I Haven't Fallen Off the Face of the Earth...Yet

Ya, I've been super busy. This week I've been working odd shifts and I'm supposed to be writing a strategic analysis for class. For my team project due next week, I have to do a SWOTt.

Baby G is making huge leaps in his development. He is now sitting up on his own, and can look around at his environment while keeping his balance.


He's also eating solid food now. So far just the rice cereal. He didn't take well to the oatmeal.


We have lucked out in the short term for child care. We have a friend who's between jobs who will be watching him until she finds a new job. Aaron starts back to work on Tuesday.

I miss my blog and my wonderful readers and new friends terribly. I hope I can get in here more often. I also miss doing a craft post every week. Once things get situated, I hope to get back into all of this. Thank you for visiting and for your patience.

4 Months

Baby G is 4 months old today.



He's been working hard this past month. He's trying to pick up everything he sees.



He loves standing up and walking around the apartment with us.



He goes out a lot. He loves going on car trips.
Mostly he goes to the store or Post Office with Dad, or visits Mom in the Bookstore, but he's also been to Japan Town in San Francisco and he's been to the park.




He's been eager to use his hands to hold everything he can get them on.



Recently he started holding his bottle by himself. We don't let him do it too often, otherwise he'd never get any food.





Today he had his 4 month check-up and received another set of shots. We also got the okay from the pediatrician to start solids. We will probably start him on them tonight.
He's learning and growing so fast. This morning he started to sit up on his own, and has recently been trying really hard to get his feet into his mouth. Mommy and Daddy are super proud.

Would You Like the Long or Short Version?

I guess since my next post (Baby G's 4 month update which I hope to have up tomorrow) is going to be so long, that I should make this a short post. So, here are some bullet points to highlight my crappy weekend from hell.

*One crazy customer after another at work. Did someone let the crazies out of the bin this weekend? One guy (who had to be drunk) was trying to buy guns from us; a bookstore. He actually brought to me a print out of a book he ordered and said it was too cheap, he didn't want it to blow up in his face when he fired it. I told him I didn't think that the book would blow up on him. That's when he clarified he wanted a gun, not a book.

* No sleep on Sunday night due to a 4 month sleep regression and my crazy retail schedule. Monday morning meeting at 7 am and a split shift where I got no sleep in between and had to be back at work to close from 6pm to 11pm.

*In between this I am working on Aaron's taxes. Such a frustrating experience I am surprised I made it through the day.

*Actually, today was so horrible and I am so tired that I have forgotten most of the weekend.

Tomorrow I start school. I have gotten my books downloaded and an outline for my first paper completed already. I just need to write my bio for the first day of class and I should be good to go. Once I have my syllabus I can get into my Google Calender and set up my study and blogging times.

So much other stuff as well, but this is getting longer than I wanted and I am very tired.

Goodnight...

Some Quick Fun Before I Leave For Work

I was cleaning out my laptop so that I can reformat it later and ran across some quizzes and buttons that I never posted anywhere so I thought I'd post them here quickly just for fun. (I'm having a crappy day so far and I'd like to strangle some people right now.)






Jolly good, wot! Anyone for tennis? That'll be ten ponies, guv. You're the epitome of everything that is english. Yey :) Hoist that Union Jack!

How British are you?

this quiz was made by alanna

Your Element Is Air

You dislike conflict, and you've been able to rise above the angst of the world. And when things don't go your way, you know they'll blow over quickly. Easygoing, you tend to find joy from the simple things in life. You roll with the punches, and as a result, your life is light and cheerful. You find it easy to adapt to most situations, and you're an open person. With you, what you see is what you get... and people love that!

What's Your Element?

Your #1 Match: ENFJ

The Giver You strive to maintain harmony in relationships, and usually succeed. Articulate and enthusiastic, you are good at making personal connections. Sometimes you idealize relationships too much - and end up being let down. You find the most energy and comfort in social situations ... where you shine. You would make a good writer, human resources director, or psychologist.

