Friday, February 27, 2009

Better Today

Things are better today. Maybe it's simply the fact that Ellie was in a fabulous mood this morning when she woke up. Maybe it's because it's actually warm out today. Maybe it's because I don't have to cook dinner tonight because my mommy is doing it for me.

See, there's lots of happy and wonderful stuff going on in Alicia's World.

Now if it were only 5 o'clock. A girl can't have everything I guess.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Blah week

After reading a few friends' blogs, it seems we're all having a pretty blah week. Things just feel a little off, myself especially. I don't know what it is, but it kinda sucks.

I've been missing Ellie terribly this week, wishing I was home with her instead of here at work. We've been having a lot of fun together, and we got nearly the whole weekend to ourselves last week, a very rare occurrence. Sigh.

Thankfully, this work week is almost over.

In other news, Harry contacted the sister again a couple of days ago. She got back to him saying that her mother had gone in for surgery and had a bad reaction to the anesthesia. She's been recuperating at the sister's house since. She wants to get together this weekend. Harry invited her to our house, and hopefully, she'll reply soon so we can solidify plans. I wish I could be more optimistic about this whole thing.

That's all for today. Hopefully I'll be in a better mood tomorrow.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Finally!

Since I started up Tattooed Mommy, I have been meaning to c&p all of my old my two bits and coffee whore blog entries from 2004 and 2005. And I've been entirely too lazy to do it. We're talking like 600 entries. Yeah, imagine how long THAT would take? Just doing May 2004 alone took hours.

This past weekend, I decided to bite the bullet and just do it (I'm a poet... blah blah blah). Instead of doing separate entries for each one written, I did one long entry for each month. It still took a long time, but it looks good so I'm happy.

The reason I wanted to add all the old entries was because, well, they are most definitely a part of HOW I became a tattooed mommy. I started blogging just a few months after Harry and I got married, a few months into trying to become a mommy. Re-reading that journey this past weekend has been pretty mindblowing.

I also came to the realization that I was/am a pretty phenomenal writer. Yes, I don't know the meaning of modesty. It's just reading words and thoughts and speculations from a much younger (and way more naive) me has made me see me for who I was and who I am. She was sad, confused, funny, genius, talented, and all around interesting. And now, well now I'm still funny, genius, talented, and all around interesting. I'm obviously my biggest fan.

I didn't realize how much baggage I was still carrying around with me then. It surprised me. And yet, it made me into the person I am today.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Nothing like a wrong number at 1am!

I think the title speaks for itself. If you ever want to make my heart jump up in my throat and my blood run cold, call me in the dead of night. The few times I've gotten calls at that hour were when my dad had his heart attacks and had been rushed to the hospital. So I want to thank that woman who didn't double check what number she was calling before she hit send on her cell phone.

And speaking of phone calls, we still haven't gotten one from the sister. She finally messaged him on FB yesterday, saying she was feeling under the weather and that's why she hadn't messaged him back. She said she'd call tonight (last night), but once again, that call never came.

So yeah.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

It's cold season

Ellie's immune system finally kicked in this past winter. Kid after kid got sick at daycare, and she managed to not get sick for the most part. She did catch that stomach virus thing in December, but other than that, she was doing really well. I, on the other hand, have already been sick a few times in the past few months; my immune system is crap.

I was sick again the beginning of last week, and once again, she managed not to catch it from me. Probably because I washed my hands like every five seconds. As the week progressed, all the kids at daycare managed to catch something. There was stomach stuff, a nasty cough, an ear infection, you name it. Ellie was the only one that remained healthy through it all.

Until Sunday. She started acting crabby after nap, and by the end of the evening, we knew she was sick. She had quickly developed an ugly cough out of no where. Fan-f'n-tastic.

She woke up around 5am, coughing, and it actually knocked her out of bed, I think. I ran into her room when I heard the bang, but she was sitting up in her bed by the time I got there. Either she hit her foot against the bed or fell out; either way, she showed no signs that anything hurt, which was good. I brought her into bed with us for the rest of the night (morning), and she managed to sleep another couple of hours.

She was home with Harry yesterday since he had President's day off, and she did OK, even with the annoying and most likely painful cough. Last night, she had a little trouble catching her breath at times, and that kind of freaked her out. She started running around the room, like she was looking for an air pocket or something. It would have been comical if it wasn't so heart-breaking.

