Cooking

I hate doing it.
I don't have patients for it.
I'm not that good at it.

But when I do make something yummy I enjoy it.  Tonight it was Salmon on the grill with barbecue rub covered in a honey glaze.  It was yummy

Too many thoughts

I can tell that it has been way to long since I posted when I can't even pick one topic to blog about. So in true I don't know what to do fashion I see a list coming up.
1. My sister and I had a wonderful evening Saturday watching the royal wedding.
2. Elijah had the largest fever ever of 103, but I swear it was higher that that.  His skin was red. 
3. The weather here has been colder than December.
4. I don't remember what the sun looks like.
5. The wedding I am in is right around the corner and round is the best shape to describe my belly, what if my dress doesn't fit?
6. Between BJ and I we have something planned every weekend from her on out until August.  So much for camping.
7. I love the zoo.
8. I love the new landscaping in front of our house.
9. I haven't seen much of the cops in the hood but I think it's because it's cold out.
10. I can't wait for the garage sale.
11. Elijah has been super crabby all day today.

Who Knew?

Who knew Harry Houdini's birthday was today.  Guess Rescue did, hence her escape artistness over the past few weeks.  If I would have known, I would have saved Tuesday's post for today. 

Who knew 8 cases of water could take up so much room on my desk and be so HEAVY!

Who knew a 4 dollar lamp (bought for $60.00 at Dave and Busters by the Godparents) would be the solution to Elijah sleeping through the night.

Who knew that a pack of fruit snacks would be the solution to getting Elijah out the door in the morning with no tears.

Who knew the only way to get Rescue to eat her food would be to add about 1/4 cup of water to her bowl.

Who knew?

Learning

I went to a wonderful feeding course yesterday and today and learned a ton!  However, all the wonderfulness came with having to give up my Saturday.  As I rolled out of bed at 5:00 am I was very bitter towards this class.  At 6:15 am I was cursing the fact that the rest of my family was sound asleep in bed and I was not.  At 6:30 I was pulling out of the garage and driving toward the beautiful full moon as it was setting.  It had turned a lovely shade of Orange.  As I drove a little further I began noticing all the things that are wonderful about 6:30 am.  So to keep me in a good mood I started making a mental list of all the wonderful things. 

• Fog over an open field at dawn but before the sun is up
• The moon as it sets
• The lightly frosted/dew covered grass.
• Green lights
• No traffic
• Watching the sun rise over the city.
• No traffic
• Quiet in the world
• A hot tea.
• No traffic

I wish...

• I could blog on my phone any time I think of something I want to blog about.
• I could talk and write something different at the same time.
• I could get organized in my house.
• there were 8 days in a week, with three of the days weekend days.  2 weekend days, 2 work days, 1 day off, 3 work days.
• I was magical.
• housework would do it's self.
• bills would pay themselves.
• I could stay warm during the winter.
• Christmas would leave my house.
• I had a bunch of new clothes.

Things I've learned this weekend.

1. If you buy candy canes from walmart they will all be smashed to pieces. Good if that is what you were planning to do to them.

2. Parchment paper and wax paper are different things.
3. a child's poopy diaper can be super stinky at 5:00 am.
4. You should not start your car with the garage door closed.

5. I love my mixer, even if I only get to use it once a year.

6. If you refrigerate cookie dough add 1-2 minutes to the cook time, or else you get cookie barf.

7. You should warn the neighbors before you start crushing candy canes in your kitchen. 

8. My kid is always cute even if he is sick AGAIN

9. I don't think all my nativity sets will get out before Christmas.  That makes me very sad but i would rather miss my nativity sets than see the ones broken.

10. It's cold outside.

11. I'm done with my Christmas shopping.

 12. I hate laundry.

Christmas List

During this time of year everyone wants Christmas lists.  Before this time of year, I could spit out a list for everyone in the family of 10-15 things.  Now I get stage fright.  I forget what I want.  I also know that everyone wants something that is different from the list that I have given the rest of the family.  I also have to take into consideration the cost of the items on the list.  I want a new camera for Christmas, however, that is not a gift I should ask for from my siblings who are in college or just fresh out of college.  So then I think there are some great items out there that I would love to have for work, however, people are against getting me things for work.  (That in itself makes me bummed because other people ask for things that they want in their office, I don't have an office I play all day, and getting some new toys would be great.)  I guess I'll make my Christmas list online here and I'll add to it as we go along, as I remember what I want.

