CHEERS! Happy New Year!

"Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring". - St. Catherine of Sienna

I don't think I appreciated my sorority's motto as much back in school as I do now. I now realize, that this motherhood thing is going to get tougher, not easier. I must admit, I stole this from a magazine I read 3 years ago, and I've kept it this whole time, because I know myself and my temperament. Soooo... here is my New Year's Resolution.

"I want to be quiet and listen to my child, to allow him to take his time and not rush him to finish his task, and to not get mad when he does things his way, not my "adult" way. I want to enjoy life with my child and fully experience each moment."

... and to lose some more weight.

....OK, and for OSU to finally win a bowl game!

Sasquach

I'm pretty sure I spelled that title wrong, eh well. You get the point. I forgot to show this earlier, I just got this from my kid's school. They did this before Christmas but forgot to give it to us because we picked him up early on Monday unexpectedly. Are these feet huge or what?!


Grandpa and Ares had a great time sliding down the stairs, over and over and over again. I forgot to mention on the last post that another Christmas surprise (more for mommy and daddy) was that Ares now has his own room at Grandma & Grandpa Miller's house. It's all decked out in Monkey and Frogs, it's VERY cool, and VERY VERY nice to not have to share a room with him =)

Happy HO-HO and a Merry New Year!

So I often type long drawn out posts, and this is no exception, sorry. Sunday night we moved out of our house. OK, so not really, but we did get rid of our big dining room table (that was in our living room). We had already moved our china cabinet to my parents house a couple of months ago so we could have room for the baby's new toys, and now we had to do it again. Soon, there will be no place to sit unless you sit on a toy that squeaks, in a baby thing (high chair, jumparoo, scooter/car) or on a toy box. We had spent the last week in Cincinnati visiting family. Ares celebrated his first Christmas this year.

We celebrated on the 20th with my parents and some grandparents. Ares didn't really get what was going on, so he pretty much just ate paper. Grandma Venus did better than I was expecting. He got lots of toys, but he didn't get spoiled any more than I was when I was young.

Cinci was a different story altogether. He was grasping the whole, rip-the-paper-and-hear-a-cool-noise thing. The opened a good majority of his gifts, but after, say, 15 of them, the novelty was gone. I have to say it's a great thing that we only have 3 people in our family (plus a tiny dog), because we needed every inch of our 8 passenger SUV! He got so many things! His grandparents (and great grandparents... don't think that you guys are going to be left out Grandma and Papa Jim) got him SOOO much stuff! Clothes, toys, balls, ice cream bowls (so he can be just like Grandma Jean), stuffed animals. Our kid had the best week ever! His favorite thing down in Cinci was a simple ball. Probably the size of a dodge ball, this kid just crawls around and pushes it.

We were in Cinci for 6 days, and it was so wonderful. For the first time in a long time, we got to relax. Usually our trips down there are so fast and furious, we're more tired when we get home. This week was so enjoyable, we got to see lots of family, eat some great food (I gained 3 lbs!)

At my mom's house, on Sunday (27th) we celebrated Christmas with the Schmidt family. He got some new shoes, a few toys, and a RadioFlyer wagon that my grandpa fixed up for him. It looks BRAND NEW! Of course, his favorite thing to play with was the giant green exercise ball, he crawled around hitting it, sometimes with his hands, sometimes with his head. When he's using his head, sometimes it looks like he's competing in some goofy obstacle course or Japanese game show. Silly boy.

Copyright infringement?

Uhhhh, yeah, so the "things" I had been working for months on was finally "finished". Adam goes to Walmart to pick them up, and they were not printed due to a copyright infringement. I spent two hours for each freakin' month, putting this calendar together of Ares and Braeden, and it is not getting printed... I will, somehow get this thing together, I'm just not quite sure how yet.... I do know, however, that this whole project has officially beaten me. I will never do it again.

Karma?

