Future Fireman on Our Hands

I don't remember where I saw this (probably someone else's blog; if so, sorry for the thieving), but it is one of my favorite commercials. Kinda gross when you think about it, but hysterical nevertheless.

An Actual Post...with Words!

I've been so busy reading and commenting on other people's blogs that I've neglected my own. Let's see how much of a post I can come up with Livers literally on my back trying to jerk my barrette out of my hair.

Yesterday was very relaxing. I took my mom out for a belated Mother's Day celebration at a local spa. (We had to wait this long because she had a hysterectomy right before Mother's Day and wasn't quite up to it.) We'd had massages and pedicures before, but we'd never had a real spa experience all at once before. Let's just say that trips to the spa should be at LEAST once-a-month mandatory. I'd not been so at peace and beautified in quite some time. (I wouldn't could being drugged up after a C-section as at peace, but it comes a close second.)

We got pedicures, full body Swedish massages, and mini-facials. The pedicure was one of the best I'd ever had. She was so gentle on my feet I didn't get ticklish once. She used one of those Ped-Egg looking things on my callouses, too, which was far overdue. I have GOT to get one of those, because pumice stones only do so much.

The massage was absolutely wonderful. I usually don't really enjoy massages, because my back is pretty tense and knotted and masseuses don't tend to be gentle enough, but this guy (yes, man; I don't prefer male masseuses, but that was all they had) was gentle enough I nearly fell asleep. And apparently my neck was really messed up, because I could feel him working out the knots. It hurt at the time but felt really good afterwards. I wish I could afford to do this regularly, because sure that toting around my 25 pound butterball has done some damage to my neck region.

The facial was OK, I would suppose. I'd never had one before, and I don't know if I'd have one again until I'm older and my skin's more damaged. I've overall been blessed with decent skin. It's genetics; my mom is 51 and has the skin of a 40-year-old, and my grandmother was the same way. She did say that I have clogged pores (who doesn't?), and she recommended all of these things that I could do at the spa to take care of it (and make her some more money). I tried to get her to tell me some cheap, at-home remedies for it, but she never took the hint. It was a nice experience, though. I loved this mask she put on. It smelled like spiced chai, one of my favorite things in the world. She also gave me a much needed brow wax. I'm blessed (cursed) with very full brows which require lots of maintenance that I have no money or energy to provide. When I worked I got them regularly, but with today's economy, me not working, and an almost 18-month-old to take care of it's hard to justify the appointments. She did awesome. One of the quickest and least painful ones I'd ever had.

The above is at Candid Carrie's request. Sorry, no before.

Though we were finished around 3:30, we couldn't actually leave the spa until after 4 because we were trapped by a torrential downpour as soon as we were finished.

The rest of the evening played out as most evenings do: watching Livers play, taking Livers away from things she shouldn't be playing with, watching the evening news (I've finally gotten to that age...), eating, bathing children, the usual. By children, though, I mean canine ones (Jeremy took care of Livers). They smelled. Bad. It's what happens when you don't bath your dogs for a couple of months. They're always a joy to bathe. Nothing like dragging two 25 pound dogs to a bath they certainly do NOT want. At least I didn't get scratched up like I usually do.

I can't believe the weekend is almost over. Hopefully I'll be able to knock off some of the things left on my long weekly to-do list before the day is gone.

* * * *
On a side note, my vegetarian daughter actually tasted, chewed, and swallowed not one but FIVE pieces of grilled chicken last night!!! I was as proud as the first time she said "Mama"!

Branching Out of Musical Tastes

I am happy to say that Livers' musical tastes have started to branch out. She now has a full four songs that she will listen to repeatedly. Her newest favorite is the Beach Boys song "God Only Knows." Jeremy found it on YouTube to watch, and every time we are in the kitchen we are greeted by cries of "Bee Chai" (my best representation of what it sounds like to have her pronounce Beach Boys).

While looking at this video J discovered another version of the song. It is by a student at some university in NYC who plays various songs on her ukulele. I must say, she is gosh darn talented! And entertaining to watch. Livers REALLY likes her version of "God Only Knows," and always cries for "girl!" so she can watch the video. I think my patience is wearing thin for the video, only because I have to watch it a dozen times a day. Here are some of our favorites of hers. Enjoy!

"God Only Knows" - The Beach Boys



"Survivor" - Destiny's Child



"Falling Slowly" - Glen Hansgard, from the movie "Once"

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta!!!

One of my favorite things to take pictures of is my daughter when she's sleeping. No matter how devilish she can be during the day, all it takes is one look at her angelic face as she sleeps to remember all that is wonderful and sweet about her. Usually when I take pictures of her sleeping the flash makes her look like a ghost, but I finally figured out last night how to configure the flash to make her look more natural and less like a paperwhite.


