My Dog Thinks I’m a Moron

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Erin

I mean, I don’t know what other conclusion to come to…

At target last week I bought the pets their “Christmas presents” (aka: treats for the cats and a jumbone thing for the dog). The bone sat on the kitchen counter in a target bag for an hour or so before I took it upstairs with Layne (still in the target bag) and dropped it off in an unfinished storage space where we keep the pet food (safe away from prying noses and teeth). I also made her a kong and stuck her in the pet room so I could run a few more errands.

When I got home and let her out I found that she had kicked some bag-butt in the pet room while I was gone. In the closet in there I have some plastic grocery bags, stored in a target bag, to scoop the litter box into. The closet doors remain open at all times because we keep no treats in there (on account of the prying noses and teeth, and the best way to convince those teeth that there is nothing interesting in the closet is to prove it with an open-door policy). So basically the only thing I can think of is that she saw that target bag (which is on a hanger, hanging in the closet) and thought that I was dumb enough to hang her jumbone in the closet, in her line of sight and well within her reach.

I am not that dumb, and like 4 defenseless plastic bags had to pay the price for her doubting my intelligence. I’m almost offended that she really thought I was dumb enough to put it in there like that, but it’s really just too funny.

Side Note: I would like to point out what I believe to be a complete lack of ability to use her sense of smell to detect food/treats. If she really used it/knew what she was doing with it, it should have been obvious that there was no bone in there. But it wasn’t. You may think that means that she knew it wasn’t in there and tore the bags up for some other reason but you may be wrong. For example, today I found a cheerio in the middle of the floor in the living room. It had to have been there for at least 3 hours because that’s when Jack finished snacking from the cup that had the cheerios in it, and Layne had DEFINITELY been in and around in there before, during, and after the snacking time period and didn’t notice the cheerio once. I literally had to get on the floor and point it out to her in order for her to find it.

Sometimes I wonder how a dog who is otherwise so smart can possibly also be so dumb.

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Cheddar and Horseradish

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Erin

So last weekend we were sitting down to lunch and Nate walked over and said “You know, I tried those cheddar and horseradish chips that you bought, but they’re a little weird for me.”

Umm, those WHAT that I bought?!

And then I couldn’t tell.. was he kidding? Because I most certainly did NOT buy cheddar and horseradish chips. Unless the bag of plain chips I bought was actually cheddar and horseradish and after an extremely long period at the store of debating between plain, which we all love, and salt and vinegar, which the pregnant woman loves, I went with the plain. Or so I thought.

But I mean.. surely he was just yanking my chain. I mean who has even heard of cheddar and horseradish chips, right? Who would eat that? It couldn’t be a real flavor.

So after I finished lunch I went to the pantry and had a look and there it was. Cheddar and Horseradish kettle cooked chips. Whoops! And then I tried them and you know, I don’t know that I’ve ever really tasted horseradish before. I’m pretty sure I leave it out of every recipe that calls for it because (a) I don’t have any and (b) it never sounded like something I would like so I never bothered to buy any and let me tell you WHEW those chips are strong. I don’t even know how to describe them. What’s even worse? As much as I don’t really even like them, if they’re out I can’t stop eating them. The flavor is too weird, it just pulls you back in!

So later that night we went to the local Christmas parade with my parents and Meg and her boyfriend Josh and I mentioned the chips. Turns out, Josh likes horseradish! And surprisingly everyone (including Jack) actually really liked the chips! Which, thank goodness, because without other people to eat them they would definitely have gone to waste and then I would have felt bad.

So let this be a lesson: When you spend too long staring a the chips on the shelf and in the end you just grab a bag from the “plain chips” area, double check it! Because you just never know.

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And Now it’s December

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Erin

Holy crap, how did that happen?? That puts me less than 3 months away from being a parent of 2 whole children (rather than the 1.5 I am currently claiming).  This pregnancy is seriously just flying by this time.

The good news is that after a trip to Target tomorrow (while my mom is watching Jack and I have time to wander aimlessly) I believe I will be 100% done with my Christmas shopping. Really I only have one more thing to buy, I just know it will involve a lot of standing and staring at things that I’m sure Jack would get bored with really fast, which is why he’s not invited.

