July 01, 2008

Choices

I used to work with a guy who would make you want to vomit. He worked out all the time and ate so much grilled chicken you would think he might start growing feathers. Yeah, he was healthy.

In our office, he stuck out like a sore thumb and he never fit in (although that did have a lot to do with things outside of his eating/exercising habits as well). I'm not necessarily saying that we are unhealthy, but well, we like food. At least I do. I think we all have our various addictions and cravings for certain types of food - and grilled chicken isn't high on that list.  I personally lean toward junk. Or maybe junk isn't the right term. Fried. Yeah. That's better.

I like fried food. Love it. But you know what? I finally see what it's gotten me. Clogged arteries, extra chins, a massive rear end and the inability to recognize myself in photographs. How's that for honesty?

I've always been the person who avoids decision-making, preferring instead to take the path of least resistance. But, I finally came to the realization that I had a decision to make. I could either continue down the fried food highway (the path of least resistance) or I could make an effort to finally care about myself as much as I do my loved ones. Welcome to the land of grilled chicken.

Over the years, I've started and stopped various fad diets/gimmicks/you name its in my quest to find the easy way to have the great body. And yeah, sometimes they've worked. (Despite my blubber, I still have the cuts in the upper part of my stomach that identify where the start of my 6 pack used to be.) Starving? I don't have what it takes to starve myself, although I pulled it off pretty well during various parts of college (combined with a ridiculous cardio and abdominal regimen). Atkins? I know some people make a lifestyle out of Atkins, but all I can say is more power to them. I knew I had scraped the bottom of the barrel when I ate a pancake made primarily from pork rinds. Weight Watchers? Sure, it works for weight loss if you follow it the way it is intended - but give me an inch and I'll take a mile i.e. I don't want to cut my chicken ranch sandwich into 8 pieces and only eat one of them, thank you very much.

This time, I've chosen to do things the hard (slow) way. Me being me, I do have to have some some sort regimen to follow. I don't do well when left to my own devices. So, I'm following the Body for Life methodology, which in its purest form boils down to "eat healthy, work out". That's it. The rest is up to me. There's no magic pill. The weight doesn't magically fall off. I have to work my butt off to get it. And as I sat last Friday night staring down a bowl of M&M's that had been placed in front of me by some well meaning person, I just reminded myself that it was my choice. If I wanted I could reach over and have a handful. Or I could reach over and have the entire bowl. Or, I could wait until my free day, when, by BFL guidelines I'm allowed to eat those things that are oh-so-good but so not healthy - written in to help make the program sustainable (because really, who wants to go the rest of their life without eating a piece of dulce de leche cheesecake?).

My decision? I chose me. And before you think I'm going and getting all preachy now (whew, down from that soapbox) I don't expect that I will be perfect. I am only human after all. There will be days when I falter. Days when maybe the handful of M&Ms wins or when the thought of hauling myself out of bed to hit the gym is just unbearable. But as long as I can isolate those (thank you BFL Buddy Amy for passing on the concept of isolation!) and keep myself moving down this new path, I'll still come out far ahead of where I am now.

June 19, 2008

Oh My Aching Body Clock

**Note to self, next time I'm keeping something on the down-low, I probably shouldn't announce it on my blog. There's a reason those who know me well claim I have no common sense...**

So, now that you all know - can I moan and groan just a minute? I'm sooo not a morning person. Growing up, I was always a night owl like my mother. While my Dad would hit the sack at a reasonable hour, Mom and I would sit up half the night watching whatever it was that happened to be on HBO and then sleep away half of the next day. In college, I picked my classes based upon what time I would have to get up (obviously the later the better), so that I could go out late with my friends. 8 am classes? Pffft. Those are mistakes better left to freshmen.

