Misc. Pictures Posted

As you can see below, I posted some random pictures. I had to take a picture of the workbench that Jim built. I was very impressed. It is a nice addition to our garage. He really has worked hard to get this house organized and everything. I admit that I haven't been too much of a help in that department. Can I use Jack as an excuse for that?

The pictures of Laura at her Hula dance recital turned out nice. She was so proud to show off her new steps to us. I get such a kick out of going to those things. I mean her Christmas program brought tears to my eyes last year. I am such a softie and I can't imagine what I am going to be like when it is Jack's turn to be up there. Now see there, I am getting all weepy just thinking about it. Geesh! We did manage to get about a minute filmed of her dancing on our camera. When I get a minute, I will upload it so you all can see it.

Speaking of filming, I really need to get my butt in gear and start filming Jack walking all over the place. I need to get it up on here for all to see so that grandparents out there can see him walk. He absolutely refused to walk for all the grandparents when we were visitng them. I promise, I will do that soon!

Tomorrow we are going to Disneyland. When we went there on Christmas Eve, we decided to upgrade our tickets to get the annual pass for Southern California. It was basically another $150 and we can get in free for the next 12 months, well providing it is not a blackout date. So since Jim has off tomorrow and it is supposed to be fairly nice and nobody is sick (knock on wood) at the moment, we decided to go. I guess it is one of the perks of living in Southern California. Afterall, there should be some kind of perk after putting up with traffic from hell, house prices that are just outrageous, way too many rude and weird people (I could go on and on about California). But living 45 minutes from Disneyland is definitely a perk. We also plan on going again in about 3 weeks when we have Laura. We have told Laura also that if she "passes" the 3rd grade, we will take her there for 3 days and stay in a hotel. Well it is already booked and everything for the end of June.

So that is what is going on here. Jack has been THE GRUMPIEST baby in the world today. I think he is going through more teething (his 7th tooth is coming in right now). I also think he is going through some growth spurt because he is sleeping a lot lately and I could swear everytime I look at him, he is getting taller. I haven't measured him, but I think he is now about 33" tall and probably about 27lbs. All that growing wears a Jackaroo out. He is taking a nap right now and hopefully when he wakes up, he will be a happier baby than he was this morning. I really really need to go get groceries. We have been scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as food around here.

Close up shot. He was snoring!

Jack yesterday morning. I just had to take this picture. He looked so cute and innocent.

Laura and the guy who plays Reese from Malcolm in the Middle. Sorry I don't know his name. I really should look it up. This was taken last weekend at the Yeah Baby Expo in Anaheim.

Laura (3rd from left) at her dance recital. Doesn't she look cute?

More Laura doing the Hula. She was quite good.

The little girls at the dance recital. I thought these girls were just sooo cute. The blonde girl in the black shirt was a total ham. Boy are her parents going to have their hands full when she gets older.

Laura doing the Hula at her dance recital. She is the 2nd from the left.

We have flowers blooming! (Don't look at the dead ones)

We have roses blooming!

See what my husband made all by himself! I was impressed. I think he likes his new workbench in the garage.

Friday ramblings

Well I made it to another Friday YaY!! Again it has been some week. I joined Curves this week. Wednesday was my first day. It was really weird because when I was done with the workout, I thought to myself "hmm not so bad". If you are not familiar with Curves, (and how can you not be - they are on about every corner just like Starbucks and McD's) it is a circuit training workout where you are on one machine for 30 seconds then jump and do cardio for 30 seconds and back on another machine and so on and so forth for 30 minutes. Now it has been 2 1/2 years since I have worked out in any kind of fashion (yes I am ashamed but 9 months of that I was making another human so I guess its not that bad). And before that, I was used to some pretty intense aerobic workouts where at the end I would be a mass of sweating flesh. Well not so much with the Curves workout. Yes I did get my heart rate into the "target zone" and I did sweat a little bit but nothing like I am used to. But the next day I woke up and yep I felt those muscles that hadn't been used in a long time. I have done it Wednesday and Thursday and hopefully I will be able to do it tonight. It really is fun and because it is for 30 minutes, I think I can squeeze it into my schedule. Problem is that I can't take Jack with me, so I am going to have to work out Jim's schedule so he can take care of Jack during those 30 minutes. Ahh my life is so scheduled right now!

