Dec. 8th

I actually did write this post on the 8th, but still had a little bit left to finish on it....

December 8th is a day I dread every year. Today is the 2nd anniversary of the death of my friend, Holly. The beginning of December for me now brings with it a weight. I have felt it both years now, and I don’t realize why until the date hits me. About Thanksgiving is when it starts and around Dec. 1st is when I realize the 8th is around the corner. The odd thing is, I dread it, but usually when the 8th arrives, I don’t think about until the day is half over. Weird how the mind works. Anyways, rather than being all somber and sad, I thought I’d share some memories of Holly in honor of her on this day.

Holly had the cutest giggle, and she giggled often.
We used to scream together while watching NKOTB video tapes. You know, the kind you actually went out to the store and rented that showed footage from while they were on tour and such. Dorks.
Not only that, we knew the moves to Hangin’ Tough.
We were considered “block heads” as in, New Kids on the ‘Block.’ She was Spiral Blockhead and I was Freddy Blockhead. Why? I don’t know.
We sat in the back in 1st grade and always got in trouble for giggling and talking.
We once giggled an entire day in 2nd grade about the color someone colored an elephant tusk.
We went through the grunge phase together. Plenty of flannel to go around.
Holly was THE WORST student driver! I had some good laughs in the back of their suburban while she was behind the wheel. I mean, confusing-the-brake-and-accelerator-type bad.
Holly was supposed to do a reading at my wedding, but the pastor accidentally blew right through it and all we could do was giggle about it afterwards.
Holly and I spent most Friday nights having sleepovers. One such sleepover got us in a lot of trouble and we never forgot my mom telling us “THIS ISN’T FAIR.” Of course, followed by fits of hysteric laughter!
We perfected tall bangs together. Sharing our tips to get them even taller along the way.
Our freshmen year we both decided to drop out of marching band for the fall. We went to the indoor show together and cried our eyes out because we wished we were in it SO bad. (oh, the drama :)

It seems so surreal that Holly is gone. I can't quite wrap my mind around that. Maybe I never will, but I hope to never forget the silliness from our friendship which started in kindergarten. Holly was a big part of my life growing up and I'm blessed to have had her in my life.

The Potty Chronicles

Hooray! I hardly have to think about my son and the potty anymore. He can now keep his undies dry all the time! He now is not afraid to go #2 and does it often, and without even telling us most of the time. He just gets up and goes to take care of business.

Remaining obstacles: wiping. Need I say anything? All you venturing into potty training beware. Obstacle #2: not going #2 in his sleep. Yuck. Obstacle #3: staying dry overnight. I am perfectly happy sending him to bed in pull-ups for the time being. Life has improved IMMENSELY. We have a sweet 3 1/2 year old boy! The sweetness has returned.

Now if I could just gear up for work in the morning....

2 Obsessions in our house

#1 - Me. Twilight. I'm a Twilighter. Somebody help me please. I've mentioned before that I started reading the Twilight series. Well, it didn't take long before I read all 4 GIGANTIC books! Now the movie came out, and on the opening day, that's right, I ran out to see it. I swear there is something addictive about this darn Edward Cullen, the main character. Not the movie version necessarily, but the character himself. These books suck you in and you become obsessed with what happens next, and you never want it to end. But it always does, and you're left with a bizarre emptiness. Hence the reason I ran out and waded through the sea of teenage girls to see the movie! I figured the only way I could see it was after the kids went to bed. Well, that showing didn't play till 10:15pm. Did that stop me? NO. Did the fact that the short notice left me with no one that could come with me stop me? NO. That's right. I went out at 10:15pm, by myself, and saw Twilight the movie. I happened to be the first one in the theatre because there was no one manning the line, and I didn't realize the line was for Twilight. I probably should have, given they were mostly teenagers, but there were too many guys I thought. So I innocently passed the entire line. I decided to just sit down anyway rather than turn back and face the daggar stares I would no doubt get when they realized I passed them all. All of a sudden they were let in and I heard this growing murmur turn to screams and fits of teenage irritating giggles as they entered the theatre. yikes! And can you believe, these darn girls actually ruined the 1st kiss by cheering?! Seriously? Oh well, despite the teenageness, I enjoyed the movie, and my Edward Cullen and Bella Swan fix. Sure, it wasn't the best movie ever, but I like to picture what I read, and it followed the book for the most part, cutting out lots of details of course. I wish they had played up a lot of key personality traits better, and hadn't rushed the climax of the movie so much. Besides that, I actually didn't mind the cast selection of the 2 main characters. I wasn't sure at first, but they grew on me as the movie went on.

