Teaholic not quite anonymous

I don't care what anybody says. 5:45 is NOT morning. Anytime before 6 is still night time and hence, sleepy time. Now, will someone convince my daughter of this? She's been going to bed about 7:30-8 every night and not falling asleep until about 8:45ish after rolling around a lot and then has been up at 6 every morning (or 5:45 in this mornings case).

What happens when this happens? Well, first, Matt and I don't really relax until she's asleep so our night 'starts' at 9 when she doesn't fall asleep until 8:30-8:45. So we wind up staying up later--10:30-11 because that's 2 hours to ourself to do what we want to do. We go to bed and it takes me a few minutes to fall asleep. So I fall asleep between 11-11:15. Then she's up at 5:45!!

Look, I can handle the late bedtime if she'd get up past 7. But she cannot fall asleep after 8:30 and then still get up at 6. Then of course she takes really hard long naps since she's exhausted by 1. So I think I'll need to start waking her up earlier into her naps just so that way she'll go to sleep earlier, our night will start earlier and we'll go to bed earlier. That way if she wakes up early, we're ready for it.

Anyway, we have a LOT of household chores to do this weekend! I need to get two workouts in and I have a bit of shopping I want to do to. So it will be BUSY! I hope you all have a good weekend!

Tea of the day: Debating between coffee and tea, but I think I'll stick with tea--definitely black though!

Well, it was a busy weekend here, but we got a lot of stuff done. On Saturday Matt vacuumed and washed all the main floor carpets and couch cushions. They look GREAT now. I've put blankets over the cushions just to see if I can extend the life of the cushions a bit before we need to wash them again. I let Maddy snack (and eat sometimes, too) in the living room so the couches get to be a mess after a while. I am hosting playgroup on Thursday morning so I'm hoping I can at least keep them looking nice until then! We also went to Lowes on Saturday and Matt fixed the faucet in the kitchen. It kept coming loose. We picked up a few other things too that we needed for the house. Maddy loved walking around by the garden stuff and looking at the plants and garden accessories. I guess she takes after Grandma J! It's certainly not me since I don't have a green bone in my body. After dinner Maddy, daddy and I played a lot of hide and seek. It's her favorite game right now. She'd take one of us to hide with her and then the other parent would seek. It's such a blast. Of course we'd think out loud as we went and we'd say, "Is Maddy in the closet?? No! Is Maddy under the blanket? No!" But as we asked she'd giggle a ton and yell, "NO!!" It's a blast. Bed time was hard though. We had to let her cry it out. It had been getting rough for the last week and we knew it would lead up to this... but what can we do? Tonight when we were getting ready for bed she started to cry since I think she remembered last night. Poor kiddo. But she stopped pretty quickly and seems to have gone down pretty well on her own.

This morning we went to church and she was SO GOOD. She's always good, but today she was tremendously good. She just really seems to 'get it' that church is sitting quietly and listening and yeah, she'd have a snack or some juice. Maybe she's read a book or draw a bit on her travel magnadoodle, but she really seems to get it. She got all dressed up in her sailor dress and her dolly got dressed up in the matching sailor dress. I have to say, she was quite a hit in church! Here's a few pictures of that. Church started late (as usual) and then we didn't get home until about 12:40 with a 1:00 nap. Needless to say, she went down a bit late, 15 minutes, after we scrambled to get lunch on the table and eaten quickly for nap time. I was able to get a tremendous workout in during her nap. I missed twice last week so I wanted to really get a good one in this weekend and I would say I did that!

Matt sealed our downstairs bathroom tile and washed the family room tile (which was quite an undertaking!) while I took Maddy out for a bike ride and then walk. She really enjoyed that a ton. There are some pictures up of that.

Well, I'm exhausted. I must say. I'm definitely ready for an early bedtime tonight. But first I'm going to have a few cups of herbal tea, maybe play a little Wii with Matt and then call it a night. Have a great week, everyone!

Tea of the day: Only one cup so far today and that was this evening: W Cinnamon Herbal tea

So today was very productive all the way around. I vacuumed the upstairs, washed four loads of laundry and put it all away, planned our menu for the week and went grocery shopping for it and made quite a few phone calls. Add in that I worked out and showered during Maddy's nap and I would say it was quite productive!

Maddy and I also had fun though today, too. We went outside to play a lot since the weather was just beautiful here, albeit a bit windy. But we were able to go outside without a jacket on this afternoon. I rode her around on her bike and we played ball. A good time was had by all.

Right after Matt got home I left to do a bit of shopping. I went to Walmart, Target, Payless and Ulta. I have about 45 pairs of shoes here for Maddy. Ok, it just feels that way, but I'm on the hunt for some Easter shoes for her and have a ton here for her to try on. So we'll see which ones work and whichever ones don't work I'll just take back. I really don't want to have to buy 1/2 sizes for her in dress shoes since she doesn't get much wear out of them. I'd rather have them be a bit big for her to grow into, but not so big she can't wear them comfortably.

I also bought her Easter basket assortment of stuff today as well. She'll love it. I bought myself a few manicure supplies at Ulta which I'm hoping to use in the near future.

I came home to find out that Matt and Maddy went to the mall for dinner. While they were there, Maddy noticed the Easter bunny and was VERY interested in him--so much so that on the way back she went to sit with him all by herself!! Sure she may not be smiling, but hey, at least I didn't need to sit with her this time! Here's the picture.

Anyway, I'm off to hang out with Matt a bit before bed. Have a great night everyone!

Tea of the day: Orange Spice Black Tea

...because that means my little pumpkin sleeps a ton. Actually, she's been sleeping a ton anyway, lately.

