Another one bites the dust

Years ago we had a local movie rental place that lasted maybe 2 years and then closed shop and that was it.

Then 5+ years (not sure on the exact time frame)ago Movie Gallery moved into our small local area. Perfect. You could go in, sign up (just by showing an id) and you could rent movies, games, equipment, etc. When hubby and I first started "dating" this was our date night. I would rent a couple of movies and we would proceed to fall asleep in front of the tv.

There were always good selections of the new releases and they were reasonably priced. Plus, there was a good children's section as well as classic movies.

We continued to use our membership as money became tight because we could get a movie, some snacks and have a fun night curled up on the couch watching a movie.

Now, it is closing. Another victim of the financial instability that our state is in, and probably those renting movies by mail memberships.

Of couse, there is another "big chain" movie place about 10 miles from here but to sign up for a membership, they want electric bills, telephone bills, driver's license, ss# and credit card number. Someone had sent me a gift card to the place a few years ago and I went in to check it out and to see about a membership. I didn't get it and I still actually have the gift card.

I know that it isn't just movie rental places. Every place you go there are empty store fronts and going out of business sales. Its sad to see.

I truly hope our state and country economy can turn around.

Feel Good Friday

After a week of questioning 80% of the decisions that I have made in the past few years it was hard to find something that would have made me smile. Sometimes you have to dig for things and other times they just happen to leap right at you.

My feel good Friday story is just something small that happened that made me laugh out loud.

Em's been working on putting 2 word sentences together. She don't have a lot of them yet, but she is working on that. Her favorite one is "Hi baby." She normally does this while she is looking at herself in the mirror or at her reflection in a window.

She waves, smiles and says "hi baby."

Her father has a "ritual" when he comes home at night. He opens the front door just a crack and then knocks. Em runs to the door. Sometimes she opens it and sometimes she slams it shut.

The other night he came home, cracked the door and knocked. Em ran to the door like she normally does. Swung it open as far as she could and yelled "hi baby." It was just extremely funny at the time.

It never fails, this little one can make me smile.

Sleep

I remember what that use to be. I was a great sleeper. Not so much now. Another night where I have been awake since 3 a.m. I lay in bed listening to the hubby snoring and the kiddo snoring and yet my eyes are wide open hoping that it is daylight soon so I can get out of bed and not feel guilty about being up so soon.

I ask myself what wakes me up or keeps me up? Why always around 3 a.m.? When I was pregnant with Em it was 4 a.m. pretty much every morning. That seems to be the time she would wake up and give me a few kicks and body checks into my bladder.

Is it the cats that wake me up?? The kitten runs through here like a madman tormenting my other male cat and all you hear are yowls as he is either biting his tail or his ear.

Is it stress?? That one I am leaning completely towards as I am sure that plays a big part of it.

Ahhhhhhhhh, sleep.

Spring

What happened to it??

I know that I saw a hint of it in the past week. There have been robins. The geese and snow geese have been coming back.

The squirrels have been running all over out there between the two trees and playing.

The spring planting is going to be getting underway.

It has been over 60 degrees a few days.

Now, it is in the 30's and raining.

I'm thinking of putting up a lost and found ad for spring. If anyone sees it can you please send it back?

It is FRIDAY!!!

So it is time for FEEL GOOD FRIDAY!

Even though the week has been a "trying" one, there are things that happen that just make you smile or laugh out loud. Sometimes they make you forget what has gotten you so upset, and other times they just give you a reprieve before you have to jump right back in feet first to get the issue settled.

So, what has made me smile, smirk, giggle, or have a complete belly laugh this week?!?

1. Of course, my little Em is number one of the list. She just has a way to make me laugh when a good laugh is needed. Her latest thing is singing along with something that catches her ear on television. Yesterday it was Sesame Street and they were counting/singing the numbers and she was singing along. She had the tune correct, but obviously her numbers were shaky. There seemed to be a lot of eighteens in the mix, but that is okay, she is learning new things everyday.

2. Who said cats land on their feet all the time? Which brings me to the joke: if you butter a piece of bread and strap it to a cats back (butter side up) and drop the cat from a short distance, would the cat land on its feet or would the bread land butter side down?? Anywho, I'm not going to test that theory. The new kitten (our rescue), who by the way is getting HUGE, has been chasing a fly that we have had in here for a few days. He leaps straight up in the air and it is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. He'll be laying down and it is just like he is laying on springs, straight up he goes. Oh, and he hasn't caught the fly yet.

3. Watching Jeff Dunham and Guitar Guy makes me laugh. It could be the worse day and watching a couple of their skits with Achmed just do it for me, before long I'm laughing. I know some don't like him and have protested his shows, but I have seen much worse. Even Em likes some of the stuff. She walks around here saying "fa-fa." She got that from one of his skits with Peanut, where Peanut calls Jeff "Jef-fa-fa."

4. Being able to get outside this week and enjoy the fresh air. It was wonderful, and finally seeing a robin for the first time this year.

