So this is one of those times that the benefit of blog therapy comes into play. You know I’m all about hyping all of the positives of blogging, and so today it’s therapy.

You see, it’s therapy because I had a really crappy day, and I knew I couldn’t just not blog about it (I have to be real!!), but I refused to whine (I’ve kind of set myself up to having to keep to a “no whiner posts” standard now that I wrote the Forms of Blogging post). So, I had to deal with my bad day sooner than I might have otherwise have liked to so that I could share what I knew God was going to teach me through it. Well, I didn’t know WHAT God was going to teach me, but I was sure that there had to be a lesson.

To briefly summarize my day (this really IS brief compared to what it could be!), I still felt awful today – fever got higher, and had general symptoms of illness (no details necessary, right?). We did what we could today, but I just didn’t feel good, and it’s really hard to be a Mommy and feel awful at the same time. Maybe that’s why God usually gives Mommies amazing immune systems. Mine just hasn’t grown in yet.

Anyway, this afternoon, we went to Wal-Mart, and I managed to be backing out of my parking space at the same time as a very small and completely invisible Mitsubishi sports car was also backing out behind me. Yes, I messed up my one-month-old bumper. I was so confused when I felt the impact, because I had looked really good before pulling out (still gun shy from my last wreck). So after getting out and exchanging the usual apologies and decided who would call the police, I got back in and looked through the rear view mirror to figure out where I had gone wrong.

And I am not exaggerating, people: I could NOT see that car AT ALL.

You see, it was this tiny little sports car, and it was so low to the ground that in my tall SUV, it didn’t show up in my rear view mirror. He was pulling out too, so I’m hoping it is a non-fault wreck. And I’m thinking we should just “patch” my bumper rather than getting a new one since I seem to have issues with the bumper (but for the record, I’m not the only one – Chris backed into someone the WEEK after we got my new bumper – just left a scratch though and the other people weren’t damaged and didn’t want to call the police. Obviously we’re not supposed to have a shiny new bumper).

Then finally, as we’re coming home, I hear Ali doing her poop strain in the back seat. I get her out and take her upstairs, and on the way up, her diaper leaks alllll over me (Second time in a week! ). Except that this diaper is baaaad. Like, sick-bad. So I take her temp, and sure enough, she’s got whatever I have.

Anyway, so you can imagine that I was feeling pretty crappy (literally – ha!). Already felt sick and miserable, and then add the wreck (and getting pooped on). I was feeling a bit like a money pit: two wrecks and two trips to the emergency room (#1, #2), all in 75 days! And yes, I just added those days up, thanks to my blog. Then of course poor Ali didn’t feel good, and here I was feeling sick/bad and wreck/bad trying to care for my feeling sick/bad 18 month old.

So. I couldn’t blog about all of the above without some positive perspective (and I was really needing some new perspective for myself too, not JUST for you guys), so I came before God while mashing potatoes (also good therapy) for dinner and asked Him to please fix my attitude and show me what He was trying to teach me. He never disappoints!! He mercifully brought two verses to my mind, and through them showed me two things:

1) Perspective. Psalm 18:19 –“He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.” – God has blessed us SO much this year in so many different ways. We have been in constant awe of His provision and love that He has bestowed on us. There are so many people out there that are REALLY struggling – take McKaylee and her parents. McKaylee is Ali’s age and has an inoperable brain tumor. I admit it – I usually can’t read her Mommy’s blog because it makes me cry just thinking “what if that were Ali” – and not much reading makes me cry. Or my co-worker Sharon who had surgery to remove cancer yesterday. Or Chris’ old roommate whose house flooded yesterday while he was visiting his wife in Pennsylvania where she is getting long term treatment for a mystery ailment. Perspective. We are unbelievably blessed. A fender bender is not near the end of the world. It’s not even the end of the day, as God showed me by miraculously lifting my spirits!

– For Gina.

Toddlers are like Nintendo Games.

Like for instance – you know if you say “do you want to eat?”, that no matter how much she was ignoring you, she will stop, drop whatever she has, run to you, and say, “EEEEEEEAT!! HUNGRY!!!”. It’s as powerful as having the fireballs in Mario (which I much prefer to the feather – I know – we play too many video games to be parents. But the Wii is just so much fun!)

But sometimes, accidentally, you happen upon a secret level that you had no idea existed, and its an “AHHH!!” moment.

These moments don’t happen to me much since I am pretty much with her for her every waking moment, but it never fails to catch me off guard and thrill me when it does. But when other people are interacting with her, they get to discover “hidden levels” left and right, hopefully without losing a life, or getting pooped on.

Hopefully this analogy wasn’t quite as hard to understand as Chris’ infamous “Onion of Purity” analogy.

Maybe it’s still my slight fever talking.

I woke up feeling really weird this morning. First of all, I woke up with a bad headache, and I never get headaches. I don’t like headaches. It is the one sort of pain that I have no tolerance for. I would rather slash my hand on the dresser in my sleep ten times in one night than to have a headache.

