Can a Birthday get better?

I think not...

Gadget of the Day

Today's gadget is a stress reliever, for all those doing midterms, weather grading them or taking them. And for those who are in the work force, still working or looking for work. And for those staying home, weather just hiding from the world or with little ones and housework. So go ahead shoot a smile... wait, that kinda contradicts my previous post, but at least they are related right?

Awfully Chain-letter-ish

What's in a smile? a lot. Today you should try to smile at as many people as you can, cause otherwise you are perpetuating a problem that I have just recently become aware of again. The problem is this; People are so miserable now, (money issues, housing issues, marital issues..ect.) that they don't smile unless someone else smiles first. But since everyone is miserable, no one is smiling.. so start something with a smile today :)

I have been a victim myself recently of the grouchy people. I went to the post office, I place I avoid usually because of the strange bullet-proof windows the tellers sit behind and the strange 'lift this, close that and step back' system they have that makes me feel REALLY far from my little town of Mars. (is it strange to miss the post office?) Anyway I had to go yesterday and the lady was so short and grouchy, and they weren't even busy! I am pretty good at trying to figure out what made them grumpy, like a busy day, pen ink on thier shirt, impatient people yelling at them... who knows? But this lady was just coming onto her shift, it wasn't busy AND she had a stoll to sit on! no excuse for her non-smiling face to snip at me... Of course I did the wrong thing, not smiling back BUT I did hold the door for an elderly lady on my way out.. does that count? And the bird is in the air (Ami you'll get your package, complete with sunshine when you get home)

Healthy and Happy

Ok maybe my blog isn't cut out for a theme... so back to what we know,
cute pictures of Claire:

While I am enjoying this pregnancy, which has been only slightly more trying than my pregnancy with my first, I am NOT enjoying the 'motherly body'. I am having dreams and fears that I will never get back to the body of a 25 year old. (btw my birthday is coming up :) )Please do not ask for pictures of my 'belly'. be content that it is BIG and that there is a baby inside it. I look roughly like Claire does in the picture above^. Which brings me to the gadget of the day, a weight loss gadget... I'm not sure if I should put it up though because then you will be losing weight while I am still gaining.. and then you will look better than me... So I think you should do the opposite of what it says... yeah.. that will make me feel better..except then you'll all be fat and unhappy.. and who wants fat unhappy friends and family? not me... just stay healthy and happy. :)

Things to Ponder

So during this blog renovation I have been giving a lot of thought to what my blog is.. is it a mommy blog? where I post an insane number of pictures of my offspring and share witty stories about my day as a mom. or how about a knitting blog? that's a pretty easy no.. I don't think I've finished one knitting project in my life. how about a cooking blog? where I share all my chef-ly wisdom and pictures of my lovely concoctions. What do you think?

Polling the Audiance

Does anyone know if salt goes bad? like at some point are you supposed to get rid of it? We don't use that much salt, and Grandma bought it in BIG containers... It is still salty, so that's not a problem..but Bible quizzing taught me that. (thanks mom and dad).
See how much better my activities were than my evil sister who danced around in frilly costumes to hokey music?
So if you know if salt goes bad, please pass along the love. Thanks.

How Many Times did You Try to Pass?

OK today we add the parking game in honor of the many times I tried to pass my drivers test.. I think it took 4? tries. The first time I think I failed before we left the parking lot... he said 'turn on the headlights' and I instead made the wipers go. The next time I 'ran' a red light, but that wasn't my fault.. I'm not sure what happened the third time, I think that was just the parallel parking... yes... I remember now, because it was the first time they even let me attempt the parallel parking part of the test, the other times they saved me the humiliation...And in the end the guy giving me the test told me what to do to parallel park the car... Now I am fully licensed and a very good driver with only one accident ever and I live in NYC land of parallel parking, imagine that :)
Anyway since the instructions are for the visually super gifted I'll hash them out here so that everyone can enjoy hours of frustration trying to parallel park a car. After all we here at 'ugly blog central' are equal opportunity time suckers.
To play you must hit the 'continue' on the first page and then you will move to the second page which tells you where you have to park (the yellow parking spot)... then you have to hit 'enter' (on your keyboard). To control the front wheel drive car use your arrow keys to control the wheels and the brake is the space bar... have fun.

