Turkey Day 2008

I'm a day late posting but we just got home.

Yesterday we went to the North Georgia mountains to Robert's parents for dinner. The turkey was SO delicious! I only had a slice and a half...now I wish I had eaten a little more. Mom's dressing and rolls and pecan pie were good. I tried green bean casserole for the first time too...it was pretty good. A lot better than I thought it would be. All these years I have never bothered trying it because I was afraid I wouldn't like it but I did. My corn casserole was yummy and my cheesecake was too. Or at least everyone else thought so. Because it had pumpkin in it the consistancy of the cheesecake wasn't the same as what I am used and it didn't taste cheesecakey enough so it definitely was not one of my favorites.

I went to bed last night just after 6:00pm. I was freezing cold and felt fevery so I crawled into the bed with my clothes on and three blankets on me with the intentions of just getting warmed up but I never got up because I was too comfortable. I got up at 5:00am and heated a bottle and made Robert go outside with me to let the dogs out. He went out into the yard with them and I stood bare-footed on the back porch which was covered with ice crystals. Needless to say I was freezing once again. A hot shower warmed me up but it was temporary....the cold set back into my bones 15-minutes later. It had to have been me because I was the only one that was cold. Maybe I need to boost my iron.


On the way home we stopped at Wal Mart and braved the Black Friday crowds. All we bought was a bumbo seat for Skylar, some wipes and a couple of cans of formula. We can't afford to buy anything for Christmas this year...especially for each other. The baby will have a couple of toys to open that we bought her a couple of months ago. I'm feeling sort of lazy and not sure if I want to put forth the effort of putting up a tree but it's my daughter's first Christmas. I know she won't remember it but I will and we want to have pictures for the record anyway.

Well, she's fussing so I've gotta go.....

Unfortunate change of plans

Our original plans for this Thanksgiving was to have dinner with my family at my cousin, Dave's house up in Chickamauga, Georgia. Since it is within a 30-minute drive of Lookout Mountain Robert and I were just going to get hotel reservations in Chattanooga, spend the day with the family and then go to Rock City's Enchanted Gardens of Light that evening. We decided that it would be too much to try and make the trip up and back home in one day and that spending the night would be the best idea. Naturally I wouldn't even think of asking my cousin to stay at his house and even if I had the nerve I wouldn't because his younger siblings probably have dibs on any of the extra rooms in his house. Then there's what to do with the dogs...I doubt they'd be welcome to run around the house and there's a great chance one of them (Bailey) would slip out when no one was looking. Well....that was what we WANTED to do but unfortunately our bank account is a dry hole and we don't have the money to stay in a hotel or go to Rock City. We don't even have the money to go buy the fixins for our own dinner either so we've decided to go Robert's parents house instead. It's only fair really since we spent Turkey Day with my family last year. I know that there are a lot of my family members who want to see Skylar for the first time and they will be disappointed because we're not going to attend but there will be other times to visit. I know that my dogs are welcome at Mom & Dad's and the house isn't too big to keep track of the three little ones. Plus we can stay the night for free and don't have to worry about paying for a hotel. And we always enjoy the time we spend up there so it'll all work out for the best. Skylar's first Thanksgiving will be spent with Momma, Daddy, Grandma, Peepaw & Aunt Carolyn & Uncle Richard. Uncle Richard is frying a turkey for us this year. It's supposed to be a clear day so hopefully he'll do it outside in the driveway and not in the garage. I'm looking forward to it because I have never had a deep fried turkey before. Yummy! Robert and I are taking my delicious corn casserole and homemade pumpkin cheesecake. Most everyone knows that I make the best dern cheescakes EVER...either because I've told them how good they are or because they have been lucky enough to actually taste them. I've never made a pumpkin cheesecake before so I hope this one comes out good. I may garnish it with whipped cream and sugared pecans...not sure yet because I'd have to sugar the pecans myself and I know I won't have time to do that. As it is I will only be able to get the cheesecake made tonight if Robert keeps the Peanut busy so I can monkey around in the kitchen. It really wouldn't take too much more effort for me to bake two of them. Maybe I will make a chocolate one with Heath bar crumbles on the top. I know that one would be really good. Wow....I am totally making myself hungry so I need to stop talking about food. Next year I am hoping to have Turkey Day dinner at my house. That is unless it's going to snow in Blairsville and that's where I'll be!

