Sunday, March 30, 2008

Our Weekly Weekend

Well, it's Sunday evening again. Anja's had a big weekend with not many naps, so she's already in bed and we're down here enjoying the few hours that are left in our weekend by dreaming big, expensive dreams and drinking coffee. On Saturday morning I was able to sneak off without waking Martin up; Anja and I went over to Vienna and got Martin a chai and me a coffee and came home and made eggs and toast for breakfast! It was very delicious. We made a little trip out to the mall in the afternoon... we ate Auntie Anne's pretzels for lunch and did a little shopping... I got a super cute shirt at Gap and two pairs of socks. Martin got a couple of Cubs hats!! He got the typical blue one to replace the one that Baxter chewed up a long time ago, and then he saw the green St. Patrick's day one, which is something he's always wanted. They only had ONE LEFT, and it was his size!! How lucky is that?!? He's very excited to have it. Later on we went to TJ Maxx where I bought another VERY cute shirt. (Can you tell our tax refund came in on Friday?) The great thing is, nothing we got was very expensive. I think everything was pretty much on sale. I've been keeping my eye out for cute dressy clothes lately... I didn't realize until Easter how absolutely annoying it's going to be this summer when I wear dresses and have to feed Anja. At least she'll be older though and not eating constantly. She already doesn't eat as much as she used to, which is nice. So anyway, I've been keeping my eye out for dresses and there was this really [theoretically] cute dress at Gap that I never would've actually purchased because it was much too expensive, but it was gorgeous!!..... on the hanger. I tried it on and was surprised to find out that it is actually the most unflattering dress in the world. Bummer! But at the same time, not, because then I didn't have to feel sad about not having won the lottery this week.

This morning we went to 7:30 mass and afterward came home and had a nice breakfast, then just kind of hung around until after lunch when we went to an art opening at Vienna. Anja wore the cutest dress! She looked very adorable, but my question is, how on earth did we get a blue-eyed, red-haired baby?!?

When Anja was tired of being at Vienna we came home, but on our way we took a little drive around downtown looking at all the old houses and structures that we admire. Eventually we got hungry for dinner and decided to try that Yats place over on the Levee. It wasn't raining very much, so we walked over with Anja inside Martin's raincoat. It was a nice walk! The dinner was fine... we're glad we tried it, anyway because we were curious. But it's no Cajun Connection, that's for sure! Once Anja grows out of her milk allergy/is done breastfeeding, I'm definitely going to make some crawfish etoufee. I miss it! I will make it for dinner and eat it with a vanilla chai. Aaaahhh....

Karenin might be getting slightly better about the potty thing, but she's not trained yet. She went 24 hours without an accident the other day, then broke the goodness streak. Later yesterday evening she had a little case of bad poops and left a trail through the dining room and living room. Yucky. This potty thing is one way in which Baxter was a WAAAY better dog than Karenin... with Baxter, no matter how long he had to hold it, he absolutely would not go in the house. He was kind of a saint that way.

These next couple of weeks are going to be pretty busy. The mother of a girl I went to highschool with died this weekend and I'm part of a quartet who is singing "Blessing" at the funeral. The problem is, none of us has the music to it anymore, so we're trying to track it down before we get together to practice on Tuesday evening. Six years is a long time to have not sung something together!

Hooray! Tara just came over to meet Karenin! I haven't seen her in forever, I was starting to go through Tara withdrawal. Tomorrow is rosary group--I hope I get back in time from taking Martino to work!

Friday, March 28, 2008

It's Garbage Girlfriend Day!

Last night we had to drive She Who Does Not Sleep around for awhile and it was a fabulous night to do that. It was all rainy and cold; since I am the primary driver these days, I got to go to Vienna and order Martin to go inside and get himself a chai. Sometimes it's good to have power. Anyway, I wore my cozy Wabash sweatshirt and it was all rainy and nice, so I thought today I'd play Garbage Girlfriend and be scrubby for the day. I was under the impression that it was going to be another rainy day... but it looks as if I was wrong; the sun is shining very brightly.

Also last night, we went down to K. Dee's coffeeshop where Kim and George were playing. I played a little bit too, which was nice. It was a fun time! This is a picture of Jerry holding Anja. Jerry's very tall, and he joked that Anja was having a nose bleed from being up so much higher than she'd ever been before. She liked Jerry okay, but her favorite is Uncle Kim.


This is Anja's new high chair!
She was very smiley when I was conducting this photo shoot. She's such a good sport, putting up with me and all my messing with her, just to have cute pictures to put on my blog and on Facebook.

When I was pregnant people warned me that after the baby was born my hair would start thinning out. I believed everyone, but I thought it was going to happen in the first six weeks or so. WRONG!! It's just now happening, and it's G.R.O.S.S. Huge wads of hair come out every time I comb it after my shower in the mornings. It's reason enough to have it all cut off again. It seems like my hair grows so fast lately... I'm already wearing it up most of the time now.


Okay, so Karenin is a great dog and all, and she really seems to like Anja, but maybe a little too much.... whenever she is playing with her squirrel toy and Anja is playing with her jungle toys, Karenin wants to be RIGHT NEXT to Anja. This becomes a problem since Karenin is so ridiculously clumsy and about four times Anja's size. I try to keep them away from each other, but sometimes it's hard.

Here are some pictures from Easter. Andrew & Martin chatting it up, and my nephew, Elton Joh... er.... PeterXavier.

Pretty cute, huh? The picture at the top of this post is of Martin and me in the Big Back Room. I was messing around with the timer on my camera. In fact, I was messing with my camera all night long, taking pictures of everything; I think he was getting annoyed with me. Anyway, here are some more samples for you:




Thursday, March 27, 2008

I'm Pretty Much Obsessed with Facebook

So in case any of you haven't noticed, Facebook has a new feature: "People You Might Know." It's AWESOME. I have so many more friends on Facebook now!!!!! All people from highschool, and I love it; now I can find out who is married, engaged, single, parents, etc. So many people seem to be in Europe, too. Hardly anyone is around Lafayette anymore, which makes me feel only the slightest bit like a loser, but oh well.

So I feel like with all this dog excitement I haven't bragged about my baby enough as of late. So this is just a little blurb to let you all know that you WISH you were as lucky as I am to have such a fabulous child. She's so great. And cute. And perfect. She just hangs out with me all day. She's so much easier to take care of than the dog because she has no interest in eating trash or pooping on the floor or chasing the cat until he attacks her.... I know that all these things are inevitably coming within the next year, but for now, she's pretty much the best. Today she is really stylin' too, in her dark blue jeans with the hems cuffed up, polka-dotted onesie and pale pink sweater with matching socks. She really looks super adorable.

