I'm Still Standing

Again, I was not a great photographer so I'm posting more photos from Easter weekend.


Ellie is one step closer to walking because she can briefly stand by herself now. I've only see her do it once and that was on Friday night, but the ladies at day care tell me she's doing it more often. When I saw her do it, she was squatting down and then slowly stood up - stayed there for a few seconds and then grabbed the sofa. Quite daring. It's hard enough for me to keep track of her now... I can't imagine what it will be like when she starts running through the house.


I took Trudie to the vet on Saturday morning because she was having some eye troubles (as if being blind wasn't problematic enough). I've wondered about her quality of life lately, so I discussed euthanasia with the vet. The doctor said she probably still has a few good months left unless the tumor on her tummy, which is likely cancerous, spreads to other areas of her body. They're not going to do a bunch of blood work or biopsy the spot because they don't want to upset her. She's not in pain right now, she's still spunky, she's got a good appetite, and can find me wherever I am. She's dropped from 10.5 pounds to 9 pounds in the last 6 months, so I'm just going to try to keep her as comfortable as possible and enjoy my friend while I can.

After Trudie's trip to the vet, Ellie had another swim lesson. She's starting to be able to associate a name with an action so she waves and blows kisses on demand and will actually kick when I tell her to kick now. It's not a swimmers kick though - it's more like a frog kick. She brings both heels up toward her and then kicks them out. I'm expecting a full scholarship to Stanford one day from those frog kicks so she'd better step up her game.

Ellie has been trying to venture into our cabinets lately so Lee installed some child locks on them Saturday. I cannot get my fat little finger between the cabinet door and the lock so now I have to use a knife to break into my own cabinets. I keep forgetting the locks are on there, so I almost rip the hardware off the cabinets every time I try to open them. I'm sure that one day... in a month or so... I will remember to use the knife.

The rest of the weekend, Lee tilled up our backyard because he's going to plan all new grass. It's a big job... we're hoping it will look for the big first birthday party. We also watched The Kite Runner on DVD. If you haven't seen this movie, it's definitely one to rent. We really liked it - it was probably one of the best movies I've seen in a while. We also opened some of the wine that Lee made last year. It had the aroma of cherries with a subtle hint of earthiness followed by an overwhelming taste of Robitussin. Sorry, honey. We only had a few sips and then threw the rest of the bottle out. So if we gave you a bottle for Christmas - let this be your warning. On Sunday, my mom came over to visit Ellie and stayed with her while I ran some errands. Ellie was so tired that she went to bed at thirty minutes earlier at 7:30 that night. I thought that was great until she woke up thirty minutes earlier the next morning.


I wish Ellie was a little older so she could enjoy what is going on outside of our window - we have a pair of doves nesting. Lee and I decided to name them Todd and Margo after our favorite couple from Christmas Vacation. Margo has been staying in the nest lately so we can't tell if she's already laid her eggs or not. Todd usually stays in the tree out front. I can't wait to see all of the baby birdies! We'll give you updates as Margo and Todd's family grows.

Springtime Swingtime

I got this picture of Ellie on my phone when I visited her at day care during lunch this afternoon. We had the whole playground to ourselves because all of the toddlers were taking their naps. It was her first time in a swing, and she loved it. I pushed her from the front so she could keep an eye on me. When she would swing toward me, I'd give her a funny face and a sound effect to make her laugh.

This weekend, we taught her to blow a kiss and now she is pretty proficient at it. When I left, she waved bye-bye and then blew me two kisses. So sweet.

Easter 2008

What a beautiful weekend! The weather was absolutely perfect on Saturday, so Lee and I met our friends, the Hardemans, at the Dallas Arboretum for Dallas Blooms. I guess I didn't give it much thought because spectacular weather + the day before Easter + everyone on Spring Break = the perfect storm of arboretum overload. The arboretum had chartered buses and was literally bringing in people by the busload. One of the main reasons I wanted to go on Saturday was because one of the local photographers was taking Easter pictures with a live bunny. The bunny may as well have been stuffed (or tranquilized) because he didn't move the whole time - even when Ellie tugged on his neck. We dressed Ellie up in her Easter outfit, bonnet, and the locket I wore as a little girl for photos with the bunny. She did really well.