On Wednesday night, we went to see Laura's dance recital. She has been learning the Hula dance and it was quite cute seeing her up there in her little grass skirt doing the hula. I took pictures and will post when I get a couple of minutes - again that schedule thing.

Last night Jack came home from daycare absolutely exhausted. I think part of the reason was because the night before he was up way past his bedtime because of Laura's dance recital. So he didn't want anything to eat and he went down for nite nite at 6:30. And the kid is still sleeping now at 7:00 am. I just went in there and he was snoring up a storm and looked so cute, I really hated to wake him. So I decided to come on here and update the blog for a few minutes while he slept. I can be late to work.

Speaking of being late to work, it took me 2 hours to get to work yesterday!!!!! Now let me just inform you that on a day with absolutely no traffic, my commute should be 30 minutes or less. But because this is California and you have to share the roads with 28 million other people, my commute is normally an hour each way. But yesterday it was raining and well for who knows why everybody just thought going about 15 miles an hour was the way to go. TWO HOURS!!! I hate California!

All Points Bulletin

Attention All!

If anybody has seen a Sony cordless phone and a Titanium men's watch, would you please let me know. They were last seen in the hands of one 13-month old (guess who) and have not been seen since. I really would appreciate any tips leading to the hiding place of said items. Thank You.

Well as you can see, Jack has been quite busy. He is walking all over now and getting into everything and anything that he can. He also is learning how to climb onto pretty much anything, even things that I think "oh he can't get up there", I am proven wrong time and time again. He is now an expert on getting on and off the couch and chairs and give him a set of stairs and he will be up them before you can say "he can't climb those can he?". It is quite exhausting.

So he has managed to lose our cordless phone and Daddy's watch. We have no idea where they could be because we have searched this house high and low and can't find them. I am really wondering if the kid climbs out of his crib at night and takes his loot out back and burys it in the backyard! I really wouldn't be surprised at this moment.

In other news, Laura and I took Jack to the Yeah Baby Expo in Anaheim on Sunday. It was basically one huge convention show devoted to anything and everything baby. It was fun watching Jack toddle around the play areas playing with the other kids. And the best part of the show? I got this really really great diaper rash stuff called PinkXav and let me tell you, it works wonder on my kid who refuses to give up his diaper rash butt. We have been battling diaper rashes for about 2 months now ever since he was switched over to regular milk and I think for the first time, he is welt free! Yay! It was worth the $15 I spent on it.

Oh yeah and Laura got her picture taken with the guy from Malcom in the Middle. The guy who plays Reese and for the life of me I can't remember his name. But she thought that was really cool and she said her heart was pounding afterwards. I will have to post the picture.

Well that about sums up what is going on here. Gilmore Girls is coming on right now so I must run. Nothing comes in between me and Gilmore Girls!

***Update*** The watch has been found! It was behind the window shutter in the family room. Now if we could just find the phone...

So. Much. To. Do. (insert scream here)

Okay it is the weekend. I made it through the week at work. I got pretty much caught up during the chaotic hours I was there. I am thinking my boss is a madman - seriously. I really do like him and respect him, but he has to be stopped! He has so many ideas for the business and how to grow and everything, but a lot of times he comes up with the ideas and then I am the one to actually get it done and do the legwork as they say. So on top of coming back to work behind, he has all these "ideas". Madman.

So here it is Saturday and now I get to concentrate on my house! I mentioned earlier that we had the World's Worst House Sitter and that was no exaggeration. She was awful! She was supposed to live here and take care of the dogs and the cat and look after the house. Well comes to find out, I don't think she lived here for at least the last 3 days and didn't even come by! She left the dogs run freely through the house, therefore producing many many piles of poop all over my house and pee stains. The dogs had no water or food. And the cat was missing. Thank goodness he showed up the next day. But my house smells like a dog kennel and is a total mess to say the least. And this girl hasn't even called us or anything since we have been home! We did hear from a friend who referred us who said that he had been recruited to help with the dogs, but nothing from her. Needless to say, we will never use her again!

