Thursday, March 1, 2007

March 2007


  • We're HERE!!!!

    Current mood:happy
    Maddie and I arrived safetly in California.....sorry it took me a couple of days to let ya know.....We have been super busy and I have been going to bed at 8:00 West coast time which doesn't allow much myspace time.  I am STILL exhausted from the day of traveling and the time change, but I get caught up on sleep a little bit each day.
    Our flight into Chicago was delayed due to weather which freaked me out and caused a mild meltdown at the airport, but we made it to O'Hare intact and were only 40 minutes late landing in Orange County.  Maddie was a very good girl for both flights and everyone told me how wonderful she was.  Not much napping due to the freakin' flight attendants basically yelling on the loud speakers throughout the entire flight, (who really needs to hear what the in-flight movie is going to be 4 times, or the fact that we are flying over the Mississippi river, Palm Springs....etc.) but she was a trooper.  The time change has not been enjoyable for my darling daughter and being in a new place freaked her out for the first night and we had many night wakings with loud screaming when she didn't recognize where she was.  She is now sleeping on one side of the queen sized guest bed and I am on the other.  It works for us and she is sleeping better which in turn means that I am sleeping better.  lol.  Maddie seems to slowly be adjusting and is loving all the attention that her Grammy and Papa are giving her!!
    The weather is as it always is.....BEAUTIFUL.  Nice low 70's temperatures, sunny skies, cool breeze.....lovely.  The trees are in bloom and everyone's lawns are nice and green.  Not like our brown dead lawn back home in NC.  Yesterday we went to my brother's house and I got to meet my 4 month old niece Brenna for the first time, and we tried to get the babies to play together.....they didn't play, but they did stare at each other and Maddie laughed at Brenna and scratched her face.  Nice.  Maddie did think that her 3 year old cousin Alyssa was pretty hilarious and Alyssa spent a good part of an hour sticking her tounge out, jumping up and down and running around in circles trying to get Maddie to continue laughing.  It was cute!  It's pretty amazing how big a difference 2 and a half months can make.  Baby Brenna was TINY compared to Maddie and she basically just lays there....she can lift her head a little when on her tummy, but she doesn't know any tricks and is such a little baby.  Crazy.  We will probably be seeing the girls many times in the next 2 weeks which I am excited about.  Today I am going shopping.....which my husband is not aware of....he will find out when he reads my blog hahahaha.  I love Mervyn's and they don't have them on the East coast so I always get my shop on while in Cali....yippee!  Tomorrow we are going to the Costa Mesa swap meet with Grammy and Robin (sister in law) and baby Brenna which I am super excited about.....LOVE the swap meet.  We might even head down to the beach for a walk after the swap meet if the babies are in good moods. 
    I am really happy to be in California.  Wednesday and yesterday were tough as we were adjusting to the time change and lack of sleep but I am in good spirits today and excited about all of the fun we are going to have.  It's nice having my mom and dad around to help out with the baby.  I can sleep in everyday and take a shower when I want to, and I am looking forward to having the babysitters on hand when I want to go out with my friends.  This is a nice vacation from my everyday life....if only Dan were here, then it would be the perfect vacation.  Miss you honey!
    I'll try and blog to keep everyone update with what we are up to as much as I can.  Till like next time, like stay cool.  (California valley girl style)
  • Wedding pictures.....FINALLY!

    Current mood:exhausted
    We finally got our wedding pictures after almost a year and a half.  I won't go into detail, but our photographer was a putz and I honestly didn't think that he was even going to show up on our wedding day.....he did and took beautiful pictures, but was not good at getting the prints to us.  So, I have them and I still need to figure out what to do with them, but for the time being I have created a nifty slide show on my profile.  Go check it out and enjoy!
  • California here we come *gulp*

