So...you like....stuff?

Well this weekend was mellow, but fun. Friday Mark and I (and Chase) celebrated 2 of our friends' birthdays by going out to dinner then playing games at our house. That's always a good time. Saturday, Mark and I watched Scream and Scream 2 and played Scrabble. (We must be old or something, because that was actually highly enjoyable). Yesterday was pretty much the same, except we watched movies ALL day from 9am to 9pm. We watched Scream 3, I Love You, Man, Freddy Vs. Jason, Transformers, and The Breakfast Club...aaaand we played more Scrabble. It was great! I love lazy days like that. But of course in all this laziness, I totally ignored any form of housework and haven't cleaned a damn thing since last Wednesday. :-O

Last night, I started to clean up some dishes, and I helped Mark pack his lunch for work since our Scrabble game went into to "overtime", and he had to run around and get ready to leave. As I was coming out of the garage with a water bottle for his lunchbox, I witnessed what was the most unusual dog-vomit incident I have seen since Milo projectiled all over my mom in the car when we were going to Petsmart once.
Hmm...how can I describe this? Well, Milo sort of did this half coughing-half sneezing thing, but instead of spit or snot coming out with the sneeze/cough, it was puke. An even, instantaneous circular puddle of dog vomit. The sneeze/cough part reminded me of Morla from The Neverending Story:


Just picture vomit knocking Atreyu over...
It was ridiculous, is the point I'm trying to make here...and it would have to happen just as I was about to head up to bed with the baby, who, by the way, was sick yesterday and EXTREMELY miserable.

I said I don't want to fucking cuddle!!!

That's basically how Chase was...only way cuter, of course. This baby is a troll.
In other news, I applied for a job, but we'll see if I hear anything back. It's an easy position which would require me to work with babies all day in the infant room of a learning facility. They're seeking people with a degree/certification (which I happen to possess) and they pay very well for being a day care. Some people have said to me, "Why would you want to waste your degree working in a day care?" See, the thing is, my degree/certification is N-3. That means I am certified to teach from infancy-3rd grade. It's called Early Childhood Education. Duh. Some people just don't understand that even infants can be taught and learn things. Take my 5 month old daughter, for example. Kid's a genius! No, really. She is. At 2 months old she could already identify her feet. When asked "where are your feet?" She put them up. Now she can reach them, so when asked the same question, she will grab her feet and hold them up for you to see. At 4 months old, she can identify nose and mouth. At 10 days old she could hold her bottle all by herself, and now she's an expert. What I'm saying is, infants learn very quickly. They're like little sponges, and so long as you keep working with them, they can absorb so much knowledge. Babies amaze me. I adore them, so why wouldn't I want to work with them? I'm not wasting my degree because that's where my degree begins...with infancy. The learning center is seeking ONLY people with degrees, so that says a lot.
But you know, if I don't get the job, that will be ok too. I debated for a couple days before applying. I really enjoy being a stay at home mom, but I do miss having my own income. Before I could chip in with the bills, and have my own mad money, but now I have to rely on Mark's money. He says he doesn't mind this at all, but it doesn't make me feel any less guilty. He says I do a lot with taking care of Chase and our home, yet I can't help but feel useless sometimes. I made great money when I taught preschool. I made way more $ with that than I did when I substitute taught. If I get this infant teaching position, I'd be making the same as I did when I taught preschool, which isn't too shabby, considering. People assume that teaching preschool is just coloring and nap time, but believe me, there was way more too it than that. I taught math, science, literature, social studies, etc. Those kids learned a lot from me, and we hardly ever colored. It really depends on what type of learning center you teach in. It's not just macaroni necklaces and handprint art any more. Even for infants! I think you get the point now. I'm just trying to educate those who look down on these types of teaching jobs. It just really grinds my gears! It's insulting, really.

Anywho, since I've been doing this housewife gig, I decided I needed a hobby. I finally took one up, and I found I'm actually pretty good at it. I've been sewing a lot lately, mostly making stuff for baby girls like hair accessories, dress up tutus, and pacifier clips. Yesterday I made something different, though. I made a makeup bag entirely by hand and wouldn't you know, it came out great! I was surprised. It really is amazing what you can accomplish if you believe in yourself.
Wooow, that sounded mega lame and cheesy, but you know what I mean. I always had an interest in sewing, and I used to do it all the time when I was a kid, but my work was mediocre at best. I had no idea I was capable of hand sewing a zipper on to something, but I put one in the makeup bag, no sewing machine necessary. I used fabric for breast cancer awareness and decided I am going to sell these bags to help raise money for the walk I'm going to be doing in October. I need to raise $2300 in order to walk for the cure, so I think selling these bags will help. I already have 3 buyers, and I just posted the info. last night! Not bad, right?
So here comes the sales pitch part of my blog. If any of my readers are interested, leave me a comment and we can work out the details. The large makeup bags are $5 and the small are $2. Large bags are roughly 8.5"X16", and smalls are 4X8. If I need to mail it to you, I will need to charge a small shipping&handling fee.



