Happy Halloween

Anybody out there dress up to pass out candy? I think Ray and I are actually going to dress up for the first time this evening. Hopefully I will be leaving work at 4:00pm to pick up the kids a little early to get home for the night-o-fun. Ashley of course wanted to go trick-or-treating this morning.

Audrey update - thanks for all the advice, we did elevate her head last night and it helped a little. I just think now she is used to us holding her and wants to be like that ALL NIGHT LONG. Somehow we are going to have to break her of that without the crying out method which I can't bear.

I will post pictures tonight hopefully, blogger has not been cooperating (a common theme, I know).

Why I love Halloween - for those of you who don't know, I love ghost stories and such. One vivid memory I have from growing up is me reading a book called Appalachian Ghosts and scaring myself so much that I wouldn't go to the bathroom by myself. My parents took the book and put it on top of the fridge. And now as an adult, I still love ghost stories. I tivo Ghost Hunters on the Sci-Fi channel and A Haunting on the Discovery channel. I grew up hearing ghost stories from my Dad and Grandmother about the farmhouse my grandparents lived in. A couple of years ago, my friend Julie and I went on a ghost tour in Leesburg, Virginia. The person leading the tour believed that ghosts appeared to people who had high electric energy, such as those people who can't wear a watch because of the electricity in their body. Anyways, he walked around to everyone and felt everyone's hands to see if he could feel their "electricity". When he got to me, he about jumped back. He told me I definitely had electric energy in me (although watches work on me). Needless to say, Julie took a few steps away from me. I don't think she really wanted to see a ghost that night. So I love Halloween. I love all the shows on tv about ghosts and reading stories on the internet.

Anyways, Happy Haunting tonight and I hope all the kids have fun.

Where Do I Begin

You would think that after having one kid your parenting skills or "sick" radar would improve. Audrey had a slight cold and wasn't really sleeping all that well. Then Thursday night she would only sleep if one of us was holding her and had a fever that was remedied with Tylenol. Repeat and rinse for Friday night except Tylenol (and or Motrin) was not helping the fever. And holding a nine month while trying to sleep just does not work. So after 2 nights of virtually no sleep, I took Audrey to the doctor on Saturday morning. I know, I know, she had the classic signs of an ear infection. Like I said earlier, I should have realized this on Friday. But Ashley had only one ear infection as an infant and Audrey hasn't been sick until this point. So yes, she has it bad in one ear and sort of bad in the other. She was pretty pathetic on Saturday, sleeping most of the day away. Sunday she was a different child. Although the sleeping hasn't gotten any better. I don't know if she is used to us holding her now, but I don't think I can survive another night like last night (or Saturday night, or Friday night, or Thursday night). She has no fever anymore, but last night we would get her to sleep in her crib only to have her wake back up in an hour screaming. What fun. Any advice?

Other than that, the weekend was jam-packed with parents visiting (thanks Dad and Diane!), Halloween parades on our street, haunted houses for the kiddies, a costume party at my neighbors house, Christmas pictures (which will be continued due to Audrey having an adverse reaction to the Christmas tree), and our town's fall festival which Ray and I both had to work at. Pictures will hopefully be up tomorrow.

Coochy Coochy Coo

This is Ashley with June from the Little Einsteins. Very scary big head. Some of the characters scare me.

Okay, so the story behind this picture (Picture has been removed. If you would like to see it, please email me). This was at Epcot at one of those spray grounds. Ashley wanted to play, so I took off her dress and let her go in her underwear (she's only 3 and I had extra underwear). In this picture, she is saying "Mommy, my cooch is getting wet!". I was laughing to hard that I couldn't take a picture of what happened next. She walked away from that water with her legs apart saying "Mommy, I'm walking funny." I guess that's what happens when you have water shooting up your cooch.

Happy Birthday to SJ and More Disney Stories

First off, everyone go say Happy Birthday to my friend SJ. We were actually best buds in high school and now live miles and miles apart, but can keep up with each other with these beloved blogs.