I hope I don't offend anyone with this post. There is nothing I hate more than little kids with mohawks. My entire life, it actually makes me mad when I see their hair cut like that - poor kid. Makes me think the parents are white trash. The reason for the rant, is because, I have kid, whom I love very much, that has grown a mohawk.

This hair - about 4" wide, and bare on the sides... both sides... This, in my own definition, makes me white trash. Wonderful. If his hair stays like this, he will forever wear a hat.

So now we are collecting hats. When I was in junior high and high school, I collected baseball caps, all different sports, all different teams. I guess this kid's collection starts young.

Enjoy the video, he's super cute!

Honey... I'm HoOme!

I apologize, this will be long. But as much as this is for others to read, it's also a good way to document our lives in an online diary.

So while a good majority of my coworkers went to Austin or NYC to watch their Sales Reps give their TSP's, I was lucky to go to Scranton. SCRANTON... woo hoo. Here would be a good place to put an Office joke, but I haven't watched the show, sorry. There's not much in Scranton. In fact, most of the bars close at 11. Even the hotel bar. The second night, someone complained though, and they stayed open until 2AM. By 2AM, I wished they closed at 11. My reps, well, they know how to have a good time, and they know how to make everyone around them have a good time. I ate well and drank better, and I am grateful that it was only a 3 day thing. Fortunately, I knew when to stop, so I woke up on time, sober (for the most part), and not sick.


The best thing about leaving town is coming back to town (more about that later). Sunday (before I left for ScrAnton) I went to our girl's Christmas party. The same large group of girls that went to the dinner theater last month. My aunts, and grandma, grandma's best friend (aunt jeanette) and her daughters. The girls. We have fun. I brought Ares because he's never met the whole group. He. Was. Perfect. This is probably the only kid you can mess up his nap schedule, travel all over the place and still be smiling. He was an equal opportunity lover. He gave every single person the attention they wanted, he smiled, laughed, played with people's faces, let them feed him. It made it that much harder to leave Monday morning at 6am.... but I digress.


This weekend I got so sick with the flu, so I didn't spend much time around the baby. I missed him, and by the time I got home from Scranton, all I wanted to do was hold him. Well, for the first time, I got a HUGE hug. He wrapped his arms around me (so he got as much as my arms in) and dug his face into my neck. It was THE BEST! Of course, I had to ruin it by putting him down and running to use the bathroom, and he cried instantly. But then I got him again, and all was good in the world. Maybe my little boy will be a mama's boy after all! I am not sure what is best, hearing that squeal/laugh or getting a huge hug like I did.


OH, and today he started saying "mom". Well, it sounds more like "mum", but he kept saying it! He skipped the "mama" and went straight to "mum".


And finally, I think I might have my left handed pitcher. He now plays fetch with the dog, for up to 10 minutes at a time. =)

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

My kid just made a liar out of me. I was in the kitchen, and he was playing with his toys in the living room. I moved from the stove to the sink and almost stepped on him. How did he do that!?! He crawled 15 feet!

Graduation

My kid isn't crawling... still. He can't pull himself up, he doesn't clap his hands, he likes to play, and he likes to make dinosaur noises. *r0aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh*

Where in this does it sound like he's ready to advance to the next classroom? I'm not quite sure he's *coughmecough* ready to be in the next classroom.

Perhaps the older kids will teach him how to crawl forward?

Nothing but Orange - hiney

Just a short post - As of yesterday, Ares won't eat anything that's not Orange unless it's adult food. I always knew his fav. foods were pumpkin, sweet pot. and carrots, and he's never had an aversion to food before, but I tried to feed him other things yesterday, and I had to "mask" them with carrots to get him to open his mouth... brat.

Ares got his H1N1 shot yesterday. Someone I know calls it the "hiney" shot, cuz h1n1 looks like hini (if you're wondering where the title of the post comes from). He was soo good. He laid in my lap, then when he was stuck he looked at the nurse, then at me, and then at the kid screaming on the other side of the room, and that was it. No whimper, no tears, nothing. Perhaps it was that he saw me get the shot seconds before, or maybe the Pluto sticker (the dog, not the "planet") they gave him afterwards.

