moonlit-butterflies.net

Single Mom-ing It

2010-03-23T08:52:00.003-04:00

So over the past few days I've lucked out and been able to talk to Ryan on the phone a couple of times for a while. Which was definitely nice. We're both tired of being separated by these field ops. Deployments we expected, but it feels like even when he's home he's not really home. He's tossing around a lot of other options. Changing MOS. Changing branches. Getting out. None of which are set in stone because for pretty much every other Marine out there re-enlisting or not is a decision that's never really made until the last minute. His mind will change a dozen or more times between now and his EAS in 2012. He'll probably have at least one more deployment before that and God knows how many field ops.

Just thinking about all of the stuff I have to do by myself while he's gone now that Anya is here causes me to break out in epic proportions. (At least I don't need an eczema treatment, but sheesh.) She is a handful when I'm on my own. Even though I'm staying with my family right now they don't really know Anya's cries and needs as well as Ryan and I do. So I have to dictate what needs to happen a lot which pretty much eliminates the point of having help. Though it's still nice to have extra pairs of hands to occupy her when I need a minute to get something accomplished. Right now she has finally fallen asleep for her morning nap in the bouncy seat so I should probably hit the shower while the getting is good.

Behind the Scenes

2010-03-18T22:05:00.004-04:00

Apparently Anya and I brought our stomach bug to everyone else. My family has spent the past week taking turns being ill. For a moment I was afraid it was a different stain, and that I would be taking Anya back to the pediatrician. Thank goodness we aren't set in something like a Blue Cross NC health plan. Thanks to the Marine Corps I would be able to take her in to her old pediatrician here in Tennessee just as easily as I could in Jacksonville and still be covered by our insurance to the same extent. Pretty much hassle free. Awesomeness. Everyone finally seems to be getting back to normal around here now so hopefully everything has blown over.

I've got a long term blog fix in the works. My domain is being transferred over the next few days so if at some point things kind of drop off the face of the Internet don't be alarmed. I'll get it all back up and running as soon as possible. I'll probably just use a WordPress template and upload my existing Blogger entries to get things running smoothly again. Then I'll worry about making my own design and the extra pages. Until then this site should stay functioning while the transfer is still pending. I also have a 10 page research paper I'm trying to write before the end of next week that I haven't even started so I have to prioritize a little. When it rains it pours when it comes to stressful, time sensitive matters in my life. Heh. On the bright side of things, I was able to talk to Ryan today for more than 2.5 seconds. Our communication has mostly been sporadic text messages and few really short phone calls so to be able to actually have an entire conversation was nice. Back to the usual until he gets home in a little over a week. I miss him so much. How did I ever get through that 7 month deployment with next to no communication?

Of PHP and a Haircut

2010-03-17T19:40:00.003-04:00

I'm still trying to decide what to do for a long term fix regarding the Blogger completely screwing me over issue. I've basically come to terms with the fact that I'm going to have to get a host that allows PHP so that I can figure out and use WordPress from now on. Only one problem: this domain is registered through my current host...until July 2011. Not to mention I've already paid for all of my hosting through then. I figured I would be out the money at this point, but I really don't want to give up moonlit-butterflies.net. I'm sentimental about it. It had certain meanings when it was created, but now that meaning is something entirely different. It reminds me of the poem I wrote about feeling like a moth envying the butterflies until Ryan came along. Moonlit butterflies almost sounds like another name for moth; a more poetic one perhaps. I don't want to lose that connection to my website so I'm hoping to find a host that will let me transfer my domain or something. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I really hate to leave my current host as they have been very good to me since...oh...the 6th grade. But their lack of support for PHP has finally become a brick wall in my desire to have a functioning blog.

In other news I finally got a haircut. The stylist curled my hair a bit for fun so I'll probably never get it to look like this again on my own, but here's what I'm rocking right now. I guess we'll see how it really looks when I have to figure it out on my own tomorrow.

Quick Update

2010-03-11T22:31:00.003-05:00

Figured I should blog instead of continuing to drool over Christian Louboutin shoes. I need more shoes like I need another baby right now. (Meaning, I don't need either one at all.) Anya and I made it to Tennessee in one piece in eight hours with only one 30 minute stop about halfway here to feed her, change her, take myself and the dog to the bathroom, top off the gas tank, and pick up some food for myself. Considering it's the first time I've ever driven an extensive distance, or on the interstate at all for that matter, I've feeling pretty good about it. Now I'm just hoping to enjoy some time hanging around with my family and getting a break from Anya now and then that I would not usually get if I staid home while Ryan was away on this field op.

And in case you were wondering, we're all feeling a lot better. Ryan texted me this morning to let me know he was feeling pretty good, and Anya and I are both doing fine today. I'm eating regularly and all that jazz. Anya still seems a bit sluggish and wary to eat very much formula, but I'm sure a 24 hour bug takes a much bigger toll on such a tiny 5 month old versus Ryan and myself. But to ensure it doesn't come back to bite me, I'm going to call it a night. Oh, and Happy Birthday to me!

The Verdict

2010-03-10T22:04:00.002-05:00

It's a stomach bug. That we're all sharing. Hopefully the worst is over because I will never need to read another phosphacore review for weight loss if I continue to be ill the way I was last night. Ugh. The good news is I finally felt hungry enough to eat real food for dinner. And so far I've kept it down. Anya seems to have stopped throwing up. I've been giving her Pedialyte in her bottles as her doctor ordered. She took a long nap right before bed, and she's been so pitiful today that I didn't have the heart to wake her so she went to bed a little late.

Hopefully I can finally get out of here tomorrow and head home for Tennessee. I'm getting really tired of postponing this trip. Now instead of spending the whole week there I will be spending my birthday driving the eight hours on the interstate to get there before dark tomorrow night. Hopefully Anya cooperates. She slept the whole way there at Thanksgiving, but she was a much younger baby that slept anytime she hit the car seat. Now she gets ticked off in the car seat more than she sleeps in it. Or so it seems. We shall see. Must go pack up some last minute things if I hope to get out of here at a decent hour tomorrow.

At the Pediatric Clinic

2010-03-10T14:30:00.001-05:00

I'm typing this on my iPod touch. Thinking maybe I can get a little more blogging done if I use the Notes feature to write on the go. I'm waiting at Anya's pediatric clinic to be seen for what I think is a viral bug or the flu. Ryan and I have it, too. Ryan texted me last night to let me know that he'd been throwing up since lunch, and he's still feeling it today. I went to bed early feeling a little off but hoping to get an early start toward Tennessee this morning. I ended up waking up abruptly around 11:30 to be sick in the bed because there was no way to make it to the bathroom in time. It was bad but having to clean it up myself since Ryan is in the field was even worse. I spent a good portion of the evening running back and forth to the bathroom before crashing out around 2AM. (With the way my body was cleaning itself out, I will never need anything like colon cleansing pills.) I woke up a few times after that to tend to Anya who started throwing up around 5:30. I still feel a touch off, but overall I feel way better than I did. Anya on the other hand is not taking much formula and has thrown most of what she did take up already.

I brought her to pediatrician before her scheduled appointment because her behavior worried me. She was so pitiful. She was sitting up on the couch with her blanket, and then she would just slouch over onto her side and would be laying on the couch in the sitting position with her eyes half closed while she let out a half-hearted whine. The most ridiculously pitiful thing I have seen in my life. Ever. Hands down. I felt so bad for her. But hopefully I can get her in to see the doctor soon and have some sort of solution. Though I have a feeling this is just a 24 to 48 hour thing that we'll all have to ride out. Regardless I really want to try and head for Tennessee tomorrow because putting it off is starting to get old. Bring on the eight hours of interstate driving!

Quick Fix

2010-03-09T16:37:00.002-05:00

Speaking of needing a cure for adult acne, I finally had to do something to save my blogging ability in the short term. My blogging service (blogger.com) has decided they will no longer support FTP. What that means is I cannot publish my blog to moonlit-butterflies.net which is hosted by an outside source. I instead have to publish to a blogger address. In order to keep m-b.net functioning as it currently is without a complete renovation I decided the easiest solution would be to transfer my blog back to my blogger address (rabidcaribou.blogspot.com) and then embed it into the already designed index page of m-b.net via iframe to look pretty much exactly the same as it did when the entire page was designed and hosted on blogger while being published via FTP to this address. There are a couple of problems with this that will surely get annoying in the long term, however.

First, the blogger navigation bar at the top of the blog area is cut off in the iframe and is ugly regardless. It completely ruins the flow of the overall page which irritates me endlessly. But I'm willing to overlook it for now to keep my blog functioning so bear with me on that one. Second, the comment page will appear in the iframe and, therefore, also be cut off making it difficult to read what you are typing. Enough of the comment box and the submit button show to be able to utilize it when you wish to leave a comment though it may not be the most convenient comment system in the world at the moment. I'm hoping you will be able to make do with those issues for now as I really don't have time to figure out a better solution. I thought of using WordPress, but my current host (homestead.com) does not support PHP and is often tricky with FTP. I love my host as I have been with them since they were a free option back when I started tinkering around with web design and blogging in middle school. And they have never raised my subscription fee due to being a loyal, longstanding customer. So for now this is my best option. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to comment in my sad excuse for a comment box.

Heading Home

2010-03-09T13:15:00.005-05:00

I had to take Anya in to the sick clinic today to get her reflux prescription dosage increased since it wasn't done at her 4 month physical. The well clinic does physicals only. So here's hoping Anya doesn't get ill from all of the children in the waiting room who actually had something contagious. I think it was pretty much the dumbest thing in the world to have someone take their otherwise perfectly healthy child into a disease infested area for a reflux prescription. And then when I finally got out of there - two hours after my appointment time - the doctor had given me the exact same prescription I already had. He thought Anya was on less than she actually is so now I'm still in the same boat on her dosage but out two hours of my time and could possibly end up with a sick child. Ridiculous. The well clinic is amazing, but I am not impressed with the sick clinic in the least and will be complaining at Anya's next visit for her 6 month physical at the well clinic. Seriously, the stress of it all has me investigating adult acne treatments for all the breakouts I keep having.

I was hoping to be headed home to Tennessee this morning but chose to wait until tomorrow so that I could get this appointment taken care of, and now I just feel like it was a waste of my time. I could have been over halfway there by now. But instead I'm going to spend today packing and getting the apartment set for my absence. Ryan left this morning for a three week field op. My birthday is on Thursday, and I thought it was a pretty good excuse to take Anya and myself home rather than sit here cooped up in the apartment 24/7 moping about being alone on my birthday with little communication from Ryan. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and getting out of this apartment for a while.

That's the one thing about being a stay-at-home mom and online student that grates after a while. I feel so trapped and isolated. I try to get out with other Marine wives from time to time, but everyone has a lot of the same issues with sharing a car or wanting to be home when their spouse is that getting a substantial amount of time with any one person to build a solid friendship with is next to impossible. So I get pretty lonely when Ryan is at work, especially on these overnight field ops that can last for weeks. Heh. I'm glad to be heading out tomorrow. But I am dreading tying to fit all of Anya's contraptions into my car. We're going to be like Sardines in there. And by we I mean myself, Anya, and Kieran. Should be interesting trying to keep a baby fed and changed, take myself to bathroom and get food, and take the dog to the bathroom all by myself on an eight hour road trip. But I have faith that I can manage. I have birthed a baby. I figure after that I can do just about anything.

Happy Early Birthday from Ryan

2010-03-05T13:40:00.002-05:00

Ryan walked in the door last night bringing nicely wrapped gifts, a balloon, and a mushy card.

One of the gifts turned out to be a nifty digital photo frame. I've eyed them for years but never wanted to drop the cash. The other gift turned out to be an iPod touch! I wasn't expecting it at all. It holds fewer GB than my current iPod, but all of the apps and WiFi access make it an entirely differently electronic accessory.

Busy Busy Busy

2010-03-04T17:05:00.003-05:00

Anya has kept me hopping today. She isn't really cranky, per say, she just can't seem to figure out what it is she wants. Something only keeps her happy for about five minutes before I have to do something else entirely with her. She's always bored quickly, but usually you can get a good half an hour to an hour of entertainment out of one thing before she forces you to change it up. Maybe she's finally going to cut that first tooth after almost two months of gum pain. Or maybe she's growing. Or maybe I need to call about having her reflux medication dosage increased. Considering how much she's been spitting up the last few days I'll probably take care of that last possibility tomorrow regardless.

