Reality Bites

Well, I have had to come to realize that I hate my job. I was trying really hard to find all the good in it for so long, like the people, and being someone other than Mommy, but I have to be honest.... I just plain hate it. I was almost promoted out of it too, which I thinks makes doing the job even harder, but the promotion was "taken back" because hiring a new person to take my current position was denied. It is really too bad that this is true too. It was the only "good" thing, besides Munchi, happening in my life right now. This too shall pass, this too shall pass.

If any of your know of a position for someone with great project skills, who can only be in the office 6 hours a day but is willing to work at night from home, please let me know.

Funny Story

So I know it has been forever since I blogged, so I may be telling this to myself but Munchi did the funniest thing last night. He currently had tonsilitis, so he is not feeling very good and not sleeping very good. Many of you know, this is also my first week of being a single mom now, so I have been home alone at night to be up with him and then dragging myself out of bed to go to work each morning. Sorry, I digress. Last night Munchi was dreaming, and something scared him, so about 4:30 in the morning I wake up to him screaming, "I NEED MY MOMMY!!" Since I just got to bed at 2:30 from the last wake up moment, I have to admit, I went in his room lacking sympathy. I tried to put his aquarium on and leave but he just started crying more, so I got him up and sat him on my lap for a while, where he decided to tell me ALL about his dream, FOR A HALF AN HOUR. He just could not stop saying, "Member when the car crashed?", "Member how I got scared?" (this is all stuff that happened in his dream), so I am trying to tell him it is only a dream, and he corrects me by saying, "No Mommy, it is not a dream. It was on the TV in my crib. It scared me but it turned off when I opened my eyes." 4:30 in the morning and I am laughing and hugging my kid, being thankful I got to be the parent with him when he had this revelation. They are not dreams, he is watching TV in his head!

Munchi's New Haircut

Obviously we will not be styling his new do like this everyday but it was fun to freak Grandma out a little bit!

Can't wait

My best friend is having a baby in about 6 weeks. And today I had the privilege of feeling him move and kick. He even pushed against my hand when I pushed on him. I really cannot wait to meet him. And if he is anything like his brother, he is going to be one heck of a charmer!

I hope someone reads this

I really hope someone out there is still reading my blog. I need help. Dirk's birthday is on Thursday. WHAT DO I GET HIM????

My Mom

Okay, so I know I should really be sure to value my time with my Mom, and appreciate her for who she is, but she is making me a little crazy these days. I know it is because I talk to her more now and spend way more time with her but I can't help it. I went out with her on Tuesday night to a really great play, but we had dinner before and I did not know if I was going to be able to make it through. Every time I stopped talking or looked at something else, she would ask me, "What" or "Is everything okay?" By the tenth time, I wanted to scream. And then she would not stop STARING at the table next to us, whose kid was throwing a major tantrum. I even said something to her about it, and she just kept staring.
And now tonight she calls, we chat for a while, and I tell her about this lady at my work who I have issues with. And she totally zones out. I can tell she is not listening, but then she hears that this lady thinks I am unprofessional and she decides that is something worth discussing and chooses to school me about how I need this job and I need to act appropriately, like I am sixteen and think it is more important to have fun at my job than be a professional adult. AAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!
I love her. Really, I do.

My Friend Lover Boy

My very good friend, who I have nick named Lover Boy, is going to start working at Kondaur with me. I could not be more excited! The longer I work, the more I realize how much I missed it. And now I work for my favorite boss and get to work with my favorite boy. I just hope Dirk can stay comfortable with being home with Munchi for a while..... I think this could really work out for the best for all of us. I feel much more balanced and I think Dirk is enjoying working on things at the house he has been wanting to do.

