Kevin at the Home Show

Well...we went to the Home Show tonight...date night! We left Abs at home with my mom. It was nice to get out just Scott and I and walk around, but there were lots of kids there and it made us miss her. She was asleep shortly after we left anyway, so we really could not have brought her.

While walking past a booth I was tackled by Kevin F. I haven't seen him since my dad's wake...so about a year and a half. I have emailed back and forth with his mom several times, but not actually talked to him. He and his wife live in Fishers with their 5 month old son Jacob. We are going to make plans to meet up for lunch or dinner...

Thanks to the Home Show we are currently in the market for a hot tub. I'm game...we've wanted one forever so what the heck! We will see...that sparks a whole bunch of other "needs," like a deck and landscaping!

The picture is Abbie with Scott's grandma, her great grandma, last January. This is my new theme...can't find a good current picture, look to last year. Kinda fun for comparisions though.

The Dishwasher is Fixed!

How did people survive before dishwashers!?! I use my dishwasher every day. I hated not having it. Of course, I hated having to pay for it to be fixed even more.

Here's one of my mom's pictures of Abbie after her hair cut. Just her bangs were trimmed...and she has a barrette in, so you can't even tell. You can kind of see the pink jeep she sat in while she had her hair cut. After we took her out of the jeep she cried and wanted to get back in.

We went swimming today. Abbie's teacher and I decided to take it easy on her and make sure she is having fun. She was so uptight when we got in the water...for the first 10 minutes she clung to the strapsof my bathing suit, but the she started laughing and splashing and having fun. I try to stay by her friend Katie...because Katie seems to inspire Abbie and let her know that swimming is fun.

Abbie and I took a shower before dinner to wash the chlorine off of us. She knows the word shower, and she was so excited to hop in with me. She jumped right in. It was cute. She cried when Scott took her out.

We are getting ready to watch Must Love Dogs. Hopefully it is good, if not, I'm going to bed!

Blah...

I have a really bad headache so I'm just throwing the pic up and then going to close my eyes until Scott comes home from class. This is a really cute picture of Abbie & Nick from Sunday. We were celebrating Jeff's brithday. Nothing more to say now...if I feel better later I will write some more.

First Haircut...or Trim!

Abbie had her first "haircut" today...I only had them trim her bangs, because I like her hair and don't want them to screw it up. As is...I didn't like how her bangs turned out. This was a before picture. I had to hold her head while she cried during the hair cut so I didn't get any during the haircut...but my mom did, so we will have to see if any of them turned out.

We went to Clubhouse Cuts...they have a train table and big slide there. Abbie sat in a pink jeep while she had her hair cut...she would have watched a DVD but the lady was standing in the way and I was holding her head.

Anyway...today was just a big cleaning day for us since we still had a mess from the painting. Tomorrow we will be very busy with our two nanny jobs (9 - 2 & 3 - 5:30), but I hope to make it over to JoAnn Fabrics to start looking for material for curtains & other fun things. Kristi and I just decided last night that while she is home we will try to make quilts, so I want to see what books/magazines they have on quilts and start looking at fabric for that. I'm excited...I have wanted to make a quilt FOREVER...and that could be a fun thing to give as baby presents if I get good at it.

God She's Cute...

Okay...I can't help it. Every mother thinks her kids are the cutest in the world, but I might actually be right! Abbie loves to play the piano. I was trying to get a picture of her on the couch in one of her new outfits, but all she wanted to do was sit on the piano bench and play. I gave in. And she was so happy, it made for a great picture! She's so much fun to have around and I'm so lucky to have so much time with her. Here's to Abigail!

Paint Fumes

I didn't post yesterday because our room was out of commission due to the painting, and I don't think we have internet in the guest room where we were sleeping. I usually do all my blogging at night before going to bed in my room...and we were down the hall. WHICH SUCKED! I hate that bed. I feel bad for anyone who has slept in there. Maybe it's not bad to other people...who's real bed isn't just down the hall...but it was really bad. Plus we left the window open because it was hot in there, and it was freezing in the middle of the night. We are sleeping in our room tonight even though it still stinks in here. I just can't imagine trying to sleep down there again.

Well..the painting is done. We spent some time tonight cleaning...and will have to clean some more tomorrow. The kitchen is going to take some time to get used to, but I have already adapted to the other three rooms. I don't do well with change, and everything is very different in color. I will have to do some decorating to tone down the crazy yellow in the kitchen.

