Before/After Baby

Before/After
Bathroom time = alone time
Bathroom time = undivided attention

Shave legs every day
Shave one leg at a time, once a week

Quickest get-ready time: 45 min.
Quickest get-ready time: 15 min.

Go to bed when I get tired after 11pm
Go to bed the minute I can, after putting little one to bed, picking up all the toys and things I could, and finally falling asleep the minute my head hits the pillow.

Sleep wearing whatever I wanted, or not
Sleep in something that won’t embarrass me in front of the little one.

Yell at the dogs from my bed at 2am
Go outside and freeze to tell the dogs to shut up

Ignore/don’t hear other people’s profanity
Vulgar words stick out like loud explosions in a conversation or movie

Curse when something upsets me
Breathe deeply and say “Oh Man!”

Come home from school and grade papers
Come home from school and play with little one

Can leave the house whenever I feel like it
Leave the house without skipping any naptimes or whenever he’s in a better mood.

Walk out of the house with one bag
Can’t leave the house without my purse, and his bag, filled with extra clothes, diapers, juice and snacks or other “just in case” items

When out to dinner, can enjoy meal at a leisurely pace.
When out to dinner, must pray that little one will eat SOMETHING that I put in front of him, and please stay patient enough not to make a scene, where we have to have our to-go boxes the minute the food arrives.

Have popcorn for dinner on a lonely night
Have something healthy for dinner with little one

Had free time
Free time?? What’s that?

Before baby?? When was that?
After baby, so much more in life!

Jobs You Couldn't Pay Me Enough to Do

In our little East Texas area, there is a low-budget news program on one of the local stations. Every so often they’ll do a segment called “Somebody’s Gotta Do It” about jobs that you might not have known existed, or a behind the scenes look at a job that everyone knows exists, but may not want to do. So, I put together a list of jobs that I know someone has to do, but I just don’t want to be that someone.

I don’t want to be:

- A policeman because my husband does it, and I would rather not see all the things in people that he sees. I want to believe there are still good people out there.
- A chicken farmer because even though I live around a bunch of chicken houses, I don’t ever want to be caught dead using the phrase “Smells like money” when discussing the rank odor in the air outside.
- A hairstylist because if you have seen my hair, then you would know that no one else needs to look this bad, and pay for it!
- A dentist because even though they make too much money, I don’t want to have to deal with people and their bad breath.
- A doctor of any kind because, again, they make money, but have you ever heard of a doctor that someone you knew didn’t have a bad opinion about?
- A cafeteria lady because no one really cooks that bad, do they?
- A life-long waitress because even though you always have cash on hand, there’s no where to go in that job, and you never want to get between a fat person and their food.
- A floral delivery person because I tried that this weekend (picking up the flowers that my grandfather sent us for our five-year wedding anniversary) and I don’t know how to keep a vase from falling over and spilling all of its contents while still keeping my eyes on the road and my hands on the wheel!

I know there are more things that I wouldn’t want to do for a living, like the obvious ones that no one wants to do but someone has to (septic tank cleaners, trash men, bus boys, dishwashers) but I didn’t want to list all of those.

Did I miss anything? What’s the one (or two) job(s) that you just couldn’t get paid enough to do?

She's Here!

I'm so excited! My sister sent her pictures of New York to the wrong Wal-mart on the Internet, and instead of asking me to pick them up, came all the way up here to pick them up herself! Then, she decided to come hang out and play with my child today, saving me some money on a babysitter! :) What a great sister!

She brought us some Christmas presents, and some stuff from New York, like this awesome purse that she haggled for and a pair of socks that say I "heart" NY! And they're even in our school colors! It's so cool!

Anyway, I know this isn't the most exciting post, and I'll work on a better one next, but I just had to share my excitement, and what better way to do that than by telling the whole world!

Cooking How - To

Recently, my husband went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of steaks for us to grill up for dinner. With the right meat, my husband grills up a mean steak! Anyway, he was preparing the meat, and I hear him start laughing. When I ask why, he reads to me the directions off the label on the meat. They were so funny I decided to share them with you.

----Cooking Steps-----
1. Heat charcoal 30 min.
Heat gas grill 10 min. with lid closed.

2. Grill 4 inches above Medium heat.
Hold palm just above grate. If heat causes you to pull away in 4 seconds, heat is ideal (375 degrees)

3. For ¾” steak, cook 6 – 8 min/sd.
for 1” cook 9 – 12 min/sd for MedRare – Med. Remove when 140 –150 deg. Slice thinly at an angle.

Here are my questions…

1. Who checks temperature of a grill with their bare hand and a watch with a second hand?

2. How many seconds should it take you to pull your hand away in order to know if the temp has gone down to 140-150?

3. Do you slice thinly at an angle when eating it? Because after it comes off the grill, that’s the only time it gets sliced around this house. Maybe that’s my problem with tough steaks, maybe I’m not slicing them at the right angle!

Hope this was as helpful to you as it was to us! :)

Guessing Game

Here is the game. Below, I have listed 10 words or phrases that my child uses around our house. They may look like another word, but I have just written them phonetically, for those of you that don’t spell well anyway. First person to guess all ten words correctly wins!

Edited - Jan. 2 - Melinda wins with 9 correct! The red is what little man means!
1. opum - open
2. cuck - truck
3. shashite - flashlight
4. hork - fork
5. boops - boots
6. muboo - I love you!
7. boolan - balloon
8. peeses - PIZZA
9. kickin - chicken
10. tattoo - Thank You!

Wins what, I haven’t decided, probably bragging rights that you can understand the babblings of a toddler! Happy guessing!

Great job to the mommy that doesn't have a talking toddler yet, but understands that babblings of this one, and to the aunt that little man calls for whenever you ask him who's at the door!