I ordered a sushi platter for a group gathering today…isn’t it pretty? And it was deeeeelicious, too. Yummo.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm.
Category Archives: House & Home
The 4th of July is over. Please be quiet.
Ugh.
So right now, the neighbor boy is lighting off what I can only assume are leftovers. Not even fireworks, but just shit that makes loud pops and bangs. Really >:XX irritating to me since the baby is napping, I’m trying to nap, and the dog is freaking out.
It’s just not necessary.
I know, I know, it’s a boy and boys do crap like that but the parents are obviously letting him. Whatever. It’s still >:XX irritating. I can literally feel my blood pressure rising with each bang and pop.
Yes, I’m turning into a crotchety old person. GET OFF MY LAWN.
Facebook Updates
- Jennifer Hudson really wants a squarespace website, but just can’t afford the version I want. Oh well. Life goes on.
- Jennifer Hudson just got attacked by a tray of brownies. For realz.
- Jennifer Hudson was slacking at the computer and missed the Vine newsletter when it arrived…so got squat this month. Boo hiss.
- Jennifer Hudson liked Bert & Ernie better as puppets, not claymation.
- Jennifer Hudson thinks maybe she will make brownies when the kid goes down for a nap. Which should be momentarily.
- Jennifer Hudson loves a strawberry smoothie on a hot day.
- Jennifer Hudson says “Seriously, ThinkGeek? You call THIS a women’s 2X? It’s waaaay smaller than my husband’s Large tee-shirts.” Booooooooo!
- Jennifer Hudson really needs the boy to take a longer nap. None of this 30 minute BS. 🙂
- Jennifer Hudson has a smart dog. I started taking away pieces that she had chewed off, and she grabbed the toy and ran into the other room!
- Jennifer Hudson finds it hilarious that the boy loves to turn on his mobiles himself by rolling down the crib and kicking the buttons with his feet. Swear to god he looks like he’s aiming. 🙂
- Jennifer Hudson should have napped with the boy, but I never would have guessed he’d be out for going on 2.5 hours. The story of my life.
- Jennifer Hudson is trying to figure out the fun that is RTM—syncing, gmail, bookmarklets, firefox addons, etc.
- Jennifer Hudson hates driving anywhere anymore because of all the freaking idiots and douchebags on the road. Everyone seem to think they’re the ONLY car on the road. Grrrr.
- Jennifer Hudson really wishes she had chips to go with her sandwich. Yes, I’m eating lunch at 10:40.
- Jennifer Hudson loves when the boy falls asleep on her…sooo sweet. Now off to shower and start laundry! YAY!
- Jennifer Hudson says YAY! We can to go Kentucky with the fam! It’s a good day!
- Jennifer Hudson wishes mint.com would actually update/refresh.
- Jennifer Hudson loves a sleeping baby. So cute. So quiet. So peaceful. So needed. 🙂
- Jennifer Hudson says Owen either needs to nap, eat more, or poop, because mom is tiiiiired of the cranky.
- Jennifer Hudson is getting closer to getting her hair cut. I think I might get it trimmed one more time, then chopped. So maybe in a few more months?
- Jennifer Hudson just fed the boy a teaspoon of oatmeal cereal! He’s getting better!
- Jennifer Hudson woke up to check the monitor and see…Owen on his stomach! OMG!
- Jennifer Hudson wonders who the #$%@ thinks it’s a good idea to cut down a tree and shoot fireworks at 8:30 on a Sunday night? Seriously. GET OFF MY LAWN!
ThinkGeek sizes: Booooo!
Seriously, ThinkGeek? You call THIS a women’s 2X? It’s waaaay smaller than my husband’s Large tee-shirts.
>:XX
UPDATE 6/28/09
I emailed them about it and they are willing to take it back and give me a store credit! YAY!
A/C issues update
Well, the landlord called and said he talked to the guy and from what I had told him, it sounded like the system was working just fine. That it is typical for the upstairs to NOT cool like the rest of the house, especially when the weather is so hot. (Yeah, so what the hell is the point of A/C when it only works well when it’s COOL outside? :roll:) He even told me that THEIR OWN HOUSE, with TWO A/C units (one for each floor) doesn’t cool the second floor as well (that unit runs 24/7 while the other unit doesn’t).