List:

• A new camera, one that takes regular batteries (AA or AAA) more pix than 3 per photo, and a memory stick for it. Or Best buy gift cards.
• Some new sweaters (I like the longer ones that go mid thigh)
• Uno Moo
• Ikea gift cards
• The 7 books of Harry Potter ( I have the 6 movies already)
• Tickets to Billy Elliot, or Wicked with babysitter.
• Zingo
• Caraboo Island
• What's in Ned's Head
• Gift cards to Toy R us
• A new steam mop (mine just broke)

That's all for me.  For now.  Maybe I'll think of something else and add it later.

Confession Time

1. My house is messy.  Like really messy.  And I request all of you not to judge me for this.  I am not Susie homemaker and I am not planning on being her in the next few years. 
2. I very rarly make home made meals, however, I do request BJ to cook every now and then. 
3. I do laundry weekly but I only put it away, monthly.
4. No matter what I do, my house never gets clean.
5. I love to vacuum and would do it everyday if I could see the carpet or the vacuum didn't weigh 1000 pounds and could get it up and down the stairs quickly.
6. I let the dog sleep on the couch, but only on blankets.
7. At this point in time, Elijah's room is the cleanest in the house.
8. # of family pictures on the walls in my whole house=0
9. I don't want a cleaning lady because I think her job is the more fun part of cleaning, I hate cleaning up crap, love making this shine.
10. I just subscribed to Working Mother to hopefully help with 1-9.

I feel like it's been forever

I have realized this past week I have not blogged very much.  It has been a bit busy.  Let me fill you in.

1. Last Saturday we threw a surprise party for our neighbor who turned 30 last Thursday. It was a success, she was surprised.
2. Last Sunday we did church and joined a group to help make new mentors feel at home in our church.
3. Elijah and Daddy when to youth group together and I cleaned up all of Elijah's old clothes and put all the fall/winter ones in his closet (didn't know this whole week would be summer weather).
4. Monday worked until 7
5. Tuesday celebrated my 13 year anniversary with my hubby.
6. Wednesday I worked until 7 and had the issue with the plane crash in the area.

7. Thursday I had a class 1.5 hours away from home learned a lot and feel real good about being a parent and a therapist but spent over 3 hours in the car driving, went out to dinner with the neighbors for the birthday and then promptly fell asleep at 8:00 on the couch.

8. Friday visited a new mommy and baby pair, then headed to the old High school for the homecoming football game and and marching band.  Elijah enjoyed the marching band but was so ready to leave after that.  Seeing that it was 1.5 hours past his bed time.

 9. Today Elijah had his doctor appointment (31 inches long, 25 lb and 4 oz) had three shots, and was mad at mommy. Drove out for the college homecoming football game (E slept 2 of the 2.5 hour drive) watched/stayed for 2 quarters then walked all over the campus for 2 some hours before getting back in the car and driving home (another 2.5 hour nap for E). 

Elijah about to walk off the cliff/hill

  

climbing up the hill





Chiling with my little man under the bell tower





Family under the bell tower



Family photo

Wawa says Elijah

Here dino, smell my stinky shoes.  No daddy don't feed me to it.

 

Now I'm sleepy, but that was my week in a nut shell.  I miss the beauty of my college but would only go back if BJ would stay with me the whole time.  Also blogger is not allowing me to move the pictures to where I want.  So deal with them the way they are.  At least you got pictures.  Be thankful!

Kellyisms

For those of you who know me I frequently do things that make you question where my brain was.  Some of the most frequent events are...