Administrative note - I have updated my blogroll, still in progress. Also, I have been trying to upload pictures all morning, so as soon as Blogger cooperates, I will give you guys some pictures.

So onto the trip. Let's me just start by saying how weird it was to just be on vacation with Ashley. I must admit, it was definitely easier. I could make all the decisions and Ashley would just go along. Ashley and I both missed Audrey and Ray though. Many times we would see a baby and Ashley would say that the baby looked just like Audrey. And she kept asking why Daddy wasn't there.

The weather was perfect. I love hot weather, so 90 and humid is perfect for me. It was that way Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday we went to Blizzard Beach and Ashley amazed me at the slides she went on by herself. She had an absolute blast. Saturday was the Princess breakfast at Cinderella's castle and Magic Kingdom all day. For anyone who is going and has girls (or boys) who loves the Princesses, this was worth all the money I paid. It did kill me to pay $13 for the buffet for Ashley for the dinner at Chef Mickey's the night before, but the Princess one was worth it.

Sunday we did MGM in the morning. There we did the Play and Dine Breakfast Buffet. That was another one that was definitely worth the money paid. It had JoJo and Goliath from JoJo's Circus as well as Leo and June from the Little Einstiens (which Ashley LOVES). They would get the kids up and dancing about every 10 minutes. And the character interaction was great. After all the kid stuff at MGM, we headed to Epcot. Ashley rode Test Track and Soarin, both rides she could not ride last year. She did end up napping a little in her stroller that day. I guess getting up at 6:00am and not going to bed until 9:30pm was catching up with her.

Monday we did Animal Kingdom in the morning. I made the mistake of going on the Kali River Rapids ride and getting completely soaked, so we headed back to the hotel, changed, and went back to Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom was pretty much dead that day, we walked onto many of the rides. I even made Ashley go on the Haunted Mansion ride (I told her they were friendly ghosts). Ashley also really liked getting autographs from characters and didn't mind standing in line for that. We left there and went back to the hotel and went swimming. That's where I dropped my hated cell phone in the pool (not on purpose, I swear). The next morning we got up to 60 degree weather. We went to Downtown Disney for some shopping before we had to head to the airport.

Highlights:

• Everyone that helped me at some point getting the stroller on and off the buses.
• Ashley's face at the Cinderella Breakfast
• Ashley's face on some of the rides
• Spending good quality time with my three year old
• The Disney Magic (yes, I like Disney. Ray and I went there on our honeymoon.)
• Seeing Ashley reach for things in the 3-D Philharmagic Film we saw in Magic Kingdom

Lowlights:

• The chilly weather the last day
• Seeing kids left at exits to rides so the parents could ride
• Going into public bathrooms and having Ashley reject toilet after toilet because it just didn't look right
• Dealing with potty accidents and being the only one to take her to the bathroom every single time

Disney World in 4 Days

5 - Rides on Goofy's rollercoaster

4 - Pounds gained by me (totally threw the diet out the window)

3 - pairs of underwear thrown away due to minor bathroom accidents by Ashley

2 - Hats bought for Ashley including a pink cowboy hat that says "Princess"

1 - Priceless breakfast with Cinderella in her castle

0 - number of times I got to go to the bathroom by myself

More updates to the whirlwind trip tomorrow. I am glad to be back home, to hold Audrey and hug Ray and get Ashley back on some sort of schedule.

Gone with Guilt

I leave tomorrow morning for Disney with Ashley. Back when we were planning this short trip (short due to the fact that I don’t have that much leave at work since I just started here in May) we went back and forth on bringing Audrey or not. In the end, we decided Ray would stay home with Audrey and I would take Ashley by myself. I was super excited, a Disney trip with a 3 year old who will totally be into everything.

But now I am just sad that I have to leave Audrey and Ray at home. Audrey cries now when I go out of her sight. She is just now getting so much personality and is so cute. And I have never been away from Audrey overnight and I never left Ashley for longer than 3 days, and we will be gone 4 nights.

