Tonight and Joey is still in a good mood.

He woke up from his nap a holy terror, and I think he was super hungry, and after that he's been a doll for the rest of the day. We went on a long walk today. We met some people in the neighborhood who have a 3 1/2 year old. She loved Joey. The mother Lara was very nice.

Later we met another set of people - two women walking their rotweiller dog. The dog was super sweet and let Joey pet it. He loves dogs.

Tonight he was crying his head off. We tell Joey his vitamins are candy so he eats them. He loves his vitamins now and wants them more than once a day. So I made Joe go up to the store so I can have something to bribe him to lay down for a diaper change if I really need to (most the time he's good). AND because he seemed to want a piece of candy so bad. He already has a sweet tooth? So once Joe left I picked up Joey, asked him what he wanted. He didn't want candy - he wanted a different sippy cup. Joe said before he left he did point at the candy....but when I picked him up, I guess he just wanted a different sippy. So I gave it to him, and he was instantly happy.

After that we played. He loves to be chased as he runs through the house. If I catch him, I pick him up and hold him upside down while he giggles. We did this for about 15 minutes. He kept running to the chair, climbing up it and turning on and off the light. It was cute.

Today while we were eating he was signing like crazy. I think he's going through another growing spurt - he ate a ton today. He watches a video and he knows how to say or sign every one of the ones on this video. I'm so amazed!!

• Colors • Rainbow • Red • Orange • Yellow • Green • Blue • Purple

• Vegetable • Fruit • Carrot • Corn • Beans • Potato • Lettuce

• Grapes • Peach • Pear • Strawberry • Watermelon

• Dance • Walk • Sit • Swim • Sing • Run • Swing • Jump

He's so amazing the way he's picking up everything now like a sponge. Watermelon is a hard sign. You first have to sign water, and then sign melon and he does it perfect. He does please and thank you in sign and says thank you. We are so proud.

Here are some photos from tonight. I'm so in love with his big blue eyes!

I didn't get any scrapbooking done this weekend :( I need to get a page or two done by the end of month!

Oh and I got on the scale tonight and I was up. I hate the scale! LOL

Our weekend

Our wonderful aunt and uncle told us that we could have their little tykes playhouse. They didn't want it anymore and that if we didn't want it, she was going to freecycle it or something because Uncle Gary just wanted it out of his yard.

I wanted it for Joey but we have a tiny house, and a tiny yard. Also he is only outside at our house for only 1/2 hour to an hour a day. So I made a phone call to our daycare. She watches kids 6 weeks old to 3 years old. So she said she would love to have it for the kids. This way, many kids can get use of it, including Joey on a daily basis!! I told her to call me Saturday to pick it up and I would drive with her over there.

On Saturday she called and I said we'd be over soon. Her brother had a truck. So we went to the post office, then we went to McDonalds because we were starving. We drove over to Dena's and were off to my aunt's house to get the playhouse. 1/2 way there it started to POUR rain. I mean buckets and buckets. Go figure. It hasn't rained in a week. So we get there, it's still pouring! The guys get out, heave the playhouse into the truck, tie it down and jump in the car. Dena's boyfriend makes a crack that his hair is getting wet (he's bald). When we were done and ready to pull out the drive, all the guys were soaked.

We get back to Dena's and she thanked us a ton of times for the playhouse. I can't wait to ask her how all the kids like it. It's a small home daycare and the kids really would love stuff like that. They take such marvelous care of Joey. They have worked with him on sign language and now all the kids are signing too - they implemented it into their program. The other kids there get along with Joey so well. It's such a wonderful place to take him. I could not imagine him being taken care of by anyone else!

So Saturday evening we had a wedding. I needed a dress. I went to Fashion Bug and the lady said this store did not carry dresses!!!

So I was off to another expensive dress store in town, when I passed by this consignment store that I have been meaning to stop at for 3 years, but never have. I stopped in. I'm amazed. They had everything, in great condition, in style and for reasonable prices - ok maybe a bit pricy but a lot cheaper than brand new! I spent $63!! I got a few nice shirts and more and a shirt to wear to the wedding that night with my black skirt I already had - see photo.

The wedding was small and nice. Good thing the bride and groom didn't get there on time because the hall was not ready at all. They didn't get there until quarter to EIGHT - it was supposed to start at 7pm. I guess the photographer took pictures up the wazoo. It was a smoking reception so Joe and I ate, and saw people and left. Joe got really sick - he thinks maybe it was McDonalds that morning, so it was a good thing we left when we did.

Mom and Dad watched Joey. They said he was so funny.

When he is over there he eats in his booster chair, on the ground in front of the big tv. So yesterday after we left, he heaved the big booster chair off a chair in the kitchen, carried it into the living room, put it on the ground in front of the tv and looked at my dad. My dad looked at my mom and said - I think he's hungry.

Hahaha - my smart child. LOL. She said he signed a lot yesterday. Good thing they know the basic signs. Also, he kept running into the kitchen by the stove, signing and saying HOT and running away. Mom said it was a riot. They enjoy him so much!

Here is a picture of him when we picked him up. He was sleeping on the couch.

Wow - a newscast just came on the tv about Katrina the hurricane. The mayor of New Orleans said that this is the first time in history that a hurricane of this strength has come to that town and told everyone to evacuate! How scary!!!! I do think it would be neat (ok I'm nuts) to be in a small hurricane and see how the weather is. I love storms. See - I'm nuts!

Today we just relaxed. We went to Best Buy to take back a head set that did not work with my cell phone. I have not found one yet that did. They all suck. I think I'm getting a new phone! I need my headset to talk on the phone!

I'm making shrimp scampi for dinner for Joe. I'm a bit concerned, I think I'm gaining a few lbs. I bet I'm not but I just think I could be. I'm journaling food again. It's so hard to lose weight. Sigh.....

Busy days....are here again.

No matter what I stop doing to make my life less hectic, it's always hectic.

Today is WW day, so I had to go to my aunt's house to drop off some scrapbook stuff for her and her daughters, then to my parents, then to WW, then to get something to eat, then to my parents to get Joey and then home. It's 10pm when I get home! How frustrating!