Be sure to check out all of the other wonderful photos over at Candid Carrie, and feel free to participate yourself! Happy Friday!!!

My Life in Mosaic

I got this idea from Becky at Boys Rule My Life, who found hers from Four P's in a Pod. How have I not used Flickr mosaics before now???? I might have a new obsession. I'll post my mosaic with the questions I used to come up with them. Then follow the directions at the bottom if you want to make one yourself. Make sure to link back to Becky thanking her for the idea if you decide to do it.


1. Lindsay - Arrow, 2. A day in the life of a Fruit-seller, 3. KLCC The Blue Hour - Vertorama, 4. London Eye Red Colors, 5. Google image search: Clive Owen, for illustrative purposes only *cough*, 6. the Army of the Brave Milk Bottles, 7. Overhead, 8. Miniature Cakes, 9. One Night in Bangkok, 10. My family, 11. Call of the Raven (formerly Nature's Special Effects), 12. Lindsay + G horizontal

To Make Your Mosaic:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name? Lindsay
2. What is your favorite food? fruit
3. What high school did you go to? Daniel
4. What is your favorite color? red
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Clive Owen
6. Favorite drink? milk
7. Dream vacation? Hawaii
8. Favorite dessert? cake
9. What you want to be when you grow up? happy
   
10. What do you love most in life? my family
    
11. One Word to describe you. content
    
12. Your Flickr name. I couldn't find anything with mine, so I put in as much as I could that would come up with a picture: lindsay.g
    

Thursday 13 - In Honor of My Husband

Yesterday was my husband and my three year anniversary. (We've been together for 6 1/2 years.) As an act of remembrance for this milestone, I am going to list 13 of the many reasons why I love my husband and chose to marry him.

1. We have the very important shared interests and tastes, and we always have something to talk about.
2. His laugh when he's really tickled about something is just infectious.
3. He's one of the smartest people I know, both in terms of intelligence and common sense.
4. Family is very important to him.
5. He's pretty :)
6. He loves his job, and he works very hard at it so that I can stay at home to take care of our daughter.
7. He is very supportive of me and my ideas, and if I need any advice or help he's always willing to give it.
8. He's an amazing father and loves our daughter very much.
9. He has a good heart.
10. He accepts and loves me, the good parts, the bad parts, the parts I love, and the parts I hate and am insecure about.
11. He is very passionate about his hobbies and personal likes.
12. When he sets goals, he is very determined in making sure he reaches them.
13. He is very caring and always wants to make sure that Livers and I are happy and comfortable.

(almost) WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

June 25, 2005

Has it really only been 3 years???
Happy Anniversary, J! Here's to an infinity's more!

We're in the Clear :)

A little over a month ago Livers was diagnosed with a UTI after having a series of some really foul smelling diapers. After her round of antibiotics to clear this up her pediatrician ordered two tests--a VCUG and a renal ultrasound--to make sure that she did not have kidney reflux, because it is not common for children her age to get UTIs. For those of you who have never heard of these tests, a renal ultrasound is an ultrasound of the kidneys (sort of obvious). A VCUG is a test in which they catheterize you, fill your bladder with a contrasting dye, and then do a continuous X-ray to see if any of the dye in your now full bladder travels back through the ureters (tubes that drain the kidneys of urine and deposit it into the bladder) and into the kidney.

It was a very tough day for little Livers. She got up very early (her choice, not mine) for her, which sadly for me has been her routine the past few days for some unknown reason. She had to be poked, prodded, and catheterized by a bunch of strangers, which is no fun for an adult, let alone an almost 18-month-old who can get the occasional bout of stranger anxiety. She was forced to lie still for these procedures, which is very hard for such an active baby. She had to pee all of the dye out. (They poured two liters of warm water on her nether regions, a la drunk party joke, to try to get her to go.) All of this before she had her lunch. I must say that little Livers is quite the champ. She was very well behaved through all of this, much more so than I expected. My mom went with me, and she thought she did better than she would have done. I tried to remain calm and helpful throughout everything, and I think it helped her to keep her cool.

After an hour of testing we are very happy to say that she does NOT have kidney reflux! :) We were very worried, because if she had it then she would be on preventative antibiotics for a full year, and if she didn't outgrow it she'd have to have corrective surgery. The doctors are going to call her UTI a fluke, and there's nothing more to be done. Thank you God for taking care of my little girl!

The Price of Decluttering: A Tale of My Saturday Morning

These past twenty-four hours have been a positively exhausting. This morning I (nearly) single-handedly had my first garage sale. (I will give my husband credit for watching Livers all morning on less than five hours sleep, moving a few things last night, and making sure I wasn't assaulted by masked men at 11:30 last night as I put my sign on my mailbox; and my parents, who came over with breakfast at 7:30 this morning to keep me company and keep the crazies from stealing the junk, I mean priceless treasures of my past.)

