Right then, Tallyho back into Acting!

So I got cast in Anton in Showbusiness, but only because my friend Nicole had to pass on the roles because of an illness. I'm okay with that, being someone's "2nd choice" doesn't really hurt my feelings. Some of my best roles have come from someone else dropping out. I am quite nervous though, because one of the roles I'm playing, Ben, a male country singer, has a kissing heading towards making out scene with a woman. So I'm nervous about that, as I didn't go through that phase in college and so have never mugged down with another woman. And it will be doubly weird because I will be playing a man mugging down with a woman. Really odd. But, quite frankly, I'm a bit surprised I've been in theatre this long without kissing a woman. There are a LOT of plays with girl on girl action for some reason. I mentioned this to Tim and his first response was the typical guy one, "Of course I wouldn't have a problem with that, that's hot." I'm pretty sure he was joking. His second response was, "I think it would be easier than kissing a guy, since you aren't attracted to women." He has a point there. I think I would have a hard time doing the scene with a man, too. But I do think it would be easier, as I have a frame of reference, and it would be at least slightly less awkward. Oh, well, it's only one scene. Surely I'll be able to do it with aplomb. Although, Tim was like, "I want to see how they make you look like a man since you aren't even remotely manly." Yeah, that should be interesting!
In other news, Stella has started throwing very dramatic temper tantrums. If I pick her up to feed her or move her when she does not want me to, she starts bucking her whole body back and forth and crying. It's just peachy. I guess this is what life with a toddler is like.
CLARIFICATION: Kelli brought up a good point, I didn't explain why I was playing a man. All the roles in the play are portrayed by women, it's written in the script that way. So in addition to the male country singer, I'm playing a gay male costume designer and one female role, a lesbian producer.

Well, it's really none of your business, is it?

Stella has crazy hair. We have established that, we have tried to fight it, we have let the crazy hair win. I'd like to get that out in the open first. But apparently, both family and strangers have not gotten this. I spoke to my Mother the other day, and commenting on the recent pictures she'd seen of Stella, she said, "do you ever use a brush on that child's hair before you take a picture?" or something to that effect. I proceeded to tell her that brushes do not work. Brushes soaked in water do not work, brushes soaked in hairspray do not work. I haven't tried glue, but I'm pretty sure it WOULDN'T WORK! I used to think Tim just didn't do a good job of brushing Stella's hair after baths. But oh, no, that is not it, I brush her hair often after the bath and it is obedient until it dries. Then we thought we were parting her hair wrong and so tried flipping her part. Nope, it still worked its way back into the familiar crazy pattern with her bangs plastered to her forehead. So a busybody at Target today, said, "oh, she's so cute, oh, poor thing with your hair in your eyes, can you see past all that hair?" I said, yeah, you try to push it out of the way, and it just goes back. And I demonstrated, sweeping Stella's bangs off to the side. They quickly fell back to the front. "Oh, your mommy has a barrette holding her hair, doesn't she?" At the time, I thought, "yeah, idiot, I do." I didn't realize until afterwards, in the car, too far past the moment that she was basically saying, "Your mommy doesn't bother to put a hair clip in your hair, which would keep it out of your eyes." And I burned, I seethed with the comeback, which was, "Well, I think having hair in your eyes is preferable to choking to death because your mom put a choking hazard in your hair to keep it out of your eyes!" It sounded better when I muttered it to myself in the car. Anyway, I think people just aren't used to seeing babies with as much hair as Stella, so they've never had to deal with babies with bangs. Maybe my baby is just getting a head start on being a sullen teenager. I've thought about cutting her bangs, but my cousin said not to do that. She did that on her baby, who also has/had crazy hair, and now that Mercedes is almost two, she wishes she hadn't and is trying to grow her bangs out to the same length as the rest of her hair. So unless someone knows of a non-choking hazard barette, we'll just have to deal with a little crazy hair for a wee bit longer!

Another funny stranger comment. The lady at the teaching supply store today said that Stella had such beautiful eyes (she does), and with that beautiful olive skin, she'll have to beat off the boys one day. Olive skin? Hmmm, I've never heard that one before. I have no problem with Stella having olive skin, but I don't think she does. I think perhaps she just looked dark compared to her paler-than-thou momma.

Stella is literally eating paper right now. I wonder if that's bad for her digestive system...

Five Pounds to go! Five pounds to go!

Not until I recover my pre-pregnancy weight, but until I can fit into some of my old jeans and capris! I actually decided to try a few of the ones I remembered being a bit more generous on this morning just to see and I was able to get them zipped and buttoned! I had to suck in and pledge not to breathe too much, but if this was the 70's and you still wore jeans so tight you needed a coat-hanger to zip them, I could totally don my trousers. Yay! This gives me hope because I'm sick of rotating the like 4 totally overworn bottoms that I've bought post-pregnancy. Well, really if you add in the dorky pants I bought strictly for more formal occassions, I've got 6 overworn bottoms, but I try to save those for church, auditions, and funerals.
Speaking of auditions, I went to my first audition in nearly two years Saturday. I rocked the socks off that material, but since I haven't heard anything yet, I'm starting to think that the love fest was not mutual. Oh, well, it felt good to get out there and they are definitely the ones who are losing out. They didn't let me read for any of the character parts, which I think I would have really impressed them with, so I'm sure that's part of the problem. And they asked MY AGE on the audition sheet! Can you believe it? I just left it blank. I mean, this is acting, you tell ME how old I am. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed since it was an awesome script. There are auditions for another play this weekend, so I'll try that if I don't hear back soon. Of course, the auditions this weekend involve a 2 minute dramatic monologue, so I'll have to see what I can dig up and polish off from my archives. Oogh, I hate monologues.

Sometimes unhappy is cute

Stella was throwing hissy fit and I just had to stop and take a picture. So cute!

Sign of the Apocalypse

I got my Spin and Rolling Stone magazines in the mail today, (don't worry, I don't pay for Rolling Stone, I got it free with my Salon subscription. I know it sucks), and they both have craptastic band Fall Out Boy on the cover. What is this world coming to?

Democracy In Action

Stella and I were a part of the power of democracy this morning. We went to the Capitol and went around to the legislator's offices asking them to support HB 703 and HB 1154 (or was it 45?). Anna roped me into doing this and we went with her and Daniel, but honestly I'm very glad we did it (thanks Anna!). HB 703 will certify and regulate lactation consultants, so mean old ladies like that bitch Anna had can't make new moms feel hopeless and helpless (she also made our friend Rachel feel the same way with her daughter). In fact, that chick was there today, but Anna did her best to avoid her and would not let me, despite repeated attempts, kick the lady's ass. Oh, well. Anyway, the second house bill supports a woman's right to breastfeed in public, and imposes penalties for business-owners who do not allow women to breastfeed in their establishment. I tried to turn that around to say that it clearly defined the law for business owners, since we all know Texans hate to tell a business owner what to do. But I hope what we said was helpful. We gave the assistants a folder of information and a little mug with candy. Stella slept for about half an hour or so in her gorgeous mai tai, made by Ashley. I couldn't believe it, as she hasn't fallen asleep in a sling since she was about 5 months old! I will definitely have to use that trick in the future. Daniel was perfectly behaved as well until the very end when he needed some Mama's milk to help him sleep. In fact, I went to the last two reps' offices by myself so Anna could nurse, and at one of them, the assistant in charge of healthcare had us step outside to talk and lo and behold, there were Anna and Daniel as the poster Mother/child for breastfeeding. It was pretty humorous. Everyone was very nice, with the exception of the first guy who was like, "I don't have a baby". He had an Aggie ring on, I happened to notice, so that probably explains it;)

Unfortunately, I think it was pretty poorly publicized, since there weren't very many moms there. Too bad, since it is such an important topic. But I hope we represented well. We were filmed and had pictures taken, so perhaps you'll see us on the 6 o'clock news!
UPDATE: Erin called to say we were on the KVUE 5pm news. At least, she saw me and Stella. Unfortunately, they do not have the video on their website and we weren't on the 6pm news. I'll keep my fingers crossed that they'll add the video online and/or we'll be on the 10pm news. My big television debut and I miss it!

And Coveting what you don't have (yet)

We are going to check out the Mueller Re-development when they announce the home types and builders on March 5th. It's going to be the coolest thing ever, this super-duper utopia where all different home types and retailers co-exist together, they're even going to have their own elementary school. Supposedly, anyway. And apparently you have to sign up for a home from March 5th through the beginning of April or else you're screwed because it's going to be so popular. It's going to have row houses, which would be so cool, and prices supposedly start from the low 100's, all the way up to half a million, so we could slum it and live there. Not! Maybe we could actually afford something there, we'll just have to see. It just would be so cool to be so close to everything and close to church. Perhaps Tim could actually sing in the choir and stuff. I'm not getting my hopes up, but we are going to check it out.

But people who move here from California shouldn't live there. Because you will make it expensive. And you will make it where we can't live there because you will be too close. You will rub your California-ness on us and smother us and we cannot have that.

I may set a new record for posting today.