I finally realized that I really do require a certain amount of sleep to function. And that magical number just happens to be 8 hours. If I'm left to my own devices it doesn't matter what time I go to bed, because sure as shooting, I will wake up 8 hours later. So, if I go into the office at 9 am (ish), and the peanut gets up at 7:30 for breakfast, well that means I need to go to bed around 11 (because, in all honesty, the peanut rarely sleeps until 7:30). That's a reasonable time. I can come home, spend time with my little family, make some dinner, and maybe get in some snuggly time in front of the toob before dozing off.

Except now? This whole workout thing has thrown me entirely off kilter. If I'm going to workout, it's going to have to be in the morning. If I say I'm going to do it any other time, I'm lying, even if I don't know it yet. You see, there are always a million and one excuses not to go to the gym in the afternoon/evening. I'm still working. It interferes with family time. I'm going to make that 50-course meal tonight. Whatever. So you see? I HAVE to squeeze in my exercise time in the mornings.

What that means, however, is that I'm getting up earlier than Todd. Todd goes into work at 7:00. In downtown Dallas. He gets up early. And now I'm getting up even earlier. 8 hours of sleep. Nope. Not this week. I would have to go to bed by 9:00 or 9:30 to get 8 hours of sleep. Who goes to bed that early? Seriously? Okay, other than my mother (who is no longer a night owl) and the peanut.

But oh my gosh, I'm paying for it. Sure, I'll eventually adjust...either give up and start going to bed reallly early, or just get used to not getting as much sleep.

Right now, though? You got any Advil? Oh, and that pillow...could you schooch that this direction just a bit? Peeerrrrfect....

June 15, 2008

Work Out Tunes - The "Sexy" Mix

Very few folks know that I'm starting a new eating/working out regimen - probably because for the most part (obviously, it's me we're talking about so I've told at least a few people) because I'm keeping it to myself. I tend to get all gung-ho about something, tell tons of my friends/family all about it and then bust less than a week in. This...well, this is something different. I'm not starting on any sort of cockamamy impossible to stick with thing, but it will be tough. Very tough. I'm energized and excited about it, but at any rate, THAT is not what this post is about.

This post is about what I'm going to be listening to while I'm in the gym this week to keep me inspired. When I've been a consistent exerciser in the past, one of the things I've lived by is my workout music. I tend to pick a theme, stick with it for a week and then move on to something else. Sometimes, certain songs will make the leap from one theme to the next - other times I find that after I load them into my player I end up skipping certain songs during the rotation because they really didn't fit that theme after all.

In honor of starting my journey to get my body back (Because this body? This body is SO not mine, I don't know who I accidentally borrowed it from, but I plan on returning it.) I decided to start with what I'm calling sexy songs. No, they aren't necessarily about sex. Sure, some of them are, but many of them are just songs that make me feel sexy for whatever reason. Maybe a song reminds me of a time in my life when I was looking good and feeling good. Maybe it reminds me of nights spent out on the club circuit with my friends, dancing until my hair clung to my face. Or maybe the lyrics just make me feel...sexy.

Maybe some of you out there are starting your journey to a better self, maybe you're already there, maybe you are thinking about it...whatever. I thought I would share my sexy list with you, and if you like you can share yours with me. Music is a personal thing, and obviously what entails sexy to me isn't going to apply to everyone. So, I'm curious to see what others might include on their list. Seriously - leave it in the comments, email me or send me a link me to your blog. I'm always looking for inspiration - and I suspect as I work to get over the hump that will be the next few weeks I will NEED some extra inspiration.

Anyway, without further ado:

