Teaholic not quite anonymous

Well, Matt wanted to be into work a bit early today (despite getting home after close to 11 last night) to make sure there weren't any glitches in the firewall switch over during start of business today. There weren't! So he's pretty happy, overall, about how it went. Needless to say, we didn't go get my car this morning and he drove himself to work so we are at home today. Not that I'm complaining! I have MORE than enough stuff to get done around here. The house looks like a tornado hit it and I'm hosting playgroup tomorrow afternoon (twice in one week, yes I am ambitious). Plus, I finally put away three of the four loads of laundry that I did yesterday. The last one is in the dryer right now. I still want to clean as compared to straighten up but I'm going to wait for tomorrow since, if I do it now, it will just be dirty again by then. I don't know how we mess up this place so fast lately.

Maddy slept all night last night after her very busy day with little nap. I, however, had a hard time staying asleep. Ah well, it's all fine. At least I'm not going anywhere today. Maddy has been quite lazy today, lots of laying around snuggling her blankets. She's been drawing on her wipe off board a ton with markers, too. She just adores markers. I like them because they are easy to get off the floor if she misses and are washable, too.

Other than that, it's been a productive yet lazy day and kind of nice! Maddy's pulling at me, gotta run!

tea of the day: Teavana Coconut Aloha black tea

I did forget to mention the one and only downfall of the Dyson. It's powerful. Well, that's not the downfall. It's what it does to the seams in my carpet. I'm sure this is my carpet's downfall and not the Dyson, but today Matt vacuumed (since he wanted to try it out) and he pushed it over the seam of the carpet between the dining room and living room and it brought up, easily a foot and half of the seam. So all we can do is cut off the loose end and glue it down. We've never had issues with that seam before. Now, our living room has a seam running right through it that we've NEVER been happy with. It keeps coming up in various areas. Well, when I first vacuumed the seam came up in five places. I'm glad I bought more superglue!

Today should be fun and busy. I'm hosting an afternoon playgroup for the little kids who are all Maddy's same age. Then Maddy and I go to get our flu shots at 6:15. This morning I need to clean up a bit for the playgroup, just touch up stuff. Then I need to prep dinner early so that way it is ready to go when Matt gets home so we can still make it to the Flu Clinic in time. If I can get both of those things done, we're going over to the new Stein Mart five minutes away from us. I have a coupon. Love the coupon.

Maddy went to bed without issue last night. Not a fuss. I was impressed considering she was a bit wound up and I thought we'd have a Cry It Out issue on hand. She was up at 2:30-3:15 with a stuffy nose. Although, she never fussed when we laid her down and would TRY to fall asleep for 15 minutes but would call out complaining about her nose. So we finally gave her Benedryl but we had been avoiding it. The Cry It Out has really worked for her and we're back to her falling asleep on her own without a fight, Matt and I have the night to ourselves and we're all getting good rest. It's such a blessing!! Maybe I can start my workouts again now that I'm not exhausted, too. I see that in my Monday's future!

Ok, off to make dinner and clean.

Tea of the day: Teavana Coconut Aloha Tea

Well, tonight we went to get our flu shots. Matt met us there. So he took Maddy to get hers while I got mine. My nurse was talking to me but like Charlie Brown all I heard was noise since I was intently focusing on what Maddy was doing. I know they had a really good nurse but she NEVER CRIED. Not once! It didn't even phase her.

She had a lot of fun at playgroup today. We spent the first hour in the house playing and the second part of it at the park. Maddy had a blast playing with the kids. That's what a good nights sleep actually does. She was totally different than on Monday's playgroup.

Tomorrow morning I have a breakfast date with Nate's mom. We're going in together to have a children's birthday party for them. Nothing big, but Nate's birthday is two days after Maddy. So we're meeting at Panara. Should be nice! I love their coffee!

Ok, Maddy's having a hard time going to sleep tonight. So I'm off to listen.

Tea of the day: Teavana Coconut Aloha

It's been a productive last couple of days--especially for Matt! He was able to take apart his computers yesterday and store them away. He's thrown out the cases since they aren't needed anymore and really are obsolete. Today he emptied the flower garden and mowed the lawn (hopefully the last one this fall). Maddy and I went to the park since she was a bit stir crazy since she had been up since 5:30. Helloooo Daylight Savings! Grrr... But I was able to make her last until 12:30 for her nap. If I had tried to hold her off until 1 she would have passed out on the floor.

I went to Panera for coffee/breakfast and discussed Maddy and Nate's birthday party. We're hosting it on a Monday and are only inviting four other children besides the two birthday kids. Really, it's not going to be that big of a production and I think that's JUST fine. It was nice getting together for breakfast and chit-chatting too. We did get the evite out so that's a great step in the right direction.

I went over to Bed, Bath and Beyond afterwards (right next door) and picked up a few little items, then over to Giant for groceries. By the time I got home I was SO HUNGRY. The coffee ate through the egg beaters on english muffin I had for breakfast and I had been craving pizza all week. So we ordered in pizza and cheese fries. Yum.

While I was gone, Matt wetjetted the entire kitchen, foyer and bathroom. Plus he vacuumed both bedrooms upstairs and the cat beds. He also organized and made the bed (I'm notorious for not making the bed). I came home to a totally clean house! Yeah!

After Maddy's nap her and I ran out to Michaels to pick up some craft supplies for a couple of the cute crafts we're going to do for their party. I picked up a couple of goody bag items that I found for cheap as well. Tina and I are meeting this week to buy some more stuff.

Maddy stayed up pretty late last night because of Day Light savings but no such luck making her sleep later this morning. But she fell right to sleep without any fuss. At Midnight she woke up as did we because a suction cup basketball hoop on her bathtub fell off the wall. Within 10 minutes she was back asleep and slept straight until 5:30 when Matt got up with her. I was up by 7.

Today I'm going to meet a friend of mine and her family at the mall. I've known her for years via a message board I belong to, so it will be nice to meet face to face for the first time ever. I need to remember to take the camera.

I was going to go to open lab today for pottery, but well, I'm not sure how busy it will be so I'm thinking about going on open lab on Friday instead. We'll see!

Oh.. my makeup-aholic is out to play full force now! All of the brands have their holiday palettes out and are they ever tempting. I have done a number of purchases in the last two weeks and it's so much fun to play with new stuff. Honestly, I've been off makeup since I haven't been keeping up with what's new. But, the holidays are just the perfect time to pick a few things up if you're interested in it. (Nordstom anniversary sale is another great time in July.) I still love to play with makeup. I always have, even when I was a kid I'd love to put on play makeup and nailpolish! I remember getting a new Barbie coloring book and I would color all the lips red as carefully as I could because it was lipstick! Ha! My addictions start young...

