Saturday Joey woke up at 7:15. We called Joe’s dad and he said to come over for Christmas at about 10am. So off we went at 10 am and had a nice Christmas at his father’s house. Karen got Joey some nice gifts. He got the little people farm, a bunch of tractors, a snake flashlight (it opens it’s mouth, hisses and lights up), and some learning puzzles. Joe’s dad said his goal is to get Joey a tractor just like what they have one the farm for each birthday/Christmas type celebration. This time he got a Ford 8N tractor like his great grandfather had. I think that’s such a neat idea. This is Joey above at his dad's house - he's getting good at opening those gifts by himself!

We went back to Grandma’s house about noon and Joey was whipped. I think he’s not feeling well again this Christmas. He’s got a runny nose and a dry cough. I think that made him tired. He walked back to take a nap without us even asking him.

Off to Walmart Joe and I went – unwillingly. We knew it would be nuts. It wasn’t as bad as we thought. I wanted to get some cold eez and some airborne for Joey. It’s those medicines that are supposed to boost your immune system and make any cold you may get not last as long or be as strong. We also needed new video tapes for my video camera. We have four digital tapes for our video camera, but they are all full. Get this – I only have 1 gig left on my 60 gig hard drive on my pc, so we agreed for Christmas I was going to get a 250 gig external hard drive so I can download my movies to my computer and burn dvds. I’ve already done this once and it turned out great, but I just don’t have the space for it right now on my hard drive. So we needed to buy new tapes.

When we got back we went right to the Fisher’s house – Joe’s grandparents on his father’s side. We asked Grandma (Joe’s mom’s mother) to call when Joey woke up so we could come pick him up. We chatted for awhile. Joey slept over 3 hours. We went and picked up Joey and he was in a bad mood. He didn’t want to get dressed – I think he still wasn’t feeling good.

We got to the Fisher’s house and he wouldn’t stop coughing – even after we gave him cough syrup. I felt so bad but everyone wasn’t really concerned since it was a dry cough – it seemed like he had allergies, not a cold.

He played really well. He loved playing with those toys shown to the right - they are discovery toys and the kids love them. We couldn’t wait for them to finally open their gifts. Dinner was 2 hours behind and then we were all dying for them to just get to the gift opening part. Joey was so anxious that he was getting mad. You know how little kids are. I got a cute little ornament set from Michelle. Joey got a Thomas the train roundhouse from Michelle and some matchbox cars and a huge rig truck from Grandma. He was happy and all the kids kept playing with the Thomas roundhouse – like he had the best gift of them all. I got some cookbooks from grandma and a meatball maker that I need to try out.

Get this. I’m on a babies group for mothers who have babies born in early 2004. We have all known each other since we first found out we were preggo. We always do Secret Santa, even though we’ve never met. Michelle from Ohio got my name and sent me an Old Navy pull over.

Now Joe’s cousin Michelle and I are buds because her daughter is about 8 months older than Joey. I wore my new pull over Michelle from Ohio sent me. As I walk in I notice what Michelle, Joe’s cousin, is wearing. It’s the SAME exact pull over from Old Navy in red as Michelle – my secret santa from Ohio sent me. It was a riot. AND we were both wearing blue jeans – check out this photo. I guess Michelle’s all over the country must have been buying the red pull over from Old Navy. I thought that was so funny!!

Joey got tired quickly tonight. We came home to grandma and decided that since it was only supposed to rain tonight that we would just come home. We ALWAYS stay at Grandma’s house up north and then come down on Christmas morning, very early in the morning, to my parent’s house – which is about an hour and a half away. Well it’s supposed to snow tomorrow – yet again and we are NOT driving in it again this year – like the past two Christmas’s, so we decided to drive home in the rain.

Joey is getting super good at unwrapping gifts. I can’t believe how well he has it down. He has loved all the gifts he has gotten so far. Lots of cars and train stuff.

Today was we were leaving the Fisher’s he was very tired. We told him we were leaving and Joe was holding Joey. He looked at me and said bye mommy. Joe laughed and said, no, mommy is coming with us. So he wanted me to hold him. He looked at Joe and said, ‘Bye daddy’, and everyone laughed again. He’s so funny.

For those of you out there with nice digital slr cameras – take note – do NOT change the lenses of your camera without turning OFF the camera. If you fail to do this, you will get dust and grime on your sensor and spots on your images. This happened to me. We got a special blower and blew out the dust and that spot stayed on my images. I had to get a special sensor cleaner and what looks like a mini spatula with pads you wrap around it to scrape this piece of gunk off my sensor. Since I’ve done this my camera takes photos with no spots. The bad thing about doing this – you can blow apart your camera and totally damage it if you clean the sensor too hard. So please keep that in mind. Another thing I learned – NEVER touch those mirrors in your camera. If you have dust spots on your camera, use a special blower you can buy to blow them out. Never touch those mirrors. They are delicately balanced and any dust on them will not show up on your final image. Unfortunately I learned all these tips after I did all of the above. Fortunately my camera is still functioning well – I’m very lucky. Keep these in mind if you have a digital slr! No one ever told me these things! Thank goodness for friends who are in the photography hobby and know these things and shared them with me!