He suggested closing off vents (which we have already done, which doesn’t help much at all—since most of the vents are so old and crappy that even in the closed position cold air still blows through) and setting up fans. Again: 🙄
Then the A/C guy called me and basically told me the same thing, but added that it’s probably a ductwork issue: old house, crappy ductwork, not really designed for A/C. Go figure.
So basically we have to deal with it.
I shouldn’t be surprised, as this is just about what we had to deal with in North Carolina—the upstairs was always warmer than anywhere else, and the living room specifically was under-vented so that room was always warm, even with the upstairs A/C unit running 24/7.
Ugh. Summer.
I can’t wait for fall.
Ugh. A/C issues. Again.
Really? Another house where the A/C doesn’t work for shit upstairs? C’mon. Give us a break.
It’s a comfy 75 downstairs and a balmy 82-84 upstairs. WTF? >:XX
And here we had hoped to not even turn the damn A/C on, being a Michigan summer and all, having been used to North Carolina summers. But shit, it’s like 81 and humid, which is still uncomfortable. And we can’t have the baby’s room that warm…so we have fans going non-stop and we just turned the A/C down another few degrees to see if it helps.
And I am going to email the landlord, but I anticipate him saying “Your house, your problem” since technically that’s what our lease says. Ugh.
I freaking hate summer, no matter the state.
Secretary of State, Part 2
So I went to get Tom’s plate taken care of and change our addresses. I was there five minutes before they opened and was third in line. By the time they opened, there were about 15 people waiting!
I got waited on right away (they had about five people behind the counter) and boy, was it eye-opening. :crazy:
Basically, Tom wanted to go back to using his MSU-themed license plate. He had it on his previous car, but then switched to a North Carolina plate because it was cheaper than registering the new car in Michigan. Fine. I didn’t think there would be any issue at all.
I was wrong.
The lady was VERY nice, and told me that “Yeah, you don’t want to use this plate.” Um, okay, why not? Basically, to use the same plate, we would have had to pay for the entire time it was UNUSED in order to “bring it up to date.” Michigan is one of those states where you apparently can’t let the plate lapse for any reason. Ugh. It was a matter of like $260 vs. $140 or something crazy like that. Yeah, um, give us a regular plate. 🙄 She said if we really wanted the MSU plate, we could try again in a few months, or just get a new one entirely. At least she was very nice about it, but what a strange thing. Even if we could prove the plate was unused during that time…we’d still have to pay. Oh well.
Then I changed our addresses and I was out of there in under 15 minutes. YAY!
Yelp ROTD–Apple Fritter
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child
So I bought this book on a friend’s recommendation months ago and initially flipped through it. We were past most of the 8-12 week stuff (I hadn’t had the book then!) and he was still a bit too young for the 4-5 month stuff. I did, however, try to start paying attention to his sleep cues so I could put him down for naps instead of just waiting for him to fall asleep in his bouncy seat or on me.
But, since he just turned four months, it was time to revisit it.
So I just finished about half the book (skimming some parts)…and we have some changes to make. Hoo boy.
For one, we need to try an earlier bedtime. Right now, we try to do it any time after 7ish (it can be as late as 8). We have just been trying to see when he seems to get tired/hungry and go from there. But the book suggests trying 6:30 (well, 20+ minutes earlier than normal), saying that parents are afraid to try it thinking that the kid will get up earlier in the morning, but it generally isn’t the case—it actually helps them sleep longer. So we definitely need to try that. He isn’t sleeping THAT badly, but it would be nice for him to sleep longer. But it also relates to his morning nap…
He has been taking looooong morning naps. Generally anywhere from 3-4 hours! It’s not awful, but it is a sign that he might not be getting enough nighttime sleep (see the relation?!). Getting more sleep at night might lessen the length of the morning nap, which might then help with his afternoon naps (which he hasn’t seemed to want to take lately). Everything is related.
And speaking of his morning nap? We put him in the swing and he loves it. Well, that is okay to do as well…but it’s recommended that once he’s sleeping, you need to stop the swing. Even though it appears they are sleeping soundly, motionless sleep is best.
There is just so much to try and learn/remember… Now we just have to get dad to read the book so we can both be on the same page!!
To Those Born 1930 – 1979
From an email that is circling around these days which I thought was pretty good and worth a reprint here:
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the1930’s 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s!!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren’t overweight because…
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Play stations, Nintendos, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround-sound or CD’s, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms…WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
If YOU are one of them . . . CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?! :>>
It’s the little things.
I hate that little things make me lose my mind lately.
