Oh, the insanity! Err... Insomnia.

**Please note: If you're thrown off by the date of this post, please note that it just published today. However, I wrote it and thought it had published on the sixth. When I logged on today, I noted that the publish failed, so I put it up.**

I can't sleep, so I'll just do a little rambling about what has been going on.

We've decided to stay where we're currently living for another year. It's not a decision that either of us feel particularly good about, but we know it's the right one. Monetarily, stability-wise for Gage, and to keep our sanity. It'll get a little cramped in our two bedroom to be sure when the new baby arrives, but it'll work out OK since she'll be in our room for the first year anyway. That might require a little furniture rearranging, but ah, well. We've moved three times in three years, and we just didn't want to do it again. Or pay a new deposit and moving expenses.

I've decided to start trying green smoothies with Gage. If you're not familiar with the concept, they're basically smoothies that are full of fruit, a little yogurt and milk, and some veggies. The idea is that the veg taste is hidden by fruit, but the veggie goodness is in there. We'll need to work harder to introduce veggies the traditional way too, but this will at least get some in him. He's picky and hates vegetables, so I want to get those nutrients in somehow. He's a great fruit eater, so hoping he'll take to the smoothies.
I've been hesitant to blog about this, but I've decided that there's no harm, as it isn't something I'm ashamed or even particularly worried about. But it is something. Gage is having a speech evaluation this month to see if he needs a little jump start. He really isn't talking yet, and while all of his other development is right on track or ahead of the curve, his words are nowhere to be found. We know he can hear and comprehend, but we would like to kickstart his vocabulary beyond three words and animal noises. He gets frustrated when he can't get his point across or express his desires, and that's just not fair for him. Hopefully from the evaluation, we'll get the tools needed to get the little guy talking. Otherwise, he's growing, learning, and doing awesome new things each day. He's a super great kid.

My pregnancy is going well. We're in the 27th week, and baby is growing a little every day. From ultrasounds and movement, it seems she's perfectly healthy, despite this hellish (for me) pregnancy. I'm really looking forward to not being pregnant anymore... In mid-April. I don't want her here even a day early. But I'm on the down-swing; I enter my third trimester in the next week, and if my due date is to believed, I've got 93 days left. This pregnancy has flown by, it seems.

My friend Nicole visited last weekend, and while we didn't get tons of time to hang out, it was still SO AWESOME to see her! I enjoyed staying up way too late and just chatting for hours. But I did get sad when she left, because we used to hang out at least once a week and now it's more like once a year, which is bad. But still, so good to see her. AND, she got to go to the Broncos/Steelers playoff game. Lucky! Can't wait to see the 49ers whoop the Saints, and the Broncos beat the Patriots this weekend. I know what we're doing Saturday. Football!

I guess my blog is legit now. Last post, I actually got a spam comment. Yep, my very first spam. I felt like an accomplished blogger as I deleted it.

I guess that's about all I've got for now. I'm going to try and get some sleep. Sorry that was all over the place, but I'm tired, what can I say?

Sometimes, my faith in the teens of today is badly shaken

My friend Alecia and I had lunch today. We ate, had some really nice conversation, and by the time we were done eating, Gage was done sitting. Not being done talking, we decided to walk around and talk, so that Gage could burn some energy. We were at an outdoor mall, so we just meandered down the sidewalk, in the shade of the buildings. In the shade, it was warm but not hot, and the mall was not terribly busy. As we walked and talked, we mostly tuned out the other shoppers. At one point, Gage was walking very slow, and having a hard time not stopping to try and play with his little red car that he was carrying with him. A woman and her teenage son, apparently in more of a hurry than we were, actually squeezed passed, walking on the edge between the sidewalk and the planter beds. I couldn't believe they didn't even bother to simply try saying, "Excuse us." I would have moved Gage to the side so that they could comfortably pass, if they would have just spoken. Instead, they rudely crowded through. I told Alecia, "Just think, she just taught her son that that sort of behavior is totally acceptable!" Now, lest you think we were letting Gage block the whole sidewalk, people were easily passing us on the other side of the sidewalk; I imagine they realized that when you're walking with a toddler you don't make the best time.

