random catch -up

Ok, a lot's been happening since Thursady morning when I posted last, so I present you with bullets:

1. Ally peed in her pants on purpose all day long Thursday. Her teachers are pretty sure it was intentional anyway, and since I had just told Rob that she was doing it on purpose the night before (and was met with a "That's a horrible thing to say! What makes you think that?" uh - the wetness at home and not at day care. The dryness, and subsequent pottying whenever she's in the mood for a piece of candy.) I believe them. Anyway the next day they let up the pressure a little and turned off the pee-pee alarm (which was their idea in the first place, I swear!) and she did much better. We had a talk about it and stuff. She's had 1 or 2 accidents over the weekend, but nothing that looked intentional.
2. My mom came over and babysat on Thursday night. Rob and I went to a "non-department sanctioned" get together after work. His division manager set it up to welcome all the new employees. I fully expected it to suck and just be a waste of time, but it was great fun. No one talked about work too much, and we didn't go home until after bedtime. Of course Anya had gone to sleep and gotten back up because she won't lay down for more than an hour at a time in her plot to drive me insane. I can't remember the last time I went out with a fun group of people and relaxed like that
3. Anya's ear check-up was Friday. She has no infection, but the fluid didn't drain completely and she still has leaky snot, so I fully expect her to get another infection anytime. I will demand tubes. We'll see if it works. She slept a tiny minimal amout last night, so I'm going to get her checked and see if it has already happened.
4. Saturday we went to a family friend's house. Although, to be presice, the whole family is my friend(s) so I really don't know what to call it. Um, the-house-where-the-guy-who-helped-me-train-my-horse-and-his-wife-who-is-wonderful-raised-a-guy-I-used-to-date-and-his-sister-who-became-my-friend-in-college just doesn't have the same ring to it. Fun was had by all. Nice to see you Jill
• Ally made sure to tell Jill not to wipe her hands on her shirt. She should use a napkin. It's nice to know that she's actually listening to us sometimes. What would be nicer still is if she'd follow that advice a little more consistantly. (not that Jill is a slob or anything, but she'd been making noodles and already had flour all over her shirt. It wasn't getting any cleaner...)
5. Sunday sucked ass. More specifically, it sucked big hairy donkey balls. Anya didn't sleep much and Ally started off the day in a wonderful mood. I was cranky and so when Rob brought her upstairs, she ran over to me and I promptly pissed her off. Sorry. I just wanted to sleep, but Anya wouldn't let me put her down. I don't know if it's new sickness, or just the last month's worth of learned bad habits I now need to break.
6. No sleeping last night either. I even put Anya in the car to drive around for a bit. Anya doesn't like to sleep in the car, and she almost always wakes up as soon as I get her out. She hates her car seat. But Rob won't let me try to cry-it-out and I don't especially want to let her wake Ally up anyway, so I always have to try to keep her quiet at night. I was really about at my breaking point, so I put her in the car anyway. Mostly, just so I wouldn't have to touch her for a while. I was really not liking her last night. little bitch. Of course, she woke up as soon as we got home, and I spent the rest of the night in the rocking chair with her. Rob found me there this morning when it was time for me to shower. At least I got 1 uninterrupted hour of sleep.
7. But now it's Monday, and Anya is the daycare's problem. yay. I love her to death, but sometimes I hate her too. Does that make sense? Does that make me a horrible mother? No? How about the many times last night that I told her that if she didn't just shut upa nd go to sleep that I was going to throw her out the window?
8. I was desperate last night if you can't tell. I even had a post all worked out in my head, and if Rob hadn't been sleeping I probably would've sat down and written it (the computer's in our room).Yyou all would have had a post something along the lines of: I'm so tired. I'm tired of being tired. I'm tired of listening to either one of the children whine. I'm tired of being needed every fucking second of every fucking day for some menial little task that shouldn't piss me off, but does because I'm sleep-deprived. I'm tired of being pissed off and wanting to run away and hide. I'm tired of feeling guilty for longing for naptime rather than taking the time to enjoy my kids' waking moments... blah, blah blah. But I'm just too tired for that kind of depressing shit. I'll save it up so I have something to cry about tonight while Anya isn't sleeping.
9. In better news, last week someone (We'll call him Steve. Because that's his name) walked by and commented about the back-scratcher I had hanging in my cubicle. It was a King Kong one from Universal Studios that someone brought back from vacation for me once. I never use it. Steve is a little round man, and probably can't reach his back so well to scratch it himself. he chit-chatted a while and happened to mention that he'd trade me for cake. I thought he was joking and heartily agreed haha funny. He came back later and asked if I like german chocolate or angel food better. I started to think he was serious. I told Rob " I think Steve is going to bring me a cake" He was sure it was a joke. Lo and behold, this morning, Steve brought me one of those little mini cakes from Walmart. I happily handed over my back-scratcher. Woo!! Cake (carrot cake to be exact)
10. I have nothing else at the moment, but I just couldn't leave the list on such an uneven number when only 1 more would push it up to a nice rounded even 10. Have a good day all!
11. Oh hey, forget what I said about the nice rounded 10 crap before. i'm putting out videos on youTube. Click the link up there at the top to watch them, cause they are sooooo cute. (It's 11:52 central now, so give me a couple minutes)

Panties!