Like just now, putting the sheet pan into the oven with sliced garlic bread and chicken nuggets on it, and I hit the edge just right and the entire tray tipped into the oven and across the door.
And I lost it.
None of it even hit the floor, and it was all salvageable within a minute, but I still lost it. I slammed the pan down, slammed the oven door, etc.
I hate being like this, never knowing what is going to set me off.
I blame it on sleep-deprivation.
Again, it’s a good thing Owen is cute and worth it. 😀
Rice cereal comments…
I posted this to Facebook last night:
Jennifer Hudson just gave Owen his first taste of rice cereal—he wasn’t too thrilled.
And I am totally loving all the comments from everyone:
Karen Gustafson Mehollin at 8:52pm June 3
For Mason, I used to mix it with pear or apple juice for some flavor…and to help him poop. 🙂
Tommie Smith at 8:52pm June 3
Max didn’t know what to do with it the first time either. Try again in a few days.
Jennie Precour-Kav at 9:32pm June 3
Mine HATED it in formula but if I mixed it with a little bit of veggies or fruit she loved IT!! but cereal in formula was a big fat NO! Maybe mix it with his milk and feed it to him with a spoon instead of in the bottle
Heather Cogswell at 9:34pm June 3
If he doesn’t like it, go with another food. There are a good number of well tolerated first foods for babies.
RedStrapper Racing at 9:38pm June 3
A little rice in that bottle and he’ll be sleepin all night!! gives the tummy somthing to work on & he wont be getting up all the time hungry. All 4 of my boys got that @ two months old…
Michele Hanson at 10:26pm June 3
We had better luck with oatmeal than rice cereal. He liked it better and less “tummy” issues.
Mary Langbeen at 11:02pm June 3
My 6 month old “just” started finger foods, now that she can grasp well. It took us a couple kids to figure out that baby cereal wasn’t all its cracked up to be, and don’t use it. But if anything oatmeal has more nutritional value and is easier on the tummy. Rice has the tendency to clog things up.
Emilee Patrishkoff at 12:52am June 4 via Facebook Mobile
we went with the finger foods as well—both lo’s started around eight and nine months when they showed interest and were able to pick up small pieces—seemed to work well for us, they both do their little happy dances when they eat—we started with things like avocado,pears, sweet potato and such because i thought the rice cereals were kind of nasty tasting
Dayna Rogers Christison at 3:18am June 4
Rice is like glue. Try oatmeal instead, and put sweet potato in it, or peas.
Jo Wright at 11:50am June 4
screw cereal. mashed banana or avocado are great first foods, and much more palatable!
Claudia C H Palma-Morgan at 12:49pm June 4
cereal at night is what finally got my baby to sleep through the night. I guess I wasn’t doing it for him and a full belly made him sleep!
Secretary of State – Ugh.
So Tom has to change license plates. Well, let me rephrase. He wants to go back to his Michigan State University license plate vs. the North Carolina license plate he got when he bought the car.
Of course, it’s a total PITA to get to the SOS with his schedule, so I figured that I would just call the out-of-state military resident line to hopefully just change our address (which is what we did to change us to an out-of-state address) but noooooooooo…since we are in the state we have to go in and fill out paperwork. :crazy:
I should have just lied and said we were moving back soon and here’s our new address. But then with my luck, she would have just said “Well just wait until you actually move here and come into the office.”
I know if you could just change you address on the phone, everyone would do it. But we’re not everyone, we are military. Cut us some freaking slack.
>:XX
Being (Dis)Organized
I love to be organized. Really, I do. I love bins and crates and my little P-Touch labeller.
Unfortunately, life doesn’t quite work out that way all the time.
My left ankle started hurting the other day. I don’t know what I did to it (if anything) but I thought I should wear my brace again. I do have two of them, remember, from when I fell down the stairs last year.
At that time, I knew I had one ankle brace in the house (I think I needed it back in high school or college, and I’ve been carrying it around with me the entire time). But do you think I could find it? Of course not. At the time, though, I needed two (one for each ankle I screwed up!) so as long as I was buying one, I just bought two.
So fast forward to now, when I need one. And can I find either of the two from last year? Of course not! But I did happen to run across the original one that I couldn’t find last year! How the hell that could happen is beyond me. |-|
My goal at this house is to get completely organized. It’s slow going for sure (I can only work during Owen’s naps, amongst everything else I need to do while he naps), but…it’s working a little since I was apparently able to find my old ankle brace!