Most of it started earlier in the week when I quickly went through my house and pulled out every piece of sellable junk I could find. This was a surprisingly easy task, because being the organized, anal-retentive freak of nature that I am, I tend to go through my stuff on a semi-annual basis to cleanse and purge, because I hate the clutter. I also went to my parents Thursday to take out any junk that I'd left there in my single days, and they willingly donated some of theirs to the cause as well. Perk for the work: I got to keep their profits.

After Livers went to bed Friday I furiously gathered all of my things in the basement to sort and price them. This took a good two hours, all the while I was subjected to my husband's solution to the lack of football problem: the College World Series (bleck). I finally got everything organized and ready to go for Saturday morning around midnight, and after a little blog reading I was in bed at 12:30.

Let's just stay that 5:30 came way too soon. I went to bed running on adrenaline and woke up not feeling rested at all. But alas, I had work to do. It threatened rain while setting up, so I had to cram a lot of my goods into my very tiny garage. By 6:40 I was finished, and at 6:45 I had my first customer. Some people just don't get that 7-12 means do not arrive at the butt crack of dawn when people haven't had their morning coffee. (Also, unfortunately for Jeremy, 6:45 was the time when I could hear Livers waking up with her usual "Mama, MaMA, MAAAAAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" That'll teach him to go to bed late when it's his responsibility to watch her in the morning ;) )

All in all, it was a successful sale. I won't bore you with the play-by-play, but here are a few highlights:

• Someone stole a pair of my husband's shoes I had for sale. Come on people, cough up the measly 2 bucks for the sneaks.
• I got rid of my big-ass entertainment unit that had been the thorn in my side.
  
• A guy talked to my parents for a good ten minutes about eating groundhog. I kid you not. He said it's yummy, especially if it was killed for eating all of the melons in your garden and was nice and sweetly plump for it. I'll stick to chicken.
• A guy picked up rocks in my yard and asked if they were for sale. I said they weren't, but said he could buy them for 25 cents a piece. He bought three. Some people are weird.
  

For the relatively small amount of effort I put into it, the garage sale was very successful. I made over $200 for what amounts to approximately 9-10 hours of work (sitting at the sale included), which is more than I made per hour when I taught. If all garage sales were this easy then I could see it being something I do to clean my house out every couple of years.

I'm off now to a night away from the kid. The grandparents have graciously agreed to watch Livers tonight so J and I could have a much needed date, so we're going to live it up with a good old-fashioned dinner and a movie.

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta

Back in March my parents and I took Livers to the aquarium for the first time. It was so insanely crowded that it was really difficult to have a good time. (We're talking fire hazard crowded.) She did enjoy seeing some fish, but she mostly enjoyed just people watching. This is one of the shots that I took of the huge fish tank. I feel fortunate to have gotten this shot, because my camera is INCREDIBLY slow, and I'd always miss the perfect shot by a millisecond. My battery also spent a good part of the day threatening to die on me. I hope that I can take her again in the fall when she's a little older, and maybe we can pick a day that is less crowded, because this place is really neat. I'm also a huge fan of aquariums, a la Anna (Julia Roberts) in Closer.

For more Friday Foto Finish Fiesta participants, check out Candid Carrie!

Question of the Day

Good morning to my 5 blog readers! I have a very important question for you this morning. Can you please give me recommendations for children's music/CDs that I can listen to with my 17-month-old? Last week I bought one that, seriously, made me want to do myself physical harm if listened to for more than two songs. It was horrible, and I will be returning it TODAY. If you don't believe me, just ask my mom. She would rather listen to the two songs Livers likes over and over rather than listen to the 50 that this compilation had.

Please leave your ideas in comments. Livers and I will be eternally grateful!!!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - One of My OTHER Children

Yes, Lacey always has that depressed look on her face. No, she's not actually depressed, just THAT lazy. (Cue the Cymbalta theme song...)

Getting What I Asked For (and Then Some...)

When Livers was first born I just couldn't WAIT to hear those glorious words coming from her sweet little mouth: Mama. A little after she turned 10 months we heard her utter her first "Dada", so I started to get really excited. Eleven months roll around, and we've heard important things like "bye-bye" and "that" (or "DAAAAAT!", as it usually turned out). Twelve months, thirteen months, still got nothing but more cute, **useless** words. I thought that as much as we see each other every day she could throw me a little bone over here! Finally, right before she turned fourteen months old I got my first musical "Mama!" I was in heaven! I knew this little butterbean loved me!

Fast forward three months...

