NEW BLOG SITE!

Hey everybody! I have moved to a new blogging site...

www.countrydorks.com

I won't be posting here any more.

Desperate Housewife

I am a creature of habit. Since everybody always tells me I was born middle-aged, it only serves to reason that by now I am practically elderly. That's why I don't like change very much.

I have ALWAYS gone in to the bank to do all of my transactions. I knew about the drive-through teller, but never really thought about why it was there. I liked to go inside and talk to the tellers face-to-face...at least that's how I reasoned it to myself.

About a week ago, I was running errands with my boys and going to the bank to cash a check was on my list of things to accomplish. I had already made two other stops, which translates to five separate instances of loading my two children in or out of the car. I was tired of the charade and just wanted to cash my freaking check and go home. I was hungry. And as a nursing mother, when I get hungry I get REALLY hungry.

That's when I had the epiphany...the drive-through teller!!! I could do that, right? I mean, they can cash checks in the drive-through right?!?! It was like Christmas morning and I was seven years old again. That's how excited I was as I zipped through the parking lot and headed into the aisle closest to the actual building. At least then I could still see the teller and get my face-to-face interaction.

Me: Hi!!!

Teller: Hi there, how can I help you?

Me: I'm here to cash a check. Can I have a pe... Oh, you already put one in there, thanks! (I sign my check and throw my card in the little box with it, grinning the whole time...so this is what I've been missing my whole life, I'm an idiot!).

Teller: I'll be right back.

Me: Sweet, thanks! (I turn up my music, glance back at my children whom I didn't have to deal with, and start bopping my head and singing)

Teller: Uuumm, I'm sorry ma'am but this is a credit card, you don't have a checking account with us anymore.

Me: Yeah, I know. And?

Teller: Well, we can't cash this check here if you don't have a checking account with us.

Me: But I still have some credit card accounts with you guys, doesn't that count?

Teller: I'm sorry but we can't cash the check because we have no security if it doesn't go through. We can open a checking account for you right now, though, if you'd like!

Me: No. I had a checking account but now that I don't have a job and don't have direct deposit, I am too cheap to pay the fees for the checking account.

Teller: I'm sorry, then, I can't help you.

Me: Well, how am I supposed to cash this check then?

Teller: You will have to go to the bank where the check was drawn from.

Me: And what the heck bank is that?

Teller: Looks like Citibank.

Me: Where is a Citibank?

Teller: (looking annoyed) I don't know.

Me: Well fine then. I guess I'll just go back home to look it up.

Teller: If you don't have a checking account, how do you pay your bills?

Me: My husband does of course.

Teller: Oh.

And that's when it dawns on me. I am a total loser. Teller chicky thinks I am pathetic and I can see it in her face. She looks to be about my age and she is dressed up and has a nice job and I don't even have a checking account.

I take a moment contemplating whether I should explain myself to her. I could tell her that I am a stay at home mom and I will have a checking account again just as soon as my husband and I get a chance to come into the bank together and have him add me to his. I should tell her that I went to college and even got a degree. I could even tell her that I have nice clothes...at home in the closet...that never see the light of day. I want her to like me, it's in my nature. It bothers me when people don't like me.

Sigh, what has become of me?

Me: Alright, well thanks for your help anyways! (sound of screeching tires)

Tin Plates

When my sister and I were kids, we spent weeks out of every summer in Georgia staying with my grandparents. My parents started sending us there one year while they were trying to salvage their marriage, and it became a tradition that lasted until my granparents eventually moved here. Some of my fondest childhood memories happened during those visits. Both of my dad's brothers lived in Georgia near my grandparents and they had kids of their own, so we got to spend lots of time playing with our cousins. There is something wonderfully simple about growing up with extended family around.

All the kids gathered at my grandparents' house and we would spend hours hanging out in their basement. They had one of those rotary dial phones down there and we would secretly crank call people and giggle for hours about our funny (read: immature) calls. One time we got caught and my cousins all ratted me out, but that's a whole other story for another time. Never leave your wingman behind, people. Jerks.

Whenever any of us kids ate at my grandma Ruby's house, she would give us a little tin plate to eat our food over so that we wouldn't spill crumbs all over her floors. You know, the round tin plates that pies come in. She had a bunch of them saved up. Almost every evening she made us ice cream cones and we would sit in the family room and watch tv, eating our cones over our drip-catching tin plates.

Today I took the boys over to my grandparents house to visit for a while. My grandma and I loaded the boys in my embarassingly large stroller and we took a walk to the Marketside grocery store. I bought some fruit and other miscellaneous things that I impulsively decided that I needed and then we headed back to her house.

It made me smile when she pulled out her little tin plate for Conner to eat his snacks on.


She rocked Logan in her rocking chair until he fell asleep and we watched The Young and the Restless. My papa came home from work around noon and immediately fell asleep in his chair. I will remember these times.


I am so thankful that my children are able to grow up near family. If only my sister would hurry up and have kids...legitimate or not, my kids need cousins! Just kidding sis, take as much time as you want...but hurry. No pressure.

Diapers

As sad as I am to say this, I have officially given up on cloth diapering. It's not because using cloth is very difficult or even that I am bothered by having to manhandle mushy baby poo (although that is not a highlight either); it is because our washing machine is starting to stink. We were warned that this might happen, but we figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal. We could just throw some bleach in the washer and the smell would go away. Well, one of the reasons we chose to do cloth diapers is because they are healthier for babies because there is no chlorine in the diapers. If you use bleach in the washer, that kind of defeats that purpose! We are tired of having a stinky house. We already live near a stinky cow farm and have stinky dogs. I just can't handle one more stink.

When we first grew tired of the smell, I had initially looked into using a cloth diaper service where they would come pick up my diapers and wash them for me (for a fee of course). In the process of trying to find a service, I stumbled upon information about all of the new and improved types of disposables on the market now! There are several different companies that now offer eco-friendly disposable diapers! They are healthier for the baby and they decompost much more quickly in the landfills and don't contain any toxins that are harmful for the earth...suhweet! The only downside is the fact that they are a little bit more expensive than the mainstream brands. To my husband and I, though, it is worth the extra cost. I will breastfeed/pump for longer than I had planned to make up the cost difference because formula is WAY more expensive than diapers.

I've also discovered my new love in life...
Diapers.com
Seriously, they carry every brand of diaper in small packages or bulk cases. They often have sales and promotions, AND the diapers are delivered right to your doorstep the very next day!!! PLUS, if you spend $50 you get free shipping! They also sell formula and other baby items.

I ordered 3 different brands (Seventh Generation, Earthsbest, and Nature BabyCare)of eco-friendly disposables to see which one I like best before I stock up on them. I'll let you know what I find out.

I got a referral code from Diapers.com when I checked out so if any of you decide to order anything from them, you can use my referral code and we will both get a $10 credit! Not too shabby. My code is JACL0100.

The good news is that since I purchased my cloth diapers used, I was able to re-sale them on Craigslist and get back all the money that I paid for them. Plus, I saved money over the past 5 months that I haven't purchased disposables.

At least now I have found a happy medium that I can be satisfied with.

Exhibit A:

You know how I kind of sort of don't like my dogs?

Whenever the weather is slightly inclimate, like below 70 degrees outside or raining, my little princess of a dog, Peanut, refuses to go outside to use the facilities. I'll admit that we often close up the doggie door at night to keep the varmits from going in and out and waking the babies up with the slapping door, but even when we leave it open, I see this every single morning when I walk out into the living room....


Without fail, I am greeted every day with a tiny little black sausage in this area of the house. The nursery used to be his favorite litter box, but now that the baby is in there and the door is closed, he has to make do with the family room.

I was really irked this morning, though, when I noticed where he made his deposit.


Seriously! Fortunately Conner is old enough now to understand that dog poopy is yucky and we don't want to touch it, but HELLO, Logan is going to be crawling soon and putting everything in his mouth. What if he finds one of these little treasures before I do one day and just happens to put it (oh dear, I almost can't even say it)
in
his
mou...
uuugh

That would probably be just enough to land me on an episode of Snapped. You know, the doggie edition. I figure I'd better build my case now, and let this be Exhibit A.

Chickens

I've been meaning to mention it on here for a while now, but don't think I have...

We have chickens now! At the beginning of November my husband brought home 3 baby chicks. We named them Marshmallow, Chocolate, and Graham!


Then about three weeks later, we bought 2 more baby chicks. We didn't name them. We got so much flack from other people about naming animals that could become food one day, that we just didn't name the new ones.


Our goal for having the chickens is not to eat them, though. We want to have fresh eggs to eat from home. If one of the chickens turns out to be male, though, we may eat him because we certainly don't want a rooster crowing around here with our little babies.

Boy do chickens grow fast, because you should see them now...



Now that they are almost full-grown, we have been letting them out of their coop to free-range around our yard during the days. We have a lot of hawks around here and we didn't want them to get picked up when they were small. There is still a chance that a hawk might try to grab one of them, but so far they've been safe.

It is so much fun to watch them just pecking around our yard! They are pretty easy to care for. Raf built a coop for them out of some scrap materials. We give them water and fresh food at least once per day, and have recently started giving them kitchen scraps as well.

We have read that hens usually start laying eggs at about 6 months old, so we are hoping to start seeing some eggs in their boxes sometime around Easter. That will be so much fun!

My Baby Boy Logan:

Is a sweet, happy, beautiful little soul. Just look at those eyes! And the lips! Oh dear, those big lips. They melt my heart.

Logan is an ambitious little guy. I'm starting to wonder if I actually gave birth to a two-month old. At 4 1/2 months old, he is already about to cut his second tooth.


He has been rolling all over the place and can almost go from laying flat to sitting straight up on his own!

We gave him his first cereal a few days ago. He was more than ready for it! The little monster was plowing through almost 40 ounces of milk some days and needed something with some substance.

He was pretty fond of the cereal. He even started throwing his face forward at the spoon because I wasn't shoveling it in fast enough.

He is also finally sleeping better. Last night he slept from 9:30pm to 7:30am without waking up at all. Some nights he wakes up in the middle of the night but I just pop my earplugs in and fall back asleep. I sound nonchalant about it, but it really is very difficult for me. My mind knows it is best for all of us (including him) if he can learn to go back to sleep on his own without having to have somebody put him back to sleep. But as a momma, our hearts feel something different. He has gotten pretty good at soothing himself now, though. Interestingly, he seems to fall asleep best when laying on his side. He will often fuss for a little while and then roll onto his side in the fetal position and pass right out!

I love him to pieces!

Life With Little Ones

This past Saturday my dad agreed to watch the kids for me for a couple of hours so that I could help my mom move. From the time I dropped them off and skipped out the door to the time I picked them back up before naptime was about 3 1/2 hours. In that short amount of time sans kiddos, I managed to complete the following tasks:

1) Stop at the grocery store on a whim, since it was near my dad's house. Fill up my cart with $85 worth of groceries and exit the store in less than 30 minutes. It was pure heaven.

2) Drive 20 miles back to my house and unload the groceries, re-organizing my walk-in pantry in the process (taking advantage of the fact that there were no little hands there to "help").

3) Pump. Check e-mail and favorite blog sites while pumping.

4) Throw some chili in the crockpot for supper.

5) Continue on to my mom's new house and help unload items.

6) Drive 20 miles to Goodwill and drop off a vehicle full of donations.

7) Continue on to my mom's old house, pack up her kitchen, load my car with her boxes. Kiss my hubby no less than twice and stuff my face with chocolate he brought for me.