The dog is very slowly learning. She's a good dog, she is catching on really quickly to everything EXCEPT going to the bathroom outside. When it's time to put her leash on, all you have to do is pick it up from the bowl and she comes trotting over (calmly) and sits down for you to put it on her. When she comes in, she sits down at the same place you put it on so that you can take it off. She's really good!! And she seems to really know when she's done something bad.... when I put her in her cage because I've caught her pottying on the floor, she doesn't whine and cry. But when I put her in her cage after taking her out to potty and she hasn't gone, she makes a big scene. It's funny. She really seems very smart, and she still doesn't try to go upstairs even though she could obviously get past the chair VERY easily, considering she's almost 40 pounds and she just crawls under the gate.

I'm driving Martin around these days and it's not so bad. It's a pretty freeing feeling to have the car every day. The only bad thing about it (aside from how much it costs to drive back and forth to Crawfordsville every day) is that it makes dinner hard to plan. Yesterday I made a chicken in the crock pot with carrots, onions and potatoes. It would've been a good dinner and it made the house smell delicious. But Martin stayed a little late at work so by the time I went to pick him up we were both absolutely starving. I called him on my way down and told him I was going to stop and get some french fries at McDonalds for us because we were both so hungry. He suggested I wait for him, so I picked him up and by that time we were even MORE starving, so we ended up getting a ton of food at McDonalds... and came home feeling like death. Needless to say, we didn't eat the chicken. I thought about eating it as-is tonight, but I seemed to have a lot more time this afternoon than the past few days so I tore the chicken apart and am making chicken and noodles instead. I kept the potatoes and carrots and solidified grease in the crock pot in the fridge, so I'll probably make some stock out of that and we'll have soup this weekend. Last winter I'd make a big pot of soup every Friday or Saturday and that would be our food for the weekend.

Okay. I'm so obsessed.... I just HAVE to go check facebook again....

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Our Dog is an Awesome Dog!

She poops where we want her to!

Get it? You can sing the words to the tune of "Our God is an Awesome God."

Okay, I think it's official. We got the best dog in the entire universe. She is so cool. And sweet. And gentle. And smart! All we had to do was start giving her treats every time she potties outside, and now, no more accidents!! But she's getting better than that, even... she started dragging this old leash around the kitchen and dining room, which is where we put her leash on and take her out. Now I might be giving her more credit than I should with that, since it wasn't her leash, but whatever. Martin took her out then and she pooped. Because she's awesome.

But besides that, she's just so gentle and sweet. My mom has been coming over the past two days to hold Anja while I can spend a good amount of time in the yard with Karenin and maybe take her for a walk, and Karenin is so NOT psycho. She doesn't jump up on my mom and she mostly just lies down and sleeps while we talk. She's super gentle with Anja, the worst he does is sometimes nibble on her hands, which I'd rather she not do, but she isn't BITING. She licks Anja's face and Anja laughs. It's so cute! And today she only went in the house three times, other than that it was ALL outside. I'm looking forward to the weekend when we can really concentrate on her and maybe she'll finally get it down.

How about Anja's lack of interest in rolling over? I think she definitely inherited MY level of motivation and not her daddy's. She couldn't do it, and her attitude is "meh. I don't really need to roll over anyway." Speaking of our little pie, she is right here, wide awake, playing with her jungle friends and dirtying her diaper at the same time! How lovely! But isn't it nice that Anja can lie on the floor and flail her arms and legs and make her little rattles and bells sound and the dog doesn't try to eat her? The dog is WAY more interested in eating her grunting hedgehog toy, and running back and forth down the hallway.

Tonight we went to Barnes & Noble for their Tuesday night knitting group! TusaRebecca, Mrs. Schap and I all went (although I got there half an hour late) and there were only two other ladies there, both B&N employees, so I hope that next week my mom and sister and Tara will come. It could be a super fun weekly thing. TusaRebecca is making a really cute knit shirt in the prettiest shade of red. I really like the color. Way better than the color they modeled the pattern with in the magazine. And I am working on finishing up Anja's teddy bear. But I think if I go every week, I'll be able to get it done in a fairly short amount of time! I'm a pretty fast knitter, considering my low skill level, and with Martin there to keep Anja entertained (or in tonight's case, Mrs. Schap, who promptly put down her knitting and held Anja for most of the evening!) I'll have no problem getting the bear done.

I'm super excited for summer. I can't wait to strap Anja in a carrier and head down to the Farmers Market on Tuesday mornings. I can't wait to take long walks up to Vienna and Borders and Von's. I can't wait to plant flowers and vegetables and take Anja outside in a sunhat while I work in the yard. It'll be so great.

Tomorrow morning at 9:30 I'm meeting up with my friend Alison at Vienna! That'll be great because Anja will sleep in the car while I take Martino to work and then I can come home and change her (or let her keep sleeping) then go on over to Vienna and she should be happy the whole time. Oh, as if she's ever unhappy anymore. I have the happiest baby in the world, she just smiles all the time and she only cries when she's hungry or dirty, and on the rare occasion that I leave her with her Ooma. And hey! She's trying to roll over again! Failing... but trying all the same.

She's also kind of fussing which must mean it's getting close to her bedtime.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Hitting the Jackpot... and Not

First of all, while I'm still angry about it, the "and not" part of the post. Way back in the fall, Martin hit a deer in one of the Wabash cars when he was traveling. Minimal damage to the car, the deer died, it seemed things were taken care of. A few weeks or months later I backed into that car in the parking lot. Minimal damage, nobody died, and it seemed things were taken care of. Then one day in the mail we randomly got a notice from the BMV asking us for proof of insurance on our vehicle. We assumed it was for my parking lot fender bender. Well, I took the stuff down to our insurance place to have it all taken care of and they said they didn't have any record of the accident. I told them we hadn't called the police or filed an insurance claim because it was nothing, we just wrote the people a check. She accepted that and signed the paper to be sent in to the BMV. Shortly after that we recieved another notice saying they didn't need information from an '04 Chevy, they wanted info from an '07 Buick. Well, we don't HAVE a Buick. And my parents have buicks, but we don't drive them and they aren't '07 cars, they're much older than that.

Finally, Martin figured out that they were wanting information from the deer incident; they wanted the college car information. So all he had to do was take the form to the motorpool and they said they'd sort it out. And that was the end of it.

But now, on Friday we recieved a notice saying that Martin can now reclaim his driving rights. ?!?!?!?! His drivers license has evidently been suspended all this time, and nobody told him!!! They say he has to pay $150 to get it back!! So he contacted the BMV today and as he'd suspected, the motorpool never sent in the information. What a bunch of screw ups!!!!!! If Martin has to pay even one penny, I am going down to that motorpool myself and letting them have it. And what happens if he gets pulled over for something?? He'll get arrested for driving without a license!!!

Anyway, on to better and brighter news. We seriously hit the jackpot with the dog we got. She is awesome. Reeeaaallly bad at potty training, but stupendous in every other area. Great with kids. Great with Anja. Great with company! Understands what is hers and what is not hers after only a few times of being told. Doesn't get on the furniture. Just kind of hangs out with us. She's wonderful!!!

