stickyfeathers

that's what i get for washing my car.

today at lunch i decided i'd wash my car.  it was VERY dirty.  so, i felt what better to make me feel good than a nice clean car?  that is until i drive home on the wet/slush/snow/sanded/nasty roads.  stupid winter. 

so, i go to the carwash.  i put my car in park and attempted to pay for the carwash.  first, i slid my debit card in the slot.  wouldn't work.  you're supposed to put it in and take it out quick, but i was like three inches too far away and didn't feel like opening my door, so i reached as far as my arm would go.  dumb idea.  when that didn't work, i attempted to put cash in the cash slip.  it wouldn't take my crispy ten dollar bill.  oookay.  i started to get irritated.  i tried my debit card again.  didn't work.  the distance was killing me, but thinking it could possibly be my bent up debit card, i reached for the FLAT credit card.  i tried that and as i was trying to pull it out fast so it would read it, it flew out of my hands onto the ground below.  by this time, i was really pissed off.  there was a car behind me and i just wanted to get my damn car washed.  the voice recording on the machine was YELLING at me and i was getting frustrated.  i then tried a five dollar bill and some ones, and it accepted it this time - thankyouverymuch.  so, before i put the car in neutral and let it take me away on my carwash ride, i OPENED THE DOOR (like i should have in the first place) and looked on the ground for my credit card.  hmmm, it was nowhere to be found.  well, since the carwash moves the car itself, you are on a 'car moving thingie'.  there are open slots below the vehicles where the 'car moving thingie' operates.  does this make sense?  anyways, my card had went down there.  well, since it was nowhere around on the ground above, i came to the conclusion that's where it went.  i went through the car wash JUST FUMING about this.  i even came back around once i was done and got out of the car to see if i could see it.  no such luck.  frick.

so, now i have to call and cancel that card and get a different one.  it is really enough to piss a girl right off.   

21 months.

my little animal is 21 months.  i figured i haven't done an update on him forever, so here we go:

• he talks like crazy.  he copies everything you say.  we're officially in the mommy-interpretation stage.  i understand most everything he says, some people have to have it translated.  for the most part, he talks really well.  oh, and he can hold his own in any argument with one word: NO.
• he loves to dance and jump!  it is so funny to watch him jump - he even has a bit of a vertical already - possible future basketball star (i expect a comment from uncle d. on this one).
• he loves the phone and now is having conversations with imaginary people on it.  he picks up the phone, puts it to his ear and says 'ello.  goodidyupdiyup yaaah mama dad bye.'  it is quite entertaining.  i wonder if that is what i sound like on the phone? 
• he is OBSESSED with the movie 'cars'.  i don't think there is a day that goes by when he does NOT watch it.  matt and i know all the names of the 'car'atures, i know the soundtrack by heart, and i could probably recite half the lines in the movie.  this obsession was fed when we bought tucker every little 'cars' car they had for christmas, my mom got him clothing with 'cars' on it, and ashley got him a dish set with 'cars' on it.  is there a 'cars anonymous' group for mom's out there by chance? 
• he also is a big fan of football.  matt and i watch it every sunday and when we talk about a touchdown, tucker yells 'touchdown' and puts both his hands in the air and claps.  it is kind of funny to see such a little guy doing this.
• he is pretty good at eating everything - there isn't much he doesn't like.  in fact, i can't name anything he won't eat.  he's still a little squirt though - weighing in just over 24 pounds.
• at this point his sleeping habits are to be desired.  he wakes up once a night and usually ends up in our bed (which i've already discussed numerous times in this blog).  now, he grinds his teeth in his sleep and it is driving me crazy.  any of you have this issue with your little ones?
• he loves taking baths and i'm sure if i would let him, he would grow fins and live in the tub.  i'm trying to teach him how to float in the tub on his back...but it still kind of freaks him out a bit.  i'm hoping that next summer we can get in swim lessons - he would LOVE that.
• he most likely has the beginning symptoms of OCD.  if he drops something off his dinner plate onto the chair/floor, he has to have it picked up before he can continue eating.  also, if he gets his hands dirty while he eats, he has to have them wiped off so he can continue. 
• he gets ticked if he cannot get something to fit into its spot (puzzles for example) or if he can't take something apart (like if he can't twist or pop the top off of something...drives him nuts).
• some of his favorite cartoons are the mickey mouse clubhouse, winnie the poo & friends, and handy manny.
• if i let him, he would eat pudding for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
• he has the start of his a, b, c's and 1, 2, 3's down (meaning he can get to the letter 'c' and the number '3' on his own.  he studies me when i sing them to him.
• he loves all his grandparents, aunties, and uncles so very much.  when they visit and leave he gives hugs, kisses, high-fives, and even a bump.  that's right, we've got a mini gangster on our hands.  he curls up his fist and hits knuckles with you when you ask for a bump.  it is a riot.
• he's really into making lots of noise lately.  he has got a new little laugh, he will sing, he makes tons of sounds, and often i think we have a parrot in the house.
• he is just too cute (check out the pictures below - taken yesterday).

