Hey look! I updated!

Helllooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

How's everyone?

I didn't drop off of the face of the earth. The only reason I'm blogging now is because it's 3 AM and I can't sleep. This is starting to become a habit and I think maybe I need to go to a sleep clinic or something.

Either that, or I need to stop eating spicy food and not worry about stuff so much.

So what's new with me? Well, I've started working full-time for a real estate agent. I'm able to work from home, but it's still "office work" so there is not much "fun" computer time anymore. Due to massive teacher cutbacks in our part of the state, I have not been able to secure a teaching position for this coming school year. While I am extremely grateful that I HAVE a job, I must admit that the work is very dull and I find no satisfaction in it whatsoever. Which is completely opposite from what I am used to with teaching. When teaching, there are ample opportunities for creativity, spontaneity, and the knowledge that what you are doing truly matters.

I push paperwork. Not so much room for creativity there. Maybe I can come up with some special color-coding system that varies by day to keep things interesting.

Also with teaching, you're pretty much left alone to do your job the way you think is best. You are observed a few times a year and there are of course policies and procedures you must follow, but your day-to-day stuff is just YOU in your classroom and you are in charge of it.

Now I'm somebody else's assistant. It's been humbling.

I really don't mean to complain, just need to vent a little bit. This is the only place where I have retained SOME anonymity. My boss is my "friend" on facebook, and our office has a twitter account, and ever so foolishly, I set up the office account to follow my personal twitter account. I regret that decision now.

I can't complain to Hubby because I know how much we need this 2nd income, and it kills him that we need it. He knows how much I want to be a stay at home mom. I want to stay cheerful around him about it.

Which leaves this blog the only place I can rant a little bit.

Thank you.

That's My Peanut

*Note: I will be employing some creative spelling throughout this post, so as to discourage visits from unscrupulous individuals. That is all.*

It is not, evidently, only grown men who are fascinated with their reproduhuctif orginn. My son, two and a half years old, has often found Mr. Winky to be a source of amusement. (Any of you mothers who have boys can surely attest to this fact. It's a great bath toy- you can squeeze it, pull it, make splashes with it, and if you're REALLY lucky, you can make liquid come out of it into the bathtub and make Mommy squirm because she just cleaned the bathtub this morning.)

Anyhoo. A few days ago while I was changing his diaper, he grasped himself (which is not unusual) and asked very matter-of-factly, "What's THAT?" (Up until now, he was quite happy with the mere existence of it. Never before had he inquired as to the appropriate word to use when referring to it.)

Because I try so very, very hard to be grown-up and mature about such things, I very matter-of-factly informed him, "That is your pea-niss."

This new information delighted my son. When he has new information, he enjoys proclaiming it loudly. A shout arose. (This is not "creative spelling," this is what he actually said.) "THAT'S RIGHT! THAT'S MY PEANUT!"

I, of course, just about fell down laughing. This only made it worse, because next to loudly proclaiming new information, his favorite thing in life is to make people (particularly me) laugh. So of course, every time he has a diaper change, he starts yelling, "My PEANUT! MY PEANUT!!!!"

This evening, he was sitting in my husband's lap watching TV and drinking milk out of a sippy cup. He squirmed a little bit, accidently kicking my husband in the "peanut." My husband made a sound expressing discomfort, and Kiddo laughed. My husband said, "No son, that's not funny."

Because I have such a highly developed and sophisticated sense of humor, I said, "Sweetie, you hurt Daddy's peanut." My sweet little boy, having learned that when he is hurt he will get a kiss, feels sympathy for my husband and wants to make Daddy feel better.

I have never seen my husband twist himself up in such a formation before.

It was highly entertaining.

Photo Contest: Faces

This is my entry for A Cowboy's Wife photography contest: Faces.

My son Chris was eating some ice cream and was just looking so cute, I had to snap some photos of him! I did some minor post-processing on this, a little color adjustment and I added some edge vignetting.

Do you have a great photo of someone's face? Join in the contest!

The Wrong Doily

Hello! How's everyone? Wow, it's been a MONTH since I've updated!! Here's what's been going on.

I am working full-time at a local bakery/cafe which sells bagels, pastries, sandwiches, salads, and soups. I go in every morning at 5 am. Yes, you read that correctly. 5:00 in the morning. Dark and early! My duties include setting up the bakery window so that all the pastries look too good to actually EAT (before I worked here, I thought the display pastries were fakes!! Little did I know...) fill the bagel baskets, arrange the bread on the shelves, make orange juice cups, fruit cups, and yogurt parfaits, and most importantly, ensure that everything is on the correct doily.

Yes, there is such a thing as the wrong doily. As I found out when I tried to put the wrong doilie underneath the Caramel Brownies. There's also such a thing as too many doilies. Those things stick together like the dickens. Pain in the rear ends, they are, especially when you're wearing gloves to keep the pastries sanitary and you can't feel if you have 1 or 17 doilies all stuck together. Heaven forbid you get CAUGHT placing more than one doily on a basket or tray, because then you are RAISING! OVERHEAD! EXPENSES!