I didn't gain or lose today at ww. Stayed the same.

Caroline and I booked our tours and 2 spa treatments yesterday for our cruise. I'm excited about it. In Puerto Varata (sp?) Joe and I are doing a nature/hike expedition in the rain forest, then in Mazitlan we are doing a tour with Mazitlan Frank and we are excited about it. It's about the heart of Mazitlan. In Cabo - we aren't sure yet. I think I want to do a charter fishing trip! That would be awesome to catch a 2 food fish!

Lori cancelled plans on me for tomorrow because they are painting Jeff's house. She was going to come over and scrapbook.

My brother is coming over for a little while. We are paying him to put up two ceiling fans and put a newer back screen door on the house. The one we have is crap. You have to slam it 5 times for it to shut.

I made Applebee's Chicken Fajita rollups from www.topsecretrecipes.com and it turned out awesome! Just like the restuarant though it asked for 500 ingredients - it will still good.

Gotta go to bed soon. I'm tired!

My last day off

I've been off since Wednesday sick with Joey. Today was my scheduled day off. It started with a quarter to 7am page from a co-worker to help get something fixed. See - the pager never stops.

So I slept until 8am when Joey woke up. I had a 10am eye appt so I needed to get him ready. He was being ok, and then a little stinker at times this morning. I finally said in the middle of his tantrum, do you want to go to school? He stopped, looked at me, and ran for the door. I guess he had enough of me this week! LOL

I dropped him off at school and he was happy to be there. I went to my eye appt which went well. She had to dialate my eyes so I had to wear those funky shades out of the office.

So I went home. I got some recipes printed off for dinners this week. I went to the store and bought it out - and we had just gone grocery shopping this weekend!

I went home and unloaded the groceries and then went to pick up Joey. It's 1pm. Dena says that he was so happy today, he's talking non-stop, and that it seems like he grew a few inches. I guess I'll have to measure him now! Joey's happy to be home. At 2 I put him down for a nap. He was acting tired.

I pitter pattered around for a bit and then laid down too around 3. Joey slept until 4 so I got an hour nap in.

We then just played, I cleaned a bit (what a surprise), I fed Joey, you know - the same old stuff.
Tonight I made dinner - Cajun Skillet Chicken with tomatoes. Joe gets home and says he's not excited about it but will try it. So I cook up this recipe, some pasta and some corn I got at the store. Dinner is ready and Joe tries it and really likes it. He even ate the tomatoes since they were in the topping. It was spicy - no wonder he liked it - and I liked it too! We gave some chicken without the topping on it to Joey, and he got this look like, OMG, and then started to cry. I guess it WAS spicy. I gave him his drink and told him to drink it and he threw it. I picked it back up I said drink your juice and he finally took it and chugged almost the whole thing. Poor kid. He wanted chicken so bad that I warmed up a few chicken nuggets - that made him happy.

Here are some photos from last week around Wed/Thur - we went to Target and got Joey his first Thomas the train replicas and that's all he played with. The one of him and me is right after he got out of the tub - playing with his Thomas the train toys. The one of him sleeping is from this weekend. Instead of putting his head on the pillow, he puts his whole body on it. He sleeps all over his bed. I bet he will never grow out of a crib!

It’s been a week since I last updated. Yeah, I know – that’s bad. I’ve been sick all week. I got this nasty virus on Thursday August 11^th, and today’s Sunday the 21^st and I’m still sick and NO BETTER! Joey’s the same way – he got sick around the same time and he’s still sick too. I guess both of us are going to the Dr’s tomorrow to get on antibiotics. I think antibiotics are overused and I do not like to take them, and do not like Joey taking them…but I missed 3 days of work last week because both Joey and I were sick and we still aren’t better! We had a bad sore throat, then got super congested and it hasn’t gone away. You know, the crap that settles in your throat at night and you have to cough out? Then I’m hacking all day long – cough cough cough and it sounds like I’m dying! Well then it’s like that all day long…and you know you have a major infection raging! Joey even had another temp yesterday!! He had a temp last Tuesday - Thursday and that’s why I stayed home with him. So why does he have it again yesterday? So anyhow, again, we are going to the dr. tomorrow, if they can fit us in. I guess we’ll see what they have to say. I have an eye appt tomorrow and I need to take him to daycare for an hour or so and then probably while I go to the Dr’s.

Right now we are on our way home from a weekend at Grandma’s house. My pager just went off and I don’t know why. I don’t think I have gotten through a weekend without that darn thing going off!!! I can’t get to the pager while we are in the car, and even if I could, I’m not even in a position to fix any problems – I’m in a car!

So this weekend on Saturday we went to Birch Run so I could return 2 skirts that I bought online from Coldwater Creek. So I went to look at this skirt in the store, and they wanted $49.99 for it and I got it for $19.99 online. You have to be freaking kidding me! I am NOT going to buy anything from that store anymore! Shopping online is sooo much cheaper!

So afterwards Joe and I were talking about getting something to eat. Grandma was watching Joey… so we decided we wanted Red Lobster. We hadn’t eaten there in a long time and it’s one of our favorite restaurants. So we drove to Saginaw to eat there and had a wonderful meal. Their coconut shrimp is excellent. I have to find out how to make it. I also had their fettuccini shrimp alfredo. That was excellent too! I just love eating there! So we had a good date night. We went grocery shopping afterwards. I needed to buy some beef broth for French onion soup that I was making the next day.

Sunday I slept in (thank you grandma and grandpa!!) and then I woke up and grandma made us breakfast! Joe and I then started making the French Onion Soup. It’s soooo good and easy to make. You crock pot it for 5 hours or so and then add French bread and cheese during the last ½ hour of cooking and it melts and makes an awesome soup. I took a nap when Joey did and when I woke up, Joe had said he already had 3 bowls of it and wanted a fourth bowl but he didn’t want to eat it all. He loves it as much as I do!

