playing the game.

There are a couple of drawbacks to the surveys of course, but these are relatively easy to deal with.

Any survey you fill out will cause you to start getting a bunch of promotional emails. This is certainly a

nuisance, but you can minimize it by simply setting up a new email account and using that one for all

your surveys. That way you can keep the unwanted emails from cluttering up the inbox you actually

use.

There can also be a delay in the FarmVille cash being posted to your account. Sometimes you'll get it

right away, but usually it'll take at least a day to show up. There's not much you can do about this, but

if you plan ahead it really shouldn't be a problem. Just start filling out those surveys early and you'll

have plenty of cash when you're ready to spend it.

There are other, more practical reasons to want to have a lot of neighbors as well. When you're short

on cash, it's great to have the option to go and help out on your neighbors' farms to earn some money

fast. You can help out each of your neighbors once a day. For the first 20 neighbors you help in a day,

you'll earn 20 coins and 5 experience points each. Once you get up over 20, you'll only be earning 5

coins and 1 experience point each, but that can still add up to a lot of cash if you make a habit out of

it.

Expanding before you're ready can make it hard to maintain a positive cash flow. You want to make

sure you'll have at least 10,000 coins in the bank after you purchase your land expansion in order to

be sure you're up to the task of managing a larger farm.

Once you decide you're ready to expand though, you'll need to be able to pay for the extra land.

There are actually two ways you can do this, but neither of them is particularly cheap. If you have

enough neighbors, you can pay in coins. If you don't have as many neighbors as is required for the

plot of land you want to buy, you'll have to pay in FarmVille cash.

For example, the 14 X 14 Homestead can be bought for 10,000 coins as long as you have at least 8

neighbors to help you with construction. If you don't have that many neighbors, you can also buy the

Homestead for $20 in FarmVille cash. Since the coins are so much easier to come by than the cash,

you'll be wise to try and recruit those few extra neighbors so you can pay in coins.

You may think that $20 FarmVille cash isn't that much in the grand scheme of things. You'll need $20

more each time you want to expand though. So if you want to expand fast, you either have to have a

lot of FarmVille dollars on hand or you'll have to seek out some new neighbors. Even the largest plot

of land currently available only requires that you have 16 neighbors.

This isn't a particularly large number when you think about it, and it will save you a lot of money in the

long run if you just go out and recruit some friends to help you. It really isn't as hard as it might seem

to get people to be your neighbors either because they don't actually have to do anything to help you.

All they have to do is open the application and set up their character. After that, they never have to

come back to their farm again. Once your friends know this, they may be more inclined to help you

out.

Crop List

Seeds Cost Maturity Experience Sell For Profit / Hour

Strawberry 10 coins 4 hours 1 Experience 35 coins 6.3

Eggplant 25 coins 2 days 2 Experience 88 coins 1.3

Wheat 35 coins 3 days 2 Experience 115 coins 1.1

Soybeans 15 coins 1 day 2 Experience 63 coins 2.0

Squash 40 coins 2 days 2 Experience 121 coins 1.7

Pumpkins 30 coins 8 hours 1 Experience 68 coins 4.8

Artichokes 70 coins 4 days 2 Experience 119 coins 0.5

Rice 45 coins 12 hours 1 Experience 96 coins 4.3

Raspberries 20 coins 2 hours 0 Experience 46 coins 13.0

Cotton 75 coins 3 days 2 Experience 117 coins 0.6

Bell Peppers 75 coins 2 days 2 Experience 108 coins 0.7

Peppers 70 coins 1 day 2 Experience 162 coins 3.8

Aloe Vera 50 coins 6 hours 1 Experience 85 coins 5.8

Pineapple 95 coins 2 days 2 Experience 242 coins 3.1

Blueberries 50 coins 4 hours 1 Experience 91 coins 10.3

Watermelon 130 coins 4 days 2 Experience 348 coins 2.3

Grapes 85 coins 1 day 2 Experience 270 coins 7.7

Tomato 100 coins 8 hours 1 Experience 173 coins 9.1

Potatoes 135 coins 3 days 2 Experience 345 coins 2.9

Carrots 110 coins 12 hours 1 Experience 200 coins 7.5

Coffee 120 coins 16 hours 1 Experience 243 coins 7.7

Corn 150 coins 3 days 2 Experience 380 coins 3.2

Sunflowers 135 coins 1 day 2 Experience 315 coins 7.5

Cabbage 140 coins 2 days 2 Experience 388 coins 5.2

Blackberries 75 coins 4 hours 1 Experience 117 coins 10.5

Green Tea 105 coins 10 hours 1 Experience 191 coins 8.6

Red Wheat 180 coins 3 days 2 Experience 449 coins 3.7

Sugar Cane 165 coins 8 hours 1 Experience 239 coins 9.3

Peas 190 coins 1 day 3 Experience 381 coins 8.0

Yellow Melon 205 coins 4 days 2 Experience 528 coins 3.4

Onions 170 coins 12 hours 1 Experience 268 coins 8.2

Broccoli 200 coins 2 days 4 Experience 473 coins 5.7

Asparagus 220 coins 16 hours 2 Experience 357 coins 8.6

ultimately, peas will be the best crop to plant, but it’ll

take you a while to reach a high enough level to be able to plant them.

Best Seeds in Earnings Per Week Assuming Crops are Harvested At

Maximum Efficiency

These earnings take into account the cost of ploughing (15coins), this is very important since crops

with shorter harvesting times must be ploughed more times giving many players an “invisible” cost.

Also remember that every time you plough you also gain more experience, so do not be mislead with

crops such as raspberry which give no exp, because they end up giving you the same exp as 4 hr crops

when the experience gained from ploughing is also taken into consideration.

1. Tomato 1218 coins/week

2. Sunflowers 1155 coins/week

3. Blueberries 1092 coins/week

4. Coffee 1080 coins/week

5. Carrot 1050 coins/week

6. Raspberry 924 coins/week

7. Broccoli 903 coins/week

8. Red Wheat 592 coins/week

9. Yellow Melon 539 coins/week

10. Red Bell Peppers 539 coins/week

11. Rice 504 coins/week

12. Corn 501.7 coins/week

13. Pineapple 462 coins/week

14. Potatoes 455 coins/week

15. Strawberries 420 coins/week

16. Watermelon 355.25 coins/week

17. Yellow Bell Peppers 324 coins/week

18. Cotton 273 coins/week

19. Soy Beans 231 coins/week

20. Squash 231 coins/week

21. Artichokes 208.25 coins/week

22. Eggplant 168 coins/week

Wheat 151.67 coins/week

Trees

Tree Cost Experience Maturity Profit Resale

Acai $27 FarmVille 0 Experience 2 days 158 coins 47 coins

Cherry 225 coins 5 Experience 2 days 18 coins 11 coins

Apple 325 coins 5 Experience 3 days 28 coins 16 coins

Orange 425 coins 5 Experience 4 days 40 coins 21 coins

Plum 350 coins 5 Experience 3 days 30 coins 17 coins

Peach 500 coins 5 Experience 4 days 47 coins 25 coins

Lemon 475 coins 5 Experience 3 days 41 coins 23 coins

Lime 750 coins 7 Experience 5 days 75 coins 37 coins

Fig Gift 0 Experience 3 days 33 coins 18 coins

Avocado Gift 0 Experience 3 days 37 coins 21 coins

Apricot Gift 0 Experience 4 days 56 coins 30 coins

Grapefruit Gift 0 Experience 3 days 50 coins 23 coins

Banana Gift 0 Experience 3 days 56 coins 32 coins

Passion Fruit Gift 0 Experience 5 days 93 coins 46 coins

Pomegranate Gift 0 Experience 5 days 108 coins 53 coins

Date Gift 0 Experience 3 days 69 coins 40 coins

Olive Gift 0 Experience 4 days 112 coins N/A

Leveling Light Speed

Here is a trick only a few people know about Farmville but can help your farm grow immensely. Before

I reveal the secret you must understand a few things about why leveling fast is good:

1. The faster you level, the more access you get to higher end crops, you will notice if you scroll

up to earnings per week of each crop (page 35), many of the crops with the highest earnings

are only obtainable at the highest levels.

2. It is also important to notice, that many of the highest earning crops also have very generous

harvesting times, take sunflowers for instance, which only need to be harvested and ploughed

once per day and compare them with raspberries, which need to be harvested and replanted

every 2 hours. Not only do the sunflowers give you more coins per hour, you are also doing

only 1/12 of the work compared with raspberries. This is very important since it will make your

schedule much more flexible, and save you huge chunks of time. This is why I advocate leveling

as fast as possible till you can reach a crop that earns good exp/week but at the same time has

a long harvesting time so you can relax.

3. Cosmetic Purposes – If you’re playing Farmville to impress your friends and make your farm

grand and beautiful, you want to make sure you have access to all the things Farmville has to

offer. You wouldn’t want to be stuck with tons of coins but unable to buy that villa just because

you’re level is low.

4. Higher Level = More land = More Crops = Faster Leveling = More Coins/More Free time

As you progress throughout Farmville the plot of land available to you also increases. This

means you can plant more crops, earn more coins, earn more experience, and save you time!

What a game breaker!

Page 50

The Secret to Leveling Faster

If you have played Farmville for quite some time you have probably come into a situation where your

farm really isn’t leveling as fast as you would like, and are slowly stockpiling thousands and thousands

of coins. Whenever I check through my friends Farmville’s and see this happening I will always take the

time to give them some friendly advice. Basically, if there is a huge stockpile of gold that isn’t being

spent there should only be one reason. This is only done when a player is saving for something

expensive such as the million dollar villa.

To be put simply, if you have loads of money in the bank, and you’re not saving for something, it’s

being wasted! If this is you, the following trick will really bring your farm to new heights:

1. Calculate the amount of coins needed to plant and plough your desired crops. This amount

should be kept with you at all times in case your current crops wilt and you receive no income

from harvesting them. If you are VERY SURE (EXTRA STRESS ON THIS POINT) that you will be

able to harvest your crops in time.

2. To Calculate the amount of coins you will need, first find out the size of your farm (eg 14x14),

next choose what crop you will be planting next (eg Tomatoes). The formula for calculating

how much will need is:

(Price of crop + 15 Plough Fee) X Total Area of Farm

Using a 14x14 Farm with tomatoes as an example:

(100+15) X (14X14) = 115X196 = 22540

3. Spend all your remaining coins on buying Hay Bale (located under the decorations tab in the

market), at 100 coins per piece they will give you 5 experience points and can be sold for 5

coins, therefore giving you 5 experience for 95 coins.