    Current mood:worried
    Maddie and I leave for California on Wednesday.  I am super excited, but also terrified!!!  I am REALLY worried about traveling with the baby alone.  She is a much bigger baby than she was in November when we took our last plane trip and she is way more active.  I don't know how she is going to handle being cooped up on my lap in our airplane seat for such a long time and she is such a social girl, I'm worried that she is going to bug whomever is sitting next to us.  She is also severly sleep trained and pretty much only goes to bed in her crib, and sometimes in the car.  She will need at least 2 naps while we are traveling and I don't know if she will actually sleep on my lap since she is so used to sleeping in her crib. 
    I'm worried that she is going to cry and annoy everyone on the plane, and usually a good way for me to calm her down is to hold her and walk around with her.....which I can't really do on the tiny aisled plane.  I'm worried about nursing her on the plane since I will be sitting right next to strangers as opposed to sitting next to my husband on the last trip.  I'm worried that the time change is going to completely throw her off and she is going to be a maniac for the first couple of days and I have to deal with it on my own.....no spousal support.  I'm worried about packing....since I am traveling alone I have to deal with all of my luggage, my carry on and the baby all at the same time.  I have laid out most of what I am packing and there is no way that it will all fit into one suitcase.  I'm worried about what to carry on, debating what is necessary and what would be nice to have versus how much I can store under my seat and what has to go in the overhead bin and how often I will need what is in the overhead bin and how much I will annoy whomever is sitting next to me and how on earth will I be able to hold the baby and open the overhead bin and get anything that I need out of it all at the same time.  I'm starting to go a little crazy!  I know that it doesn't help to worry, but this is so far out of my comfort zone and I have absolutley no experience with it, I cna't help but worry.  I wish that I had paid more attention to people traveling with 6 month olds in the past.  I wish that I had grilled them and observed what they carried on and what they did to occupy their babies.  This very well could be a train wreck.....oh the poor people sitting near us.  lol.
    On to a much more horrific topic.  Bathing suits.  I am going to California.....we are going to visit relatives who are beach camping at Newport Dunes, and my parents and brother both have spas in thier back yards.....and the beach is less than 15 minutes away.  I am going to have to wear a bathing suit.  After throwing out all of my suits that are 2 pieces I tried on the two remaining tankini type bathig suits.  Not good.  Not only am I not at my goal weight and still have some flub in unwanted places, I am also freakishly white.  How in the world am I going to pull this off?  I do have to say, that I was pleasantly surprised at how the suit fit.  I don't look like a supermodel by any means but I also didn't look like roadkill.  It wasn't THAT bad, but with that being said;  sporting my bathing suit in my bathroom is totally different than being in public at the beach!!!  I don't think that I have the confidence to strut my stuff just yet.  Maybe it will be too cold still for beach weather!  (crosses fingers)  But I doubt it.  Sunny California is always lovely and warm in April.  Wish me luck.
    Cheers to starvation and spray tans!
  • The sweetest things

    Current mood:tired
    I don't know what these things are called, but my mother in law bought them for Maddie a while ago.  We just started using them and they are the sweetest things ever!  You can put fruit in them and baby can suck and chew on it and get the flavor of the fruit without any choking hazard.  We aren't at that stage yet since Maddie has only had apple puree and banana as of yesterday, but I made a special treat to put inside of the dealy-bop.  I made sugar free jello in ice cube trays and once it was set I put the trays in the freezer and froze the jelllo.  Now I just stick a frozen sugar free jello cube into the dealy-bop and Maddie has a fantastic frozen treat.  The best part is that it doesn't melt and get all runny cause after all it is jello and just gets mushy once it has thawed.  I highly reccomend these coolio dealy-bops to anyone with a food aged baby.  Maddie LOVES hers and it is super cute to listen to her sucking on it.  If only I knew what they were called, or where you can get them....then I would be really helpful!  lol.

  • It's official!

    Current mood:excited
    After a year and 5 months of being married I am officially a Schultz!  I went to the social security office today and did a change of name.  I should get my new card in 7-10 days.  I don't really know what took me so long....other than the fact that I didn't really want to deal with the SS office and having to change all of my mail.  So far it has been pretty painless, but I also haven't called all of my creditors and changed my name with them, we'll save that for another day.  I also have to get a North Carolina driver's licence and register my car here which should be a gigantic pain in the butt!  But the last 2 and a half hours of having a new last name has been good.  Time to practice my new signature.  lol.  You can now call me Gina Ann Schultz.....thank you very much. 
  • Clearing the wheat