I stepped down from one of my design teams this weekend – Scrapaddict. There is just too much going on. I’ve been really stressed lately. I work 45 hours a week, sometimes more because I have to work a weekend here or there or do after hours support. Then that cuts out on even more time I have with Joey… Then I sell Avon, I workout a few times a week, I like having a clean house so I clean a lot, I like playing with Joey and spending time with Joe, I like to cook, I like to sleep (which I have NOT gotten enough of lately and it’s been killing me – I usually sleep 11pm to 5am!)… so I had to cut back. I decided that I needed more weekend time and me time so I am not going to do design work for Scrapaddict anymore (and I hated giving that up!) and not selling Avon anymore. I sell it right now for our local Curves and it’s too much of a hassle to sell, and do orders, send stuff back. I just don’t enjoy it – you know?

A funny thing happened this week. Joey has these blocks called Peek a blocks. They have things in the block – they are clear and having bananas, monkeys, different things in them. Well he came running to me with one and started almost crying and practically threw it at me. I took a look at it and it had fruit loops cereal in it and a bowl – of course they are plastic but Joey didn’t know any better. He wanted them out of there! So I had to take him in the room and give him some cereal to munch on. I explained to him they are not real and they are plastic but I’m not so sure he understood that!

Let’s see – he’s been trying to say Grandma and Grandpa. He saw a horse today and said moo. We told him no, the horses say Neigh…and he said neigh too! He says spaghetti but it’s more like sgetti and it’s so cute. He tries to say blueberries. It’s his favorite thing to eat. He’s a climbing monster lately. He climbs into his high chair all the time now.

I gained .6 at WW this week. I have to watch how much I gain because if I keep my weight in check, I don’t have to pay at the end of the 6 weeks. It would be nice to not pay for WW! I do believe I have been eating pretty badly this week. I’ll really have to watch it the rest of this week.

Sunday and the living is good....

I woke up with Joey at 7 again. Doesn’t this kid sleep? He normally sleeps in! I get up with him. Joe has been complaining he hasn’t gotten enough sleep lately so I tell him to get his duff off the couch and go to bed. He said, No, you go back to bed – it’s your birthday. I say no – go to bed. He says – are you sure? I told him, go now or I’ll change my mind. So he went back to bed.

Grandma was up. She was making sauerkraut and sausages for the family reunion. When she was done she told me to go to bed. I was so thankful. I was up till 2:30 and I was so tired. We were both sleeping around 10:30 when Grandma brought Joey into the room to go to sleep. Now normally when this happens, Joey sees up, stands in his crib and starts babbling to us. This time he rolled over and went right to bed. He must have been really tired. I told you he got up early – esp since he was up around 2:30 too! Joe got up around this time and I kept sleeping. I can sleep all day on the weekends.

We finally got up a bit later for the reunion. I showered and put on my new skirt and blue shirt outfit. I felt so good in it!

The reunion was nice. Joey had been a pistol all day and that included the reunion. He liked the kittens they had, but at one point he almost kicked it. I got so angry at him! I told him no more kittens. You don’t get to see them anymore and I stuck to my guns. They don’t have any kids toys there so he was a little bored, and it showed. He was so cranky. Finally after we were done eating we left because I couldn’t stand his bad attitude anymore. We got to grandma’s house and I told him he was going straight to bed. I put him in bed, he cried for a minute and then took another nap. I also laid down, again.

I woke up when he did. We left to Joe’s dad’ house to visit. Joey was a pistol there too. He was fine outside, but once we went inside, he cried and cried and cried – I think because he wanted to go back outside – even though he wanted to come in. I was so angry again! I told him he was going back to bed when we got home. So we left and I put his butt in bed and let him cry it out. I am so sick and tired of this two year old attitude! He finally settled down and we brought him back out and he did the same thing so Joe laid him back down. When I went in there, he was near asleep and then he woke up so I brought him back out to play and he was fine. I guess he needed a time out or something.

I got paged again right before we left tonight. Joe was a bit angry because I got paged all weekend. It ended up it wasn’t really a problem. It’s 10:30 and we still have about a ½ hour before we get home. It sucks when we get home late. So overall we had a great weekend. It was nice to sleep and it was a nice birthday. I’m still stuffy but not as bad. I need to go out tomorrow and get some shoes to go with my new outfits! That should be fun.

Isn't this a good photo of Joe? I took it today.

I’m sick. I don’t want to wake up when Joey wakes at 7am. Why isn’t he sleeping in? He was up late?! Ok, so I get up with him. Joey and I play for a bit, I feed him a little breakfast and then he runs to the couch to wake up Joe. Joe sleeps on the couch because Joey sleeps in our room, and he sometimes snores and I think he’s afraid he’ll wake Joey up. So Joe gets up, and I tell him if he’s up, I’m going back to bed, and I sleep until 9:30. I get paged from work. You HAVE to be kidding me – right? I guess the change that was supposed to happen at work and be done at 8am isn’t done yet and someone was calling about it. Discussions with this person and that reveal they don’t need me right now. Well I’m up anyhow…so Joe and I leave to do errands.

We go to the post office to mail out some ebay stuff. We go to the oil change place – my van is due for an oil change. We then go to Walmart to get a few things – mostly a gift certificate for Karen – Joe’s step-mom. Her birthday is today (the day before mine).

We get home. I call Char (MIL). She said for my birthday she wanted to take me shopping. I had lost 50 lbs and nothing fits anymore. I pretty much need to rebuild my wardrobe from scratch. She’s busy now so I take a nap. I’m tired.

I wake up and Char is ready to go shopping. That’s fine. I get up and we go to Fashion Bug. I really like shopping there. They have a lot of nice styles. So I load up on all this fancy clothing. If I’m rebuilding my wardrobe – it’s going to be with skirts, suits, nice shirts, etc. No more casual for me! I take about 20 things into the dressing room (I’m not kidding, I had about 20) and start trying on stuff. I loved these cute shirts, but my bust is so big (still!) that any shirt specially cut to the bust area does not fit me. I’m bummed because I loved those shirts!!! I also wanted to find a shirt to match a new blue skirt I had bought. This sales associate was amazing. She helped me find new sizes, styles and shirts for anything I needed. I liked this skirt and jacket but the shirts I loved but did not fit me at all. They didn’t fit in the bust area and were so low cut that there was no way I could wear that to work! So this lady brought me another off white shirt that went underneath and it looked great. I found a formal dress for the cruise – I’m so excited to dress up and wear it! I actually need two more formal dresses now. We are doing three formal nights! So I walked out with a few new outfits and a shirt that looks great with my new skirt. Big relief to having clothes that finally fit!!!! No more baggy clothing!!! I’d really like to get rid of my fat clothing, but if I get pregnant again, I’ll know that I’ll need those until I can get back down to my weight I am now. I had a really good time shopping for clothes with Joe’s mom and she got a few new tops too.

