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Mullets. They're even at 20,000 feet.

Kyle's Wedding

I think I'm going to be doing pretty well if I squeak out another 2 blogs in April because we're so busy. I may have to resort to the newly-discovered cell phone blog to communicate. We have had a huge whirlwind of 5 days - Ellie came down with a weird virus, we drove to Memphis, Kyle got married, Audrey got baptized, and on Thursday morning Lee was a total dumb ass and drove off with the his keys on the roof of his car so I had to spend an hour and a half driving around Dallas to try to get him where he needed to go. Lee has a keyless ignition so the key only needs to be within a few feet of the car to start it. He threw the keys on the roof of his car and took off. When he got to where he was going, he could neither restart his car nor could he lock his doors. That meany I had to leave work and go home to pick up his keys (10 miles and two school zones), drive to him (35 miles), and back to work (20 miles). He's pretty sure that the keys fell off the roof somewhere along the highway because he heard a thud. I guess we will be sure if our house doesn't get burglarized.

I picked up Ellie on Thursday afternoon from day care, and she felt warm. She really didn't want to eat much at dinner so I went to get her ready for a bath and decided to take her temp. 103.2. I immediately called the doctor and told him that we were leaving in the morning for a wedding (of course) and he told us to come in. He told us that if she had a good night and was okay in the morning to go ahead, but if she had a bad night and woke up sick to stay home... so we almost missed the wedding festivities entirely. For the record, she was 19 pounds and 15 ounces fully clothed. She woke up like she was totally fine (and she actually was) so we went drove on Friday morning to Memphis.

Ellie was really great in the car and slept pretty much from Dallas to about 30 minutes on the other side of Texarkana. We had lunch and shortly after we got on our way, the person driving in front of us kicked up a retread and knocked it into our car. It made a loud thud but it was only after we got to Memphis that we realized the bumper to my car was dragging on the ground and the plastic part covering the undercarriage was hanging on the ground. We looked like the Grizwolds driving into town. I've called the insurance company and the car is going to have to go into the shop. Damn 18 wheelers.

It was there at the hotel that Ellie met her new bff for life, Audrey. I looked after Audrey and Ellie while Nicole got some things out of the car and Ellie tried desperately to see her new cousin. A short time later, Ellie was able to meet Miles too. Miles knew exactly who she was and was so excited to meet her.

Nicole and Wayne took advantage of all of the family being together and had Audrey baptized before the rehearsal. Ellie was at the baptism and the entire time, she tried to climb into the baptismal font. I think she thought it was a swimming pool. Afterwards, we took her back to the hotel so my second cousin, Katherine, could babysit for her. Katherine is so great and is a special ed teacher so she loves kids, but likes to march to the beat of her own drummer. I hadn't told Lee this. "Um, listen... about Katherine. I don't know how many tattoos are going to be visible so just be cool". Wrong thing to say to hypie the hypo. As it turned out, only two tats were visible so in my opinion, he sort of overreacted.

The rehearsal dinner was at a really lovely place on the Mississippi river called Currents at the River Inn. As we have sat for many years, all of the cousins dined at the "kids" table where many an inappropriate joke was told. My cousin Shannon, who is ten years younger than me, told me that when I was 21, she was too young to hang with me and Nicole, but now that she's 21, I'm just old. That's the thing about family - they'll give it to you straight. My uncle Gus was nice enough to drive all of us back to the hotel.

The big day was on Saturday and we started off the day with breakfast with the Erwins and then lunch with my grandmother and aunt. The wedding was really beautiful and Kyle and Megan were nice enough to ask me to read. The priest (who because we're Catholic is somehow related to me) was moderately irritated because I was a little tardy. Fr. Val, YOU try dressing an 11 month old. Because I was a reader, I had to sit away from Lee and Ellie. Ellie was pretty well behaved and waved at me during the wedding. So cute. I have some funny pictures of the reception, but I'm going to save those for another blog because this one is WAY long. Since Kyle got married during prom season and limos were in high demand, his and Megan were whisked away in a bright yellow stretch Hummer. Awesome. Because every girl dreams that she will be carried away from her wedding in something that looks like a banana on steroids. Kyle, I'd like to take this time to public apologize for Lee crawling into the Bananamobile and waiting for you and Megan. Inappropriate.

We left Memphis around 9:30 on Sunday morning for the long drive home. Along the way, Lee and I got into the conversation about how we are going to celebrate Ellie's first birthday. I want to do a party in the backyard for close friends and family. Lee told me he has another idea. He wants to do a combination First Birthday Party and wait for it... Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament. Not kidding. He wants to commemorate sweet Ellie's first year of life with a POKER TOURNY. I can just see the invitation - some cute little cartoon forest creatures sitting around a table smoking cigars. I told him "no" and now he's calling me "Buzz Kill" and "Power Down Tiffany" (he calls me that and then makes this noise like the nuclear power plant is shutting down). We're still in talks about the "theme" of the party, but if I have my way, it's not going to be Clowns and Casinos.