• Occasionally over the past year or so I have been using bubble bath as body wash.  I didn't realize this until my wonderful husband pointed out that he noticed the bubble bath was going down, but he didn't realize I had been taking baths.  Ding that's when I realize it wasn't body wash, it was bubble bath, that's why it has a stronger sent than the soap I usually use. 
• On Saturday, I was loading the car with the monster stroller and I didn't want to open the garage so I semi opened the back of the car while in the garage.  I then folded up the stroller and was trying to figure out how to lift the darn thing when ***Bamb*** My forehead got in the way of the door.  Now my forehead hurts when ever I smile or do anything.
• While in the process of trying to keep Elijah from spilling his 8 oz cup of milk, I knocked over my 20+ oz cup of iced tea.  While we all jumped up from the table, only BJ was thinking enough to move the baby out of the flash flood. 
• Frequently while talking to parents about there child's inability to communicate, I get word blocks or have moments of complete articulation loss.  Which makes me look like a great SLP.  But on the inside it makes me laugh.
• The other day after I took off my socks, to put on my flip flops, I took 5 steps toward the door before I realized I forgot to put on the flip flops.
• I spent over 5 minutes looking for my car keys today to realize I had been holding them the whole time.

I'm sure there are so many more...I just don't remember them.  LOL

Random

I had a great question earlier but have now forgotten it. So I will do a list of random.

-I sometimes want to do a secret blog but think it would take to much time.
-I love my new job.
-What color does a smurf turn when he is being strangled?
-I can't wait for the new smurf movie.
-Elijah is almost 15 months, Crazy!
-I lost the first family Fantasy football game
-I'm sleepy
-Started a new book about a child with Autism who is the only witness to a murder and it's interesting.
-My blogs have less pictures than they did when I started blogging back in 2005.
-I had to drive my new car with it's headlights for the first time since June the other day on my way home.
-To get the most out of the nice weather I eat lunch in my car in the middle of our parking lot.
-Elijah hits Mom and Dad when he gets frustrated.
-Elijah is the best kid at daycare.
-My child will eat anything...I mean anything-food, bugs, rocks, you name it.
-I'm sleepy.

What I learned from Jury Duty

Today I had a summons to attend my civic service of jury duty today. I was starting to dread it because, the last time I had Jury duty was some time between 2001 and 2004. However, back then I was called immediately to serve on a coroner's jury and had little time to wait. Now things have changed significantly. I'm not in school any more, I am heavily dependent on technology and I eat a snack or something every 2-3 hours.

Now they do not let you have any food in the court house, no technology can come into the court house, and I have things that need to get done, reports that need to be written and all that fun stuff. However, I learned some things today that will help me in the future.
1. When you leave the house in the morning to drop your child off at daycare, and you see a spider. Don't think the spider will wait in that spot for when you get back for you to kill it. Now I have a random baby big spider living somewhere in my house and I don't know where.
2. When you are driving the way your GPS told you to go and you see road construction ahead, MAKE A U-TURN. Or else you will sit in line waiting to get through the one lane street all losing your time to get to the court house on time.
3. When every piece of paper you received from the county states NO CELL PHONES and there are multiple signs that say the same thing on the way into the court house, and you really feel the need to break the rules, put your phone on silent. Some guy kept his phone and it went off in front of the sheriff and bluff today, I thought the man was going to jail the way they looked at him. Gutsy that's for sure.
4. If you get called for jury duty make sure you live in some small town, chances of actually making the jury small, big cities like Chicago, you could end up on the Blogo case and be board to tears.
5. Read your summons carefully, when you see $11.00 per/ don't stop reading. When you think that is $11.00 per hour you are sorely disappointed when it comes down to $11.00 a day with $0.30 per mile that you traveled. And I'm sure that money will be taxed. I made about $17.00 today before taxes. That was worth the day off work that I had.
6. When they ask the 5 million questions to find out a little about everyone in the room, PLEASE answer yes/no/ or another one word answer that best gets to the question asked. Can I tell you this one man stood up for almost EVERY question asked and shared his entire life history which included many run ins with the law or legal system. He wasn't on trial and I was willing to send him to jail, for what I'm not real sure.
7. Don't do anything stupid in your life, you will have to confess to it in front of a large group of people on reasons why you committed a crime. I counted 3 DUI's in our room 2 under age drinkers and my buddy that wouldn't shut up had something too.
8. Dental work scheduled for tomorrow is not a good reason to get out of jury duty. Sit down.
9. Being almost 100% deaf and about 110 years old, a good reason for not serving on a jury.
10. If you never want to serve on a jury make friends with the states attorneys and be sure to call them all by there first name. The defence does not like that.
11. Eat a big breakfast because all you get once you are there is water from the water fountain.
12. If you really have a beef with the justice system don't make up stupid excuses for why you should not be on the jury that will last for 2 days. "Well if I don't get home to water my plants I will starve."

