Bow Chicka What!!!!!???

Picture this...a petite 3 year old girl. She's putting a puzzle together at our coffee table. Very sweetly she says.... Bow Chicka wow wow... bow chicka wow wow. Um. Yeah. Not something you hear every day! Where, you may ask, did this come from? Apparentley a commercial for Axe (I think, or some other cologne like substance). Have you seen them? Oooh, found one.
That's my baby! She's a sponge.

The Cake That Almost Wasn't

When I placed the order for Faith's birthday cake, they asked when I wanted to pick it up. I asked if I could pick it up the 30th. The lady told me that they aren't usually open on saturdays, but they would have someone there at noon and then later in the afternoon because other people had to pick things up too (they do wedding cakes, catering etc. so even though they aren't open saturdays they normally have pick-ups which I knew). I told her that noon would be best. Easy to remember and would work good becuase I knew I'd have other stuff to do in the afternoon before the party at 4:30.

At 11:30 saturday I headed out to drop Chrissy off at the vet then headed to the cake place. I arrived and parked out front at about 11:50 (I am ALWAYS early for stuff). I went ahead and tired the door, but since I was early didn't really expect it to be open. It wasn't. So, I waited around for about 20 minutes. No one came. My sister-in-law came by (her office is in the same building as the cake place). I told her my delima. We decided to go through her office to the other side of the building. Maybe their entrance on the other side would be open! It wasn't. I was worried that while I was on the other side of the building the cake lady was wondering where I was on the side I originally started out on. So, I went clear back there and the doors were still locked. I decided to call the number and got the answering machine. I left a message. I called my mom because I knew she'd picked up something before and asked which entrance she'd used. The same one I was at. So I waited some more. Then I remembered the lady on the phone telling me someone else had to pick up something at noon. Where were they at? Shouldn't that person be waiting with me wondering why the door was still locked? I'm guessing that they either cancelled or arranged to pick it up at a differnet time and they forgot about me.

I decided to call my sister. I thought she might know (or know someone who knew) the name of the lady that ran the place. The best I could hope for was to get a hold of her at home & ask if someone could come get me my cake. Rhi said she couldn't remember the last name of the lady, but she'd find out & let me know. At this point I was irritated and had a lot of other stuff I needed to do. So shortly after 1:00 I decided screw this. I had to go pick up balloons. I went to the other side of town and had just parked at the balloon store. Rhi called me back and said she had been able to get a hold of the lady and she was at the cake place. She said she been there the whole time and didn't know I was there (I had pounded on several windows and am suprised I didn't break one). She said she was going out to look for me. Well, fat lot of good that does since I was on the other freakin side of town! So I left right away and went clear back across town, hoping the whole time she wouldn't leave. I get there and what do you know, there's a small white SUV in the parking lot that WAS NOT there before. So I go in, get strange looks and someone hollers to another woman "someone's here". I get my cake, pay for it and get out of there. No sorry no nothing. Whatever. I got my cake. Which I did like how it turned out!

3 Years and Counting!

On Friday, Faith turned 3! My little smoochie-poo it getting so big! We had a party yesterday for her. We had friends & family over for cake & ice cream and food. We did the cake & ice cream first (every kids dream right? Dessert before the meal!) Well, I did it that way because this time of year people are busy so I thought we do the fun stuff then for the people who could/wanted to hang around longer, we'd feed them. I had some issues when picking up the cake, but I'll tell you about that later. I'm not really in the mood to go over that whole mess again.

So, the party. It went very well. There were 6 small children running around and there were no major problems. Of course there were a few small scuffles but that's to be expected in the 1-4 year old range. My neice whacked her brother in the head with a plastic bat. He got over it. No permanent damage! Then after Faith opened presents there was some expected squabiling because everyone wanted to play with the same things. Then everybody ate, played some more and went home! I think everybody had a pretty good time and I was EXAUSTED! We'll probably do it again next year. Good times.

Faith, enjoying a little more cake after the party was over (nothing like a 2nd piece of cake at 9:30pm)

Rounding up the balloons that are left to take inside. I think she'd had enough photos taken for the day!

Where did you get that at?

Faith: I like your shirt mommy.
Mommy: Uh, thanks (it's an old, slightly faded t-shirt).
Faith: Where did you get it?
Mommy: Um, some store.
Faith: What store mommy?
Mommy: I don't know. It's pretty old, I don't really remember.
Faith: Probably Walmart?
Mommy: Yeah, I guess. I could have gotten it there.
Faith: It's a very nice shirt mommy.