I was hoping to fit in a workout today and maybe get myself back into the swing of things to lose weight fast with the '30 Day Shred'. But, alas, I still haven't done so. Between Anya, housework, homework, and good old procrastination I just can't bring myself to squeeze it in. Heh. I need to get a jogging stroller so I can make Anya part of a daily walk/run routine. I was doing really well with that while I was pregnant and enjoyed that time each evening. I felt a lot better. Trying to fit in a DVD workout around a finicky baby is not quite so enjoyable. I usually try to fit in homework, housework, or - call me crazy - a shower when she's finally entertained or napping for more than five seconds. So, yes, a jogging stroller. That's what I need to talk Ryan into buying. Looks like my dream date with the Dyson will have to wait. I need to be fit before we're introduced anyway. Wouldn't want to give a disappointing first impression with my sad excuse for a stomach and thighs. I disgust myself some days. Wouldn't want my first date with the Dyson to be the last after forking out all that cash.

Vacuum Envy

2010-03-03T21:13:00.006-05:00

Ryan's car broke today. Again. It's starting to fall apart one piece at a time. (Or maybe 1,573.87 pieces at a time. That's how it kind of feels.) So it's stuck on base where I had to drive this evening in rush hour traffic to pick Ryan up from work. We're in the process of figuring out where to have it towed to get it fixed and who to get to tow it. Since when we were looking for an auto insurance quote we didn't even consider roadside assistance, we for sure do not have it on our policy. So who knows how much this mess is going to cost us. Guess that's what we get for procrastinating on fixing something we knew was a problem and just hoped to milk a little bit longer before dealing with. That's about how our lives work.

It's kind of like our vacuum cleaner. Ryan did the vacuuming for me one day and got something he shouldn't have that has broken the main part of our vacuum. The extensions all work fine, but the vacuum itself does not pick up anything that is on the carpet. And it's really annoying since we have a dog that sheds 1,297,682,196.25 hairs a day. And that's not considering how much I shed. I probably put Kieran to shame on a good day. So I've been trying to convince Ryan that we need a new vacuum, a nicer vacuum. Like that new Dyson Ball that looks like it makes cleaning smaller spaces with lots of angles (*ahem*Like maybe an apartment crowded with baby related contraptions.*ahem*) a dream come true for a neat freak like myself.

But it costs $400 or something crazy so Ryan about had a brain anneurism right then and there when I finally admitted the cost. And yet he'll lay down $60 to $70 for one video game and want another one a week later. Of course, I don't always let that fly either so I suppose it's all fair in love and war. Maybe I just need to start saving my measly paid blogging revenue for that vacuum cleaner. That could take a while, though. Like a couple of years. We'll all be swimming in Kieran fur by then. Literally. Anya will be eating it for a snack. Because there will be nothing I can do to stop her due to the sheer volume of it all. Guess it's time to break out the screwdrivers and let Ryan attempt to fix the cheap, broken vacuum that we have. Darn.

Pacifier Blues

2010-02-26T20:28:00.004-05:00

So I know I've whined and complained over and over again about how much it just plain sucks to get up almost every hour some nights to replace Anya's pacifier. Seriously. It's bad. We've been doing it for over a month now since the pacifier dependency reared its ugly head at the end of a week of growth spurt induced night feedings. We were grasping at straws for anything but feeding her in the middle of the night when we figured out that she was only doing it to be soothed by the suckling. So we turned to the pacifier. And then somewhere along the line it changed from a once a night if at all thing to an OMG I NEED THE PACIFIER RIGHT NOW OR I MIGHT DIE once an hour or more thing. And it is getting old really, really fast. We know she's capable of sleeping through the night. She no longer gets a night bottle beyond bed time. She doesn't need anything until 11 to 12 hours after we first put her down for the night. We know she's capable of sleeping that entire time. Somewhere during the battle for our sleep we allowed her to depend on her pacifier way too much when she was already doing so well at self-soothing in the middle of the night aside from the occasional night feeding. We would have been better off weaning her from the random night feeding than what we are facing now.

Because we are tired of getting up all night long and essentially feeling like we didn't really get any sleep on an almost daily basis when we should be sleeping like babies (Pun totally intended.) through the night, we are taking away the pacifier. Starting tonight. Cold turkey. Aside from social situations. Because if she freaks out in the middle of dinner at a restaurant we really don't want to inconvenience everyone else with out screaming child. She's already stopped wanting it in the car. And she rarely takes it during the day aside from the occasional fussy spell and nap time. She actually spends more time taking it out to chew on the handle than she spends suckling the pacifier the way it was intended to be used. Getting her to fall asleep initially isn't going to be that bad. It's the getting her to stay asleep that is going to be a challenge. She needs to learn self-soothing all over again. And I have a feeling we'll be the ones needing soothing by the time this is all over. From what I've learned from other mothers that took away pacifiers at this age, it should take a week or less for her to get over it. But this is going to be one long week.

I'm actually a little sad about this transition. Sure, we're doing it sooner than a lot of parents so I suppose that's our own fault, but I got a bit teary eyed thinking about the fact that I won't really get to see her suckle on the cute pink flowered pacifier that I love to see her with so much. Except maybe in those social situations that require it. And we hope to break her of those next month when instead of buying the next stage of pacifiers for 6+ months we're just going to pack away the last remaining pacifiers we're keeping in the diaper bag for the time being. I've gotten a range of opinions on taking away her pacifiers this early. Some people say it's easier than waiting as far as the fight she'll put up, and others say it's selfish because babies need to suckle. But she has already gotten to the point where a pacifier does not satisfy her during the day for entertainment or soothing more often than not so I know she doesn't need it at night. She wants it. For comfort. When, at this point, she should know how to self-soothe in the middle of the night. And I know myself enough to know that if I give it to her to fall asleep with, I'll keep giving it back to her in the middle of the night. So they're going away. Just a couple are going in the diaper bag for use outside of the apartment. And next month those will also be gone.

I'm dreading nap time more than bed time. I think she'll get over it a lot faster when it's dark outside and all of her other bed time cues such as her womb bear and fan for white noise are in full swing. During the day at nap time if she wakes up wanting her pacifier she wakes herself all the way up so that there is nothing you can do but try to give her the pacifier before she realizes she's awake and it's day outside. I'm going to have to pull some strength from that part of me that survived pregnancy and childbirth without my husband being physically present to tackle nap time while Ryan's at work next week. It's going to be a full out war between Anya and I. And to be honest, I'm not entirely sure who's going to win. Ryan could come home one afternoon to find that Anya has me in a chokehold. Try getting that image out of your head. I'll be imagining it all week.

She rolls...and takes her pacifier out incessantly.

2010-02-25T20:28:00.003-05:00

Baby Giggles

2010-02-23T20:22:00.002-05:00

Anya discovered how to roll over on Friday. Now she won't stop doing it. I can only imagine what this means for me when she learns to crawl. And walk. And run. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. But the cuteness is totally worth it. Especially since I've been on my own since yesterday morning when Ryan left for a field exercise that he won't be returning from until at least tomorrow night. But Anya has behaved beautifully considering how horribly bad it could be if she had been in a bad mood for any length of time over the past couple of days. The only problem I had was last night when I'm pretty sure she wanted her pacifier back at least once an hour. It was ridiculous. The extra thick curtains I bought for her window keep her from waking up until around 8AM, but custom blinds can't magically keep her from wanting her pacifier at 3AM. Jury's still out on how to solve this particular problem so that we can sleep through the night as we should already be seeing as Anya hasn't had a night feeding in months. But we survive it because in the morning, we get to see this:

My Insecurities Laugh at Me

2010-02-20T22:22:00.002-05:00

All the pizza I ate today makes me with I actually thought diet supplements worked. But I know better. I need to start hitting the 30 Day Shred again soon. I was out of commission for a while after jamming my wrist in my dog chase related fall a few weeks ago. But I'm finally back up to about 98% usability. If I lift something at the the wrong angle I get an echo of a twinge and have to take it easy for a few minutes. The push up segment might be a little iffy, but I'm so tired of being gross. The baby weight must go, or I will lose my mind to all the insecurity based thoughts running through my mind every time I get dressed and look in the mirror. I must get motivated. Ryan's going to be going on a 30 day field exercise in the near future so getting started soon so that I can be working on that while he's gone would be pretty awesome. That way he'll notice the change even more so than if he were here every day. I want to surprise him with my motivation to get in shape because he knows how lazy I am about it most of the time.

And I know some people look at the 10 pounds of baby weight and the other 10 pounds of bleh I had before the pregnancy and laugh, but for me it is a lot. This is the most I have weighed in my life, and I didn't like what I weighed before so I'm really feeling it. I'm a very insecure person when it comes to my looks. I mean, I was told I was hot in high school as a joke right before they laughed in my face and walked back to their group of laughing friends. That breeds problems in a girl's self-esteem, and I was already fighting an uphill battle before all the jerks of my teenage years walked in and out of my life laughing at me. And I'm not looking for pity here, I'm just explaining why I've spent a lot of time mentioning things related to my looks on this blog. It's a touchy subject for me, and poor Ryan spends a lot of his time giving me as much reassurance as he can. But I know the only way I can make myself feel better is to know I'm doing what needs to be done to look decent and be in shape. So I'm working on that.

Fussy McFusserson

2010-02-20T20:02:00.002-05:00

After all that cuteness this week, Anya decided today was a good day to be fussy and mess up her whole schedule. She just woke up from a nap in time for her bath and bedtime so here's hoping she actually sleeps through the night until her usual wake up time. At least she's finally stopped eating her bottles irregularly causing many wasted ounces and extra bottle making to compensate for it. Ugh. That was annoying.

More later. I have to go help Ryan finish bathing Fussy McFusserson.

...

Is any one else extremely curious as to what no xplode could be?

Baby Nightmares

2010-02-18T16:29:00.004-05:00

I cooked dinner for the first time in over a week last night, and I'm going to need fat burners for women to help rid of all that spaghetti I gorged myself on. I make some good spaghetti, if I do say so myself. Which I do. Tonight Ryan has to inspect rooms at the barracks after the single guys finish cleaning, and we've kind of formed an unofficial routine that he brings dinner home from somewhere since it's almost Anya's bath time by the time he gets home. So we have to eat quickly, and I usually don't have the ability to cook efficiently while being the only one home to care for Anya when I could just wait for Ryan to get home and help. I've made it work before, but I think we've both grown to like our new Thursday night routine because it's easier for me, quicker for both of us before Anya's night time routine begins, and super tasty to get food from out in town without the hassle of packing Anya up to go eat in the restaurant.

I'm getting homework under control better. I'm actually getting ahead a little bit aside from assignments that get released on a weekly basis. But I try to get things done as they are assigned which keeps me from getting stressed about due dates so much. Right now the things on my agenda aren't due until next Wednesday and Thursday, and I should have them done before the weekend. Which is awesome. It's nice to be able to watch a TV show or read blogs without feeling guilty about homework I haven't done that's due that day or the next. It also makes me feel less stressed about housework because I have more time to get whatever chore I've assigned myself for the day done without worrying about the homework I need to get to. I definitely feel a lift in the weight of stress just by having myself spend a few days getting ahead last week.

Anya has been the cutest of the cute the past couple of days now that her cold has all but dissipated, and the irritability caused by her shots on Monday has gone away. She's been laughing and smiling at me all day and taking her naps like a champ almost immediately after I put her down with no fuss. Last night was a different story. She freaked out at 5:30AM, and it took fifteen minutes of shushing and pacifier replacing before she stopped thrashing and dozed back off until her usual wake up time of 8:30AM when she usually rolls right back over even if she does wake up for her pacifier. It was weird. Maybe she had a bad dream? The way she thrashed without really totally waking up makes me think something along those lines. She wasn't asking for food because nothing would have gotten her to stop if that was the case. She "wakes up" into a thrashing daze like that from time to time screaming her head off like she's afraid of something or something startled her. Do babies have nightmares?

Giving Makeup Another Chance

2010-02-16T11:45:00.004-05:00

I've been experimenting with makeup to see if I can ever get it right, and I think I like this look. I used an eyeshadow kit by Almay that is made for green eyes with accompanying eyeliner and mascara. I like this neutral daytime look so much I'm thinking about picking up the more metallic daytime look and the very purple nighttime look to try out. I picked up some fair mineral powder foundation and blush that don't make me feel like I'm wearing a cake on my face, and I discovered this neutral lipstick in my stash though I probably need to buy something new in a similar shade because there is no telling how long I've had this particular tube of lipstick. Now if only weight loss products actually worked as well as they were advertised like this makeup specifically for those of us with green eyes does. It's pretty awesome. And it tells you where to put each shade which helped a lot because I had no idea what I was doing. I've never really learned the proper techniques for applying makeup or what shades and applications would work for me. I think I'm finally getting somewhere. Next up: doing something with this mess that I call my hair that involves a cut and maybe some color...