A Ploy to Keep you Reading

So while I am in ugly blog purgatory awaiting the proper number of hail Mary's to be sent out for me, I plan to make the most of it... Already you can do so many absurd things on my blog and I plan to add a new one every day until the Great Fix! So far you can play pacman.. go ahead >>> try it. It leaves you on my page so that you can log your blogging time while not actually reading my blog. You can also watch the underside of a frog walk 'up' my blog (at least 2 in. of it). Tomorrow I plan to add the Andy Warhol art of the day.. I don't know how long that will last though I mean he painted many masterpeices but still I plan to blog for a LOOOong time, will they begin to repeat masterpeices? That seems like cheating to me... maybe instead of that silly thing I will add the fashion tip of the day or the worlds most strange hit counter... Stay tuned.

I Did a Stupid Thing

Well here is what happens when you are looking for something to do... While most of my time is occupied with my lovely little one, sometimes she does not require undivided attention. This leaves me looking for something to do, that can be stopped at a moments notice and doesnt require much brain power (I conserve it during down time).
My blog looks like this.... I have been BEGGing! my lovely 'blog designer' to make my blog pretty... she has done some others, Miss Brenda and Amidala are only some. Although she only takes credit for her 'creativity' on my blog (see bottom) my blog is still just the standard template. :(
So yesterday during naptime, I got myself into the biggest pickle... (moment for hot benny)... I decided 'how hard can it be' 'I can stop anytime and come back to it and finish tonight' 'I have photoshop' 'I WILL MAKE MY BLOG PRETTY all by myself'.
This was a bad idea for several reasons: I don't know what I'm doing (I am so out of touch, did you know HTML is obselete now it's all X rated, It's like XMTL or something like that)... it is much harder than you may think it is (at least for me)... you can't really stop anytime, cause you have screwed up your blog so badly it is unrecognizable... and you will live in constant fear, losing sleep over that fact that your blog designer will see this as a revolt and LEAVE IT THIS WAY!! >:O
I tried really hard, I followed all the instructions that were given, I upgraded... peice of advice NEVER UPGRADE!... This is because apparently Blogger wanted to make it more difficult for ameatures like me to update their blogs, so the 'new' betablogger is near impossible to alter and make pretty, I found this out AFTER I hit the little button.. I saw it... I said 'what does this button do?' and my brain (remember it was in conservation mode) said 'PUSH IT!'.. never a good idea, in StarTrek or Blogging.
The only silver lining to this all is that since I don't know what I'm doing my blog designer is still taking the credit for my blog although it looks ... well... you can see for yourselves.

Nobody is Posting

Nobody is posting... So I'll be the bigger person here, although not as elegant as my mother I can still type word to webpage. So here's what we have been up to. The house is sold... the house is NOT sold... they want to take down the tree out front (the one that is bigger than the house)(and the oldest tree in Bayside)(the boyscouts told us so)(I love boyscouts)...the house is sold.... if we cut down the humungus tree... the house is painted... kind of... there are no switchplate covers on anything in the house (Claire learned the hard way what happens when you stick your finger into the lightswitch box)...the house is painted... I am pregnant.. like really big... Really, really big... my aunt may show up at my door with her family to see my daughter... that's ok, cause the house is painted and I have an extra room and a pull out couch... I am not going to FL on sister's week'end'... I am sending things to FL instead... the thing is not my daughter. We have three fish.. one died... we got another one... we have to get rid of the new one... we got a new-new fish... we have to get rid of the other two that we had previously because they are mean and killing other things in the tank... I feel like my life is floating in a sea of manontany... But I can still fill a page on my blog for all of you to try to sort through. So would someone with SOMETHING going on in thier life please write the next entry? Oh and if you were wondering... the wiggles have only come to North America once, they did not come to NY and they have no plans to come in 2009 to NY... if you know someone in Finland who would let us come in June/July 2009 to see the wiggles and stay at their house let us know... Really that's everything.

The Box is Always More Interesting

Honest... she has real toys...

Bucket Head

Our new love is a bucket...

Seven Swans a Swimming

Ok finally I see why we are here and why we have endured over a month of painting going on in the house... It's all for this:

These were hand painted (after a stencil was traced onto the wall). They made me laugh. They made the painters smile, so much that they knew I would get a kick out of them so they came and got me before they started to spackle.
It's all worth it now. I forgive you mother-in-law. :)

Perspective

Almost two years later and she still loves him.