Speaking of, Maddy is still hooked on tea. I served gingerbread herbal tea for playgroup on Friday and she ran to get her teacup and brought it to me saying, "Tea, please!" She must have had four cups. Now, I didn't fill them all the way up, but she had a good 1/2 cup of tea! She'll definitely have a tea party when she's older. I can see a birthday tea party!

Well, I better prep to meet my friend at the mall! Have a good week!

Tea of the day: Bigelow Pumpkin Spice and African Nectar herbal

My meeting last night with my friend went well! It was so nice to meet up and chit chat. It was also nice to do a bit of shopping all by myself before she arrived. I used up a gift certificate and bought a couple other little things. I was pretty good for the most part. I can't believe how crowded the mall is at 7 pm! It's crazy! I finally was able to see the Tyson's kid play area in person. I heard it was really great, but have never been able to get the gumption to drive there with Maddy. It's decent. I can see stopping if we happened to need to do some shopping there. But nothing I'm going to drive there for. If I'm going to drive that far, I'll just take her to Clemy park!

However, I had a diet soda while I was there and was awake from 12-4 this morning. Maddy woke up at 5 and man did I have a headache from being awake so long. Fortunately, somehow I was able to get her to fall back asleep and I was able to get another hour and a half in. Then Matt was also nice enough to let me spend some time waking up in bed before needing to jump out and get Maddy. I had a huge cup of coffee and two doses of Advil thus far today. I'd love to be taking a nap right now, but because of the coffee, there's just no way.

I'm really coming along on the birthday party things. I have two crafts and a few games planned out. I don't care if we do any or all of them. But it's better to have too much to do and leave things out than to not have enough and scramble for ideas. I did buy another goody bag toy last night at Target before the mall. I also bought a really cute brown square patchwork hobo bag! Ever since seeing the Lucky Brand patchwork purse I've been wanting one like it. But I didn't like the Lucky Brand one, it was too big and only had a magnetic snap at the top. Plus, it wouldn't keep it's shape and was $160! But the brown purse I found at target was $25 and definitely fulfilled my want for a square patchwork purse. I like this one better than the one I resisted at Stein Mart, too. It's bigger, made better and is $10 cheaper!

I don't know what's gotten into me lately though. I've been into purses and shoes. ?!? I don't get it. I never was before. Hopefully that will wear off soon. I have enough vices to contend with (let's not talk about holiday makeup sets right now... we won't even go there).

Ok, well, I'm going to go and work on some more party stuff before Maddy wakes up. Have a good one all! Have a nice week!

So today I switched over to my new purse and noticed that I have enough room for one diaper, a thin blanket and a pack of wipes. Sooooo... I think I've decided to go without the diaper bag unless we'll be out for a while. I was even able to fit in a couple of small toys with room to spare for things like snacks. Am I free of the Diaper Bag?! Really?

Now, it's not that I overly minded the diaper bag. I just forewent a purse. I'd grab my wallet, keys and cell phone and throw them in the bag when I wanted to go. Of course, I have found myself without my wallet (in line at the grocery store) when I go out by myself with my purse. That's when I realize my wallet is in the diaper bag. Fortunately, I still have my checkbook, so that suffices as well once I give away any and all identifying personal information on it (since I don't have the license to back it up).

Other than that, Maddy and I went grocery shopping early this morning. Then we met Tina and Nate at Party City and Target today to buy things for the party. I think we're pretty much set buying things! I still need to buy the cupcake ingredients, but.. that's it! I am still in the process of cutting things for crafts/games, but that's almost finished, too. After her (only an hour long) nap we went to vote.

Tonight was art night here. She played with water paints, markers and play dough. A bit of a cry it out night, but that was to be expected.

Alrighty, I'm outta here! More tomorrow!

Tea of the day: *Hangs head in shame* I never had tea today and I had coffee this morning.

I'd have to say that Maddy has had a toddler's perfect morning. We went to Chuck-e-Cheese this morning for about an hour and a half and she had a blast. She was great at following directions and we sat down for a snack while we were there (I bring my own). On the way out we redeemed some of our tickets and she now has a silver and pink fuzzy tiara! Unfortunately, I can't seem to get a good picture of her with it on, I will try more this afternoon. Then we walked over to MacDonald's where she had a chicken nugget happy meal and I had a salad (and a few of her fries). We ate there and she just loves to eat out in places like that. There's so much action that she loves to watch. People watching and eavesdropping are her favorite sports! I've now put her down for a nap, but she was having a hard time falling asleep. Although she's been quiet now for a while, so hopefully it will be a nice long nap. Yesterday's was just an hour but that's better than nothing!

I don't have any big plans for this afternoon or evening. I suppose I should try to find something for her and I to do this afternoon that doesn't involve paint. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind painting with her... but man it's a hassle to prep it all, supervise her so closely and then clean it all up. Even the paint with water books are soooo messy. Given, she hasn't been using the right kind of paint brush, but still! She loves wipe off markers which are fine and wipe right off virtually everything. She doesn't want to have anything to do with crayons anymore. She does like play doh but I catch her trying to eat it now and again (yuck)!

Going outside has been a struggle lately because she hates to wear her coat and hat. Obviously, we aren't going outside without the coat or hat, so I fight to get it on her and normally once she's outside she'll become preoccupied with other stuff. But now and again, even when we are outside she'll try to take them off and I just need to keep putting them back on her. It's something she'll get over as the season goes on. Afterall, she just started really needing a coat about 10 days ago.

Oh, I did fall back on the diaper bag today when out to CeC and MacD's. It was going to be a pretty long outing and I just felt more comfortable having the big bag with me. Where ever we go this afternoon it'll just be my purse and I'll leave the big bag at home!

Have a good one!

Tea of the day: Pumpkin Spice Black tea and now cinnamon tea. I'm also sucking on a Jelly Belly Cinnamon lollipop. I've been hooked on cinnamon lately. The spicier the better. However, these lollipops aren't that spicy! My last one was. Maybe my next one will be. I bought out Party City of a lot of them

Daddy's home and Maddy is thrilled (and mommy too, of course). Maddy was in rare form this morning. So I decided to pack her up and we went to the airport to pick up Matt early. Afterall, if I will the plane to come early, won't it get there? :) But I thought Maddy would enjoy being at the airport. She sure did. She loved to watch all the traffic ("Bus! Bus!") and running around the arrivals area and the baggage claim. She loved to watch the bags fall down the chute onto the conveyor belt. She was mesmerized by it. After a while she told me that it went in a circle. She loved to name the colors of the bags as they went by and size as well. She saw a car seat go by and said, "Sit!" I think she wanted to crawl on and sit down! She also loved the escalator. Man... that was the best $4 in parking we ever spent! Matt was waiting for us outside so when he called I told him we were INSIDE door #6. When he made it to #6 he was looking for the car so Maddy surprised him by yelling Dadda! She's been glued to him to be sure (except bedtime rocking--she wanted me for that). She also is so full of emotion from him being home she was acting out some. I think she's mad at him for going away. It was nice though since she is now having 'conversations' on the phone that she talked to him while he was gone.