4 Months Old

2010-02-15T20:06:00.005-05:00

Anya turned 4 months old on the 6th, but she had her appointment with the doctor today. She did very well. She cried when they pricked her heel for blood and gave her shots, but as soon as they were done and I picked her up she was fine. And she giggled at the doctor who examined her. Sometimes she frustrates me, but overall she is a well behaved baby compared to some of the others I've seen in that office. Even some of the toddlers and children behave worse than Anya, and she has next to no self control compared to them. I just sit there in disbelief at what some parents let their children do in public. And then I look at Anya and tell her it's not allowed. Haha. Maybe the message will sink in by the time she's their age.

Anywho, she's in the 25th percentile for her weight still at 13 pounds. But she's average in height now in the 50th percentile at 24 1/2 inches long. So maybe she didn't inherit my shortness after all. Maybe she'll be a more average height. But she's still petite in overall size so we'll just have to wait and see if one catches up with the other or not. Whatever the case I'm not worried as long as she's healthy. And she got a perfect bill of health today aside from the small cold she's had for a week. The sniffles and runny nose have pretty much dissipated, but she's still got a bit of a rattly cough like she's a little congested. I've had the same thing so I'm not going to worry unless she starts running a fever which hasn't been the case so far. And at this point a fever could just be a slight reaction to one of the vaccines she received today. Though she's never had a reaction to anything so far. She's pretty awesome like that.

And now I will leave you with some photos from Ryan's cell phone that I discovered and sent to myself the other night. These are some real gems so enjoy. (Though the ones with me at Christmas make me want to search for the best weight loss product pronto. The baby weight just won't budge!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T20:54:00.006-05:00

On this day last year, two pink lines were the center of my attention. Two pink lines that have since turned into something pretty adorable albeit time consuming that makes my heart melt and my brain explode all in one day's work. Something that does cute things kind of like this:

And you can't forget the cuteness emanating here:

This year I was bestowed a different kind of gift altogether by my permanent Valentine, my husband. Not only did he feed my Hello Kitty obsession with a tote bag and red piano shaped musical jewelry box, he also gave me a Japanese pocket dictionary with frequently used phrases and a Nicholas Sparks novel. And last, but not least, he took me shopping for this because he ran out of time to do it on his own and wanted to make sure I liked what I got. Other than my wedding rings, this is the first piece of real jewelry Ryan, or any other boy I dated back in the day for that matter, has ever given me as a gift. And it's awesome.

...

Need information about eczema and available treatments?

SNOW!

2010-02-13T15:56:00.001-05:00

Of Clutter, Snow, and Bumps in the Blogging Road

2010-02-12T18:15:00.004-05:00

Ryan and I have been trying to get rid of clutter in the past couple of months. There are several totes full of childhood toys and mementos of our relationship stacked in Anya's closet along with an extra microwave we bought for our microwave-less apartment in Knoxville and enough bags to supply an entire Good Will store. It's times like these that I wish I had a garage floor to fill with stacks of junk until a better place could be found for it. The rest of the time, I kind of like how living in an apartment keeps me from being able to collect as much junk due to space restrictions. So we need to find a Good Will before my head explodes the next time I open Anya's closet and see the bags glaring at me, and we need to go through our filing cabinet and desk areas to de-clutterize. And probably our own closet again. Because that tends to be the clutter magnet in our apartment unfortunately.

In other news it's supposed to snow like crazy tonight and tomorrow. Yeah right. I've heard that about a million times this winter, and we have gotten NOTHING. Not. One. Flake. Just some drizzly, albeit really cold, rain. If that. So I'll believe this whole snow thing when I see it. I wouldn't mind a little snow. Snow is the main reason I like winter as a whole. It's just so...pretty. And I haven't seen a good snow in a while. So it wouldn't hurt my feelings if we got a little of that crazy snow tonight. As long as our power stays on so we can stay toasty in our little corner of the world.

At the moment I'm taking advantage of Ryan being on baby duty to get ahead on some school work so that I concentrate on the next problem staring me in the face: the blog service I use will no longer allow FTP as of next month. Which sucks. Because that's exactly how I use it to make it flow with the rest of the site. So now I get to play the fun game of figuring out how to make it work differently and/or switching services and figuring out how to make that one work. Heh. I may have to give WordPress another try. I've been challenged every other time I've tried it, but this is about the third time in the past few years I've had to change servers because they were going down/stopping a service or lost blog entries entirely due to server failures. WordPress would pretty much eliminate fear of any of those things happening again. I just know I'm going to need plenty of Cola handy. Because it's probably going to hurt my brain.

The Cold of Doom says Hello

2010-02-11T11:42:00.002-05:00

Things have been a little crazy around here. Anya and I both came down with the same horrible cold on Monday just in time for Ryan to leave Tuesday morning for a three day field exercise. So she and I have both been sniffly and coughing. She gets mad when she gets too stuffy because she feels like she can't breathe so even the things that usually kept her mildly entertained weren't really doing the trick. She slept better at night and napped a tad bit more because she didn't feel well, but I couldn't really take advantage of it because I couldn't sleep due to feeling like I couldn't breathe. Ugh. Ended up knocking myself out with Nyquil the past couple of nights.

I haven't really accomplished more than the bare minimum required with school work because I'm either loopy from Dayquil or having the sinus headache of doom from my nose being all stuffy and sniffly. So I have several things in that department that I need to try to accomplish today, but I don't know how much Anya will allow for that. She's sitting in my lap right now while I listen to some music and type this. But I doubt she'd sit still long enough for me to do anything substantial as far as homework is concerned. Very rarely does she just sit still in our laps without being fussy until we do something more entertaining. She's a little drama queen like that.

Ryan wasn't supposed to be home until tonight, but he surprised me by showing up at the front door last night. They'd let them out early, but he still had to go to work as usual today. So it's just me, the Cuteness, and the stack of daunting homework assignments. Today might be a good day to give long afternoon naps another try. After replacing her pacifier a million times at nap time last week I started just letting her nap when and where she felt like it this week. So I have been having to keep her entertained a lot more and deal with a lot of crankiness by evening. We'll see if she'll take to the afternoon nap a little better now that she's had some time to readjust. Right now I think she really wants to eat my keyboard. She keeps leaning toward it with her mouth open in anticipation. Crazy baby. Hard to believe she's already 4 months old. Feels like just yesterday I was breathing through those contractions.

I think OCD is genetic, Mom and Dad. : )

2010-02-05T14:43:00.005-05:00

I have been lazy this week. I got a little ahead on school stuff last week, and Ryan suggested I just do my house cleaning on Saturdays when he can help and/or distract Anya so that I can get it all done in one go. So I've just been trying to enjoy a little down time. Though I'm still working on homework a little bit each day, and the urge to mop the kitchen tiles is almost overwhelming. Is it weird that I get a cleaning high? Haha. I enjoy cleaning and organizing. Or at least the feeling of productivity and the sense of accomplishment once it's all done and everything looks awesome make me feel that way. Which is why I claim that I am OCD. Because I'm a neat freak, and I am very particular about the way things are organized. If Ryan moves something at the wrong angle I will have to move it back. Sometimes he feels like even when he helps me I end up doing everything behind him anyway so that makes him feel like he can't do anything right. That's not true. I just get a nervous tick when things aren't just so. That's not his fault, and I try to let things go when I can so he doesn't feel bad about not doing something to meet my impossible standards with cleanliness and organization.

Sadly, for Ryan, I can already see the OCD in Anya. She is stubborn about routine and sameness. And heaven forbid if you don't do whatever it is the exact same way every single time. She will freak out. We try to mix things up sometimes by taking her out or letting her nap when she's tired instead of trying to put her on too rigid of a schedule. But oh my goodness the crankiness that ensues when she doesn't get to do it her way. Her daily routine currently looks something like this since she and I are at home all day during the week:

8:00AM-9:00AM: Morning bottle, reflux medication, diaper and clothing change
8:30AM-9:30AM: Playtime on the tummy mat
10:30AM: Cat nap in the bouncy seat while I shower
11:00AM: Playtime with Mommy usually on the couch
11:30AM-12:00PM: Lunch bottle, dirty diaper change (like clockwork)
12:00PM-12:30PM: Long afternoon nap in her crib with many pacifier replacements
4:00PM-4:30PM: Afternoon bottle, reflux medication, diaper change
4:30PM-5:00PM: Playtime with Mommy often on the tummy mat or couch
5:30PM-6:00PM: Playtime with Daddy while I work on dinner
6:30PM: Cat nap in Pack 'N' Play or the swing in the dining room during dinner
7:00PM: Playtime with Mommy and Daddy usually on the couch
7:30PM: Bath, diaper and pajama change, bedtime bottle, reflux medication, story
8:00PM-8:15PM: Bedtime followed by many pacifier replacements through the night

And she just kind of fell into that by herself. I notice her sleepy cues and such, but other than just putting her down when she starts looking tired I have done nothing to put her into such a predictable routine. She refuses to take more than one long nap so she just takes one really long nap with a couple of cat naps. She's down to four bottles a day with no night feedings. Replacing her pacifier is getting really old so at 6 months instead of buying the pacifiers for the next step up, we're just going to quit them cold turkey and deal with a few days/weeks of crying it out. I have a feeling it will be rough because of her stubbornness. Anytime we take her to the store with us during those nap times it is always crazy crankiness by the time she finally does get some semblance of a nap. We try not to let it get in the way of doing what we would normally do within reason, but sometimes she tries my patience with her fussiness. She is a drama queen already. God help us both if this is a sign of how she is going to be throughout her entire childhood and - I shudder at the thought - when she is a teenager. At least then I can reprimand her for behavior I think is unacceptable. It's not easy trying to reason with a 4 month old who only responds to funny faces and the trippy light emanating from the nose of her musical polar bear.

Update on the small, spazzy, giggly version of us.

2010-02-03T15:23:00.005-05:00

So I don't want to jinx myself, but this is the second day in a row that I've put Anya down for her afternoon nap in her crib without any fussing. Granted, she wakes up about every hour - at least - requiring me to put her pacifier back in. But as soon as she has it, she rolls over and crashes back out. Which is way better than screaming until I pick her up. Which was happening for about a week or so there. Which is when I made the decision to switch her to the crib because she had gotten to the point where she screamed in the swing, too, so the days of using it to trick her into nap time had ended. This pacifier thing is still happening at night, too. Sometimes she'll go over a week without waking up once. And then she'll have a week or two of needing it at least two or three times in the middle of the night. And some nights we feel like, between the two of us, we're up every hour to replace the pacifier. It's getting ridiculous. She used to be a champ about going to sleep and staying asleep. Maybe her ability to self soothe is on the fritz? I'm not sure exactly how we should go about repairing whatever damage we've probably done by jumping up every time she whimpered for the first couple of months of her life when the reflux was in full swing and making her so constantly miserable that we just wanted to make her feel better at all costs. Part of me is just hoping that it has more to do with teething, or at least the gum pain that is usually the prequel to actual teething, and that she'll outgrow it with time.

Other than that she's adorable pretty much all of the time. If I took photos every time she was being cute, I would need to buy another SD card for my digital camera. She's laughing so much more than ever before, and her adorable smiles when I peek into her crib in the morning make my heart melt in an instant. She was totally worth this 10 extra pounds I can't seem to lose and almost four hours of labor that went so quickly my epidural didn't have time to kick in completely. She's that awesome. Most of the time. Her eyes have turned into an exact duplicate of Ryan's, which kills me when they're sitting on the couch together and both turn to look at me at the same time. I think my heart explodes a little every time that happens. She is rolling around like crazy, though she still hasn't figured out how to get on her belly from her back or vice versa. She just lays on her side and kicks her legs to turn herself in different directions. Sometimes when we go to get her in the morning, her feet are where her head was when we put her down for the night. It's mildly entertaining and a lot frustrating because she gets out of her blanket and wakes up cold sometimes resulting in several of the pacifier replacements required in the night along with being tucked in all over again. Crazy baby.

The laugh that melts our hearts on a daily basis.

2010-01-31T21:49:00.001-05:00

Anya Photo Dump

2010-01-29T13:28:00.002-05:00

Life hates me sometimes.

2010-01-26T12:59:00.006-05:00

In case yesterday's tweet wasn't noticed, I think I may have sprained my left wrist. I was stressed - am stressed - out of my mind yesterday trying to get some semblance of homework done during Anya's nap when the upstairs neighbors started playing music with a rather intense base beat very loudly. Which Kieran interpreted as knocking or stomping and decided to bark. And being afraid that it would wake Anya I chased after him to reprimand him. During the chase my feet flew out from under me. I landed in a sitting position but put my hands flat out behind me to catch my fall. My right wrist took this fine, but my left wrist must have landed funny because it jammed into my hand upon impact.

