Fingernail Polish and Rock Concerts (among many other things)

I think I have a new favorite lunch routine! I get an hour lunch break everyday and I spend it differently each day. Sometimes I got out to eat with whichever coworker has the same lunch hour as I do. Sometimes I eat on the go and run errands the whole time, which is not relaxing and I normally come back to work very frazzled but with a sense of accomplishment. Sometimes I shop and sometimes I sit in an unused office, eating a sandwich while reading or surfing the internet. Most of the time my lunch break has little to do with actual eating (although you know I love to eat and never skip out on it).

So my new favorite thing to do is to eat quickly then go and get my nails painted! I love to have polish on my fingernails but I do a very crappy job when attempting painting them at home, so I pay to have it done. I could go after work or on the weekends but then the problem of what-to-do-with-an-active-toddler-while-waiting-on-polish-to-dry arises and I hate to get someone else to watch her even more than I already have to. So I've decided that if I want to pamper myself with a quick fingernail polish application then my lunch hour is the ideal (if not only) time to do it. So that's what I've been doing once a week for the past two weeks (Today I got dark purple! Love it!). It's fun and I don't get mommy guilt over spending time away from Addison since I wouldn't be seeing her then anyways.

On another note, tomorrow I'm going with Kyla and my friend, Jessica to a Jimmy Eat World concert. None of my coworkers know who this band is unless I sing the chorus from "The Middle" and then they recognize the song. I'm excited about going, but kind of nervous. Not because I'm going to be away from my baby for a whole evening/night (she'll be with Jordan-and I'm not nervous about him with her either), or because I'm scared I won't have fun with the girls I'm going with, but I think it's because I've never been to a concert that wasn't a Christian band before and I'm not always a fan of loud, crowded places, and being in the city makes me uncomfortable (we're going to Charlotte-which, since I know you are wondering, is the largest city in NC with a population of 750k, according to Kyla). I don't think I'm going to be driving so that cuts out my fear of showing off my not-so-discreet terrible parallel parking skills. I think it's going to be fun and it will definitely be something out of my normal weekend activities (those include watching Pooh bear with Addison, going to Walmart with Addison and trying to catch up on dish washing, laundry, and DVRed shows from the previous week, with the occasional nap thrown in the mix-I know, I'm such a wild woman!)

My cousin Zach come up from Georgia last weekend and spent a few days with us. We had a low-key weekend, watching Airplane and Despicable Me (both of which were funny but in a very, very different way!) and playing some Rock Band. Addison made him have a tea party with her and also demanded much of his attention while she was awake, saying his name over and over again. I think she must have remembered him from past visits because she was almost immediately comfortable with him, where it normally takes her a little while to warm up to new people. I'm glad he got to come for a bit. It was a fun weekend!

I'm trying to keep myself busy for the next little while so that I don't think too much of what I'm missing out on. My would've/should've been due date is coming up on Monday and it makes me sad to think about. I'm just trying hard to not think too much of it and to stay happy while focusing on all the wonderful blessings God has put in my life. Addison keeps me smiling and laughing and Jordan and I are in a great place, so I have much to be thankful for.

We have, in a (possible) moment of insanity, put our house on the market. So that means we have to try to keep it as clean as possible for the random, unplanned showings that will (hopefully) happen. It's been a week and so far no bites but we are staying optimistic. We bought the house last year with intentions of selling it when the market went up again. It hasn't yet really, but we thought we'd just see what happens. I would love to sell it really soon, but if we don't it's not a huge deal. We may or may not have already picked out a house with a great location that we would love to move into and we may or may not have already thought of what we would do to personalize and upgrade the interior. Maybe. :) We're just praying about it (among other things) and waiting to see what God makes happen in our lives.

I think that's all I have for today. I'll keep you updated on how the concert turns out...Hope you have a great weekend!

ABC's of me

I stole this from my friend LeeAnn's blog. I don't have much creativity for coming up with blog posts. I'm sure you've noticed since I've been absent for about 2 months. I'm planning comeback, though, and this doesn't have anything to do with it. It's just fun!

