Teaholic not quite anonymous

Well, good morning. It's Saturday and I'm UP ALREADY and it's 6:30. The cats were out of food, Maddy made a few noises and Ruthie wouldn't stop jumping on the bed. Then my allergies kicked in. So here I am, up. This seems to happen EVERY Saturday.

Today I have a lot of straightening up to do. I want to really take a look at that basement today and start getting it finished off. We still have some random junk floating around in our family room, the spare room isn't quite finished (which is fine) but it could use a bit more decorating and those racks in the laundry room are going to get taken down this weekend.

Have I mentioned Matt and I are going away next weekend? It seemed like it was so far away when we made the plans last month and here it is, upon us! It's so nice of Matt's folks to come on up and stay with Maddy so Matt and I can get out overnight for a couple nights. They are always great about kicking us out of the house anyway--whether out to eat or overnight.

Then on Sunday my parents should be here too when we get back! They just firmed up plans this last week. They are driving down since they have a lot of my old toys they'd like Maddy to have. It's also stuff my mom played with as well. One of them is a wooden table and chair set for Maddy. I'm really excited for that. It will give her a nice place to color!

Well, my children at play signs came yesterday. They are corrugated yellow plastic. They are exactly what I wanted. Last night I went out to Card Factory Outlet and bought two pinwheels, two sprays (silver tinsel that sticks up) and balloon weights. I will tape the pinwheels and sprays to it to make it stand out even more. The weights will help it not tip over even though, really, they are pretty heavy. Of course, I can't just leave what I came for. I bought a couple silly necklaces for Maddy and some plastic summerware as well. It'll be great for her to use. I bought some cards for cheap, too.

I stopped at Giant for a few groceries and then headed home.

Maddy and I played outside in the pool yesterday. We also met daddy for lunch at his work. Maddy loves going to see Matt during the day and loves to run around his towne center with him. I have a couple cute pictures and a short video of it on the gallery if you're interested.

Gotta go! Things to do!

Tea of the day: Gloria Jeans Cinnamon Spice tea
WO of the day:30 minutes elliptical since I didn't get the opportunity yesterday. But I did do all the side work stuff I normally do.

*This* is how our morning went...

So, this morning I get up deciding we would go to church. OK, we can do that. We have enough time. So Matt goes to get ready. I prep the diaper bag (snacks, milk, quiet toys) and get Maddy's clothes out. This sounds like no small feat. But prepping the diaper bag can take forever! Now that the bag is prepped I took Maddy upstairs and got out her clothes for church (isn't that dress cute!!) and then went to our room to get out my clothes. Matt finished up prepping while I hustled through a shower, makeup, hair and clothes. Matt took Maddy back downstairs. As I was finishing up he came upstairs with her and got her dressed and got dressed himself. Out the door we went.

Except... I forgot the church offering. It was in the front pocket of my purse which I decided I didn't need since it didn't match my outfit and really, we were only going to church and Matt had his wallet and keys... Oh well, right?

Except... We were leaving about 20 minutes before church starts and our church is very crowded. Oh well, we'll find a seat somewhere. Maybe it will be halfway up the church, but we'll find a place. Maddy will be fine.

Except... She wasn't fine. You see her face in this picture. Matt had to fight her to get her dressed and she was fussy all the way to church. This wouldn't be a big deal...

Except... It was raining and traffic was pretty crowded. Not to mention it was the Sunday crowd.. Oh well, we're almost there. Sure we may be 10 minutes late once walk in the door but at least we made it!

Except...Wait, isn't it confirmation Sunday?! So it will be doubly crowded with no place to sit and us showing up late with a fussy baby.

WE TURNED AROUND AND WENT BACK HOME.

Ok, let's go out for breakfast. Eh, Maddy's fussy, we better not. Ok, let's go to the mall and let her walk around and burn off some of this attitude/energy. That's what we did. And she loved it. She had a blast. We were all dressed up with no place to go but the mall. It wasn't open yet, so it wasn't very crowded so Maddy had a lot of room to run but nothing she could really get into or get hurt on. She loved going up and down the elevator since it has a clear back and she can see out.

So why not stop for McD's on the way home? Oops, there is a drive through (I hate the spelling of thru. Call it the teacher in me. Random, I know) line backed up a mile long. Matt went in. They stopped serving breakfast 3 minutes ago. He came back out.

Let's just go HOME. So home we went. Maddy was fussy the entire time in the door, even when I tried to get her to eat Matt's famous omelette's. He makes the best omelettes and Maddy loves them. Oh well, so her and I snuggled while Matt ate and then cleaned up lunch. Then Matt and her snuggled while I did some more cleaning and having a hot cup of tea.

Off for a nap she went and I did some Pilates. Now Matt is playing a XBox Game. Whew, what a morning. Yesterday was pretty uneventful. We worked on the basement some while Maddy napped. Then Matt mowed the lawn and I did some turf builder which has been washed out in the rain. Oh well! Matt took Maddy to Target to get some new hoses for both the front and backyards since I didn't feel like either one of them really worked well. Now we have a regular hose in the back with a ossolating sprinkler and a curly hose in the front with a twirling sprinkler or hand sprayer attachment. Matt bought a timer as well so I can set up the sprinkler for a certain time limit and not have to go back out to shut it off. That will be very handy!

OK, well, I'm off. Have a good one!

Tea of the day: Coffee, Gloria Jeans Cinnamon Stick Black Tea and ROT Panda Berry Herbal
WO of the day: Giam Pilates Intermediate Mat workout DVD and will do some Balance ball stuff as well later. Maddy loves to 'help' me do that!

I have procured one coat. Whoo whoo! Maddy's summer coat has been MIA since April--at least. I thought it was in Matt's trunk but I never bothered to look for it. When I finally did and it wasn't there, I searched the rest of the house. Nope, not there either. Then it dawned on me. I think I left it at our old church. So I emailed Pastor and sure enough, it was there. So I took the drive tonight to pick it up and and then went over to Wegmans to hang out for a bit. It was nice to get out of the house.