After the bunny pic, we walked around the arboretum with the Hardemans and got some great pictures of Ellie in the tulips. If you want to see all of the photos, they're on our Shutterfly collection. I also finally uploaded all of the ones from January and February. That night, Lee went to his friend Kevin's church because Lee was Kevin's RCIA sponsor. This means I got to have a movie night so I chose to watch Enchanted. So cute. I can't wait until Ellie likes princess movies. I may have to buy Enchanted for Ellie. She may not be into it now... but I am!

Lee got home pretty late from the Saturday evening and then we got up and went as a family to 11AM Easter service. Poor Lee - he had enough church for a whole year this weekend. We met my parents, Beth, and Ben at church and then had lunch at the Petroleum Club. We had to get there 30 minutes early for a seat and I'm glad we did because halfway through church, I got up to change Ellie's diaper and people were standing out he sidewalk outside because it was so packed. Sadly, Lee's dad could not join us because he was visiting his mother in Chattanooga who has been sick with pneumonia lately. She fell ill during her trip to Dallas for Christmas and never fully recovered. Elizabeth was on a girl's trip to Brazil with her friend Mimi.

I swear Ellie spoke her first word on Monday morning. She already says mama a lot, but she said it indiscriminately before she knew what it meant, so I don't know that that counts. I dropped her off at day care and as I was leaving, I waved at her and said "bye-bye". She looked up at me, waved, and said "bye-bye" back. I stood there and looked at her for a second to see if she would say it again, but she didn't. I'm going to wait until I officially claim that this was her first word just in case she was actually sounding off some really intelligent sounding babble.

If you're in the Dallas area, you should take a trip to the Arboretum... it's absolutely gorgeous right now!

Who Wore It Better?

I love celebrity gossip magazines. They are so fabulously smutty, and I don't even care. I'm going to play off a popular column that some magazines have called "Who Wore It Better?" where they show the readers one item of clothes worn by two different stars and the readers decide who wore it better. Example:

The same Herve Leger blue dress is worn by both Amanda Bynes and Kim Kardashian's sasquatch sister (who in all odds is probably shorter than me). Who wore it better? Clearly Ms. Bynes. So let's play "Who Wore It Better?" Bright Spot style.

Who wore this white Janie and Jack Easter bonnet better? Ellie?

Or her Daddy?

You decide.

The Worst Name Ever

I had to go to Office Depot yesterday to pick up some binders for one of my projects. I got into like behind a guy paying by credit card. The cashier took the credit card, asked for ID, and then took a long look the ID and credit card. "Is this your real name?", the cashier asked. The man said that it was.

So now I have to make the decision - do I mind my own business or do I ask this guy what his name is? I knew that I would forever wonder if his name was Dwayne Pipe, Bill Ding, Chris P. Cream, Noah Ho, or Chris Anthemun so I asked. It was Rocky Rhodes. I'm sure he got the "are you kidding me?" face from me. "You'll never forget my name, will you?", he said. You're right about that, Rocky. Seriously, what parent thinks that's a good idea? For 45 years, this guy has gotten the "are you kidding me?" face from everyone he's introduced himself to or who's looked at his ID. That would be like us naming our kid Rainbow.

UPDATE: Check out the second comment I received... they are not playing around.

Kibble and Bits

Every morning, Lee's job is to take care of the dogs. This consists of letting them out to go to the bathroom and feeding Trudie. Because it's easier, he fills Trudie's bowls first and then takes all of the dogs out. Ellie was with me in the bedroom while he was taking the dogs out, but I turned around for a second and she was gone. I heard her in the bathroom messing around with Trudie's bowls and ran in there to find her digging around in the dog food. "Ellie! No!", I said and pryed the dog food from her hands to wash them.

I noticed that she needed her diaper changed so I took her into her bedroom, partially undressed her and changed her diaper. Then I sat her down to put her socks on to go... so now it's been about 2-3 minutes since she got into the dog food. Lee came in her room and I told him we needed to keep it off the floor or close the door. He looked at Ellie and said, "She's got something in her mouth". Somehow, I had missed the fact that my beautiful little girl had shoved a handful of kibble into her mouth and had been chewing it while I was diaper changing. I stuck my finger in her mouth and scooped it out which made her mad that I was taking her food away so she started screaming. Let me get this straight... She won't eat peas anymore, but dog food is okay? So gross. I'm just glad we don't give Trudie canned food. When she turns 30 and starts dating, I'm going to tell boys this story so they won't want to kiss her.