Resolution

Ok I'm obsessive... I admit it and recognize it today. I apologize to those of you who have been targets in this latest rash of obsessive 'dad-like' behavior. I resolve to fix it today. To do this I plan to:
Only post one (ok maybe two) comments on any one person's blog on any given day on any given post.
Wash only the dishes (not the counters/table/floors) when my husband needs the sink
Allow my husband to help raise our child. Because after all he knows about as much as I do.
Be more flexible.

Additianally I plan to exercise biweekly. (difficult to do with painters in the house who will see you all sweaty and gross)
We'll see how this goes... I plan to start tomorrow, as I have commented twice on Ami's blog today already.... is it only 8am?

Fish in a Bag Revisited

You may be wondering what happened to 'fish in a bag'. Join the club, We were kind-a left hanging after the initial shipping of the fish in a bag... well all I have to say about that is:
You will get nasty letters saying 'where's my fish in a bag' 'what did the fish look like when it arrived in the bag' 'where is the fish now?' are you prepared to deal with that.. I don't think so... so start posting some answers.
I on the other hand will take you on my OWN fish in a bag adventure from start (kind-a) to finish (kinda).

Today we bought a fish in a bag!

We put that fish into a bucket.
Then into our tank (come to my house to see her)

My husband, although he reads all the blogs involved in the fish in a bag saga does not understand my obsession with fish in a bag... someday I will meet a man who understands me..
He will be gay no doubt, but at least then we can shop together, maybe for fish in a bag. :)

Will You be my Valentine?

Why are you Naked?

Today we learned zippers... well I guess we learned them last night or early this morning because Claire woke up in just a diaper this morning... Childhood is lovely :)

Blah, Blah, Blah

Not much to post about lately. Not much going on, yesterday we bought some coffee and had brunch with my in-laws... nothing exciting. I'm feeling kind of left out my mom has family members dying around her, my sister has a new boy, and my other sister, well she hides under a shroud of mystery so I don't know what's going on with her, but last I talked to her she was living on faith and some bubblegum with her husband and new cat and I think they are still in Grove City, their life is so exciting you can never be sure what country they are in. My life in comparison is dull. I'm living vicariously through them. I don't think they know this because they don't update their blogs enough.
There is some excitement but, it's not blogable yet (soon hopefully) and sometimes it's not that exciting.
Oh and I'm still pregnant. But that's not exciting again till I have a scanner or the baby, I'm thinking baby may come first.
So to those of you living exciting lives out there in the 'real' world. Keep blogging for those of us living through you... and for goodness sake, details!

Main Entry:		dull
Part of Speech:		adjective
Definition:		boring, uninteresting
Synonyms:		abused, archaic, arid, big yawn, blah, colorless, common, commonplace, dead, dismal, dreary, driveling, dry, familiar, flat, hackneyed, heavy, hoary, ho hum, humdrum*, insipid, jejune, longwinded, monotonous, oft-repeated, ordinary, out-of-date, plain, pointless, prolix, prosaic, prosy, repetitious, repetitive, routine, run-of-the-mill*, soporific, stale, stock, stupid, tame, tedious, tired, tiresome, trite, unimaginative, uninspiring, usual, usual thing, vapid, worn-out
Antonyms:		active, exciting, interesting, lively

* = informal/non-formal usage

In need of a Terrible Towel

Not a List

First off.. yes, we are having a boy!... Cody is the running name, we'll see if it makes it till July 5th. No pictures because apparently if you allow a 16 month old to stand on your scanner, it won't work anymore. If you wanna see them, you'll have to come and visit. :)

And this just in...
Apparently list making is NOT a elemental step for productivity. I was misled in 7th grade. Today I did not make a list and so far I have made sauce, meatballs, chicken cutlets for chicken parmesan tonight and browned the meat for tomorrow's dinner. Claire and I made it to the grocery store and bought more than just a swiffer duster and ziploc bags. In fact we got everything on our list except perogies, we couldn't find those :( I have done 2 loads of laundry and our 'living room' looks like someone could come and visit. (maybe not a motherinlaw, but I'd let my mom come). I also got dressed and plan to take a shower later... but that's just a plan, not a list.