How is it that the words you once longed for could suddenly make you want to hit yourself over the head with a wooden mallet? Don't get me wrong, still I love to hear a "mama" and see her little cherubic face light up like a kid on Christmas morning when I respond, but I do NOT like hearing, "mama, Mama, MAma, MAMA, MAAAAAMAAAAAA!!!!!!" five thousand times a day, especially not when I haven't even gotten up before she does to take my shower or if I've only left the room for two seconds to pop a squat. It truly is enough to make me run down the streets in my undies pulling my hair out. Jeremy thinks it is just PRECIOUS, too, especially since there are rarely any cries of "DAAAAAAAAAADDYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" to run and answer a bazillion times a day.

I know this will eventually pass when she is, say, a teenager and wants me as far away from her as she can possibly pass, but that seems so far away... For now, though, I am going grit my teeth and deal with the incessant cries for my presence (and arms to reach things) and count my blessings that I actually have a child that wants me for anything, because these days are short and meant to be treasured.

"Mama, MAAma, MAAAAAAAAMAAAAAAAA!!!!"

Ok, I gotta go... :)

Menu Plan Monday - June 16 (Belated, again...)

I sure am slack if it's Tuesday afternoon and I'm just now putting this up. I will say that I had this written out yesterday morning, but I decided that hanging out with friends and neighbors and seeing Made of Honor at the two dollar theater was more important than sharing my weekly eats in a timely fashion.

Here they are:

• Monday: Eat out at Ruby Tuesdays on the spur of the moment.
• Tuesday: Sloppy Joes with French fries and frozen veggies
• Wednesday: 15-Bean soup
  
• Thursday: Pasta marinara with sauteed zucchini, squash, and mushrooms
• Friday: Veggie omelets with toast and bacon
• Saturday: 15-bean soup leftovers
• Sunday: Stove-top turkey meatloaf with potatoes and frozen veggies (I'll get the recipe link when Jeremy gives it to me.)
  

I Got Nothing

Aside from pictures, it appears that I've been M.I.A. these last few days. I'm going to blame it on writer's block and not having much of significance to write about. Who needs to hear about more baby snot, poop, and cutting my fingernails, anyway? :)

So far it's been a pretty productive day. I like it when those happen. I got grocery shopping done for the week (AND came in cheaper than usual, even though I bought diapers). I went to the bank, the post office, spent eight dollars washing my comforter for the first time since December (the dog smell finally got to me), and met the only other people in my state with my last name. I think I'm even going to start working on an impromptu garage sale for Saturday. Yes, I'm a masochist like that, but the neighbors sent out an email asking if anyone else would like to join theirs to make it a neighborhood one, and it would be nice to make money while getting rid of some of the junk around this house. I'm going to try to be as casual about it as possible, because who needs that kind of stress?

Last night was one of the worst nights of sleep ever. I had to use the bathroom every 45 minutes, which doesn't make for a good night's sleep. I was cold, and I never can sleep when I am. I have to be super warm and covered with lots of heavy blankets. Even in the summer. I'm weird like that. I also had sad dreams about my dogs being abused and needing to be taken away to some sort of rehabilitation camp without my permission. I had to get up this morning to make sure they were breathing, because it was so vivid and it scared me.

That's about all I got, so I'm going to head out. I hope everyone had wonderful Father's Days and let all of them fathers in their lives know just how special they are!

Happy Father's Day!

On January 2, 2007, Livers made Jeremy a father. It was a day that he'll never forget. One full of surprise, suspense, waiting, and waiting, (and waiting....), and hunger (because he was too nervous to eat until she was born). Though sometimes we might both wish for a simpler time when we could get up and go anywhere at anytime (or just sleep in till 1), I know that you would never trade your single days for the ones of excitement and happiness that we have with our little lady. Happy Father's Day, sweets! Here is my tribute to you: my favorite pictures of you with Livers.

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta - I Heart Hawaii

I didn't take any pictures of note this week. I could have, but I forgot my camera when the opportunity presented itself. Instead I'm going to do a throw back to my favorite vacation ever: Hawaii. J and I went there four years ago this July. It's where we got engaged, and I got the worst sunburn of my life. These are a few of the thousands (literally) of pictures that the two of us took. We had just bought matching Nikon CoolPix 5000s (I think that number was right) and were primed and ready to snap away. I love to go back every so often and look at the pictures to recapture some of the moments. We both want to go back there so badly we could scream.


This picture was taken on the island of Maui. We had gone to surfing lessons that day (which subsequently threw my back out) and were driving around the island seeing what there was to see. We had stopped off on a little path, because we were looking for mongooses (we'd heard they were numerous) and the path took us to the ocean. These were some of the THE COOLEST waves I'd ever seen. The were at least six feet high and would break really quickly and very close to the shore. They just kept coming and coming, and you can see where some of the locals were taking advantage of them. We were only able to master the one foot high ones, so these were just for looksies.


