Stubborn

So this is how you know your child is not going to fall asleep anytime soon.

This picture was taken at 12:45AM on a school night - or should I say school morning. I am actually not asleep. I closed my eyes in frustration. I am actually to one taking the picture with my camera phone so that her father could she what she was up to. There are times I am very jealous that he gets to spend his nights alone on the road.



At one point in my 3 years of parenthood I was actually quite proud that my daughter inherited my stubborn streak. Those days are long gone. It now seems that we go head to head in stubbornness daily. In some ways it is great - I know she will never be a pushover. But I am beginning to think I may have to pay some poor sap to take her off my hands someday. Tell her something she doesn't like and she will inform you that "you are on a big time out!" usually at the top of her lungs in a public place. Like the preschool you are a new teacher at, where she screamed so loudly that teachers came running thinking there had been a serious injury. At least it was after school and there were no parents there.

Mind you as I am typing she walks by me with no shirt, her blue pants (not the ones she was wearing 5 minutes ago) and her new sneakers with no socks. I swear I left her in the living room, less than 10 feet away, wearing pink pants and a matching pink t shirt and socks but no shoes.

No wonder my eyebrow hairs are turning grey.
My mother tells me these will be the times I miss.
I tell her these will be the times I remember when they send me to the looney bin.
It's a good thing I really love her.

New Year in a Nutshell

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Well life has been just a little bit crazy for the last 3 weeks so I am just going to list things off and run.

Dec. 18th - Mom and Dad arrived - yea!

Dec. 23rd - Mom and Dad sold their condo - yea! again - they settle 2/5/06!!!!

Dec. 24th - cut my hair off - went shorter than planned because another inch meant being able to donate it to Locks of Love (something I always wanted to do!)

We had a wonderfully small Christmas. Church Christmas Eve altogether candle light service. Jessie survived and I managed to light my plastic candle cup on fire! (believe it or not they even let me come back!)

Dan gave me a great Christmas present - a membership to Womenfit! I love this place. I kinda helps that they have a 'resident' dog named Cardio who I have become fast friends with. (he's htere when the owner is).

Had a great New Year hanging out. Jessie stayed up til 2 (I still haven't caught up on sleep!)

And low and behold the unbelievable has happened. I have been offer a contract for a teaching position with Manassas Baptist Preschool where I have been subbing all year. I am now Jessica's teacher (and the teacher to all the other 2 year olds too) And they have already asked if I would like to return next year on contract. Which means doing the same thing I have been doing but with full pay!!! I am so proud I could burst! And so busy with little details for the classroom but it is a fun, can't stop smiling busy.

So far I am loving 2006. Mom and Dad leave for Florida this Sat and will be returning in about 3 weeks to live with us for awhile. Dad will be having surgery to remove a disk in his neck when they return. This surgery will hopefully relieve the chronic hand pain he is in. So please pray for him.

Well off and running! Need to get my art project prepped for tomorrow! :)

God Bless!

All together for Christmas

So my sister ruined my child.
We were all out shopping when Kelly wanted a coffee from Starbucks. We go in an order and learned they do kids drinks for a dollar. So we ordered Jessica a hot cocoa with a splash of cold milk to make it cool for her. She loved it!!! Now not only does she want a cocoa everytime she sees a Starbucks but she refuses to drink any other kind of cocoa. My 3 year old drink snob!
I took this picture with my cell phone so it isn't the greatest but it's hysterical. But nothing beats the looks Kelly and I got from strangers thinking we were giving her coffee since they served the cocoa in a coffee cup!

Well it is true. Be careful what you wish for. hehehe. Mom and Dad are coming up from florida for Christmas and I have 3 days to clear a roompacked with boxes and make it comfy for their 3 week stay! But I am so excited. Jessica is in full "I need this for Christmas" mode. She doesn't quite get the whole idea of Santa yet. When I tried to explain to her the whole make a list for Santa idea she simply asked "Why can't you or Daddy tell him?"Not to mention she told her preschool teacher that "Santa has lots of money so he can buy me all the toys". Yah. Gotta love my kid. So I hope she isn't bummed when she doesn't get every toy there is. But since she is getting the Fisher price star station kareoke set that hooks to the TV I think she'll be ok that everything else is little stuff. And if not she'll get over it. She probably will be so excited about Grammy and Pop pop being here she won't play with any of it anyways :)

Well time for more meds. Got another (or possibly the same) sinus infection and I can barely breathe. 1000 mg of Augmentin twice a day for 20 days this time around since the last round of 10 days didn't kick it. So pray for me because God doesn't seem to want to listen to me on the subject. :)

updates

Saw Harry Potter and fell in love again. I love the world they create. Have to admit to screaming like the little girl I wish I was during the maze scene. But again loved the movie, agreed with the PG13 rating as it was a bit mature in bits, and was left wanting another in the end.

