Saturday, September 05, 2009

Living large

I actually took 24 hours off. I don't like to think of myself as a work-a-holic, but there are occasions where my overly developed sense of responsibility kicks in and I work myself to the bone. The last few weeks have been more on the overwork side of things. My husband made the comment today that he was proud of me for actually leaving dirty dishes in the sink for 2 full days. I watched The Ugly Truth this evening with my college roomie, who is visiting for the holiday weekend, and have been giggling to myself ever since.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Playing catch-up

Unfortunately, playing catch-up is not near as much fun as Ella playing in ketchup. It sounds similar. But not as much fun. In fact, I feel almost like I'm writing our Christmas card letter because it's been so long since I blogged!

Our trip drained our energies, and we came home to be thrust back into the fray of life far too quickly for my taste. Work is insane for me right now, as we are getting close to our launch date and preparing all the final materials as well as doing QA/QC runs on the entire site. Because the site is dynamic, I also continue to work on developing materials for the refresh schedule after launch. I'm putting together a basket of goodies and a carrot cake as a thank you to our friends who cared for Priscilla while we were away, catching up on clerkwork (I'm the church clerk), sorting through bills, trying to keep the house clean and the inmates of the house fed and clothed in clean garments... and spending at least a couple hours of each day this week relaxing with Ronnie, my college roommate, who is visiting us until Labor Day. We girls also went to Julie & Julia this week and the story, if not necessarily or specifically the people involved, renewed my resolve to build/write a family recipes cookbook. I'm even contemplating setting myself a specific time in the weekly calendar in which to work on it! (Note: I haven't said I SET a time yet... but Im THINKING about it!)

Hubband started school on Monday, and his 18-credit class load is intense. Even more intense than that was the feeling in the pit of our stomachs when he went to update his VA status and found a note on his file stating that he'd never been accepted to his degree program! None of his degree path advisors could figure out what was going on until they'd reviewed all of his paperwork. He's been taking degree classes for 2 years so there was a lot of confusion! Once they figured out where things had fallen apart (communication, mostly), he was able to enroll without incident. His classes are, for the most part, fun and interesting and will keep him busy! Of course, on top of that, he continues to help me with the housework, repair what breaks, and try to get ahead on the renovation projects that remain. He also cares for the cars and yard, and is in the process of building a computer (from scratch, so to speak!).

Ella has been growing and developing in leaps and bounds. She is learning and using regularly approximately 5-6 new words each week. Today alone, she added "bright" ("STACE! bight. bight!" when the light was in her eyes) and "water" (wuhwer). We also had another huge milestone this week....Ella PEED IN THE POTTY! She's shown interest in what we are doing and wants to "sits" with us when are using the restroom, so we decided to put the little potty Grandma CMom gave her in our bathroom. For the last couple of weeks, she would sit on it a couple of times a day, most usually when she was waiting for the tub to finish filling for her bath. Yesterday, we undressed her and let her do the naked baby run from her room to the bathroom (its a blast to dash naked around the house giggling, you should try it sometime!). She arrived in time to see me using the restroom and immediately sat on her potty. She then kind of smiled and patted my leg and I looked over at her to see that she had peed! We were VERY excited and praised her mightily, which got HER excited and she leapt off the potty.... and finished her peeing on the floor. BUT! It was still a big fun first for us that signals potty training for real may very well begin within the next few months. She also has started trying to get out of her crib in the morning, and I think the day is near when we will need to convert it to a "big girl" bed. This evening, she experienced another first and used fingerpaints (while wearing daddy's tshirt)! I'll post some shots once I get them uploaded. It was VERY cute.

For now, I am off to bed. Leaving you all with this very long post to contemplate---and the idea that in just one more week I am being flown to an entirely different state to bake a pair of birthday cakes (it sounds so awesome to say that... the rest of the story is that I'm thrilled because the cake is for my niece and I will be able to see her, all the other Eastern nieces and nephews, and attend her Dedication service as well!)

Good night all... photos... will come someday.