So we got passed that interesting scenario. We were back to walking, watching Gage, and talking about Alecia's new niece. I looked up at one point, because I heard loud, bass-y music coming from a passing car. I looked up just in time to see an SUV, window down, with a teenager hanging out the passenger window. He looked straight at Alecia and I and proceeded to make one VERY obscene gesture. I won't tell you what the gesture was, but it was more inappropriate than even flipping us off! With both of our mouths agape, and slack jawed, we watched as the SUV passed. I was so shocked, I couldn't have even told you what either teen in the SUV looked like, what color it was, or even what make it was. I was absolutely shocked that even a teen would make such a gesture at a mother and her child. I am so thankful that at least Gage was 1) too short to see over the plants at the edge of the sidewalk to see the gesture, and 2) is too young to have noticed, even if he'd seen. I don't know what I would've done if he had been a little older and said, "Momma, what does THAT mean?" Or worse yet, tried to imitate it. Here are two 30-ish women, walking down the street with a little kid, and getting a gesture like that! Absolutely disgusting. These were obviously middle to upper-middle class kids, I do know the SUV was newer and not in bad shape. Appalling behavior, to be sure.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that I was the perfect teen, or that I've never done anything wrong in my younger years. In fact, that would be the opposite. I was a fan of hot rodding cars, so I would usually try to shock people by gunning the engine, doing burn-outs, etc. Totally inappropriate behavior, to be sure. But I never, never, never would have done something like that, especially with kids in the area. In fact, I once was gunning the engine and burning out in a parking lot of a movie theatre, when I was around 17. I got pulled over by a police officer in the area. He informed me that he couldn't give me a ticket, as we were on private property, but asked me to think deeply about what would have happened if a kid were crossing the street, and the car got away from me. I took that to heart. I knew I could never live with it if I hit a kid. Did I never speed again? Oh, no, I definitely did not stop speeding. But I did keep it down in parking lots. It took me a few more years to realize I needed to tone it down in neighborhoods, but I did learn that lesson too, fortunately not because anything bad happened. Now-a-days, I more often than not look down at the speedometer, feeling like I'm really going way too fast, just to learn that I'm only doing 3-5 MPH over the speed limit. It is much nicer on the ol' insurance rates.

If you have kids, please remember that your actions bear great meaning to them. You may teach them right with words, but are you teaching them right with your actions? It is far more important to be a good example of respect, kindness, and humbleness, than to simply tell your child how to act while you do the opposite. I am still learning this. I have, in my house right now, a little 18-month-old sponge. He sees and hears everything I say and do. With each passing day, it becomes more and more important to be the example of what we want him to be. We can all do with a reminder now and then that while we love our kids, and want them to love us back, we are first and foremost parents. We aren't made to be best friends or buddies, at least until our kids are a good bit older and well into adulthood. It is our responsibility to shape and mold this next generation into kind, giving, humble, polite, functioning members of society, and unless we provide good examples, that just cannot happen. Good examples and boundaries are key.

Anyway. Guess I'll get down off my soap box, and enjoy my evening with my husband. The kiddo has fallen asleep and we can relax.

A little bit of nothing or a lot of something

It has been a pretty ho-hum week, so I don't have a whole lot to say. I hung out with my friend Alecia yesterday though, so that was lots of fun. We talked about many important things, and possibly solved world hunger. Or at least we figured out that we both like nachos. Except we already knew that. So maybe we figured out something else ground-breaking. Gage's scheduling has been going pretty well. He has been sleeping well at night (not counting last night) and that is at least good progress. We are headed to my folks' house today so hopefully we can adhere to schedule. Last night he fell asleep at 8:15 PM but when I tried to get a drink of water at 11, he woke right up... and decided it was play time. So we played for a while, and he brought a little car back to bed wih him. I figured it would be easier to just take the car when he fell asleep, but it distracted him so much he couldn't fall asleep. Then, when I tried to take it, he pitched such a fit that it was easier to just give the car back to him. Eventually he fell asleep, and I passed Brian the little car so he could set it on his night stand. But he was half asleep too, so he ended up clutching the tiny car til 5:30 this morning. It was an interesting night to say the least.