The day care has told us that Ally is goint potty pretty consistantly, and it might be time for training pants. So, Tuesday, I sent her to school in panties (and don't dare call them underwear) She had some accidents, but the teachers carry around a timer all day and every 25 minutes she sits on the potty. At home, she doesn't have as much success. I think she's fucking with us. Rob thinks I'm imagining it, but I think she wants attention. I've tried to give her extra cuddles and stuff, but she's driving me nuts.

Last night was better. She only had one accident at day care and that was before her regular teachers got there. Then she peed when I picked her up (on purpose, I think). But at home, she had no wet panties. Yay!

I've been trying to impress on her that 3 year olds don't wear diapers anymore. They are big and wear panties. She's VERY aware that her birthday is soon.

I'm not putting diapers on her again. Except at night and nap. Even if it is more of a pain in the ass to change her and lug around extra panties and find bathrooms and everything. We are going to do it this time!

Yet another MeMe. What can I say? I'm a joiner

This has some information that I haven't yet shared with my family. But I'm, um, 28 years old dammit! So I guess it's okay. I'm not going to get grounded or anything.

1. Explain what ended your last relationship.
hmmm.. That was long ago (if I assume this means romantic relationship). I guess I'd have to say it was me. I had a standing open relationship with a guy from high school. Whenever we weren't dating other people, we um... hung out. um... naked. (Hi Mom!) Then I got back together with Rob and that all ended.

2. When was the last time you shaved?
My pits - last week. My legs - ??Maybe August?? I'm lazy, it's winter, and my husband doesn't care.

3. What were you doing this morning at 8 a.m.?
reading blogs

4. What were you doing 15 minutes ago?
showing off pictures of my kids

5. Are you any good at math?
I used to be pretty good. And I still can be with a pencil and paper, but I can't even subtract two 3-4 digit numbers in my head anymore. I balance my checkbook with a calculater

6. Your prom night?
First I went as a sophomore. My date was a loser junior that couldn't find anyone to go with. After prom, we went to the post-prom school-sponsered party. After that, he went to a non-sponsered party, and I went home with a couple of guys and their girlfriends to have breakfast one of their mom's was cooking. Yum. Harriett can cook!

Next, as a junior I went to 2 of them.
  One in the town I had just moved to. I went with the guy I was dating. We went back to his house afterwards with a bunch of friends (including my husband and his girlfriend) and watched beavis and Butthead. My mom was a total control freak, and didn't even want to let me. I had to come home early.
  One in the town I grew up in. It was 3 hours away, and I drove myself. (Mom, you might want to stop reading now. You know, ignorance is bliss and all...) I got an invitation and took a sophomore firend. His girlfriend was one of the sophomore attendents, and he wanted to be able to go to be with her. I caught up with my old friends and just generally had a good time by myself while he went with his girlfriend. Then after prom, I went back to a girlfriends house for a little bit while a couple other guys (My friend from question #1 up there) ditched their dates and we all went and stayed at a hotel. My mom never asked me where I stayed that night. She assumed it was with my girlfriend. These 2 proms were within a month of each other. My mom is weird.

I didn't go to my senior prom.

7. Do you have any famous ancestors?
nope.

8. Have you had to take a loan out for school?
Yes. I made it out in 3 years and only had about $6000 in loans though. I think that's pretty good considering I paid for it myself with a waitressing job.

9. Do you know the words to the song on your Myspace profile?
I don't use myspace. Have never even seen a myspace profile

10. Last thing received in the mail?
A pre-approved credit offer

11. How many different beverages have you had today?
1 water

12. Do you ever leave messages on people's answering machine?
I never do on my mom's becuse the message is like 5 minutes long. Who wants to sit through that? (Gosh I love to be able to bitch on here where she can read it (Hi Mom!) and I don't have to listen to any repercussions. Otherwise, I leave a message only if I want called back.

13. Whom did you lose your CONCERT virginity to?
Concert? Don't those require money and free time?

14. Do you draw your name in the sand when you go to the beach?
Beach? Doesn't that require money and free time? just kidding. I lived in Virginia for a little while and went to the beach occasionally. Didn't write my name in the sand, but never failed to bury a hand or foot or both.

