A Weekend Alone

Well, alone with my toddler anyway. Kevin is going on the middle school youth group retreat. They are leaving tonight and won't be back until noon on Sunday. He got his stuff all packed up at lunchtime, so I don't think he's planning to stop here before he goes, but I forgot to ask him.

I have no idea what Alison and I are going to do for the weekend. The weather is crappy again. I don't think there will be too much playing outside. The Center for the Arts has an exhibit on pearls that might be interesting. Maybe I'll see what time they are open tomorrow and we can go to that. If it wasn't going to be so crummy, checking out Dow Gardens would have been a good idea. Alison is becoming facinated with flowers lately. I'll have to file that idea away for another time.

There are some good things about Kevin being gone, though. For one thing, I won't have to listen to him complain about just having gotten home Tuesday and having to go again today (I will still have to listen to him complain about being gone for two weekends and having to go away again next weekend, but not until Sunday). I will also get two good nights of sleep, taking up as much space in my bed as I want. :)

The Joy of Shopping

I finally got a chance to go out shopping for some new clothes the other night. My jeans were all way too big, to the point where the waist was down at my hips. I pulled out a pair of shorts from last summer and was able to put them on without unbuttoning or unzipping them.

So off to Walmart I went. I will admit right here and now that I am cheap. I particularly don't want to pay a lot of money for clothes right now, when I'm hoping to lose about 25 more pounds.

I am pleased to announce that I have moved out of the plus-sized department and back into the regular size department. It took some doing, but I finally found 3 pairs of shorts that I like and 2 pairs of jeans. That should hold me for a while. Well, except for needing a few new things, skirts and tops, mostly, to wear to church.

I have often wished that women could by pants the same way that men buy pants, using waist and inseam measurement instead of set sizes. Perhaps instead of the inseam measurement they could use hip measurements. It would make things a lot easier for me, that's for sure. My hips are a size bigger than my waist, so now everything that fits in the hips is too big in the waist. Maybe one day I'll be back in better proportion, but until then, relaxed fit jeans are a godsend.

So there you have it, 24 pounds down and the beginings of a new wardrobe.

Monday Afternoon

I have a list of things that I should be doing right now, but I don't have any desire to do them. I'm going to regret that come Thursday afternoon when I'm racing around like a crazy woman trying to get everything done before we leave Friday morning. Oh well, I'll deal with it then, I guess.

We had a beautiful weekend here. We had showers in the mornings, but the afternoons were bright, sunny and, most importantly, warm! We were able to spend quite a bit of time outside. Kevin used the time to rake up the backyard. He worked his way from one side of the yard to the other, making piles of leave, sticks and dead grass as he went. Alison, the girl who wanted nothing to do with piles of leaves last fall, followed along behind him plowing through his piles and strewing them all over the yard again. Saturday evening, she found a stick in one of the last piles and proceded to sit in front of that pile and swipe the stick back and forth across it, flinging leaves and grass all over. She totally cracked herself up doing this. I mean she was litteraly sitting there screaming with laughter each time she flung stuff out of the pile. Kevin was not exactly happy, since he was going to have to rake it all up again, but he couldn't help but laugh at her.

Finishing up on Tuesday night.....

Alison got her first big boo boo of the summer Sunday afternoon. She got tripped up when she was a step or two away from the deck and when she went down she caught her chin on the corner of it. Fortunately it was just a scrape and not a gash, so there wasn't a lot of blood, just a lot of tears. **fast forward to Tuesday, she noticed her boo boo in the mirror today... it was so funny to watch her trying to look at it because she couldn't really keep her chin up and get a good look at the same time.**

Sunday evening we had youth group. It was supposed to be a study night, but since it was such a beautiful day, it was decided that we would skip the study and go outside and play games instead. We hit the parking lot and started out with "sharks and minnows." Kevin wiped out while he was avoiding some of the "sharks" and skinned up his hand and put his keys, which were in his pocket, through his pant leg. Later on, one of the girls slipped and fell and sprained her wrist. :( They played a few other games, including kick ball. Then came the best part. We walked over to the pizza/ice cream store down the street and we all got ice cream. For someone who hasn't had ice cream in a while, it was soooo good. A good time was had by all.

Monday proved to be a typical day. The temperature, after starting out at 71 degrees at 8:00 in the morning, took a nose dive and it was below 60 by the time we went for our afternoon walk. The wind was unbelievable in the morning, but it tapered off somewhat by walk-time, too. There was still enough for Alison to learn a new word, though: WINDY!!!