...except for the pooping in the house thing. So far today she has ONLY gone in the house. Very unfortunate. But how can I complain when she is so great in every other area? She's just a puppy, I'm sure she'll catch on sooner or later. She's even a good walker, without pulling.

Easter was wonderful, as always. I love, love, loved the trumpets at the 9:30 mass, but unfortunately, Anja does not share my passion for trumpets... at least not when she's asleep and they start playing. She cried through the opening song. However, she is an awesome baby and was completely fabulous all day long. She was cheerful ALL DAY, running on only a one and a half hour nap in the middle of the day!! She was great until 8:30 at night when she started crying, so I dressed her in jammies and put her to bed and she slept fairly well all night. It was fabulous!! What a good baby.

Martin just called me. Everyone at the motorpool swears they turned in the insurance stuff, so now they are contacting the insurance people to see if the fault is theirs. Until this gets resolved I will be driving Martin around in true girlfriend-of-a-criminal fashion. Unfortunate for us because that gets expensive... but better than risking the consequences of getting pulled over before this gets worked out.

I think I should bundle Anja up and take the dog out again.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Preparations

It's been a very busy Holy Saturday. We have a puppy now and she is QUITE the puppy! She's awkward and clumsy and not very good at entertaining herself. She's also not very well potty trained, but she seems to be learning her name and she is a pretty dog and seems to be a smart dog. Some pictures for your entertainment:

Can you see her ridge?? She's got no white on her... if you think you see any white, it's just a camera flash glare.

This morning we woke up super early and got working on Easter preparations. We hung out with Matt Aiken and went to confessions. We had Great Harvsest scones for lunch. Mostly I've been preparing food and the house for tomorrow while Martin has been managing the puppy, who takes quite a bit of managing, considering sh'es not getting this potty training thing down very quickly. It doesn't help that she's a puppy so the slightest noise or action is the HUGEST distraction to her.

Anyway, I really don't have much time to post. But I wanted to share the pictures of our wonderful dog! Also, notice her new spot in my family picture bar to the left. We are very proud masters. She'll be a good dog. She already seems kind of smart. I mean, except for the pooping in the house.

Thanks for all the kind words after my last post. I'm getting over it. :)

OH HOORAY!!! Martin is out in the yard praising Karenin!! I think she went potty outside!!!!!!!!

Friday, March 21, 2008

Mortified

Wow. Fr. Vath blessed my belly today at communion. I was (and am) humiliated. Any shred of confidence I'd once had in the way I look has gone straight out the window. First he blessed my baby, then he kind of smiled and blessed my stomach and at first I thought, "what is he doing?" and then I realized, and almost started crying. That is NOT what a girl whose baby is almost 5 months old wants to happen to her. So then I started thinking maybe I was pregnant and he could sense the life within me.... so I went straight out and bought a pregnancy test, took it, and was delighted to find it negative. Well, delighted for a minute before I remembered what had happened to make me take the dumb thing in the first place and then I got all depressed again.

Guess I won't be wearing this shirt anymore. What a shame... it's such a pretty shade of green.

By the way, we officially have a dog. Pictures and details to come soon.

Take Two

Last night I had a whole post written, but then when I tried to post I realized I was still signed in as Martin, so the post had never auto-saved and then when I tried to post it, instead of asking me to sign in on a separate window, it just told me that I couldn't post and the whole thing disappeared. How frustrating!

Someday when we are rich I will have a little baby bulldog named Hugo and he will be very wonderful and rolly-poley. Yesterday when Martin got home from work we went straight out to Petsmart and got everything we need for Karenin. While we were there we saw TWO different bulldogs!! One was all grown up and stumpy and wonderful, the other one was just a tiny little ball of a puppy. I melted. Martin practically had to mop me up from the aisle floor with those paper towels they provide for piddle accident. It was the most adorable thing I've ever seen in my entire life. I had never seen a real, live baby bulldog until yesterday. *sigh*

But for now, Karenin is the dog for us. With Karenin we are guaranteed to have a super great summer. Anytime we say, "let's go to the trails at Prophetstown" and then start to be lazy about it, we'll remember that Karenin needs a lot of exercise, and off we'll go. Anja and Karenin and I will take walks all over the place together. We can walk up to Columbian Park on nice days, when we get a good stroller. It'll be fabulous!

I know Martin is excited to have a dog because last night he was walking through the living room dragging the empty harness along the floor by its leash saying, "c'mon, Karenin!"

After Petsmart we came home and ate some quick dinner then packed up to go to the Holy Thursday mass at St. Boniface. Anja was not the happiest baby in the world when we left, so it's not surprising that an hour into the mass she was inconsolable. She has a rotten cold; her nose is completely plugged up and running like a faucet all at the same time. And she has a little cough and runny eyes. It's sad. She's a pretty good sport... for instance, this morning she is her usual self except for the noisy breathing and coughing, but she took a three hour nap yesterday which would've been longer, had I not woken her up to see Laura, Anne and Charles who stopped by! (yay!) So anyway, we stayed an hour and then she couldn't stop crying so we left; as soon as we put her in the car she fell asleep and she slept from then until 6:30 this morning without waking up once. The poor little girl.

So today I might try to walk over to the Good Friday liturgy. It depends on the rain and how Anja seems to be feeling. If she's asleep, I won't go. And if it's absolutely pouring rain, I won't go. But Martin left me his raincoat to wear just in case, so I can put her inside it. So we'll see how the morning goes and maybe we'll be able to head down for at least some of it. Too bad the weather isn't like yesterday--that would make today a lot easier!

Speaking of yesterday--Anja and I took a long walk. After Charles and the girls left I packed her into her Snugli and we walked all the way around the movie theatre and back. She fell asleep on the way home, but she was happy the whole time. That's the farthest I've gone on a walk with her. I keep pushing it a little further every time. She LOVES walks though; I think I have nothing to worry about. And whenever we get a stroller I'm sure she'll love that too. Then she'll be able to see EVERYTHING!!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Adoption Pending!

Well, we are very close to having a dog. I went to Crawfordsville and met Georgina today who might soon be Karenin if she comes to live with us. Martin was having a hard time deciding between this dog and the Bluetick Coonhound he fell in love with, but after he emailed the coonhound people he found that "Major" was no longer available, and evidently he had kennel cough. Martin was glad that the decision was made for him. And now he's going to call the vet and see if we can take Karenin straight there from Crawfordsville, have her checked out and cleaned up and then bring her home.