Appreciatin' What You Got

So my cousin and her toddler came over this afternoon. It was a lot of fun, especially since I hadn't met Mercedes yet and she hadn't met Stella. They live about 5 hours away (6-8 hours on baby time), and last time I went out there, Mercedes had strep throat and so we couldn't meet. She's so cute! She turns 2 in April and she was just running around, totally loving on Stella and Lucy. Absolutely adorable. Mercedes is hispanic and my cousin and her husband are white, so it's obvious that she's adopted. And my cousin told me that people actually stop her all the time while she is out with Mercedes and ask her, "where's her mother?" What do you mean, where's her mother? You're talking to her, you asshat! I cannot BELIEVE people would say that. But they live in a very small town in East Texas, so there you go.

--Did you like that word? Asshat? I heard it this weekend from someone at my church, (I go to a pretty liberal church), in reference to the SXSW people. He referred to the industry people as "asshats with an expense account". I love it! It's my new favorite cuss word.--

--Crap, Stella just pulled up on her bookcase and now can get books off the top shelf. Where we put all the books we didn't want her to destroy. Guess it's time to do some reorganization.--

Anyway, my cousin kept going on and on about how much she loved our house and our neighborhood (she lives out in the country on 80 acres with horses and cows and she was jealous of having a neighborhood with sidewalks and neighbors and such). Seeing our house through someone else's eyes made me realize that it is really quite nice and cozy. I guess I knew that, but you just get tired of it, you know?

--Stella has like 5 pacifiers in here and she has one in her mouth and one in her hand and she keeps dropping the one that's in her hand on the floor and then picking it back up and putting it in her mouth and then dropping the one in her mouth and doing it again "over and over like a monkey with a miniature cymbal".--

But we did a major cleaning this weekend, both because our office/guest room had become a junk pit and because my cousin was coming and I knew she'd want a tour of our house. I'm kind of digging my house right now as a result. It helps that it is a gorgeous day outside and sunlight is streaming in and it's just beautiful. Rather than bitching and moaning about how bored we are with our house, we probably should just re-do it a little bit to get less bored. It's just you get stuck in a rut and it's hard to think of what to do differently. Especially when you get nothing but compliments on what you've done with it already.

I wanted to post a picture of Stella and Mercedes from this afternoon (crap, we totally should have gotten a picture of Stephanie and I together with our babies!), but my computer doesn't seem to be reading my memory card. So for now I'll just close off this long, rambling post!

The funniest thing I have read in a long time

I'm going through stuff in the office closet which mostly consists of boxes of crap from college and soon after. Papers, personal stuff, junk, essentially. I came across some incredibly sappy letters and cards I wrote Tim when we were separated the summer after we started dating and most of them make me sound like a stalker, but one that was written June 16, 1997 had the most hilarious passage. I will re-type it exactly for you:
"The most disgusting thing happened last night. My brother was going to the bathroom and Punky stuck her head right in the way and got pee all over her face. She is a weird duck. So my brother told me this and he was just wiping her face off with a towel. I happened to have a bathroom cup full of water, so I poured it on Punky's face. Keith thought it was just so cruel. She had piss on her face, what was I supposed to do. Anyway, Punky didn't freak out like I thought she would. I think maybe she likes water..."
I do not remember this incident at all, but now I have this image of walking into the bathroom and seeing Keith wiping Punky's face and me asking what happened and then just throwing water at her. It cracks me up.

Theatre, Theatre and the Austin Real Estate Market

Those things have nothing to do with each other by the way. One brings me great joy, the other great pain. In the joy column, I was in TWO plays this week. Tuesday night we did The Freddy Argyle Show at FronteraFest and it was such a blast. Rehearsals have been fun from a social angle, but sort of difficult from the acting one. I kept getting really directed to do stuff that I thought I was already doing and I was getting really frustrated. There was definitely a communication problem between the director(s) and me. But I think in the end, the performance was flawless from everyone involved and the audience really loved it. A lot of laughter, which is always nice. Unfortunately, no best of the week, so no best of the fest, but we had the best overall night I have ever seen at FronteraFest (and I've been seeing 1-2 nights a year for the last 11 years). There were no people reciting crappy poetry or doing some painful vanity piece or performance art. That in itself was unbelievable. So I was torn between being upset that we didn't get to advance with such a strong piece, and being excited to see so many interesting pieces. On that note, I think I was the only person from any of the pieces that watched everybody. I mean, the aisle was pretty lonely most of the time. I consider that one of the best parts of FF, how can you not watch everyone?
Then Saturday Tim and I performed his Big Box God at our church as part of FronteraFest's Mi Casa es su Teatro. I was REALLY nervous for that one, considering I'd gotten the script Thursday and had been madly memorizing its monologues, despite two days of Stella barely sleeping. But everyone in the church really enjoyed it, and our non-church friends who came to see it seemed to at least not run for their lives in fear. So I think it was successful. Even if it did raise only $23 for our church. But our pastor said she sent it to the UMC local Conference, it might be fun to do at their meetings and such.
After our performer's high on Saturday afternoon, we drove around because Stella was sleeping in the backseat and I knew that might be all the sleep we'd get out of her. So we looked around at houses, as we are want to do when we drive around to keep the baby asleep, and we realized that Austin's market is INSANE! You cannot get a house for under $180k unless you want to step over crack whores on your way in the door. If you want architectural interest or nice interiors, you're looking at $200k at the very rare low end and $350-$400k at the most likely range. Who buys these houses? People who move here from California, that's who! Bastards who sell their 500 sq ft condos for half a million and decide to spend their scratch in Austin. Investors who buy any house under $200k sight unseen, flip it, and sell it for $300k. They are screwing it up for the rest of us!
Tim found a house online that was mid-century modern for $160k in a neighborhood at Lamar and Airport and we drove over to look at the outside yesterday after church because yes, once again, the monkey was asleep. It was pretty cute, not too small, and we thought it had a lot of potential, so we actually called the real estate agent. We started dreaming of what we would do to it, looking at area schools (yes we live in a fantasy world). He called us back to say that it had had five offers, and "several" of them were over the asking price. And what do you want to bet they're all investors? So we've been a bit down. It's silly to complain when you have a nice house that you can afford and you just want a different house, (with a formal dining room, please!), but we've been here 6 years. It was supposed to be a starter house, but now we're starting to think we'll be here forever just because the market is getting so insane! It's time to shit or get off the pot: we have to decide whether we want to make this house what we want it to be and give up on our modern dream, or we need to get a real estate agent who can find a house with good modern bones that we can make our own. We both think if we wait too much longer, it will be too late.

Baby!

So Stella has been calling everything "baby" lately. Or at least saying "baby" all the time. It may be a random combination of syllables, but it sure sounds like baby. I thought perhaps she knew what it meant, since she said it while looking at the mirror she has in the car, but now I'm not sure, since she says it while engaging in all sorts of activities. She still says "bye bye", though, she just said it while waving at the cat while we were playing. So cute!

Stella and her Daddy playing Peek-a-Boo

This is just so cute! Although a bit long, but that's because I don't know how to edit video.

Stella's Newest Achievements

I've been remiss in recounting Stella's latest achievements. As you all know from earlier posts, she started crawling a couple of weeks ago, then clapping and waving bye bye pretty reliably. But a week and a half ago, she said, "Bye" as her Aunt Christine and Uncle Brian were leaving. It was adorable. She kept waving and saying, "Bye". It was clear that's what it was. Then about a week ago she said bye and waved to her Daddy as he was leaving for work. Day before yesterday, she started cruising. She actually took steps from the ottoman to the glider to the table. And then yesterday she cruised among three chairs I set up in the kitchen, and from the coffee table to my leg to the couch. Very exciting! So the girl is actually showing some interest in walking, but crawling is certainly still her first love. Well, i see she's trying to climb the very dangerous cd cases, so I better go stop her. If anybody has any suggestions for blocking off cd storage or the fireplace, let me know!

Feelin' Guilty

This may sound silly, but one of the things I feel guilty for in the mothering department is that I don't really dress Stella up all cute. In fact, I am all about ease of getting on and off. Because our newest development is that Stella screams and cries whenever I'm changing her diaper and goes "Mama, Mama, Mama" like how dare you stop me from my constant motion to get this poo or wetness off my bootie. And because it's cold outside, she mostly wears pants, which are getting increasingly difficult to get on and off over her bulky cloth diapers. And I refuse to go buy 18 month clothing, (or really any clothing for her; I'm cheap like that and her aunts, grandmothers and great-grandmothers keep her fully stocked in that department!) Snaps would make life easier but according to the above family members, they just do not make pants for baby girls with snaps. So because I cannot stand to manhandle Stella into pants, she wears 4 pairs of pants pretty much on constant rotation: two pairs that are elastic and ample enough to go over her butt and two pairs with snaps. My plan is to buy some of those baby legwarmers that you can use instead of tights and then keep her in skirts most of the time. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I almost cannot wait for summer so it's back to onesies and rompers!

I just realized what a boring paragraph that was. I didn't get at the heart of why I feel guilty. I feel guilty for not dressing Stella up because that's what every mother of every little boy dreams of doing. I have a little girl who I can use as my own private dolly and I do not take advantage of it. In fact, my friends who have boys dress their sons WAY cuter than I dress Stella normally. Their little boys always look like little miniature men, they are adorable. Stella is adorable too, but usually her outfit has almost nothing to do with it. Right now she is wearing her Michigan State sweat pants and a onesie because she went jogging with her Daddy this morning, and I'm debating leaving it on her all day because the pants go over her booty easily. But I feel like that's kind of like me going to the grocery store in my sweatsuit, which I would NEVER do. I don't even own a sweatsuit! Lazy, lazy Mama, that's me!