I would just like to point out that I am STILL obsessed. HELP!

Obsession #2 - Quite literally #2. My son has become obsessed with performing #2 in the toilet! Hooray!!!! The long awaited "click" in his development happened, the one in which it finally clicks what he's supposed to do. I swear he's gone poo 15,000 times in 8 days. I am thrilled with this obsession! Though it brings with it a new round of getting out of bed after he's been put to bed. Because of course, he wants to poo again. He's a funny guy. Anyways, in 8-10 days (not sure exactly how long now), he's had one accident, and it happened while he was napping, so in my mind it doesn't count. He rarely has pee accidents now, wears underwear during all awake hours, and for the most part does all the bathroom stuff on his own. Overnight will be a whole other process, but that doesn't bother me now that #2 seems to be mastered. Oh my gosh, what a sweet relief for the WHOLE family. I know, how pathetic. But it's true, potty training has been tough on the whole family. It has been a LONG process. Anyways, join with me in a bursting with pride moment!

I know

I am aware I've been absent for over 2 weeks now! What?! I shall return, hopefully later today. For now let me leave you with this.... A girl with 2 teeth, maybe you can ALMOST see them in this picture.

And here's a little something I jotted down a while ago and never posted.

The side of me I never want to lose is the side that…

LOVES the Wii and Guitar Hero
loves amusement park rides
takes road trips
goes camping
makes people laugh
is silly
craves relaxation
doesn’t always worry about the pile of crap messing up the house
tries new places/new things
's heart breaks for others and wants to help, though sometimes I do want to lose this side of me
supports my hubby’s dreams
wants to keep up a relationship with God - always a challenge for me
wants to learn more
plays music

A Halloween to Remember...

Remember my Halloween trick? Ellie woke up with a fever and what I thought to be an ear infection? Yeah, that turned into a bit of drama. When our daycare found out she had a temp over 101.2 on too quick of a read, I immediately approved her to give motrin. I left work about 2:30 pm to take Ellie to the clinic. The motrin had been given 6 hours prior, and while in the clinic, her temp hit 104.9!!!! OMG!!!! I almost collapsed (well, I wanted to anyway). They immediately went and got a suppository tylenol - did anyone know they could do that? I sure didn't! They were nervous since she had thrown up when they checked her throat already, so they didn't want to chance giving oral tylenol. They really wanted to get that temp down fast. Obviously. It was one of those appointments you never want to repeat. Test after test after finger poke. Temp taking, suppository. Aghhh. Makes me tired thinking about it. And after each thing they did, and after much crying, Ellie collapsed on my shoulder and fell asleep each time they left the room. A Strep test, ear check, tempanogram (i wish i could spell), peek in throat, finger poke to rule out bladder infection to ease uptight mother's mind later and all that was found was a fever and a sore throat. Hmmmm..... By Sunday she woke up completely returned to normal and nothing ever developed. Just long enough to give everyone a good scare. I'm very thankful nothing more came of it!!! I swear this girl is illness prone.

We still managed to get out and take Matthew trick-or-treating for the first time!!! Here he is as Thomas the Train. (complete with Thomas underwear, shirt, and shoes, can you say obsession?)

And here he is at his first candy stop - Dad.

The award winning red mohawked pumpkin won my office park's carving contest in the funny category. They drew my name out of a hat to take the winner home after the contest. The others? Well, I didn't have time to carve. Matthew painted the little one, though.

And here's the poor sick angel (and you can't even see the puke on her costume from the clinic). It's not too often you'll see an angel with a pacifier.

The biggest potty chronicles ever....

I am beyond thrilled to report that I'm the mother of a son who pooped in the toilet. And I mean really pooped. Sorry for this next bit of TMI (too much information), but I'm telling you it was a log. And it was a party around this house!!!! I know we've still got a ways to go before it's a regular ocurrence, but tonight I don't care. We're going to Applebee's this weekend, his long anticipated reward for doing the deed. The good news is, even though he was VERY apprehensive beforehand, as soon as it happened, he looked down and exclaimed "oh! there's poop!"

I know I've talked about this on here an outrageous amount, but bear with me folks - we're 10 months in on this process. Believe me, I can't wait for this to be a non-monumental occasion!

SNL finally had something funny.

I haven't seen anything this funny on SNL since the d*ck in the box song!