This is the large bag for $5. Also available in another design...all pink fabric with small, pink ribbons. :)
Alright, so there ya have it. If you want to help me raise money for the cure, I would greatly appreciate it. It's a great cause, and it's something that's close to my heart as I lost my grandmom to breast cancer, and my aunt is a survivor.
Ok, sensitive moment/sales pitch over. End scene.

Weeeeeeee!

This weekend was AWESOME! I had a nice break from my mommy/household duties. On Friday I was actually pretty sick, which wasn't awesome. Mark and I dropped Chase off with my mom and went to the movies. It was date night, so I took some meds and went out anyway, despite having a fever. I felt ok for the duration of Battle Los Angeles (which was a good movie action wise, but the script was terrible and to me, after a while, the scenes just began repeating themselves). Anyway, when we got home, my fever spiked, so I took some NyQuil and went to bed at 10pm. I slept for like, 11 hours, which was much needed. I haven't slept like that in a long time.
Saturday, Chase and I stayed in bed for most of the day and I kept up with fluids and medicine so I could go to a concert that night. There was no way in Hell I was going to miss seeing The Legwarmers (an 80s tribute band) with my friends! We bought those tickets months ago, and I was so stoked to get dressed up in 80s clothes for the show. I seriously never had so much fun at a concert, and I have been a concert-goer since I was 11 years old. No joke. The band was great and covered the songs so well. They were all decked out in 80s attire, of course, as was a majority of the audience. They covered Cyndi Lauper, Journey, Whitesnake, The B-52s, The Outfield, Twisted Sister, Toni Basil, Madonna, and Europe, to name a few. They played 2 sets, and every song was amazing. I didn't get home until 1:30am. Mark was awake, and Chase was sound asleep. Mark offered to get up with her again, so I went to bed around 2, and got 9 more hours of sleep. It was great!
Sunday I felt much better, still all stuffy, but I promised my siblings I would take them to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2, and I don't break promises. That movie was hilarious. My sis and I are fans of the books, although she knows them better than I do. I've only read the first one, and I've flipped through the other books my sister has. (She's 11 years old, by the way). The books are very amusing, and we saw the first movie in theaters as well. The movies actually follow the books very closely, which I appreciate.
So all in all, it was a fun filled weekend. I probably shouldn't have gone out so much since I was running a fever and have a pretty nasty sinus infection, but hey, life is too short and we can't ALWAYS be responsible adults, can we? I certainly can't.

When I'm sick, I stop being sick and be awesome instead. True story.

Well, anyway I have about a bajillion things to do today. Laundry, mopping, cleaning bathrooms, more laundry, dishes, etc. The usual, you know. The gym is out of the question until I'm 100% better. I don't think I should work out if I can't breathe. Probably not a good idea. What I would like to accomplish today would be to make more crafts. I took on a hobby of making tutus and hair accessories for babies. It sounds lame, but it's fun, and the stuff turns out pretty cute. I'm trying to make diaper bags, too. That's the task for today (hopefully). Someone suggested that I start my own Etsy page and sell my cutesy handmade things, but I don't feel as though my work is good enough to sell to strangers. I'm not that great at sewing. I really just started doing this as a means to keep busy when I have nothing else to do. I am going to try my hand at making a diaper bag, though. This is all pending on how much housework I can complete today, and if Chase even allows me to do anything. I've actually been coming back to this very entry multiple times in the past hour because I was taking care of the baby in between of sentences.
Tomorrow night I'm hosting my walk for the cure team's meeting at my house, so I should really get to work in here. First thing's first, though, miss Chase needs her breakfast.Until next time, friends.