***********

Faith: Mmm, this is a good pickle mom!
Me: Yeah, I thought you'd like it. They are pretty good.
Faith: Where did you get it?
Me: At the store.
Faith: Which store?
Me: The grocery store.
Faith: Walmart or Dillons grocery store?
Me: Um, I think Dillons.
Faith: Oh, ok. It's a good pickle.


This is Faith's new thing. She will compliment you on something then ask where you got it. And if you don't know, she'll say "oh, you probably got it at Walmart". I think we shop there too much! (but we don't have much choice around here). I know she's a curious little thing and in her defense, people ask her where she gets stuff too. My only hope it that the next step in this line of questioning isn't "and how much did it cost?"

Ready, Set, Knit!

I have taught myself to knit! Yea! I've been wanting to learn for quite awhile. So I finally bought knitting for dummies and I figured it out! Nothing to get too excited over yet, I've just learned the basics but I'm diggin it. Maybe by the time it's cold again I'll be able to knit my little Faith a cute winter hat!

Take Cover!

Tuesday night. In the basement. Waiting on the TORNADO to go away. Ok, I don't know that there is actually one right outside our window or anything but we are in a tornado warning and there was one about 10 miles west of us heading our way. So, we've got Faith snoozin on the couch, Matt trying to convince Chrissy to control her tail (and sit in one place) and Matt's sister laughing at the whole thing. And I'm wondering how long we'll have to wait! It's currently 10:59pm and I would like to go to bed. I think we're actually in the warning until 4 this morning & I'm definately not waiting up the whole time! I'm hot & sweaty (I think I'll run upstairs & adjust the AC) and there's not really a comfy place to lay. Guess I'll just hang out.
Ooo! We are now out of the tornado warning! Guess we'll get Faith back to bed and take a peek outside. I hope the flowers and garden survived the hail. It sounded pretty bad for awhile.
The damage: Not much that I can tell right now! Our flower garden is pretty sad and beat up. I don't know if they can recover from the beating they took! Poor Faith will probably be sad tomorrow! We planted the seeds awhile back and they were growing very nicely. I guess I'll wait until morning (and light) to check out our garden. I don't have very high hopes for it.....

Just Another Day....Sort of

So, here we are on a lovely April day in Kansas. It is snowing.