 I'm almost to my 100th blog post on here. I think I'll do another list post, but this time I'll give you 100 little-known facts about me. If I can come up with 100... and depending on which of my 3 readers you are, you may know more or fewer facts about me, but it should be fun. Brian and I have traded cars for a little while. He's driving the Sube and I'm driving the Max. It has been kind of fun, especially since when we got the Sube back from the shop, it smelled horrendous to me, but Brian couldn't smell it... so that worked nicely. I only don't like the size of the Max in relation to pulling a baby out of the back seat. I always end up either hitting my head on the C pillar or Gage's head on the roof. Ah, well. I just have to try to be careful. Speaking of the Subaru, if you live in the metro area and have a Subaru, please do yourself a favor and AVOID Summit Auto in Aurora like the plague. Other than returning your car smelling like a cross between butt and swamp water, they are terrible communicators, won't get your car done when promised, and may even send it home with so many new problem you want to just throw it on Craigslist and let it become someone else's problem. Seriously. They charged my friend Alecia and her husband money to make his Subaru worse than it was when he dropped it off. And they denied wrong doing. And they stole his car stereo faceplate. Our Sube is out of warranty, so I can guarantee it won't be returned to Summit. Ari, Alecia's husband, did manage to get an amazing deal on a Mercedes last night, so he is much happier with that. He feels quite the gentleman with his new wheels. So if you're in Denver and looking for a fixer Legacy wagon, I know where you could buy one cheap.

Remember, when it comes to small shops in automotive, cheaper does not always mean better. If the shop seems shady, they probably are. I just wish we had had a bad enough experience with Summit to recommend against them before my friends got ripped off. I hate that I sort of recommended this shop and a friend got screwed. I had warned them about the bad communication but of course had no idea they would do as awful of a job as they did. I guess that's about all I've got right now. I'm off to start our day, which unfortunately began much closer to 5:30 this morning. out

I'm always screaming my lungs out till my head starts spinning

A Day to Remember. It was cloudy all day today with a persistent, slow drizzle off and on. Sometimes when it is like this it makes me sad. I really love the rain, but not icy drizzle running down my back. When we walked Chevy this evening it was ACTUALLY raining and Gage didn't enjoy himself. It was a short walk because Brian and I weren't enjoying seeing Gage cold and wet. Now I can hear the rain hitting the window, and I really enjoy that! It doesn't rain here much. Lots of snow, lots of sun, not much rain.

It was a nice day today though, despite the grey skies. Gage had a great morning nap, then we had lunch with my super cool sister-in-law, Cara, at the Egg & I. We had a fun time, and Gage flirted shamelessly with everyone who walked by, talked to us, or even sat nearby. One of the waitresses came by and said she had to get a better look because he was, "seriously, the cutest baby she'd ever seen." It is his smile that makes people love him. He looks friendly and happy all the time! Well, and he is cute too. But I'm a little biased in that department. I pray he stays this friendly and outgoing!

Afterward, we came home and played; I tried to get Gage to nap again but he wasn't having it. He was happy though, so it was no big. Except that a lot of time was spent, trying four seperate times to get him down. I had planned on chicken leftovers tonight and a white wine/cheese risotto, so there was no need to get a super early start on dinner. It was just a nice, relaxing afternoon which segued into a nice, relaxing evening. I ended up making a peanut butter cup pudding pie which was pretty good, although the consistency was a bit weird since it didn't have time to set before we ate some. I look forward to trying it again tomorrow as the flavors were great.

