"Halloween is what Tigger's do best!"

Pictures of our little Tigger. Thanks to everyone who gave my sweet baby all the sweets! (;

Just like her daddy!

I fed Anna dinner last night. Then Adam came home with Popeye's.

Anna was on the scent of that chicken like a shark on a bucket full of fish guts.

She ate chicken like I had starved her for days. She stuck her hand right in the box, ripped off a piece of crunchy chicken and shoved it in her mouth faster than we could even get it out of her hands.

We tried giving her nicely cut up pieces on a plate for her. Apparently fried chicken tastes better right out of the box.

She ate and ate fried chicken, just like her daddy. I finally had to take the box right away from her.

"ahhhh.... so tired now"

Quiz Capers

So, I am doing well in chemistry right? Gotten over 100% on all 3 tests so far- not bragging - you need to know this for the outrage in my voice... well in my typing... to make sense. So, again, I am doing well in chemistry. Apparently, the rest of the entire class is not doing well. As in mostly flunked the last exam. Sigh. After allowing them all to take their tests home and fix their mistakes (nice teacher huh?) and giving them half credit, the instructor also decides that to avoid this problem on the next test, she is going to "help" us out with daily quizzes and daily homework. From now til eternity apparently. So how does this screw me over? Well, I'll tell you. I had basically JUST decided after the last test that I was doing well enough to stop worrying about being a responsible student and studying as I go. This is a big deal for me. I was going to just study basically the last 2 days before the test and be just fine, right? Oh, big fat wrong. Cause now she is giving us dumb 10 point quizzes every freakin class. Very irritating. Esp irritating because it is just enough points that I have to worry about doing well on these things.

And just in case you (Adam) think I shouldn't need to study much seeing as how I do so well on her tests, well you would be wrong. The first two quizzes have gone not well. Not well at all. The last one I took, apparently I misunderstood what she was asking for and wrote out a super long answer, so long that I had to write down the side of the paper past all the other questions, to fit it all in. Yeah... then I found out what she was looking for was 4 words. That's right. 4 WORDS. That made me want to cuss, let me tell you. And the first quiz, well, I don't know if someone slipped me some sort of drug in my tea before class or what, but I spent the first 17.5 mins of quiz time trying to remember whether the polyatomic ion, phosphate, had a charge of negative 2 or negative 3. I had to know or get the entire problem wrong. And I couldn't remember. Then after I finally decided that it had a negative 3 charge, I managed to drop my pencil on the ground. Then when I bent down to pick it up, I kicked it. That's right, I kicked it. Right past my feet and over a ways towards the door. My poor deskmate must have been wondering what kind of convulsion I was having and how much longer I would be bumping into her chair. After I managed to pick up my pencil like a normal human being, I attempted to finish my test. But somehow, during all the fumbling around for my pencil, I broke open a small cut on my thumb from my earlier attempts to tame my cuticles with this horrible instrument that always cuts me (and yet I continue to use it). Then, I bled on my paper. At that point, I just gave up. Didn't finish the quiz, just gave it up as a "whatever" and handed it in.

I hate quizzes.

Carpet Caper

I am usually a very cautious person- quick to assume that something is too good to be true, something is a scam, someone is out to get me....well you get the picture. Apparently, all that good, cautious judgement was just completely thrown out the window yesterday about 1:00. I was innocently eating my lunch (a lean cuisine french bread pizza for anyone who is really bored and way too curious about my life), when I hear a way too loud knock on my door. I open it to find this way too friendly girl standing there. She starts talking really fast, and seemed to know me. She was so good at her job that I actually was trying to figure out how I knew this woman. While I was figuring this out, she basically shoved her way into my house. This is the point where she may or may not have actually used some sort of spell to completely suspend all normal thought in my head. You can be the judge - I am not SAYING that she said "imperio!" and waved a wand at me, but I definitely did something I would not normally ever do.

What did I do, you ask? Well, I agreed to let her team "clean the carpets in one room of my house for free simply for advertising purposes, no cost to me". Now, before I get the lecture on letting people into my home while my child was there... I kept my cell phone on and in my pocket at all times, kept Anna in my arms, and opened two separate escape routes just in case the carpet cleaner was a psycho and I had to run for my life. Also, I REALLY wanted my carpets cleaned! Here's where it gets fun.