Use this list on special occasions when you know you only have a very small window of time

where you can plough and harvest.

Best Crops by Harvesting time

Best 2 hour crop: Raspberries

Best 4 hour crop: Blueberries

Best 8 hour crop: Tomato

Best 12 hour crop: Carrot

Best 1 day crop (24 hour) crop: Sunflowers

Best 2 day crop (48 hour) crop: Broccoli

Best 3 day crop (72 hour) crop: Red Wheat

Best 4 day crop (96 hour) crop: Yellow Melon

Higher Levels (20+)

Lots of Time: At this point planting tomatoes is the most efficient crop for you to plant even though it

only needs to be harvested every 8 hours.

Little Time: Tomatoes might be an option for you, if not plant coffee/carrots/sunflowers.

__________________________

Pretty neat! I am glad I came across this article on Farmville tips, and was able to share with other "farmers".

Percentiles Schmentiles...

2010-06-24T00:50:00.003-04:00

Our daughter is 15 months old now and after her checkup today, she weighs in at the 7 percentile! Eek!? is that too little? Not so much, my family is on the smaller side growing up to begin with, so it is genetics. But still, there is that concern of feeding Kara (our daughter) enough and having her grow at the right "percentile" Andrew and I are new parents... never raised a child before and had someone depend on us to feed them or help them grow.

It was much easier having a dog. With our dog we feed him twice a day a dish of dog food, and keep his water bowl filled. Piece of cake. The vet doesn't worry about percentiles or growth spurts in a dog. Now we are raising a little person and feeding her to grow. This is a hard part in being a parent. This past year has been sort of easier sticking to portions and when she was eating bottles of baby formula, it was an 8 oz bottle at a time.

Now Kara has finger foods, cheese, milk, some baby jar foods and all sorts of food options to choose from when it comes to feeding her. It is getting overwhelming, just a bit. Who knows, maybe you (the readers of this blog) have a baby/child that you are wanting some good eating tips and health information on what to feed little kids? I thought I would share with you what I found in an article that Andrew came across.

Here are some helpful tips for feeding kids: I took the following bits of information out of the article, http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/T030800.asp

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

After a year of rapid growth (the average one-year-old has tripled her birth weight), toddlers gain weight more slowly. So, of course, they need less food. The fact that these little ones are always on the go also affects their eating patterns. They don't sit still for anything, even food…

Since erratic eating habits are as normal as toddler mood swings, expect your child to eat well one day and eat practically nothing the next. Toddlers from one to three years need between 1,000 and 1,300 calories a day, yet they may not eat this amount every day. Aim for a nutritionally-balanced week, not a balanced day…

Use a compartmentalized dish, and put bite-size portions of colorful and nutritious foods in each section. Call these finger foods playful names that a two-year-old can appreciate, such as:

apple moons (thinly sliced)
avocado boats (a quarter of an avocado)
banana wheels
broccoli trees (steamed broccoli florets)
carrot swords (cooked and thinly sliced)
cheese building blocks
egg canoes (hard- boiled egg wedges)
little O's (o-shaped cereal)

Place the food on an easy-to-reach table. As your toddler makes his rounds through the house, he can stop, sit down, nibble a bit, and, when he's done, continue on his way. These foods have a table-life of an hour or two.

...6. Cut it up. How much a child will eat often depends on how you cut it. Cut sandwiches, pancakes, waffles, and pizza into various shapes using cookie cutters.

...10. Respect tiny tummies. Keep food servings small. Wondering how much to offer? Here's a rule of thumb – or, rather, of hand. A young child's stomach is approximately the size of his fist. So dole out small portions at first and refill the plate when your child asks for more. This less-is-more meal plan is not only more successful with picky eaters, it also has the added benefit of stabilizing blood-sugar levels, which in turn minimizes mood swings. As most parents know, a hungry kid is generally not a happy kid.

11. Make it accessible. Give your toddler shelf space. Reserve a low shelf in the refrigerator for a variety of your toddler's favorite (nutritious) foods and drinks. Whenever she wants a snack, open the door for her and let her choose one. This tactic also enables children to eat when they are hungry, an important step in acquiring a healthy attitude about food.

12. Use sit-still strategies. One reason why toddlers don't like to sit still at the family table is that their feet dangle. Try sitting on a stool while eating. You naturally begin to squirm and want to get up and move around. Children are likely to sit and eat longer at a child-size table and chair where their feet touch the ground.

...15. Make every calorie count. Offer your child foods that pack lots of nutrition into small doses. This is particularly important for toddlers who are often as active as rabbits, but who seem to eat like mice.

Nutrient-dense foods that most children are willing to eat include:

Avocados
Pasta
Broccoli
Peanut butter
Brown rice and other grains
Potatoes
Cheese
Poultry
Eggs
Squash
Fish
Sweet potatoes
Kidney beans
Tofu
Yogurt

FACEINHOLE .com

2010-06-14T13:03:00.003-04:00

This web site Faceinhole.com is so hillarious. I edited Andrew's face into a "Body builder video"

It looks real and so funny! I also have made a variety of photos using the site and editing photos to the pictures.

http://www.faceinhole.com/show.asp?id=e2b937da6eb392b19b

Click on link and click the play button, to watch Andrew as a "body builder!"

Taken Out of Context Could Be Really Naughty

2010-06-08T22:12:00.009-04:00

I was at a place talking to a guy...

Guy: I need to get up under there but don't have the proper tools

Me: Can I come back another time to have you get the job done?

Guy: You would have to go somewhere else...because this model is older and doesn't have easy access to the filter.

Me: my body is built differently and too old to get access to it?

Guy: other models have easy access to it and I can get under there and be done in 30 seconds.

Me: You can't get any access to my body? and get the job done?

Guy: I don't have the proper tool to use on your body type...

I was at Jiffy Lube getting an oil change and also planning on getting a Fuel Filter replacement. With my car being a 2000 Mazda its model has the filter in a spot where it needs a tool of some kind to be taken out and replaced. other models have the filter in a spot to easily remove the filter or whatever. my car of course is built to where he can't get to the filter. Darn it! I will have to go to an Auto shop to get the job done...wish I knew more about fixing cars and could just crawl up under there and replace the filter myself! ARRRRG!

2010-05-28T22:20:00.004-04:00

Some times when life gives you lemons you just have to make lemonade to make better. It is a bittersweet moment. I have been off and on wanting to transfer out of my current job location and move on to a another job. I want to eventually become a supervisor and at my current job after 3 and a half years of trying to succeed I cant seem to get anywhere and move up in the company. I also work where it is a long commute from my home. It is a half hour drive both ways. Ideally I would like to work at a hotel closer by about 15 or less miles away. Finally I have had the courage to quit my current job and try applying to other hotels. Make this a clean slate and start fresh. I will miss the regular guests that I have come to know by name and they stay each week at our hotel. They will be the people I miss the most, as well as SOME of my coworkers. Some coworkers I have made a friend ship out side of work to hopefully keep hanging out together once I leave. I called my manager today to see how to officially quit and if there was any paper work needed to fill out. I do need to turn in my two sets of ugly, ill fitted, uncomfortable uniforms. I will gladly hand those over.

I was looking online today and see that there are allot of possibilities for me to apply for. I hope to find a new job soon. Some would say that I should have held onto my current job while I look for another. I tried that though. Back in January and February I was looking for jobs and couldn't find much. My motivation to continue looking was fizzled out because I was at the comfort of having my current job. I eventually stopped looking for a different job opportunity and settled back to my job at the hotel of not moving up. I was settling for front desk agent and not getting any chance to grow. So I think if I quit and move on completely, then the job market will look better for me, and I will be more motivated to stick with it on finding a new and improved job in Hospitality. I want to move forward and not get stuck on settling any longer.

Teen Sails the World!

2010-05-14T08:45:00.004-04:00

Jessica Watson's Website/fan info

An amazing teen, Jessica Watson sails around the world in 7 months. She sailed solo with no assistance. I am flabergasted by her story. It amazes me what people can do when the set a goal and put there heart and soul into it.
Here is her blog:

Jessica Watson's Blog

Here is a note I wrote to her:

Dear Jessica,

I have a feeling I will be watching your story on either Oprah or Ellen show here in the states. I am very impressed and glad you are safe and almost back home. Congrats to you, even if the recorders stopped recognizing the "youngest" category. Controversy my a*s. I think you should at least get a couple of ribbons and a huge trophy then. I heard of your story of sailing around the world via the Yahoo posting. I will have to keep up with reading your blog. I only wish I knew of it 200+ days ago. :)

You've knocked them out of the water! Way to go Jessica! I am very proud of you, and I don't even know you. Just last night, I was talking to my husband, that our next trip out of country should be to Australia and go to Melbourne...and now I read this story of you sailing around solo, a very inspiring story. We most defiantly will have to take a trip over to Australia now...only we will fly or cruise over.

;) Martiel Hay

Our Easter Weekend!

2010-03-29T20:44:00.006-04:00

We flew out to California for the Easter weekend, to visit with friends and family. I was nervous to see Andrews grandpa; he has since moved into a nursing home since we last saw him. He remembered us and was "with it" on the day we visit with him. He has been in and out of current time frame and been living mostly in the past, by reliving the memories as a current incident. I am just glad Kara was able to visit with her great grandpa again. The visit was lovely. When we got there we sat in the common area at a table with 4 chairs and other chairs along the walls and hall. At first it was just us in the sitting area, then little by little people started to gather. The elderly people were all admiring baby, Kara. She was in such a cheerful mood, waving to everyone, clapping her little hands, and babbling her baby talk. In a matter of minutes we had an audience.

The rest of the weekend we visited our folks. My parents came down and stayed in Westlake to visit with us. Saturday night we went out for sushi with our friends, Kara, and my mom and dad. Kara sat at the head of the table, and we would feed her bits of our sushi, like the avocado or cucumber bits. She had a fun time and behaved very well.

On Easter Sunday we went to a family friends house for Easter celebration. This was Kara's 2nd Easter (officially)... this year really counts more than last year to be able to enjoy it. There were other kids around her baby age so there was a separate baby egg hunt set up on the side grass/yard aside from the bigger kids looking for eggs. I got her some bunny ears for her to wear, as a headband...and left it back in Missouri. Drat, I didn't get any pics of her with the bunny ears on, but I did get plenty of other pics to post on here.