She is a very sweet dog, and a very good looking dog. She's got the nicest coat--a perfect black lab coat, except for that pesky Rhodesian ridge! She has a sweet face and is very puppyish without being psychotic. She didn't jump on us at all, didn't even seem to have an interest in doing that. She was just playful and nice. And she smelled like puppy pee, but that's a fixable problem. She shares a cage with two other dogs so she should be used to animals. The only dog she'll have to get along with is Baxter and he's pretty easy going so I'm sure it'll be fine. I'm not too worried about Theodore... he's hardly considered "small prey"... in fact, he might be just as big as the puppy. And besides that, he can fend for himself. He's a pretty ferocious cat. In fact, here's a picture to prove it:

Those five spots on my thigh (which is not really so white as in the picture) were caused by my one and only lovey boy in a sneak attack on my leg. I think he was hungry. Anyway. He's surely no match for a puppy. That damage was caused through blue jeans!


So anyway, we might have a dog tomorrow and the thought of that excites me. And this will be a durable dog. We can take him to Mammoth Cave with us and not have to be so careful with him as we were with Baxter. This is a better first dog for us than a Newfie would be because Newfies are relatively lazy and need to be kept cool. They aren't the dog for summer trips to Mammoth Cave. But Ridgebacks are good in all kinds of weather and have great endurance. Definitely the first dog for us. And I've been checking the weather around here lately... it seems after this weekend that we might be in steady 50's which would be fabulous. I don't mind taking Anja out in that. And if I walk Karenin around the library block and it starts to rain, it's never very far to shelter. I just run back to the front of the library and under the walkway and wait it out. Not a problem!

The other thing I did today was finally purchase that highchair from the antique store!! The lady even took it down to $35 for me. And whenever Martino and I were at Target last, we looked at the highchairs there--they are SO expensive!!!!! They ranged from $70-$120!!! Holy smokes! I'm happy to have the one I got today. It's really cute and nice, and it looks nice in the dining room by the windows.
Now I'm at my parents' house for dinner while Martin keeps plugging away at work (making up for our fun night yesterday) and I'll go down to pick him up around 8:30 or so tonight. It's been an exciting day!

Georgina

As I kind of mentioned in my last post, we Schaps are still dogless. However, we're being very proactive on our search for our perfect addition, and today we are going to see Georgina, a Rhodesian Ridgeback mix. Yesterday, poking around on petfinders.com, I found Georgina and texted Martin about her. (He really likes Rhodesian Ridgebacks.) He looked her up on his own and she's at the shelter in Crawfordsville, so without telling me he went to look at her in the afternoon and filled out the adoption application and everything! She's definitely not a full Ridgeback because she's all black and Ridgebacks don't come in that color. We think she's part black lab, which is also great. Anja and I went to the library and checked out a book on Ridgebacks and did a little reading. They sound like pretty great dogs, especially for us. I realize it's always easy to have an active dog in the summertime and that the winter might be a challenge. And they say that if introduced to kids at a young age, they'll be fine with them. Anyway, it's exciting. I'm going down to meet her today and if I think she's NOT the perfect dog for us, we might go to see some others in Logansport on Saturday.

So last night ended up being kind of a fun night. Martin thought he'd stay late at work to make calls but at 6:30 he called and said he was just coming home, he was too tired and would double his work tomorrow night. While he was on his way and I was making dinner, TusaRebecca texted me that she was coming over to show me her new car! It's very cute. Actually, it's very sleek. I like it. It a black '04 Hundai(sp?) with tinted windows and secret pockets. Very fun. She stayed for dinner and during dinner we were listening to The World Cafe and a new James McMurtry song came on from his new album! Martin said maybe that warrented a trip to Von's, so we all piled into TusaRebecca's new car and drove over to Von's where they did not have the new James McMurtry album, but we did get a book by Larry McMurtry, who is the father of James. Then we got coffees at Vienna, came home and put Anja to sleep.

She didn't sleep well (surprise, surprise) and had the beginnings of a cold. She'd breathe and snork and then cough and wake herself up. She was up every few hours. It was sad. However, this morning she still managed to wake up happy as a clam at 6:00. What a silly girl! I can't believe how little sleep she runs on. And I would worry, except she's so HAPPY!! Especially in the mornings! (And right now... she's very talkative today.)

I got a Facebook message from a girl I went to highschool with and she asked me about my graduating class and how many people are married/parents. She said her class is all getting engaged. She is engaged and not sure about exactly when the wedding will be, depending on stuff going on in her life and I thought it was funny to think of the differences in classes. It seems like Martin's class is full of professionals now. They all went to college and now are persuing careers. My class is the marriage class--we all seem to be marrying young and having babies right away. Evidently the class below us is big on engagement, but she didn't mention any marriages or children, and then the class below that is famous for its number of illegitimate children. And of course that doesn't mean every person in the class is doing any of those things, but as a group, we could be classified as the career class, the married class, the engaged class, and the babies class. Pretty funny to think about.

An update on the dog search is that Martin has fallen head over heels for a Bluetick Coonhound named Major, located in Noblesville. He IS a good looking dog and I think there couldn't BE a better name than "Major" for a hound dog. We'll see what comes of it. I'm leaving in about half an hour to head down to Crawfordsville to pick up Martin and meet Georgina. So we'll see how that goes too. On my way I'm going to finally buy that highchair from the antique store... so I'd better scoot!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

A Rather Annoying Annie Car Day

Well, Martin and I both overshot our guesses on Anja's weight. Yesterday's scale read 14lbs 4oz. Still, not bad for a little girl!

Yesterday turned into a very annoying and hectic day. After Anja's doctor appointment in the morning I thought I'd swing by the antique store and buy that highchair. I drove around a bit but there was no close parking and Anja was crying, so I just went home. After her [ridiculously short] nap, I packed her up to try again. (I'm terrified that I'll finally get there and the thing will be gone. Like Dexter the dog was--we set up an appointment on Friday night to go look at him Saturday afternoon, and he was adopted on Saturday morning before we even saw him!) This time I really made an effort driving around looking for a parking place and finally came around the block once to find the 20 minute parking spot right outside the door completely free! Wahoo!! So I pulled in and looked at the door and saw that the darn shop is closed on Mondays. ARG!!

Then there were all these little annoying things that happened like me spilling sticky, hours-old coffee all over my hand and not being able to wash it off because I was outside and Anja was in the car and we were just leaving to go someplace. And I was supposed to have Laura come over in the afternoon and TusaRebecca was going to come over too and knit, but then I realized that they couldn't come over at 3:00 because I had to pick up Martin! I don't know why I hadn't been thinking of that when I made the plans. I spent half the day craving cherry coke and thought I'd never get one because after awhile I get tired of putting Anja in and out of the car over and over again all day long. However, Matt Scherger saved my day.

Anja and I went to Goodwill before going to pick up Martin (where I found two shirts for me and a pair of cutie overalls for Anja) and Matt Scherger was there creating an outfit for his gig that night at the Knickerbocker. I asked him if he knew anyplace I could get a cherry coke at a drive-thru, and he revealed to me one of our towns best secrets. The gas station by Blockbuster Video over by the old Target has a drive thru window!!!!!!!!! You can't see it from the road, it's around the back, but it's amazing!!! Now I know where I can get whatever I want with Anja in the car! Yahoo!! So I got my cherry coke for the fabulous gas station price of 89 cents and was off to Crawfordsville, much happier than I'd been all day.

