This is GOOD

Okay, no baby blog. Sorry for any letdown, but I must post a link to a blog I found today. For anyone who is obsessed with LOST (or who SHOULD be, c'mon BEST. SHOW.EVER.), this blog does not disappoint. Lots of insight and details I hadn't considered. I've only read her blogs about last night's show and the previous week so far, but I can't wait to get into more...

So check this out. You, yeah you...the one with the Lost obsession :).

Exorcising The Demons

I have to give Steve credit for the title of this post.

Yes, I have officially exorcised a big demon from my past.

It all started a few weeks ago when I, like many facebookers who are sucked into the evil site, posted their infamous "25 random facts". I didn't put too much stock into mine... I sat and just started to type what came into my head. One of the "facts" that I decided to list was that at the tail end of my senior year of college, my sorority pin was taken away from me for shenangians that I felt were very unfair. I left college bitter and vowing never to set foot in that house again. There were several people who I wanted to cut out of my life altogether, and it was really sad. The first 3 years of my college sorority experience were pretty fun... I made a lot of great friends and the house was beautiful to live in. However, by senior year, Steve and I were very serious and I just wasn't on the same page as a lot of the other girls. I was looking for a job, and was thinking about marriage, while a lot of these girls were looking forward to the next all-campus event... not that I didn't love those greek events in the past. I was just at a different place in my life, you know? I was ready to graduate and move on with my life... and an organization I'd given the last four years of my life to took it all away from me.

It took me A LONG time to sort of make sense of it. I was bitter, betrayed and angry. I'd finally put it (mostly) away behind me when I joined these social networking sites and rekindled old friendships. Alot of these were sorority sisters. The healing process was in effect, but was just missing one key element... my sorority pin.

Well, flash forward 10 years... a sister from my pledge class who has since become very involved with the national headquarters read my list and emailed me and told me that they should have never taken my pin away. She contacted the current president and they FOUND my pin! It was in the archives. I couldn't believe it! Not that I'll probably have many opportunities to wear it any more but it is MY PIN. I earned it.

Well, on Friday she emailed me back and said that the president had it and I could swing by. My heart skipped a beat. That meant I had to enter the house I'd vowed never to return to. It was a huge thing. I was TERRIFIED. I thought about it. I even emailed another sorority sister to see if she had time to stop by with me. I wasn't going alone. I definitely needed moral support.

Sunday moring I woke up with the attitude of "I'm going to go today and just DO IT." Steve said he'd go with me, so we packed up Brett and drove back to Butler's campus. We've been to Butler several times since I'd graduated, but I've never been back to 831 Hampton Drive. We parked and got Brett out and walked up the steps. It was a little surreal. Some things had changed but others had remained the same in those 10 years. The door opened and I was greeted by the familiar site of the formal. It looked slightly different, but it was the same house. Memories flooded back. I met the president and she was so nice! I got to tour the house and see all of the changes... I was WELCOMED back to the house that I felt like I had been shunned from. She gave me my pin back and told me that I was welcome to join in the alumni part of the initiation ceremony for this spring's class. I left feeling like I wanted to be involved again... like next time I go to Homecoming I'll make a point to stop by the house, and maybe attend other alumni events.

Finally sunshine and rainbows about my old sorority. It took 10 years- but I think I'm FINALLY healed.

Hangin' with My Cous'

Brett is becoming fast friends with Derek, his cousin. Because Mandy has been undergoing chemo (and please keep praying for her, she's not feeling well these days), my mother has been watching her kids (and Brett's cousins), Derek & Paige a lot lately. This has proved to be good fun for Brett. Paige is very loving toward Brett and even helps feed him. Derek, who is just a year older than Brett has started playing with him and they are so cute to watch together!

Now that I am mobile and pulling up on everything, I need someone to play with...

Derek is pretty cool. We're buds..

We like to have serious conversations,

But most of all, we just have FUN!

Baby? What BABY?

As I promised, here is more Brett cuteness for your viewing enjoyment. Not until I took these pictures, did I realize how much older he is looking these days! My sweet pea will be 10 whole months old on Valentines Day. Where has the time gone?

I decided I'd stay still and smile JUST ONCE for mommy!

My blue eyes just keep getting bluer by the day.

I don't think I'll ever grow out of pulling on mommy's hair. It's just too much fun (and I know she secretly LOVES it).

Blah. Just Blah. And Sick.

I feel like I go through blogging "spurts" if you will. Sometimes I have so much to share that posts are jumping out of me. Other times (like recently) I am in a semi-vegetative state and I'll sit at my computer and hit refresh on all of my dangerously addictive social networking websites, not really contributing, just lurking.

So, that's been me recently. I've also been diving into a decadent German Chocolate cake that has been sitting in the break room at work (bad Carrie!) for the past week. Yeah, the weight loss thing has kind of reversed. I've put a couple pounds on instead of taking them off. It's February, what can I say? I HATE this month. I honestly think that February is the most horrid month of the year. It may only be 28 days but they are the LONGEST and most miserable 28 days of my year. It also doesn't help that I have seasonal affective disorder (seriously, I was diagnosed 2 years ago and it answered a lot of questions). Ah, I digress...