I picked up my Christmas cards yesterday so hopefully I’ll get them addressed and mailed out soon. The Christmas tree went up last weekend so that’s taken care of. I have not put my lights out yet this year and I’m kind of bummed about that, but maybe I’ll find time to toss some lights on the bushes tomorrow and we’ll call that “good” for this year.

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So.. Funny Story…

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Erin
Texting injury by Geeky-Girl
Texting injury, a photo by Geeky-Girl on Flickr.

A few days ago I noticed an uncomfortable bump where my index finger meets my palm. It was starting to hurt if I bumped it so I made an appointment and yesterday I went to see the doctor. She said it was a cyst on my tendon and asked if I could think of any repetitive motion I was doing with that hand.. I couldn’t so she recommended I splint it for a week and if it didn’t shrink she’d refer me to a hand surgeon.

Later that afternoon as I was telling Nate what she said I got a text from Meg and as I flipped open my phone (Samsung Epic with a slideout keyboard) to text her back I realized this was the motion. The way I hold my phone totally rubs that part of my hand.

I got the phone for my birthday so I’ve only had it for about a month and apparently that’s just enough time to injure myself.

So now I’ve got my finger taped and I’m trying to adjust my phone hold.

Yay me?

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Toddler Free To-Do List

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Erin

It’s 9:45am and my mom has picked Jack up for the day. I’m in my jammies standing at the kitchen counter drinking coffee (decaf. sigh.) and eating broken cookie pieces out of a ziplock bag. I think I’m going to get along with unemployment just fine!

So for lack of something more interesting to write about (I mean I could tell you about how Jack has another cold, which makes 3 colds in the last few weeks and seems to be a pattern of about one cold every other week. But I’m not sure anyone wants to hear about how much snot someone that small can produce and how he says “boogums” when he gets snot on his face and actually asks to have his nose wiped sometimes), I’m going to share my to-do list with you!

1. Shower (important)
2. Drop a boatload of stuff at Goodwill
3. Clean Jack’s water table for winter storage
4. Vacuum downstairs (No way am I carrying the vacuum upstairs).
5. Dust
6. Clean the bathroom (leaving the chemically parts for Nate)
7. Watch last week’s Chuck off the DVR
8. Go to Target
9. Consider mopping hardwoods. I’m still up in the air about this one.

Ordinarily I would spread some of this crap out til Friday but this Friday I’m taking an online 4.5 hour conference call/resume class that my previous company paid for so I won’t have as much free time and I’ll need to go to the grocery when it’s done.  I can’t even imagine doing that for 4.5 hours so hold a good thought for me.

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Unemployment

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Erin

So as of today I am officially unemployed. They laid off a big group of developers at my company and so here I am. I’ve been trying ever since then to decide what to say about it here, but really even 3 weeks later (my last official day was yesterday and at this point I’m just so relieved that it’s done) I still don’t have much to say! Ideally they would have waited another month or so before hand, but overall I’m not too bummed by the whole thing, really. I mean who doesn’t love having an extra paycheck in the family, but really I’m lucky that we make it on one income so there’s no panic and rush get out there and find another job.

Instead I plan on relaxing at home (and working on my resume) and spending time with Jack (and catching up on my DVR shows and chores around the house).

It’s funny, I mean when we found out I was going to have all that spare time on my hands (my mom is still going to take Jack on Wednesdays and Fridays) my to-do list was suddenly huge and it seems to be growing daily.

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It’s a Girl!

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Erin

It’s official, in March Jack will have a baby sister. I have to admit on a practical level I had been really looking forward to reusing all of Jack’s old super cute boy clothes, but on the other hand I am also really looking forward to purchasing some really cute girl clothes. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed in the last year and a half it’s that girls have a WAY better selection than boys.

It also makes me want to redecorate our already gender neutral nursery. I mean the whole reason we picked that set (it’s really cute, and it’s definitely neutral) was so we could reuse it, but now I want a new one! I think I’ll have to settle for a new girly sheet or something like that instead. And maybe some decorative pillows to go on her big girl bed. Getting too far ahead of myself? Maybe.