Oh, and if you can, PLEASE help me raise money so I can walk for the cure. :) Even the smallest amount will be greatly appreciated. Follow this link, and thank you!

http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/2011/PhiladelphiaEvent2011?px=5820236&pg=personal&fr_id=1624

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My house is seriously a wreck. What else is new, right? I straightened up the living room, but you would never know it. The kitchen is atrocious. I'm pretty sure there are 2 dried up puddles of dog pee on the floor. Awesome. The sink is FULL of dishes, literally, and there are things in bags that need to be put away. Not food items, just stuff I bought for the baby. We have a shoe cubby in the foyer, but does anyone actually put their shoes in it? Negative. There's just stuff strewn about the house, but right now, I really don't care. I'm in a mood, and I'm tired, so these are problems that would best be resolved by Future Laura, because Present Laura doesn't give a shit.
I know what you must be thinking, society, and you're right. This is unsanitary and gross, and I'm an awful parent for having my child live in such filth. You wanna hire me a maid, society? That would be great. Then I could make my own show and call it "The Real Housewives of Delaware County." It would follow me and other women like me in this area who sit on our asses watching soaps and ordering the maids around. We would have our kids in the show, and we'd do things like take them shopping and throw them outlandish birthday parties, but otherwise, the nannies raise the kids and we just shop and go to lunch with our bestest girlfriends. Then we'll get breast implants on our day off from our days off. We'll sneak around with our cabana boys and landscapers while our husbands fly our private jets to foreign countries for business meetings about business.
Yep. That's what my show will be about. It's totally an original concept, no?
What was this post supposed to be about? I dunno. I'm tired, I'm rambling, and I'm surrounded by a mess that I'm trying ever so hard to ignore. It's not working. It's nearly 11pm on a Monday night. I'm over tired to the point where I'm no longer tired, and now the baby is crying...soooo...exit stage right. Have I confused you enough with this post? Yes? Good. I'll write a better entry when I feel like it. You're not the boss of me! Shut up!
Update: It's 12:04am, and I just finished the dishes, putting away baby stuff, loading the dishwasher, mopping the kitchen floor, straightening up the living room, AND cleaning the turtle tank. Housework is DONE, and now I'm going to bed. :-)

Update! Sidebar: I am awesome.

As promised, here is my update about my day. Well, I completed all of the chores on my list except for vacuuming. The only room that needs to be vacuumed is the living room, but Chase is currently napping in here, and I'd rather not disturb her with the loudness of the vacuum. That will only take about 5 minutes to do, so it can wait. I began cleaning at 11am, took a break for lunch at 12:30, and at that point, Chase was awake, so she had a bottle and she was pretty fussy for a while. She fell back to sleep around 2, so I got right back to work. I can't believe I finished all of those chores so quickly..everything looks so nice and clean!! Now I am going to do a light workout while Chase is still sleeping, then I'm going to the gym for the "hardcore" workout at 4, coming home to shower and make Mark the dinner I promised.  I guess the only word to describe myself today is:

WINNING...DUH!

Happy Monday

NOT! This house is a wreck. Usually I do at least a little bit of cleaning over the weekends, but this weekend I was like fuuuck that, I'm doing fun stuff. On Friday we had our friends over for a game night, and the games are still in the living room. Saturday, the husband, baby, and I took a little trip to Longwood Gardens and went out to eat, then went to the mall. That was a fun outing, and we were gone all afternoon/early evening. We went to bed a little early that night, so nothing got cleaned then. Yesterday, my cousin and I went to dinner and a movie, and prior to that, Mark and I just sat around doing nothing...I didn't get home until 8 last night, and I took over with the baby then was in bed by 10, so nothing got done then, either. My list of chores today is as follows:
1) Straighten up the living room (i.e. put away games, clear off coffee table, put away thousands of baby items)
2) Dust furniture
3) wash dishes/load dish washer
4) sweep/mop kitchen/foyer/downstairs bathroom
5) Clean downstairs bathroom
6) Clean up kitchen (wipe down counters
7) Baby's laundry
8) Put away my clean laundry
9) Clean turtle tank
10) Straighten up bedroom
11) Clean master bathroom/sink area in bedroom
12) vacuum

so much time...so little to do. Wait a minute...strike that, reverse it. Thank you.

I think that's about all I want/need to get done today. Factor in the baby waking up to eat her lunch and have play time...she just went down for a nap, so I should have roughly 2 hours to get some of this list done. Key word in that sentence: SHOULD. I also promised the husband I would cook him a nice dinner tonight. Since I have been on a diet, he's been kinda jipped out of good dinners. He never complains, but I feel bad that he's eating sandwiches and cereal for dinner a lot more lately since I haven't been cooking. I owe it to him. I would like to go to the gym today around 4pm, so my goal is to clean like a crazy mofo and have everything done by then. Think I can do it?! Perhaps I will throw in a brief update if I complete EVERYTHING I want to do today by 4...I know you're all on the edge of your seats....what a nail biter this is! Well, better get started since I'm pretty sure the baby stopped wiggling around and is officially asleep...