15. What was the most painful dental procedure you have had?
back in June (I think) I had my teeth cleaned. It was the most painful thing ever! Not because of the whole dentist thing, but I was developing mastitis at the time. feverish, boob hurtage, teeth hurtage, yuckiness.

16. What is out your back door?
My deck off the 2nd floor, and the patio filled with Little Tykes off the garage back door

17. Any plans for Friday night?
I plan to sleep, but that never happens. Gosh I'm old

18. Do you like what the ocean does to your hair?
I don't especially care about my hair

19. Have you ever received one of those big tins of 3 different popcorns?
yep. I eat the carmel then the cheese, and throw out the unflavored usually

20. Have you ever been to a planetarium?
Yes. It almost put me to sleep

21. Do you re-use towels after you shower?
I used to. But now I shower first, so my husband is in there when I get done drying my hair. The towel usually ends up abandoned on the floor, and discovered later after it's too late to reuse it

22. Some things you are excited about?
I have the day off work tomorrow. Yippee!

23. What is your favorite flavor of JELLO?
red-flavored

24. Describe your keychain(s).
I have a Brookstone keychain with 5 removable rings on it. One has my truck keys. One has my car keys. One has my house keys. One has my jump drive (or nerd stick as my friend calls it). The last is rarely on because I don't carry it on a day-to-day basis. It's keys to my mom's house. (But don't tell my sister I have them. She's not trustworthy enough to have a set of her own)

25. Where do you keep your change?
in my pocket - in my desk drawer - in my ashtray of the car - on my banister railing - in my daughters piggy bank

26. What kind of winter coat do you own?
um, it's white and warm and the pockets are way too shallow

27. What was the weather like on your graduation day?
Kinda windy.

28. Do you sleep with the door to your room open or closed?
open - better to hear the kids screaming. But who am I kidding. Mostly I sleep upstairs on the couch, and there's no door in the living room.

Hmmm... you might see some of these topics reincarnated for TMI Tuesday. Ideas churning...

question for you
I have a very hard time volunteering infomation about myself. Everything I think of, I discard because I think it's boring. Is there anything you all want to know about me? Ask me some questions.

TMI Tuesday #3 - Laundry Edition

Everything in italics I wrote on Tuesday. I took off early last Tuesday for Halloween and yesterday I had the day off for election day. Anya decided to be a monster last night and I had no time to finish. Oh well.

I've got to start working on Tuesdays. My gosh, it's hard to find time to do these things at home! 

I hate matching socks. Now, I know everyone hates matching socks, but I really hate it! It's the absolute worst part of doing laundry. So I don't do it. When I moved out to go to college, I threw away every last sock I owned. Every single one. Oh, wait, I think I might have given some to my mother. She matches up socks. Every time she does laundry, she drags out the matchless socks in a mis-guided hope that one of those missing socks will find its way home. What a waste of time. No offense, Mom. So there I am with no socks. I went to Wal-mart (where else? evil little store...) and bought new ones. They all match. I have 2 different styles. Some are ankle socks and some are a little taller. They are all Hanes and they all have pink stripes on the toe. Then I bought some black ones. They all match too. Now, When I get a hole in a sock, I throw it away. I don't have to replace the whole pair, because it's not a pair. It's just a sock. I have had to add to the sock collection over the years, but the same theory is in effect. I hate matching socks.

Book MeMe

Hey, I actually got tagged by Erin for a meme. I've done some on my own before, but no one has ever tagged me. Wow. I'm like famous or something. So, of course, I rushed right off to do it. Especially because it's on one of my favorite topics - books. I even added a bonus question (you know, every time I type anything that ends in "tion" I end up typing "tino" instead. My fingers just can't get together on that conglomeration (there I go again) of letters.)

One book that changed your life: I don't know if any book ever changed my life. If one ever did, I suppose it would be Atlas Shrugged. The philosophy it discloses is fascinating. There are many lessons to be learned. One quote: "Never get angry at a man for stating the truth"

One book that you’d read more than once: Just about every one that I've ever liked. Books get better with age. I can't even think of one that stands out. Everything on my bookshelf at home gets read repeatedly. Instead, I'll list some authors. Stephen king, Carl Hiassen, Robert Heinlein among others

One book you’d want on a deserted island: Atlas Shrugged. Maybe if I had it on a deserted island I could actually make myself read that 56 page speech by John Galt.

One book that made you laugh: Anything by Carl Hiassen. Especially Lucky You. Very funny guy. Think Dave Barry but funnier. Also, duh, Douglas Adams. I especially love the Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy trilogy.