Woah!

Barack Obama is a smoker. That is just crazy to me. He apparently doesn't make a secret of his smoking, but as the commentator on NPR said, "I bet you won't find any pictures of him smoking on the campaign trail". This doesn't really affect my impression of him, especially since I used to smoke, but I just find it surprising.

Oh, Come on, really?!

I bought a 6 pack of Lone Star Tall Boys to make rehearsal tonight a little more interesting. Stella was with me and I went through the self-checkout line. We also bought cat food and a little cup to try and get Stella to drink water. She even chose it herself, as I gave her a choice between the blue and orange cup and she chose the blue. Very exciting. Anyway, when I scanned the Lone Star, it of course asked me to show the checker my ID. Usually they see how ancient I am and just wave me on. But this one made the little universal "ID" symbol (you know, made her thumb and forefinger like she was holding a card), so I kind of leaned over and held out my wallet with my ID in it, since I didn't want to stray too far from Stella. She said, "Take it out please?" I did, even though I was like, this is ridiculous! Then she looked at the front and the back and even bent it a little, I guess to make sure it was real! WTF? I mean, I'd understand if I was like 22, but I'm 29 for Pete's sake, and I pretty much look my age. It was unbelievable. I didn't say anything, but I really wanted to.
In other news, I thought I received the check for my 401k a month or two ago since I never rolled it over, but then today I received a report showing that I still had about 3 times what the check amount had been in my 401k. Huh? I guess I'll have to call, but the only thing I can think of is that I was still eligible for profit sharing and that's what the check was. It wasn't very big, but I guess they didn't have very many profits last year. Wish I'd known, I'd have spent it more wisely or something. As it was, it basically went toward a new china cabinet, a bookcase and some other things from IKEA.

Clap Your Hands!

Stella's First Crawl: On Tape!

Thursday Thirteen

Got this from my friend Kelli's blog. I don't know how to get all the fancy code that makes it pretty because I've never bothered to really learn how to use blogger, but here's the jist.

13 Concerts I Have Attended

I have of course attended way more than 13 concerts, so I'll just choose what comes to mind.

1. Erasure's Wild Tour at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion when I was 12. That was my first concert and my best friend Sarah's Aunt Stephanie took us. It was awesome. Andy wore a tutu and danced and frolicked around with hot gay men in little shiny underwear. Perhaps this concert is what turned me--into a fag hag that is:) Louie Louie, some horrible pop flash in the pan was the opening act. (I saw them again when I was a sophomore in college with Tim and his sisters Caroline and Christine. Fun, but certainly not as out there as the first concert.)

2. Depeche Mode's Songs of Faith and Devotion Tour at the Summit when I was a junior in high school. Sarah and I went with her Mom (since it was in kind of a sketchy part of town). We had 8th row tickets and I swear to God that David pointed me out to Martin when I mouthed "I love you" and gave him my best 16-year-old sexy look. and TheThe was the opener and their bass was so loud I stuffed tissues in my ear and I swear my heart was beating in time to the beat. I saw them twice more, once on that tour when it came back around at Cynthia Woods, and once shortly after Tim and I got married on the crappy album tour at that crappy Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre outside San Antonio.

3. The Cranberries' No Need to Argue Tour at the Astrohall. Sarah, Frank and I went, even though Frank and I had to get up at like 5:30am to go to a speech tournament the next morning. I think I was a senior in high school. We wound up partying all night and I slept like maybe an hour. I barely made it through the next day. Not my best work. I saw the Cranberries again when they swung back through and played Cynthia Woods in the Spring. Toad the Wet Sprocket, one of my favorite bands at the time, opened for them that time and were awesome.

4. Lollapalooza 1992, August before my sophomore year, I went with Sarah, her boyfriend John, and a friend from school I had a crush on for some reason, Chris. Sarah and I had had to have our parents lie for us and say that our families were going on a picnic together so that we could miss Colorguard practice. Sarah and John disappeared to go do God knows what (okay, I do know what, she told me in excrutiating detail), and Chris and I hung out and watched the show. We had a lot of fun. Pearl Jam was awesome, Eddie Vedder climbed up to the top of the stage while he sung, Ice Cube made me feel very white, Red Hot Chili Peppers brought the house down, and Ministry did my goth soul good as Al Jourgenson danced with a skeleton.

5. Morrissey in London at the Royal Albert Hall, June 2004. One of the best concerts ever. Period. I paid a ridiculous amount to win tickets off ebay, but it was well worth it. To see Morrissey in his native land, with a bunch of soccer hooligans chugging pints and singing along to every word behind us? And the sound was amazing! It was a symphony hall and only sat around 2,000 people, so it was intimate too. Plus at the door they kept asking Tim if he had a mobile (they aren't allowed in because they can take pictures), and Tim totally couldn't understand him, so finally I had to go, "do you have a cell phone?" like such an American idiot.

6. REM with Radiohead opening at Southpark Meadows, Fall 1995, the Monster tour for REM and The Bends tour for Radiohead. Wow wow wow. The day I fell in love with Radiohead. REM puts on one of the best live shows I've ever seen and Radiohead nearly blew them out of the water. RIP Southpark Meadows. I've seen REM one more time, great, and Radiohead twice more, the Kid A tour at Cynthia Woods, which was a transcendent experience where the audience was just one in enjoying the music and the Hail to the Thief tour at Cynthia Woods where some A-holes on cell phones tried to ruin the experience.

7. Nine Inch Nails and David Bowie at Southpark Meadows, also 1995. Trent blew David Bowie off the stage, poor guy. Went with Sarah, Elizabeth Z., and George. Interesting group. Sarah was in town and we had to hunt her down a ticket. We went to all the kiosks at UT until we found a poster for someone selling tickets, then went to their house to buy just ONE ticket, which I think pissed them off. They kept trying to sell us both.

8. Camper Van Beethoven at SXSW 2004, I believe. La Zona Rosa. We got there like at 8 to make sure we'd get in since we were just paying cover. I made it through all the crappy bands before, but I thought I was going to be overcome by all the smoke and stuff in the room, and the packed in people. But thankfully, I made it to see CVB and it was well worth it. My high school dream had come true, to see CVB, who'd broken up by the time I got into them, and they didn't disappoint.

9. The Pixies at Stubb's, Fall 2004. Also a band that I'd never seen live because of a break-up. They were amazing, more high school dreams coming true. And I'd also spent a pretty penny on this show, but worth every cent.

10. The Cure's Wish Tour at Cynthia Woods, summer before my freshman year of high school, the Wild Mood Swings Tour at the Summit after freshman year of college, and the Curioso tour August 04 at Cynthia Woods. Always incredible, always worth seeing, will never disappoint. I dressed up totally goth for the first two shows, but I felt I'd grown a little past that by the Curioso tour. At the Wish Tour, my friend Philip died his hair with Kool-Aid and it was dripping down his neck. Good times.

11. Dave Matthews Band, Erwin Center, Sophomore year of college. Damn those guys can put on a show! Christi, Daniel and I went and had like 6th row or something tickets, and we were just blown away. (I'm running out of adjectives, sorry) Daniel could always get us the best seats. Damn you Daniel for moving to D.C.!

12. The Lemonheads with Redd Kross and some other band opening at a place in Houston that's not even there anymore, junior or senior year of high school. My friend Marissa and I stood in the very front, bracing and bruising our knees against the wood that separated the stage from the audience in the hopes of getting close to Evan Dando. Then the a-hole came out and he was too stoned to even play more than a song. He was in his PAJAMAS! I was so mad.

13. The Violent Femmes, Numbers, 1994 or 95. They worked that show, played for nearly 3 hours, I just loved it. Played all my favorites, and at one point I hid from my friends because they wanted to go home (or perhaps had to go home because of curfew), but I didn't want to miss a second of the show. I also nearly had my neck broken because a girl who'd been crowd surfing came down on me, I had to hurl her off with all my might. Excellent!

Oh, dude, I forgot Ben Folds at La Zona Rosa who led the audience in a beautiful sing along, and Counting Crows, and so many more!

The Brave New World of Mobility

So yesterday, Stella decided she was going to crawl. She'd been getting more mobile lately, but still her little stretch and creep a little, then sit up maneuver. But yesterday she just said, "hmm, I think I'll go ahead and do this crawling thing. I want that over there, so I'll just crawl over to it." Tim said she was into EVERYTHING this morning, even though he only watched her for about half an hour. She's not being quite so active with me because she is, of course, at heart still a lazy baby. But I think things are going to get more challenging from now on. First on the list is finishing baby-proofing everything. I baby-proofed her room even more, but it's still not completely safe for a baby that can get into everything. It was safe for a baby that just had a small radius, but now that she can crawl, well, I have a little more work to do. My guess is that we'll figure out a lot of what needs to be done just by watching what she goes for and then fixing that. I was so excited, but now I'm thinking, "Oh my gosh, my job just got a lot harder!"

To Clarify...

So both Tim and Ashley had really good points in their comments on yesterday's post. And I should make it clear that I was not proud of what went through my head and onto my blog when I saw the woman using WIC for the milk, but that's the way I think sometimes. And to make it clear again, I totally think we should help support the poor, I am definitely a social liberal, but my point is that I think people should think about their financial resources when they choose their family size. And I wish that our goverment would be more proactive about educating people about birth control to allow people of all income levels to control their family size. BUT Tim brings up an excellent point about people needing assistance sometimes. What if I got pregnant again and whammo Tim lost his job? I know we'd both be grateful to have that help. Thanks for helping me see things from the other angle, guys, sometimes my selfishness makes me ill.