It has been anywhere from 6-9 years since I was called for Jury Duty. Last time I got to play CSI detective and work with some cool people who enjoyed serving on a jury. This time I got to sit in a court room listening to people practically beg not to be called for Duty and just cross my fingers hoping that I would be able to go back to work the next day and not need to stay longer than that.

How to earn your pay when there is not much to do

As many of you know, I recently started a new job. When I started this job I didn't take over somebodies old caseload, but am expected to build my own. As much as this means a ton of work in my future with marketing, evaluations, and writing reports, but I look forward to all this and this is what I signed up for. However, as soon as I started working I wasn't going to have 100's of people lined up at the door. Looking positively, in my first week I have had 3 evals and seen one client. Next week, even with jury duty I have 2 or three more evals and several more clients. However, that only accounts for a very small fraction of my day. So I have been figuring out ways to keep myself busy and worth my pay. So if you're ever in my situation, here are some things you can do:

-Move in all your stuff in

-find homes for all your stuff

-build a book case

-help in the front office when they need to eat

-learn the computer program

-write up some evals

-read files on new clients

-organize an entire therapy closet

-organize a book case

-reorganize your files and your stuff

-check your mail several times

-build a treadmill

-file

-refile the mistakes you made

-call a couple of doctors to request scripts

I'm sure there is a bit more but they have slipped my mind.

Stay tuned next week for, How to entertain yourself for 40 hours while you wait to be called for jury duty.

Ah what a golden day

1. I know you are all on the edge of your seats to find out about Elijah's party. You have to wait until tomorrow.
2. It finally stopped raining and threatening the end of the world here in Chicago. It was beautiful today.
3. I traded in my SLP title today to relive my hay days as a registrar.
4. The kiddos I did treat today were fantastic and well behaved.
5. Except the child who kept reciting the advisories from the Disney shows he just saw (tease!)
6. Had Jimmy Johns for lunch.
7. Possibly ran a red light with a red light camera (wahoo! Birthday gift from the state)
8. Spent about 6 hours trying to complete one eval.
9. Spent 28 minutes writing a thank you note to a doctor.
10. Received 28 text messages from my hubby today!
11. Spent 28 minutes on Facebook getting all my birthday wishes
12. Read about 28 old blog posts
13. Decided for the second time in my life that I won't work on my birthday again.
14. Realized my plans for the weekend needed to be switched around by a day because I'm living a year in the future.
15. Took a 28 minute lunch outside today.
16. Did not fold the laundry.
17. Did not clean the mess up from Elijah getting into his nicely organized birthday gifts.
18. Did not clean out the garage for the car to sleep inside.
19. Took a stroll through the hood, all is quiet.
20. Got to pick the TV for the evening.
21. Ate Olive Garden for dinner.
22. Stepped in for the evening dance with the baby.
23. Was bit by the baby.
24. Baby laughed so hard when told "NO" that I couldn't hold my angry face and spent about 28 seconds laughing too.
25. Tried to change the diaper genie but almost died. So I stopped.
26. Made BJ change the diaper genie.
27. Had tiramsiu for dessert
28. Had a wonderful Golden 28th Birthday. Thank you to all for my day!

Quick list (second post tonight)

1. My neighbors are awesome! Without them we would be down two really good friends and my car would probably would not be fixed if it wasn't for them.
2. Kids are funny. One of my kids told me today that the reason mail takes a while to get to his house is because he lives in a circle (or cul de sac.)
3. Softball season has begun. BJ is off playing baseball with this buddies. I can't wait until Elijah and I can go with him. We need it to be a bit warmer out though.
4. My mom is going to meet some turkeys. Still wish I was going with.
5. I wish the temperature of where I work would stay the same.
6. I have to drive to the other side of the world Thursday and Friday and I don't know if my car can drive across water or if I can get back in time to get Elijah from daycare.
7. I watch way to much TV!
8. I wish I had magic powers so I could poof and have dinner made. That would be awesome.

