The Fall Update

So I guess now I will start doing seasonal updates to my blog. LOL!!! Though if you check out my business blog, you will see I've been busy with that side of my life - personal blogging has taken a back seat.

We are getting ready to head to New York for a week, to visit a friend and make a day trip to New York City. We've never been to the northeast in the fall, so we are looking forward to this trip! I hope the colors are still nice when we get there. We leave Wednesday and will return the following Wednesday or Thursday.

OK - the Aiden update. He's turning into a little person! Yesterday he made a great little friend at a park playground. He played with this little girl for about an hour. They were so cute together. He is talking more and more everyday, and some of the thoughts that make their way to his mouth are quite impressive. I am pleased to announce also that Aiden is fully potty trained now, at least in the day time. He's had #1 down for a long time, and #2 came together over the past month! Thank goodness!! I was tired of 3 year old poopy!! He doesn't wake up in the night to take himself potty, so we end up with wet pj's about every other night. But that will come in due time just as everything else has.

Only 2 months until Christmas! I need to work on a 'wish list' for Aiden. He's already been telling me that Santa is bringing him a Snow Plow to put on his Thomas engine. :)

Until next time...

Bad Blogger

I've been a bad blogger - life gets busy and my computer time is spent working instead of typing out some random thoughts from life. Maybe in the winter when things slow down a bit I can get back to blogging more.

We've had a nice summer - aside from being sick a decent chunk of July, but we are all healthy and alive - we can't really complain. :) Matt and I took a trip to Baltimore - Matt worked, I hung around. Most of the entertainment on that trip was paid for by the company hosting the event, which was nice. We went to an Orioles game, we were fed well - Matt and I only paid for about 3 meals while we were there. We took advantage of our Aiden-free time (he was with Gramma and Poppa) and went to see Transformers - that took me back to my childhood (Autobots! Roll out!!). LOL!!!

Other than that - I've been busy with photosessions the last part of July and most of this month. And I'm getting more and more inquiries. I guess the fall/holiday rush is beginning. I can't wait for it to cool off and do some comfortable outdoor sessions. It's just too hot to do anything outside right now.

I hear Aiden calling me from his room, so I better see what is up. Hopefully I won't go so long before posting an update here.

Until next time!

And June 2007 is almost history

I've been the worst blogger lately - mainly because I've been busy with other web related activities. I've updated my photography website and built a 'studio' blog. Other non-internet related activities that have kept me busy have been a weekend trip back home to the mountains (for some family time and photography fun), Aiden's birthday, MY birthday, several photography sessions, and other things that I won't bore you with the details.

Aiden's birthday was very small and subdued this year. Matt had been busy with work so we just didn't plan anything for the weekend before his birthday. So, for Aiden's birthday, we took him to Monkey Joe's for some bouncing fun, and then to CiCi's for pizza. He had a fun time bouncing once he got used to all the noise in the place. If you have a Monkey Joe's near you, I suggest you look into taking your kids there. It's a fun place to let your kids bounce themselves to exhaustion. They even had special toddler areas for bouncing, away from the crazy big kids!

I turned 29 the other week. I feel too young to be closing in on 30. When I think of someone being 30, I think of someone who is grown up and has it all together... Deep down, I still feel like a little girl - it's hard to explain with words (I'm so not good with words!). Anyway... it's too early for me to wax poetic about my feelings on being 'almost 30.'

Let's see, is there any other big news? Not really. Matt and I will be going on a getaway to Baltimore the middle of July (and leaving Aiden with the grandparents). Matt has a work thing up there that he was told to go to. It will be nice to have a few days away, even if Matt will be 'working.' The best part is, it's a mini-vacation for not a lot of money.

Until next time...

Song of the moment

I've listened to it all evening, and it's just after midnight and I'm still listening to it.

I love Rob Thomas. I didn't like his first solo release - I have purged that song from my memory, but his song "Little Wonders," I adore. The addictive melody, the words...

let it go,
let it roll right off your shoulder
don’t you know
the hardest part is over
let it in,
let your clarity define you
in the end
we will only just remember how it feels

our lives are made
in these small hours
these little wonders,
these twists & turns of fate
time falls away,
but these small hours,
these small hours still remain

let it slide,
let your troubles fall behind you
let it shine
until you feel it all around you
and i don’t mind
if it’s me you need to turn to
we’ll get by,
it’s the heart that really matters in the end

our lives are made
in these small hours
these little wonders,
these twists & turns of fate
time falls away,
but these small hours,
these small hours still remain

all of my regret
will wash away some how
but i can not forget
the way i feel right now

in these small hours
these little wonders
these twists & turns of fate
these twists & turns of fate
time falls away but these small hours
these small hours, still remain,
still remain
these little wonders
these twists & turns of fate
time falls away
but these small hours
these little wonders still remain

Happy Mother's Day

I got the best Mother's Day present today. And before I get started, let me warn you - poopoo and a 2 year old are involved!