And Ray is the one who normally makes the decisions, helps me keep my head level, and of course, calculates tips faster than any other human being. I am going to have to break out my cell phone just to figure out how much tip to leave at meals. (Yes, I am an accountant, but I am thoroughly attached to my ten-key.) And I feel guilty that he will be the only one there to get up with Audrey if she has a bad night.

I am sure Ashley and I will have a great time. I am trying to cram a lot in this trip, so hopefully Ashley can keep up. I just can’t help feeling guilty for my whole family not going.

On another note, I am not taking my laptop with me. I have enough to carry on to worry about a laptop. I will most likely have the shakes from lack of reading my favorite blogs everyday, but I promise to catch up when I return.

Things that happened on this day in history:

1985 – The first Blockbuster Video store opens in Dallas, TX
1987 – Better known as Black Monday when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6%
1991 – 7.0 Richter Scale earthquake in Northern Italy – 2000 dead
2002 – A 37 year old man was seriously wounded outside a steakhouse in Ashland, Va in the latest shooting linked by authorities to the Washington sniper case (this one hits closest to home as Ray and I lived through this ordeal in Va at the time)
2003 – David Blaine finally ended his 44 day endurance stunt of being sealed inside a transparent case suspended 30 feet in the air over Potters Field Park, located in London
2004 – Alain Robert dons a Spider Man costume and climbs a building
2005 – Hurricane Wilma becomes the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum pressure of 882 mb.

I also share a birthday with Evander Holyfield, Ty Pennington and John Lithgow. I also really share a birthday with my twin brother Michael Bruce Trice. He was born first, and I came 5 minutes later. Hope you have a great birthday Mike!

Let's Learn to Rhyme

Ashley is learning about rhyming words in school right now. So all weekend we played the following game, over and over and over again (in between games of Go Fish):

Ashley - "What rhymes with cow?"
Me - "Now."

Ashley - "What rhymes with book?"
Me - "Hook, Look."

Hey, I'm getting good at this.

Ashley - "What rhymes with daughter?"
Me - "Umm, yea, slaughter?"

Yup, totally said that outloud. Glad she doesn't know what that means.

Ashley - "What rhymes with hit?"
Me - "Ummm, I think you might need to ask your Dad."
The only word stuck in my head that rhymes with hit? You guessed it, shit. And then I couldn't think of any.other.words. And don't tell me that wasn't the first word you thought of either.

We would turn the tables on her and ask her what rhymed with certain words, and she did great. Amazing what they can learn at such a young age.

There are many good reasons to get a graduate degree online an earning an online MBA is so convienent. Many who have taken advantage of distance learning for a degree usually chose a good online university that you can attain that degree you want.

In All Fairness

Friday we spent at the North Carolina State Fair. And no, we did not eat any fried coke, fried cheeseburgers, or fried snicker bars. We were good and held back from clogging our arteries for life.

Ashley had a blast. She rode all the rides she could by herself. My friend Julie and her daughter Jordan met us there and Jordan and Ashley were absolutely adorable on the rides together. They seemed like such big kids, getting on rides by themselves and then getting off by themselves. It almost made me want to cry.






And nope, no pictures of me. I really did think we took some, but I swear, this week. I have lost 28.5 pounds so far, so I should at least take one picture.

Audrey had her 9-month check up today and I was totally expecting for her to receive her first flu shot. But no, they ran out of flu shots the first week. What the hell? I thought there was plenty of supply?? And yes, I am a little psycho about the flu shot. The one year I didn’t get the flu shot, I got the flu. Two years ago Ray ended up in the ER with the flu. And my kids are in daycare, so I want to ward off anything I possibly can. They say they will get them in November. I hope they do.

So Audrey’s stats – she's a total lightweight. Ashley was over 20 pounds at 9 months. I know, you can’t compare kids and that is proven with Ashley and Audrey.

Height: 27 ½ inches (50%)
Weight: 17 pounds, 11 ounces (30%)
Head Circumference: 45 centimeters (81%)

Yes, my kids have big heads. Ashley was actually off the charts most of the time as an infant. Hence why I’m not having more kids.