So anyway at 8 am this morning, I set Laura in charge of Jack. I told her to keep him busy and I set out cleaning carpets, and starting on my 8 loads of laundry. I soon found out that I needed laundry detergent and carpet steam cleaner stuff. So off to Walmart I go with Jack (Laura went to a friend's house). I came back from Walmart and put Jack down for a nap and started in again. I am taking a break right now while drinking a Red Bull (love those!). I am just thinking of when I have a clean house again (one that doesn't smell like dog) and I can just sit and get caught up on my Guiding Light on Tivo! Okay back to cleaning carpets and lighting scented candles!

The Work Blues

Okay, I know that part of my problem is that I am coming off a week and half vacation and I have so much to catch up at work, but I just have to say that I HAVE THE WORK BLUES!!!

First off I'll just explain what I do here at work. I was originally hired on as "The Accountant" which included all aspects of the accounting and also human resources/payroll duties. Well in the last 6 years, my responsibilities have grown to now include the following: Purchase Manager, Production Manager, Inventory Manager, Accounting Manager, Human Resources Manager, oh and also answer phones and take orders when needed (which is a lot of days it seems). I am working 4 days a week and feel like I do the job of equivalent of at least 2 full-time people if not 3 and I am totally burnt out!!!! Don't get me wrong, I love being busy and hate being bored, but I have stepped over the line of busy into some sort of chaotic world that I live in for 4 days a week between the hours of 8-4.

I am so tired when I get home from work, it is all I can do sometimes to feed, bath, and put Jack to bed before I crawl into bed myself. As far as housework, I usually try to cram that in on the days off - the days that I also want to spend with Jack because I feel like I totally ignore him on the work days.

During our vacation, it was great just spending time with both Jim and Jack as a family - something that doesn't happen a whole lot in our crazy and chaotic schedule we have. Jim's job is even crazier than mine. His schedule can be 6 am - 2 pm one day and then something completely different the next day. His days off change weekly and he very rarely gets a weekend off. So our family time is unfortunately limited. Then there is the Laura factor and trying to schedule her visits with us and taking her to school and picking her up on the days we have her.

I really can't quit or even cut back on my hours because it is so expensive to live here in Southern California. It takes a fortune just to eek by. Paying $2.60 a gallon for gas means that we spend roughly $500 - $600 per month just on getting to and from our jobs! We both would love to move out of the state where we could afford a nice house with what we have in equity in our current house and live so much simpler, but there is the Laura factor again. We can't leave her.

So here I am at work whining about all this and really really looking forward to jumping in the car for my hour long commute home and seeing my Jackaroo and Jim. Thanks for listening!

The handsome young man himself

Formal Night 2

Formal Night 1

Jack sporting the latest in toddler cruise wear

We're Baaaccckkkk!

Well we are back from our whirlwind vacation. We got back last night and as a Welcome Back to California, we were welcomed to a traffic jam at 9:00 pm! Yep thats California.

We had a really great time. Not sure, I would ever take a 13 month old on a cruise again. It was a lot of work at times and trying to schedule activities around naptimes and trying not to have a grumpy baby was at times a full time job. I have been on a lot of cruises before, but of course as a childless person and I really had to readjust my thinking on this cruise. There are just so many activities that you have to miss out because you have an infant with you. But after the first couple of days, I learned to just accept that this cruise was going to be different and to enjoy it the best that we could.

I think I enjoyed the at-sea days better than the days in port. Jack was not too thrilled about the hot humid Carribean weather and was just so grumpy and at times just plain miserable. It also did not help that the first day off the ship in Cozumel, I accidently got sunblock in his eyes. That did not start the day out very well. Now me, I love love love the Carribean weather and could very well live there.

The day in Grand Cayman went better than Cozumel. We went to the beach and he really had fun sitting in the sand playing with his sand toys. He liked to sit at the waters edge and let the waves wash over his legs.

The next day in Costa Maya, he was working on only a 20 min nap and well it wasn't as fun as the previous day. Hence no pictures from Costa Maya and only one picture from Cozumel when we were on the submersible boat.

Speaking of pictures, you will see below that most of the pictures of Jack alone. We did have some professional pictures taken of the 3 of us on formal nights all dressed up. They charge a fortune to buy pictures from their photo store. But I will try to scan those in and post them. I think they turned out really great.

