Too tired

Alright....so since we have moved into this house we have had some issues with the smoke detectors going off occasionally. At first it was very infrequent, once every other month for a few seconds at a time. Didn't think too much about it. Then in July it started picking up, a few times once every few weeks. Called the builder who called the electrician who said look for a blinking light the next time it goes off and we'll replace the faulty one. Waited a few weeks and it went off again (of course this seems to only happen after 11pm). Couldn't see a blinking light, called him again, told me to vaccum them cause there might be some construction dust in them. So I did that. And then last night happened. 1:45 am the first alarm sounds. Stopped briefly and then started again. Over the next hour the thing went off 26 times (yes I counted). So I packed up the girls who were still semi sleeping (not sure how this thing is LOUD) got some blankets and pillows and went to the car, pulled it out in the driveway and settled down. Unfortunately the alarms were still too loud even outside of the house so we went to the driveway next door (new house for sale) and attempted to sleep. Bella was in the "trunk" and emma in the 2nd row. I got to "sleep" in the front seat, very comfortable (HA!!!). At least it was nice and cool out. We amazingly could still hear them from that driveway a few hundred feet away but not to the point where it would interrupt sleep. Bella had a very nice comment, "Mom, I know where we wouldn't hear the fire alarms...............Texas" Very smart girl, even at 3 AM. The whole way to daycare Emma was a little chatterbox about how we slept in the car cause the house was too loud. The fire alarm man came today and replaced every single one with a different brand....hopefully it works. I need some sleep. Goodnight.

The party we've all been waiting for

The party Bella has been planning for the past 8 months (possibly longer) is finally almost here. She has decided to go to Club Libby Lu for her party even though it means not many friends can come (too much $$$). This is the perfect place for girly girls as they will be doing their hair, putting on makeup and glittery stuff, dance around and pretend to be rockstars and princesses and stuff. They get to have a little backpack with 5 little cool things (probably junk... just what I need in our house) and make some potions (lip gloss, etc). Right up Bella's alley. We even made some invitations. Bella picked all the materials out. Now we only have to wait a few weeks for the exciting day. Can't believe she is turning seven. Makes me feel a bit old.

Emma was quite a grouch today. Everything was sending her to tears. We went to the "strawberry" (that would be library for those that don't speak Emma language). She got very mad at me when I tried to pick out a Halloween book for her and started screaming until I put it back on the shelf. {She apparently doesn't know you have to be quiet at the strawberry}. Then when it was time to go, I told her she better pick out a book and she started grabbing random books from the shelf, so many she could barely carry them...but didn't want help and didn't want a bag and didn't want to put any of them back. Then we went to Hy-Vee to get some jelly, decided to buy some fake Chinese food while we were there as I thought things weren't going too well and we weren't going to be able to tolerate waiting for dinner while I cook it. We cried as we left the car because we couldn't take the 80 books we checked out from the strawberry with us. She bumped her head on the glass case while looking at fake Chinese food and then cried for the rest of the time there. Things went smoothly for a bit until we decided to deliver a birthday invitation across the street to the neighbor girl. I apparently picked the wrong stroller {we wanted the blue one, not the purple one} and then the walk was too short for her liking and she was very upset that we had to go home. Needless to say my lovely Emma child went to bed early (very calmly without crying). Hopefully my sweet little Emma will be back tomorrow and the terrible twos Emma will go back into hiding again.

Alright, one more thing. I noticed that I have 200 hits on this site. Again, I can't believe that my mom is responsible for them all (Hi mom!). So maybe if you are so inclined, could you at least say "hi" or "i hate this/love this site" "wish you'd stop" whatever, anything would be nice ( I fixed the comment problem). Whatever the case I will keep it up cause I think you are enjoying it, right mom?

Common sense

My little Emma, March 2004, chatting on the phone with an imaginary someone. She has changed so much since then. However, she continues to be very chatty, nonstop in fact.

Common sense is a good thing. It should be required of all parents prior to having children. I'm on call this weekend...need I say more?

Bella had her first soccer game today. I wasn't able to attend as I had clinic, but she apparently scored a goal. Unofficially her team lost though.

I took Bella to build-a-bear workshop since she was a bit sad that Emma had one and she didn't. She picked out a sassy looking white cat and dressed it in a prom dress. She was quite pleased with the results. That's all for today. Have a lovely evening.