One book that made you cry: Nicholas Sparks' Message in a Bottle made me cry. very much. I cried in the middle and then got hold of myself and cried some more and then got to the end and had myself a good sob. Then my roommate came home and asked me why I had been crying and I cried again telling her all about it. The movie ruined it for me though.

One book you wish you’d written: The Outsiders. Wonderful - 'nuff said.

One book you wish had never been written: Love You Forever - Oh my god this one is creepy. The mom drives across town and climbs a ladder! into her son's room at night while he's sleeping! and the illustration shows her slithering across him into his room and... Ok now I'm just creeped out. No more talking about that one. What? It had to be an adult book?

One book you’re currently reading: Lisey's Story by Stephen King - I just have to have any new Stephen King. I've been in love with his stories since The Shining. Even though some of his stuff sucks big hairy donkey balls (The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon), I'm an optimist and assume that this one won't. We'll see

One book you’ve been meaning to read: Crime and Punishment. Oh. My. God. that book is boring. I bought it knowing that it was one of "the classics" and that I should expand my horizons a little. I can't do it. I tried. I left it in my car for about 6 months. Everytime I went somewhere I'd pick it up and try again; doctor's offices, long trips, etc. I just can't do it. I am not a "classical literature" kind of person, I guess.

Bonus Question:
One book I'm ashamed to say I loved: This cheesy romance novel by Judith McNaught called Paradise. It wasn't one of those dime a dozen cheapy romance books. It was well-written and um, yeah... But, I liked it.

Now, I tag weirdgirl and sunShine and anyone else who wants to do this. If you don't have a blog, you could always answer in the comments. I like getting to know you.

coordination

Anya is starting to wave occasionally. She sometimes does "so big" and has looked like she's trying to clap once or twice. But she Can. Not. manage the pincher grasp yet. Oh, it frustrates and confuses her. She tries to pick up food. She gets it in her palm. Success! Then when she puts it in her mouth somehow it always tastes just like thumb. She looks at her hand, and tries again. More thumb.

We gave Anya lots of neat stuff this weekend. When Ally was little we were so worried. "She doesn't have teeth. We have to be very careful what she eats. We don't need to rush her" HA. We've seen where that got us. Anya is interested in our food. She tries to pull our plates into her lap to inspect. So we give her food. She had a couple different types of pasta noodles this weekend. And some crackers. And a little piece of chicken that Rob gave her. And some banana. She hasn't even eaten a whole lot of baby food yet. There just isn't that much time to try it all out when you don't get home til 5 and she goes to bed at 7:30 or 8. But, the day care takes care of a lot of that.

She gets so excited and steals the spoon from me. Once she got so excited and lunged at me so quick that I stabbed her in the head with a bite of sweet potatoes. Yeah, yeah, it was one of those plastic spoons. She looked very funny with a dot of food on her forehead. But then she smeared it and it got all over and I had to throw her in the sink when we were done.

Oh and I almost forgot. Twice this weekend, she grabbed my eye and my cheek and pulled me close and slobbered all over my nose. My first Anya kisses! God, I love babies at this age.

from the mouths of babes (or, more potty talk)

Our little choo-choo train:
Ally walked across the room the other day and let out a couple farts. She stopped when she noticed Rob and I were looking at her. She smiled real big and said, "Toot, toot" I don't think she took us seriously when we told her it wasn't polite. Or maybe she just didn't hear us over our laughing.

The pee-pee alarm part 1:
I've been setting a timer and asking Ally if she needs to pee every 25 minutes. They do 20 at day care, and I think it's time to get serious about it at home too. We were sitting at my Dad's (small) restaurant Saturday when a timer went off in the kitchen. Ally heard it and said, "Oh, it's the pee-pee alarm"

The pee-pee alarm part 2:
At lunch the next day, my timer went off. I told Ally, "That's the pee-pee alarm, do you need to go potty?" Her reply? "Nope, that's the toot alarm." Then she proceeded to fart and giggle.