I gave her some Motrin a little before bed, and it kicked in quickly. She managed to fall asleep without a problem. She was a little restless the first few hours after she fell asleep, but by 11pm, she seemed OK. She slept pretty soundly the rest of the night.

I had already planned on staying home with her today. I like to give her a chance to rest whenever she's feeling really crappy. Daycare is just a little too loud for that.

She woke up this morning with the cough pretty much gone, thank goodness. Now she's got more of a head congestion cold, which I'm really familiar with; it's how my colds run every time. Poor kid. I see that faraway look in her eyes I get myself when my head's all stuffed up. She looks exactly like me when I'm sick, which is to say miserable.

She's vegging on the sofa with a pillow, blanket, and a baby doll right now, watching Toot and Puddle, one of her new favorite shows. Every once in a while, I look over at her, she looks at me, and just smiles. She's such a sweetheart. I hope she feels better soon.

And on a totally different note, Toot and Puddle must be gay. That's all I have to say about that.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Please let me be wrong

Harry has 3 sisters. Most people don't know this. The man that supposedly fathered Harry was married yet separated when Harry was conceived, and he already had 3 children. When Harry was old enough, he either got into contact with those 3 sisters or vice versa. Regardless, he had a relationship with them for a while, and he loved it. All he ever wanted was a family. Not only did he get 3 sisters, but he got nieces and a nephew, too. It was like winning the lotto for him.

Then they abruptly cut off all contact with him. He tried to call them over and over again, but they wouldn't return his phone calls. He was heartbroken. He never heard from them again.

Until last week. The middle sister found him on Facebook this past Tuesday. On Wednesday, he was downstairs for a while which is odd because he usually hangs out with us in the living room to read a book or watch a cartoon. After 1/2 an hour, I called downstairs to ask him if everything was alright. That was when he told me his sister had found him on Facebook, and he was on there, thinking about what to message her back.

I immediately started freaking on the inside because I knew this could be very dangerous. He wants to be in all their lives again, but I know how easily he could get hurt all over again.

After Ellie went to bed, I helped him compose a note back to her. Something simple like, "Wow, I can't believe you found me. How are you? I'm doing well, married, a daughter, new house, yadda yadda, yadda."

The next day, he came home and immediately checked his Facebook. There was another message from her. He was ecstatic. We sat down and read the message together later that night. She was thrilled to have found him, and she even apologized for cutting off contact all those years ago. I breathed a sigh of relief. This would be fine.

So we composed another message to her, a little more detailed, and at the end, Harry asked her if she'd like to get in touch via phone. He left her his number, and told her she could call, or they could just continue to chat on Facebook; the choice was hers.

Harry checked again the minute he got home the next day, and there was yet another message from her. She said she wanted to forgo the phone call and just meet. This was best case scenario in Harry's mind. So he told her he was working the next morning, but she could call him that afternoon to make plans. She had mentioned not having to work that Saturday, so it was a good time to meet up.

Well, she didn't call on Saturday. And she didn't write back. And she hasn't called or written back today, either. And I'm pissed. Harry's been waiting for the phone to ring since he got home from work yesterday. He checked the computer first thing when he woke up this morning. He's been on and off all day, checking his messages. And there's nothing.

Please, please, please, let me be wrong.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Jury Duty

Yeah, probably a boring blog entry. Don't feel you need to read it just to be nice. I'll understand. There's nothing seductive about jury duty. Believe me.

I was dreading going. I'll admit it. I called Wednesday night, hoping it had been canceled or my name was on that recorded message telling you not come in, but alas, that did not happen. I checked again online the next day, hoping that plans had been changed and they didn't need me. The online service told me, in no uncertain terms (and in bright red, bold type) that I was scheduled to appear. Wah.

So I had to get Ellie up 15 minutes earlier than usual, which was no easy feat. The poor kid was tired. And she did everything she possibly could to make us late this morning because that's the way she rolls. I managed to drop her off at daycare and get out of there by 8am, leaving me 1/2 an hour to park, walk to the courthouse, get through the metal detectors, and get up to the 7th floor.

Luck was on my side because there wasn't any traffic on I-95, a rare occurence, especially in that area of 95 I was traveling. I had no problems parking, and walked to the courthouse in the cold in a matter of minutes. I got through security easily (I obviously don't look suspicious because the cop was like, "just walk through; don't worry about emptying your pockets" while they nearly strip searched the guy ahead of me).

I got into the jury room 10 minutes early and watched CNN for a bit. They were covering that awful plane crash last night. Just terrible. I hate to hear stuff like that.