Scott did some CAT6 in the basement tonight. It's kinda fun watching him do it. I get to point to all the places in all the rooms where I might want an internet hook-up...and he runs around the basement installing them. I sat on a chair and read a magazine. Quite nice.

Obviously the picture is my room...which I now think is boring after seeing the picture. We need to add some stuff to the walls, but not sure what I am going to do. I have one photo blown up from a California trip that I might frame, but I still don't know. Maybe a mirror. Allright...I am going to throw another post up to make up for yesterday.

The Dining Room is Red!

Well...the dining room is "Cape Red" to be exact. It gets one more coat tomorrow...and then our other three rooms get painted. I'm very excited. I will try to post a picture of the painted rooms...none taken yet.

I went to a class at North View Middle school tonight on how to use the functions on my camera. It was good to learn some things I didn't know, but it sucked being out from 7 - 9 at night.

I had another offer for another nanny job. While I love to make extra money, I'm not sure how busy I want Abbie and I to be. It's a roller coaster ride because I'm very excited to get out there and make some extra cash, but I love my life the way it is...very free and able to do what I want.

The picture of course is from our swimming lesson yesterday. Abbie's new word is "sit," and she keeps say "sit sit sit" until you finally let her sit wherever it is she wants to sit. She loves the chairs at the swimming pool.

Well, I'm going to go relax and unwind. Tomorrow we have nothing planned which is nice, but we will have to go walk around somewhere to get out from the fumes of the paint...it gave me a headache tonight.

Painting Tomorrow!

Okay...I can't help but post about tomorrow. A high school friend is coming over tomorrow to paint four rooms in our house. I am so excited. He is painting the kitchen, dining room, master bedroom, and master bath. I could have easily painted the dining room and master bath...but the price was good and it saves me the time and hassle. Actually...it wasn't too much more than it would have cost me to buy the paint and supplies. I love being in a painted room...it makes me happy! After living here for 4 1/2 years without any rooms being painted (until the last year when I painted two bathrooms, abbie's room and the family room) it is very exciting to know if a few days all but two bedrooms, the den and the laundry room will be done! I'm going to paint the basement a khaki color... if we have extra and i like it, I may do the den that color. I already have a gallon of paint for the scrapbook room...and need to know the sex of the next baby before I can paint the other bedroom. (NOT PREGANT OR TRYING)

On another note...aside from the fact that I ate the Ben & Jerry's ice cream, I lost 1.2 lbs last week. That puts me at 28 lbs. since August. I hoping to lost 7.4 more by February 28th...the current goal. Tonight I ate Healthy Choice ice cream....not quite as good but no guilt.

Last night I couldn't get on this site to post, I tried several times.

The picture tonight is from swimming lessons today. Abbie was very tired and not impressed with the fact that we were putting her under the water. (She cried...a lot) Hopefully I will get her to take her morning nap before class next week so she will be happier to do what we want. It is very nice to know that you are loved though, and Abbie does a great job of showing me!

Gymboree

Abbie and I went to Gymboree today...every Monday. This picture is from April when Abbie was still in the baby class (she's the one on the right). One of her friends that she still has playdates with is on the left. Now Abigail plays with the big kids in Level 4, which is suppose to be for kids 16 - 20 months, but she joined that class when she was 14 months. (Okay...I cheated a little, but we like to do advanced things!)

My mom and I decided we were going to take another trip to Florida to visit our relatives. Scott's not going with us this time, so it will be Abbie's first time "away" from daddy. I'm excited to go see my aunts, cousins, and nana...and have Abbie see them again. Last time we were there was July, and she interacts so much more with people now. We plan on renting a boat to ride in the gulf, going to an animal rescue park called Homasassa Springs, and doing lots of other fun things. We were going to go in two weeks while Scott was busy with a big race, but I realized Sadie's birthday party is that weekend...so we will plan for another weekend.

I find myself wanting to type about tomorrow...but then tomorrow I will be repeating if I talk about the same thing. So I'm working on that. Anyhow...

Ben & Jerry's - Mint Chocolate Cookie

So...Weight Watchers was kinda out of the questions last night and tonight. I ate healthy food for breakfast, lunch and dinner...but I ate Ben & Jerry's for dessert both nights, Mint Chocolate Cookie. We were going to have Cold Stone Creamery, and I drove all the way there, but they were closed, so I went to Marsh and got Ben & Jerry's for Scott and I. Tonight's dinner was Meatloaf, recipe #3. I am on the prowl for a good recipe, that isn't to funky for picky Scott.

Still no pictures of Abbie in her clothes, but she looked awfully cute today! Maybe tomorrow I will remember.

"24" started tonight. I love that show. I hate having shows I feel addicted to watch each week, but if I have to be addicted to any show, I'm okay with being addicted to this show. Commercial is over, back to the show!

!@#$%^&

I hate coming up with titles for blogs...it's bad enough coming up with something to blog about, then trying to come up with a catchy title makes me have bloggers block.

Today we went to a flooring store and picked out our carpet and laminate floors for the basement. You can see progress more and more now that we are past the stupid framing stage. Tonight Scott added lights to the storage room, connected the lights in the exercise room and play room to their circuits and wired their switches, and wired the rest of the outlets. And then picking out the carpet and laminates...knowing that soon we will have them installed, just makes for more excitement. (Except the cost of the flooring!)

Then...once the basement is finished we need furniture. So we took our first trip to a furniture store today to start taking a look. It's going to be very simple for now, since we are putting a ton of money into finishing the basement, and the tredmill and eliptical on top of that. But it's fun to start looking.

Scott and I were listening to some new music today that I know my dad would love...so I thought about him a lot today. Plus...in the middle of the night I went to the bathroom and heard humming, and thought it was him. I even woke up Scott to ask if he was humming, and he thought I was nuts. (Turns out it was the wind). The picture I attached is one of my dad and I right before he got sick. We went to New York December 2003 and he woke up sick on January 2, 2004. The picture is funny to me because it is totally out of character for my dad to do anything silly like sticking your head in a rabbit statue, and I totally had to beg him to do it. (Scott is the same way...no fun!) Anyway...there he is in the statue. We were in the zoo in Central Park. It was a fun trip and I'm so glad that we have those memories.

Abbie's Pants...

Okay...well I don't have any pictures of Abbie's new clothes...but here is one of the pairs of jeans she got. I realized today that I have three pair of jeans (two that are probably 6-8 years old and one I bought last week) and Abbie has 7 pairs of jeans that she will only be able to wear for a few months of her life. Well...she is stylish I guess! Seeing these jeans I'm sure I could make them myself, I'm sure it would take Mandy 3 seconds, but...I like them anyway. Hopefully I will get her in some new clothes tomorrow and start taking her pictures. Today my mom dressed her while I was out. I encouraged her to put on the new clothes, but she didn't. (She put her in her OLD clothes...the ones she got last month!!!)

We had friends over tonight...a sorority sister and her husband and kids (3 & 6 months). Last time we got together Abbie wasn't walking yet, so it was definitely fun to watch them play and know they will grow up as friends.

I actually "worked" today for 8 hours! That's a lot for me! My mom stayed here with Abbie and I went to watch a little boy. It was a good experience, but I'm not ready to change Abbie's schedule or give up my time with her. For now I'm going to stick with my one afternoon job.

Well...we are going to relax and watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory now. I'm sure I will pass out right away, and have to watch it again tomorrow. I'm kinda against redoing movies that I liked the first time...and songs for that matter, so I am already negative towards the movie before we even get started.

Shopping for Abs...

Scott's got a buddy here helping him install new circuits in the basement right now. It's kinda nice because it gives me the chance to play in my scrapbook room at night, which I never have an opportunity to do. Usually we are hanging out in our room or working on the basement...and Scott hates the scrapbook room because it gets really hot in there.

Today the weather was great! Almost 60 degrees again. We had our "regular" nanny job again, and I got done early which worked out great. My mom wanted to go to Gymboree (clothing store) and buy new clothes for Abbie. Boy did Abbie do well. She got a TON of new clothes and she really didn't need any. Nana likes to spend her money and I love getting Abbie new clothes!

Here's one of my all time favorite pictures of the "Grandchildren" 4 1/2 years ago at my parents house. Bry was 15 1/2, Mike 5 1/2, John 3 1/2, and Sassy 3. They were all so little then...and I could get them to listen to me. See the hands on their knees! I love that picture!

Planet RC Raceway!

Today was a swimming day for Abbie (and me)! She did great...the teacher put her under water for her to swim to me. She just kinda floated, but it's progress! She was all smiles this time when we got in the water, so I felt good about that.

I got to scrapbook today which I haven't done in a long time, I think almost a week! I haev a lot of pictures to get caught up on, and I went scrapbook shopping yesterday and today so I have lots of new things to play with.

I put a picture of Scott's truck he had last year. If you didn't know...he owns Planet RC Raceway, a radio controlled race track. It's pretty cool, and a lot of fun. You can check out the track at www.planetrcraceway.com. They always have big races and exciting stuff going on!

Mystery Shops and More!

Abbie was just a tiny baby last year at this time...just 2 1/2 months old. Now she's so big and able to do so much more for herself!

Today we had two nanny jobs...like I said yesterday. The day went surprisingly well, and I more than doubled my 2004 income! In 2004 I made $20 for doing two Mystery Shops...yes I actually did a Mystery Job and I got paid for it. I had to go to two different Marsh locations and take pictures of the Laura's Lean Beef display, submit the pictures, and answer a few questions online. Pretty simple and easy!

Okay...we are watching House, one of our favorite shows.

I Work Again!

I have two nanny jobs tomorrow. One in the morning, one in the afternoon. While it feels good to be making some money again, I’m anxious to see how they pan out. I just accepted a third job for Friday…8 whole hours on that job! Wowsers! Hopefully Abbie will do well and not wig out on me. I’m going to have my mom watch her for part of the Friday job. That is all…the picture thing won't work...so I'll try later for the picture post.

Lil' Miss Sassafras Mae

I do feel sorry for Sassy a lot...but that doesn't change how I treat her. I'm mean to her, she drives me crazy. She used to be the baby...but now that we have a baby, I only like her when Abbie is in bed. I just use all my energy and focus on taking care of Abbie. When Sassy growls at me to play with her ball, it just drives me crazy.

Abbie on the other hand, loves Sassy and cares for her so much. Today I enjoyed throwing Sassy's ball across the room into Abbie's toy bin so she couldn't bring it to me anymore. Abbie would see Sassy standing up with her paws on the toy box looking in, and would run right over to help her out. She would dig through the box, throwing toys out of the way, until she found the ball and threw it at Sassy. She's such a good little girl! (Sidenote: I couldn't get her out of the Greyhound Rescue Booth at the Home Show downtown today. There were three large Greyhounds and she was just talking and talking to them.)

Today's picture is one of my favorite. When Sassy was the baby, she got to go to Florida with us...two times actually. On this one trip we snuck her into a drive-through zoo. It was so funny to see her looking out the window at all the animals that were walking around right outside our car. She was so puzzled! This one zebra came up to our car and started chewing on the side mirror. (I think it was eating bugs!) It was great. I'm sure Sassy was like what the f**k! I'm sure that will be her last trip to Florida, but we will cherish the memory!

Free Cycle...

Again I have nothing to write about. The life of a stay at home mom is that not exciting. I love hanging with Abbie, and Scott was home today, I just don't really have anything to say.

So...I thought I'd advertise for www.freecycle.org. There are organizations for a lot of cities...I'm a part of Fisher's Freecycle. On this site you post things you want, need, or have and want to offer...and other people respond. We've given away a mini fridge, our neighbor's older couch, dog crate, two old computers, scanner, 5 business suits from my mom's friend, Abbie's bottles, and tomorrow someone is coming to pick up a dress. A girl posted she was looking for a dress for her sister's wedding, and I had the size/color she wanted that is too big for me now. It's kinda cool, instead of throwing things out you give to other people that need or want the things. I tried to get an air hockey table once but wasn't picked...that would have been very cool. Anyway...check it out.

Abbie's new thing is to show off her belly. She thinks it's very impressive...I think she eats a lot! But she's a healthy eater, so I'm sure she's fine. I apparently don't have anything but Abbie pictures because when I go to post a picture I find it really hard to find anything else.

At The Gap...

Today we went to Gymboree. That's a big play gym for Abbie. We usually go to Gymboree on Mondays, but Scott was home Monday so we skipped out to spend time with him.

We also went to "The Fashion Mall," aka a mall designed for people who want to spend more money than necessary in fancy stores. I had two outfits to return that Abbie got for Christmas...one from the Gap and one from Janie and Jack. I couldn't find anything to get for Abbie at the Gap, the pajamas there were $29.50, and I can't imagine getting her pajamas for $30 when we get them for $8 at the Carter store and they are super cute. So we went to the big people Gap and I got some things for me. Janie and Jack is a baby clothing store. We had to return a sweater that was too small, and ended up buying Abbie a bathing suit. I am kinda a bathing suit addict when it comes to Abbie. Last year she only had two...but it was killing me not to buy more. It is January 6th and she already has two for this summer. Hopefully I will gain some control.