Now the real reason for today's post. Yesterday marked one year since my miscarriage. It does not seem like it could have been a year already. It doesn't seem like it was "yesterday" but maybe like it could have been last month. Tuesday, April 4th I woke up at about 6am gushing blood like nobody's business. On my way to the bathroom I told Matt he needed to get up, NOW. So, as I'm sitting in the bathtub (which if you ever think you're having a mc, you should do. Don't sit on the toilet because they'll ask you about clots, tissue and how much you've bled. You don't know these answers if they're in the bottom of the toilet. I learned this after I bled while being preg with Faith) I told Matt to get me some clean clothes and get Faith up because we were going to the ER. We got there and I'm sure I was a sight, what with dried blood caked on me and fresh still running everywhere. While they were trying to figure out what exactly was going on with me they removed ping pong ball sized blood clots from me. Yup, nice visual huh? The hopefull thought was that there was not any tissue, just blood & clots. So eventually they did a sonogram. Then shortly after that we found out the baby had died. Then, shortly after that they were able to get me in for a D&C at around 10 or 10:30 am (since I hadn't eaten anything for however many hours we didn't have to wait and they also just happened to have an opening in surgery). All this time I was pretty much numb. I don't think I really cried. I think partially because I was thinking maybe they were wrong and that it wasn't true and the baby really was okay. As I was laying on the table, all drugged up, covered in warm blankets and as they were putting me out, I started to cry. The next thing I remember is feeling like I was asleep and my back hurt very very badly. So I rolled onto my side thinking it would feel better. As I did this I heard someone talking to me & I kind of mumbled something. Then the same woman said "her blood pressure just dropped, get her off her side and back onto her back, now." The next thing I remember I was finally waking up and Matt was there sitting by me. I was still out of it & sleeping off & on. At about 5 I think, the nurses in recovery started trying to get me up and moving around. I was still bleeding pretty good. So, I'm up and heading to the bathroom to pee (ya know how nurses are about making you go before you can leave). We get there, I sit down and tell the nurse I'm not feeling too well. As things go black and I pass out I hear the nurse yell for the other nurse to come help her. Then I'm back in the bed where I started. Did you know that a D&C is an out-patient procedure? You're supposed to be able to go home afterwards and be sad and miserable in your own bed. Not me. No, I have to go to the floor and stay the night. Now in my particular hospital (don't know about yours) they have the women's center. This is where you stay if you are in the hospital for any woman specific ailment or event. Hysterectmy (sp), D&C or birth. Yup, that's right. You, Sharona have just lost your baby.....Bob, tell her what she's won....Why, a not all expense paid night on the same floor as scores of mother's who have just given birth! You can even listen to the new babies cry all night for free! So, the night sucked and I got out of there the next morning. Shortly after I got home I started looking for tattoo ideas. I had decided that I was getting one I just wasn't sure what yet. I told my husband about the idea, he wasn't real thrilled. He's not much of a tatto guy. I thought about it off and on and never really committed to doing it for multiple reasons. So, here we are a year later. We have not been able to get pregnant again yet, not too sure why. As I was laying in bed monday night at 11:30 I decided I was getting my tattoo. Angel wings on my left wrist. I told Matt my decision the next morning. He asked if I was having a crisis. More like finally dealing with it, not starting a new one. I reminded him I had been thinking about this for awhile. He said I hadn't said anything about it for quite some time. Well, yes, but I'd still been thinking about it. I was so serious that had it been possible I would have gotten out of bed at 11:31 and went and got it had there been a place open. Tuesday I called and made an appointment. The next one available? May 2nd at 10:30 am. I took it because I really didn't have much other choice. Wednesday at noon I went to look at tattoo designs & hope to talk to Lee about mine if he wasn't too busy. When I went in & was looking through stuff I heard Lee talking to the other guy about a cancellation for tomorrow (today). I asked the guy up front what time the cancellation was & if I could get in. I could and I did. At 1pm today I got my first tattoo. It totally looks better in person. I love it, it's like it was always meant to be there. Angel wings for my sweet little baby. I don't know if I was going to have a boy or a girl. I was too numb/scared to ask about it at the time and I don't know if they have any record of it. The next time I go in I'll ask (if I'm feeling brave). As far as the whole tattoo experience? LOVED IT. It didn't hurt near as much as I expected. It was fun and I would totally do it again. (thing is, I don't know that I want anymore tattoos! But the experience was fun!)

Head Trauma

So as some of you know, and some of you don't, about 2 weeks ago Faith was at my parents house & slipped and whacked her head on the stone hearth of the fireplace. She was bleeding pretty good & had a gash in her head. They took her to the clinic there & got it glued and I'm told she sat there quietly the whole time. If you ask her what happened she'll tell you the doctor squished her head back together and glued it. (which is pretty much what happened) My mom was understandabley (sp?) a little nervous the rest of the day about her falling again. She told Faith later to please stop running. Faith said, "It's ok Grandma! If I fall & break the other side the doctor can glue it too!" Mom also felt really bad about Faith's poor noggin and she was telling her she was really sorry about her head. Faith said, "Grandma, it's not your fault. I did it."
Since my almost 5 year old neice was born mom has been saying someone's going to fall & crack their head open on that fireplace. Guess she was right. (don't tell her I said that!)
Faith's head is now on it's way to healing (after bonking heads with a little boy at daycare last friday, causing her head to bleed & prompting an ER visit, then bonking it again while she was playing last sunday night, causing it to bleed more). Part of the scab got knocked off yesterday, then last night it was just hanging on by some of the glue that was left. So this morning I yanked it off (seriously gross looking, a scab hanging on by a dab of glue, yuck). Faith now has a dent in her head & some tender new skin on her forehead. She'll probably have a pretty good scar, but I guess she'll have a pretty good story to go with it!

What A Week

Here we are, on a windy Friday night in Kansas. Not much going on here, but I'm extremely glad that it's Friday! It was a pretty long week at work. Monday morning I went in to find everyone else cleaning up from a leak in the roof. So I joined in. We had to move a bunch of stuff out of the room where the water leaked. It got some of our files wet & after everything was moved out the carpet guys set up some large, noisy fans to dry the place out. We were still listening to those fans today... So, the week pretty much went downhill from there! Just about everything that could go wrong did so I'm really hoping that next week will be better! On a positive note, 2 weeks ago I got a super cute haircut & last saturday I bought me some cool new shoes! They were even on sale! Original price $90, sale price $45. So I got a good deal.