Boyfriend - Ashlee Simpson

Hard to Handle - The Black Crowes

Crazy Bitch - Buckcherry

Brick House - The Commodores

I Touch Myself - The Divynls

Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran

Criminal - Fiona Apple

Beautiful - Flickerstick

Supervixen - Garbage

Freedom - George Michael

If - Janet Jackson

Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes

Can't Get You Out of My Head - Kylie Minogue

Around the Way Girl - LL Cool J

So Alive - Love and Rockets

Material Girl - Madonna

Express Yourself - Madonna

Baby's Got Her Bluejeans On - Mel McDaniel

Sugar - Mollys Yes

Do It - Nelly Furtado

Promiscuous - Nelly Furtado

Closer - Nine Inch Nails

Mercedes Boy - Pebbles

Kiss - Prince

Any Man of Mine - Shania Twain

Beautiful - Snoop Dogg

Creep - TLC

California Love - Tupac

Legs - ZZ Top


June 12, 2008

Honestly, It Was the Hair

You know, from time to time, random little things in my daily life will open up a memory that is gathering cobwebs somewhere in the back of my mind. Today's random memory recall is a date I went on in college. The trigger was another blog where the author discussed some date from her early 20's - sometimes it just takes something that simple.

So anyway, I met this guy who I will call "Jake" (in this case, not his real name - you never know and I don't want to hurt feelings). For the first year and a half that I was at Oklahoma State I worked at Albertson's. Jake came through my line. I don't remember what he bought, I'm thinking it was small because I usually worked the express lane. He asked for my number. I gave it to him because he was cute. And had good biceps. Naturally, when he called to ask me out I said yes.

At this point, I should add that I was the queen of non-typical dates. Instead of just going out to dinner and the movies like most normal girls, my dates always ended up being something else. Not that they were anything special, per se, they just weren't dinner and a movie. I think in Jake's case, I invited him over to our house to hang out and watch rented movies with my roomies (there were 4 of us living in the house). I guess I thought nothing could be more telling then how a new guy reacts then when tossed into a house full of strangers.

He showed up on time, wearing the standard college guy gear - jeans, flannel shirt, baseball cap. I should maybe add here that I've always had a thing for baseball caps. It's something I still haven't outgrown as an adult - luckily for my hubbie, since he's rarely to be found without one on his head. So anyway, showing up with a ballcap wasn't a bad thing in my book - he had also been wearing one the day he asked me out.

Things were going swimmingly until we migrated into the kitchen to grab a drink refill. I remember jokingly asking him if he had any hair under that hat, because hey, you never know. He said "of course" and whipped it off to surprise me with, not hair, but a matted rat's nest. Okay yes, it was hair. But it was tangly...and stood up at least a good 3 or 4 inches off his head. Now, had he not been wearing the hat, I suspect that it was actually one of those longish bowl cut styles that was somewhat popular at the time.

At any rate, Jake suddenly became much less cute. Cute face and good biceps were immediately overshadowed by his towering mound of bad hair. I think I cut things short after that  - sent him home after the end of the first movie, didn't return calls and pretty much forgot about him. He did come through my line at the store one more time after that and I think I turned 50 shades of red as I realized that he had cut his hair (no hat that time) and hoped he didn't realize that was why I had blown him off.

Then, about a year or so after I graduated from OSU, I was back in town hanging out with some friends. We were standing outside of Eskimo Joe's after closing time, waiting for our ride to materialize when a cute guy sitting on the steps calls me by name. It's Jake. Still cute, still had good biceps, still had the much better hair cut. And what does he want to know? He wants to know why I dissed him and never called him back. I swallowed hard...and fed him a little white lie about how I had been going through a messy breakup and just hadn't been ready to really get back into dating.

Because really now, do you think he would actually want to know the truth?

June 08, 2008

Sense-ational Sunday

I See:

Fireworks. We went to Red, White & Blues last night with some friends from my Mom's group and we had such a good time. I mentioned to Todd that one of the (many) good things about being part of this group is that we can hang out with people who are willing to drive to our area - because most of them live somewhat close by. We've lived here for a year and a half and have some friends that have maybe seen the house once. But, what can I say? We live in the 'burbs and we love our neighborhood. Anyway, Red, White & Blues is an annual event put on by the city of Highland Village and it's very much a family thing. There are early morning activities such as fishing and a 5k and then the evening activities include bouncy houses, face painting and a free concert - all finished off by a spectacular fireworks show that had cars stopped on the side of I-35 to watch.