So while I’m talking about little ones I wanted to share some conversations I had with Jack  yesterday after his swim lesson (which ends at 11:30).

After his swim lesson, still at the gym:
Me: Time to go home and have lunch!
Jack: Chicken nuggets!
Me: You want chicken nuggets for lunch?
Jack: McDonald’s!
Me: Sounds good!

In the drive through:
Me: So you wanted chicken nuggets, right?
Jack: Chicken nuggets! And french fries (which comes out more like fromp fries)! And chocolate milk!
Me: Don’t press your luck.

So in the end I did cave and get him chocolate milk, but I diluted it at home with regular white milk. That stuff is THICK!

Posted in daily, parenthood | 1 Comment

Bed Time!

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Erin

As Nate is putting him in his crib…

Nate: I love you, buddy!

Me: I love you, Jack!

Jack: I love you, Dump Truck!

Umm, what?! I mean he rarely says “I love you” at all, he’s still learning that one… but as we’re telling him we love him he chooses to say “I love you” for the first time as he’s going to bed.. and he says it to his dump truck.

Figures.

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Hard Work

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Erin

So over the weekend my mom took Jack with her after his Little Kickers soccer camp thing. (It’s not like real soccer, it’s like a bunch of 18-24 months olds running around together and there are also soccer balls). Nate and I then went home and started The Yard Project. He dug holes, I inserted, fertilized and watered plants (while wearing gloves). He shoveled 2 yards of mulch into the wheelbarrow countless times, I spread the mulch out with a rake. I would say I definitely got the good end of that deal.

All done

When all was said and done we planted 6 new plants, moved one plant, and had enough mulch leftover that we went ahead and mulched over the pine bark in our front beds. I put down a ton of weed barrier so hopefully that will help us out in the future. Over all I think it turned out pretty well.

I think I finally know the names of all of the plants in my back yard. I’m so proud of me! And we’re growing Lady Banks Roses up the side of that mini-pergola thing there so help block the view of the neighbors’ back yards. When that fills in I bet it will be amazing!

Also, I’d like to introduce you all to my new friend, Bird.

Hi, bird!

While I was shoveling the mulch around in the back, Bird was hopping around watching. He actually let me get pretty close to him. I was starting to worry that he was injured and we would have to make a trip to the bird sanctuary place, but turns out he was just eating the berries off my beautyberry bush and he wanted them badly enough not to mind that I was there raking mulch in the area at the time. I got that plant specifically because I wanted it to attract birds and I was excited to offer them a treat, but 3 years later this is the first time I’ve actually seen anyone eat off it!

So it took us umm.. around 4hours total I think? Not bad! It looks SO MUCH BETTER it was definitely worth it.

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Yardwork Wrapup

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Erin

So once upon a time I enjoyed doing  yard work. I actually would sit outside when it was nice and scoot around the yard pulling weeds. I was obsessed and the weather was nice so it seemed like a good combination. There were semi-frequent trips to the farmer’s market with new plants, new pine straw, new pine bark, new flower beds and it was actually kind of awesome.

Then I had a baby and suddenly there wasn’t time for yard work. Not that I minded or anything, but we were not totally finished with everything we wanted to have done and what with number two rapidly approaching (how did it get to be the end of September already?!) we figured what with the spring due date, it was now or never for getting this crap done.

So here’s our to-do list:

  • Plant 6 new plants
  • Move between 1-3 existing plants (I haven’t decided on the final count yet)
  • Mulch the back yard (which requires removing some existing pinestraw)
  • Pull back pine bark and remove the zoysia that is attempting a hostile takeover of our flower beds
  • Trim back the hydrangeas. Possibly. I need to double check with the internet whether now is the appropriate time for that.

I can’t wait!

Well, mostly I can’t wait to see the finished product, but I’m still pretty darn excited!

