• I'm caught up with comments up until April. Sorry for the blast from the past. There are a few I would have responded to if I'd gotten to them earlier but the time lapse just made them seem inappropriate for some reason.


• My parents will be here on Saturday for a week. I will most likely be somewhat quiet then.


• .


• Not only did Sophie not cry at nap time today, she managed bedtime without tears as well! She also was able to fall asleep without me in the room both times!


• Wednesday morning (4/23/08) was another huge moment for Sophie. She managed to pee in her potty, and it wasn't just a few drops! She woke up with a dry diaper and as soon as I realized it was dry, I asked her if she wanted to use her potty. She said yes, so I grabbed the new potty books and we sat down to read. While I was reading, she managed to accomplish the task! Of course, we haven't had any other successful pees since then, but I'm unconcerned at this time since we're not working on potty learning hardcore or anything.


• Sophie likes chocolate pudding and managed to eat it today with a spoon without getting much on herself other than the mess she made on her face whenever she licked her lips (pudding was all over her tongue while she was licking).


• Parents of small children looking for good books. Check out Mo Willems. His books are full of awesome!


• Not only did our ladybugs survive the storm last night (not sure how many), but it appears as though some of them have already laid eggs and they seem to have survived as well! Our plants also seemed to have survived, even the tiny basil sprouts. We still have to plant the lantana and the other flowers I bought for the front yard.


• I need to make up a menu for this week and go grocery shopping. We have Dream Dinners Saturday morning, but I'll still need to pick up other food stuff for Mom and Dad.


• Update on the ball game this Saturday night: B is going to take my father and is going to ask his father and another friend to join them. We'll see what happens. Mom and I will stay home with Sophie. Yeah, it would be a good time and all, but I don't want to leave my parents alone the first night they're in town, nor do I want to leave Sophie with a sitter.


• Lots of cleaning and other fun things will be filling my day tomorrow.


• Ooh, almost forgot (and this is pretty huge). There are currently two possibilities of remote work in the pipeline. I'd have to choose one over the other, but it would be doing the same exact thing, which is exactly what I did for nearly the last four years I was working as well. I'm hoping at least one of these pans out. I'm hoping for the nine-to-five job over the super-insane-schedule job, but at this point, I'd honestly be happy with either.

That's about all I've got for now. I must go to bed. I'm not tired (frustratingly enough), but Sophie wakes up awfully early and I need to be ready for it.

Lots going on right now. Need to make a list. Beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed and need to compartmentalize.

Garden: We'll be going to a few nurseries in the area to find plants, hopefully some of them (or all of them?) organic. I got out the Texas gardening books today and need to dig up the websites so we can figure out what we're going to do. I know B is mainly focusing on the vegetable garden, but I really want to fix the front flower bed as well.
Guests: My parents might be here starting this Saturday for a week. They won't know until about mid-week when my mother's coworker is supposed to return to work after surgery.
.
Minnow Minnow Pea: I need to work on cutting out material to have saved up for sewing sessions. I also need to work on a design for a website, finding a graphic for the logo, deciding on a font for the logo, and laying out the pages I want to have. I'm trying to decide if I want to forward the blog there and lock this one down to friends only. If I do that, I'm trying to decide if I should bother putting the recipes over there as well. I will definitely have the crafts blog over there and then just dump ChaCha. I really need to get the tags/labels ordered, too.
Crafts: On a related note, I need to complete the boat blanket for Maddy (one cable panel left, and then whip stitching it together and knitting the border). I also have plenty of bibs to finish. They're just needing snaps. Gifts need to be given!
House: Lots of cleaning I want to get done. Our bedroom still has piles of artwork from when we moved... two years ago. I also want to make a final decision on the color in the bedroom and the dining room. We'll probably paint the dining room next since it's so easy, and I'm pretty sure we're sticking with the brown chip we picked out last year. I thought we had finally decided on red for the bedroom, but now I'm torn. I love the blue in the guest room so much I think I might want that in the room back there. I'm so frustrated now.
Job Hunt: I am still rather beat down about this whole job hunt. I have my fingers crossed on one position, but it isn't even open yet. I also received an email from a recruiter in Georgia for a remote position and I keep forgetting to call him back. I get a few minutes when Sophie is sleeping and my brain just shuts down and I forget about all the other things I need to do until she gets up again. I hate that.
Craigslist: I was able to get a few things sold from the last big listing I did, but not much. I took more pictures of items today and will be posting those soon. This stuff needs to be gone!
Weight Loss: I have been overweight my entire life. I am tired of being overweight. Unfortunately, I like food. My portion control isn't bad, nor are the foods I eat, normally. However, my metabolism is in the toilet and I really need to work on giving it a good jump start. I need to focus on drinking more water, getting better sleep at night, and cutting out the things I eat/drink on a regular basis that are detrimental to my overall health. I also need to figure out an exercise plan that I can manage with Sophie around.
LJ: This is low priority, but still something I want to work on. I changed the layout and it's okay, but I think I'd like to find a different one. I really like the three column layout, so I don't want to give that up. That limits the layouts that work for me, of course. I also really want to work on my user icons and setting up various mood themes. Of course, I'm fairly behind on comments right now, so I'd like to get those cleared up as well.
Future posts: I have a few ideas running around in my head regarding future posts. Some of these are posts I have said I'd be writing for over a year now, some of these are newer. I am horrible about writing these down or actually getting around to writing them. Meh. Some of these ideas include posts on children's books, working from home, various movie and music reviews, various tips and tricks in the kitchen (such as how I store my bacon, exciting I know), as well as the picture and video posts I keep promising.


