what's wrong with me?

My brain has turned to mush - I've done two very stupid, painful things in the last few days.

brain fart #1 - After working out the other morning I had left my weights on the floor. A little later I went to sit down on the floor to play with Leland and sat right on top of a weight. I apparently landed pretty hard because my tailbone bruised. It has been difficult to sit for long periods of time and painful to try to stand. Today it's finally starting to feel better.

brain fart #2 - Last night I cooked spaghetti for dinner. When I went to drain the noodles I poured too fast and the water spilled over top the sink and onto my leg leaving a burn/blister the size of a half dollar. Boiling water will do that to a person and that was even through my pants, I can't imagine what kind of burn it would have been if I was cooking naked?!?!

Hope you are both doing well. Happy New Year!!

No Sleep

The past few nights I have not been able to get any sleep because my lovely daughter wants to scream at the top of her lungs. We can not figure anything out except teething or just wanting someone to hold her. It's so hard to not just let her sleep in the bed with us. Last night she cried for two hours with us going in to calm her down every 20 - 30 mintues. The second we walked out the door she would just scream again. She has a tooth coming in on the top now, which seems to bother her a lot more than when the bottom two came in. Hopefully tonight will be better. She still is cutie though.

My Christmas present suprises: subscription to Real Simple, a gorgeous silver and white table runner from Jamaica, and silver pearl jewelry from Jamaica. Chuck did very well.

Crazy news: Chuck's sister Mitzi who has a 6 month old baby is Pregnant!! Her kids will be 13 months apart. It took them 5 years to get the first so I understand not wanting to wait for the second. I would lose my mind with two that close.

my wet seattle Christmas

I know what you're thinking, isn't every Christmas in Seattle wet? No, not all of them, and these are record showers. All this snow in the mountains is washing away, so no snow activities for me, boo. Still having a hohum good time though. Doesn't feel like Christmas, there are lights on the house and teh normal christmas decorations, but honestly, they are just lost by all the clutter, my parents are becomming serious pack-rats. We are still doing the no-presents christmas, but this morning my mom decided she wanted a tree, so now we have a christmas tree in the corrner with about 5 presents under it.

Tonight is usually our anuall Christmas eve party with very small dysfunctional exteneded fam and friends. It's my (and my sisters) favorite part of Christmas. There are usually only about 10 -12 people ther, my family of 6 making up 1/2 of the party, my two fabulous cousins, Tracey and Holly, Tracey's husband Wayne and Holly's son, Jesse and if we are lucky Holly's boyfriend of the month. My Aunt's friend Eileen and her brother Pablo always come as well. We eat fondue, hot apple cider, clam chowder and fruit cake (I know, sounds like an awful meal) sing carrolls to an out of tune piano and have a rousing White Elephant exchange, I wish I coud say it is all in good fun, but the competition gets heated, Jesse always ends up being used by Holly to procure a coveted item (the Iron Horse) or Jesse himself uses his Grandpa in the same manner. Tracey has reverted back to acting like a teenaged when she realized one year her mother had wrapped up all her old designer belts (now vintage), Terra's ceramic (and cosmic) bust was passed around for three years before finiding a rightful resting place in Tracey's garden, and the wooden icecream sundae is still floating arround to this day.

Alas, there will be no chowder and fruit cake or White Elephant this year. Tracey and Jesse were each carted off to their own treatment programs in Utah and Hawaii. (Jesse for deviant behavior and Tracey for her alcholism) and Holly has run away to LA with her most recent beau, a jewelry designer. We will be having a very quiet Chrismas Day dinner with my aunt and uncle, to keep them company, but it' won't be the same.

I've rented a number of videos to entertain me while at home on Christmas eve, (Mad Hot Ballroom, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Must Love Dogs - I recomend Mad Hot Ballroom, it's great) there has been talk of going by another friend's party, but we've been out all day in the rain and I think everone is tired. so....

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!!!

The Wringling Bros.

Last week i had three dogs for a photo shoot. Their names were Wringling, Barnum, and Bailey. The lady brought in a vintage circus poster to them in front of. She obviously doesn't have children (of the human sort that is.) One even had a birthday party a couple days ago-complete with a large guest list and a liver cake.

sorry couldn't get the pic to upload.