A - Age: 24
B - Bed Size: King
C - Chore you hate: hand washing dishes, vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom, dusting, oh wait. I thought that said choreS!
D - Dog's name: Tripp, otherwise known as "Bip" in Addisonese
E - Essential start your day item: toilet?
F- Favorite color: umm...Probably blue
G - Gold or Silver: silver most of the time
H - Height: 5'4"
I - Instruments you play(ed): the recorder in 6th grade chorus. And that's it...unless rock band guitar counts. :)
J - Job title: Senior Teller, and MOM
K - Kid(s): Miss Addison Kate
L - Living arrangements: In a house with Jordan and Addison and Tripp
M - Mom's name: D'Lea
N - Nicknames: Jen Dae
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Does this mean when I was birthed or when I was giving birth? either way those would be the only times for me.
P - Pet Peeves: um...know-it-alls
Q - Quote from a movie: "little full, lotta sap" -Clark Griswald in Christmas Vacation
R - Right or left handed: right handed
S - Siblings: one, Kyla
T - Time you wake up: 7:00
U- Underwear: YES and ALWAYS
V - Vegetable you dislike: peas. I really had to think about this one. I like most of them.
W - Ways you run late: not getting up in time, not giving myself as much time as is needed to get everything ready (i.e. making sippy cup and snack for diaper bag, rounding up favorite toys to take with, dressing wiggly toddler, choosing outfit for said wiggly toddler...you choose)
X - X-rays you've had: teeth
Y - Yummy food you make: have to think...(and not because the list is long.) Jordan would say meatloaf...I like my pasta salad.
Z - Zoo favorite: the air-conditioned buildings :) (or the polar bears)

What I've been doing

I'm going to try to make this post a bit easier to follow than the last all-over-the-place post.

I have been spending lots a of time with my two favorite people in the world, Jordan and Addison.

Wednesday I ran some errands with Jordan because I didn't want to stay at home by myself, and that after noon I had to take Addison to the doctor for her 15 month well baby visit. My mom with us since Jordan had a prior commitment. Addison is perfect and healthy, right on track developmentally. 50th percentile for her height and weight and 80th for her big, smart head. Only vice: she is still taking a bottle. We're working on it.

Jordan's work has been so incredibly understanding about him needing to take time off to spend with me. He was already off for Wednesday, then went to work on Thursday but left at lunch to time to spend the rest of the day with me. I was okay being at home alone only because Addison keeps me so busy and when she naps, I've been throwing myself into housework. I would just sleep or veg out in front of the TV, but sleep does not come easy right now and being still leaves me with lots of thoughts that I don't always want to process.

So although I was okay at home, it was nice for Jordan to be with me yesterday. We ended up going with my Mom to my Aunt's pool to swim. We just stayed there and relaxed by the pool and let Addison play for a few hours. We left when she started getting sleepy and ready for her nap.

Jordan and I had been planning to go to Carrabba's for my birthday dinner. We all know that didn't go as planned but we were able to go last night. Addison went to sleep for her nap at my Mom's house, so we left her there (since Mom graciously offered to keep her for us for the evening)and went home and got showers before going out. I was having a really hard time during that time period and I'm not sure why. Could be because the last time we went to Carrabba's was just a few weeks ago and I was happy and pregnant. Or because I couldn't decide what to wear because I wanted to look nice, but I still have this little "Is she pregnant or not" gut and I really didn't want to look chubby or pregnant. I was going through different shirts and kept coming across different maternity clothes that I had been starting to wear. I was suddenly overcome with the urge to get them out of my sight and out of my wardrobe. So I found every thing I could that was maternity and bagged them up to go back to whoever it had been borrowed from or threw it in the huge bin I have for maternity clothes (which I promptly put in the back of my closet). I was planning on washing everything first, but I just couldn't deal with looking at them any more so some things didn't get washed after I wore them. As I was going through all of these motions, (taking a shower, throwing a load of laundry in the washer, cleaning out pregnancy clothes, blow drying my hair and getting ready to leave) I was just tearful and crying and mad and grumpy. Jordan couldn't figure out what had hit me since I seemed to have been fine all day, and honestly I couldn't really tell you exactly what brought on the change either. I guess that's just how it is right now.