I think that's about it for now...

Blah.

• Job hunt equals much frustration and serious self-confidence destruction and minor depression.
• Next round of the Friending Frenzy to follow shortly. If anyone else wants in on the action, let me know. I have at least two more people interested.
• .
• Thank heavens for new Signing Time videos. Sophie is being terribly cute by searching the house for Hopkins (the frog) right now. I love that kid to pieces!
• I will eventually get around to responding to the recent post/poll about the crafts. I greatly appreciate all of your responses, even if it was to just vote in the poll. That helps me tremendously.
• Someone once asked how my username came about. I believe she said something like, "What exactly is a 'sm00bs'?" Well... here's the answer, because I know you're all dying to know. Back in the day, I used to have an AOL account (I mean, really back in the day). I had fun hanging around in the chat rooms there and came up with the screen name of Sm00chies. No idea why, but that's what it was (Smoochies was already taken). In the chat room I frequented, people often called me Sm00 or Sm00byDoo. Sm00byDoo stuck when I moved over to IRC (yes, I'm that sort of geek), so that was my original nick there. Of course, one of my dear friends always called me sm00bs and eventually I caved and just changed my nick permanently. I assumed he just called me sm00bs because it was a shorter version of Sm00byDoo. Apparently, while that was part of it, it wasn't the whole reason. Yes, it had something to do with boobs, even though he'd never seen mine (still hasn't). Silly boys. It's not a very exciting story, but there it is. I kept it because it was my name for years before I started LJ. I tried using ellemenno at one point, but just couldn't get into it.
• I will hopefully be posting about some of the recent campaigns for BzzAgent. I now have two cans of Oust, a Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner, and coupons to Chili's for free burgers. I'm going to do a little poll to see what opinions other people have of these products soon.
• If any of you are looking for good music in podcast form, perfect length to burn on a CD for a car ride, check out starpush's monthly release of Soundtrack. This last Show, Class Is in Session, is excellent! I know some of you share my taste in music, and even B found this show entertaining. I highly recommend it!
• One of these days I'll get around to playing with icons. I think I need a little play time.
• It's time to get really serious about my sewing. I might even take a class or two. The more I think about it, the more I want to make the Etsy thing work.
• Eventually I'll get some pictures and videos posted of Sophie. I just have to get the videos uploaded and go through the pictures.
• Gah. Much stress weighing be down right now.

Carry on.