I forgot the pee!

So I forgot to tell you the pee story. When it happened, I thought "This is great for the Blog"

When Leland was sick I took her to the Dr. Everything was fine as they could see (ears, breathing, throat) so they needed a urine sample to check if she had a Urninary Track infection. Putting a cathader in a 8 month old baby is the worst experience i've ever had to watch, especially because it was my little girl. The Nurse tried to insert the cathader while the Dr held her down, when that was unsuccessful they switched places. I guess Leland was so mad she was holding it in. I have now discovered that my child has a vengeful side. As they were preparing for the second try, she peed all over the two of them!! Yes all over!!! I'm talking PEE DRIPPING OFF OF THEIR FACES!!!!!! I thought I was going to die. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The two of them were in such shock. Needless to say even after a third try later in the day, they never got a urine sample and couldn't figure out why she had such a high fever.

The fever went down later in the day and she was perfectly fine the next day.

who's this guy??

Last weekend Chuck got to be Santa at the Ward party. He loves doing it and is a GREAT Santa. There's a less active Spanish family who came and the youngest boy doesn't know very much english. You should have seen his face when he realized that Santa spoke Spanish. I thought he was going to pee his pants he was so excited.

Needless to the say (the pic says it enough) Leland did NOT like Santa. I think she was freaked out that this crazy looking man sounded like her daddy. It took us a while to calm her down.
I hope you both have a wonderful Christmas.
Love you!!!

out of here!

In less than 12 hours I will be on my way out of Baltimore! To be honest I'm not too excited about going home for Christmas (they haven't been very good the last few years and I don't think this year is going to change) but I do need a break, from work, from men, from B-more.

To quickly re-cap my date wiht Reudi, dinner was really good, it felt sureal and I was pretty withdrawn, but he was exactly the same, like it was just last week we were sitting at Hops. He kept saying things like he felt like he was home and how good it was to see me, he should have visited sooner and made time to stay longer etc. The next morning though I get an email from him saying ........just forget about me........... hmm. I need a break.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas, I'll be sending updates about all the craziness at home.

* Liz when is the birthday and the bridal show?

*Ash, watched your sister-in-law last night, she's a nut!

103.5

So I had a BAD day today. Leland had a fever of 103.5!! Yes very scary. I was freaking out. Tylenol would not bring it down, but Motrin helped. She still has a slight fever and I will take her to the Dr. in the morn. It made me so sad because she was so lethargic, and wasn't her normal giggling, singing self. I cried most of the day, I know that's silly but it's the first time she's ever been sick. I felt so bad for her, I just wanted to make her feel better but didn't know how. I held her in my arms most of the day.

We have a Christmas party to go to tomorrow night I was excited to see a bunch of Chuck's friends from work. I probably will stay home with Leland, we'll see what the Dr. says. Chuck will be Santa on Saturday night at church so hopefully she's better by then.

I think a girl's weekend sounds great. I will talk to Chuck about it.

Kristen - I can't remember the circumstances on the end with Reudi? Did he just drop off the face of the earth?? ( Like the men in my life did at that time-Kevin, Rob) I don't think you should be mad at him. Just get together and catch up on your lives. I'm excited for you.

Love those West Virginia Blizzards!

So the first thing that came to mind when Ashely announced her later departure was that we shoud try to get together one more time before she heads South. What do you girls think? I love birthdays and brides to be !

My life!

I feel the same way ashley about the exciting lives we have. You know we live vicariously through you Kristen.
Tim and I went away for a night we went to see Glenn Beck in Akron-it was a good show.

Lauren is such a mischievious little girl. She scrunches up her nose and gives a cute yet evil little laugh. She is cruisin everywhere. Our Christmas tree is only decorated on the top half for obvious reasons. it looks funny.

Parker is doing well. He i reading really well and loves his school.

Hey what are both of you addresses? I need to send you cards for Christmas.

Work is busy but starting to slow down. It is nice having an office manager-although it does raise other problems and issues sometimes.

So..... Parker's b-day is coming up and the bridal show! Who is coming out this year!!

I miss you guys so much!!

