Hi, my name is Christi. This is my first blog post, and I'm a little new to all of this....

Okay, well, that's the way it feels at least!

Can I say, I've had a LONGGGGG week! Great news: Taryn's got her first two teeth! We went to Old McDonald's the other day for TJ to play, and she was chowing down on a french fry. She choked a little, and when I went to get the big chunk out of her mouth, viola! How exciting! I keep trying to take a picture of them, but no such luck yet.

Starting Tuesday, I'm going to be watching a new little baby that's two days older than Taryn. Add that to MJ, whom I've been watching, a new little girl who's a month younger than MJ...oh, and my kids! Thankfully, those jam-packed days are only Tues. and Thurs., b/c if it were everyday, I might really go crazy! I'm looking forward to watching him, though, b/c his mom said he just started sitting up. I can't wait to see how quickly he starts to learn stuff now that he'll be around all the big kids that can already walk and crawl and the like. I'm very sure that he'll jump start the whole getting on the move thing!

Got my family pics back, and now I can't figure out where to put them! It's probably not a good thing that I haven't even done anything with the ones we took last year! That's my goal for Wed. of this week is to put pics in frames, finally....I need to actually print out some pics of Taryn, too. You should see all the pictures I've finally put out in the living room and everywhere. They're all of TJ. I must look like I don't care at all about Taryn! I swear it's just b/c I haven't had time to switch them yet! I swear! I DO LOVE TARYN!!!!!

Well, today we are driving to Chas. to drop off Trey's dad and sister for a cruise. I wish I were staying longer, but we'll be there long enough to eat and maybe hang out an hour or two, then head back. Oh well...it'll be nice to at least talk to other adults for a bit, though...

Sorry I haven't been around lately. I'm trying desperately to get a routine down, but everytime I try, it seems I lose more time! Go figure! One day I'll get it down! I hope you have a great day, and I'll see you soon!

I knew I wasn't pregnant. I mean, don't get me wrong, the way I was feeling, I seriously thought it was possible, b/c that's exactly how I feel when I am (I've had a little practice at it!). Deep down, though, I knew I wasn't. I've also felt this way before when I had an ulcer. The first time it happened, mind you, I went to the doctor b/c I thought I was pregnant! I wasn't surprised when I got my prego test today and it came up negative, b/c I was expecting it to. I just wanted to allay any doubts I may have had. So, this is a good thing...

Right? I mean, yeah, I don't need to be pregnant right now. I'm not so sure I want to be, either. I wouldn't mind it in that I already have all the stuff, and I wouldn't have to get more. Then I could go ahead and have my third kid, and all would be right in the world and I could quit for good. Get rid of everything and know I wouldn't need it again (in case you haven't heard, I'm big on odd numbers, and three feels much better to me than two--Trey might argue that, but...). Plus, I could pick out names again (yeah, yeah, so I've been doing that already....and yeah, it was even before I started feeling sick!). However, it would not be a good thing right now, and surely God knows that. We are barely managing as it is at this point in time, and my first thought when I thought I might be prego was that this baby wouldn't get to go to the dr. every month like the other two. I'd just go every other time to save some money. That can't be good.

Oh, but I'd be remiss to say that I'm not a little bit sad. Sure, it's not like I didn't know what the test would say, I'd been saying so myself all day. My mom called this afternoon, though, while out shopping, and asked me if she needed to get me some maternity clothes while she was there. I have to admit that I got a little excited. Being pregnant is fun! What's even better is when they come out! Sure, we have our bad days, and sometimes I wonder if there aren't more bad than good, but oh, I love my babies! I'm a total mommy now, and I am goofy with sick love for them. Whereas before, I would have shunned anyone being so completely involved in the lives of their children, and having no life of their own, now I am one of those people. Don't get me wrong, I do try to have a life, but so far quite unsuccessfully, which is okay. If it were up to me, I'd have a gaggle of kids. I remember my mom saying she wanted twelve and stopped at two, quite thankfully. I wonder if she wanted to stop at two right after my brother was born, or when we became teenagers? You know, that could make a big difference. After all, I'm still in the honeymoon period with mine. I have no idea what is to come as they grow older, although people are always glad to forewarn me!

Oh, I dunno. This is definitely a good thing. Obviously, though, it shows that I am not done. Trey didn't seem so freaked out at the news of a possible pregnancy, so maybe that means that when the time comes, he'll be up for the challenge. I hope so, b/c otherwise he may just be a little peeved when I do tell him the good news when the time comes! Oh, and if you must know, if and when I do have a third, a boy would be named Braxton, and a girl would be named Jamison. Middle names are still up in the air!

Oh well, I guess this means I have to cut back on the caffiene again...Blah!

Have a great day! I'll see you soon!