    Current mood:peaceful
    We live on farm land.  Because of this, there really are no trees in our neighborhood.  People have planted trees in their yards, but they are small young trees.  A co-worker of Dan's is giving us a whole bunch of plant life including 8 trees that are approx. 12 feet tall.  Here is the list: 1 Carolina Red Maple, 2 Japanese Maples, 1 Carolina Silver Bell, 1 Black Tupelo, 1 Cherry Tree (not the fruit kind) 1 Sugar Maple, 1 Weeping Willow, 6 Forsythias, 1 Sweetbay Magnolia and 8 Cryphe Myrtles.  Just in case you want to look them up and see what will be planted in our yard.  We started getting our land ready for the tree installation which should happen either this week, or next, but we had to get rid of our wheat field in the back of our house so that the tree guys can get to the place where we want some of the trees planted.  Anyway, long story short, Dan rented a brush hog (a large industrial sized lawn mower type of thingy) and spent the afternoon plowing down our wheat.  I strapped the baby to my chest and watched him while he worked and of course heckled him.  Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.
     This is what it looks like behind our house....it's not really wheat, but I think that it looks like wheat.....thus the name!  lol
     Dan bushwacking through our wheat.....I have no idea what he was doing with that stake, but he ended up throwing it with a lot of fury and it landed 5 feet in front of him.  Men!
    Daniel making his way through the wheat.  It was such a pretty day today!
     There he is again.....although this time looking at the camera.
     My macho man.  He actually fits in with the neighbors really well with his wife beater.....the funny part is that he is only wearing the wife beater because he ran out of undershirts.....Bad wifey.....am doing laundry as we speak!  lol.
  • Do not try this at home

    Current mood:mischievous
    This afternoon I was making babyfood and Dan needed to go out and get a hair cut.  He had previously been watching the baby while I was cookin' but had to pawn her off on me.  At first I tried holding her while I made babyfood, but that wasn't very easy and my arm started to give out.  So I came up with a genius plan......now I'm sure that the people at Bumbo would not approve and I'm almost certain that there is a disclaimer somewhere on their website, or in their shipping materials that in fact states that the Bumbo should not be used in the fashion that I used it today, but I threw caution to the wind and my daughter and I had a FANTASTIC time making and tasting babyfood!
     This is how it all started......I quickly learned that a heavy baby is not a pleasant thing to hold while cooking.
     My genius, although probably illegal idea.  Doesn't she look cute up there helping me cook?
     She made sure to help me lick the spatula after we made sweet potatoes and apples.
     And she even licked the basting brush clean......how is a basting brush used in babyfood making you ask?  Well, it's not.....but it is a lot of fun to lick and suck babyfood off of, and that is really what matters most!
  • South Beach update

    Current mood:tired
    It's that time again.  We are STILL on the diet although we have had a few cheats in the past couple of weeks.  I guess that is to expected when we have been on phase one for this long.  It's still going well though and we are enjoying our yummy dinners and still haven't really repeated anything......hooray for the cookbooks!  Here are our most recent dishes.
    Crispy catfish with caraway seed mixed vegetables.  And yes, those are brussel sprouts you see there.....neither of us had ever had brussel sprouts and the thought of them made me gag, but I think it was just because of the bad wrap that they have gotten.  They are in fact very yummy.
     Artichoke chicken with thyme mushrooms.
     Pork scalopinne with capers and roasted spicy cauliflower.
    This one was FUN!  Italian beef stuffed eggplant with nutty summer squash.
     Indian coconut chicken with cheesy baked artichokes.
     Artichoke, tomato and kalamata olive steak with caraway seed mixed veggies.
     Green curry chicken with sesame green beans.
     Steak and mushroom kebobs with baked sweet potato fries.
     Green chile and American cheese stuffed burgers with lemon roasted eggplant.
     Spice rubbed chicken fingers with cilantro dipping sauce and lemon and garlic broccolli.
     T-Bone steak with gremolata (gremolata is the parsley/lemon peel/garlic stuff on top) and ginger sesame asparagus.
  • The busy little bee

    Current mood:giddy
    It's amazing what a difference a week can make.  Maddie has been "sitting up" for about a month and a half now, but it was mostly her upright but hunched over as if folded in half.  This week she figured out how to fully sit up on her own and her back got strong enough to support her.  Now she is an independent busy little bee.  She seems to be able to entertain herself for long periods of time and is so interested in all of her toys.....well, more in getting all of them out of her toy basket and throwing them all over the floor, but she can spend a lot of time doing that.  I am even able to get things done here and there around the house and she just looks for me occasionally and gives me a big grin and goes back to playing.  She is also able to lean forward and to the sides to get things that she wants.  Where did this big girl come from?  It seems as though these new abilities appeared overnight.  I am truly a proud mama.