Have a wonderful Christmas

My Martha Accomplishment was I made fancy chocolate dipped pretzel rods. I did some with sprinkles and drizzled white chocolate on others it turned out quite cute-it's a good thing!

boys, boys, boys

just a little update on my current dating status, cause I know you guys need to know this stuff.

Troy: Out of the picture. My little mormon dating experiment failed. A week before I was suppose to fly out to LA to spend a few days with him we get into a big fight, well he started sending me nasty emails, basically telling me that he didn't want me to come see him. So I didn't. We have not talked since two Mondays ago. I've fought with him before and it's awful and I get even madder and hurt in the process, and it's just not worth it. We've never been on the same page and are each looking for something compleatly different I think, so I decided not to drag it out and never called him, and since I told him not to call unless he was going to apologize for the things he said, I'm not really expecting a call back anytime soon.

Mayson: It's so hard to be alone durring the holidays when there is someone who wants to be with you. M and I have been accompanying eachother to varous social events in the last few weeks, holiday parties and such, it's been alot of fun, I really like his friends, and I like taking him out with my friends, so we have a good time, nothing more than that, but I probably am spending more time with him than I should. It's just so much funner to go to these things with a date. He might go with me to Vegas for Emily's wedding, I've always wanted to go on vacation with him.

Reudi: Got back in contact a few months ago. Nothing much, just a few short, very vague emails. He asked if I still had my half of the dollar bill, I told him I did, and now I can't find it! I have no idea where he has been or what he has been doing. Although I do not think he has been in the United States much, because he english is has deteriorated from what I remember. He's comming into town this weekend for some meetings, so we are going out to dinner on Saturday. I'm very nervous about the whole thing. Mostly because I look Like I've been working 12 hours a day and eating bon-bons the whole time. (which is partially true - but I did work out evey day this week, and plan on eating nothing on Saturday until dinner) I just have no idea what to expect, should I be mad at him? Do I still love him? What is his agenda? I'll have some answers for you on Sunday.

Brian: So he doesn't fit in the category of "men I am dating" but I'll add him in here anyways. I did have a great phone conversation with Brian when I was in LA (He lives in Huntington Beach) and although we couldn't make our schedules work that week, his parents live in Fredrick, MD and he'll be out here for 2 weeks over Christmas, so we'll get together then.

Nothing Exciting

I've been doing my Christmas shopping. I always think I'm almost done, then I remember another person. My family is just getting bigger. I thought all I had done was my Dad and his family but that's 5 people. Luckily Chuck is taking care of his siblings. They refuse to draw names, but they get little $2 gifts for each other. He is making a movie for each of them.

I watch Martha now religiously, so I was going to try to make homemade Christmas gifts. Well, i think it's too late. Everything I wanted to do takes too long. I'll have to start earlier next year. Or I might buy everything I need after Christmas when it's on sale and then do it in January. Although I am making some homemade candy for the sisters I visit teach.

I'm finally feeling better. Tonight we are going to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for dinner. It's the annual Professional Image Christmas party. I'm preparing myself for my great steak dinner tonight.

Leland is trying to crawl. It's really cute, but she gets frustrated when she just falls flat on her face. I went to a friends house for lunch yesterday and she looked so sad sitting there watching all the other kids run around. She wanted to play with them so bad it's so cute.

Kristen has much more of an exciting life to share on this blog. I struggle trying to come up with something to write. You have celebrity pictures, dates with foreigners, fun times in Santa Monica.

I'll try to have something exciting happen to share.

Day 2 - Clelebrity Sightings

Nothing to report today. Quiet dull. Actually we had a great time. After a long morning run (it felt sooo good to run outside!) Iris picked us up and we headed to SantaMonica for lunch and shopping :) We all were on the lookout for party outfits, I'm also looking for a sexy but classy outift to wear out to dinner with Reudi. (btw - ashley, I was going to tell you guys about the date, I just wanted to be sure it was going to happen first, and Liz, I'll fill you in on the details later, but reudi is comming to town - I'm very nervous) we were all sucessful, but I didn't purchase anything because I found an outfit at The Limited, which I can buy at home with a discout coupon I have. I was really hoping to find something at a little boutique that I can't get out East. I did go on a little shopping spree in Sephora though, love that place.