She loved the plastic Easter eggs, they fit perfectly in her little baby hands. The eggs all rattled with candy inside, and Kara would sit on the grass rattling her two eggs; one in each hand. We had to encourage her to go find some more eggs! "There are more eggs, right there Kara!" Then she got the hang of it and crawled all around the grass, scooping up eggs into a pile in front of her...We had a blast watching her find the eggs (in plane sight).

Later we were all sitting down for lunch and kids are still running around playing in the yard. I was eating egg salad and I thought one of the kids came up behind me jolting my chair, and when I looked back no one was there. About the same time I was questioning what was moving my chair, other people felt it too. Turns out we felt the Earthquake that happened in Mexico, a 6.2 on the rector scale at the time that we had all felt it. We were all the way up north in Camarillo, CA, to have felt part of that Earthquake. The funny thing was Kara didn't even wake up from it, she was napping in her car seat in a chair next to me. She slept through the big jolt. While she was sleeping, she held onto her two Easter eggs that she had been rattling earlier.

We had a fun filled weekend, with so much to do in the few days that we were in town. On our flight Monday going home, back to Missouri, Kara slept the whole flight.

Road Trippin to Nowhereville!

2010-03-20T22:14:00.006-04:00

My heart is set on finding a reasonably priced sofa. Ideally I would like to get a sectional, leather sofa with chase. So far this past week I have been to 4 stores in search of THE sofa. I found a good candidate near my house about 15 minutes away at a furniture store for $798... THAT IS UNDER one thousand bucks, for Leather, Sectional, with Chase!

I want to call it a week and buy the thing. Andrew's coworker tells him about this furniture store up north in a town called Vandalia, MO, about an hour and a half away. Waters Furniture. I check out the website; This looks like a good idea to go ahead an go up to see for ourselves what great deal we can find on a leather sofa. Andrew is set on checking the store out first, before buying any sofa. According to his coworker, the store sells competitors sofas, etc. for way cheaper deals and it is worth checking it out. FINE.

Of course, Andrew is away in training this week... so who not to do the trip out to the store than me. I was planning on Google maps and a diaper bag, toss Kara in the car and driving up myself on my off day, Saturday. SO LUCKY I didn't go alone. This place is in the Boonies, middle of no where and in a small town that is one street long. There is nothing interesting about Vandalia, but its name. I like to say the word Vandalia.

My friend, Carissa and her two kids come with me and Kara and we make it a road trip. We have the directions printed out and Tom-tom for back up. As we are driving along, heading north it is nothing but: a long stretch of road and flat land, abandoned barns, grain silos, dead grass, a house here and there, some Pepsi factory or building of some sort and nothing else. Just totally desalinate. We are both thinking, "Where the heck are we going and this better be one awesome store once we get there." In my mind, I am picturing this store to be like a Home Depot style, with a warehouse of great sofas and chairs! When I had called the store on Friday for information, the sales gal told me there are 10 show rooms to select from. I am thinking, COOL! This is going to be great, Vandalia, here we come!

After an hour and a half of driving we are to make a right on Main Street and be blown away by this really great store that Andrew's coworker suggested we check out. BULL SHIT!

We drive into "town" and it is snowing! Turned right onto Main street, go up to the store... a guy from across the street pokes his head out and asks if we are here to buy a mattress? No? a Sofa sir, He tells us the sofas are here across the street in this building. Come on out of the snow!... Little flakes of snow rest upon Carissa's curls as she shook her head and wiped her feet on the welcome mat. The kids and I follow her in the store and have a good first impression to begin with. It is quaint, and well set up with all the furniture nicely displayed. I am glancing at the price tags, it is all priced at $1200 or more and a leather chair is priced at $900, and so on... WHERE are the cheap deals, and excellent prices we drove all the way up here to see. The "sales man" says look around and we have more sofas in three other buildings (shacks more like it) out back through this back door. There is the silver bldg, brick bldg, and the tan bldg all with sofas in em to check out...

What? this is a weird set up... having to go out side to other buildings and tromp around in the puddles and muddy gravel going from building to building. It was snowing out and we have to go back and forth? And with three kids in toe. This was getting to be ridiculous!

We go to check out the other buildings, which I think is what the sales lady on the phone had referred to as "showrooms"... Oh my God! Say it isn't so! Carissa and I are looking at each other and I am telling her, "sorry I dragged you all the way out here for nothing." She says, it is ok, and the road trip part is fun, don't worry...I guess I had to make this trip out here to give it a shot and consider it for a good deal.

So not worth the trip out north. The furniture was regular priced or more expensive than I had found locally. I had found much better deals in my own back yard, just 15 minutes away.

So we are heading out and it is about time to get the kids lunch somewhere. Driving around we have a Dairy Queen and a local diner to choose from in this town they call Vandalia. We had seen a McDonald's in the next town over so we decide to go there instead. Kara's first McDonald's experience. She ate some of the apple slices, and I peeled off the fried part of the chicken nuggets for her to eat also. I bought her a little kid size milk, but she didn't know how to use a straw. HAHA. I saved it for later.

In the end, Carissa and I basically took the kids for a 2 hour drive out to lunch at McDonald's. We got out groove on, listening to a Bob Marley CD. Her kids knew the words and sang along to, "Baby don't worry, about a thing" song. It was so cute when they sang along. Kara chimed in a couple of coos to! Fun times and ridiculous times.

Teeth

2010-03-08T20:53:00.005-05:00

I was just thinking about the cycle of Teeth we go through. I am looking at Kara with her baby teeth growing in and how cute it is to watch her smile grow. She will be a year old this month on the 23rd, so far she has 3 1/2 teeth on her smile. Two on the bottom grew in first and one front tooth, now the other front tooth is growing in, and is half way poking through her gum. When she smiles it is a small collection of teeth and bare gums for her grin.

She has a whole mouth full of teeth to still grow. Then when she is in first grade or so, she will start to loose those baby teeth, after all that hard work and minor pain she went through. It doesn't seem fair. She then has to grow more teeth after loosing the baby teeth and get stuck with a school photo or two with a broken smile. The smile will show her missing tooth/teeth, stuck captured in a photograph for ever. I think it is amazing how teeth come and go.

Then, around high school age, the wisdom teeth decide to grow in and smoosh over the other teeth taking up too much room.. and the dentist says you have to get the wisdom teeth removed...Well then why are they even there in the first place? Our mouth can only hold so many teeth and it grows more than it can hold. I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth pulled out in one day. It was a piece of cake, and I don't remember any of it, in the end I had to eat jello and apple sauce for a while till my gums healed enough to chew again. I don't really know why our mouths havewisdom teeth in the first place? We go on living the first 20 years with out these teeth and only yank the teeth out when they do come in? So what is the point?!

Then once we reach the ripe old age of 70 or so we begin to loose all our teeth again and some people get the teeth replaced wtih dentures. They come full circle with teeth by that age.

Good luck little Kara with your cycle of teeth. It's an adventure.

It was just a dream

2010-02-18T07:51:00.004-05:00

Dreams, what do they mean...?

This is the dream I just had:

Andrew and I were driving in the mountains, looking at such beautiful scenery and I was taking photographs as we passed breathtaking views. Then we are out of the car, walking around admiring the mountains. I see a moose and take pictures of it from far away...only to look up and see that the moose is getting closer. Andrew says, "that moose is walking towards us!" What do we do? I say, "but the moose is so far away in the photo I just took?" Andrew, "Look! The moose is right here, he's gonna get us!" I grab Andrews arm and jump back in the van. Andrew and I hop over the middle seat to the front and drive up the mountain, away from the moose. As we are driving there are tigers and leopards on the side walking around. Andrew is wondering what they are doing here in the mountains, and says, "Those are only suppose to be in Pennsylvania? What are they doing here in the mountains?" I reply, "I don't know, it's not like they know one state from the next, they just wondered over maybe. Keep driving we can't get out here where there are tigers!"

So we end up at the top of this mountain and pull up to a cabin with people in it and ask to come in and wait out the moose till it goes back down the hill so we can finish our hiking. They let us in and offer Andrew a cup of coffee. The coffee was some kind of Indian coffee made straight from the coffee plant leaves, like a tea is made and was 100% potent of pure, natural coffee. Andrew drank it out of politeness, but was having trouble drinking this very strong coffee. The old man who lives there, says he came up with this tea style coffee first and the Indians who also live in this mountains stole the idea from him years ago. Now everyone knows it as Indian Coffee, "Coffe-P-chu." The Indians are marketing it and selling it to the towns people. The old man is miffed that it was his creation and didn't get any credit for it.

This is all a dream and it was so detailed. When we were at the old mans place, I sat on the sofa with an umbrella stroller folded up lying on the floor in the way of my feet. I was also looking across the room at the wall where it looks like there use to be a door and now it was just a wood frame...this was such a weird dream, so detailed. What does this all mean?

Dissecting the dream:

I was watching the kids show yesterday where there was a moose that startled Emily and Little Bear. In the cartoon the Moose ends up being nice and they all play together. That would be the connection to the part of my dream with the Moose.

The part with the old guy making tea/coffee out of the coffee plant, and saying how it is a new idea popping up everywhere, that the Indians call "Cofe-P-Chu" may tie into what Andrew and I were talking about just before bed time. He was telling me more about that Legal version of Pot how it is sold commercially and it's legal to smoke it. It might not be legal for long and if we want to try it we should get it now, while it is still available as a legal substance.

I am hesitant about it, because apparently it is just like pot and "pure"and "natural" and the "high" that you get from smoking it last only a 1/2 hour, etc. I still don't think we should do it, just because it is legal. And we have Kara to be reposable for, I don't want to be high off some pure "legal" pot stuff, while Kara is in the house with us. This would have to smoked outside on the deck, and on an off day to recover from or have any odd side effects. I know I am thinking too much into this. It is just fishy that something similar to Pot is on the market AND it is LEGAL to smoke?

So in my dream Andrew is the one drinking this Pure and Natural Coffee that is 100% potent, stronger than any coffee out there. I am hesitant in my dream to even try the coffee. I think this is all tied together. It is funny how dreams can turn around reality moments and create a whole plot line for an adventurous dream as I sleep soundly.

I don't know what the tigers and leopards have to do with Pensylvania or why we were driving up a mountain in a van. Those parts are just dream fillers to go along for the story line. ;)

I'm Incognito Today.

2010-02-11T15:30:00.002-05:00

I've gone incognito today. Here at work I am usually in uniform, working at the front desk of my hotel. I am usually seen by guests as a person who works there.

Today I was in regular, street clothes at work for a training class. Unless the guest was a frequent guest to know me out of uniform, the guests I passed in the halls did not know that I worked there. I almost felt like I was just another guest walking in the hall ways and also as part Undercover Agent. I felt like being out of uniform was a whole new spin on my work environment.