Take a Picture, it'll last longer!

The ice has finally melted and Stella and I ventured out to the grocery store today for more supplies. Well supplies other than milk. They were COMPLETELY OUT! Only had like one gallon of buttermilk and that frankenmilk Mootopia stuff. So no milk for us. Oh, but the point of this story: Stella has a black eye because she fell on her bookshelf while playing on it and trying to pull up Tuesday evening. I was two inches away and I still have no clue how she did it. I think she was just really tired and clumsy. I cried nearly as much as she did, I felt so guilty, but Tim, who was only like 3 feet away when it happened, pointed out that there was nothing I could do. But I've gotten over the initial shock of what it looks like and I didn't really think about it until I got to the grocery store. Everybody stared at her! Yeah, like I hit my baby and then take her to the grocery store. Everyone at the deli counter asked what happened. I wanted to say, "none of your business.", but I thought that might be suspicious, so I told the story over and over again. One old man said, "learning to walk's tough, ain't it kiddo?" when he saw her. I thought that was kind of sweet, since he obviously knew that kids get all kinds of bruises when they start getting mobile. And another lady told me about her son falling out of his high chair and his tooth going through his lip. Sheesh!

I also chatted with a woman who was in line in front of me with her 21 month old daughter who was enamored of Stella. This woman was pregnant, and we chatted happily, but I felt a little like, "woah, what the heck?" when I noticed she was using a WIC coupon. She'd said how her husband wanted 4 kids. I can't help but think, "shouldn't you wait until you can afford them?" This is probably very snobbish and bougeois of me, but I couldn't help thinking that my tax dollars were paying for her kids. It was weird too because her daughter was very well dressed. I didn't notice what they were buying except for the milk because she bought it separately (that's what you have to do with WIC, I think). And she was white, which I think it's totally racist that I am bringing up, but there you go, I think it's important to the story in case you assumed she was non-white. (oh, the milk she bought was Lactose-free, in case you were wondering how she got milk when there was none)

Going Ice Storm Crazy!

For anyone who's been living under a rock the last few days, we in Austin (and across Central Texas), have been experiencing an ice storm and snow since Monday. Schools and work have been called off, businesses have been closed, life as we know it has come to a standstill. Even Tim didn't have to go into work, but it didn't stop them from making him do his work at home. That's the problem with the internet and technology: you can make your workers work even when they can't come in. Which is why I haven't been on the internet much. He had to use my computer since his is currently broken. And so while Tim was here, for the most part I felt like some sort of old-fashioned housewife who would bring the child around periodically for a kiss on the head, and then would take her back into her playroom to keep her away from Daddy while he was working. I mean, not exactly, we played in the same room as Tim yesterday, but it was very frustrating having Tim right there, but having him be chained to his computer. And he really should be home today, too, but obviously the CEOs can't stand another day around their families and so he had to go in at 10. Today looks to be the worst yet, but he's taking the bus. Hopefully the buses won't get stuck on any hills like they were yesterday. I try not to be too worried about the bus. The bus is going to win any car fights out there. It's the biggest and the baddest. It will even beat your SUV you bought to make yourself feel safer, even though really in a collision you will probably roll over and be smushed. Of course, you will only roll over and be smushed after you've plowed into the driver's side of my xB and caused me to have permanent brain damage. Congratulations, it's a draw! But I digress. Anyway, Stella saw her first snow yesterday and was fascinated, but really, we need to get out soon, especially now that it's just Stella and I. I sure hope it warms up later!

Fashion sucks

Okay, fashion sucks right now. Or at least, I find the styles sucky. I got money for Christmas and I have been trying to find some shoes and a purse and possibly a new diaper bag (well a bag I can use as a diaper bag). I have not found ONE PAIR of shoes that I liked! I can't believe it, I've been to like 10 stores and not a single pair! Usually I have to really struggle to not buy 5 pairs of shoes at a time. I really love shoes, but there is nothing but fugly really high heels and fuglier extreme flats. I don't get that, either heels are about 5 inches or they are non-existent right now. What is going on? And purses? Yuck! Everything looks like it was made for my Grandmother to carry. Back in the 80's! Perhaps that's what it boils down to: 80's fashion is in right now and it is U-G-L-Y. I just hope that it's over fast. At first I thought the problem was that I hadn't gone shopping in so long because I'd been pregnant, but now I realize we are just going through a really ugly faze in clothes right now. I hate it when I have money to burn and I can't burn it!
I did find that I have expensive taste, though. I got Nordstrom's gift cards from two of my sister-in-laws for Christmas and I went shopping there Saturday. Wow, it was so nice! And they actually have sale racks, although it's unclear exactly how much things are going to be until you get to the register. I thought I'd gone way over my gift cards, but stuff was about half what it was already marked down to. So I could have gone even crazier! But they are so nice there, and the lighting in the dressing room is actually flattering. Now if I could just afford (or let myself afford) $70 blouses and $200 pairs of shoes on a regular basis!

Babies and cheese

I am sitting here watching Stella eat cheese and it is quite entertaining. She's so determined. She kind of examines each piece of cheese as she brings it up to her mouth like, "hmm, is this the same thing I just ate? How am I going to get this strange substance into my mouth?" Then she puts it and her finger into her mouth and starts mashing it with her jaws and then swallows it. And when there is no more cheese she stares at her hand, hoping for extra bits of cheese that got stuck to it. Then she eats those too. This is what passes for amusement these days. That and Guitar Hero 2. Guitar Hero 2 is most excellent fun after Stella goes to sleep.

Goodbye 2006!

So it's 2007. Last year, my life changed forever because we had Stella. Sometimes I miss our old life, but then I hang out with Stella and I think how much better I have it now. New Year's Eve ROCKED! Bill picked up the gauntlet and hosted at his house, and my Mom came and stayed with Stella, so we rocked it pre-baby style (well except for drinking oodles and oodles of alcohol, I still have to feed the baby when I return from my partying!) There was tons of yummy food, great alcohol and just a few fantastic friends. Perfect! Although it would have been more perfect if Ashley and Travis and Jeff and Tara had been there. Jeff and Tara were sick, though, and we realized it was the first time we'd not spent New Year's Eve with them in 7 years! Our first New Year's Eve was 1999 when it was just Tim and I, Jeff and Tara and Anna and Sean. All our other friends had gone out to the country to celebrate New Year's at a friends' parents house. So the 6 of us had more than one bottle of champagne per person and had a great time drinking ourselves into oblivion to celebrate the new millenium.
This New Year's Eve we did not get our obligatory midnight shot, unfortunately, because my new camera was not cooperating. But I got all kinds of other great shots, I'll have to promise a few choice pics. Ian and Erin helped me make the most of all the "scene settings" on my new camera. The theme this year seemed to be "acting stupid and making crude jokes." Unfortunately, my mother and other people's mothers read my blog, so I cannot tell you the new, incredibly nasty word for female gentalia that I learned from Aaron (or was it Bill?), which we proceeded to make even nastier. If you want to email me, I'll send it to you. It's totally gross. We also learned way too much about Bill's personal life, Aaron's uncle's hunting habits, and some other friends' make-out habits. And we saw Bill's "love den". He's got beads hanging on his bedroom door! Ladies, this man will not be single for long with a pad like this! (Seriously, he's a catch and I love him to death, I hope he knows I'm just teasing him!)
Yesterday we got to sleep in a little because my mom was here, then we went to lunch at Galaxy. Then Stella took a nap and so did I, while Tim played video games. I am trying not to be a bitch about video games, but I remember how much I hate them! Whenever something needs to be done or we're trying to leave, it always seems like we have to wait for Tim to find a save point. I felt much better after the nap (as did Stella), so we assembled the new furniture from Ikea we got Sunday. Oh, yeah, we checked out the new Ikea Sunday! It was fun, but they let you take your cart through the whole store, even though you don't need it at the beginning, so people were always in the way. And they were out of stock on some of the things we wanted. But I got a bookshelf with doors and lights to function as a curio cabinet, and a little larger than we realized bookshelf to store all Stella's toys in the breakfast room. That bookshelf may not live here permanently, we're kind of still living with it and seeing how we feel about it. But it was fun to go to Ikea knowing that if we forgot something, we could always just come back and get it later!
Okay, I still need to transition some stuff into the new china cabinet, so I'd better go. Happy 2007!

I totally forgot about Cheerios!

I can't believe I forgot to relay the most exciting development of yesterday: Stella is feeding herself! We'd tried giving her bananas and corn (not together) in the past and she wasn't interested in it, but then last night we tried Cheerios. Man does she love Cheerios. Then we mixed the corn in with the Cheerios and she was digging it. Then I tried the same thing with bananas this morning and she ate those as well. Although those are much more messy. And the dogs won't eat them, so I have to clean them up myself. But still, it was very exciting!