Eggs and hotdogs

Here is a lovely picture of Emma taken in March 2004. I left her outside for a brief second (yes, I know I am not supposed to do that!) with Bella. I came back out to find her enjoying her first taste of dirt. mmm......yummy!

Speaking of yummy food. I usually pride myself in fixing nice meals, something different, something very tasty. However when you are lacking in food supplies that is a bit hard. We had nothing really to eat tonight for supper. I didn't even have any milk to make the old stand by mac and cheese. I had to feed my children quickly as they are almost continuosly starving to death and Bella had to go to soccer practice. So I looked through the fridge and found some eggs and 3 hotdogs. What a culinary delight. So I scrambled them and doused them with an appropriate amount of cheese to hide their taste. I also fried the hotdogs in the pan since I was too lazy to boil some water. Then I opened a lovely can of mandarin oranges. What a wonderful dinner (HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). I hate eating stuff I hate! I can barely tolerate scrambled eggs (even with tons of cheese). They just gross me out for some reason. And hotdogs are everyone's dream meat. So after soccer we went to the grocery store where Emma was in rare form. She was happy but yelling up and down the aisles, trying to take stuff off of the shelves and put in the cart, stopping to look at EVERYTHING (I couldn't put her in the cart tonight...it was a no cart night according to her). Bella was doing her bouncy nonstop movement thing with a few twirls here and there at the same time looking like a drowned rat as she had poured water over herself right after soccer. I'm sure I make any of my patients feel better when they see me in the store..."oh there is that bad parent pediatrician with her out of control nut ball children....see honey, are kids aren't so bad". So anyway, we now have some food. And since I'm starving from my one hotdog and mandarin orange dinner (I only had a few bites of eggs, couldn't take it tonight) I am going to go have a snack.

My day off

Emma and I had a good today. We started the day off with a bike ride. We went to the near by county park--there are some very large hills there! Good work-out. Bella was at school today so she did not get to enjoy my day off. Emma and I went to the mall with a friend and had lunch, did a little shopping. My friend has been wooed by my sweet Emma and felt the urge to buy her a bear at the build a bear workshop. Emma seems to really love this bear...here she is tonight, sitting on her bed with it saying "Cheese!" After we picked up Bella we went to the "big castle" which is a large playground at a nearby elementary school. The girls enjoyed running around and climbing on things. That is about the extent of my excitement today....back to the same old thing tomorrow.

I'm not working tomorrow!

And I am very excited about it. I like my job and all, but a day off is a wonderful thing! I'm not going to do too much. Going out to eat with a friend for lunch, do some shopping maybe. Buy some things I probably don't need. =)

The first picture is of Bella yesterday getting on the school bus...first day of school. I used my magnificant zoom lense. I was standing on the porch which is quite a ways back from the road. Pretty neat {i think that is}. The second of course is Emma. She loves to say cheese when you take her picture. This also was taken yesterday. Emma is patiently waiting until she can one day also ride the bus to school.

First day of school

A picture of me....a rare event! Here is my lovely Bella today, the first day of 1st grade. She was very excited. She had a great day and was full of excitement when she got home. I tried to post a few more pictures, but it is not cooperating right now....so maybe tomorrow. When we got home we had a message on the answering machine that Bella had won a $20 gift certificate to Borders books from the library for reading this summer. We had talked about how she probably wouldn't win, so she was super excited. I think she had a really great day today!

Okay I think I fixed the comments problem

Apparently I had it set for registered users only. I removed that. Now maybe someone (anyone? anyone?) will comment!

My shelves

Yes...I know this is pretty exciting, but here is a picture of my new shelves. Kent built them for me a few weeks ago in the basement. I'm kind of excited though, because now I have a place to put things. So I started unpacking stuff that has been sitting for quite some time. I also started cleaning the other part of the basement that the girls have been using as a place to fling toys. It tests all my patience as a mother to do that. I found polly pocket pieces mixed with Barbie stuff mixed with light bright stuff mixed with puzzle pieces, monopoly pieces, stuffed animals, dirty underwear and socks (apparently abandoned by their owners for unknown reasons), shoes that have been mysteriously missing for some time, there was a card game in the seats of the couch and a very nice variety of toys under the couch including a full size bath towel. Interesting for sure. And this is after I had asked Bella to clean up the basement. I threatened her to be grounded for the rest of her life if I ever had to do that again. She went into her drama queen routine, "you mean I never get to do anything again? {pout, pout}" School starts tomorrow. Bella is going to be in 1st grade!!! She is very excited. I was thinking of taking some pictures tomorrow AM of the big event (shocking I know....I never take pictures).