When I went to the ladies restroom, I was washing my hands and the guest at the sink by me made small talk. She was commenting how she liked the counter top and should get something like this put in her house. I mingled and small talked back with her, then as I left, I told her to enjoy the rest of her day. I still had the customer service attitude and chatted with her. I think if I was in uniform, maybe she would not have made small talk, or maybe she would see that I am an associate and ask me a hotel question? Then as I was in the cafe for to buy a cup of coffee, I was there with two of my other coworkers, who were also in their street clothes for the class, and we were all blending in as "guests". It was so weird to be at work out of uniform and secretly there, in a sense. I was incognito, and blended in for a change. Just out of habit though, I still greeted the guests in passing a, "good morning" and realized I didn't have to do so.

Grandparents are precious to have

2010-01-30T19:36:00.002-05:00

Thank you to all the Granparents out there. I grew up with just one Grandma and she passed away back in 2000. Then when I married Andrew, his Grandma and Grandpa became my new set of grandparents. Kara is so lucky to have a slew of Grandparents. I want them all to know how very special you each are to her. My in-laws, Bob and Judi are her Grandma and Grandpa and my folks, Gail and Mitch are her Grandma and Grandpa. That is four grandparents! Then we also have Andrews Grandma, Kara wasn't able to meet. She passed away last year in 2009 when Kara was one month old. We visited the Thanksgiving holiday before that while I was pregnant with Kara and visited with Grandma Thelma. We still have Andrew's Grandpa Gordon which is Kara's Great Grandpa. He is 96 years old, so he just recently moved into an assistant living place and out of the big house that he has lived in for decades. He is starting to go and not making much sense these days. He talks about the past as if it were going on today, currently. A scary thing happened last month; he was waiting on the sidewalk of his house for a taxi to take him somewhere...luckily he didn't actually call for a real taxi, he just thought he did. If he were to actually go somewhere in a taxi, we would not have know where he went and he would go missing! It is so scary with situations like that where he was living alone at home. He is better being in the assistant living, but I don't know how much longer he will live? I hope he makes it till April in the Spring. We want to fly out to CA over Easter break and visit him agian (once more). I surely hope it will not be our last time visiting, and that he lives onto turn 100 even. But IF this is our last chance to visit I want it to be memorable for Kara. I just hope she remembers her Great Grandpa when she gets older, and has memories of visiting with him. ( I am getting all teary eyed) I have to think of better thoughts. and not get to caught up in Grandpa Gordon passing away. We don't know really when that sad day will come...could be yrs from now, or months.

On a happier note I started a Skype session with my folks to see Kara live on the Webcam. This is a free site to set up with your web camera and you can call people using the skype who are also on the skype to see each other. If you have Skype, let us know and we can set up a time to hop on there and you can see cute Kara. I'm starting the catch phrase, "Skype you later!" instead of the old school phrase, "See you later!" haha. a Modern twist to it. I coined the phrase, and take all the credit, hope it catches on.

click the link to check out and start a Skype Free account.
http://www.skype.com/download/skype/windows/?c=204

Let's Get the Girl Her DVD!

2010-01-18T19:28:00.005-05:00

Door bell rings, the dog barks, I answer the door to a cute little girl holding a clip board and brochure to sell her Girl Scout Cookies. I decided to purchase one box of Thin Mints, $3.50. While I was filling out the cookie form, she tells me, "If I sell 1,000 cookies I get the DVD and ALL the prizes!" Cookie Sales have come a long way since I sold them as a Blue-bird. This was about 20 yrs ago when I sold cookies, door to door. Back then I was making a goal to sell a certain amount for a pink Dino stuffed animal and a Tootsie Roll brand piggy bank, that was filled with Tootsie Rolls. This girl is selling cookies for a DVD player! Sad to say, but, we didn't even know what a DVD player was back in the 1980's. Haha. Sometime at the end of February I will be getting my box of Thin Mints. I hope she makes her goal of 1,000 boxes to get all of the prizes!

I look forward to someday, Kara will be a Blue-bird or Girl Scout. She could go to camp and bond with the other girls. I look forward to so many adventures for Kara to grow up and get involved with.

Dear Kara

2010-01-10T12:36:00.007-05:00

Dear Kara,

This is mommy, I want to tell you that I love you and I'm so proud of you learning new things everyday. You are growing up quickly. Currently you are a little over 9 months old and already you are Cruising around the coffee table, crawling all over the house, and eating solid foods. I am forever amazed by you. When you look up at me with your big smile and recognize that I am your mommy, it melts my heart. Thank you for being a happy baby so far, Daddy and I are extra lucky to have you as our daughter and we look forward to the many years to come.

There will be times, baby girl, that you think I am being a "mean Mommy" but rest assured that I am only trying to help you. Currently you have had a runny nose with little buggers and snot. I have to help you clear it all away and use a baby wipe or q-tip. As much as you hate it, I have to help you out. Mommy is not trying to torture you or be mean when wiping your nose. Know that. Because when ever I wipe your little baby nose I have to hold your head and wipe away, and you scream and cry. But you don't seem to understand I am only here to help. I am not trying to be a mean mommy. Please understand Kara.

One day you will look back on this blog, when you are able to read it, and laugh. I just want to document this and say I am sorry for wiping your nose and picking it with a q-tip. Years later there will no doubt be even other situations that you will fuss over and hate me helping you with. I am sorry in advance for those things too.

Love you my little sunshine.

Mommy

2009 The Year of the Baby

2009-12-31T13:44:00.009-05:00

I look down and I see my feet! It is a sight to take for granted. It is hard to believe that just 9 months ago I could not see my feet, or how swelled up they were. I was a prego in the start of 2009. We welcomed Baby Kara Audrey Hay. She has been a delight thus far. Every week is a new adventure of baby talents and learning new things. She started out just sleeping, nursing, and pooping. She use to be confined to a blanket on the floor, doing tummy time; now she crawls everywhere, following us around the house. She walks from item to item holding on for stability. She pets Duke our doggy, she felt the cold snow and the warm sand at a beach. She has flown on a plain twice now, all in the time frame of 9 months she has done so much. Here is a photo of Kara with both her Grandpa Bob, and Great Grandpa Gordon Hay.

Looking forward to what ever comes next with cute Kara. Walking and talking, running, and little baby girl attitude...I am ready.

This year of 2009 is the year of the Baby, a couple of my friends all had twins, about 4 friends of mine. Then Kara has 3 new baby girl cousins and a baby boy cousin all with in 2009! Some other friends of ours had a baby too, and my neighbor had a baby boy. I joke that her baby boy is Karas future boyfriend and Kara will grow up as the "girl next door." We have had a baby boom this year. I have to try to keep up with all the birthdays.

Please leave a comment with your baby's birthday for me to write down on my birthday calender.

This year

Recaps of all the happenings around here.

2009-12-12T12:58:00.004-05:00

We have been up to so much lately. Andrew's work had a holiday party at the Harrah's Casino up in the Buffet Lounge. We have been to work parties in the past and it has always been the kind to bring a spouse along, so this year I came along only to find I was the only spouse there. Oh well, I could tell some other coworkers were thinking, "Hmm, I should have brought my spouse..." Why didn't I think of that...I had fun at his holiday party. As for my work, there was not any mention of a holiday party UNTIL the evening before the day there were flyers posted up to reveal the plans of a party going on all day Wed. So any coworkers not working that Tuesday night would not have known to go or participate. Coworkers who happened to work on Wednesday were able to attend, and have the chance at winning door prizes. Coworkers who had Wednesday off didn't even attend or even know about the party. It was pretty bogus, and last minute on the companies part to throw together like that.

Then on Friday we decided to start a new tradition with Kara in celebrating Chanukah. It is a holiday that lasts for 8 nights, based on an old story of an oil lamp staying lit for 8 nights instead of for the one night, giving the people light for a whole week long. This was considered a miracle of light. So in the end, the holiday celebrates with a Menorah; lighting a candle per night up till the following Friday night. On the first night of Chanukah, we went over to our friend, Julie's place and made Matzo Ball soup and Potato pancakes. Kara was such a cutie, showing off that she could stand. She stands and walks around while holding onto things.

We are coming up on the end of Chanukah, with two nights remaining. Tonight we will make Matzo ball soup again and invite our friend, Jay over to our place. Then on Friday we have been invited to our neighbors house for the last night of Chanukah.

As for Christmas, this year is Kara's 1st year to celebrate. We are flying out to California to visit Andrew's family and friends first in LA then driving up the coast to my family and friends in Morro Bay. I have been doing laundry non stop to catch up on so that we can have clothes to pack up. We have to bring the car seat and stroller this time around and I dread having to check luggage, but it is inevitable.

Happy Holidays: Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas and Have a happy New Year! 2010...wow.

Missing Family

2009-11-16T19:24:00.009-05:00

PHOTOS TO BE POSTED LATER>>>
After a whole week of Andrew's brother and family staying in our home visiting and hanging out all together. I miss it. I miss having our nephews playing around with Kara. I miss cooking dinner with my Sister-in-law, Kyoung. I know Andrew misses Jordan his big brother. As kids they didn't get along too much, being brothers, but now they are both grown up, married, and daddy's. They actually like each other now. Jordan even borrowed some of Andrew's shirts to wear to his conference while in town. Family is always nice to have around. Even if it was for just the one week and one day, it was a nice visit, wishing it could have been longer.

While our family was in town, we went to the Zoo, for free and just paid for the tram ride around. With the three kids, we had two strollers, which could not go onto the tram and we left the strollers off to the side to pick back up in the end. It is fall time where most of the animals were not really out and about to see. Too bad, and my favorite section is the giraffes they were all inside their cages and not out in the nature part. It made for poor photos to have them all inside behind bars. One area I have not seen before was the chimpanzee area. There are apes, chimps and one was so big looked like a gorilla! They all have a play ground of ropes, branches and tires to play from. Fascinating to watch them move from one of the area to the other. One of the chimps walked right up to the window where there was a ditch in the ground, and people got excited he was so close, only to watch him squat and pee. It was gross...but funny. Similar thing happened at the Hippo home. The hippo would swim into the water and towards the window people are all standing at to watch the hippo, and we would get all excited in watching the hippo up close swimming...one of the hippos faced away from the window and POOPED out 5 or so baseball size turds! YUCK! it was sooooo gross! Ahh nature!

We also went to the Botanical gardens. My favorite part was the Japanese gardens. Very Serene.

