Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The results are in & it's official................

You Will Be a Cool Parent

You seem to naturally know a lot about parenting, and you know what kids need.
You can tell when it's time to let kids off the hook, and when it's time to lay down the law.
While your parenting is modern and hip, it's not over the top.
You know that there's nothing cool about a parent who acts like a teenager... or a drill sergeant!


Aren't these silly quizzes funny? I just had to post!

Sunday, January 27, 2008

A little break

ahhh...After working all day yesterday, I have off tomorrow (Monday)! Yay! Alex has off from school too, so she will be my little partner all day tomorrow. I have a doctors appointment tomorrow, so that should be interesting. Hopefully, it will just be a routine appt. and no more bloodwork! My arms still look like I'm a drugdealer from the last time I went there for the 3 hour glucose test!
To recap how my day went yesterday, I had to rent a van for my 5 clients that came into town. I rented the van on Friday so that I could get used to how it drives. Of course on Saturday morning, I go to start the van and wouldn't you know it, it's DEAD!
Long story short, they come to get the van, I pick up a new van and remember that the restaurant I am taking them to charges $5 for parking and I have no cash! So, I stop by the bank and of course they are closed. I run to the grocery store and buy some bottled water and write the check over by $10. I need a receipt for work to expense this crap and the receipt gets crumpled in the register. Really, I am SO looking forward to having off tomorrow!!!!
On a side note, we did the family breakfast at Hardees today (wow-haven't done that in about 6 years) and was totally shocked at the size of what a "small" drink is!
We hardly ever eat fast food, so I'm not sure if this is a new thing or has been going on for a while. Look at the size of this "SMALL"!!!! Not to mention the face Alex is making! She cracks me up!
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Friday, January 25, 2008

Hannah Montana

Ugh.....
Since I was one of the many parents that opted out of paying hundreds of dollars to take their daughters to see this chick in concert, I now have the "once in a lifetime" opportunity to take my daughter to go see her in concert in a movie theater in 3-D! Can't you tell how excited I am about it?
Or, as my daughter likes to call her by her REAL name, Destiny Hope Cyrus. I guess she feels they are THAT close!
First of all, this stupid movie is only playing in two theaters here in Richmond. Neither one of them are remotely close to my house.
Secondly, they just started selling the tickets (even though the movie doesn't open until Feb. 1st) and they are already almost sold out!
THIRDLY, By the way, these tickets are $15 a pop!!!! It doesn't matter what showing you go to. They have many options. You can go see the showing as early as 8:30am or as late as 11:50pm! I would pose the question, what parent in their right mind would take their little girls to see a movie at 11:50pm, but I know those crazy -insert bad word here- are out there.
Anyhow, I just had to vent about this!
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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Woohoo!

No gestational diabetes for this girl! Bring on the sugar!!! :)
Well, as my little man is getting bigger, so are his movements. At a board meeting this morning, everyone was staring at my belly because my shirt was moving, because he was WIDE AWAKE! Glad I could be the entertainment for everyone (or freak show, however you look at it).
I had to post this picture of me. When I was pregnant with Alex, I used to wear this nightgown pretty much everyday. I even wore it while I was in the hospital. Just for giggles, I decided to try it on. Alex took the picture. It's weird to think that the last time I wore that nightgown, the person behind the camera was in my belly!
Only 9 more weeks to go!
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Monday, January 21, 2008

The new project!

Well, our border for the the nursery FINALLY came in and was actually in stock! We have never put up wallpaper or border before and we thought border paper was kind of like a giant sticker..you know...you just pull off the back and stick it up. No..no...no...there's a whole pain in the butt process involved! You have to get brushes and squeegies (or however you spell it) and razors and scissors.....the list goes on! Here is our end result...not bad for our first time!
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Also, luckily today I had off from work and I got to take the 3-hour glucose test! Hooray!!! I know, you must be 'hatin'! HA! I had to drink a HUGE cup of the nasty sugary stuff, then have my blood taken 4 times. Please pray I don't have gestational diabetes. Even though it's not going to be horrible if I do, I just hate the thought that I have yet another thing wrong with my pregnancy!
I always feel like crap the rest of the day after I take that glucose test, so I don't know if I'm going to be able to making to ballroom dancing lessons tonight :(
Oh-I brought along with me one of the BEST books I've read in a long time and I must recommend....it's called The Glass Castle. Long story short, it's about this girl who grew up the worst poverty I've ever heard of and her story of how she got out of it. I know I'm not doing it any justice here, but it is REALLY good! And I don't read books, so you know it must be good:)