Speaking of snow.....it's supposed to snow on Monday up at Mom & Dad's. This totally sucks because I won't be there Monday...just Thursday and Friday. I'm kinda bummed that we won't be able to go out and take advantage of all the Black Friday sales this year. Being poor is awful. I know that God will provide and meet our needs as long as we don't blow our money on things we really don't need. I just can't see Him blessing us financially if we blow our money on things we have no business buying. I'm not looking forward to my paychecks being cut by $150 every two weeks starting in January. Our insurance for Robert, myself and the baby is going to cost us $300 a month but that will be medical, dental and life insurance. The good thing is that our co-pay for the urgent care clinic that's right next to our subdivision is only $25 so we can go there when we get sick. I have to find us a new physician as the one we had decided that he wanted to dump his practice and open a "consierge type" practice where you can get same day or next day appointments. He sent out a letter saying that he was extending the invitation to be a part of his new practice to his existing patients and only had room for 500 patients and that if we wanted to be a part of it we would have to pay $1800 a year to be a member. Is he freaking out of his mind? That is a man that is all about the money....not about his patient's care. That gives him an extra $900,000 a year on top of all the co-pays he collects and what the insurance companies pay him. So what that I'd have access to him 24/7 via e-mail or phone! That would be $150 extra a month (just for one of us) on top of our insurence premiums and co-pays for medical care we wouldn't even be using every single day. If I was sick and at the doctor's office several times a month it might be worth it but to pay $1800 to see him twice a year....Matthew J. Britton is out of his freaking mind! Yeah, I just put his name out there. Maybe if that pompous fathead GOOGLES himself he'll find some people like me out there who are really ticked off at him. All of his patients couldn't have been rich Alpharetta/Johns Creek snobs. There have to be regular shmos out there like me.

Okay....I guess I'll get off my soap box now and hush for the day. Here's a recent video I took of the Peanut. Enjoy!

How in the world is it physically possible?

Can someone please tell me how a tiny baby has enough force in her tail pipe to shoot poop from her heiny-hole to her shoulders? Seriously! Is there an unseen little tube that comes out, points upward and just sprays all over the place like the jets at a car wash? When a baby is laying ON HER BACK and she has one of those nuclear fall-out poops does it seem possible for it to shoot up and over her bajingo, out the top of the diaper, whoosh over her belly button and spray her fat little baby boobies? You wouldn't think so but I swear, these are the type of poops my daughter has! And I can't believe that I am sitting here blogging about baby poops! Don't get me wrong.....I am extremely happy with my new life as a mother....over-joyed in fact. But I'm afraid if I don't make some "new mommy" friends that I can relate to soon I fear I may chase all my old ones away. They've all been there and done that and to them all the poopy diaper (and other) stories are just a memory while for me, this is the new world I live in.

I was thinking today at work (during that last hour stretch when I'm watching the clock) how much my life has changed. I never thought that the love of my life would be short, fat and bald. Well, at least she is for now anyway. I watch her change a little bit more every day and it makes me sad because I know she's going to grow up way too soon. Already she perks up and listens to me and turns toward me when she hears my voice. I get at least two or three smiles from her a day and she's almost holding her little bobble-head up all the time now. Before I know it she'll be begging for the keys to the car so she can meet her friends at the mall to shop and talk about boys. ::: sigh ::: Her daddy and I will be big basket-cases by then I'm sure.

Peanut got a bath today

This is not the first time that Skylar got a bath of course but this is the first time I've video-taped it and since it came out so good I thought I'd publish and share it with everyone.

Happy Halloween!

It seems to be the norm these days that my good intentions of keeping a blog just sort of fall by the wayside. This of course is not at all what I had intended. I originally was going to start blogging every day or so once the baby was born so I could keep a record of her progress and developement. Well, here she is....two months old and this is the first I have blogged about her. Man.....being a mommy is such hard work! It's exhausting too! Since she was born on September 7th, 2008 our lives have not been the same. Much of the time we feel so tired and frustrated and yet incredibley blessed at the same time that God brought such a sweet and beautiful angel into our lives to love forever and ever.

I did post this on another site a couple of weeks ago:

First honest-to-goodness smile! 10/14/08

Today, in the still quiet of the early morning hours I shared a beautiful moment with my five-week-old daughter. After her diaper change and before her bottle I sat here at my computer with her....holding her as she sat on the desk in front of me. As I told her how much I loved her and what an amazingly pretty baby she was she broke out with a huge grin for me from ear to ear. I know many people might argue the fact and say that she just had gas but I know that it was an honest-to-goodness smile for her Momma. Not only did that smile light her little angel face up like a Christmas tree once, but she did it twice in a row and I swear if she were capable of laughing she definitely would have. In that moment my eyes welled up with tears and made every single sleep-deprived hour I've had over the last five weeks suddenly and completely "worth it".

Of course now Skylar is throwing smiles our way all the time and still my heart does flip-flops when she does. Today was her very first Halloween and Momma got her all dressed up in her kitty cat outfit and put her black "BOO" hat on. She looked absolutely adorable I think! Next year we may take her Trick-Or-Treating....not for the candy but just to show her off to everyone. We were supposed to go to Kathy and Frank's Halloween party tonight and we did show up early before Robert went to work (like Kathy told him to) and she was nowhere near ready and asked us to come back . Well, after we came home and she had her bottle and I got a chance to sit down for a while I decided that my little Peanut and I would have a quiet evening at home together instead.