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You Might Be A Redneck If..

You know what this machine is!

Oh yes folks, it is a food dehydrator.

We got it as a wedding present, three and a half years ago. I really was thinking that Josh had forgotten about it, as it was tucked away in a corner of the garage. Every now and again, he gets on a kick and says he's going to make beef jerky. I never believe him, b.c he's never actually done it.

I come downstairs last night after bathing, playing, feeding (oh, and drugging) Eileen. I smell this smell. I was thinking, what is that?? Is someone grilling out and the smell has entered our house (even tho all the windows are shut)? As I come further down the stairs, the smell is stronger and stronger. At first it was sort of an OK smell. And then it was just overpowering. And then I made my way into the kitchen. And there it is. The machine had made its way into the house, and was humming away. And permeating the whole house with this very-sweet-very-spicy-very-beef-y scent.

Now, keep in mind- I had cleaned the whole house earlier. Everything smelled nice and citrus-y (thanks to citrus febreeze, wet swiffer, and plegde!). Nothing beats a nice fresh house on a relaxing Sunday evening. Only now I had a nice, powerfully beef jerky-ish house.

"Mmmmmm... honey? So, how long does this thing stay on?" WRONG question. Who wants to take a guess at the answer? How about six to eight hours. As in, we're going to go to sleep with that thing on and it will really make its way into every nook and cranny of our house. I oh so sweetly replied with, "Hmm. Oh wow. OK, well.. how about next time you decide to do this little activity, do it in the garage or the back deck?" I think I should get an award for how I managed to contain myself and let dear hubby enjoy his activity.

You know when you go to a place that is all smoky? and when you come out you feel like you just reek? (especially if you're a girl with long hair). Yeah. I swear that this morning at the gym when I was sweating it smelled like beef jerky. I swear that even now after a shower and a heavy dose of perfume, I smell like beef jerky.

So, not only did he make beef jerky, he made it insanely hot. Want to know what he put in it?
1) crushed red pepper
2) tobasco (an ode to Wayne)
3) black pepper
4) whatever spcices were in the little packet that came with it

Yeah, I won't be touching that with a 10-foot pole.

In his defense, he really had no idea it would smell so strongly. And he did say that he wants to try to do pineapple next. Now that I may allow to be done inside, b.c that will actually probably smell really good.

Ya gotta love Josh. He's just such a big kid, he really had fun with this. But ewwwwww.

Moving on.. I know you're really only reading this for updates on Eileen. We had one of those weekends where we just didn't stop. She is a trouper and just goes with the flow. By Sunday afternoon tho she was over it and just sort of fussy. We were supposed to go to her friend's first bday party! I was pumped to go b.c I was excited about the first little buddy party. But we ended up not going, I don't think Eileen would have been much fun!

Josh got the gate installed and the 'banister guard' attached. Now Eileen can crawl around the entire 2nd floor, and she loves it. She's hilarious. I will take her up to her room, put her down. She'll sit there for a minute and look around, and then she bolts. She heads straight to the bonus room. Yep, she knows her toys are there!

Last night I 'tested' the Baby Benadryl. Gave it to her at 7:40 last night and this morning she was still a little groggy. And that was just from 1/4 teaspoon! So, I won't give it to her on the plane unless she's really having a hard time.

Sorry I don't have many pictures of her to post. We were so busy we didn't take many. I'll take some this week!

BFF

Gracie likes Eileen more and more every day.
Check out the little lady here..
in the first shot, she's eating her Gerber Cruncher.
in the second shot, you see her face? "Who me?!?!" as she oh so slyly slips Gracie what is left of her Cruncher.
And there you see in the third shot, Gracie chomping away on that Cruncher!


This has become a nightly ritual. It's not like Eileen just happens to dangle her little hand over the edge of her chair and Gracie gobbles up what is there. No, Eileen consciously looks for Gracie and then shares her loot with the dog! Daddy of course was mortified that Eileen let Gracie lick her food and then would take another bite. But seeing as how half the time Gracie is licking Eileen's mouth, really, how bad can it be that they're sharing food?!?!?

When Gracie sees or hears the high chair being moved 'into position' for a meal, she immediately assumes her position right next to Eileen. Hilarious.