News Flash - Target Hires the Crazies

So, this is going to be TMI, but for some reason going to Target sends a tiny little signal to my bowel that makes me have to go potty almost every time I go shopping there. (Yes, I know this and even try to take care of business before I go, but it is inevitable.) So, last night, while at Target, I make my usual way to the restroom. I walk inside and there is a Target employee in there, and at first it looked to me like she was washing her hands and cleaning up. Nothing unusual for a Target employee. So I make my way into the stall, and shut the door. At this point, she starts whispering to herself and gets really puffy. I discern from some of the ramblings that she intended to go into the stall I was in and she was not happy I now occupied it. So she starts pacing in the bathroom, still talking to herself. Mind you, there are many other stalls open, so I am not preventing her from taking care of business. I then assume that she still needed to clean the stall I was in and was frustrated to have to wait. About the time I am thinking of hurrying up and getting out of this crazy ladies way, she goes into the stall next to me, SLAMS the door shut and prepares to use the facilities. I relax, figuring I now had some time (told you this was going to be a TMI story). Now I know we all do it, so do not judge me here, but I notice her bathroom habits. She sits down, and starts to pee. Very little comes out. She then starts talking to herself, and says a little louder, "Shit, shit, shit, shit" over and over. She then begins to wipe herself VIGOROUSLY! Now I am scared. I am finishing up to get away from it all, get my laundry detergent and get the hell out of there. But she beats me to it. She zips up, leaves the stall and washes her hands. AND THEN STARTS PACING AGAIN! I am done, so I get up and get out of the stall, only to be almost mowed down by her as she goes into the stall I was just in, to use the bathroom again. Like by using my stall the peeing process is going to go better. Now I understand, maybe she had a bladder infection or some other womanly issue that was causing her duress. And she was at work and was stressed out about it. But please tell me, why was my stall better for dealing with this issue than the one she was previously in? And when I came in she was washing her hands. Had she just come out of another stall that did not work out for her? These are things I thought about as I paid and left. And no, she still had not come out of the bathroom by the time I was done.

PS While this was a long explanation, I was really not in the bathroom as long at it seems.

Munchi's Haircut

Okay, so Munchi's hair has been really bothering me lately and then Carebear saw him today and said, "What's up with his hair?" and I realized we have a real problem. His hair has always looked so cute and been so cooperative, but something has changed.So I am thinking of taking this pictures with me to get his haircut soon. What do you think?

Because two is better than one......

Mommy does Mommy things

Since I start working a contract job on Monday, I thought I would have one last Betty Crocker moment before I put being a house wife on hold. I made these delicious chocolate chip cookies.
And as usual, I got about 1 and half dozen from a 4 dozen cookie recipe (I tend to make my cookies a little big).

Health Insurance

On April 1st Dirk will have been unemployed for a year! It has been a struggle but I am actually kinda proud how we have come through it so far, using our money wisely and being grateful for what we have. And I am especially proud how well our marriage has held up so far, considering how much we are prone to fight. We are actually content these days :)

And now, after a year, we finally found a health insurance company that has approved us for coverage! It is a PPO, with our same doctors, and includes dental and vision, as well as illness coverage (like sick days) for Darryl, legal advice for starting our new company and much more. And all of it for $600 less a month than we have been paying for COBRA. Today we just had a huge load lifted off our shoulders in our fight to make it through this interesting economy, and we are so very EXCITED!

One missing friend

Where, oh, where did Carebear go.
I really miss her so.
She does not post on here no mo'.
Guess she is too busy going to and fro.
Someday I will see her again, I know.

Locks of Love

So, I finally did it! I cut off almost 12 inches of my hair, so I can donate it to Locks of Love. I LOVE not having so much hair and I think I look so much better now too. Maybe this will inspire me to change some other aspects of my body.

A New Backyard

Dirk and I have been talking and preparing to redo our backyard into a play yard for Munchi for quite some time. We bought a new play climber over two months ago, and dug out a bunch of the grass for wood chips over a month ago. As projects always seem to go around here, it continued to be derailed by weather and other immediate needs or desires. Well, no longer. I can happily say after three long hard days of work (admitedly, mainly done by Dirk), the back yard is completely redone into a wonderland playground. Though I forgot to take before pictures, those of you who have seen our backyard will appreciate the change. We removed a lot of grass and put in 4 inches of woodchips (Munchi agrees it is a very soft landing!), put together his play climber, added a sandbox, chairs and a teeter totter. While doing all this, we completely cleaned our patio off too, and now it is a safe, fun environment for Munchi and his friends. He loved every moment today and I know he will wake up bright and early tomorrow ready to go play. I am so excited for all the fun we can have outside, which is where he prefers to be. And this summer we will be adding a wading pool, water table and t-ball to the fun!