5. Which leads me to this one. Because we got outside, picked up some of the stuff in the yard, chased Em all over the place, I was able to get a good night sleep that night. Normally I am up a 1/2 dozen times and I can't remember the last time I was able to sleep for more then 4 hours straight. That night though, I slept straight through, only waking up at about 6 a.m., just enough to turn over and go back to sleep for another hour.

So, how was your week??

A picky eater

What do you do if you have a picky eater in your household??

I try to introduce as much variety into Em's diet as I can. I want her to eat healthy, but I also admit every now and again she ends up with a cookie at 10 a.m. (does that make me a bad mom??).

She seems to love many types of foods including, but not limited to: vegetables (tomato, lettuce, etc), fruits (apples, cantaloupe, watermelon, oranges) and pasta. Give her a dish of macaroni with some grated cheese on it and she is one happy camper. But at night, she seems to only want to take a bite or two of dinner and then she is done.

As for meat she doesn't like much. She'll eat some of a hotdog. Yes, I know hotdogs are not meat, but she likes them so I cook them every couple of weeks.

Her main thing is she likes to drink (no not the hard stuff, don't have to lock the liquor cabinet, lol) juice. She seems to me to be always thirsty. We rotate it between juice, milk, water. Sometimes mixing the juice and water together. Her pediatrician doesn't seem worried about her drinking as much as she does and says that it is common at their age.

Happy St. Patricks Day

I just want to take this opportunity to wish all my new friends and my old friends (no I don't mean any of you are old :-) )friends and family a wonderful St. Patrick's Day. May the luck of the irish be with you.

Brrrrrrrrrr & the terrible 2's.

Wow!! We have had some 50+ degree days recently, and then today arrived. Is winter coming back?? It is cold and bitter. Just waiting for the snow to fall, lol. Okay, it probably isn't going to snow, but it feels more like a fall day then a soon to be spring day.


Aren't the terrible 2's just a rumor that our parents told us about; to scare us when we had kids? Sort of like the "I hope that when you have kids, you have one just like you," that we use to hear? I can not believe how bad that Em has kicked this phase into gear. She is asserting her independence and her stubborness and along with those come the temper tantrums. She has gotten pretty good at these. We are talking "stop, drop, and rolling" on the floor. She actually throws herself to the floor and kicks and screams. She has not pulled this out in public yet, her major meltdowns have been here in the home. So, when she does this I get up and walk away from her and just use the ignore tactic.

When I do this, she follows me and then drops to the floor in front of me and starts again.

I say again ~ aren't the terrible 2's just a rumor that our parents told us about; to scare us when we had kids. :-)

Ghostly Noises

So, the little one and I had to run into town a bit ago for our weekly pet food trip and when we got back, I fed her some lunch, let her watch The Wiggles, got her changed and put down for a nap.

I'm sitting comfortably in the recliner and I keep hearing these weird noises. My one male older cat, who never comes out of the bedroom unless the little one is in her crib is even hearing the noise. He would eat, hear some rustling, turn his head towards it, then look at me with a "what the heck is that noise mom?"

I turn down the tv, the noise stops.

Noise starts again. Big old male cat decides he has head enough and is heading back towards the bedroom. Afterall, he is pretty sure that it is the little one and she is going to bum rush him and corner him in the kitchen.

I get up, check the back room. Noise stops.

Sit back down, noise starts back up again.

Then it is like a lightbulb has gone off in my head. Hello!!!! We do have 2 cats, the other being a rescue kitten. I hadn't seen him since before we left to run to town, and he wasn't out here when I was feeding the little one her lunch, and that is always a gimmee.

So the mission starts for the search for Sid. I call him, no meowing. Hmmm.

More rustling, then a faint meow.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, somehow he managed to get himself locked in the master bathroom which is very seldom used. Not sure how that happened. He was out here after hubby left, I'm sure of that. Little one can't open doors yet. So, he must have somehow climbed up onto the cabinet and pole vaulted himself over the door and got in.

Needless to say, he was very loving when he got released and is now relaxing on the bags of pet food that I picked up.

Its Friday so you know what that means ~ FEEL GOOD FRIDAY!!

Here is I sit at the computer with my little girl climbing all over me, stepping on my bare feet, sitting on them, and giggling at Rory The Racing Car on TV, as I try to come up with a Feel Good Friday topic. Then, WHAM BAM, I have a story that a stranger is doing for me. I'm not going to name the particulars of it, but I want to share. So here goes:

The basic part is I 'won' a very cool Hard Rock Cafe "Pinktober" t-shirt and key chain and pin. When I emailed the individual involved in sending it to me I told her how she made my day. After a long day yesterday, having this arrive, filled me with some smiles. But, not just because I won something very cool, but because this 'prize' was going to make someone else smile. See, I was sending this prize on to someone else. I have a friend, whose very AWESOME Mom has been battling breast cancer, and all along I knew that I was going to send this on to her.