It became evident last night that Eileen had spent the entire day at school practicing her crawling. She's like a speeding bullet. I can barely contain her to get her undressed for her bath.
Last night once I got her stripped down, I let her crawl around her room while I got the tub ready. Have you ever seen a naked little baby butt scooting around? I don't think there can be anything cuter! So I stick my head out from the bathroom to make sure she's OK, and she's just all over the place. Then she turns around, sees that I am watching, and just giggles. So I got down on my hands and knees and started crawling. She made a beeline for the ottoman and hid behind it. She'd stick her little head out and look for me and just laugh and laugh. And then the naked little butt would scoot on to her next victim, which is the toybox. She likes to open and close the lid.

Gracie is just not sure what to think about the fact that Eileen can move around at will. She just watches her in fascination, then kind of walks along beside her sniffing her head. Part of me thinks Gracie wants to make sure Eileen doesn't get hurt or try to go somewhere 'bad.' And part of me thinks Gracie just can't figure out what the heck Eileen is all about and just follows her around trying to solve the mystery. Either way, it's quite cute.

Happy Wednesday!

Good Mommy!

This weekend I took so many pictures that I am making two blog entries! this is part one, and I'll continue it in the entry below.. :)

It was a great weekend. There was nothing spectacular that we did, but everything we did was fun. Oh, and teh weather- to die for. The mornings were so cool we actually opened the windows. In July. In Tennessee. I'm not sure that's ever happened! It's funny... those mornings had the feel of a Football Morning. Which made me get super excited for football and the fall. I do love the fall. But I LOVE LOVE LOVE the summer. Definite mixed emotions b.c I don't want summer to end but I can't wait for football and getting Eileen into this. Ok, anyway .. I am rambling.

I left work early Friday to head to a local consignment sale for kids. I have not been to it before, but it is held every year and I always hear what a good deal it is. Since Eileen has not a single thing to wear when it does start to get chilly, I figured I might as well check it out. Oiy!!! Jack-Pot. I could not believe all the clothes. From newborn up to tween. Clothes, toys, supplies - all there. I got there at 3ish, and there was still loads to pick from. I can't imagine how good it must have been at 9 that morning! So I walked out having spent right at a hundred bucks - with thirty-two items. And most of those were sets! So you do the math. Even if she wears somethng only once before she grows out of it, it didn't cost me more than $3-4!!! And this was all good stuff.. Gymboree and Baby Gap and Children's Place. So cute. So fun.

So, she's crawling like crazy- and she's also figured out how to clap! She loves it. That's what she's doing in the first picture on this post. So, she's majorly mobile, and immensely curious. Not a good combination for our not really baby-proof house. She's currently fascinated by the shredder and the garbage can (hey, it is the Beemer of garbage cans). So, the pak-n-play is permanently in place downstairs. And I stick her in it for as long as I can get away with. Right now she loves it. As long as Pooh is nearby, she's a happy camper. I think Gracie feels sorry for her!

Saturday afternoon we headed over to Josh's office. His friend Andrew is a professional photographer, and they have a studio at the office! So Andrew did a full on photoshoot for us! Eileen is such a ham! At first, she was scared of Andrew and the lights. She wanted nothing to do with being in the middle of that floor and him taking her picture. As soon as I got down there with her (and I was not in photo shoot attire, so hopefully I am not in too many shots!) she did better. And then when she warmed up to him, well, what a little show off she is! She crawled around, laughed, smiled huge. We had some of her toys in the shots with her (Pooh, of course) and she just had a blast. We even had an outfit change in the middle of it. She ate it up. I can't wait to see those shots!

We spent the afternoon running errands - I was a happy girl to get my copy of Harry Potter- tho I haven't started to read it yet! We were supposed to go to dinner for Daddy's bday, but it was so late when we got back from errands, and the little lady was just worn out (all that performing in her photo shoot!) so we just got take-out and hung out at home. Truth be told, Mommy and Daddy were both pretty beat too.. we probably had more fun hanging out at home in our PJs than we would have at a restaurant!

For the rest of the update.. check out the post below... along with some hilarious pictures!

She has her cake and eats it too!!!!