So when we got home we had my birthday cake. I requested an angel food cake since it’s low fat. It’s also very light and I love that. Joe also said he really liked it too. Then we had gifts. I got a Michael’s gift card from Joey and Joe and an apple peeler from grandma (something I wanted) and Char of course took me shopping. What a great birthday.

Afterwards Grandma gave Joey an early Christmas gift – it was a hummer car that moved forward, backward, had an alarm and played music. It’s pretty cool. He loved it.

We then we over Char’s house to get Joey some outside time. We had the best time watching him play basketball, play on the gym and most of all – blowing bubbles! She had bought these tools to make huge bubbles and we all had a blast doing so. I think I had the most fun. I was getting really good and creating these huge bubbles. Joey had fun with the small tool that would make tons of small bubbles. Afterwards we went inside and Joe and Char played pool. Joey would take any pool balls he could reach and put them in the pockets. It was funny. Joe was saying ‘Joey, you are helping grandma now!’ and Char is yelling – go Joey go!!!

At the end it was close to 9pm. Joey was tired and only wanted Char to hold him. She said she’s been waiting for this moment for a long time! He normally only wants Joe or I. So we finished up the game of pool and went back to Joe’s Grandma’s house where we gave Joey a bath really quick and put him in bed.

Later that night he woke up and had a hard time going back to bed. I don’t think I got to bed until 2:30 am. He’s been coughing a lot with a cold he’s getting over and it’s been interfering with his sleep. Poor kid. It’s the same cold I got! I did feel a bit better today but was still congested and stuffy. Thank goodness for Afrin!

Friday and I rush to get up north...

I got into work late today. I’m having real issues with my alarm clock. I either push snooze about 500 times, or just turn the damn thing off. So I wake up, it’s 6am and I’m supposed to be AT work at 6:30 – and it takes me 45 minutes to drive to work! Yeah, so you can imagine I was late. I think I’m going to have to unplug the darn alarm clock, plug it in at the far end of the room so I have to stand up and walk to it to turn it off. That way I’ll already be up and not be tempted to go back to bed.

I really have been pushing the envelope lately on sleep. I get up about 5:15 (or I am supposed to) and I go to bed around 11pm. I’m so tired. I’m not getting enough sleep. I really need to work on going to bed around 10:30 – which is really really early to me. I guess I should be going to be at 10 actually to get 7 hours of sleep. It’s no wonder I sleep all day on the weekends. I must be either a) conserving sleep for the next week or b) catching up on sleep from the prior week.

Friday was pretty slow at work, thankfully. We got home and I was stressed. We wanted to go up north early, since we hadn’t been up to see Grandma and Grandpa in weeks – like 4 weeks. We normally go over other weekend! So we have to pack all my scrapbook stuff, all our clothing, and all this other stuff. Then the cats needed water, we need to go buy them food because we were out…. It’s one thing after the other! So it’s 9pm by the time we leave! Augh! Such a pain! It’s the biggest pain to lug all my scrapbook stuff up north!

I’m so stressed out, I demand an ice cream from down the street. I love their cherry dipped small fat free, sugar free yogurt vanilla cones. We stop to get one and then we are off to go up north.

The trip goes fairly well. I’m so tired I fall asleep half way up north. Joey is sleeping. We get to grandma’s and he wakes up and wants to play. This happens every time. It’s like he thinks the ride up north is a nap. I know we shouldn’t but we do let him play for an hour or so and then tell him it’s time for bed. Normally by that time he’s tired anyhow and doesn’t fight it badly.

Oh and in addition, I’m feeling like crap today. I would have called in, had Judi not taken the day off work. I have a sore throat that is making me feel awful, and a stuffy nose…and I know I’m going to be sick on my birthday :(

Thursdays I don't blog....

Well I never updated Thursday because Thursdays are quite hectic for me.

I work 6:30-4.

I leave work, get to daycare at 5, pick Joey up and drive out to my parent’s house.

We get to my parent’s house at 5:45 or so.

I leave Joey at my parent’s house at 6:30 and go to the next town which is about 15 miles away to go to Weight Watchers. I faithfully go every Thursday. After the meetings I usually go to Costco which they just built one around the corner (which I’m extra happy about) and sometimes go to Michael’s, Joann’s, Best Buy or Target, which are all in the same town.

So anyhow, this week after Weight Watchers a woman met me to give me two bags of clothes for Joey. She posted on freecycle (http://www.freecycle.org) she had some boys clothing 24mos – 4T. I sent her an email that I would love them if she still had them. I was the first to email her so she said they were mine. Normally you go pick the item up when you reply to an OFFER post. In this case, she told me she’d meet me after my WW meeting and give me the clothes. How nice of her. She had two garbage bags full of clothes for me that would fit (or eventually fit) Joey! I love freecycle! So now I’m in the process of washing all the clothing, and going through the sizes to see if they fit Joey now, or I need to store them for a little while!! I so love getting free clothes.

So when I got home it was 8:30. I think we left my parents house about 9pm. I got home around 9:45 or so. Joey was sleeping. I still need to take a shower and pick up so by the time I get to bed it’s 11pm. That’s why I don’t blog on Thursdays. This is a post I’m writing later in the week and dating for Thursday.

Just a posting...

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I was super tired and didn't think I would quite make it through the day.

Yesterday I came home exhausted, Joey was full of energy and cranky - probably because I wouldn't play - I was too tired. I just laid on the floor and let him jump on me. I didn't care, I was just able to lay on the floor. When Joe came home I dragged myself to Curves to workout. It did help reenergize me.