Your #2 Match: ENFP

The Inspirer You love being around people, and you are deeply committed to your friends. You are also unconventional, irreverant, and unimpressed by authority and rules. Incredibly perceptive, you can usually sense if someone has hidden motives. You use lots of colorful language and expressions. You're qutie the storyteller! You would make an excellent entrepreneur, politician, or journalist.

Your #3 Match: ESFJ

The Caregiver You are sympathetic and caring, putting friends and family first. A creature of habit, you prefer routines and have trouble with change. You love being in groups - whether you're helping people or working on a project. You are good at listening, laughing, and bringing out the best in people. You would make a great nurse, social worker, or teacher.

Your #4 Match: ESFP

The Performer You are a natural performer and happiest when you're entertaining others. A great friend, you are generous, fun-loving and optimistic. You love to laugh - and you like almost all people equally. You accept life as it is, and you do your best to make each day fantastic. You would make a good actor, designer, or counselor.

Your #5 Match: INFJ

The Protector You live your life with integrity, originality, vision, and creativity. Independent and stubborn, you rarely stray from your vision - no matter what it is. You are an excellent listener, with almost infinite patience. You have complex, deep feelings, and you take great care to express them. You would make a great photographer, alternative medicine guru, or teacher.

What's Your Personality Type?

And after posting them here I can see why I never posted them anywhere. Except for that British one, I liked that.

I Do Not Want this Man to Go Back to Work

Last night I had this for dinner:


That sauce on the chicken he made himself. It was DELICIOUS. That dinner was made even better by Baby G whom I had to hold while eating.



He managed to do this:


I did get to eat the majority of that delicious food though.

Then this morning, I got this for breakfast:



Yeah, I think I'd like him to stay home a little while longer.

Is it Friday Already?

No Friday Project this week. I haven't had a day off since Sunday, and don't have another day off until tomorrow, and then my sister is coming down to spend the day with us. I have some new pictures to post, and if I can get them onto the computer this morning I'll have at least one nice post for the week. I have to start getting ready for work in about two hours. Ugh.

What Little Free Time I Have is About to Get Smaller

One month ago I was supposed to start back to school. I tried getting a hold of my academic counselor a few times, but never heard back. I gave up and decided to just enjoy what little free time I had. Well, I finally talked to her yesterday. Starting next Tuesday, I will be back in school. How I'll find the time to get in here I don't yet know. I may have to give up on my Friday Project, or just make it a once a month thing. What I may have to do is schedule in time on my calendar. It was hard enough working full-time and going to school full-time, now throw a baby into the mix and I'm just a little scared.

Friday Project: Easter Eggs

Again, I am very sorry I'm so late with this. It's been a hellish week, I had no sleep and that pesky family time kept getting in the way (jk). Anyway, it's finally complete, though not as spectacular as I was hoping since I rushed it. It took me awhile to figure out what to do for a craft project this week and I didn't really have anything until yesterday. I was at JoAnn's getting some fabric to make a baby sling with (my Rebozo is just too small now) and saw the eggs, and some felt and went from there.



These are really fun to make, and kids can work on them too, though I wouldn't let them use a glue gun; rubber cement, or even some Elmer's glue might work.

What you'll need:



1. Egg shapes. I couldn't find Styrofoam, which is what I really wanted to use, so I got the plastic eggs instead, and they worked great.
2. Felt.
3. Ribbon.
4. Findings such as buttons, or whatever embellishments you'd like to add.
5. Scissors and glue gun, or just glue.

The first thing you'll want to do its cut a rectangle length of felt that will fit around your egg. The size you cut will depend on the size of the egg you are using.



Next, you'll want to glue the bottom of the egg to the middle of the felt.



Then bring both sides of the felt together at the top and glue to the egg. the felt should be tight and smooth on both sides, cut off any excess felt at the top.



Next, glue the felt to the sides of the egg so that when both sides are glued you have a square.



Then cut the corners off and glue down.



When you are done, your egg should look like this:



If anyone knows of a way to make that smoother, please share. It took me awhile to figure out how to get the felt around the egg.