Accident!
So Tom had to work today (of course) and he called to let me know he was going to be a little late…someone on a bike hit him as he was pulling out of his parking lot!!
He didn’t give me many details because the cops were just getting there, so I was left wondering just what happened! He said bike so I thought motorcyle, and he had commented that his car was pretty bad—so I imagined the worst.
So, what happened?
Tom was in the drive waiting to pull out across a divided four-lane road into his turn lane. He checked for traffic and seeing none (and only seeing two bikers way off in the distance), pulled out—when a guy on a 10-speed ran into him and flew over the hood!
Turns out the guy was riding the wrong way on the street (against traffic—he should have been on the other side of the divided road) and he tried to “go around” the car instead of waiting for it—so Tom hadn’t seen him at all because he was coming from the wrong direction!
He crashed into the car, skidded across the hood, and went flying into the road. He was wearing a helmet, thankfully, and Tom said he seemed okay. There were witnesses, the cops were called, and it was definitely the biker’s fault.
Unfortunately, the biker didn’t get a ticket.
Fortunately, we didn’t have to pay our deductible because it wasn’t our fault.
Facebook Updates
- Jennifer Hudson says the announcement of a new supreme court justice is NOT breaking news that should interrupt normal programming.
- Jennifer Hudson is waiting for the boy to get up from his morning nap so we can go to Babies R Us!
- Jennifer Hudson can’t believe she burnt the brownies. It’s sooooooooo sad!
- Jennifer Hudson wonders if there is a percentile grade for foot size? The boy is already outgrowing his 0-6 Robeez!!
- Jennifer Hudson is frustrated with Facebook because it keeps timing out on my photo uploads. 🙁
- Jennifer Hudson just took 150 pictures of the boy at the park. I wonder how many good ones there will be.
- Jennifer Hudson is already too used to Tom being home…tomorrow it’s back to the grind of him being gone all the damn time.
- Jennifer Hudson has an almost-fully-organized garage! I still won’t be able to park in there, but at least we will be able to see most everything!
- Jennifer Hudson is irritated with USAA. They took away the option to automatically pay twice a month—now you can only pay ON the due date…unless you want to manually set up extra payments. Ugh.
- Jennifer Hudson just joined the Amazon Associates Referral program…mamma gots to make some money somehow!
- Jennifer Hudson thinks she is losing her mind…there is an email gone missing from my inbox—not in trash, not in spam—that I know was there yesterday…?????
- Jennifer Hudson Is finally starting to fill out her baby book.
- Jennifer Hudson is ready to THWACK Comcast. Ugh.
- Jennifer Hudson got 10 hours of sleep last night (minus one potty break and hearing hubby’s alarm). Thanks, Grandma Linda!
- Jennifer Hudson is thankful for grandparents.
- Jennifer Hudson feels like this box of Lucky Charms is skimpy on the marshmallows.
What a weekend!
What an amazing weekend this has been…
Why, you ask? What could have happened to make it so amazing?
Well, Tom had most of it off!! Yes, the guy who typically works six days a week, up to 12 hours a day, and who rarely gets weekends off…got Friday off, most of Saturday off (he worked until about 10am), Sunday off, and Monday off!!
When he first told me (Thursday night), I was just stunned into silence. What were we going to do? We hadn’t had that much time off together…since Owen was born! Of course all our to-do lists popped into mind, but mostly I just wanted to have family time—time for daddy and Owen to spend together!
After the first day (Friday) it already felt like we had had a week off! It was that amazing! I didn’t even mind him going into work on Saturday because I knew we still had lots of time left together! We also had lunch with cousin Lori at a new restaurant (for us) and had a very enjoyable time! When we got home, Michaels called and said our photo was done. I love love love how it turned out:
At this point I can’t even remember all that we did, but I know we all had fun! Of course we did get to some of the to-dos (the garage is now mostly organized) but those weren’t our main focus! Daddy and Owen played quite a bit, and daddy even took over most of the feedings so mommy could have a break! And mommy got to sleep in three mornings instead of just her normal one (Sunday)! (It would have been four mornings, but all of us were actually awake, so we all sat and played in bed!)
The weather was gorgeous, so we grilled each night and ate most of our dinners outside (when dad and Lin were here last week, we got the patio furniture cleaned and ready to go). Tom was able to mow the lawn. We went to the park and played on the swings (see this post on the Baby Blog).
