Timeline

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

The Big D

Seems like we've spent a lot of time in Dallas recently... and it looks like my love affair with I-35 isn't over yet. My department is currently interviewing for my replacement (sniff....) and I'll need some face time in Dallas for the transition. And of course, once that's complete, I'll need some face time with the new team. Yikes. Essentially that means another 2 or 3 trips to Dallas in the next month. (I haven't told my Mom yet!) On the upside however, she's getting to spend lots of quality time with Atticus before we move to Ohio!

This past weekend, we went to Dallas to attend the wedding of my coworker, Georgia. It was a beautiful ceremony - I really loved the vows! Of course, one of the highlights was the dance performed by Georgia, Chris and all their attendants. It started off with everyone linking arms and swaying -- singing the song from Stand By Me. Then the music did a little jog, everyone spaced out and the whole party did the "Thriller" dance. It was awesome. It was a good night out, and Greg was able to spend 4 hours getting caught up with Linc. I think that was his highlight.

So far this week has been pretty uneventful. We started off today awfully early at 5 am thanks to a barking dog somewhere behind the house. That was not ideal -- but, on the flipside, Atticus did actually take 2 naps today. But, then it took forever for him to fall asleep tonight! It's really a no win situation for me. If he only naps once, he's Grumpy McGrump by about 5:30, but if he does take two naps, he doesn't want to go to bed! I'm curious to see what kind of napping schedule they're planning on keeping at the JCC. Hmmmm.... life could get really interesting next week!

Well, laundry calls... till next time...

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Ravioli

Ok, so probably not the healthiest of options - but dude, little man seems to love Chef Boyaredee! Easy dinner for $1! (Yes, he ate almost the entire can, which is way more than one serving!) Hard to tell in the photo, but he had just finished grabbing his head with those grubby paws! Of course, he's also eating strawberries, grapes, kiwi, watermelon, canteloupe, mandarin oranges, cherries, apples, peaches, prunes etc, etc.



Wednesday, October 21, 2009

A Comedy of Errors

I'm choosing to look on the bright side tonight. Although, the bright side is a little dim because the weather was overcast today. :)

I left work this afternoon, packed up Atticus and headed to the airport to pick up my Aunt. I knew she was landing at 1:40 and that Atticus had a doctor appointment at 3:10. I got off work a few minutes after 2pm and headed to the airport. I'd emailed last night asking for the flight information and a cell phone number - but hadn't heard anything by lunch time today. A quick text message over to my cousin, and I had the cell phone number. Figured, OK, I'll call when I'm close - she should be out of baggage claim and waiting for me.

Sigh.

Things never go smoothly for me. At least for the past week and a half. I called a few times, no answer. But - the goofy thing was that it rang and then went to voicemail as opposed to going directly to voicemail. If it had gone directly, I would have figured that her flight was delayed and the phone was off.... but with it ringing, I was totally confused. Turns out two things - the flight WAS in fact delayed, and the cell phone was not in my Aunt's possession. Problem. I'm circling the airport with no way to get ahold of my family! Add to that, I had to leave to get Atticus to the doctor!! Ack! Some quick thinking on my cousin's part - and he had my Aunt paged at the airport. I heard from my Grandma while I was about halfway between the airport and the doctor's office. The story ends well however. I made it to the doc's at 3:12 (not too bad) and my Aunt did make it to Georgetown. Whew.

Everything went well with the 15 month checkup. The stats:

Height: 32.5 inches (I seriously think he's taller)
Weight: 25 lbs and 8 oz (I think they should weigh him directly after lunch when he's about 2 lbs heavier)

That puts Atticus still in the 75-90% for height and 60-75% for weight (I think I got that right -- the sheet is nowhere close to the laptop).

Chocolate milk is a no-no. Stick to regular ole whole milk. No sugar coating the milk to get him to drink it....

Eggs are OK. Atticus can have eggs at every meal if it makes him happy.