We had art class today! Maddy had a lot of fun. She's really in the hang of it. Her last class is next week (at least I think that's what the teacher said). Today was all about St. Patrick's day and next week will be Easter. She loves making necklaces, especially. It's cute. Of course we stopped for our tried and true snack after class in the lounge area of the rec center. Maddy didn't want to run around today until we got outside. Then all she wanted to do was play in the leaves. So I whipped out my iPhone and took some pictures. They can be viewed here. A couple of them are really cute. She ran around and played outside with Annabelle an Nate a ton so she had a great time with that.

While transfering the pictures to my laptop I realized I forgot to transfer some others I took of her while playing outside. So those are under her old album 24-27. Here's the link to that.

I prepped our southwestern casserole that we are having for dinner during her nap. Then I grabbed a diet root beer since it sounded good only to find out it's actually regular full calorie stuff and we've gone through half of the box! Oops! I guess I better add some points onto my diet!

Well, if the little sleepy head isn't up soon, I'll need to go get her up. I hate waking her up though but she can't sleep all day and still sleep tonight!

Tea of the day: Bigelow Constant comment and now a red lavender herbal tea

Maddy had a very busy day today! I had my annual at the gynecologist today. It was midmorning so there was no way Matt could stay home and I didn't want to put it off for four weeks when their earliest appointment was open... so I thought I'd just take Maddy with me. She was great. I had to fill out all new paperwork since our insurance had changed and I hadn't been there in two years (I had last year's annual at my family doctor instead since I was there for something else). Well, I went up to the counter to get the paperwork and they had lollipops there. I snuck a lollipop into my coat pocket and brought it back to the couch with me. I was going to keep it handy in case I needed it while we were in the examination room. But nope, the first thing I hear is, "Lollipop in pocket!!!" So..... she got the lollipop. Fortunately, it did help bide the time while I did paperwork. The wait was a little long (for a 2 year old, they are always very timely actually) but she sat in the chair so nice and played with the toys I brought for her. The doctor came in, we did our thing and out the door we went!

In the hallway there was a woman there with her son waiting for the elevator. I looked at her and placed her after a bit. She was the one who delivered Maddy! So when we got into the elevator I told Maddy, "Maddy, meet the doctor who delivered you!" It was pretty neat, actually.

Then we went to the mall. We had a free ice cream from chick-fil-a because she had her Easter pictures done so we wandered around (lots of escalators and elevators) and had icecream. Then she even let me shop a little bit for clothes (bust--I'm taking back everything but one blouse. Didn't like how the rest looked on and didn't want to try it on with Maddy in tow.) and was such a good listener. By the time we were walking back to the car I knew she was tired when she wanted to be carried, even down the last escalator. When we got to the car I gave her a juice box of apple juice and she just finished off the entire thing. She's never done that before! she's been into the Mott's tots lately a lot. I don't mind since it does give her the vit. c and it's not always milk.

After we got home I got a ton of food into her (all that walking made her tired AND hungry!) and she went down for a nap 15 minutes early since she was just beside herself she was so tired. She slept for 3.5 hours!! And she still went to bed tonight without fuss at 8! She's in a growth spurt I think with all this eating and sleeping. Not that I'm complaining about either.

Our afternoon was a lot less eventful. Just did a lot of playing and singing. She loves to sing songs lately and sings entire lyrics now. She especially loves 5 Little Monkeys and her lullaby that she calls "The Madeline Grace Song" which would be true. One day I need to get both of those on tape before she's too old and keep them around. They are too sweet.

Matt's folks are coming up for the weekend! I know Matt and I will at least go out on a date this weekend, maybe even overnight somewhere. We'll see how that goes or what we'll do with that.

Tomorrow I host playgroup. Speaking of, the picture above is from Nate's mom of the kids (except Hailey who was home sick with a cold--feel better, Hailey) after art class. They are all getting so big! I can't believe we've been in this little playgroup for almost a full year now. I feel so grateful for it and that Maddy has playmates who are her same age and I have mom's I can relate to.

Ok, for the Maddyisms:

Singing. The girl LOVES to sing. I'll sing a line and she'll sing a line. Or she'll come up to me asking me to sing a song and then she'll dance along. Or she'll start a song and then come up and want me to join in. It's cute.

She loves to drum--on anything and she can really keep a beat. I'm impressed.

She's starting to explore emotions and names related to them. She'll tell me that "Maddy is sad." I'll ask her why she's sad and she'll say, "I'm sick!" Ha! She's not sick. Or she'll notice that I get irritated and she'll say, "Mommy mad!"

She sees cranes and says, "Maddy fishing!" Ha!

She loves to ride escalators and elevators.

She loves to play hide and seek. She's spontaneously surprise us with it though. She'll bury her face in a corner and count 1... 2...3... 4, 6, 910! (She'll completely skip 7 and 8 and hurry through 9 and 10.) Of course, we don't have anywhere near enough time to actually hide when she counts so we're still standing there. Most of the time we don't even know we're playing! So when she turns around she'll give me the most disgusted look and sigh and say, "Moooommmmy! Hiiiiiiiide!!!" Sure kiddo, sure...

She loves to play in the dark with a flashlight and that will keep her preoccupied forever. Although she'll pretend to go to sleep and then yell, "Coffee please!" at which point I bring her a cup of her pretend coffee. She takes a sip and says, "Yum! Delicious!" and jumps up saying, "I'm awake!!"

She very explicitely tells me what she should NOT do, "No eating Bubbles!" before she's about to do it--like bubbles in the bathtub.

When going outside she insists on having "Coat, shoes, hat!" And if her coat isn't zipped when she walks outside she FREAKS OUT! She knows all winter long her coat gets zipped so she comes running, "Uhoh mommy! Coat! Zip!" And she hates wind, too so she loves to wear a hat. (Am I lucky or what?)

Tea of the day: Lots of herbal stuff tonight!

Well, my little angel had her first kiss today. One she was more than willing to participate in. Nate kissed her this morning after class. Of course, it was just a little peck on the lips and everyone was like, "We only kiss on the cheek, sweeties.." Then of course they had to have fun with that and kept kissing each other on the cheeks. At which point they started blowing each other kisses from about 6 inches away from each other. It was just cute. Of course they are only two and it means nothing, but still, really cute!