I Hear:

The familiar strains of Red Dirt music. Wade Bowen and Reckless Kelly to be more specific. They were the groups playing at Red, White & Blues. I speculated that a great number of people at the festival actually had no clue who they were watching, but they were certainly treated to a great show. For free. You just can't get much better than that. And the weather was fantastic, especially after the sun set. I must say, it's a great joy in life - one that reminds me somewhat of some vague childhood memories - hanging out under the stars with blankets and folding chairs, surrounded by all manner of humanity, relaxing and just listening to the music.

I Taste:

Chocolate chip cookies. We went grocery shopping earlier and came home to discover that our freezer was just a little too stuffed to fit everything we bought. As I was digging around looking for things that were WAY past the point of rescue, I came across a box of frozen chocolate chip cookie dough that Todd had purchased from one of the neighborhood kids. No point in throwing that away - so I turned on the oven and proceeded to make the entire box.

I Touch:

Soft little baby cheeks. I've had a lot of fun with Paige (and the other Moms and babies in the Mom's group) this week. She attended her first birthday party and we also hosted our first baby playgroup. Even though she's still one of the smallest (read: not crawling or walking just yet) in the group, we had a great time. There were babies every which way in our game room and I enjoy getting to chitchat with other Mom's about everything under the sun from our babies (of course) to how we all managed to wind up in Texas. And yeah, I didn't mind having babies crawling all over me one little bit. It's funny how things change. Just a couple of years ago I wouldn't even hold a baby (fear of breakage) much less let one crawl around on me while trying to yank my hair out, and now, well it's just another day in our household.

I Smell:

Chlorine. Another first for Paige (and technically for us) - we went swimming in our community pool today. Not too long ago we purchased some swimming diapers for her and a little floaty with a shade. I finally made the effort this week to go pick up the pool tag so we could get in (we never went last summer - I was pregnant and had little interest in leaving the house, much less going swimming). Before we left for the pool, I discovered that the 6-9 month swimsuit I had bought for her two months ago was, well, snug. Being on the tall side like she is, it can be tricky to find things that fit her just right. So, it looks like we may end up going with a bikini for her after all - or moving up to a 9-12 month suit!

June 03, 2008

A Charlotte for Tamara

Every new scrapbooker needs to work on building up their stockpile of goodies and how better to do that than winning some AWESOME goodies from our Luxe and the City Blog Giveaway?

Tamara left the following comment: "Oh I just love this collection. I'm new to scrapbooking and it would be a great addition to my stash."

And how right she is because she's the winner of The Charlotte. Tamara - shoot me an email at brandy@luxedesigns and let me know your mailing address so we can get your new goodies headed your direction.

And for everyone else - keep your eyes peeled. You never know what the Luxe team will be coming up with next!

May 30, 2008

Luxe and the City - THE CHARLOTTE

New Image

Charlotte is an optimist and a romantic. She believes that love will conquer all and that the world is a beautiful place. This kit was inspired by Charlotte's sweet disposition and was put together in honor of Sex and the City's opening weekend at the box office. Join the Luxe and the City Celebration and post on this blog by Tuesday 5 PM CST for your shot to win "the Charlotte". Check the other Luxe girls' blogs for "the Carrie", "the Miranda" and "the Samantha". Also look for "the Manhattan" on the Luxe blog and our "If Carrie and Charlotte got together to crop..." t-shirts on our Facebook and MySpace pages. Have a fabulous weekend and LIVE LUXE!

WAIT..IT GETS BETTER
All of our new lines that we shared with you last week are now available for purchase online! So you can finally get your hands on Sundress, Capris, Flip Flop, Classic Black II, Cashmere Sweater II & the new jotters!


WAIT...THERE'S MORE
We're running a special in our shop - buy any 3 alpha stickers & a the matching chipboard alpha from Maya Road and get a set of black alpha stickers for free! You'll want to check these out - the stickers fit the chipboard alphas, making them so very easy to cover...

May 19, 2008

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted...