• Sophie is currently sleeping in her own bed. B moved her into it about an hour ago. She hasn't stirred.
• I've applied for yet another job but haven't heard anything from them yet. So freaking tired of job hunting, seriously. It's such a drag and my confidence is shot to hell. What a whip.
• .
• My mother called to inform us that she's planning to take the entire family on a vacation next spring for her anniversary. She suggested the Dominican Republic or the Bahamas or Mexico, but then said it's possible we might only be doing Bear Lake (fine by me, I love Bear Lake). B said if we do that, he wants to go across the bridge (meaning the Mackinac, of course). At that point, I told him we should lobby for a week on the island instead of Bear Lake. I've never been to Mackinac Island before and I honestly think that would make for an excellent vacation. I'm not so sure anyone else would be up for that.
• I've been working on sewing bibs, and while the first one wasn't perfect, it certainly wasn't bad. I'll have pictures up in the craft blog shortly. There are four more bibs ready to be top stitched and have a snap added, and I'm very pleased with how they're looking so far. Let's just hope my finishing techniques improve a bit.
• On top of the impetigo, Sophie now has some sort of little red bumps that have developed sometime within the past few days. She has a few on her back and one on her leg. They're not large nor are they intense red. They almost look like little flea bites, just a hair bigger.
• She's started saying "Where's Sophie Kritter" now whenever she has her head covered (when we cover her head with a towel or are getting her dressed, or when she covers her face with a book or her hands, etc.). It's one of the cutest things she does. I love it.
• Phone Scoop - Looking for a new phone or a new carrier? This site is actually very cool in that it lets people search and compare, reading other reviews and even contribute their own reviews. I wish I'd known about this when we got our last phones.
• StumbleUpon - Yes, it's another social bookmarking site, but this one is supposed to work a bit like Tivo and learn your preferences. I haven't signed up yet, but I probably will soon.

And with that, I'm off to bed... a childless (for now) bed that will allow me to snuggle under the covers with my husband without fear of one of us being kicked in the side.

Fun for laughs (I swear I've done this before but I'm not sure if I posted it):

1. Go to Google's main page.
2. Enter "find chuck norris" without the quotes.
3. Click "I'm Feeling Lucky."
4. Have a chuckle.

In other news, the phone screen seemed to go very well today. I just have to wait now for a face to face interview. Sophie cooperated, and as much as he could, Chui did as well.

And that's about all I've got for now.

I have a phone interview 11:30 AM Wednesday this week. Here's hoping Sophie sticks to her normal nap schedule and I can actually carry on a conversation without sounding like an idiot. Ugh. Stomach is already in knots. Fun times ahead.

Well, all my running around trying to find a school for Sophie and my interviewing and all was for naught. I am behind on cleaning (and blogging) due to shopping for interview clothes (although I'm ready for the next one now), interviewing (on the phone and in person), and touring schools (technically we only toured one, but I was at that particular school twice and started researching other schools online as well), and I don't even get a job out of the deal. It's funny, when the recruiter called me, I wasn't actively looking for a job, although it had been discussed. Once he convinced me that I was the right person for the job, I was all for it. By the time I reached the face to face interview, I was actually excited about the prospect of working for this particular company and knew I was a perfect candidate. However, the powers that be apparently disagreed and they've gone and hired someone else for the job.

I think my real hunt for a job will start in earnest after the new year begins. That should give us enough time to look for schools and select a few we like the most, although I want the school to be as close to my work as possible. B is planning on taking a couple of weeks off at the end of the year so he doesn't lose his vacation, and if I'm not working it will make it much easier for us to get things done around the house (let's hope). Plus, my parents are going to be here for a week and a half at the beginning of December. I suppose it's just as well I didn't get the job. Besides, I wasn't terribly fond of the COO when I met with him anyhow. I got a pretty rough vibe from him.

In other news, we have the Switch-A-Room (TM) nearly completed. The new guest room is so incredibly wonderful. As soon as it's finished (or at least the books are back on the shelves) I'll take pictures and share. I have pictures of the mess to share as well. I'm about to dump a lot of boxes into the office that need to be unpacked or sorted into keep/toss piles. We have a charity pickup this Monday and it couldn't have come at a better time. There are lots of things we're just going to give away, things that just aren't going to be easy to sell at all.

Thanksgiving tomorrow is going to be at 1:00 PM. I have the turkey brining (almost forgot) and everything else is cake. I'm not going all out for this meal since we're doing another meal when my parents come down (that's when we're having the turducken). This meal is just a basic turkey, stuffing (possibly dressing instead, haven't decided), mashed potatoes, gravy, sautéed asparagus and mushrooms, pumpkin harvest bread (very dense and not sweet), and honey butter. Appetizers will consist of various cheeses (including Lambchopper, which is one of my favorites), gigantic table grapes, and tiropitas (store bought) and dessert will be coffee (from Dunn Bros, I swear theirs is just the best) with pumpkin cheesecake (from the Cheesecake Factory - brought by the in-laws) and a pecan pie (from Central Market). I almost feel lazy not making everything from scratch, but I have no time. As it is, I shouldn't even be sitting here typing this because my dining room is still buried in boxes of crap.