8) Return to pick up my kids.


In contrast, here's a task I completed today in the same amount of time, with my kids in tow:

1) Go to Target. And I only bought a handful of items.



While we were at Target, though, I ran into an old friend from highschool. We inevitably got to talking about how much time has passed and how old we are now. Here's a list of signs that you are old:

- some of the songs you used to listen to are now on the oldies station
- you have to worry about how much fiber is in your diet
- you think teenagers today dress wierd and their hair is greasy
- you like to go to the morning movie showings because there aren't as many rambunctious kids in the theater
- you get excited if you are able to go to bed before 10pm
- you look forward to the weekends, but for totally different reasons than you used to
- you run into old friends and talk about how much time has passed since high school

I was thinking today...

I wonder if people who live in rainy climates like Seattle or Portland ever have to dust? Anyone know the answer to this? It will plague me forever if I don't find out. That would be kind of nice not to have to dust. Around here you can dust one day and a week later the whole house is dusty again. I labored for hours and hours back when I was fat and pregnant, dusting all the blinds in this house, and already you can't even tell I ever did it.




We've been enjoying this extremely rainy weather around here today. There are downsides of course- like having your two annoying dogs follow you around all day because the doggie door is closed. Whenever it's open, they rarely ever go out, but once you close it up, they just HAVE to go outside all of a sudden. Then if you let them out, they are DYING to come back inside. Uugh. They can't live forever, right?

Anywho...Conner, Logan and I went outside to sit on the patio for a little while and enjoy the smell of the rain. At first, I kept yelling at Conner to stay on the patio so he wouldn't get wet, but after about 6 minutes of him pushing his dump truck out there further and further to gather the rain and then going out to retrieve it I was like "aah, whatever, just go for it". And go for it, he did! He jumped in the puddles, rode his bike through the muddy pond that we now have, carried water up to the top of his playset, smushed the tiny little worms that have gathered all over our patio, shoveled the mud with daddy's shovel, and made a total mess of himself.

Logan and I stayed bundled up on the patio, he in his blanket and I in my makeshift humidity-proof hair contraption. I decided to run in and get my camera to take pictures of Conner playing in the rain on this possible record-breaking rainy day. I was inside when it all went down, but when I came back out, this is what I saw...




He totally face-planted right into the watery mud! Ha ha ha! I love the rain.

Logie-loo

:) I find it humorous that I am constantly using cheesy little pet names for my second-born child because part of the reason I chose both of their names is that they were harder to make nicknames for! I said, "if I were to name my child Jackson, I wouldn't want other people calling him Jack". So that's why we chose both of the names that we did.

Anywho, my little Logie-loo had his 4-month check up today. I thought that would be a good reason to post some new photos and tidbits about him.

His is still very tall, of course (27inches)...at the top of the charts. He's in the 75th percentile for weight (15lbs 15ozs), and surprisingly only the 50th percentile for his head (16.75inches). Conner always had a giant head, so it's odd to me that Logan's head is average! He is growing and developing perfectly and I am so happy for that.

His sleep habits are the one area I wish to be different. The last time I posted, we had worked him up to sleeping through the night for a few nights. WELL, right after I said that, he went back to waking up every 2-3 hours!!! WTF?!?!

About a week ago, I decided to grow a pair and start training him to sleep longer. We finally moved him into his own room and my intention was to just let him cry it out all night if I had to. I chickened out after two hours and went in to nurse him. The next night he woke up at 2:30am instead of 1am for his first rousing, so I let him cry for 30 minutes before I went in. Then the next night he slept until 4:45am on his own. Last night, however, he woke up at 3am again. I haven't decided yet if I am going to continue my 30 minute increments this week or go for the gold and get it over with quicker. The pediatrician said he was old enough to just let him cry now. She then admitted that she knows it is easier said than done and she should take her own advice sometimes! I love her because her two boys are almost exactly the same age as mine are, so she can relate to what I am going through.