I don't recall my first experience with chocolate, but I can only hope it was as fun as Eileen's! We had chocolate cake with chocolate icing for Josh's bday.. and Eileen got to join the fun!!! As you can see in this first shot, she's eyeing that cake, isn't she?!?!



Aunt Sissy had come over for the afternoon and got to hang out for a while.. she also had little Howard with her. I know Gracie is mellowed out; she wasn't even phased by the fact that another dog was in her house! And then Uncle David came over, and we all grilled out some burgers and veggies.



And then we had cake. I'm actually not sure how much of it she ate. She really just wore it! She did it the blob of ice cream, and I did feed her two bites of cake. Other than that, she really just smeared the chocolate around and licked her hands. You can imagine the bath! I carried her upstairs at an arm's length- which she thought was hilarious- and plopped her in. Chocolate in her hair, up her nose, on her legs, all over her butt! (not her actual butt - it was on her shorts- but still!) I let her soak for quite some time. (tho this morning I found more chocolate that was under her little fingernail!)


It was a blast.



Poor Josh spent most of his birthday doing Daddy chores! He defrosted the freezer, washed the car, adjusted the car seat, grilled the burgers, and put together a new shelf we got! But I think he had fun. And I'm loving the cleaned out freezer.



Oh, and at church on Sunday morning, Eileen of course was a complete crack up. We sit in the front row, I don't know how the priest manages to get thru Mass. She's insanely well-behaved, but she's still hilarious. She likes to dance during some of the songs. She stands on the front pew with her fat little feet going to town. During the final blessing, she decided to blow raspberries at the lady behind us, which cracked the poor woman up. And during the middle of the Mass she is just fascinated to watch the priest, and at times, she just waves at him. If it were me up there I'd probably lose it.



I guess that's about it from us. It was a fun weekend.. glorious weather and a lot of fun times just hanging out with baby.

Happy Monday!

lots of updated pictures:
www.eileenloebner.shutterfly.com

She did it!

Yep.. this morning she crawled! Not very fast and not very far. But she legitimately was up on all floors and went about three feet. Heck, she probably practiced all day at school and is by now an expert.

I saw her get 'in the position' and so I put her ball and my bracelet (which she is obsessed with) about 10 feet in front of her. Then I sat there and patted the floor and said "Cmon! come to Mommy!" Yes folks. I treated my daughter like a dog. But it worked! She was on a mission for that bracelet and she got it. I promptly took it away and repeated the whole process, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. nope, she did it again. We are definitely getting those gates TONIGHT!

As you can see, we finally got some batteries for the camera so I could take pictures. We joined the current century and got rechargeables. At the little battery display, they had it nicely broken out for behind the times consumers like myself:

infrequent picture takers (10-20 pics a month) = normal old school black and gold batteries

moderate picture takers (20-80 pics a month)= old school batteries that have been spruced up and are now silver and blue and evidently have more power

frequent picture takers (80+ pictures a month)= the rechargeable kind - which have come down a ton in price.

What I want to know is where is the obsessive mommy section? I take pictures of everything the child does. (she's going to hate me when she develops a sense of modesty!).

Anyway.. it's almost Friday. It's been a wild week. Looking forward to not too many commitments this weekend! one thing I MUST do is to make Dadddy a cake. He'll be 34 on Sunday!!! He's been diligently doing WW with me, but we'll let ourselves splurge for his big day.

I'm heading out now to go get the troops (Thursdays are the day I don the head wrap and yellow cab. I get Josh, then Eileen, then the dog and then finally we're home.) I hear it's raining in parts of town, I pray it is at our house. Twice this week it has POURED at my office- which is all of 3 miles or so from our house- and at our house it has stayed bone dry. So annoying.

See you later!

Bad Mommy

I did not take a single picture this weekend! I feel like a terrible mommy! and then,last night when I realized we'd taken no pictures, the camera had dead batteries and we had no new ones!

So, since I haven't blogged in a week, I decided I'd check in and update our goings on.. and for fun I dug up some old pics. Always amazes me to see how different she's looked over the past ten mos. Yup. She'll be 10mos old on Saturday.