Anyway we went to dinner and it was amazingly good. I haven't had much of an appetite so I wasn't sure how dinner would go, but let's just say that I didn't have any trouble eating Carrabba's delicious food. We left Carrabba's and went to the mall. I ended up being in a really good mood most of the time. I did start to go numb as I thought about finding a picture frame for the ultrasound pictures (from 8 weeks). (I found one that said "Love at first sight" but it was really ugly colors, so I think I'll either paint one or have one engraved with that. I definitely want something along those lines to memorialize the Baby.) But I was able to move past it and not ruin the evening.

We picked up Addison, came home, put baby girl to bed (with no bottle-milestone) and watched a movie (Primal Fear-good but horribly bad language). When the movie went off at 11, I was really tired but couldn't face going to bed and laying there with only my thoughts. I stayed up and started the last blog post, couldn't keep my thoughts organized (you noticed? really?) then finally made myself go to bed after 1. It probably took me an hour to go to sleep, during which I thought I was going to have a panic attack. I started getting really anxious and couldn't breathe well. So I laid there and just started praying and it passed nearly as quickly as it came on.

Now Addison is napping and I've been doing laundry (I'm actually start to run out of things to wash. I'll have to start looking for a new area of housework to stay busy with now). I've got a very loose plan formed for this afternoon and it actually involves getting out and seeing people. I may end up backing out, but I need to try, I think.

Tonight our friends Chuck, LeeAnn and Salem are bringing us dinner. I think it will be nice to be around them and hang out some. They have been through a similar situation so we'll have that comfort of knowing they can relate and understand some.

So I'm hanging in here and having good moments mixed in with the bad. Keep praying.

Just thinking

I've been meaning to record some of my always random thoughts that float around in my head. so here is another all-over the place post (the only kind I can seem to come out with these days).

*When I was pregnant with Addison, I had a hard time remembering that my "condition" was only temporary. Obviously I knew it was, but it was hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I would in fact lose a lot of the weight I'd gained and wouldn't permanently stay two sizes bigger. I couldn't fathom there ever being a time when I'd be able to tolerate wearing high heels again much less being comfortable in them. It seemed impossible that I'd be able to wear my pre-pregnancy size bras again (so I gave them as well as most of my smaller clothes away). I knew that I wouldn't be pregnant forever but I thought I'd have more lasting conditions, that becoming a mom would not only change forever emotionally but also physically.

Of course my first pregnancy left some toll on my body through stretch marks and um...less firm body parts but for the most part I was able to bounce back and quickly. I don't really know why I'm saying all of this now. I guess I'm just feeling differently with this pregnancy because I know that almost everything goes back to the way it was. Physically anyway.

*I think I'm getting sick. My throat has been sore and I've been sneezing and sniffing all day. Now I just want to drink some hot tea with honey. Too bad I don't have any.

* I saw a new Vera bag today that I love! I don't know what style it was but the color pattern was Very Berry Paisley. The website does not do it justice. The colors were much more vibrant and pretty in person. I also stumbled upon a color pattern that I think I like even better called Hello Dahlia. There's also Hope Garden which I've liked for a while since it came out. It's so pretty and bright and girly!!

*I just heard this guy say that he couldn't think of any good reason for summer!! HELLO...SANDALS!!

I guess that's it for now. All out of thoughts (other than wanting to go home and go to bed).

Oh, one more thing. I tried to pay for a snack from a gas station with my drivers license. The clerk was like "um, I don't need your ID to sell you potato chips". Why does my debit card keep hiding from me??? And why do I always think I have pulled out my debit card when it is in fact something random and not a method of payment??? AAHhhh!

Quick Stats; Addison this and Addison that

Addison's current favorite food is pizza.

Addison now has two more teeth. They are on the bottom so she has 4 on the top and 4 on the bottom.

Addison can now tell you what the chicken says ("ba, ba, bac") and what the kitty cat says ("MOW!"-Not to be confused with her cow sound of "Mmmmm"). I'm working on "What does Daddy say?" followed by her blowing a raspberry. It's not really working but I thought it would be funny! :)


Addison can point to her eyes, nose, mouth, ears and hair. Sometimes she'll point out mine too. Such a smarty-pants!

Addison has started saying random words throughout the day. She said "baw" several times while watch a huge ball roll across the TV screen on the nightly news tonight. Sunday she said "ish" while doing the sign we made up for fish (hands clapped together and wiggling through the "water").