 

this might be a boring post for some of you, but i'll need it to remember these times.  it already seems like he's growing up too fast!  oh, and i hope you enjoy the picture of my little gomper! 

what will your resolution be?

with new years eve just around the corner, it got me thinking: what will my new years resolution be?

i figured i would make a little list, that way, i can check back on myself and see how things are going throughout the year.  maybe putting this on my blog will make me more accountable to my resolutions.  hahaha ha ha eha.

in 2008, i resolve:

• to lose some chub.  seriously.
• to cook dinner more often (matt would like the break).
• to learn how to scrapbook - digitally.
• to continue to build on my relationship with betsy (aka my camera).
• to have game night more often.
• to train my child to sleep in his bed and poop on the pot.

there you go.  just a few.  i'm sure i'll have more by the time new years day is here.  so, tell me, what is your new years resolution for 2008? 

meet my brother.

i took this picture of my brother and i on christmas eve.  seriously, can you tell how much he loves to have his picture taken?  two weeks ago, we got together to get a family picture to give to my dad for christmas.  it is so hard for us all to get together with our different schedules and whatnot, so this was kind of a special deal.  well, we took a bunch of pictures and this kid was a dork and made faces in over half of them.  in the ones he looked good in - someone else wasn't looking or was talking.  ergh.  so just for that brother, i'm posting this lovely shot of us up here for all to see.  well, that and i was messing around with photoshop and actually 'framed' a picture for once in my life.  baby steps people, baby steps.  :)

do you have a rotten neighbor?

i have pretty decent neighbors.  wait, let's go back. 

before we had a kid, i had atleast one rotten neighbor.  this neighbor would call the cops on us when we had friends over.  no lie - even when i only had 8 people at my house playing poker around my kitchen table on a quiet summer night - crazyness.  at the time i worked at the sheriff's office, so it was rather embarrassing.  i mean, this person was so smart they didn't even call into dispatch - they called the local number to the police so i couldn't figure out who they were.  sneaky little devil.  since having a kid they've stopped calling the cops on us.  mainly that's because we haven't had any crazy-stay-up-all-night-and-let-the-tunes-crank-while-sliding-down-the-slip'n'slide parties since the little dude entered the picture. 

so now, the neighbors are okay.  we don't bother them, they don't bother us.  well, with the exception of hubert (kidding, kidding). 

anyways, the point of this post is, if you have a rotten neighbor and you want to let everyone know to be on the lookout or if you are thinking of moving and don't want to acquire a rotten neighbor with the new digs, check this out.  luckily, there are not any rotten neighbors in my neck of the woods - yet!  :)

what's the number for holiday detox?

seriously, i think the last time i was this exhausted was when i had a newborn keeping me up during all hours of the night. 