I have so many idea's about what to post about maybe I will do a two part post. If you only get one idea out of it that is probably one of two reasons. 1) I forgot what the second idea was by the time I had written the first or 2) I am just to sleepy to continue. Who knows.

#1- Last night (Friday) BJ and I drove up to Minnesota after work due to BJ's grandpa passing away. We decided that it would be best, since we have a child under a year, to travel the 6-7 hours at night that way Elijah could sleep the entire time giving us peace. BJ ended up working Friday, while I packed, and cleaned. Packing for an extended weekend is hard work, especially since the last time I traveled with this little man he was eating and doing a whole lot less. But anyway, we traveled though the night and pulled into our Orbitz hotel at 1:30 am. Immediately we should have known we were in for a fun time, for a cop car was parked out front. Lights were off but unless these Minnesota cops were doing business on the side, it isn't typical for cops to visit a hotel in the middle of the night. BJ gets out of the car and goes to check us in. Not even 5 min. later BJ calls me and lets me know the pool is out of service. Well typically this wouldn't be a big deal except we had called both of BJ's brothers letting them know that we would have a pool and that there children should bring their swim suits. Then apparently the hotel lost our reservation because they had filed it under BJ's first name as his last name. At this point BJ being tired and slightly crabby wanted to leave and go else where. Me, I just wanted to go to bed, and I didn't think 1:30 am was the best time to drive around town and find a hotel. So we decided we would only unpack what we needed for the night and the next morning and deal with the situation then. WEEEEELL when you have a baby, what you need for the night and the next morning= everything you put in the car. Stepping into the room my initial thought was, "it smells" then I saw the carpet, my next thought was, "ewww, Elijah is not touching this floor." We set up the pack and play, and put him to bed then quickly followed suit. The next morning BJ was awake and on the phone with orbitz around 6:30 canceling our reservations and finding a better place to stay. (I like this place). However, what I have learned from this experience is that when I stay in a hotel it has to be 3 stars or more. If that is not an option, then I will 1. not go or 2. camp. Because in all fairness, camping is sooooo much more clean that the state of some of those hotel rooms.

#2-Funerals. It is funny, okay not funny but interesting, how a time for mourning turns into a happy and fun family gathering. I have been to my fair share of funerals where I have not been part of the family or the person who passed away was young and it is hard to be there, however, when an individual has lived a good life, and made a strong family with lots of memories, funerals are a good time to get together with all your loved ones and remember the good days. I'm sure there will be a different thought tomorrow, but until then this is my thought.

#3- Traveling with a 10 month old. Remember my post about traveling with a 6 month old. Yeah, it got a little worse. Here is what I packed for our 4 day trip.
6 different casual outfits some short sleeve, some long sleeve, some shorts, some long pants
2 different pairs of shoes
dress outfit
3 pairs of PJ's
socks
diapers
swim diapers
swim suit
baby soap
butt paste
thermometer
nose sucker
nail clippers
pack-n-play
2 big blankets
2 small blankets
a quilt
3 stuffed animals from home
pacifiers (even though he doesn't use them at home, in new places he typically will forget he needs to sleep)
5 bottles
formula
Cheerios
puffs
3 boxes of 2 pack stage 2 baby food fruit
3 boxes of 2 pack stage 2 baby food veggies
animal crackers
wagon wheels
another finger food thing
3 bowls
6 spoons
4 small snack cups
oatmeal for several feedings
bottle cleaner
dish soap
all of his toys
high chair
I'm sure there is more but I just can't think anymore, I need sleep. Good night.

The coming of spring

As I go about the day I think about a million different idea's that I can blog about. Then I sit down to actually blog and Wooosh, All gone. Now I am just drawing a blank. UHHHHHH (can you hear the crickets??)

Hold on, Pause, I have to put the laundry in the dryer...

OO...I know what I want to blog about. It came to me while I was doing the laundry. Here it goes... THE COMING OF SPRING

Yes I know that it is only the 13th of March and there is still the possibility of one last snow storm. But still...It is feeling more like spring everyday. In fact, I wore my flip flops last weekend and I have spotted the first bugs of the season. It was fantastic! Let me tell you about what I have accomplished this spring.