Now, I'm still not entirely sure whether it's just jammed or maybe sprained. It doesn't hurt as intensely as yesterday, and I've been doing most of the usual things with it without too much discomfort. But if I twist it in certain directions, lift something too heavy, or exert too much force on something: ouch. So I'm also a tiny bit worried that maybe there's a hairline fracture in there somewhere. If it doesn't seem to get any better in a few days I'll probably go in to have an x-ray done just in case. If it's just sprained then all they're going to do for me is prescribe pain killers and stick my arm in a sling. Not really worth the hassle of an ER visit right now. And if it's just jammed, the soreness should dissipate in a few days.

And so back to stressing out of my mind. (If I smoked I would need a heavy duty cigar to calm me at this point.) I have got homework coming out of my ears and not enough time or patience to accomplish it. I have a one page paper due tomorrow, a quiz due on Thursday that I have to read 50 pages of material for before I take it, and a handful of programming assignments due by Friday. That's for only three of my courses. But instead of working on any of that last night, Ryan and I finally got out of the house alone. One of his friends babysat for us once Anya was already in bed for the night so we could go out and catch a late dinner and a movie together baby-free. And it was nice. Would have been nicer if I hadn't jacked up my wrist. Even nicer than that? Not having this ridiculous one page paper that I actually have to put in MLA format with citations due tomorrow causing me to be high strung today even after a nice night out. Welcome to my life. It's load of fun.

Say What?

2010-01-23T21:01:00.004-05:00

I want to know how on Earth I'm supposed to fit the link spa filter into one of my blog entries? Haha. Some of the links I have to use crack me up. I'm sure you get tired of seeing the random links in my posts, but, hey, I have to help pay the bills with something. Anywho, I haven't really been the best blogger lately. Lots of random posts to get paid links in but no real updates on life around here. But everything is pretty much the same old routine. Lots of bottles, diapers, and homework for me. But I'm starting to get more of a handle on the homework finally...I think. Except for this 10 page research paper I have to write for my Operating Systems class. I mean, seriously, 10 pages about operating systems? I think this professor just likes to be mean for fun. It excites him to make his students write a huge, specific research paper about material they have no interest in for a filler class. He's just a super guy like that.

The apartment is really quiet now that Anya is in bed. She's been sleeping 12 to 13 hours every night. Though we're still having to wake up several times to put her pacifier back in which is getting old. But we're not really sure how to break her of the habit because if we let her cry it out at 3AM we aren't exactly going to be getting any sleep during the process. And Ryan has to leave the apartment for work between 5 and 6AM most mornings. So listening to Anya cry for 2 hours in the middle the night does not sound like a promising solution to the problem. We didn't have this problem at all until she started teething. Now anytime she's awake she has to have her pacifier or her hands in her mouth. And when she wakes up into that half asleep state she just starts whining and crying until we put her pacifier in for her to chew on for relief. It's really frustrating but still better than middle of the night feedings so we try not to be too annoyed by it considering what we've endured previously. I guess the only way to break her of expecting her pacifier in the middle of the night is to do what we're dreading and stop getting up to give it to her. I can hear the screaming already. Save me.

Western Governors Online University

2010-01-23T20:47:00.004-05:00

This is a sponsored post.

I've talked a lot about wanting to look into online university options for my schooling. I've recently looked at the website for Western Governors Online University in my internet search for an online education. I looked over their online degree programs, and while they do offer a lot of sought after programs, there really isn't anything related to any of the fields I've studied. They do, however, offer full degrees for teachers and in technological fields such as Databases or Networking which are all careers that won't be going anywhere anytime soon. Any one of the degrees offered by this university would be a great investment for a more secure future in the workplace.

Of Crazy Neighbor Ladies

2010-01-21T13:46:00.003-05:00

If I have to keep blogging about vitamins and diet supplements, I might go insane. So in an effort to lighten things up around here I'm going to tell you about one of my stranger neighbors. (And because Christina is waiting for this story with bated breath.) This was a neighbor I had in 29 Palms while I was staying in the apartment by myself during Ryan's time at MOS school for Communications. The apartment was one of two in the same building that had at one time probably been a single house. There were a couple of similar buildings around us, but I was really only attached to the one other apartment and therefore only technically had one neighbor that I had to deal with on an almost daily basis.

This neighbor was a female Marine that worked on the base. She wasn't married, but I believe she had at least one boyfriend during the time I lived there. I'm not entirely sure because there were two or three different guys who would come over and stay for random lengths of time. But she always seemed to be fighting with the same one on the phone for hours at night. (Let's just say the walls were thin, and I heard a lot of crazy stuff during those conversations.) And this woman complained about everything. As if her curse filled phone rants and the sounds of her night time...activities with her boyfriend(s) weren't inconsiderate. She complained about everyone else all of the time.

For instance, someone decided it would be fun to smash our mailbox. Our mailboxes were joined on one post so she and I both had smashed mailboxes to deal with. Now, I just thought it was common sense that some people like to smash mailboxes for fun just to get a rise out of the owners. But apparently my neighbor was not aware of this. She filed a police report. No joke. Ryan and I returned to the apartment from grocery shopping to a squad car parked out front. I mean, seriously. What did she think the police were going to do? Get CSI out there to track those pranksters down and throw them in jail? Because the police have nothing better to do, I suppose. You could tell the officer was trying to decide if he was more amused or annoyed by my neighbor's antics. She called our landlady ranting and raving, too. The landlady did the only thing she could; she replaced the mailboxes. And in case you're on the edge of your seat in suspense: those pranksters are still out there somewhere just waiting to smash another defenseless mailbox. Beware.

To understand this next part you have to know that Ryan and I did not have a car and would often walk the 1/2 mile to the 7-11 and back for snacks as well as visit the local movie rental store or grab a pizza. Sometimes we would do this at 11 or 12 o'clock at night. On the weekends only. Which is pretty normal around that area. Most Marines are out way later than that drinking and being crazy. You also have to understand that it was normal to hear the artillery units practicing out in the desert even on Sunday mornings. Sometimes I would think it was thunder. Sometimes I joked that T-Rex was coming. But, no; it was always just the echoes of artillery being fired. You'd think being a Marine herself that my neighbor would understand this. No. She thought someone in the complex was slamming doors randomly at 7 o'clock on a Sunday morning. Ryan and I were fast asleep and were barely disturbed by the echoes of the artillery when suddenly we heard our neighbor screaming obscenities and asking what was going on. We just kind of laid there confused as we heard her get up and slam her door to retaliate. We decided trying to get anymore sleep was a lost cause and began to get ready for the day.

While this was happening our neighbor called our landlady - at 7 o'clock on a Sunday morning - to complain about her neighbors slamming doors. The kicker? She thought it was us. Because it just had to be us since when she heard noises outside the night before and checked through her window thinking someone was attacking the mailboxes again - OMG, really, lady?!? - she saw us walking around outside. (What she saw was us locking the apartment door and talking to one another as we walked toward the 7-11. We weren't just standing around outside her window shouting and carrying on.) Basically she wanted the landlady to do something about us because she'd been living there such and such amount of time and shouldn't have had to deal with it. Blah blah blah. I laugh about it. Because our landlady never said a word to us about it. I think she was just used to our neighbor's antics and knew that I was not the cause a bunch of trouble type.

And then this same neighbor had the audacity to knock on my door early one morning just to let me know she was leaving for the Holidays in case I wondered where she went. And then she was just oh so sad when I told her I would be moving out on such and such a day. All I know is, that time she was gone was the quietest our complex was the entire time I lived there.

Permanent Bad Hair Day

2010-01-20T21:35:00.004-05:00

I've been wanting to do something with my hair for a while now. I just feel kind of bleh about it, but I don't really know what I want to do next. I think I'm done chopping it off and growing it out. Now I'd really just like to find a style that suits me and doesn't take more than fifteen minutes to maintain, blow-drying and all. It seems anything decent take an hour and seventeen products to accomplish. And probably a stylist because there's no way I could see the back of my own head well enough to accomplish a lot of the popular styles.

No to mention my hair falls out like crazy. I have to clean out our tub all of the time because I shed so badly. It's kind of gross. I've got my hair floating around this apartment than the dog. I need a vitamin for hair loss or something. Seriously. It's pretty bad. I'm not sure if it's just a normal amount of shedding or if my hair is unhealthy. I've cut back on using heat on it all of the time, but that only seems to have helped so much. For now I at least need to have my bangs trimmed and an inch or two off of the rest. I wish I could find something a little more awesome to attempt, but I have a feeling that would just end bad. I feel like I can never come to a concrete decision on this. Heh. I'll probably end up leaving it alone after a trim. Such is my life.

So Much for That

2010-01-20T16:47:00.004-05:00

As I settled down to read Anya decided she wanted to wake up early from her afternoon nap and scream. It was wonderful. (At this rate I'm going to have to start looking into natural arthritis treatments for all of the moving around required to keep her happy.) So I had to give up on homework to feed Fussy McFusserson. Who is now playing quietly in her bouncy seat. Though for how long that will last I can't say. She'll probably end up taking a short, late nap there if I leave her alone long enough. That's about how she works.

And now it's so late in the day that I need to fold a load of laundry that's wrinkling in the dryer and start on dinner - which will take an hour and a half to cook - before Ryan gets home. It's not like he demands that things be done; I just prefer to be able to enjoy as much time as I can with him without having to do any housework or homework while he's home. Though that doesn't always work out. In which case you usually helps me tackle the chores or takes Anya off of my hands so I can read 50 pages about operating systems in peace. Is that really considered a break? Because, somehow, I feel gypped when my break consists of trying not to drool on my textbook when the contents cause me to doze off.

Snoozefest

2010-01-20T14:41:00.003-05:00

I'd totally rather be blogging about accutane than reading 50 pages about operating systems. But that's exactly what I'm stuck doing today. And I have to read about 30 pages about both computer security and database fundamentals. Loads of fun, interesting stuff. And I'm just hoping that Anya stays asleep during her afternoon nap long enough for me to get it all done. Or that I don't fall asleep in the process. Which is entirely likely given the subject matter. At least I have all of the assignments turned in. The reading is more for my own benefit for future assignments, quizzes, tests, etc. But I know I will regret not doing it now if I have play catch-up later so I'm trying to stay focused and motivated.

But I thought I'd just take a quick break to gripe about it now that I've been reading for almost an hour and a half. I still feel like I've barely started. There is so much more reading to do before the day is over! But regardless of how much I get through, I'm stopping once Ryan gets home so I can spend some time with him and worry about dinner. Of course, once Anya's up from her nap I may not have a choice but to stop reading depending on whether or not she's wants my attention or wants to be left alone to grin at the polar bear on her bouncy seat. Until then I suppose I should be taking advantage of nap time and get some of this reading knocked out.

These are a few of my favorite refrigerated things.

2010-01-19T17:25:00.005-05:00

The hilarious Holly of Nothing But Bonfires got me thinking about something when she blogged about the three things she always has to have in her refrigerator. What would my three things be? I could give one answer easily, but the other two needed some thought. In the end I came up with my list of can't-ever-be-without refrigerated items.

1. Diet soda of some variety. Be it Coke Zero or Diet Pepsi. I would probably die without at least one a day. At least one. Usually I drink two or three. On a bad day when Anya won't stop screaming, and I need a pick me up...you don't want to know how many I drink to keep me going. I could probably buy a brand new car with the money I would save if I stopped drinking diet soda as a cure for all that ails me I suppose that's better than being an alcoholic?

2. Cheese. Usually slices of American for sandwiches and such. Though we do go through quite a bit of shredded cheese for the variety of recipes I make for dinner. Ryan is a cheese fiend. If I didn't keep cheese in the house he might leave me. I'll let you decide if I'm kidding.

3. Sunny D. No joke. Ryan and I drink one each almost every morning, and there's something about the tangy awesomeness of Sunny D that makes the whole day before me seem a little brighter than the bathroom cleaning and diaper changing that are my duties.

One thing you won't ever find in my refrigerator: a diet supplement.

Dear Robert Qualls

2010-01-19T16:45:00.002-05:00

It seems that some young woman was completely overtaken by her affection for you during a trip to the Wal-Mart in my hometown. I know this because I purchased our bath towels there. Simple, relatively cheap, white bath towels for our master bathroom once we moved. At the time I put them in storage and forgot about them until we moved and said master bathroom was set up in the apartment. It was just a couple of days before my husband returned home from deployment that I noticed something was written on one of the towels. Not the towel itself, rather, but on the attached tag. In big, curvy handwriting that very obviously belonged to someone of the female gender a name had been inscribed with permanent black marker. It read, simply: Robert Qualls <3. And, yes, it was followed by the quirky little outline of a heart.