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Two Cute

Well, now that I have batteries in my camera, I can post this long overdue picture of my baby boy! This was from about 2 weeks ago. He's getting to be such a little chubs! To help you out, he is facing left and his arm is in front of his face. It almost looks like he's singing or laughing!
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As a point of comparison, here is his Ultrasound picture from when I was 5 months pregnant...
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Here is my other "angel" who wanted me to take a picture of her experimenting with her new found talent of being able to make her eyes move in two different directions.....
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Saturday, January 19, 2008

Snow Storm 2008

I am so glad we prepared for this HUGE snowstorm! If you look hard enough at my picture, you'll actually see some snowflakes!
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We were feeling adventurous today and went and registered Alex for Tuckahoe Little League Softball! I am so excited for her! I've been wanting her to play softball so bad, but I didn't want to push her. She decided to do this all on her own! The best part is, all of the practices and games are right behind our house!

On a more random note, some friends of mine at work were going to take that diet pill, Alli. I'm sure you've heard of it. Well, I saw this HILARIOUS blog about the drug and I forwarded it to them and after reading it, they couldn't bring themselves to buy it. I promise I'm not trying to sabatoge the company, but this little article is one of the funniest things I've ever read! Before you click on the link to read it, I must warn you it has some BAD curse words in it. Honestly, the content was just so funny, I didn't even notice them! Actually, I just went back and looked at it again and it is really, really full of curse words! If you want to see the more conservative version of it, I "doctored" it up below......
You'll never look at greasy pizza the same again!
Here is the link: http://angryaussie.wordpress.com/2007/06/20/miracle-diet-pill-with-teeny-tiny-side-effect/
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I found this news on Salon.com and felt compelled to throw my 2c in. There’s a “new” over-the-counter drug available in the US that’s apparently flying off the shelves. It’s called alli (note the way trendy lower case!) and I use the term “new” loosely because it’s apparently a lower strength version of a prescription-only drug (Xenical) that’s been around for a while.

So what does this incredibly popular wonder drug do? Well, not to go all Bill Clinton on you, but it depends on what your definition of “do” is. You see, there’s (1)what the drug company markets it as, (2)the medical description of what it does and (3)the biggest effect you’re actually going to notice.

The drug company markets it as a weight loss pill. They say it will give “safe, effective weight loss”. Because it’s FDA approved it must be good. What could possibly go wrong?

A simplified medical description of the drug is that it’s a fat blocker. It stops your body from absorbing some of the fat in your diet. It doesn’t burn calories. But fat that would have otherwise been absorbed by your body… isn’t. Because fat contains calories less calories will go into your body.

But here’s the most important thing the drug does: it makes you poop oil. Worse, it makes you poop your pants. With oil. This is not the ravings of some fringe conspiracy group, this is what the company tells you itself on its website. Buy our drug if you want to lose weight. Oh, by the way, you’ll end up pooping your pants.

Neat, huh? No wonder it’s selling so well. That large sector of the public that enjoy having their pants filled with liquefied poop has been seriously under-catered to up until now.

The drug company indulges in classic marketing bs that really pisses me off but they still fail to obscure the horror of what’s going to happen to you if you take their drug. The first bit of marketing bs they spin that makes me want to smack them in the freaking head is the old “eat healthier and exercise more to get the full benefits”.

Hello?!?!?! If you eat less fat and exercise you don’t need their stupid pills. I’m sick of these sleazy companies pretending that they’re promoting health. They’re promoting bad habits and laziness. The subtext to the whole thing is “this drug lets you lose weight with NO exercise and NO change to your eating patterns”. People who can eat healthier and exercise more aren’t interested in this crap. But the company doesn’t think it’ll get away with an advertising slogan along the lines of “Screw diet and exercise! Take these pills and poop your weight away!”

The second thing they do that ticks me off is deliberately using language designed to obscure the full horror of the effects of their drug. They can’t even come clean and call them “side-effects”, instead going with “treatment effects”. Heck, maybe they’re right, these aren’t side effects. Side effects are incidental to the main effects. Pooping your pants is the main effect of this drug. It literally is the treatment effect.