I make it sound like he's been gone forever, but he only left on Tuesday morning. :) It was nice that he was able to stay home with us today. It allowed us to get a few house things done and also relax a bit.

This evening I went through a lot of the recipes some of my friends have been posting to a board we all participate in. So, I made our menu for the week and made the grocery list. I do like to try new things, but planning it out is so daunting. I am even having these recipes HANDED to me by people who have tried it and liked it and I still find planning out the grocery list to be insane. I'm excited for the new meals though. It's neat to try something new that are also healthy.

So I guess it's time to spill the beans (NO I'M NOT PREGNANT). I've been on weight watchers for about the last month. I really enjoy the program and it's extremely flexible and doesn't exclude any foods. A few other moms in my mom's group are also in it so the message board we have is full of great recipes that include the number of points, etc. I'm down a total of 9 on weight watchers, 20 overall. Not too bad, but I still have a ways to go.

Ok, off to hang out with Matt. Have a great night!

Tea of the day: Pumpkin spice tea, gingersnappish herbal tea and cinnamon stick herbal tea

Well, this morning I spent quite a bit of time trying to get the back off my watch. The battery had stopped and I needed a replacement. After poking myself with various items at least four times (note to self: watch out for Staph) I finally managed to get the back off of it. Boy, that was on their tight!

Maddy and I ran out to Target today. I say 'run' making it sound as if it was a fast trip. Haha.. I am never fast at Target. Something catches my eye... I mull over it for a while and decide I don't need it and move on only to go back later to mull over it again and AGAIN decide I don't need it and move on!

It was a productive Target trip though. I bought a small space heater for our downstairs bathroom considering it doesn't have any heating vents that go to it, it's on the outside wall and it's on the ground level, which is the coldest. I also bought Nate's gift for the birthday party. I bought humidifiers but, unfortunately, it's louder than our noise maker! I would need a monitor in our room if I used this thing since I wouldn't be able to hear Maddy over it. Soo... those are most likely going back. I did buy Maddy's birthday dress/Christmas dress. It's nice that they are so close together so I can get use out of the dress twice. It's this one. I also got the patent leather shoes as well. Maddy just LOVED the shoes. She wanted to get rid of her pink shoes and wear her new shoes throughout the whole store. And since she was just sitting in the cart, I let her! People would giggle when they saw her and a few asked, "Do you like your new shoes?" She'd yell, "YEAH!"

I bought a couple little toys on clearance that i will either save for her birthday or Christmas--I can't decide which. we also picked up three packets of senseo pods for Matt's mom. We gave her a senseo coffee maker for her birthday and bought the pods at the same time through Target online. It was the only white individual size coffee maker I could find and I know all of her appliances are mainly white... Although the pot got there in a timely manner it said the Senseo pods wouldn't get there until the end of November! That's ridiculous since you can buy them over the counter at any store. ARGH.

Of course, they didn't have my watch battery in stock so I poked myself for nothing. I did find those Aquadots on the shelves still so I took one box to an employee and told her about it. She told me to go to Customer Service to tell them. WTH? Noo... it's not MY job to get you to do YOUR job. I told her that she needs to take it to customer service not me, and these little toys can cause DEATH in children and it's a huge deal she needs to take seriously. I called after I got home and spoke with the manager to say I had mentioned it this morning to an employee that I found them on the shelves and I was making sure they were gone. She said they had been taken off the shelves, but I knew she didn't understand what I was saying so I said, "When I was at your store THIS MORNING they were still on the shelves." She said, "Oh?! They were supposed to be taken off. I'll check on that." So I've done my duty. That's all I can do.

I've started thinking about Thanksgiving. I want to make up the menu pretty soon. I'm sure we'll have a lot of the tried-and-true, but I wouldn't mind making a few modified WW friendly things, too. I'm willing to make all the classics. Just because I make it doesn't mean I have to eat it. Darn well know I'm having Sweet Potato casserole no matter how bad it is for me. That stuff is delicious!

I made an appointment for Maddy's 2nd birthday pictures and maybe a Christmas picture of the three of us. We'll see how hers goes first before we try the three of us. It's not until December 1st and it will take FOREVER to get them back from JC Penny so I don't know if we're going to have them in time for Christmas. Most likely not. I wonder if I could get her 2 year done a bit early?? No harm in that I guess. I'll call in a few minutes to find out.

Speaking of, I have stuff I want to do during her nap. Have a good one!

Tea of the day: Just coffee although the weather is ripe for some tea! Mm...

First, let me say, it's the little things in life that amuse me. Matt is upstairs vacuuming the carpets with the Dyson. He already vacuumed the living room, dining room and foyer stairs with it. I am still amazed and appalled at how much junk this thing picks up. Now, honestly, I only vacuum once a week. I'll pull out the push vac to vacuum up things that Maddy drops like popcorn pieces and the like. But we only deep vac once a week. But even after just a week I can't believe how much stuff we picked up with the Dyson. It's unbelievable.

We have an appointment on Monday to have a whole house humidifier put into our heating/cooling unit. We're tired of messing with the little ones and we are so dried out. So we finally bit the bullet. We are also having them come out on Wednesday to give estimates about what it would cost to replace the entire unit. It'll be $$$ but, well, as it is it doesn't cool or heat at it's maximum potential and we've also neglected getting it serviced regularly the way we are supposed to. Add in that it's past it's prime in life... well... it's somewhere on our list of things to do with the house.

I also took a big plunge yesterday and bought 8 fruit bowls, 8 soup bowls and a covered serving bowl for my china set. It was on sale 50% off at Boston Store and my parents saw it in the paper and asked if I wanted to get anything. Fortunately, I won't actually need to pay for it until it arrives in THREE TO FOUR MONTHS. Not that it overly matters since we don't pull it out very often anyway.

We made pumpkin waffles this morning and boy are they good! We have a stew in the crockpot for dinner. But we'll see if I eat here or not. I am meeting a college roommate who's in town for a conference for dinner tonight. It'll be nice to see her since I haven't seen her since our trip to WI when Maddy was 10 months old. It'll be nice to sit down with her and chit chat. Speaking of, I need to make a reservation for that! Better call now.