And.....I'm Back!

Well, hey there! I don't know if there's anyone left who actually reads this anymore but if you do, I'm back! I've re-vamped a bit, deleted some posts and will now be letting some of my family know about this blog! I'm going to try to use this to keep in touch with them and some friends more!

[fab-yuh-luhs]

On a not so alcoholic note as the previous post, check out these photos of my sisters and my daughter. I like to use my sisters as guinea pigs when I want to try out new lighting, props or really just anything! I can be a little bossier with them to get them to do stuff as opposed to actual paying customers! The actual pictures look better, I think we need a new scanner.

I need a drink....

Greetings to all who stop by! I haven't posted for awhile because things have been insane & if I didn't have to work everyday I'd probably be drinking.
Ok, we were supposed to be able to close on our house Sept. 15. We had everything planned out- we'd close in the morning, get started gutting the bathroom & removing wallpaper in the rest of the house. Faith would go stay with my parents for the weekend since they had my little sister's volleyball games to go to and couldn't help us out and Matt's parents would be over helping with the redoing of things. Yeaaah. Didn't happen. First we find out that Matt's parents have decided to go visit his sisters (who live about 4 hours away) that weekend. Fine, no big deal. We can still get things started, it'll just go a little slower with less help. Then we find out that we can't close the 15th. The 22nd is the earliest, but how a bout the 25th? I say "hell no!. If it's not the 22nd it had better be the 15th." Of course, my dear husband says "It can't be the 15th." Thank you caption obvious. I know that I was just being pissy. So, I have resigned myself to the fact that we will close on the 22nd. Which is MOST inconveient (sp?).
Why? You ask. Well let me tell you. The 22nd we have a wedding rehersal/dinner to go to. With family from out of state in town that we don't get to see very often. Then saturday, the 23rd Matt's cousin is getting married and Matt is in said wedding.
So what I'm getting at is this:
1) We're already a week behind our plan
2) We may be able to get a little started on friday IF we close early enough in the morning.
3) Saturday is shot to hell.
4) Sunday we probably won't get started until family leaves town around noon.
We have to be out of our apartment by Oct. 17th and between the 22nd and then we have to redo the bathroom, remove a ton of wallpaper & hope the walls are ok to paint and not have to do any other crap to them (oh & did I mention the removal of the wallpaper from the ceillings too?), remove the wood trim in the living room, dining rm and hallway & strip & refinish it, remove carpet from same and refinish the floors. So, yeah a week makes a HUGE difference. I'm going to go get a drink now. Hope my boss doesn't mind.

**UPDATE
1:20 pm So, I hear from our Realtor that the deal is going down at 1:00 pm the 22nd. Um, not quite the time I was hoping for. Hey, is that a blender I hear making strong margaritas...............

From the Mouths of Babes

This morning as I dropped Faith off at daycare I was telling Kathleen about something Faith said last night.

I was getting a bit frustrated with Faith, I was trying to get her to stop messing with some stuff and I'd told her several times and she just wasn't listening. I was obviously sounding a little crabbier with her when she says to me "No Mommy! You just have to be patient with me!" And then went back to what she was doing as I was laughing.

So, we had a good laugh about that this morning as we both wondered where she'd heard that from since neither of us thought we'd said it to her before. Then Kathleen was telling me that last week her daughters were watching Wonder Pets and Faith came into the room, crawled up onto the couch & says "Well, I didn't know Wonder Pets was on!" She just cracks us up!

Kathleen tries to remember all the funny things she says so that she can share them with me. She keeps saying she needs to write it down becuase she forgets stuff. I just have to say that I absolutely LOVE that woman. I am so glad that we were able to find such a great babysitter (and on such short notice, in a matter of 2 days) that is great with all the kids and that Faith really likes. And she has such a nice family. Her two older daughters play with the kids & her two young sons are great too. It's so cute, her older son M (that is Faith's age) and Faith play together real well, then sometimes fight but they always kiss & make up! And her husband will play with the kids when he's home for lunch and when he gets home from work. He's this kind of big burly guy and he'll get on the floor to play with his boys but he always plays with the other kids too. We are just so totally lucky! Every once in awhile Matt & I discuss moving (either to a small town about 15 min. from here or wherever) and my biggest objection now? That Faith loves her daycare and her friends and she would be very very sad to not see them anymore. Of course, now that we're buying a house we won't be going anywhere anyway!