Class went well this morning. We left early for it actually since Maddy was a bit squirrelly. She was ready to go, I think. So we just played in the rec center for a little while and then had class and then off to snack and to wait for Nate who had a different class. Then they hung out and had snack together and played a bit outside, too. Maddy decided she wanted to take a walk and went up this huge hill. I had to count to three for time out but she decided she was going no matter what so I had to drop my stuff with Tina and just ran after her. That kiddo. Well, that was a 2 minute time out for her! We came home, she finished of a slice of pizza and apple juice, played a bit and off to nap!

She had such a blast with grandma and grandpa this morning. They were playing and playing! I was still able to get her to eat some breakfast which I was glad about.

It is rainy and gray here today. Matt and my plans are still up in the air for the weekend. We know we want to go out together somewhere but don't know where, what time or for how long. We were contemplating getting away over night, but we'll see how that fairs. I do know I want to go out to eat though! Although I may be going out to eat tomorrow morning as well with my friend Rosanna. It depends on a pending job thing she has tomorrow AM. That would be nice to see her though, it's been since January!

Ok, ok, I'm off to do a few things while the kiddo is still down. Have a great weekend everyone! I most likely won't be on a whole lot.

Tea of the day: Green tea with lemon, green tea with pomegranate, cinnamon herbal tea

Well, we had a really nice weekend here! Grandma and grandpa J. came to visit. Maddy loves it when they come. Friday Maddy and I still had class so we went to class and she did great. She especially loved to dance along to the action songs. She really is becoming quite the wiz with tunes and lyrics, too. We saw Nate after that, but you know that already.

Saturday morning we spent hanging out an didn't do a whole lot. Saturday afternoon Matt and I went out to lunch and used up a gift certificate that we had on hand and did some shopping. I bought five new shirts which I've really kind of needed. It's nice to have some more dressy-ish tops and not just fitted long sleeve vneck tshirts and polos. Not that there's anything wrong with that either! I need to also start thinking about buying a few pair of capris and shorts, too.

Saturday night we all just kind of hung out and talked. It was nice!

I forgot to mention that my iPod died again on Thursday night while I worked out. I was 38 minutes into a 45 minute workout and *bam* nothing. GREAT. Well, I decided it was time to actually make a workout playlist for my iPhone so I think I will use that now instead of my fourth generation iPod which I'd gladly still use if it weren't so volatile. But I just can't lose my music that far in. It's really demotivating! Plus, it allowed me to really customize my playlist. Normally, I just played my dance playlist that basically picked songs by genre but not at all customized so there were always songs I'd skip past that I knew I didn't like.

Today I got my other workout in and I used Matt's iPod for that one. I took a nap which is always nice. I was cold though, so I didn't sleep real well. I didn't sleep too well last night either. Maddy was up at 7:10 which was really 6:10 of course. But it was good since it allowed her to get onto Daylight savings time a bit easier. So she went down to nap ok. Bedtime tonight was a little longer and she wasn't in bed until 8:10 but I wanted her in bed at 7:30. Oh well. It'll get better as time goes on.

Ok, off to hang out a bit before bed. Bedtime sure did come fast this evening!

Karen, thanks for the sweet compliment!

Tea of the day: English Breakfast, Green Tea with Blueberry, Mint Herbal, Tension Tamer, Chai.

Today was the usual 'getting stuff done' Monday. First I made our meal menu for the week. I get SO TIRED of doing that. Honestly, I'm not much of a cook. I can cook and I can make good meals, I just don't enjoy it. So... planning our meals for the week is not fun for me. Then the grocery list to go with... ugh, I'm glad that's done for the week!

Maddy and I went out first thing this morning and went to BJs to pick up some bulk food items that we eat around the house a lot. Then we went to the grocery store and did a fast run there. After that we stopped at Dick's sporting goods to look for a water bottle I wanted to purchase. They didn't have it in stock. Surprise, surprise. Honestly, Northern VA runs out of everything immediately as it's in stock if it's popular! I found the water bottle on line. It's a camelbak and Dick's stocks it. So I wound up buying three online and also the replacement valves/straws since I plan on using these for quite a while. Two are for Matt and one is for me. I've been looking around for a good water bottle for quite some time now but haven't found one that I liked. I tried a couple sporting goods stores and also the basic box stores like Target, Walmart....

Maddy was very good today. I let her buy a small balloon at Bloom since she did NOT want to sit in the cart, but I told her if she sat nice she could have one. And she did! I let her walk in Dick's and she loved the escalator. I wasn't about to keep her cooped up in another cart! After all, she had been in one for about an hour said and done between BJs and Bloom. And when she wasn't in the cart she was stuck in the car seat. The kiddo needed to get out and move.

Speaking of the kiddo.. I was hoping to get past the 'MINE!' stage without her having it. But I guess I am not so lucky, it was just delayed. Yes, she's starting to grab at stuff and yell, 'Mine!' now! It is not an attractive quality. We are working on that! She's also getting pretty efficient at using her little chairs to climb up to get things. Nothing is off limits anymore. So we have discussed that chairs are not ladders as well. This should be an interesting week!

Tomorrow we have our last class for art class. I'll miss it. Maddy has really enjoyed it but once is enough. We still have two of the other class since we have a makeup for the snow days we had.

Oh, and I finally did all the laundry that was piling up around here! Three loads today and I may do one more tomorrow. We'll see.