Meg sent me this link this morning. It made me laugh.

10 Months?!!

How is it that our little Ellie has already been here for TEN months? I found myself wondering that in church on Sunday, her 10 month birthday, while Lee and I struggled to wrangle her during the longest gospel reading in history. Ever since I was little, I've always immediately flipped to the gospel to figure out how long I'm going to be standing while they read it. Sunday was no exception and I knew it was going to be a battle when I saw that it was 8 pages long. Palm Sunday tricks me every year. I never remember that's the weekend they read the Passion.

Ellie has really gotten to be a handful at church because she doesn't want to be held, but you can't put her down and let her crawl all over the floor. The best position for her is to let her stand on the pew facing the back of the church so she can wave at everyone. And that's what she does. We just stood her up and let her make friends for an hour. She has foregone the usual open-and-close the hand baby wave and now uses more of an elbow-elbow-wrist-wrist pageant wave. This is the wave she gives everyone in the neighborhood when I pull her around in her red wagon. She looks like the queen of her very own parade.

We started off out weekend by going to the Knights Of Columbus Fish Fry at our church. I think that there were 1,000 adults there and every adult brought three kids. Out of control. There was a huge line just to get into the cafeteria, the Knights brought out beer and wine on trays to tide us over. Lee joined recently the Knights so when I got there, he was in the kitchen serving fried fish with this big chef hat on. He took it off before I could get a picture... there's always next year. This is where Ellie had her first taste of ice cream. The cold bothered her at first, but she quickly got over it. She hasn't been eating her veggies for the last couple of days, and I'm starting wondering if it's because she had a taste of Blue Bell ice cream.

On Saturday, Lee took Ellie to her swimming lesson while I went to a wedding shower for Jenny. I got to see a lot of my college friends and catch up so that was fun. Kristine snuck out before I could get her in the picture too. We are all looking forward to Jenny's wedding in Cabo in a few weeks. We never made it to the zoo as we had planned this weekend because when Ellie woke up from her nap on Saturday, she had a fever. I think she was just tired from all of the activity because she was over it the next day. It's hard to plan anything because Ellie strategically has her nap in the middle of the afternoon. And on Sunday, she decided to sleep from 12:30-2. We were able to take a really long walk on Sunday so that sort of made up for our missed zoo outing. I'm hoping to make it to the Arboretum this weekend... with everyone else.

I got to see Katy on Tuesday night to celebrate her belated birthday. Veronica met up with us too. I'm surprised I didn't have to take a boat since it rained about five inches in Dallas yesterday. We had dinner at a semi-new restaurant in Mockingbird Station called Urban Taco. Ellie made a brief appearance, and then Lee picked her up so she could go home to refuse all foods but ice cream. If you're in the Dallas area, I highly suggest Urban Taco. Their roasted corn con lime crema was awesome (but not low fat). Go try it.

Crawl for Cancer

I'm going to give my friend Hanna some publicity. When I walked in the Dallas 3 Day, she rallied several co-workers and her mother to financially support me. So... I hope that maybe a few of you can help her out. On May 3, Crawl for Cancer will take place on Lower Greenville in Dallas. CFC is basically a pub crawl that raises money for cancer. The idea is that you create a team of 10 people and spend an afternoon having fun and drinking for charity. That's right - drinking for charity. Brillz idea. If you're not in Dallas, there might be one near you so check out the link below. So.... get your team of family members, co-workers, church group, volunteer organization, sports league, or college buddies together and
Get CRAWLING!

Peas and ham

I have been SO BAD about taking pictures this week. That's the main reason I haven't blogged - I have no pictures! I promise to do better this weekend. It's going to be beautiful so we're planning on taking Ellie to the zoo. I took this picture with my camera phone last night. Ellie had her first meal of table food. She had peas, ham, and cheerios. She ate all by herself - in fact when I tried to put some ham in her mouth, she refused. She has to do it herself. That's fine with me!

I am so concerned about something I read this morning. If you're going to vote, please educate yourself and read this article. People who espouse beliefs like this are dangerous to our nation. Everyone have a good weekend!