Pictures of Easter

**if the pictures don't show up, it's because the site hosting them is down...please try back later**

Here's a picture of the three of us in our Easter finery.



And here is a picture of me, Alison, and my dad.....not the most flattering picture, but it was better than the alternatives. :)



Here's a picture of Alison in her dress. Unfortunately she wasn't looking at the camera. The other picture we have of her when she's looking at the camera, she's covering up most of her dress with the arm cover from the sofa.



Here is Alison with two of her new stuffed animals. The duck was a gift from my MIL. It is a puppet and when you squeeze the beak, it will quack out "Here Comes Peter Cottontail." It's cute the first time or two and then it gets really annoying. The pink bunny, which is really a bear in a bunny suit, was a gift from my mom. She saw it in the hospital gift shop when she was walking one morning and it was gone by the time she got there to get a better look at it. Fortunately they got another one in and she was there as soon as the gift shopped opened to buy it.

Easter Weekend Recap (warning....very long)

We spent Easter weekend at my parents' house. Until a few weeks ago, we all thought that my mom was going to have the weekend off, but, as it turned out, it was her weekend to work.

We arrived around 9:30 Friday night and let Alison run around and blow off some steam for a while. After being strapped in her carset for over three hours at that point, she needed it. It was 11:00 by the time we finally got her into bed. That's pretty late for her, since she's usually in bed shortly after 9.

Saturday ended up being pretty hectic. My grandma decided that riding 25 miles from her house to my parents' for Easter dinner was "just too far," so we packed Alison up and headed in to see her Saturday morning instead. I know it will sound horrible, especially in light of the fact that Gramp just passed away at Christmas, but it's never pleasant to go and see my grandma. When Gramp was still alive, I made sure we went (if they weren't going to make it to may parents') because I knew he'd want to see Alison. We went on Saturday because I knew Grandma would want to see her, too, but it's such a pain! I had hoped to go in, visit and be home by 12:30, so Alison could have lunch and still go down for her nap close to 1:00. Well, we didn't even get home until almost 1:00, and it was after 2:00 before she settled down enough to go to sleep. Normally I don't let her sleep past 4:00, but I did Saturday. She slept until 4:30. My mom had gotten home a little after 3:00 and I helped her get a casserole together before she, Kevin, Alison, Bo and I left to go to the park and take a walk. It was a nice day for a walk. A little breezy (and therefore a little chilly), but it was sunny. We had a nice walk and came home to finish dinner....one of my favorites and one that is very, very bad for my "diet." Afterwards we went through the usual evening routine. I went to bed early, since we would have to get up early Sunday morning for church.

Oh yeah. Also on Saturday everyone felt the need to inform me that my brother had found a mouse in the bathtub when he came home to take a shower before work. I hate rodents. I especially hate them when they are in my (well, my parents') house. We had a rat in the house (though we didn't know that's what it was at the time) when I was 16 and I kid you not, I slept in the car in the driveway for 3 nights. After that I slept with my bedroom light on for over a month. So the news that Paul had found a mouse in the bathtub had me ready to head to the nearest motel, but we didn't. :) I just made sure that Kevin used the bathroom before me Sunday morning so he could check to make sure there were no unwelcome, furry visitors in the tub.

Easter morning was cloudy and cold. We decided not to attend the sunrise service since none of us wanted to get up in time to be there at 6:30. We opted for our usual 8:15 service instead. I don't really enjoy going to this church anymore, despite the fact that it is the church I grew up in. It is not a church I would be interested in joining if I were new to the area. We go because my parents are still members and partly out of habit. The chancel choir sang the same introit it has been singing for years. I have never been in the chancel choir, but I could sing right along with them without any trouble. The brass ensemble was there as usual, too, and Mr. C didn't frack nearly as often as he usually does (the trumpet isn't really his instrument and you can tell....he took it up because he wanted to be a music teacher, but he's really a trombone player). Instead of just having Easter lilies decorating the chancel, they also had an assortment of other flowers mixed in. The fragrance, from the hyacinths I think, was almost overpowering, especially since were weren't more than 12 feet back, sitting in the 3rd pew. Alison had a great time down in the cribroom. Carol, the cribroom attendant, was shocked at how much she has grown, how much she is talking and how much she is running around.