9 Months and Growing

So Stella is Nine Months old now. It seems amazing that she's been out longer than she was in. It's gone by so fast. We went to the doctor yesterday for her check-up and the doctor used the "W" word. For those of you not freaking out about your baby growing up, the "W" word is weaning. She wants us to start giving her snacks of yogurt and cheese, which will eventually replace those breastfeeding sessions. I'm not ready! It's hilarious, because when I first started bfing, I was like, okay, I only have a year. For the first few months, I practically counted it down. But now that she's so active and only nurses for about 10 minutes or less at a time, it's not really a big commitment anymore and I really have come to treasure that time. It's our cuddle time. My favorite time is when we wake her up right before we go to bed to feed her. She's all sleepy and Tim changes her diaper and cuddles with her and then hands her to me. She doesn't even open her eyes as she eats and she reminds me of when she was a newborn and almost never opened her eyes. It's so adorable.

Of course, she is doing lots of amazing things that I have to remind myself to dwell on instead of the fact she is growing up. Yesterday the doctor showed us how to give her our fingers and she would sit up just holding on to them. She's been holding out on us, being lazy. Also, the doc showed us how to help her pull up the same way, she's really pushing us to work more on that. And when we got home, Stella did try to pull up on a chair for the first time, but gave up. I think she gets frustrated easily. Interestingly enough, the doctor didn't give us any suggestions on how to help Stella crawl and I forgot to ask. Stella still is mostly content with reaching for things, and rolling to get things, with some occasionally creeping, which usually results in her going backwards rather than forwards and getting frustrated.

Stella also seems to FINALLY be over her cold. Some coughing, but that's about it. I also am pretty much recovered. Part of me wants to put her in a hermetically sealed bubble now that we're both well, but I know that won't accomplish anything. Plus, I didn't get much social interaction because I had to avoid babies so we wouldn't take the chance of getting them sick. So hopefully January will be a well month!

Oh, and the doctor's office measured her and I think they at least did the height wrong. They got 27.5 inches, but we'd measured her at 28.5 about a month ago. I think the nurse didn't bother to stretch her out all the way. 27.5 would be the 50th percentile and trust me, Stella is not average height for her age. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but she is quite tall. We need to do our own measurement. Her weight is 18 lbs, 9.6 oz, which is actually a slight drop from when we went in a couple of weeks ago and she was 19lbs. That's only 50th percentile, but the doctor said they usually lose some weight as they become more active. Her head was 43.5 cm, and the doctor said it's rounding out nicely. Yeah!

Well, I hear the little munchkin waking up, so I must go!

Another Christmas come and gone

So Christmas 2006 is over. Stella's first Christmas was a resounding success, in fact perhaps too much of a success. We're going to Ikea Sunday to get bins to store all her old loot and new loot. We had a great time with everyone we got to see. Stella is so special she got 3 Christmases: one with her Aunt Caroline, her boyfriend Daniel, her Aunt Christine and her Uncle Brian, one at home with Daddy and Mommy, and one with her MeMe, Pappy and Uncle Keith. Wow, that's some serious Christmas overload! But she handled it in style.

I got some great stuff this year too. Actually, that's an understatement! Tim got me the most beautiful ring as an "upgrade" for my original engagement ring, which I haven't been able to wear since I took it off exactly a year ago because I was afraid it would get stuck. I'd been reading horror stories of pregnant ladies who had to go to the ER to get their rings cut off. My Christmas ring is just amazing, I love it! Tim did a great job! (okay, we went shopping together) I also got a new digital camera from my parents, and it totally rocks! It's a Canon PowerShot A630, 8 Megapixels, and it has manual controls, which I have not learned to use yet. So if you've noticed an increase in the quality of my pictures, it's the new camera that's responsible. It's got a kids and pets setting that takes kick ass pictures of both Stella and Lucy (I haven't tried it on the other furry kids yet). AND you can focus what you're looking at, then just wait for the photo you want to present itself, and snap almost instantly. I cannot believe how good pictures are when you can take them exactly when you want them, rather than having to wait for my slow camera to decide to snap a shot. The only downside to the PowerShot is that it's much larger than regular digital cameras, but that's so that it takes better pictures AND can fit Canon's lenses. Plus it has a really cool swivel LCD, so you can take pictures of yourself (handy for when Stella and I are playing photoshoot at home).

I was also happy because everyone seemed to really enjoy what I got them. I got my Dad some new varieties of beer for him to try, based on the recommendations of Bill, beer expert extraordinare, and my Dad really liked them. I got my mother some jewelry that my friend Nicole had made, and she really loved them too, especially the necklace that I was kind of on the fence about whether she would like it or not. I was very pleased.

So onto 2007, I guess. We'll be going to Bill the Beer Man's New Year's Eve party because my Mother is coming to watch Stella. This is the first time we haven't hosted New Year's since we got married (7 in a row) , so that's going to be kind of weird. But I'm proud to pass the torch to Bill!

Sick of Being Sick

So Stella has practically the entire month of December sick. She had stomach virus which we briefly thought was a UTI at the very beginning of the month, then a cold, then two days of wellness and then another cold which started Saturday. We went to a babysitting coop Friday night which we worked and an 18 month old girl that was there had snot aplenty and was breathing through her mouth. I knew she was sick and I was pissed that my child was now going to get sick because someone brought their sick child and dropped them off. I also somehow wound up being in charge of this little girl and Stella all night. I tried to keep them separated, but it really didn't matter. So Stella started having the sniffles again early Saturday morning and now I'm sick too. Whee! I keep reading that babies have like 8-10 colds their first year of life, but I didn't realize Stella was going to have all of them consecutively!

The picture is of us backstage at our church's Cantata Sunday night. We were Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus!

Dumb-Ass Moves

I backed into the garage door today. Not one of my proudest moments. I used to open the garage door and then put Stella in her car seat and then get into the car and go. But I had started worrying recently that someone could sneak up behind me while I was putting Stella in her carseat. Paranoid, I know. So the last couple of days, I'd been putting Stella in her carseat, and then opening the garage door from the car and backing out. Well this morning, I was super-excited about taking Stella to the mall to see Santa, and I was running late to meet Anna, and I gunned it to back out, not realizing that the garage door was not quite finished opening. So I hit it. Ouch. I was able to get it open all the way so I could finish backing out, but I wasn't able to get it closed again, but I was late and Anna and I both live in the non-cellphone world, so I had to go. My car didn't do too badly, some scrapes on the top above the window and the little knob piece that sticks out where a spoiler would go if I had a spoiler fell off, but otherwise not too bad. I inspected the door when I got home and it just has some minor dents, but when I forced it open with the garage door opener, I bent the bottom wheel that wheels it up. So to get it closed, I had to hammer that pin out on both sides. While Stella sat in her stroller with her earmuffs on (it was loud). So the garage door is closed, which is the important thing, but now we have to add "fix the garage door" to our already incredibly long to-do list!
What's weirder is that in the span of a few hours I felt like a) the biggest idiot on earth for backing into the garage door and then b) a total badass for figuring out why the door wasn't closing and then using my muscles to close it. Go figure.
And on a side note, Stella did beautifully for Santa. We got an adorable picture and Anna and I had fun at the mall. Daniel did not sit for Santa, but kept Stella's spirits up while we waited:) Also, I had to nurse Stella while we were in line and one of the "elves" was talking about how cool it was that I was breastfeeding her, how'd she'd done that with her children and we talked about how wonderful it was. Very cool!

Music Meme from Kelli

Instructions:1. Open your library on your Zen or Ipod or other MP3 player
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question type the song that’s playing.
5. When you go to a new question press the next button

Ready, set, go!!!!!

Opening Credits: Golden Boy- Greg Dulli

Waking up: The Face of Zero and One-The New Pornographers


Falling in love: Lovely Day-The Pixies (oh, that’s nice)

Fight song: Celestial Annihilation-Unkle (Wow, gotta’ love any song with “annihilation”’ in it for your fight song)

Break up song: Big Man with a Gun-Nine Inch Nails (wow, that’s kind of disturbing. Although I would certainly break up with a man who just sang about his big gun.)

Making Up: Black Tongue-Yeah Yeah Yeahs Not the best way to make up with someone. I mean, she calls them some very not nice things in this song.

Life's Okay: 1,000 Seconds-Secret Machines Seems appropriate since SM are so stoner-rock and if you’re stoned, life’s generally pretty okay;)

Mental Breakdown: Drink To Me Babe, Then-A.C. Newman

Driving: Touch and Go-The Cars (ha! That’s awesome!)

Flashbacks: Textbook-We Are Scientists

Happy Dance: Glow in the Dark-David Garza This is totally appropriate, rock! “I glow in the dark and I won’t sit still”

Regret: My Mathematical Mind-Spoon (well, regret does usually start in your mind…)

Final Battle: Numb-U2 Appropriate somehow I think

Death Scene: Explain it To Me-Liz Phair

Final Credits: Sour Times-Portishead definitely great closing credits music to any movie

How about a Cold to go with that UTI?

Stella has a cold too, poor baby. I can't decide which is worse, hearing her struggling to breathe through her nose, or watching her scream and cry when she has to pee. I'll call it a tie. Although I honestly am trying not to complain too much since she's a trooper and there are certainly way worse things that parents have to deal with than a couple of minor illnesses.