You met who?

I had the strangest conversation with Lee on Thursday night. Or maybe it wasn't? He was so excited to call me to tell me who he had met at happy hour and I just didn't get it. Maybe one of you will be equally as impressed. Here's how the call went...

Lee: (very excited) Hey! I'm on my way home, but you are NOT going to believe who I met tonight!
Me: Who?
Lee: Okay... um, how do I explain this? Name a specialty food - any specialty food - just the first thing that pops into your head.
Me: ...Risotto?
Lee: Okay good - Risotto. So how would you feel if you met the guy who created the risotto website? I mean like the risotto website?
Me: ...uh... I don't know how I'd feel about that.
Lee: Tiffany - THE RISOTTO WEBSITE
Me: Yeah - I get it. I just don't know how cool I think that would be. I mean it's risotto.
Lee: Okay - forget that example. Are you ready for who I met?
Me: Yes.
Lee: The guy who started pizzamaking.com!!
Me: ...
Lee: Hello? Did I loose you?
Me: No. I'm still here.
Lee: Did you hear me? I met the guy who started pizzamaking.com! PIZZA MAKING DOT COM, Tiffany.
Me: ...
Lee: I can't believe you don't think that's cool.
Me: I don't even know what that is.
Lee: It's a website totally devoted to pizza.
Me: I figured that.
Lee: I'll explain - the guy who started it is retired and runs this website now. He knows everything about pizza. In fact, he taught me how to reverse engineer a pizza.
Me: Reverse engineer?
Lee: Yes - reverse engineer. In other words, if you have a certain kind of flour and a certain type of oven, he can tell you how best to make a pizza. And he travels around the country reviewing pizzas.
Me: Oh.
Lee: I can't believe you're not impressed at all. Basically, I met the Robert Parker of pizza making.
Me: Who is Robert Parker?
Lee: Ohmygod. He's the most famous wine critic ever.
Me: I guess I don't get it.
Lee: (completely defeated) I'll be home in a few minutes....

Has anyone else heard of this website? I don't want to be that girl that nothing impresses, but I just wasn't that impressed. Maybe if I liked pizza more?

Snow Day!

Or not. Again - precipitation disappointment at the Bright house. It snowed 6-9 INCHES about 50 miles north of our house and even 2-3 inches about 20 miles north of our house, but at the Bright house? Zero. Zero inches of snow. As you can see, the cold weather does not bother Ellie... she was as snug as a bug in a rug this morning when I dropped her off at day care. Maybe Ellie will see her first snow next year.

Super Annoying Tuesday

Today is the big day. Will Texas pick Obama or Hillary? I generally don't care much for politics (it's not that I don't care), but I'm excited that Super Tuesday is here because that means the political commericals will finally stop. Every third commercial is a political commercial. The hands-down winner for worst commercial comes from Hillary. It's the one where the commercial fades in and you hear her voice saying, "Every morning when I get up, I ask myself, 'How can I help someone today?'". Really? That's what you ask yourself? I'm totally calling BS on that. I guarantee the first thing she asks herself is #1 - "I wonder where Bill slept last night?" followed by #2 - "How the hell did this guy get ahead of me in the polls?!!" And maybe after today everyone will stop using the word "caucus". One of our VPs called me today as I was leaving and he asked me if I was on my way to caucus. I started giggling. Because I'm 12.

It snowed in Big D last night... which is amazing because you can see by the pictures we were outside in short-sleeved tops on Saturday afternoon. It started snowing as we were going to bed and was sticking, but had melted by the time we woke up. That's disappointing. I wanted to see some snow. Lee and I were just discussing this weekend how we couldn't remember the last time that it didn't have at least one snow/ice day in a winter. I also wanted to dress Ellie up in the snow suit that I had when I was little. It's seriously A Christmas Story style snow suit. My mother saved it for me just in case I had a little girl one day and we lived in the Arctic tundra.

Did anyone else have a totally off-whack February 29th? Based on my Friday at work, I'm convinced that day is cursed because it's a fake day. I seriously think that everything that could have gone wrong with one of my projects did. An unfortunate series of events involving some buried underground utilities left me on the phone with our legal department at 4PM wondering why I'm not smart enough to carry a flask around with me. I wish I could say, "It's not my fault", but as the project manager, it is my fault even though I've done everything I can. Since my cold was coming on strong, I was in bed asleep by 10 PM. Goodbye and good riddance, Leap Day.