Jack was quite well known on the cruise. People we didn't even know would walk up to Jack and say "Hi Jack". I felt like when we left the ship, there would be an announcement saying "Jack is now leaving the ship".

We got into our own little routine on the cruise, which seemed like it was opposite of the majority of the people. We would wake up early and eat breakfast then go to the 9:30 aqua baby class. The aqua baby class was for the under 2 crowd sponsored by Fisher Price. It was basically Fisher Price showing off all their toys and letting us parents know that there were even more toys out there to buy. Then it would be off to lunch then naptime for Mommy and Jack. Then we would wake up and go up to the pool deck and hang out for a bit. Then it was time to get ready to yep you guessed it - eat again! Dinner time! During dinner time, he was adored by his public. Our table was by the door so that everybody coming in could ooh and ahh at the Jackaroo. It really was quite pathetic.

After dinner, we would go back up to the pool deck and enjoy the Caribbean night breazes. It was actually my favorite time of the day because we were almost the only people there and could let Jack run around pretty much anywhere while Jim and I sat in in deck chairs like stuffed pigs from dinner. Then around 9:30 we would go down to the cabin and go to bed. Rough life huh.

After the cruise ended we were back in New Orleans. We strolled around the French Quarter for a bit which was more relaxing this time than the week before. The day we arrived, a jazz festival was going on and it was pure madness. It was fun, but a bit overwhelming for this girl. I can't even imagine what Mardi Gras would be like! I really liked the French Quarter and it was fun going through all the shops and eating Beignets and drinking coffee. Yum Yum.

On Sunday we drove up to Mississippi to see Jim's family. Jack got to see his Grammy C and a couple of Aunts, an Uncle, and a cousin. The kid was thoroughly spoiled by all the attention. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures because I didn't think about pictures until too late. Bad Mommy!

So we are back to reality. Came home and found out that we had the world's worst house sitter. And then there was the harsh reality of going back to work this morning. I guess we can't be cruising and on vacation permanently. It does have to end at sometime.

Vacation through the eyes of a Jackaroo

Friday night we got into New Orleans and went walking around the French Quarter. Of all the hats that Jack won't wear, he did actually like this one and let me take his picture.

We had a few hours before we had to be on board the ship in New Orleans. So we went to the aquarium. Jack really enjoyed all the fishies.

Mommy can I have it? He really wanted this shark that was bigger than he was. He got instead a doggy beany baby.

Before we even left the port in New Orleans the first day, we had to have the life boat drill. As you can see, Jack was less than thrilled about the whole procedure.

Not sure what you put in my sippy cup Mommy but I sure am feeling gooood.

Life is good, sitting on the pool deck with my sippy cup and checking out a little blonde girl in the wading pool. How can it get any better than this?

All dressed up in his little tux.

Out on the pool deck ready to party till dawn - or until at least 9 pm.

Our handsome young man all dressed up at dinner with his doggie.

Mommy and Jack in Cozumel underwater on the submersible boat looking at all the pretty fishies.

Jack after his day in Cozumel.

Daddy and Jack having a discussion about wading pools and wanting to go in the "big" pool.

Towel Art - A new masterpiece was in our cabin every night.

Jack in the sand in Grand Cayman. This is right after he ate a handful of sand and didn't complain about it.

Playing in the sand in Grand Cayman. The kid loved it!

Daddy and Jack in Grand Cayman.

Daddy and Jack in the middle of the Carribean Sea in Grand Cayman. Jack would not let go of his little pink sand shovel.

We bought this Mexican hat in Costa Maya and you can see what the boy thinks of it.

Another great picture of Jack and the hat

Yes I know that everybody loves me

Random pool deck picture 1

Random pool deck picture 2

Jack being his pre-nap grumpy self on the last day of the cruise. Even wading in the pool didn't make him happy.

After we got off the ship in New Orleans on Saturday, we decided to try out the hotel pool. Jack in his little floaty outfit thought this pool was the greatest.

Gee Daddy it says 9 ft. Is that deep?

Wow this swimming thing is the coolest

Couldn't keep this kid out of the water. He kept trying to get back in.