Have a great weekend!

After church today (which is a huge undertaking in and of itself) we stopped at MacD's to pick up chicken nuggets for Maddy for the drive home. It works out nice because she get some food in her before she goes down for nap at 1:00. It also helps keep her awake since if she's in the car around noon after the switch of daylight savings time she will fall asleep which means NO NAP. So whatever we can do to keep her awake, we do. Well, Matt ran in (there's no drive through at this place) and picked up food. When he came back, I unlocked his front door for him so he can get back in.

That was a HUGE mistake. The car's alarm started going off. He tried to press the buttons to make it stop. No dice. He tried to start the car to make it stop, nope. Anyway, finally it just stopped on its own and we drove home. All was good

--until we arrived at home. He opened his car door after turning off the car and AGAIN with the beeping. We just high tailed it into the house and got Maddy ready for a nap, changed clothes and everything. We'll deal with it more when Maddy gets up. I'm hoping if we lock the doors from the outside with the button it will reset the system. If not, we're going to need to take it into the shop to have it reset by them. What a bunch of rigmarole.

Other than that, church went fine. Maddy is an angel like always. She especially loves to color with mess free markers/paper right now, so she sat/laid on the pew did that for a lot of service.

The house looks like a hurricane hit it, AGAIN. I don't know how on earth this happens but it always does. I swear there are little gnomes running around making a mess. I do know of one little gnome that does it... :)

My time last night out with Kris, my college roommate was a blast. We went out for dinner and then back to her hotel and had a beer at the bar. It was really nice to get together with her.

Before I met Kris we bought ordered Maddy's birthday cake. I think it's going to turn out really nice. It has her favorites on it--flamingos, kittens and purple writing.

Ok, off to starting thinking about Christmas gifts, cards, etc. SHEESH, the holiday season is already here! When did this happen?

Tea of the day: 2 cups pumpkin spice tea

So Maddy seems to be getting her two year molars! Last night she was grinding her teeth (which drives Matt up the wall, not that I like it much either) and I felt around inside and the top left is coming in! You know that means the other three aren't far behind.

During dinner tonight I refused to let Maddy have something she wanted so she ran to the other room where she just stood there and yelled, "NO! No! NO!" She must have done it for five minutes. We ignored it, since it is a form of a temper tantrum and finally I asked her if she wanted a hug and she came in to get one. She was fine from that point on. Her no's used to be so cute, too. :) I knew that wouldn't last long.

Maddy and I made a run to Walmart today. I can't stand going there. Now that it's before Christmas it's even crazier than it used to be. Fortunately, I was able to find everything I needed and out we went.

We had our central humidifier put in this morning. Then Matt spent some time straightening up our family room. It looks great, now!

So, I'm working on my Christmas cards. I'm hoping to do something a bit unusual and fun this year with them. I've been thinking about them for a while and am trying to make up my mind on a few things. It's been a fun process though. I'm excited for the finished card!

Ok, it's late and I need to head to bed. Goodnight! Have a great rest of the week.

Tea of the day: Celestial Seasons Gingersnap tea

If you want to check out Maddy's gallery here. You'll see some random ones I should have uploaded a while ago.

Here's some pictures taken from a good friend of mine during our time at the beach. Nothing like a girls' weekend away! (They start at the end of this page link.)

No real time to blog today. More tomorrow!

Well, everything is coming along swimmingly here! First, I was cranking out the pots last night at ceramics. I made five of them. I'm hoping they are dry enough in the next week to tool. We'll see. I'm contemplating going to a lab this week to crank out some more. I'd love to get in as much as possible before the class ends in two weeks. I will need to pay for the hours of open lab. But if the projects are started while I'm in a class I don't need to pay for individual firings. Plus, I still have clay left! I'm quite pleased with the pots I made last night. I just hope that tooling and glazing (always a crap shoot) goes as well as the making of them did.

Our party is coming along well, too! It's next Monday so Maddy and I stopped over at Tina's today and prepped part of the games and deliver stuff. We put together the goody bags. Maddy and Nate had a fun time playing while we were there. Then we ran to Giant for cupcake fixings for the party and also to pick up a turkey for Thanksgiving. I am gathering up some more things to drop off at Tina's this weekend.

My Christmas card is also getting there. I need to revamp it a bit, but I'm pretty much prepped to put it together.

Ok, well, I'm off. Lots to still do before Matt gets home. Have a great day, everyone!

Tea of the day: Gingerbread herbal tea (I had coffee this morning).

She loves flamingos. We were taking a walk back from the park near our house with our playgroup and Hailey saw a backyard full of Flamingos. Since then she just loves 'mingos! She especially loves the Fantasia 2000 chapter 10 flamingo video (thanks to grandma and grandpa who gave it to us)!

Basketball--her latest favorite past time. She especially loves it at Chuck-e-cheese along with Skeet ball. I need to get her basketball hoop in the house when it dries out from the rain and put it in the dining room along with the balls.

Jumping--she jumps just about everywhere now. She hate to walk.

The Hiarchy of chocolate. (If I already talked about this, ignore it.) When we bought Maddy's cake they also sell truffles so I bought a few to take home and Maddy had a couple tiny pieces off one. Well, yesterday on Dora she saw a chocolate tree (which kid's program genius puts chocolate on a kid's program?! Thanks!) and ran in the kitchen to the cabinet and says, 'choco! choco!' so I gave her two mini m&ms. She shook her head no, gave them back to me and pointed to the cabinet again. She didn't want any stinkin' m&ms, she wanted truffles!!! Hahaha... (Which she did NOT get, by the way.)

She loves music. She catches on so fast to any music with actions and does all the actions to the songs. She loves it in class.

Pickles, tea and mint (no, not together although I don't think she'd mind it). She still loves them all and even more so now. If I make coffee I normally will make her her own cup of cinnamon herbal tea. She doesn't drink any of it with sugar because I don't either. In fact, she's tried tea at Teavana with sugar and turned her nose up at it. She likes it plain since she's used to it that way. Give her a cup of peppermint tea and she's in heaven.

Ok, well, I need to quick prep for playgroup and then we're out of here! It's raining cats and dogs today!

Tea of the day: No tea, I had coffee again. I will have some plum spice tea later though.

Did I get your attention yet? Actually, it's less of a run in with the law as it is, I beckoned them.