Today the same thing but not as tired. I went to Curves again and feel better today. I'm anxious to see how much the scale says I lost tomorrow when I weigh in. When I came home I saw Joey using dad as a chair. He had already moved some when I got this photo but you get the idea. It was so cute!

Joey today said cockadoodledoo! It was so cute. He said something else but I forgot. They learn so quick. We went out for ice cream tonight. We have been going a LOT lately. I think it's because it's so hot outside!

Today is the day we put garbage out for the garbage people to pick up tomorrow. I love that day. I feel like I'm getting rid of all this stuff I don't need! AND we had 6 lawn bags from all the weeding and edging we did this weekend! We were busy. No wonder we are exhausted!

Joey has been in a big reading phase lately and loves books. This one is called I love trains and he wants us to read it to him 500,432,545,434 times a day. He never gets sick of this book. There is also another book we have where it shows boats, cars, buses, trains, etc and he likes that. He has one on animal sounds and likes that one too because we quiz him on them. All the books he like we quiz him on stuff in the book, like what vegetable is this, what does this cow say, etc. He just loves it.

I forgot to mention on Monday I was talking to my friend Caroline and Joey shut the office door. No big deal, he shuts doors all the time. I went to go in the room, and the door was locked. Oh crap! So I thought, paperclips. Nope - those are in the locked room. I thought I would hear some crying, but there was none. Safety pins, whew - those are in the hall closet. I took the biggest one I could find and jammed it into the handle and waalaaa - it opened.

I guess we'll be changing that lock! :)

Joey's first live train

Oh I forgot to add that on Saturday we got stopped by a train on our way back from the chiropractor. Normally Joe and I would have been annoyed, but we were first and Joey was in back. We were just as excited as he was. Joey look, a TRAIN! Look Joey, WOW. Joey is going WOW, WOW, Train!!!

So when it finally ends (it was super long) he starts kicking and screaming, like we can bring it back or something. I tell him, Joey, when it's gone, we can't go get it. He finally settles down, but I thought it was quite cute. I'm bummed I didn't have my camera!

awww. I love my day off part 2.

It's 5am and Joey is crying. I wake up and go get Joey. He's not wet but I change his diaper anyway. He's still crying. Any mother will know this, but he had the flopping fish syndrome -where your baby is in so much pain, they don't want to do anything but flop on the floor, crying hard and kicking their feet. Then they'll stop for a second, pick up their arms for you to pick them up and then push you away because of the pain. That's when you run for motrin and pray it takes hold soon before he flops all over the house. I think it was 5:35 when he finally calmed down and I rocked him for awhile and put him back to bed. He woke around 8am. I think he had a stomach ache. He still can't tell us what hurts, but normally I think it's stomach pains. Poor baby :(


So today is my day off, boy is it nice. I did a lot of cleaning today.

Joey has had this fisher price train set since Christmas and he hasn't really gotten into the whole role playing stuff yet. I had it in a box to put away for awhile (I do this to toys he doesn't play with often) but he kept getting it out and playing with the sounds that it made. I put the tracks together, gave him the train and showed him how to move them on the train tracks and he sat there for quite a long time playing with it. You can see him here rolling the train along the tracks. It was quite neat to see him playing with something he didn't really understand how to play with before.

But really, matchbox cars are his favorite of anything he has. We also have a tractor keychain. He's loved this since he was super young. He would point at the keychain rack and go nuts if we didn't get it down for him. He saw it today and said 'tractor tractor' so I let him play with it. He has an obsession with trains and tractors and cars. He loves any book from the library on those topics. He also seems to like airplanes but not as much as the above. You can see him laying on the ground here playing with his cars. He plays very well on his own! We normally have cars in the car, at grandma's house, at his great-grandma's house - we have them everywhere because it's something he's guaranteed to play with.

So this afternoon, Caroline calls me and asks if I got any info in the mail from Princess about our cruise. I said no. She says that she think we need to get passports. I said that was fine, so it's another thing Joe and I need before our trip. Better get those soon, we leave the first day of October. So while I'm on the phone, Joey pulls me onto the floor and starts climbing on me. I setup my tripod - Caroline here's your photo of Joey. He loves to climb and body slam you and stand all over you. He's all boy for sure. Good thing I see a chiropractor on a fairly regular basis. I surely need it with him doing this all the time. He does it to Joe even more so than me!

It's been in the 90's here almost every day. Today it was 91. So hot. Joey and I have really only been going out in the evenings. EVERY night unless it rains we go on a walk around the block in the stroller. Here is Joey. We always take a cup with us with juice in it. When I go with Joey alone (because Joe is playing baseball or something) I quiz him.

Joey say tractor
say turtle
What does a cow say?
What does a snake say?

And so on. I'm trying to get him to say more words or sign a bit more. On our walks, there is a lot to look at but a lot of time to just Joey and I, so I try to develop his vocabulary while we walk. He has fun because he likes being quizzed on things he knows :)


This is Joey on his slide. He doesn't use it as much anymore, but for some reason today he kept going down it over and over and over. He's almost as big as the slide now!













Joe got home early today because his softball team lost their last game of the season. We decided to go out for ice cream. We all went out and when we got back, Joey ran for the bubbles and so Joe blew some bubbles for him. He's known what bubbles are for a long time now and says bubbles very clearly. What a good daddy!


Joe had a lot of time to kill today before his softball game so he stopped at Target and bought Joey some new cars. He was so happy. He sat with Joe and drove them up and down his shoulders and chest. Here you see his lips puckered up, he's going vrroooommmmm making the cars go!

Not much else going on. I took a nap when Joey did today and cleaned the house. We went to the library today and to the post office to ship out some ebay stuff. I also printed out this month's blog and sent it to Grandma and Grandpa Kapa. I figured they would like to read it since they aren't on the internet. We relaxed most of today. Tomorrow I go back to work so it was nice to be home! This weekend is my birthday and I have to do some testing for work so I'm bummed about that but it was my turn and it needs to be done. It's on and off, a few minutes here and a few minutes there so it shouldn't be that bad. I can't wait to go to grandma and grandpa's house this weekend. We haven't been up there in 3 weeks now! This week will be the fourth week and we miss them so much! Joey is signing grandma and saying grandma now. It's so cute!

awwwww....nice to have a day off....