On Saturday, we did the usual swim lesson followed by long nap. It was so nice outside that when Ellie woke up, we decided that we needed to get outside. We called up Elizabeth and picked her up for a glass of wine at Times Ten Cellars. We don't make it there as much as we used to and I miss it. After a glass or two on the porch, we met my parents and Beth for dinner at Matt's Rancho Martinez. Ellie was really good and had fun reading some Easter books that my mom's friend, Kathy, sent her. We did the usual Sunday church thing and then Ellie and I went shopping for some new spring clothes at The Loft. They are having a great sale right now and I earned four coupons for "spend $50 and get $25 off" so I see more shopping in my future. Ellie got a new inflatable tub that fits inside our tub because I feel like she's finally outgrown the infant tub.

I am so glad that we saw Van Halen back in January because they cancelled their second Dallas show for Monday night. Van Halen according to their website, Eddie is "undergoing medical testing" which is code for "he's back on the hooch and headed to rehab." I just hope the Police stay together long enough for us to see them in May!

Welcome Audrey McLean!

Ellie has a new cousin. I am so excited for Wayne, Nicole, and Miles! Audrey McLean was born this morning weighing 8 pounds 8 ounces and was 20.5 inches. Ellie and Audrey are going to be great friends.

Leap Day Blogging

I figure I can't blog on February 29 for another 4 years so I'd better take advantage of it. I woke up in the middle of the night with a sore throat, so I think I'm coming down with a cold. Ellie had a sore throat mid-week, so I think that I picked something up from her. As long as we don't all get the flu, it will be okay. Nicole has not had her Leap Day baby, but there's still 10 hours left in the day.


I was having sort of an eeehhh day on Wednesday, and I happened upon a link to Jersey. No, not New Jersey. How did I go so many years and not know that there was somplace on earth this beautiful? If I had to make a list of places I wanted to visit in my lifetime, this would place would take up the top 10 spots. I have a link on my internet browser and during lunch for the past two days, I've been looking around the island and dreaming of traveling there. Maybe someday...

Have a good weekend!

There Will Be Date Night

On Friday, my mom and dad offered to baby sit for Ellie while Lee and I went out, so I jumped on the offer. I wanted to see Juno, but we wound up watching There Will Be Blood. And really, there was not as much blood as I thought there would be. It was good to have at least seen two of the movies nominated for Best Picture since the 80th Academy Awards were on Sunday night. We have Michael Clayton at home so we'll be watching that soon too. I can understand why TWBB was nominated, but I didn't much care for it because it just wasn't my type of movie. I start loosing focus and checking my watch after two hours in a theater. Daniel Day Lewis was really good though, so I wasn't surprised when he won the Oscar for Best Actor. After the movie, we had a late dinner and then caught the last part of the Memphis-Tennessee basketball game.

Ellie slept until 7:30 AM on Saturday morning and 7:45 AM on Sunday. SEVEN FORTY-FIVE. For those of you who do not have children, this is like sleeping until noon. Lee and I were trying to think of the last time we slept that late and could not remember. This almost makes up for her waking up at 4:15 on Monday morning. I went into her room because she was screaming, and I found her standing up in her bed clutching the crib rail. She knows how to get down, but I think she just needed to be talked off the ledge. As soon as I gave her the paci and blankie, she was fine and went back to sleep until 6:45.

Ever since we let her "cry it out" for three nights back in December, Ellie has been really good about falling asleep. In fact, I put her in bed totally awake last night, and she didn't make a peep. We read every night before she goes to bed, and right now her favorite books are Touch and Feel Puppy and Brown Bear, Brown Bear. These may not be her favorites, but I get a kick out of reading them to her. When we read Touch and Feel Puppy she has to feel both of the noses of the dogs on the last page - first the left one and then the right one. Then when we get to the goldfish while we're reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, she pokes it right in the eye. Every time. It makes me laugh.