Maddy and I went to playgroup this morning and then over to Michaels (for? You guessed it, more stuff for my Christmas cards) and then to Bloom for a couple of things I needed for dinner (which was a huge bust). Anyway, we arrived home and I had all the bags, the mail from yesterday and Maddy with me. I went up to the front door..

to find it ajar.

Hmmm... Well, I turned back around, put the groceries/mail and Maddy back into the car. I called nonemergency police and asked if they wouldn't mind having an officer come over to check out the house. After all, we were gone for two and a half hours. I mentioned that I didn't notice anything or hear anyone inside even though I didn't touch the screen door. I mentioned that I had probably not latched it all the way and then the wind blew it open a bit. But they said they'd send someone out.

Of course, I didn't take my diaper bag with me. I took my purse with one diaper, the wipes and a blanket. Not a big deal if I hadn't used the diaper at playgroup and Maddy pooped while on the way home. So now she had to sit in it until I could get into the house. So we had to wait in our stinky locked car! LOL! Serves me right for only putting one diaper in the bag. Now I have two in there.

Well, the officer pulled up and went inside. As he opened the front door I saw Ruthie sitting there. He walks in and yells, "Fairfax County Police!!" As it was, Ruthie was heading her way up the stairs but after that she took off!! Poor Root. Of course, I see Joe come moseying his way down the stairs to greet the officer. He loves people.

I waited outside holding Ms. Stinkypants when another cruiser came bombing around the corner and jumping over the speed bump. Now I was wondering if maybe I should walk down the block some. Did the guy inside call for backup?! No, turns out that I guess they normally go in together and the other guy was late arriving. Well, that's good.

As I suspected, everything was fine. I thanked them for their time and I had Maddy thank them, too. I apologized for wasting their time and mentioned that is is so unlike me to EVER leave the door open. I always have them locked when I'm in the house, too. They were very nice about it.

The officer told me that when I would go in, I would find all the doors in the house open and all the lights on. As I went around closing and turning everything off Joe had already made it into Maddy's closet and was chewing on plastic. I swear, it's crack to him. Nutso kitty cats!

Anyway, all is well. Just an interesting occurrence. There's my story of the day.

Well, we had a really rough night last night. Maddy asked for Daddy right before bed but Matt was away at a retirement dinner for the CEO of his company so he wasn't home yet. I told Maddy that when she woke up in the morning he'd be home. Now, mind you, I didn't think that morning would mean 3:30 am. First Matt rocked her for five minutes, then I did (since I'm normally the one she wants doing it but last night she wanted Matt). 15 minutes later she was crying and it seemed like she had a nightmare so we went downstairs to watch one episode of Oswald (10 minutes). During that time she had milk, a teensy bit of benedryl since she was stuffy and also a bit of motrin since she has teeth coming in. I offered a snack too, that she wouldn't take. Of course, the change in diaper as well. Back up to bed, nope. Started crying again. Well, we had done all we could do so we had to let her cry it out. It took forever last night as she'd cry on and off for a few minutes. It wasn't constant crying. She finally fell asleep at about 5:35. She slept for a couple more hours.

Then I was hoping for a good long nap. No such luck. Fifty minutes later she was up and crying. I don't know what it is with the crying the second she wakes up but it's driving me bonkers.

Other than that, it was a very lazy day. We didn't go anywhere or really do anything exciting. I worked on my card a bit more, did two loads of laundry and cleaned up our bedroom. I put her 1 year pictures (as many as I could fit) into her baby book and then made a photo collage for Matt for his work in a 5x7 frame. Made spicy sausage and penne for dinner then off to bed she went without a fuss. Let's hope tonight goes better. She should be exhausted!

I am off to hang out with Matt. I'm ready for a break! This weekend is going to be super busy getting the rest of the party stuff together, prepping for three grandparents next week, wrapping Maddy's birthday gifts, cleaning the house, planning meals for next week including Thanksgiving and Maddy's birthday dinner (left overs from Thanksgiving, most likely). We're supposed to have a fall party tomorrow through my mom's group and I just don't know if we're going to make it to that. I'd love to, but I just don't know.

Tea of the day: Needless to say, I had coffee this morning and never did get a cup of herbal tea the way I wanted to. I've been into coffee in the morning lately. I hope this phase passes soon since I'm starving by 11 if I have coffee!

Hello, hello! Today was a pretty uneventful day for the most part. We were really busy this morning although I couldn't really tell you what we were busy with. It just seems forgettable now. We missed our fall party through my mom's group. I was a bit bummed about that, but I still felt behind the 8 ball since I hadn't signed up to help anywhere. I know if I had shown up I would have found something to help out with. But well, we just didn't make it over in time.

I tried on a cute outfit on Maddy today for her kid's birthday party Monday morning. It'll be really cute! I did a bit of straightening up and the like. Nothing too crazy. I did vacuum. I know I sound like a broken record, but I am just amazed at what that Dyson can do! Holy Cow.

We ordered in Chinese today. I can say that I ate more than my fair share and then some. It was a great little treat though. Speaking of food, I planned out the menu for this next week including Thanksgiving. So that's set. Tomorrow AM I'm going to the grocery store to pick up what we need for the week. Monday is the party and then guests start arriving soon there after over the next few days.

Maddy received four presents for her birthday over the last couple of days.

One I will wait for her to open until it's her birthday. I let her open one from my former neighbor/friend Pat. She loved it all. It was two Elmo books and a box of cookies. She also loved the plastic bubble wrap, too. I let her jump on it and she had a field day. There was also a little gift in there for St. Nick's so I put that away until then. I'm starting to plan out her St. Nick's gifts now, too.

A few days ago, I received a homemade knitted parka from one of our neighbors down the block for Maddy. It's so soft and fuzzy. She just loves to carry it around like a blanket. I don't know if she's ever going to wear it as a parka though! But she DOES love it. Then today Hong from down the block stopped by with HER HUSBAND!!!! Yes, her husband was finally granted a visa from China. I am so excited for her. It had been five years apart. WOW. He also brought with him (from his sister) a formal traditional Chinese outfit for Maddy. Can I just tell you how CUTE it is?!? I can't wait for her to put it on. I will most likely try it on her tomorrow and get pictures. She loves the hat that goes with. I think it was so sweet of Hong to ask her sister in law to pick it up for her and then to have him bring it here with him. After all, he had two weeks only to pack up all that he has and move to the U.S. To think of us during that busy, exciting and stressful time is very sweet of them.