Apparently, what I "misunderstood" (or was bewitched into believing- whichever) to be carpet cleaners, was actually a very nice young man, just home from Iraq (he was a very good salesman) trying to force me guilt me into talk me into buying a vacuum cleaner. Not just any vacuum cleaner- oh ho no- a kirby vacuum cleaner. That kid did things with a vacuum cleaner that I have not ever before seen nor do I ever expect to see again. He floated a golf ball in mid air, he pulled the dirt my home was built on, up through all the layers of wood, carpet pad and carpet and into the vacuum, he cleaned my mattress!, he had all kinds of extensions and brushes and a dizzying amount of little white and black filters so I could plain as day see all the nastiness that I and those I love have apparently been wallowing in all these years. After showing me what a nasty pig sty I inhabit, he nicely explained that all that dirt and grime was actually the fault of my VACUUM- my top of the line, what I used to think was expensive, Dyson vacuum. In fact, he put my vacuum in time out for being a bad vacuum and leaving all that nasty dirt and grime in my carpet to make my child sick. (I told you he was good.) After 3- that's right- 3 hours of demonstrating how my life will not ever be complete (or clean) again without this kirby vacuum, 306 filters of dirt, and telling me for the 8,031st time how inexpensively they can politely take my $2,000, he finally actually cleaned my living room carpets. I basically had to shove this guy, and his boss at one point, out of my house.

The sad thing is... I really want that vacuum.

Crying a little on the inside...

I started another ...well.. let's say diet for lack of a better term on Monday. I won't say anything else about that til we get further down the road and make sure it sticks this time. sigh. Anyway...... I bring that up is so that you understand where my brain was on Monday. I stopped on the way home from class and got me a big wonderful unsweetened black tea from Starbucks. I LOVE me some Starbucks black tea. First of all- its in a clear cup. And if you don't get why clear cups are better than I can't explain it to you. They just are. Second of all, it's the perfect strength. And third of all, it has this weird fruity-ish flavor to it. It is is delicious. And I needed some delicious because of the diet, you see. So, I take my delicious tea and go home. I set it on the counter, with like maybe 3 drinks taken out of it. Somehow, in my tired and dieting state, I managed to sweep my beautiful clear cup of wonderfully delicious, mostly still there, unsweetened black tea from Starbucks right into the floor. And it wasn't a graceful, maybe we can save it, fall to the floor. It was a disasterous, explosion of tea and clear cup. I literally almost sat down on the floor right there in the middle of the tea and cried. "Well just go get another cup of tea!" you say? Did I mention it was Starbucks tea? I practically have to take out a loan to drink tea from there! My thrifty soul can only handle so many purchases of tea from Starbucks a month. I am still crying just a little on the inside....

Whose child IS this?

My child eats broccoli! What the heck!?! Like eats it without complaint- no forcing- just dips it in ranch and eats the tops off of it. She definitely did NOT get that from me or Adam. The best way to express how we feel about broccoli is to quote Newman from Seinfeld- "Vile Weed!" (accompanied by much pounding of the table and washing his mouth out with honey mustard). I shudder just thinking about broccoli.

It's a good thing she eats the vile weed because she isn't eating much of anything else. We are down to broccoli, ranch dip, black olives, chicken fingers (the gross frozen kind) and ever once in a while, she will agree to eat cheese.

Silly girl.

Life

Ok ya know- the days are just going by so quickly! It seems like I look up and its been 10 days since I last blogged.

Here are some things I am thinking about these days....


1. Am I the only one worrying about our economy? Any raised hands out there? yikes -scary. I keep telling people we are all going to be living in caves by the time this is done. Mom and I decided today that at least her house is big enough to house 3 families if necessary! (:


2. Anna is completely obsessed with all the Mickey Mouse characters. I find myself wishing she would like the girl characters but she is a goofy/micky/pluto girl all the way. I brought her home a little pluto stuffed animal to go with her mickey and goofy. It is fun to see her face light up when you bring her home a new toy. Happiness for $6. Can't beat that.


3. I am loving having a little girl (although I sure miss my baby- welcome to motherhood right? Always sad for the stages left behind but also so in love with where they are? At least til the teen years...). Anna is hitting that age where she is so much fun to do things with. We are having all sorts of fun with projects. She loves loves loves to paint. We painted our pots for flowers. They turned out cute. I will post some pics of all her "projects". She has been finger painting, normal painting, she glued confetti to paper with Grandma yesterday, I just bought her a birdfeeder and some seed so we can watch birds together, coloring... here let me dig up some pics really fast...

My happy little artist

Halloween Clingy's

Pictures for Uncle Brad

Not trying to brag but I've had a few calls from a museum already...

