almost back to work

Last week was teacher week, which is why there was a severe lack of posting. Ava went back to day care full time and I headed back to work full time, although I don't really count it because it was just teacher inservice, which means meetings and lesson planning and setting up the classroom but no students. I usually go into psycho workaholic mode but because Craig was back on the road for the first time following his mono episode, I had to end the day at the regular time and come home to take care of Ava. Not that I mind--in some ways, it's a good thing that I'm forced to put work down and come home because otherwise I go a little crazy. (I told you--workaholic.) Anyhow there are a few loose ends to tie up so as soon as Craig wakes up to watch Ava I can go back and take care of them. Yesterday was my morning to sleep...today is his. Anyhow, I think this year will probably be good...or at least get off to a good start. From what I hear the kids have lower academic skills but are pretty sweet and they do try hard, which is all I can ask of them as a teacher. I'm so easy--if you do your work, try hard, and behave, we get along fine. If you don't, then we will have a problem. I don't understand what's so complicated about that to some kids.

ANYHOW--I got Ava's six month pictures yesterday and in spite of how much she freaked out at the photo shoot they did turn out pretty cute! I'll try to scan and post them but it may not be for awhile, since things are really busy around here with work and such. I think she's fighting a cold (and luckily seems to be winning) because she goes between having fussy sleep and sleeping like a ROCK. Three hour morning nap yesterday!! The rest of the naps were bad but in all fairness, we were dragging her to the store, Cheesecake Factory, etc. Last night she slept nearly 11 hours, much to my relief, and now she's back down after only about 1 1/2 hours of awake time which is unusual. Usually this is what happens:

6:00 or 6:30 am--eat
Go back to sleep until about 8:00
Awake and playing until 10:00
10:00--baby cereal and fruit, and a bottle
10:30--morning nap

We'll see. I would like to go to the mall after I work to take advantage of the Loft gift card Craig gave me for our anniversary + the 20% off coupon from Jen + the huge sale at Loft but who knows what will happen!

without further ado....

Some of the pictures don't seem to have loaded correctly, but I am so not doing this again...

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YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FREAKING KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!

Don't expect pictures anytime soon. Or, better yet, don't expect them EVER. I just spent the better part of two hours resizing approx. 50 pictures--incorrectly the first time so I did it twice--and then uploading them to Bubbleshare and when I was FINALLY DONE, Bubbleshare chooses THAT moment to pop up a screen informing me that their server is down and they are "sorry for the inconvenience." And they suck about saving things (your album basically can't be saved until you go through the whole upload-review-caption process) so I lost the entire. freaking. thing. If there was something logical to take my anger out on nearby, I would be smashing something into little pieces RIGHT NOW.

If Craig laughs at me one more time, it might be his head.


UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

procrastinating the photo update

So I'm going to just post this: the best song ever, by the best band ever, performed in the best city ever, last week. And you can probably hear me singing along happily somewhere in the crowd.... ;o)



You'd think I'd be happy just seeing him once on this tour but I'm pretty bummed about missing the Raleigh concert...unfortunately, I don't know that many people here who actually listen to good music (sorry, it's true!) so at this point I'd pretty much have to go alone. Which I'm actually quite tempted to do. It's not like it's dangerous, the audience is just a bunch of older people and happy stoners, really. And the occasional random preppy math teacher/mommy, like me. ;o)

6 Month Stats

No, I don't have time for Chicago pictures yet, but we did have the 6 month checkup yesterday and Ava is...

27.5 inches long
18 lbs. 14.5 oz.

...in other words, HUGE. Still in the upper-90s for percentile ranking. Jeez! But, she's healthy and happy so no complaints here! I started giving her some Mylicon with her before-bed bottle and she now seems to be sleeping through the night without crying out, so maybe she was just having some tummy aches while adjusting to new foods. This morning she ate at 6:45 and then snuggled in bed with me, where we both slept until 9:15...nice! In my world, that's considered "sleeping in." ;o)

That's it, pictures to follow one of these days...