We have actually had a pretty quiet week/weekend. Mommy and Daddy actually had a date on Saturday night! Aunt Sissy and Uncle David came over. Josh and I headed out to see Harry Potter - I completely loved it. This one and the first movie are my favorites. The new book comes out Saturday - can't wait! Eileen was very good for her Aunt and Uncle until it was time for bed. According to Aunt Sissy, Eileen became the devil child ! She screamed and kicked and just majorly protested the fact that Mommy was not there to put her to bed. Eventually Sissy just put her in teh crib and let her cry it out. We need to get out more often so she can be OK with babysistters putting her down!

We hit Babies R Us on Saturday. It's the hot spot in town! We ran into three people we knew. We were there getting some babyproofing stuff. Yep, it's that time! She's still not full-on crawling, but the girl can scoot at the speed of light. And she knows how to open cabinets and drawers! So we picked up some of the little latches and the plug covers for our outlets. And we picked out the baby gates we'll have at the top and bottom of the stairs. We'll get those this week as we have a nice coupon that starts today! One of the folks we ran into was Owen's dad. Owen is Eileen's buddy at school. Owen is crawling- and standing- like a maniac! His dad was there buying another gate for their house so they can pen him in! It makes me see that there truly is a difference between boy energy levels and girl energy levels- Eileen is active, but not at all compared to Owen! Whew.

Not too much else to tell. It was a pretty quiet weekend.. we just hung out and ran errands and cleaned house.

We'll try to have some excitement in our lives so we have more to write about. I'll at the very least get myself some batteries so I can take pictures!

so many pictures...

I don't have anything to write on this posting.. it's all in the one below.. I just had to create this posting to show off some more pics. So jump down to the one below this one to catch up!

Wedding Gowns & Tuxedos: For Rent

Is anyone else as amused by this sign as I was? We spent Thursday in Gatlinburg. We spent most of the day in the aquarium- which was so fun! Grandma Joyce came and met us, and we all wandered around and watched the fishes and sharks. Eileen of course didn't have a clue what she was seeing,but she was fascinated by all the water and waterfalls and moving objects. And of course the people. She was fascinated by some of the scary people out there. Some really LARGE people. Lots of people with scary hair, and even some with very few teeth. Oh, and LOTS of smokers. Perhaps I've been in a bubble lately, but I really had no idea how many people out there still smoke! And the fashion statements. Have these people looked at a magazine in the past 5 years?? One does not need to have very much money in order to look somewhat like you belong in this decade. Heck, even WalMart has been known to carry a pretty current shirt now and again!

But I digress.. back to the sign. After the fun at the Aquarium, Grandma headed home and Josh, Eileen and I strolled the (mostly) cute streets of Gatlinburg. And then we saw this sign, and it stopped me in my tracks. I was D Y I N G to go stand under it and get my picture made - but a very scary looking man- perhaps Christopher himself- was standing in the doorway. I didn't dare offend the man. So the random shot of the sign had to suffice. Oh- and as for this posting's title- yep - just down the block from the resort wear was the store where you could rent yourself a niiiice wedding gown. I'm willing to bet my life those gowns are straight from 1982.
ANYWAY.. we have had a fantastic little mini-vacation. We haven't been at work since Tuesday (yeah.. Monday morning is so not going to be fun).

We had friends over on Wed and we cooked out some burgers and hot dogs. We didn't hit any fireworks displays this year.. Eileen is still too young to care, and Gracie flips out when she hears the neighbors shooting them off- so I am in no rush to leave her in the house alone on July 4.

Thursday we headed to GBurg - despite my diva rants above - we really had a blast there. I see lots more day trips there as Miss Thang gets older. Far enough away to be an 'adventure' - but close enough to be spur of the moment and not involve hotels. And of course it was fun to hang out with Grandma Joyce. I think she was having a pretty good time running around the aquarium with her little granddaughter!