Sick Baby

So I've given up on blogging about Michigan. I can't get Blogger to work nor can I get LGT to let me post photos, so I guess it's a sign that the world doesn't need to know about our travels. Instead I will blog about Stella being sick for the first time. Man, it sucks. It started Thursday when she vomited in the car on the way to lunch with Tim. It was gnarly, but she was in a good mood, so I didn't worry too much. Then she had diarrhea when we got home and a fever. So I started to worry and gave her tylenol, although she was still in good spirits. But man was she warm and a little poo factory. Friday she still had a fever and it was still climbing (it got up to 101.7, which scared the bejeezus out of me), so I called the nurse at her doctor's office. She said to try Ibruprofen to bring down the fever and to monitor her over the weekend. If the fever didn't come down that evening or the next day, we'd have to take her to the ER or Urgent Care. Now that's something a mom doesn't want to hear. But her fever broke that night and there was no more diarrhea after 9am on Friday, so I started to relax. Then she felt warm again yesterday, so I took her temperature and it was 100.5. So we took her to the doctor yesterday and she thought it was just a virus, but did a urine test just to be sure. Let me tell you the way they do a urine test on a baby girl. They literally stick a bag to her to catch the pee. And of course, when they did this at the doctor's office, Stella decided she did not have to pee. I nursed her, gave her water, but nope, she wasn't going to pee while we were at the doctor's. So I had to take her home and collect the urine there and take it back this morning. Luckily, Tim took it for me. Well the doctor called this afternoon and the poor thing has a Urinary Tract Infection. We're going to have to give her antibiotics for the next 10 days. What worries me more is that when I looked online for information, Babycenter had an article that said 30-40% of babies that have a UTI also have VUR, which can cause Kidney failure if not detected and treated properly, and treatment can involve surgery. Great, just what I wanted to worry about! So I'm hoping that after this gets cleared up the doctor suggests the tests for that, which involves an ultrasound. But I'd rather she get the testing than have it go undetected. So scary!
If you'll excuse me now, I have to go clean up poo in Roxie's cage. She is probably sick again since she likes to get sick before we have people coming in town or other big events, and what other time would be better to get sick than when the baby is sick too. Oh, and she has been without her special food for over a week since I haven't gotten over to the vet's because of sick baby and other dramas. Sigh.
UPDATE: I cleaned out Roxie's cage and the poo appears to be cat poo that Roxie snuck out of the catbox. So keep your fingers crossed that's all it is.

I Hate you Blogger!

I have been trying to post about the Michigan trip for 3 days, but keep losing connection with Blogger. I'm going to try one more time, dammit, then I'm going to give up and put it on my lgt blog: www.loadedguntheory.com

Holiday Meme from Kelli

I plan to blog about our Michigan Extravaganza, but decided to do this first:

HOLIDAY TIME MEME
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot Chocolate. I think Egg Nog is totally gross.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
When I was a kid, Santa set the presents from him under the tree and my parents wrapped the ones they gave us. Santa's presents were always arranged for maximum "wow" factor;) Guess we'll have to decide how to do it with Stella.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
white, white, white. I think colored lights look tacky. I love white lights, they are so beautiful.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No.

5. When do you put up your decorations?
Usually the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving, but since we went to Michigan this year and just got back into town yesterday evening, I'm going to give myself a break and do them next weekend.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
My mom's dressing.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
I have several, but a couple include: Going to Picadilly at the mall with my family on my Dad's side and spending the entire dinner begging my parents to take us back to my Grandma's house so we could open presents. It was always the longest dinner of the year! Also running downstairs on Christmas morning to find all my loot;) And when I got to be a teenager with a driver's license, I liked surprising my parents by stuffing their stockings.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I was 9. I saw my parents bringing Keith and I's Alf dolls in from my Dad's truck. I knew it was over, but I didn't tell my brother.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Usually. Something boring like underwear or socks.

10. What kind of decorations are on your tree?
The colors are lilac, light blue, and silver. We also an ornament when we travel somewhere (the latest is one from MSU), and we have a tradition where we get each other one each year. Although Tim usually forgets to get one for me:)

11. Snow! Love it or dread it?
Love it! We never have it. The last time we had it was in February a couple of years ago and our friends were over and we all had a snowball fight. One of the top 5 experiences in my life. Oh, and experiencing snow falling in Times Square in NYC on Christmas Day. Amazing!

12. Can you ice skate?
Absolutely not. I'm pathetic. (I'm borrowing Kelli's response because it's true)

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
Honestly, no, but I'm always happy to have anything:)

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Spending time with family and eating way too much food!

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?
Fudge, peanut brittle, Pecan SAndies (or Sandy Duncans as I called them as a child)

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Timing the Thomas unwrapping extravaganza to see if we will set a new record for Longest Christmas Ever.

17. What tops your tree?
A lit up white star, I think.

18. Which do you prefer? Giving or receiving?
Giving, I love giving the perfect gift. Although I love getting it too!

19. What is your favorite Christmas song?
Silent Night

20. Candy canes: Yuck or yummy?
Yummy!

A Tooth Finally Rears its Ugly Head

So Stella, the baby who has been "teething" since she was two months old, finally has a tooth coming in. I can feel its sharp tip and see the white edge poking up from her gumline. Poor thing, I don't think it's making her very happy. She is sleeping a lot. I figure she will probably cut a bunch of teeth next week while we are in Michigan, so that all of her Thomas relatives will think she is a fussy little thing, rather than the angel we all know her to be.

In other news, Mother Earth, forgive me, for I have sinned. I have been using A Disposable Diaper (shudder!) on my child at night. I am sorry, but otherwise my baby wakes up at 2, either with a leaking Fuzzi Bunz, or with the diaper wet enough it has woken up her up because of her very sensitive bum. I think she pees more than other babies. If I put on one of the dreaded D.D.'s, she will make it to 4 or 4:30 before she wants to eat. I need my sleep. My baby needs her sleep. I realize that the landfills do not need the 365 diapers a year this will create, but I hope that because it is such a small amount in comparison to the mountains created by most parents, that I will be forgiven. This is a huge confession for me to make. I extol the virtues of cloth to all parents and parents-to-be I come across. I haven't even had D.D.'s in my house since Stella was two weeks old, but I ran out of diapers and my mother was in town and she was kind enough to go buy some for me and next thing you know... I still believe cloth is the way, but I have also fallen prey to the seduction of the evil diapers with their chemicals that keep the wetness away from my baby's skin so she'll sleep. And seem to give her instantaneous diaper rash. Her Daddy, the environmentalist in the family, is not down with this. But we all have our sins against the environment: he takes 20-30 minute showers, my shower lasts only 10 minutes, but I cover my child's bottom in a disposable once a day. We are considering switching to a diaper service and using pre-folds again, but I'm not sure whether Stella will go for that since she has gotten so accustomed to the fuzzi bunz which wick moisture awake from her most of the time, and only leak or announce their wetness while she slumbers.

Speaking of sins against the earth, have you ever thought someone was really cool, and then you see them driving a giant SUV and suddenly your opinion of them is knocked down a few pegs? This happened this Sunday when a friend from church waved at us from a giant SUV. What? No! They are so cool and so liberal and like all enviromental and even vegetarian, they can't drive one of those monstrosities. But, oh, they do. Tim said he thought he saw them emerging from an SUV the other night, but didn't mention it to me, hoped perhaps he was wrong. Maybe it was a rental? Maybe Enterprise was all out of smart cars and had to give them a giant gas-guzzling behemoth that destroys the earth's resources. But no, I think they own it. You'd think they'd at least be embarrassed about owning it and not wave to their friends, but I guess SUV-drivers have no shame. Sigh.

My Celebrity Look-a-likes

I stole this from Kelli's blog. Of course, I was only a wee lass of 24 when this photo was taken, so who knows what haggard folks I would look like now.

My Baby's Growing Up Way too Fast!

I am having a maudlin "Stella is growing up way too fast" day today. I don't know why. Perhaps because I was already having a weird "off" day and feeling down in the dumps, (kind of like PMS, but I don't have that right now. Sorry, TMI), just feeling depressed for no reason. Then I went through some pictures to send to my Grandmother of Stella, and I saw how tiny she once was and how big she's getting. She's so cool now, so much more fun than she was when she was brand new and tiny, like at the left, but sometimes I miss how fragile she used to feel. And it feels like her "babyhood" is running out. I thought of her weaning the other night and instantly my eyes filled up with tears. I know I still have a few months, but I don't plan to do extended nursing for a myriad of reasons, and so it will be here sooner than I think. It's such a special time to bond with her, and just gaze at her and hold her, I don't want to give that up and watch her go from a baby to a little girl. God, I'm being so melodramatic, sitting here, typing, my eyes welling up. I've got to go get Stella, speaking of, she's waking up. She keeps me from getting too introspective, thank God!

Halloween and stuff

So last night was Stella's first Halloween. She was adorable as an Octopus, as you can see, but the night didn't turn out exactly as I had planned. See, last year, when I was pregnant with Stella, Anna was pregnant with Daniel, and Henry was 10 days old, I had this soft little picture of all of us taking the kids trick or treating this year. As I handed out candy and patted my barely noticeable belly last year, I thought of how I would dress up our little girl or boy (I found out the next day that she was a girl). Unfortunately, Henry was sick, and Daniel's Aunt was in town, so we didn't get to all get together. And Stella was more than a bit fussy. I felt bad, although we assured ourselves that she would be fussy with or without the costume;) Luckily, though, Jeff and Tara showed up and Tara and I took Stella to about 4 houses of the neighbors we know just to show her off a little. After all, she WAS all dressed up with nowhere to go! We wound up having a great time because it'd been so long since we'd all hung out together. Nothing special, just beer, way too much pizza (I'd unfortunately ordered 3 mediums just before Ashley called to say Henry was sick. Then I couldn't get through to the pizza place to change my order), and the candy Stella had gotten and that we had left over. Unfortunately, this year we didn't have very many trick or treaters, unlike past years when the doorbell is constantly ringing between 6 and 8:30. So I'd been stingy with the candy early in the night, and wound up giving the late trick or treaters, the uncostumed teenagers, big handfuls of loot. But it was fun.