Oops, Anja's upset.

Monday, March 17, 2008

"Mommy, who did this to us?"

'Tis the season of political campaign ads! Aah, yes, hopefuls and candidates ripping each other apart, attacking each other from every angle imaginable, no matter how ridiculous it makes them sound, going straight for the jugular. Gosh. It's almost better than Christmas!

The above subject line is a quote from a campaign ad Martin heard on the radio during his travel season when he worked for the Secretary of State. I'm pretty sure I posted about it at the time because it was so hilarious... but that's what the little girl in the ad said, referring to Daylight Saving Time. Pretty funny stuff.

Martin remembered to stick the note on the door for the UPS man this morning, but I didn't see it until I got back home from taking him to work. He wished the UPS man a happy St. Patrick's day! Hee hee hee!

And speaking of St. Paddy's Day, Anja is in a new GREEN outfit. Yesterday evening Martin asked me if Anja had anything green to wear today and I said she has her plaid dress that has green in it. He said that wasn't good enough. I said, well she could wear it with her green sweatshirt. He said, what green sweatshirt? I told him, the one with the hood and the little horse on it. He said, no I don't know what you're talking about but I'm sure it's not the right color. And he insisted we go out and buy her something new. Haha! Unfortunately, everyplace to get kids clothes is closed on Sunday evening at 7:30, even though it feels like 4:30 since the sun is only just beginning to set, but we needed milk anyway so we went to Target and we found the very cutest outfit for her, shirt and pants and matching socks. VERY CUTE. And of course for going out she is wearing her green and white striped hat that I knit for her before she was born. Such a cutie!

While waking up at 5:00 in the morning in order to get ready and take Martin to work on time is not my most favorite thing in the world, there's something a little bit exciting about being out before anyone else is and there's definitely something nice about seeing the sun come up. It makes you feel like you're really getting the most out of your day. And then of course when you have a 4-month-old who boycotts sleep, you feel like you're getting the most out of your night as well. Not a moment wasted in this family. Gee, it sure is great.

Yesterday was the SCC (St. Cecilia Circle) "Mommy Shower" up at my mom's house which was a success if I do say so. (not that I had anything to do with it.) The kidders were well entertained, as were the ladies, who recieved professional foot massages!!! And the preggos got fun gift bags too. My sister recieved from her doting sister a most special gift bag full of all the stuff she had lent me when Anja was born, plus some unused things such as a very hopeful 5-8lb onesie (Sarah's babies ain't no 5-8 pounds) a cutie little sleeper that arrived too late for Anja to wear, and a newborn sized promo diaper that I recieved in the mail last week. (A little late.)

Anja has a doctor appointment today, just the routine checkup, so we'll see how much she weighs! That was the question of the day yesterday at the shower. Yes, she's quite the porker. Martin's guess is 16lbs 1oz, my guess is 14lb 8oz. We'll see who's closer in about two hours.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Lent

This lent has absolutely flown by. Has it seemed that way for anyone else? I can't believe that this weekend is already Palm Sunday! Gosh.

Today I took a walk with both the baby and the dog. A woman stopped and asked me if I needed help. I'm pretty sure she meant psychological. It wasn't really all that bad though; Baxter is pretty well behaved on his walks and Anja loved riding in the umbroller. The only thing that made it difficult was that it was so late in the day, the sun was directly in Anja's eyes all the way home. ("All the way." We went around the block.) But it gives me confidence about getting a dog... that umbroller is super easy to handle, even with one hand, and the Snugli is great too. I think a dog will be a good addition.

But it won't be "Bear," unfortunately. I was looking on the PetFinder website again and they listed a Newfie-Lab mix named Bear up at the Pet-Savers shelter. I told my mom about it when she came over (we went down to that antique shop again and checked prices--the highchair was $37 and the cabinet was $275!) and she wanted to go up and "just look" at it. So I called and it was still available... two hours later when we made it up there, he had been adopted!! I wouldn't have been so disappointed if I hadn't seen him, but he was still there... and he was SO CUTE. And a Newfie-Lab!!! How perfect and more "excellent with children" can you get?!?

But there is still Dexter and if Martin gets home early enough tomorrow we will go out and take a look at him. Maybe it's a good thing Bear was unavailable. I don't think we have the financial means for a giant-sized dog at this point. I think a typical "large" is about all our pocketbooks can handle for now. But maybe in a few years!

I'm really looking forward to summertime and going to Turkey Run with Anja and a dog. It'll be tons of fun. Martin was looking up cabin prices at Mammoth Cave the other day; we'd like to go down and spend a few days there sometime during his vacation.

I'm really glad Anja's nose doesn't look so huge on her anymore. Maybe it was because she was so skinny? I think she has a cute little nose now... but boy at first sight it looked like quite the honker.

Martin was expecting a small package from UPS to come today and I meant to put a note on the door for them this morning because sometimes I don't hear them knock and they don't usually leave the packages if I don't answer. But I forgot to put the note up and then I left and when I came home they had left their yellow sticker on the door. And he was so looking forward to getting it and now I feel really bad that he won't get it until Monday!

It's Honor Scholar Weekend at Wabash so Martin isn't going to be around much. He was at work at 6:45 this morning and won't get back until really late tonight... then he has to do it all again tomorrow! There's a chance he'll be able to come home after lunch tomorrow because that's what time his official duties end, but I'm not counting on it.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Finds

I posted earlier about the antique store we visited today but I didn't say anything about the specific finds that were there. I can't remember exact prices now but at the time I thought they were good. An example of comparison is the doilies they have, one of which I almost bought; they were only $2. Now I'm pretty sure at any other antique store they would be more like $5 and sometimes more--because in general, antique store prices (at least around here) are outrageous! The only reason I almost bought one was because the other day I was cleaning off the kitchen table and looking for a doilie or something to put under the table stuff. I never found any that weren't already in use. But at the same time, I don't really need a doilie on my kitchen table, it's fine without anything.

However, there were a few pieces of big furniture there that I found very appealing. One was a wooden highchair with a cute little padded seat and back attached. I don't remember it being too crazily expensive. Another thing was a large, double-doored china cupboard. It was $200-something. Unless you'd be keeping it's distressed look, it needs refinishing, but the doors still have the original glass and you can tell because it is all wobbily. I really liked it. Another thing I saw was a cute little sofa/loveseat that I called my mom to go down and check out. It looks worn but I think it's cute. I don't know how to describe it though. Lots of little tables and shelves there too, all for pretty decent prices. I mean, as far as down here goes. I'm not sure that I would label them "steal of a deal" or anything like that, but except for Goodwill (and even they are getting rather pricey these days) there's not much thrift to be found in the thrift stores around here.