Saturday was their last night visiting and Halloween. All three cousins were dressed as M&Ms and we all walked around the neighborhood trick-or-treating. Kara was carried around in my baby backpack, she fell asleep about half way through.

Sunday was their last morning here before flying back home to New York. We went to have Dim Sum which is Chinese Brunch. Delicious but pricey. It could easily get out of hand with the bill because the servers come around with food on carts to pick from and you don't even know the price of anything, just choose this and that. The bill gets tallied up in the end, we were a party of 5 with 2 babies eating baby food and it came to about $85.

Now they are out in California for the Thanksgiving week and visiting with Andrew's folks. We are going out there over Christmas week and will miss seeing them this time around. It was a nice visit with them while it lasted. I look forward to seeing family in California for Christmas. This will be Kara's first time to the beach. I already told my mom to save up the bread heals for Kara to feed the seagulls with. I also want her to splash her feet along the shore line, as a wave comes up and captures her baby feet. Hopefully she won't be scared of the water.

Three Cousins all Under One Roof

2009-10-27T11:21:00.002-04:00

Andrew's brother has a conference to go to here in St. Louis, MO. He is here all week for the conference, so his family came along to visit us and stay at our house. Their two sons are Kara's Cousins. One is 7 months old like Kara, only one week younger than her, named Abidan. Ephram is 3 years old and is the oldest of the three cousins. For Halloween they will all be here to trick or treat. It will be both Kara and Abidan's first Halloween. My sister-in-law, Kyoung and I made their costumes. The kids are all dressing up as M&Ms. Kara being the girl is the green M&M. Ephram is the tallest and walks around to be the Yellow Peanut M&M, and Abidan is the red, boy M&M.

Some how after Kara was born I ended up with 3 cribs, which turned out good for when all three babies/toddler are staying here to each have there own bed to sleep in. We are so happy that they were able to make a visit out here. It is so fun to watch the cousins all interact. We have our hands full though...double the diapers with both Abidan and Kara. Luckily Ephram is potty trained, he is 3 yrs old and doesn't have to wear the diapers. Nap time is a challenge too with getting all three to nap the same time. Right now, the two babies are napping and Ephram is having lunch. Later on after the naps we are heading over to Walmart Super center, where there is a portrait studio. Kyoung and I are going to get the kids dressed in the M&M costumes for a group photo (to be posted later on another post).

Kara's Full Day With a Babysitter

2009-10-17T13:41:00.004-04:00

Last weekend Andrew and I hired a babysitter to watch Kara at our house while we spent the day at our friends wedding. Andrew was the best man and I was a wedding coordinator. The wedding was held at a Winery about an hour drive away. Leaving Kara with a sitter all day from noon til 9:30 pm! It was the longest we had been apart from her.

She is 6 1/2 months now, and starting to crawl/scoot around the room. The funny thing was, the other day, she crawled from the living room all the way to the dog bowl of water! "Oh, Kara...that's icky!" I said, as I was picking her up and swiveling her around to crawl another direction. It was too funny. Then one morning I set her on the kitchen floor while I was fixing her a bottle. Duke (our dog) was laying on the floor in the doorway to the kitchen...Kara was in dertermination mode, crawling and scooting over towards Duke...ALMOST there...Duke decides to get up and walk away! Oh the disappointment I could see with Kara, rejected like that. So much effort she put into crawling over to him, about 5 minutes or so waisted! It was so cute.

Pretty soon she will be crawling quicker and reaching Duke before he can escape. Haha.

Kara's Firsts for Many

2009-09-30T19:23:00.003-04:00

Kara had an eventful weekend. It was the first time to be on a airplane, her first wedding to attend, and her first time meeting some family and friends...and her first time visiting California, where her mommy and daddy grew up!

She did really well on the flight to California. Andrew and I packed just 3 carry on bags and did not have to check any luggage! I was amazed. On the flight, I had my usual ginger ale, and Kara had a bottle of formula durring take off and landing, to help ears pop. She had one diaper change, at first I thought, how am I going to change her? But there was a baby changing table to keep things simple. She even took a nap on the plane. People who were seated around us were very impressed how well she did on the flight...Thank you Kara!

Friday was a full day of fun. We started out driving over to Andrews old office, where his dad works and we joked that Kara would be the next PHC partner in 2039! haha

Following a Train of Thought

2009-09-22T18:22:00.005-04:00

Kids say the darndest things...

I was at a friends house and they recently got a puppy. My friends, three year old, daughter, remembers when I was pregnant and is looking at Kara now as a baby...She understands that Kara was in my tummy and now she is a baby. She understands that she use to be a baby and was in her mommies tummy... SO... She looks at the dog, a baby dog...and asks, "Mommy, did the puppy come out of your tummy?" Giggling in response, "No. The puppy came out of a Dogs tummy." "I can only have human babies come out of my tummy..." Little girl then said, "and Martells tummy too?" "Yes, our puppy came from a mommy dog, and Kara came from Martiel"

It was so cute! I could see how this makes sence in her train of thought. Very funny.

I'm in a love/hate relationship with...

2009-09-16T08:00:00.004-04:00

I'm in a love/hate relationship with Wal-mart. For years, I have hated the fact that this store crushes down on the local mom & pop shops and takes over small towns.

Back when Andrew and I lived in Grover Beach, CA there was a Wal-mart with a great photo processing center. I would only go there for my one hour photos...this was years ago when one hour processing wasn't all that common and was more expensive elsewhere. Plus the Wal-mart photo center only makes you pay for the photos that turned out. I would have some blurry pics or bad shots from using a Film camera (back then) and would not have to keep those shots or pay for them. Of course now, in 2009 I have a digital camera, and online photo ordering to where I can select which photos I want, and pick them up at my local, one-hour photo center at Walgreen's. I don't go to Wal-mart any longer for the photos. I was basically trying to boycott Wal-marts for the past 10 years, and only shop there on a needed basis, such as the use of the Photo center. Wal-greens is my photo center now and I no longer needed Wal-mart.

When we lived in Cincinnati, Ohio there was a "Supercenter" being built right in front of our Apartment Complex. It was such an eyesore! It was being built the entire year that we lived in Ohio. The road to our place was constantly bothered by construction hazards and blocking our main road for a while. This made me HATE Wal-mart even more. By the time the Supercenter was going to finally open, Andrew and I had moved away and over to Missouri.

So here we are living in Missouri for the past 3 years and the Wal-mart here is 24 hours open. It is yet another crappy Wal-mart to which I prefer to shop elsewhere. ONLY it was convenient being open at 12:08 at night. I would be driving home from work and I would need some more bread or something random for the next day. I fell for the 24 hour convenience and would only shop there when other places were closed... and I just need to drop in for a few items.

I still hated shopping there. Since the Wal-mart is open "24 hours" the customers who shop around midnight... it is an obstacle to shop around the staff unpacking inventory and restocking shelves. It is so annoying to shop there at the wee hours of the night. The aisles are cluttered up and easily trip happy over wood pallets and cardboard piles!

So I really do hate Wal-mart...BUT I love Wal-mart at the same time. It is a love hate relationship I have for the store. I loved it for the photo-center, I loved it for open 24 hours and I hate it for being The Wal-Mart that squashes and puts other businesses out of business. I hate Wal-mart for the unpleasant shopping experiences in the midnight hour. And I hate that their pharmacy is not 24 hours inside a 24 hour store!

MY DILEMMA: A Supercenter Wal-mart has it's grand opening TODAY here in Manchester, MO. DO I GO TO IT? I can finally see what a super Walmart is all about? and poke around... take it all in? Maybe there will be free stuff and drawings to take part in, by shopping on their grand opening day? OR! DO I BOYCOTT & NOT SHOP THE SUPERCENTER? I know I will eventually shop there, might as well be on the grand opening day? I do need some more bread...I just don't want to kill any local stores who will go out of business because of this Supercenter/ ONE STOP SHOP opening in town.

Quoted from the Wal-mart site in an artical about the local location having it's grand opening:

"Approximately 175 new positions were created as a result of the relocation. More than 75 of the store’s associates have worked for Walmart for more than 10 years, including ten associates who have worked at the store since its original opening in 1988. Community Organizations Benefit from Grand-Opening Grants As part of Walmart’s commitment to the communities in which it operates, $27,000 in grants from the Walmart Foundation will be presented during the grand-opening celebration. Eight local non-profit organizations will each receive grants to support programs that serve the community including: Mid East Area Agency on Aging, City of Manchester, Circle of Concern, St. Oouis Community College, Parkway School District, St. Louis County Canine, Manchester Shop with a Cop, American Legion Fund..."

It is a half hour till the grand opening at 8am today. Do I love it or hate it? Do I shop or not shop? Kara is sleeping, so I will wait for her to wake, then I have to also go over to the YMCA for my workout class...so maybe I will shop there on grand opening day, but just not at the 8 o'clock hour of craziness! I am not that much in love with the store to be apart of the Grand opening ceremonies. I'll think about it...and check it out later today, after my workout. Kara and I will explore the new world this after noon.

Free and Fun

2009-09-09T19:27:00.003-04:00

Last night we brought baby Kara along with our friend, Julie to a free night of music at the History Museum. It ran about 2 hours and the band played rock n roll. Kara was literally rockin to the music. Currently at her 5 1/2 month mark she has been attempting to crawl, by lifting her torso and rocking front and back, but just not crawling. The band played the "Shout" song. "throw your hands up and SHOUT" So I would raise Kara's hands and sing along, she smiled and was having a blast. Then Julie picked her up and started dancing around with her and we each took our turn dancing and singing with Kara having a grand ol' time.

pics to post later...

Let's Talk Evelution

2009-08-30T18:37:00.004-04:00

Dear Scientists,

Scientifically the theory is that Humans have evolved from Apes and ruling out that God created Humans. Ok. So if the Apes evolved into humans...why are there still Apes today in 2009? Why did those Apes not turn into humans?

AND! Let's just say God didn't create the humans...because of evolution...BUT who created the Apes to then become a human?

Happy Birthday to Me

2009-08-13T09:10:00.005-04:00

I'll soon be 31 and I don't even remember being 30...it went so fast. For my birthday present to me; I had my hair highlighted (very cute), eyebrows waxed (ouch!), Pedicure (tickle torture), and Gel-fill Nails or whatever you call em.

My favorite part to a pedicure is the chair, without it the pedi would be pure tickle torture for me.
I'm doing a girls night out at the Melting Pot. It's going to be Chocolate fondue and cocktails on Saturday. I'm rounding up my gal pals to celebrate the big 31. Andrew will watch Kara that night.