So behind

Hello friends. I know I suck at this whole blog thing, but I'm a busy woman, so lay off!
Since we last "spoke", some awesome and not-so-awesome stuff has happened in my life. Let's start with not-so-awesome, since that list is shorter.
Well, as you may recall, I got my rental car a few weeks ago and it looks like a hearse. I still have it in my possession because the auto body shop discovered MORE damage on my car. Thanks a lot, Langston! (That's the kid who crashed into us...Langston. 'Nuff said). Originally it was like $3,200 worth of damage, now it's $5,250! Ugh. I'm supposed to get my car back this week, thank God. I miss it. Even though I wanna trade it in for an SUV of sorts...
Hmm..I think that might be the only not awesome thing that's happened in the past few weeks. Sweet! Now on to awesome:
1) Chase is now 4 months old and developing beautifully. I swear she's the smartest baby ever, but I may be a little biased ;) Her doctor gave me the green light on starting her on baby food, and she has been doing really well with eating off of a spoon. I love the faces she makes when she tries new fruits/veggies. Priceless.
2) The show 2 1/2 Men is most likely going to get canceled since Charlie Sheen is a huge douche and WB fired him. I find this to be hilarious, and I think 2 1/2 Men is possibly one of the WORST tv shows I have ever seen. I don't find it funny whatsoever, and I would be glad to see it go.
3) Because of 2 1/2 Men failing, How I Met Your Mother has been contracted for 2 more seasons. WIN! That, in my opinion, would be one of the BEST shows on t.v.
4) The husband and I had a massive party on Saturday because my mom rules and took Chase over night so that Mark and I could make our come back. (We have been throwing some of the best parties this side of Delco since 2004). People talk about our parties for years to come, and it's amazing. There were so many people here, and a lot of the guests I had just met for the first time at my own party. It was great. Did I feel a little guilty about sending my baby away for the night so I could have a party? I did, a little, but you know what? It was a great time, and I think every new parent deserves to cut loose every now and then. It's not like we're going to do this all the time, and we never drink when the baby is around or anything like that. We're damn good parents, we love our baby more than anything, and we do have priorities. However, our party side will never go away. Our next one won't be until Halloween, which we did not do last year since I was 9 months pregnant. That is always our biggest/best party, so I think we will always do that one.
5)I paid off my credit card bill, which was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. That bill was ridiculous, so now I don't have to worry about it any more.
I think that's all of the good things that have happened in the last 3 weeks. Life is good right now.
In other news: I'm still working on the whole weight-loss thing, but I find myself at a stand still. This is common, from what I understand. Since I dropped a pretty significant amount, my body is having a hard time losing more. I dropped about 35lbs. in 3 1/2 months. I'm still eating "right" and going to the gym, so hopefully this pause on weight loss won't last. I also signed up for the 3-Day walk for the cure. It's for breast cancer, for those who don't know. I'm walking in honor of my g-mom who died from breast cancer, and my aunt who is a survivor. This is a really great cause, and something I always had in my mind to do. I guess you could say it's one of my life goals, so I'm really looking forward to accomplishing it. I will be walking 60 miles over the course of 3 days in Philly. I am trying to lose more weight by then and get myself into better shape so I can complete it without feeling like a grizzly bear who has just been shot with a tranquilizer gun. In order to walk, I need donations, so if any of my readers are willing to help my cause, I would GREATLY appreciate it!! I know this economy sucks, and a lot of us can't afford to spare any cash, so I understand if you can't do it. I just figured I'd throw this out there if anyone is interested in helping me. Any amount would be great, no matter how small. Thanks in advance if you donate! :) Here's the link, and just click where it says " Click to Donate to Laura in 2011."
http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/2011/PhiladelphiaEvent2011?px=5820236&pg=personal&fr_id=1624

As always, I thank you for stopping by. I will try to post again soon, but if I don't it's probably because nothing interesting is happening. :p

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Let me tell you about how fantastic things are going right now. For starters, my car is FINALLY getting fixed, and I was so excited about having a rental car to drive...but the auto body shop gave me frickin' Ecto 1 to drive. What the hell? The damn thing looks like a hearse. I hate it! What's the fun in driving a rental car when it looks like I'm transporting dead bodies?

Bustin' makes me feel good...