  • The teeth

    Current mood:chipper
    Just in case anyone wanted to see Maddie's pearly whites, I tortured her this afternoon and got a nice pic of them.  Such cute little teeth.  I wonder when they will be full grown?

  • Halfway to One

    Current mood:happy
    Our Madeline is 6 months old today.  I can not believe that time has flown by so quickly and that she is such a big girl.  We had our 6 month Dr. check up today and she now weighs 17 pounds 13 ounces and is 27 ½ inches long…..both in the 90th percentile.  Life has finally calmed down and we are in a pretty good routine.  Everyone is getting enough sleep and it is so much easier to take the wee one out and about.  Maddie now sits up all on her own without any propping and eats solids twice a day.  I have been enjoying making my own baby food and our freezer is now stocked up with ice cube size sweet potato, winter squash, green beans, and rice & oatmeal cereal.  She loves her solid foods but enjoys nursing as much as ever and does it about 6 times a day still.  We also had the excitement of two new additions…..she cut her 2 bottom teeth.  That was TONS of fun let me tell ya!  We have discovered a playground nearby and she LOVES swinging in the baby swings, and going for walks.  My baby is a very happy girl and laughs all the time.  Her personality is shining through more and more each day and I REALLY love playing with her and especially tickling her and listening to her squeal.  Being a Mama is the best thing I have ever experienced and even in the hard times it is the most rewarding thing I have ever done.



  • South Beach meets Cheatersville

    Yep, that's right.....we cheated.....AGAIN!!  Since starting this diet over 8 weeks ago, really the only thing that I have been craving is pizza.  So tonight Dan and I caved and ate pizza.  But, we tried to do it South Beach style to make it a little healthier and a little less cheat-a-rific at least in our minds.  We made our pizza because we figured that Papa John's, or Pizza Hut would be WAY worse, and a lot more greasy.  So, we made our dough from scratch, found low sugar pizza sauce and added pesto which has lots-o-olive oil which slows down the digestive process which is good.  We loaded our pizza up with fresh goodies: salami, orange bell peppers, mushrooms, artichokes, kalamata olives, low fat mozarella and our smoked goat cheese.  Let me just say that it was DELICIOUS......so much so that we ate the entire thing.......just so we wouldn't have left overs and have to cheat again tomorrow.  Although the prize really goes to Dan who ate so much pizza he almost burst!  Kudos for Dan!  I am stuffed......with the pizza and the wine, I am in a total food coma and ready for hibernation.  zzzzz......zzz......zzzzzzzz.....

  • Why I despise rap music

    Current mood:annoyed
    I don't understand the "art" of rap music.  I can't understand half of what they are saying and the other half is way too vulgar for my lily white ears.  I've never owned any rap music and I am really glad that my husband is not into it either.  I was watching MTV the other day while Maddie was napping and a show came on that had rap videos with the words to them scrolling across the bottom of the screen......the show was called Say What?, or something to that effect (the idea behind it being that just like me, most people can not understand what the heck these guys are talking about.....er, um....rapping about) and I was horrified by two things.  1. That this garbage/music is accepted in our society and that there are millions of people out there that actually enjoy it.  2. That MTV actually airs a show around the time that kids get home from school that spells out all of the offensive words that these raps consist of......granted they put little ** in place of certain letters to protect the American public from knowing what the real word is because really.....we're all a bunch of idiots and can't figure it out right?  Here is an example of the lyrics I saw:
    Get It Loose- By: TI
    Ay shawty, bust it open for me
    Let me see you get loose
    If you really wanna show me that you love me, get loose
    No Grey Goose, if you don't get loose
    Get up out the coupe if you won't get loose
    Bend it over, reach for yo toe, get loose
    Hold on to the pole, drop it low and get loose
    No x-o if you don't wanna get loose
    No more dro unless you gonna get loose
    My partnaz in the club and we chillin' to the max
    Poppin' bottles, blowin' money, we ain't learn how to act
    All in the V.I.P. spendin' four or five stacks
    You can tell it's T.I.P. from how I bend my hat
    Send the waitress to the bar but she comin' right back
    Bet a shot of x-o'll get you on the right track
    You got yo girl with you, better hold her hand, I'm a mack on attack
    Turn yo head and she bound to get snatched
    Give the dick to her once, get her hooked like crack
    Takin' cum in the face, yea I like it like that
    Holdin' on to her waist while I hit it from the back
    If she come wit *Pussy Popper* she ain't never comin' back