I'm not really even sure what I did this week. I can't really remember anything significant. I remember getting pics done on Monday, but you already saw that. Let's see....Ahh, yes. On Wed. we went and ate at church with Kell and Lisa and family (the people I babysit for). That was pretty cool. Friday, we went to a game night w/my Sunday School class, which was cool b/c we got free babysitting from this very cool circle at church. My favorite moment of the entire night was hearing Jack say, "You should wish for something like a Hardee's coupon or something." (this was said in reference to us singing Happy Birthday to Todd and him blowing out his candles). I laughed and laughed for a long time on that one! Jack was quite the funny guy that night. He's always so quiet, so it was nice to see him talking, and consequently, making me laugh.

But anyway....other than that and running various errands and stuff, my week was not memorable. My biggest memory of the week is that I've been EXTREMELY tired all week long. I've actually had a few nights with some pretty decent sleep, yet still I'm tired, all day long even. The last day or two I've been sick to my stomach, too. Not liking this feeling. I'm wondering if it's a mixture of exhaustion and perhaps an ulcer or something (I've taken to drinking coffee at night during my paper route, then again when I wake up...I've been known to get ulcers from too much caffiene). I'm really hoping that's all it is...if you catch my drift....

Anyway, I'm sorry I can't be more interesting for you. On a happy note, Todd has started a blog of his own, and I will now begin my persuit of getting him to come to live with me and make my coffee, instead of suffering for that miserable old Kurt. I'm sure I can persuade him with a little effort.

Anyway, talk at you later. Have a great day!

Okay, okay, so we waited a bit to get our Christmas pics of the cheerin' done. So sue us! I rather like them, though. We only got two, but when you have the cutest kids on the face of the earth, it really can't go wrong.


While we were there, we went ahead and got some family pics done as well:

I learned some things about myself today (like, never go sleeveless, EVER),

and about children (like, NEVER take them to get pictures together, EVER).


All in all, though, aside from not being able to take a pic of the two together at the end, it turned out rather nice, don't you think?

Oh, and get this! Taryn is eating solid foods now! She got ahold of a french fry yesterday, and I decided to see what she would do with it. She chowed down on it, and then proceeded to eat about four or five more. Of course that meant that I had to go and buy every single little baby cracker, crumb and anything else she could put in her mouth right away! She is now happily eating veggie puffs, wagon wheels, cake, biter biscuits, and anything else she can get into her mouth with every meal! I'm so excited! I kinda thought I had to wait till she got some teeth, but I guess not. Of course, now she's putting her hands in her mouth while she eats, thus making it much, MUCH messier than it used to be!
That's life here in a nutshell. Still tired. Hope you're having a great week, and I'll talk to you again soon!

Okay, so there's Patrick Dempsey, only the hottest man alive. Yes, yes. He's Dr. McDreamy (aka-Derek Shephard) on the show Grey's Anatomy. If you're not watching this show, then, well, you have problems, and they're much bigger than you think. So anyway, he also played in one of my favorite movies from the 80's, Can't Buy Me Love. He was hot then, even though he played a nerd, and seemed to not be considered hot. Go figure.

There's a point to this, really...

So, in the movie, he played a nerd who really wanted to be popular. He ended up paying the most popular girl at school a BUTTLOAD of money to pretend she was his girlfriend for a couple of weeks. Surprise, surprise, he became popular. End of story, right? Wrong. While he's taking his rise to fame, he ignores his once best friends, who also happen to be a bit on the nerdy side. Sure, he says hi and offers to hang out (although he never quite makes it), but he ditches them for the most part, especially when there's something better to be doing with the cool and popular people. Sad, really. The worst part is that in the end, when the cool people find out what really happen, even though they've been best buds all this time, they ditch him like a bad habit.

So, have you ever been Ronald (Dempsey)? Have you ever been the nerdy friends? Have you ever been the cool guys? I feel like the nerdy friends right now. Do tell me your story if you've ever been one of these people, b/c I'd love to hear it.

Oh, and I also need your help with a few matters. I'm helping plan a bridal shower for a friend of mine, and I want it to rock. The first part will be girly and 'demure', as I was told. The second half will be filled with alcohol, and be a pretty much bachelorette party. I'm much more eager to plan the second half, in case you couldn't figure it out! Any ideas to help?

Also, I'm planning TJ's bday party. It's going to be treasure hunt/pirate themed. Any ideas?

Also, I'm planning a mom's night out for Gina's mom's group. Any ideas for a fun and unique place to go?

I'm sure there's more, but I think that's enough for now. Have a great day, talk to you later! I can't wait to hear your stories and ideas!

Just thought you might like to see one of the projects I've been working on that's kept me so busy...
The living room


The dining room


The playroom


And of course, the other very important one:
The sweet baby!


Oh, and K8 put my picture on her blog! She's so good to me! I am rather lovely, I have to admit.