So of course I immediately took four Tylenol. I went downstairs to try to get a little work done before Ali woke up, and began pouring sweat and burning up hot. Since our air conditioning likes to freeze up sometimes, I first checked the thermostat. It was where it should be. After spending another 30 minutes getting Ali up (no work done for Mommy!) and trying desperately to find a thermometer (where DO they all go when you need one?!), I finally took my temp and had a medium grade fever, but that was after Tylenol had been in my system for an hour.

So I fed Ali, and by then felt unbelievably sleepy.

So I broke one of my “rules” and let Ali watch VeggieTales in the morning (Note Pro #1). I usually save it for the afternoon when we’re getting anxious for Daddy to get home, and I try not to let her watch one every day. You don’t want veggies rotting the brain, you know.

As she was watching it and I was laying on the couch, and was seriously afraid I was going to fall asleep. So then I was strategizing on what would happen if I put her back in her crib for a little bit so I could sleep because I literally didn’t think I could stay awake!

So I tried a new strategy and got us ready and we went to do errands. You always feel better when you’re out and about, right? So we went to Lifeway and Target and Staples. By the time we got to Staples, I realized that I was not any less sleepier, and I was being less patient than usual with Ali’s issue of demanding loudly everything that she wants (Note Con #1).

So I gave up in Staples and headed home, after veering through the McDonalds drivethru to get a LARGE COKE to try and wake up (did you know that all of their drinks are $1 regardless of size right now??). I wasn’t such a great driver, but we made it.

Got home, fed Ali lunch, and put her down for her nap. The coke had helped a little, so I really tried to get some much needed work done. After getting the most important work done, I decided that I would have to do it – take a nap. So I laid down, and after an hour I THINK I woke up a little and turned on the monitor to check on Ali and she was up (remember her quirk – she never fusses when she wakes up because she really likes staying in bed). Myself remembering her quirk and deciding to take advantage of it in my half-sleep-stupor, turned off the baby monitor and fell back asleep for an hour (Not sure if Ali would call this a pro or con, since she loves staying in bed). All of this is not verifiable fact due to my sleepwalking/dreaming habits. I’m never sure what’s real and what’s not when I’m asleep.

I jumped out of bed an hour later, really hoping that maybe Ali had fallen back asleep. I heard her about 10 minutes later, so I really don’t know if she had or had not fallen back asleep. But she certainly didn’t seem upset at me when I came and made her get out of bed.

So now, since I’m still feeling pretty exhausted, Ali is watching her SECOND VeggieTales for the day (Note Pro #3).

So, all in all, I think me being sick has worked out well for her!

I have no idea what’s wrong with me – I have no other symptoms, except dizziness. Hopefully it will clear up by tomorrow and I’ll get back to better blogging!

Speaking of better blogging, here’s a picture that has nothing to do with anything in this blog, I just have a certain reader (ahem) that complains if I post a blog without pictures. So maybe tomorrow, my blog and my picture will even go together!!

Ha!
This totally cracked me up this morning.
This is a promo podcast for Red Mountain Music, a local group (who happens to travel all over the US and Canada) that rewrites music to rarely heard or used hymns. Ashley (for reference, AJ’s Mom) is their lead singer (have I ever mentioned Ashley has a bazillion dollar voice?). Anyway, here’s their, umm. . . “promotional” material:

I am officially published!!! My blog book of the first 100 posts to my blog arrived today. I am soooo excited!! This is the first of many, which is going to be such a great library of memories for us and for Ali! For more information on what I did and on Blurb, the company I used to publish it, click here.

Here’s the cover and binding:
The back cover:
And some sample pages:
“Name it and Claim it” and “Sleepyhead and Sour Cream“:
“Kiss Me, I’m Irish!“
Somewhere in the middle of my favorite blog ever, “Baby Tips“
“G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S” and “Flowers“
“Sleepover!” and “Having Fun“:

“Bubbles, Salt . . . “Overall, I am very happy with it. It is a nice thick hardback, good heavy paper, and very nicely done. The pictures are not quite as crisp as I had hoped, but I was equally disappointed at picture quality when I ordered the Creative Memories Photo Albums, so I guess this is a universal book printing quirk. They are still good, though. I know better now how to go about my second book – what formats look best, etc. But #1 took a WHILE to get right, so I think I’ll take a little publishing break before I start #2!!!

Now that I have the weight of the book in my hands, I cannot believe that I wrote 144 pages in under 3 months!! And I have written at least that over again since! If you had told me last year that I would have written 300 pages worth of blogs in 5 months, I would have thought you were crazy!! But I really have fallen head over heels in love with blogging. It’s the perfect creative, yet objective outlet for me.