1. Spring cleaning, I have cleaned the house top to bottom. I got rid of old clothes, washed the bedding and the winter coats.

2. Exposed my toes to the world. I wore my flip flops as a test day, then I decided it went good so I went to Spa Okel and did my toes last night. Now my toes are ready for the warm weather.

3. Took the dog out. Rescue got her come of the season walk.

4. New clothes for the boy! I love that we have friends that hare a little boy to send us their hand me downs for Elijah. (By the way Carissa, Thanks for the clothes).

5. Rescue caught her first spring house spider. I came around the corner today and Rescue was crouched on the stairs and my first thought was she was doing something naughty, then I saw the darn bug. She ate it, it was all good.

6. The birds are out. The first bird I saw was the ducks in the back yard swimming/walking around the construction area. And yes from a very far distance and with my bad eyes the female duck looks like a quail, hence my expedition to go photograph the quail. Then I saw a robin today, and a dove scared the crap out of me that tried to live in our window above our door.

7. Daylight savings time. I spent the day trying to start Elijah on the new schedule by cutting his afternoon nap short and skipping a bottle today. Let's see how tomorrow goes for us.

I love spring because it means summer is just around the corner!!! Come on summer push your way through to me.

why I love my job

There are many moments in my life when I don't enjoy my job. However, to all those moments I have 10 or more moments that I love. Here are a couple of them:

• My friend who is so into sports has told me on multiple occasions that he wants to be a basketball, football playing chef.
• My friend who thought he got a day off of school because of Valentines day, and my other friend who thought he got a day off of school because of Groundhogs day.
• My friend who thought that the handicap signs were people sitting on to potties.
• The days I get hugs and kisses from my favorite friends.
• I played candyland 3 times today, and candyland bingo once.
• My ability to constantly lose at Hi-Ho-Cherry-O even if I try and cheat to win.
• I know how to cheat at almost all games so I can lose. (Some times I switch it around to win)
• Special rules to make all games completable in about 15-20 min. (except battleship, can't play that one fast)
• Mr. Potato head and all his parts.
• Sticky balls
• Bubbles when they want to work right.
• FisherPrice little people
• Talking with Friends over 10 about "real life" things.
• Singing Wheels-on-the Bus at the top of my lungs while doing all the motions while my little friends just sit and stare at me.

These are just a few...

PS. Stay tuned tomorrow for pictures of my 8 month old child. Yes tomorrow he will be 8 months old. CRAZY.

Facebook $$$ What??

The other day I was poking around on Facebook and found something that implied that in July it will cost money to be a "member" on facebook. Let me just say that I think they are making a huge mistake.
1. The largest population of people of people joining every year has to be high school and college kids. At least those are the ones that have the most time on their hands and can use all of facebook for all that it is worth.
2. I know just about everyone I know will stop using facebook once I have to pay for it. I mean really? That is money I don't have right now. And I don't see myself making that payment a priority in my life.
3. If the reason you have facebook is so you can stay in touch with people, but all the people you are in touch with are no longer there, you probably won't stay much longer either.

I also think that if Facebook goes about going this route, twitter will be come the big thing and Facebook will become the next MySpace.

Question of the day

You may know that we have a dog. Not a very smart dog, but we have a dog. During the summer we are semi good at cleaning up the back yard once a week or so. However, in the winter, not so much. There are several reasons behind this

1. It is cold out there, I don't want to go out there to do it.

2. It is cold out there, I don't want to be out there anyway so why does it matter if there is poop all over.

3. It snows and it covers up the poop.

4. It is cold out there, and the poop freezes to the ground

Anyway, I went out to pick up the yard because even the dog was giving me looks like, "Um, this is gross I have no where to walk." So out I go with a shopping bag and a garden shovel. I'm out there and I make a realization and one of my wonderful questions pops into my head. The realization: Rabbits poop A LOT!!!! Question: If rabbits eat so much then why couldn't they poop like dogs? They need bigger poops instead of the little things they create. I also found in the back yard:

Lots of dog poop

2 pieces of rabbit poop for every piece of dog poop

A dead pigeon

snow

And the dog. Who knew she was out there.

Another thing I realized today, My mom reads about 50 different blogs. Never knew.