As many of you know, I travel for work - usually one or two weeks a month. Sometimes more, sometimes less. One of the perks of being on the road, though, is that I earn "rewards" for being loyal to various airlines and hotels. So, when our two year wedding anniversary was getting close I started looking at my options.

I found some cheap award fares to Tahiti (hello - STILL dying to go to Bora Bora or Moorea or both). Unfortunately, the hotel program where most of my points are collected doesn't have any hotels in that area. Besides, I'm hellbent on staying in one of the over the water huts where I can just lift off a lid and feed the fish beneath the hut. They are a bit on the expensive side, though, so I had to pass on that trip this time around. So, then I considered Fiji...until I came across information about their political situation at the moment and decided I would prefer spending time somewhere I wouldn't feel unsafe. So, casting around a little more I came up with Bali.

Aaaahhhh....Bali. Jen has been there a couple of times and loves it. And it pretty much fit my criterion: 1) not in the US 2) tropical 3) cheap - at least once you get there. After a few weeks of not-so-patiently calling the airline to see if I could snag award tickets for Todd and I, I finally came across an agent who worked some magic and secured us round trip business class tickets. A few keystrokes later I had our hotel reserved and voila! A vacation that's about as close to free (at least for hotel and airfare) as you can get.

We departed on May 3rd. Our intial flight was to Tokyo and it took 13 hours. 13 very loooong hours. Sure, we had movies, magazines, books, iPods, etc - but 13 hours on an airplane is a very long time. Especially when you consider we had a 3-hour layover and then had another flight of roughly 7-8 hours. The idea was that we were supposed to keep ourselves awake on the flight from Tokyo to Bali. I failed miserably and probably slept a good 4 or 5 hours. It worked out, though - we landed at 10:30 pm in Denpasar and after we got to the hotel I still managed to sleep through the night. Of course, we were awake pretty early.

We spent our first day mostly piddling around. We laid out by the pool and looked through various touristy brochures and tried to plan the rest of our week. There were lots of water sports activities available - the only one we ended up trying (guess I'll save parasailing for another trip) was jetskiing on the open ocean which was a lot of fun - other than Todd almost breaking his toe, which is typical. Wouldn't be a vacation without him getting injured at some point. But that's okay. I managed to get bit by a spider so we called it even. That night we went to Seminyak for dinner and ate at a neat open air place facing the beach. It was a nice romantic atmosphere - lots of trees with lights wrapped around and the sound of waves breaking. The food was interesting considering it was supposed to be Italian. I'm not certain what I would have called it, but Italian was not what came to mind when I looked at their menu. I ordered a frozen drink and after drinking about half of it remembered I shouldn't be having anything with ice in it unless I was at the hotel. So then I spent the remainder a little worried about potential side effects. Not that it stopped me from finishing my drink. I made the next drink a glass of wine, though.

The next day, we went into Kuta intent on wandering through the various shops. I quickly determined that I wasn't a bit fan of the "hard sell" in Kuta. Vendors are everywhere and they will follow you trying to sell you something even after you tell them no. I tend to be a bit on the reserved side so I wasn't thrilled at their invasion of my personal space. It didn't matter, though, because after we had been walking about 15 minutes we got suckered into going to listen to a "60 minute" timeshare presentation. I blame Todd. I rely on him to be the hardass and this time he got sucked in - we were supposed to be getting a prize which could be anything from $1000 to a camcorder to local discount coupons. (Guess which one we got.) Our 60 minute presentation turned into 3 hours - partly because I talk a lot when given the opportunity and partly because we apparently fit the salesman's target market and he really didn't want to let us go. We were treated to a free lunch, though, and after we turned them down they put us in a taxi back to Kuta. I think we managed to walk around another 30 minutes before ducking into a bar to cool off and debate our next move - which was back to the hotel.