Problems are going on at my husband's work, so that has required him to work this weekend, and of course to work on Mother's Day. So, Aiden and I are spending this Sunday like we would most days of the week, just the two of us. Anyway, during one of his typical two year old temper tantrums I told him to go into his room if he wanted to scream like that. He willingly ran to his room and slammed the door. Where on earth did he get that?

He pitched his little fit which was probably over in about 60 seconds, and then he started to play with his toys in his room. After a few minutes of quiet playing, he emerges from the room and he TELLS ME that he NEEDS TO POOP! This is coming from the boy who has avoided pooping on the toilet for the most part over our potty training experiences. And get this... he sat on the toilet and he DID IT!!! I am so proud of him. I really can't say I've done anything to 'potty train' him as he has done it all himself. I'm hoping that this little incident that falls in the "WIN" column on the potty training score card is noting the end of the pooping debacle.

So, for the rest of my Mother's Day, I am planning on going out to my mother in law's house to spend the afternoon, let Aiden play and do fun things that he doesn't get to do here, and I am going to enjoy my afternoon documenting his experiences with my trusty Canon 30D!

Happy Mother's Day to all my momma friends! :o)

April is almost gone!

And I've realized I've been such a slacker this month with my blog. Such is my blogging life; it seems to ebb and flow. ;-)

We had a nice trip to Chattanooga. Aiden had a blast going on the little train ride and climbing all over the engines and cars they had out. We went to the aquarium too and saw way too many fish. It was fun, but we tried to do the aquarium in only a couple hours, and that was just too many fish in too small of a time period. Aiden enjoyed it for the most part. We visited Lookout Mountain, which Aiden seemed to love for some reason, because we really didn't do anything there. I think he just liked saying "Lookout Mountain." And we spent a few days wandering around the battlefield at Chickamauga. I always knew there was a Civil War battle that occurred there, but I never really knew much about it at all. I enjoy history, and especially learning about it. I hope Aiden grows up with a love of history as well.

I had my first photo session of 2007 last Friday. It was with an adorable TINY little newborn. I had a lot of fun. It was fun to be taking pictures of someone other than Aiden for a change. I have another session this afternoon with a family of eight! It's actually two families that are doing this for one of the mothers for Mother's Day.

We've done really well with potty training. Aiden did fairly well on the trip, and ever since he has rarely had an accident. He sometimes is a little wet in the mornings, but that is just because I can't convince him to come out of his room on his own in the mornings to come get me to take him to the potty. We'll work on that. Oh, and pooping isn't going so hot. We're about 50% on successes with that. But, I'm really not complaining. I'm so proud of him doing so well with everything.

I must close and finish my internet rounds while I still have some coffee to drink. I'll also update the photoblog. If you check out my flickr site, you can see our pictures from the Chattanooga trip.

Happy Monday!

Potty Successes!

So, it seems like all of a sudden Aiden is getting the hang of this potty thing. He is basically figuring it all out on his own, much like I anticipated he would, once he got the little kick in the hiney that he needed to get him started. He has peed on the potty every day for over a week, and usually a couple times a day. Yesterday he peed on the toilet 5 times. Today, aside from nap time, he has been in underwear all day long! Aside from some poopoo accidents, which I really can't blame at all on him since he has been having some nasty poo belly for the past several days, he had absolutely no accidents at all today! He is growing up so fast. He is in his big boy bed now, and he stays put in the mornings until I come in to get him. He is sleeping without his pacifier now. "Sunrise, sunset." My baby is turning into a kid. It's a bittersweet thing. I'm sad to see the baby days go, but I'm excited to get to know my child even more as he grows up.

:)

A big boy...

We finally took the side rail off Aiden's crib this past weekend. He has been sleeping in his 'big boy bed' like a champ ever since. We had bought one of those safety rails, but with the way his bed is made, there isn't a good way to attach one, so he's been sleeping with pillows beside his bed in case he rolls into the floor. So far, at least as far as we know, there have been no issues. The cutest thing is, he still won't get out of his bed on his own in the morning when he wakes up. He waits for me to come in and tell him it's time to get up. How nice is that?