Warning: This post is about poop

(Ally is eating lunch at the table)
A: My poops!
Me: Don't let them out. Let's go sit on the potty. Hurry!
...
(Ally stands up and looks in the pot)
A: There's 2 of them. A Ally and a Anya!
(??? I look. There are indeed 2 of them. They are small)
Me: Do you have any more Ally? Let all your poops in the potty.
A: The Daddy and Grandma are still in my butt. They're still working.
(???)
Me: well, okay. Finish lunch then
...
A: My poops!
Me: Sit on the potty.
A: I have 2 more poops
Me: well, let them out then.
(Ally stands up and looks in the pot)
A: huh... A baby Emma.
Me: Emma?
A: Marie's (a former teacher of hers) baby Emma

I couldn't take it anymore. I had to go away and laugh at her. She eventually did poop out the whole family. I think I liked the crocodiles better.

pictures
Ok, got them uploaded. Click on Flickr up there ^ for the recent ones or over there -> for all my pictures. Also, I got Anya's 6 month pictures back. She smiled so well for these. I can't wait until November pictures! I have to do Christmas for both of them, Ally's birthday, Anya's 7 months, and some of them together. Fun, fun

Halloween rehash

The haul:
M&Ms - 4 fun size, 2 reg size, 2 fun size minis
Peanut M&Ms - 7 fun size, 2 reg size
4 Reeses cups
3 Reeses peices
4 Milky Way
4 KitKat
3 100 grand
2 Crunch
1 3 Musketeers
6 Snickers
1 Nutrageous
2 Twix
3 Skittles
3 Hershey's bars
8 Smarties
3 Laffy Taffy
1 Kissables
1 Lifesaver Gummies
2 caramels1 toffee
2 Hershey's Kisses
1 Junior Caramels
3 SweetTarts
2 pixy sticks
2 candy sticks*
1 Almond Joy
11 suckers
1 Heath bar
1 nerds
1 milk duds
3 fruit snacks
3 bags Chips Ahoy**
2 Teddy Grahams
1 bad Pretzles
20 Tootsie Rolls of various sizes
1 McDonalds Happy Meal Barbie Princess***

Yummy!!

I left work early to go to the daycare Halloween parade. We watched all the kids wander about all dressed up while the teachers tried to direct them into some sort of a line. The babies all got strapped into a 6 seater stroller and pushed in a circle around the room for all the mothers (myself included) to take loads of pictures. Then I took them both back to work with me. We trick or treated at my office and filled Ally's little pumpkin basket**** enough that she asked Grandma to carry it for her. Anya was tired, so we didn't put her back in her costume (She got pissed off after the parade so we took it off her. Plus, I'm not sure she could have fit in the car seat with it on). She fell asleep about half-way through my building.

We went home for lunch and Anya woke up to sit at the table with us. I hate her high chair, so I have strapped a booster to one of our chairs instead. She loves it. She's actually sitting at the table with us. She tried really hard to eat some french fries, but most of the time, she couldn't manage to get them in her mouth. She reach out and sweep one into her hand, then stick her thumb in her mouth. She hasn't quite got the pincher-grasp thing worked out yet. So I gave her really long ones that stuck out past her thumb. She gummed a couple to death, and may have even swallowed a little bit.

They both took a nap, and I got one too. 2 whole hours of quiet where their naps overlapped. Nice.

When Rob got home from work, we got ready to go out (funny how that is only 12 words, but it was frantic activity for 20 minutes) and lit the jack-o-lanterns on the front step. It was kinda chilly, but not too bad. Anya stayed out with us a little while, and when she started to get cold, Grandma took her home. When Ally's bag got too heavy again and she started to get cold, we went back and had supper. It was a wonderful night! I'm putting pictures out on Flickr soon (like later today). Ally was very polite and didn't even freak out and try to eat too much candy. She even tried 3 bites of Lasagne for supper! Under extreme duress, but still...!!

*candy sticks are what they have to call what used to be candy cigarettes. Not PC anymore, you know?

**My friend Chris gave her those. He knows I like them. He hit the vending machine before we got there. yum

***My friend Nancy saved that one for her. Nancy babysits for us sometimes. She's wonderful. Ally gave her basket to Grandma to hold, but she wouldn't give up that princess. She carried it til we got home to open it.

***Rob took Ally to the store the other day to get trash bags. He came home with 2 of those little collasible baskets that look like jack-o-lanterns. We already have about 20 baskets she could have used, but Santa Daddy ("They were only a dollar") strikes again.

TMI Tuesday #2

Ok, it's late, but I didn't forget. Halloween interfered, but more about that tomorrow. This time may actually be Too Much Information, but hey, that's the name of the game...

I'm covered in moles. They're everywhere. I used to have a mole on my leg. By mole I mean skin tag and by on my leg I mean um... in my crotch. Way up high on the inside of my thigh. It grew a little when I was pregnant with Ally and so I mentioned it to my Dr. He said he's just snip it off when I delivered Ally. Since it ended up being a c-section, he wasn't in that area, and it didn't get done.  When I was pregnant with Anya, I mentioned it again, and he took it off in the office. I've had it all my life, and had kind of gotten used to it. I miss it.