The new and improved climber


Sitting area and sand box


View from our grass area


Munchi enjoying his new climber (please ignore the outfit.... we had to use something he could get really dirty in the process)


Our backyard and clean new patio (and Abbey too)


Also, during all this, I was craving turkey and stuffing (if you know, no surprise there!), so I made a roast chicken and stuffing for dinner. It was delicious!! Here is a picture of the yummy bird, though it does not so it justice. I was so proud of how beautiful it turned out!

Handmade Challenge

Because I am dying to see what Carebear will come up for me, I am posting this challenge to all of you as well.

The first FIVE people to respond to this post will get something made by yours truly!!

I get to chose what it is, and make it just for YOU!!
However, this offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make! (although I'm hoping you do!)

2- What I create will be just for you.

3- It will be done this year. (before December 31, 2009!)

4- You have no clue what it's going to be. Unlike Cherry Tree Lane I am rather limited in my creativity channels but I enjoy photography, scrapbooking, card making... so it will definitely be a suprise as to what I make you!

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on YOUR blog and make the same offer to the first 5 people who respond on your blog entry, thereby continuing the fun!

The first 5 people to leave a comment telling me they will be posting this on their blog will win a homemade treat by me!

Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

I am actually looking forward to this and am welcoming the challenge!

Mental Health

So, for the last two weeks, at least, I have been struggling. I gave up on diet and exercise a while ago, unfortunately, and now spend my time beating myself up over it instead. And for whatever reason, I am in no mood to be a mother or wife. I told myself it was just because I am burnt out and needed space. But in the last two weeks I have had two full days of scrapbooking and several half days to spend with my mom. And it has done nothing for my mood. In fact, it just makes me dread the next day even more. I am seriously considering seeing a shrink and getting some meds. Something is just not right.

On a side note, through it all, my husband has been uncharacteristically wonderful. He has offered me time away without complaint. And even after an entire weekend of me doing my own thing and him taking care of Munchi almost all on his own, he woke up this morning with Munchi and told me to sleep in. And when I lost it this afternoon and started crying for no reason, he just went with the flow and said nothing to make me feel worse about myself. So through it all, I can at least say, I am grateful for my husband :)

Photo tag

So I was not tagged to do this, but I thought it was cute, especially once I saw which picture it was.

Here are the rules:

1) Go to the 4th folder in your computer where you store your pictures.

2) Pick the 4th picture in that folder.

3) Explain the picture.

This is a picture of my oldest niece on Easter, who was almost two. She is now almost 5! I forgot she used to be this little, since we have had two others babies in the family since then. Though not part of the rules, her is a picture of Lola now:



Yeah, she is hard not to love. Actually, I absolutely adore her! (And her sister too!)

Making cards

As always I am inspired by my friends Carebear and Ami, and made my own thank you cards for Christmas. Of course, deciding to make them myself I did not get them out until over three weeks after Christmas, but it's the thought that counts right?

Ami and I have started talking seriously about starting a small little side business of making cards, journals, scrapbooking kits, and file folders and selling them at craft fairs and on etsy.com. Honestly, Ami makes everything way better than I can, and they come out so profesional looking! I am hoping to take lessons from her and get better at what I do. Here are pictures of the Thank you I just made:

Update on Everything....

First and foremost, my mom came out of surgery surprisingly well. We will find out the results of her lymph node biopsy this week, but the surgeon was highly optimistic that she got all the cancer. Praise God! And my mom's recovery has been amazing! She has taken no pain meds, and is up doing her own thing, extremely bored because we are all insisting that she do nothing but rest right now.

On another medical note, my niece, Lola has ended up in the hospital with RSV. She is doing well, but her oxygen levels are low, so she has to stay there until she can keep them up with out oxygen support for an entire night. RSV sucks because there are no meds to help move it out of the system. She has to fight it on her own, but have some support while she does it. We all hope she will be home by Wednesday. Prayers for my brothers family, as they are EXTREMELY exhausted going between their sick kid in the hospital and their sick kid at home (Belle also has RSV but is doing fine recovering on her own).