Last night when Matt and I put him to bed, we got him all settled, and he actually forgot to ask for his pacifier. I try to not offer it at all, and had only been giving it to him if he asked for it. Well, he's closing in on 3 years old. There is no need for him to be sucking on anything anymore... So, last night, I made it out the door before he could ask to have it. Within a minute or so of me closing his door, I hear crying. :o( I didn't give in, and he ended up going to sleep with out it. I heard him wake up once this morning fussing, and I tried my best to tune it out and he ended up going to back to sleep. I hope this is the end of the pacifier. Next big tackle... no more diapers! I've taken Aiden's lead and backed off a bit on potty training. He peed on the potty the last two nights before bed time. We'll see where this small successes lead us.

Now, I'm going to get a cup of coffee and sit down and watch AI from last night. I heard that Sanjaya gave quite an interesting performance...

Ah-ah-aahhhh CHOOOOOOOOOOOO

Sneezing is all I'm doing this morning! GAAH! Spring is in full force and my body is in full force reacting to it. I'll be glad when I'm over this part of spring!

Life has been ok. I haven't had much to say as not much has been going on recently. Matt is working at night, so my days are sort of weird right now. I think most of the cold weather is behind us, at least for the foreseeable future, so hopefully we'll be spending more time outside. I really need to work on weeding some of the flower beds and also planting some stuff.

Aiden has LOVED having all of this train stuff. I swear, it is pretty much all he plays with. He loves building the track and he has it running all through the living room. It's so fun watching him build things. It amazes me too how good of a job he does with it too!

Must close for now and get back to my laundry. Just wanted to give a little update to my millions of blog readers out there! :)

(If any of my friends in RALEIGH are reading this... We'll be there this Friday (we think!!) just for the day as Matt needs to be at work around 11 that night... I know coming in the week is stupid if I want to visit people, but it's easiest for us, especially right now with Matt working all the time... bleh!)

Four minutes to midnight

And I'm finally feeling tired! The time change throws me off SOOO much.

Anyway, I listed my blog at 5 Minutes for Mom and my interview is up for folks to read. Click on the graphic below to go to my interview. Maybe you will learn something about me. :)

I don't like Time Changes...

It throws off my sleep, my daily schedule... It's 8:40 and I'm finally rolling out of bed. Maybe that has to do with the fact that I didn't go to bed until 2am. BUT, how can I go to bed at a 'normal' time when my body thinks it's an hour behind?! GAAH!! I wonder how the grand experiment of starting DST early is going to end up. I think, just for kicks and giggles, next year, we shouldn't even change the clocks. See what THAT does to our energy consumption. I don't like these people playing with my sleep schedule. Aren't there places in Indiana and Arizona that ignore the time change? I'm going there!!! Seriously though, I guess the one bright point of this daylight savings time thing is that it is after 8:30am and Aiden is still asleep, and he even went to bed between 8 and 8:30 last night. He had been waking up earlier and earlier until today. He's sawing logs in his crib right now. :o)

Spring is springing in NC this week. Our high yesterday was in the 70's and this week we are forecast to hit 80! How crazy is that?! Trees are budding, daffodils are past their peak, and my plants are starting to poke their heads out of the soil. I weeded my front flower bed this weekend because they got incredibly out of hand with this warm weather we've had.

I never got to comment on American Idol this week. Oh wow, what a shocker!! I cannot believe that Sanjaya is staying. He has a nice voice, but he is BORING. And I love happy people, but goodness, this guy smiles ALL THE TIME, well except when he's waiting for the results to be read. Then he himself is incredibly surprised that he made it through to the next round. He's overcome with such amazement that even he can't even smile. I'm glad Antonella is gone. She just didn't do very well at all. Her voice in the lower register... nuh uh. She couldn't hit them. I'm quite shocked that she made it as far as she did. And Sabrina going home... while I think she was the better singer over Haley, I'm not surprised in the least. And to be perfectly honest... I VOTED FOR HALEY. I don't know what it was about Sabrina. I just didn't see STAR when she was up on stage. I saw a singing machine, a robot with a good, well trained voice, but she lacked charisma. Now did Haley have that much more personality? No, but for some reason I just liked her more. And her voice isn't bad. I'm eager to see what she does in the coming weeks.

OK, there is my update. And it sounds like I've finished just in time as I hear Aiden singing from his room. :o)

Happy Monday!

The Name Game

I saw this on someone else's blog and thought this would be fun, especially since not much thought is involved. I've been on the couch basically since Wednesday afternoon, and I'm finally feeling better today.