Ellie was really good the whole way home, but started to loose it about an hour outside of Dallas. She would be okay for a few minutes and then started squirming and whining. She was so glad to get out of that car seat and be back at her house. Lee picked up the dogs from the kennel and when Ellie saw them, she started squealing. We had them behind a gate in the kitchen and she stood there for a long time reaching out for them, laughing, and petting them. The "petting" mostly involves grabbing their ears and ripping their hair out. Lucy and Morgan are nice enough to stand there and take the abuse. She loves her dogs.

So that was it. What a whirlwind - it was fun.

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I just found out i can blog from my phone!

Jenny's Bachelorette Party

This weekend, I spent my first night away from Ellie. I traveled to Austin to celebrate one of Jenny's last weekends as a free woman. There's nothing like a full weekend of debauchery to help your body remind you that you're over 30. Also reminding me I'm over 30 - road tripping in my friend Kristine's car and sitting in the back seat next to her two and a half year old daughter, Mary Margaret, while she shows me how her lambie can poo-poo and tee-tee in the play toilet and watching Elmo and Dora. Back in college, we didn't take toddlers on road trips with us. And if we did, there's a good chance we would have been arrested for taking them to Mexico and selling them in exchange for beer money. But don't worry - MM wasn't sold for cerveza. She was dropped off at her grandparents house in Austin.

As soon as we left Dallas, I realized that I left my breast pump. I'm still nursing Ellie at morning and at night, so I sort of needed it. I told myself I could deal - I would just have to be uncomfortable. Then about halfway to Austin, I remembered that I had left my outfit for Saturday night hanging on my closet door. Awesome. So after dropping MM off, we stopped at Target so I would have something to wear. I'm sure Jenny and Kristine wanted to kick me because they just wanted to get there, but they were actually very patient. Jenny is good at putting outfits together so she grabbed some stuff and brought it to me in a dressing room. I sort of felt like I had my own personal stylist... but I don't think stylists usually shop in stores where you have to take a number for the articles of clothes you take back to the dressing room. I made it out of there with a black top, jeans, and a metallic belt.

We finally made it there around 9:00. We stayed on the south shore of Lake Travis in a house called Waterstone Lodge. When I grow up, I want to live there. It was right on the water and so beautiful. In all, I think that there were 18 girls there so it was a pretty big party. After dinner, Meg, Bonnie, Debbie, Jennifer, Kristine and I sat by the fire on the patio to drink wine and laughed hysterically at some college photo albums I brought. We really knew how to rock a jean jumper. The party continued onto the hot tub where we stayed until 3AM. There was one awkward moment where Meg asked us all who we were voting for. A headed debate ensued. After about 15 minutes, we finally had to switch the subject, and I told her that next time she's at a party she should stick to a less divisive topic like abortion or religion.

I tried to sleep in on Saturday, but only made it to about 8:30. I think I'm so used to getting up early every morning now that it's impossible for me to sleep late. We all laid out by the pool for most of the day and relaxed. I read my book by Chelsea Handler which kept on making me laugh out loud. After we all got ready, we had a lingerie shower for Jenny. Her sisters made this cute video of her future husband where they'd ask him a question and then pause it to see if she could guess what he would say.

Since we were pretty far away from downtown, we had a party bus take us to dinner at a fabulous restaurant in Austin called Kenichi. For some reason, we thought it would be fun for us to take some serious "modeling pictures" after we ate. I don't know where we come up with these weird ideas. After dinner, we started off on the patio of The Belmont, but it was a little lower key than what we were hoping for, so we moved onto Cedar Street Courtyard, a place with a live band and dancing. Since we had four pregnant girls with us, the bus got us around 12:15 and took us back to the house. I was in the back of the bus so I could see the road in front of us. I thought the driver was going to wreck trying to avoid the deer. Better him in the bus than us in one of our cars.

By the end of the weekend, I was EXHAUSTED. We headed back to Big D on Sunday morning. For all photos, you can look at my shutterfly account. Very sad to say goodbye to everyone, but we'll be together in two more weeks for the wedding. So where were Ellie and Lee during all of this? They drove to Tyler on Saturday morning to visit B.B. and Doc. According to Lee, Ellie got adventurous and tried some some bacon. I was so glad to see both of them when I got home. He was exhausted on Sunday night and went to bed at 9:00. Taking care of the little one is hard work (and acting like your 18 again is equally hard). We have another very jam-packed weekend coming up... Kyle's wedding. Can't wait to see the fam!

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.