Chicago Trip, Part 1

I don't have time to download pictures right now--I have to resize and then Bubbleshare and it's going to take a million years--so this will be the verbal update and part 2 will be the photo update. :o) Let's see....the day after the concert...Ava got to meet some old family friends of ours: my mom's friend Jan and her daughters Jessica and Alison, and Jessica's daughter Janna, whom I'd never met. It was great to catch up with everyone! (It's also a riot listening to my mom and Jan talk, they're basically an older version of MJ and me ;o) That night Craig and I went to go see Wall-E...our first movie date in something like eight months. Great movie, by the way: family-friendly without being stupid. Most family-friendly stuff makes me want to kick myself in the head because it's usually pretty cheesy.

Fourth of July, my grandparents and aunt, uncle and cousin came over so Ava got to meet more relatives and we had a lot of fun with everybody. I miss my family like crazy. I swear, if not for the insanely long and freezing winters...I'd be very tempted to move back up there. But I am definitely not cut out for winter, I can barely tolerate the short, mild winters we have here in NC. Anyhow...we left after a late breakfast on the 5th and stopped overnight in Charleston, WV--Ava did much better this way and slept great at the hotel. Not us though...her little noises pretty much kept us up all night. But that's ok. :o) We made great time on Sunday and arrived home around 3pm and even though I miss everyone even more than before and even though I miss Chicago, it's good to be back in our own space again. I'm telling you though...I feel even more like an outsider down here than ever before. Everybody here has their family close by except us, and most people here don't quite "get" my particular brand of weirdness. For example, when we were at the movies, they showed a preview for a cartoon called, "Beverly Hills Chihuahua." It was terrible...the creators of it need to be beaten with sticks. The preview alone made me want to burn out my eyes and ears. I said to Craig, "THAT WAS HORRIBLE! I would rather stab myself in the head with an ice pick than ever see that again!" Apparently I said it loud because the guy in front of us started CRACKING UP and repeated it to his wife. That wouldn't amuse most people here, they'd just think I'm insane. (Which may very well be true, but they'd think it like it was a bad thing.... ;o)

Also--I miss the food. OHHHHH do I miss the food!!! Here is a sampling of what we enjoyed up there:

Portillo's

Noodles & Co.

Corner Bakery

Fannie May Candy

I'm telling you, all we have around here is fast food or ridiculously expensive restaurants! Or the same old boring chains: Olive Garden, Chili's etc. Not that they aren't good from time to time, but I like really good, reasonably priced places to eat. The only place I've found here that's local and pretty much awesome is Bella Monica. But, it's all the way on the other side of town and it's a place I'd rather enjoy sans baby.

Oh yes, in other news, I took Ava for her first "photo shoot" at Sears yesterday. We got a few pictures that turned out okay. Why only okay instead of adorable? Because she had a meltdown of epic proportions while being photographed. WONDERFUL. And I just got a plain white background instead of doing anything exceptionally cute or fancy--I had a coupon for a free sitting fee and 10 x 13 pic, and I got a few others. Now that I know I have to take her over within seconds of her napping and eating (to try to catch her best mood), I can plan another session and really do it up cute. Not too cute though...I don't do too cute. ;o) Tomorrow is the 6 month checkup (details regarding her latest weigh-in and such will follow) and on Thursday we have an appointment following up on something. Either her tailbone or her kidneys, I can't keep it straight anymore. (See how worried I am? ;o)

That's it for now, I guess I should probably start dinner...just salad and leftover Vidalia Onion Soup from yesterday (I make awesome soup) but I promised Craig homemade croutons for the salad. I randomly made up my own recipe yesterday and they were simply AWESOME.

runnin' down a dream

Last night Mike and I went to the Tom Petty concert...as always, it was utterly, ridiculously, AWESOME. He is just an amazing musician live! No new album this year, just a random summer tour, so he played the hits and some other odds and ends--good stuff. We had a great time, except for the CRAPWEASEL DRUNKEN FRAT-BOY types behind us that yelled and cussed when the band played a couple more obscure (but still very good) songs. I wanted to throw them over the balcony because honestly, why does anyone go to a concert if they don't really like the band?!!? Morons. We did have an awesome guy in front of us though, who was rocking out and dancing like only an old white dude can. It was hilarious...but I respect that he was having a great time, even if he was expressing it with some rather amusing dancing. :o) Anyhow, I'd love to see him again in Raleigh next week but if it doesn't happen it won't kill me, I had a great time enjoying the music last night and hanging out with my brother as well. I have no pictures from anything yet, so enjoy this video instead :o)