Oh, and if you're a lurker on here, would you please let me know? I understand it's delurking week, and it sure would make me feel good to know that someone out there actually reads this!

Have a great day! I'll see you soon!

I just want to settle, really. I'm tired of running around!

So, I'm so far behind, but TJ's third birthday was Saturday. I'm officially the mother of a three year old now. It's cute to hear him say how old he is. He says, "I'm fa-lee oars old now." Then he holds up his whole hand, all five fingers. I've been trying to teach him how to just hold up three, and it's so cute to see his little fingers all over the place! To celebrate his birthday, we went to 'Old MacDonald's' and he used his five bucks he got from Mimi to buy a happy meal and some ice cream. We took his friend Jacob and they ran rampant through the restaurant and played on the playground thing outside for a while. The best moment was when TJ and Jacob went to the bathroom all by themselves, and when TJ was finished, he came running out through McD's yelling, "MOMMMY! I CAN'T PULL UP MY PANTS!!!" Yep, that's right, he ran through the restaurant flinging freely. I'm pretty sure you've never seen a lobster turn as red as I did at that moment. You would know that a large crowd of people would be making their way into the place at that exact moment...Ahhh, the joys of potty training!



So, Sunday was the family reunion. It was nice to see everyone again, since I haven't been in a couple of years now. I was a little disappointed, though, since we drove about two hours to get there, and everyone just kinda ate, hung out for a minute, and left. However, Grandma saved the day when she pulled out a bunch of pictures from the past. Man, that was fun to look at! I need to hook up my scanner, so I can show you a pic I found from when I was 17. I was SOOOO SKINNY then! I thought I was fat at the time, and now I just want to go back and slap myself! Of course I had no boobs, but I'd give these babies up any day to go back to being able to wear normal sized clothing!

Okay, so I had a thought on Sunday as well. As these are rare things for me (thoughts), I thought I'd try my best to remember it. So, my grandaddy has Alzheimer's, right. Grandma was showing pics of this cruise they went on years and years ago where they hypnotized Grandaddy and made him act like a stripper and something else. Now, if you know the first thing about my grandaddy, he might know what a stripper is, but it is VERY doubtful that he would act like one in front of people (well, then at least!). Supposedly, he sat on some guy's lap and played with his hair or something...So my thought was, "What if he could be hypnotized again and they could pull all of his functioning mind back out?" This, of course, would be assuming that he still has any functioning mind or memory left at all. I really don't understand Alzheimer's at all, and my guess is that neither do the experts. I looked online and couldn't find anything that said that it either works or doesn't, but Trey assured me that surely someone has already thought of this before. So, I'm to assume, then, that it wouldn't work, or it'd be all over the place that it does. Nevertheless, I can't get the thought out of my mind. What do you think about it?

Okay, Taryn won't stop crying everytime I leave the room, so I guess I'd better run. I hope you have a fantastic day, and I'll see you soon!

K8 did this to me!

"The first player of this game starts with the topic five weird habits of yourself and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals."

1. I have to do everything in fives or odd numbers. I'm OCD to the max about it. When I am sitting still, I will tap on my legs in odd sets. I click my teeth together in odd sets. I tap the air in odd sets. I walk in odd sets. I must wake up on a multiple of five, or I have to wait till it comes before I get out of bed. If I miss it, I must wait till the next multiple of five....You get the picture?

2. When I am driving, I must have my hands at ten and two at all times (except when I have to move them to count an odd set, which I do regularly!). This is not b/c I think it's safer, it's b/c there are two tiny little holes in the steering wheel there, and my middle finger must be covering them at all times. In my last car, they were at the bottom, around four and eight, so I had to have my hands there.

3. I have imaginary conversations with people all day, everyday. They are usually arguments. When I was in high school, I didn't like preps, and it was evident they didn't like me. Even though I rarely ever talked to them, I would argue with them in my mind all the time. I would imagine that they would come up to me and say something mean. I would have the perfect comeback. Of course, in real life it never happened, and no measure of imaginary preparedness could have gotten me to ever have a good comeback, but...Now, while Trey's at work, I have them with him, which sometimes helps to get my frustrations with him out of my system w/o even having to address them!

4. I can't stand for my clothes to be crooked. I spend entire days readjusting them to sit just right. I have a pair of jeans that turns a little bit on one leg when I sit down, and it drives me NUTS (yet, they're my favorite pair of jeans!). I spend the entire day turning it back to the right place. I pull down my shirts to where they belong, ALL DAY! If something moves out of place, I immediately feel it, and will drop a baby if necessary to fix it!

5. I have to smell EVERYTHING! I also have to feel stuff. When I walk through stores, you will commonly see me stopping to touch every shirt hanging along the outside of the clothing aisles. I can't just smell one candle w/o smelling them all. I must smell my food before I eat it. I smell my fingers throughout the day (for what reason, I have no idea). I touch people's hair and clothes out of the blue, w/o asking first, even when I don't know them. What scares me most is that I commonly see TJ doing similar things as he dawdles along behind me in stores!