In short, it was heaven…or, for most people, what a normal life must be like.
I wish it could be like this every weekend, but I will take what I can get!!
Keep your fingers crossed for Maggie!
So we hoped that when we moved back to Michigan, Maggie’s allergies would go away entirely. It’s what her vet assumed, too (mainly due to weather conditions). Unfortunately, she still has issues…although, honestly, they do seem somewhat lessened. But she still itches and scratches herself quite a bit—she usually has some red or scabbed spot on her at all time.
So we decided to change her food—again. She has been on many different good (i.e. nothing you can buy at Petsmart) foods as we tried to eliminate ingredients she might be allergic to…but since none of them made any difference, we just ended up feeding her a five-star rated food (we actually switched between Innova Evo and Canidae).
But we decided we might as well try another, better, food. Yes, there is such a thing—a six-star rated food! We decided on Orijen 6 Fresh Fish with Sea Vegetables, a grain-free food. And for those of you who don’t have dogs or who haven’t researched dog food: grain-free = expensive. Apparently these six-star dry foods are like one step below a raw diet.
“Although life styles have changed, the digestive systems of cats and dogs haven’t changed for hundreds of years.”
As a Biological Food, ORIJEN adopts a simple nutritional philosophy: Follow Nature. By closely matching the foods that dogs and cats are evolved to eat, ORIJEN provides them the nourishment that Nature originally intended.
Anyway.
So we’re steadily switching her over, and she seems to love it. And we’re just keeping our fingers crossed that it really helps. If it does, it will be worth the expense. If it doesn’t work…well, I don’t want to think about that right now.
I swear, the things we do for our kids pets. :>>
Amazon Referral Program
http://www.amazon.com/?tag=hudson2001-20
I just signed up for the Amazon Associates Referral Program. Basically, any time you purchase anything from Amazon by going through my links, I will get a percentage of that back!! YAY! Unfortunately, I cannot get credit for my own orders…so I am counting on the graciousness of others!
I will be working on more specific links/banners/widgets over the next few days…but for now, there are widgets on the Blather blog (my wishlist) and the Baby blog (my must-haves), as well as a generic search box on our main website page. Or, there is always this generic link:
http://www.amazon.com/?tag=hudson2001-20
Thanks, all, for your future Amazon purchases! 😉
Swoon!
I love my husband soooooooooooooooooooooo much. :yes:
As you may or may not know, I love lilacs—and for the past five years in NC we never saw any. But in Michigan? They are ALL over and they are now in bloom.
Of course, we don’t have any in our yard…so I keep seeing them all over the place and keep wishing I could go steal some from somewhere. I keep trying to remind myself to throw some scissors in the car so I could make a quick cut and run getaway…but I never get to it.
So what happened this morning?
Hubby came back from the gym…and brought me a huge vase of purple and white lilacs!!!!! So now I have the lovely scent of lilacs wafting through the house!
/swoon
My $200 Lesson
So this morning Tom came back in the house to tell me I had left the car door open so the light was on—so I had better check the battery when I got up. I was still very drowsy (it was 5am after all) but I was pretty certain there was no way I had left the door open enough to leave the light on. But I didn’t think too much about it since I know I had gone back out to the car for something in the afternoon.
Fast forward to Tom coming back home about 6:30 to shower because he forgot his towel. He started the car to test it and it was fine.
Fast forward to me leaving to do some errands, and the first thing I noticed is that my iPod is missing—the tape adapter cord was lying on the passenger seat NOT ATTACHED TO ANYTHING.
>:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX
>:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX
>:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX >:XX
So, the one night I forget to lock the car AND left iPod out… Yeah, Tom gets on me about keeping the car locked, and I am usually quite good about it—and the few times I’ve forgotten, he has remembered. But not last night. And I also just happened to start using the iPod again last week after about a six-month hiatus. :no:
The thing that confused me is that they didn’t take the GPS—which was right there between the seats. But after some thought, we figured that Tom must have scared them off when he opened the garage door at 5am—they must have been in the car right then, and then skedaddled when the door started opening, and just left the door ajar (with the light on).
Bastards.
Yes, I know technically it was my fault…but still.
Bastards.
I went to file a report (just so it would be on record, we know we will never see the iPod again and we’re not filing an insurance claim) and the cops all but laughed at me, saying they know they have troubles in our area…and we need to take valuables inside. 🙄 I didn’t have the serial number, which the cop said I really had to have if they ever happened to find it. So I brought the form home and had to get the S/N from within iTunes (one saving grace—I didn’t even know it kept that info). So, I will end up filing a report, just in case.