Lists

So today I aspire to be as good as my younger sister and get down to business and get some stuff done. I have made a list since somewhere (I have no idea where) I heard or was taught that making lists is a valuable part of being productive. (it may have been in Study Skills class in 7th grade) Unfortunately I am a fabulous list maker, perhaps it has to do with my love of paper products. My lists are so fabulous that I can make two kinds. The one that outlines the day I want to have, and the one that is more honest about what my day will actually look like.
Here is what I've got so far:

Scan Cody's pics and post on Blog
Get Claire's pics in box
Dishes
Sigh at Rachel's room
Laundry
Take pants to cleaners
Think about cleaning out Cody's dresser
Look at ways to hang brooms in the new house (which we don't have yet) (not even close)
Fixate on one useless task and allow it to consume entire day
Get dressed

And thankfully I stopped to make a grocery list. So far we have:

Ziploc bags
Swiffer Duster (for my motherinlaw)

I'm gonna have a Great Day!

God is Good.

First off I got a snuggie.
Secondly God is good. Like really good, like monumentally good! It happened last night that I was reminded just how good my God is. I was laying in bed, being hormonal and depressed about everything from not having enough money to get the home we want to the fact that fish in a bag won't take off nationally. You know the mood, I'm sure you could list just as many depressing and bad things happening in your life right now. The fact is when you look you find them. (everywhere) So that's where I'm at, when all of a sudden my baby monitor begins to play Amazing Grace. Now I must stop you should you be thinking that God gave my daughter voice for the night, he did not. He simply used what he already set up, he's great like that, He doesn't always use miracles to get to us. Our baby monitor picks up other frequencies sometimes. Like taxi cab transmissions (that's the most common) or cell phone static. But it's never done this before. It was just what I needed to be reminded of. That even when all I can think about or see is negative I have a God with grace big enough to cover it all.. like all of it, with excess. My God is good, no my God is Great!

Another List Post

My life is exciting I swear it, if you just read my blog you wouldn't know. I mean not that I DO much. Mostly we just sit around and play all day. But recently we are doing this little bit of nothing in a different place. No we haven't moved (yet), just upstairs. Think if you had to spend all day inside, in two bedrooms of you house... oh and add everything you have in your living room, dining room and storage closet into the mix (in your two bedrooms). That's what we are currently doing. Here are some things you might want to try to occupy your time with should you find yourself in this situation:
Take pictures of yourself. Go for a walk. Read all your books (backwards). Unpack all the toys you own or can find in the mess that is your living space and draw a still life. Brush your teeth four or five times daily. Listen to music/ watch more wiggles than you ever wanted to. Drink lots of coffee to keep you going.

Others we are going to try include growing new toys, and easy bake ovening a pot roast. :)

Walk the Dog

Going through some pictures today... came across one that made me laugh.. we are still sick here, but laughter is good medicine so we figured we'd share our meds...

Sicky :(

AGH... life is stinky here, literally, between cleaning diapers, underwear, vomit sheets and clothes... it's no fun. I dont like it when we are all sick :( If you would like to come and clean up my house or just give me an hour of rest, the back door is unlocked :) Hopefully we are all better tomorrow.

and don't forget the paint fumes.. yes they are still painting the living room...
so we are all trapped in the upstairs two rooms.. one person can rest (poor hubby).. while the other plays with Claire, who although sick is very energetic during the day.

Things I Learned on my Vacation:

1. sippy cups experience the same pressure change as you do on a flight. This makes every liquid act as one that is carbonated. The liquid squirts out all over everything when you try to open the sippy cup in the air. or in your bag when you aren't looking.
2. It is hard to leave those that you love.
3. Flight attendants come in all personalities. From those that will offer to hold your child while you go to the bathroom to those who run over your sleeping child with the beverage cart and then glare at you.
4. WY is cold.
5. Fly into WY in the daylight, they say it's beautiful. I don't really know what WY looks like because we drove through it at night mostly or in a snow storm, or during a snow storm at night.
6. Dog hair travels very well
6.5. Never let grandma go shopping the day her granddaughter comes to visit... it's too tempting.
7. Never leave your husband alone at home for more than 24 hrs. or bad things will happen.
7.5. Hats knitted by grandmas are warmer and lunches shared by grandpas are much yummier.
8. It is nice to see people you love.
9. I love my family :)
10. It is ALWAYS worth it to stay a couple more days.
11. It is hard thinking back on the time you had with those you love when they aren't with you.