I was very pleased with my floral arrangement decision yesterday. I didn't want the basic browns that most florists offer at Thanksgiving. I had a very difficult time selecting the flowers I wanted. A lot of that had to do with the size vase I wanted to use. The vase is taller, so the flowers had to be taller as well (although I could have put some gems or other stones in the bottom of the vase, now that I think about it... duh). In any case, I selected one bunch of eucalyptus (four branches) that had pods of some sort on it (had never seen pods on eucalyptus before) with three burgundy amaryllis. It is so stunning. It will be nice when I have a dining room table to place them on. ;)

If you've read this far, thank you! I just want to let you guys know I am so appreciative of anyone who takes the time to read my drivel. I am thankful for all of the friends I've made through LJ and the general online world. This is only a small portion of the things for which I'm thankful, but that post will come later.

For those of you who have mentioned doing Christmas cards, I would love to have cards sent to me, but I'm afraid I might not be able to get my cards out (again). I really need to work on that this year. I think I'm going to cheat and make labels. If you posted a request for addresses, please link me to your post if you don't have my address because I probably missed it. If you would like a Christmas card from me (hopefully), please send an email to jodi at pobox dot com with your full name and address. Even if you live overseas and wish to receive a card, let me know. It might reach you a bit late, but that's if I even do them at all. ;)

I want to thank thesynergizer for her post encouraging the people who do blog ads to pick up another blog other than LJ. I have been wanting to do this anyhow and this is the kick in the butt I need. I know the people at PPP said they would be working on a tool that would work with LJ, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I do like the idea that opportunities are not going to be based on rank but on page visits, however.

Okay, I'm done. I'm sure I have more to say. I'm sorry I haven't been commenting much lately, but after Thanksgiving it should be a little bit easier. I have been reading for the most part (I am thankful for Opera Mini 4 on my phone), but hate texting so much that I don't want to respond using the phone. Big hugs to all and a happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends. Now, back to the big clean.

Ugh.

Apparently Google hates me so much now I don't even have a page rank. Talk about confidence boosters... that's more like a confidence buster. What the heck?

The interview today was... okay. Things seemed to be going along fine and then at the abrupt end of the conversation (this was with the president of the company), I was thanked for coming in, bid a good day, and walked out. No mention of "we'll call you" or "we'll be making a decision" or anything like that. The interview ended just shy of the hour so I'm curious to know if he had another meeting to attend. I was five minutes late but the recruiter was to have called to let them know (Sophie slept a lot later than I imagined she would). The president also had an old copy of my resume (the recruiter was supposed to have sent them the new copy). I'm not sure if either of these things damaged my chance or not... we'll see.

I checked out a daycare center right after the interview and must admit I'm extremely impressed. Of course, it's only the first center, but it's got top spot right now on our list. Primrose Schools seem to have a pretty good reputation and a very nice curriculum. Right now they have a waiting list for the toddler room, but there are two openings. She's going through the list, so it's possible Sophie might stand a chance. Of course, I still have lots of searching to do.

I bought the turducken today - stuffed with wild rice with pecans - at Central Market. I picked up an organic turkey as well, which will be used for Thanksgiving. Since I hadn't eaten lunch and it was around dinner time while I was there, I wound up putting a few extras in my cart, but nothing I don't think I wouldn't have bought eventually. I even made the first purchase of disposable diapers in a long time, but they're Seventh Generation and don't have all the sickening smells the other disposables have (just one of the many reasons I can't stand disposables). I just hope they fit, since I'm guessing at her size.

Sophie didn't want to go to bed tonight, and when I finally put her down about an hour or so after her bedtime, I wound up falling asleep with her. I woke up about two hours later when B came to bed, but fell asleep before I could get out of bed to change into my pajamas. After sleeping another two hours, I finally got up and donned the snowflake jammies Sophie loves and decided to check email. That's when I learned about my page rank. How depressing.

I seriously tried playing catch up last night, but LJ was being lame and shooting blanks. Every page I loaded came up empty.

