iTunes can be a little incontinent at times..

"For iTunes users who have cell phones other than iPhone, it may be a little incontinent and sometimes seems impossible."

http://www.ahamediasoft.com/itunes-music-on-cellphone/

The Great Parrot

My new place!

My Kitchen:



































































The barstools we painstakingly recovered (they were previously beige and rather stained). By painstakingly I meant ridiculously easy. For me anyhow. Jeff did the part with the tools :P. I'm pretty sure it was easy for him too.

















I painted these for Miss E's room.

I'll post the living room if I ever get around to figuring out where I'm putting the damn TV.

Happy 2nd Birthday Miss E!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Things I'd never say

There are about a million things I've said in the past 2 years that I never thought I'd say...

One of them being: "No E., we don't draw on our cheese!"

You know..

Being an apartment dweller, I don't have to deal with pesky things like "bulky item collection."
However, today I took a little detour through the neighborhood (so I could check the status of the picnic tables at the park for the party on Sat.). It must be bulk item week. Why?
I drove past TWELVE toilets out on the curb. In less than a mile. TWELVE! How many people could possibly have a toilet just hanging around waiting to get dumped. There were of course, old doors, a couple critically injured toys, and a microwave or two, but nothing has outnumbered the toilets this year.
Weird!
I wonder if there is some sort of toilet replacement initiative running rampant through the city.


Edit:
There is indeed a free High Efficiency (read- really crappy) Residential Toilet Replacement Program from the city. They will replace up to 3 pre-1996 toilets per home. This neighborhood was built in the 80's. Hence the need for new toilets, I suppose.

Dear Walmart,

After purchasing my handy Poly Expanding 6 Pocket File, I noticed it came with an unusual amount of papers inside. Upon inspection, it appears I have been given a few of Arron R.'s homework assignments on angles and adverbs, as well as a skillfully written persuasive letter from Arron to Mr R. requesting a change of venue for the upcoming field trip. I feel as if I must return the enclosed documents as I have not paid for them, and I assure you I am no criminal!!!!
Also, I realize opening mail not addressed to me may be some sort of crime, so I would appreciate if you would refrain from turning these documents over to the feds. I do not know if this qualifies, as it was yet to be enveloped and mailed, but just in case, your discretion will be most appreciated in this matter.

Cheerfully yours,
Law Abiding Citizen.

Busy Busy!

I'm getting ready for the busiest month of my life, I think..
I only had 1 free weekend this month, in which I had to take my one required weekend of call for work. That is this weekend. We also have a birthday party to go to Sat, thankfully Turtle has agreed to cover my call for a few hours!
I work Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues, Weds., and Thursday. I can't complain- I made my own schedule this month. Why would I do such a crazy thing? 'Cause I wanted to take 4 days off next weekend for E's birthday (and not use up vacation time :P)!
Then Sat, the 13th, is Miss E's birthday and birthday party! I'll be running around like mad Friday and Saturday morning trying to pull it all together. Sunday and Monday I'll be packing like mad. I did wind up making the cheesy montage. It's very cute.

Why?
Because I'm moving to my new apartment on the 20th! Thankfully I have until the end of the month to be out of here, so as long as I get all the large stuff and the majority of other stuff I'll be fine to do the rest the following weekend. As well as cleaning the carpet and cleaning up in general. I soooo don't want to get charged for the 24574 spots E has put into the carpet.
I can't do it during the week.. because I'm going on a training thingy for work in Milwaukee and will be gone for 4 days! Miss E will spend a fun week with Meema (grandma).

Someone remind me never to enroll E in more than 1 activity when she's older. I'd go nuts.