For any of the Grandparents (or anyone else, but it would be QUITE presumptuous to think that anyone else would want it, even with my “allowable” thoughts of grandeur and popularity!!) who are interested in having their own copy, it can be purchased here from Blurb, the publisher.

Ali is definitely an accessories girl. She insists on either a hairbow or pigtails every day (it changes each day, but it’s usually a hairbow), she loves shoes, and she points out everyone’s jewelry and says “preeetty”, or even “gugeous” if it’s really nice.

I took a few pics at Sunday lunch today, and after the fact realized that they were all of JC. Hmm. . .maybe he was fishin’ to make it on my blog. I know, doubtful, but it’s my blog – I can have visions of grandeur and popularity if I want to!!

Here’s JC with Ali and Eli. . . it’s been quite a while that Ali has sat so still for so long. . . not sure if it’s the “Cousin Eli effect” or “Uncle JC effect”. Or, maybe it was the “I’m up past my naptime effect”.
After lunch comes. . . naptime!!

You know how some people are so unique that it makes you say, “now THAT person is quirky!!!”?

Well, I would like to announce to all of you, that you are ALL quirky.

Before you freak out and leave me angry comments, let me say that quirks aren’t a bad thing – they are what make us unique. They are just the ways in which we view and approach life differently than most people.

Chris and I were discussing some very quirky friends of ours (sorry, no names) late one night, and due to the lateness of the hour, meandered into the conversation of “who do we know that isn’t quirky at all?” So we started naming everyone we could think of . . . friends, family, acquaintances, etc, and could name a quirk for every single one of them!! Yup, we couldn’t think of a single quirk-less person in the whole world!!

Now, I’m not going to “out” our friends and family’s quirks, but some of our (many) quirks include:

Rachel: obviously my love and affection for all things accounting, budgeting, numbers, and SPREADSHEETS; my extreme perfectionism and fear of doing anything in front of anyone until I can do it perfectly (examples include that I played guitar for several years before I played in front of ANYONE but my teacher and my Mom and by the time I actually played for anyone else, I was good enough that my first performance was a solo in church, and also that I never learned how to dive because it’s not exactly something that you can learn without anyone seeing, unless you have your own pool); my complete inability to sleep without any covers on (It feels completely unsafe for some unknown reason); and while we’re on the topic of sleep, how about my sleepwalking quirk?!!? And I’m sure that about 75 of the 100 random things about me would qualify as quirks.

Chris: He wears shorts ALL YEAR ROUND, even to work; His obsession with everything being “just so” (examples: I never help him set up chairs in Sunday School because He will come behind me and adjust each chair by as little as a millimeter, and every night he cracks our bedroom door by the exact same measurement – enough to let the cat in, but shut enough to not disturb Ali. If I move the door, whether he sees me do it or not, he WILL adjust it. He never complains about me messing up things, he just fixes it); and his complete obsession with looking at real estate magazines (especially when we’re on vacation).

Ali (yes, even Ali is quirky, poor thing. She didn’t have a chance since she has such quirky parents): She doesn’t like to get out of bed!! It’s so weird – I’m pretty sure that she would lay happily in her bed all day long if I would let her. I will go get her, and she will dive into the other corner of the bed and say “bye bye!”. I think she’s just playing with me, but sometimes I wonder. . . ; and her whole overly-cautious thing – how she refused to walk until my Dad told her to, then walked perfectly. Oh yes – and her favorite foods are vegetables. She yells for cooked broccoli. And tomatoes. And cooked carrots. She definitely did NOT get this trait from her Father.

Our House: We LOVE our house, but what house doesn’t have quirks? Our house’s quirks are that all of the plumbing runs through the living room walls, which is the farthest room from any plumbing fixtures, so every time a toilet flushes or a sink comes on, it is really loud in the living room. And the stairs – my goodness the stairs. We have THE CREAKIEST stairs in the whole wide world.

Oreo: For a while, she actually liked walking on a leash. Also, one of her favorite past times is licking people. I guess her quirk is that she thinks she is a dog.

OK – your turn!! What are your quirks? Or your kids’ or your spouse’s? And yes, you can point out more of our quirks if you like, as long as you’re nice. ;)

I like celebrations, so I’m going to have one every 100 posts!! And. . . . .

It’s my 200th blog post! Since I missed celebrating on my 100th blog, I celebrated on my 150th blog by giving you, my beloved readers, a chance to introduce yourselves and “blog within my blog”. It was tons of fun, and everyone enjoyed reading about each other, so I decided to do it again for anyone who didn’t get in on the fun at 150!! Who knows, if it goes well again, maybe it will be an “every 100 blogs” tradition! After all, it is all of you who keep me motivated to blog (thank you very, very much!!).

So, whether you’re a “charter” reader or a brand new reader, an often commenter or a never commenter, this is your opportunity to introduce yourself, say hi, say what you do like or what you don’t like in blogs, say pretty much whatever you want to say!! I can’t wait to hear from you, and neither can all of your other reader friends!