Anyway, here's MY name game:

The Name Game

1. YOUR REAL NAME: Catherine Elisabeth

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first three letters of your name, plus izzle): Cat-izzle

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three of your last): C-Kee (ok?)

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (fav color and fav animal): Yellow Cat (sounds like an illness you'd catch in the swamp or something, lol)

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, Street you live on): Elisabeth Foxberry (now that sounds like a real soap opera name doesn't it??)

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of mom’s maiden name): Keecast

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (favorite color, favorite drink): Yellow Sweet Tea (I guess I'm superhero that sends her enemies into a diabetic coma with my super sugary sweet iced tea!)

8. YOUR IRAQI NAME: (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, any letter of your middle name, 2nd letter of your moms maiden name, 3rd letter of your dad’s middle name, 1st letter of a sibling’s first name, last letter of your moms middle name): Aestfpn - ok that isn't even pronouncable... much like the Iranian president's name... ahmadinejad... I mean Presiden Tom.

9. YOUR STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/body spray): Pink

10. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother & father’s middle name): Ann Fern

If you've read this, you're tagged! Post it on your blog and then leave a note in comments! Thanks for playing! :o)

Update

Just writing something to say I've posted something today...

I felt under the weather today with a headache, fever, chills... I had the same thing a week ago and it was gone by the next day. I hope that's the same story this week. I'm going to bed in a few minutes, to watch American Idol and fall asleep. I had thought of some great tidbits to post about the AI show last night, but my brain just isn't functioning tonight. I'm lucky to be here at the computer. As soon as my tea is finished, I'm hitting the sack!

The train table came today, along with another set of track. The box the track set came in wasn't covered or anything, so Aiden saw exactly what it was. He got all excited, squealing and waving his arms, when he saw it. He was good about us not opening it until later. Matt and I are going to try to get it put together tomorrow night. I'll need to break out the video camera to capture Aiden's reaction to having a full fledged train table with all sorts of friends of Thomas. :o)

Closing to go sip tea and sit on the couch and finish watching Shepard Smith...

The Week of the Train Table...

We're assuming most of the train table stuff will be coming this week, at least we hope so. Today, we received the second of a number of sets we've won off of Ebay.

The newest friends of Thomas to come to our house are Edward, Lady, Percy, Frank, Wilbert, Bertie, Clarabel, Terance, Toad, Gordon, Henry, Donald, Annie and Clarabel, Daisy, and Harold, along with a number of cars for all of these engines to pull.


We had one potty success this morning! Woohoo!!! Aiden told me he needed to poop, so we went to the bathroom. He peed instead of pooping, but I don't care... after a literal DRY SPELL on the toilet, I was happy to see any type of progress. Of course later in the morning, I caught him in the pooping act and asked him if he wanted to sit on the potty. Bribery, often called a no-no in parenting, I feel, is perfectly acceptable in the realm of potty training, especially if it means I'm not going to be changing yucky diapers anymore. Too bad bribery doesn't usually work with Aiden, as was the case this morning. Promises of treats and stickers didn't influence his pooping location, and he proceeded to poop in his diaper. Of course, after the deed is done, he comes to me BEGGING to sit on the potty. When I tell him he's too late for the potty, he is very sad and protests getting his diaper changed. I see a REALLY long TTT (the toilet training tunnel) ahead of us.

What a fun weekend!

I'm getting an early start to my Monday! I'm sipping some Orange Cappucino (YUM!!). It's been a while since I've had any. I've got my dishwasher running and I'm doing my blog entry for the day. My goal is to be super productive today and get a number of things done.

Our weekends normally always start on Friday, which is SUPER nice. The weekends are still always too short, but I guess they are never as short as the typical two day weekend would seem. Anyway, back to Friday... We all got out of bed a little late, probably around 8:30 or so, we ate breakfast and went to the YMCA that morning. Our only other plans for that day were coming back home, and maybe going out to the grocery store later, and Matt wanted to burn his big pile of sticks from the three trees he cut down last weekend.

We got home from the Y, piddled around for a bit, and then went back out. We made one grocery store stop, then walked through Walmart, then we went to the post office to mail a couple big envelopes, and THEN we headed down to Charlotte to look at some amps/receivers for our surround sound. Poor Matt... he is so torn on replacing our amp/receiver. The center channel doesn't work, and of course the warranty has run out, and of course you can't find anyone who will really work on the brand it is (NAD). We are the best at finding brands most people have never heard of... ever heard of a Venta Airwasher or a Bamix handmixer?? Well, if you haven't, WE HAVE BOTH OF THOSE. Usually, we enjoy using our uncommon brand stuff, but the amp is probably the only thing with which we've had issues.

