Thursday, April 30, 2009

Thank you!

Thank you for your awesome comments! They truly made my day as I'm sitting here, surrounded by a messy house (still in my pajamas) feeling like a tub o crap. Your thoughtful words brought tears to my eyes. I'm so thankful for such amazing friends. I love you guys and let me know if there's anything I can do for you!

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Baby Wise

I have been feeling frustrated and tired because Ainsley doesn't sleep very well, so I got Becoming Baby Wise off the shelf and started combing through it. By the next day I was feeling completely overwhelmed with the idea of doing this big schedule and sticking to it. So tonight I was flipping through it, trying to figure out the whole cycle thing, and telling Devin how overwhelmed I was feeling:

Devin: "Haven't you read that book before?"

Marie: "Um, yes."

Devin: Didn't you hate it before?

Marie: "Um, yes"

Devin: "Addison turned out ok. Ainsley will be fine too."

Marie: "THANK YOU!" (I threw the book across the room)


The book has a lot of good ideas that I agreed with, like having a eat, play, sleep cycle instead of hoping your kid will fall asleep while eating and then silently cursing when they pop those eyes wide open again (see binky picture in previous post). I also think a basic routine is a great thing, but there's no way I can follow a schedule like that ::::shudder::::::

I have Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child on hold at the library. I'll give that one a try.

Honestly I don't know why I'm even reading all these books. All they do is stress me out. I felt like today I worried more about Ainsley's dumb schedule than enjoying holding her and being with her. Not what I want.

How was the sleeping thing with your kids?



Monday, April 27, 2009

Happy Birthday Amanda!

Amanda is 27 on thet 27th! Wow! Amanda, if you'll think back to an earlier post of mine, you will recall that I said one of my resolutions was to be better at remembering birthdays. Because we've been friends for so long your bday is ingrained in my head, BUT that didn't help me to remember to send you a card. Bad Marie! BAD!

Anyway, we've been friends for a long time. A looooong time. 12+ years. In fact, my very first bday gift to you was a Spice Girls cd (remember when we went to see the movie in the theater?)! We've been through a lot together:

high school:
riverdancing in your room
three way phone calls with different people in your room (sitting next to each other)
family trips
funerals
boys
skipping school to go to McDonalds.
youth group

college:
learning about Jesus together
more dancing
the derb
fights/making up
"Marie let's pick up the room today!"
meeting John/Devin
going tubing in the snow
Lilly's birth
trying to share Erica's graduation robe!

I honestly don't know what I'd do without you. God must have had you in mind when I didn't get a sister. Happy birthday! I love you!






Because I can't be there to dance for you, this will have to do:

Friday, April 24, 2009

Sigh....















I was hoping that if I ignored the laundry this week it would get done on its own. Drat! When can I pay my kids to do this stuff? At least it looks small in the picture. Sadly it's not a small pile.

Other than the never ending laundry pile (which is reason enough to quit having children), today was such a fun day! It started with the fashion show at Babygap. It was supposed to be our big event to get customers pumped about the new summer line (all of us employees modeled our kids in the clothes), but only one customer showed up. Oh well. It was still adorable watching our toddlers run around the store like wild banshees in cute, coordinated outfits. Plus we had 5 gallons of donated Starbucks Pike Peak roast (MORE FOR ME...as my haaaannd isss shaakkking asssss I type thissss). After the fashion show, my friend Jessica and I roamed the mall with our kiddos and shared lunch. Addison and I also took a quick trip over to Toys R Us to pick out a bday gift for Elise. I was honestly dreading going over there thinking I'd have to deal with temper tantrums galore, but she seemed genuinely enthusiastic about picking out a toy for her little friend. I kid you not: she did not ask for one thing. So I bought her something!!! Way to ruin the teaching moment Marie. What can I say? We had a giftcard... and it was only $5... and it will keep her occupied at Devin's basketball game tonight.

I still haven't heard anything from Devin about his test. I'm sure he did great. He's a smart one, that man. He used to help me with my Physics 1 homework and had to literally dumb himself down to help me out. Seriously. He even had to close his eyes and think about it for a minute because it was about 12 notches down from what he knew. It's all good. I help him spell stuff. Oh, and I can hold my own with the credit card companies on the phone. Anyway, I'm just happy it's OVER! WOO HOO! NO MORE STUDYING! I was hoping we'd be able to go out to dinner to celebrate (perhaps a certain restaurant that rhymes with shmeesetake lactory), but we are broker than a joke right now. I will prepare our all-time favorite casserole: Chicken Divan casserole. It's special chicken divan casserole with Ritz Crackers and velveeta. I could re-name it Chicken Devin Casserole in his honor. BTW I could write a whole post about Southerners and their strange preoccupation with Ritz crackers. Maybe I'll save that for next week when I'm avoiding the laundry pile again!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Hi There!

Those days of newborn sleep all the time bliss are definitely over for Miss Ainsley. Now she'll fall asleep while she's nursing, so I'll wrap her up when she's still very drowsy and this is what ends up happening:














Yeah that would be a "smile through the binky" smile. "Hi Mom! Don't you get it? I have to be attached to you to fall asleep. Don't you understand that by now?" Arrgh. I can't even blame it on teething!

Other than this crazy napping stuff, things are slooooowly starting to get back to normal around here. Devin has been studying like crazy for his 8 hour exam in Topuka on Friday. From what he's said, it's very intense (sort of like the bar exam for engineers). He's been studying altogether for a year now, and I know he'll do very well. I offered to quiz him and he started laughing. I guess engineer tests are a little different from learning your multiplication tables.

Anyway, I've been (sort of) good at sticking to my workout on dvr thing. It's sort of cute because Addison likes to exercise with me. She takes little mentos gum containers and lifts them very carefully like miniature hand weights. When she sees me put on my exercise shoes, she runs to get her exercise shoes.

Mine:














Addison's:














Maybe we should be working out to Richard Simmons instead. BTW when I was in 4th grade my teacher used to have the whole class work out to Sweatin' to the Oldies.

Addison is in Dora the Explorer heaven right now because my super sweet co-worker gave her a Dora Magic Castle that her daughter didn't play with anymore. I heard her downstairs saying "Hola!" and "I love you Abuela!" It's so cute watching her play with it. We truly didn't have room for the thing in our house, but our house has been looking like Toys 'R Us for so long now, I figured one more thing couldn't hurt.

Other than the napping thing (which I'm sure we'll get figured out) Ainsley is doing very well. She's 9 and a half weeks now, smiling like crazy, cooing, and making me gush every time I look at her. I am definitely enjoying this newborn stage quite a bit more than I did with Addison.

Monday, April 6, 2009

WOW!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Twouble with Twitter

I saw this on Ragamuffin Soul and thought it was hilarious!