Ugh.
So that was my $200 lesson for the day.
>:XX
My new paycheck?
The 11th Annual Edelman Mother’s Day Salary Index reports moms are worth $841,900 a year since she engages in 17 separate jobs on a regular basis.
“Of course, no one can truly place a value on the love and affection that mothers give to their families,” said Edelman. “My Index is designed to help us appreciate them: Think of what you’d have to pay someone to be on duty 24/7 and complete 17 jobs.”
Edelman noted that the average multi-tasking mom routinely:
* raises children
* dispenses medication and nursing care
* assists with homework
* cooks meals
* attends meetings and functions
* provides transportation
* keeps house
* listens to and resolves family problems
* manages family finances
* cares for pets
* maintains family order and harmony
* keeps family on scheduleThe total of the 17 average annual salaries in 2009 is $841,900, an increase of $39,210 over last year.
[snip]
The occupations which compose the Annual Mother’s Day Index and their corresponding median annual salaries are:
a. Animal Caretaker $21,180
b. Chef $40,700
c. Computer Systems Analyst $75,890
d. Financial Manager $106,200
e. Food/Beverage Service Worker $20,660
f. General Office Clerk $25,960
g. Registered Nurse $62,480
h. Management Analyst $80,460
i. Child Care Worker $19,670
j. Housekeeper $19,550
k. Psychologist $83,610
l. Bus Driver $34,150
m. Elementary School Principal $82,120
n. Dietitian/Nutritionist $50,030
o. Property Manager $53,530
p. Social Worker $41,920
q. Recreation Worker $23,790
TOTAL $841,900
I just never know…
I have always been emotional.
Yes, I am one that can cry at a Hallmark or coffee commercial.
And with my extreme love of animals, I have to fast forward through any shelter or animal-abuse type commercial (those might actually start me bawling).
And most things military-related are bad.
And of course now I have a hard time watching anything with babies (there is a vaccination commercial that gets me every time).
And if you’re crying about something in my presence, I’m likely to start crying, too.
Of course, I just never know when I will read or see or hear something that will set off the waterworks…but it’s generally not hard.
Today, it was this…a simple “doodle” entry for a contest Google is having:
Time to Go Home
There are heroes who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to protect their nations. My wish for the world is for all these military heros to be able to take off their uniforms, lay down their guns, hang up their boots, and come home to their families.
Name: Demitri Miller
Age: 18
School: AZTEC HIGH SCHOOL
City, State: Aztec, NM
Sigh.
Advice from Facebook Friends
I posted my status as REALLY REALLY wish Owen would just take a freakin’ nap already. He’s soooo cranky. and received these responses:
Dayna C.—Put him to bed, and let him bawl. He’ll go to sleep, and be just fine. Tough love, mama, tough love!!
Jennifer M.—I agree with Dayna. He will learn to self-comfort and it will make a HUGE difference in his sleep habits, and yours:)
FYI- babies who don’t need much sleep are more intelligent. LOL
Me—Well, we just started real naps—putting him in the crib or pack-and-play (vs. letting him sleep on us or sit in his bouncy chair) so we want to give that a week or so first, before letting him cry. Besides the fact that it KILLS me to hear him cry (of course).
Robin W.—Man, I remember having that problem as well. I spent many afternoons just driving in the car while he slept. I didn’t get anything done, but I kept most of my sanity. Best of luck, Jen. Hope he starts taking some good naps soon.
A great first Mother’s Day!
Technically my day started at 4am when I got up to feed the boy, but I’d say my day really started when Tom took the boy so I could sleep in—which I did until about 8:30! 😀
Then Tom made me a breakfast of scrambled eggs with sausage and cheese, and said he was going to head to Lowe’s to get planting soil and more basil—and he was going to plant everything for me! The boy’s eating and napping schedule changed that slightly, and we ALL ended up going out for errands. We talked about maybe going somewhere for lunch, but figured that since it was Mother’s Day, every place was going to be packed—so we thought we’d just play it by ear.
On the way to Lowe’s, I remembered that we had to stop by Michael’s to check on our frame job (two weeks ago we finally took in our canvas photo from the cruise and apparently the frame was messed up, and we either had to pick another frame or wait for the frame to come off of backorder).
