misplaced momma

The other night our power went out at 530pm. Now the bad thing with that, being in Michigan in December is it’s Really cold outside! And no electricity means no heat!! When we were in FL and our power went out we had to worry about sweating to death with no a/c! But we could jump in the pool to cool down, or buy a battery operated fan if we really wanted to. One time I almost did, but luckily the electricity came back in time!

Being that it was only 20 degrees outside, and the later it gets the more the temperature drops, I was a little worried. We weren’t so worried about ourselves, we can bundle up with blankets when we go to sleep. But that is not safe for babies! So all I could do for Abby was put a onsie on under her PJ’s, but the warmest PJ’s on (fleece) and leave her socks on, which I normally do anyway because her feet tend to get cold without them. And I put her in her sleep sack.

I figured the heat had to come on sometime during the night because Consumers Energy said that a substation blew and 4800 ppl were without electricity in our city! So I knew they had to be diligently working on it! But I told my husband if he wakes up after we go to sleep check on her and i’ll stay up holding her with a blanket wrapped around us if she’s too cold. Well, I woke up and checked on her. I felt her cheek and it was cool but it wasn’t cold, so that was good. The only other thing that would be exposed were her hands, so i felt around in the dark for her hands… I found them nice and toasty underneathe her head!! What a smart, smart baby!! She kept her hands warm by putting them under her head! I was so proud lol.

Luckily the electricity kicked on at 1130pm. It was 6 hours without it! It didnt get too awfully cold, but I was happy I could actually sleep after that, knowing it was back on and I didnt have to worry about my Abby.

Gwen Bell’s Challenge Dec 17th question…

December 17 Word or phrase. A word that encapsulates your year. “2009 was _____.”

HECTIC…. CRAZY…. LIFE CHANGING….

Refer back to my post about the major events of this year and you will see why!!

Wow, can you believe 2009 is almost over with?? Just over a month left of this year! And what a year it has been! Probably one of my most eventful, in good times and bad.

I start out the year pregnant!

6 months pregnant January 09

January 13th we celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary!

2nd Anniversary dinner

I celebrated my 27th birthday, in March, with Taco Bell and a Brownie Hot Fudge Sundae (which was actually just perfect for the timing) and my big big belly! Sitting on the couch, seemingly to be my permanent place.

27th Birthday!

April 1st, my first baby was born!

Abigail's birthday! 4-1-09

May 6th we were celebrating Abby’s first trip to the beach!(We did live in Florida remember…) … but

Abby's first beach trip

…when we got home, my mom called and told me my dad was admitted to the hospital. He went into a coma, because of an abscess on his brain due to lysteria meningitis, a very rare disease (only 10 documented cases in the WORLD before him!) And he passed away 17 days later.

Abby with Popa Mike RIP

After spending a couple weeks in Michigan, for the funeral and visiting family, we decided it would be best to move back “home.” Well, it was actually a very long process to decide this, it wasn’t right when we came home we decided!

July 18th we packed up the truck and moved from our Sunny Home in Florida, back to Michigan.

Moving Truck

October, when Abby was 6 months old, we got our first professional pictures done, and our first ever Family Portrait, as well as a 4 generations photo!

For Abby’s first Halloween we carved a pumpkin and dressed her up at a black cat.

Happy Halloween!

And now we are awaiting Abby’s First Thanksgiving and First Christmas celebrations! I’m sure they will go by very quickly and we’ll be starting next year awaiting many more firsts.

I think you should all put together a picture post of your year in review! Link back here so I can check them out (even if you wait til the end of the year to complete it!)! It was fun going over all the past big events of this year.

I just bought half of my daughters summer wardrobe for …get this…$3!

(the picture is a little dark. On the left side is a pair of jean shorts and a red white and blue plaid tank top- great for 4th of July pictures!)

At Kmart, the summer clothes are now marked down to 1.99 for most pieces… then there is an extra 50% off… PLUS I get an assoicate discount… yeah that is where I work part time from 4am-8am… yay fun…

So on my break the other day I decide to browse and see if I can find anything. It’s hard because I’m not sure exactly the size to get. She’s already wearing a little bigger of size then normal, but I’m told she’ll slim down once she starts crawling, walking, and, in general, moving around more. So her birthday is in April, so this summer she could be wearing anything from 12 months (if she slims down) to 24 months (by the end of summer.)