Friday was niiiice,.. we were lazy in the morning.. then ran some errands.. and then hit the pool. AHHH. We actually checked Eileen into KidCity (the daycare at the gym) and Mommy and Daddy soaked up some sun alone for a little while. Then we went and got her out and brought her with us. She had a blast. I dunked her in almost all the way (up to her eyes) - Josh was flipping out b.c I think he actually thought I would drown her. Eileen, on the other hand, was laughing her little head off. She loved it. When we got home, we attempted to finger paint. I had a blast with it. Eileen wasn't reallt too interested, she just wanted to eat the papertowel.
Saturday...anotoher lazy morning! (it's all relative.. at this point a lazy morning is staying in bed until 7:00!!!) We ran a load of errands. Finally got some more frames, and after 3.5 years of marriage - we hung some of our professional wedding pics! C'mon now, who's impressed????

We hit the bookstore. Finally after almost 10months I am able to find small snippets of time where I get to read books (just in time for the almost released Harry Potter!). So there I am in the front of the store checking out the new releases... me with Eileen in the big pink stroller.. Josh had run off to the back of the store.. and she did it again! Stuck that adorable little hand out and just dragged it across the books. SPLAT. There went several books- at least they were paperback and probably really didn't make that much noise- but I of course felt like everyone was staring at me and my wild child. You'd think I'd learn to not let her get within reach of anything! I thikn I was just so excited to be in the bookstore I just didn't think about it. Anyway.. then we headed back to the children's section where I let her out of the stroller and she headed straight to the Sandra Boynton books. She loves those. At least in that part of the store she can wreak havoc (OK, I am exaggerating. She is only 9.5mos old and still not truly mobile- she can't cause that much havoc!) as much as she wants. We got her a couple of books.

Then we sat in the little coffee section where I indulged in an ice coffee (YUM) and attempted to feed Eileen some carrots. She did a pretty good job of eating politely in public until she was almost done. Then she found it insanely amsuing to laugh loudly and with a mouthful of pureed carrots and then blow them on me! (in my white shirt!). Se really is a nut.

And today.. ho hum.. back to the real world. Laundry and more laundry. Cleaning house. making lunches. Making bottles for school tomorrow. I hope she does OK. She's been with us for five days..I am not expecting he to be too happy with us when we drop her off! Oh, but today.. she is getting to be such a big girl! I handed her the sippy cup and expected the normal excited reaction from her and then the instant turn it upside down and chew on the bottom. But nope. She actually put it in her mouth and drank out of it! And she did it again and again. She finally seems to have figured it out. Makes me a happy girl.. she's only got a few weeks left before she comes off the bottle (and the insanely pricey formula! whew!). And you know what else? She's starting to say words. OK, they aren't real clear. But they're there. She sees Gracie and says "Gassssseeeee" . When Aunt Sissy was here today, Eileen would say 'Sssss-ssss" - all 's' sounds but in two distinct syllables. She definitely is grasping the concept of repeating what we say - at least something that somewhat resembles what we say!

Whew. that was a long one. I hope you guys are still with me after that long-winded post! Happy Sunday night.

How'd we get a TODDLER?

We had a fun weekend!

Can't say we did anything mind-blowing.. we just ran errands and hung out. But somehow it was one of those weekends that seemed to last longer than 2 days, and we didn't have to be anywhere at any time, and we got to just play with Eileen. And now it's a 2day week for us! We are just working today and tomorrow, and we're off Wed for the 4th.. and then we took of Th/Fr. So a niiiiiiiiiice 5day weekend lies ahead.

Two things of note:

1) she laughs her butt off when I tell her "NO!" and point at her. Obviously she doesn't know right from wrong and doesn't do anything truly bad (yet!). We went to eat on Saturday night and she kept throwing the (cardboard) coasters on the floor. So I would try to tell her no (I want her to learn it!) and for whatever reason, it just cracked her up. Which then of course made me laugh, which will get me nowhere in trying to be firm with her!

2) we discovered what an impact something as minor as a new pair of 'big girl' pjs can make. She's far outgrown her sleepsack, she's just too long. So then we had her just sleeping in her little white (redneck!) onesies. But then she'd sometimes be a little chilly in that. So we decided to get her some lightweight pjs. The first shock was that I had to move to the toddler section at Babies R Us. I am used to looking in the baby section, but most of those clothes stop at 9mos. There is some 12mos stuff there, but most of that is actually too small for her. So it was somewhat shocking to be in the 'old' section of clothes. So I found a very cute little Carters set for $10, a little tee-shirt and leggings. When we put them on her that night, for whatever reason, she suddenly looked so much older. I don't know why those clothes had that effect! Weird, huh?

