ally-cat

lucas's first vacation

– lucas did not take a nap the entire day yesterday on the trip to Hilton Head Island, altho he was only fussy for a little bit in the car, not too bad, and then he didn’t go to bed until 830pm! he wouldn’t go to sleep in the pack n play, he screamed and cried until I snuggled him into bed with me and we both fell asleep. he didn’t even wake up when I moved him to the pack n play.

– he woke up for a bottle at 2am and went right back to sleep. he woke up for the day at 630am. mom watched him and I slept until 930. 2 hours later (putting sunscreen on a baby is *hard* because they don’t hold still) we were ready for a walk on the beach.

– I did *not* think that one thru. I guess this is the first time ive really been here in the dead of summer because I didn’t put on a suit or lotion, im used to it being not hot and kinda overcast when ive been to the beach here before, bad plan. lucas however, had been fully lotioned and suited up at least.

– he fell over trying to walk on the puffy sand part and did his thing where he freezes because he has encountered new terrain and doesn’t know what to think of it. so mom and I carried him down to the hard-packed sand area and then he was zoomin. he ran all over the place just having fun running in an open space. we finally got him down to the water, but he wasn’t real sure about that. he didn’t cry, but he didn’t play in it an get all happy, either. he just kinda stood there clinging to me or mom, looking not too happy. I tried to show him he could splash in it, but he wasn’t interested. he loved running around on the hard sand and would occasionally run towards the water but not actually go in it. we didn’t stay out there very long because I knew I was broiling, plus we weren’t really equipped for the beach, we just wanted to show it to lucas.

– so I carried him all the way back up to the parking lot (ya know how it’s hard to walk on the fluffy sand part and takes some extra leg muscle? add 30 lbs and flip flops that don’t stay on your feet and you’ll see what a workout this was) and he just curled into his car seat like a newborn. I didn’t want him to go to sleep in the car on the way back to the house, so I was trying to entertain him and he’d just give me these little half laughs like even a real response was just too much effort. one bottle and two minutes in the crib, and he was OUT.

– after nap time we are going to head to the pool for some real swimming

Diary

insomnia update

so last night was my first night sleeping on my own w/o taking a sleeping pill. first, i’d like to say that i don’t understand the sleeping pill addiction thing. *everyone* that i have mentioned to that i started taking sleeping pills has said how they are addicting they are. i don’t understand how they are addicting. i was told they are addicting in that once you get on them, you can’t go to sleep at night without them. well as i lay in bed for an hour last night tossing and turning and *not* sleeping, i was thinking about this, and that makes no sense. if you have insomnia, you aren’t going to sleep. the prescription is given in the first place so that people that can’t fall asleep can fall asleep. so not taking it last night and not being able to fall asleep without it…i’m not “addicted” to the pill, i’m just right back where i started. the only addicting thing about it is the wonderful feeling of a full nights sleep instead of the nightmare-ridden sleep i had last night.

so yeah, i didnt fall asleep until after 1am because i was busy thinking about everything under the sun and i had achey legs and couldn’t get comfy. then once i did fall asleep, i had a nightmare about ghosts and werewolves.

Diary

new car

i got a new car!!! it’s an 07 charger R/T (a little older/more mileage than i wanted, but it had everything else perfect so i couldnt resist). it’s black with a spoiler, flame thrower (hood scoop), front chin spoiler, sun roof, heated leather/suede seats, satellite radio ready, a jack for an mp3 player, and some sorta bluetooth car talky thingy. last night i was doing a search on the chargers and i found one in dallas that was exactly the one i wanted! i decided to go check it out in person and ended up buying it on the spot! i traded in both the truck and Eleanor Erin 😦 which is sad, but it was time for her to go. i was worried she was going to require another major repair before i could trade her in because the accelerator had started making a high pitched whistle noise when pressed. i’m even a little sad to see the truck go. we hadnt needed to haul anything in a long time, so it’s not like we were really using it, but i liked the idea of having it if i ever did need to haul something. but trading them both in knocked $6k off of the purchase price. i also got two free mopeds (random) which was cracking me up. paul thinks i should sell them. while i think itd be funny to keep them and ride them, he pointed out that it was a novelty item and after a week of driving it i would lose interest and not use it so i should just sell it. so i guess that’s what i’ll do. then i’d get like $3000 to pay down the credit card or pay off both the laptops or something. also, the guy that sold me the charger saw our motorcycle and seemed interested in buying it. so if we hear back from him next month, i might be able to get that sold and out of the garage as well. sad thing is, the scooters are probably worth more than the bike 😛

link to my awesome new car

link to my funny new scooter (mine is a pink and white UGA one)

Diary

good day

yesterday i had a good day. it started off a bad day because lucas and i were both cranky. first i got breakfast at bojangles and took it to sarah’s house. i got some super yummy biscuits. then sarah and i went to the dodge dealership to check out chargers. i wish i hadnt brought lucas with me because then sarah had to stay behind and watch lucas while i test drove. lucas was getting cranky so we stopped, took him to mom’s and went up to eat at IHOP. i had nutella crepes and mango sweet tea (heavenly). so then we went back to the dealership to drive the R/T which is the one that im getting, but i wanted to test drive all the different levels to be sure thats what i wanted. i was gonna test drive the SRT even tho i can’t afford it, but some dude went and bought it while we were at lunch. the guy offered to sell me the R/T we test drove, but it was white and i will never own a white car. besides the fact that it is the most boring color on the planet, almost allll our cars growing up were white. mom says this isn’t true that we had many colored cars, but i would like to submit the following into evidence: buick was silver, cadillac elderado was silver, but he painted it white, mercedes was blue, mx3 was white, caravan was white, monte carlo was white, 57 chevy was black but he painted it white, mom’s quest was blue. factoring in my age at the time of ownership as well as length of car ownership, we pretty much entirely had white cars! ok that was a tangent. i want a black, blue, or red car. the guy offered to spray paint it for me, but we did that with my purple bike when i was 14 and i know how that turned out. so the really great news was that the dealership can do all kinds of customizations to the car, like adding a spoiler, changing the front chassis, chin bar, hood scoop, etc. then i want to get a custom paint job done to it depending on what color i get. like silver on black, white on blue, or black on red. im gonna have the hottest mommy car around! im really glad sarah came with me, it made the errand fun rather than stressful. so im really excited now about getting a new car rather than all upset like i was before. guess ill have to come up with a new name tho for the new car. any ideas?

Diary

can you hear me now?

lucas had his hearing test today and he is all good, of course, since my baby is perfect. it was actually 3 tests. one they play a sound into the ear and see if it makes the ear drum vibrate and send it back and it comes back as a graph on a computer. then they play tones into the ear on a second test and it sees if the sound goes past the ear drum to the actual hearing muscle thingy or whatever it is and see if that sends echoes back. the third test was more interesting. we took lucas in this little room that had a tv and speakers in three locations around the room and the doctor plays a quick sound or speaks to see if lucas turns his head towards the sound. he passed all his tests. the only thing of note was that he has some fluid in his right ear. this should go away over time on it’s own and is only a concern if it doesn’t at his next checkup (which is at 15 months). the doctor said it won’t bother/effect him at all, just that it was something to make sure had gone away next time.

Diary

so now that my finger isn’t about to fall off, i can type all that i had originally planned to (well what i can still remember of it).
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firstly, i tried to print something the other day, and my photo printer was jammed. i yanked the paper back out and it was all crud smeared, so i peered down into my printer and saw….it was full of scrambled eggs!! earlier that day out of the goodness of my heart, i left the rest of my unfinished scrambled eggs on a plate on my desk for the kitties to finish off. apparently, someone tried to take some to-go but dropped their booty down into my printer…a lot.

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shoe sitings: brown tennis shoe when you pull out of publix, black loafer-type where you turn from 92 to Woodstock Rd. obviously i’ve seen a lot more since my last posting, but i never remember to report them.

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this weekend, paul was out of town for the Bando Nationals. i thought being a single parent for 3 days would kill me, but thanks to “Nana” (mom’s latest name for herself), it actually wasn’t bad at all. friday we hung out at her house, saturday we hung out at Marietta Square (where Lucas had his first ice cream – homemade vanilla), and then sunday mom took him to her house all day while i stayed home and cleaned house. then when mom brought him back home, we went for Chinese food, leaving paul locked out of the house when he got home from Bando…but it was okay because he just broke into our house.

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i’m over my rage of “omg we are moving out *now*” after a chat with my mom where she basically pointed out that moving out now is cutting off my nose to spite my face and it wouldn’t be more beneficial to me in the long run to stay here and save money. lauren had said something along the same lines earlier, but i was still in my rage then and would not listen to reason.

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mommy is retired!! tuesday was her last day of school EVER. this is very exciting for me as well because now she can’t ever tell me she’s too busy to do something with me and we can do lots of fun outings. tuesday was also pauls 32nd birthday where i even managed to find *one* present he liked…a Buy More t-shirt. other than that it went unacknowledged since he is a holiday spirit scrooge. tuesday was ALSO ryan’s viability day, which basically means he gets counted as a person now in the eyes of the hospital and not a sack of cells.

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i am so in love with carrot cake.

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i really hate when all the good shows end. plus the summer shows havent started yet so i have *nothing* to watch.

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projects i need to work on: 1) Europe planning…we’ve changed up some cities, finally set the dates, and gotten our passports back….time to make the official plans. 2) WordPress – i bought a book on how to do cool new extra stuff to my blog, so i need to delve into that and start breaking my blog. 3) scrapbooking – i’m currently working on Easter and 10 months old, so i’m still behind. then once i catch up on that, i have a billion other albums to work on.

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after the $500 window incident with my dearest Eleanor, we have decided (somewhat – i go back and forth) to sell the camaro. paul wants a honda ridgeline truck. i want a dodge charger. mom thinks we should get a boring, sensible car like an accord or something (no offense to accord owners). i feel like selling my camaro is like giving up the last bit of my identity as an individual and driving just the tribeca or a sensible sedan makes me just a mom and not my own person anymore. What do you think? a) Keep the camaro… The maintenance may be expensive, but so is getting a new car. b) Get a Charger…it makes giving up the camaro not such a sacrifice. c) Get a Ridgeline…it’s Paul’s turn to pick out a car. d) Get an Accord/Camry/Altima whatever cheap sedan that won’t break all the time.

Diary

scramble the printers!

so now that my finger isn’t about to fall off, i can type all that i had originally planned to (well what i can still remember of it).
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i am so in love with carrot cake.

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i really hate when all the good shows end. plus the summer shows havent started yet so i have *nothing* to watch.

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Diary

owww

i just burned myself a tiny, 2nd degree burn on my finger with the hair iron and it hurts like a bitch! i was gonna write a lot more, but apparently typing makes it hurt so never mind im going to go lie on the futon and whine

Diary

jenns dinner in review

tonight i made jenns chicken with sauteed mushrooms and onions dinner. here is what i learned and my results:

– i subbed red, yellow, and green peppers in for the mushrooms because mushrooms are slimy and gross

– i’ve never cut a pepper before.i know i’ve bought them for recipes before but i guess i never cooked them and they just rotted because i had no idea what i was doing. you cannot use an apple corer on a pepper.

– my knives are very dull. this is good because at one point i missed and hit my finger and it didn’t even cut me…but it took forever to slice the veggies. these are the super expensive, cordon bleu cooking knives i inherited from lauren when she moved out of the 1960s era public housing projects back in like 01. i think i should get one of those choppy thingies i saw on an infomercial.

– use lots of excess foil for when you rip it while folding over (which i did multiple times because i kept checking on the doneness of the chicken)

– i did not use butter to cook the veggies, just PAM and i did not use lemon juice as i didnt have any. i’m not saying skip those parts, just that i did.

– the cleanup was way easier than i was expecting…it only took a sec to wash the one pan which was a major plus

– the total cook time took over an hour. 1/3rd of this is because i was taking care of a toddler. 1/3rd was because i had no idea what i was doing

– i accompanied my dinner with a salad and sweet potato fries

– the chicken came out moist for the first time ever and the veggies were quite good. i think it all turned out rather well except that i didn’t find the chicken to be very flavorful. paul thinks it is because i use prepackaged frozen chicken instead of fresh chicken si the chicken didn’t do a great job of sucking up the juices. if i knew even a tiny thing about herbs i could have seasoned it, but i don’t so i’d have probably just screwed it up.

– end conclusion: this meal was definitely easy to make since a noob like me made it and didn’t screw anything up. i think i would make it again sometime if i had a way to chop the veggies faster because i think i made it take 3x as long as it should have.