let's recap the last few days of holidazzleness.  go gather some nuts and berries to chew on, this is one hell of a post. 

so, i was sick on thursday.  i had a ton of stuff to get done, but none of it happened because i didn't want to do anything.  however, now i'm wondering if i'm sick or if it is just my body reacting to all the crap i've been eating (minus a gall bladder).  they say to stay away from rich fatty foods.  hmmm.  isn't that the only thing to eat this time of the year?  i mean, they package 'rich and fatty' at the store...don't they?

anyways, friday morning i woke up and was pumped to go get my massage.  well, it was an hour long and i have never felt more sore in my life.  this lady didn't do a deep tissue massage, she did more like an internal organ massage.  frick.  i didn't tell her to ease up because i knew it would make me feel better, but there were numerous times during the massage i felt like i was going to need physical therapy to recover.  at the end, she told me we were through and proceeded to explain that i might need to ice/heat the sore spots.  um, yeah, i figured that much out.  it didn't help that i didn't drink much water afterwards.  i mean, i had last minute shopping to do!  i also met my friend brooke for lunch.  it was super nice to get together with her and the lunch was free because i had a gift card to olive garden!  how sweet is that?  yeah, sweet.  then, i rushed home to get ready for our holiday party.

that evening, matt and i got ready, the sitter arrived, i ordered them pizza, and we took off for our party.  it was a fun party, but there was one case of 'when good times go bad' and that's about all i really want to say about that.  i think that next year, we're just going to have a game night at our house with our close friends.  i did manage to get a couple shots before my camera battery went dead of the hostesses.  that girl in the green is smokin'.  don't mind the neck on my shirt - it was just trying to eat my head.

saturday we had christmas with matt's family.  tucker had a blast.  he fought taking a nap, but finally went down.  we had opened presents right away in the afternoon, so that was kind of nice.  we were able to relax the rest of the night.  we played games and i won at tripoley.  then we headed home and went to bed.

sunday was spent cleaning and wrapping the last of the gifts.  tucker and matt got a good nap in, but not this girl.  sunday night derek and jenn came over and we exchanged gifts with them.  we have a new game to play - trivial pursuit 80's edition.  we also bought them some games to start their collection.  we'll be breaking them all in during our new years eve game night!  i can't wait for that. 

monday was christmas eve.  my mom, stepdad, brother and sister-in-law all came to our house to have our christmas.  tucker loved his gifts and even had to try his new clothes and shoes on.  he was so tired that matt picked him up and about two minutes later he was out like a light.  when he woke up from his nap, we headed to my grandma weesie's house.  after that, we headed to my grandma lylia's house.  while we were there, i got a phone call from jenn to come up to derek's grandma's house as they had some gifts for tucker.  well, we headed there next and as i was helping tucker with a gift, i looked at jenn's RING FINGER and saw something sparkly and new.  finally they came clean and told us (she was mum about it since she hadn't officially told her parents yet).  after we left there, we went home and i tried to make sense of the mess.  i didn't really get much done before we all headed to bed.

on christmas day we woke up to banging on our bedroom windows.  no lie.  matt's parents had stopped on their way through to wisconsin to drop off matt's jacket he forgot at their house.  it was 930.  we were all still sleeping.  oh, that was nice while it lasted.  while i changed tucker, matt set up his new trike from santa.  he had a good time opening everything.  matt was teaching him the 'grip and rip' method.  he had it down (below are some pictures from christmas morning at our house).  that afternoon, we went over to my dad and stepmom's with my brother and sister-in-law.  we had appetizers (and yes, i did make the bacon things - everyone loved them).  we opened gifts and hung out.  i think by this point, we were all exhausted.  oh, and did i mention that tucker did not nap at all christmas day?  yeah, then he zonked out after we got home, it was about 745.  he slept for two hours then was awake again.  what gives?  i'm going insane with his sleeping habits.  i need supernanny or something!