They signed us in, we watched a video, a judge came to talk to us, then I proceeded to drink copious amounts of coffee and re-read Twilight until it was time for us to go to the courtroom.

Lucky me, I was 4th on the list, so they got to questioning me around 11:45am. Time had quickly gone by; I couldn't believe it was almost noon when I got in there; it had felt like I'd been at the courthouse for an hour or so. Bring the right book, and jury duty is totally fun! LOL

The defense attorney questioned me, we talked about Seattle-sound music when he found out I graduated in '95 (must be a calming tactic... to find something of interest to the potential juror so they relax and answer more truthfully), then he told me a little about the case I would possibly be listening to. It ended up that because I've been injured in a car accident previously, that might taint my ability to be fair in the trial they wanted me to hear.

So I'm not on the jury. And they let me go at noon. Which is a total bonus because now I have an entire 1/2 day to myself.

The end.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Pee pee in the pah-tay

I know I've already annouced it everywhere, but I need to write it here for posterity.

Miss Ellie Jane has decided that it's time she started going pee pee in the potty. All on her own. But she'll only do it if she has the room to herself and the door closed. She's so my kid.

For the past 4 months or so, since we bought Ellie's little pink potty, we've been letting her sit on it before bath. This way, she wouldn't be so afraid of it once she started training.

She's had a lot of fun "using" it, acting like a big girl, and occasionally wearing the bucket part like a hat. Yeah, she's a weirdo.

Around the middle of last week, she started kicking us out of her room when she sat on the potty. We thought it was some kind of strange, new game she was concocting. We went along with it, but we kept peeking in to make sure she wasn't peeing on the floor. She'd get annoyed with us for peeking in, and eventually just run to the bath because she got bored with our disruptiveness.

Sunday night, I decided to let her close the door and stay in her room for a bit. She came out on her own, and went to the bath. I went in to check the potty, and holy cow! We have pee. I repeat: we have pee!

We made a huge deal about it, congratulating and praising her for using her potty, let her see us flush it down the toilet, etc. She was quite pleased with herself. Harry, of course, was raring to go buy her some big-girl underwear THAT NIGHT. I didn't think we were quite there yet.

But she surprised us last night with a repeat performance. I must admit I'm a little excited. I don't want to jinx (I totally did not know how to spell that) it, and I certainly don't want to push her, but I'm happy she's decided to try on her own.

And now I've been singing "pee pee in the pah-tay" a la Look Who's Talking 2 for the last two days. When did I become this person?

Friday, February 6, 2009

A Wee Babe at Rest

I woke up early this morning due to my throat feeling like it's on fire. Yay for winter colds.

I showered and dressed, my normal morning routine. At 7, I opened Ellie's door and found her buried underneath her covers, sound asleep. She looked so comfy, so warm, so peaceful, I didn't have the heart to wake her just yet.

Instead, I sat down on the floor and watched her sleep. I stared in awe of this little being I helped create. I felt my heart swell as I watched her take a breath in, then slowly exhale it out. My eyes welled up, seeing how very much she looks like me when I was a little girl, right down to the full, pouty lips and the little, pug nose.

I sat there for 15 to 20 minutes or so, just waiting for her to wake up. When she finally did, she looked over at me and smiled.

My life is so complete.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

This is what I got



Isn't it gorgeous? It's a music box that plays What a Wonderful World, which was our wedding song (the IZ version - Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World). The rose inlay is done in Sorrento, Italy, and the mechanics are Swiss movement.

Inside, Harry had put a pretty white gold and gemstone necklace. It's beautiful. I'll have to take a pic later and post.

I'm just completely floored. Not only did we go along the same theme for gifts, but I can tell Harry really put some thought into this one.

The night was spent low-key, a simple dinner, playing with Ellie, then some TV (LOST was on, people! Give me a break!) It was perfect.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Celebrating 5 Years



Tomorrow, Harry and I will be celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary. A collective "Awwwww" is in order.

For gifts this year, we decided to go traditional and get each other something made out of wood (beats the modern gift of silverware - really? silverware?) At first, Harry was like, "Do we have to make something out of wood?" Um, no. I'm not planning on whittling a fife or carving a complete chess set. I'm crafty but not THAT crafty.

Anyway, I started thinking about what I would get Harry back in November. I realized this was gonna be kinda tough, but I love a challenge. I decided I wanted to get him a Honu carving. When we were on our weddingmoon, we spent hours looking at all the different carvings and statues of Honu, only to never purchase one.