Addison loves to ride on the four wheeler with her Grandpa. Actually she pretty much loves doing anything with her Grandpa.

Addison gets upset when Grandma leaves the room without her knowing it. Jordan's Grandma lives with Gena and when Addison stays there during the day, Grandma is her buddy! Today she said she got up to go to the bathroom while Addison wasn't in the room. Addison came back in the room and started fussing when Grandma wasn't there so she tracked her down in the bathroom and started hugging her leg.

Addison also steals food from Grandma, or at least begs her mercilessly for it.

Addison is almost running now.

Addison can climb stairs like no one's business.

Addison refuses to take her milk in a sippy cup. She completely melts down when I try to give her her milk in a sippy cup instead of her bottle. She only takes a bottle 2 or 3 times a day: when she wakes up and goes to bed is an always and sometimes she takes a midday bottle when she's particularly grumpy. It's work in progress. One of her only vices since she didn't have a hard time giving up a paci or nursing.

Addison's smile will melt your heart. It does mine.

Addison makes my day. Every day.

My McDonalds?

Wasn't last night a great night for ice cream? I thought it was! We went to Salisbury to eat dinner with my cousin Greg and I decided half way through my popcorn shrimp that I needed ice cream after dinner. The nearest place to go was Dairy Queen so we went. After standing in line for about 10 minutes we were about to order when Greg has the sudden epiphany that Diary Queen might not take cash. We have about $1.17 between the three of us and sure enough we ask the cashier if they take plastic and its a no (actually it was a head shake and a "there's a sign on the door!!"). So we turn around and walk out the door, which was actually fine by me because I don't love DQ.

So we were still on the hunt for ice cream and ended up just going to McDonald's. (I'll confess that neither DQ or McD's were exactly what I had in mind when I mentioned ice cream. I really wanted some Hersey's ice cream or something like Cold Stone or Marble Slab but Salisbury either doesn't have them or I didn't know it if they do). I was driving and got to the window and order 2 hot fudge sundaes. The little worker girl says that it would be $3.00. I said okay and then, "what?!?" I was already driving around but stopped to check out the menu. Hot fudge sundaes are supposed to be on the dollar menu but in Salisbury they are $1.39, oh well. I decided to accept it and just eat my ice cream and be happy (which didn't take much!) When I pulled around to the window I couldn't find my debit card in my wristlet where it always is. I finally had my "Ah there it is" moment when I found a card on the other side of my phone. So I handed it to the girl. She slides it and she slides it again...and again. And then "Ummm, I don't think we take this card..." and she hands me back my.....

MY PANERA CARD

That's right. I gave her my rewards card that I had just gotten earlier this week from Panera Bread. As soon as I realized what I had given her I just died laughing. Apparently that card that I assumed was my debit card...wasn't. But then I still couldn't find my debit card! Want to know where it was? In Jordan's pocket of all places! Still can't figure out how he ended up with there... strange.

This and That

Aghh... I have been so slack about blogging! I don't know why, but I just don't feel like writing anything. It's not like I don't have anything going on. It's not like I don't have a beautiful 11 month old crawling around doing all sorts of cute, funny things that I could tell about. It's not like I didn't just move into a new house that we've repainted and are currently decorating trying to make it our own. It's not like I'm not trying to plan a huge birthday party for 2 weeks from now. I have so many things I could write and share about but I have no motivation to do it. But then again, maybe it's because of all these things I haven't been able to make time to write... Oh well I'm doing it now, so here goes...

I was sick about a month ago. I was diagnosed with everything from strep throat to mastitis to a sinus infection to pink eye. All I know is that I felt like death with a fever and no voice and gunky, swollen eyes. I tried to blog-ument my illness and multiple doctor visits but just never finished the post. I had to miss 3 days of work with a weekend in between. I finally am better. The first antibiotic the the first doctor I saw prescribed made me vomit and extremely nauseous. I will never take Keflex/cephlexin again!!

The second doctor I saw told me that I had to stop breast feeding for the 10 days I was on the antibiotic/eye drops. I was so, so upset when I left the doctor's office. It's not that I want to breastfeed forever (quite the contrary, actually. I'm ready to be done nursing and pumping.) but I want to make to Addison's first birthday so that I don't have to use any formula. I want to ease it out instead of simply being cut off. He was just so definite and harsh about it, I felt that I had no options. And I was so scared that Addison wouldn't adapt well to changing her diet. When I got the meds filled, though, I asked the pharmacist about it and she said, without hesitance, that neither medication was unsafe to take while continuing to breastfeed. I was so relieved to hear that. I know most people don't understand why this was such a big deal for me, but I just wasn't ready yet.