Oh well.

This weekend will consist of lots of moving and cleaning and rearranging and *fingers crossed* painting!



These are some of the colors I'm considering (all colors are Behr paints). I'm not sure about Mesmerize. That color might be a bit too purple for me. I want to take the poster I have for that room up to the store to do a match. I also want to check out Lowes. The walls will all be one color and we're talking about doing a candlelight glaze on top of the base color, but I haven't decided if that will look good or not. The accents in the room are all white (doors, trim, blinds, comforter) and the furniture is a light wood, beech I think. I think because of all of this and because the room gets so much sunlight, that we really won't have to worry about the room being too dark.

Unfortunately, we won't be able to afford flooring at this time. We'll need to steam clean that carpet in there, though. It is not pretty at all!

Interview today at 2:00 PM. Eep! I'll have to leave here around 1:00 PM to drop Sophie off and get out there on time. I am nervous beyond belief. I can't wait until that is out of the way. If it doesn't go too late, I might stop at the Primrose school just to see what it's like. I know there are others in the area that I want to look at as well.

I have decided that this really just isn't the best time to try to start a new job. The holidays at this time of the year, no matter how much I absolutely love them (and I do love them, they're my favorite!), always stress me out to some extent. Working, or in this case looking for work, adds to that and just gets me all sorts of wound up. I know things will be okay, but I still stress.

One thing I like about the idea of working again, especially if B and I can carpool, is the chance to knit without having to worry about chasing after the baby. I might actually get that blanket finished for Madeline before her first birthday. ;)

I hate to say it, but B and I have discussed this and it seems as though our finances are dictating I return to work now. I may be able to reduce hours after all debt is cleared and we are able to stash some in savings, but until then, I must somehow find gainful employment to help us go from barely treading water to basking in the sun.

I was hoping to keep Sophie out of daycare at least until she was out of diapers. I doubt very seriously I'll be able to find somewhere that will be willing to change a cloth diaper (no matter how easy it is). I also know it costs a little more for children Sophie's age. I am not ready to let my baby go to daycare and find that this is the most emotional part of me going back to work. We do hope to find someplace that will encourage her signing as well as other learning, and we don't want it too far from home or too far from work. It will certainly be quite the task.

I don't want to think of what's going to happen to the house (it's not perfectly spotless as it is) and all of my chores when I go back to work. I will have to rearrange chorebuster.net to give B some of the load as well. He'll just love that, I'm sure. The garden next year may wind up being put on hold. I'm not sure we'll have time to devote to it.

While eating dinner Sunday night, I received a phone call and let it go to voice mail. After dinner, I listened to my message and shared it with B as well. Apparently, my monster.com resume had become active and public at some point and I've been having recruiters calling me for the past few months. Sunday night was no different. I spoke with the recruiter Monday morning and he described to me the dream job I was looking for when I left Aloha to go to Dave & Buster's. I haven't received the email confirming this yet, but he said I should plan for a phone interview tomorrow. I need all the prayers and good vibes I can get. :)

Since I don't have daycare lined up yet, and I have plans made randomly between now and the end of the year, it's quite possible if I actually got the job that I wouldn't be able to start until next year, but we'll see. I suppose a lot of what happens hinges on whether or not I can find daycare that pleases me.

*sigh*

B and I are going out tomorrow night, sans child, to celebrate birthdays (mine was the 10th and his was the 18th) and the new job for him. I'm not sure where we're going just yet, but I think it will be Mezza Luna in Keller. Grandma is babysitting. :)

By the way, remember ages ago when I mentioned something about disclosure? Well, here it is, at least part of it.

B will be working on a new team for a new boss (currently one of the Vice Presidents of the company) on a product that has him truly excited. I'm very happy for him for many reasons. The announcement was finally made this week after nearly two months waiting.

He will be flying to New York City in December for some training and will be gone for a week. He will miss our second anniversary, but that's okay. He'll also miss part of the time my parents are here, but that's okay as well. I'm just so excited for him that he's getting to do what he really wants to do and it's a cool project as well. I'll miss him, but I'll get by, I'm sure.