That was it for our weekend. Lee's back has been bothering him, but it didn't slow him down out in the yard on Sunday. He's been planting a lot in preparation for spring because he wants everything to look really good for Ellie's first birthday party. We also installed a new baby gate this weekend at the top of the stairs and Lucy is afraid of it. She will not come up the stairs now. This morning, she bolted past the gate and frantically tried to paw her way into her kennel in the other room to get away from it. This is the dog we refer to as our "smart" one. And we now have another concert to look forward to... on Saturday we bought tickets to see The Police and Elvis Costello on May 21. Very excited. They came through a few months ago at the American Airlines Center and tickets were outrageous, but Lee and I got lawn seats for this show for only $40 apiece. I thought that was good considering who is playing.

I was asked to join my high school's alumni advisory board, and I went to the first meeting on Monday night. The topic came up that the school now has an Engineering Club and it would be nice to be able to have some sort of a search tool to find alumni who could speak to the group about careers in engineering. I immediately envisioned myself helping to meld the young minds of the best and the brightest at my school with a rousing speech on the joys of science and engineering. Beaming with pride, I perked up a little because look no further ladies and gentlemen - there is a board-certified engineer in your midst. "I'm an engineer. I would be more than happy to speak to your Engineering Club", I said with a touch of smugness. Then I went on to add, "I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany." (Okay, I didn't say that last part - Ron Burgundy Channel 4 anchorman did.) Pat, the alumni director, said "That would be great! Let me check with the club sponsor because I know that it's not 100% an Engineering Club. Sometimes they just play ping pong. It sort of alternates between an Engineering Club and a Ping Pong Club". Background - we used to have a club at our high school for the D&D dorks called the Gamers Guild (picture Anthony Michael Hall's nerd friends in 16 Candles). It doesn't take my years of book learnin' to know that it's now morphed itself into the Ping Pong-ineering Club. Distance yourself... "Um, yeah... that sounds neat. Just let me know if I can assist you guys with anything".

Nicole's due date was Sunday and still no baby. Little Evelyn Molly McLean Haley Mary Alice Dijonaise Erwin should be here any day though. My mom had a thought the other day - what happens if E.M.M.H.M.A.D.E. comes on Friday, Leap Day? Her birthday will only come once every 4 years! Stay tuned...

The Class Photo

I have been dying to get this so I could post it:

Here is Ellie's class photo. I don't know how the photographer got eight infants to look at the camera. In the front row there's Isaiah, Jackson, Tanner, and Simon. In the back row there's Mason, Matthew, Ellie and "Madeline Flowers". Ellie's teacher, Tinisha, is in the back left, and Rosa was out the day of the picture so the other teacher is a stand-in from another class. Ellie's buddy is Tanner, the little boy in front of her. He's 11 months, but developmentally they're at the same place so I think that's why they're buddies.

Ellie had her 9 month appointment on Tuesday. I can't believe she's nine months now. I wish my nine month (and one week) pregnancy would have been as fast as the last 9 months. Ellie is 18 pounds 8 ounces (45th percentile) and 29 inches long (92nd percentile). By comparison, I was 22 pounds 4 ounces at 9 months, but I was um... tall for my age. She didn't have to get any shots, but they did a urinalysis. Since it's really hard to make an infant pee in a cup, they tape a bag to her hoo-hoo and wait for her to pee. It's as weird as it sounds. The doctor said that she needs to start transitioning to table food over the next 3 months so that by the time she's a year, she'll be eating what we eat. She's mowing through her Stage 2 foods, I think she's ready for something more. I tried to give her a pea off my plate the other day and she spit it back at me. She's doing well with Cheerios so we'll stick with that for a while.

The Baby Wrangler

First of all, CONGRATUATIONS to Anne Marie and Brett who had a 9 pound 5 ounce baby girl today. Caroline Elizabeth was a wonderful Valentine's Day surprise.

This is going to be long because I haven't blogged in a while. I've been in a project management training class all of this week and it's killing me because it means I've had to use 100% of my brain, and that still isn't enough. Everything has an acronym and there are all sorts of flowsheets and charts with arrows pointing up, down, and around in a circle. And every component has a subcomponent. All the while, the guy sitting behind me coughs and sneezes on my back because he came down with the bubonic plague on Monday. I can't tell if I'm getting sick or if it's all mental. I also haven't been able to go see Ellie at lunch all week, which is a real bummer. I'm so used to seeing my sweet girl every day at noon. But on the bright side, the class has also been really motivating - it has rekindled my desire to become a full time aerobics instructor. If only the pay was the same.