After we took care of that, we were walking back to the car and I happened to notice across the parking lot that Fuji Japanese Buffet was open. What’s Fuji Japanese Buffet you ask? An all-you-can-eat sushi and Asian food buffet! We have talked about going there before but have just never made it. So over we went! (So the boy had his second restaurant outing in as many days!)
And WOW was it yummy! They had a Mother’s Day special running which was a few dollars more per person than their normal price, but they had more specialty items as well. (We said we’ll have to go again to see what a normal service includes.) I stuffed myself silly on sushi—but only managed to eat two plates full! I still got my money’s worth, though, so it was all good!
Then it was off to Lowe’s where we picked up the gardening stuff we needed, and then it was back home—just in time because Owen was ready to eat.
It turns out Tom didn’t do the planting because it is supposed to frost tonight—so that will come tomorrow. But I did get in a nap!!! YAY!!! And then Tom watched the boy so I was able to make dinner! (He apologized for me having to make dinner but I was more than happy to do it since I hardly even have the time or energy to do it anymore!)
So it’s been a WONDERFUL first mother’s day!!!
Homeowners Insurance – Part 5 – THE END!
Looking at the figures again, we still thought it just wasn’t right. There seemed to be an extra payment in there that shouldn’t have been.
Long story short, it took another few calls to Farm Bureau and Farm Bureau did some digging and then called Wells Fargo to get it straightened out.
So what happened?
The original homeowner’s policy we had with Farm Bureau BEFORE WE HAD RENTERS was in two separate policies: a windstorm policy and a homeowners policy. When we got renters and the policy changed to an all-in-one, only the homeowners portion got cancelled—the wind somehow was still in place. So, Wells Fargo was expecting to have to pay that $1100 in October (the anniversary of when we actually started that policy).
Farm Bureau assured us we only had the one premium to pay, and called Wells Fargo to tell them. I then had to call Wells Fargo to request yet another escrow re-analysis…and YAY! Now our mortgage is only going up about $15/month!! Much much better than the originally anticipated $350/month!
So, thankfully, this issue has been resolved.
/knock on wood
Michigan Weather!
So yesterday it got to be probably 85°.
Now, you would think that after the yucky cold winter we just had that we would have loved yesterday. Well, we really didn’t because it was just too warm.
And this house is (we just learned) annoying when windows are open and it’s at all breezy. You see, the windows open from side to side and upstairs? The blinds all open up and down…meaning that you have to have the blinds all completely open so that the breeze doesn’t hit them and bang them around. And even if you do that, the cord/cabling system is not hooked down, so that then flies around and smacks the wall as well. Very irritating.
That said, most of the downstairs get good cross-ventilation—except, of course, for the room we are in the most: the living room (kind of like our house in NC where the living room got the worst A/C flow of the entire house). There is a nice big window in the living room, but of course the big heavy couch is in front of it so you have to climb on the couch to heave open the window (because, of course, that window doesn’t slide easily). But it is under the awning, so we can leave the window open when it rains.
But this house gets WARM. It wasn’t really even THAT warm or humid yesterday—and the day even got cooled off by a thunderstorm mid-afternoon—but the house was WARM. And upstairs was worse. Poor Owen—first his room is too cold so we buy a heater…now it’s too warm and we’re NOT buying a portable air conditioner so he will have to make do with a fan. We got out a fan for our room, too—as well as a fan in the living room.
Needless to say WE MISS CEILING FANS. This house would be a lot more bearable weather-wise with ceiling fans.
We are not looking forward to warmer weather. We do have A/C, but we’re sure something will be wrong with it, LOL.
Stupid Freaking Comcast.
So I get up this morning and go to check my email and see that there is no connection. That happens, so I rebooted…and nothing. Rebooted the modem…and nothing.
I turned on the TV and there was no cable—which meant a serious problem. I called Tom to see what he did the last time this happened (somewhat recently) and he said he had to call them. He said he would call again since he had their number already.
So he calls me back while on hold with Comcast to fill me in…and you will NOT believe what it was. Someone requested that our service be disconnected!! And he was on hold while they tried to figure out the details. He called me afterwards to tell me—are you ready? That he had to go to the main office to PROVE WHO HE WAS in order to have the service turned back on!!
So apparently someone can just call up and have service disconnected WITHOUT PROOF OF WHO THEY ARE, but now we have to prove who we were? :crazy:
So Tom had to come home to get his social security card. I had to dig through boxes in the basement to find the combination to the safe in order to get the card (which, as an aside, wasn’t there, so I pulled his passport instead). I also gave him our recent bill with our address on it.