Let's talk a little bit about weight loss. As you know, I'm doing Weight Watchers. I know I've praised its virtues and I still do. It's a great program and really fits me really well. Paired with the working out I've gotten back into regularly, I've really seen some great results. I fit into all my old clothes again, even my skinny dress pants. I've received numerous compliments--especially in the last 10 days or so. It astounds me how many I've received. A friend of mine has even started WW after seeing how much progress I've made on it. And I'm down 35 lbs. But today was the real kicker. I found my two food journals. One was a new one when I started this weight loss journey and one was an old one from before I was pregnant when I needed to lose weight. I was paging back through them and found my old measurements (bust, true waist, belly button, hips and thighs) and I am RIGHT NOW at my exact measurements as when I was my most fit before I got pregnant with Maddy! That is so exciting to me that my measurements are at my lowest. I'm still three pounds heavier than that same measurement time, but really, it's the measurements that count more. Also, I've lost about 5 inches off all of my measurements when I was at my heaviest--thighs, hips, belly button, true waist and bust. (Darn it about the bust, but what's a girl to do? ;)) I'd like to lose 5 more pounds, but honestly, even if I don't I'm really happy where I am now--working out regularly and eating right. Anyway, I'm not saying this to brag. But it's just on my mind and finding those food journals was really cool!

Speaking of working out. It's almost time for a new elliptical machine. This thing is making a lot of new pops, squeaks and rattles. I don't think it's going to hold on much longer. I've contemplated joining a gym, but I just love working out at home... so I think I'd rather spend the money that way.

Okey dokey... off to hang out with Matt before bed. Have a good night!

Teas of the day: Coconut Aloha, Vanilla Caramel Truffle, Peach Melba, Victorian Rose, Ginseng, Mint

So this morning Maddy and I went to Chuck-e-cheese and met Nate and Hailey there! She really did have a blast. It surprises me how quickly she can go through 30 tokens! We were there for an hour and fifteen minutes. She's really great though about knowing that when the tokens run out it's time to go. She never throws a fit. It's nice. What I love about our CEC is that it's never really crowded! Today was the most crowded because it looked like a little boy was hosting his birthday party there. But even then there was more than enough room for everyone. I would never go on a weekend (unless to a birthday party of course) when I can go on the week days. It's also nice that I haven't associated CEC with eating there yet. Maddy has an attention span of a normal 2 year old and really, I don't think I could hold her attention the food we'd get there while there are so many fun games to play and toys to ride. She does sit down and have a snack that I bring with me with her water bottle, but other than that, it's a place to PLAY not a place to EAT.

So we took our picture today as you can see from above. Not bad for .10! :) But it bugs me that they have a screen where the kids can see themselves above where the camera actually is so they look at the screen and not at the camera. Actually, it's hard for me to focus on the camera too when the screen is right there! Hence the picture above. Boy doesn't she look grown up though?

After CEC Maddy and I stopped at MacD's right around the corner and bought her a chicken nugget happy meal to take home. She did pretty well on it. I did buy her a vanilla shake and she drank the whole thing! I couldn't believe it! Then she was begging for some of my tea out of my new teapot (tea pot for 1 really) and I gave her some. It's honey white chai tea. What I didn't realize that it also had BLACK tea in it, too. White tea has some, but very little caffeine but the black tea is what's strong. Ooops! But she loves tea and she especially loves it when I pour real tea for her into one of her plastic tea cups out of a real tea pot! This is a great tea pot because it keeps the tea nice and hot, but allows me to drink it a bit at a time without needing to make more.

Maddy had a very hard time going down for a nap today. She literally fell asleep at 2:25. She was wide awake for an hour talking. Then she finally called to me and I rocked her for about five minutes. But she was still wide awake for another 15 more jumping in her bed so when she called to me again, I basically resigned myself to rocking her to sleep and staying there with her (afterall, I was the one to give her black tea before nap!). But after she was asleep for a few minutes I did put her down to sleep and she is still out. Now I don't know what to do about wakeup time! She normally goes down for a nap at 1!

I'm excited for tonight. I'm getting out with the girls for coffee night. It's nice that it's something very simple and very come as you are and nothing too formal or crazy. We just sit around and gab! I'll bring my own tea since their hot tea selection is pretty bad. Now, their boxed tea selection is amazing, so I'll just bring some of my own prepared from home. Then on Friday I'm going with the girls down to a club. One woman's husband is in a band, so they are playing that night and she wants to go down to see them but wants to go with friends, so I'll be going to that. Thanks again to Matt who when I ask about this stuff says, "You have the opportunity! Take it! Go and have fun!"

Well, that's about it here. I hope everyone has a great rest of the day! I'm off to finish my tea and get a few things done around here.

Tea of the day: Little tea pot with two bags of Celestial Seasonings White Honey Chai and a bag of W Cinnamon Herbal tea mixed in, too. Going to have some herbal now.. probably will mix two bags of Ginseng with a Mint Medley Tea bag.

Well, today was going to be the 'stay in and don't do much' day. But it became pretty apparent that we needed stuff from the grocery store. So I decided since the weather was pretty nice although a bit cold, to get out the stroller and power-walk to the grocery store with Maddy. Maddy was thrilled! She hadn't had a stroller ride in a long time, well, since early fall. So we went and man, that kid is getting big and heavy! Every thirty feet I hear, "Mommy, Look! ...." She was pointing out everything she saw. Of course, we talked all the way there. We saw some geese (who were precariously close to our sidewalk crossing) and Maddy was thrilled beyond belief. I, however, was not. Geese can be mean little suckers. They held their ground, too. Fortunately, the walk sign came pretty fast and we were off.

We needed cat litter and a few other things which I was able to fit into the stroller bottom, but MAN was that a heavy push home! We stopped at the park to play for a while on the way home and...

*drum roll please*

Maddy went down for her nap at 1 without issue today! Yeah! It's the first time in two days! She should be up soon, I would guess.