Our day here was pretty uneventful. Maddy took a 3 hour nap and it was really nice to hang out some. She swung on the swing in the backyard before it and loved it. I wanted to take her out since she was falling asleep but she kept shaking her head no. I think she wanted to fall asleep in the swing! I'm pretty sure she wanted to spend her nap there. Well, I asked her if she wanted a pillow (since her head was bobbing) and she nodded yes. So I went in the back door and grabbed a throw pillow off the couch. She conked right out and went to sleep! GEEZ. So after about 10 minutes I stopped the swing and carried her upstairs.

She's become quite a girlie-girl though. She loves my lipglosses and knows which vanity drawer I store them in. She doesn't care about the eyeshadow drawer, lipstick drawer (yet) or foundation drawer... nope, just the lipgloss drawer. She takes them out and bring them to me to put on her. I have to say, it's REALLY cute. She also seems to be taking more of an interest in her clothes too. Her crib faces a mirror and when I get her dressed she likes to look in the mirror at what she's wearing. She especially likes dresses.

Ok, well, it's late. I've been going to bed way to late the last few nights and need to get some more sleep.

Tea of the day: Gloria Jeans Cinnamon Spice Black Tea
WO of the day: 20 minutes elliptical, balance ball moves.

So, I've never brought up my neighbor before now, but now is the time. My neighbor's backyard is atrocious. Weeds, poison ivy, garbage, you name it. It's disgusting. However, she herself is pretty decent. Quiet, keeps to herself but is also friendly. So I've overlooked it. 6 ft fences make good neighbors. Well, of course this summer Maddy wants to play outside and I want her to be in the backyard some. But I don't know what's growing/living in my neighbor's backyard. It should be noted that we've ALWAYS cut her front yard, too. So a few months ago, I spoke to her about it and she said she'd do something about it. Nothing... Then, Matt got poison ivy (which spread from her backyard) and he went to talk to her about it. Still nothing. So we stopped cutting her front yard. It hasn't been mowed in about 3 weeks. Yesterday we got a note on our door stating that she has signed with a yard service and they will do both the front and back soon. WHOOO WHOOO!

But that brings us to the tree. She has a pear tree sapling in her front garden that is just TOO BIG to be where it is and too close to the house. She will be cutting it down but offered to let us have it and transplant it if we want it in our yard. I'm not really sure they are going to be able to get the tree OUT of the ground well enough to consider transplant. If they can, I would like to ask how much the cost would be to put it on our property line.

Matt and I wanted to plant a tree when Maddy was born. But we never did get around to it. This tree sprouted up on it's own in my neighbors garden. Matt pruned it and kept track of it. I'll be honest, I know it's our neighbor's tree and that it can't stay there. But I will be sad to see it go if it gets cut down. So given the cost is right, I'd like to call this Maddy's tree and replant it in our own yard.

So we're getting a new water heater tomorrow. Ours is rusted and starting to leak. SHEESH that takes a bite out of the budget! But we need it and we don't know when ours could possibly go.

Unfortunately, I need to miss a playgroup because of it that I was really looking forward to. But, what can I do. I need the water heater installed! Speaking of, I really need to get some playgroups set up for this summer. Thursday mornings are out for me since Maddy will have dance 'class'. But, every other day is basically free. I really hope my mom's groups pick back up again in summer that way. Maddy needs other kids!

Tea of the day: Gloria Jeans Cinnamon Spice Black Tea
WO of the day: Will do elliptical tonight, I've already done pilates and ball work.

Not much to say tonight. Did a lot of organizing today and had our new water heater put in. Just wanted to post that I took a cute video of Maddy chatting to Joe. (Her shirt got full of soup and it was warm enough to not really need one.)

Click the picture to get to the video.

There are six misc. small things that still need to get done before it's REALLY finished (put in closet doors, paint entry door, paint panel door, put on a couple more outlet plates, fix the filing cabinet, stain closet doors), but for the most part, all done! Here's the before and after. if you click on the pictures it will take you to more before and after pictures.

I really like the way it turned out. I'm still not sure on the positioning of the bed, but we can always fuss with that later. It's 'decorated' so to speak but I just threw some miscellaneous decorations and pictures together and the furniture doesn't match. But heck, it's a place to sleep! It's better than sleeping on the couch or at a hotel. I do love the way the color turned out for that room. It's really pretty. We used plastic trim that we didn't need to stain and, man, was that a time saver!

Other than that, I finished the cleaning I wanted to do before we leave tomorrow. I'm really excited to get away for a bit. Oh, to sleep in or at least not HAVE to get out of bed right away in the morning!

I had a great phone call with my health care insurance company. I know, it's amazing! Last December I filled out a personal health survey and they called about a month later and asked if I'd be interested in participating with a registered dietitian and physiologist to better my health. Hey, it's free and over the phone, so what the heck. Well, they never called me back, until today. The dude was fabulous. I was so impressed with his knowledge base and how helpful and down to earth he was. Although the guy has done triathlons, he didn't insist I try to work out more (just differently) or do more than I was comfortable with. He was very supportive and when I suggested certain goals he told me to actually back OFF a bit and start slower. He was friendly, helpful and certainly knowledgeable. I was really REALLY impressed. It was everything I wanted my doctor's visit to be!!! So YEAH! They will call back in 45 days and I'm not quite sure who I'll get, but I am hoping it will be this same guy. Man he was GOOD.

So what are my new goals?
1. Eating more protein.
2. Less snacking at night/no wine (waaa!).
3. Vary my workout and do 2 days strength training or other activities other than elliptical.

Ok, well, everyone have a great weekend! Matt's parents are on their way right now and should be here in about an hour and half. My parents get on the road on Saturday morning!