Went Black Friday shopping and have to report on these 4 women I saw in Target. They cracked me up and made Jessica shriek with laughter. 4 adult women were dressed as elves (striped stockings, pointy shoes, hats and more) were walking around shopping in the middle of the chaos singing carols at the top of their lungs. Upon closer inspection (as demanded by aforementioned child) I learned they were not sing so very loudly as thought, one woman had a tape player in her "toy bag" that was playing the music. They were hysterical. They all blewJessie kisses and wished her Merry Christmas. Needless to say it made her day.

Finances seem to be getting worse instead of better as I have had to return all but one gift bought in exchange food groceries. But for now we have a roof over our heads and each other so I am counting my blessings.

And I am learning to forgive. I have recently realized that someone I thought cared deeply for me as a friend seems to care less if she leaves me in a lurch. And I have learned to step back and not be there to offer her help for it will not be appreciated. And that no matter how much you trust a friend never get money involved. Hard lesson learned. I will no longer feel guilty for putting myself and my family first.

So Merry Little Christmas since it will be little this year.

Blog, Blog, Blog...

Having one of those days again. No money for the holidays and lots of frustrations to go with it. On a fun note Friday night Jessica and I went to play Bingo at the Elementary school right behind our town house. We went with Kelly & AJ and her girls. Jessica had a blast, she wanted to put stamp dots on every square. All the prizes were kid's toys. We didn't win anything but both AJ's girls won. So it was lots of excitement. Kelly ofcourse stayed until 12:30 AM til I had to put on my PJs and push her out the door.
I think I have the holiday blues. It just sucks knowing M&D are broke and won't leave the condo until it is sold. They told us if we bought them tickets to get here they wouldn't use them. So we won't see them until the condo sells. Mom is in tears missing us and down because she won't be here for Christmas. I am bummed because it means Christmas with Kelly and we all know how that usually goes. (Thanksgiving with Kelly is making my skin crawl with anticipation of a fight). And as we have yet to have a holiday involving my family that didn't end with arguing I am not holding my breath. I just hope there is no blood shed.

sigh.

One Sick Family

So for the first time ever my entire little family are all sick at once. The irony we all have something different. Dan is nauseous and thinks his Vertigo may be back, Jessica has the cha cha's and is just generally cranking and I have the sinus headache from hell. What is up with this? I just really hope we don't all share! Ugh. D is never one to say he is sick and he is willing admitting it so beware - hell may freeze over any moment.
phone's ringing - see ya!

A Murphy's Day

Ever have one of those Murphy's Law days? Yah, today was definitely one of those days. I woke up late, rush to get Jessica and myself dressed, ran to the school thanking God I was only helping to clean the store room instead of teaching today because I had taken the liberty of wearing an old T shirt, we make it just in time. All is going well until Jessica sees me in the hallway. Normally this event is met by "Hey Mom" and we go our own ways. Today she breaks into tears and sobs she wants to go home. I pick her up and she is burning up. Lovely. Everyone around feels her head and says yes she must have a fever. Murphy takes effect and needless to say both the thermometers the preschool has are out of batteries. And it figures that I had just came up the steps are tearing everything and I mean everything out of the storeroom. So Jessie and I go down and pile it all back in and go home. She takes a nap and wakes up like none of this ever happens.
But on a good note I got to see the new version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Which was creepy but good, it followed the book a little closer (except the end) but it was really creepy.
Ahh well.....

The Unbeatable Headache

So I woke up at 3 AM this morning with a killer headache behind my eyes. I believe it hurt so bad it woke me up. I took some tylenol and went back to bed. I woke up again at 7:30, got Jessica and myself ready for school and off we went, headache in tow. All day long I babied this headache - fed it caffiene, removed my glasses, rubbed my face. We came home, I treated my headache and my self to a nice Ceasar salad, took a nap and still the pain persisted. I crawled out of bed, walked to the Elementary school, picked up my god daughters Catherine and Amy, and the headache came with. I ran errands with friends and children and tried not to claw my eyes out. Took some Excedrin and moaned on.
We came home and discovered I married a superhero. Dan had not only woken up early and cooked dinner but he included some sort of magic drug in the dinner he called protein. It seems protein has the ability to disolved killer headaches.
And to think I thought he was just smelly, scruffy husband. In truth he is Super Danny killer of all thing painful.
I knew I loved him for a reason other than his big hairy feet!

Happy Halloween

Well, my first blog! Some of my friends would say about time. But hey, it takes me a while to get on the bandwagon sometimes.
So it was Jessica's first real trick or treat adventure. She made out like a bandit. Where has the time gone? Last year she rode on her daddy's shoulders and went to 2 houses and declared she was done. This year she didn't want to stop but she couldn't carry anymore. And as far as I was concerned if she couldn't carry it it was way too much! No 3 year old should have her own body weight in candy. Well I am off, Aunt Kelly has to leave and there is a minor meltdown to put out!
Happy Halloween!