Ok, so I guess the rental car thing isn't so bad...I just hoped for something more fun/less ugly to drive. Aside from that, I found out a very good friend of mine is in the hospital. I'm so worried about her, I just want her to be ok. She's not sure how long she has to stay in there, so I sent her a basket of stuff to help keep her distracted/occupied. I'm not going to go into detail here about what's wrong with her, but I will say that had it not been addressed in time, it could have been very, very bad. Fatal, even. I never want to hear the word "fatal" in the same sentence as one of my friend's names. Especially when it's such a good friend as she is to me. I am hoping to go visit her one of these days, but it's hard to with the baby and the husband's schedule. Since he works the night shift, he sleeps most of the day/evening. I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to bring babies to visit people in the hospital, but if you are, I'd rather not because I want to focus my attention on my sick friend, ya know? I want to be able to talk with her and maybe even play a game or something with her and not have to worry about keeping the baby content. I sent the basket of get well stuff in with her boyfriend, who is also a very good friend of mine, so at least I was able to get that to her. I just really want her to get better!! :( Too many people are getting sick lately. Not good times.

Sigh. Ok, let's change the subject to something slightly less depressing. This morning around 3:30am, my LO (remember, that stands for little one) woke up for a bottle and a diaper change. 3:30 is usually her time to wake up, so I was ready to meet her needs. However, while I was feeding her she took a massive crap in her diaper, and she wreaked ungodly bad. She's only 3 months old, but this is the first time she has ever smelled THIS disgusting, and I'm sure it won't be the last. I imagine that this is what the Bog of Eternal Stench from Labyrinth smells like. Or Dowistrepla. (For those who don't know, there was an episode of How I Met Your Mother where Lily and Marshall get an apartment in a town called Dowistrepla, then later find out that the town's name is an acronym for Down Wind Of the Sewage Treatment Plant, which is why the town smells so awful at times). Well, not only did this diaper wreak to high heaven, but the poo went up her back a little and soaked through her onesie and pajamas.



You said it, horrible actor from Troll 2. So I got her all cleaned up and situated to go back to sleep. I spread out her blanket in my bed, put her on her belly on top of it, and tucked her in. I was like, ok, niiight. Wait...what the? Is that? Is that...pee? Yep. A big, round wet spot of dog urine. In my bed. I was like, great, now I need to wash this sheet. But it didn't stop there...not only was the sheet wet, but the comforter, a pillow, and the mattress sheet were all soaked through.

I know, right!? I had to get the baby out of the bed, put her back in her bassinet and strip my bed entirely. I put the wiener dogs in their crates because at that point, I wasn't sure if it was Milo or Lady who had committed such a treacherous act. At this point, it was about 4:30am. I was tired at all get out, and the last thing I wanted to do while half asleep was laundry and soaking up pee from my mattress. I threw the stuff in the wash, sprayed the mattress with some pet scotch guard, and blotted up the pee the best I could. All I wanted was to go back to sleep, but the area was still not dry. I decided to just put a towel over it then put a clean sheet down over top. This worked out fine, so I got a clean comforter and went back to bed. Except since I was so pissed off and moving around a lot, I was wide awake. It took me a while to finally fall back to sleep after sending angry texts to the husband. I then put the pieces together and figured out it was in fact Lady, who is SUPPOSED to be our best dog out of the 4, who pissed the bed. I knew it was her because she had been laying in that spot for most of the night, while Milo was either on my legs or pressed up against my side. When we first went to bed, Lady was propped up on the pillow that was also urine soaked (I trashed that bad boy immediately) so she must have peed in her sleep. We have had issues with dogs wetting the bed in the past, but they were also a lot younger, and none of them have done this in years. Lady is 6 years old, one would think she has moved past bed wetting. Lesson learned about continuing to allow dogs to sleep in bed. :/
So yeah, that was a lovely morning. Chase woke up not even an hour after I fell back to sleep, so I put her on my chest around 6:30am, and luckily she passed right back out. Mark came home after 7 this morning and took over with the baby so I could sleep in. I got up around 10:30, but I'm still exhausted since my sleep was so incredibly broken. It would figure that because Chase slept well, that something else had to interfere with my sleep. She's napping now, and I'm not sure how much longer she will stay down, but I better end this post now because there's a lot to do around here. I am a bridesmaid in a wedding come November, and tonight I have to go look at dresses with the bride-to-be and the other girls in the wedding. Family is coming to visit us tomorrow as well, so this house needs to stop looking like a scene from Hoarders. So much time, so little to do. Wait...strike that, reverse it. Thank you.