On to other subjects: HOW DO YOU SET A GOOD ROUTINE?!? Every time the day starts out wonderfully and Anja naps well at good times I think I've finally got it. But then it's never right. either she doesn't take naps all day, goes to sleep cranky and sleeps all night, or she takes decent naps and doesn't go to sleep EVER. It's almost 11:00 at night. She took AWESOME naps today. She was happy all day long. I put her to sleep this evening at 7:30 because she fell asleep... and then she woke up at 8:30, wide awake and perfectly happy. She's been awake ever since. I've tried to nurse her to sleep, we tried driving her around... she isn't the least bit upset, she's just perfectly awake and shows no signs of fatigue.

I can't wait to go back to that antique store. Without telling Martin I'd been to the antique store, I asked him if he'd rather we just get an easily obtained plastic highchair from Target or would he rather have wooden one? In his "duh" voice he said, "wooden one" and then I told him all about the cute one I'd seen.

The other find of the night is of a puppy! After dinner we looked on the North Central Indiana Spay & Neuter website at their adoptable pets and found "Dexter," a Black Lab/English Setter mix. He's really cute, and furrier than a lab, which is what I'd prefer. He's 5 months old, and I looked up English Setters in the dog bible and it says they generally get along with everyone including children! We wrote them an email tonight requesting more information. Maybe we'll get a chance to go up and take a look at him sometime next week. We shall see.

It's a Freaking Gorgeous Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anja and I took a walk today! A long walk! A walk that could've been even longer than it was!

So yesterday I kind of freaked out in the morning. It was a gorgeous day and I so wanted to take a walk with Anja but she seems to absolutely abhor her carriers. Which is pretty disappointing since they have all be generous gifts to us from people and are really nice and expensive and ergonomically correct and given with much affection. So yesterday, desperate, I drove out to Once Upon a Child and I bought for $10 a Snugli carrier which allows Anja's legs to hang straight down in the front instead of splitting them off to the side to wrap around my waist. As soon as we got home I put her in it and headed out--not a peep. She loved it! We walked up to K. Dee's coffeeshop to see Kim and then home again and it was a gorgeous afternoon and I was so happy that she was happy to be on a walk. While I was out I also bought for $12 an umbroller at Target. Martin and I figure we'll need one soon enough and she might like it better than the carriers sometimes so she can see more of the world. Especially in the summertime when it might be kind of hot to be snugged up against us on a walk.

This morning we woke up to another gorgeous day! So as soon as it hit 50 degrees, we were out. It was soooooo nice. We went to a new antique store on Main Street which seems to have really good prices. That's a rare thing. We poked around there for awhile then walked on across the bridge. I went into Borders, but she didn't like that--she wanted to be outside. Silly me! The only reason I went in was to give her a break from the sun! She was so happy to be on a walk. And it's so easy to just strap her to me. I stuff a burp cloth in my purse and hook her blue rings to one of the straps and she keeps her hands busy by grabbing the rings while she watches the world go by. It's really cute. And I can get some exercise! However, I think I can safely say that the Snugli is the worlds most uncomfortable carrier for the one doing the carrying. But it's worth sucking up my own discomfort for awhile until Anja's legs get a little longer and we can use the better carriers. At least this way we can get out!

Also, the sleep thing seems to be fixing itself. It helped that yesterday was Annie Car Day; I was careful to have her completely ready for bed at exactly 8:30 when we left to pick up Martin. She fell asleep in the car as I had hoped and when we got home I did a quick switch, carseat to swing, and she slept fairly well for the night. She is just too small and wiggly for the swing now though. She wants to lie on her side and can't do that so she fusses in her sleep a lot. Then I'll pick her up and she'll be fine. So she's technically staying asleep, but it kind of keeps me up all night looking at her, making sure she's not wiggling right out of the swing or something. So this morning I figured it all out. Mrs. Schap gave her a twin sized wool blanket from Ireland last time she went and it's really great, and it belongs to Anja. Of course, it'll be awhile until she's in a twin sized bed... but folded up it makes a perfect little soft bed for her! So right now she is on that with a quilt on top asleep in our bedroom, and so far so good. She did wake up once after about an hour but she always does that during her naps. I think we're all set! And back on track with the sleep schedule!

I got some Snapfish prints today, that's very exciting!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

My Little Insomniac

Anja isn't sleeping anymore.

For the past two nights I've gone to put her down around 8:00 and she hasn't actually stayed down until 10:00. Last night we tried putting her in her crib and she was waking up about every 10 minutes for an hour or so. Finally we went back to the swing in our bedroom and was waking up every hour or so for most of the night and morning... after Martin left for work I put her in our bed and she got a couple of hours there and thankfully when she woke up she was happy. And she was happy all day and went down at exactly noon for a nap... which lasted exactly twelve minutes. Okay, that's an exaggeration, it was probably half an hour. But STILL! That is not enough sleep to get her through the day! So now she is asleep on the floor here, on a soft quilt. So far so good and it's been about 40 minutes, so this might be the arrangement for tonight. Although I'm not sure how I feel about her "good nap" coming after 3:00 in the afternoon....

I spent yesterday evening and this morning making a killer cd mix entitled "Annie Car Day." This is the track listing:
1. Village Green Preservation Society - Kate Rusby
2. Making Pies - Patty Griffin
3. Inches and Miles - Dave Mallett
4. Mom & Dad's Waltz - Iris DeMent
5. Farmhouse - Phish
6. Ruby's Arms - Nanci Griffith
7. Magdalene Lane - Don McLean
8. Tomorrow is a Long Time [away!] - Bob Dylan
9. Engine Driver - The Decemberists
10. Sleepy Desert - Uncle Earl
11. Oh Abraham - John Gorka
12. Honeysuckle Lullaby - Michelle Malone
13. I Hear Them All - Old Crow Medicine Show
14. Sailing to Philadelphia - Mark Knopfler & James Taylor
15. Love Minus Zero/No Limit - Bob Dylan
16. Harrisburg - Josh Ritter
17. Mother of God - Patty Griffin
18. Time - Tom Waits

I don't think I've ever been so excited for Annie Car Day before!!! I'm listening to it now but the volume is ridiculously low because Anja is asleep in here. Or... not....

Monday, March 10, 2008

A Conversation in Texts

Martin: Are you going? Or have you not called anyone yet?
Annie: I haven't called anyone. Anja is still sleeping but when she wakes up I will.
Martin: SCA
Annie: ?
Martin: Sounds Cool Annie. Duh.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

DST--The Horror!!

Alright. All of you nuts who are on board with Daylight Saving Time can just hold your tongues while I complain about it and tell you why it has basically ruined my day. Again. Just like it did last year. (Except last year we spent the entire day trying to make it to mass and missing it, while this year we made it on the first try!)