I knew that this weekend was going to be a little different when on Friday morning, I went into Ellie's room and she was sitting up in bed waiting for me. I fed and dressed her and put her down to play in her room when about 30 seconds later, she crawled into my bathroom, grabbed the tub, pulled herself up, and just stood there looking at me. In the short span of a week, I've gone from having a kid who sits there and looks pretty (okay... really pretty) to having the kid who wants to explore every square inch of our house. I should explain the photo - if Ellie gets tired when she's eating, she starts rubbing her eyes and usually a carrot unibrow ensues.

On Saturday, Lee wanted to take Ellie to her swimming lesson. I didn't tell him he was going to have to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle", "One Little Speckled Frog", and "The Wheels on the Bus". I think he was expecting some hard core backstroke lessons. I picked Ellie up and we headed to Northpark for the Junior League Community Volunteer Fair and then to meet Grammie at the house who delivered a baby gate to us just in the nick of time. After that, I had my picture taken for another group I volunteer with. Poor Ellie - she didn't get in much of a nap because of all of the running around. We topped off the day with a ride in her red wagon to the park. For no particular reason at all, Lee and I opened one of bottles of wine from Napa that night. It was the 2003 Syrah from Bella Vineyards.

We worked most of the day Sunday and Lee did about 8 hours of yard work. It was at about 8PM that he realized he was no longer wearing his wedding ring. There were plenty of places it could have been because he had planted a tree, trimmed some bushes and cleaned out our garage - but he decided that it was probably in the "yard waste" bag, so after work on Monday, he went through all of the clippings and found it. This is the second time he's done this. He promises he's going to wear gloves now.

We didn't really do anything for Valentine's Day because Lee is lucky enough to have a wife that believes that Valentine's Day is the creation of card companies, florists, and chocolatiers. I think it's a fun holiday if you're 8, but when you get to be an adult, all of the commercials make you feel like you're not normal unless you're in a relationship with someone and that's just not the case. I told all I wanted was a card... well, I take that back. On Wednesday night, I told him that a wonderful gift would be for him not to take a second helping of dinner so that we could have leftovers and I wouldn't have to cook on Valentine's night. What can I say? I'm a hopeless romantic.

I've got to wrap this up because it's turning into War and Peace. A little background first... When I was little, my mom and I would go to the movies in the summer a lot because she was a teacher and she was out of school. We would always pay for one movie and then sneak into another. I don't know how many times we snuck into Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, but it was enough to make it my all time favorite movie. Thinking back, I don't know how appropriate it was to take a 5 year old to a movie where Nazis faces are melting off, but that's neither here nor there. So you could say that when I found out they were making a fourth Indiana Jones movie, I was beside myself. It's in my Palm Pilot... May 22... I present to you - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Sentenced!

The jury is back and Al received two 30-year sentences to be served concurrently. From the Dallas Morning News:

"An Allen man convicted of attempting to hire someone to kill his pregnant wife received a 30-year sentence Monday .

A Collin County jury of six men and six women deliberated for about three hours before sentencing Albert Jackson Sterling II to two concurrent 30-year sentences.

Mr. Sterling on Friday was found guilty of two counts of solicitation of capital murder -- one of his wife and one for his then unborn child. The trial, which lasted about two weeks, included testimony from Mr. Sterling's wife, his girlfriend and the would-be hitman who alerted the wife to the scheme.

After the verdict was read, the sentencing hearing began. Mr. Sterling, who did not testify during the trial, took the stand during his sentencing hearing and maintained his innocence.
"Do you still maintain that you are not guilty?" asked Russell Wilson, one of Mr. Sterling's attorneys.

"One hundred percent," Mr. Sterling said, his shackled feet hidden behind the witness stand. "I felt I should give you jurors my story and the reason I was communicating with Jeffrey Thompson," the man he tried to hire. "

I guess we won't be seeing Al at the gym anytime soon.

Guilty!