Right now, the plan is for him to devote an extra day to the RDF project each week. This week is one day, next will be two days, and so on until he is completely transitioned over. I know he's worried about passing off his current projects because they're limited on people. One of his other coworkers recently left, so that leaves them short two people when they were already maxed in the first place. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out, to say the least. Of course, he has no say in the interview process, but I don't know that he really wanted it in the first place. I just hope they're able to find people who actually have a clue about software design and the product. It will make things a lot easier for everyone.

Over the years I have toyed with the possibility of going through Microsoft certification training. I don't know if that's something I still want to do or not. There are so many computer related things I want to learn. I'm dying to learn HTML (more than what I know now, which isn't much) and CSS. I would love to take Photoshop classes as well. I used to want to get my A+ certification, but again, I'm not so sure now. I think if I were to get certification, though, I would want to go for Oracle training. I know there are plenty of careers I could have if I would just take the time to get the training I need, careers I would enjoy.

I'll continue to think about these ideas. They go around and around in my head. Some day I'll be able to decide what I want to be when I grow up. Maybe.

While I was living in Minnesota and going to school, I tried to find a job that wouldn't interfere with my schoolwork and would be something I enjoyed as well. I didn't really need the money for anything other than gas and basic toiletries, but it was driving me insane not being able to join my friends on their outings. I tutored through the college and on my own, but tutoring didn't bring in much money at all. I loved it, but there weren't very many people signed up for tutoring.

The only jobs I had ever held prior to my move were all in retail, so I tried to get a job at the local Ben Franklin. The people who owned this store were so disorganized and clueless about retail I honestly couldn't even understand how they were still in business. They were trying to move their store from one location to another. All of their merchandise was so dirty and old I would be surprised if they've moved it all off the shelves by now or if they're even still in business. Needless to say, I lasted two days there. I believe it was the shortest length of time I kept any job.

( Desperate times... )

I found an interesting site the other day. I don't remember how I stumbled upon it, but I think I'm going to be glad I did. Blogsvertise will actually pay me to discuss a website's services and/or products. I'm not quite sure what the catch is, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to register and find out for myself. Blogsvertise appears to be legitimate. I just need to make sure I can find the time to complete the tasks assigned.

Blogsvertise - check it out.

What an absolute blessing this child is. Even though things haven't gone exactly as we wanted, we are still so happy with Sophie and are loving every minute of every day with her. While there are a few things I wish I could change, none of that really affects her or her personality. She is positively adorable. She rarely fusses and loves to smile and laugh. She has started baby talking and loves to tell us stories. What a ham! We are working on tummy time, which she really doesn't enjoy all that much, trying a little every day. Her little legs are able to hold her up for a little bit now and she loves to practice her "stand ups," especially with Daddy. The muscles in her neck are developing as well, so she's not nearly as floppy as she used to be. She's already starting to move into the next level of clothes (3-6 months) and we've had to retire a few of the smaller outfits.

I must admit, I really do enjoy cloth diapers. I think I got lucky, though. Since she rarely has a messy diaper it makes it so much easier. We still use disposables when we're out around town, just because they're much easier to handle. With the size diapers she's wearing now, I have enough that I have to do laundry about twice a week. That's about the time the Diaper Champ fills up, so it's perfect. I think the gDiapers are my favorite so far, but I love all the diapers we use right now.

I still can't get over what a miracle this all is. The fact that I am a mother still blows me away. I seriously never thought this would happen. B is growing into his role as a father quite nicely. He's truly an excellent father, even though I don't think he believes that just yet. She certainly loves to spend time with him.

Unfortunately, we have been neglecting Chui a bit. He's been a pretty good dog since we brought the baby home, but I find him to be more of a nuisance than anything. He's more high maintenance than I can handle right now, and I feel guilty for not paying as much attention to him as he needs. He's very good with the baby and hasn't tried to bite at her. He's licked her feet a few times and that's about it. Then again, I haven't let her spend too much time on the floor close to him, either. Every time he's close to her, I've got a hold of his leash, ready to correct him at his first bad move.

Eventually, we will finish unpacking the house and getting everything into order. The nursery is almost done (we're still waiting on the picket fence before letting the butterflies loose). The guest room is almost done except for a few boxes that need to find a home. The dining room is box free, but needs color and art work. The kitchen is also box free and is probably the only room that is truly together, although we want to install some sort of pull-out shelving system in most of the lower cabinets. We're also contemplating a small portable island for the middle of the kitchen, but haven't decided on anything yet. I need to come up with a slightly better way to organize the pantry as well. I wish our drawers were just a bit deeper since we have issues with our utensils being just a bit too large, causing the drawers to get stuck. At some point, I'll have all the cupboards in the kitchen filled. I just have to determine which items would fit best in those never-used-cabinets over the refrigerator, etc. The living room is box free, but also needs a little color and some artwork. It's a little on the blah side right now. I think we've decided how we'd like to do the master bedroom, and I look forward to painting it soon. I wish we had the time and money to redo the master bath. I think the layout is very inefficient and really don't enjoy using that bathroom at all. The water pressure in the tub and the shower is lacking as well. The guest bathroom is almost all put together except for a box that sits under the counter that needs to be removed. The last areas that I plan to attack are the office, the linen closet, the laundry room, and the master closet. The office probably will require the most work, and since I rarely spend time in the office now, it's low on the list. It's all starting to come together though.

I haven't decided if I'm going to return to work or not. B and I need to sit down and discuss finances. At the very least, I'm thinking I will request an extended leave of absence due to the breastfeeding issues. I am not as fortunate as others and am not really able to pump much. I try, but I get more by hand expressing than I do with the pump. What frustrates me most about this is that I've discovered I'm most likely not using the correct size flange and that had I been using the correct size all along, I may have been able to improve my milk production. I believe it's too late to do that now. At least she's still getting some breast milk.

Maybe sometime this week I'll brave the big outside world with her and possibly go shopping or head to the yarn store. We might even head to the office one day. She loves spending time with other people and I love watching her face light up when people fawn over her.

I still need to send thank you cards and birth announcements. I suck. Emily Post and Miss Manners both would have me beheaded.

I've started a photo page elsewhere, partially for navigation purposes, but also for the fact that ordering prints and other items is so incredibly easy now. I'm going to continue to update the old page, but probably not more often than once a week, at least not until I learn some basic html. The photos are located at dotPhoto now. There is also a RSS feed, and for anyone on LJ interested, I've created sophia_mae. Just be aware that dotPhoto makes each photo a separate entry and sometimes I transfer a lot of pictures at one time. Comments may be left on the photos when viewed here. I'm not sure why that option isn't available on the website I created, but it's not.

It's time to go find breakfast and sneak in a shower before she wakes up again.

Yeah, those days. Yesterday was one of those days I haven't had in a long time (for which I am truly thankful, really).

• Our electricity went out sometime in the middle of the night due to a fairly seriously thunder storm.
• I felt the need to regurgitate which meant getting down on my knees (getting down wasn't so difficult, but I almost was not able to get myself back up).
• .
• We wound up being rather late for work (mostly because of weather, but various other reasons as well).
• I was stopped by at least three different people on the way from the bathroom to my desk as soon as I got to work (not normally a big deal, but it was for an excruciatingly long time and I was tired and sore already).
• When I finally tried to actually work, I realized my computer was being stupid again (no boot device detected... nice).
• Our IT guy fixed the PC for me and then tried to walk me down to the mail room (thankfully my desk is in the middle of the building or I'd have had to make these guys rethink this idea) which is on the far side of the building, but he realized he had to help someone with something (no one ever wants to walk slow with the fat pregnant chick). Amazingly enough, I stopped to use the restroom (again) and he was able to catch up to me, walk me the rest of the way to the mail room, and then snag my awful photograph (I saw B's photo and it's rather scary, too, so I don't feel so bad).
• Of course, walking down to the mailroom meant walking back to my desk. I swear, I need a hovercraft.
• I think I was actually able to work for about 30 minutes or so prior to having to leave for my doctor's appointment (not sure if this really belongs here or not, but 30 minutes really isn't good, so I'm leaving it).
• We returned from the doctor's appointment to scarf down lunch (Wendy's is my friend) in order to make it to a maternity leave meeting with a room full of pregnant chicks (on the far north side of the building).
• Since I love to pack my schedule, we left the maternity leave meeting (which was fairly informative) to rush (yeah, right) to the health benefits meeting (on the far south side of the building).
• On the way home, we stopped to grocery shop for far too long to the point of being sore (I probably should have caved when B offered to get me a scooter, but I just can't bring myself to use one of those things).
• While bringing in groceries, two (?) bottles of detergent (which were on sale for less than dirt cheap, so this isn't really too bad, just messy) were dropped in the laundry room, making a mess of the floor in there.