I found mostly 18 months which is in the middle and go for that. I also bought a few 2T’s since I hear they’re basically the same as 24 months. I figure I should go bigger rather then smaller. She is already like her momma and would rather go for comfort than style.  So we always go a little bigger and comfortable fabrics if possible, and def. bigger in the slightly uncomfortable fabrics.

So this is what I found…

Everything I bought was going to be 99 cents. I had 6 different… purchases. However! A lot of the items were sets. One was a tank/short set, I got a 2 shirt set, and a 2 short set. I got 9 pieces of clothing total (4 shorts and 5 shirts) for the price of 6. And get this… they rang up at 49 cents each!

9 things for $3!!

WOW!

Did you not eat any lunch meat while pregnant for fear of the dreaded lysteria bacteria?? I Sure did! And boy did I miss my turkey lunch meat!! They say you can microwave it til steaming and then eat it, but I felt like I didn’t want to take that chance, nor did I really ever feel like a hot lunchmeat sandwich. Lunchmeat is meant to be eaten cold…

Well I have the perfect fix. I just learned this from a nurse… She said that everyone should do this, pregnant,  feeding your child, or not.

Boil a pot of water

unpackage your meat

drop the meat in the boiling water for 15 seconds

take the meat out and pat dry

store meat in new packaging.

Perfect, it gets rid of the possible, harmful, bacteria and do it once when you first buy it and you’re done! You can put it back in the fridge and it will get cold. No need to feel like you have to eat a hot lunchmeat sandwich just to eat your meat!

YAY!

I’m still looking for a job… I’ve read that you shouldn’t blog about your current job, but, you know I can’t hide this one… I work a ridiculous schedule for very little money and not very many hours…It just isn’t cutting it. So I’m looking at indeed.com for another job and come across this one…

This is a list of the requirements for a Lead Analyst – Data Management at General Electric…

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS:
· Please submit your application for employment through Gecareers.com to be considered
· 18 years of age or older
· Must have unrestricted authorization to work in the United States
·Willing to submit to a background investigation and drug test as part of the selection process
· Willing to work out of an office in Visteon Village, Wayne County, Van Buren Township (near Ann Arbor / Detroit)
Additional Eligibility Qualifications GE will only employ those who are legally authorized to work. Any offer of employment is conditioned upon the successful completion of a background investigation and drug screen.
Desired Characteristics · Oracle 11G experience
· Strong analytical skills and problem-solving skills
· Strong written and verbal communication skills
· Ability to translate business requirements to application specifications
· Green Belt certified

….Did you get that… Green Belt Certified….??? For an analyst-data  position?? At GE…. WHAT?? LOL. This is not a lie… see for yourself if you don’t believe me!!

http://careeradvocate.com/page/job/Job.html/37caa05e1256054149

I am sooo anxious just thinking about tomorrow! My Abby turned 5 months old yesterday, and tomorrow is the very first time we’re leaving her with someone! Luckily it’s a family member, BUT STILL! I have my orientation tomorrow for my new job, and its from 8-12! So I have to drop her off at 730 in the morning… and I’m so not used to getting going early either. Me and Abby take our time getting ready in the morning usually. If I have to go anywhere before her first nap, which is around 1130ish, I take her out in her pjs and then get her ready when we come back … First nap, who am I kidding, I’m lucky if she gets one nap in!…

But anyways…. I’m so nervous about tomorrow! When I went for an interview the other night, I was there for about 45 mins, and she was home with daddy. When I came back she looked so relieved to see me! I haven’t been away from her besides that since we moved here at the end of July! So really, I’m more nervous for her than for me! We haven’t even been over to her aunts house since we moved here so it’s not like it’s even a familiar place for her! She’s only been there once, when she was 2 months old, for crying out loud, how is she going to remember that?