People are asking me what I want for my birthday...So here is a Birthday Wish List: Sun Flowers, Ziggy Marly kids CD, Toyota Rav4, baby girl toys, gas card, Black Eyed Peas CD, babysit Kara coupon for one night out with Andrew, a cute top...Size L for lovely...

I posted the Birthday Wish list on my facebook page and some of my friends replied to it:

Julie - I told u I will babysit anytime and it doesn't have to be your b-day gift.
Kim - Rav4...who's gonna get that one? Ya better ask Andrew to buy it! :) I would babysit anytime if I lived there! Move back here (to California) and I will watch Kara!!!
Martiel - Thanks for the babysitting offers. What is the babysitting rate though? I am wishing for a COUPON to use on babysitting one night.... :)
To Julie, We will take you up on the offer to watch Kara when we decide to go to the Cheesecake Factory over by you.
To Kim, I want my next car (new or used) to be a Rav4 type car, like the Nisan Murano or ANY of those that are shaped like that. So that there is room for the baby AND the Dog. He would go in the back with the stroller.

Facebook Brings People Together.

2009-08-13T08:12:00.008-04:00

After joining Facebook I have chatted with more old friends and new friends on a regular basis than I did with email or phone calls. This is a great medium to use to keep in touch with friends and family.

I am trying to tell my mom this, and have her join facebook. She can keep up with photos of her granddaughter Kara, and chat back and forth or keep in contact with her sister who is also on Facebook, and even get reconnected with old school friends, etc. The possibilities are endless. BUT my mom is being "stubborn" and is boycotting Facebook, based on the negative uses the news has reported about. There was the one news story of a woman and her daughter were teasing and tormenting another school girl on MySpace (website similar to Facebook) and that girl ended up killing herself. I believe that the woman went to jail for being involved in the girls suicide? But that is one side to Facebook and Myspace.

Facebook for me is not like that Myspace example at all. I am able to connect and chat with a wide range of people I know using one website. It is a great tool. Here is a sampling of my chats to others about baby Kara:

Martiel- "Kara was talking in her verbal sounds....she totally said Mmmaaa ma mom mmm... does that count? wish full thinking ;D"

New Topic:

Martiel- "Kara's little baby nostrils are too tiny to pick! has a little booger....she can't blow her nose lol how does she get the booger out? It's staring me in the face, this little baby nose and a booger!!!!
Verda - "use the blue aspirator - its shaped like a bulb on one end with a pointy tip (baby nostril size) on the other. great for vacuuming out baby boogers."
Martiel - "I forgot I even had that thing, I have two from the hospital...thanks Verda! There's so much to learn and odd little things like baby boogers...silly but I'm learning."
Mym - "the hospital bulbs are the best...put a few drops of saline (salt water) they have it pre-made for babies and let it soften the boogies and then use the bulb. if the boogie is right there but cant get it with your nail, use the tissue like you would, it will stick to the tissue like magic! good luck!"
Connie - "lol cute...I do know about the boogie sucker, they (babies) hate it but it works ...is it still there ?.....hope not...."
Martiel - I replied, "No the Booger is gone...I will def try the bulb next time though. That wont be the only booger she gets, lol. More to come...ahh the joys of motherhood!"
Connie - then said, "lol a boogie is nothing , wait til she wakes and paints her crib with poopie, and you see a bit around her mouth."

New topic:

Martiel - some how I've ended up with three diaper bags... a baby bottle in one and the formula in another...good thing all 3 bags were in the car when I was out with Kara, today.
Now we are home and settled in from running errands. I am so board, Kara is napping, Duke is at the groomers, and Daddy is at work...guess I'll take a nap too...but I'm not tired...
Shawn - Oooo I have an idea for some excitement...wake Kara up!!!! :)
Martiel - Good one Shawn.
Matrika - suggested, "Enjoy the silence while it lasts!"
Kim - Watch TV or a movie OR make a romantic dinner for Andrew. :) ...
Martiel - I am watching TV...hence the bored part! lol

New topic:

Martiel - Kara is 4 going on 5 months this Aug 23. Each new month is a beautiful experience. Right now she is blowing little bubbles and giggling, as her new talent. ;)
Sara - (her daughter) is 3 months now and growing so quickly. Time is so fast. It is amazing to see how much they change and learn in a short few months, huh?
Martiel - I know, every moment is so special. She is starting to grab everything now too. We think she is going to be left handed?

JOIN FACE BOOK MOM! Ignore the news stories and listen to your daughter. ;)

Power Outage

2009-08-07T12:42:00.002-04:00

Amazing what vast amount of power we use. I didn't really see how much power our house was using until the power went out for just a few minutes. After it went back on, I walked around the house and unplugged items that are not used all the time. There were 4 items plugged in and waisting energy. My coffee maker topped with dust was plugged in, as well as my phone charger, blender, and paper shredder. I can plug these items in as I use them and leave them unplugged the rest of the time. As I walked through the house searching for items to unplug, I did notice I have a lot of battery operated things which is saving on power.

Go green! Unplug items in your house that rarely get used. Also buy clocks with batteries instead of the plug kind to prevent having to run around the house setting the time on 4 different clocks!

Who knew?

2009-08-06T23:09:00.003-04:00

Office Dramma. Rummers spread like wild fires, feeding off of a little bit and grows to more complications. People never know the whole story just one side and twist up the fuzzy parts inbetween. It went a little something like this:

I think I know what you know...Tell me what you know and I'll let you know if what you know is what I know...Do you know the same thing I know? Because, no one is suppose to know, how do you know what I know? I don't know the whole thing, I just know a little, do you know more than what I know? I don't know! I can't believe it! I KNOW!

Litter Bugs!

2009-07-25T15:46:00.005-04:00

I am driving down Manchester Road, I see the lady in the car, in front of me, with her window cracked open, just a bit. She flicks her cigarette out onto the street, without a second thought. LITTERING.

Some people do this and especially at street intersections...why is that? There are signs posted every once and a while stating that there is a fine for littering. Therefore the police have the option to pull you over and site you a ticket for littering.

What gets me about this particular lady in her car flicking a cig out onto the street is that she then takes a last sip of her soda can wiggles it in her hand and sees that it is empty...while sitting at this red light... why then did she place it in the cup holder to save and throw out later? Why not toss the soda can out onto the street as well? Oh that would be bad, she wouldn't want to LITTER! What she could have done is sipped her last sip of soda and puffed her remaining puff of the cig and toss the cig into the empty can. Placing it in the cup holder of her car, temporarily till she reached the chance of tossing BOTH into a trash can. Just throw the can on the street next time, it is the same annoying thing as flicking out a cig.

The light turns green, she drives straight through, and I turned left.

Free is always good. :)

2009-07-16T19:55:00.006-04:00

July 16th 2009. A wonderful day, filled with free everything! Thank you to all who contributed.
First off I had to find a shop to fix my vacuum. I found the OK Vacuum shop near by, the guy fixed it for free! He replaced the rubber belt and brush roll...FREE

As I was stopped at a stop light, I peak at Kara in the back and her car seat was slanted to the left. It was no longer snugly fastened to the back seat. I had to think quickly and find a place to reinstall the car seat, to keep her safe. I was just down the street from a fire station. I dropped in to the fire house and Fireman Greg, the certified Baby Seat Installer, properly hooked in Kara's car seat...FREE

Went to target to return some baby things that I never ended up using. The customer service gal gave me store credit on a gift card, to shop with. With the gift card I bought the baby sleep wedge; to help Kara from rolling in her sleep, and the Michael Jackson CD with all the #1 songs on it....sort of free by using the gift card.

Then at Walgreens I bought two, 20 oz, cokes and got a pack of gum for...you guest it...FREE!

4 o'clock rolls around and I have to start heading into work. No traffic on the highway, and I got to work 15 minutes early. To top off my good day I went on my dinner break to the employee cafeteria and found a delicious menu to eat from. There was spinach salad, fresh fruit and vegi burgers...ALL FREE! It just added onto my day of free experiences and my luck kept on coming. Today was such a great day and mostly FREE!

Happy 3rd and 5th of July!

2009-07-06T00:52:00.009-04:00

One of her great aunts gave her this adorable dress with matching hat. I was so glad it fit her to wear for the 4th of July. Kara was decked out in her Red, White and Blue, to her first of two BBQs that weekend.

We first went to a BBQ on Friday the 3rd with Andrews coworkers. It was at Todd and Diann's. Their house was across the river in IL. and down a little road out in the middle of corn fields. They have a big house with a nice size pool in the back where everyone was at for the BBQ. Too bad Kara wasn't just a wee bit older and she could have tried out the pool for the 1st time. There were other kids there slashing and jumping in all night long. Three boys would repeatedly jump off of the diving board, get out of the pool, and jump back in off the diving board. It was fun to watch, they were getting creative with each jump in. But it was also tiring watching them go in and out of the pool, they had so much energy!
Our friend, Jay, who works with Andrew was at the BBQ and held Kara for a while. New best friends, he was so good with holding her, a natural. Baby Kara loves her daddy, Andrew. Everyone got their turn holding her. I also brought along the baby backpack with us. This thing is so handy, to be able to have Kara strapped in and have both hands free. Usually I place her in the baby backpack facing inwards towards me. At the BBQ I tried for a change facing her out to see everyone...she is a little baby still with her head peeking out the top. It was too cute. She was able to look around at everything this way. Later on she fell asleep in the baby backpack, but not for too long, there was too much fun going on to keep her interest at the BBQ. family photo of the three of us at her first BBQ. All that yummy food and she didn't eat any of it, she hadn't started on solid foods yet, just breast feeds.

Once it got dark some of the guys set off fireworks and the load noise startled Kara only twice...the rest of the time she was mesmerized by the pretty colors up in the sky. (photo below, crying from the load startle)When we got home she slept through the WHOLE night! We wore her out. heehee. She didn't wake up until 6:30am AND she slept in her own room that night, I was so proud of her! Kara's first 4th of July on the 3rd.