Now we will add the ribbon. Glue the ribbon around the sides of the egg to cover the seams. You can make a bow at the top.



Now add your decorations, such as buttons or whatever you choose.



That's it. The possibilities for colors, and decoration are endless, use your imagination and have fun.

So Sorry

I'm so sorry I haven't gotten up the Friday Project yet. It will be complete and posted shortly. In the meantime, here are some pictures from our day at Japan town yesterday.
The Cherry Blossoms


We ate at a Japanese restaurant and what did I order? Fish and Chips.



And here is the funniest picture I have ever seen. Aaron is really excited? And that look on Baby G's face, SCARY!

Late, Late, Late

The Friday Project will be late. I'll be posting it later tonight. We're off to Japantown today....

My StepMother is Dead Redux

Lots of personal family stuff going on in my life right now. My father, after 15 years, has decided that he wants a relationship again. Of course he doesn't want all the nasty stuff that goes along with that, like apologies and owning up to his wrongs. I won't go into everything that happened right now, but suffice it to say that he screwed up way beyond anything that any parent is allowed to screw up. My step-mother had the bigger part in all of it. She was the most evil person I have ever known. Her vindictiveness and my father's greed tore the family apart. I found out last night that on her death bed she was worried for her soul, as well she should have been. I swear I laughed harder than I have in a long time over that one. It's something she should have thought of before going around screwing people for fun and profit. Anyway, I thought I would repost the picture of the cake I baked in celebration of her passing last year.



We watched the Wizard of Oz and ate this cake.
I don't know if it's possible to ever forgive my father, but I certainly won't be forgetting and moving on as he would like.

[Update: I feel so much better now. Getting that off my chest this morning, and staying angry for the past couple of days helped my brain get stuff straight in my head. So did some talks with other family members. We are a happy family without him in it. It's sad, for sure, but that was his choice many years ago, and throughout the past 15 years he has had many chances to decide otherwise, he chose greed and power above his family. You can't take that back and make everyone forget how horribly you treated them.
Maybe one of these days I'll fill you all in on the details, I'm sure you're dying to know. Aaron says this could all be a Lifetime Original Movie and that I should write a memoir, or go to Oprah. All I want is for it to be over once and for all so I can move on with my life. Maybe I will write about it one day, but I'll wait for for my Father to be gone before then; I don't want him profiting even further from my pain. Anyway, thanks internets for letting me vent today]

What to Say?

I wanted to post something today, but really don't have much to say.
I just took a nice, long, hot bubble bath and started reading Eragon. I know, I'm way behind on the popular reading, there's just so much good stuff out there. The book is okay. As much as it's been hyped I was expecting more, but I'm only a couple chapters in so far, so we'll see.

Baby G is asleep on my chest. He's been fussy all day. Aaron is in the kitchen making carrot cake, and Back to the Future is playing in the background. As much as I complain you would think I'm really unhappy. In reality I think I have it pretty good.

A Tired Introvert

Work is kicking my butt, especially since I have no free time anymore. I'm an introvert and I need time alone, to recuperate.
A quote from Wikipedia gives a fairly good definition of introversion:

Introversion is "the state of or tendency toward being wholly or predominantly concerned with and interested in one's own mental life". ^[1] Introverts tend to be quiet, low-key, deliberate, and relatively non-engaged in social situations. They take pleasure in solitary activities such as reading, writing, watching movies, inventing, and designing. An introverted person is likely to enjoy time spent alone and find less reward in time spent with large groups of people (although they may enjoy one-to-one or one-to-few interactions with close friends).

Johnathan Rauch sums it up even better in his article Caring for Your Introvert:

Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice?

I need time alone. I'm not getting much time alone lately, heck, I'm not getting any time alone, and having to be out in public for 8 hours a day is sucking the life out of me. Time outside of work is spent constantly multitasking.

I've got all these great ideas for my blog and have not had time to put anything together. I'm hoping I'll be able to get started this week. So please bear with me while I try to get my stuff together, I may post intermittently.