I miss you family.

Another Ones Bites the Dust...

Eat Cheesecake from Jrs. in Brooklyn - Check!

I think, I had cheesecake and they said it was Jrs. and it was in the red and white box, BUT later I came to find out that some Jrs. cheesecake is really not made in Brooklyn, it's like fake Jrs. like knockoff handbags and fake okely glasses. :( I'm choosing to believe that the cheesecake I ate was from Brooklyn and crossing it off my list

but still hopeing my husband will take me to Brooklyn on that date he planned before our lives turned around. :)

One Down...

See the big tree: CHECK!


and cross off Skate at Rockefeller center, the rink is WAY smaller than they make it seem in the movies. :( Not at all romantic as you schlep around the ice bumping into strangers

Here's Lassie...

One time my family went on vacation, we saw Lassie. My mom wanted a picture, they said "get ready for a photo opportunity" Then Lassie stood on a rock and posed for about a minuet for a photo-op. My mom has a great picture of Lassie's butt as she left the stage.
I have similar pictures of Cirque de Sole. It was my Christmas present from my mother-in-law. I went with her and my two sisters-in-law. It was amazing! There were people who balanced on things all stacked on top of each other:
People who hula-hooped with several hulahoops and could do a standing split while spinning the hulahoop on her foot:

There were men with sticks that acted as tightropes and people walked on them a did flips on them:

And some girls who flew from the ceiling doing amazing things with their bodies:
Overall it was AMAZING! and at the end they shot snowflakes into the audience twice, so much fun. I guess I'll just always have the memories while the pictures are not what I will remember.

Where Did You Get That Pig?

Claire got a pig (it roars) from cousin Megan, whom she has never met. But loves a lot since she sent her this great pig!
So I'm sitting in the kitchen and Jimmy says from the dinning room "Where did Claire get this pig". I say "What Pig?" And she waltzes into the kitchen with it. All proud of herself. She loves it. And thank you Megan.
The other gifts that have been sent to our house are safely tucked away till actual Christmas... Hopefully they make it till then. :)
Merry Christmas!

Its a Marshmallow World

It snowed here. We made a snowman. Claire got too cold at the end to get her picture taken with the snowman all finished up. But she helped grandpa build it. Christmas in 4 more sleeps!

Things to do when you live in New York:
-Go to the Bronx Zoo

-Go to the top of the Empire State building (don't wait in line)
-go to a farm to acquaint yourself with animals other than pigeons and squirrels

-Escape to somewhere exotic in the summer
-visit the beach on Long Island

-Go to a Mets game
-eat the pizza


Things still on our list:
-meet someone famous, or at least recognize them on the street and act too cool to care
-eat cheesecake from that place in Brooklyn
-Italian ices from somewhere famous
-Go to the statue of liberty and discuss how long it's been since you were allowed up in the torch
-Skate at Rockafeller Center
-See the BIG tree

Don't Stab Yourself with a Fork

Claire is getting better, almost proficient with a spoon and fork, she prefers to use them at most meals and refuses to eat apple sauce off a spoon I am holding. however with this new skill comes great responsibility; don't stab yourself. She just hasn't figured out that when the thing on your fork falls off and lands in your lap, you do not stab at it with your fork to try to pick it up. We'll get there.

Here to stay is the new bird

How time flies and babies grow! Christmas time already and time to decorate and get in the spirit. I've been in the spirit for several months now and am thrilled that I can finally play my christmas music loudly and dance around without feeling strange for doing it in shorts and a t-shirt. Claire is also getting into the spirit:

I can't believe that last year she fit INTO the stockings, stuffed them full but could fit in them. We tried this year, no such luck. Well I'm off to get some apple cider and maybe talk my husband into a christmas tree! :)