Try as they might, their weasel words can’t hide how horrible their drug actually is. Following are actual quotes from their website followed by Mr Angry’s no BS translation.

Website BS (WSBS): You may get:

gas with oily spotting,
loose stools
more frequent stools that may be hard to control
No BS: The following things will happen to you:

You will spray oil when you fart
You will have diarrhoea
You will be pooping constantly and you will lose control of your bowels to the point where you poop your pants
WSBS: The excess fat that passes out of your body is not harmful. In fact, you may recognize it as something that looks like the oil on top of a pizza.

No BS: Oh dear god. Pizza is one of my favorite foods and these evil jerks have done their best to turn me off it for life. It will be very hard to look at a pizza again without wondering if someone on this drug has taken a dump on it.

WSBS: Eating a low-fat diet lowers the chance of these bowel changes. (my emphasis)

No BS: Even if you do cut back on fat, you’re still going to poop oil.

WSBS: …pick a day to begin taking alli, such as a weekend day so you can stay close to home if you experience a treatment effect.

No BS: Do not go out in public after taking this drug. You are going to poop yourself. Stay close to a toilet.

WSBS: If you’re getting ready to travel or attend a social event, hold off on starting with alli until the event is over.

No BS: Don’t say you weren’t warned. You are seriously going to poop yourself.

WSBS: You may not usually get gassy, but it’s a possibility when you take alli. The bathroom is really the best place to go when that happens.

No BS: You’re old life is over. Forget what you think you know about your body. You are going to fart uncontrollably. And there will be follow-through. This is not going to be something you want to share.

And my absolute favorite (which is to say, the part of the website that horrifies me most):

“You may feel an urgent need to go to the bathroom. Until you have a sense of any treatment effects, it’s probably a smart idea to wear dark pants, and bring a change of clothes with you to work.”

Oh. My. God. They are so sure you are going to poop your pants they are saying you should accept the inevitable. There is no way to avoid this. So wear dark pants to hide the liquid poop stains. And bring a change of clothes. Because your first set are going to get impregnated with liquid poop.

To me, this is the ultimate evidence that western society is utterly messed up. You can tell people that taking a pill will make them poop their pants uncontrollably. And your pill will be an utterly out of control success.

There was also a link to a video where you could “watch alli in action”. I assume this is a video showing people pooping their pants. I couldn’t bring myself to look. Try a video you might be able to stomach - I’ve done a video version of this post for your viewing pleasure.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Know your customer!

So, I guess my sales skills are rubbing off on my daughter a little bit! Her Girl Scout Troop had a meeting and decided that their big trip this year is Great Wolf Lodge. Which, this is great and all, but it does not come cheap! So, her troop leader told the girls if that is what they want, they will EACH need to sell 100 boxes of Girl Scout cookies! Let me just tell you right now, I will typically bring the form to work and co-workers buy some (the max I've ever sold at work is like 35) and that's it! So, this past weekend, Alex wanted to go around the neighborhood. "ugh"..is about all I can say! The last time I went around a neighborhood selling anything is when I had to sell King size candy bars in middle school!
So, Alex REALLY wanted to go and of course, I can't let her go alone, and OF COURSE the Giants were playing and Eddie was glued to the sofa. So, yours truly sucked it up and went with her. I just stood at the end of the driveway while she did her thing. I could hear her from where I was standing. It was so cute..."Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies to support troop #695?" Then, these people would turn her down. House after house...nothing but "No thanks" or "I've already bought some". So, after about 17-20 houses, Alex looked across the street and said "Look mom...those houses are really big, I bet all of those people are really rich and they will probably buy tons of cookies"! Trying to not put a stereotype on the people in my neighborhood, I told her that just because they have big houses, does not mean they are rich, nor does it mean they will all buy cookies. Then, she pulled a "Deal or no Deal" moment on me and said that if the first three houses she goes to buys cookies, we get to sell to the whole neighborhood. I thought this was fair, because let's face it...it's Sunday afternoon and these people probably aren't home or in the mood to buy cookies.
Well, as my awesome luck would have it, the all three of those first houses purchased cookies and so did every other house in that neighborhood.
What was her total at the end of the day? 70 BOXES!
So, my little sales woman identified her customer and went for it! I was so proud of her. Of course, my feet were killing me and were so swollen I could hardly take off my shoes, but it was worth it!
Only 30 more boxes to go!!!

Friday, January 11, 2008

Ahhh..the nice crisp air!