I have been told by two people now that they can't leave a comment here no matter what they try. I have no suggestions :(. Perhaps my mother can enlighten us all how she does it (she professes to being completely computer illiterate). Once again, have a lovely day!

Nurse R.

I post this lovely clipping here in honor of the lovely Nurse R. I'm sure she greatly misses the newspaper clippings I used to bring her or tell her about. So that she doesn't get too sad, I will post one here just for her. Hope you are diligently reading these Nurse R! I have a few more that would make Mel Kable proud. I'll post those soon....how exciting (Ha!) Anyway, I have nothing exciting to report. I mowed for 1 hour and 40 minutes today and only got about half the yard done. Maybe I should just give in and buy a riding lawn mower. Adios my friends. Hope you are all having a lovely day.

A public service announcement

Alright you people over the age of 50 (you know who you are). Once again please read this public service announcement and act accordingly. The good doctor has spoken.

Now on to other things. A synopsis of our week. I just came to my attention that school is starting on Monday. For some reason I thought it was two weeks away. Anyway, we went to the store and bought new tennis shoes for Bella. She chose white leather sketchers with purple glittery stuff on them. Very lovely. My dear Emma, who has a serious shoe fettish, also got some tennis shoes. Same things except white and pink. We had dinner in a near by shop where my very astute child Emma noticed there was a Target across the street. She really wanted to go, but amazingly I passed up the opportunity. Last night we went to the grocery store and she asked, "it this Target?" I have trained her well. On Wednesday, my half day off, I used Kent's high powered weed eater to knock down the 4 feet weeds in our front area. Almost finished it before I ran out of string. Looks much better. Mowed weeds are so pretty. Hopefully we will be seeding all the rest that hasn't been done yet.

Two times this week I have seen more patients than my partner!!!!!!!!!! Finally. Hopefully this will continue and I won't go broke next year when I'm off salary. Yet to be seen =(.

Miracles upon miracles, I am still exercising. I am finding this noon thing to be working well. Unless I have those pesky patients interfering with my noon hour =0) I really have no reason other than being lazy not to work out. Usually, I can talk my way out of that one. So even thought I completely dread it as I am driving down the street, I make myself go and after I start I'm okay. Actually enjoying it a wee bit. Well that is all. Have a lovely day.

State Fair

Today we went to the Iowa State Fair. Interesting place. Never going to go on a Sunday again. I hadn't been there since I was very young. As you can see there are interesting food choices. We didn't have any of these. The girls and Kent had corndogs. We walked around a bit, rode the sky glider, saw a man carving strange things with a chain saw, rode some rides, drank some expensive water, saw a few cows and horses and then came home as we couldn't take it anymore. There were SO many people there you could hardly walk. At least the weather was nice and cool. I couldn't imagine if it had been hot. The girls seemed to enjoy themselves. Emma was quite concerned with the fact that some of the horses had been relieving themselves on the pavement. Her exact words several times to these naughty horses, "don't poop on the floor, K?" (that's how she says okay, very cute) followed by "no, no, naughty". She had the index finger wagging while she said it also. Bella was very excited to see the cows and wanted her picture taken with them. She chose a lovely bull. Bella also loved the lemonade stating, " this is the best lemonade ever". That is all for today =).

Midway...starting to get busy. 

Motorcycle chick....she LOVES them! 

Bella and Kent on the sky glider 

Corndog 

Best lemonade ever 

Hmm...yummy? 

Bella with the cow 

A little bit of everything

I would like to publically thank my lovely mother for posting comments on this site. I am glad someone is reading it. You aren't responsible for all 94 hits to the site are you Mom?

I have needed some new black shoes for sometime and I feel like I've been looking for some all summer (at least at Target and Kohls). My favorite black shoes are very old sandles that I just noticed this week had some foam stuffing from the cushioning creeping out the back. I have failed to find some because I have very specific criteria my shoes must meet: I want them relatively flat so that I can walk comfortably all day, they must not have very pointed toes to squish my delicate feet, they must look somewhat dressy with pants and I don't want to have to wear socks. Anyway, until tonight I have failed to find a pair that met my criteria. Tonight I decided to branch out and try a new store. I went to DSW....HOLY CRAP, do they have shoes! Rows and rows of shoes! Very exciting. I bought the above pair, Ann Klein, comfy, somewhat dressy, nice wide toe, flat and most importantly of all, I don't have to wear socks. Yeah!!!! I have new shoes!