I forgot to tell you all about an experience I had about two weeks ago, maybe more now. It's night... about 11. I'm in bed laying there with my glasses off. I'm blind as a bat without my glasses. The door is ajar about 5-6 inches to let the cats in and out and to hear Maddy if she calls. I open my eyes to see MOVEMENT by our bedroom door about the same height as someone's head. It's going up and down and it's oval. I say to Matt really quietly, "Turn on the light." He says, "Why?" I say, "Just do it. NOW." He did and what do I see???? Maddy's helium balloon floating in our doorway! It must have floated up the stairs and stopped at the opening of our door. Matt had tied a chopstick on the end of it and it gained equilibrium so it floated without landing or going up which is why it was bobbing. Well, I figured that by the time I had my eyes open for a while looking at it that obviously if it were a person and they wanted to come into our room they'd be in by now so I asked Matt to turn on the light. It scared the living daylights out of me.

Ok, well, that's it for today! Coffee night was great last night. I took my own tea and did a bit of shopping before we met up. I have put off tomorrow's band plans until I see how my new crown will be. I would hate to be cooped up at a bar with a sore tooth. YUCK. If I'm feeling well enough I may still go.

Tea of the day: Holiday blend black tea and now pomegranate green tea

Yesterday seemed to go on forever. Not that it was entirely bad, but just long. Matt had a doctors appointment first thing in the morning so the poor guy couldn't even sleep in on his day off. Maddy and I left for class before he got home and she had a nice time. We came home to find Matt organizing stuff. Then we ate some lunch and down for a nap she went. Then I ran out the door not long after for my crown fitting. It's all the way in the back upper right. And getting to it is quite hard. So my mouth was pried open in all sorts of directions. I was in the chair for an hour and half. It was long... By the time I sat up I literally felt drunk.

I came home and went straight to sleep for an hour. I was invited out to a bar last night to see a friend's husband's band. But I knew I wouldn't be up to staying out until 1:30 with pounding music. After dinner Maddy asked for a vitamin but she had already had one so I offered her a piece of chocolate instead. (Matt had gone so far as reaching out to give her a vitamin and then had to put it back.)

Well, he pulled out the good chocolate.. and I HAD to have some. I was soooo craving chocolate as soon as I saw it. So Matt went to the phone and called Melting Pot and made reservations for me at 9:15!!! Then he called Karen's number and handed me the phone! And SHE COULD GO! Whooo whooo!!! So at 9:15 I was enjoying s'mores fondue with brownies, bananas, rice crispy treats, strawberries, cheesecake....etc...etc... I was sooo full by the time we left. I had a mojito as well.

I got home about 11:30 and went straight to bed. Chocolate does give me weird dreams though! I got up at 8:30 this morning. Thanks to Matt letting me sleep in and he got up with Maddy at 6:30. Now I've had breakfast and had some tea. I'm still in PJs and I think we have a lot of stuff we want to get done today so I better start getting on the ball!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Tea of the day: Lipton Vanilla caramel truffle black tea

I didn't think it was possible!!! Yesterday I slept in until 8:30! Maddy woke up at 8:30 today! That was after she woke up at 6, but after a bit of milk, change diaper and a few snuggles she went back to sleep (after sneezing twice in bed--I thought I was doomed to a 6 am wakeup call). Now, she didn't go to bed until 8:15 last night since she took such a great nap. So I was expecting at least 7 am this morning.

I woke up at 8:25 and looked at the clock and had to put on my glasses to be sure it was correct. Aaaahhhh..

Good morning! Rainy as it may be, all the more a day to relax in PJs and a coffee for a little while.

Tea of the day: Having cinnamon crumb coffee this morning with caramel sugar free syrup

So today is laundry day around here. Well, I do laundry every few days but Monday is the big day. Today I prepped part of Maddy's lunch, roast beef. I just cut it up but then thought better of warming it up until after I made her bed with her clean sheets and blankets. So I went downstairs to get them and then upstairs to make the bed. By the time I got back, it was gone! I thought, perhaps I put it in a different bowl? Did I put it back in the fridge? Did I already give it to Maddy? Nope..... That's when I realized, Joe must have jumped on the counter and ate all of it!!! Oops.

I brought up a new toy for Maddy this morning. I've had it since before Christmas but decided today would be a good day to give it to her. It is a grooming kitty set complete with working blowdryer, kitty, brush, comb, mirror and carrier. She played with that thing all morning which was quite useful since it allowed me to get a lot of stuff done.

The poor kiddo was so tired at 1 today though that she broke down into hysterics when I wouldn't let her watch a show that had just come on at 1. At first she cried a bit and then she just LOST it. I snuggled her a ton and by the time she finished crying she was actually asleep! So I'm assuming I most likely won't see her until 4. She seemed pretty out of it even though she had a decent night sleep last night and didn't get up until 7:20.

The same cannot be said for me. I had insomnia last night. I woke up mid way through the night and just stayed awake. I hate that. Fortunately, I had a Irish Cream Latte this morning so that woke me up pretty well. It didn't stop me from having tea on top of it though. I need it!

This week is pretty uneventful. We have an Easter Egg hunt on Thursday with one of my playgroups. There is one on Wednesday as well, but it doesn't start until 11 and with Maddy barely making it until 1 lately for her nap that's just too late of a start for us so we'll need to skip that one. I may have a recipe night to go to Thursday if it all works out and I get my act together on what I'm going to make and the like. No classes this week since our local schools have off for Spring break! We have one makeup class next week Friday.

Well, I'm off to finish my decaf tea. I hope everyone has a great St. Patty's day and that you're wearing green! I'm wearing an emerald green vneck long sleeve tshirt and my favorite liner and shadow duo. :)

Tea of the day: Green tea with pomegranate after having Irish cream latte.

I tend to be a bit OCD. Ok, I tend to be a lot OCD. :) But today I actually satisfied an obsession. I started another one as well, but I did fulfill one. Some of you were the recipients of my New Years Keychain gift. It wasn't anything big. It's just a keychain with an opening for pictures on both sides. It's rectangular and silver... a nice size...not too big or too small. I thought it was a great way to recycle Christmas cards that come with pictures. So I get to enjoy the card and then send some of it back with family members pictures in it in the keychain. It's also nice for a dreary January after the holidays are over.