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.

This week has been a busy one for sure. Wednesday night you saw we had a big celebration for Joey’s daycare.

I have to tell you about something funny that happened on Thursday on my way home from work. I was driving through Pontiac – and it’s not a very good town to be in really. It’s known for crime and such. I pulled up to a red light and to my left was this piece of crap car – an OLD thunderbird, and it was beat up, dinged up and falling apart. Ok, now imagine this – the car was pimped out. It was lowered to the ground so it looked like a low-rider and the tires were setup so they stuck out about 8 inches from the car. Who the hell pimps out a piece of crap ride anyhow? So this guy was first at the light in his lane and I was in the right lane with someone in front of me. The guy in front of me turned on a ‘no turn on red’ light and I got next to this car. I’m talking to Grandma on the phone and I hear whistling. This guy has the window down and is doing the cat call whistle at me. I have never had anyone so blatantly do that. He does it over and over. I finally look at him and he’s grinning ear to ear at me. I’m embarrassed (and flattered) and then the light turned green and we went our own ways. I was laughing so hard. I was cat called by this guy in a hunk of trash car. Hahahaha.

Thursday night Joey and I did our traditional going over my mother’s house so I could go to Weight Watchers. I weighed in and I’m 1.2 lbs over goal. She told me I did not have to pay this time since I weighed in the first of the month but I need to lose that by the first of January first weigh in. Boy am I nervous! I just haven’t been eating well since we got back from the cruise.

Friday we went up north to Grandma’s. We actually got our of work like an hour early and got the oil changed in my van and got an ornament from town for the Christmas exchange. The one I originally bought Darlene for Joe was not good so I got her a different one. I liked the ornament so much I turned around and went back in the store again and bought the only other one left for my mother. It’s a old fashioned santa, holding a candy cane shaped cane and has sheep on the coat. My mother loves yarns and sheep so I knew she would love it. It’s rare I ever find something tangible my mother actually likes!

Joey and I went to his daycare's winter outing tonight at one of the local elementary schools. He was so good. He stayed on my lap for the whole 30 or so minute when all the kids sang, or danced or did the bells. He started to drink from a cup very well tonight. He was so proud of himself.

The other major achivement is he didn't get scared of Santa! Here he is a bit tired, but when he got down he went right up to Santa and smiled and talked to him. I'm so proud of my little guy. Joe was with us tonight too and said he really enjoyed himself.

Joe had an interview for a new position today. I hope he gets it because he's really interested in this.

Joey and I spent a lot of quality time together today - so I feel better :)

Here is another Geotrac's layout Joe built on Sunday for Joey :)

I weigh in again tomorrow for WW and I think I've gone over goal :( I'm not happy about that. I've been eating really bad and need to get a hold on things. Maybe this wakeup call will be what I need. Unfortunately, I think I'll have to pay again too :(

Yesterday I was talking to grandma. She said she heard a beeping and couldn't figure out what it was. Her first thought was it was my pager and I left it up north again. She went from room to room and she still heard the noise - even in the bathroom. She said it sounded like an english policeman's car siren.

She finally bent over and it got louder. She figured out her defibrillator was beeping (low batteries) and the whole time she thought it was my pager when it was the defibrillator in his chest. Hahahaha, that is a riot!

For those that don't know what a defibrillator is, it's an electronic device they surgically implant in your chest, by your heart and it will shock your heart if it stops beating. They normally put this in people's chests who have had a heart attack. When the batteries get low, they will do outpatient surgery to change them. That is what Grandma has to have done soon.

Can you just see Grandma walking from room to room wondering why my pager was going off? HAHAHA.

Sorry, I had to share!!

Work is going well. I've been so tired lately. I thought I was preggo but I took a test yesterday (though it's probably wayyy to early to tell) and it was negative. Who knows - maybe I'm just burning at both ends.

Christmas shopping is done. I need to ship a few things out.

I made dinner tonight and it turned out so crappy. I hate it when that happens.

Hope you are doing well. Sorry if I haven't read your blog lately. I will get around to it. I've just been whipped in the evening. Tonight I got home. Joe got home late - at 7pm so I was rushing to get out of the door to go to Curves. Then I had to go to Kroger afterwards because I was out of water. Got home, started to make dinner. It was finally done at 9:30 and it sucked. My whole day is just gone anymore. I don't even feel like I spend enough time with my boy! Working full time and being a mom is hard work!