Our first stop was lunch at Jason's Deli. I love eating there. Matt and I shared a taco salad, and Aiden had a pb&j with a fruit cup and some apple juice. The big kid food is a little expensive, but you get so much. And a meal for the little kids is only like $2, so I really can't complain. They did skimp on Aiden's fruit cup this time though. Aiden had fun with the free ice cream cone too. He put his mini muffin in the top of the cone and ate his muffin cone. He's such a nut!

So we get down to the Tweeter store and Matt takes some time looking at the different models he has in mind. In the meantime, Aiden and I are enjoying watching the HDTV's they have on display. Aiden especially liked the horse race! He also enjoyed watching the BASE jumpers diving off of cliffs. Everytime they jumped off, Aiden would say, "UH OH!!!!" I told him to NEVER do anything like that, at least while I was alive! Matt finished up and we walked out of the store empty handed.

We then ventured through the parking lot to Barnes&Noble (all of these stores are around the mall). I wanted to find a specific book on potty training that I've heard good things about. It's written by Mo Willems (he's written for Sesame Street and also has a ton of other children's books on etiquette, et al). Time to Pee comes with a chart and stickers, and while I could do all this by myself, I thought a NEW BOOK might be just one more tool in my toilet-training arsenal.

Alas, B&N did not have the book I wanted, but Aiden did get some playtime in with the Thomas trainset they had in the kids' section. Which gave us the NEXT idea of heading over to TRU (that's Toys 'R Us for all you non-parental types) to check out train sets and train tables. Though they didn't have what we thought we might be able to get there, that put a wild hair in our hineys for finally working on what we said we were doing for Aiden's Christmas present... a train table! Matt had planned on building the table himself, but after doing some online research, there are some nice tables out there that are reasonably priced, and buying a table takes much less time than building it himself... and Matt is stretched thin with his free time right now. So, we're buying some track sets off of ebay and we're going to find a table, and hopefully in a few weeks, we will surprise Aiden with his super late Christmas present. :o)

We finished up at TRU, headed over to Best Buy to look at their amps. Aiden and I sat on the floor and watched Jewel sing on the HDTV's while Matt shopped. Again, we walked out of the store empty handed. We then came home and made some yummy hamburgers and called it a night.

We got up Saturday, and quite honestly, right now I can't remember how the day started. Matt's intentions for Saturday was to do some more work outside. It was a cool cloudy day and Matt got a decent bit of work done. We decided to have lunch and then take a drive in the new-to-us Volvo, something we haven't done yet, up to the mountains since it was snowing up there. It was a fun drive and the snow in the mountains was beautiful! It really makes us miss our 'home.' We stopped at the original Mast General Store, shopped for a little while, and walked out with a bottle of Burt's Bees Baby Bee Buttermilk Lotion (if you haven't tried Burt's Bees products you should!), a 4-foot stick of beef jerky, a bottle of rootbeer for Matt, a bottle of Cheerwine for me (made with REAL SUGAR and not corn syrup... it makes all the difference!!), and some candy from the candy bins for Aiden. It was beginning to get dark, and it was getting close to suppertime, so we headed back down the mountain, stopped at Ruby Tuesday's for dinner and then came home.

Yesterday was a typical Sunday except we didn't head to Grandma's as she is in Florida for a reunion. It was incredibly windy here yesterday and it's cold this morning (19!). However, we might see 70's later in the week... unbelievable! My daffodils are now blooming too...

Happy Monday!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Now I have time to finish this post...

This is the front a card that Aiden and I made for Daddy this morning. Aiden helped me glue on the hearts. :o)

I watched my Tivo'd episode of AI this morning. I'm so excited to see who the final 24 will be. I can't remember having someone to root for this early in the season last year, but this year, I'm all over Chris Sligh. He's funny, he's unique, and he has a really good voice that sounds REAL. He's not a machine singing. He sings with his soul and you can hear it when he does. When he first showed up on the show and he said he wanted to make David Hasselhoff cry, I knew EXACTLY what he was talking about (The Hoff was in tears over Taylor's celebratory finale song on last season's AI). He has a quirky sense of humor and he seems like a really down to earth guy. Another plus for him, he's somewhat local. He lists his hometown now as Greenville, SC, though after doing some research on him I've discovered he lived in Europe for a while with his parents. I wonder if he ever thought people would be googling his name like they are right now. Anyway, Chris... as of right now, you're my AI fave!!