This picture is from our Honeymoon, November 2001. It was taken in EPCOT during their parade. Scott and I LOVED this parade...the music and floats and characters were so cool. This float was a huge wheel that went around in a circle with dozens of drums on it. The character played the drum wheel as it turned, having to constantly hit different drums. It's hard to explain, but SO very cool. We were so sad this to see they did not have this parade anymore at Disney. Maybe Scott and I can buy the float and drive it around our neighborhood.

The Highlight of My Day...Grocery Shopping!

Oh joy...my day was filled with cleaning my kitchen, only to mess it up by grocery shopping and cooking dinner. I bought a whole bunch of chicken that was on sale, and wanted to get it sliced the way I liked it before I put it in the freezer...so got chicken slime everywhere! We tried a new "recipe," bbq chicken, for dinner. Not that great, but I'll keep trying. At least we are eating healthy.

The picture is of two of my five nieces and nephews on Scott's side of the family. We gave them dress up outfits for Christmas, and they were happily trying them on for us. Ryan (3), Jack (4 1/2) and Sadie (3 in Feb.). The boys are Denise's and Sadie is Shawn's oldest. It's definitely fun to have them home to visit...and Abbie just loves Jack. She can even say his name. We are looking forward to them all coming home again for Sadie's birthday party.

Swimming!

We went swimming today. It was Abbie's first official lesson. I have been wanting to take Abbie to swim lessons since last winter, so I was very excited to go today for our first time. Abbie was hesitant at first, which I was afraid of. Lately she has been getting uptight in the bath tub when I was her hair. This summer she was such a fish. She would even push away from me and hold onto the walls of the pool all by herself.

Well...today in her class we did lots of fun things. She loved the class after warming up to being in the water. I even "dunked" her a view times...not all the way, but a start. She has two friends from Gymboree that are taking the class with her, so that makes it more fun.

Our pictures didn't turn out so well. Grandma and Nana were there to take pictures but I need to get a zoom lense for my camera, we were too far away and they were taking pictures through the glass. Anyway...you can see Abbie had fun and we can't wait until next week's lesson.

Back to Normal...Kinda

Abbie and I had our first day without Scott home in a very long time...I was excited to get Abbie back on schedule and get back to normal myself. Nothing too exciting was on the schedule for today, just cleaning the house...but I was trying to get Abbie back on schedule like I said. Scott called at 11:30 and said he was on his way home...he was going to work from home during the afternoon. It was a very nice surprise...and we did get back on schedule as much as possible even with Scott home. I amazingly got all caught up on laundry, took down our Christmas tree and decorations, and cleaned our entire 2nd floor. Tomorrow I have to tackle the first floor.

I love this picture of Nick and Abbie. They were riding in Abbie's new wagon (Nick got one too). They both love the wagon, but Uncle Jeff (Scary Uncle Jeff) was pulling it around Nana's family room. I don't think Nick would have cared...but Abbie started screaming. I love the picture!

Sledding Stories

Well...I still don't have anything to write about but thought I would throw one more picture up here since I missed January 1st...although I didn't really miss it since I didn't start blogging until today.

I threw this picture up of Abbie and me from her first time in the snow in December. Hopefully we will get more snow so her $55 snow suit/mittens/hat/and boots won't have been for one quick 10 minute jaunt in the snow. But...if not it was worth it. We borrowed a sled from our neighbor and pulled her (and Sassy) around on our street. It was fun for me...I'm not sure it was fun for Scott or Abbie.

Basement Beginnings

Okay...this is my first post. I'm going to try to keep up with "Rama," but I doubt I will be able to. Here's a picture of what has been consuming all of our time. We have been working on the basement since Thanksgiving. Today Scott installed two lights over where the bar is going to be, and he installed a switch and two outlets. Today I read a parenting magazine and sat around a lot. I did get to drill into the 2x4s on one wall to make room for a wire. Pretty exciting stuff. Scott goes back to work for the first time in many many days tomorrow so it will be getting back to normal for me and Abs hopefully. We look forward to a day of cleaning our house and exchanging Christmas presents...and hopefully going to the grocery store because we are out of Propel and Coke...which is like a sin in this house. Well...here's to 2006 and our first post.