Since then (It's been 3 weeks) I have started the weaning process. After being bitten a few times I decided that it was time to stop nursing. I'm still pumping, but Addison is getting bottles that are mixed with whole milk to ease into taking no breast milk. So far it's going well and I'm feeling better about the whole weaning process. After she gets used to the whole milk (we'll start upping the whole milk to breast milk ratio little by little) I'm going to start phasing out her bottle for a sippy cup. They make transitional sippy cups that have a soft top instead of a hard plastic top and I think those will be good for her. Addison will take either kind now, but only for her juice or water. She doesn't seem to like it when we try to put her milk in the sippy cup. It frustrates her for some reason.

Addison is such a sweet little thing! Yesterday when I got home with her, I was getting all her stuff ready to go upstairs and give her a bath (The only thing we use the upstairs for is to give her a bath and for her overflow closet usage...girl has a lot of clothes. :) ) and Tripp was acting really playful. I was carrying Addison and she kept leaning around me to see Tripp and she would just cackle at him. So then I started chasing him around the house and jumping out around corners at him (all while holding A) and she was loving it! She laughed so so hard and I was laughing right along with her (in between huffing for air, that is. Running around with a 20 lb baby on you hip for 10 minutes is hard work!! Totally, Totally worth it, but hard work!) I just have so much fun with her and she has so much personality.

Another Addison funny: Little Miss Thing has discovered Tripp's dog food bowl. It's right down the hallway from the kitchen leading into her bedroom and across from the laundry room. A few weeks ago I was working on some laundry and had A on the floor playing in the kitchen. She got really quiet, so I started to listen for her. After a moment I hard the dog food move around and realized she was playing in it. I ran over to her (she was just out of my sight around the doorway) and got the 5 pieces out of her clinched fists. Ever since she discovered it, her goal when in the area is to get to the dog food. Now she knows that I'm going to tell her "no, no!" so as she crawling toward it she will pause and look over her should and smile at me while I tell her "no" then giggle and go faster. It's really cute and I can't help but laugh at her. Sometimes I forget for just an instant what she's going to do and when I find her there, she's licking the food. So gross! She just looks up at me with the biggest smile on her little face!

Addison's birthday is on May 17th!! I cannot believe it's already here!! We're planning her party for the 22nd. It's going to be big with a lot of people but I'm trying to keep it low key, mainly in order to keep my sanity and to not go into debt for a birthday party. A party for someone who is too young to remember it! Yes it is a big deal, but I'm not losing my head over it! We celebrate her on a daily basis! :)

So I'll try to get some pictures up (been a little slack about taking pictures too, surprise, surprise...) and do better with my blogging regularity!

Just another SUPER CUTE day!

This is going to be full of rambling randomness (don't you just love a good alliteration?)

First, If you want to see a SUPER CUTE little girl playing in a laundry basket go to my previous post and see the pictures I just added! She's such a little ham! (except not in this picture. She smiled really big right after I took this. That picture is in the other post.)(See all her fuzzy hair. Can't wait to put a bow in it!)

Second, if you are in the market for some SUPER CUTE scrubs tops and bottoms, go to my craigslist ad and send me an offer and you can be the proud new owner!

I have had those scrubs sitting on a shelf in my closet for 3 and 1/2 YEARS! I have been meaning to list them on Craigslist.org for forever and I finally did it! That took me about and hour and a half to create (mainly because I had to list out exactly what I had. I got a bit OCD, but hopefully it will mean a quick sale!!). I am so proud!

Third, I keep looking at this SUPER CUTE (haha, yeah right!!) smirking/scowling old man named Joe Biden (during the State of the Union Address) and all I can think of is the Jeff Dunham character, Walter:

I just think they look so much alike. If you have never seen Walter in a skit, you may not see the resemblance as much. But if you have you know what I mean; they have similar mannerisms (if a puppet can have mannerisms??