Now, I have seen messages of adoration for boyfriends and crushes written in some strange places like bathroom stalls (The last thing I care about when I have to pee bad enough to actually break down and use a public restroom is who hearts who.). But the tag of a cheap, Wal-Mart bath towel? One that she obviously wasn't even going to purchase? Why? What is the point? I suppose, in a strange way her affection for Robert will live on and be known by others. (Who needs an anti aging product when you can be immortalized on the tag of a bath towel?) But in all honesty, I really don't care that she hearts Robert. I just wanted a bath towel so that I could be dry after my shower. And now every time I happen to pick up this particular towel I stop and think of the complete ignorance a person must have to feel that writing someone's name in permanent marker on a product in a store that they aren't even going to buy must possess. Not to mention it really through Ryan for a loop when he returned to new towels and picked up one with some other guy's name on it in the first week he was home. That was an interesting conversation starter.

Our kind of, sort of routine.

2010-01-17T15:38:00.002-05:00

I ended up not going to that baby shower yesterday. We'd had a rough night with Anya wanting her pacifier every 2.5 seconds. She's was just about as bad last night, too. I think it's a development caused by her teething pain. She just needs something to gum. But it's aggravating since she's slept peacefully through the night for weeks before the teething started. At least she's not asking for bottles in the middle of the night. She just takes her pacifier and goes right back to sleep. So it could be worse, but it's still not fun. We're working on thinking of a way to break the habit if it doesn't go away on its own soon. We've already pretty much got her settled into a nap time routine aside from getting her to sleep in her crib for it. She sleeps in her swing, but it's always at around the same time every day for 3 or 4 hours. And her body has already grown accustomed to it because she's started getting cranky in the twenty to thirty minutes before nap time in anticipation of sleeping. So I'm feeling pretty good about that. But I have a feeling getting her to take the nap in her crib is going to be a battle. For now we just let her sleep in the swing. We'll give her some time to build on that nap time routine as we did with her bed time.

I have been getting paid blogging assignments like no one's business. So don't be surprised when you see me talking about random things like Toronto hotels to fit in a paid link somewhere in an entry. Sometimes it takes some serious creativity to fit something in with some of the off the wall stuff that I'm assigned. But I do the best I can. Trying to do my part to help Ryan pay for all those diapers. At least we don't have to pay for her $20 cans of formula that only lasts three days anymore. Thank you, WIC! If only I had signed up for it sooner we could have saved so much money on all of the formula during Anya's first 2 months of life. But now our lesson has been learned. We'll apply while I'm pregnant with the next one. Which will hopefully be a few years from now, though. But I've filed the knowledge away for when the time comes.

Right now Ryan and I are just enjoying some time doing our separate things. He's playing Fallout 3 on the PS3, and I'm probably going to bust out Sims 2 or Sims 3 momentarily. Anya is taking a late nap because we had to run our usual Sunday errands of getting Ryan's haircut, going to the bank, grabbing lunch, and grocery shopping around the time she's usually napping. That's what we get for trying to sleep in, I suppose. Lesson learned: have the baby home in time for her nap, or we will regret it when the screaming and flailing ensues for half an hour before the swing finally wins the battle of nap time. Fun stuff.

She's figured out how to make her hands do her bidding. Uh oh.

2010-01-16T19:04:00.000-05:00

Nap Time

2010-01-15T15:05:00.002-05:00

Anya has discovered textures. She pets Violet until she falls asleep every day at nap time. Violet plays lullabies for her. It's sweet. She stands no chance of fighting her nap between Violet's lullabies and being in her baby swing. Guaranteed 2 to 4 hour nap for me to get some homework done every afternoon. Awesome.

I'm feeling so unmotivated.

2010-01-15T12:37:00.002-05:00

Ryan has extra time off this weekend and is already home for the day. Unfortunately I can't really spend much quality time with him for the next couple of days because I really need to get ahead on some of my course work in order to be a little less overwhelmed by it on a daily basis. And I'm going to a baby shower for another Marine wife tomorrow afternoon. Though I think Ryan and I might take a walk this afternoon once Anya wakes up from her nap to pick up a few things for the baby shower and diapers for Anya - she's running dangerously low, and I don't think she'll make it until our usual Sunday shopping trip on what we have left. And luckily there is a Wal-Mart within walking distance. It's always really busy so it's probably faster in all actuality to walk than to spend half an hour trying to find a parking space available in the entire shopping strip nevermind the Wal-Mart itself.

I could really use a vacation. Just me and Ryan. Somewhere awesome like Disney World or Japan. But right now I'd settle for some New York budget hotels or a trip to Myrtle Beach a few hours away. But, alas, Anya has to have someone around to feed her, change her, and keep her entertained. And that's our job so here we stay working on home work and caring for Fussy McFusserson. She's napping at the moment, though, so home work is the plan of the day for me. Ryan's just going to play video games or something while I sit in the living room with him on my laptop working on stuff. I really don't feel like doing much of anything, but I'll push through.

Speaking of not feeling like doing much of anything, I got sick out of nowhere last night. We had dinner, and Ryan was playing with Anya in the living room while I cleaned up when out of nowhere I had to make a mad dash to the bathroom where I was violently ill for the better part of two hours. Ryan had to give Anya her bath and put her to bed by himself because I was completely incapacitated. I was blindsided. No idea where it came form or what caused it. After those two hours I felt fine, just tired from having been sick that whole time. And I'm feeling fine today. It was strange. Almost like something I ate disagreed with my system, but I didn't eat anything out of the ordinary yesterday so I have no idea what the deal was. Oh well. As long as there are no repeat incidents any time soon, I can live with not knowing.

Out and About

2010-01-13T14:26:00.002-05:00

Homework has made my days pretty full. For the couple of days Ryan worked a normal shift since his return that I didn't have class I actually had a good chunk of free time during Anya's afternoon nap after all of the housework was done to just do something for myself. But now that nap is my official homework time of the day. Although I'm blogging at the moment in an effort to procrastinate working on installing Linux features onto my computer for my Operating Systems class. At least I won't need secure online backup if something goes horribly wrong because my files are backed up onto the lovely external drive Ryan got me for Christmas. So I've got that going for me.

Anya's nap is a little late today because I took her with me when I went out to lunch with some of the other Marine wives in the area. It was fun though I don't really feel like I got to say much or had much part in the discussion. So I still feel like I don't really know anyone except for the wife I hitched a ride with - Ryan still having the only working vehicle and all. But I'm going to a baby shower for one of the girls on Saturday so maybe that will help. I'd really like to have friends. Though it sounds like a lot of the girls are moving away to other duty stations or getting out of the USMC altogether this year. But more will come; such is the nature of our lifestyle. Lots of comings and goings. I'm just tired of not having any friends to spend any kind of time with and feeling like a hermit. Not to mention it keeps Ryan from hanging out with his friends because he doesn't want to leave me sitting alone at the house feeling sorry for myself. So I'm trying. Here's hoping I forge some kind of friendship with some of the other wives by putting myself out there a little.

I can't wait for Ryan to get home tonight, though. He hasn't been home since he left for duty at 7AM yesterday. And I've missed him. Anya has missed him. I've missed having him to help with Anya. But I've managed. At least he gets a four day weekend this week! I'm pretty excited about that. I have the baby shower on Saturday, but otherwise it's whatever we want to do. Maybe we'll try a movie on Friday or something. I need to get out of the house a little bit and enjoy time out with my husband. We really need to find a babysitter in the near future so we can just go out, relax, and enjoy ourselves for a few hours, just the two of us. But right now that's all just wishful thinking.

And now I really do need to work on some homework...

I'm Exhausted

2010-01-11T20:38:00.003-05:00

Trying to get Anya into a naptime routine is proving even more exhausting that her bedtime routine was. Or maybe I've just already forgotten how bad that was. I have a feeling that's what it really is. Kind of like how the pain of childbirth has already faded to a dull dreamlike memory. Another one of those tricks that Mother Nature pulls to ensure you have more than one child, I suppose. Unfortunately for Mother Nature, I'm not out of the woods yet with Anya. She put up a serious fight about going down for her nap today because I tried to put her in her crib instead of the baby swing. I'd really like for her to take her naps in her crib in her room so that I don't have to tiptoe around her for those three or four hours, and knowing she'll outgrow the swing one day I really don't want her to get too used to always napping in it. So I ended up putting the baby swing in her room where she finally took her nap, although later than usual. I guess we'll just have to take baby steps to napping in her crib without a fuss. But we'll get there. If I could get her into the awesome night routine she's in, I can do this. It's just a matter of time and patience. It's the patience I'm worried about.

School isn't as difficult as it is time consuming at the moment. The worst thing is needing to read the text books which requires a pretty substantial amount of time when I have to read a 30 page chapter in each book for my five courses every week. And then do the assignments, quizzes etc. Especially when my only real chunk of time to concentrate is that nap Anya kept refusing to take today. And tomorrow Ryan has duty for 24 hours which means he has to be on watch from 7AM until 7AM Wednesday morning at which point he has report straight to work for the day and will not be home until the usual time that evening. To make matters worse, Ryan isn't going to be able to fix his car until this weekend because it actually turned out to be a slightly more involved problem that took longer to figure out than we had thought it would this past weekend. So he has my car. Which means I'm stuck here the entire time he's at work. And although I never really go anywhere anyway, it's really aggravating to feel limited that way when I'm already at the end of my rope with frustration.

I'm just kind of fed up with life in general today so don't mind my pessimistic ranting. I just have a lot going on and not a lot of time to deal with it, especially when things don't run smoothly as with Anya's refusal to take her nap which cut into my homework time and made me stressed out about the possibility of getting behind. And then knowing that I'm on my own with Anya until Wednesday without a car to get away from the apartment for a while with. Stuck. With a fussy, naptime refusing baby and a never-ending supply of homework and housework. I dare someone to tell me being a stay-at-home mom isn't a full time job. Especially with school added into the mix. I would kick that someone in the face. Twice. But that's about as many times as I'd have the energy for after wrestling Anya into her nap.

Of Budgets and Babies

2010-01-09T10:20:00.002-05:00

We had one of Ryan's friends over for dinner last night, and apparently I astounded everyone with the peanut butter pie I made for dessert. I'd never made it before so I'm feeling pretty good about delivering on a first attempt. Though I'm sure the pie probably killed all 5 days of the 30 Day Shred that I've done so far. I skipped one day earlier this week because Ryan and I needed some sit down and talk time, and then, of course, the dinner get-together last night was another skip. Heh. I'll get back on track tonight, though, with day 6.

Ryan and I feel like we need an "us" vacation. Totally wish we could afford to do something like one of those Outer Banks vacation rentals. But, alas, not only are we budgeting very carefully right now, we also know no one around here we trust enough to take Anya for a few days. Even an evening out alone would be nice for a change, but, again, we don't really trust anyone around here enough with our baby yet. I have one friend that lives about an hour away, and she'd probably be more than glad to babysit. But she already has a 3 year old of her own and is pregnant again so I feel a bit bad asking her to drive all the way out here and deal with our teething baby. Anya isn't as easy to babysit as she once was. She doesn't just sleep, eat, and poo anymore. Sometimes I wonder if that's a good thing.

Speaking of budgeting we had a scare Thursday night when Ryan's car just decided it wasn't going to do anything besides run. His power steering went out, and all of the dash lights came on. It was pretty crazy. He managed to get home as it happened just down the street, but apparently the belt came off of the engine. (We discovered this after a quick phone call to my dad. Because I totally still call my dad anytime something like this happens - he can fix anything. But isn't that what all little girls are supposed to think? Maybe I'm just a Daddy's girl times a milliondy.) So luckily that's a pretty easy fix that Ryan should be able to take care of. But that got us concerned because we were already worried about replacing his car before something really crazy happens. So now our budgeting is probably going to get pretty strict because we'd rather replace it sooner than have a bigger problem later. We'll see what happens, but I do have quite the sum left over from my financial aid coming our way next month. And our taxes are probably going to be filed as soon as possible so hopefully that will help. We'll see where we stand at that point.

For now I need to work on installing Linux. One of my classes requires it. Lame.

Back to School

2010-01-07T15:35:00.003-05:00

Between caring for Anya, doing all of the household chores, and doing paid blogs about needing a mesothelioma lawyer I already had a lot on my plate. Being a stay at home mom and housewife is a full time job in and of itself. But now that I'm taking five courses - a full semester course load - my days are flying by. I usually just finish up all of the chores and the homework that has to be done that day right before Ryan gets home from work. Which works out until I have a bigger project so I'm trying to work a little bit ahead in preparation for when that happens. And...right as I was about to talk about the fact that the next thing on my agenda for the day is working on an extra assignment, Anya decided naptime was over. So I'm off to do bottle duty.

Anya is all about her fuzzy blanket.

2010-01-05T08:03:00.000-05:00

This is how it's going to be for a while.

2010-01-04T16:36:00.004-05:00

I have completely neglected blogging while Ryan has been on leave. Which, I suppose, is understandable. But he has gone back to work now so hopefully things will get back to normal around here. Though I have five online courses beginning on Wednesday. I had to stand in line for 2 hours today to get my books. It was a bit ridiculous. I have never had to wait that long somewhere to get textbooks. But now it's over and done with. As for the classes themselves I'm not too worried.