For those of you who are not long-time readers of the Bright Spot, before Ellie was born, I taught aerobics at 24 Hour Fitness and had known Al Sterling for about 6 years. I talked to him every Tuesday after my class and attended his classes. Never in 6 years did he mention that he had a wife or child to anyone at the gym and he was pretty "involved" with a lot of people in his classes. I knew this guy was a b.s. artist when one day he told me he had been absent from teaching because he had been on a secret mission for the government "jumping out of airplanes". Spare me. It all caught up with him because he's going to the big house. Don't drop the soap, Al.

From the Dallas Morning News:

"A Collin County jury on Friday found a man guilty of hiring someone to kill his pregnant wife. Albert Jackson Sterling II was found guilty of two counts of solicitation of capital murder -- one for his wife and one for the unborn child. He was accused of trying to hire an ex-convict to kill his eight-month pregnant wife in Nov. 2006 at their Allen home.

The six-man, six-woman jury delivered their verdict this morning after six hours of deliberation over two days. When State District Judge Curt Henderson read the first guilty verdict, Mr. Sterling blew out a breath, closed his eyes and dropped his head.

Prosecutors said Mr. Sterling's motive was to be with his girlfriend and for the insurance money for his wife's death. They said he lived two lives -- one as a Christian family man and another as a single man who claimed to be a Navy SEAL and taught a marital arts class.

The sentencing hearing was scheduled to begin later this morning. Mr. Sterling could face up to life in prison for each first-degree felony charge."

She crawls!

She finally figured it out. When I went to visit Ellie on Tuesday afternoon, she saw me through the window, so I waved. Then she crawled right over to the door to greet me. I just stood there and stared at her. "When did she start doing this?", I asked. Tanisha told me that she had been crawling around all morning. It's not like she's racing all over the place, but she can definitely get from Point A to Point B now without any trouble. Note to self: babyproof the house this weekend. It's so fun to watch her. Lee will put her 20 feet away from a toy and make her crawl to it. It's like our child-dog has learned a new trick so we have to make her perform it all the time.

I feel like this past weekend whizzed by at lightening speed. We were busy the whole time. My mother-in-law's friend, Fran, was in town from Chattanooga so we met them, Ben, and Elizabeth at Nick and Sam's. Ellie was a sport for about 45 minutes, and then I had to take her home. Lee owes me a steak dinner since I had to leave before we ordered... After I worked out on Saturday morning, Lee played racquetball and Ellie skipped her first February swim lesson to go to a play group with some ladies from my church . We met at the Arboretum because it was so beautiful outside. It got so hot that I was only wearing short sleeves and jeans - pretty good for February 2.

After that, Lee took care of Ellie while I went to a Junior League meeting. Last week, I found out I am going to be the Assistant Community VP for 08-09 and I'm so excited. I e-mailed some of my JL friends to tell them my news and before I did, I had a Dwight Schrute moment.... wait a second - am I the Assistant Community VP or the assistant to the Community VP? I had to look it up, but I was right the first time. We're already working on getting everything arranged for next year, so the meeting on Saturday was with the Issue Area Coordinators to staff the project chairs for the community projects for next year. Very interesting. It's going to be a great year because I already know half of the ladies I'm going to be working with and the other ones I just met are so nice.

This was one of the most uneventful Super Bowls we had in a long time. We watched the game from home and I was busy cleaning and cooking that I missed most of it, but I did get to see the last 2 minutes which was the most exciting part. I was rooting for the Giants because if my man Peyton couldn't make it to the super bowl, I was going to have to root for his brother, Eli. Monday was Ben's birthday so we all met at El Fenix for the celebration. Big #28 for Ben. And I can't believe Lent is already here. I read that this is the second earliest possible start for Lent and the next time it starts this early will be in 2320 or something crazy. Ellie and I got our ashes on Wednesday, and I've decided to give up all sweets for lent. I tried to give up Perez Hilton, but that only lasted an hour. The addiction is too strong.

I got some really sad news last week. The 20 year old sister of one of the ladies who takes care of Ellie was murdered. It's been on the news here - the sister's ex-boyfriend stabbed her and then dumped her body in a field in south Dallas and lit her on fire. I saw her Umicia last week and she was crying, but I didn't know what had happened. Then Ellie's teacher told me all about it. It's so awful and makes me sad for their family. After being gone for a week, Umicia is back at work, and she still smiles more than anyone there. I don't know how she finds the strength to be happy. So if you think about it, please say a prayer for her family.