There. That's enough all-about-me today. But it brought up a question. Ally never had any moles and I always wondered if she'd get them. Just a couple months ago once sprouted on her belly. Do your kids have moles? When did they show up?

oh, and by the way
I'm pretty sure I'm getting my chairs this week. THey were able to get special permission from the liquidators to ship them to my store, So I'll have a full set of matching kitchen chairs. Not that they match the table or anything, but first things first. Yay

braaiinns...

I feel like a zombie. A hungry zombie. This weekend involved way too little sleep and many quick, one-handed suppers. You know that (not quite) ear infection from a couple weeks ago? The one where she was taking antibiotics and just got off them on Wednesday right before her 6-month checkup where the doctor said her ears were fine? Eh, he's wrong now. Saturday we had to go back to the dr for more antibiotic. This sucks. why couldn't my kids have inherited my ears? boo (and not in the happy halloween way)

Anya wouldn't let go of me for 5 minutes most of the weekend. The few times that she actually did let go though, she decided to learn to crawl. Yes, she's crawling now. See? She also spent the time pulling up on Ally's little fold-out couch and standing up. Um... and yelling. That part wasn't near as much fun.

Anyway, I'm hungry and sleepy, which poses a question? Should I eat lunch or take a nap? Tough decisions.

This is just cool

more food

I think we're making a breakthrough here. Ally tried Spaghettios Monday and took 4 bites of hot dog last night. She didn't appear to like either one, but she did taste them. We'll try again. Tonight is dance, so it's a McDonalds night. I know she'll eat that.

 

TMI Tuesday #1 - Inaugural Edition (updated)

Lately, I tried to write a profile of myself for the sidebar over there. It was very difficult. I realized that I don't spend much time looking at myself as a person, rather than someone's mom/wife. So, I've decided to devote one post per week to me. Maybe someday I'll figure out just who I am after all. I will warn you that it may be more than you ever wanted to know about me. (especially you, Mom)

hmm... I've started writing about 5 different times but can't settle on a topic. It seems that all the major events in my life were kinda depressing. Or else very complicated requiring a long and boring backstory. Or else um... my Mom doesn't know about it. shhh don't tell on me (What am I 12? Do we ever get over hiding our indiscretions from our parents?). Or else I really don't remember the details. Or else boring.

So for now, I can ease into this slowly and go with my favorite books from childhood. I was a bookworm. I loved to read. I used to hide books from my mom so that when I got sent to my room to clean or something, I could climb up into the top of my closet to hide and read. (Yes, I used to hide in my closet sometimes.)

We had that whole Pizza Hut Book It thing at our school, but we didn't go to Pizza Hut very often, so I didn't usually keep track of what I read. We even went to Six Flags one time as a class trip. You could only go if you read like 5 books a month or something - I don't remember. I read 5 books a week if not more. I got bored with keeping track for it, so I almost didn't get to go. My mom had to talk to my teacher and intercede for me.

In sixth grade, my teacher took a lot of books away from me throughout the year. On the last day of school he gave them back. I was so excited. I had books that I had forgotten I had lost. I think I needed an extra backpack that day to get them all home.

I've blocked out a lot of my childhood, but some books were my best friends. I think I ran out of books in the school library at one point. How could I forget them? So without further ado...

The Bridge to Terebithia. This book made me cry. So sad. Oh my god I loved this book. It was so well written. It was such a simple story, but I knew those kids. They were my friends. I could feel the little boy's pain. It felt like MY best friend died. I haven't read it in years. I have re-read a lot of my favorite childhood books, but didn't want to ruin the memory of this one. It's just different when you're older.

The Outsiders. OMG! This book was so beautiful. And again with the crying. Really though, I liked all of S. E. Hinton's stuff. Her characters were so real. I couldn't get enough. I wished she had written more. Still do in fact. And I'm absolutely sure I still have a copy of this one on my shelf.

The Westing Game. We read this one a chapter at a time in my fourth grade (I think) class. I read ahead. I had to sneak an extra book off the shelf and take it home, because the teacher collected the books at the end of class.

The Bobsey Twins. My mom had a bunch of these. When she and Dad divorced, she forgot to take them with her. She was kind of mad that he wouldn't ever let her have them, so I seem to remember something about Mom wanting me to bring them home from Dad's so they could be in our house again. Whatever. They were entertaining.

Encyclopedia Brown. I read all these I could find. The bad thing was that the answers were so easy to find. I'm a lazy person. I thought about the solutions to the mysteries, but was to impatient and lazy to figure them out myself most of the time. I cheated and peeked.

The Dark Is Rising series. This was 5 or 6 books about the fight between good and evil. Loved them all. I gave them to my mom to let my nieces read recently. I hope they like them. I don't want to know if they don't.