Posted in daily, gardening | 1 Comment

Being Pregnant is

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Erin

Things that Suck about Being Pregnant (in no particular order)

  1. Caffeine restrictions
  2. Having to pee. A lot.
  3. Trouble sleeping (aka: trying to relearn how to sleep on my side while constantly waking up on my back, and also rolling over with a body pillow is hard)
  4. The first trimester
  5. Overly sensitive gag reflex (sometimes I can barely swallow my vitamins)
  6. Wardrobe
  7. The third trimester (or at least the last part of it)
  8. Babies with hiccups
  9. Backaches from sleeping weird and/or just from carrying a whole tiny actual person
  10. Weird food cravings. I want a Jersey Mikes sub. I’m not supposed to eat deli meat. I ate a Jersey Mikes sub and felt only slightly guilty about it, but I’m also kind of nervous about potentially pushing my luck and doing it again but all I want is a Jersey Mikes sub. A number 7, turkey with provolone on white with mayonnaise and lettuce. It’s the little things.

Things I Love about being Pregnant

  1. Growing an person. A whole, tiny, actual person.
  2. Feeling that whole tiny actual person start moving around

That being said I want to mention what an amazing thing it is after you have a baby, your body sort of forgets how bad it all sucked. I mean sure I have memories of not loving my last pregnancy. I mean my hips hurt when I slept (the tempurpedic helped a lot), my back hurt from carrying all that extra weight (I gained about 40-45lbs last time), my feet, legs, and pretty much everything else was swollen at the end, plus the morning sickness from the beginning? It all seemed like nothing. I couldn’t want to get pregnant again. My memories were there, but it also seemed like “that wasn’t really that bad” and I had pretty much blocked out what it was really actually like. Not that it would have stopped me from having another one to remember how it actually felt, I just thought it was funny. How looking forward to it I was because I was totally overreacting last time and it was really not bad, and it may have actually been kind of fun!

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Welcome Back, TV!

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Erin

Over the summer we did something radical at my house. We turned off our cable. I have to say, this may not be the first time in my life I’ve lived without cable, but if it isn’t, I have blocked it out so thoroughly that I really don’t remember ever not having cable before. Instead, we bought a roku and an antenna and went cable (actually, satellite) free for three whole months.

Surprisingly, it did not suck. We never really watched a lot of shows regularly over the summer so it seemed like a good idea. The only thing I really had to watch was the Closer, and thank god it’s available online. Otherwise we watched a few shows and movie from Netflix* and caught our daily news off the antenna and it all worked out pretty well.

Of course, as soon as the first college football game aired we called and reinstated our service.

So that brings me to the news shows out this year and how I actually was interested in watching several of them! First we watched Up All Night. Or tried to. I loved the commercials for this show, but I thought the show itself was kind of awkward and uncomfortable and we didn’t make it through the whole thing. Next I watched about five minutes of Free Agents and decided it was probably not going to happen either. Now, it wasn’t all bad. I watched Prime Suspect and thought it had potential, and I didn’t love Whitney, but I didn’t hate it either so it gets another shot.

I also watched both Hart of Dixie and Secret Circle off the CW. Which I almost called the WB which probably just means I’m too old to watch shows on that channel, but whatever. In the beginning of Hart of Dixie I decided it was probably not going to work for me, but by the end I decided to give it another shot. I mean I know she’s the New York girl moving to Alabama and blah blah stereotypical fish out of water awkwardness mixed with snotty attitudes, but it sort of grew on me. So we’ll see! And that leaves the Secret Circle which I totally never intended to watch except they replayed it on a Friday night when I was bored and nothing else was on and I watched it and didn’t hate it and now I’m stuck with it.

That, of course, is just the new shows I’ve seen so far. It does not include the shows that I’ve carried over from last year plus I think there are a couple of additional new ones coming out in October that I’ll have to wait and see about. Part of me hopes that some of them suck so I can ditch them, but part of me also hopes that they don’t suck so that when the baby is born in March I’ll have a backlog of shows on the DVR to catch up with during those middle of the night feedings.

* We have since scrapped Netflix DVDs because who has time to watch movies when there’s so much TV/football on! Also we got HuluPlus for a while but I found the selection of shows to be pretty disappointing so we didn’t keep it long.