This is from the same beach. We liked this picture so much that we have it framed in our hallway. To the far left is either Lanai or Kahoolawe (I can't remember exactly how far south we were) and the small island was Molokini, a prime snorkeling spot.


This was taken at Rainbow Falls near Hilo. I really like rainbows (who'd've guessed?), and I read in a guide book about this spot. You can only get a decent view of the rainbows in the morning, so Jeremy and I decided to just stay the night in Hilo after driving around half of the island so we could get up to see these falls and drive the other half. I was not disappointed. The falls were gorgeous, and I got a billion shots of the rainbow in the falls (hence the name). It was also a great idea to do this because we got to see a whole lot of the Big Island's geography that we otherwise wouldn't have. We hope when we go at some point in the future to take more time to visit this island.


This shot was taken on a round the Big Island flight, and it is somewhere near Kona (probably my favorite place we went the entire trip). I thought this picture was particularly striking because of all of the color. I will not, however, get into a small plane again unless absolutely necessary. I don't think I've ever been more motion sick in my life. Little planes get tossed around like leaves in the wind, and it scared the bejesus out of me.


This was taken at the Punaluu Black Sand Beach (I'm sure I'm missing some apostrophes in there). Black sand beaches are really cool. They're formed when the lava hits the ocean and rapidly cools, forming very tiny grains of, in this case, black sand. This is one of the best of the black sand beaches, and it is renowned for the turtles that like to relax on their shores (see above). We managed to sneak some of the sand home with us, too. You're not supposed to take it because if everyone did there'd be none left, and you'd piss off Pele, the Volcano God. Apparently she didn't mind.

Okay, now I REALLY want to go back to Hawaii.... :(

Happy Friday Foto Fiesta! See Candid Carrie for more!

Goodnight Moon

I am seriously too tired for any decent blogging tonight, so I'll have to save it up till tomorrow. Livers has been getting up way too early the past two days, and I have been going to bed way too late to be able to deal with it. And to top it off, today she didn't take a nap. Unless you count five minutes in the car and ten minutes of my carrying her cute but heavy hiney around Fresh Market, the best but most overpriced grocery store ever, while my mom got a few things. Oh, and she's sick :( She has her first cold of the year. I feel blessed that we've made it six months without one, but she sounds so sad right now.

Till tomorrow, when a hopefully fresh-faced Mama will be able to thrill you with my *very* exciting week!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

Mama Loves a Good Excuse to Go to Target, Part 2

Livers' love affair with lamps sent us back to Target again. This time she decided that the wall lamp was a jungle gym, and she nearly ripped it completely out of the drywall by trying to hang on it. Luckily all that was needed were some drywall screws to secure the lamp in place, but it came pretty close to being a lost cause. We didn't actually go to Target for those. We went to Home Depot. But since the two are so close, I figured we could just stop on in and see what was happening.

Seriously, it would behoove me to find a part-time job so that I could finance my habit. I at least walked in with a list of things I needed, and I did a decent job of sticking to it. Of course I just HAD to get Livers some clothes, because it's approximately the temperature of the sun here, and Target has some cutie things for little girls. I also had to replace a rug in my office. I should have foreseen that black dogs who go outside a lot to play + cream shag rug = ground in, dog-shaped dirt marks everywhere. I did good. They actually had the same rug...in black. So I got it. Now you have to look really hard to FIND the dogs on the rug. I also got Livers a couple of bathing suits. One of them actually has blow-up floats in it along with SPF 50, a necessity for my milky-skinned little lady. I tried to find beer there for J, but they didn't have any. I found that weird, since they have a HUGE wine selection. By the time we were done erranding I was too flippin' hot to pick up his Sammy Adams. It was 11:45 and already 95 degrees, and the glasses, once again, would NOT stay on my nose to save my life. I really must look like a nerd. At least I don't wear the mom jeans.

After lunch I put up the reinforcers for the lamp. Livers was still in her high chair watching me (the best place, seeing as she would be all over me trying to get to the lamp), and she wanted out bad. She started fussing, which is annoying enough except I dropped a screw behind our sectional sofa, which is about near impossible to move. I swear kids have a radar for knowing when you're frustrated, because that's when they turn it up a couple dozen notches. She kept fussing and fussing, and I got madder and madder trying to fish out this stupid screw, until finally I said "Livers, SHUT UP!!!!" Of course all that served to do was make her scream louder and me feel like complete crap. I had promised myself that I would NEVER tell her to shut up, even if she really needed to, and I only made it 17 months. I felt like such a terrible parent. I'm promising myself now that I will not do this again and will ask God for massive amounts of help in keeping my temper and patience in check, because trust me, it is a struggle sometimes.

