I can't believe how fast my little girl is growing up. Two days ago, on my birthday, she started sucking her thumb. It's funny how as soon as she figures out how to do something for the first time, she doesn't stop - like when she found her feet. She's been sucking her thumb ever since. This morning she rolled over from her back to her belly for the first time. She normally doesn't like to be on her tummy, but when she did it herself she was quite pleased.

My parents are in town for a couple of days so they offered to watch the baby while me, Jeremy and the boys went to see Ghost Rider. Oh my gosh, it was such an awesome movie! I have been dying to see it since the minute I heard it was coming out and there was nothing disappointing about it. Nicholas Cage was perfect! I'm so glad we got to see it in the theater because this is the type of movie that I feel must be seen in the theater first. We will definitely be adding it to our dvd collection when it comes out.

You know you have enough birthdays under your belt when you wake up on the day and don't realize right away that it's your birthday. When you're younger, your birthday is exciting. You wake up and you're like, "ooh, it's my birthday!" even before both eyes are open. Yeah, I don't do that anymore. Regardless, today is the day... and I'm 34 years old.

Today is Evan's 9th birthday. Happy birthday, Evan!! This is the last year he will be in the single digits. My youngest son is growing up fast. And since today is his birthday, that means that my 34th birthday is in four days and Jamie's 17th birthday is only thirteen days away. It's funny that my oldest will be turning seventeen the same day that my youngest will be four months old. There are eight years between each of my children. We won't be waiting another eight years for the next (last) one.

Gabrielle has found her feet! and now she doesn't want to let go. She really likes those piggies!

Here's a picture...

And a few video clips...

Sunday, February 18, 2007
This Little Piggy

Now everyone is sick. Well, Evan isn't and with him just finishing his antibiotic I doubt he will get it back, but Jeremy has been sick since the night before last and I woke up this morning with a sore throat and feeling like total crap. Fun.

My father-in-law, brother-in-law and his fiance are coming over this evening for a visit and dinner. I am making Garlic Lemon Chicken, twice-baked potatoes, a french loaf bread with melted butter/garlic brushed on top, and peach cobbler. I really wanted to make Garlic Sauteed Artichokes instead of the potatoes, but I don't think that my brother-in-laws fiance is into that type of vegetable. She already said that she doesn't eat asparagus so I doubt sauteed artichokes would go over well. I will probably just throw some green beans in a pan since Evan likes those. Whatever it takes to get my son to eat his veggies! Oh, and I am also making a slow cooker cheese dip with ground beef and hot pork sausage to snack on before dinner.

I took Gabrielle back to the pediatrician today because she had a slight fever this morning and her "cold" has not gotten any better. It turns out she now has Respiratory syncytial virus . They put her on Amoxicillin, which is a liquid, and Albuterol through a nebulizer. My poor baby girl! She has to have breathing treatments every 4 to 6 hours until her chest congestion and cough are gone. I'm so glad we caught it early though. It can be a really bad things for babies. Many infants are hospitalized after being diagnosed with RSV.

I remember a time in my life, not too far in the past, when I could say that I didn't watch tv. Not at all. And it was a true statement. That time is gone. Being a stay-at-home-mom for the past several months has turned me into a television watching fool. That's not to say that my ass never leaves the La-Z-Boy, but it just became more difficult. Our cable company has finally added On Demand, which means that I can watch whatever is playing this month whenever I want. I just watched two episodes of Sex and the City. Between the DVR recording Charmed four times a day, the four shows I watch - Brothers & Sisters, Prison Break, What about Brian, and Grey's Anatomy - on a weekly basis, and now having On Demand... what is to become of me? I think I need to go back to work.. and soon. I've become far too comfortable at home.

A friend of mine made this and sent it to me. Isn't it adorable? I think I will print it and put it in her baby book.

This was forwarded to me by my father-in-law. You know it has to be funny for me to post it here. Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

After all this hard work I received my game yesterday and I am completely disappointed. I knew that it wouldn't be as technologically advanced as modern games because it's release was in 1995 for the original Playstation platform, but this is ridiculous.