Eczema is back - need to moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. I'm also going to start adding in some mineral oil and/or some Burt's Bees Apricot Oil to the baths.

Poor guy also got 4 shots today. He received MMR, Chicken Pox, Hep A and his second flu shot. He's really tough, he didn't really cry until the final shot. I felt really bad though -- that's a lot for one day. I wonder if I should have done two today and two in a week? I guess it's too late now, but I'm sure I'll be up for hours tonight thinking about it. The whole reason we'd started with the alternate vaccine schedule was to slow down the shots - but with starting daycare at the JCC on 11/2 -- he had to be all caught up to attend. Ugh. Hopefully I'm just worrying for no reason, but with my luck the past few weeks, I'm really nervous. I don't know what I'm nervous for... I guess just scared there will be a bad reaction and that I'll feel like a jerk for allowing him to get so many shots at once. Oy. I'm normally a what's done is done kind of girl -- but this will keep me up for a while yet tonight.

Then there's still work.... I'll be dreaming of vaccinations and databases tonight. Sounds restful, huh? This re-org is definitely not making things any easier for our department!

For some random good news... we'll be headed back to Dallas AGAIN this weekend, but this time to attend a wedding. Yay for weddings. My coworker is getting married this weekend and I'm hoping for a beautiful night!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

For Pete's Sake

Really? Really? Have I angered the heavens or what? (See earlier post about "car-ma")

The unlucky streak continues...just a lot of little things all conspiring to drive me crazy! Time Warner has been freaking out - blipping in it's connection several times a day. This means that with every blip my Internet access blips and I lose connection for a brief moment. I work from home. I'm suddenly attending alot of conference calls. The blipping is really annoying. Also annoying is that we have Vonage for our home phone service. Vonage is a VoIP system that uses, guess what - the freaking Internet. Every time the Internet blips, my phone calls drop! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

But alas, it was almost TX-OU weekend. In about 20 minutes flat last Thursday, I managed to pack myself, Atticus and most of my scrapbook stuff. We loaded the car and headed north to Dallas. Arrived about midnight and crawled into bed. Friday morning I hung out with my Mom and Atticus and about lunch time hit the road for the retreat. Driving to the freeway, I passed a Chick-fil-A and suddenly a strawberry milkshake sounded fantastic. So, now me, all my stuff and my milkshake are on the way to HeavenLeigh Escape. I've got my iPhone on my lap, my ear buds in my ear, and I'm about to call my friend Mel to check in on her and new baby Meaghan. I'm driving on I-35 in Lewisville, cringing at the OU traffic headed south into Dallas, and I pick up my milkshake. The milkshake has one of those domed lids. I carefully grab the cup from the top (can't grab it from the side in the cup holder) but wouldn't you just know it... the lid comes off, my fingers go plunging into the shake and the shake dumps out all over my iPhone and my lap. G-R-E-A-T! I finally manage to pull over and stop in the parking lot of some law firm on the side of the road. I jump out of the car, attempting to shake the milkshake off my lap. I was only partly successful. UGH. The only good news - is that at least I was on my way to a retreat and I had a suitcase in the trunk with more clothes! A quick changeroo in the front seat and I was once again on my way...

The retreat itself was fantastic. I don't know if I could live out there full-time - it's a little too close to nature - but it was a great, great weekend. We watched tons of girlie movies - The Other Boleyn Girl, Failure to Launch, Where the Heart Is, The Women and a few others. We had the luxury of having someone else do the cooking and cleaning up - and that my friends was worth it alone! I was also able to get in a nap and just sit out on the porch and soak in some sunshine and country air. Greg played some golf with my brother, picked up his friend Rob, and on Saturday attended the TX-OU game at the Texas State Fair. Unfortunately, they were part of the crowd that tried to take DART from the hotel to the Fair.... guess they still have some wrinkles to iron out! But, a good weekend for both of us. We stayed on Sunday to grab some dinner with my parents, then hit the road to return to Austin. I think we made the right move, we didn't hit any of the return traffic on the way home!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Molars

We finally have a molar that has broken through. Still missing the "eye" teeth and the ones next to those (top and bottom) ... but way towards the back on the upper left side, a molar has broken through.