    Rough sex, talkin' dirty, yea she into all that
    Gotta movie that'll prove that what I'm sayin' is all facts
    Bra and panties all black and some real tall stacks
    Suckin' titties, eatin' cat, shot her off the meat rack
    Let me see you drop it down, get that eagle on girl
    Ain't no fuckin' way I'm leavin' here alone girl
    Money ain't a thang to the uncut king
    Baby, I can make a mill if I rap or if I sing
    Done tryna ball ma, I own a damn team
    Even wit' a nuse nigga, still can't hang
    Let me tell you who I'm is
    Lunatic mayne, straight up out the heart land
    Nine on my right, ten more karats on my other hand
    In different colors mayne, worth a couple hundred grand
    Damn mama, how you do that there?
    How yo waist stay still but you move that there
    Ain't got a clue right there
    Seen a lotta ass poppin', but that's new right there
    You invited to the house ma, you and yo crew right there
    Check it, okay let's have some fun
    I got four G's and 5 five G's in one
    You ready to get loose, shawty, better be
    Sittin' on them leather seats
    If not, pat yo feet on the concrete merely
    Freak by choice, not force, I would never be
    Charged with a rape, if she say no, I'ma let her be
    Why should I let that worry me?
    Too many bitches cherish me
    Pimp til I die, be a playa til they bary me
    Renegade, I'ma keep it pimpin', I ain't finna play
    Anyway, I can hit the baddest bitches any day
    I done slept with the best, I ain't gotta flex
    Got yo girl stretched out, pullin' up her dress
    Checkin' out her spread and I am impressed
    Her G-strings red, the middle of them wetHer girlfriends with her and all of them next
    I passed them a bottle, gave all of them X
    Hey, I'm *Pussy Popper*, so all them expect
    The best sex, and that's what all of them get

    What kind of future are we raising; when our children and teenagers listen to this crap?  What message are we sending them?  I know that rap is a way for these artists to express themselves and that banning  it would go against our freedom of speech which I am a big fan of, but seriously.....why do people buy this stuff?  Why do we as a society keep filling the rappers pockets when they only talk of violence, hate, drug use, sexualism, treating women like meat?  When did this become okay?    I'm all for teenagers expressing themselves with their clothes and music and the slang that they use, but rap will NEVER be allowed in my house.  Hopefully some day we will put our foot down and say enough......NO MORE RAP!
  • The evil within

    Current mood:sad
    Sometimes the sheer hate that we as humans are capable of makes me want to vomit.  I don't understand how someone can have so much evil in them that they would ever do what this man did.  Sometimes I hate the fact that God has given us so much independence and freewill…..look what humanity chooses to do with it.  I cried when I read this and the images in my head make me sick to my stomach.  Why….why?