It's first person, which I could deal with, but it's also not in "real" time. You hit the "up" button and she moves at a snail's pace toward an object and you sit there and wait until she has reached it. I could make a grilled cheese sandwich in the time it takes her to make one move. Blah. Not to mention there is a two hour time limit to complete the game. If time runs out, game over. My initial reaction after acquiring that knowledge was.. "Um, hello... it takes the character twenty minutes to make one move. The game consists of 3 discs. How is this possible?"

After playing it once last night, I came to the realization that I could actually beat the game in that amount of time. I think there is only about 25 minutes of play time on each disc. What a waste of my valuable time and energy. So, I'm going to sell it on eBay for twice what I paid for it. Fingers crossed. Perhaps I can sell it to this guy! Wouldn't that just make everything worth it?

Well, according to Evan's doctor, he is better. Not great yet, but better than he was. He is still coughing a lot and congested, but the doctor said that the antibiotics will continue to work for several days and he will get a little better each day.

Gabrielle, on the other hand, is sneezing and coughing like crazy. Luckily she has her 3 month check up with the pediatrician tomorrrow so I will get her checked out completely and see what they can do for her. I can't stand when she coughs. She sounds like she is choking most of the time and it totally freaks me out. The over-the-counter medication doesn't really do anything for her (as far as getting rid of it) and I don't think they will put her on an antibiotic since she isn't running a fever. The whole situation with both kids being sick just stresses me out.

I don't even understand the point of getting a tracking number for packages. It's been days since I received it for the video game I got off eBay and it still says "no record for this item." How is that possible? It will probably be just like every other tracker I've gotten - the day it shows up in my mailbox, it will update and say "due to be delivered today." Stupid.

Evan is sick. Jeremy took him to the doctors yesterday morning because the night before he had a fever of 103. Prior to that we thought he simply had a cold. Well, anyone knows once the fever hits, it's time for a doctor visit. So, Jeremy calls me from the doctors office yesterday to let me know that they are doing chest xrays because the doctor thinks he might have pneumonia! Once the xrays came back the doctor determined that he did not have it, but said that he is on the edge. He said if we would have waited another day, he most likely would have ended up in the hospital this weekend. My poor little guy! Now he is on three different medications - all which he hates because they are liquid. He is still sleeping and it's almost eleven. He NEVER sleeps this long. I did have to get him up in the middle of the night because he was coughing so much in his sleep. I gave him a drink and some cough suppressant so he could get some decent rest. I'm sure that, and the fact that he is so sick, is reason enough for him sleeping so long. I feel so bad for him. I hate when my kids are ill.

It was four years ago today that I met my husband. We met at the Trolley Stop - a local "dive" bar - on karaoke night. It seems like so much longer than four years. I don't mean that in a bad way either. I just feel like I've known Jeremy all of my life. Four years down, a lifetime to go.

I just looked on Ticketmaster to see if Incubus has rescheduled yet. Apparently they have because there is a show listed at the State Theater for May 22nd. I'm happy that they are waiting until the end of their tour when it is warmer out because we won't have to freeze our behinds off waiting in line, but I'm not happy that it moved from a Friday night show to a Tuesday night show. Oh, well. I can't do anything about it.

My husband is off work today and tomorrow. I am making dinner both nights. Well, I have been making dinner every night, but these two nights we will actually get to eat at the same time. On weekdays he doesn't get home from work until eight-thirty and I can't wait that long for dinner. Tonight I am making butterfly cut venison chops and twiced baked potatoes. Mmmm.. I can't wait until dinner time. Tomorrow we are having Jeremy's parents over for dinner. I am going to make Angel Chicken Pasta with steamed vegetables and garlic dinner rolls.

Gabrielle turned three months old yesterday. I would have posted pictures then, but she was having a pretty rough day. She is in a much better mood today - thank God.