On another note, I was just offered a one day a week gig at a pediatric cardiology office, and my boss has agreed to give me every Fri off (instead of being a random day off every week), so I can do it. She's actually excited for me! It's kinda a big deal to be for them to come up to me and ask me to work for them (one day a week, but still!). I don't do a lot of pediatric echos (5-6 a week), and have only been doing them for 15-16 months or so. I am, however (brag alert), very good at them. Their full time tech has 20+ years of experience, and is the person that trained me. Awhile back (less than 2 months after I was trained, actually) I was designated the pediatric trainer at our hospital. Mostly cause everyone else sucks, or doesn't pay attention, but whatev. Yay me! I don't really need a second job (not that I mind the extra money.. but E does have that shoe/purse fetish) but getting paid to get more advanced experience (older children, more complex cases)? Hell yeah! In my field pediatric experience is really hard to come by and is very, very marketable. I love doing pediatrics, but I honestly don't think I could turn around and work at a children's hospital. It would be too hard to see that many sick kiddos on a regular basis. An office, I could deal with..

Mommy's lil parrot

Today we were flipping through the Big Animal Book with Miss E and decided to take her to Austin Zoo, which you should check out if you're in the area. It's small but inexpensive and good for small children and bday parties since there isn't a ton of walking to do. Anyhow!

Between the book and the zoo today my little parrot has said:

Peacock
Owl
Cow
Efant (elephant)
Rilla (gorilla)
Cat
Uush (fish- she has trouble with Fs)
Tiger
Turtle

From sesame street:
Whas happenin?


She repeats everything now.

We're getting ready to celebrate her 2nd birthday! I can't believe it has been 2 years! If I get around to gathering the pics I'll do a sappy photo montage!

Sheesh!!

We now have toddlerized versions of:
Ready Set Go
Good Morning
Papa Be Right Back?
Big Bird

A few shopping suggestions..

Gauze overalls. Need I say more?

Unfortunately yes, I must. It involves a button up man thong. View at your own risk. For maximum WTF effect, please scroll down to the "In Shape" page.

Holy Moly!

More new words! She's using one or two new words a day now it seems!

Just today:
Where Jep?- Where's Jeff? (followed by Jep be back?)
Amoo- Elmo (she just went to bed saying Ni Ni Amoo)

A couple of days ago we heard baby's first bad word- Shit! (she was trying to say share... I think)


And in case anyone cares, my divorce will be final tomorrow afternoon!

Chatty Baby, pt 2

I forgot "Aaaa aboo"- All aboard (from her sing n go choo choo)

The other day she plopped her little butt down by the door and said fairly clearly "I can do it!"
She also added "See ya" to her farewell repertoire a couple days ago.

We also have:
Bubbles
Eaw- ear (which she demonstrated about 3 seconds after I typed it. She's sitting on my right arm, so she must have picked it up by osmosis.)
Awight- Alright
One Twooooo Reee (when she wants to play/jump/go down the slide)
Cookie
Hot
Be back? (she said mama be back? this weekend with grandma)

I think she's speaking in sentences for the most part, she's fairly consistent when she's speaking, but we haven't translated it for the most part!

Chatty baby!

Shoes is by far still E's favorite word (and object!)
She says a lot of words and a couple short phrases now (at home, she usually only says hi/bye when she's not among family) , though I'm bound to forget most of them when I'm trying to remember.

I swear yesterday at the pool she said "I fwyyyyyyyyy" when I was pushing her around through the water on her belly. I had arm floaties on her and she floated on her belly for a bit without my help for about 10 seconds, before she noticed I'd let go and she freaked!

The newish words:
Up
Dow(n)
Up N Dow(n)
Eat
Milk
Joooos (Juice)
Cup
H'loo (on the phone)
I do it/ I di it
Goggy
Osigh (outside)
Diaper
Potty
Ba/ Batime (bathtime)
Sah (sock)
Cocoo- Popsicle
Keekee- Rice Krispies
MINE!

She is sure to remind me to put milk in her rice krispies, and in her cup while I'm prepping her breakfast. She also thinks beer, bottled water and cans of soda are "milk."


Oh and Amy, she just said "H'lo Ameeeee" on her play phone. Just thought you should know..

First Big Boo Boo

Miss E tripped over the leg of a chair and went forehead first into a cabinet door (the flat part, not the edge, thankfully).
She only cried for a couple minutes.. she probably would have stopped sooner if not for my "holy shit!" reaction. She even consented to letting me hold her like a baby and putting an ice pack on it for all of 30 seconds.
It's been 15 minutes and she's running around laughing and jumping, so I guess she feels alright. She's going to have a bump and/or a bruise though :/

I've created a monster!!!!!