So what did this wonderful stranger do: she emailed me back and told me that she was sending me two more t-shirts that I could send along to my friend and her Moms. Then about 30 seconds later she emailed me again that she had more of the key chains that she was including. I mean, truly, how COOL is that?? Really, I'm not use to people doing these types of things and she had me flustered that I had to take a few minutes to reply back to her email. This unknown woman and the company that she works for have truly made my day.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

The stubbornesses kicking in

Today has been one of those days when the "terrible 2's" (which I never really believed were real) have overtaken the beautifulness of the day.

Its been like this:

Em, close the refrigerator door (it was cute when we taught her to open it, not so much now).

Em, leave the kitten alone. Em, get off the kittens head. Em, let go of the kittens tail. Do you see his ears back? It means he is ticked off. Em, stop pushing the kitten down when he is trying to get a drink of water.

Em, get out of the water dish.

Em, go ahead and throw yourself down to the ground kicking and screaming, you aren't getting any chips right now.

Em, turn the tv back on.

Em, did you poo? [Em shakes head no], come here so Mama can check, yep, you did.

Then lastly:

Em, do you want to take a nap? [Em shakes head no].

Sorry you need one, and the kitten needs a break.

Moving along

I know that I'm not the only one who has ever done this. I get up this morning, the sky is blue, the sun is shining and melting away the snow, I grab some clothes to change the little one, reach for the diapers and well, there are only 2. I hadn't planned on running into town today with my back bothering me and having to lift up and down on the kiddo, but alas, we had no choice. The sad thing is: yesterday I had to run into town and pick up juice, bread, etc, and you would have thought that I had realized then that I would need diapers.

I must really love running to town. Our gas here is just about $3.00 a gallon and probably on the rise. I'm figuring by the time summer is in full-force it'll be well over $3 and probably pushing $4.

Oh well, we are back, have diapers and wipes and are all set for the next couple of days.

The everlasting battle of cleaning

I pick up, she takes out, I pick up, she takes out, I pick up, kitten grabs something and runs with it and drops it in the middle of the floor. Day in and day out this is what we do. Our place is very small so just having a couple of things out, the place looks cluttered. I have been trying to get into my spring cleaning mode as I have a ton of things I want to do, but haven't been able to start yet.

Feel Good Friday

(I haven't yet figured out how to post one of those banners :-) )

Well, today is going to be an easy FEEL GOOD FRIDAY moment, as today March 5, is my little girl's 2nd birthday. Why does this make me feel good? Because I never thought that I would have a child. I had concluded (to myself anyway) that I was destined to be alone. My last "relationship" (if you could call it that) ended in 2000, and from that point on I was alone. I went to work and came home, that was it. I very seldom left the place or when I did I mainly went to my folks house to spend time with my Moms (who was terminally ill ~ I MISS YOU MOMS!!) Mom use to tell me I wasn't going to meet anyone sitting on my couch, and she was right.

In 2007 my friend introduced me to my now husband and we got pregnant shortly after we got together. Sadly I lost the baby, but 2-months later we were pregnant again with our little girl. I knew she was going to be a stubborn little one when I was admitted to the hospital on the 3rd (was due on Feb. 29) and she didn't come into this world till the 5th.

For a downer moment, and I'm not sure if this has ever happened to anyone else. I have had people come up to me and say "I never pictured you as a Mom!" Or, my "fave" one was when a friend (who is older then I am) was holding her shortly after she was born and she handed her back to me and some guy said "oh your grandmom is going to hold you??" Ummmmmmmmm hello, I'm her Mom. But I don't let things like that get to me. My little one brings me joy. The way she just looks at us and grins, you can see the hope of the future in her eyes. Her giggles fill the house as she is chasing around the kitten. Every day she has a new accomplishment, a new word, or a new story to tell and the giggles fill the house all over again. There have been some scary moments. She has a hole in her heart, but according to her cardiologist it is healing, thankfully there is a wonderful pediatric cardiologist a little over an hour from here.

So, on this day, my little girl was brought into this world and from that moment on life has been a wonderful roller coaster ride.

She is my FEEL GOOD FRIDAY story, as well as my feel good Saturday through Thursday story.

Happy Birthday Emelie. Mommy and Daddy love you very much.

I wonder if the person who said

"potty training is easy," ever had any kids to potty train?? This has turned into a struggle. I know that she will start using it when she is comfortable with it. We don't force her to sit on the potty. Right now we are just trying to catch her when she gets that look in her eyes like she has to go. Sometimes we are successful, but most times we are not.

I hear every now and again, "she is almost 2 why isn't she potty trained yet?" Well, because she is almost 2. We try. When she gets up in the morning she sits on her potty, when she gets up from a nap she sits on her potty, and then when we think she has to go she sits on her potty.

I guess right now she just has more important issues to do and learning how to use the potty is down on her list. But, we will keep at it, because really, there isn't anything else we can do.