Enjoying the pool at the hotel in New Orleans

This sums it all up

Jack has his sea legs!!!

He's walking!!! He started to take a few steps here and there when we first got on the ship, however yesterday he just took off. He can walk half the width of the ship, which now means that I can't just sit and let him play with the deck chairs. No now he is taking off and saying hello to all his adoring public. Go figure, he starts walking on a moving ship.

We are on our last day of our cruise today. We were at sea yesterday and today. It is a nice relaxing way to end the cruise - that is if you didn't have a Jackaroo with you.

Last night was formal night again and once again he was adored by all. We had another family picture taken and then we got a picture of just him. I swear I should look into getting him into modeling, the kid just stands there and poses in front of the camera! Such a little ham.

Speaking of being a little ham, he is known by everybody on the cruise. People all the time come up and say "Hi Jack". I don't even know them, but they know my kid! And boy does he eat it up and give him one of his "aren't I the sweetest little angel you have ever seen" smiles. I really need to inform these people about the real Jack.

Tomorrow we are docking back in New Orleans then we are going to drive up to see Jack's Grammy in Mississippi. Then back home on Monday. I'll probably not post again until Tuesday.

Cya Laters.

Holo from Costa Maya!

Well we are just now docking at Costa Maya, Mexico. We are all having a great time. I think that I finally learned how to relax yesterday for a bit. It has been a little bit tough at times with Jack and trying to schedule his naps and fun time.

Yesterday we were at Grand Cayman. It was in the mid 90's for those of you still in cold country. We went to the beach and let me tell you that Jack is SOOO much a beach baby. We sat him down in the sand and the first thing he did was take a big handful of sand and put it in his mouth. Now I would think he would not like that, but he went back for more! He loved it. We bought him some sand toys so he was having fun shoveling and digging. We then took him in the water and he took it really well. He really loved sitting at the edge and letting the waves come up over his legs. He had a really good time. Mommy got sunburnt :).

Today we are going to the beach again and seeing if he likes the Costa Maya beach as well.

Oh yeah, and 2 things I have learned on this trip. The first one is that marachino cherries don't get digested by babies. They come out whole at the other end. Who knew? (sorry if TMI).

The second thing is that giving a one-year-old chocolate (the ones they give you on your pillow at night - Jack gets one on his pillow also) at 9:00 at night is a bad bad thing. The kid was literally bouncing off the bed. Fun!

Cya laters!

Hola! from Cozumel

Hi there everybody. Another quick update as to our happenings. We are in Cozumel Mexico. It is beautiful here. This morning we went on a glass bottom boat and saw all the pretty fishies. Jack got a real kick out of that.

The water here is beautiful. It makes the diver in me want to jump in and go diving. Ahh the things that you give up when you bring your one year old on vacation with you. If he wasn't here I am pretty sure we would be scuba diving at this moment.

Jack is downstairs sleeping. He passed out in his stroller before we got back to the ship. I took a picture of him sleeping, too bad I can't upload it here.

Anyway, tomorrow we'll be in Grand Cayman. Hopefully doing the turtle farm and then going to a resort and go swimming. But then again that is all up to Jack and his mood at the time.

Oh yeah last night was the formal night on the ship. And Jack sure did have all the ladies oohhing and ahhhing over him. I have to admit that he looked very handsome. His daddy didn't look too bad either. We took pictures. Boy are we going to have a lot pics to post when I get back.

Cya laters

Hello from the Seas....

Hello all. We are in the middle of the ocean right now. Having a good time. I have to make this a quick post because it is charging me a fortune about the same as Jack's college fund.

We arrived in New Orleans on Friday night. When we checked into the hotel, we were warned that our room was "loud" and thought how loud could it be. Ha little did we know. It sounded like our personal jazz concert in the room. So little sleep was had by none.

But we had a good time in New Orleans and now we are out at sea today. Tomorrow we are going to be in Cozumel and hope to go see some ruins. Depending of course on the Jack Jack. He has been a little trooper, but I really didn't think that having a one year on a cruise was going to be quite so difficult. He is napping right now thank goodness!

Tonight is formal night and I'll take pictures of Jack in his little formal suit. Oh so cute.