I have a pretty good (I think) Things I like Thursday in mind for tomorrow. I've been a little uninspired recently, but I've got lots of things to tell you about tomorrow.

Can I tell you about my hair? I mentioned my terrific cut that I got at Rebel Salon, but I didn't tell you about how it held up. You know when you get a haircut and you love it for the first day, but as soon as you wash it, you discover that you'll never again get it to look like it did when you left the salon? Yeah, that's never happened to me either. But if it had, it would've happened every single time I've gotten anything more than a trim for about... oh, the last seven years. I don't know if it's because of the weight I gained (all hair looks good over an oval face, round faces take more consideration), or just getting older, but I morphed into one of those, "uuuungggnngh, I hate my hair," ladies... the ones who complain the day after their new cut.

I'm a wash and wear kind of girl. I've never liked styling my hair. I think it is because it's SO thick and wavy that it takes a short eternity to blow dry/curl/straighten/hot roll it, I just don't want to waste the time. I love how it looks done, but let's face it, I have never wanted to put forth an hour just to do my hair. Imagine my delight when Baylee told me my new haircut would look just as good dried naturally as it did straightened. Still, I wanted to get a new straightener, since she thinned it and it looked awesome straightened. I thought maybe I could straighten it now and then for a good look since it looked great super straight, but most days just let it dry on its own.

When I washed my hair, I was so excited to see how nice it would look air dried. So I let it air dry. Oh, wow. She underestimated the wave factor! With it thinned, my hair had become much lighter, so it had tons of body (a great thing). And it was SUPER wavy. I looked like a puffy, clipped poodle (not a great thing). The following morning, I decided I would give straightening a try. I felt so sad that my lack of hair skills would probably mean I wouldn't be able to do a good job straightening, and I would have to live with my puffy poodle look. But when I got done, my hair looked ALMOST just like it did after the cut! I was able to do it entirely myself! And in only about 10-15 minutes. Now THAT is a style I can live with, and love.

The moral of the hair story is that I guess I finally have adult hair. 29 years on this planet, and I actually "do" my hair. In a weird kind of way, I feel happy and satisfied, like I have actually found a hair style to enjoy and wear, as opposed to constantly trying something new, trying to find that one style that would look great despite my lack of desire to do anything with it. I feel like I've arrived. I can actually manage my hair with a straight iron in way less than an hour and that makes me happy. I look put together, and not like I just hopped out of the shower and started my day. Thanks, Baylee! You rock, and Rebel Salon rocks. I had no idea that new hair would change my view of myself (from a vanity standpoint, anyway.) Very cool. 

I had this hair epipheny this morning while getting ready, and I thought I would share it with you. How enlightening (maybe not?) But what better to talk about on a rainy, dreary night than hair?

How about technology? Cause you know I love it (I can't say I love technology without thinking of Kip of Napolean Dynamite) and I find it fascinating. You've probably read about my many issues with my Droid 2. It's a really great phone... if you don't want to run many apps. As soon as I get some apps on it, it gets bogged, freezes, runs slow, etc. My favorite part of this is it seems to be GOOGLE'S apps that cause the most issues. A lot of people love Android, and I used to be one of them. So did Brian. But can I tell you, we're considering iPhones?! I kind of want to wait and see if iPhone 5 comes out in June/July cause I would hate to switch now then have something new out in a couple months. Sigh. I just want a reliable device. To give you an idea, I actually told Brian about a month ago that I was considering buying a PayGo phone to have at the house, in case I needed a working phone and my Droid wasn't working/frozen/blacked out. It is a very real fear. I can also tell you this is somewhere around my 7th-9th Moto Droid. Never abused or dropped. Just not reliable. Ah, Android. Had such high hopes for you. Just to turn tail and possibly run back to Steve Jobs.

Off to sleep now. And dream the dream of a phone that doesn't need restarted every couple hours to clear away the cog webs. 