Now, are you ready for the pièce de résistance?
Apparently someone faxed in a death certificate for Tom and requested the cable be turned off! ❗ ❗ ❗
True story.
Of course it must be a case of mistaken identity, but how freaking bizarre is that?! Tom said that they told him the name of the person who faxed it in, and it was something like Paul Thomas or Hudson Paul—some combination of his name, so that it was obviously just a transposing of names. But to not confirm the address? Or maybe they did? Who knows.
So Tom apparently read them the riot act and they are “working on” getting us a copy of the document, they gave us a free month, and said they would have our service turned back on today.
It took them a few hours, but they did come out and get us going again. And now we have to watch to see we get credit for this (or next) month.
What an ordeal.
More Facebook Updates
- Jennifer Hudson loves all her Tivo friends sooooooooo much!
- Jennifer Hudson hates that it’s impossible to cut a baby’s nails. What cruel joke is that?
- Jennifer Hudson wishes Owen would just nap already. He’s tired, I can tell.
- Jennifer Hudson hates hates hates online “coupon printers” because if you’re not connected to a printer (i.e. laptop) you can’t print to pdf. GRRRR.
- Jennifer Hudson isn’t sure why her scanner thinks a newspaper clipping is a color document. /confused
- Jennifer Hudson is on her third shirt of the day and it’s only 11am.
- Jennifer Hudson is prepping to give Owen a bath by herself. I am not good at that alone part yet.
- Jennifer Hudson says Facebook is irritating me. I keep getting emails about applications I have specifically said NO EMAILS from.
- Jennifer Hudson is attempting to watch Back to the Future 3—simply to complete the trilogy.
- Jennifer Hudson says whoops, my sneeze just woke up the boy AND surprised the cat right off my lap.
- Jennifer Hudson just fast forwarded through the rest of Rachel Getting Married. Oh well.
- Jennifer Hudson misses her 21″ widescreen monitor since she’s on the laptop 99.95% of the time.
- Jennifer Hudson is hoping Owen has a better day today—he was Mr. Crankpot yesterday.
- Jennifer Hudson has the beginnings of a chocolate headache. /damn that easter candy
- Jennifer Hudson knows she should keep the babes up, but she is enjoying getting some stuff done around the house.
A Weekend of Firsts
There were a lot of firsts for Owen this past weekend…
First (hee!) was his first long car ride—three hours north to Gramma Jean’s for his Grayling baby shower! (We tried to have it before he was born, but time just got away from us, plus it was winter…and we thought people would like to actually see him instead of just seeing me pregnant!)
Second, daddy took care of Owen during the night!! Tom and I slept in different rooms (it’s just very hard for us to both sleep in a double bed when we’re used to a king bed)…so one of us got Owen and one of us got Maggie. Tom was generous and took Owen, since he could sleep in! YAY!
Third, Owen got his first sitting-in-water bath (instead of just being soaped up and rinsed off):
Fourth, Owen had pictures taken outside! With ALL his grandparents! And his Grantie Marge (the name we came up with for Marge, since we couldn’t decide between Grandma Marge and Auntie Marge!)!! And his parents, of course. Since everyone was there for the shower—and it was SUCH a gorgeous day out—we decided (well, I strongly suggested) that we should take pictures outside!!
Grantie Marge Len, Grandma Marsha Hudson, Jen, Owen, Tom, Grandma Linda and Grandpa Mike Smith, Grandpa David and Gramma Jean Schwalm
Fifth, gramma Jean took care of Owen during the night!! I innocently asked if she wanted to and she said sure (that she could nap Sunday)!! OMG! YAY! So we moved the pack-and-play in there (where there was more room anyway :P) and mom and dad both had the chance for a good night’s sleep! Gramma confirmed the next morning that Owen is a little chatterbox all night long…well, not chatterbox so much maybe as a noisebox. 😀
And sixth, after a few weeks of maybe only pooping once every few days, Owen pooped THREE TIMES today! 88|
I had a first, too…after almost a glorious year of no periods (minus about the four weeks of post-delivery bleeding), my period started this morning. XX( Technically I should have been expecting it at any time, even though the books say if you are breastfeeding, it might be a LONG time before you got your period back… but I had just gotten SO used to not having it that it was a big surprise.