In Search of Myself

Look!!!

LOOK WHAT I JUST MADE!!!
I am beyond excited.  This is my first "blinkie" (yes, I know that nothing is blinking.  Ok, it's my first animation.)
You of course can take it and use it on your site, just be sure to give me a shout-out.  ;o)
Thank you, sister Sheri, for the great idea and photographs of the troll.  You rule.

WEEKEND PLANS:
Friday I have the day off from work, to go to a piano teaching workshop.  Miss me!  (Kelly!  You're the only one who notices if I'm here or not right now anyway.  LOL.)
Saturday Jake, mom, and I are driving to Cleveland, TN (3 hours) to see Lou's cousin get married. Lou has a work obligation and can't come. (Mom is coming with me to baby-sit Jake during the ceremony, then we'll all go to the reception together.
Sunday is church and catching up on everything I usually do on Saturday (like LAUNDRY and SLEEP.)

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND, EVERYONE!

Zzzzzzzzz.

I was at work for 45 minutes today before I realized my shirt was inside out.  Yeah, I'm bright that way.  Does that say anything about how awake I am?

Also, I have mad-wicked cramps STILL (have been dealing with it for a week.)  When it rolls around only once every four months, it hits with a vengeance.  URG.

Jake-ism quickie

Busy today (it's summer!  I'm not supposed to be busy!  ;o)

Ok, first of all you need to know that Jake LOVES my car.  And he's possessive about EVERYTHING lately, so it's "Jake's car."  Sometimes it's "mom's car," but only as opposed to "dad's car."  Yesterday when we were walking Priscilla outside when they were leaving, Jake ran to the car, arms wide open then he leaned his whole upper body on it when he got there and said "Jake's car!"

As we were driving to church on Sunday, Jake was looking out his window and saw another gold Taurus just like mine.  He pointed to it and said "That mom's car?"  I said "Jake, we're IN mom's car."  He got this look on his face like he was thinking about it, looked around the car and back out the window at the other Taurus.  I said "That one's JUST LIKE mommy's car, but it's a different one."  With a pointed finger he made a circle motion and said "THIS mom's car."  Yes, buddy.  hee hee.

My favorite pic from the party.

Ryan has THE BEST parties.  Sunny day in July, his grandparents' big backyard, and lots of water.  Jake wasn't real keen on the slip-n-slide (although Ryan's dad DID throw him down it once [after I told him to, 'cause he was doing it with all the other kids] and it looked FUN), but he loved coming down the swing-set slide and into the baby pool.

Oh, and don't let this 2nd picture fool you.  They're not playing together and being nice, they're fighting over the hose.  ;o) (click on picture to see it bigger.)

The Twins.

Finally got a good picture of the boys.  They are still SO tiny, but they're doing very well and growing every day.  Their poor mother isn't getting much sleep -- if THEY'RE not waking her up in the middle of the night, RYAN is!!!  Jake is even a little interested in them and patted their backs (he usually doesn't like babies very much.)  I can't wait until they're old enough to play with!!!  More from Ryan's party soon.

New Computer *Update*

Well, today I'm sitting around waiting for my computer to be switched out . . . which means I can't accomplish much of anything until that happens.  They always tell you when it's going to be, then they don't actually show up.  I spent last week backing everything up to an external hard-drive (which I bought myself, but it's totally worth it, because now I can keep work and personal separate), and this morning I've deleted EVERYTHING from the hard drive -- cookies, temp. files, internet favorites and histories, etc.  I've found all sorts of neat hiding places that information hangs out.  I will put those below in the extention of this post (I haven't done a PSA in a while.)  ;o)  The university refurbs the computers and sells them, and I don't need people all up in my business.  We're on a network, so they can theoretically see everything I do anyway (and I plan accordingly), but it's nice to know I'm smart enough to wipe everything off the computer myself.  So if I'm not around today, that's why. 

We had a BLAST at Ryan's party yesterday, I can't wait to show you some of the pictures.  It's been slow in Blog-Land lately -- I miss you guys!!!  Hope everyone is doing well.

Tuesday 7-19-05 Still no new computer!  Today is a waiting day again.  (I don't have Photoshop at the moment!  Aaugh!  I uninstalled it!  Gotta go, they're here!