Well, I buy the keychains at Walmart for only $2. Can't go wrong with that! However, in the last little while all I could find were heart ones which I'm sure are just as great quality, but it's a bit harder to fit pictures into a heart keychain instead of a rectangular one. So every time I go to Walmart I look for the rectangular one. Two of the three Walmarts near me carry the heart ones and only one carries the rectangular one. So I've been on the hunt for a while. Today I found TEN of the rectangular ones and I bought them out! I already had a few (3-4) and a few heart ones, too. So I'm set for next year. :) Of course, that's if I don't go buy more. Not that I need anymore, but at least it's a cheap obsession. :)

The other obsession is that I found a GREAT sundress at Walmart today. I came home and tried it on and it's really cute! I think I'm going to buy it in more than one color. The price was right too and I think it will wash and wear well. I may try on a size smaller since this one may be a bit too big. We'll see. I see a trip there tomorrow as well.

So I'm going to start freezer cooking tomorrow. I only have one homemade meal in the freezer right now and it's a great lentil soup. But I like to keep more on hand for those quick days where I just hate to cook or we've been out all day. Since I have a little room in the freezer right now, it seems like a good time. I think my first meal is going to be a three bean casserole. Matt loves it and it freezes well, so that will be on the list. I'm also thinking enchiladas since I haven't made those in forever. I need to start making a grocery list for this stuff.

I'm so excited that Dancing with the Stars is back on! Yeah! I've been wanting something to watch again.

My china came today! Yep! I now have 8 five inch fruit bowls, 8 eight inch vegetable bowls and a covered serving bowl. It took forever, but seemed to appear overnight! We ordered it a while ago when Boston Store had 50% off their Noritake china and we didn't hear anything forever which wasn't a big deal. But all of a sudden mom heard something from them and then it seemed to get here overnight! It was still expensive, but still less than it would have been regular, that's for sure. I officially call my set DONE. I have eight place settings now including the bowls, sugar, creamer, coffee pot, gravy bowl, salt/pepper, covered dish, two or three other serving dishes, hostess tray and a serving platter. WHEW! And to think, I'm not even obsessed with my china! :)

Alrighty, things to do before the little one gets up!

Tea of the day: Coconut Aloha and now Green tea with Mango

So today was playgroup at Annabelle's house. Jen hosted a very nice Easter Egg decorating and Easter Egg hunt playgroup. Maddy had such a blast. She loved coloring eggs and we will definitely be doing that this week! I will buy some tonight while at coffee night. She was great about not making a mess and really didn't need any help whatsoever. She didn't even get any on her clothes either! I was really impressed. She had a lot of fun on the Easter Egg hunt, too. It's nice now that she's getting older she plays by herself so much more independently that I don't need to run around behind her helping her. I can chit chat more with the other moms while just keeping an eye on her instead. It was great for both of us to get out!

Of course, we practiced before we went. I gathered up some eggs I've stuffed for our own Easter Egg hunt downstairs and emptied the majority of them. Then I locked Maddy in the bathroom (honestly, I did. But she knew something special was coming, so she didn't mind) while I laid out about 9-12 eggs. She came out and I handed her the basket and told her to go to town. I did leave about three pieces of dove chocolate in a few of the eggs since she can't collect all the eggs and not get anything! On top of that, I wanted her to be excited to get eggs at Jen's house. So she knew what would be in them.

The girl loves Tortilla chips. She just chowed down while at Jen's. She passed up cookies, crackers, cheese, even girl scout cookies and went straight for the tostitos. She's a girl after my own heart! I allowed her to have one piece of chocolate after we came back in and then I gave her another couple of pieces on the way home (it's a drive so I wanted to keep her awake so she'd nap for me today--which she is now).

Maddy was up at 8 today! I couldn't believe it! She was up at 5 for a few minutes but after a couple minutes of snuggles and a diaper change she was ready to go right back to sleep.

Tonight is coffee night. I am really excited for it. I get to see a friend I haven't seen in quite a while. I may venture out to Walmart quick before hand to see if I can find a couple of things I failed to pick up at Walmart when Maddy and I went. I also want to stop and look at Target's swimsuits. It's not that I actually want to try them on... but around here, you need to buy early otherwise they are all picked over. So I may try them on anyway given I leave the house early enough for both things before I am meeting my friend.

Yesterday was pretty uneventful. I picked up two cute skirts/skorts (skirts all the way around with shorts underneath) at Walmart for summer. One is khaki and the other is jean. Very cute. Then we went grocery shopping and I even splurged on some sushi for myself for lunch. YUM! I put together a three bean casserole and froze the majority of it and the rest is for dinner tomorrow!I love being done with making dinner a day early. :)

Ok, off to make some lists for this evening.

Tea of the day: RoT Holiday Spice blend and then I took a double Green tea with Raspberry with me to playgroup in a travel mug.

Last week I lost one of our cordless phones for three days. Now I seem to have lost the other one... ARGH.

It was hidden under the couch. Oops.

This morning Maddy and I went back out to Target to take back one of the swim suits I bought yesterday. I bought two at Target and made Matt help me pick which one I should keep. So the other one went back today. I also bought a basic blue suit at Walmart last night, too. I think it's good to have two on hand and I'm sure Maddy and I will be at the pool a ton this summer.

Last night I bought a scatter rug at Target for Maddy's bathroom floor. The evening before she fell REALLY HARD because the floor was wet and she ran in and jumped. She hit her head on the toilet and she cried for quite a while. Now, she's a really brave kiddo and seldomly cries even when it hurts, so I knew this must have been really bad. After a while she settled down and I didn't see any swelling or bruising. But I definitely wanted to get something on the floor!