The second BBQ was on Sunday the 5th of July. We went to our friend, Julies place. A smaller group of people than the 11st BBQ. My friend, Carissa gave her this cute onezie that reads, "baby's 1st fourth" I dressed Kara in that with the hat that was with the dress she had and a pair of jean shorts. She is starting to grow out of her newborn onezies and into her 0-3 month and the 3-6 month clothes. At Julie's BBQ, we ate hot dogs, fruit, Cesar salad, cupcakes... I went there knowing that Kara is 15 weeks old and babies don't really start eating solid foods until one more month or older. We brought along cut up watermelon, and I had a piece on my plate, holding Kara in my lap. I thought I would see if she would like the melon. She loved it! Sucking on the watermelon was the best stuff on earth, it was such a treat for her. I started to take it away and she got a little fussy, telling me to give it back in her baby talk. It was amazing, I put the watermelon back in front of her mouth and she latched on sucking it dry. Everyone was amazed at how much she was enjoying this piece of watermelon. She kept making slurping/sucking noises it was to cute! BIG hit with the watermelon! SHE LOVED IT! Photo below of Kara in my lap, chomping down on the watermelon. MMM good! It almost was a joke, that you have to give her watermelon if you want to hold her... with out the melon she would get fussy. Photo below is Julie with baby Kara and watermelon in hand.

I'll keep an eye on her the next couple of days for any allergic reaction she may have from it. She is sticking to the Breast milk and formula diet. Not going to introduce too much of the solids quite yet. We were just at the BBQ with her and wanted to give her a little treat to enjoy. I hope your 4th of July weekend was as eventful as ours was. We had a blast, times two!

Useless Road Signs

2009-06-27T19:21:00.002-04:00

There are at least three road signs I have seen around town, that are a waist to put up. One is a marquis sign telling people, "Air quality green, breath easy." What? Thanks for letting me know, I don't have to hold my breath any longer. So what will the sign read when or if the air gets to RED? Will it read, "Air quality red, buy an air mask... on sale at Walmart?" Hopefully our air quality doesn't get to Red or what ever color code the worst air quality is. I hope for it to stay "green."

The second sign reads, "Accident reduction zone." Shouldn't ALL areas that people drive in be an accident reduction zone? We as drivers should drive with caution and prevent accidents from happening in the other areas too. Not just that area the sign is posted, for that "zone."

The third sign I saw put up in my area is, "Drug Free Zone." Darn I wanted to deal my drugs on that corner and snort some crack on my lunch break! Where is the Drug Zone then? I'll go there! Silly. Of course that particular area and everywhere else is a "drug free zone" because drugs are illegal and there are not any designated places to do drugs.

Are we seriously spending our tax dollars on new signs stating the obvious and waisting money like this? We need to budget better, we are in a recession and economy is down. The city doesn't have the extra money to post at least 3 new signs up around town. I noticed these three useless signs, there are probably more posted that I don't know about.

Another thing is personalized car plates. The car infront of me this morning reads, "PRPLXD." What does it mean? Purple XD, and it is on a RED car? what is the XD part? There needs to be a bumper sticker decoding liscence plates when they are personalized and don't make sence. It should be a requirement. I don't get 1/2 of the plates I come across sitting in traffic. Some though are very clever!

Choices

2009-06-22T01:33:00.002-04:00

My blogger-friend, Kimber, recently made a post about making choices and how some of those choices are made without a conscious or deliberate analysis. She got the list from a blog friend of hers and now I am choosing from the list of theoretical choices... (in bold)...

Milk chocolate or Dark chocolate
Scotch or Bourbon
Ketchup or Mustard
Ice Cream or Sorbet
Icing or No Icing
Mac or Windows
Pants or Skirt
Long Hair or Short Hair
Breast or Bottle
Ice Cream Soda or New York Egg Cream
Creamy or Chunky
Isle or Window
Smoking or Non-smoking
Plane or Train
White Gold or Yellow Gold
Rocks or Neat
Steam Room or Sauna
Tea or Coffee
Sugar or Splenda
Fiction or Non-fiction
Sleep or Work
Flats or Heals
Meat or No Meat
Sauce or Dry Rub
Automatic or Stick Shift
Bar Soap or Body Wash
Dressed Salad or Dressing on the Side
Driver or Passenger
Seek-n-Find or Crossword
Now or Later
Coke or Pepsi
White Wine or Red Wine
Cranberry Mimosas or Orange Juice Mimosas
Reality TV or Documentary
CNN or BBC
Camping or Lodging
Beaching or Hiking
White or Wheat
Betty or Wilma
Tom or Jerry

I don't know what this says about me in the choices I made or how you will perceive it. Don't read too deeply into some of these. It is just a fun little list of things in life we choose one over the other on. I choose Mustard over Ketchup only because there are so many kinds of mustard and only one kind of ketchup, it is so boring. Mustard is adventurous. My favorite mustard is the kind with the seeds. I choose the wheat over the white, because I never liked how white bread gets stuck to the roof of my mouth. Annoying! Wheat bread is the better choice. Passenger over Driver, I hate driving where I don't know where I am and someone else is giving the directions, I get all turned around. I just want to be the passenger, better yet a passenger sitting in the back of a limo and sipping on my Orange Juice Mimosas, not worrying about how to get from point a to point b...just as long as I get there. I suck at directions and can easily get lost. The train over plane I choose, because I have many fond memories of riding the train to my daddy Kenny's house to visit him for a week at a time and sitting in the viewing car, with the swivel chairs. I miss you dad, and miss my train trips to visiting you.

While on the topic of Choosing and choices...I never liked the phrase, "Beggars can't be choosers..." OK...so beggars can't be choosers, but can choosers choose to beg? I always think of this when some annoying person says that phrase.

BOGUS! Photo contest!

2009-06-14T21:47:00.003-04:00

I submitted a cute baby pic of baby Kara to the "Great American Photo Contest" then I get the email telling me to forward on the link to friends and family members to help vote for Karas picture to win...Well here is the "link to vote" if you want...but I think it is a load of crap?

https://www.greatamericanphotocontest.com/voter1/index_e.aspx?referid=WlcmKobe&p=1527435&x=.jpg

Once you click on the link to vote it wants you to enter in more information and do surveys, or sign up for stuff...What kind of contest is this? Seems like a marketing ploy, to get people to sign up for junk. I was excited to submit a photo and POSSIBLY win a $2,500 savings bond.

THEN on top of the bogus voting part, I also get an email saying that my photo was selected to publish in a photo book of some sort...I can convienantly oder a copy of this published book with my daughters photo entry for a small fee...just fill out the credit card info, etc...NO THANK YOU

I am not going to pay for a photo contest, I should be winning the book with her photo published...another marketing scam.

Nature Kicked My Butt!

2009-06-06T17:31:00.002-04:00

This morning I started the first of 4 exercise classes. The class is called Bikini Boot Camp, with 8 ladies in it. We all meet up at the park, where there are bike/hiking trails, and beautiful scenery. As a group we: hiked up steep hills and down to a flat area to do stretches, walked down 205 steps and back up to an area where we finished up with yoga, for a cool down. It was so rewarding in the end; I was able to physically do the hole routine.

I have not exercised in a whole year basically. I was pregnant most of 2008, but went on walks around the neighborhood...My little 1/2 hour walks around my neighborhood does not compare at all to the walking I did today! WOO! I worked up a sweat, got out of breath, drank my bottled water, etc. It was so rejuvenating. I look forward to next Saturday to do it all over again. The park we hike in is so beautiful, with trees and a lake down below. I might even want to go back on my own with a friend and do some Kayaking in the water there. I will have to look into more info on this park and see if there are rentals available for Kayaking.

All Hail the Gods!

2009-06-02T21:40:00.005-04:00

It hailed this afternoon! Being from California, this is all new to me. Wow! I was looking out at my deck in the back yard and it was pouring rain with thunder and lightning and the trees were blowing all around from the wind. Then the hail became more dominate and there was more hail than rain at one point. Pouring down hail at the size of crushed ice. It was almost as if someone was on my roof throwing over buckets of ice on my deck. CRAZY!

I video taped it on my camera to share with my Cali folks. Those of you who don't really experience hail at all. There was a hail storm about 20 years ago in Morro Bay...but that was only one time and back when I was a kid. Other than that one time, this was a first for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_IYBqAftDw

the link will take you to my home-video of the hail storm that was in my back yard.

Happy Birthday!

2009-06-01T08:33:00.002-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY HUBBY, ANDREW!

Kara is cooing a happy birthday to her daddy! It is the big 3-1, the start of a new decade... one year down 9 more to go until the big 40. eek!?

Google your name game!

2009-06-01T08:25:00.003-04:00

Search your name as "Unfortunately _______" with the quotation marks! Then pick you favorite bits and leave it as a comment on this blog post. I was on Facebook and my friend, Michelle, and Janae did this and there were some doozies out there. Of course my name is not common enough. I did google just my name (Martiel) and found this story line scene from a game or something of the sort. It is so funny. Apparently "Martiel" is a character in a game. read below, from the following site. http://www4.wittenberg.edu/student_organizations/rpguild/2004-fall/vampsgnomes/

"...Four travelers appeared in a city in the middle of a commotion: two children, a boy twin and a girl twin, had disappeared from the local temple, along with a divinely-powered scepter of Pelor. Arturus, Austra, and Zephyr volunteer to look for the children, and they drag Martiel into it kicking and screaming and pulling her hat down over her ears. They are taken out of the village to the dark entrance in the ruins and caves of an underground dungeon. Down there they explore, fight undead and other beasties, see bloody remains of what could be kids, and begin to see a vampire history. They find the coffins of what appear to be a king, queen, and kid vampire, and Martiel takes the king's crown and scepter. Martiel later foolishly tries to do acrobatical feats in the vicinity of a well, down which she looses the crown, scepter, most/all of her worldly possessions (this is hotly debated by Adam and the DM), and nearly herself. "

Too cool.

My Busy Weekend

2009-05-29T23:47:00.003-04:00

It was a three day weekend, but for me being on maternity leave it was not a big deal having 3 days "off." Saturday I went to the Crown Valley Winery for my friends birthdays. We were celebrating for both Janae and Michelle. There was eleven of us, and we all rode down in a 12 passenger van. For $5 you are given 5 tokens, 1 token per wine taste. There is an covered outdoor area with tables set up for groups to gather and a live band playing. We got there early and set up shop, taking up three tables. We each brought food to share and snack on through out the day. I brought cheese cake from the Cheesecake Factory. It was three flavors and 12 slices to use for their birthday celebration. I stuck two birthday candles in the cheesecake for Michelle and Janae to blow out. We were at the Winery from 11am to about 4:30 or 5pm.