Good thing I stayed up till 2am to last night because Joey woke up 4 times for only God knows what. I rocked him back to sleep and he was fine. I really don't even need to rock him anymore because when I do, he can never get comfortable enough to go to sleep, so I guess I should just calm him down and put him back in his bed.

So last night I got two scrapbook pages done last night. Remember those circle journals I was talking about a little while back? Everyone in the group does a journal and we send them to each other and do a page for their journal, only never to see them again? BUT we get our own back full and I did a recipe album.

Well I had to do a page last night for someone's journal called 'My inner child'. I had no clue what I was going to write about but I do have to say that it did turn out quite nice. I had been thinking about it for two weeks now. Here is the page to the left that I kept for myself. The page below is the one I did for Carrie's journal that I sent out to the next person in line.

Here is the journaling for it: Do I really have an inner child? I sat and really had to think about it. It seems I’m always thinking of what I have to do – I need to clean, I need to do laundry, go to work, and the list is endless. Do I have the TIME to be a child? Ok, I’m thinking some more.

Joe is normally the one that plays with Joey. He’s the one that takes the matchbox cars and zooms them on the ground, he wrestles with Joey, and does all the fun stuff. So where does that leave me?

I’m still thinking. Ok, I do climb up on the jungle gym with Joey and help him go walking unsteadily on the swaying bridge as I’m bouncing up and down making it harder for him to walk. I help him go down the spiral slide. I’m the one a few months ago that would scrunch up my face and make funny goose sounds and bug my eyes out so that Joey would laugh over and over and over. I’m will take the popper toy Joey has and chase him around the house. He’s even taught me to lay on the ground so he can body slam me – oh what fun – just how I wanted to let out my inner child – by pounding it out of me – haha.

My inner child turns sappy around Christmas. I love the Christmas music, the ornaments sparkling on the trees. I love buying those toys for Joey more than anything for myself. Oh and clothes shopping for Joey – it’s just nuts. I go crazy picking up those sappy so cute outfits! I like to take icy pops – those flavored ones in plastic, cut them in half and slurp them happily with Joey. I love to laugh. I’m the one that will pick up Joey when a fun song comes on and we will dance through the house – a trait he picked up and will start dancing whenever a cool song comes on! I started to teach him to summersault.

Ok, I needed this thinking exercise. I actually do have an inner child. I never would have thought that a few days ago when I started to think about it. It seems like most of the time I’m so serious! I guess there ARE things I do to stay young at heart. There are those things that I do to keep myself young when I entertain and play with my son. I wouldn’t change any of these things for the world. They make of who I am as a mother, wife and person!

So there, didn't that turn out cool? I surprised myself for writing it at midnight last night! LOL

See next post for more Monday....

Family reunion time!!

Yep, it's that first Sunday in August - family reunion time on Joe's father's side.

I woke up with Joey today because it was my turn. We had a good time playing. I went downstairs and tried to clean up the kitchen. I love a clean kitchen. I also had to prepare to make 3 lbs of meatballs for the reunion. When Joey got fussy, I pulled out the swiffer broom and he took off with it. I love how he plays with the broom and it actually cleans my floor. Every time he swiffers, he pulls all this cat hair off the floor. It's by scotchbrite and it does an excellent job on our pergo floor!! He's such a good boy! I love how he loves to help me clean and doesn't even realize he's cleaning!

We didn't want to go to the reunion until after he had his nap, or we knew he would be a wild, unhappy child. He took a nap from about 11:30 - 1:30. I made 3 lbs of meatballs a little before he went down for a nap. I also took a nap after I did some housework so I got an hour nap.

When Joey got up we started to get everything together so we could go. It seems like there is so much to pack!

First we went to the library - the videos were due.

Then we were off to Meijer! Joe had to take back a car air filter that was the wrong type. We bought a cooler (never seemed to find ours that we lent out) and bought some other party stuff like water, utensils, etc).

When we got through Meijer we always buy a cup so we can get a frozen coke. Of course Joey LOVES these. We were on our way home and we would steal it from him because we wanted some too. About 30 seconds later we would hear screaching from the back. He's ticked off because we took the frozen coke from him. I would have to say he ate most of this. Doesn't the glass look like 1/2 the size of his body?!!





















Joey was quite sick of the car by the time we got to the reunion. The reunion was a bit weird this year. Grandpa wasn't feeling well and Grandma and grandpa were leaving slightly after we arrived. There weren't that many people there this year. It was just different.

Joey was slightly bored after Hannah left and we had to do everything we could to occupy him.

His favorite thing was the jungle gym. We went on it two different times but it was extremely hot out today - 90s so we didn't let him play on it for a long time. The second time he took off across the park, and it was a long walk and RAN there all by himself. See the photo of him running across the drive and the jungle gym in the background? Isn't it far away? He ran the whole way there after he found out we were not carrying him the whole way. I guess he really wanted to play on the gym!

His favorite thing was the swaying bridge. See photo of Joey and me - we were on the bridge. He walked back and forth on it.

He liked the slides too. It was so funny - the slides were plastic and when he want down this all the hairs on his head stood straight up!















By the time we left, Joey had already fallen asleep and it was only 7pm. He must have been so tired being out in the hot all day.

When Joe and I unpacked we took advantage of Joey going to bed early and weeded every bed around the house, Joe finished edging out the driveway and the house looks so much better now! I think we have 6 lawn bags after doing the rest of the edging and weeding. Oh and thank goodness for Round Up weed killer. It does a great job.

Now I'm relaxing, trying to scrapbook a little bit and wanted to update my blog.

Saturday - errand day

Today was errand day - isn't every Saturday?

Joey started talking in his crib so Joe got up with him. I slept in about an hour to 1/2 our later until 8:30. Oh - to go back to the sleeping in days without children! I miss my sleep!

When I got up I got dressed and drove to curves to workout. I got in my 1/2 hour workout and came home.