Just the other day--Wednesday it was, because it was Annie Car Day--I was practically bouncing off the walls with happiness as we trekked out to the car in the snow and it was already light out and it was so pretty. It used to be that it was still dark when I drove Martin to work and the sun would only be coming up during my drive back home from Crawfordsville. Not so anymore! I was elated on Wednesday by the early morning sun and its promise of spring.

And then. Mitch Daniels stole my elation. He robbed me of all my happiness. He interfered with my joy of the progress of nature by making me reset my clocks and therefore making me regress into winter just when I was beginning to have hope that spring was on its way. I HATE MITCH DANIELS AND I HATE DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME. As a mother of an infant who rises at 6:30ish every day, I look forward to the sun coming up as earlier and earlier. HE STOLE MY LOOKING FORWARDNESS!!!!!!!!

Anyway, on a cheerier note, my pie turned out pretty yummie yesterday. I'm looking forward to summertime and making the berry fillings for them too, although that takes a lot longer. I like the fact that I can whip up some pie crust in about ten minutes, put it in the fridge and then roll it out and make the pie whenever I get another free ten minutes. And then I like the fact that I can eat it. All. YUM! We shared the last piece for breakfast this morning and it was lovely.

So the other day we were driving someplace and listening to country music (Martin's guilty pleasure, not mine) and this song came on that's probably called "I'll Probably Be Up All Night, Cleaning This Gun" and it's this absolutely hilarious song about this guy whose daughter has a date come to the house and the dad's real nice to him, and then the last line of the chorus is the aforementioned quote. Another great line is "It's a Daddy Thing." Well after we listened to that song we sat in the parking lot and Martin admitted to me that he spends a lot of time--I mean A LOT of time--dreaming up ways to freak out Anja's dates. !?!?!? She's four months old!!! And he's already making plans like these!!!! I have to admit though, some of his schemes are pretty funny and really make him look like a nutcase. It kind of makes me look forward to the teenage years.

Speaking of "four moths old"... that is today! To celebrate, I had a cup of real coffee from Vienna. I went in expecting it not to be any different from decaf afterall, but I was wrong... it's MUCH better. And so far so good with Anja's mood... I fed her about an hour after the coffee and it's been a few hours since then and she doesn't seem to have any tummy ache! She and Martin are here beside me on the couch, fast asleep. It is very cute. And here in all her four-month cuteness... My Babykins!




Saturday, March 8, 2008

Saturday Snugglies

This morning Anja was fussing in her sleep around 7:00. We should've just gotten up, but instead I brought her into bed with us and she fell back asleep, snuggled up between us and we all dozed until 9:00. It was pretty great. Saturdays are a wonderful thing.

We're having my brother and sister-in-law over for dessert tonight. I'm making a cherry pie with canned filling. But at least the pie crust will be homemade. It's too expensive to make real berry filling at this time of year. They are leaving for Italy on Tuesday and won't be back until October so it'll be good to hang out with them one last time.

Last night we went to Barnes & Noble and while Anja and I were browsing through the CD area, we stopped by the Regional Artists section, and there at the front of the stacks was my CD! Who knew?!? It made me think about making another disc. That, and having listened to Linda Hicks' new CD and the disc that Joe Peters recently made with some others. Of course where I'd get the time to do something like that, I have no idea. But as long as I was dreaming about it I wrote out a possible track list, title and photo design. We'll see. It's expensive and time-consuming and will probably never happen, but there's nothing like being out of the game for 4 months to give you the motivation to make a new album.

Okay. Chicken & Noodles for dinner tonight and I'm going to make that pie while Anja is happy.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Roll Away Car

I forgot to post about the funny thing that happened last night. Anja woke up to eat at 4:00 and afterward I went downstairs to go potty. Our dining room windows are pretty big and they look out onto the driveway. Well, when I went through the dining room I noticed that the car was gone! So I hurried to the living room to see the complete driveway and found the car had slid down the driveway and was parked on the sidewalk with the back end a little bit in the street!!


Tonight for dinner I cut up some potatoes and baked them with salt, pepper, basil and Tony's Seasoning. Then I made peas, and Martin wanted some gross-o frozen fish sticks and I ate two of those while he ate ten. It was a weird dinner but we didn't really have much in the way of meatless food.

It also didn't fill me up very much, which is why we are now eating tomato soup on the couch together, which is why I'm ending this post.

Bloomers!

Hooray! I ordered some bloomers for Anja and they came today! They are so cute. And soft. And they have eyelet trim around the ankles. !!!! I am so excited for her to wear them! I think I might have to change her clothes after lunch. Yesterday was Anja laundry day so she has all clean clothes now. On those days I always find myself hoping she'll poo through her clothes just so I can change her into another cutie outfit. I love dressing her. Except for this morning when I tried to put her in this really cute yellow shirt with bows on the sleeves, and she got stuck in it (there were no snaps in the back) and it was kind of a big ordeal so I decided she just won't be able to wear that yellow shirt. Ever.

She is SO CLOSE to rolling over. Just now I was watching her on the floor and I thought she was going to do it. She rolls all the way to her side and looks like a little owl with her head on backwards, she's so close!

Martin was supposed to stay late at work yesterday but he called me in the afternoon and said he was just too tired to make calls all evening, so I went and picked him up at the usual time. For dinner we had half a chicken. I made it in the crock pot and my final opinion is that that was a mistake. It made the chicken super tender, but it was a little bit yucky because the skin was all slimy. Anyway. I don't think I'll do that again but it'll turn out fine because I saved the other half to make chicken and noodles on Saturday.

I'd kill for a vanilla chai. So creamy and warm and delicious. I can't wait till Anja gets over this milk allergy.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Morningtime

Now that Anja's started getting up a little earlier, I've come to really appreciate our mornings. I like sleeping in a little bit on Saturdays, but in general I'd rather have an early start to my day. Lately Anja's waking time has been between 6:30 and 7:30, which is pretty great. Martin and I can have tea together in the morning and Anja is so happy right when she wakes up it's nice for Martin to get to see her then, as opposed to only seeing her at the end of the day when she is most often a huge crabcake.

So she's sleeping well and waking at a good time, but we really need to do something to remedy her bedding situation. She's been sleeping in her swing at night for a week or so now, since she grew out of her bassinett. It's been working fine until the past two nights. She's getting to be quite the wiggler when she's asleep and a few times last night I woke up in the night and looked at her to find she'd almost fallen out of the swing! Not that she'd get hurt--it wouldn't even be labeled a "fall" in my book, considering the swing sits about two inches off the ground. She'd just slide onto the floor. And she was in the midst of doing just that when I woke up and noticed, and scooped her up and fixed her back into the seat. I guess I could buckle her in... but that seems kind of lame. Besides... she obviously shouldn't be having a swing for a bed. We need to figure something out.