Since it has been so nice out, Alex took her new bike out for a spin this week. This is the "Schwinn" bike she got for her birthday. Complete with banana seat!
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She just cracks me up! She took the infamous "Family Life" class yesterday at school and ALL she talked about from the moment I picked her up to the moment her head hit that pillow was vagina's. I had to go to the drug store because I ran out of facial powder and Alex wanted to come with me. Well, as soon as we entered the store, she B-Lined it to the maxi pad isle. She came around the corner with a box of Always pads and put them in the cart "in case" she gets her period. As SOON as we got home, she took her box of pads and went to the bathroom to "try them on". She said she wanted to see how they felt. By the end of the next hour, she was ready to trash it. Then, she found a box of tampons and wanted me to show her how they worked. As soon as I ran it under water, she was like "no way...I'll never use those"!!! She said she can't wait until next year, when they get to learn about "boy parts". (My facial expression at this point was just blank and my eyes were just blinking....blink...blink.)
She and I have SUCH a different relationship about this kind of stuff than my mother and I did. I mean, this child tells me EVERYTHING! No holds bar!!! We had quite the in-depth conversation about vagina's, sex, tampons, pads and periods yesterday. I am so glad she feels comfortable telling me about this. Not only me, but also Eddie. His facial expressions are about the same as mine, just blank! Ha! Ha!

If I can just pass along some great advice that was given to me for those of you with daughters out there. Don't EVER cringe or make faces or tell your daughter that "you don't need to hear that kind of stuff" because it makes you feel uncomfortable or because "I'm your mother". As much as it MAY make you feel uncomfortable, you absolutely CAN NOT let them know this. If they don't tell you or ask you about it, they will just go and tell or ask one of their friends, who as you know, will give them the wrong advice. Also, if they ask you about sex or vagina's or whatever, just tell them the honest truth. They will accept it. Don't laugh or joke about it when you do. Just tell them kind of "matter of factly".
Then, you can blog all about it and laugh!!!!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Bye Bye Cyst!!!!!!

Well, of course I am here at work and my camera is at home. One of these days I'll get some more pictures on here, I promise!!!
Well, yesterday was the big doctor appointment and they baby's cyst that was on his brain...IS 100% GONE!!!!! I can't tell you how happy Eddie, Alex and I are! What a relief! Thanks for all your prayers! God is so awesome!
The doctor was really cool and gave us some updated profile pictures of our little man! He's got such chubby cheeks, already! Only 11 1/2 more weeks left! And no, haven't even started on the nursery. We went to go get the border and they are sold out with the next shipment coming on 1/16. So, we wait. Of course, Alex wants a border for her room now too, so we will have one heck of a long weekend that weekend!
If you read Sommer's most recent post, our church is having a little Dancing with the Stars competition. We will be taking 8 weeks of ballroom dancing and I believe there is a "dance off" at the end. Well, firstly, I can tell you that I was very excited because I love to dance! Eddie sooooo did not want to do this, but when I told him everyone in our small group was doing it, he felt a lot better and he mentioned to me today that it will be fun no matter what because we will be in good company.
It's going to be a challenge for me to be "graceful", seeing how I consider myself lucky if I can just walk to the bathroom without tripping! I'm so off-balance these days!!! Lord help me if they have us do the tango!!! No dipping for this girl!!!
Well, I'll post more later, but wanted to share my good news!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Happy 2008!

I can not tell you how happy I am that 2008 is here! 2007 was not a very good year for me (other than finding out I was pregnant). I am looking forward to just meeting my son and just having a nice, relaxing year!
To recap 2007, Britney shaved her head and apparently every other body part, Anna Nicole Smith and her son passed away, Dr. Falwell passed away and the great bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis, the fires in California and numerous other horrible things happened. In my own personal life, I had quite a few reality checks, we moved, we went to Disney World and the best, I found out I'm having a son.
Christmas 2007 was spent with my family in Lynchburg and my dad, being the classy man that he is, bought a fart machine and secretly attached it to my brother-in-law's chair and during dinner. He kept making it fart. It was funny for the first 5minutes, but after enduring it throughout the entire dinner, dessert, dinner the next day and dessert the next day, I was ready to throw the fart machine out the window! Ahh...gotta love going home for the holidays :)
My camera ran out of batteries, so as soon as I can get to the store, I'll start taking some pics again!
I hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!