Poor guy. His teeth are hurting him like no other these days. I'm thinking about trying the frozen washcloth trick... haven't done that yet, but figure anything that will provide relief would be welcomed.

"Car"ma and the SweetBerry Farm

First, let me say we had an awesome day out at SweetBerry Farm. Atticus and I spent the day with my cousin Nikki, her husband and their two girls, Zoe and Paige out at the farm. The directions on the website are a bit misleading - it definitely took more than 50 minutes to get out to Marble Falls - but what the hey, it was worth it. There were pumpkins galore -- of every variety! There were pony rides for the older tots, face painting, pumpkin painting, pick your own wildflower fields, corn filed mazes, hay rides, goats, etc. I think Atti's favorite part was just the big open fields where he could just run and run. I got a few pictures, but Skip got a few more - so once I combine them, I'll get them up on Picassa. It was a great fall day...

And then... I returned to the car. The car that I'd parked on the very farthest row, almost in the farthest corner of the parking lot. I went to put Atti into his seat and noticed that whoever had been parked next to me had opened their front door into my front right quarter panel leaving a HUGE (and I mean HUGE) dent in the car. Do you have no concept of other people's property? How do you not say something? Leave a note? Try to page the owner? Needless to say, Greg flipped a lid.

So, for the next 6 days until I leave for Dallas, I'm going to try and not drive the car. Apparently I'm cursed so he thinks and every little dent or ding in the car is my fault. I'm sure I'm also to blame for the war in the mid-East and the unemployment rate in the States - but there's only so much I can do. I just won't drive anywhere, though I'm sure lightning will strike the car and it will still be my fault. So, cross your fingers, say a prayer, put a pin in the voodoo doll -- whatever works, just hope that nothing else happens to the car.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Craptastic

That's kinda how I feel right now. Not feeling all that great, got too much on my mind, and there's not a lot I can do to change things right now. Ugh.

Work is busy, busy, busy as we deal with a re-org and all that goes along with the changes. I'm also trying to balance my time and energy between two teams now. That should be interesting. I'm sad to leave my old position, but eager to start the new one. Typical, I think. But, I'm dreaming about reporting changes, databases and spreadsheets. Not exactly a relaxing night's sleep.

Atticus is doing allright - just being a bit of a pill in the afternoons. Most kids give up the morning nap and keep the afternoon nap for a few more years. My child, oh no... he's got to be different. He's decided the morning nap is just fine - he goes down about 3 hours after waking without a fuss. Just plop him in the crib, hand him a wooby and he's out for the count. He's napping usually about 2 hours. The problem is that he's then awake from 11 or noon until bath and bed at 730 pm. It's a nightmare. He's out of control by about 530 or 6. This past week, he's actually laid in his crib in the afternoon, but he won't sleep. He'll roll around, play with the animals, fall asleep for a few minutes, roll over, stand up, lay down, etc but he won't truly fall asleep for any amount of time. He'll stay in his room quiet for about 45 minutes or so - but it's just not enough to recharge his batteries. I'm not quite sure what to do about it. The only thing that's changed is that I've fully weaned Atticus. I know... it's bittersweet. Atti's doing great, and I'm still crying a little when I think about it. :) We were both ready though...

I think Greg and I need a vacation. :-) With all of his travel, and the interviews, and my travel - we need to duck out for a couple days. We're going to meet Nicole and Brad in Las Vegas in November -- which will be FAB -- but I really think a beach is in our future. I miss our vacations. They keep us sane.

Maybe a good night's sleep will be the cure for now. Let's just hope I can dream of the waves and the beach and not about Revenue Credits. (Trust me, you don't want to know what I'm talking about...)