A Day in the Life of...

To totally copy Mrs. CPA and It's my life, laugh if you must, here is a day in the life of me:

4:30am - Audrey is bitching, so I go in her room to see what's up. She is pretty pissed, so Ray goes and gets me a bottle.

5:17am - Back in bed to sleep for approximately 1/2 hour.

5:30am - We hear Ashley talking in her room, Ray goes in there, tells her it's not time to get up, go back to sleep, and leaves.

5:35am - Ashley gets out of bed and shuts her door.

5:48am - Ashley comes out of her room. My side of the bed looks out into the hall, so I call to her and tell her to come to bed with us.

5:50am - My freaking alarm goes off. Ashley insist on going downstairs like she does every morning. We convince her to stay in bed, and I go get her some milk and Ray turns on the tv.

6:04am - I get in the shower.

6:36am - I am out the door (yes, I get ready that quickly, I obviously cherish sleep over personal grooming, although I did manage to put on makeup this morning), leaving Ray with a very awake Ashley. She is so going to crash tonight.

7:13am - I arrive in the employee parking lot. I find a great spot, get out and proceed to walk to my office.

7:25am - I am finally at my office. Yea, I'm the first one in. I bandage my toe from my long walk and my cool pointy toed shoes and turn on my computer to do some blog surfing and check my personal email.

7:40am - My boss shows up, asks me if I want to walk to get coffee. I decline as I am trying not to drink the stuff anymore. I fill her in on the stuff that has happened the past couple of days since she has been out. She had a transplant of Monday of two eggs, I am hoping and praying it works. She has been through so much...

8:00am - I guess I should really do some work.

8:40am - I decide I need a walk. I go to the atm to get money I owe an office mate for some weight watchers bars she got me at her meeting last night and I need a new badge holder thingy from the hospital gift shop.

9:02am - Back to work, I did tell someone I would get them something this morning...

10:30am - I am freaking starving, but I will wait for lunch.

11:55am - I have GOT to go get lunch. My coworkers and me hike to the cafeteria...

1:15pm - Still on lunch (shouldn't be, but I am!), but I just got a phone call for some work, guess I should do it before my 2:00pm October birthday cake time (that's me!!).

1:19pm - Is it time for cake yet??

1:30pm - Check personal email, write a really long email back to CPA Mom, hopefully she doesn't think I'm crazy.

1:43pm - Finish writing the email, really, really hope she doesn't think I'm nuts!

Go Fish

Do we look alike??

Last weekend, Ray taught Ashley the card game Go Fish. So since then, we have played our share of that game. We have purchased her other games in the past like Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land, but either they were too old for her or she just wasn't interested and wouldn't stick to the rules. But with Go Fish, she is actually playing the game correctly. Of course it helped that we had a poker table set up in our dining room to play at. Nothing like drinking a beer and playing Go Fish with three year old at a poker table.

Sisterly Love

This is the beginning of Audrey's attempt to move about the room without actually having to put forth the effort and crawl...

She can turn 360 degrees just on her belly...

And roll where ever she wants to get to.

That is her current state of movement. Yes, she is almost 9 months and not really crawling yet, but we aren't passing judgement. We are actually afraid of when she does crawl. She has shown so much personality this past week. When she gets frustrated, she makes this face and pounds her little fists. And when she's really pissed, she arches her back and cries. Like every time I try to change her clothes. Fun times.

And yes, I totally jinxed myself the other day. Saturday night was a nightmare. And I don't see any other teeth coming in now that the top two have poked through, so I don't know what her deal is.

Yesterday, Audrey was in the ultrasaucer while Ray and I were trying to unload the Target bags and get lunch ready for everyone. Audrey started bitching, and for the first time that I have really noticed, Ashley came running over and kept saying, "I'm right here, Audrey, your sister's right here." It's the first time Ashley has attempted to comfort Audrey when I haven't been the one to her first. This is a good sign since every other time Ashley is trying to bear hug Audrey to the point she normally makes her cry.