Home Sweet Home (or Mortgage sweet Mortgage)

So, here it is. We have finally found a house!!!! It has taken many many moons and we've looked at some crap and some majorly over priced average houses but it was all worth it (hopefully!). We are under contract and will be closing Sept. 15th (at the latest, hopefully earlier, but we'll see). We've got to do a little work before we move in. The only thing that MUST be done is putting a shower in the bathroom, it's only got a tub. So I think we're going to just redo the whole bathroom now instead of putting in the shower then redoing the whole thing later anyway! Also, we have to strip off wallpaper before we can paint. And, we're trying to decide if we want to pull up the carpet & redo the wood floors now or wait until later ('cause ya just never know what you'll find! And I don't know that we can afford new carpet everywhere if the wood is crappy or damaged). However the downside is, if we wait until later we won't be able to walk through most of the house when refinishing the floors. The dilemas of a soon to be homeowner! And, one of the best parts of all, Faith has a large fenced in backyard to play in! She really loves to be outside & our apartment sucks for that (let's be honest here, it sucks for many other reasons too).
Regardless of everything else, I have some paint colors picked out & I'm ready to move! Happy dance & this time I don't care if anyone is looking!

Mmm...that's bean dip!

Last night I was eating some veggies & hummus. Faith wanted some so I shared. She said she wanted dip with hers & I wasn't sure how it would go since I've never given her hummus. So I said "ok" & passed the jar (yes, the jar. I usually make my own but was feeling lazy & wanted to see if the jarred was good). So she takes a bite & says "Mmm..that's bean dip!" Why yes Faith, it is. How on earth did you get so smart? I don't know where she gets some of this stuff! I'm pretty certain that she hasn't had any hummus at her babysitters house & not at our familes so I'm perplexed. Apparently she just knows what she tastes I guess!

Happy Birthday!!....whatever

On this very day, 2 years ago, my dear daughter made her entrance into the world (a month early). We've talked a bit about her birthday with her, you know, that she's going to be 2 and she's getting to be a big girl blah blah blah..... Yeah, she doesn't care. It's not like I expected her to be all excited and get up this morning and ask for birthday cake for breakfast and presents before she went to daycare, but come on! I gave her a hug, said happy birthday!......and she held her empty cup out to me and asked for juice. There are days that she just seems so grown up and seems to know all, but today, in this world of everyone growing up too fast, I'm reminded that a two year old is just a two year old. And that juice is a very acceceptable birthday gift. So whether she cares or not - HAPPY BIRTHDAY FAITH!!!

"I Know"

So I go pick Faith up from Kathleen's house (her babysitter) and us adults are talking for a minute. She tells me that Faith was playing with Lynkon, who's about 6 months old. He really really likes to watch her & play with her and always laughs when she talks & plays with him. Well, on this particular day she's playing with him & he's laughing and Kathleen says "Lynkon really likes to watch you, he thinks you're pretty" and my sweet, modest daughter's response? "I know!" and keeps playing with him! Of course, in her defense she also says "I know" when you say, "ooh, we're running late" or "It's time for bed" or, my favorite, "Faith, you're silly". "I know!" So, here she is, 13 days from being 2 and she already knows everthing! I thought that didn't happen until they were teenagers?

My Sweet Faith

*First of all let me just say that yes, I still use a baby monitor with my almost 2 year old. The AC/Heater in our apartment is quite loud & by our bedroom door so there is no way I'd be able to hear her in the middle of the night if it were on. That being said:

I very seldom sleep through the night. I toss & turn and wake up occassionaly. And when my daughter is sick, I wake up to check on her in the middle of the night. Thankfully she now does almost always sleep through the night. So, last night, in the middle of the night when all people should be sleeping (unless you're one of those carefree, partying college students) I woke up. Not wide awake, just awake enough to realize I should be sleeping. Then I hear a noise from my daughter.... and she is giggling. She's fast asleep, just giggling away! How sweet is that?! It's so nice to know that she has good dreams! And as I sit here typing this, thinking about that, hearing it in my head I just can't help but smile and be in a good mood. Ya just gotta love those sweet little kids!