But we seem to be too afraid to put her in her crib. There's always an excuse for us to push it off till tomorrow. We can't fit a crib into our bedroom, it's just impossible, unless we totally rearranged the house by taking half the bedroom furniture down to Anja's room and then move her crib upstairs.

Anyway. Sorry for this horrendously boring post. The thing I was first going to say anyway wasn't about the sleep situtaion. It was about her cuteness in the mornings. This morning she woke up all happy and I picked her up and she had wet through her jammies. It was so early in the morning I didn't want to dress her for the day yet, so I just put her in a longsleeved onesie (the kind that buttons over the chest) and these funny pink cotton pants with little ruffles at the bottom. She looks so cute and morningish! Right now she is trying to eat her toucan. She's gotten to the put-everything-in-your-mouth phase so her face is constantly covered in drool. But she still doesn't roll over.

Last night Martin went to Evansville for some fancy-pants dinner. I just wrote out what it was all about and how mad I got over some of the kids who'd been invited and didn't show up, but then I thought maybe I shouldn't be writing about Martin's work on my blog. But to make a long story short: teenagers are dumb. Really, they have no manners! Ugh. Anyway, Martino didn't get home until 2:00 in the morning!! So that was kind of a bummer but oh well.

We have the car again (Anja and I) but I don't know if we have anywhere to go. Last night to get her to sleep I didn't even try to be patient--I was all by myself so I put her in the car and drove out to the Starbucks with the drivethru and got a caramel apple cider. When I got home, she was asleep!

Boy, this was a lame post.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Some Pictures

This is Julia. I couldn't get her to smile.
Pie with Angelica

Pie with Christopher

Pie with Zita

Gracie didn't care for the pie.


Anja all dressed for the morning funeral service.

Angelica and PeterXavier entertain...

All the grandkidders
Christopher, Anja, Angelica, Julia, Gracie, Zita, PeterXavier

TWO babies and a preggo!!

All the grandkiddies again

Anja's most adorable outfit


Cousins! Two months apart. Anja and Julia at the community diaper-change.

Mama's Prophetstown Birthday Surprise!

Yesterday was kind of a weird day. It started out with Martin making a third attempt to get an oil change, which turned into them keeping the car because on the way home from work he'd hit a pothole and broken one of the wheels, so he couldn't go to work that day. I played music with Kim at the New Community School in the afternoon and it snowed and iced all day and night. Martin didn't go to work because we had no car. I went to a funeral in the morning and Anja was magnificent, despite her new resolution to not take naps. Then in the evening, despite the weather, we had my mom's birthday party dinner out at Prophetstown, which was a success up until the very end when Ben and Anna's car got stuck in the mud and we had to leave it. I don't know what they're going to do about that.

Today is Annie Car Day. We took Martin to work, then came home while Anja took her morning nap and when she woke up we went to Rubia to get a free dozen roses with one of our full cards that Martin had left for us. Hooray, now we have fresh flowers on the table. Everyone loved to see Anja while we were there. One lady said I'd made her day. Funny what you can do to people just by carrying a baby around. In a little bit we're going to the grocery store to get some orange extract and cranberries and I am going to attempt to make cranberry-orange something. Scones? Muffins? Biscotti? We'll just have to see what I end up with. It's likely to be nothing since Anja took such a good nap this afternoon! (for the first time in days!!)

Martin is going to a dinner in Evansville tonight which is a bummer for me because even though he told me about this a long time ago, I've kept forgetting. So I got a chicken to make in the crock pot and only remembered LAST NIGHT that he won't be home for dinner! Oh well. It'll have to be next week's Wednesday dinner.

Woo! My sister just called me with news of a NEW IN BOX jogging stroller with a swivel wheel at Once Upon a Child for cheaper than the last one!!!!! Here we go!!!

Sunday, March 2, 2008

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

What a fabulous day! What a fabulous weekend! And the weather today?!? FANTABULOUS!!

Yesterday was one of those busy/fun/did-stuff-all-day-but-at-the-end-of-it-can't-remember-anything-you-did Saturdays. We hung out with Matt Aiken in the afternoon then stopped by Lowe's on the way home. When we got home, Perkins came over and we hung out for a few hours while Anja slept. Perkins and I went to the grocery store together and then Martin worked out in the backyard while Anja and I (once she woke up) went out to Once Upon a Child where I got some KILLER DEALS on some absolutely adorable clothes. Ohmygosh. I got 3 cutsie little dresses, and I think 5 tops all for less than $25. !!!!! What a deal! They had an InStep jogging stroller with the swivel wheel there for $139. I am an IDIOT for not buying it. I didn't even tell Martin about it until today, and he went right out there to buy it, but of course by that time it was gone. I'm so dumb!!! It's the exact stroller we want and it was in excellent condition and a good price, and I passed it up. Stupid, stupid, stupid!!!

In the evening we did something semi-traumatic. We left our Anja pie for the first time. Well, that's kind of a lie. We left her once with my parents while we took our car to the shop, but she was asleep that whole time. Last night she was awake the whole time, and not so incredibly happy either. We went to Civic to see "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" starring none other than Nathan Keillor, Perkins' little brother! He was great! Seriously, he was one of the best actors in the show, and his headstand was incredible--taught to him last weekend by Martin! When they came out for their final bows, he did a headstand, and after the show he said he held it extra long since he knew Martin was in the audience. Hee hee!

And then we ate some eggs and Anja went to sleep for 7 hours.

This morning we went to 9:30 mass which was said for my Hatke grandparents and afterward the family met up at my parents' house for brunch. Perkins came to that too! It was nice but after we ate we hurried out so that we wouldn't miss the good weather--the good WALK weather. We bundled Anja into her fleece bunting and into the wrap carrier and set off for Borders. It was such a wonderful walk! Anja slept the whole time. She didn't wake up until we were in Panera getting some coffee, and she was definitely not ready to wake up! She screamed a little bit, but fell asleep as soon as she was back in the wrap and walking. It was really cute. She's so adorable.

So we walked home and let her sleep for awhile, then after she woke up we ran our errands. We were going grocery shopping today so that Martin could stay late at work tomorrow to make calls. We thought we had to hurry with our errands so he could get down to work tonight too to make some calls, but when we came out of the store we were amazed at how warm it had gotten!! It was sixty-six degrees!!! He couldn't pass it up. It was just too tempting. We always remember the first warm day of spring, but what's special about another night at the office making calls? So we hurried and put the groceries away, DIDN'T bundle Anja in her fleece because it wasn't necessary, and parked the car at Vienna and took a nice walk around campus. It was the perfect amount of time too--it started to get cold and windy right as we were getting back to the car.

So it turned out to be a pretty great day!! Anja is absolutely worn out. She was dead to the world when we got home from our walk at 6:30 and I stupidly woke her up and now she can't go back to sleep and is cranky. I'm really not very bright sometimes. So we might just put her back in the car and go for a little drive to put her to sleep.