last night, i did get some things done around the house.  i did laundry, dishes, garbage...and took all the ornaments off the tree.  tonight, the rest of the tree came down.  i wanted the space as i'm feeling overwhelmed by the gazillion things tucker has around the house.  to top it off, this is our last night with the dumpster, so we went through out house chucking things out that we didn't want/need or were garbage.  pretty much everything we tossed was junk or things that didn't work (old humidifer, pots & pans, old window shades).  it felt good to do that, but i am dead tired.  funny, again i'm awake and the boys are asleep.  that's my fault.  i'm writing this novel for you all to read.  i would post more pictures (god knows i took enough) but i just don't have the energy to look through them all right now.   

anyways, i hope this post made sense.  i swear to god, this weekend i'm going to take one hell of a nap. 

congratulations derek & jenn!

it is offical!  derek proposed to jenn on christmas eve! 
we are so happy for you both!

i've known derek since um, i was aware there were other people in the world.  we've lived as next door neighbors since birth.  growing up, he's practically been like a brother to me.  now, he's not only my best friend, but my husband's as well.  jenn is my best (girl)friend.  we started hanging out years ago and became the bestest of buds.  i'm so excited that our best friends are getting married!  we love you guys!  i had to share some pictures of the couple.  the one of them with tucker was taken on the eve of christmas eve this year (i still have to get an 'engagement' shot of them - hahaha!), and the other shots were taken during fishing opener, my brother and tina's grooms dinner, and during jenn's sister's wedding in july. 

congratulations again! 

merry christmas!

wishing you all a very merry christmas!

love,
jenny, matt & tucker

proof in the picture.

i was going through my pictures tonight and found this one.  tucker is singing or talking or screaming or something.  he has his santa hat on and is enjoying the season.  wait, what's that in the background?  oh dear!  i think that's his halloween bucket!  i've been meaning to pack it away somewhere, but of course i haven't.  now it is filled up with his little guys and trucks and whatnot.  i just laughed when i seen this picture.  do have of you have items like this lying around your house still?  an easter basket perhaps?  :) 

happy halloween holidays!

oh sh!t.

this day started out wonderful.  i drove to work (carpooled with melissa - i drove).  once i got to work, i felt horrible.  i won't go into details but i spent most of the first hour in the bathroom.  ick.  so, i ended up getting my brother to come down and pick me up (half hour drive from where we live to where i work).  i was so grateful to him for coming to get me!  thanks again dust.  anyways, i got home and slept for the next five hours.  i just felt horrible.  i've been up since then, but not feeling 100%.  not a good thing when i have a busy day planned tomorrow.  eh.

tonight tucker let out his first swear word.  aaaah!  matt was talking about something and said 'sh!t'.  tucker was sitting on his lap and immediately after he said that, out it came, 'sh!t'.  lord almighty.  i had to laugh.  i couldn't help it.  thankfully, he didn't say it again.  looks like we REALLY have to watch what we say now.  eeek!

i've been tracking my blogger secret santa gift and it should be delivered tomorrow.  i sure hope this person likes it!  i'm getting so excited for the holidays!  tucker is going to have so much fun.  i think this is the most excited i have been for christmas since i was probably eight. 

tomorrow i am getting an HOUR long massage in the morning.  i sure hope i am feeling better!  i didn't cancel because i'm paying for half of it with a gift certificate that will expire in like two days so it's now or never.  afterwards i have a few last minute things to pick up, then i'm meeting my friend brooke for lunch at olive garden.  i'm so excited for that too!  then hopefully i'm done with everything and can get home in time to get the muni decorated with the girls.  leslie was wondering what the muni was.  well, the city i live in owns the municipal lounge and liquor store.  it is the only bar in the city (there are four other ones within 15 miles).  most people call it the lounge, i tend to call it the muni.  i just like that better.  i'm dorky. 

so, there you have it.  not the best day, but i'm hoping things improve before tomorrow morning!  now i have to go lay down and watch 'the real housewives'.  :)