Anyhoo. I go in at 5 am, I leave between 11-noon, pick up Kiddo from daycare, we have lunch, sometimes go for a swim, then it's naptime for BOTH of us. So while it stinks that I have to go to work so early, it's GREAT that I get to spend most of the day with Kiddo and that I get to take naps again! I love naps. Especially when I have only gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before because my body is not yet accustomed to rising at 4 am, necessitating an earlier bedtime. I require "allergy medication" to help me fall asleep at night, and then coffee in the morning and throughout the day is ESSENTIAL to maintain the eyes-keeping-open-thing. So now I'm the cliche druggie cashier. Better hope I don't spit on your cherry danish. Hah.

Anxiously awaiting school to start again so I can go back to being the evil substitute teacher that sends kids to the office for looking at me wrong. By the way, one of those kids came into my bakery/cafe and ordered a cherry danish. On a day when I had only gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before.

Then and Now

April 2008: 1 1/2 years old. We just moved into our house, and for the first time, you had a backyard to play in! Once you discovered how much freedom you had, there was no stopping you. Running, jumping, climbing, hopping, any kind of motion is what you loved. You haven't been still since.

April 2009: 2 1/2 years old. You are now speaking in full sentences. Your favorite movies are "101 Dalmatians" and "Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius." They are the only two things in the world that you will sit still for. You are so tall, everyone thinks I'm lying when I tell them you're still only 2 years old. You've figured out that if Mommy starts counting to 3, you'd better do what she says or you'll get a smack. You've also figured out that if Mommy tells you that you have to go to your room for a time out, that if you immediately give her a hug and a kiss she will soften up and let you off the hook.

Don't grow up too fast, sweetheart. Let me hold on to these moments forever.

A Bunch of Stuff

Wow, it's been awhile since I've updated! Thank goodness for Twitter, otherwise I would have no idea what is going on with all of you. Here is a Bunch of Stuff for you to read and comment on.

Bunch of Stuff #1

I gave up. We put the crib back together. Months ago, Kiddo learned how to climb out of it so we figured we'd convert his crib to a toddler bed. For months, he has chosen to sleep on the floor. Along with that choice came the realization that nothing was or could keep him in bed, so he will play for hours, getting more and more tired, more and more overstimulated, until he doesn't know what to do with himself. It is making us exhausted as well. Last night, I had Hubby put the crib back together. After about 15 minutes of screaming, Kiddo finally went to sleep. Maybe he just wasn't ready to make the transition. I'd certainly appreciate any insight into this. How old were your kids when they switched from crib to toddler bed? Any tricks to help keep him in his bed? Short of removing all of his toys from his bedroom or putting him to sleep in the guest room (which, while empty of any "toys" is full of interesting and various things for him to make mischief with,) I've run out of ideas. This is going to become a problem quickly because of...

Bunch of Stuff #2

Most of you know that I am a substitute teacher. I often tweet about what my students are doing. However, school will be out soon (end of May for us here in Florida,) and I would need to find something else for the summer anyhow. I went ahead and got started looking, and starting in May, I will be the receptionist for LA Fitness. The early morning shift. 5 AM. Super early. (Do people actually go work out at 5 AM? I guess I'll find out.) Anyhoo. Hubby sometimes loses patience faster than I when it comes to Kiddo's sleeping habits. I will be going to bed at 8:30 in order to be up by 4 am, so it would be REALLY great if we could get Kiddo into a better bedtime routine since Hubby will be handling it himself. (Prior to the "big boy bed" we had a fairly good bedtime routine established for 9 pm. That's what worked best for our family.)

Bunch of Stuff #3 "A Really Expensive Trip To the Beach"

A few weeks ago, we decided to go to the beach with some friends. Very spur-of-the-moment. The beach is a little over a half-hour drive. We didn't bring much in the way of drinks or snacks, since usually beach trips with Kiddo don't last more than an hour. On our way, our friends call us and ask if we can bring some "adult beverages." We COULD have turned around and gone home, since we have some in the fridge. We COULD have filled up our own cooler with ice, drinks, and grabbed some snacks on the way. But we didn't. We pulled into a 7-11, and purchased grown-up beverages, snacks, a styrofoam cooler, and ice. Added up to nearly $40. !!! We arrive at the beach. It's crowded because our beach is a prime location for collegiate spring-breakers from up north. Hubby drops me off to find our friends while he drives around to find a parking space. In the process, he does something unpleasant to my gear shifter and the head breaks off. $165 dollar repair plus 3 hours in the waiting room. Oh, and the parking meter expired so we got a $25 parking ticket.

So what was supposed to be a quick trip to the beach ended up costing me $230. Gah.

Bunch of Stuff #4

This is a good one. My uncle was diagnosed with colon cancer, and it spread to his liver. He has been undergoing chemotherapy, and after his last scan, it was discovered that he is COMPLETELY CANCER FREE!!! Hallelujah!


That is all for now. Have a lovely day!

Photo Shoot: Color

Just playing around in my backyard before doing a photo shoot for a friend's son.



Oh, in case you're interested, I've started another blog which will be for my photography. You can find it at:

http://jenniferleephotos.blogspot.com