Day 3 we went on a day-long tour which included stops at a butterfly farm, a temple near the top of one of the mountains, visits to a silver-jewelry-making artist colony and a store where we could see how batik fabric is made. This included lunch at a tourist trap buffet where *gasp* there was no western food to be found. I'm not particularly adventurous when it comes to food - my idea of adventure was trying grilled bacon instead of fried at breakfast. So I was a bit dismayed to find myself faced with an assortment of spring rolls and shishkabob fish. I loaded my plate with fried rice and rolls and started thinking about dinner. Our guide during this trip was a wealth of information about the island. Despite his incredibly youthful appearance it turned out he was actually in his late 30s - this was true of many of the people we encountered.

We asked him about everything from the swastika that we noticed all over the island - we knew that it had an original use/meaning that had nothing to do with Hitler's use of it in the Nazi party, but we didn't really know WHAT that meaning was. Turns out it is very common in the form of Hinduism found in Bali and is for good luck. Although Indonesia is predominantly Muslim, over 90% of the Balinese population is Hindu. Everywhere we went there were signs of their religion with the most easily distinguishable being the daily offerings of flowers and food. You could find these everywhere from taxi dashboards to road intersections.

Another popular topic was traffic. The biggest road in Bali is a four lane - but since lanes tend to be "optional" it was possible to be 6 deep across the road. Most folks drive mopeds or something similar - the majority of the full size vehicles on the road were taxis or shuttles for tourists. And let me tell you, I always thought two bodies was the maximum of what could possibly fit on a moped (or anything else with two wheels). I stand corrected. At highest count we saw four people squeezed onto a moped. A child on the driver's lap, with another child turned backwards on the 2nd rider's lap. And do you think you need a car or truck to haul something? Nope. I saw mopeds with tires piled on them so you couldn't even see the driver - don't ask me how it was done. I have no clue. I saw mopeds with the 2nd passenger riding "side-saddle" and holding onto piles of wooden birdhouses so big they wouldn't have fit in my old sports car. Talk about ingenuity and a can-do spirit.

That night dinner was spent on the beach at Jimbaran Bay watching the sunset. Todd had a grilled lobster and I (of course) had fish and chips. Everyone has made fun of me for traveling to the other side of the world and ordering fish and chips. But you know what? Other than my Great Aunt Bonnie's fried catfish, that was probably the best fish I've ever had. What can I say? I am from McCurtain County, ya'll.

The next day was spent "doing nothing". We hung out around the pool of the hotel, and then walked the beach to find lunch at another one of the resorts down the way. I also played my very first game of chess - and it was using a life-size set on the grounds of the hotel. It was easier to learn than I expected (although I realize there are more rules/strategy to it then I'm aware of - will have to do some research) and one of our purchases while we were there was a hand made wooden chess set. We bought it as an afterthought at a market stall just down the road from our hotel. It isn't as nice as some of the other sets we had seen, but I venture to say that we couldn't buy a plastic set here for what we gave for that one.

On Friday, we hired a driver and made our way to Ubud. The driver had a few suggestions for us, which included watching a local Balinese dance performance. It truly was very interesting, although I found the way the female dancers used their eyes a bit...disturbing. They widen their eyes and tilt their heads and then look from the corner of their eyes - it makes them appear a bit psychotic. But still fascinating and very beautiful. In Ubud, we HAD to go to the monkey forest and I of course forced Todd to get a bunch of bananas for me so I could feed the monkeys. Before you go in, there is a list of warnings about the monkeys and how you should respond to any advances from them. Suffice it to say that I was on full alert, fearful I would be attacked at any moment by a roaming hoard of wild monkeys. Which is not what happened. The closest I got to "being attacked" was when a little monkey ran up and grabbed ahold of my pants - before he could get any bright ideas like oh, using my body as a tree, I simply tossed a banana down for him. Don't get me wrong, I know people have been bitten and scratched while there but if you are cautious you can avoid MOST of that (recalling Jen's tale of a monkey landing on her...).