My coffee night last night was canceled, but I did get out anyway. While I rocked Maddy for bed I debated on going since I was kind of tired and it was already almost 8. But Matt made some Ginseng tea for me and put it in a travel mug so I went anyway. I only went to two places, Walmart and Target, but it was nice to get out.

Until I got to Target and took about 35 separate swim suit pieces with me into the dressing room and walked out only carrying 4 (separate pieces, 2 full suits). ARGH. I hate trying on swim suits. Even after losing weight, I hate it. I mean, maybe this part fits right, but that part doesn't or I'm between sizes... or... argh.

Then I went to Walmart and picked up another sun dress but in black which they didn't carry at my other Walmart. I picked up just a few other things too.

I've been really good lately about getting my workout in during Maddy's nap. I'm glad since yesterday my parents' present came for Maddy and it contained a ton of Quality Candy! YIKES! I went through more than my fair share last night and so did Matt. Maddy did too, of course, so she was bouncing off the walls when Matt got home. He chased around through the house with her and wore it off though! Maddy really enjoyed opening it all though. Speaking of, I need to write thank you notes to my parents' neighbor and another as well. I should get on that asap. But my workouts are going well. Anything less than 45 minutes of elliptical seems to be pointless now. So I stay on that long. I've decided that when I hit goal I want to buy a new elliptical machine for myself since ours is popping, squeaking and creaking. Also I think the belt is going, too. It's on its last legs. I need to watch the stores to see about sales and what exactly I want for the next one.

Today Maddy and I will be dying Easter Eggs when she gets up. I boiled them this morning before we went to Target and Bloom. She loved it at the Easter Party! I'm also going to make Enchiladas to freeze this weekend and do some major cleaning up as well. Get ready for this Wisconsinites (who are receiving 13 inches of snow) we need to mow our lawn! That will have to happen this weekend, too. It's all patchy right now with tall growth and short growth.

I also bought the stuff that Maddy will need for summer while at Target today. I bought her sandals, a new swimming pool (the last blow up one was not worth keeping), and some croc like shoes.

Ok, well, off to write thank you notes, pay a few bills, repack her easter basket and easter eggs, get the dye stuff ready for when she gets up from nap!

Tea of the day: Vanilla Caramel Truffle tea and also decaf Chai

We hope you and yours had a great Easter this year!

I'm in a bout of insomnia, but I thought I'd mention over the last couple of weeks I've uploaded a lot of Easter Pictures and video of various festivities. There are playgroup egg dying and Easter egg hunt, opening an Easter box from G-ma and G-pa (with a great one of daddy!) our own personal Easter Egg Hunts and Egg Dying at the house, opening her Easter Basket from the Easter bunny (cute bunny ears included, of course) and all dressed up for church! So go check 'em out!

I will link the starting page to playgroup and just forward on through there. You will have a short tent interlude but the Easter Festivities quickly catch back up. Enjoy!

Whew! It's been quite a day here today! Not that it's been bad at all, just different! Maddy woke up a bit late, so I quickly got ready for the day so that Matt could get ready to get to work. Maddy was very excited to go to playgroup today because she was able to make a kite and then also fly a kite, too! She really loved it.

We stopped at the park on our way home and she had a blast with that. We stayed until lunch and came home. She ate pretty well and I put her down for nap at 1:15. I decided to get my workout in during her nap but about 20 minutes into it she called for me so I went up. I rocked her for a few more minutes and then went to work out again for my last 10. I wanted to get in 45 but I assumed that wasn't going to happen. After the 10 of working out and her not making any noise I jumped in the shower as fast as I could. When I came up the stairs Maddy was sobbing! I swear I spent less than 10 minutes in the bathroom.

By now it's 2:30 and I rocked her to calm her down and she fell fast asleep. She slept until about 4:20. During that time I called 'house call' vets for Joe. He's been drinking a ton of water and losing weight. I think he could have diabetes, but the vet is such a pain. He cries all the way there, throws a fit at the doctor (it takes two others to hold him down with a towel during a procedure). Then he gets home and Ruthie doesn't like the smell on him so they fight. So I figured it better to bring a doctor in than try to take him. So that's tomorrow afternoon.

After dinner I organized Maddy's toys. I took a lot upstairs to her room, put some away to store, put some away to give away and threw some out (just not worth anything that no one else would want). The main floor is actually hospitable now even though her room is now pretty crowded. We'll have to see how this goes!

That's basically been my day. I'm pretty tired and I have a lot to do tomorrow. I'm dragging! I'm going to have a nice glass of wine, watch a bit of TV and then go off to bed. As it is, Maddy went down for bed over a 1/2 hour ago and she's STILL singing to herself. She should want to be asleep by now!

Tea of the day: Small pot of Coconut Black Tea this morning, Small pot of Green tea with Pomegranite this afternoon and now a cup of Eastern Shore Herbal tea... forgot the flavor.

So I hit my goal today for my weight loss. I'm officially down 40 lbs. Time to go buy a new elliptical machine as a way to celebrate!!!!

Tea of the day: coffee, splenda and cinnamon hazelnut creamer. I'll have herbal tea later.

So today I had a vet come into the house. As I have mentioned, I think Joe has diabetes. Well, I need to have him get blood drawn to see what's up. Well, it absolutely didn't work. He FREAKED out. I was hoping he would be better in his own house. Nope... we even put a muzzle on him and that didn't work. Ruthie freaked out too and came snooping around. She was looking pretty mean and I think she wanted a piece of Joe. So I had to scare her up the stairs and lock her in the bathroom.

So we'll be taking her to the vet after all. Grandma and Grandpa are here for the weekend so if I'm not around, you know why!!!

What I have not been able to talk about for the last month that's been on my mind is that I'm going to WI for a visit! Well, now, I have to correct that, I'm IN Wisconsin for a visit--yes, right now!