12 months of the year

Alright, so I hate this program, after fighting with it to make my font the right size, it deleted my entire text, which was long... so here's a brief synopsis of what I had typed originally:

My kid is amazing, blah blah. I thought I would get 4 outfit changes this weekend while at Adam's coworker's house (she was taking pics of her dad's dog for a calendar) so Adam and I took Ballpark and Ares along. Ares let us get 12, TWELVE TWELVE!! outfit changes in. Pants, shoes, shirts, onesies... etc AMAZING KID! We had a great time, Christine's kids even rocked and sang Ares to sleep, he actually fell asleep in their arms (ages 10 and 6) it was soo cute, and SOO helpful!!!

Adam went to the Browns game tonight with my dad and my dad's best friend. He said they had a great time, (froze their butts off) but had a good time. They knew the end result before the game even started, so they weren't disappointed that they lost. As Adam said, I knew the only thing we'd win would be the coin toss! =)

These pictures are in the opposite order they were taken, so Xmas was last, and February (see the dog's Hugh Hefner outfit) went first. We learned that Ballpark fits into build a bear clothes! haha! I still need to crop some of these pics, but here's the basic idea. Let me know if anyone wants some printed out. Grandma/Papa, if you want to view them larger, just click on each picture. Adam took them with his "new" camera, so they should get MUCH bigger if you click. He took 225 pictures, so if you want a nice one with just Ares, and no ballpark, then we can get you that one too.

Christmas

This has been one heck of a week!

First, Ares is the perfect child. What kid lets you put them to bed late (by 2 hours), and then lets you wake him up after 2 hours to go Black Friday shopping? We took Ares to Toys'R'Us with us. We didnt' get there until midnight, so we only waited in the 1/4 mile long line to get in for about 15 minutes. We found the stuff we wanted fairly quickly (we were only shopping for the inner-city Cleveland kid that we're helping for Christmas) and waited in line for about 1.5 hours. The entire time, Ares had his finger in his mouth and talked to the people around us. SO. Freaking. Cute!

My mom and I went to Target/Walmart @ 4:30am (this is tradition for us to get up early) and I left the baby to sleep in with Adam. I didn't spend anything on us, pretty much just on our sponsor kid except for a few scrapbooking things for me. We took breakfast back, let Adam go to work, and then took the baby out shopping again. I sooo love my kid! His schedule was so messed up this past weekend, yet he still took it in stride.

I'm halfway finished with my "project". Each "thing" takes me about 2 hours to do. So in the end, this whole gift is going to be an entire day's worth of work. (24 hrs). Crazy! I'm pleased with it thus far though.

EYE UPDATE: I went to the eye dr again on Monday, he says things are looking good. We did a regular eye exam, and he says "I bet you could see better without your glasses than you can with them". Boy was he right! I told him that I'd never been able to see with those glasses, and I'd only had them for about 2 months! Well, it turns out, that I don't need glasses. or contacts. at. all. So I've put so much money into these glasses that this other dr. said I needed, and in fact, I don't need them at all! I love the fact that I can see again =) I've got about 12 BOXES of unused contacts (with 6 contacts in each box). I wonder if I can sell them, they were freakin' expensive to buy too!

I can't wait to show you all my project! I hope to finish it this week. I have Friday off, so I should in theory be able to work on it then.

The only thing really on my Christmas list is use of one of the personal trainers here at work. We are fortunate to have a full gym here, and I want to hire a trainer to get my butt back into shape. They're only $16 for 1/2 hour session, which is a really good price ($24 for 45 minutes). Adam wants tons of camera stuff. I have a list, just ask when your ready =)

Happy soon to be long weekend!