On another note, I ran into our neighbor this morning, who I'd run into a few weeks ago. We chat when we see each other, and last time we'd talked he'd said he was joining the Army. I couldn't believe that someone would join the army in the middle of such a terrible war. When I ran into him today, I asked when he was leaving for the Army and he said not until January, which disappointed him, because he'd wanted to go right away. Apparently, he had to wait for an opening in the position he wants. I asked him what that was and he said Combat Engineer, he said they demolish bridges and rebuild them and rebuild roads. I told him to be careful and that he'd be in my thoughts, but I couldn't help thinking it was like playing Russian Roulette, who would willingly place themselves in that situation? I guess young guys who don't really have a lot of career prospects and look to the military as a way to shake them up and give them a career path, or at least more direction. Our neighbor had worked at HEB, and just returned this month from a year long motorcycle journey across America. I think a lot of guys like that join the military. It made me sad, like I would be seeing my neighbor's face on the news come next year, as one of the fallen. I hope not, but I also wish we didn't see anyone's neighbor's face on the news as one of the fallen. I can't believe how badly this war has been screwed up and if I stop to think about the fact that we just invaded another country with no provocation and completely fucked up their infrastructure and killed over half a million of them, it makes me cry. So I don't think about it, which is even worse. We are a disgusting, bloated country that throws its own weight around just to feel important. I'm sorry.

New post on LGT

I posted on LGT because it was kind of theatre-related post:
http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/list/julie.html

Another Cute Pic

Stella at 7 mos, 1 day.

Stella at 7 months

Stella turned 7 months old yesterday. It's hard to believe it's been 7 months since that little firecracker entered our world. She continues to astound and confound me every day. Yesterday she started saying "Da" over and over again, in effect saying "DaDa", although she says it indiscriminately. But it's so cute. Tim was so funny, he was like, "I know rationally that she has no clue what she's saying, but awww." His heart was melted. I'm only slightly jealous;)

Stella was fussy most of the day yesterday and I couldn't figure out what was going on. Sure she was teething, but that didn't seem to be all that was wrong with her. I couldn't get her to sit down, for one thing. I thought perhaps it was the nasty diaper rash she developed Monday that is slowly but surely healing. Then I thought "perhaps her denim overalls are too short in the stride". So I unbuttoned a couple of the crotch snaps and suddenly my baby was happy! I felt so bad that I'd tortured her for most of the day. But the overalls were just so dang cute and it was too cold in the house to go faluting around in just a onesie. I now think that tight pants were the same reason why she was fussy Monday. Although today her pants are definitely not too tight and she's still often keeping her legs rigid when I try to put her down. Perhaps she's practicing standing. Oh, dear!

Monday I made homemade baby food for Stella. I felt so freakin' domestic! It was surprisingly simple, except for the fact that Stella kept wanting me to hold her and cooking and holding a baby don't mix. We served her the potatoes Monday night, but she was not going to digest any of it. I was feeling inferior. But we served her the sweet potatoes yesterday and she dug them. Rock! The homemade stuff is such a better consistency. We were finding with a lot of the jarred stuff that it was just too liquidy and took forever to feed her. Stella would lose interest too soon and it also made a mess. I'm planning to make more homemade baby food tonight. I should have done it this afternoon, but I had no clue she'd take a two hour nap, those are very rare these days!

Wow!

This was one of a batch of photos I took this morning. This just might be my favorite picture of Stella ever taken. It just captures her personality so perfectly. I realize it's blurry, but it's because she's always in motion. I cannot believe how beautiful she is. Sometimes I just look at her little perfect petite features and am overwhelmed. People stop me to tell me what a beautiful baby she is when I'm at the store and stuff. Perhaps I should get her into modeling;) I'm just kidding about that last part!

Wal-Mart Still Sucks

So I broke down and went to Walmart yesterday for the first time in years. I was looking for reflectors for the jogging stroller so that I can send Tim and Stella off on their early morning, still dark runs without the worry that I have been sending them off with in the past. I had already checked Toys R' Us and Target and figured, "hey, Walmart will have it, they have everything." Tim has been trying to get me to go to Walmart lately. Apparently it's okay again, they're all environmentally friendly and stuff. So I went to the new one at Slaughter and 35 because I was curious about it and maybe wanted to relieve a little of the concerts of my youth (it's built over Southpark Meadows, which was a great outside concert venue. I saw Radiohead open for REM as well as NIN and David Bowie there). It's one of them thar SuperCenters that have a grocery store in addition to the regular Walmart and were previously only the domain of small East Texas Towns. These things are huge, they require a Rascal just to traverse the store. (Sidenote: I googled Rascal to put a link to one and something called "Rascal Flatts" kept coming up. Judging by their album covers and the fact that many of their songs seem to end in an apostrophe rather than ing, I'm guessing they are a country boy band. Weird).
Anyway, I pull into the Walmart parking lot and immediately my hands start sweating and I feel nervous. I am not used to going to stores larger than my neighborhood. There are cars driven by yokels, including one that has the sticker "Immigrant? Learn the Language and Assimilate". Yeah, for real. I doubt they even know what assimilate means. They probably think it means to do something with your ass. So I'm already nervous. I park and put Stella in her sling, fearful they'll recognize me as the hippie liberal I am simply because I've got my child in something that has her touching me and doesn't leave her free to stare empty-eyed at the ceiling while she drinks the bottle of formula I've propped up for her. We start towards the store. These people are not Austinites. They look like they have been bussed in from Central Casting as the inhabitants of a small depressed East or West Texas town. Maybe they drove in from Jasper or Seminole. I know how they like to waste money on gas with their big Dulli trucks. Once inside the store, Stella and I are both overwhelmed. It is huge and bright and ugly. I proceed to the toys since I am looking for a very specific thing I want to give as a gift. Unfortunately, they have it, but only one and it looks like someone dragged it all over the store before returning it to the shelf. It probably was used to keep a kid amused. Luckily, I find something else very cute and proceed to the bike accessories. No reflectors, nada. Apparently everything has to have batteries these days. So I go to the deodorant for Tim. I walk back and forth trying to find the aisle because they are called "anti-perspirants" on the sign and I miss it. I finally find the aisle and yep, they don't carry Tim's brand. At this point my legs are tired, Stella's trying to crawl out of the sling, and I just want to check out. But Walmart has decided in order to keep its prices low, it will only have 4 regular checkouts and 4 self-checkouts open at 5pm! The people at the self-checkouts are staring at the machines like they came from outerspace. I swear, any moment these shoppers are going to pull out sticks and start banging the machines and it's going to descend into total anarchy. I keep going to lines, seeing idiots operating them, and moving to another line. Finally I find a line behind a woman who, while she has a ton of stuff, seems to know how to scan an item and put it in a bag. Eventually I get to scan my one item and check out. I tell Stella to say hello and goodbye to Walmart because we ain't going back!
I just read this post and wow, does it live and die on stereotypes. I can only imagine what my fellow Walmart shoppers would have to say about me!

Sleep Rocks!

Stella slept till 4am last night, so she technically slept through the night. Sweet! Now our next challenge is getting her to sleep until 6:30. Go Stella, go!

Our Baby's All Grown Up!

Not really, but we did put Stella in her room by herself for the first time last night. I was really procrastinating doing it, and would get weepy whenever I even thought of it, but after several nights of very little sleep, figured it couldn't possibly get any worse. So Tim set her crib up in her room and we left her to sleep all alone. I wasn't actually really that upset. But our room does seem very empty and huge. I would love to report that on her first night in her room by herself miracles happened and that she slept through the night. I would be lying. She woke up at 1:30, 2:30 and 5:30 and didn't want to go back to sleep after she ate at 5:30, but Tim managed to get her to sleep until 7. The only difference from previous nights was that I had to walk into the room next door when she woke up, rather than just get out of bed and turn to the crib. But still, I'm sure we slept better. And it was nice not having to dread going to the bathroom for fear of waking up Stella. Although it was really odd because I kept waking up totally disoriented. We switched sides of the bed again, back to our pre-Stella sides so I would be back by the door instead of by the crib, plus we no longer had the nightlight that had lit our room for the past 6 and a half months, so when I woke up I really had no clue where I was. It was strange. I think I actually got up and went to Tim's side of the bed once when Stella woke up.

On another note, Toys R' Us really sucks. Stella and I went there today to search for a present for Henry, who turns One on Saturday with a Birthday Bash that I'm sure all the babies will be talking about for years to come, as well as a ball for Stella, and reflectors for Tim's jogging stroller. The toys were WAY overpriced. And they didn't have any balls, in fact sports had been relegated to a single aisle. No wonder our kids are so fat! And they didn't have any reflectors. Plus Stella and I were totally overwhelmed by the brightness and loudness of the place. Although I did see some really cute toys Stella told me she wants to add to her Christmas list:)

I had a dream last night that Stella just started walking. At 7 months old. Tim and I would astounded. It was such a weird dream.

That's enough rambling for now, I guess.