Evan has been off school for the past two days because of the below zero weather. We are having a blast spending time together! Jeremy has tomorrow and Thursday off work so if Evan is still off school, we will have some quality family time to look forward to.

I finally got my game! Luckily the guy that has been buying all of the copies off eBay wasn't involved. Perhaps he purchased his limit for now. Anyway, I got it for a lot less than he has paid for each of his copies. I won the bid at $16.00 just ten minutes ago. I'm so geeked! I can't wait to play it.

I am turning into Susie Homemaker here. I spent the entire morning going through recipes and making a grocery list. I am making Angel Chicken Pasta for dinner tonight and brownies for dessert. I have to admit, the best part about making brownies is still being able to lick the spoon and scrape the bowl. I guess I'm still a kid when it comes to things like that. I would have shared that "duty" with Evan, but he decided to go down the street to his friends house. You snooze, you lose.. right?

So, back to my eBay hunt for the Playstation game D. One of the two auctions I am currently watching is ending in an hour and forty-five minutes. There is only one bid on it so far. I don't know what made me do it, but I was curious to see what type of things this bidder buys on eBay. I went to his feedback page and started clicking on the item numbers - and let me tell you, this guy buys a lot of stuff on eBay every day. After the 3rd click, I realized he is the same guy that beat me in the last auction that I ran up to $45.00 for the same freaking game! AND.. he won another bid for the same game the day before that! What is this guy trying to do? Why is he buying up all of the copies of the game that I want? It's not fair!!

We left the house this afternoon at around 4pm, made a few stops and headed downtown for dinner and the concert. We paid for parking and went to Hockeytown Cafe for dinner. So far, so good. We paid our bill and proceeded to walk down to the State Theater. Our plan was to wait inside of the State Theater bar so we wouldn't freeze our butts off, but as we got closer I noticed the marquee read: INCUBUS HAS BEEN POSTPONED. What? We got to the front only to be greeted by a member of security who told us that Brandon (the singer) was sick and the show is going to be rescheduled. Well, isn't that just great? We couldn't believe it.

We came home and decided to find something else to do. Nothing was going on anywhere so we figured we would go to a restaurant, have a drink or two and go to a ten o'clock movie. Well, now we know we need a little practice being out in the real world because after our first drink we decided we were too tired to see the movie and ended up back home at nine-thirty searching for our pj's.

Here are some pictures I took of Evan and Gabrielle this afternoon. He loves his little sister so much. I wonder if he'll like hanging out with her as much when he is a teenager and she is 8 years old. Well, I should enjoy the peace while it lasts.

And here are two video clips that I just had to post. Look at how energetic she is in the first. The second clip was taken less than two minutes after the first. It's amazing how fast they drop, eh?

The 3rd video - that I just added - is her enjoying snacking on her hand. She recently figured out how to get those hands into her mouth. It cracks me up!

Friday, February 2, 2007



I changed the date so I could separate them from the others I uploaded today. Ignore that.

Our daughter has slept through the night three nights in a row now. And I mean ALL NIGHT long - 8 hours. I am probably jinxing myself by posting this here, but I just had to put that milestone down somewhere.

Since I am writing about Gabrielle, here are a couple of pictures of her playing yesterday. She will be 3 months old on February 5th. She's growing so fast!

And here is her Easter dress - purchased by her Aunt Diana. My four year old niece, Grace, has the identical dress. They bought them while in Florida this past week. Grace was so excited about the dresses she couldn't wait to get into the car last night to tell me when I picked them up from the airport. I should have taken a picture of her holding both dresses. Oh, well. Here it is. Isn't it adorable?

Jeremy and I are going to the Incubus concert tomorrow night. I was so excited about it, but now that it's here I am getting very nervous about being away from Gabrielle for so long. I know it's silly. Jeremy's mom will be here taking good care of her, but I am going to be a complete wreck. She's going to be here at two o'clock tomorrow afternoon. We are going to do some running around and then go out to eat before the concert. I think after we do our running around I will have to stop back at the house just to see her for a few minutes before we head out.