My biggest downfall is just going to be not having enough time between getting the work done, taking care of Anya, doing all of the housework, and cooking meals now that Ryan and I have been cutting back on fast food and instant stuff. My me time is going to be pretty slim. And time with Ryan is going to take some planning to fit in, as well. We've got a schedule for which evenings we're going to spend together each week and which we'll spend doing things on our own otherwise we both end up frustrated because we try to spend every waking moment together that we can and never have any time for ourselves.

I'm going to have to get up when Ryan leaves for work to get myself ready for the day, take the dog out, feed him, empty the dishwasher, and make Anya's bottles. I'll probably try and knock the housework out during her morning nap/chill time where she just kind of wants to lay around playing with her polar bear or stare at the stuffed lion on her Pack 'N' Play mobile. My schoolwork is probably going to be done during Anya's afternoon nap. Because once Ryan comes home to take over baby duty, it'll be time for me to start working on dinner. And by the time dinner is over and cleaned up we have maybe half an hour before Anya gets her bath so we usually spend that time playing with her together, or Ryan will take her so I can squeeze in a few more chores or homework assignments.

Then once Anya's in bed we get in our workouts for about half an hour before finally settling down for a couple of hours to watch a movie together or play our separate computer games, etc. That and weekends will be the only time I have for scrapbooking, internet surfing, video game playing, or guitar learning. I'm probably going to add my Japanese to my homework time when I have everything caught up for my current classes so I can focus on it knowing I don't get to play around until evening. Though I'll probably take a moment in the afternoons to check my e-mail and blog, especially if I have paid blogs about things like tv stands to work on.

Right now I'm waiting for Ryan to get home so I can start on dinner. My days are pretty full, but I wouldn't trade any of it for anything. Life is pretty good right now. Awesome husband. Precious baby girl to be amazed by every day. No job to keep me from taking care of the housework or my baby girl. And all online classes to keep me from having to stick Anya in daycare. I'm busy, but I'm happy about the things that keep me that way. And I think I'll feel a little more productive working toward my degree again. But at the moment I have a sleeping baby that needs to wake up from her nap so that she'll be tired enough for bed this evening.

I feel somewhat triumphant about my epic win.

2009-12-30T21:18:00.005-05:00

I sat down last night with plenty of ideas about what I was going to say in this entry. And then I found out that my computer had a virus. And I could not post a blog simply because every time I clicked the New Post button I was redirected to a random advertisement. And so it was with every link I clicked on any website. It was only slightly frustrating. It became downright infuriating when I Googled the problem and soon realized I couldn't look at any of the results because that would require clicking on the link...which would redirect me to a random advertisement. I eventually admitted defeat in that area and used Ryan's computer to look up a few possible solutions and downloaded the programs that could help me fix it onto my USB drive.

After five hours of deleting files, replacing them with dummy files, uninstalling Firefox entirely, deleting all versions of Java on my computer, reinstalling the newest version of Java, unhiding my secure files, scanning my entire computer for malware twice, rehiding my secure files, and completely reinstalling Firefox...I was virus free at last! And no factory restore required! All of my photos and music remain entact! I am so very proud of the computer savvy I didn't even know I possessed until the long drawn out battle I fought against that wretched virus last night. When all I wanted to do was post a blog and play some Sims 3.

As a reward to myself I played Sims 3 for pretty much the entire day in between playing/caring for Anya and a few household chores. And I'm about to play some more. Because my idea of a Winter break does not include a ski vacation; it just requires my family, my computer, and a stockpile of Coke Zero. And now that the beast has been conquered, I can sit back and enjoy all three for the remainder of the evening.

Photo Dump Preceded by a Video

2009-12-26T21:24:00.002-05:00

Watching A Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve.

More Bath Time Fun

Rocking Christmas Pajamas

Decked Out for Christmas Day

Family Portraits

And this has been my life recently.

2009-12-21T17:01:00.005-05:00

Today I had to have a mole removed. Which is so much simpler than it sounds. And relatively painless. I've had a mole on my inner thigh for as long as I can remember, but during my pregnancy with Anya I had decided it needed to go as it could often cause discomfort with my clothing and definitely during all of those pregnancy related exams as well as labor and delivery itself. I was in and out of the exam room in less than ten minutes. It's kind of weird to know it's not there anymore after being used to its existence since my childhood. But I'll get used to it being gone, and I'll probably be a little more comfortable without it.

Right now I'm getting a little me time in...though I still have Anya to look after...while Ryan is out doing Christmas shopping. He hasn't had a chance to do any of it before because we were at home visiting family during his first block of leave and he has been working the past two weeks. What off time he's had he's spent with Anya and me. So he took this afternoon to do it as Christmas is already sneaking up on us at the end of the week. Crazy that it's already that time of year. I'm looking forward to him coming home, though, because now that his second block of leave has started we have until after the New Year to just be together and relax a little bit...or as much as we can with Fussy McFusserson who has discovered that she can get little things like our attention or her pacifier if she just screams at us even when there is absolutely nothing wrong with her.

Needless to say we're looking into the future and deciding to deal with the screaming now rather than when she's a toddler. So when we know she's fed, dry, and comfortable we just let her deal with whatever it is she thinks is so pressing until we're finished with our dinner or shower or whatever it is we're doing at the time she decides to freak out. The crying grates on the nerves a little bit, but she'll learn that whining every five minutes over trivial stuff isn't going to get her very far. We have reached the point where she can be spoiled so we have to nix instantly giving her whatever she wants or thinks she needs the second she lets out a whimper just because we don't want to hear her cry. Like just now, for instance, she was freaking out about her pacifier falling out in her bouncy seat. I put it back in a couple of times only to have her spit it out. So what she's really wanting is attention. She spent between five and ten minutes crying. And now? Quiet. Staring at the toys on the bouncy seat and cuddling her blanket.

We have learned in the past week that 9 times out of 10 she just wants our attention and doesn't really need anything right then and there. We know when she's hungry or has a soiled diaper. We've learned her schedule and the signs for those things well enough to know the difference between those needs and a temper tantrum. And I'd really rather not have a child screaming at me in five years so I think I'll deal with a little extra crying right now instead to help her learn what behaviors will and won't get her what she wants when all of her needs have already been met.

And while we're on that subject, my not quite 3 month old baby girl is sleeping through the night for up to 12 hours straight. It doesn't seem to matter when we put her to bed, she has been waking up between 7:45 and 8:30 every morning for the past week. And we usually put her to bed right after her 7:30 bath each evening. So that's pretty awesome. We're still in shock that we don't have to open our eyes or step foot out of bed until after the sun has been up for an hour or two. For the past month she's only been having one night time feeding so I knew she'd be outgoing that relatively quickly just as she outgrew needing a bottle every few hours within a month of life. And sometimes she slept 5 or 6 hours through the night even in the weeks following her birth. I feel very blessed to have a baby that sleeps so well at night. Even though it means she takes next to no naps making it very difficult for me to accomplish much besides making bottles, changing diapers, and playing with a laughing baby who now makes so many more noises at us in response to stimuli. It's pretty amazing. But she gets a little bouncy seat time, too. We don't want to spoil her...too much.

Cartoon Addict in the Making

2009-12-20T22:17:00.001-05:00

The Apartment So Far

2009-12-18T22:58:00.003-05:00

Anya's First Movie

2009-12-18T22:09:00.003-05:00

We took Anya to the movies with us yesterday to see The Princess & the Frog, and she behaved so well! She watched the screen a little bit entranced by some of the music, but mostly she crashed out on Ryan's lap after a bottle and slept through the majority of the film. But that was okay with us because we were able to have hope that we can maybe possibly see Avatar next week. Which would be awesome because it looks like it is an amazing movie. Here's hoping that works out!

I Hate Needles

2009-12-14T10:58:00.003-05:00

But apparently my infant has not inherited this phobia...yet. She was so wonderfully behaved the entire appointment with her pediatrician this morning. She was smiling and laughing through undressing, weighing, and the check-up itself. She weighs 10 pounds and 4 ounces now and measure about 21 inches long. She's still in the 25th percentile compared to other infants her age. When it came time for her shots she was still cooing and laughing at me until she fell asleep for a short nap in the waiting room. We unfortunately had to wake her up to give her the first vaccine orally which she sucked down like a champ without spitting any of it out.

Then came the fun part: three separate shots in her thighs. Two on her left, one on her right. She cried a little when the nurse stuck the needles in - mostly because she had no idea what was going on, and it scared her. But as soon as they were out and I'd picked her back up she was just whimpering a little. I took her to the bathroom to change her diaper and redress her before checking out, and by the time I was putting her little jeans on she was smiling and playing with me again like that whole trauma of having needles shoved into her legs at the speed of light hadn't just happened about two minutes earlier. My baby girl is awesome. She never ceases to amaze me with her wonderful behavior. The older she gets the better she seems to be about these kinds of situations. It's easier to comfort her, and she gets so much more out of playtime with Ryan and/or me. I'm off to feed her as she just woke up from her Tylenol induced nap in the Pack 'N' Play'. Life is good.

Cute Babyness

2009-12-12T20:14:00.003-05:00

Things are busy around here. Between the day to day housework and Anya I don't really have a chance to sit down and work on the website very often anymore. I'd like to get a new design up now that Ryan is home, but finding a solid block of time to do it in proves difficult. Right now Anya is asleep, but I'd like to watch a movie with my husband so I'll probably just check a few things online and sign off for the night. How I'm going to take 5 full online courses next semester and do all of this eludes me. It should prove very interesting...and exhausting. I'll be looking into Orlando vacation homes before March. Haha.

I'm hoping to get some decent Christmas card photos of Anya is her prettiful Christmas dress tomorrow but no promises. It all depends on how she seems to be doing when she gets up in the morning. If she's too moody it may have to wait another day or so. I'd like to get my Christmas cards sent out this, though. Before I know Christmas will have come and gone. It's crazy how fast time seems to go now that Anya is in our lives. She'll be walking and talking and toddling off to school before we know what hit us. In the meantime, we're just enjoying her cute babyness. She keeps us pretty entertained with her smiling, laughing, and cooing. It's pretty much the best feeling the world when she looks right at me and bust out in a huge, wide mouthed smile accompanied by a little baby coo of joy. That's love.

The Love of My Life

2009-12-10T09:25:00.003-05:00

Life is good right now. I've just been enjoying having both my husband and my beautiful baby girl with me every day. Seeing them together is pretty amazing. Ryan has taken to her with ease, and she adores him already. There are times where Mommy just doesn't cut it. Especially when she hears his voice when he comes in the door from work. Wherever she is ceases to be good enough, and she whines until Ryan gives her some kind of attention and acknowledgement. It's adorable, but we try not to give in to it every time because that could lead to a habit of whining until she gets anything she wants. I'd like to avoid that at least in some regards.

She has changed my life, but at the same time I feel like this is how it was always meant to be. She makes our life together so much more than it was, and it was pretty awesome to begin with. We love how much more alert she's becoming so that we can actually play with her and see her reaction to things. She's constantly smiling and laughing at us. Right now she's making cute little happy sounds in her bouncy seat. Now here's hoping I can keep her entertained there while I jump in the shower. Finding a moment to shower can be tough, but I make it happen every single morning. It's something I don't really understand from other mothers who can't find the time to do it. I just make it my very first priority aside from caring for Anya. So the second she's entertained or napping, I hit the shower. Today is an exception to the rule because I haven't seemed to have the time to blog much lately and wanted to get an entry in real quick. I'm off to tend to my little one and hopefully get my shower shortly thereafter.

On a completely unrelated note, paid blogging about things like a disability appeal is difficult. Seriously? Like Social Security will even exist by the time I'm old enough to receive it. Psh.

Mommy Time

2009-12-08T14:19:00.002-05:00

Silly Girl

2009-12-08T09:33:00.002-05:00

I Have Returned

2009-12-06T17:59:00.002-05:00

Well, we're home from our little Holiday vacation in Tennessee with our families. I completely neglected blogging while away except for a few short notes to fit paid links into every couple of days. We're glad to be home and have a chance to settle back into a routine. We did our grocery shopping and all that fun stuff today so we're all set for Ryan to head back into work tomorrow morning.

Anya surprised us by sleeping 11 hours straight last night. Oddly enough we think it's because of changing her diaper size. We put the first size one diaper on her before bed, and that was it. And all day she's been happy and laughing even during times she'd normally have been fussy previously. I honestly think she just could not stay dry in those tiny newborn diapers, and they were cutting into her and making her uncomfortable. Now that she feels dry longer she isn't waking up from being wet and then deciding she's hungry. She actually stays asleep until she's hungry enough for that alone to wake her. And she fusses less during the day. We had some tummy mat time and several good audible laughs. She's pretty amazing. And right now she's ready for a bottle.