Chemical Explosion Update - we were never evacuated, thank goodness. It rained here most of the day on Friday, so the "cloud of chlorine" that was predicted to float over to our wonderful little town never happened. The fire was extinguished as of yesterday and people were allowed to return to their homes.

Chemical Explosion

I don't know how many of you have heard, but there was a pretty large chemical explosion near (as in near, I mean the next town over) my house. We have not been evacuated yet, but the "plume" of chemical smoke could be heading our way, so we are in a holding pattern. I will keep everyone updated...

I don't need any coffee, thank you

So Audrey slept through the night. I know, I totally just jinxed myself by actually typing that, but whatever. I got a good nights sleep and so did Ray. Hopefully it will make my Friday go by very quickly at work.

We are going to have movie night tonight since Ashley has been so wiped out in the evenings. The past two nights we have been outside playing with neighbors, and she has actually asked to go home. Now, if we can only convince her to watch a good kid movie like Aladdin or Toy Story instead of a compilation of Backyardigans episodes, that would be great!

Just a friendly reminder, there are only 13 days left until my birthday, so get shopping. My hobbies? Music, scrapbooking and making lists. Seriously. I am really good at making lists. I even make lists for lists. Maybe someday soon I will share with you all my packing list for my Disney vacation in 14 days. It's even in Disney font....and don't call me a dork.

Maybe I do need some coffee this morning after all...

Pictures, pictures and more pictures

I love to smile
and so do I...
But my favorite pasttime right now is collecting acorns in my backyard,
And mine is playing with Mommy.

Only 24 hours until the new episode of Lost....

I HATE BLOGGER

I had written a pretty long post about happenings on my street - AND BLOGGER TOTALLY ATE MY POST. Okay, I feel better. So now for the not so long post about my street:

We live on a great street, tons of kids, friendly neighbors, etc. Lately thought, the "activities" seem to be getting a little out of hand.

First it's a playgroup that has been set up for all the kids that will go to kindergarten in 2008 with Ashley. There are about 15 kids on our street that fit that age. We meet one Saturday a month (basically because I bitched that I worked full time and can't make it during the week) and one Monday a month. I am actually hosting it this Saturday.

Then it was Halloween. One Mom on our street decided we should do Halloween parade. Great, good idea, I actually did the flyer for it and passed it around to make sure we didn't miss anyone. Well, the parade has turned into a parade with cupcakes, pizza and prizes at the end.

And now we are onto Christmas. Last week we get an email from one of the Mom's saying she rented the clubhouse and selected a caterer for a Christmas party. Then the emails started flying about crafts to do, someone to be Santa, etc.

So my take on all this (as well as my one neighbor I hang out with the most) - some of the Mom's on the street are in competition with each other to plan all these events. As soon as one thing is planned, another email comes out with something else. It is just comical at this point. We love all the stuff going on, but sometimes you just don't want to be friendly with EVERYONE if you get my drift. I hang out with the people I am most compatable with - other working moms and families that have kids my kids ages.

I promise pictures tomorrow!! I went to see The Guardian last night with some ladies on the street, so I didn't get to my computer. But tomorrow, I swear...

Weekend Wrap-up

We spent the weekend in Myrtle Beach to get one last good warm weekend at the beach. Besides a horrible football game between Va. Tech and Ga. Tech, lots of poop between the two girls, we had a great weekend. The weather was great, Ashley enjoyed going to the beach, and I totally went off my diet. I didn't lose any weight, but I didn't gain anything either. I was for sure I had gained 10 pounds back.

And this week officially starts the "crazy" month for Ray and I. Our birthdays, lots of friends birthdays (Sheila, Julie, Ethan, the list goes on and on), a trip to Disney, Ray has some scheduled events for work (Parade of Homes, etc.), Dad and Diane are coming to visit, and a band concert. Oh, and it's year end close for the health system I work for. The auditors will be here on the 13th and I totally forgot, we also have the North Carolina State Fair. This years most talked about thing with the fair - Fried Coca-Cola. I don't think that will fit in my diet....