I started scouring the internet for the perfect one when I came across this:




A little blurb about this beautiful masterpiece and its creator:

Nyoman Karsa carves the little hatchlings in a suar wood relief panel. Gentle waves wash across the base of the design. Artisan Info: "My name is Nyoman Karsa and I was born on December 31, 1967. I learned woodcarving from my father and the senior artists of my village, for example, the famous Wayan Winten. I have worked in my own art studio and shop since 1987. I usually carve sculptures from ebony, suar, crocodile, and hibiscus woods. Each of the woods has specific characteristics of color, durability, and aroma. Ebony comes from Sulawesi, while the others grow locally. Mass media and the everyday traditional lifestyle of our environment and community are the sources of my inspiration. Some of my pieces deal with traditional dances, the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata, sports, animals, and abstract figures. When creating a sculpture, I first see it in my mind, making an image of how it would look on a log or a piece of wood. This has been such a great year for me, thanks to people from many different countries. Thanks for submitting so many testimonials about my work. May this year bring you all the happiness and good fortune that you have brought to my family."

I purchased it from NOVICA, a company that unites you with more than 2000 extraordinary master artists around the world. It's an awesome website; check it out.

When I saw it, I knew I had to get it.

Besides the obvious (the three honu symbolize our little family of three), we also have a history with 3 turtles. Yeah, a history involving turtles.

As we were getting ready for our wedding ceremony, getting the camera and video recorder set, where we should stand on the cliff, etc, our videographer happened to look down and gasped. He called us all to the edge and pointed down. Right below us was a family of 3 turtles swimming around. Our videographer was so excited; he asked if it would be OK for him to record the turtles for a bit because it was highly unusual for them to be there. Of course we said yes. He then told us that having them at our wedding ceremony was extremely good luck because Honu is a symbol of longevity. Our wedding day couldn't have been any more perfect.

These last 5 years of marriage and nearly 8 years of having Harry in my life have been unreal. I can't believe how lucky I am to have this man, for us to have the child we have, for us to lead the life we live.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Happiness

I am in an extremely good mood this morning! Yes, I'm shouting!

This past week, I took a long, hard look at myself and decided that I needed to get myself out of this "I hate my body" funk. So, I started up my online eating journal again, documenting everything I eat during the day to see what I'm actually ingesting. I also took my friend, Cathy's, advice and cut some of the fruit out of my diet, replacing it with protein. The woman is a genius.

I have a terrible sweet tooth, and the more of it I eat, the more I crave. To ward off consuming massive amounts of chocolate and cake (and chocolate cake), I was eating fruit instead... apples, bananas, grapes, melon, etc. Eating these things just made me want more and more and more, especially at night while we're watching TV.

I substituted a small whole wheat pita with hummus for one of my fruit snacks and a part-skim cheese stick for the second one I eat later on in the day. The difference is impressive. I haven't craved anything sugary for days now. That in and of itself is a miracle.

And the proof that it's working... I lost 2 lbs this week. Hurrah!

I also decided it was time to treat myself to a little extravagance. I have a little stash of cash I've been saving for a rainy day, so it was high time I spent it and splurged. My first purchase was some new makeup. I decided to go with Afterglow, a vegan mineral makeup comparable to Bare Escentual's Bare Minerals but completely natural. The first time I tried it, I didn't really see what was so great about it. It didn't give much coverage. I wasn't sold on it being as amazing as the reviews I read.

The next day, I put it on again, and an hour later I caught my reflection in a mirror. Holy crap! My skin looks awesome!

Day 3, and I catch my reflection in the mirror again. I'm completely floored. I suddenly look like I did when I was 25. I lurve, lurve, lurrrrrrvvvvve this makeup. I think I'm going to buy stock in it.

Besides the makeup, I also decided to buy myself some new face wash stuff. On recommendation, I went with some Origins products. I haven't received them yet, but I will report back later on how awesome it is (or isn't).

Lastly, I went and got a haircut yesterday. My stylist ended up cutting a little more than I wanted off, but I have to admit I love how it came out in the end. I also got a free shampoo to boot, which is always awesome.

Add in a date night with my amazing husband Friday night, a wonderful visit with my friend, Dawn, on Saturday, complete with a delicious bottle of vino called Erath, and an extremely clingy but loving little girl hanging around my neck for most of the weekend, and you've got one seriously happy thirty-something woman.



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