That is pretty much it for the day's events. It was all mundane from there. Tomorrow we're going to the lake for the first time, which ought to be an experience and a headache. Any suggestions on keeping a VERY active toddler out of trouble near a large body of water???

Democracy at Work

It was Primary Day today . Usually I could care less about the smaller elections, but this time I felt compelled to vote. Not because I felt strongly about any particular candidate or issue, but because I have an extreme dislike for one candidate in particular. We'll call him Billy Ray.

B. R. has to be the world's most obnoxious politician, at least as far as his campaign strategy is concerned. (I have also been told that he is as much a douche bag in person as he is in campaigning.) He hits you from every single possible front imaginable. He puts up his signs EVERYWHERE. He calls your house. Literally. He figured out that a lot of phones now utilize a service that will prevent telemarketers and the like from actually reaching your house, and to make sure his message is heard he actually will send an automated "Vote for me!" message FROM HIS OWN HOME NUMBER so that the spam blockers on phones don't filter it out. (And they are so long that the answering machines that pick it up actually cut off BEFORE he finishes his message.) He sends out a BAZILLION mailers. Once again, no joke. Friday and Saturday ALONE I received 10. TEN. WTH? He sent 5 to my husband and 5 to my maiden name, which for some reason the Powers That Be have not figured out to be invalid. That doesn't count the dozens that I received in the past month or so. I was so annoyed on Saturday that I contemplated writing "return to sender" on every single mailer.

So today at 10 o'clock, before a trip to Target (another story), I trekked to my voting location and happily cast my vote for whoever was voting against him. I didn't care who it was, as long as B. R. didn't get it.

Unfortunately, at last check, it was indicated that Billy Ray won the primary. And since he is, I believe, running unopposed in November, I WILL be writing-in my 17-month-old daughter's name on the ballot.

B. R. 3000, Livers 1.

Menu Plan Monday - June 9

Happy very late Monday, everyone! Here's my menu for the week. Kinda slack this weekend, so we have a few repeats early in the week. Enjoy!

• Monday: leftover Cheesy Rice and Beans (totally recommend this; very easy to to and quite yummy; to make it better, add some sour cream and Texas Pete...and Fritos, or so the Husband says)
• Tuesday: Beef Tenderloin with potatoes and carrots
• Wednesday: Lamb Burgers and Rice
• To make the burgers, buy lamb shoulder meat and grind it in a food processor with fresh cilantro, garam masala, turmeric, ground ginger (fresh, if available), ground coriander, salt pepper--amounts to taste.
• For the rice, prepare as package suggests, but then add tomato paste and fresh cilantro to give it flavor.
• Thursday: Fettuccine pasta with marinara sauce and sauteed fresh zucchini and squash
• Friday: eat out
• Saturday: Shake and Bake Chicken with Mac-N-Cheese and frozen veggies
• Sunday: 15-bean soup (Cajun)
  
• You can find these in the dry bean section. Just buy the ingredients listed.
• When I made this last I soaked the beans for almost 16 hours--8 hours longer than I should have--but it turned out great. Jeremy said it was more like refried bean soup because of the texture, and as a result we put some sour cream, cheese and Texas Pete in it. It turned out great, and could be eaten with tortilla chips.

P.S. I found this recipe for Coffee Malts at Blissfully Domestic and made them after dinner tonight. TOTALLY worth the effort. This will be made often: Rockin' Coffee Malts.

Such a Perfect Day

Just a perfect day
Drink sangria in the park
And then later, when it gets dark, we'll go home
Just a perfect day
Feed animals in the zoo
Then later a movie too, and then home

- Lou Reed, "Perfect Day"


That's what I would consider Friday. It started like most any other day, except that J was sleeping abnormally late. I figured he was sleeping in because he'd come home late from watching the NBA Finals, but to my surprise it was more than that. He was actually going to take the entire day off from work. No working from home, no going in after lunch. Just fun and relaxation. I said we HAVE to do something fun and take advantage of it, so I suggested we deal with the heat and go to the zoo. He hates the heat as much as I do, but he agreed to do it so we could get Livers out of the house and show her the animals. She's at the age where she's starting to understand them, so we thought it would be a good experience.

It was truly hot as blazes at the zoo. The high that day was around 97 and it was humid too. One saving grace was that the majority of the zoo is fairly shaded, so that provided a little relief. Not enough, though, to keep me from pushing my glasses back up my nose 500 times like some sort of pimpled nerd. (I was so sweaty they wouldn't stay on my face. Yuck.) It was quite the educational experience at the zoo, too.

We got to see an elephant eat its poop (click on the picture to see that it really is eating its poop);


two turtles going at it;


a baby orangutan playing in a box and falling out, to which Livers said "uh oh", making the crowd laugh;

and a goat sleeping on top of a rock. Hot as it was, it was good times.

We then ate at a good pizza place called Bellacino's. It's annoying these days to go out to eat, because we have to choose restaurants that are #1 kid friendly, and #2 have food that Livers will actually EAT. She's a self-imposed vegetarian, so that cuts down on options. (Seriously, if she actually TASTES meat I get really excited. She has the best meat-dar of anyone I've ever known. (Meat-dar is like gay-dar, except for meat.) She won't even sample it, usually. She'll just fling it.) Anyway, back to the point, she LOVES pizza. Like, ridiculously loves. Mention it and she gets really excited. (Same thing with peanut butter.) Seeing as this was a pizza establishment, we knew we'd be safe. And we were. The little munchkin ate 3/4ths of an 8 inch pizza. I STRUGGLED to eat all of mine. I bet she would've eaten it all if J hadn't eaten the first slice waiting for his food.


After gorging ourselves on pizza and subs we came home. On the way, though, I took this picture. Ridiculous. It's supposed to actually be 82 degrees later in the week. I've never been more excited to see that number!


Once we got home we all took a family nap. Except me, because for some insane reason I can't nap to save my life because my bladder comes out of dormancy and wakes me up every 15 minutes. I'd think I was pregnant if I knew I wasn't and that it's been happening for MONTHS. To cap off the wonderful day we went browsing at Books A Million and Best Buy (with a brief layover in Target; very brief because my husband does NOT share my devotion to this store).

The rest of the weekend was pretty nice, too. J helped some friends move into their new house, and we ate dinner over there. Livers really enjoyed running around. They have an open floor plan, and she took full advantage of it by running 1000 laps around their furniture and trying to get into every box they had out. Unfortunately she's now got another bad case of diaper rash, so that's no fun. It was really sad watching her take a bath last night, because it hurt her so bad she didn't want to sit down in the tub. :(

Today was laid back but productive. We went to Mass in the morning, which is always an interesting experience because Livers will NOT sit still. At least they have a crying room. I got all my laundry done for the week, which will lighten things up for me considerably. I hate laundry. Not so much the doing of it as the putting it away. That's why it will sometimes take a solid week for it to make it from the laundry room to the bedroom where it belongs. Oops.

I hope everyone had good weekends, too, and that you have wonderful weeks ahead! Stay cool!

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta

I love to take pictures, especially of my daughter, Livers. Here are a few of my favorites from the past week or so.

Livers trying to get the "ball" at the bottom of the laundry basket. She thinks all circles are balls or balloons.

Livers with a post lunch mohawk. When you ask her to smile, she always turns her head to the side.

Our first Mother/Daughter pedis. :)

Such a good little mommy!

Snuggled up with my animals and blankies.

Sittin' with my cutie daddy :)

I hope to get a new camera soon. My camera is almost four years old, and it is incredibly slow. And since the majority of my pictures are of my very active 17-month-old, they oftentimes turn out a wee bit blurry. If you have any suggestions, I'd be more than happy to hear them!

(As a note, I'm thinking of a Panasonic Lumix. It has 10 MP and 7x OPTICAL ZOOM--sweet!!!)

http://carriestuckmann.blogspot.com/

Thursday 13 - 13 Things I'm Thankful For

This will be late getting out tonight, but I felt compelled to write this before I went to bed.

13 THINGS THAT I'M THANKFUL FOR:

1. A husband who loves me for who I am, no matter what stupid/naive/childish/thoughtless things I do/say.
   
2. A healthy, beautiful, sweet daughter, and her little baby voice, kisses, soft skin, lavendar-scented (peanut butter and banana covered) hair, hugs, laughter, everything. She has taught me to love on a whole other level.
   
3. A supportive and loving family
4. Two sweet puppies whose personalities are completely in sync with my husband and I; it's like God specifically made Molly for J and Lacey for me
5. The ability and opportunity to be a stay-at-home-mom
6. A roof over my head that doesn't leak and a warm bed to sleep in
7. Financial stability in times of financial insecurity worldwide
8. A space in my house that is completely my own
9. My health
10. The beauty of the world around me: the setting sun, a striking rainbow, the roaring oceans, everything!
11. Being able to spend time with the friends and family I love. Honestly, if I'm with them, it doesn't matter where I am, I'm going to be happy.
    
12. The forgiveness of God when I think/do/say things that I shouldn't
13. The promise of heaven when I leave this earth if I believe in Him

This world can be downright miserable sometime, both in the small and grand scale, and sometimes it can be really refreshing to take stock of your life, no matter what is happening in it, and see what is really wonderful about it. Because trust me, even in your darkest hour there is always a shining star there if you look hard enough.