I need to vent a bit. Against all advice from my mom I need to speak about my work. Hopefully they will not fire me. I feel like since the moment I have started that I am "rebel". Asking for things that I shouldn't, questioning the "norms". For those that know me well, I really am not a rebel. I am quite content to go with the flow. I guess "the flow" is what is bothering me. It seems like they are really pushing for conformity, we all should do things the same. I'm sorry, medicine is an "art"...not everybody is going to do things the same. Everything is about money. Can't do this, can't do that....it will cost too much. Needs to be approved by 80 committees before we can do that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm sure I will get another look on Monday when I request a new baby scale. I just found out today that our baby scale only measures in quarter pounds. Meaning there is a little over 3 oz that disappear and are rounded to the nearest 1/4 pound. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but in my head I guess it is....especially for the premie babies, poor feeders, etc. Sometimes you bring them in daily to figure out if they are able to grow and that 3 oz that disappears will be important. I'm sure on Monday though I will get an explanation that all the other clinics have the same scale and no one else has ever had a problem with them, they work fine and a new scale would be very costly. Just a guess, I could be wrong...we'll see. Mediocrity SUCKS! Anyway on a happy note, I am otherwise enjoying my job and love the fact that I am rarely on call. Yippee!

Emma continues to be a funny girl. She loves to bring little trinkets in the car when we go somewhere. Needless to say the back seat is filled with the lovely items. Anyway, we were driving somewhere and she dropped one of her prized possessions, she starts crying, asking me to find it. I tell her I can't, I'm driving, that we are going to stop soon and so when I stop the car I will look for it. I hear a very sweet little "okay" and she is quiet very briefly. Then all of a sudden I hear her scream loudly, "mommy, stop the car!" and she continues to repeat that over and over again until we reach our destination. Aren't two year olds fun?

My muscles are very tired

The above photo was taken in Sun Valley, ID in 10/2004 as we hung out with the rich and famous (not really).
My muscles are very sore--all of them. It is kind of nice. I'm enjoying it. Makes me feel like I am accomplishing something. It is nice to lift weights again. I have always enjoyed lifting weights for some reason. I'm wierd like that. I'm really hoping this noon time exercise thing is going to work out. I REALLY did not want to go today, but I dragged myself over there and worked out anyway. I'm meeting with the trainer dude in about a month to see how much progess I've made in loosing my 15 pounds of fat (that's what I need to loose fatwise to get to a nice fit body fat %). That is kind of keeping me motivated so far....I don't like failing when I have someone watching me. By myself....that doesn't seem to bother me as much =).

Old friends 

Old Friends

The picture above is of Bella and our old neighbors in IC, Elizabeth and Abraham. They came over for the day to go to Adventureland and Bella went with them. She had a great time. At home it was hard to make her go to bed, she was so excited. Every five seconds was a new "you know what? you know what?"
I joined a gym. Trying to motivate myself to get into shape again. He did my body fat % and it was not pretty. I have become what I said I never would become....old and out of shape, flabby. He put together a workout plan that I think is doable....just frustrating to be in this situation. Oh well....I guess we'll see.
I love Wednesdays....my afternoon off. It is much needed. Usually I end up getting nothing done, but it is nice to have that option. I went to the gym today for my evaluation, then I went to the scrapbook store and bought more things I truly don't need. Then went to my favorite store--Target. Wednesdays are always costly for me.

Photos can be larger

I just discovered an interesting fact. If you click on any of the pictures on this blog they will become larger. Didn't know that....obviously I'm new to this. You know you are a big nerd when things like that excite you =). The above layout is something I made not too long ago. The bottom 1/4 inch is cut off due to my too small scanner and there is a shadow there that isn't present in real life. Anyway, this is one of the places we visited in our travels last summer. It is near Marsing, ID for those that are interested.