We Have a Fish

Actually we have two whole fish tanks, one saltwater and one freshwater. They are loved by all of us, including Claire who likes to watch the fish swim around. She also tries to catch our poor little clown fish every chance she gets. All of our saltwater fish are neat, some of them eat sand and some are just pretty to look at. but in the freshwater tank; we have this fish... It came to us because it swims upside-down, neat huh? We thought so, but what we didn't know is that he'd hide all the time so you can't even enjoy his odd nature. Then he got even stranger... he lost his fins, I am not lying. Then he started to look kinda sicky, now we call him the leper fish. I tried to take a picture but I'm not good at the underwater shots. :( It's amazing that he's still alive, and Jimmy asks if we should kill him or if he's in pain several times a week... I figure he seems happy enough to squirm around upside-down with no fins, let's see how long he'll live. I like him, he's the strangest fish we'll prolly ever own.

Black Bean Brownies

So I made these brownies today. I made them with black beans. Weird I know, but someone told me how to do it and it intrigued me. You just take a brownie mix and a 15 oz can of black beans and you mix them together (you puree the beans first). And voila! Brownies. As I was mixing them I kept thinking how I was wasting a perfectly good brownie mix and I almost stopped myself but I made them and they looked delicious. And tasted good, not fabulous, but I'm not sure they would have if I put eggs and such in them instead so... I did add some caramel and chocolate chips, you can't go wrong there. I'm thinking they would have been a wonderful thing to make if you are a college student, or have the pantry of one; since all the ingredients are shelf stable and you don't have to try to buy just two eggs to make a batch of brownies. They are also healthier more fiberious. (you know what I mean, my computer doesn't, it wants me to change fiberious to fiberglass) (silly steve). So that was my adventure today, I'm making pre-made lasagna for dinner.(I did make it, just not today)

Back to the Doctor

So here it is folks, baby number 2!

(7 weeks 3 days)

This was taken at my Dr's appointment that went on for-ev-er. Mostly my fault. I went in and they told me "we need to take some blood" "ok" I said. Then the nurse proceeded to take out at least 6-8 viles. "Gotta fill all of those?" I asked. She confirmed it and in an attempt to make small-talk with the lady I said "Wow that's a lot of blood" "Are you OK?" was her immediate response. Mind you she hasn't even touched me yet, and is on the other side of the room. She says "the last girl that said that passed out on me" I assured her that I was fine and she started taking blood, one vile, two..., I'm starting to feel a bit light headed, I debate telling her, I mean she was really jumpy, so I keep it to myself. It's getting worse, so I tell her "I'm just telling you, i'm feeling a bit lightheaded, nothing big, just letting you know" she says "Oh" and continues to take the blood. five viles..., I'm about to pass out and I notice that my hand looks a little pale. "I think I need to lie down for a second." So she lays me down and the next thing I know, there are three people all around me, "She looks pale" they are saying. poor girl, I was the second one to go down on her today. She was pretty upset. Someone else finished drawing the blood.
It made me miss my mommy.

Looking for Some Mom Wisdom

Does anyone know if the buds that grow out of potatoes are poisonous?

What Could This Be?

Babies are like Mcgiver, they know how to make the biggest messes possible with what is given them... like a cup, a fork and some raviolis become a huge mess of floating cheese that spills out onto the floor where you step in it. :(
Cans of soda = time bombs. Yes a can of soda dropped from the height of an infant CAN and most likely WILL explode all over EVERYTHING!
So from this we should all learn to look outside the box, explore our inner child and as Tim Gunn would say; "make it work". No problem is too large or too complex.

Utensils

Claire is working on her motor skills and table manners.. we are progressing rather well by our estimations. Poking things with forks is our new favorite lunchtime pasttime and oatmeal is our spoons morning friend. Check out our progress.

We even lift our pinky like a lady :)

Things Outside my House

So a couple of months ago Con Ed came and made a mess of noise outside my house. Then yesterday I saw these bright orange signs out in front of our house. I thought the worst but was pleasantly surprised to find that they were going to be filming a movie there! How exciting, we can watch it and be like "There is our house". Depending on what type of movie it is... There is no information about the title "Every Day" yet seeing as it doesn't come out till 2009. Although it is raining this morning so perhaps Helen Hunt will not be ringing my bell to ask to use my 'powder room' like I had a dream about last night.
But Helen, if you need to powder your nose, I cleaned the bathroom this morning. :)


Wait they are here and the stars are right outside my window: