Happiness overload...and some practicality...at least my version of practicality.

Look at my cute family.  I like them...I'm pretty sure I'm keeping them around!

We hit up Cheesecake Factory last night for some tasty food and desert.  If you've never had their Crispy Crab Wontons then your life is simply not complete.  It's their version of Crab Rangoon but they do it soooo much better.  It's insane....it makes me happy on too many levels to adequately express.  I also had one of their fruity drinks with a cherry on top.  I feel confident to say that any drink with a cherry on top is perfect...and can not be beat....

I know Cheesecake Factory is a chain but where else can you go and have no clue what you want to order...show up at the restaurant and have 93287423 options for Italian or 92837434 for Mexican.  I mean...insanity....happiness...

Wow I'm on some happy pills today aren't I?

I dropped off the Bebes today at her super new awesome sitter.  She's really hit a new level in separation anxiety in the last few weeks so today wasn't super fantastic.  She was not her fabulous self but once I left she calmed down and started to have fun.  I think the last month and a half of insane instability probably wasn't helping the matter much.  I'm just so happy that we are all happy and healthy and calm again.  There's no more drama (at least that I can predict in the near future) which is wonderful.  I can't even begin to say how great it is to be back to our normal schedule....I know I'm redundant...but heck that's who I am.  

Dave has a new schedule at work coming up which isn't necessarily 'drastically' different but his hours are improving so the dave:lindso:bebes ratios are going to positively increase which is great.  I look at families who actually spend time together and wonder what they do...I guess...we will find out here soon enough! :)

Alright well its time for me to spend some time...pondering my existence...

rockstars and ninjas......rockstars and ninjas friends....

Because I'm possitive you all care!

Wednesday: The Lady Jezeks made me try on clothes...IN a store...which I doooo not do. Theeeen we had fish at a steak restaurant. Because that's normal. I ordered fish and basically just ate the super healthy (sarcasm) appetizers.

Thursday: The torch was passed between Dave's family and mine so while Dave's mom and sister left to head back to Ohio my parents headed up. They were all our super free babysitters this week...huzzah! We took my parents out shopping and forced my dad to buy new shoes....and then we FLEW through Ikea...silly stores...closing...its all a bunch of lies and propaganda...I have no idea what I'm talking about....anyway craziness.

Friday: I was part of a workshop about inclusion, diversity and disabilities. I have to say, this was one day in a long time that I felt like my brain grew wrinkles. Tons of them. There was a mixture of faculty, staff and students who attended this forum and it's to help draft a proposal to a grant for funding to increase awareness and to use a redundant word of the day "inclusion" for students with disabilities. We were trying to broaden the term disabilities to be defined as anything that would impair a students learning. Situational stress and pregnancy were included in examples of areas in need of more inclusive practices.

Usually I have mommy brain and Friday I swear I was firing all all cylinders. I was fighting with a man rather high up the totem poll and by golly...I was totally winning the fight. I had concise coherent thoughts and opinions. My points were well received and appreciated. Point being it was an extremely positive day.

I/We rounded out our Friday by FINALLY seeing Star Trek. I'm not sure if I haven't seen a movie in 13 months or if the movie was just really good cause I ALMOST PEED MY PANTS IN WAKE OF ITS AWESOMENESS!

Saturday: My parents have been in town since Thursday and Saturday we finally had a chance to spend time together. We hit up a few stores and bought my cousin a present. We went to Costco...and I mean really how much do I looooove the Costco. Stocked up on everything we could possibly ever need for the next 3-5 years and called it a day. Grilled out once Dave got home and then I passed out early on the couch. I woke up around 11:30 (yes on a Saturday I'm super lame) and panicked because the house was dark and everyone was gone. I was freakin ouut maaaan.

Today...Sunday Glorious Sunday: Early this morning we all hit up a really fancy expensive garden center and just stared at the merchandise. They had 7,000 dollar water fountains...which I mean...is totally in my price range. We then went to lunch where the bebes MELTED DOOOOWN. I mean like hard core more than we've every really experienced in public MELTED DOOOOWN. It was rather intense. Shes in this transition period from two naps to one and today was not the day we should have pressed our luck.

We said goodbye to my parents and came home...We've managed to make it through 3.5 movies at this very moment. It's insanely productive of us. All filled with Geekiness. I mean our plan was to sit here and soak up as much nerd as humanly possible, we are ROCKIN IT. I loooove it. We've munched on food that was not in anyway healthy and there is of course wine. Good thing tomorrow is a holiday and I'm not hikin it to work cause Dave spiked some tequila with pineapple juice and I may not make it up before noon tomorrow...jinkies! Dave and I are Twittering (tweeeeeet) each other from across the couch...and to be fair it is a rather large couch so that's not as pathetic as it sounds.

Monday: The Fuuuture. Tomorrow is Memorial Day...and we will be celebrating with fantastic trip to the Cheesecake Factory. We got a jumbo sized "please don't sue us because you and your entire family got ill from our AMAZING chicken buffalo deep fried appetizer things that are amazing, fantastic and of course amazing" gift card. Thanks to my MIL on that one! We haven't honestly eaten in much in the last week with all the family we've had in town but by golly bring on the CF Mai Tai's.

As with everything I write..and every story I tell...there usually is no ending....so I'll just leave you with this.....................

PINEAPPLE KHAAAAAAAAAAN

Family Cuteness in Overload

We got our family pictures taken a few weeks ago with Karin: http://karinobrienphotography.com/.  She is a Rockstar or a Ninja oooor...a Ninja Rockstar.  Regardless I'm really happy with how our pictures turned out, we managed to have a BEAUTIFUL day downtown and Karin is a kick to hang out with.  She is by far one of the most pleasant pregnant ladies I've been around recently.  She also showed me that I had this super amazing weather resistant cover on my camera bag that is so freakin convenient and hidden I had no clue it was even there!  Whoever invented pregnancy brain did not know Karin, that woman knows her stuff.  I'm scared to know what shes like 'not' pregnant.  Considering the three times I've met with her only once was she bebe-less.  

Anyway here are a few of the shots.  Or like 80% of the shots...I have no understanding of numbers/ratios/percentages...except for that one semester in college when I was a math major.  What can I say I'm a sucker for the quadratic equation.  I am also SKILLED at topic changing.  I'm so good at it rarely do I know I'm doing it.  

Bebe behind bars....or walls...breaking down walls and barriers.  This is a deeply profound shot, symbolic of the struggles women face in the world...man cold meds make me funny.  At least I think I'm funny?

Freeeeeeeze....Everybody clap your hands.....

Hammy cute shot

Illegally placed on grass....Look at all the damage that was done.  Little did she know she was going to be busted by the cops just moments later...

Awe it almost looks like we like each other, good job Karin!

Okay no more sarcasm...I LOVE this picture.  LOOOOVE it.  So glad we got a shot like this.  

Check me out man...I can do this on my own Dad...baaack off...no wait I love you hold on to me!

Evil plans....evil plans are in the works....eeeevil.....snicker....but wait I'm cute.

You're so vain...you probably think this song is about you you're so vaaaain....

And that is all for today....at least until later...I usually post amusing things when I'm on cold meds and guess what folks its your luuuucky week!  

Oh...and...Er-dogg...thanks for the dress it looks so stinkin cute on her :)

No I haven't seen it yet!

But maybe this week/end Gma and Gpa will watch their adoring boogertastic granddaughter and Dave and I will sneak out to a theatre and eat some popcorn...and sour patch kids...that I purchased at the grocery store and smuggled into the theatre in my purse.  

Oh and thanks for the picture...I like the sexy starin at me! 

Updates....

Lets see...since we last spoke...yes I like to pretend we've spoken...live in my Lindsoland a day or two and you'll think we've spoken too. Anyway...the bebes now has on top of the ear infection...chicken pox. Dave calls her Poxi...which is by far the cutest nickname we've come up with yet. Her chicken pox are probably the most horrible thing to look at...I know I had the chicken pox but I don't have any memory of what I looked like I just remember eating TONS of tator tots. I realize that in the grand scheme of things her having them now is by far much better than her having them around school age or later. My FIL got them when my husband was a little boy. I can imagine being a grown man with chicken pox was a nice little kick in the pants. I still feel bad for her, shes inconsolable. I don't know what to do to make her feel better. She's finally done with her antibiotics from the ear infection but I'm not entirely convinced that its gone. We go back to the Dr tomorrow to check the ears and by golly I guess we are checking out the Pox too. On top of all of this she also has a wicked bad cough and well...we all know how I like to talk about boogers. She has tons of those too. My hair has to stay in a ponytail unless I want it to get a nice shalacking of boogers in it....which in case you were wondering...I "don't" want.