I'll try to update again in the next few days. That is if I can afford it.

Hope everybody is doing well.

Oh yeah and Happy Birthday to me! I am 38 years old today (Yikes!)

The "me" Day with a little bit of laundry, packing, and cleaning thrown in

Today I am going to go get my nails done and get a pedicure. I used to get my nails done every two weeks - had a standing appt. Working for the company that makes the product for acrylic nails is a a nice side benefit - I get them done for free. But of course, this all stopped when Jack was born. Mainly because I just did not have the time for an hour and a half every two weeks. I miss it. I miss talking with Jamie (the girl who did my nails) and gossiping about the latest star breaking up, or talking about Survivor and what happened that week. Ahh the life of a childless woman. Well Jamie is now pregnant and will not be doing nails after the end of this month. I think about Jamie and I know how much her life is going to change and she doesn't even realize it yet. But she will and one day she too will look back and yearn for the childless life as I do at times. But then all I have to do is remember that big ole hug I got from Jack this morning as I sang "Good morning to you" and the yearning is gone.

Geesh, I didn't mean to go into all that. Funny how you think you are going to do just a quick blog entry when you sit down to type and all this stuff comes spewing out. Better than therapy.

Anyway, today is our last day. Today is the day I have to do everything. And what is everything you might ask? Well it starts out with getting nails put on, pedicure done, eyebrow waxing, upper lip waxing (yes I need that done grrr), picking up my formal dress from the tailors (it had to be taken in a bit), meeting the house sitter at 1:00 so that I can give her the key to the house and explain the rules, going to the grocery store to get snacks for the plane for you know who. And about 8 loads of laundry, giving the dogs a bath so that the house sitter doesn't think they stink, finish packing our 2 suitcases and garmet bag and the carry-on, cleaning the house so the sitter doesn't think that we live in filth. That's all. I'll update later as to whether all this got done.

Things that melt the heart...

Jack has been talking a lot more these days. Yesterday we bought him a dump truck with a whole bunch of beach/sand toys. Daddy was showing off the truck to Jack saying "vroom vroom" and the next thing out of my son's mouth is "vroom vroom". Heart melted.

He also does the rolling action to the patty cake nursery rhyme, along with the clapping of the hands. So the other day we were doing the patty cake and it got to the part about rolling and he says "rolling" while doing the hand motion. Heart melted.

When I pick him up from daycare, I realize that he has a whole social life there that doesn't include me. As we were leaving, another little boy about 2 years old says "bye Jack" and Jack waves back and says "bye". Heart melted.

The first thing he does when I pick him up at daycare is give me a big open mouth kiss and huge hug. Heart melted and just what the doctor ordered after a long day at work.

Times like these makes it all worth the sleepless nights and feeling totally miserable during the first few months of his life. And it helps gear you up for the upcoming sleepless nights that I know will happen. Heart fully melted.

A Day at Home Depot

We had to go to Home Depot today. Today was the day that we got to order our new door to the back door. Why might you ask would we need a new door? Well you see it was like this - Jim was out trying to knock down the weeds that had grown to about 25 ft tall (well not quite but close!) and well a rock went through our sliding glass door. This happened about a month ago and thank goodness it was just the first outside pane and not the inside one or well we would of ordered the new door sooner. And it really was cool there for awhile because the pane was just shattered and it had this totally cool look to it. But then Jim (who is much smarter than I am at these things) thought that maybe it was unsafe to have a shattered pane of glass with a one year old around (not to mention the 3 animals we have). He went out there with his shop vac and sucked it all up.

But that comes back to us being at Home Depot today. We saw the door we wanted actually a few months ago, and drooled over it, dreamt about it, and basically lusted over it. But at the time, we thought we had a perfectly fine sliding glass door which happens to be the ugliest door in the world according to me. Seriously, I really don't like the door. So when the rock incident happened, I was secretly cheering because then we had the excuse to buy new door. It is a wood French Door, with 2 sidelights that can open up and let the fresh air in without having to open the door (always thinking safety). But when the really nice man named Jerry got done with figuring everything ($87 for "misc parts" puhleez) it came to $2084.00!!!! That is TWO THOUSAND EIGHTY FOUR DOLLARS!!! I love the door, but geesh! Of course the really nice man named Jerry talked me into getting a Home Depot credit card where I can save 10% and have 12 months same as cash, I guess it doesn't hurt quite as bad. But Geesh!