Today, we bundled Maddy up in her hat and winter coat and took a short walk. Then we went over to the park where we played for a long time. I did put stretch gloves on her which she handled REALLY well. However, when we got to the park I took them off since I didn't want her losing her grip while climbing up ladders and what not. Then after dinner Matt wanted to run to the grocery store to pick up cat litter, but I mentioned going to Petsmart and we'd all go and Maddy could look at the animals, so we made it a family affair. Maddy did love it, especially the 'pups' or puppies. We made it home a little too close to her bedtime so we skipped bath tonight. That would be the second night in a row! Ooops! Tomorrow night she'll definitely need one.

Alrighty, I'm off to get the mail from the mailbox. Have a great night, all!

Tea of the day: Gingerbread herbal from Celestial Seaons. Maddy had cinnamon herbal and Matt had Constant Comment Green tea

Today was a busy, but productive day. Maddy slept in until 7:45 after getting up at 5 am for a snack (her stomach was growling). It was nice to sleep in a bit. Today was Matt's turn to sleep in and he got up at 9. Yesterday was my day to sleep in.

Maddy and I made her birthday cupcakes first thing this morning. They are 'funfetti' white cake with chocolate frosting with chocolate bits inside. I did the sprinkles and Elmo as well. They turned out cute, I think.

After the cupcakes were finished I tossed in a loaf of pumpkin bread for the birthday party tomorrow morning. It was really good (I let Matt sample an end piece and I had a bite, too). Trader Joe's makes some really nice stuff! I love their mixes.

I gathered up all our Sesame street toys and put them in a shopping bag along with prepping the cupcakes and bread for transport. (I love my new cupcake carrier, who would have thought it would come in handy so quickly?) I called Tina to see if I could stop by and drop these things off. After all, tomorrow I will have Maddy, the camera, my purse, a huge set of balloons and pumpkin butter, to go with the bread. Plus, I need to pick up the balloons right away at 9:30 and the party is at 10. We may be late to Maddy's own party! HA! I think it should be fine. Turns out Tina was driving by the house so I ran them out to her car about 3 minutes later.

After lunch I ran out the door to get to open lab for ceramics. I didn't go on Friday and decided to go today instead. I sure am glad I did. I don't think I've ever been so productive in a 3 1/2 hour period! I was zipping through stuff, it was awesome. I glazed two pots, tooled five and made--get this--NINE! WOW! And I like them all, too! :) I did bring home four pots tonight as well. They all turned out nice except one I have to try to get the lid off. The lid and pot glazed together since the glaze ran, so we'll see what I can do about that. If not, I didn't much like that pot anyway! I walked into class at 1:05 and walked out at 4:27. I used every second. I still can't believe I made nine!

Matt was a total sweetheart and while I was at class he went to BJs and also the grocery store with Maddy. Now, mind you, the grocery store list was everything for this week including Thanksgiving stuff. So he and Maddy had their hands full. I came home right after he finished putting away groceries, oops! But I really appreciate that they went to do that for us.

Ok, well, I'm off to hang out with Matt. I laid out my clothes and Maddy's clothes for tomorrow morning. I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures (if I can get a free second!)

Tea of the day: Bigelow Pumpkin Spice Tea

Maddy's birthday party went really well today. It started off a bit hectic, but don't they always? I had all this time in the morning since she woke up at 6:30 after sleeping all night so I had time to shower and get ready. I did a few things and we left the house at 9:10. We ran to Target to get a couple things and then over to Party City.

Of course, things aren't easy, ever, are they? They didn't have our balloons ready much less were able to find our order sheet! I'm glad I brought mine along. So I had to wait for that and by the time we left it was 9:52 and the party started at 10!! So I called Tina to let her know we were running late.

Everything went fine once we made it to Tina's. We made a Turkey Tambourine with construction paper, staples (mom's only), paper plates and crayons. We also made an Elmo headband which was simpler than the Tambourine. None were particularly hard, but the tambourine needed a bit more parent help. We played pin the Elmo on the sesame street sign and also 'throw the ball and read the fun action to do on it'. The cupcakes and bread went over well as did the rest of the snacks.

We didn't open gifts mainly because it was noon and Maddy was DONE. She was ready to go home, get some lunch and nap. I didn't want to overwhelm her. Plus, I wanted her to enjoy opening them so she opened all but one this evening. She'll open the other tomorrow AM. I need to start writing thank you notes!!!

After a 45 minute nap (Oh Lord, help me) we made it through the evening until Daddy got home. She loved showing him her balloons and new toys. Maddy really did just have a blast as well as the rest of the kids. I am so impressed with how well it went!

I did find a fun item inside of Maddy's grab bag today! Tina's sister hand paints mugs and she did six of them for all the kids who were at the party today! They are kid sized and soooo cute. They are glass and perfect for me teaholic in the making! So pretty!

Ok, off to write some Thank you notes or work on the Christmas card some more. I'm looking for a couple more words for it.

Tea of the day: Organic Earl Grey

I've uploaded a ton of pictures. If you'd like to view them, check out our photo gallery!!

https://www.teaholic.com/gallery.

More later! (Ok, maybe not later, but another day.)

Hello, hello! Just wanted to check in and fill you in on the week's events. On Tuesday Matt's parents came down and Maddy loved every single second. She ran out to give grandma and grandpa a big hug as soon as their truck pulled up. We all hung out a lot that night and it was a nice time. Maddy had a blast. An interesting occurance happened. Maddy has nicknamed Matt's parents! Matt's mom is now Grammie and Matt's dad is Pa-pa/Paw-paw. It's really neat to see her come up with her own words for them.

Tuesday morning we had class for Maddy. I was quite disappointed by it, actually. We didn't do anything organized so it was basically a large playgroup. I know Maddy loved to get out of the house but I'm not paying for a playgroup. On the opposite side of the coin, I made two more pots on Tuesday and tooled 11. So I should have almost 20 to bring home in the long run. So I've made good use of that time. Next week's class is a holiday party along with a ton of glazing given my pots get bisque fired.

Wednesday was a lot of prepping for Thanksgiving. We made the sweet potato casserole, pies and flan. My mom came in on an afternoon flight and we all went the night hanging out. Maddy and I took a walk over to the park with grandma to get her out of the house while Daddy cleaned up that morning. We finished up on Maddy's gifts and I wrote out some thank you notes from her party on Monday.

Thursday was Thanksgiving! The meal went great and I'm very surprised at how well Maddy sat at the table. I was able to finish my whole meal without much fuss. Now, she didn't eat much, but she did a nice job. Our menu consisted of turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potato casserole, cranberry, corn and creamed spinach. We had pumpkin pie and pumpkin flan for dessert.