It doesn't seem that bad now that I've written out everything that was just stupid from yesterday, but while it was happening it was one of those could-anything-else-go-wrong sort of days. I don't think I left anything out, but I could be wrong.

I gained two pounds since my last doctor's visit and my blood pressure was 120/78. The doctor seems to think the baby is already head down (makes sense to me) and that she weighs at least 7 pounds. I'm hoping she doesn't get too much bigger. We discussed the very true possibility of a C-section today (again, for the thousandth time). I don't really want one, but it may be necessary, so I'm trying to come up with as many pros to the situation as possible. Unfortunately, the baby's health is the biggest con (but also the biggest pro?) to convince me I don't really want a C-section, that and the lack of bonding time afterwards. Anyhow, it hasn't been decided yet, so we'll just have to wait and see and pray for what's best for the baby. We go back next Friday morning for the first cervix checkup. I need to get a bag packed. I'm hoping to do baby laundry on Monday, and while I'm doing that, I'll pack my things and then add her things to the bag when laundry is done. I hope the diapers I ordered last week arrive soon.

Pictures are still on the camera but will be transferred soon, really.

I already have restless leg syndrome issues today and it isn't even 7:00 AM (this is usually a nighttime thing for me).

Plans for tonight: Watch March of the Penguins
Plans for tomorrow: Take pictures at the North Park house, 4D Sonogram, Car inspection
Plans for Sunday: Laundry, Drive out to Bedford and back to loan my car to a friend in need (because his boss is a tightass)
Plans for Monday: Possible pamper the mommy-to-be day (mani/pedicure and haircut)

Somewhere in there I'll probably work on the baby registry a little more, as well as items for decorating the new house (wherever it winds up being). I need to remember to do a search for drawer pulls and curtains and whatnot, as well as carpet and other flooring, along with tiles (both for floors and walls).

I'm pretty excited about tomorrow. The whole day (minus the car inspection) is going to be huge! I can't wait!

Waking up at 3:45 AM due to a full bladder isn't such a big deal. Not being able to fall back to sleep afterwards, however, is.

Tonight we go to look at more houses with Kent.

Address	Mapsco	List Date	DOTM	OLP	LP	BR	BA	Sq Ft	Year
6840 N Park Dr	37L-FW	12/30/05	25	$117,900	$117,900	3	2.5	2367	1986
6801 Quail Meadow Dr	37T-FW	11/21/05	64	$114,900	$113,000	4	2.5	2088	1988
6812 Lyndale Dr	37T-FW	12/20/05	35	$139,900	$139,900	3	2.5	2110	1990
7008 Woodale Dr	37T-FW	12/04/05	51	$116,000	$116,000	3	2	1824	1989
7905 Old Hickory Dr	38P-FW	10/26/05	90	$149,900	$140,000	3	2	1791	1992
7428 Steward	38W-FW	10/17/05	99	$130,000	$120,000	3	2	1722	1989
7617 Doris Ct	38W-FW	08/12/05	165	$123,500	$117,500	3	2	1734	1986

I'm pretty excited, but I'm sure by the time 6:00 PM rolls around, I'll be exhausted, and that's when we're supposed to begin our adventure tonight.

I've been thinking more about the nursery. I think I want one wall to be papered in an assortment of red, pink, and white tissue paper, possibly the wall where the door is. White furniture (crib, bookshelves, whatever else gets thrown in there) will probably look best. I have a lamp in my old office that will work perfectly in the nursery, but I want to change out the shades. I can't decide if I want to put big puffy flowers and ladybugs on the walls or not (hearts, maybe? Any other ideas?), and I'm also not sure what to paint the other three walls. I need to start shopping around for drawer pulls now, I think. Maybe that will give me a slightly better direction.

I think I have truly gone off the deep end. I just volunteered to work weekend pager duty for the next three months. This means my schedule will now be Thursday through Sunday, with pager duty on Saturday and Sunday. My hours will probably be 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM with lunch at my desk. I think I'm insane. At least this will give me Monday through Wednesday off to pack and unpack and all that other fun stuff. Maybe I'll actually be able to learn to spin prior to having the baby!

I need a nap.

I a