So, in the midst of my blah state, my poor baby starts going through a pretty rough patch. If you recall, back in December, he got his first 2 bottom teeth. They started to break through right before Christmas. Well, he'd been acting like top teeth were cutting through as well. Then, the day before my birthday we see his two front top outside incisors peeking through. Then, literally like 2 days later the other two followed suit. Yep, he has been battling ALL 4 TOP INCISORS coming through at THE SAME TIME. This has caused him to be incredibly fussy and started his nose running like a faucet.

Well, then, last week he got a temp and started to develop this funky rash. We took him to the doc where they said he had roseola. Whatever. My poor baby hasn't been himself in weeks and Steve and I subsequently haven't been sleeping very well either. His cough got worse last night and I've been up since 4:30 a.m. with him (so has Steve... he is a godsend in getting Brett and bringing him to me). Then I rolled into work and I've been back in my semi-vegetative state today. With scrumptious German Chocolate cake calling my name.

Where's May? Seriously.

Oh, and I'll try to get my pictures of my sick lil' pup up soon. He changes so much every day! My excuse is that the new camera ran out of batteries, and we had to hunt for new ones. We had sucess in this endeavor on Saturday, so now I just need the motivation to take pictures of him.

I'll get back to you on that. Now where's that cake?

Christmas in February!

So, Steve's mom just sent over some cute Brett Christmas pics today, and I had to post them. These were taken at Steve's extended family Christmas. Steve has like 20 first cousins so this is a pretty big deal! Brett got to meet all of the fresh new additions to the family, including Steve's cousin Michele's daughter (try saying THAT three times fast!), Charlotte.

Mom, I'm going to be a pretty big deal once I learn how to use this walking thingie

Hey, Charlotte. Look over there... C'mon.. I am trying to distract you from MY shiny new toy.

Seriously, I just can't get over this wrapping paper stuff. It is sooo awesome!

The Holy Grail of Gender Selection?

First of all, let me just address the fact that I have been absent from blogging for a couple of weeks. No good excuse, really. Mostly just lack of creativity and wanting to hibernate in this horrible nasty weather. I turned the big 3-1 on Monday and haven't left the house since! My boss let me stay home Tuesday (usually a day I work, but that was the day we were SUPPOSED to get all of the snow) and I take Wed. & Thurs. off, so I don't plan to leave until I go in tomorrow! I am currently able to *enjoy* the snow from my window and watch the dogs frolic like bunny rabbits through the drifts.

Anyway, now to the point of my post. So, Steve and I, like many couples who are having children, have always wanted a boy and a girl. Not necessarily in that order, but we've always talked about having one of each. Ideally, the order would be older brother and younger sister (because I grew up with younger brothers... and well, yeah. Not that I don't like my brothers, mind you... but I always saw the older brothers of my friends to be caring and watchful of their younger sisters, while it seemed that my friends, myself included, with the younger brothers tended to get teased and taunted).

So, we have our boy "YAY!". Now, I desperately want a girl. I know there is no definite way to pick the gender unless we do some crazy genetic DNA stuff (which I am totally against)... but while reading through the different wives tales of how to pick the gender of your child, I came across The Chinese Gender Chart. I actually discovered this when I was first pregnant with Brett, before we knew the sex. I didn't put much stock into it, but it actually was correct on predicting that he would be a boy. I've since then talked with other parents who have told me that it was right for their kids too.

I know, it sounds a bit crazy, but what you do is look at the chart and pick the age of the female from the left column and then the month in which she conceived on the top column and then meet them in the middle (like battleship). For, example, I was 29 and conceived Brett in August of that year, which said he would be a boy (and note: don't go by the day of your last period girls... go by the date of CONCEPTION - sorry about the TMI).

Now, my question to you, my loyal blog readers, is how accurate was this chart for you if you have had a baby or are currently pregnant? I am hoping to cast an informal poll here by your responses to see if this is something that might have some credibility. And, if you have some other suggestions that seem to work (and please keep your responses clean... this is a family friendly blog!).

Again, the link is here...The Chinese Gender Chart. Check it out and please post your comments! (I have to manually approve the comments due to a jerk who posted something this past summer... but I WILL post your response!)

Will You Be My Friend?

Well, hello there Mr. Bear!

I'm going to give you a big kiss...

....and pat your nose.

You look like you want to hear a story.....

....so the prince slayed the dragon and they all lived happily ever after.

My 9 Month Old Monkey

Okay, so you know the drill by now. We take pictures of Brett next to his bear to measure his growth. Not so easy anymore since there's so much to see and do. But, by the grace of God I managed to snap this one.


Anyway, Brett turned 9 months old on the 14th (yay!) and he had his checkup on Thursday (the 15th). Here are his stats:

Height - still off the charts! He's 30" even, which puts him in the 92nd percentile

Weight - still super skinny.. 18 lbs 1.6 ounces... 12th percentile

(I challenge anyone to tell me he's not his daddy's boy with stats like these!)

His head is still a little small, but not too bad. He's in the 28%... I usually don't keep track of that one too much.

Anyway, below are what most of the pics I took turned out like...

I am so not going to sit. That's boring and there's too much to do!

I am going to pull up on Mr. Bear and tell him a story...

(that's for next time. I got some really cute shots of him talking to his bear)

Bathtime is FUN time: THE MOVIE! (Part 2)

I wanted to include this in my earlier post, but stupid YouTube took forever to upload and I had to go... so here is Brett splashing around and having a wonderful time in the bath....