Bella's zucchini

We planted a very small garden this year in the midst of our weeds. We started a bit late and so are now just beginning to see some veggies being ready. When we went to pick out plants, Bella very much wanted to plant a zucchini (not sure why as she won't eat them!). She was very excited today when we picked the one and only zucchini off of her plant. We even had to pose for a picture with it. Today Bella also found a new friend that she named Hoppy. A tiny little toad was her newest pet for a few hours. She was a bit upset ( a few tears were shed) when she let him go, but thought he might be happier with his mom. Emma actually went to the grocery store this afternoon with me and behaved! She walked and helped push the cart. She wore her "pack-pack" (back-pack) the whole time. Pretty cute. She is pretty good at sneaking items into the cart that she wants, fruit snacks, g0-gurt, etc.

Well, my vacation is over. It was a good one. Lots of relaxing and getting some things done that have been put off for awhile. I cleaned out the front room that has no purpose right now, painted the bathroom, etc. Kent built some shelves in the basement that will hold according to him 80 sq feet of stuff. I also ran 8 miles which is 8 miles more that I ran in any previous week in the recent past. Hopefully, I can keep it up. It's back to work tomorrow. Should be a busy day, I had quite a few patients scheduled before I left so that will be good. Bella is going to Adventureland tomorrow with her old friend Abraham from Iowa City. That should be fun for her. Hopefully she won't break her arm this time (the last time they were together we ended up in the ER).

We'll try the bathroom again

The bathroom photos are up! Obviously the first one is the before photo complete with the baby blanket curtain. The next two are the after photos. Now to figure out what to cover the window with..... We didn't do anything exciting today, it is just nice to have that option. I guess I did mow the weeds in my yard. That is always fun. I have been running again. I started 2 days ago. It is very sad the condition which I have let my body slip into. In order to motivate myself, I am supposed to run with my lovely sister on Sept 11 (a 5k race). Not sure how that is going to work. I have made it 2 miles each day but it has been a struggle and I have been running VERY slow (and I've been on a treadmill, running flat with no wind or other outdoor elements)!! I'm obviously probably not going to do well in this race, but my goal would be to run the whole thing and hopefully finish ahead of those walking =).

My bathroom and other uninteresting things

My bathroom is finally painted. Just finished it today. A bit of advice.....It would be wise to paint your bathroom before the toilet, sink, etc are installed if you have any choice. Not the most fun thing I have ever done. The shade is another story....it broke as I was trying to put it up so now I guess we are back to the baby blanket for awhile. Vacation day number three was equally unexciting as #2. We went to Target where we had a repeat performance by E. And then I painted. That's it. Maybe I will have more exciting things to talk about tomorrow. =).

Vacation Day #2

Today was pretty unexciting as far as vacations go. A very exciting happening did take place though.....I caught B. cleaning! First she comes down to tell me she had cleaned her room (she even cleaned the woodwork with a damp rag) and I hadn't even asked nicely even once OR yelled and screamed to get it done. Then....I found her cleaning the bathroom (nice paint job, huh?). Very strange occurrence. Not sure what prompted all that. Today for our exciting vacation we went to the library! How cool is that? The girls got to turn in their reading coupons for the following items: a pencil, eraser, piece of junk toy from a toy chest. We also got free tickets to an Iowa Cubs game next Monday. It seems my nerdiness is rubbing off on B. She picked up the following books at the library: 2 or 3 normal books as well as a book about mummys, fashion of the 20th century, and the strangest one called "Birth" which appears to have a Jewish circumcision ceremony going on on the cover (haven't opened that one yet). She seems especially excited about the mummy book. We then went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch. Our trip out ended with a visit to the grocery store where once again I became very aware of why people beat their kids in public (I didn't do it though!) And to give poor E. some credit, it was her naptime. I am getting some stuff done here at home, the bathroom in that picture now is almost entirely painted and I looking forward to hanging up a real curtain (instead of a baby blanket tucked into the sides--can you believe that has been our curtain for six month?). Maybe tomorrow I will finish. That is all....good night.

Vacation Day #1

The girls and I had a good day on our "vacation" today. We went to the zoo this morning. They seemed to really enjoy it. E. has a love/hate relationship with the snakes. First she started crying when she saw the giant boa constricter and then a few minutes later she wanted to "hold him". We went on the train and even took a camel ride. Tonight we went to some National balloon festival or something. Lots of hot air balloons. They apparently were in some sort of contest where they'd try to come in and knock over some poles, win some money....something. Kind of weird, even had an announcer. Apparently we saw some awesome balloon piloting tonight. I did enjoy using my new camera today. The zoom on the thing is great.