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Bumping Up and Down in My Little Red Wagon

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Erin
New wagon! by Geeky-Girl
New wagon!, a photo by Geeky-Girl on Flickr.

We’ve been talking about getting Jack a wagon for months now so yesterday I randomly checked Craigslist, we found one and bought it immediately. To say Jack loves it would be a severe understatement!

After we went for a spin around the block in it, we came home and I unfastened his buckle. He promptly tried to jam the pieces back together and said “more wagon!!” so I buckled him back in and we went for another round. He is completely in love with it.

Other things he loves right now:
Watching videos of puppies
Watching videos of trains
Watching videos of “Baby Jack”
His froggie humidifier
His blankie
CHIPS!
“Go outside”
“Red milk”

Things he does not love right now:
Diaper changes
Breakfast burritos
“Blue milk” (different cup, same milk)
Yogurt (suddenly HATES it)
The nose bulb*

* He hates it SO MUCH I tried to bulb myself to see if it was really that bad. Unfortunately my nostril is apparently too fat, I couldn’t get any suction. Experiment FAILED!

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So it’s Been a While

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Erin

So I’m actually almost 17 weeks along now. I’m definitely not doing as good a job of keeping track as I did last time.

I keep meaning to post. I really do, it’s always sort of on the back of my mind and sometimes I sit and think about what I would type if I were actually at my computer and able to write, but then I never actually get around to it. I blame it on the pregnancy. I mean it’s funny because the first time around I was like “pregnancy-brain!” and then you know, I just never quite recovered from it and now that I’m pregnant again I wonder if it’s getting worse, or maybe I’m just imagining things. I can’t tell. Is that bad?

Now that I actually have the time I can’t remember any of the things I was really going to talk about. I’m almost 17 weeks along now. I thought maybe I felt the baby move once, but I also think it may have been gas (you’re welcome), so I’m not really sure about that, but I figure it will happen soon.

So really I keep flip flopping over whether I think it’s a boy or girl. Before I ever got pregnant the first time around I just assumed I was having girls. I don’t know why really, I just did. I was literally shocked when I found out Jack was a boy. I think everyone I worked with said they thought it would be a boy, but I was like “whatever, what do you people know?” and then when the ultrasound came and we found out it was a boy I was shocked. And while I wasn’t disappointed I wasn’t having a girl, I was kind of disappointed that everyone was right and I was wrong.

This time around I just can’t tell! After Jack was born I assumed I was having boys. All boys. So when I got pregnant again I was totally sure it was a boy. No reason, just because. And then I felt worse than I did last time around (although for a shorter period of time) and I changed my mind and thought maybe it was a girl. Then we had an ultrasound and the hearbeat was SO FAST I was like “totally a girl!” and decided it was most definitely a girl. And then I had another appointment (yesterday, actually) and the heartbeat was lower, and back in the boy range and now I’m basically back to “I don’t really know” land and somehow no one around here is saying “you look like you’re having a boy/girl”  yet so I don’t know what to think!

I’ve been asked if I’d rather have a boy or girl and the truth is, I’d be thrilled either way. I’d love for Jack to have a brother to play with, but I’d also love to have a girl. I don’t know if it would be better for him one way or another, and it would be really nice reuse all those super cute boy clothes that I have saved all nice in pretty rubbermaid boxes in the closet, but that fact alone is enough to convince me that I’m having a girl.

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Knocked Up – 12w5d

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Erin
Ultrasound by Geeky-Girl
Ultrasound, a photo by Geeky-Girl on Flickr.

That’s right, in just 6 short months Jack will be a big brother! (I’m due March 5, 2012).

I kept meaning to post it after I went to my initial appointment, but I just never got around to it, and then I was closer to this appointment than I was to the previous one and figured I would just wait so I could have the ultrasound picture to go with it.

I asked if we could sneak a peek between the legs and check the sex, but we couldn’t tell. It was a fuzzy mess of legs and umbilical cord, so we’ll have to wait til my 20 week appointment, which seems very far away at the moment!

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