The Indency of Humanity

This depresses the heck out of me. It was on CNN.com, and it shows a video of a 78-year old man who was hit by a car that drove off, and it took a full MINUTE AND A HALF for anyone to do ANYTHING. People stared like idiots but NO ONE EVEN CALLED 911. (Note, the video is graphic, so if you watch it, beware.)

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/06/05/ignored.hitrun.ap/index.html

Seriously, people, WHAT THE HELL? I'm not a fan of cursing, but this is one time it warrants it.

(Sorry for the massive amounts of all caps today. It's just one of those days.)

Things That Suck, #2

Current temperature: 94 degrees.

Feels like: 95 degrees (36% humidity). I think they're lying. Big.

It is supposed to reach 99 over the next couple of days with NO chance of rain till some time next week. WHAT THE *?@#&????? It's June freaking 5th, not even SUMMER yet, and it's already doing THIS??? Now, I HATE the hot weather. With a passion. And not just because I'm really pale skinned and conditioned to fear the sun like a vampire. Honestly, there's only so many layers of clothes you can take off without being obscene and to the point of no relief.

We are in need of a nice tropical storm. Or fall. Please, Lord, make it October. I beg of you. No more drinking, no more cookies, no more late night blogging, no more visits to Target. Just cooler weather, a little rain, and the promise of relief. That's all I ask.

(Though I might need Your help in the no Target thing.)

That is all.

Husband Hilarity

The other night J got home around 12ish from hanging out with some friends of his. I was beaming with pride at the masterpiece that I had been working on all day, and I wanted to show it to him. He thought it was nice (he's pretty disorganized so he wasn't all that amazed---and I know you're reading this, and you know it's true). I went on to tell him again that it was part of my Tackle It Tuesday, and then this conversation started:

J: So what thing do you do on Monday?

Me: Menu Plan Monday.

J: And Tuesday:

Me: Tackle It Tuesday.

J: What about Wednesday? (getting tickled over my knowledge; was a little drunk I bet, too)

Me: Well, some people do Works for Me Wednesday, but I like to do Wordless Wednesday.

J: What's Thursday?

Me: (forgetting Thursday 13) I don't know if there is one.

J: What would Friday be, then, "F**k It Friday"?

At this point I am rolling on the floor in laughter. Partly because it was really frickin' funny, partly because he was so proud of himself because he knew it was funny.

Seriously, we should make a F**t It Friday, because by the end of the week, I KNOW that's how some of you feel :)

Gettin' Saucy!

As usual, I'm the LAST person to join/try the cool new thing on the block. I mean, I just NOW found out about Hammer pants! (J/K. I'm not THAT slow.) What is this new thing I'm talking about? It's The Secret is in the Sauce, a new blog community for women everywhere.

One of the reasons I got in to blogging, aside from having a way to vent frustrations, voice opinions, and share the happenings of my family's daily life to friends and other family, was to meet new people. And this place is letting me do just that. So if you haven't checked them out yet, then head on over! As incentive they are giving away some amazing prizes! Just read their directions and enter the contest. You might win, and at the very least will meet some new people!

And maybe it's just me, but every time I read their blog title I can't help but think of Fried Green Tomatoes. I'm gonna look silly if that's where it came from :)

Tackle It Tuesday

Today Tuesday was officially TACKLED! I've wanted to participate in this Blog event for quite some time, because, let's face it, there's always some corner of the house that needs some help. Okay, lots of corners, but we're not going there. Aside from Livers' future room/storage/catchall/what the heck happened room, there is one sore spot for me in my house: the bathroom closet. I at the very least always make sure the towels are folded neatly (and color coded...and stacked by size), but for some reason the rest of the closet looks like CVS and a laundromat collided, spewing their contents everywhere. Case and point, here are the BEFORE pictures:



Well not anymore! This morning I took everything out of the closet that needed sorting and put it on the kitchen table. I first threw out any things that were trash/expired, and then took the remaining contents and sorted them into categories.



After sorting I went through the house and assessed what storage bins I already had so that I could repurpose them and save money. Then I made a list of what bins I needed based on the categories the objects had been sorted into, and Livers and I headed to Wally World to purchase the storage bins. After she went to bed I pulled out my trusty labelmaker that I received for Christmas and began the process of putting objects into bins and labeling them. Finally, after about an hour, I had success! Here are the pictures of my new, much improved bathroom closet.



I even went so far as to organize the medicine cabinets and my jewelry, since I was already on a roll. The entire project was well worth the time, effort, and money, because now I can easily find things. I hope to carry this over every week so that I'll have a happier, more organized home.

Cheers!