What to write, what to write...

I guess we'll start out with a recipe. I love to cook and since David and I have embarked on a competition to loose weight, I'll share a newly acquired household staple. I got this from a fellow Weight Watcher and modified the crap out of it. It works best if you throw it all in a crockpot, but you can get that nice burned flavour on a cooktop.

Nina's Chicken Tortilla Soup:

1 c skim milk

12 oz. water

2 Chipotle Bullion Cubes (Mexican aisle)

3 large chicken breasts (the HUGE ones, can be frozen)

1 can of Newman's Own Pineapple Salsa

1 can cheddar cheese soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 oz 2% Velveeta

 Toss it all in. Take the chicken out and cut it up after a bit and toss it back in. I count 1 c as 2 pts. I'll have to tally this stuff up and divide it out to get a really good estimate, but it is fairly close to the WW recipe I got. This may even be lighter (the original called for Nacho Cheese Soup and plain Cheddar Soup is lighter, don't worry, the Chipotle cubes make up for that Nacho flavor and are FF). Enjoy!

Nina

Spring break is right around the corner and I can't wait! Nathan has been doing all sorts of new things. He makes car noises... brrrrrrr..... and he flubs his lips with his fingers. He waves 'Bye' and sometimes even tries to say "Hello' on his toy phone (and our real phone, which he loves). He throws temper tantrums when he can't play with the mouse or keyboard and God forbid I try to do anything at the computer. He's been trying to walk. All systems are go but he insists on crab walking and throwing himself from one piece of furniture to the other. Looks more like he's trying to fly than walk. :) His poor teeth, though! His top (passenger's side) tooth is coming in and it is HUGE! It has stretched the gum out and still hasn't popped. Yesterday I got a good look at it and there's a tiny blood blister on the tip. Poor Baby! I gave him Oragel and Tylenol before bed and he was out in 10 minutes. No wonder the kid throws all his food on the floor... (My little gravitational analyst!)... I wouldn't eat either (right, I think I'd find a way, but then again I can have cupcakes and all the crap I want... in fact chocolate passes the gums easily :) So, hopefully he'll feel better soon. Poor Bug-A-Boo.

Hmm. Since the last update was Nov. 13th, I think it's time to write SOMETHING. I've been busy toying with myspace. It is great for networking and finding old friends, but I just like my live space layout better. Plus I feel like I've distanced myself from the DATELINE perves. I guess they're everywhere.

I'll try to get as much written down as I can and add more later. Nathan is.... well awake now and that's all the time I have. Crap. Maybe he'll play for a bit. Find grandmom's crib aquarium she got him for Christmas... oh, I hear it, YES! So anyway, as I was saying, We all had a pretty eventfull Christmas thanks to Sunday night football falling on Christmas Eve this year. The NFL should be kicked in the balls for that. Maybe every 7 years just postpone the game. Of course, for some folks having their team win may mean an evening of great joy and rejoicing, but for each winning team there is a loosing team, and another family torn apart. See, men get emotionally involved with teams. It's like legal cheating and women don't care because players don't have boobs. And when the team wins, "Hallelujah! The world is Good", but when the team looses, dear friends, we have a problem. And when the husband is a die hard Bengals fan.... you know where this is going.... well, thinks get just too emotional for some people and they have to have a fit. But I love my honey.

Anyway, Nathan has had this horrible rash on his bum. It's been an ongoing war against the yeast rash since birth. This time it was bad. He went to bed one night fine and woke up with a dime size piece of skin bubbled up on his bum. Well it turned into a quarter size by 5 p.m. and I tried to keep him aired out as much as possible. This meant sans bottoms and a free weewee. Dad was too turned off by the possiblility of getting hosed so I was nominated as the wizz watcher. The first time it scared the bejesus out him (Nathan). I don't think he expected it to get him in the face, but when your busy checking out your stuff, that's what happens. Poor kid. We got all cleaned up and went to bed without britches on and swaddled in layers upon layers of towels. Christmas Eve he wakes up like he does every morning, standing on the bed holding onto the rail and screaming for somebody to "Come get me, damnit!". Upon our arrival, Dad feels wetness beneath his feet. "Oh no", he groans as he starts feeling out a 4 ft. semi-circle of wizz... on everything! He must have stood up and in his announcement to us that he was awake, peed.... all over the room. Fun. So everything got a bath and he got a diaper.