Aside from medical issues in the family, all is going well. We had a birthday party for Munchi on the 10th, went to the LA zoo on the 13th, and went to his friend DDT's birthday party on the 18th. Munchi was super spoiled on his birthday, so our house is overflowing with new toys from Christmas and Birthday. I am currently sorting through, deciding what we want to store for a possible next kid (not coming anytime soon) and what we are giving away. For now though, Munchi is in car and train heaven! Munchi also loved the LA zoo, and the tigers were his favorite! Here are pictures of both birthday party and zoo:

Munchi's cake made by his Grandma


Munchi's friend, Peanut


Munchi (what a hansome kid!)


Munchi's friend, DDT


Munchi enjoying his cake!


Mr. Cool Guy at the zoo


Kangroos playing dead


DDT and Munchi brushing the goats


My favorite, the Hippo


Munchi's favorite, the tiger

The diet and exercise plan update

Well, I have made it through the first two weeks of my diet and exercise plan. Not as smoothly as I hoped but I think I did well.

I walked at least 4 times a week, if not more (I forgot to track), and I followed the South Beach diet religiously until yesterday. I made the mistake of weighing myself after the first week (which I told myself I would not do), and then became FRUSTRATED when I did not loose through out week two, but started gaining! Of course, week two is notoriously the week your body freaks out and holds on for dear life because it thinks it is going into starvation mode, but mentally that did not matter to me. I should have waited like I told myself to do and weighed in this morning for the first time. Anyway, over the last two weeks I lost 9.5 pounds, and I think that is something to be proud of.

This week I am going to start adjusting what I am eating, as I am now allowed more carbs. I actually think that South Beach is a little too strict on the carb thing, since it even restricts fruit consumption, so I am going to tweak it a little. I will be weighing in once a week from now on. I also think I am going to take my measurements and update those once a month, since exercise will be changing my body even if the weight is not coming off like I would like. I will post measurements and a before picture soon.

Munchi's Second Birthday

Today is Munchi's second birthday. And we had such a great time today celebrating it! We opened presents in the morning from his cousins in Tennessee, which included a Geotrax train. He was soooooo excited! Then, after a good long nap, we headed off to the Aquarium. He found every single fish to be so amazing. And really wanted nothing to do with the seals.... He lasted a full two hours without incident, until we went to the gift shop to get him a birthday souvenir. We were talking to him about getting a stuffed animal or a book, when he found a truck! Yes, that is right, my son was able to find a truck at the frickin' Aquarium. Well, mom and dad wanting nothing to do with it! It was cheaply made, NOT age appropriate, and our house is full to the brim with trucks. So, I had to take him out for a small time out, and afterwards we read some books, and picked out the cutest clown fish stuffed animal and went on our way. And I don't think he even cares about the truck now, because he is fast asleep in his bed, with his arms around fish.

So, while the day was great for Munchi, Dirk and I got a little something too. The Aquarium was celebrating their 10 year anniversary or something like that, and we won their grand door prize!! Just because of when we walked in the door.... It is a one night stay at some hotel in Long Beach, in their Jacuzzi Suite, with complimentary champagne and breakfast!! Oh la la! I was so excited, I asked the ticket lady if she would baby sit Munchi for us so we could go :) But the best part was, when looking at the certificate later, Dirk discovered it had expired 12/31/08. Uh oh! So we took it up front and the manager was so embarressed that not only are they mailing a new certificate to us in the mail, but she gave us four free tickets to the Aquarium! Like I said, today was a great day!

Some pictures of our adventures:

As always, climbing up where he is not supposed to, and mom encouraging him by taking a picture


A REALLY big fish!


The eel and I became good friends


I really wanted to swim with the bat rays, if daddy would just let me go!


AMAZING!


I pointed all day, I am sure my finger is very tired

And so it begins

2009 has been officially kicked off with my first day on the South Beach diet. Don't have any comments yet, except that I am hitting Costco this afternoon, as my house is not stocked for a carb free life. You will also notice that the weight loss tracker is back on my blog, but this time it is only set on 40 pounds. My goal is to loose 40 pounds this year, with hopes of doing more. I will not be weighing in the next two weeks, as I want to start the diet just focused on the health benefits, and not worrying what the scale has to say.

Here's to a new, healthy me by 2010!