F is for Frugal

Tim got paid today, woot! I am going to have to practice extreme self-control not to spend it all at once. Okay, not really all, but basically we have been extra frugal the last couple of weeks because due to various costs, foreseen and unforeseen (but mostly related to our four-legged children and our two-legged child's Baptism and attendant hoopla), we've been beyond broke. (Disclaimer: when I say "beyond broke" I mean had to dip into savings, not had to Pawn our wedding rings or anything) So when I go into Fabulously Frugal Mode, we try not to buy anything that isn't absolutely necessary. Like my hair mousse, which is why my hair has been so limp lately, although I actually kind of like the look. I've been feeling like a caged animal this week, going kind of crazy, because I've barely been getting out. I've got to find new activities because I'm realizing that a lot of my current ones involve shopping, which is sad and expensive. But anyway, the result of this is often that once Tim gets paid, I go around buying all the stuff I've not been getting and suddenly we're perilously close to broke again. It's an unhappy cycle. Tim just IM'd to ask if he could go out to lunch today. See, it's like we get a little money in our pocket and just can't wait to spend it! (I told him yes, of course, I'm not Draconian!)
Tim depressingly calculated that 10% of his income goes to our health insurance costs. I didn't have the heart to tell him it's actually more than 10%, I'd already calculated this sad little figure. And a national healthcare system would be worse, why exactly? I think someone who runs his health insurance is getting insanely rich because it should not cost that much for healthcare for 2 adults and a baby when the employer is supposedly paying for the employee's part and subsidizing the dependents (I don't believe that they actually are).
Okay, enough bitching. I am fortunate enough to be able to afford to stay home with my baby, own a house, own one car and be two payments away from owning the other. I don't have any credit card debt, (well, two plane tickets and Roxie's hospital bill, but those are already in the works to be paid off), and we all have our health. I suddenly feel sheepish for complaining, especially when so many people have nothing. I'm sorry for the whining but I feel I have to share my pettiness sometimes.

Rain Glorious Rain!

Or Super Crappy Night is Made Better by Sooper Awesome Morning.
Stella is really teething. No really, I mean it, she's finally in the teething shit now. Night before last she woke up several times with it. In fact, at one point, about 12:30am, she was chewing on her pacifier for relief. Last night she woke up at least every two hours and I had to nurse her to get her back to sleep. It was obvious she wanted some comfort because her teeth hurt her. Poor thing. Poor me.
But then, this morning, Tim took her on their run. He got back about 20 till 8. Then I heard him come out of the bathroom and instead of handing Stella off to me, I heard her playing in her exersaucer. I still didn't dare take the pillow off my head. Then I didn't hear her anymore. "Oh, that's so sweet, he took her down with him to eat breakfast", I thought. Then I looked at the clock and it was 8:30 and still Stella had not been returned to me, "he must be driving" I thought. Then 9:30 and I realized that he must be working from home! I didn't want to stir, although I finally did because I thought Stella was probably getting hungry. I came downstairs and it was pouring rain (outside, of course), and Stella was sleeping in the crook of Tim's arm as he slept on the couch. It was adorable. I would have taken a picture, but I didn't want to wake them up. So I curled up on the other end, joined by Roxie and Lucy, and just enjoyed listening to the rain and the thunder and the lightening. Of course, I found out the reason Tim was staying home was that he'd unfortunately hurt his knee, so hopefully that's a temporary problem, but it was so nice to get a chance to rest after the horrible night we'd had last night.

The cutest picture ever!

Can you stand the cuteness? Seriously, wow, these are some cute babies! Daniel was cute too, but I think he was eating at this moment, so he isn't pictured. Stella and Henry were so cute today. Henry crawled right over to Stella and took her pacifier out. Stella was stunned. But I think she's pretty enamored of Henry. After all, he can crawl all over the place and say "yeah". Then Henry kept offering Stella toys. Oh it was just adorable! Stella's so fun now that she sits up. Tim and I both think it's so cute, we make her do it all the time. I need a synonym for cute, this is worse than my sweet potato post.

MeMe that is distracting me from cleaning my filthy kitchen

Learn 50 things about your friends, and let them learn 50 things about you!
1. How tall are you barefoot? 5'9" and a half
2. Have you ever been unfaithful in a relationship? Nope.
3. Do you own a gun? No.
4. Have you had a mental disorder? No, although sometimes I do think I'm crazy, but don't we all?
5. Why is a raven like a writing desk? Both quoth "Nevermore"? I have no clue.
6. What do you think of hot dogs? Not a huge fan, but Tim bought some Hebrew Nationals that were delish
7. What's your favorite Christmas song? Silent Night, makes me cry everytime. ONe of the few things I could still play on the piano years after I stopped taking lessons.
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Oj, milk, and Decaf coffee
9. Do you do push-ups? Nope. Although in yoga they make us do things similar to pushups which I hate.
10. Have you ever done ecstasy? No.
11. Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend? No, I've been married for over 7 years.
12. Do you like the rain? Yes, especially since it never rains here. I actually find myself pining for the afternoon showers and storms of Houston. But I don't pine for the humidity.
13. Are you sweet? I don't know that that would be the first adjective I would use to describe myself, but I think I can be.
14. Do you have A.D.D.? I don't think so, but I have a short attention span.
15. Full initials? JDWT
16. Do you like the snow? Yes! I've only seen it a few times, but a few years ago, it snowed when we had a bunch of friends over and we had snowball fights and drank spiked hot chocolate. It was one of the most magical, fun nights I've ever had!
17. Name 4 thoughts at this exact moment. I really should clean the kitchen. I wish I'd taken a shower when Stella went down for her nap. How long before Stella wakes up. I need to order that halloween costume for Stella.
18. Name the last 3 things you have bought in the past week: groceries for dinner last night at HEB, groceries for Stella's Baptism party Saturday night at HEB, and dinner for Friday night at Central Market.
19. Have you ever been arrested? No, but I got an Minor in Possession my first weekend at UT when I was 18.
20. What time did you wake up today? 2:50 when Roxie started barking and woke me up and more importantly stella, 5:30 when Stella woke up and I had to get her back to sleep, 6:40 when Stella woke up to eat, 8:09 when Stella's Aunt Kate brought her in to try to get her down for a nap, and finally 9:10 when I realized Stella was probably hungry and I should get her and feed her.
21. Can you spell? yes and woe to anyone who can't. I also made it to my school's spelling bee and usually came in 2nd.
23. Current hate? Poopy diapers after Stella has eaten peas. Had one this morning and I swear that smell was manufactured in the 9th circle of hell.
24. Favorite place to be? on the beach
25. Least favorite place to be? the DMV?
26. Where would you like to go? Back to England, I think about it all the time. Or Cozumel to the beach, I've never been to Mexico.
27. Do you own slippers? Yes, they're in the closet but I only wear them during the winter. DUring the rest of the year, I wear flip flops around the house and often go out in them because I forgot to change shoes.
28. Where do you think you'll be in 10 yrs? still in Austin, but hopefully in another house. Probably have 3 kids, still acting a lot, and LGT will be the coolest theatre company in Austin and people other than us will know it.
29. Do you burn or tan? either. If I put sunscreen on, I can get a tan, but it fades quickly. If I do not put sunscreen on, I burn.
30. Yellow or blue? Blue
31. Would you be a pirate? ARgh! Yes, I like the idea of travelling the high seas, but I wouldn't steal stuff and kill people.
32. When was the last time your phone rang? I think probably Saturday evening when my Mom called to tell me they were in town.
33. What songs do you sing in the shower? I don't sing in the shower.
34. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child? evil cars. I had a recurring dream where I was standing in my grandmother's kitchen at the screen down that led to the garage, and a car was coming straight for me.
35. What's in your pockets right now? Nothing.
36. Last thing that made you laugh? Stella eating her cereal this morning.
37. Best bed sheets you had as a child? I don't remember.
38. Worst injury you've ever had? I dove into the pool after swim practice on a dare, dove too shallowly and hit my head. That ended my swimming career because I was scared to dive after that. I got a big lump on my noggin, but no concussion or anything. Or the time I sprained my ankle two years ago and had to drag myself to the sidewalk on sixth street. I had to go to physical therapy and everything, it was pretty bad.
39. Have you ever crashed a car/truck? Yeah. two weeks after I got my license I crashed my dad's truck when driving to work at Splashtown in the rain, and 3 months later I crashed my Ford Fairmont into a woman when I was trying to turn left. After that my car's right headlight pointed into the trees like the bat signal.
40. How many TVs do you have in your house? 2. Living room and office, although we never watch the one in the office.
41. Would you ever buy an iguana? possibly, I think they are very cool.
42. Are you attracted to your same sex? Sometimes, unconsciously, like I'll have a weird dream or something and think, "what the heck was that about?"
44. Do you wish on stars? No.
45. What is your favorite book? I have lots. I loved "The House of Sand and Fog". "The Great Gatsby" is an all-time fave.
46. What song did you last hear? Bennie and the Jets on the Running with Scissors preview. Can't wait to see that!
47. Do you think Mormons are hot? Eww, no. THey're usually super-blond and super-inbred.
48. What is your favorite cereal? Oreo crunch, but I haven't eaten it in years and would only eat it for dessert.
49. What were you doing at midnight last night? Sleeping.
50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? I hope Katie still doesn't mind if I give her Stella while go back to sleep.