So, disapointily there were no celebrities out in Santa Monica today, well that we noticed. Really I don't think I would recognize most celebrities in real life, and when I'm searching for that right pair of strappy sequin pumps, I can't be distracted.

Tomorrow the girls have work/school, so I will be hanign out in westwood bymyself, I'll be doing some serious people watching and on the look out for anyone famous. heehee

hope you feel better ashley!

Day 2

Well it's day 2 of not leaving my apartment and of staying in my pajamas all day. I felt sick all last week and just kept pushing myself to get things done after being on vacation for so long. Saturday night my body just couldn't take it anymore. So I spent all day Sunday and today sleeping and I think I'm finally starting to feel better. I at least don't sound like a man anymore. Chuck was so great to me yesterday he made breakfast and took care of Leland all day so I could just relax.

Chuck is having to work in Annapolis now, which is good and bad. He likes the projet and the people he is working with, but it adds an hour on the front and back of his commute. Driving in traffic just puts him in a frustrated mood, so it takes longer for him to wind down when he gets home.

Leland is so close to crawling. She wants to move around so bad and gets so frustrated. She still moves any way she can by falling over and rolling around.

Kristen - it snowed here today so I hope you are enjoying the sunny warm weather.
Liz - I hope you are doing well, let us know how the tests results are. We love you!

Day 1 - Celebrity Sightings

I've never been a huge celebrity news and gossip-er, I just want their clothes and handbags, but this is fun. About eight of the new American Idol cast were on my flight to LA, I didn't figure out who they were until I was leaving the plane though, and was so exhausetd (no sleep last night) I doubt I would have struck up much of a conversation. Poor iris almost pulled the car arround to back to the baggage claim when I told her they were there, cameras and all. We went to lunch in Westwood at PJ's (delcious pizza and bruchetta) and Adam Broody (Seth Cohen from the OC) was at the table next to us, Iris wanted to take pics, but I restrained her - she's really out of control.

I'll keep you updated on anymore sightings; this could become adictive.

Boobs, BBQ & Berger's

Boobs, BBQ and Berger's are the three itmes that made up my Friday and Saturday.

Boobs- Sara is 12 weeks pregnant and her boobs are huge! Sorry, we made fun of her all night long. It was so good to have Wendy and Sara around, there is never a quiet moment when Sara comes to dinner. We all met up at Amichi's in Little Itlay and closed the place down, after dinner Wendy and Sara crashed at my place and we were up till 3am catching up. Wendy told me there was a debate over who to stay with, me or Liz. They didn't want to offend either of us, but I won out because at my place there is no ferret, no Noah and a gaurnteed hot breakfast. The kittens didn't improve Wendy's dislike of cats after trying to sleep on her head and eat her hair. So next time Wendy may chose the smelly fettet and boy.

Has anyone had Korrean BBQ before? OMIG it's fabuous, I don't know why Michelle never introduced us to it until the day before she's moving to London. I would go back, but Michllle ordered everything for the whole table (15 people) in Korrean, so I ahve no idea what we were eating. They cook the meat on litlte grills at the table and bring little bowls of kimchi, sardines, and other vegtables and rice. When the waitresses deem your meat ready (if you try to remove any meat yourself you get your fingers swatted) you take a lettuce leaf, spared bean paste on it, add rice and meat and roll it up kinda like a burritto. I know it sounds kinda weird, but it is soo good. Try sometime.

Berger's are one of the best things about Baltimore, it's simply a madiline cookie topped with 3 times the needed amount of chocolate frosting. They are simply perfect. We had a "Best of Baltimore" going away party for Michelle. London, how fun. It was actually fortunate the invitations didn't get sent out on time, it was a small comfortable group. The highlight of the night was convincing Charity to sing fo us. Having an opera singer in your group of friends is so much fun, really not for their vocal abilities, but more for the dramitic personality of those in the performing arts, I'm nit sure if they realize how entertaining they are, I'm pretty sure they do.

One of the best parts of my saturday did not fit into my word game, Target. Ashley, I'm going to have a hard time when you move, who else never tires of pusing a cart arround Target? My pocketbook might appreciate it