WO of the day: 30 minutes elliptical (I did 45 yesterday to make up for the day before)
Tea of the day: 2 cups Cinnamon Spice Black Tea

Well, Matt and I had a great time in Annapolis this weekend. The drive up was pretty pleasant. We stopped for breakfast (my favorite crab cake benedict) and a quick Walmart stop before heading onto the hotel. We stayed at the Double Tree which tend to be hit or miss. This one was decent, although not as nice as some I've stayed at. We were able to check in early (although was first checked into a room that was stripped but not clean, so we needed to go get a different room).

Friday was pretty uneventful. We went over to the not-so-small strip mall near the hotel to have icecream at Maggie Moos, but detoured to the liquor store (which has quite a selection compared to Virginia's state run ABC stores), then a vitamin store to get liquid vitamins for Maddy and then to Five Below. I bought some cute stuff there including a board game, a purse and fuzzy pillow for Maddy, and two hurricane glasses for Matt and I. Then off to the ice cream store. For dinner we ordered in pizza and breadsticks.

We noticed workmen working on the sprinkler system on our floor while we checked in and Matt said, "Wouldn't it suck to have a fire now?!", joking of course. Well, at 6 pm the fire alarm for the building went off. So, since we weren't unpacked yet, I grabbed the suitcase and we headed out the stairs. Turns out that the kitchen burned something and there really WAS smoke in the lobby. Fortunately, the sprinkler system seemed to be fixed by that point.

Friday night we decided to go out for dessert, but the WATER didn't agree with me so I actually wound up getting sick. Don't ask me how water-WATER of all things can get me ill, but it did. YUCK. I didn't know at that time it was the water, I thought I had ate too much that evening, but I did find that out the next night. That put a damper on the evening.

Saturday morning we went to Panara for breakfast and then straight out to Historical/downtown Annapolis to do some shopping/touristy-sight seeing. We stopped at Lilac Bijoux and I was so impressed with their jewelry, selection, customer service (I was served by Beth, the owner) and also price! One of the items is at the right. If you click on it, you'll see the others I purchased as well. Beth recommended some more shops around downtown and a place for lunch. So we enjoyed our leisurely stroll around town and did a few more purchases. We ate lunch at Federal House which was WONDERFUL. However, there was this one little old lady who kept calling the server so RUDELY every three minutes, I kid you not. What on earth do you need every three minutes? Seriously! I guess the older people get the more 'entitled' they feel they are of people's attention and time. But I had a salad for lunch and it was quite pleasant.

After lunch we decided to drive around town a bit and reconnoiter our highly recommended dinner spot. Well, we went back to the hotel, got ready and went. The place couldn't decide if they were upscale or casual. I don't mind either and wasn't really hoping for either. But don't try to charge me $30 a plate when I have a two year old next to me and people in shorts being quite loud all around me. But it had the snobbiest wait staff on the face of the planet. So, after being seated and receiving water (just tap, please, thanks) we left! It wasn't a place I wanted to spend +$100 on. We wound up going back to the hotel because the restaurant on sight actually intrigued me every time I walked by and it smelled GREAT. We went and it wasn't at all crowded and the food (crab/mango appetizer, coconut shrimp appetizer, steak with a potato side and drink) was great. After dinner we headed back to the room to change and went back down for dessert later.

Again with the water thing! I had a full glass of water before dessert and I was again nauseous. I did make it through this time, but again, I wound up wanting to lay around all evening just because I felt so horrible.

The next morning we actually slept in until 9:30 and went to brunch at a great local place and it was just fabulous. I was itching to see Maddy, so we headed home not long after.

Grandma and Grandpa had a great time with Maddy this weekend, but they did WAY too much. Not only did they watch Maddy, Matt's mom also washed all the sheets (since they slept in our bed and my parents were coming for the guest room bed), wiped down the bathrooms, cleaned up the house and shopped/prepped for dinner for the six of us!!! We had the best steaks, potatoes and mushrooms. All delicious. We had so much left over we had steak and eggs for dinner tonight.

My parents got here almost the same time we did. Maddy warmed up to them pretty quickly which I was hoping for but wasn't really sure what would happen. We all hung out, had a delicious dinner and Matt's parents went home. Crazy, but I was actually pretty tired from the weekend so we went to bed kind of early.

Not a whole lot happened here today. Maddy, grandma and grandpa and I went to the park, played a lot and played on the deck by the pool. During her nap I ran up to JC Penny to pick up her pictures. Here's on to the left. If you click on it, it will take you to the other three.

But it's late and I need to get to sleep! Have a great night!

Tea of the day: Coffee, since that's what everyone else was having.
WO: Sorry to say, I never did get around to it today.

Matt on the roof installing the new digital antenna. Click on the picture to see it enlarged.

Well, we had a very nice week with my folks here. We did a lot of hanging out and playing, mainly. We did some shopping, going to the park and to the local farm. We played on the deck a lot with the pool and swung on the swing. It was a nice week all the way around.

I did pick up Maddy's pictures on Monday and by Wednesday afternoon they were all cut, sorted, letters written and mailed out! I had people in WI getting them in the mail as early as Friday and I was just shocked. I didn't think they'd get them THAT fast. They turned out fabulous though and I am quite happy with them.

Matt climbed up on the ROOF of our three story townhouse today. He borrowed a ladder from one neighbor and then had another neighbor spot him while he put an antenna for digital signal on the roof. I did take a picture but I am too lazy to go and get it. :) I may post it later.

Even though it's been a week since I last blogged, I don't have a whole lot to say?! I guess I'm tired. I just didn't sleep good last night. As a matter of fact, I'm going to bop out and take a nap while I can since Maddy is sleeping. Have a good one!

Coffee all week with creamer and splenda since it was there.
No workout all week either. Getting back one the wagon this weekend though!!!

Maddy playing purses with mommy.

Happy Father's day to all you daddies out there! I hope you have a wonderful day! I offered to let Matt do whatever he wanted today and he's decided to put together his new computer and bring back up our P drive. I also offered to have whatever he wanted for dinner (eating out, ordering in or me making it) and he wants chili mac! While it may not be good for us, at least it's good for the budget and easy for me! Thanks hon!