After church we went down to Fellowship Hall to have some coffee and juice. I took Alison back upstairs to see if we could find my friend Kari, and she and her daughter (who is just turning 1) happened to be in the Narthex. We chatted for a few minutes and then I went in to the Sanctuary to see her mom. We almost made her cry when Alison got down and started walking around. From there we had to head up to the choir room. I promised another friend's mom that I would bring Alison up since she had been off getting her diaper changed when she came down to see her, and besides, she had forgotten to bring pictures of her grandson down with her and I had to check them out. The choir got a kick out of watching Alison toddle around, even though only a few knew how big a deal it actually was. Kevin kept an eagle eye on her to make sure no one was feeding her goodies that had nuts or peanuts (or peanutbutter) in them. She was facinated with the windows because they had a deep sill and were only a foot off the ground, so she could climb up on the sill and look out. Fortunately only the top of the windows opened and she isn't that tall, but Kevin still kept a hand on her just to make sure there was no way she could fall out.

Since mom was working, Kevin and I were in charge of getting dinner on the table. Obviously that was easier said than done. I decided not to make scalloped potatoes but just bake them instead because I thought it would be easier.....unfortunately the potatoes were not done when we were ready to eat. Neither was the ham. Apparently it hadn't completely thawed the night before and it was still a little frozen in the center. The broccoli casserole came out all right, but the sweet potatoes could have baked a little longer. Oh well. We threw the ham and the baked potatoes in the microwave and everything ended up being edible. I made sure to bring home the broccoli recipe, too.

Once lunch was taken done, Alison went down for a nap and I got us all packed up and ready to go. Then I took a nap, too. Mom got home a little after 3, Alison got up at 4, and we were on the road by about 4:45. I felt bad that mom didn't get to spend that much time with Alison, but that's how it works out sometimes. We are going to be back in a few weeks to go to a wedding, so she'll get to spend plenty of time with her then. We made good time on the way home and, even with a stop for supper, pulled in the driveway at 9:30.

Miscelaneous Alison

I think it's time to get Alison a potty chair. Not because I think she's anywhere near ready to potty train (that is going to take a very long time I think....we don't know for sure what she can feel "down there"), but because we need someplace to put her when she starts to tinkle on the bathroom floor or poop in the bathtub. Tinkling on the floor is not such a huge deal and she's only done it twice, and the second time was just a little dribble. Pooping in the tub is another story. She did it for the second time in 3 nights last night. At least Kevin got her hair washed before she did it. Her toys are still in the dish drainer, since they had to get washed. Who knows, maybe she does feel when she's doing these things and putting her on the potty will help her to realize what she's doing.

Our next door neighbors have a motor home. Last night Alison was looking out the window at it asking Kevin "what this?" He told her it was a winnebago (or however the heck you spell that). Imagine my surprise when Alison actually said "winnebago," and fairly clearly, too.

One of Alison's new "tricks" it to insist on blessing meals. Now, we always say a blessing before supper, but as soon as we're all at the table for lunch, even if she's half way through her meal, she'll put her fists up next to her nose and say "bless" until we do -- Saturday morning Kevin even had to bless breakfast. When we're done, she'll even say amen. Of course, if she had her way, we'd bless at least 5 times during the course of a meal. For now we just keep telling her that we already blessed and she can go ahead and eat.

Today is the first time I have been able to run the sweeper without Alison having a major meltdown. She was starting to get better about it at the end of last year. Then she got sick and got put on Pulmicort. Although no one in the medical profession will believe me (except my brother's girlfriend) I think it has made her sensitive to noise. For a while even the furnace turning on would scare her half to death, so I think it goes without saying that the sweeper was almost like torture for her. She'd start to cry if I even said I was getting ready to run the sweeper. Then she'd cry when I was done. But today, I said I was going to run the sweeper and didn't get even so much as a whimper. She just hopped up in the "big" chair and stayed there until I was done. Then she got done and resumed playing. I think that's been the key.....being able to get up and away from it. Hopefully this wasn't a one time thing because shedding season is about to start and having a black dog and light brown carpet means a lot of vacuuming.

Easter Baskets

Each of Kevin's younger siblings has a child. We have two nephews and a neice. They are all older than Alison. Around the holidays, I like to do little things for them since they live far away from us and we don't get to see them very often. We send presents at Christmas, but I also send several dozen Christmas cookies. I also try to send cookies for Valentine's Day. I've sent green shamrock Rice Krispie treats before. Last year I sent Easter baskets with plastic eggs filled with Goldfish crackers, yogurt covered pretzels, apple chips, and banana chips. I also included a book. All the kids liked their treats, and their parents were glad for them to get something other than candy.

So Easter is almost here again and I decided to send baskets again. Since we can't really afford to be buying a new basket to send every year, I decided to take my mom's suggestion and make baskets. For just about $7, I was able to make 4 Easter baskets, which are a little larger than a family sized Kleenx box, out of posterboard and paper twist ribbon.