Togetherness

2009-12-04T14:46:00.002-05:00

Zoom Zoom

2009-12-04T14:07:00.002-05:00

While Ryan and I won't be in the market for Ferrari parts anytime soon, I'm feeling pretty good about my car. We are unfortunately going to have to wait longer than we originally planned to replace Ryan's vehicle, though. Mostly because we've decided something along the lines of an SUV is necessary now that we have Anya so that equals more cost and higher insurance. Woo. We'll see how that goes.

Remodel

2009-12-04T13:57:00.002-05:00

Now that I've moved out for good, my parents are finally remodeling the guest bathroom in their house. So my brother and Shelby will have the use of newer fixtures such as American Standard toilets to look forward to in the near future. I admit complete and total jealously over the rain shower head. But the water pressure in our apartment is pretty awesome. So it's not a complete loss.

GPS Rocks

2009-12-04T13:53:00.002-05:00

I can't get over how often we use the GPS on Ryan's Samsung phone. Pretty awesome how simple it is to follow. We can just type in a category of businesses or restaurants we are looking for, and it gives us driving directions to the nearest ones based on our current location. It amazes me after using cheaper phones for so long. Definitely influences my choice of phone when upgrade time comes around next year for me.

All Dressed Up

2009-11-30T16:18:00.000-05:00

Technology = LOVE

2009-11-30T16:13:00.002-05:00

I don't think I've every relied on any of the cell phones I've had as much as Ryan and I rely on his new phone for the GPS. That thing is awesome. We use to go places we already know how to get to just for the novelty. Haha. We're losers like that I suppose. But, hey, whatever gives us a laugh. Now I'm looking forward to being able to upgrade my phone when I'm due for a new one in the Spring. It would be awesome to have my own GPS and internet that's actually half decent.

Feeding Time with Daddy

2009-11-28T11:36:00.002-05:00

I Die

2009-11-28T11:32:00.002-05:00

The stress of traveling with a newborn and trying to keep her from freaking out about the routine changes that are involved with staying with family for the Holiday is getting to me. I'm going to need the best acne treatmentavailable to rid of the blemishes on my face that are currently on the verge of disfiguring no matter how much make up I attempt to cover them with. It's bad. And a little disheartening because you just know that's what everyone sees when they look at you anytime you have a breakout. You just a giant walking cluster of acne. Heh. At least, that's how I feel.

Yum

2009-11-28T11:28:00.001-05:00

At the rate I've been packing down the delicious foods since we've arrived in Tennessee I'm going to have to abuse some Kettlebells when we return home to whip myself back into shape. Thanksgiving definitely does a number on the waistline. But I've managed to restrain myself from anything too crazy. It's all about portion control, and I've gotten pretty good at that. Now if I could just convince Ryan to do the same...

Traveling

2009-11-28T11:21:00.001-05:00

So in case you hadn't noticed, we headed out to Tennessee for Thanksgiving this week. The drive over was actually quite smooth. We only had to stop to feed Anya once the entire 8 hours which was amazing, and Ryan managed not to mess up my car mats too badly. Haha. (It's been known to happen.) We did, unfortunately, have to make an extra stop to put coolant in my car. The dash light came one not too long after we'd made our one stop to feed and change Anya, eat, and fuel up. Figures. But other than that the trip was relatively quick and painless. Thank God Ryan and I never run out of things to talk about. Eight hours of quiet in a care could be just a tad bit awkward.

Oops

2009-11-28T11:16:00.002-05:00

I definitely had a whole string of paid blogging links due...yesterday. I completely forgot all about my assignment since arriving in Tennessee for the Holiday. So now I get to hurriedly find a way to fit words like discount cigars into a few blog entries that probably won't say much that's substantial in terms of the goings on in my life. I apologize for all of the sponsored posts that are about to occur, but hey, I have to help pay the bills somehow. : ) I'll be posting photos of Anya and Ryan in the near future so at least you have that to look forward to.

Watching TV with Daddy...while sleeping. : )

2009-11-24T22:12:00.001-05:00

Growing Pains

2009-11-24T16:17:00.003-05:00

I think Anya is having a growth spurt. That would definitely explain all of the cluster feeding she's been doing lately, especially right before bed and first thing in the morning. And she has done nothing but nap for the past two days and still managed to sleep between 5 and 6 hours at least once each night. About time. I was beginning to think she'd wear Newborn clothes forever. Some of her Newborn clothes are still too big for her. Of all of the Newborn size clothing she has, she can only actually wear about half of them and even some of those are a little big. So she has to grow into the rest of her Newborn clothes before I even have to worry about her growing into clothing in the 0-3 Months size. She's such an adorably small baby! Bless her heart; she will suffer as I have with having to have every formal gown and pair of pants she ever owns hemmed a good five inches. Ah, life as a short person. Loads of fun when jean shopping.

Meanwhile I currently need to discover the best fat burner ever now that my doctor here has cleared me for exercise and such as of yesterday at my 6 weeks post-partum check up. Finally I can actually work on losing the rest of the baby weight! Yay! I only have about 7 pounds left on top of what I weighed at my first prenatal appointment, but I was a good 10 pounds lighter than that before I got pregnant to begin with so I'd really like to get down to that weight again eventually. But for now I'll work toward the smaller goal of getting to my first prenatal appointment weight. As a matter of fact, I'll be starting my routine this evening though I sadly won't be able to take a walk to start the work out because the weather is kind of bleh outside today. And tomorrow we head to Tennessee for Thanksgiving so I'm sure my routine will consist of mostly walking while there before I can start up the actual work out portion again once I return home. I'm really motivated to get back into my pre-baby shape and then some so wish me luck!

Errands and Budgets

2009-11-22T21:48:00.003-05:00

Anya was so well behaved all day...until about 6PM. Then we paid for it. But honestly I think she was just really hungry after not asking for too many bottles for the first part of the day. Babies tend to cluster feed every hour or so when they are getting ready for a long stretch of sleep like the one Anya gets every night when we put her to bed. For some reason, though, we didn't figure out that was the problem until she had screamed off and on for three hours between bath time and three bottles. Then she crashed out for the night. Now we know to pay more attention to that issue. We were so caught up in other things that we didn't feel it had been long enough to feed her again, but we'd just lost track of time and didn't take her lack of bottles earlier in the day into consideration. We learned our lesson for next time.

We ran errands today. Picked up the rest of Ryan's uniform odds and ends, but all of the dry cleaning places are closed on Sundays so he'll have to drop them off to be altered and cleaned tomorrow. He got his weekly hair cut. We stopped for lunch. And then we did our grocery shopping though we didn't get much because we're heading home to Tennessee for Thanksgiving in the middle of the week. I really need to enroll in the dental plan Ryan's health care offers so I can get my teeth cleaned and all that jazz. At least we don't have to worry about getting health care through anything like Blue Cross Blue Shield NC thanks to military insurance. It's a wonderful thing. $3 per prescription? Yes, please. Sounds amazing to me. Thank you very much. One less thing I have to worry about. Speaking of which, I think we need to work on our budget now that the celebratory time of Ryan's return really needs to be reigned in. So off to convince Ryan to stop playing his computer game and do just that before our trip.

Parenting Woes

2009-11-21T18:10:00.002-05:00

We attempted a trip to the movies to see New Moon, but we took one look at the line for tickets that had made it all the way to the parking lot and decided that was not a good idea with Anya. Instead we picked up a couple of rentals and headed home. We plan on getting Netflix while we're here, but we're waiting until after all of the Holiday traveling is over. Turns out staying home was a good decision because Anya just threw a hissy fit for a good ten minutes. And while that's not a lot in comparison to her all night tantrums, it would have been a lot worse if it had happened in the middle of the movie.

I'm not sure what her deal is with the constant fussiness. Every time I feel like she's finally out of the woods, it feels like we start regressing. Maybe it's just gassiness? Maybe her reflux medication dosage needs to be upped to match her weight gain? I don't know, but it's frustrating to never really get to give her the interaction or tummy time she needs for fear of tantrums because it never fails to happen every single time I attempt some activity time with her. I'm really bummed about the whole thing. I just want her to be a normal, happy baby with the chance to develop at a normal pace by being in a decent enough mood when she's awake to learn and discover things about herself and the world around her.

...

Anyone looking into an emergency alert system?

Homecoming went something like this:

2009-11-20T23:17:00.003-05:00

Oh Christmas Tree

2009-11-20T21:40:00.004-05:00

We totally put our Christmas tree up tonight. We won't be home next weekend after Thanksgiving as we'll be visiting family back in Tennessee so in the interest of enjoying the tree for an extra weekend rather than not having it for an extra weekend or two, we went ahead and did it this evening. Christmas is definitely my favorite time of year. All of the lights and decorations mixed with smells of cinnamon and crisp, cool air. Ah. Heaven.

We've almost got all of our photographs and other decorations put up around the apartment, but we're still working on it. At this rate there probably won't be photos of the apartment up until after we get home from Thanksgiving in Tennessee. We have to pick up a trunk Ryan mailed home from Afghanistan there to organize his gear and camouflage uniforms into in the closet here. Right now they're just a pile of olive drab and desert that exploded in between our closet and bedroom floor. But that's really the last big thing we've got to get organized other than cleaning out a few totes of childhood belongings in order to consolidate a few of my maternity clothes and childhood toys that are being reserved for Anya into. Fun stuff.

Photos of Ryan's homecoming will be up soon! I'm going through them now.

...

Anyone interested in colon cleanse reviews?

Whatever Sinks Your Battleship

2009-11-18T15:06:00.003-05:00

I expect you'll be getting a lot of blogs that are comprised completely of photos and videos for a while. Except when I have a paid blogging assignment. Heh. Totally not ashamed to admit that most of the time when I say anything lengthy it's just to fit a paid blogging link in somewhere. But at least that forces me to say something and update you on the goings on in my life. Otherwise you'd just have to guess from the pictures. And on that note, I'm sure you noticed that Ryan finally returned home on Sunday. <3 It was a glorious day of hugs and baby holding that we're still riding out the high from. (There will be pictures when the friend who took them for me gets them to me this weekend. Lots of pictures.) He does, sadly, have to work half of the day all of this week and part of next so I still have the mornings to myself and Anya, but when his leave starts we'll have almost a solid month of time just to bask in being together again and spoil Anya with our attention.

The past few afternoons we've been running a lot of errands. Getting the last few things we needed for the apartment that I couldn't get on my own like a computer desk for Ryan and an enormous amount of groceries. At least we don't have to worry about looking at coffee makers in this family. We stick to soda for our caffeine addiction. Well, Ryan does drink Monster energy drinks. I can't. They taste like rocket fuel or nuclear waste. Something like that. But whatever floats his boat. Or as I say to him, whatever sinks his battleship. He doesn't like it when I say that. He says it has bad connotations and having your boat float is a much happier end result of a preference like Monster energy drinks. Welcome to a day in our lives. Isn't it wonderful?

Making Up for Lost Time

2009-11-17T22:01:00.001-05:00

He's Home!

2009-11-16T20:12:00.000-05:00

P.S. I Love You

2009-11-13T20:37:00.001-05:00

I received these from my husband, who had them sent even though he's on the other side of the world, in celebration of our anniversary. 3 years ago today we had the date that was the first step into what is becoming a wonderful, lifelong journey together. I love you, Babe. You're amazing. <3

Waiting Impatiently

2009-11-13T19:31:00.004-05:00

So I fixed the curtain. I bought a cheap package of those heavy duty curtain hooks and stuck them into the metal at the top of the blinds before bending them around the tension rod. So far they've kept the rod at the top of the window all day. Hoping it lasts as this is about the 5,679,278,207.347th thing I've tried to get the darn thing to stay while still holding the curtains...since that's the whole point of a curtain rod.

Apartment-wise I've done everything I can do without help. Once Ryan is home we can hang all of the decor and photographs that require more than push pins. Not that I can't use a hammer and nails, but with a baby in the apartment it's likely a good idea to have someone occupy her so she doesn't die of fright from the loud banging sound in the middle of her nap. Or so I think. So that's the plan. That and we have to go through the handful of totes we have that are full of random childhood junk so that we can consolidate and get the last couple of boxes that are full of the same out of our bedroom at last. Which will probably end in a run to Good Will or something, and then we will at last be completely moved in and settled! And I will finally post pictures at that point. Though there will probably be Christmas decorations involved as we'll be putting up our tree together pretty soon after he gets home.

Speaking of Ryan I've been talking to him off and on the past couple of days, and the excitement about his impending homecoming is driving me insane. I don't even know how to sleep at this point! We're that close. But you won't really know anymore than that until I post an entry announcing his arrival and posting photographs of our mushy reunion that I know you're just dying to see. I hope you enjoyed the break from the mushiness during this deployment because it's about to come back in full force and then some.