Joe ran to get his hair cut.
He came back and we went to

• The post office to mail out some ebay stuff
• The chiropractor
• The Pet store to get some water filters for the cat drinking fountain we have (yes our cats are extremely spoiled!)
• Meijer - we needed a few things!
• We drove by some garage sales but nothing caught our eye

Whew - and that was enough! It was nearly one pm when we got home. Joey had fallen asleep in the car so we put him down for a nap.

Joe and I made tacos for lunch. I must have been super hungry - I ate THREE! My gosh! We did chores around the house - laundry, dishes, etc. I then took a nap too while Joey was napping.

When I got up I started tearing apart the upstairs. I vacuumed all the rooms upstairs that had carpet and pulled out the carpet shampooer and got to work. I shampooed all the carpets in the house and it smells so much fresher! I love that. I even put a little febreeze in the solution to pull out odors from cats, urine (sometimes Joey!)...and more. I had assembled Joey's toddler bed about a month before, but he didn't like it as much as his crib, so we put it in the garage to make more room in his tiny bedroom.



So later that evening I started making sweet and sour pork. It took about 2 hours, because an hour of it is letting the pork simmer in broth to tenderize it. While we were waiting for the pork to simmer, we took Joey in the back yard. We bought a small pool today at Meijers to put all his balls in so he could jump in them. Here are some photos!

Here Joey is in his car. We got both the car and the balls for free using our local freecycle - http://www.freecycle.org. I love that site! Someone was getting rid of them and I told her I would take them and drove to her house to pick them up!


After Joey played, all of us went on our daily walk around the block. Of course Joey loves daily routine. We went to the main road and they are building some condo's there and there was a tractor. He yells at the top of his lungs TRACTOR TRACTOR TRACTOR!! What a silly boy!

When we got home, Joe mowed the grass. Joey and I stayed inside while he sat up on the window sill watching daddy. He loves watching daddy mow the grass. He says lawn mower now too. SO funny! Anyhow, see Joey in this photo. He climbs up the back of the couch and sits in the window sill. This was from 7/6 but this is how he was today. Of course I have to be right there with him when he's up in there but so far he's been very careful!


When Joe was done he took a shower. We sat down to eat dinner. Joe loved the sweet and sour pork. Said it was a must make again recipe.

This evening I'm just tired. I had a stomach ache. I think I'm going to bed early. We have our family reunion tomorrow and I'm supposed to bring my famous sweet and sour meatballs!

Power was out... and it went from there...

I got up, and was out the door this am to work. Half way to work, Joe calls.

'Honey, did you have power when you left?'.
Silence. 'Um, yeah I did Joe, why?'
'Well we don't have power.'
I say, 'Well at least you can still take a shower!'.
He's kinda mad that it's out. I told him I'd call the energy company when I got to work.

Got to work noticed three missed calls. Was my radio really THAT loud? I heard Joe call. So I look, it's daycare. It's before 7am, Joe couldn't have dropped Joey off by then.

I call daycare. They are closing because they have no power either, no running water, and no way to take care of the kids.

I call Joe. He's angry. Not really at daycare but at the situation as a whole. I'm already at work. It's another hour home and I'm the only support person in the office today for both of our applications. I can't really leave.

Daycare says they would take Joey if they got the power back by noon. The power comes on 10 minutes to noon, but Joe calls and they still don't have power. I called later that day and they didn't get power until 2pm. For some reason, the whole entire city of Milford was without power.

So the funny thing is, I call Joe from work. He answers and says, wait, try and talk to Joey. In the past Joey has always pushed the phone away. Today he stops, listens. I say

Joey - what does a cow say.
MOOOOO
Joey, what does a cat say
Meow Meow meow
Joey - what does a lion say
ROARRRRR
Say Tractor Joey
Tractor
Say turtle
turtle says Joey
and he would not get off the phone with me! This was the first day he actually talked on the phone! It was so cool.

I worked my tail off at work. I get home and eat dinner - just leftovers. Joe makes deer meat. We go with Joey to the ice cream store. I get a FF SF cone dipped in lime, Joe get a vanilla cone dipped in bubble gum flavor. We eat, Joey loves it and eats ours.

We come home and do some more edging of the lawn, a TON of weed pulling and the house looks nicer.

Off we go on our daily walk. We see a nice doggy and we stop to say hello. Everyone is so nice in our neighborhood!

We get home. I'm dirty, Joey is dirty. I say the heck with it -we BOTH get in the tub. I normally don't do this but I'm so dirty I can't stand it. We had fun splashing like crazy! Since we were both wet anyhow - we didn't care!

Joey has really loved us reading to him lately so we have been reading train books. He loves Thomas. AND Joe today showed him the computer and how we can bring up the Thomas website on it and so he likes to sit on our lap while we show him different things on the Thomas the train website :)

He's sleeping. I'm tired. I may go to bed early. We have a lot to do tomorrow - errands and such.

More on Thursday - I MADE GOAL AT WW!!

Yes finally. I started WW in April 2004, frustrated after becomming a new mom - the weight stopped coming off on it's own. I was 214 lbs and unhappy.

Through eating better and watching portions through WW, I finally have lost 48 lbs! I'm now 166 lbs and they put me on maintenance - which means I have to maintain this weight loss for 6 weeks, then I become a lifetime member and don't pay anymore!!!!!!! I'm so happy. I feel so good. I want to lose about 5-10 more, but I'm a size 12 now and so happy with how I feel and look! If you could see me, I would be doing the snoopy dance right now!!


So anyhow, I just wanted to share. It's been over a year. I've been exercising at curves and eating well and it finally paid off - even after many plateaus!! AND I'M GOING TO KEEP OFF THIS WEIGHT! If I start to gain it back, please kick my butt in gear and say something! I like me this way!! :)

Anyhow, here are some before photos:

Me in February - right after I had Joey. I had gained 80 lbs with my pregnancy.
















Here is me in August after I had lost around 20-30 lbs. I was still heavy then!










Here is me - on 6/25 during Joe's Master's graduation! This was about a little over a month ago. I need a more recent photo!

I'm so proud!

Did I ever tell you how much I hate clutter?