Christmas comes early and so does the stomach bug. I got it at about 5 a.m. It was almost like old times. Memories of being driven around to grandparents homes with a barf bucket in my lap surrounded by folks you see maybe once or twice a year came back as I hurled chocolate pie and eggnog into the throne. The taste of Christian Brothers too familiar (from the self medicating of NFLs Christmas Eve bumble). Got lots of fun gifts, then it was off to my momma's house where I spent much of the time with a pillow over my head in bed. Thank god grandmommies love grandbabies! I got some good rest, and Naterbug got to hang with the fam. All was good.

The stomach bug hung with me for several days. It's one of those that seems to go away, then comes back. I found this out when I decided to bend over backwards to install my new under the cabinet radio and nearly crapped myself. Fun times. Nathan got it next. Why in the hell don't they sell flavored Pedialite without the coloring? Why don't we set the sales reps down with a bunch of pukin' babies, feed them grape colored fluids and let 'em rip? I bet THEN they would make the flavored versions colorless. They have the unflavored and uncolored version for the sensitive kids, but they've neglected the kids who demand grapey sweetness and their parents who usually prefer to wear clothes around the house. I mean, it would be OK if a fountain of purple vomit  got me as long as it didn't get my limited 'fat clothes' wardrobe. I only have a few things nowadays that haven't been crapped on, puked on or had a snotty nose smooshed into. BTW, NEVER decided to hold your sweet congested angel before leaving the house for a nice evening out. You WILL be snotted upon. :) So, the kid is sick and launches about 6 oz of purple grapey goo into my lap. Luckily I had my honey's pillow there to catch it all. Oh ya! It still dripped all the way to the washer. So we're both covered in puke and I go to change him. He starts coughing and with every cough he's shooting green poo. We were a true sight to be NOT seen.  We eventually got over it, when honey came home and I woke up to sounds in the bathroom that I KNEW required  both a toilet and a bucket. I though, 'Now I KNOW I took the bucket out of there, and I'm pretty sure he didn't have the forethought to take one in with him'.... I waited.... listened.... tried to sleep... then I heard it.... my towel being rubbed into the carpet. It HAD to be my towel!" I guess his pillow lead to my towel, but, but, but.... I rolled my eyes into my head and went back to sleep.  

The coolest music on the web... I found the most amazing Christmas station at live365.com The station is called... "Ralphie's Radio". Oh ya! I've got itunes to play it on, but I think you can use other programs as well. It is soooo awesome. I'm already in the spirit.

 

 

 

Things have been pretty busy around here with school and work and baby and more work.... He's starting to crawl. Actually crawled on his hands and knees for about 5 feet on Wed. Night. Other than that, he prefers the soldier crawl. Forearm over forearm across the floor. He can go so fast! Oh and you should see the child in his walker. OMG! All Annie can do is tuck-tail and run! He also is having a love affair with the trash can. Every time he has the chance he's over there crinkling the plastic bag. Sometimes all you hear the 'blam!' of the can falling over. It's great. The other night he was being really cranky and I had a paper to write. David was in the living room and Nathan was in the walker. I hadn't been paying attention to anything other than this paper and Nathan had gotten quiet. I just figured the boys were bonding... until... I caught a whiff of lasagna. "Hmmmmm". I thought, that smells good, "David had that for lunch". Wait a freakin' minute.... and as I turned around I saw my angelic child fly across the room behind me grinning from ear to ear covered in spaghetti sauce, content as a pig in 'you-know-what'. He had pulled the microwave dinner box (you think I had time to cook lasagna! Ha!) out of the trash and had pretty much 'wallered' in it. It wasn't to big of a deal b/c it was right on top of the trash so we had a good laugh. I took lots of pics, of course. I've been trying to post them here, but you have to download some new program for the Live spaces and my 'puter is on the fritz. Blah. So we have ourselves a little 'trash can man' who loves spaghetti sauce! He will eat it by the spoonful now. Crazy. It's the WOP in 'em. Speaking of trash can man, I had woken up the other day with this aweful rash on my face. Just all over. Horrible. Of course, I'm in Microbiology and all I've been thinking about are diseases and David had 'The Stand' on... my mind was playing out all sorts of scenarios... "will I be the first to have contracted this flesh eating virus that infects the whole world making the next pandemic the Campbell-itchy-face-flu? Gotta come up with a better name than that for the 5 o'clock news....." Well, to the say the least, it went away within a few days. I think it was a combo of face creams or the cashew chicken dinner I had the other night. THANK GOD! It was so splotchy it looked like I had cellulite on my face. Not the face! Butt... check.... but not the face!!!!! Can you imagine how big you gotta get to have cellulite on your face? Holy crap. So anyway....

Nathan HATES fish. I made up some cod about a month ago and put a little bit in his mouth. He wouldn't even close his mouth to chew it! He just put his face down on his tray and screamed! Well! I guess he doesn't like fish. Hmph. More for me then. Oh, and he had decided he hates to be fed. He'll eat on his own... cheese, As, Cheerios, dried apple, crackers, bread... as long as he is the one to put it in his mouth. What a man. 

I have gone off the WW wagon again. Everytime I loose 10lbs. something in my brain tells me it is OK to treat myself. Of course, the treat is always food... and there goes the cycle again. It's OK to reward your dog with food, but probably not such a great idea for kids ;) It didn't help that David and I had some arguement about something (probably pillows or snoring, that seems to take up much of our time together anymore) and I got pissed and decided to take it out on him by eating, "If you I'm gonna listen to you, then I'm gonna do whatever I want... like make reece's cups outa Jiff and cocoa powder, Come here peanut butter jar!" . I don't understand that mental pathway either, because in the end I just punished my @ss and we don't see each other enough (David or my @ss) for that to be punishment for anyone but myself. **sigh** on the upswing I hear my sister is doing fantabulous with it. Oh well. Here come the holidays anyway. Grrrrr. I have my own thoughts about those...

I finally got batteries for the camera and have been busy documenting every second of my poor kid's life. Today I mowed the lawn and had Nathan on a blanket outside so I could watch him. He just loves it!... and the leaves, and the grass, and the dirt, and the bugs, and I'm sure dog crap. So here are my newest photos. I gotta get some of him in his sling. It's in Daddy's backseat and his car is in Indy. We get it back on Monday, though.

I've made up a myspace page. I get aggrevated with the thing, so I'll stick to this one. Really, we belong to the 'big-head' club like Ray and are trying to conquer the internet one space at a time... har har.  Well, here it is...

 

And here's the old 'You Don't Know Me' song, sang this time by Willie Nelson. I love it.

'Maria' is also on that page. And 'Worried Man'. The video with it looks like Dominica (I'm sure it's Jamaica though)! Down to the chickens, goats, boats and the bottle-cap graffiti in the hillside that you can see in some of the shots of the them riding down the road (on the wrong/right side). Oh take me back! Hot tea and fresh bananas.

As for Willie, he's just the most awesome. David and I saw him at the KY State Fair a few years back when my grandparents were in town. What a great experience.

Nathan has a new love. The washing machine. It was always on his top list of favorites, but now he checks out everybit of underwear that flys accross the door of that thing. Only problem is, when the cycle is over the buzzer scares the absolute bejesus out of him. If I could just find it and rip the thing out! I emailed frigidaire about it... let's see what they say. I bet there'll be a new commercial with babies and evil buzzing washers and the 'new' improved version of this dinosaur I have. Oh well.

Nathan also has a new problem. Just when he has turned 6 mos old, can sit up and get a nice pic taken... he appears to be teething and probably won't be in a smiling mood for another... oh... year? He's miserable. He has screamed non-stop for the past 2 hours. Chew things, 2 rounds of orajel, icey pops... fingers you name it! Finally a dose of Tylenol put him into dreamy land. I can't find his ring teether (it's his favorite). Damn. My pal Crystal suggested baby Motrin. I think she proclaimed love for the inventor of the stuff :) Only problem is, I gotta try and NOT take a screaming baby to Wal-mart. I'm outta formula, too! Last time we went I bought drinking water, opened the can in the isle and made him a freakin' bottle. David was looking at me like, "You can't do that!". I was like, "Go ahead, try and stop me!"

Ope, had a phone call. Wrotten person hung up. Well, gotta find a way to get baby and me to the store without him waking up screaming in hunger or pain. Hell, at this point I don't think I'd care was the Wal-martians think.

 

So I'm in the john at school and the girl next to me in her stall says to another girl in the other stall... (setting this up is probably already funnier than what they actually said... why do we talk to each other when we pee? Do guys do this?).... she (#1) says, "Ya, we went out to this bar and I was like, OK, I'll buy you a drink... and I did... and it was like $5!!!" The #2 says, "Geez, what are you, made of money?". #1 replies, "Ya, but I guess that's life!", followed by a few 'yay's ' and 'you-bets'. OK, so HOW exactly is this like life? I'm pondering this in my own stall... hmmmm. Is it the part that you reach and to share your generosity and you get hosed? Is it the part where you get hosed, but act like you don't care? How 'bout the part where you decide it's too costly for you to be nice again and try to slide of the barstool of life and out the door without paying your tab or lawyer for that matter... if we wanna go deep how about funeral bill. Maybe I took that too far, but it was just a thought on someone's 'John Talk'. I'm tired. Disgruntled. I caught wind today that a really awesome professor is going to be leaving our univeristy. I am absolutely floored at our Dean and our students (they pull the punches). I REALLY hope that at least our alcohol induced professor will suffer a similar fate. For a great professor to get the shaft, and for the department to hang on to a real boozer... and come on, everybody knows it... is just crap. Absolute crap. Bunch of pansy ass whiney butts (students). We've got another one that has issues with women that hasn't been delt with either. That's enough, before they hunt me down and keep me for another 5 years.... but I know our prof. will find a wonderful univeristy where the students like to be challenged and will be proud of the hard work they've put in to get that degree. I know that being coddled as a student gets you NOWHERE  in the world of lab rats. When your boss throws you in the fire and tells you to come up with an SOP in 24 hours that meets EPA and Standard Methods guidelines because the client is making a surprise visit Monday morning, you can't just sleep on it. Or that everytime your standard recovery is off keel you have to do another $280 worth of work. But that's ok....

While I'm on the topic, or rather, in the 'mood', albeit pissy, I made a penis pinata. It was originally planned for demolition the night of the bachelorette party, but b/c of the high absorbance of -OH, it was postponed. The next date was the night before the wedding. Us girls were gonna go all out and beat the crap out of it... so guys, if you ever wanted to know what us girls do on the night before you dedicate your LIVES to each other (right, like you give a rats butt when you got boobs in your face at the all-you-can-burp-on tittybar) we are wacking the bejesus out of giant candy stuffed peckers. BE FORWARNED!!!!

BTW, in case you didn't know, the 2nd floor ladies bathroom in the science building is the dirtiest. Don't go there. It has 'goobers'. I'm tired.

Hey, Steve Irwin died Monday... I just can't believe it! So sad. Sting ray barb got him in the chest ( that's what I've read, anyway. )

When it comes to eating dinner baby style, nobody does is better than Nathan. Head to toe, under and above the tray, the back of his head... you name it, it's covered. Tonight was oatmeal and peas (yuk!). Last night was sweet potatoes. Now the jury is out when it comes to clean up time. What do you start to clean first. There is strategy involved... Do you clean the kid first? The tray? His hands? His face? The back of his head? The peas out of the chandelier? I think I've got it now, but suggestions are appreciated. First, start with the chandelier. He is confined in the high chair. Now is your time momma, bust out the 409. Next, I do the tray. I rationalize that with a clean tray, baby X cannot continue to play in oatmeal/pea soup, thus breaking into the cycle of 'tray-hands-eyes-hair-dog'. Next comes the hands. No more I'm tired and 'want to rub gooey rice in my eyes to proove it to you'. Last is the face and hair. The dog can clean herself... and the floor. God love the 'Dog-vuum'.

I am so ticked! I wrote up a whole story and I check this page this morning and it's not here! I posted it at about midnight last night. I even had time to be a bit witty. Well, in a nutshell I described the bachlorette party and made a comparison between this picture of my dad and nathan. Oh ya, and the Dancing Puke Monster Mommy was me... head in the toilet at the bar, ME!!! Maybe I'll try to remember it all again tonight **sigh**

Yep, it's just like it sounds. The other day I was doing dishes and I had Nathan in his Johnny Jump Up chair and he was fussing (the norm). He got quiet. And like all moms, I was at first in awe of the silence. Then I got worried. So I turn around and to my delight Nathan is grinning and dancing, looking right at me, happy as a clam.Now to my horror, beneath him lay a pile of puke. Little feet flailing and dancing in delight ... squeeling, spinning and grinning the whole time he was smearing the vile milky bile all over the floor! That's about as much excitement as I get. This weekend I have a bachelorette party... so if any of you have any fun game ideas... post 'em here!!

Check out her 'Paula's Piffle' site. She's got stories and pics :) He's so cute! Came early at about 5 lbs. Finally, she's got a devil of her own... hehehe.

Happy Anniversary to us! David surprised me with tickets to see the infamous Bill Cosby on Saturday. It was awesome! He had planned dinner too, but by the time we got to the casino, we weren't really hungry and the line was forever long. Man, did the thought of seafood on the buffet sound good, though. He's getting a bit older and his hair is white. I can't believe this, but he started to do a skit on how he lost his keys... and he started by saying,"I was married in 1964 and in 1967 I lost my....." Well I lost my sense and laughed out load. Really loud. Didn't even know what he was going to say... and he says, "That woman is cruel.". Ha! I couldn't believe it. :) My man did good ;) I was in shock that Cosby was even on tour. David said I passed 2 billboards with his face on it without even seeing them (see, it was a surprise all the way up to the line for tickets). I walked right past them. **shaking my head**. Freakin' awesome. There are some pics of him I took during the show.

Yesterday we took Nathan to the pool. He had a MUCH better time this time (as did his parents.. happy baby = happy parents). He has started giving 'kisses'. Really he's just trying to eat your face, but can't quite fit the whole thing in his mouth :) Doesn't stop him from trying!

Was going to add something, but poor baby just started crying ***

It was nice to see some folks again. I've posted pics. I'd like to start a Yahoo!Groups page for the class. Kinda like Classmates.com but you don't have to pay ;) Like all reunions, some folks changed a lot, some didn't. Our friend Jeremy was outside yelling, "Yeehaw!" and poor David looked scared. I guess you just have to be from Switz. I got pics of most of who was there. I missed a pic of Amanda Switz' and some other people who were only in the bar. It's amazing how times have changed. Most of us have kids and hadn't had a beer in a year or so. So we were all loppsyfied after one Smirnoff. Oh, it was great!

In other news, Nathan is almost weened. I haven't really eaten in a day now, but I think I'm running off of 'milk power'. Now if I could just channel my 'butt power'....

He stayed with Grandmom and Poppy while David and I went off to the reunion. I think they had a good time together:) Everybody still had their hair... well, at least the hair they came into the day with. Harhar.

I've watched Bill Cosby's stand up so many times as a child I could recite it. Now I'm adult with a new baby and everytime something crazy happens I always end up thinking back to a certain skit to relates to it. Often times what is going on is line for line, verbatim. For instance, the other day when I got home for lunch David announces that Nathan has a surprise for me. Of course, by now we ALL know what kind of surprises Nathan makes :) "But it's SPECIAL!!!" David chides while he leads me to the diaper pail. "It's pellets!!! Non-stinky pellets! There were three of 'em.... one big one [I guess that one was the daddy pellet] and two small ones" he even adds hand gestures to give me a precise idea of what size, shape and circumferance of the prize. Nice. Real nice. While I was thrilled as well and went on a tangent of what he had and hadn't been eating to cause this phenom, I came to realize that the day had finally come. The day in which your world has turned to poop. Real poop. I came home for lunch and had a full fledged conversation over excrement and was happy. We even chatted about the poop over peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!

In other news, he rolled over at my mom's on her bed last Saturday. David said he rolled over the other day while he was on the living room floor. Last night I put him on his back to play with the dangly thing (no, not that dangly thing, which he CAN reach now.... a different story...) and I ran in the kitchen to do dishes. He started fussing and when I went back in there he was screaming at me! He had rolled over on his belly and rotated himself so that he could face the doorway and scream at me! Oh, the little buggar head!!! He is taking nicely to his bouncy seat that hangs in the doorway. He just loves it. We sweetened the deal and placed a mirror near enough for him to literally 'entertain himself'. That was great until he realized he couldn't touch that other baby or put that other baby in his mouth. What a fit! We've since learned our lessons :)