The Black Cauldron series. Another good vs evil series. I think I started reading this one on the recommendation of one of my teachers in summer school. (No, I didn't fail my classes. I liked school so much that I went to summer classes too)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This was one of the few books that my Grandma was able to get for me. See, she had a bookstore. When I was old enough to realize what that meant, I thought "Goldmine" But, it was a Christian bookstore and she couldn't order anything that wasn't Christian materials. This qualified though, so I still ahve a very nice hardback boxed set of this series. (Um... good vs evil? I think there might have been a trend in my books that I hadn't really noticed before.)

How to Eat Fried Worms. Enough said.

Superfudge, Ramona Quimby, basically anything by Judy Blume. Feel good books. I liked them.

The Sweet Valley Twins. Yes, they were fluff books. Yes, I loved them. They were what I believed normal should be. They were sitcoms in print. I had almost the whole collection for the time I was reading them. I can't even imagine how many there eventually ended up being, but I would try to buy them as soon as I knew they came out at the time. I'm still kinda bummed that I didn't quite have the whole collection. I sold it at a garage sale in high school. When you need gas money, nostaglia is over-ruled.

I liked to read series books obviously. I couldn't get enough of the characters for just one book. Like I said, many many books kept me company growing up. These are the ones I can remember off the top of my head - the ones I read over and over again - the ones that might still be on my shelf even through 15 thousand moves. I can't wait until I can read them with my daughter and see how they affect her.

So how about you? What books still hold a place in your heart? What book can you not wait to read to your kid?

Oh, and also... Ask me some questions or give me an idea for next week. This is hard.

**update: Oh my God! How could I have forgotten to add A Wrinkle In Time? I was thinking of it while writing this post, but it seems I never actually wrote it down. Loved the series. They added a couple later in my life that I read when older, just to finish the series. Many Waters just didn't do it for me though. (shrug)

Banned!

Anya has been kicked out of the circle. voted off the island. Excluded. Ok, so maybe it's not as bad as that. The day care has a padded circle on the floor in her room. It can fit a couple-3 infants sitting up and keeps them from getting hurt when they fall over. It is about a foot tall on the sides and padded on the bottom. It works great. That is, until someone decides to try to crawl over the edge and land on her nose. Yep. That's my daughter. She won't be confined. They let it go once, but the next day when she did it again, they banned her from the circle. She has to play on the floor until she can manage to crawl in herself. They figure that way she'll be big enough to not hurt herself (much) when she then decides to crawl back out.

When Ally was in the infant room, there was a little boy who did the same thing. JJ was fearless. I was in awe. Now that's my kid. 6 months old (tomorrow) and already trying to run around.

Friday she got banned. Yesterday, when I picked her up, her teacher told me she was not giving in so easily. it seems that she leaned and scootched her way over to the outside of the circle, grabbed hold of the side and stood herself up. My baby pulled up to standing! The teachers were amazed. They said Anya was amazed too and did it again about 12 times. Jamie (a new teacher that I really like. What's up with calling them teachers anyway. It seems convenient to me, but is that okay? I mean should I be calling them care-givers or something?) said she stood over Anya half the time waiting to catch her but she didn't fall except on her (very padded) bottom, so all was good.

Last night, we had to get the graden out of storage and clean it up after bedtime. It's this big plastic thing that has a door and some plastic veggies to chew on and a mailbox with plastic letters. Ally loved it. I think Anya will too. Have I mentioned I love this stage?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times (but not in that order)

Ok, this weekend simultaneously sucked and rocked. Friday after work, we had to stop at the evil Walmart for a couple things, and we picked up pumpkins (4 of them in sizes relative to our family members) and carving kits. Darra came up on Friday night after the kids had gone to bed. I tried to wait up for her. Really I did. But I was on the newly cleaned off laundry couch and just couldn't keep my eyes open. I'm so pathetic that I couldn't stay awake until... like 10:30. Instead, I just about shit myself when Rob threw the remote on my legs to wake me up when she got there. I was in the middle of some DEEP sleep. Then we stayed up talking until around 12:30... 12:30 AM. What the hell was I thinking? Of course, I had to get up and feed Anya about an hour after going to bed, which made me very tired on Saturday.

My original plan was to go to the pumpkin patch on Saturday and meet my Mom. It was supposed to be a fun and games type place that we would spend some time in and let Ally run. Then, Saturday morning, I called Mom and she was sick. I asked her for directions to the place, but she really didn't know where she was going either. Plus, the weather channel said it was going to rain. So we decided to just go to a place a lot closer to us called the Apple Barn. It's a little orchard type place with pumpkins and apples and local vendor stuff like apple butter and salsa etc. Very quaint. it didn't rain and Ally had a lot of fun looking around and helping Grandma Darra pick out a pumpkin for herself. I'm very glad we got our pumpkins at the evil Walmart the night bfore though, because Darra's was $7. Mine was $2.98.