With the drive time it will be 5 hours she’ll be over there… and after that I will work 4am-8am (crazy, I KNOW) so she’ll be home with daddy at that time, and sleeping for almost all of that time. So we just have to get past this one day… I guess I can manage that! That is, unless I get the job that I just interview for, which I am DYING to get! It’s teaching at a pre-school! it would be the absolute perfect job for me and I would LOVE it! But that is working during the day, obviously, so Auntie would have to watch her more. So we’ll see how tomorrow goes and take it from there… I just can’t wait until tomorrow is over with! lol.

Wish me luck!

Check out my recently published content on AC:

Cab Fare Gone Wrong

I wrote a short story for the Associated Content website. Check it out! Let me know what you think

My little baby is almost 4 months old already!! We went into a new doctor today (since we’ve moved, I had to get a new one) for her 4 month shots!

I actually didn’t have a hard time finding a new doctor. The first one I was all nervous to find the perfect one, and called around to a bunch of places to ask questions, and met a few doctors before we picked one… well here… being in this small town, I really didn’t have a choice! I called my benefits (BCBS) and asked for locations and it turns out there was only one in this city!! Only one! The next closest is like 40 mins away! So basically I got a choice of 3 doctors in the one office, and we decided we wanted a female, so really, I had no choice! There was one female in the office.

Luckily, I thought, this only female doctor I could take my daughter to in the whole city was really nice, on first impression. But it may have just been the fact that she came in saying she had to see the baby that everyone in the office is talking about! She heard she was just adorable and happy! Ah, Music to my ears, bring on the compliments! But it doens’t mean I’m going to pay you any more money, so you can forget that! HA. Geez, big city made me jaded, I know she was just being nice! What’s wrong with me!?

Well, it was nice to hear good compliments of your child, of course! But the doctor was honestly a nice woman, and so far I think I made a good “choice.” She was very knowledgeable about  a lot of things, especially about Abby’s wubbanubs. She has the froggie and a duckie, and we were toting the froggy today.  Ever hear of a wubbanub? OMG cutest thing ever! A pacifier attached to an animal, so much easier for the baby to hold, you dont lose it half as much as a regular one! Check them out here.

So we talked about wabbanubs and taggies, but i dont have any of those, and of course medical things as well! lol. Abby has cradle cap. Apparently she’s lucky its only on her “cap” because I guess it can go down the face and neck! What I didn’t know was cradle cap, which I knew was just dry skin on the head that flakes, is baby dandruff! and you can treat it with dandruff shampoo! How easy! So we’re going to be trying that out and see how it works.

Of course, no kid LIKES to get their shots! But Abby… I’ve never seen her turn more red or scream so loud! Poor baby! I feel so bad. I almost cried the first time she got her shots because I knew the pain she was in! This time she didn’t do so bad though, she was a toughy. But my dr. never told me I should give her tylenol before hand! But this dr asked if I gave it to her ahead of time… I didn’t even know they could have it this young! But apparently they can! So I got a free box and instructions per babies weight.

Speaking of weight! Abby is 14 lbs 10 oz! Woah Baby! She’s gettin big! haha. 75th percentile though, so not bad. But her head is in the 90th percentile! WOAH. I told Abby, “she just told you that you have a big head!” And the med student said with a wink, “It just means she’s smart.” You Betcha! Like I said, Keep those compliments coming folks!

We’re far from teething yet… my daughter is only 3 months old! But I was perusing twenty something bloggers (20sb) site, one of the mommy groups, of course (20something moms). And someone asked a question about teething and what eased the pain. Someone replied with the answer… Frozen Waffles! 

–What?! That seems strange! Is that safe? …were my first thoughts.

I read on to see what this momma has to say. Once she explains all the ridges feel good on the gums, I think, Hm that makes sense! And of course the cold part is obvious… Oh and it says to cut the waffle into 4 pieces. Which makes sense, it’s a lot smaller for the kid to handle better. But then she adds  the disclaimer- she does this under her supervision (always a good idea!!) and also, just don’t let it get too soggy or it will become a choking hazard! Yeah we don’t want that!!

So this seems like a good idea to lock away for later when I need it! Are there any other good ideas you found that maybe seemed a little odd at first?? I’d love to hear some.