    Father charged with homicide in his son's death

    Baby's body had bruises, bite marks and burns

    "I have been in law enforcement for 17 years, and this is the worst case of child abuse I have ever seen," Chief Alewine said. "There were human bite marks all over his body. Those marks had left scars."
    Now Azendae's father, Leroy Bryant, 25, is in jail charged with homicide by child abuse. He is in custody at the Abbeville County Detention Center.
    The bite marks and other injuries were revealed during the baby's autopsy Wednesday morning. He had been beaten to death the night before and still had bruises around his head, Abbeville County Coroner Ronnie Ashley said.
    Aside from the bite marks, about seven in total, little Azendae also had cigarette burns on his body and his left arm was broken, the chief said.
    Azendae died late Tuesday when Mr. Bryant ran to a nearby house at 9:48 p.m. and asked someone to call 911. Azendae was taken to the hospital in Abbeville where he was pronounced dead from blunt force trauma to the head, Mr. Ashley said.
    Police arrested Mr. Bryant at the hospital and called in the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Child Fatality Unit.
    Chief Alewine said Mr. Bryant told SLED agents that his son started crying Tuesday night and could not be quieted.
    "The only way he knew to get him to quit crying was to beat him," Chief Alewine said. "He said he just couldn't take it any more."
    Mr. Bryant of Elberton Street was alone with his son at the time. The baby's mother was in Abbeville for the evening and apparently was late coming home, another factor that upset Mr. Bryant, the chief said.
    On Tuesday night, while being interviewed by law enforcement, Mr. Bryant did not mention that Azendae had a broken arm, Chief Alewine said. The arm injury and other injuries to the baby were first revealed with police had to sit in on the autopsy in Anderson Wednesday morning.
    "We are still investigating," Chief Alewine said. "Right now, we don't know everything. It is possible that more arrests could be made in this case."
    He said authorities have not been able to find any record of abuse in the Bryant home being reported to officials. Nor could officers find any record of Azendae being taken to the doctor, the chief said.
    At this point, officials do not know when Azendae's arm was broken.
  • No sleep, ramekins and the gym.....oh my

    Current mood:exhausted
    Last night I did not sleep.  Well, I maybe got 3 and a half hours of sleep, but I don't really consider that sleep.  Maddie keeps changing up her middle of the night nursing schedule and it is playing havic with MY sleeping habits.  For the last week or two, she has been waking up 2-3 hours after we put her to bed around 9:30.  I nurse her and then she goes right back to sleep.  Then she started waking up around 10:00-11:00 and then went back to 9:00 or so.  So, I got in the habit of staying up until she awoke and nursed her and then went to bed myself.  Last night I was waiting for her to wake up.....10:00.....11:00.....12:00......1:00.  Okay, so she wasn't waking up and I had psyched myself out so much about waiting until she woke up that at this point I didn't want to go to sleep because I KNEW she would wake up like 15 minutes after I was asleep, so I got her up and nursed her at 1:15.  Then I went to bed.  Yeah right.  2:00.....3:00......I just could not fall asleep.  So needless to say I am tired today and looking forward to sleep tonight.....HOPEFULLY!
    I am going to the gym this evening.  Pretty big event as it is the first time post Maddie that I will be dragging my butt.....a wider butt into a workout facility.  Dan is coming home at 5:00 to take over the baby duties and will be feeding her sweet potatoes and cereal and getting her jammies on and putting her to bed......I will be sweating and pushing my out of shape body on the treadmill in the hopes of losing more weight and sleeping better at night.  Since I will be working out instead of getting dinner ready like I normally do when Dan gets home from work, I have already prepped everything that I could for dinner so that when I get back all I have to do is actually cook.....no chopping, no slicing, no measuring.....big fun.  And it's really exciting because I used all of my little ramekins that I got for our wedding.  Just like a TV cooking show I have everything in little white bowls already chopped and measured out.  It's really cute, and I can't wait to dump the pre-measured bowls into the dishes that I will be making.....maybe I'll even talk like I am hosting my own cooking show and put on a production for my audience......Dan. 
    I wasn't going to add this tidbit of information, but I don't feel like writing another blog, so I'll just throw it in here......Madeline now has 2 teeth.  Both of her little bottom ones are in, and I think that her top front teeth are starting to come in as well.  And I cursed myself by telling my sister in law yesterday that she hadn't bitten meyet..... because this morning she bit me!  Yoikes!  Not a fun feeling let me tell you.  But I said no after a little high pitched yelp that I tried to hide and I pulled her away from me, put the milk away and called it a session.  Hopefully we don't have another run in with the killer teeth, but I have a feeling this was just the first of many encounters.  Keep your fingers crossed.
    Well, thats it.  I know.....kinda boring, but the wee one is napping and dinner is prepped and I actually have time to blog so I figured what the heck.....I'll bore my faithful readers with my day.  Don't you wish that your life was as exciting as mine?  Hahahahahahahahahahahaha  hahahahaha haha hahahahahaha (sleepless maniac laugh)
  • If I wish hard enough can tomorrow be Sunday again?

    Current mood:happy
    This has been a great weekend!  Today really felt like a Sunday....if that makes any sense at all.  The weather was fantastic although a little colder today, and I really wished that we could go to the beach.....we almost did today, but it was gonna be a high of 53 at Wrightsville and I didn't think that was warm enough to warrant the drive.  Oh well, maybe the next time the weather is beautiful!
    Dan took off half day on Friday and the Mama of the house got a great nap in.  We somehow convinced Dan's 60 year old secretary at work to babysit at the last minute and planned on a date night.  I got to take my time getting ready and I actually applied make up....it has been like 2 months and I shaved my legs too....which has also been like 2 months.  I know, the shame.  lol.  I was actually really surprised with how okay I was at leaving the baby with a virtual stranger for the first time, but Miss Linda arrived at 6:00 and Maddie's bed time is 6:30, so there's not much that Miss Linda could do to screw up our child.  We went out to dinner to the Angus Barn which was REALLY nice.  Dan's work had given him a $100 gift certificate so we only ended up paying $50 for the whole dinner.....a $150 dinner is not in our budget, so thank you to Novo Nordisk.  The steaks were fantastic, we ordered a bottle of merlot and even took a HUGE slice of chocolate cheesecake home.  Oh, did I mention earlier that we cheated on our diets on our date night?  Cause we totally did!!  And it was well worth it.  It was kinda funny coming home with a $20 bill in hand to give to Dan's secretary......she refused it, but how weird was it to try and pay a 60 year old woman who has a full time job 20 dollars for watching our daughter for 30 minutes and then watching TV at our house for 3 hours.  Totally WEIRD!  lol.  It was really nice to get out alone with my husband and Miss Linda said that she would babysit anytime we wanted.....yeehaw.....totally gonna take advantage of that offer!  Here are some pics from our date night:  
     I actually had Miss Linda take a picture of us.....it felt a little like having your mother take pictures of you and your date on prom night.  lol
     Dan very excited while driving to dinner.
    Me very excited while Dan drove us to dinner.
    Saturday we decided to go to the Raleigh farmer's market.  It was so beautiful outside!  I got to put one of Maddie's cutsey outfits on her that I never thought she would be able to wear since she is a gigantic child!  Dan played photo shoot outside on our porch....it's nice to actually have pictures of me and the baby outside of the house and without having to extend my arm to get the shot.  Fun!

     I think that my daughter is the cutest baby in the world!  I know I'm biased, but don't you just wanna kiss her cheeks soo badly? 
     At the Farmers Market among the veggies!  Can't wait till April when they have even more stuff!
     This was a fun shop inside that had TONS of spices and preserves.....they even have tons of home made soup packages that you just add water to.  If we weren't on this diet I would have stocked up on those!  Yumm!
     This is what we ended up getting.  2 butternut squash, 1 tub of sea salt, 1 round of smoked goat cheese and the largest white raddish I have ever seen! 
    Sunday (today) we just lounged around the house mostly.  I made some baby food....winter squash, sweet potatoes and rice cereal.  We all watched Saw III in bed.....total waste of time if you ask me, and we discovered a really great park in town that has tennis courts, baseball fields, walking trails and a few different play grounds that I am super excited to take Maddie to when it's a little warmer out.  We tried her in the baby swing today for like 5 minutes and she LOVED it.  It was just a little too cold.  All in all a fantastic weekend.  I can't believe that tomorrow is Monday again and Dan has to go back to work.....pooie.  Looking forward to next weekend!
     She wnats to be like Mama and Daddy......yummm coffee.  It's empty of course!
     Watching Saw III in bed.  Yes, I'm wearing clothes, but it was cold so I'm covered.
     Had some bouncing time.
     Look Ma....no hands!  She likes to try and lick the bowl clean when she is done!
  • My husband who loves himself more than me

    Current mood:crushed
    This morning the Toffee flavored coffee ran out after I had one cup and Daniel had 2.  I asked my darling husband whom I love if he could make chocolate flavored coffee for the next pot and he told me that he was going to make regular.  I said that wasn't fair because he got 2 cups of flavored coffee and I only got one and it is afterall a weekend which in our house is a special occasion and deserves flavored coffee.  This was Dan's reply.
    "I'm not interested in being fair to you."
    Hmmmm.....yeah, the guy I'm married to is THAT great!

County McCounterson