I realize I haven't talked tea that much lately. As a teaholic, I've been falling down on the job. But honestly, I've been bored with tea lately. It's not that I haven't liked it or been drinking it, but my stash is down to the 'bare bones' so there hasn't been much variety to talk about. (Although I was pretty excited to find more Stash Green Chai tea since I do love that one so much.)

So this morning I gathered up all my tea and took inventory. Here's what I ended up with:

-40 bags of Stash Chai Green Tea
-18 bags of Stash Decaf Chai Black Tea
-20 bags of Celestial Seasons Sugar Plum Spice Herbal Tea
-10 bags of Republic of Tea Panda Berry Herbal Tea
-5 loose servings of Gloria Jeans Cinnamon Spice Tea
-7.5 oz tin of Ahmad English Afternoon loose tea
-3.5 oz Gloria Jeans Gunpowder Green Tea
-large bag and large box of 'China Tea' Green Tea from our chinese neighbors

Ok, so that's STILL a lot of tea. Just counting the tea bags, I still have enough tea for 44 days of tea (at 2 cups a day). Now add in my loose tea and I'm sure I have enough tea for at least a 1/2 year, probably closer to a year.

However, I'm not too sure about the large bag and box of green tea (same brand) from my neighbors. I've had a couple cups of the green tea but I've found it quite bitter (not all green tea is like this) so I may need to experiment a bit and see if I can get it to be more palatable. If I can't though, I'm calling it a loss and tossing it.

But overall, I am excited at how much tea I've used up and how I have NOT been purchasing it. Sure, I have enough tea to last me about another year, but it's NOTHING compared to the amount of tea I used to own. I would say I've culled my stash down to about 1/5 what I used to have by drinking it.

I see this as two different purchases: herbal/decaf and caffeinated. So once one kind is used up, I'll be able to purchase that kind without feeling that I'm just adding to my horde of teas. Of course, the herbal will go first considering most of it is bagged so it's easy to see how much I have left and know that really, I have about 48 tea servings of herbal tea left. That will most likely last me about a month, probably less.

I've also made my second batch of sun tea of the season. Today I threw about 15 panda berry tea bags in with two cold brew lipton sun tea bags and let it steep for about 3 hours outside on the deck. It is really delicious. I find the panda berry tea to be a bit too fruity for me on it's own, but add in a bit of black tea and it's a very nice combination. The sun brings out different flavors in my sun tea as well. I like using herbal tea bags with just a couple caffeinated tea bags because that allows me to drink sun tea into the evening hours and also allows me to get a big cold glass of it without getting jittery from the caffeine. But it still gives me the black tea flavor, too.

Next time I do sun tea I'm contemplating making a very VERY strong batch of my decaf black chai and after it cools mixing it with milk and splenda, trying my hand at a iced chai latte. But I think, really, I'm better off making regular strong iced tea and boiling the water for the chai so that way it doesn't need to steep as long (only 5 minutes with boiling water) a sun tea (3 hours) risking the chance it could be bitter after that long. Whatever the case, with milk and splenda, it will taste great chilled.

If this turns out well enough, I'd consider trying the same thing with my green chai tea as well. But I'd most definitely have to do a iced tea thing with that, since green tea has more of a likelihood than black tea to become bitter.

Those are my tea thoughts for the day.

Tea of the day: Gloria Jeans Cinnamon Spiced tea, Panda Berry Black Sun tea
WO of the day: Nothing, but I did organize my workout material and search for my balance ball pump, which, alas is still MIA. My ball is deflating a bit, so I really do need to find it!

That poor, poor roller skating bear. *tsk, tsk....sigh*.

My parents brought down a lot of my stuff from when I was a kid including some WEIRD stuff and also some pretty cool things, too. One of them was a roller skating bear who roller skates while playing music. It's pretty cool. It actually DOES work without falling over. Unless, of course, you're an excited 18 month old who really REALLY wants to help push the bear along. OOPS. Maddy decapitated the poor bear. I THINK it could be fixable with a little bit of super glue and some patience holding it back together. (Men's love of duct tape is nothing compared to my love for super glue. I keep it on hand at all time and I know how to use it. Just check out our berber carpet!) In her defense it is older than time (like me) and the tiny bit of plastic holding the neck in place was small and very brittle. So it definitely didn't take much. She was quite disappointed when it broke.

I've been very surprised at how well Maddy has done today. I need to give that little girl a bit more credit, I think. I just assumed that after a weekend with the grandparents here and no mommy and daddy, then mommy and daddy and another set of grandparents to mommy and daddy on the weekend to just ME on Monday she'd be a bit off. But nope, she had a really great morning. She played independently a lot and was quite pleasant. She also ate a pretty good breakfast, too (although I can't say the same for lunch).

Although, she did have too much TV today. She's had too much TV lately, all the way around. How much TV do your kids watch? I'm embarrassed to even TELL you how much Maddy watches. Now, it's all kid's programming for preschoolers with no commercials, but STILL. I need to cut back on that for her.

Speaking of the muchkin, I better get a move on! I believe I hear her stirring and there's a couple other things I want to do before she's up. Maybe I'll post more tonight.

Tea of the day: 2 cups Gloria Jeans Cinnamon (gone), 1 cup sun tea
WO fo the day: weights, resistance bands, sit ups, push ups, jumping jacks for 1/2 hour. Maddy loved to do the jumping jacks with me.

Image credit goes to www.thepaintedpear.com

Let me just say, Maddy understands the concept of a horn. Maddy and I needed to go grocery shopping today. Boy, did we need to go! We were virtually out of all fresh fruits and veggies not to mention down to our last frozen bag of mixed vegetables. So off we went. I put Maddy in one of those shopping carts that have the car for kids to sit in on the front. I didn't think she'd stay in it, honestly. I thought she'd stay in it for five minutes or so or until we came to the first stop and she'd want to get out and walk around. Nope! She LOVED it. The only time she wanted to get out was at the checkout and then I couldn't blame her since she couldn't see anything since the checkouts were in her way.