Dude, I just got the COOLEST new keyboard and optical mouse!  I'm going to spend the next few days and take my time organizing my stuff as I put it back on the desktop.  It's kind of nice to get to start from scratch!!!

Friday Funnies

Funny things Jake said to me last night when we were laying down to go to sleep:

Sadie have dog house . . . Jake get in there?

(Talking about McDonald's).  Mom can't play in there.  Mom too big.  (hey, thanks.)

Jake go to yoo [zoo] . . . see da ann-muhls . . . see bear . . . see tiger . . . see ell-funt . . . with Courtney . . . see dolphin . . . go up in da air . . . go round and round . . . splash . . . dat funny!

I have fireworks?  Jake's dad have fireworks . . . bang! . . . purple fireworks . . . yellow fireworks . . . in da air . . . outside . . . bang!

After work I'm swinging by to get Jake, then we're going to get Ryan for a McDonald's playland run.  Jake's been excited about it all week, and apparently Ryan's mom has been using it as a behavior motivator all day long.  LOL!  Oh, and Priscilla and the girls are FINALLY getting home from their trip tomorrow (THANK YOU, LORD!), we have missed them SO MUCH these past two weeks.  And Sunday after church is Ryan's birthday party -- he turned 3 on July 11th.  I have a BUSY weekend ahead of me.  Talk to you Monday!

Bossy Jake.

Jake is getting BOSSY.  He's hitting the "I'm almost three and I'm in charge" phase.  It's making me INSANE.  Especially now that he's talking more -- he's realized that with more talking comes a little more power.  Sometimes it's almost cute, sometimes it leaves me going "how do I shake this out of him?!"

Last night Jake was sitting on the potty and he was being goofy and trying to put his feet up on the toilet lid.  I was telling him to stop that, that we do NOT put our feet there when we're going potty -- and as I'm sitting there fussing at him, he pointed his finger at me and said very sternly "Stop that!" I told him that he doesn't talk to me that way, that I'm the boss and that's not nice, and as I was saying that, he told me "Stop that!" again.  So not cool.

But here's the funny one.  I was stopping for gas on the way home yesterday at Kroger -- Kroger is like 10 cents less than anywhere else, so it's always crowded and you have to fight to get in a line.  So I was trying to figure out which line I could get in, maneuvering in and out of cars, and Jake's in the backseat saying (again, very sternly) "Go!  Go!  Go!"  Then he said "Get out of da way!"  He was mad at all the other cars for slowing me down.  THAT was pretty cute.

Any tips from those of you who have gone through the dictator three's?

Some cheer for a gloomy day.

Is it raining where you are, too?  We have yet to see the sun today (and it's hard to be happy or even AWAKE without Mr. Sun to help us out!!!)  So I made a cheery page to help us think happy thoughts, in spite of the weather.  ;o)  Can't take credit for the design, was inspired by someone at TwoPeas.  Elements are from one of Shabby Princess' new kits. 

Cutest kid ever.

Jake and I are both feeling much better today.  Neither of us are 100% yet, but we're getting there.  I haven't been taking many pictures lately because we're sick and because I just don't feel like it (yeah, it happens sometimes, believe it or not), so I don't have a picture to go with this.  But Jake said the CUTEST thing last night.

Usually when Jake gets upset or he's tired, he says "Mama, hold."  He says this a LOT, sometimes being silly, sometimes just needing to cuddle, sometimes on the verge of sleep, sometimes very upset and crying.  Sometimes he says it to try to get himself out of trouble, if daddy or Nana is fussing at him about something (in which case I tell him that if he got himself in trouble, I'm not going to rescue him.)

Anyway, last night I was laying down with him to get him to fall asleep and he kept saying "Good-night, mama.  Night night.  Mama?  Night night." Regardless of whether I said it back, he kept telling me good-night.  I had turned over with my back facing him, hoping that would make him be quiet and just go to sleep, and he said, in the cutest, sweetest little voice, "Mama?  Can I hold you?"  I laughed and turned over and said "Awwwww" and gave him a hug, and he knew I thought it was funny, so he giggled and kept saying it over and over. He's kind of been making me crazy lately, but then he goes and says something like this, and I just think he's the cutest kid in the world.