Weekend update (the late late version)

It has been a pretty terrific weekend, despite Friday's rockiness. I know, nothing terrible happened, it was just... one of THOSE days.

Saturday was a busy day, but in a good way. We got up, played with Gage, and then he napped. Then, we trekked downtown to Rebel Salon so I could get a haircut. Rebel is the salon of Brian's cousin's fiancè, Baylee. She did SUCH an awesome job on my hair, I can't even tell you. It may just be the best haircut I have had in my adult life. I look soooo much better, all the frump is gone. And the poof. After that, we ate at Pat's with Alecia and her husband. It was fun and delicious! We then went to American Furniture with them, and I started looking forward to replacing our couches with something a little more dog and baby proof. We came home and hung out together as a family for a while, until Gage got tired. Brian told him to go to bed, and y'all, he ran right into his OWN ROOM!!! Not to his crib or anything, but we're making baby steps. That was positive!

Today we planned on going to the Auto Show but it just didn't work out. We had planned lunch with Brian's mom and sis at 1:00 so Gage could nap before. Then we were going to head downtown for the Auto Show, then back west to the ONE Vitamin Shoppe that carries the protein we like. Well, Gage didn't nap. So at lunch he got downright cranky, and neither of us wanted to drag a cranky baby to the convention center. We headed over to Vitamin Shoppe figuring Gage would fall asleep in the car, and I could wait with him while Brian ran in. Nothin' doin'. He played happily in his carseat all the way there so we all went in. Since he was awake, we decided to also hit up Boulder Running Company.

I've been wanting to pick up some Vibram Five Fingers (FiveFingers?) for running. Have you seen them? They look like those socks that have a pocket for each toe. But after explaining where I'm at with my running to the very helpful employee, and running on a treadmill that videotapes your stride, I was recommended into shoes with better support for now, to work on improving my form, ankle strength, stride, etc. Running in the Vibrams at my current point may have resulted in injury. I really appreciated her help! She showed me four different pairs of shoes, I picked the ones that felt best, then got back on the treadmill. Very cool to see the difference a shoe makes! I chose a pair a Brooks. I absolutely recommend you check out Boulder Running Company if you're in the market for running gear (or Keens or Reefs) in Colorado. And if you go to the one at Bowles and Wadsworth, talk to Sara. She is super helpful.

Needless to say, by the time we left Boulder Running Company, Gage was done. He napped all the way home, then napped some more when we got home. He was fast asleep by 8:45 tonight; hopefully he'll sleep all night. We had a nice evening, to top off a nice weekend. I was a little sad to miss the Auto Show; Brian and I used to go every year and I think Gage would've enjoyed it. But, it'll be here next year, and we had a great time with friends and family!

So Tuesday I re-start Couch to 5K! Gage and I can't wait. Tomorrow I just have to disinfect his jogging stroller because it has been in the hanta virus quarantine, a.k.a. our balcony. I will be hosing it down with Lysol!!! My new stroller weather shield arrived last week, so Gage and I can run in whatever weather comes our way! I'm so excited. And, dare I say... motivated?!

This and that and other such nonsense

It has been a pretty nice weekend so far! I can report that the bird feeders from the patio above us are gone. So that's positive. Bird seed so close to our living environment is a total health hazard. I got my phone warrantied for a host of little issues and the replacement phone has screen issues. Go figure. Gotta call them again today.

We got Windows 7 installed on both computers yesterday so that was nice. We decided to not worry about upgrading memory at this time since Windows 7 isn't the bloated memory beast that Vista was. So we'll wait and see what happens before we make a decision on memory. So far, having Win7 is pretty nice. We both really like it.

I talked to our realtor over the weekend and she said they're looking to potentially close our house March 16. Can I tell you how happy that would make us?! We just want that place gone. We are anxiously awaiting an email with our closing docs. Looking forward to that!