I don't think I've been as excited for a long weekend as I am today. There's not a whole lot going on, typical Thanksgiving stuff tomorrow, Schmidt family at Aunt Nancy's, Walter's family for dessert at Grandma's. Friday is crazy black friday shopping, but Adam works all day, so I'm going to have to get Ares in and out of the car seat each store, and probably carry him, perhaps I'll bring the child carrier, he likes that.
My in-laws are coming in to town too, which is very exciting, but they'll only be here for a day, and I guess chocolate making too.
Tonight and tomorrow I have to finish putting up my Holiday things. Outside is nearly complete, and inside, well, I haven't realized how much stuff I have! Our house is so tiny, but I have enough holiday decorations for a mansion! I think we might put up our tree this year. We haven't put one up since we got Ballpark, and we don't really have room for one, nor will we be home for Christmas, but I think the baby would probably like it. (Not to mention, I miss having one up and it might make for some good pictures.)

I've decided that I'm going to try and find some more pairs of ROBEEZ shoes for Ares. I can't believe how expensive they are, but 1) he keeps them on his feet. ALL DAY! and 2) they're shoes that Adam will actually put on him. So if I can't win any on ebay, I'm off to the store to spend twice as much on his shoes as I do mine!

Thanksgiving
Things I am grateful for (Thanks Nicole, I've shamelessly stolen ideas from your blog=)

My son-

I never realized how much my life was missing until we had Ares. He is such a fun little kid, and I love having him around. I think we'll keep him *grin*

Family-

This year would have been so different (not to mention difficult) without our families. My side, for baby sitting often, Adam's side for taking Ares into their room on some difficult teething nights when we were visiting so we could get a full nights sleep for once. Grandparents, aunts, cousins and everyone, we are SO FORTUNATE.

My Husband-

For, without him, I wouldn't have my son. (OK, kidding, there's way too much that I'm thankful for to even type on this blog. ) I guess, I'm also grateful that he is such a great father and a great husband and he washes dishes =)

Facebook

my "fake" home

my eyesight

friends, their advice and the use of their baby things =)

miniature daschunds named "Ballpark"

My great core group of friends. All 18 of ya!

milk shakes

the Browns being so bad, I no longer waste Sundays watching football

Having a good job

the Internet

Walmart

Gimp - (photo editing program)

Target diapers

Sorority sisters

a late winter this year

My warm bed

"Monster" (My SUV)

My dear son's laugh and smile

all of the TV shows I miss because I spend time with the fam.

DVR's, so I can catch up

Sangria

for people reading this, because it took a long time

Sharing

My dear, dear son has learned the art of sharing. Sharing his cold, that is. I have now added sudafed to my plethora of medications I'm taking - for my eyes (which are no better, mind you). I can not read anything on my laptop, which makes it difficult to work. At least when I type, there's spell check, but reading other people's emails and reports deems fairly difficult. I sure hope this goes away. Adam and I have noticed in the past two days that my left eye is starting to get lazy. This is starting to scare me, as that's my really good eye!

Yesterday was my birthday. It was nice. All I wanted was a weekend to scrapbook without having to constantly worry about Ares, so that's what my hubby gave me. Dec 19/20 I'm scrappin' baby! How exciting! I'm sure I need 6 or 7 weekends to get all I need to finish, finished, but I'll take a weekend. Thanks babydoll!
For those of you who aren't on Facebook, I've got new pictures. Some of you have probably already seen them.

Here, my mom had him in his PJ's and ready to go when I picked him up

on Wednesday. I got home right before Adam, and had Ares sitting in the

foyer waiting, because we get the best smiles when he sees daddy for the first time.

Here, it seems he likes Ballpark better though, haha.

An interesting camera angle that Adam came up with.

Bath time is always the best time for Ares. If you want to see him

at his prime, throw him in the tub and let him splash.

Teefers

OK, I'd like to apologize right now if there are hundreds of misspellings today. I am as blind as a bat right now, and glasses don't work. After two months of fighting with my eyes, I went to a different eye doctor (one who's actually ON my plan) and found out that I have some kind of cold virus in my eyes from the last time I was sick (I don't even remember when that was). Anyhow, it caused lesions on my eyes and then something about white blood cells infiltrating and blah blah blah I can't see. It's a bit frustrating, as when I drive, I can't even tell the make or model of the vehicle in front of me, nor can I read a license plate. Hopefully I don't witness any kind of accident where I have to testify (although, chances are VERY good that I wouldn't even be a witness as I can't see anything). So I saw him on Saturday, (2 days ago) and I have to go back today. Hopefully the drops and oral antibiotics he put me on are starting to fix the issue (although, I can't see any better).

Ares is starting to get some teeth up top now. He was a little fussy yesterday, but nothing that was unmanageable. He just wanted to be held... by his daddy of course.

Saturday was so nice. I had my eye dr, and Adam started the running around for our wine party that we held that night. He also got a call from a guy who was selling his super long camera lens (that's my technical description) for his camera for $150, (guess that was a great price). That night, our house was immaculate, and we had 18 people over. The wine party was a great success, and I think everyone had fun. We certainly did. Ares slept through ALL of it. What a great kid I have!

Sunday morning was still around 60 degrees, so I started putting up my Christmas lights outside. I put up the candy cane lights, just so I could get the distance correct on the stakes, and then I kept the stakes in the took the candy canes down so it's not too tacky so early. I must have done 10 strands of lights, plus 4 or 5 "strands" of candy canes. Today, the Hollywood Christmas Movieland museum opened up, so we drove the hour to go view it. Impressive, I must say. Adam and I didn't go last year, so it was incredible to see all of the different movie costumes and sets. Unfortunately, Adam and I hadn't seen most of the movies that were there, although, they are very popular.

My weekends

I have decided to start weight watchers again. I just want to get back to my pre-preg. weight. (Lies, I'd LOVE to lose more!!) I want to be able to wear my old clothes, however, I'm not sure how successful I can be. Our weekends are starting to be CRAZY now.

This weekend starts Friday with a reunion with old coworkers, Saturday is a wine party with friends, Sunday is a trip out to the Hollywood Christmas Movieland museum. Next weekend is (Friday) dinner at the Melting Pot, and Saturday is the Cav's game. The following weekend is Thanksgiving, and my in-laws are coming up to visit (usually go to Melt, and we have to get to the Great Harvest Bread Co), and then comes December, that's always bad. I will try my best, but I sense a difficult time. Somewhere in between then is my birthday, but we'll ignore that this year. 29 seems very old to me. Older than 30 in fact. Perhaps it's t he "9" part. *shrug*.


My mom took him to the mall yesterday to help set up the Christmas Movieland museum, and took some photo ops. I can't wait till he gets more hair. I swear the kid looks like one of those trolls that you rub his head for good luck. his head looks so big! haha.

Yikes!

So Ares is sick. It sucks. Adam had the baby all weekend because I was out of town on our girls' weekend, and he was great on Saturday, but Sunday and today have been terrible. He has cried both days, all day. today, other than 2 short naps and bottle times, he has cried and cried and cried. Loud, I'm-in-pain cries. He couldn't go to day-care because of his fever and while Adam and I have never minded changing diapers before, we find ourselves saying "I got the last one, you get this one" often. EW. They. Are. Bad.

Saturday Ares and Adam brewed beer at the Gallo's house, and then went to a Halloween party for kids where they had a hay ride and games. He was so good on that day. I went with my mom, both grandma's, 3 aunts, a cousin, my great "aunt" all of her daughters, and one of their daughters. We went to Erie PA, to a haunted hotel (which is really a bed and breakfast / dinner theater place). It's always a good time, and at midnight we had a seance to conjure up some spirits. (we only asked for good spirits though, and none came). Some of the girls thought they saw spirits in pictures while we walked down the haunted hallway.

Sunday is when Ares got sick. Poor daddy tried everything in the book, thinking that he was teething again. It wasn't until late afternoon when his diapers turned bad that we realized that he's really sick. He slept almost 13 hours for us last night, going to bed at 6pm. I went in to work as usual this morning, just to be called back home. At least I got to bring my laptop back with me to get some work done.

The REALLY sucky part is that it's almost 70 degrees outside! it's the middle of November. Adam went for a short bike ride, but I've been in the house all day. at least the sliding glass door is open =)

Tons of pictures. We had fun today =)

Happy Halloween-Eve

This pic looks awful, but here's what he went to day-care as. Stewie Griffin from Family Guy.

Two more pics

Grandma (GG) Walters just celebrated her 75th birthday this past weekend. There was an impromptu party for her. Fortunately for our little Ares, my mom's mom and dad's mom grew up together, and even though my mom's parents are separated, they still talk and get along, so (way long story short), all of Ares' Great Grandparents on my side were together at once! This also happened on Father's day, but I forgot to take pictures then.

A good kid

THESE ARE THE PICTURES THAT ADAM TOOK BEFORE ARES' SCHOOL PICTURES. IT'S A GOOD THING HE TOOK THESE, BECAUSE I'VE HEARD FROM MANY PEOPLE THAT HE WAS NOT HAPPY DURING THE ONES TAKEN AT SCHOOL.

Lets hear it for 12.5 hour nights! Hip Hip.... I love my son. Even more so when he's not teething. He goes to bed so well, sleeps through the night (well, not last night, but our house was dry, we forgot to put the humidifier on, and even I got up twice for water, so I can't blame him).

Aunt Cindy, Mike, and Kassi watched Ares this weekend. He even went to church! I was told he was good. He did talk and "sing" a little bit, but I guess it just entertained those around him. I'm so grateful that they watched him this weekend while we were in Pittsburgh for a wedding.

We were very excited to go to Pittsburgh. We haven't seen some of Adam's frat brothers in a while (and when we did, it was for a viewing), so it was good to get together and have a good time. We were VERY excited that someone volunteered to watch the baby all night Saturday night, so Adam and I decided to splurge and get a hotel room so we could sleep in and have some alone time. No surprise that Doug didn't get themselves a hotel room in advanced, so he and his wife slept on our floor. Since the hotel was less than 2 hours away from our house, and the wedding ended around 9, we should have driven home. Would have slept better, thanks to our dog and us worrying about him jumping off the bed and waking doug and shawna up. Wasted $100 that night. Frustrating. It was nice to see them though, it had been a while since they've gotten together with us. Wish I could do things over again there.

The wedding was nice, we enjoyed ourselves (Thanks Sarah! You were beautiful!) and even got to see Pat for breakfast, which was an awesome surprise! Ballpark freaked out in the hotel room, and barked like crazy when we weren't there, so he stayed in the car during the ceremony and reception. He slept the whole time, he was a good dog, we're grateful that the weather wasn't too hot or cold so that we could do that and not worry.

THESE PICS ARE FROM THE PUMPKIN FEST IN CINCINNATI

Random Pics

I've used an entire 1 gig card now with my camera (and Adam's the one who takes the most pics with his). I need to buy a new card soon!!

He is getting so big, and I have to say, he's freakin' adorable here. I have yet to get the pics from our Cinci trip last weekend from Adam. I hope to get that card soon!

Lots O' Videos

Here's a sweet - close up of the baby. He likes to grab at the camera now.

This one I was taking in the evening after day-care, and Adam walked in from work in the middle. Ares LOVES his daddy. Grandma Karen and I have decided that he's a "man's man" and already prefers to hang out with the men rather than women. This might have started in day-care, cuz Addison steals all of his toys. ;-)

His new favorite thing (next to blowing raspberries)

Here's Ares doing his favorite thing.... raspberries. If he didn't blow so many raspberries, we would probably be able to see his cute outfits rather than his bibs. You can hear Adam helping him out a little bit. This video was probably from last week.

On the radio

This morning, the radio DJ's were talking about the words "cougars" and "MILFs" and if the listeners thought it was OK to be called one or the other. I walked into the doors of the office this morning, and the security guard says " 'morning ma'am". Happy Monday.

Pics from the weekend to come soon.

Ohhh no.....

Ares slept like crap. We slept worse. Once he was up, he was up. He'd start to drift to sleep, and if he saw that we weren't there, he'd cry. He'd cry if we weren't patting his tummy. He'd just cry. All night. Cry. Is it Karma? I decided this past weekend that I needed time to myself and I needed to start going to the gym during my lunch. My goal is to start that next month (Which means I need to get Ares used to formula.) Last night he got formula for the first time (well, 1/2 his bottle was formula). I'm starting to think that I'm being selfish about wanting to get to the gym and he being up all night was telling me that. Or perhaps the teething thing is getting to him even worse. Either way, I'm hoping I can make it through the day today.

Our team won our softball games on Monday! Yay! We're 2-12 now! lol Our team made way less errors than we normally do (and the team we played was drinking on their bench). Adam didn't do too well in the field, but batted in some important RBI's. In the last inning of the first game, we were down by 1. (I hadn't had a hit all game). I get up to the plate, and crush the ball over the center fielder's head. FINALLY! Needless to say, we won the game. (I only got a double, but I drove in some runs.) We went out to celebrate as Monday nights Aunt Cindy watches the baby (well, Kassi did this time), and I only got 5 hours of sleep that night. Adam, (who always complains that he's tired and doesn't think he sleeps longer than I do) managed to get 7 hours cuz he doesn't start work for another 2 1/4 hours after I do.

Runnin' on empty! Excited about this weekend in Cinci though!

It's 10:18, and I just sat down...

I come out of the house as we get to leave for my eye glass appointment first thing this morning, and here's what I come out to... Ares is hanging on for dear life. (Adam is about 6" away ready to catch him). I just shook my head.

Then, we get into my Pilot, and I flip through the pictures on Adam's camera, and here's what I see: WHAT A GOOF! These made me burst out laughing. Ares obviously enjoyed himself here.

This has been one heck of a day! First, I'd like to say that my husband ROCKS! This is not an understatement. I went to get my oil changed on Tuesday, and I asked if they would check out my brakes because they seemed to shimmy a little bit. (OK, and sometimes didn't stop properly when it rained.) Well, turns out, they're 90% worn. $550 they said it would cost to fix. Adam to the rescue! $114 in parts, and 2 hours in time, and I have brand new (working) brakes!

Before we did the brakes, we all went to pick out some new glasses for me, went to my parents house to find a C-clamp and see their new carpeting in their newly finished basement that Adam did.

We stopped at Mo's for lunch, it's kind of like Chipotle, but they give you bigger burritos and have a small salsa bar with chips. It was so great!

We are now members of BJ Wholesale Club, Adam and I walked around for 2 hours and spent $450! That's after the $65 in coupons we had! ($65!!!) We then had to rearrange our tiny kitchen to be able to accommodate all of the bulk items. I hope (other than some meat products) that we don't have to go shopping for years!

After shopping, we came home and made Oreo truffles for a clam bake tomorrow, and about 15lbs of baby food. Applesauce, banana applesauce, apple blackberry, chicken and apple, green beans and a medley of veggies. I still have some more to do, but I'm exhausted. It's 10:18, and other than 15 or 20 minutes in the car, this is the first time I've sat down all day.

NOW: Here's the awesome part. Ares is cutting a tooth (well, two). We were in BJ's, and I noticed his gums were bleeding. Did he care? NOPE. This kid was the perfect child all day long. I hope he's like that tomorrow too! He also took NO naps today other than two naps when in the car, one for 15 and one for 20 mins. He's so much like his daddy!