The Curtain Rod Dilemma

2009-11-11T11:52:00.003-05:00

My child is going to be Jabba the Baby if she keeps it up. She's eating 4 ounce bottles now, and sometimes she'll go 4 or 5 hours between feedings. But a lot of the time she wants food every two hours like clockwork during the day. I suppose she's finally getting on track with other babies her age as her stomach has expanded, but I'm so used to my dainty baby who only eats 2 to 2 1/2 ounces at a time. But wanting bottles during the day is so worth it when she sleeps in several 4 to 6 hour stretches almost every night.

So I bought a tension curtain rod for her room because I figured curtains would help keep it darker and warmer/cooler in her room allowing her better - and longer stretches of - sleep. And we aren't allowed to put anything on the walls that requires any kind of heavy bracket system. Well, turns out the tension rod can't take the heat when it comes to those awesome curtains whose sole purpose is to block out 90 something percent of noise and light because they are heavier than usual. Not only does the rod bow a little in the middle, it slides down slowly until it eventually ends up in the floor. Yeah. It stayed up with only one panel, but as soon as I put the second one on it all went to poo. Heh. So I've tried about a million different ways of ghetto rigging it to stay up, but I don't want something that interferes with the ability to open and close the blinds so that limits my options. Does anyone have any ideas?

Off to feed Jabba the Baby and watch a little TV in the process.

Battle of Wills

2009-11-10T19:39:00.003-05:00

Anya's appointment with the pediatrician went well yesterday morning. She is in the 25th percentile at 7 pounds 14 ounces and measured 20 inches long. She's healthy and normal. Her next appointment will be for 2 months of age, and she'll be getting her first shots so I made sure to schedule it during Ryan's leave because I have a feeling we're going to have to tackle that one together.

Anya threw the tantrum of all tantrums last night from just after dinner until after 1AM. Yeah. That was fun. She's fussing now in her bouncer, and I just hope it's not a sign of a repeat of last night. We both slept in this morning because we were worn out from the screaming and crying for hours last night. I'll let you decide who did the screaming and who did the crying. Haha.

At the moment I'm waiting for emergency maintenance because the pipe under the kitchen sink broke and is leaking water under the cabinets. I could wait until morning, but with baby bottles to wash having a pipe that renders both the kitchen sink and dish washer unusable just isn't my idea of a fun time. Guess I need to calm the Fussy One while I'm waiting.

Settling In

2009-11-07T21:45:00.003-05:00

I finally feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel of this unpacking ordeal. I have reorganized the closets more to my liking and alphabetized our CD's and DVD's (Yes. I am that bad.) so now I just need to go through a few totes of childhood things so I can unpack the last few boxes of odd and ends that may have things that will need to go into the totes. Other than that there are some photos and such that need to be hung which will probably not happen until Ryan comes home, and I'd like to pick up a few organizational things like hooks to tie back the curtains in Anya's room and bins to organize the things under our bathroom sink. It all finally seems to be coming along nicely.

Anya is doing well. She's been having a good period of time that she is awake and plays on her tummy mat while I talk to her each morning. She's been a little fussy throughout the day afterward, but I finally figured out that I needed to up the amount of formula in her bottles. She's able to keep more down at last, and she was simply hungry every hour or two because I wasn't giving her enough. Since I upped the quantity in each bottle, she's doing even better. She took a good afternoon nap, and after a bath and a bottle has been sleeping for almost two hours this evening.

It's looking like I'll be transferring her to her crib before heading to bed myself shortly. I won't get as long of a stretch of sleep staying up while she sleeps, but I think it's a good routine to get into for when Ryan gets home so we can have some time in the evenings together. I'll still get plenty of sleep especially if she keeps getting a stretch of eight hours of sleep before wanting a bottle every night like she did last night. I have an awesome baby.

She smiles at me now! : )

2009-11-07T13:58:00.000-05:00

First Bath

2009-11-06T20:29:00.002-05:00

These are the Jaws of a Crocigator

2009-11-06T12:47:00.001-05:00

Ready to Share Baby Duty with a Certain Husband

2009-11-03T22:13:00.003-05:00

Anya seems to be getting a little better. I know it's going to take time for her system to adjust to all the changes the doctor made and for her throat to heal from the damage that had been done already even though the medication is keeping any more damage from being done. Her really fussy times seem to be limited to the evenings between about 7PM and 10PM. But even those are getting a little easier to calm her out of with reading to her in the rocking chair or popping the pacifier in her mouth and laying her down in her crib or pack 'n' play with the crib soother on. Which is a relief, but I can't help but hope for further improvement. I'd like to be able to play with her when she's awake without fear of a tantrum.

I went shopping today for a few apartment related things and ran a few errands. It was a long yet quick day, and I can't believe it's already time for bed. Anya has been in bed for almost an hour so I need to head that direction before I regret it when she wakes up for a bottle in a few hours.

P.S. Found out Ryan's more narrow homecoming window, and it can't come quickly enough!

Snoozing with the Panda

2009-11-01T21:34:00.001-05:00

Fuzzy Blanket Is Good

2009-10-30T23:49:00.002-04:00

After screaming for what felt like an eternity, this stared up at me:

I discovered last night that being all cozy in the fuzzy blanket is her happy place...most of the time.

Ugh

2009-10-29T20:36:00.003-04:00

I took this really adorable photo of Anya a few minutes ago...but I have no idea where my USB cable for the camera is to upload it to the laptop. I had it with me in the car during the drive over, and I wasn't the person who emptied the box it was in so I have no idea where it's been shifted to. And now that Anya is finally napping...kind of...I don't want to be rattling through boxes looking for it. Heh. So I'm a bit disappointed about that. I'll find it eventually. It's here somewhere. Probably tossed into one of the boxes I've yet to unpack that sit open in the hallway. Which means no apartment photos either until I find the cable. I'm more than a little frustrated with life in general. Especially now that Anya is screaming from her pack 'n' play already. Kill me.

...

Interested in the Green Study?

A New Diagnosis

2009-10-29T16:57:00.003-04:00

So I lied. I ended up taking Anya to the doctor after her lunch bottle because things did not seem to be improving. They got me right in, and I didn't spend a lot of time waiting once there either. So far I'm impressed with the pediatrics office I chose. The doctor put her on a hypoallergenic formula that Enfamil makes for babies that are allergic to milk proteins since simply switching to soy didn't seem to be stirring the Kool-Aid. He also put her on a medication for reflux just to cover all of the bases. So hopefully I will at last have my happy baby back that has been missing since her first week of life. Anytime she's been awake since she's been miserable, and it's been hard watching her suffer. Hopefully these changes will finally solve the problem in its entirety.

P.S. I'll post pictures of the apartment if I ever get unpacked. Promise.

...

In the market for a Plano cosmetic dentist?

False Alarm

2009-10-29T11:18:00.002-04:00

Anya slept like a rock all night with only one night time bottle. She didn't spit up or choke any more. I think maybe she just got overtired from not napping at all yesterday and worked herself into a frenzy. It happens. I put her in her crib after her bottle and went to bed. Now she's napping peacefully in her pack 'n' play like nothing was ever the matter. So I think I'm going to just keep an eye on her over the next couple of days and see if we have any repeat episodes like yesterday. If nothing major happens before her scheduled appointment on the 9th of November I'll just ask my questions then. Taking a newborn to the doctor by myself more than once is not something I want to do if I don't have to.

I'm loving having my office area in this little sunroom alcove off of the living room. Who needs Murray Feiss when you have enough windows to give you the illusion of typing your blogs from the surface of the sun? My only qualm is the lack of windows on the other side of the living room near the dining area because it causes the dining room to be dark even during the day which is kind of annoying. I hate using lights when I could have natural sunlight streaming in. But I'm off to put some of this natural sunlight to good use by unpacking whatever I can while Fussy McFusserson finally slumbers.

Fussy Baby Woes

2009-10-28T21:19:00.003-04:00

I have accomplished nothing today except attempt to comfort Fussy McFusserson. I am so sending her the outrageous bill for my wrinkle treatments when I'm older. They are all going to be the result of her irritability lately. I'm seriously beginning to believe she has reflux. She shows a lot of the symptoms, the scariest of those being random excessive spitting up - even on the soy formula - to the point of choking. She's done it a couple of times tonight and hasn't really slept at all today due to screaming like she's in pain in between tiny cat naps which is unlike her normal sleep habits. I think I'm going to take her to the doctor tomorrow if at all possible. If she keeps screaming like she has been I may have to take her to the ER tonight. I guess I won't be getting any sleep tonight either way. I'm too afraid she'll choke in the night. Yay for me. Heh.

Getting Somewhere

2009-10-27T22:08:00.003-04:00

I finally got some unpacking done this afternoon while Anya took a good long nap. I feel productive at last! On top of all the laundry and such I accomplished this morning, I now have a completely unpacked and organized closet. I picked up a few more things that were scattered in Anya's room and closet and put them away so her nursery is just missing decor. There are a few boxes in my room with some odds and ends and some of Ryan's gear that I'm waiting to open until I get the main living space unpacked as I'm sure there are some random electronics and decor items in those boxes. Tomorrow's agenda is to break down all of the boxes I emptied today that are currently taking up the majority of the dining room and take them out to the dumpster a few at a time. Yay. [/sarcasm]

Otherwise I have no idea what I'll have time to unpack or organize. Depends on how Anya does throughout the day as I have to get the daily chores of dishes, laundry, baby bottle washing and making, diaper changing, and baby feeding done before unpacking is even an option. I'm going to need the best eye wrinkle cream in the world to prevent the signs of the stress doing this all by myself is creating. At least I don't have to worry about work or school right now. I just want to have everything done in time for Ryan's homecoming in a few weeks. And I want it all to be done before I worry about the on base errands of getting my car decal and registering Anya for day care. I hope to get everything done at the apartment by the end of the week. I have my work cut out for me.

Moving with a Newborn

2009-10-27T16:09:00.002-04:00

I have accomplished absolutely nothing in the realm of unpacking so far today. During Anya's naps I have showered, taken the dog out, ran the dishwasher and put away the dry dishes, done several loads of laundry that are now folded and put away, and watched a lot of random TV whenever feeding Anya and trying to keep her from getting fussy which is a full time job in and of itself. She fusses randomly a lot lately. I think the soy formula just causes her to have gas which makes her think she's hungry when she's not so she gets mad when I won't feed her every 2.5 seconds and vents her frustrations by screaming loudly enough to get me evicted before we've even been here a week. Who needs weight loss pills to get rid of baby weight when you have the stress of pleasing the newborn on a daily basis while still trying to get things done? Ugh.

She's finally back down.

Don't know how long it will last so I'm off to do some unpacking.

Drowning in Cardboard Boxes

2009-10-26T21:35:00.005-04:00

Well, I'm here in the apartment in Jacksonville attempting to settle in. I still have a lot of unpacking to do. The kitchen is done, and I'm one box of scrapbook supplies short of having the office done. I have everything but decor done in Anya's room, and I started working on my room today which is really just a matter of putting away all of mine and Ryan's clothes. The bed and furniture is all set up. The main area of the apartment looks like a bomb went off because I haven't unpacked much of the living room electronics or any of my decor stuff that is currently surrounding the dining room table.

I had my entire apartment unpacked in one day in Knoxville, but this time I'm juggling unpacking and organizing with taking care of the dog and Anya. I hope to have everything completely put away and all of the decor set up by the end of the week so I can head over to base to do some paperwork and errands concerning drop-in daycare for Anya, a base decal for my car, and reimbursement for all of the travel deals involved with moving as far as the U-Haul rental and gasoline are concerned. Though I'd really like to let Ryan take care of that last part if he gets home before the paperwork deadline for filing the reimbursement claim. So here's hoping.

I'm off to bed while Anya's sleeping. Tomorrow is another day.

Fussy McFusserson Calmed by Uncle Tee

2009-10-21T11:36:00.001-04:00

Sleepy McSleeperson

2009-10-20T22:45:00.000-04:00

Hat courtesy of my mother. Smile? Unfortunately probably courtesy of baby gas.

2009-10-20T14:53:00.001-04:00

Grandma's Blanket

2009-10-19T15:23:00.007-04:00

Anya's great grandmother on Ryan's father's side made this blanket for her just before a stroke that took the dexterity in her hands. Anya loves it. I took these photos to send to her great grandparents. I know it will mean a lot to them with all that they are going through right now. I was going to send them through my mother-in-law, but I'm thinking about picking up a small pocket photo album to put them in along with some of the other better photos of Anya and mailing it to them myself with a thank you note. I like being an awesome granddaughter in-law like that. : )