I didn't get books this year, but in addition to yogurt covered pretzels and raisins and some Goldfish, I made cookies.



I hope the kids like their baskets. My sister-in-law will die when she realizes not only did I send goodies, but I made the basket, too. She's told me before that she loves what I send for holidays and wishes she could think of doing that kind of stuff. Kevin thinks I do too much, especially because Alison never gets anything from any of them --that's why I didn't make and send what I wanted to do for St. Patrick's Day-- but I like to do it and I don't do it just so Alison might get something in return. Besides, the baskets were fun to make, and it was a good excuse to try new cookie recipes.

An Evening With the Easter Bunny

Well, we went to see the Easter Bunny after dinner last night. There were two kids in front of us --one a tiny baby, the other was probably 4 or 5-- so we had to wait a little bit. Alison had decided that she didn't need to sit in her stroller, so we were wandering around checking out the scenery while waiting for our turn. While the picture of the little girl ahead of us was printing out we headed up to the big bunny, who was stationed inside a small gazebo. Alison got a foot away from said gazebo and would not move another inch, no matter how much we cajoled her. Finally I took a risk and just picked her up put her in the gazebo. The bunny put his hand out and she kind of petted it. So far, so good. The photographer was just about ready to take her picture and Kevin was in position right under his camera with our camera (the mall has copyrighted it's holiday scenes, so we have to buy a picture in order to be able to take our own), so I went a step further, plopped her onto the bunny's lap and held my breath. She did great. I noticed the fan that was keeping the Easter Bunny cool was blowing up the back of Alison's hair, so the bunny redirected it and was smoothing down Alison's hair when the photographer took his first picture. It looked really cute. He took one more and Kevin took three and then we were done. We bought the second picture, the one with the huge grin. It looks pretty much like this, except everyone is centered (Kevin kind of slipped at the last second, apparently).



From the Easter Bunny, we headed down to the "play" area where they have all teh little ride on toys. It was going to be Alison's first time on one of these toys. We're kind of weird in that we like to take pictures of "first" no matter how insignificant they are, so we've waited until we had the camera with us to let her ride.



As you can see, it didn't go over so well. We had to take her off the train before it was even close to being done because Alison became hysterical. She did not want to be anywhere near that thing, or any of the other rides. Next time I think we'll just let her sit in it for a while before we attempt to make it actually run.


P.S. Now that I've kind of got the hang of adding pictures, I've also added a few to "Alison's Big Day," my entry from March 15, showing her and the people she worked with in the study she was part of.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

So far, for the past 3 days, the weather reports have been wrong. We've been supposed to have gloomy, cloudy, cold days in the low to mid 40's. Instead we've had beautiful, sunny, warmish days in the low to mid 50's. Hooray! Weather report says it's only supposed to be 35 tomorrow. I hope it's wrong again.

I am currently about at my wit's end trying to find white shoes for Alison to wear for Easter. I guess that's what I get for waiting until a week before Easter to get serious about finding them. I've been looking sporadically for a few weeks, but we did some serious shopping this morning. I've found several pairs that I liked, but they were either too big or too small or too wide. I found another pair that fit, but the only pair in her size were hot pink, which will not go with her Easter dress --or any other dress that she has right now either. So I did some searching around online and found the perfect shoes at Stride Rite. Unfortunately they are $25. I hate spending more money on shoes that Alison will only wear to church on Sundays than I am willing to spend on my own shoes, but I'm desperate. I have to see if my local store even has these shoes in stock in her size. Someone say a prayer that they do, otherwise Alison is going to church shoeless next week.

Alison has been sleeping well the past few nights. I'm so relieved. With daylight savings time starting tonight, I was worried that she would be even more sleep deprived than she already was.

We're going to take Alison to get her picture taken with the Easter Bunny tonight after dinner, so I hope she's in a good mood. She wasn't exactly thrilled with Santa when she got his picture taken with him, but we did manage to get her to smile. I hope we're that fortunate tonight. They're having pet day with the Easter Bunny tomorrow and it would be fun to take Bo and get a picture with the two of them with the Easter Bunny, but it falls during nap time and the rush to get read for youth group, so it's not going to happen.

--Weekly weight loss update--
I have now lost 21 pounds. I have also lost 4 1/2 inches off my waist and 5 inches off my hips. Yay me! I'm going to go out and celebrate by having having a Strawberry Shortcake at Ruby Tuesday. (Actually I was going to have one regardless, but it's nice to have something to celebrate, and I will be splitting it with Kevin and Alison.)