At the end of the day we headed back to Michelle's folks house (where all our cars were). Two of the guys that went with us were gay, so later that evening they wanted us to go to a gay bar. Some of us dragged out feet and were trying to think of other places we could go. I checked in with Andrew to see how he was doing with watching Baby Kara. He was having a fine time with Kara and encouraged me to stay out with them if I wanted to go. He was in no hurry for me to get home, and wanted me to enjoy my day out. I told the group I was up for going to the gay bar and would drive since I wasn't drinking any longer. We took two cars and headed down there. It was a biker type gay bar, the guys were all wearing leather stuff and some were not wearing T-shirts. For the guys going shirtless they should rethink that, they either had hairy chests or beer bellies...not so hot. This was a different crowd of gays than I was use too. I thought most gay guys were smokin hot and well groomed type and not so "Butch?" It was still fun going there and dancing, but it was a long day after going to the Winery and going there later. I ended up getting home at 2 AM! I had no idea I was going to be gone ALL day long like that.

Sunday was a bit sadder, I went to a funeral for my friend's Grandpa. He was 88 and lived a long loving life. I went to the funeral at the cemetery and to the wake afterwards at my friends folks house. Andrew stayed at home to watch Kara. This time I was only gone a few hours, from 1-5 pm.

Monday, Andrew was off work being the holiday. We were able to hang out and go on a date even! We dropped Kara off at our friends house and went to lunch and a movie. Lunch was a restaurant where we know the head chef and he said lunch was on him, we even got a Banana Split to share for free. It was so nice of him to do that. Then we were off to the movies. I had 2 free movie tickets to use up. We saw the Terminator movie. The whole date was for free, even our sitter for Kara was free. My friend and I swapped babysitting for each other. Back on Friday night I went to their house to watch her 2 kids, and then she watched Kara for us.

It was a good three day weekend aside from having to go to a funeral.

Kara pics! 2 Months

2009-05-22T08:52:00.006-04:00

Kara turns 2 months old this Saturday, the 23rd! Here are some recent pics of her.

Andrew's great cousin, Dianna, made this baby blanket for her!

Andrew picked out Blue's Clues (kids show) for her to watch while she swings in her chair.

I've got my hands full, Kara fell asleep on my shoulder.
Bath time in the kitchen sink!

She grins and coos durring bath time.

She is doing her tummy time! prepping to crawl.

I call this pic of Kara, "Doing the Matrix" pose. Like in the movie, Matrix, Keano Reeves makes this same pose, but floating in the air.

Kara came along to my Doctors appointment for my 6 week check up after giving birth. Kara is 6 weeks old here, with my wonderful Doctor.

Sneaky Retail Sale!

2009-05-22T08:13:00.006-04:00

I'm onto you, Carters Store! The Sale at Carters is not realy a sale from how I understand it? At Carters (baby clothes store) the following sale is going on:

http://view.exacttarget.com/?j=fe7116707564047c7311&m=fefe1671706100&ls=fdf4137371650c7471127175&l=fe5e15757364027e7211&s=fdf7157575660179711c7472&jb=ffcf14&ju=fe30167377660079771c74

"gift checks are back! get a $10 gift check for every $25 you spend
now through june 14, 2009. redeemable june 15-july 4, 2009 on purchases of $35 or more." -Carter's

A consumer gets $10 coupon/check AFTER spending $25. Uses that $10 on a next purchase ONLY if you spend $35. So in the end you end up spending $50 to "save" $10? And probably spend actually more than the $50 in the end. Bogus!

Kara isn't 6 months?

2009-05-19T13:56:00.002-04:00

OH MY GOSH! What a horrible thought. I was on a parenting sight that I have not gone on in a while. There was a login part and I didn't know my password, then logged in with the given password that was emailed to me. I looked at my profile on the site and it reads: "Your baby is 6 months, is she crawling yet?" I thought... Kara is not 6 months? she will be turning 2 months this Saturday... THEN I remembered. The baby we miscarried earlier in the year before becoming pregnant with Kara would be 6 months if she/he was born. If this was not sad enough already, I then go to edit my personal information on my website profile. I added Kara on there as a child and it lists the "other" baby as a child with a box marked "remove child." I had to click the box and hit submit! So hard to do! But in a way I have totally stopped thinking of this other baby that we never had, and have been so blessed with Baby Kara (our live and well, 2 month old), that it never even occured to me, that the other baby would be 6 months old. Man, this sucks.

Mrs. _(insert name)_ Butterworth

2009-05-11T12:57:00.005-04:00

There is a contest online to guess what Mrs. Butterworth's first name is. Have you ever wondered what her name is? I didn't even know one existed...A syrup bottle with a first name? hmmm. The winner to guess the syrup bottles first name, wins a supply of syrup and $500.

Here is my thought process on figuring out her 1st name:

I believe Mrs. Butterworth's first name has to start with M being that the initials MB are on the bottle. She also is an older lady, from 40 years ago, so her name is of an old, grandma type name. I am guessing something along the lines of: Margaret, Mildred, Mary, or Magda. I am picking Margaret as her first name because it sounds like a kind, old, grandma. It is how I think of her to be, from looking at her and hearing her voice on the commercials. With Margaret as her first name, she could be nick-named Maggie, or Mag. Margaret Butterworth... mystery solved?

Click the link to enter... I already submitted Margaret! pick a different answer for yours.
www.mrsbutterworthsyrup.com/namecontest

I made M.O.Y.

2009-05-10T20:27:00.002-04:00

http://news.cnnbcvideo.com/?nid=LqNvfqD7i_Yty_lJfkGDiTQ4OTk2NjE-&referred_by=16536306-J9cc_fx&p=moveon

see the link to view my recognition on the news!

Martiel Hay ~ Mother of the year 2009

Cute Kara Pics

2009-05-07T15:41:00.004-04:00

Here are some pics of Kara to share. She is 6 wks old now.

pinkie size comparisons. 6wk old baby pinkie vs. 30 yr old pinkie.

A coworker of Andrew's gave Kara this handmade, pink hat along with a matching pink, blanket and booties. His wife made the complete set. I tried the hat on Kara to take her by my work for my coworkers to meet her. She looks like a little gangster, or diva all dressed up in her big hat and big pants. The pants are newborn size, but they will fit her well into the 3 month size, they're so big.

This baby swing I bought from Goodwill for $25...score! It keeps her occupied while I cook dinner or take the dishes out of the dishwasher, etc.
Duke is cuddling below by Kara's swing. They are best friends.

I just changed her poopoo explosion, and now she is a happy baby! ;)

Every day she works on her "tummy time" leaning over the boppy pillow. It helps prep her for crawling and she strengthens her neck and legs. She was on there a little too long, and fell asleep. So cute!

My brother, Robert, was visiting us at our house for the week, along with my mom and dad. He is such a good Uncle to baby Kara. I almost got him to change a diaper, but suckered me into doing it, by asking me to show him how to...sneaky bro!

free KFC from Oprah

2009-05-05T18:31:00.002-04:00

Print out your limited yime coupon from this link: http://www.unthinkfc.com/

good for one complete meal at KFC till the 19th, excludes mother's day the 10th. print up to 4 coupons and redeem. Thanks for the hook up Oprah!

Home cooked meals and family time

2009-05-05T17:12:00.004-04:00

Now that we are a family of 3, I am more inspired to cook at home and have dinner ready when Andrew gets home. It is sort of June Cleaver of me, I even vacuumed yesterday... Usually I put it off or wait for Andrew to vacuum. It was so simple and didn't take long; I don't know why I always procrastinated with vacuuming before? Silly.

When my family was in town visiting, they got me into cooking dinner and making easy to do meals at home. My dad showed me an easy recipe for Pork chops and I am going to make them again tonight.

Here is the pork chop recipe:
Serves 5-6 people

need:
pork chops cut into 2" chunks
jar of Prego spaghetti sauce
onion sliced up
apple sliced into wedges
dash salt
carrots chopped
provolone cheese
casserole dish
foil to cover

350 degrees 45 minutes cooking time,
dish up over pasta and serve with some garlic bread.

In the casserole dish place the pork chop chunks, onions sliced, apple wedges, carrots. Pour the whole jar of spaghetti sauce over everything. Top off with sliced (provolone) cheese about 4 or 5 to make a top layer. Cover the dish with foil and cook for 45 minutes.

Presto! Easy dinner!

Baby Kara is a Month Old!

2009-04-29T17:36:00.004-04:00

Kara Audrey was born March 23, 2009 and is a bundle of joy. She is such a happy baby, sleeping up to 4-5 hrs at night. She is going on 5 weeks old now! When she was born she weighed 7 lb 13 oz. and currently she is 9 lb 7 oz. When I walk up to her or start talking she recognizes that it is her mommy near by and she looks over at me, she knows who I am and gets alert and smiles. My mom, dad and brother were just visiting for the week and left to fly back to CA this afternoon. It was such a nice visit, having them all here to help out with caring for baby Kara.

Last week, Andrews Grandma fell down and went to the hospital and then to a hospice, where people took care of her as she slowly passed away. Grandma Thelma was 90 years old. It was a turn for the worse. Family were, in Long Beach, visiting with her on her last couple of days and there to support Grandpa and my father in law, Bob. My family flew in Thursday, late at night, and all of this on the side line was going on with Andrew's Grandma at the same time. Andrew decided to fly out, the following Saturday, to be in Long Beach with his Grandma and family.

We all went to the St. Louis Airport Saturday morning to drop him off and then spent the week here at the house with out Andrew. Too bad, they came out here to see us and the baby and he had to fly off to CA. In a way though, it was good timing. I couldn't go on the flight with a one month old baby and had to stay behind in MO. I would have been at home with the baby all alone for the whole week that Andrew was gone. Having my folks in town visiting worked out, that they were here to help me with the baby while he was away. They just flew back home today (Wed) and Andrew will fly back home tomorrow (Thursday). I will just have the one night to myself with baby Kara. She is napping right now, and I have a short amount of time to catch up on my BLOG! I have neglected my blog lately, and have not posted anything since she has been born. Sorry blog readers for not getting around to the blog. Kara comes first. ;)

Here is a photo of Andrew with his Grandma visiting them back in the fall of 2006. A photo of Grandma last Thanksgiving 2008. We went to visit her and grandpa in Long Beach.

This blog post was a downer...I am sad to see Grandma pass away; but relieved she will not be suffering any longer, and no longer in any pain. Grandpa Gordon is 94 and on his own now, I don't know how he will adapt to Grandma being gone? He has been taking care of her and they have lived in the same house in Long Beach for decades. Now the house is empty with out her and will just be him and thier dog, Lucy. I wish I could be in California right now to be there with the family and be able to give Grandpa a big hug and sit with him and be there to help out. I am land locked to Missouri and it sucks! It is just Kara and I now, waiting for daddy Andrew to come back home. We miss daddy and look forward to Thursday, when we pick him up at the airport. :)