So while we were there, we were going through the aisles and can I just say that if there is any doubt that Jack is a boy - all that is gone now. The boy was truly in love with Home Depot. He kept saying "oooooh Wow" and pointing all over the place at all the tools. And he was practically jumping up and down with glee when we were in the power tool section. Yep his manhood is not in doubt.

Allergies and one very grumpy boy

I blame it on Jim, really I do. Jack has inherited Jim's affinity toward allergies. Today, it was almost painful to look at Jack. His little eyes were watery, swollen, and red. He was sneezing every 10 seconds and the amount of um snot (sorry no other way to explain it) is unbelievable. He is miserable and it is all his Dad's fault. Jim is just like that. Jim can get an allergy attack and one look at him, I feel my eyes watering just from looking at him.

So anyway, in all this watery eyes and snot everywhere, Jack is like the grumpiest baby in town if not the entire county. He was semi-okay this morning when Jim was here. We were even outside walking around in the grass (no no he's not walking, he was holding onto me) and having a good time. But after Jim went to work this afternoon, he just started going downhill fast. We went on our monthly trek to Wal-Mart and he was still semi-okay. But oh my gosh when we got home, I could not make him happy. I know he is miserable and just wants to scream about it, but can I scream at the same time please? So after I dosed him up with some Benadryl at 6pm, I put him to bed. I am really hoping that Benadryl will do its magic and keep him sleeping for at least 12 hours. One good thing about the time change - one less hour to deal with Mr. Grumpy Pants. Does that make me a bad mommy?

On another note, I feel sad about the Pope dying. Even though I am not Catholic and don't even pretend to understand that religion, I feel that he was a good man and it is sad that he is no longer with us. But it was nice to hear about how he chose to die and his wishes were followed. It seems like he went in peace and really in the end that is what we all want. Death is inevitable, but to be able to do it with dignity and with peace is a blessing to both the family and the person dying.

I have been thinking a lot about this whole subject mainly because we have been notified that somebody close to us has stage 3 colon cancer. And even though this person and I have not been friends of any sort, I still feel bad. She has a young daughter and I have tried to put myself in her position and can't imagine the fear of knowing that there is a good chance that I won't see my child grow up. I guess having a child puts a new spin on life and death.

I don't know why I went into all this death and saddness. I wasn't even going to mention any of this on here. It just is something that has been weighing on my mind a lot and in a way this blog has become my journal - a very public journal.

Well I think that the boy is asleep - thank goodness. I am thinking that I am going to be doing the same very early tonight. I don't like it when Jim works nights. Night Night.

Two guys watching a very engrossing episode of Sesame Street

"Hey Mom look its Elmo"

Does this look comfortable to you? Nope me neither, but he seems to like it. Go figure.

Finally some Easter pictures

I do realize that it has been almost a whole week since Easter and I did promise some pictures so here they are. Sorry it has been so long since an update. It has been a bit busy around here. I am trying to get everything ready to go on vacation. Next week at this time, we will be in New Orleans getting ready to get on the ship and sail sail away. Yay! I really can't wait. Although between now and then is a mass of plans and lists and things to do. I have started to pile up the stuff we want to take with us in our guest bedroom. I have my pile of clothes - mostly shorts and shirts and of course the formal dress and casual dresses. And Jim has his pile of clothes - pretty much the same thing, except scratch the dresses and insert tux. Then there is Jack's pile of clothes. Now answer me this - how is it that a boy who only stands 31 inches tall can have double the amount of clothes that I do??? I know that I have to pack more for him just because of his messy nature and well you just never know. But my goodness I just didn't realize that his clothes would take up so much room in the suitcase. Geesh! And then theres the stroller, the travel car seat, the massive amounts of diapers, wipes, lotions, creams, etc. I'll say it again - Geesh!!!! And that's why I have not been updating lately. Too. Many. Things. To. Think. About. And Do.

My handsome young man ready for Easter morning church.

Jack and Laura - don't they look cute?

Jack on Easter Morning