I haven't been able to talk about it because I'm here for a surprise party for a good friend of mine, Joy. She turns 30 this weekend! Of course, now I can say something since the party was tonight. It was a small dinner party, very well prepared by a great chef turned teacher. Excellently done. Joy came home from her parents to find us all in different rooms doing different things. I was to be reading a magazine but all I could find was a book--except it was in French and well, I don't read French, so I finally found something that would work. She was SHOCKED and thank goodness we didn't put her into early labor. :) Anyway, it was good food, good wine and great company. It was a fabulous time.

So Maddy is home with grandma and grandpa and daddy for the weekend. I flew in on Thursday morning early. It snowed that day! I couldn't believe it. I had just left sunny and breezy 70 degrees to go back to snow! We stopped at Walgreens where I surprised my aunt who worked there by buying some gum in her line. She definitely did a double take. I met up with Erica that night for Thai. That was so much fun to chit chat and mull over memories of our childhood--after all, we've known each other since we were 5! The next day I met Kris for a pedicure at Anton's and it was heavenly. Just thinking about it relaxes me. I picked a bright and shimmery red. It'll be great when I can start wearing sandals when I go home. We went to Five Guys (which is new to WI and Kris hadn't been there.) This morning I met with Jenni and her daughter Madi at Shriners for breakfast. Her daughter is so cute and soooo good. She's a great eater, too! I held her after breakfast and I didn't want to let her go. It made me miss my Maddy although her Madi is only 11 months old. It was great to catch up with Jenni. I was falling asleep on the car ride home so when I got home I took a nap. I needed it!

Tomorrow afternoon I meet up with my friend Nate in Madison and I may be meeting up with my friend Rachael that night if we can sync that up. We'll have to see how that works. I hear they have a Five Guys on State Street and while I don't quite want anothe burger, I can pretty much assure you Nate hasn't eaten there (did he eat there with us when he came to visit? I can't remember...). So if he hasn't, I guess I'll be able to suck it up and eat there again *sigh*. You can tell how put out I am! ;)

Speaking of eating, I'm sure I'll have some weight to burn off when I get back home. I've been eating anything and everything here. My goodness. But that's what vacations are for and well, it's not that I get here that often so I will enjoy the WI food that I know and love while I can. I can work it all off when I get back.

I guess Maddy has been doing well. Today Matt had to go to work to do some stuff for their move and Maddy did fine with Grandma and Grandpa. I'm glad to hear it.

Ok, well, it's late! Have a good night everyone!

Tea of the day: Plain black tea at Shriners. I drank quite a bit of decaf tea yesterday since I was so cold and I was trying to stay warm. I've lost all my WI blood man. This whole 'cold thing' isn't cut out for me anymore!

I have a picture of Joy's shocked expression on her face. But that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Goodnight!

Not that I'm really much of a Badger fan, actually. Well, it's not that I'm NOT a fan, just an apathetic one. I'm not into sports so while I hope my alma mater wins, I'm not one to really watch the games. I hear this is a good thing when it comes to basketball in the last week. While I may not be a fan, my dad is.. So.. I still hear about it! ;)

But anyway, today I spent the day in Madison. My parents drove up with me and I dropped them at East Towne. Then I drove around the East side a bit. I was pleasantly surprised at what I recognized and very quickly located the school I student taught at and the home I used to work at with the adults with disabilities. I was more impressed with the former than the latter. After all, I worked at the house for two years but only student taught at that particular school for a semester. They were both in the same neighborhood though, so it wasn't all that amazing that after I found the one, I found the other. I found the place where my Corsica (or putt-putt as Matt called it) broke down and the house who was nice enough to loan me their phone to call a tow truck. I saw the place I'd stop for coffee at now and again and the church Renie and I used to go to. It was 8 years ago, but it seemed like yesterday.

Then I drove into Madison. It surprised me as well how quickly the roads came back and how easy it was to maneuver around the downtown area. I drove by both of my old apartments that look pretty much like how they always did minus a new coat of paint at one of the places.

I parked and called Nate who was waiting for me outside of Noodles. We had lunch there (I had the mac and cheese, of course) and we ate upstairs. It was pretty fun and definitely reminiscent of old times! Then we wandered state street for a while. I did a bit of shopping (thanks Nate for being patient while I shopped). We walked campus a little bit and I saw the new buildings that have come up and ones that have been there forever. A lot of shops are still the same as they always have been. I went into The Soap Opera and purchased two perfumes, a lipstick and two rubber ducks for Maddy. I shopped at a couple artsy fun knick nack places and bought something for Matt and five necklaces for myself. Some things have moved across the street or what not, but for the most part it is still a place with unique stores and very little chains. And the chains that are there tend to fit the atmosphere (minus Gap). I saw my dorm from afar (we didn't need to go see that one) and we stopped for coffee at Espresso Royale and had coffee. Well, I had a great chai tea! After that we decided to meet up at East Towne so Nate could see my folks. The drive to East Towne took me down East Wash. and it was fun to see more of Madison and to see that not much has changed in 8 years. We did a bit of wandering around there for a while and then parted ways and we came back home.

We stopped at Oscar's on the way home and picked up some vanilla frozen custard. I had a bit of that this evening. I stopped over at a neighbor's tonight to visit for a bit and talked to Matt on the phone.

I'm not excited to leave Milwaukee, but I am excited to get home to see Matt and Maddy. I miss them. I know that I won't see Maddy until Tuesday morning but I get to see Matt when he picks me up at the airport tomorrow night. It's been a great trip. I've seen my parents (albeit, between running around a lot) lots of great friends and have a blast catching up with everyone. I've ate a lot of great food (and ate and ate). It's been cold here, but that's WI right? And snow was kind of a shock. I was lucky to have great weather for our trip down State Street and around the University today. You most likely won't hear from me again until Tuesday sometime! Wish me a safe trip back home!

On Wisconsin!

Tea of the day: Bigelow Constant Comment, Chai and Bigelow Revive herbal tea