Last night we had German food at Helga's, and Brian had a mini-boot (litre) of beer. It was a lot of fun, though unfortunately we were early (for once) and so Gage ran out of fun times just after dinner and we had to cut it short. It was a really good time though. We also had some pretty terrible wait times for our food, so that was a bummer.

Today we went and checked out Ultimate Electronics going out of business sale. It was a little sad to be in the store with all of the fixtures and stuff being sold off also. We did get 5 blu-rays, two ink cartridges (cyan and magenta) and two drinks for under $90, so good deals were had. We looked a little at TVs and cameras, but we were, as we have been, unable to pull the trigger. We also hit up Barnes and Noble so I could pick up a couple parenting books. I bought another book about sleep, written by a lady who writes a book about raising your spirited child. As Gage is QUITE spirited, hopefully that book will offer some insights.

Speaking of sleep training, a few of you have inquired into how it is going since I haven't been posting about it. The truth is, I quit posting because I felt that every night had varying degrees of sameness, and I got tired of typing the same thing. Also, with no success, we've called it off for last week to regroup. We'll start again this week, hopefully with some new tactics.

Hope y'all are enjoying your weekend. I am, even though I have to write for the magazine here soon. Not excited about that so much but it's gotta happen!

Neighbors Be Warned!

My friend Alecia and I go way back. And by way back, I mean far enough back that we wrote each other notes in school. Despite going to different schools, which meant whenever we hung out (every weekend) we'd deliver each other a package of notes. Oh, y'all, we were so awesome.

Like all great friendships, ours started out with mutual dislike. Alecia and her mom joined the Guide Dog 4-H club that I had recently joined and we were most assuredly not friends. But then my mom, or her mom, I can't remember, asked my mom or her mom to give one of us a ride to a meeting. This was met with grumbling on both of our parts, but ultimately the outcome was a friend I've had for more than half of my life. She is hilarious and smart and fun to hang out with.

Back in the day, we thought we were way cool and we would sneak out at night when she would spend the night. We'd wander the mean streets of unincorporated Littleton (kidding about the mean streets, my parent's neighborhood couldn't even be called the unfriendly streets.) Every now and then, we'd fancy ourselves to be real hoodlums, and we'd get up to mischief. But we were too nice to TP anyone or key cars because that could cause lasting damage or take too much time to clean up! We were so bad. Anyway, I dated this guy who lived close to my parents house for a brief time, and something about the breakup made us desire retribution.

We took to the streets in the nighttime armed with crushed Cheerios to pour on his parent's lawn and aromatherapy oil to pour on their car! Deviants, we were. Neither of us can remember what was up with the crushed Cheerios, but I guess we thought it would be a nuisance. And the aromatherapy oil... wouldn't it just be a hoot for them to come out in the morning and the car handles be all oily and strong-smelling?! Oh, the memories.

I got to thinking about this today because Alecia and I were talking about Brian and my new neighbors to the bottom of us being a little uppity and asking us to stop "stomping and banging" when we'd been watching T.V. for the past 1.5 hours and watching our 22 pound toddler walk around. He isn't a very effective stomper, what with his 22 pounds. Anyway, Alecia (jokingly, emphasis on that) offered to come over and handle our problem with the neighbor, in an amusing and non-violent way. I told her we should just grab up some aromatherapy oils and oil her car, although her lack of grass that could be Cheerio'd was regretable. Alecia thought maybe aromatherapy oil was too harsh and suggested stress relief oil. I suggested Cheerios in her front door mat! And then I cracked up laughing and the laughter really helped me feel better about a not-so-good neighbor situation, which in reality, does really suck. We've got to live above this whiny lady for some time to come. Sigh.

Ah, friends. What would we do without them?! Who else will help you pour breakfast cereal in someone else's yard and giggle with you about how unpleasant greasy door handles will be? Thanks for approximately 17 years of friendship, Alecia. Not counting a brief hiatus. You rock!