Yep, flylady converted me. I can't stand any clutter. Go to www.flylady.net to find out more...but what she says is that clutter chokes you, it takes away from your happiness, it's more to clean and so much more! Put it this way, if you walk in a cluttered house, or a bare house with just the essentials but decorated nicely, you know which one looks better! The less clutter, the less to clean! So really, our house is pretty much decluttered. Joey's toys are decluttered. If he doesn't play with them, they go in boxes in grandma's basement so I bring them out months later - they are like new!

My buddy sent me this url http://www.auctions-registration.com/ebay/ - can you believe this person's house? OMG you have got to be kidding me. I would just die. If I walked in her house, I would start pitching stuff! How can you be happy and live in a home like that?!!

Years ago when Joe and I bought our first house, our house was so badly cluttered that there were tons and tons of stuff on every floor. In our office and living room we would have to push the stuff to the side and make a PATH to get through the room! You have got to be kidding me! I can't believe I lived like that. I was miserable all the time. Then I found flylady and she taught to take babysteps to clean, start routines and don't take on too much. After about a year, I finally got rid of enough papers and stuff to make it easier to keep a clean house. Now I clean every day a little bit (dishes and laundry) and do a few other things to keep things going like picking up stuff, swiffering the floors and I hope Joey learns too - though he does like to help.

Catching up...

I hate starting something and not having enough time to complete it!!! For instance, this blogging. I keep forgetting, I scrapbook, clean, get tired and before you know it, the day's over and I forget to log my thoughts. Isn't that how life happens anyhow??

Saturday I worked from 6am to 9pm. It was awful. I normally do not work weekends but we had to simulate a live install for a new system at work. It went longer than normal so we were there all day. I came home in time to kiss Joey good night. I think it ruined my weekend :(

Sunday we went to my parents house to get see my mother. She turned 55 on the 1st (Monday). We had pizza and hung out.

Monday - Wednesday so far have just been busy doing this and that. I'm trying to get some scrapbook pages done. I love scrapbooking - it's so relaxing. I got a new page done...see below.

SO the page above is a circle journal page. You send these books to a group of people and they do a page with that theme and you send it to the next person. You never get your page back and when it's done going through the group - that person gets a finished book back. My CJ that I did was on favorite recipes. I'll get to use mine as a cookbook when I'm done.

So the page above was Then and Now pages... and I made one for my OWN album (which most people aren't doing!). I just can't send off a page and now have my own copy. So they aren't the same, but they have the same idea.

The journaling for it goes as follows:


Then: I was in high school. I already knew what I wanted in life. My life plan: Go to college, have a career, get married and have children. Life back then was about boys. Boys were like an addiction – ok, I think I was addicted to those new tingles you got when you kissed a boy for the first time. I had a boyfriend every month and I'm not kidding. John, Sean, Scott, Brian, Shaun, Adam, Bo, Wayne, etc! I have photos of almost all of the boys I dated (I can’t even count them all). I would spend hours talking to boys on the phone, or going out on dates. I loved how I looked back then and wanted to be a model. I was 5’9’’ and 125 lbs. I was not super popular in school. I had a lot of friends, mostly male, not too many girlfriends. I just got along with guys better – like I was one of the boys. I was very responsible back then. I had a job the day I turned 16, paid for everything myself. I was very independent. I had a part time job stocking shelves at the grocery store. I liked my job, but it was NOT what I wanted to do all my life, especially because I wanted a lot more pay. I studied hard and got good grades. I was very stubborn and I would always argue if I knew I was right (still do). I was very confident – I think a lot of it was attributed to the fact that I was a black belt sensei in karate. For some reason, I couldn’t wait until high school was over. I wanted to start life, start college and get on with my life plan!

Now: I’m 27. I did what I set out to do, I went to college, had a job before graduating, make good money, got married to my college sweetheart (the boy crazy thing calmed down in college), and had a child. Life is good. One of life’s surprises that I never expected is I never thought I would be struggling with my weight. In high school I ate what I wanted, when I wanted. Now I have to watch everything I eat or I gain weight. The birth process screwed up my body more than I expected. I’ve had bladder issues and the stretch marks are more than embarrassing. I’m sure weight management will be a life long struggle. I scrapbook now and love the new found hobby. It makes me feel like I’m creating a legacy for my family. I’m recording stories for Joey that no one was able to do for me. Though some days I long for the carefree living from HS, I’m extremely happy with where I am now. I’m happily married to a wonderful man, Joe. I have a wonderfully behaved son Joey who lights up my world. We have a beautiful house, great jobs and we are happy and healthy. I really couldn’t ask for more!

So Joe woke up this morning and complained of a migraine - and called into work. Not like Joe at all. He never misses work. I went in late and took Joey to daycare. I then picked him up tonight. Joe is feeling better so that is good. I took a nap when I got home I was so tired (probably from staying up late like I am now!!) and then we got up, went for a walk and then out for ice cream. I got a FF SF vanilla yogurt dipped in cherry! I love that!

The photo to the right was taken on 7/28. He was home from daycare because he had a high fever the day before. He was eating his sucker and watching the garbage man in front of the open window when I took a few photos. This was my favorite!
Joey is doing so good. We are teaching him manners and he does them so well, please, thank you and he's so well behaved. I keep kicking myself saying this can't be true! We tell him to lay down for his diaper to be changed, and he does. We tell him it's time to brush his teeth and he runs for the bathroom and waits for me to put up his step ladder to the sink. He then washes his hands. I then tell him it's time for bed and he runs in his room and waits by the bed. Please - someone kick me. Is this normal? We are so proud of him! He's saying new words every day! The latest is lawn mower, eat, cold and uses hot on cue when it's hot. When we are ready to eat, he runs to his high chair and climbs up in it himself. He's signing so well, in addition to saying just about everything you ask him to. He knows sounds a cow, snake, lamb, donkey, sheep, cat, lion and dog make. He knows how to sign the following fruits and vegetables: corn, carrot, bean, strawberry, banana, potato, head of lettuce, grapes and pear. He says a few of them too. We have both a animal sounds book and vegetables/fruit a-z book we got from the library that he just loves. We test him on the different sounds and signs and he just loves it! His other new word is to sign and say water (wah-wah) and he does it on cue when he see water!

Well that's about it for now. I'll try and update before the weekend!