Friday was Maddy's birthday and she had a great day. Her celebration didn't start off until after her nap. But grandma and grandpa J brought three additional mylar balloons by in the morning and she just LOVED playing with those. During her nap, Matt and I ran out to the bakery and picked up her cake. In the afternoon we first opened presents and then had cake. The cake was just delicious and so cute! She was WIRED by the time everything was said and done so Matt and his dad took Maddy out to Chuck-e-cheese and Arby's for dinner (her favorite) to wear off some energy while us ladies stayed home to sort out Maddy's toys. I sent home two large bins of toys with Matt's folks for them to store for us! Fortunately, she went to bed without issue.

Today was pretty uneventful. I prepped some beef stew this morning for the crockpot so the grandparents would have something to eat for lunch. I spent part of this morning sorting through some makeup and organizing it. It may sound like I have a lot, and well, it's true, I do! But I'm not using it all so I wanted to go through it. Matt and I went out for a really nice lunch at Redrock Canyon Grill when Maddy went down for a nap. We shared a spinach and artichoke dip and a shrimp cargot for an appetizer. I had the Ahi Salad and Matt had the steak salad and then we had the chocolate something (no really, that is the name of it) for dessert. I was STUFFED when we got home. But it was such a nice time out. We originally stopped at a Thai place we like but there was a little kid fussing a ton in there and well, we were out sans kids so I did not want to hear them fussing at me! Tonight I also finished my Christmas card sans her 2 year old pictures which we're going for on Monday! So I'm pretty close to being done!

Ok, well, I'm tired and my eyes are blurry. I need to take out my contacts. I hope everyone is well!

So yesterday, mom went to the mall. Basically, she went to be my personal shopper. I was in a real need for simple basic fitted shirts. My parents bought some for me last Christmas and I loved them and wore them constantly. Well, as it is with having a toddler, they get stained and dirty. So I maybe only have one or two left that are wearable. I have a ton of basic slightly fitted tshirts that I can wear with cardigans, but it'd be nice to have something long sleeved! Well, she couldn't find a darn thing! Donna and my mom went out to Kohls as well and a day before and they were able to find one thing.

Anyway, during her failed shopping experience Matt went to Best Buy, Ulta and then picked up my mom and they went down to Tysons Corner together since Matt needed a new battery for his laptop. His current one gave out!

Well, I needed to pick up envelopes for my Christmas cards (which I'm hoping to finish tonight, I already wrote out all the envelopes with mom's help) and we shopped around a bit. I hit the Target $1 section for Maddy's St. Nick's gifts. I love that section! Then we went over the to clothes and I hit jackpot!

I found eight slightly fitted cherokee vneck tshirts for about 9 bucks. Then I found three polos for 11. If they had more colors in the polos in my size I would have bought more. It's so nice to have clothes in the closet again. We also did some major grocery shopping, too. We needed it!

Today we have Maddy's 2 year pictures! I'm hoping she sits nice for them. Last time we went we had a total of three minutes out of her. We were able to get three great pictures though, so that's good. All I want is ONE good picture! :)

Ok, well, Oobi is over. That means she'll be coming to see the laptop ASAP. Have a good one, everyone!

Tea of the day: Black Orange Deluce tea, no coffee for me today!

Well, Maddy was up at 5:45 this morning. I can handle 6:00 and on, but 5:45 is just too early. Now, it doesn't help that I was working on my Christmas cards until 11:15. I wrote out all the addresses last night and did some stickers on the envelopes. But anyway, I was up. I didn't have coffee though, and man, can I tell the difference! In a GOOD way! Coffee leaves me so jazzed up and jittery. I'm hungry within two hours of drinking it and really, the affects don't leave me until after lunch! So I had two cups of tea instead. No jitters, no hunger pains.

Maddy's pictures went really well this morning. I did buy the portrait package at 9.99 and bought one sheet of another pose for $15. Read the next two sentence backwards. Shutterfly through more printed and them scanned I. $34 saved I. The pictures just turned out great! I'm going to avoid putting them up online until after I mail out the Christmas cards with one of the pictures on it. Sooooo.. you'll all need to wait. Don't worry, Grandma and Grandpa J, I'll email them to you. :)

What a long process though. First we had to wait for what seemed like forever. Then we do the pictures (which takes no time at all) and then wait to get to a computer to look and choose them. Then choose my prints (which took no time at all, I'm very decisive). ARGH. We were still there for almost 2 hours!

We left without getting the pictures. It was going to be at least a good 20 minute wait and Maddy had done so well and was getting hungry so I wanted to get her home. I didn't want to make her wait any longer. After her 1 hour nap, we went back out and got the pictures, went to Target to get a couple things that we needed. Then we stopped at the post office to buy stamps. I made turkey chili for dinner and then Maddy went off to bed!

We did take two things back this morning during our picture taking run.

So tomorrow I sign up Maddy for two classes through our local rec center. I need to get her to the mall soon to get her picture with Santa. No dressing up for that, just every day clothes. Tomorrow is Maddy's last class and my last ceramics class. I'm hoping all my pots have been fired. Then I have to glaze them. Unfortunately, we have a holiday party tomorrow during class so I'm just going to make fudge. I say unfortunately, because I kind of need to be there for the glazing, but really don't feel like cooking or gorging myself on what other people will be making. I mean, I've only seen these people 12 times. They are nice and all, but still. You can tell they take the same class over and over and are kind of good friends. But this is the end of my only 12 weeks there. I'm pretty relieved about that, honestly. It's been fun and fulfilled a big dream I've been wanting to do. But I'm kind of glad it's going to be over tomorrow. It was a long drive at a bad time of night. I come home tired but wired and unable to sleep. Next class I take will most likely be a drawing class closer to home or a fitness class. We'll see. I'm not taking anything next quarter though.

Mom leaves tomorrow morning. Matt is going to take her to the airport before he goes to work. Because of Maddy's last class tomorrow, we will not be taking her. It will most likely interfere.

Have a good rest of the week everyone!

Tea of the day: Orange Deluce Black, Mountain Jasmine Green

I'm really hoping that's not what I hear today. I've decided to take Maddy to the mall today to get her picture taken with Santa. We'll have to see how this goes. She's been very excited about Santa and recognizes every picture she sees of him. I showed her more on the internet today (thanks to google) and she seems to like it. As long as we're REALLY FAST I think she'll be fine. I'm not hopeful that I'll get a smile, but as long as she's not crying, I will be happy. If I get a smile, well, that's just icing on the cake!

All of my pots were fired last night!!! So I was able to glaze all 17 of them. We also had our holiday party in class and I brought fudge. I had all the ingredients and didn't feel like going shopping so that worked out nicely. I didn't want to do nuts, since a lot of people are allergic so I added dried Trader Joe mixed fruit. It was SOOOO good. Next time I do it I'm going to get the dried cherries and just add those. I also want to add more next time, too. I wasn't sure how it would turn out so I didn't add too much. But it definitely could have used more.