Okay, upon reading this, I'm beginning to think I've got some serious sensory issues. These, of course, are not the only things that are weird about me. It would be much easier to list the things that are not strange about me, which I doubt would reach five. I get to tag now, and I pick Gina, Julia, Kurt, Cara and Jillian. Do play along. I'm really interested to see what you have to say!

Later!

It's the ultimate in cuteness! Last night, Taryn was in a dead sleep, and at the same time she was saying, "Da-da, Da-da, Da-da..." It was SOOOOO ADORABLE!!! Poor, poor Trey. That's three people he has to live with now that talk in their sleep! She's starting quite early, I might add...

So, this weekend my friend Ashley got married. It was an awesome wedding! I took lots of pictures (130) so that I would have plenty to pick from. I thought, "Surely at least one of these has me looking decent enough to show to people!" Ashley was stunningly gorgeous, as usual, and the drinks were free-flowing. I was supposed to be the designated driver, but ummm, that didn't happen. I had big plans to drink just a couple of drinks, but undoubtedly 'open bar' means 'just too good to pass up' to me! Thankfully, my marvelous date, Julia, did a noble thing and offered to be the new designated driver. I owe her SO BIG! I hope my illicit drinking didn't ruin her night!

Other than drinking, I spent the night making sure to take plenty of pics so I could post them on the internet and look cool. I wanted some kind of proof that I actually do leave the house and have friends....okay, so I paid them, but still...It was really cool to get to hang out with some old friends from high school. I thought there would be more of them there, but I'm sure that would have been overkill, so...

Afterwards, we went to AC's, the bar that Ashley and Will first met at (he was a bartender there). The bartender that I had talked to while at the wedding was working there, and he hooked me up with another drink, while my brother, his friend Randy and his g/f Devon, and Julia all split carbombs (a yummy concoction of a glass of Guinness, with a shot of whiskey and Bailey's that you drop into it and then chug-a-lug!). This will definitely get you drunk fast! Oh, but I do love my Guinness! I met lots of fun people, including some that I have known for many years, and it was tons of fun! We counted down to the new year there at the bar, and I kissed every cheek (I stress CHEEK) I could get my lips on! Yeah, who needs chapstick when you can kiss greasy cheeks! I called Trey, whom I felt SOOO sorry for, b/c he had to work and do my paper route. He's such a good hubby! I told him to kiss someone too, but I don't think he did as he was told.

The only other highlight of the night was when my brother and his friend found cigarette ashes in their water at the Huddle House, and yelled at the waitress. That was nice and humiliating!



Oh, and I'm so glad I bailed as a bridesmaid (couldn't afford it). All of the bridesmaids were skinny and beautiful, and I would have been the fat one. Plus, the dresses were strapless, so my tattoos would have hung out for the whole world to see (and you know how old people can be about the Grim Reaper peeking out from bridesmaids' dresses!).

Have a great day! I'll see you soon!

The new year is upon us, and as it is customary to address this event, I shall do so here.

I've thought a lot about what I plan for 2006. I fully understand that what I plan means absolutely zip in the grand scheme of things, since I have absolutely no control over what goes on in my life. I am, however, convinced that this year as a whole will be tons better than the last two years, and that things will definitely look up for us and start toward a positive direction. Maybe Trey will get his promotion finally. Maybe we'll be able to pay all of our bills for a month and actually have a surplus. Maybe I'll be able to work out my new jobs and manage to end up with a somewhat normal and settled life for a while. Who knows, but I just feel like it is going to go much better this year.

Of course, as part of the tradition every year, we are supposed to think of some goals we would like to accomplish, and start working toward those ends. We all know how that goes. Aside from having a better and more settled year, I really don't have any set ambitions. So what I've decided to do is to make a list of all of the things I'm quite sure I don't want to accomplish this year, and perhaps I can succeed at that! Here goes:

2006 Non-Resolutions

1. I don't want to buy a house.
2. I don't want to lose said house to foreclosure.
3. I don't want to claim bankruptcy.
4. I don't want to gain five pounds.
5. I don't want to have an affair.
6. I don't want to wreck my car.
7. I don't want to go the whole year w/o going shopping for new clothes for me.
8. I don't want to waste time on the small stuff like cleaning the house when
there's more important life-changing stuff out there to do.
9. I don't want my computer to die.
10. I don't want a dog.

There, ten should do it. Yes, that's good for now. I'll update my non-resolutions later. I think I can accomplish not doing these things, I hope.

I went to a wedding last night, and I'm sure that once I'm recuperated from it, I'll tell you all about it! Hope you have a great day, and I'll see you soon!