First Ear Infection! :-(

My poor baby! This morning, we woke up like any other morning, got ready and off we went to school/work.

Around 11:30ish, I had to leave to go and pick up Tom's Christmas gift (can't say what it is just in case he's reading! HA!) and just as I was pulling back into work, I get a call from Jenna's day care direction. She tells me that she's not eating, complaining that her ear hurts and that she's dealing with a stomach bug (which is going around - won't get into the gory details! LOL!). My poor baby! Right before I left work, I called the doctor's and got her in for an appointment.

I go and pick her up and she's been moping and crying for me. That's how I know she's not feeling good! They tell me that she's been having this "gook" coming out of her ears. Right away, they knew that it was an ear infection. Of course, I get the "Did you know that she's had one?" Um...no dipshit, if I did, do you think I would have taken her to school?!? I know they meant well, but come on! Obviously I didn't!

Here is where the horrible part comes in. I take her to the doctors and the whole time she's in and out of dozing off. They call us in and Jenna keeps telling the nurse that she wants "all better medicine". LOL! She gets weighted and then they close the door. We wait a couple of minutes and then...dun-dun-dun...the doctor comes in. Everything went down hill from there. Not only did Jenna not want her ears touched, but she wasn't going to fight tooth and nail to make sure that no one even goes near her ears.

Her doctor comes near her to look in, Jenna let's her for a quick second, the all hell breaks loose. The doctor tells me that she can't even see in her ears because of all of the drainage. Now they have to clean both out. Can you imagine how painful that was for her? Not 1, but 2 nurses had to come in, hold her down WHILE she was on my lap. Jenna is STRONG! The whole time she's kicking and screaming and trying to grab at whatever she can, yelling "MOMMY! NO! TIME TO GO! LET'S GO! MOMMY! NO!" Talk about ripping my heart out! I felt so bad that they had to do that, but I know that they had to and that it was going to be better.

At the end, just as the doctor was looking in her ear, Jenna broke free of the one nurse's grasp and jerked her head. The scope went a tiny bit in her ear (didn't go as far as the ear drum, but enough to cause pain, not damage) and that was it. They couldn't do anymore with her because of how she was. Ugh, it was horrible!! They prescribed amoxicillan, which will clear it up in no time.

Ugh...what a day! Now she's nice and comfy sleeping, hopefully she'll get a full night's sleep and be back to my normal baby tomorrow!

O' Christmas Tree!

As you may or may not know, our office is now scarce - we have 5 people working in this huge office since the layoffs. Well, the few that are left decided to bring in the "fah-la-la" into the office and break out the office Christmas tree. Well, we couldn't find the decorations that came with it, so we decided to "Chase" it up! LOL! The pictures below are showing the tree, complete with ID badge holder garland, Chase pens and Chase stress balls. :-) *patting self on shoulder* What creativity we have!

My favorite picture...

This picture totally captures how the girls are with each other! Aunt Chrissy always gets the best shots of them!

Happy Thanksgiving! *mushy post alert!*

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to take this time to reflect on what it is that I'm thankful for:

I'm thankful that I have a wonderful husband who loves to keep me on my toes! Being married to him for 4 years has taught me so much and I appreciate everything that he does for me. I look forward to the years to come!

I'm thankful for my beautiful daughter. She is truly the light of my life and I strive each and every day to be the best Mom that I can be to her. I love every minute that I spend with her and love watching her grow up and learn. I'm so proud of her!

I'm thankful to have such great parents and in-law's and I consider myself to be lucky that no matter what, they will continue to be there for us, no questions asked. They raised great kids and we love that they can just sit back and enjoy us and their grandchildren.

I'm thankful for my sister, even though growing up we weren't that close, as much as I'm sure she would hate to admit it, she always protected me. Even now that we're adults, she continues to do so! HA! She is truly my best friend. I could go on and on, but I won't because this post would be LOOONNNG! :-)

I'm thankful to have amazing brother-in-laws - never could I have asked for a better situation! They both know how to make me laugh...and won't hesitate to take the chance to laugh at my expense! HA! But, that's why I love them both!

I'm very thankful to my nieces and nephews. Each of them have their own personalities that makes them special, I adore spending time with them. Before having Jenna, they didn't realize what they taught me - which was how to be an Aunt, how to have patience, how to spoil and not care what it takes, how to laugh at the silliest things, and how to understand at a child's level.

I'm thankful for those in my extended family that I am close with - I'm glad we don't let the stuff that goes on effect us. It's comforting knowing that there are genuine family members out there that really do care about us as people and not about causing stupid drama. We can only wish that the others will catch on!

And last, but not least, I'm thankful for my friends! Whether I have known you for a year or for years - I hold each and every one of you close to my heart and there is nothing I wouldn't do for you. I'm grateful that I have a great group of friends that accept me for who I am and that I can trust anything with!

Here's to starting off the holiday season with some mushy-ness! I hope everyone has a happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving!!

Party at the Lawson House - 1am...

Amy is going to crash and burn soon...Jenna decided, at 1am this morning, that she was done sleeping and now she was going to stay awake. No matter what I did, nothing worked - she continued to whine/cry/talk/argue/walk around/cause all kinds of trouble until 6am. Tom woke up at 4am and went down downstairs to get ready for work, so she decided she was going to follow him now. He brought her right back upstairs and put her in bed next to me. Of course, she pulled the Daddy's Girl Cute Face card, which worked like a charm. But after he went back downstairs, she proceeded to still stay awake. She finally fell asleep around 6am, which I did too for about a half hour, but then had to be up at 6:30 to get ready for work. THEN....trying to get her back up again....where's my award. LMAO! Needless to say, I'm dragging. 3 cups of coffee and a Starbucks Vanilla Latte later...wish me luck on lasting the whole day...

HELLO! I'm back!!

This post is dedicated to Unk Dwayne and Aunt Reggie - since they are regular readers of this blog and I have neglected writing in it! Here we go!

I'm going to write about this past weekend - if I go back any further, this blog will be PAGES and PAGES and PAGES long! LOL! But I promise, I'm going to keep up with it again, it was nice to just write, whether a ton of people read it or just my Unk and Aunt! :-)

This weekend was a nice weekend, Friday night I went to Steph's house to drop off my laptop (my cousin is going to fix it and he was going over there to look at hers) and I hung out there for a while. Jenna stayed home with Daddy because she's a little under the weather and since it was rainy and blah out, I didn't want her to get worse. We played around on the video messenger talking to my Unk and Aunt with all of the kids and then I got home around 9:30ish.

Saturday was a laundry day and then that night, I went to my friend's sister's house. I'm in my friend's wedding, so we had a bridesmaid's meeting - got a lot accomplished! Can't share too much! :-) Then when I got home, Tom had his 2 friends over and they were playing Rockband...if you haven't played, come to my house! It's SO much fun!! I was up until about 2am playing it with them!

Yesterday was my cousin's son's 2nd birthday - the house was packed! But we had a great time!

Poor Jenna is still dealing with some "sickies" in her nose, poor thing!

Below are some pictures from our Houtzdale wedding that we went to the weekend of the 8th - it was for one of my favorite cousin's and we had a great time!!!! These were all taken from my camera phone...

Tom driving on the way there - look how he LOVES to drive!

My happy face that I'm not driving!

The view most of the way up!Night 1 - poker - hotel style.

Night 2 - beer pong - hotel style

Night 2 - more beer pong - hotel style! Tom trying to look happy that he's driving...yet again...

Weekend Recap!

Happy Monday!! Is there such a thing??

Below are some pictures that were taken at Steph's surprise party - my best friend was able to get some great pictures of Jenna and Brittany, they are just too cute!! Leann was all about being Miss Social Butterfly, so she's not in any of them. :-( It would have made for a great picture, but that's alright, we know that the 3 of them are the 3 Amigos!

This past weekend was a nice weekend. Friday night I spent all night doing laundry so then I could spend the rest of the weekend relaxing! Saturday, I took Jenna to Wal-Mart where I ended up spending $60 on her, we were able to get a ton of new clothes for her. The pants from last year don't even fit and she's had to go to school looking like she's ready for a flood! HA! Now her pants are up to par!

Saturday night we all went out to celebrate Steph's birthday, we all went to A1 Japanese Steakhouse and it was good!! Even though she got a party, we all didn't want to cancel going out to dinner, so we all went! It was a great time!! I still have to upload my pictures that I took, but the one below is the one that I took with my camera phone! Yes...she was actually drinking and not just holding one to pretend like she was!

Then Sunday, Tom, Jenna and I decided to just relax all day. It was really nice not having to do anything or go anywhere! Although at one point, Tom took Jenna out because he wanted to get her a "I've Been Going Potty and Filling Up My Potty Chart" present. Not only does he go to Toys R Us, but he SPOILED HER!! He came home with a princess chair, a movie, and 3 Little People sets! LOL! LOL! He couldn't get just one thing for her! LOL! Below is a picture of Jenna, the Proud Potty Girl, sitting in her chair! :-) We're getting there, it's taking some time with the potty training, but she's doing great!