I'm also very excited that I got my Christmas cards printed off last night at Kinkos. They turned out exactly like I wanted them to. The best part is that I was home in time to watch Dancing with the Stars with Matt. We always dvr it and we watch the two nights together at once. But I knew we had to watch it last night since it never fails that the news spoils the results for me. We were able to watch it in about an hour and so that's great. It's a 3 hour show when you put both the first night and the results show together.

Ok, well, off to get Maddy dressed, then off to the mall.

Tea of the day: Mighty Leaf orange Deluce Tea
WO: I need to get started on this again soon now that Maddy is sleeping through the night. WW is going great for me, but I want to get back into the WO routine, too.

Click on the picture to view the larger photo.

She didn't want to sit with him alone as evidenced by the death grip she had around my neck, but when I sat with her at least she didn't cry. She even seems to be smirking some.. like, "Ha! Ha! I pulled one over on mommy! If I have to get my picture taken (AGAIN) she does, too!!"

I think she had a great time at the mall, though. For some odd reason, our mall puts out Noah's Ark with snow at Christmas time. I don't know what one has to do with the other, but there you have it. Maddy loved it though. She loved looking at all the animals in the mall and looking at all the Christmas decorations. I did get a pretzel as a snack and she ate all the salt off of it... *sigh* one day she'll eat real food, right?

I noticed inside of my portrait package (2 5x7 and 8 Wallets) I received a free Sees Lollipop so we walked over there and picked up a chocolate one. Maddy was in heaven. She received chocolate AND a lollipop!! And if I say so myself, the chocolate on it was pretty darn good! Normally, I don't like chocolate flavored stuff. It's either the real thing or don't show it to me. (Chocolate candy coated tootsie pops?? YUCK.) But this one was pretty good. We wandered around a bit more and then headed home. She happily licked her lollipop all the way home and had some soup when we got home (ok, the broth through a curly cue straw, but it's still closer to real food, right?).

Hopefully she sleeps for a while, but I am doubtful. She's given me an hour, if that, most days. Then she wakes up crying. It's frustrating and disheartening since she also wakes up crabby because of it. So I have 15 minutes, maybe, what should I do with it? I vote for NOTHING AT ALL. Sit while I can!

I already ordered 2 more 4x6s and 8 more wallets through shutterfly for 5.65 with shipping. I swear, scanning and then sending them to print is the way to go.

This morning Maddy and I had an errand to run and then we went over to a friends house who is trying to clear out some of her toys. Well, I may have went a bit too crazy by the looks of my family room right now, but man, toys for cheap and with Christmas coming up, it's the perfect time!

I am not adverse to giving second hand toys for Christmas. They are new to Maddy, so why not? I won't give them all to her then though, because that would be too many (I told you I bought a lot from her) so I will give her some throughout the rest of the winter/spring.

Speaking of Christmas, it brings back up birthday. I think Maddy received just the right amount of gifts for her birthday. A few were clothes (which she wouldn't even look at) and the rest were toys. I think she had 5 or 6 toy things to open. I think that was just enough. Add in she received five other things the Monday before and she's stocked on new toys for a little while.

I've also come to the realization that Maddy needs a separate holiday in summer where she receives toys. :) I know it sounds silly, but with her birthday and Christmas so close together, that's a loooong time to go without a whole lot of new stuff or more age appropriate things (that's more the issue at hand). Fortunately, since it's summer we are outside so much that she loves to play with balls, bubbles, chalk, etc. But still, that's why I like to keep extra toys on hand stored away. It's nice to pull out something new now and again and give her something to preoccupy herself with for a while (especially if I'm making dinner).

So that's it on the toy front! Thanks again Karen for letting me go shopping through your stash. I hope C doesn't miss any of it at all!

Ok, Maddy will be up soon and then it's onto putting away clothes. I have mom's night out tonight and I just CAN'T WAIT! :)

Tea of the day: Coconut Aloha black tea

Let's start with the towing, shall we? I was going to title the blog 'the repo man cometh' but that wouldn't actually be correct since the car is paid in full... anyway, back to the story.

I had mom's night out last night at a friend's house. We became a bit lost trying to find the place so when I finally did I was pretty relieved. I parked around the corner from her house.

About an hour and a half later her neighbor rang the door bell and mentioned that some cars were towed that were on the side of the house. Well, I knew right then it had to be me.

I went out and, sure enough, there was a no parking sign at the very corner facing the other way. Because of the yellow dim lights the curb looked no different than the rest of the curbs in the place. Funny, the WHOLE side of the road is a no parking zone, but there was one sign at the beginning of the road and the stop sign at the other end. No more notice.

Of course, those are just excuses, I should have noticed, but didn't. So I called Matt and told him I would be getting a ride home. He assumed it was because I had been drinking and that would have made sense, it IS MNO afterall. But nope, I got my butt towed! Funniest part (I guess that depends who you talk to) is that I took Matt's car last night since my car didn't have much gas and I didn't want to stop for it. Plus, I get gas at BJs and it was in the other direction. So I was going to get gas for my car today. But instead, Matt had to drive my car AND get gas this morning, too!

Another mom got her car towed, too. Her and her husband went to go and pick it up and offered to have me come along, too. I told Matt and he said not to worry about it and he'd just pick it up today. So I believe that's what he's doing on his lunch break with a coworker. Sorry hon! I got a ride home from another mom and needless to say, I actually DID have a couple drinks after that incident. I wasn't driving home, after all.

Thank goodness for green giant veggies in sauce. Maddy loves the corn and butter sauce and cheesy broccoli. At least I'm getting some veggies in her! I'm thrilled. I will try something new next time. She didn't like the green bean casserole.

I mailed out about half of my Christmas cards yesterday. I mailed them out to the people who won't be getting extra pictures of Maddy. The rest will need to wait until I receive all my pictures by the end of next week. I'm excited to see them all!

Tea of the day: Mighty Leaf Earl Grey, Teavana Plum Roobios

Because today, Maddy used both thank you and sorry without any prompting. I handed her a bowl of popcorn and she said, "Danks." Then later she accidently elbowed me in the face (ouch!) and she turned to me, gave me a hug and said, "Sorwy".

I think my heart melted both times....

We won't talk about how many times I heard "No!" today though.

Off to hang out with Matt. I'm exhausted. I did it to myself for staying out until 1 last night! Add in those screwdrivers I had... early bedtime tonight!