We also wandered around the market in Ubud and ended up purchasing a beautiful painting in one of the stalls.It still boggles my mind how inexpensive everything is in Bali. I know that poverty is incredibly high there, but it doesn't come across as it has in other impoverished areas I have visited. In general, the people are so warm and friendly and they work hard for what they have. I don't need to state here what we paid, but we left the vendor very happy - and we will end up paying more to have it restretched onto a frame than we paid for the canvas itself.

As part of our trip, we also had lunch on the crater edge of a volcano. It was very pretty - but I was faced with yet another tourist trap buffet. This time they did have a few made to order items and I got a club sandwich. It wasn't like any other club sandwich I ever had, but I ate it regardless.

Saturday was more lounging around the hotel pool followed by dinner in Kuta at the Hard Rock Cafe. I determined that it would probably be safe to have ice there and proceeded to happily down a few frozen concoctions. Sadly, we were both too pooped to stay until the live music came on and we headed back to our hotel and a really decent hour. (We were supposed to be staying up late since our flight the following night was at midnight.)

Sunday was our final day. It consisted of more lounging, followed by a hot game of chess. I haven't managed to win yet, but hey, I'm still learning. Following a late lunch, we wandered down to a local market and visited some grocery stores in search of Cherry Ripe bars for Jen. We walked the beach back to the hotel and had drinks in the club. We determined that we wanted to be freshly showered for our long flights home so we splurged on treatments in the hotel spa (you can get a massage outside of the hotel for literally $6 - so paying a little bit more at the hotel is indeed a splurge). Todd opted for reflexology while I indulged in a facial in the hopes that it would suck all the sunblock out of my pores. Then it was off to the airport and back home.

Of course, there was a lot more to it then that - I have well over 200 pictures to prove it. Would I go back? Yes, absolutely. Will I go back? Well, that's a question mark. The world is a pretty big place and I'm interested in seeing most of it. But who knows, maybe one of these years will see us making a return trip.

May 15, 2008

Today is a Good Day

I know, I know. I still owe a report on our vacation. I'll get to it, promise. *cough*Leah*cough*

I'm just feeling really happy today because my little peanut is finally coming home from her Grandma and Grandpa's house. It has been almost two week's since I've seen her. You could almost say four since I was on business travel the two weeks before we left on vacation - crummy scheduling I know, but sometimes work travel just "works" that way. I do my best to squeeze in as much quality time as possible and let her know all the time that Mommy loves her. If only I could find a way to take her with me...because I'm SURE germ-laden hospitals are the best place for her to be hanging out. Maybe I could train her to conduct the interviews while I take notes. Hmmm....

It's really been hard being home, though, and knowing Paige is so close but still not here. Especially after Grandma Milissa called me on Tuesday morning to tell me she had started running a fever (101) that they couldn't seem to get down. They took her to the doctor and she was diagnosed with some form of a (viral?) rash that I've never heard of, but which is apparently pretty common among children starting from age 6 months to about 3 years. The only treatment was to give her alternating doses of Motrin and Tylenol to try and keep the fever from getting too high. I've been fairly alarmed that the fever didn't seem to be budging, but the good news is that within a few hours she appeared to be doing better and the fever is now ranging from 98.9 to 99.9 - still, it's hard being her Mommy and feeling like I'm helpless because she's not here and she needs me. Because no one could ever take care of her like me, right? Just nod your head and say yes.

Anyway, enough of that. She's on the mend and she's coming home and I'm HAPPY. The wish I could stand at the window and stare forlornly at the driveway until they pull in kind of happy.  The I better put in a hard day's work because I'm planning on leaving a little earlier than usual kind of happy.

Yes, today is a good day. My baby girl is coming home.

May 12, 2008

Exhausted

The hubs and I are back from our vacay on the other side of the planet. Along with being incredibly  jetlagged, we managed to make it through with only minor mishaps (Todd attempted to break his toe - it was swollen to 3 times normal size for a few days, I got bit by a spider) and had a great time.

I'm really too tired to think about updating with details just yet but I will. Give me a day or two. Or three.