Then I wanted to go look at chairs. You see, our kitchen chairs are very nasty. They are this ugly old green color that is stained with various different things over the years. They have crossbars across the back that aren't very comfortable and are quite difficult to clean peanut butter off of. And that's also why those bars are all raggety and scratchy. The dog or should I say puppy (Yay, I won), chewed them all to hell. Plus, we only have 3. Now that Anya is eating some solids, it would be nice to be able to have another chair. I hate our highchair and would like to use a booster seat, but don't have enough chairs for everybody in the house, much less anyone who visits us.

So anyway...chairs. We looked a couple places and saw people (insane people. or very very poor to need money enough to be out in the cold like that) standing out in the very cold wind holding up signs saying that K's Merchandise was going out of business. I love K's. It's the only place that we've been able to find cheap furniture that wasn't actually cheaply made over the years. Our couches, entertainment center, curio cabinet, cd shelves, and car seats came from K's. I've looked for chairs there before but couldn't find what I was looking for. I want a padded seat on a wooden chair that isn't uncomfortable. They actually had some I liked! :) But only 2. :( So they checked the computer and said there weren't any near by at other stores, but I was free to call stores farther away. So I called one and they told me they had 3. Dilema... Do I buy the 2 and go drive an hour and a half to get more? Do I drive and then come back and get these 2 just in case they someone else buys the 3 before I get there? Do I give up and look for something else? What if I drive over and get the 3 and come back and the 2 are gone?

So I bought 2 chairs and off we went. The other store didn't have any. None! They didn't sell them Saturday or anything: the computer was just wrong. I specifically asked on the phone twice for them to look for me and they told me they had them. They didn't look, just trusted the computer. Bastards. So now it looks as if they don't exist. And I have 2 chairs that I can't match. And I'm out $86. GRR!

So I talked to a couple managers and stuff. I finally found out that it's possible that there are a bunch in a warehouse in Fort Wayne, In. I'm not driving to Fort Wayne. No way. So I got the number for the corporate office and they are going to see if I can get special permission to have them shipped to the local store. I need special permission because of the whole store going out of business thing. Giant pain in the ass. And a giant waste of the ertire afternoon/evening. Ally napped in the car and not long enough, so she wasn't the paragon of obedience, and Anya was cranky because she didn't get a lot of time down on the floor. I was upset because I actually liked the chair and spent all day on it and still do not have chairs for my kitchen.

To make a long story short (Too late!) Saturday morning = good. Saturday afternoon/evening = bad

I was determined not to think about it Sunday at all lest I get pissed off again. So after we all got breakfast, we cleared out the kitchen and plastic-ed the floor. We figured it was easier to sit on the floor to carve pumpkins than to try and clean up the table and floor afterward, so with the plastic, all we had to do was roll it up and throw it away. We made a huge mess and had much fun. Ally wouldn't even consider touching the insides. No sir. Wouldn't want to get all slimy or anything. She had a great time watching all of us and coloring "faces" on her and Anya's pumpkins though. She wandered about carrying tools back and forth between all of us. The best part of that was I didn't even have to clean her up when we were done.

Anya, however was a completely different story. She sat up on her knees holding onto a pumpkin for the longest time. She was having a ball with all the pumpkins. She played with a little bitty one that we got Ally for a long time too. She was all over the floor. Then we let her play in the goo. And oh how she played. She had a great time. She leaned over and smacked it and squished it between her fingers and picked up handfuls and accidentally flung them around when she flailed her arms around. She kept picking up big handfuls and sucking her thumb trying to taste them. She barely got any of it in her mouth - mostly she just ended up with a handful of goo running out of her hand and down her chin. It was so much fun.  She went straight to the bath (in the kitchen sink) where she proceeded to splash everything within 3 feet of us. Her first Halloween has been a raging success, even before Halloween gets here.

Then when it got dark, we lit them all up and they were just gorgeous. So much fun! And Ally loved that part.

Of course we took a lot of pictures, and I'm working on getting them organized. Check the little updates below the kids' age tickers up there at the top to see when I've got new pictures uploaded. I've got some videos already on youTube, but haven't finished renaming and downloading everything, but should have more soon.

Flicker
I'm running out of disk space to store my pictures using tripod again. I'm probably going to delete the candid shots album soon. I signed up at Flicker and can put them there instead. Besides, I don't use that album as often as I should anyway. So, check it out over there on the right. I put some new pictures out. Cause a girl can't have too many places to store pictures of her kids...