But anyway, she found the horn on steering wheels of the car. So as I would 'drive' her around the store, she'd honk one horn. Then she'd honk the other horn. Pretty soon she was honking both of them together! And the faster I went, the faster she'd honk them. Once she even 'yelled' at a store clerk because he had a large cart in the middle of the aisle. It was as if she's telling him, "GET OUT OF OUR WAY!" It was funny. (Yes, I did call her down for that after I giggled though.)

Speaking of calling her down... she's a stubborn little thing. Yesterday Matt and I were in the kitchen after dinner cleaning up and Maddy decided to start throwing the magnetic letters associated with her Leapfrog sound-it-out toy. Well, she threw two and Matt tells her no. She threw another one and he tells her NO again. Well, after the third one he looked at me like, "What the hell am I supposed to do now?!" So he picks her up and takes her in the living room and puts her down, again, telling her no. He comes back in the kitchen and she follows behind him, runs to the dishwasher where the letters are, looks at him and throws another one! By this point I am DYING laughing. I couldn't help it. I was trying to hide it but I knew I wasn't doing a very good job. So, again, he picks her up, takes her into the living room and it happens again AND AGAIN. Finally, she stopped...although I can't remember why now, I think she just got bored? But man, she has her own little mind, that's for sure. She's a hoot!

Tomorrow I have a playgroup with a small group of friends and then tomorrow night I have Mom's Night Out. Thursday I have another playgroup at a park not too far from our house. That should be fun!

Oh, we're getting Verizon Fios TV installed again. Yes, again. Well, it's $13 less a month than DirecTV for more channels and it's all digital. I don't like the interface that much but for $13 off, I'll take it. Plus, because we get all three services (TV, internet and phone) from Fios we get a $25 bundle discount. So really, that's a good chunk of change! They are supposed to be updating the interface of the Verizon DVR really soon, so hopefully that will make it all better anyway.

Alrighty, I'm going to brave the heat and vacuum out the car. Call me crazy, but I can't stand the stale goldfish crackers in the back seat another second. And trust me, I'm NOT one of those crazy car people who wash their car every weekend. (And if you are, yes, I just called you crazy.) My car hasn't been washed since last summer (at a charity car wash) and before that it had been YEARS. I don't think I've ever vacuumed out the inside of the car. EVER. I'm itching to try my new cordless dustbuster, too. Call me nuts.

Tea of the day: Suntea--it's gone, but I made more.
WO of the day: Elliptical for 30 minutes and resistance bands.

Well, Maddy and I have had a blast these last couple of days. Yesterday we had a playgroup at one of Maddy's friend's houses. Her and Annabelle get along SO GREAT. They share toys, share Annabelle's favorite blanket (at Annabelle's prompting), chase her kitty together and throw balls back and forth (and wacking each other in the head with them, on accident, of course). They are two little peas in a pod! So cute! After we got home from Annabelle's Maddy promptly took a 3.5 hour nap! WOW!

Last night I had Mom's Night Out. We went out to eat and it's always fun to hang out with the gals. After dinner I ran all over God's green earth and looked for ballet slippers for Maddy. I'm still at a loss with that, but I've heard through the grapevine that I can find them at a store around here. So I may try to go out tonight after Maddy is in bed and get that. I closed the mall and Target last night! It's been a long time since I've heard, "Target is closing in five minutes." Ha!

This morning Maddy got up late 8:00 and I wound up skipping my workout. I'm hoping to fit something in later in regards to weights. Maybe still this nap if I get the other stuff done I want to do. Then I prepped a bag for the park I was meeting the other moms from my moms' group at. It's quite a little drive there and back, so I didn't want to forget anything. I swear, I pack everything but the kitchen sink. Fortunately, her diaper bag is always packed anyway, so I only need to really worry about food and drinks. However, since Maddy loves milk and I don't want it to get warm and icky, I bring along an insulated bag with cooler packs for it, plus this time I also brought along water and grapes. Of course, I brought along the tried and true popcorn and veggie sticks, too. Maddy wanted nothing to do with the grapes which I found unusual since they were cold and wet, but went straight for the veggie sticks. She also didn't want her milk either! That TOTALLY surprised me, but I put it in a different sippy cup that normal (an insulated one). So I think that had a lot to do with it. She did drink a lot of water though.

I was worried that all my packing would be for naught. Maddy sometimes doesn't like to stay at parks very long and gets tired of it. But she LOVED it and we stayed for TWO hours. She's never stayed in one place that long before without getting tired of it. I think because there were so many things to do there and the fact she took breaks really helped keep her going.

I'm still surprised that this park is free. It's huge with a TON of things to do. The only downfall is that because it's so new there's very little shade. They made shady areas, but there still aren't that many. They've planted a lot of trees but I don't see them really doing much good until Maddy is at least 10! So besides the cost of gas and 1.50 for the carousel (which she didn't HAVE to go on and didn't seem to much care until I asked if she wanted to go), it's a free morning!

This morning the day wasn't that hot so I dressed her in capris, tshirt, socks and tennis shoes. But after being on the playground for a while it was SO HOT. I was glad I had my little sunblock that I keep in the diaper bag so I put some on both Maddy and I. I always know when Maddy gets hot though, since her cheeks turn bright pink and her hair gets curly. It's cute but also a good indication of how she's doing, too. She was very good about taking her own breaks. She'd find a seat in the shade, sit down and ask for a snack. She did that twice on her own and sat for about 10 minutes in each place. We also sat on a picnic table in the shade for a while and had a snack as well.

Maddy went on the carousel while we were there and really took it all in. She wasn't afraid of it, but just really seemed interested. They have belts to go around the waist and that's nice for me because as long as she's not purposely squirming she won't fall off and I can have my hands free. I took some pictures and they are on my gallery under Maddy's page.