Oh, and while at Babies R Us, I found the pink camo. I can't find a picture of it online, but Josh is in love with it. It doesn't look as bad as it sounds, it's actually pretty cute. We got a load of coupons, so when those go into effect we'll go back and outfit her!

We also got her this cool mat. We put it together and part of it is on the back deck and the other part is upstairs. Love having it outside so she can scoot around on the deck and not get splinters!

Not too too much else to tell. Happy 4th!

heehee

I just had to post this picture. It cracks me up. Took it this morning. Her outfit is just too much. She looks SO BIG in her tee-shirt and skirt. She LOVES to stand up and move around. It's like she's so proud of herself and her big girl clothes.

oh, and sidebar: the skirt is size 18 month. Keep in mind, she's only 9 months! Granted, this one is a Tar-Jay outfit, and their stuff tends to run small. When I buy her 'name brand' stuff like Gymboree, it tends to run a little more true to age.

Not much else to tell. Just wanted to share the latest munchkin pic!

WASABI.............

The girl grabs at everything! Grandpa and Beanie were here over the weekend. We went to dinner on Saturday night... ordered the Seared Ahi Tuna for an appetizer.. the waitress put it on the table and in a split second little Missy had smashed her pudgy little hand right into that green blob of wasabi! Luckily I have developed Super Fast Mommy Reflexes and I was able to grab her before she stuck her fingers in her mouth (and Beanie has the super fast Nana reflexes b.c she handed me a water-soaked napkin within .2 seconds!). That little crisis was averted. The rest of the meal was spent with the adults cowering over their food and drinks at one end of the booth while Eileen stretched and stretched to get at anything on that table! She almost has success with Granpa's Manhattan, but we got that away from her as well. Our poor waitress got a lesson in serving patrons with toddlers. Despite the acrobatic antics of Eileen, she was insanely well-behaved. She hadn't even had her afternoon nap, yet she was good as gold. Just hung out and took in all the action. Oh, and she attempted to eat the crayons and coloring page supplied to her by the hostess (see picture 3rd down).


Before our little dinner adventure..we had plenty of other activities! Aunt Sissy and Uncle David were babysitting Caroline and Jackson for the weekend. Jackson is 8 weeks younger than Eileen, yet he weighs three pounds more and he's crawling! Eileen is almost there, but not yet. She had a blast playing in his pimped out exersaucer, and she also had a blast smacking at him when he was in it. I think she thinks other babies are like her baby doll at home (which she constanly smacks and pokes in the eye!) I wonder if she does that to her buddies at school? Anyway, Jackson was a real man and ignored her smacks (OK, they weren't smacks.. more like those little love pats babies do). I see she and Jackson being great pals!


She spent lots of time hanging out with Granpa and Beanie. She always has fun with them. She's fascinated by Grandpa. She just stares at him and then giggles!

She did not sleep well the latter part of last week or over the weekend. Ever since that doctor's appt she's been out of whack. We tried to let her cry it out both Friday and Saturday- but she was screaming bloody murder. Afetr 15 minutes on Saturday (this was after she'd been so good at the restaraunt!) I went up to get her. Poor girl was literally sweating bc she'd worked herself into such a tizzy. After several attempts at getting her to calm down and sleep in her crib, one set of exhausted parents gave in and brouhgt her to bed with us. I think she was just overtired. Even in our bed she had a hard time calming down. Once she did, she slept fine. By Sunday night she did a little better, and last night- one little wake-up at midnight, and other than that she was out for the night. Fingers crossed we're back on the road to the good sleep patterns she usually has!

She seems to be adjusting to her new class - finally. Yesterday and today when we dropped her off, there were no tears. She actually reached for Miss Mary. So that's certainly comforting.

Got this picrure of she and Daddy yesterday morning.. she's giving him a big hug. How cute is that?! Every day we think we can't love her any more and every day our hearts just about explode as they get bigger and bigger to make room for more love. You could just eat her up!

Looking forward to a (hopefully) quiet week and weekend. Then next week it's July 4 (I can't believe it's already about to be July 4!)

new pics at shutterfly!