Miss E has a shoe fetish.
I have no idea where she gets it from.... (haha)

She can't pass a pair of shoes without wanting to try them on.
She is presently strutting around the living room with a pair of my flip flops on (the wrong feet, of course). A few minutes ago she had on a pair of strappy wedges and she keeps trying to break into my closet.

Lord help me.

A/C Part 348.1

The maintenance guy came not once, but twice today to fiddle with it.

Replace the fucking thing already.

A/C Saga

I have a feeling this won't be the last you hear about the A/C drama.

The maintenance man came back today, shop vac in hand. My A/C is still leaking downstairs after they replaced the drain pan. Shocking!

It looks like they are going to have to replace the entire unit. It better be more efficient.

My electric bill, as of today, is $280.49. For a 2 bedroom apartment. My mother's 2 story, 4 bedroom house costs her about that. I leave the A/C at 80 when I'm not home, 75ish when I am (and it takes hours to reach that), for the most part I remember to turn my lights out when I leave the house, and half my bulbs are CFLs. I do leave my ceiling fans running almost non stop to help keep it cool.

Which brings me to the new apartment. Not only will it be on the first floor, and have all sorts of nice amenities and be in a nice complex, the apartment manager- who has the same floorplan- says her electric bill runs her $60-70 in the summer. I do plan on checking on my specific apartment with the electric company, though. Overall I won't be saving any money, since the rent is a bit higher, but I will be saving time (it's 10 min closer since I won't have to hit a certain traffic area) and headache (no stairs), so the move should be worth it for me. Is it September yet?

*not* crazy

Tuesday I got home from work and my porch light was off. Kinda weird, cause I was sure I left it on.

Then I get in and I notice my laundry detergent was sitting in the middle of the hallway. I was pretty sure I didn't leave it there.

I checked out every nook and cranny in my apartment to make sure there wasn't some laundry washing breakin weirdo hiding in a closet. Nothing. I blow it off, and think I just forgot.

Later on, I went to give E a bath. The tub was mysteriously dirty. I thought maaaaybe the drain had backed up somehow. I convinced myself that was it, cleaned the tub and gave Miss E her annual bath (kidding!). It was either that or go back to some weirdo doing dirty things in my apartment (I really did have a paranoia about a weirdo hiding in my attic when I moved in, lol). The possibility that maintenance had come in didn't really occur since there wasn't a note on my door.

Fast forward to today. I get home, and there's a shop vac on my porch and keys in my door. I opened the door really quickly and yelled hello. Maintenance was there. Apparently my AC has been dripping and saturated the ceiling of the apartment below me. The noticed this on Wednesday, apparently (though I'm sure it was Tuesday), but no one bothered to tell me. They asked me not to run my AC until they fixed it. I must have given them a really nasty look, because he quickly changed his mind. I mentioned that I noticed someone had been in my apartment and there was no note.

There was apparently a bucket hanging out under my AC thingy that has been there (to catch said drips) for God knows how long and it overflowed. They must have emptied the friggen thing into E's bathtub, on top of her toys nonetheless, and then not even rinsed it out. Not only that, they had some kind of broken plastic pieces and shards all over the carpet in the main walkway, and a nice big knife sitting on the carpet. They left it there for about 10 minutes, and probably would have left it longer had I not asked them to pick up the sharp things so my freaking toddler wouldn't get hurt. I'm pretty anti-conflict, but it was really freaking hard not to bitch them out for A.) the sharp things and B.) the lack of the note that caused my mini paranoia.

They are coming back tomorrow, or possibly Monday, to replace the whatever it is that's leaking.


Have I mentioned I'm moving in September? I can't friggen wait.

Just For Fun

We don't actually have cats at home, but E adores her Papaaaaaa and Gmama's cats Lucy and Ethel (AKA Sooocy and Effel- which sounds suspiciously like Asshole when she says it..)

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com