Maddy didn't fuss when it was time to go home. I asked if she was ready and she said, "Yep." So off to the car we went! She was great the whole way home as long as I kept supplying her with veggie sticks. She was quite hungry since it was past lunch time when we finally made it home. Now she's down for a nap and I'm predicting she'll sleep for a good long while! That's great, since I have some stuff I want to get done while she's asleep.

Next week is going to be a fun week as well. We have playgroup on Tuesday morning, going to a free kid's show in the park with a few mom friends on Wednesday morning and then baby Ballet on Thursday morning!

Tea of the day: 2 large glasses of sun tea
WO of the day: None yet, but I'm pulling out my weights to do during the day today.

Since Maddy and I have been out and about so much over the last few days I feel like the house has been falling down around me. So Friday we spent at home and I spent part of the day trying to catch up some. SHEESH, I feel like as soon as I accomplish one thing four more pop up in their place. I don't know how all stuff tends to accumulate the way it does, but I am CONSTANTLY putting things away. Drives me NUTS. The kitchen tends to be the worst. It's a dropping spot for everything and anything because it's the one area that Maddy can't reach yet and still is easily accessible to me. What I need is a good three hours with Matt and Maddy out of the house to REALLY get this place organized and cleaned up. I did get three good loads of laundry done, though.

I tried my hand at stuffed peppers on Friday. I had red, yellow and orange peppers from BJs that were starting to turn so I thought it'd be a good way to use them. I kind of winged it with the filling since I wanted to use what I had on hand. So I stuffed it with italian sausage, tomato sauce, 1 can of green chilies and tomatoes, and brown rice. I dumped a can of Progresso Tomato Soup over the top. They were REALLY decent! I liked it with the sausage instead of hamburger. I added a small bit of shredded mozzarella over the hot peppers at the end before serving. I wound up having so much filling that I sent Matt and Maddy out to get more peppers for Saturday, too. Although, I didn't like the way Saturday's turned out. I had to add more tomato sauce to the filling since it dried out some overnight and it lost some of it's bite.

Matt went into work for four hours on Saturday. He was discussing working late a couple of nights last week and I asked him if he could just do the Saturday thing instead and if it was possible. I am pretty beat by 6 when he gets home from work that I'd rather have Maddy to myself on Saturday for a bit than put her to bed by myself on the week day. It was quite productive though to get ahead since there wasn't anyone there to bug him with the day-to-day type stuff and emails to respond to.

Speaking of Matt and work. He's officially been given the OK to hire someone to work for him as Information Security... (forgot the official title) 'guy'. So that's increased his job title to Information Security Manager. Plus, another of his coworkers quit on Friday and he's now interim manager for that as well while they find someone to hire in the next couple of weeks. I know he feels pretty good that his work is being acknowledged and that things are going well.

We have quite a busy day 'tomorrow' (but since it's 3:30 I guess I should just say 'this morning'). We have church in the morning. We haven't been in forever. Our last attempt was three weeks ago! Then I'm hoping to get Maddy an early lunch and then nap because we have a birthday party in the afternoon to attend.

Ok, I'm going to try to get some more sleep. I have some really cute pictures of Maddy with some italian ice yesterday, but I didn't want to go rummaging around in the kitchen (again, it's always in the kitchen) and waking the house up to get the uploaded. I will do so tomorrow.

Goodnight, I hope!

Tea of the day: Yesterday I had two large glasses of suntea
WO: None yesterday, but the day before I did a lot of weights, resistance bands and jump rope. While I don't feel like it's as good of a workout as my elliptical, it's good to vary my workouts. We'll see how this goes! Oh, Verizon has FitTV and it's great for recording and then doing during the day.

Today was a pretty decent day overall. We finally made it to church and Maddy made it through the entire service. Given, she was extremely squirmy, but quiet for the most part. There was one time towards the end of service she had me laughing so hard I was almost crying. You could tell she had HAD it. She was stir crazy and Matt was holding her. She was doing gymnastics in his arms and just being plain silly. (We were in the back pew, so as long as she was quiet, we only had 10 minutes left so...whatever.) I was singing a hymn and next thing I know she bent over, gave me a kiss and as quickly as she appeared she was gone. It was cute. She also sang some hymns in church today, too and it was really cute.

After her nap we went back out to a birthday party for a girl in my mom's group. Maddy had an absolute blast and played virtually the entire time all by herself. Now and again she'd look at us and what not, but we had to go out to her the entire time to bring her water or try to cool her off. It was warm out and her cheeks were flushed. But she found the bubble table and from that point forward nothing could have persuaded her to do anything else. Matt said he wished she wasn't 'quite' so independent since she seemed to go from needing us to not needing a thing from us in less than a day! After her cupcake which she didn't touch (give her chips and she'll chow down) we headed home. It was time for a bath!

We came home and Matt gave her a bath while I cleaned up and made dinner. However, Maddy is in a really bad habit of throwing food over the last week. If it's something she doesn't want she hurls it off her tray. She's doing the same with toys in the living room. I'm hoping this is a stage because honestly, it's extremely frustrating to #1 waste food (since at least I can save what she doesn't eat in a gladware but can't do that if she throws it) #2 I need to clean it up! Grrr....

Ok, well, I'm off to hang out. I'm hoping for an early bedtime tonight. Have a good one!

Tea of the day: Quick coffee this AM and a big glass of sun tea this afternoon.
WO of the day: Nothin' today! Back on the elliptical in the morning though!

So this morning Maddy was supposed to have playgroup with a little friend from playgroup, but last night she woke up really snotty and runny twice before midnight. So at midnight I emailed and canceled. I feel bad since last time I had to cancel because of the new water heater being installed, but what can I do?

I'm still pretty sure what she has is bad allergies since she was outside at the park on Sunday for a quite a while playing in the field. She doesn't feel warm, isn't lethargic or overly whiny, just really snotty, runny and sneezy. I can tell she feels so uncomfortable.

Of course, that puts our plans for this weekend going down by Matt's parents more up in the air than before. If it's allergies, then we could still go if she's not feeling too bad. If it's a cold we'll need to see if it can clear up before then. I am hoping it does clear up before Thursday since she does have baby ballet!! Ah, the best laid plans!

Last night I had a church meeting at my old church to talk about their Vacation Bible Camp. They have asked me to help out which I'm happy to do except of course I'll have Maddy in tow. I also can only help out three of the five days because of baby ballet and then Maddy has a well baby visit on that Friday. After church I ran over to get gas at BJs and pick up milk for Maddy/take something back at Walmart. I returned home about 9:45.

I was so stupid though at church. I had coffee! What was I THINKING?!?! I was up on and off all night last night and was DEFINITELY not ready to go to bed at 11:30. Matt asked me to turn off my alarm about 11 last night and when I realized how bad I was going to sleep, I agreed. He said he'd give me some time to get ready this AM for playgroup. But at Midnight I didn't find that necessary either since I canceled. We didn't get up until about 7:30 this morning and it was pretty nice.

Maddy and I only went one place today--back to BJs to get the other car some gas and back home. It is sooo hot (it's 89 feels like 104, humidity at 49%, dew point 69) and humid out that I didn't want to take Maddy grocery shopping since she feels so crappy and in the heat, in and out of the air conditioning, I don't know how patient she'd be in the store much less me dragging groceries in and out of the car on a 95 degree day. So I punted on that. I'm going to go tonight right as Matt walks in the door so I can be back before she goes to bed to help out with the bedtime routine.

I did get my workout in today. I did a Crunch Burn and Firm Pilates which I don't see as a Pilates video, but it is a good cardio/weights video. I was able to fit my shower in, too. Well, I'm surprised Maddy is still sleeping since she's sneezed five times in a row now. She's probably all runny. Poor thing. She'll let me know when she's ready to be up.

Ok, well, I need to make my grocery list and plan out dinners for the rest of this week. I've also bit off more than I can chew in my bedroom. I threw all the rest of my clothes that I need to sort through onto my bed... UH! I CAN'T EVEN SEE MY BED. I need to get that done before Matt gets home so I can go grocery shopping and still have some place to sleep tonight and something to eat tomorrow! I don't know what I was thinking.

I'm off!

Tea of the day: Large glass of suntea, finished the pitcher, but I made more!
WO of the day: Crunch Burn and Firm Pilates

Well, Maddy officially has a cold. I realized it last night when she started to get a bit of a fever. So she's on Tylanol cold and she's doing OK with it. She was absolutely miserable last night though between 5 and bedtime at 7:30. We did a lot of snuggling and rocking in the chair. I wanted to try to keep her up to see Matt, but that didn't work. He had to sit in on an interview after work hours last night and then stopped as well to get groceries on the way home since I didn't take Maddy.

She woke up about 9:30 last night and you should have seen the grin she gave daddy when he went in to see her! Even though I help a lot with the bedtime routine, Matt is the last one to hold Maddy and lay her down. We say prayers together and I leave the room. I swear she couldn't get rid of me fast enough last night. As soon as prayers were over she was waving bye at me. She wanted her daddy!

This morning has been a lot of the same. We've been doing a lot of snuggling watching TV. She's been drooling a lot since she can't breath very well out her nose so I've had to change her shirt a couple times and use a warm washcloth to clean up her face and chest. I was able to get a load of laundry going although I had to throw it in the dryer since I wasn't sure if it was going to rain. I can't even tell you the last time I ran the dryer. I've been hanging out every time now.

Of course the whole cold thing threw our plans for today off although I'm not sure we would have gone anyway. There was a free children's performance in the park but it's REALLY HOT AND HUMID HERE (feels like 100) and I don't think I would have taken Maddy out in that anyway. Baby Ballet and this weekend are still up in the air. I think this weekend could probably take place just fine, but we'll need to see about Baby Ballet tomorrow. I'd hate to postpone either, but if she's not well and just feeling crappy it's better to just stay home in her own bed.

I was awake last night from 2-3:30 with insomnia. So when the alarm went off at 6:15 I turned it off and went back to sleep. I'm pretty sure it's from being so snuggly with Maddy all day today under a blanket, but I've been SO TIRED. So when she went down for a nap, so did I. Matt offered to let me work out as soon as he gets home today and get my shower then.

I have coffee night tonight with the gals from my mom's group. It will be nice to get together and just hang out for a bit. Mom's Night Out's are a ton of fun, but coffee nights are so nice and casual and because they start at 8 there's no real rush for the door the way MNO are.

Good news! We finally found someone to transplant the tree who seems to know what they are doing! So as soon as we set a date and time we're all set with that. They were very impressed with the job Matt's been doing pruning it and thought the tree was purchased and planted there. But when I said it grew up from a seed right there the guy was pretty amazed.

Well, I should go get the stuff out of the dryer. I hear my Maddypants stirring upstairs so I think she's up. Have a good one!

Tea of the day: Herbal Sugar Plum Spice (I tried to give some to Maddy), Green Chai (trying to wake myself up)
WO of the day: I think I'm going to do elliptical or a video off FitTV when Matt gets home. I'll need to decide before then!

As always, my friends come through with pictures! Thanks to Hailey's mom for sending pictures of class!

Well, Maddy did make it to Baby Ballet today. Here's one of the quick pictures I took before we left the house. I wasn't sure about bringing the camera with since there would be other kids there and wasn't sure how their mom's felt about me taking pictures. But a lot of other moms had cameras too, so many next week! I'm not sure about that either though since it's a REALLY hands on class for the moms. The instructor gives really cute and fun directions and we need to help (ok, manipulate) our kids into doing them. It's not manipulating in a negative aspect, but at 19 months they kind of need someone to help them do the moves.
Maddy is feeling so much better today. And she was feeling better last night before bed as she was playing with daddy. So the weekend is on as far as we know, or at least a bit more firmly now than before! Of course, I should be packing right now, but... well.... packing stresses me out and I don't want to stress out so I'm going to turn a blind eye to it until later tonight or tomorrow AM. I will make the list of what we need to bring now but Matt will be home tomorrow since we'll be leaving in the early afternoon we can do most of the packing in the morning.

Back to Ballet! It was a very large class as opposed to what it said on the website. There had to have been at LEAST 10 girls in it and then their mothers, too. All the little girls were wearing their tutus and ballet shoes. They were all so cute individually and now add them all up and it was just ADORABLE. Maddy did EXTREMELY well. I was wondering if going today was a good idea even though she seemed to be over her cold for the most part. I was wondering how she'd be able to handle 45 minutes of action after the cold just ending and if she'd get crabby or tired quickly, but nope! She did great! She even followed some of the directions on her own without me having to prompt her. Most of them I had to help her do, but a few she did just fine on her own!

She did fall once, really hard, flat on her face. I mean, HARD--THUMP HARD. Like head bouncing off the floor hard. I think she was kneeling in her tights and they slipped out from under her and she wasn't ready with her hands. I saw it happen, but I still dont know HOW it happened. It wasn't as if she tripped or ran too fast and lost her balance. She was standing still! But, I scooped her up and gave her a big hug and snuggled her. I thought that could be the end of class for us, because she REALLY smacked herself. I didn't care if it was the end since she had made it through a good 30 minutes happily. Even if we just snuggled and watched the other kids too, that would have been fine with me. But nope, after about a minute, she wanted to get right back in there with the other kids! So we did! I had three or four moms comment on what a 'trooper she is and my kid would STILL be crying'.

Little Miss Annabelle came to sit on my lap again today during class! She sat right in front of Maddy. I don't know what it is about my lap but she sure likes it. So for about 3 minutes I was helping two little girls dance. It was cute and fun. Annabelle's mom kept laughing and making sure Maddy didn't mind Annabelle sitting in her lap! Maddy didn't get a hoot, I think she thought it was fun. Another mom came in at about the same time and asked me, "Oh, Twins?" Uhhhh.... NO! HA!

Well, Thursday is another class. Although I'm thinking about switching to Tuesday since it's less crowded. I was going to check with Annabelle and Hailey to see if they wanted to switch, too. Since the whole point was going together afterall. But Maddy likes a lot of kids so maybe we'll just stick with what works.

Last night I had coffee night with the gals. As always it's a great time. I had a glass of herbal tea and was able to still drink it while still hot! How nice! It's a rarity now-a-days. After coffee I did a bit of shopping at Wegmans and then off to Target. I bought some more medication for Maddy (that's another story), some other odds and ends and two pairs of shoes for myself--some leather black sandals and some red kitten heels. Don't know if I'll ever wear the heels but they were only $6 and really cute. I didn't get home until 11 and didn't get to bed until close to midnight. Needless to say, I did not turn on my alarm this morning.

Ok, I'm off to make the packing list.

Tea of the day: Big glass of sun tea
WO of the day: I'm going to do elliptical after Maddy goes to bed tonight. I've been varying my workout all week and miss my elliptical!

We're at Matt's parents! Maddy was so excited to see grandma and grandpa when we arrived! She's been having a blast running through their house and around in circles in and out of rooms.

The car ride down was SOOOOOOOOOOOO LONG. Our three hour drive turned into 5! We were on the road by 1 and 95 was a parking lot out of DC all the way to Fredricksburg. It was just miserable. I gave Maddy some Benedryl right before we got on the freeway and she slept for about 45 minutes, if that. I didn't want to give it to her before we were going to be moving at a constant rate of speed because all the stop and go wakes her up. Well, I didn't know that 95 was a parking lot at 1:30 in the afternoon!!! All I can say is, THANK GOD FOR MY TIVO'D NOGGIN' AND PBS BURNED TO MY COMPUTER! I held it in the back seat for Maddy while she watched TV and sucked her thumb.

I felt bad though, because this morning while we were running around and packing, Maddy could feel the excitement in the air and it worried her. So one of us had to sit with her and keep her occupied while the other got ready and packed. But even that didn't keep her mind off what was going on, so we watched TV with her and snuggled to make her feel more comfortable and less worried. So she sat a lot this morning and watched TV and then barely napped the 5 hour drive in the car and watched TV there, too.

But she is a really trooper! She never once really cried all the way down. Once or twice she threw a little bit of a fuss, but no flat out crying or whining. We never stopped, although we should have to change her diaper since she was ALL WET when we got here. But I knew better than to let her out of the carseat and then trying to get her back in. It was better (since she wasn't fussing anyway) to try to drive straight though.

We never did hit really decent traffic. It was almost always backed up with one thing or another.

She's had a blast already being here. A ton of fun! Pre-bedtime tonight was hard for her, though. She was definitely done and worn out from the day and she showed it. Once her and I were in the bedroom and I rocked her and sang her song, she relaxed in my arms and after a few minutes she was ready for bed. She fell asleep without issue! She hasn't woken up since (yet)!

I did run into her room once tonight! Matt and his parents were watching videos of her on the computer from our gallery upstairs in their family room. Well, they had it loud enough that when I was walking through the living room I heard her calling Dada and I ran in! Turns out she was sound asleep (and thank God didn't wake up when I ran in)! I knew I heard her though!

Well, it's late and I slept very poorly last night. I worked out on my elliptical machine at 8:30 and then wasn't tired for a LONG time afterward. Then Matt snored just horribly last night so I went to sleep on the couch (so I'd hear her if she woke up) and tossed and turned there, too. Matt did let me go back to bed this morning after Maddy woke up at 7. So I was able to get a bit of extra rest until 8:15.

Goodnight! Have a great weekend! Don't think about breaking into my house since the alarm system is on! :)

Tea of the day: COFFEE! A big glass
WO of the day: Saving my sanity during the drive down. My hardest workout this week, yet!