It's the Simple Pleasures...

that make me want to wash our bedding every Monday. Yes I'm talking about Downy Simple Pleasures. The lavender and vanilla scent is WONDERFUL. I really think I sleep better on Monday nights due to the clean fresh sheets and the yummy smell.

I keep reading about all these yucky stomach bugs going around and I'm SO thankful we haven't come down with that in our house. I had a yucky dream last night that everyone around me had it, and they ended up giving it to me. I actually dreamed that I THREW UP! How weird is that? Anyway, all the more reason to stay at home this time of year. :o)

There isn't much else going on... I have to figure out dinner tonight. With our lazy day yesterday, Aiden and I invited the Red Baron over for pizza. It's so hard to cook for yourself and a two year old.

Happy Tuesday!


OK, I see it's still putting a border around the picture... I wonder how to make it not show up. Blogger has made it SOOO hard to figure out simple customizations now. New Blogger has some pretty cool features, but I miss my friend OLD BLOGGER. ;o)

I digress...

OK, I found it... OBVIOUSLY! I might learn some CSS after all this!

A New Look!

I think I'm somewhat satisfied with the layout of this template. With a bit of tweaking and learning how to 'hack' the 'easier to use' new Blogger, I'm fairly pleased with how things look around here now.

I just couldn't get things going today. I got sucked into overhauling my blog and doing some other things, my to-do list should've just been thrown out the window. Aiden and I were just lazy bums most of the day. We did go outside this afternoon to get some fresh air as it was in the 60's this afternoon! NICE! We didn't do any school stuff, so I might just go ahead and take this next week off. Lucky for the house, I'm up-to-date on my cleaning, so nothing is really NEEDING to be done with that. It's so nice to stay on top of that and have all the cleaning under control.

The strawberry pie was a hit with Matt, so he has requested another one. It was on the to-do list for today, but it didn't get made. I might work on that this evening. At the very least, it will get done tomorrow.

Today is my parents' 42nd wedding anniversary. What an accomplishment!! :o)

Check out what I made today:






It's my REAL signature! Now I can sign off on my blog entries!

Yay! It's Friday!

The week seems a lot longer when your husband is getting home between 10:30-11:00pm every night Monday through Thursday. It's almost 9:30, and he is still in bed, presumably snoozing, or at least trying to zone out while Aiden is playing noisily. I know he must be exhausted.

Our cats went absolutely crazy this morning. It's been a LONG time since they fought like they did a few years ago. I was scared. I hollared for Matt to come help (he obviously was still in bed), and he broke up the altercation. Poor Aiden was in his bed crying telling me he was scared. The cats were LOUD. Sometimes, the cats drive us absolutely crazy, but I would feel absolutely horrible about giving them away. The thought does still cross my mind though. They are part of our family and they are our responsibility, so we can't just toss them out with the dishwater.

Today we need to go to Sam's and pick up some of our Sam's staples. I should make a list so we don't forget anything. I feel like I'm already forgetting something we need to do today. I love mommy brain, don't you??

Happy Friday

Busy Bee

First of all, I want to apologize for the neverending template changes that are going on with my blog right now. Since I switched over to the 'new' Blogger, my old templates didn't use all of the new features, so I'm stuck with generic blogger templates right now. Blah.

I was a busy bee yesterday! I wrote a to-do list Monday evening before going to bed. I got EVERYTHING accomplished that was on my list, and it wasn't short, except for finishing the goodwill donation... that is just an ongoing project. I made the strawberry pie from the recipe I posted yesterday. It's one of my all-time favorite desserts. Aiden had fun sharing squirts out of the whipped cream can!

So, I got brave this morning and put Aiden in underwear. I set the kitchen timer to go off in an hour from the time he got up as he's usually already gone by the time I know he's awake. He stayed completely dry until just about 5 minutes ago, just as the next set of time was up. I hope he noticed that he peed.. I took him to the potty and cleaned him up and said we'll try again later. He was walking rather strangely as we walked to the bathroom, so maybe he will at least feel uncomfortable with the pee soaked underwear. I think it will also help me to see what are his usual 'pee times' for the day, so we can work on getting some successful potty trips under our belt.

It is supposed to be warm today... it is already 51F. We're supposed to make it up to around 60F. We will be spending some time outside later as I need to move/stack wood again.

Now I need to go clean out the fireplace and then vacuum.. then it's lunchtime. I'm already hungry!