Forth, on a sad note I want to ask for prayers for a friend of mine, Mandy. She just had to deliver her SUPER CUTE baby girl via C-section at only 30 weeks.
Little Mackenzie Faith is only 1.9 lbs, 12.1 inches. I don't really know many details, but I know she is in NICU and needs to be lifted up to God's healing hands!

I'm about to get to bed. I'm pretty tired even though I went to bed at 8:45 last night. Crazy early, I know. Addison went to bed at 7:45 and again at 8:15, and I was just so tired I went up 30 minutes later. She and I had a 4:30 AM pow-wow, though so I didn't wake up quite as rested as I had wished. It's crazy, but I almost enjoy my night time meetings with her. She is just so sweet and happy and I love to watch her as she nurses (when she wakes up at 2:30 tonight, I'm going to kick myself for writing that on here! :) ). Thank you God, for beautiful HEALTHY (and SUPER CUTE :) ) baby girls!!

I just don't know...

Ok, so I just got home from work a little bit ago and I spent about 5 minutes figuring out what to do. I was just at a loss. Why was I so confused you may ask. Well, for the first time in 2 and a half months I am in my house with no baby (I guess really that would be like a year if you count while I was pregnant). Yes, I am without Addison all day at work or the very few times (once or twice, MAYBE) that Jordan and I have gone somewhere and left her with grandparents, but never have I been at home completely by myself (except for Tripp and Macy...they are ALWAYS here). It is strange to not need to expect a baby to cry at any moment or to be holding a baby or changing a diaper or just watching my beautiful girl while she sleeps (and snores). And you may ask how this phenomenon had occurred? Addison is at her Grandee's and Grandpa's house and they are taking her to camp to show her off. I will meet them there later this evening but for now it's just me and the computer. So with this free time I decided to blog. The only problem was what to blog about??

I stopped by Woodforest on the way home form work to see Jordan at his work. Every day the branch employees have a different color, extremely bright shirt they wear as their uniform. Friday's color is red. At least red was the color for all of the employees but Jordan. I walked up to the teller counter and see two bright red shirted employees and one bright yellow clad dark haired guy. Ah, my wonderful husband. He had the day off yesterday and therefore got completely confused on the shirt color schedule and wore Thursday's flamingly bright yellow shirt instead. He stuck out like a sore thumb. no, that is a dumb saying... he stuck out like a... I don't even know what, but it was so funny. I really wish I had had my camera with me to take a picture. haha!!

I came home after leaving the bank and realized just how rednecked up my house looks from the outside at the moment. There is a hot tub sitting in the middle of my yard without the side pieces on it, so all of its plumbing parts on the inside are in full view. There is a go-cart sitting on the other side of the fence from the hot tub. It is equally as horrible looking especially with the weeds growing up under the wheels. And half of my once clean garage has empty boxes that need to be thrown away, a grill, some chairs, and the sides that go on the hot tub all strewn about. My beautiful house just looks so sloppy and redneck. We really need to get on that. I would take a picture to post on here, but it's just too embarrassing and I don't think I could take it.

I don't have much other news to report. Addison's nursery is nearly complete. Yes, I realize that she is nearly three months old and I should have had it done long ago, but I didn't. It's been perfectly usable and pretty but I've been waiting for some finishing touches and they are here!! I am sooo super excited about it and I will have pictures soon to post and show you just how cute and adorable it is!!! (Wow, I just made up hearing baby sounds. I even jerked my head over to look in the pack n play to make sure she was sleeping still and not waking up. She is not even in the house... I totally miss her so much!!)

I am so ready for the fall to come so there are good shows on TV again. There is just nothin gon during in summer. I DVR old Gilmore Girls episodes that come on ABC Family. It's my new TV show rerun obsession. It used to be FRIENDS but after seeing every episode about 2 to 3 times, it just got old. We watch Wipeout, anything on the food network (love Good Eats) or HGTV, LA Ink, 16 and Pregnant, I didn't know I was Pregnant, The Little Couple, 18 Kids and Counting, Jon and Kate, Ace of Cakes, Kendra, the list goes on and on. There are obviously lots of "I have no idea why I watch this show, but I'm completely hooked on it" in the list.

Well, that was about enough randomness I think, so I'm off to eat supper. Now the question is what? I just don't know...