That's all for now, check back later for all of the pictures that I took from our night out!

Happy Birthday Tom!!!!

Today is Tommy-Boy's 29th birthday!!! I called him this morning to wish him a happy birthday and then Jenna got on the phone and goes "Happy birf-day Daddy!!! Have a good day! Love you! Bye!"

Then after we get off the phone, she goes "Mommy...I make Daddy a cake? And I th-sing happy birf-day to Daddy, kay?"

Too bad he has school tonight (which he had school on his birthday last year too! Grrr!), so Jenna won't actually get to see him, but she has presents for him to open when he gets home!

That kid is just too cute!

Happy birthday babe!!!

SURPRISE!!!!

This past weekend, Brian, my parent's, Tom and I threw Steph a surprise 30th party! It was great! All along, we told her that we were having a BBQ to celebrate the patio being done. She brought a cake saying "Congrats" for Tom and all!! There were a few times that we thought she found out (a text that I sent Brian and Brian's list of stuff he had to buy - but he wrote Sept. 21st on it), but she really had no clue and her face showed it when she came in the backyard!

The party was great, everyone had a great time and the rain held out! Friday all day and night, of course it poured and I was in a state of panick! But the sun came out on Saturday and all was well.

MUCH, MUCH, MUCH thanks to Tom, Brian and my parent's for really busting their butts with everything for the party. This wouldn't have been done without them!!

Below are some pictures from the party - I didn't get one of the collage that I made for Steph, but I'll get a picture of that and post it! Enjoy!

A Fresh Smell in the Morning!

When: This morning, 7am

She thought it was going to be like every other morning. As the alarm goes off, Amy rolls over, turns it off and stretches. She walked to her daughter Jenna's room and sees her peacefully sleeping still. She smiles at the sight and proceeds to go downstairs. She does her usual routine, go down to the basement, let Lexus out, smoke a cigarette, let Lexus back in and jump in the shower.

Approximately 10 minutes later, as Amy is walking back upstairs to her room, she starts to smell this....smell. As she gets closer, she realizes that it's coming from her room and it's getting stronger and stronger. Amy slightly scrunches her face and thinks to herself "Oh please...let that not be what I think it is..."

Amy turned the corner, walked into her room, and it was just as she thought. There was her daughter, standing in the middle of the room with bottles of perfume, lotion, body spray and her father's cologne.

"Jenna! What are you doing??" Amy gasped. She couldn't believe what her daughter had done!

"Mommy...I shower! I shower just like Mommy! I all clean...see? It's soapies!" Jenna announced, as she held up her arms in triumph. As Amy looked over her daughter, she could see the lotion glaze all over her face, arms, and legs. She saw how the lotion made it's way into her hair and how it clumped and made it stand up. She closed her eyes for a second, took a deep breath of the stench and then burst out in hysterical laughter.

"No honey, that doesn't make you all clean! We need to give you a tubby now and wash all of that off!!"

It took Amy two baths to get somewhat of the smell off. As she's washing her, she can't help but laugh. Jenna meant well when doing this, she thought she was showering just like her Mommy does. Amy explained to her that she is to not touch any of that anymore, she is to only shower in the bathroom and go in the tubby to do that.

"Oh-kay Mommy." Simple as that.

Amy can't help but smile and shake her head. This is all apart the joys of being a Mom.

Texting Fun - Late Entry!

One of my BFF's got a little jealous that she wasn't on my previous post, so here is her late entry!! LMAO! LMAO! I think I might have to do this on a regular basis.....

Joanne stuck on a conference call! She's a geeky web conferencing girl! LOL! LOL! MUAHZ!

Texting Fun!

Ah, yes...the joys of picture texting! I saw that Steph and Angela both posted, so now I am! LOL!! This is what happens when you're bored at work with nothing to do! LOL!!

Veronica telling me that she's tired at work! LOL!

Me telling Veronica that I'm mad I'm stick at work!
Steph took a picture of the girls caged up at school when she left! LOL!

My lovely picture that I drew! I'm a good artist!

Steph modeling her favorite face!

I'm talented...I balanced a pen on my nose and took a picture AT THE SAME TIME!

And there you have it folks....LOL!! Until next time!