Tomorrow we are heading back to Ohio, my dear amazing loving Grandma passed away on Saturday. I can't find anything normal to say about this situation and I'm pretty sure I come off as an uncaring ass every time I try to talk about her, but I'm socially awkward and heck I deal with things in my own way. For instance the moment I heard she had passed I started giggling. I had just remembered how she always joked about planting illegal drugs behind her house. Now seriously my grandmother would NEVER do that but I went to Kent State and Kent is notorious for being a tad more liberal. Anyway she always suggested it when I came home from school and it was just really cute. In 2004/2005 she had a stroke and it changed every part of her. I'm so very sad Dave never had a chance to meet her before her stroke because afterwards she was sadly just a shadow of what she was before. She was slowly loosing her memory and would repeat things regularly. A few years ago my mom and I took my grandparents to look at Christmas lights in their neighborhood. Every time we past one of those semi-tacky (I would totally put them in my yard) Candy Cane lights Gma would say "Oh I love the candy cane lights....the candy canes are my favorite...those are so pretty the candy cane lights." Now my patience for all things redundant is minimal (of course unless I'm being redundant and then its just necessarily...of course) and I couldn't handle it, my Gma was so cute and she was so thrilled we had taken her out to look at Christmas lights. My Gpa on the other hand was probably secretly quietly begging to get home quicker.

My Gma was a librarian for many many years. I can attribute so many children's books that I have from my childhood...that I read to my daughter to my Grandma. She was always buying her Grandchildren books. She also loved teddy bears. I mean I know...seriously what Grandmother doesn't like teddy bears at least on some level but her collection was out of this world. She was the kind of Grandma that wore embroidered sweatshirts and loved country blue hearts and ALWAYS had an insanely sugary cereal in the house that my Grandpa wasn't allowed to eat for when the Grandkids came over and wanted a snack...oh and powdered doughnuts...and horribly unhealthy bags of potato chips. Heaven knows what they did with all the extra junk food when we all left, I'm sure my Grandpa pilfered a few away into hiding.

Anyway as usual I'm rambling and not making much sense to boot...yes to boot is that even a phrase? Who cares I'm using it anyway.

This last month or so has been...not wonderful. I can't say that it sucked. It was far from stellar but as with all things it could always be worse. I still have so many decisions to make and too many things stressing me out but as with all things the bright side is that I get to spend some time with my family this week, even though the circumstances are sad and unwanted. I also have finally found a sitter and she's EXTREMELY reliable and flexible with whatever I need or want throughout the week. I'm really excited to start with her in the next week or two and hopefully after this final transition we'll be set for a while and the world will calm down around us. I'm so desperate for a weekend of no sickness or family drama or tragedy.

Moral of the story...Dave and I are in desperate need of a nap and a breakdown. Neither of which seem to be a feasible option anytime soon. Oh and the bebes is in need of a restful night sleep and no medication....no boogers, no pox, no cough, no infections.

Oh and I promise (yeah right I'm not a reliable bloggertastic lady sorry) anyway I promise...to 'try' and post pictures of my Poxi child soon. Shes so sad...yet so very cute....

And also...pray for my extended family...so much drama and so little time...and so little need for it.

As always this is where I promise to write...and I never do...so until next time...Poxi says "abadouuuu, cough cough"

Why do they make infant/toddler meds taste like bubblegum?

The bebes has an ear infection and they put her on antibiotics and they flavored it like bubblegum? Seriously. You gave her a flavor that I will not let her actually experience for a good 4 maybe 5 years? Does anyone else think this is silly? Can't you make it taste like avocados or pineapple? This child LOVES to take her medicine so the least you could do is encourage other flavors I'll actually let her eat in real live food form...not just liquid.