Could she be any cuter?

4. I am still waiting on my instructor to grade my test. I am getting a little pissed off about it to be honest. I mean seriously- its been a week. I have a group project due in there this week which makes me unhappy. Besides - a group project in an online class? I hate working with people who affect my grade.

5. I forgot to say that everything Anna colors, paints, fingerpaints, or glues is for Uncle Brad. I mean everything. I have tried to get her to paint for other people or to give most of them to Uncle Brad but spread a few around... but she quite emphatically tells me she can't because they are Uncle Brad's. This last time she did actually paint one for Nana and Papa. So Nana- if you are reading this- feel very very special. You are the only one besides Uncle Brad to get a picture painted by Anna.

Anna's nights with Nana and Papa and Joshie

Anna has been staying with Nana and Papa the nights I have class. She LOVES this. I love this. I have been told that Nana and Papa love this. So yea! Everyone is happy!

One of my (other) favorite things about being a parent is seeing my child with her grandparents and aunts and uncles. The love between them all is wonderful in my eyes.

It is so great to be able to drop my child off and feel completely comfortable that she is safe and cared for and HAPPY. I love coming back to pick her up. She is usually snuggled up with Nana in their oh so comfortable, homey living room or bedroom, lit softly by lamplight, comfy with pillows and blankets, watching her beloved movies.

I have stored these pictures in my memory.

Today

wow sorry about that depressing blog last night. I got started today on some of my cleaning/organizing. I sure love trying to organize dirty tools that I can't identify much less figure out what they belong next to. Oh well, at least they are all together nicely stacked in boxes and tool kits. Or whatever they are called. Adam came home to a garbage can completely full- he said when he saw the tool box (I am using that term loosely- by tool box I mean two cardboard boxes falling apart at the seams that I threw anything that looked in the least like a tool and/or nail into) missing from the garage that he assumed I just threw them all away! HA!

The garbage can was full of stuff I did throw away from the house though. Just junk (all my stuff for the record, Adam). If I wasn't planning on using it in the next hour it pretty much got thrown away. I need some neatness and a lot less crap in this house man! I got through my bathroom that has a huge cabinet in it that was full of crap, because obviously if you give me a huge cabinet then I will fill it with crap. And I got through the laundry room and part way through my guest room (also full of crap). Just to be clear- this was the organizing phase so don't come over here and expect cleaniness. Cause its not. Try back again next weekend. (:

Let's see .... what else today... Adam cooked me up a small piece of his steak tonight. He has perfected a spice rub and it was delicious. He even cooked mine mostly done- big deal to him because he says you are ruining the steak. His steak is usually black on a very thin layer of the outside and then completely blood red in the center. Gross. Mine was great though! Adam got mad because I wouldn't eat the fat. Again...gross.

Oh I colored my hair yesterday- it is super dark. I looked whitey cracker after the new color on the hair so visited the friendly neighborhood microwave to put some color back into my face. (I know Julie B- thanks for caring enough to yell at me about skin cancer- it's just a few times I promise). I have some color although it is probably temporary. Its a nice PINK color... (: Actually, funnily enough (is that a word?), I look kinda like Adam's steak from before. Haha! Let's hope I look better tomorrow.

I am fighting with my nutrition professor on some points from my test yesterday. I think she is wrong. She hasn't gotten back to me. I'll keep you updated. I sent her the page number in the book that backs up my answer. I am gonna be pissed if I get a B over this. Not in the class- just the test.

Well, I suppose that is it- got a ton o' studying to do tonight.

Here's my mood

Myspace and facebook have this nice little one liner thing on their sites that you can just type in how you are feeling or what your mood is at that moment. I kinda like it and wish blogspot had one. Anyone listening out there at blogspot? Create me a mood indicator!

Just in case you are wondering- if I had a mood indicator right now on blogger- mine would read exhausted and discouraged. I have no idea why I am actually letting that out into my blogger universe but I guess sometimes you just gotta let the bad feelings out into the world so they stop inhabiting your brain. Sorry to be a downer to those of you reading tonight!

On a more positive note- I am hopefully going to get my house all neat and organized this weekend. It needs done seriously badly and is driving me INSANE. I am all done studying for tests so maybe I can get home feeling a little more like home and less like a disaster area that has been half cleaned up.

ok, off to read one teeny (hopefully) chapter of nutrition and then off to beddie bye to at least get rid of the exhausted part of my imaginary mood indicator. (: