No one likes getting punched in the stomach

The past couple weeks have been very busy for us. So busy in fact that I'm not entirely sure where the past month went. I remember thinking on June 1st how fast things were going to come at us, but I didn't even realize that typing this on - oh! *sidebar - it's actually Bridget's 10 month bday today* - June 26th, that the past 4 weekends would seem like such a blur. With this influx of crazy life things, I wanted to make sure to take a little time to highlight an event that I think, (I hope) was a nice one and a baby step in the healing direction for my cousin's family. This is the cousin that lost his wife to breast cancer last month.

So you can probably guess, but the event was the Race for the Cure on June 16th. I was pretty excited about going to this since I didn't get to go last year (I don't know why - maybe because I was 7 1/2 months pregnant, but honestly, I think it was more that Tim was out of town and I was lazy without him, but anyway... I didn't make it last year). It's probably better that I wasn't there last year so that I didn't have the memory of Karla in a pink survivor shirt crossing the survivor finish line. I can't imagine what they must have been feeling doing all the same things they did last year but without the hope and optimism that she had beaten cancer and most of all without her.

It was hard enough for me and I didn't expect how sad it would make me, so I can only imagine how they were feeling. Now, on the flip side, there was a sense of doing something. Something small, yet something important and hopefully something that Karla would want us to do... we kept fighting for her.

They've been kicked in the teeth by cancer - given a "cancer-free" diagnosis only to have her taken from them in less than a year from that diagnosis. And yet they got back up. Not even a month after losing a mom and wife, they put on their "Karla's Krew" shirts and they kept fighting. Fighting for her memory and fighting for all the other women that are still fighting and it was powerful to watch and be a part of. I don't know if I would have that strength.

I once asked my mom and dad, shortly after Ryan had died, when you stop feeling like you are getting punched in the gut. It's like you're going along fine, you even start to sing along with the car radio again and then there it is - whammo - right there, right in the pit of your stomach all the way up to your throat. It's that feeling that all is not right in the world. When, actually, in reality, all will never be "right" again.

Maybe part of the healing process is to find your new "right"- perhaps it's finding a way to honor and remember those that we have lost. Maybe it's through events like Race for the Cure or maybe it's just simply finding a way to connect with those we have lost, that we keep memory alive and find strength and, hopefully over time, we find we are getting punched in the stomach a little less and singing along with the radio a little more.

Karla, I know these days I'm singing along to Jimmy Buffett's "Barefoot Children in the Rain" with a little less sadness and a little more strength... for you.

---

Take a look at the whole album here.

Race for the Cure

I don't think you can search iStockPhoto for a landlord hat. (AKA - Why client services can really SUCK sometimes.)

Some humorous web design client quotes I gathered from personal experience. In the interest of full disclosure, I did steal that hilarious one about the landlord hat. I can totally see a client saying something like that and me just shaking my head like I know exactly what they mean but simultaneously thinking to myself, "what? what the hell is a landlord hat?" P.S. The rest all really did happen to me, even the last one, you just can't make that stuff up.

• "We love it like this! Oh, we were wondering if we could change the font, the color the images, and can we move a few things around?
  
  
• "Please put a landlord hat on the landlord."
  
  
• "Oh yeah, one more thing, will you also make sure that we appear at the top of Google when someone searches for 'interior design', I want us to be in the top three..."
  
  
• "Can you make it more like a power-point presentation, you know, with the sliding text stuff and all?"
  
  
• "Well, I don't think we really want it to look too much like a Web site. You know what I mean?"
  
  
• "Please send me all the site files, my nephew just started taking a class in HTML and he's going to be maintaining the website from now on..."
  
  
• "The website does not print out in color. Please fix."

---

Follow up - Apparently you can search iStock for a landlord hat - this is the one single image that you get - personally, I think more Homer Simpson maintenance man, but that's just me...

Who needs lullabyes when you have the Shop Boyz

Every Friday I look forward to 5:00 and not because that's when I get off work (don't be silly - you all know Custom Web has a mandatory 12pm quitting time every friday) but because that is when the Z 107.7 Friday 5:00 Mixphoria starts. Yes, my friends, you read that right, I am referring to that station.

If you've never tried the Mixphoria, don't knock it. Not only can it get your toes tapping and Nelly-loving heart beating, but it is also creates the optimum time to go work out - that's when I hit the streets new mommy-style. Thirty uninterrupted minutes of hip-hop & pop re-mixed for your listening enjoyment. After a long day of work and completely draining rewarding childcare, there's nothing that babygirl and I like better than hitting the streets DJ Mike Justis style.

Oh yeah, and the added bonus, apparently "Party Like a Rock Star" has the following effect on babygirl:


Happy Friday and Race for the Cure weekend everyone!

Let's hug it out, Starbuckers

Okay, I am over my apparent extreme bitterness with Starbucks and wish to apologize to any Starbuckers that I may have insulted. While I still think we can all take a lesson in politeness and hold the doors for people and say excuse me a little bit more, I must have been a little too bitter about the client not showing and my cell phone being put in a diaper bag and having said diaper bag leave the house before I realized the error. Regardless, I am here to say today was a much better Starbucks experience and I am not going to pass judgement any longer on each and every individual SB estblishment.

Other than that, in the three minutes I had to spare today I updated the template. Hope you all enjoy.

I guarantee you ARE not the most important person EVER

When in a Starbucks alone, it must be an unwritten requirement that you talk VERY loudly on your cellphone in some sort of effort to prove that you are the most important person in Starbucks at that very moment. There is definitely an "i'm big-time" person complex in that place. They are all trying to out do each other in importance level. Here is what the three people sitting in too close proximity to me might as well have been saying:

"I must be a VIP because I am talking very loudly and very sternly on my cellphone right now and saying things like 'now, right now - get him on the phone' ."

"No, I must be the most important person in here because I have one of those phones that makes that annoying beeping sound and then someone says my name as if paging me for everyone in the store to hear, then I answer them loudly and wait for them to reply all the while leaving the whole thing on that annoying beeping speakerphone."

"Well I have you all beat because I am talking on the phone VERY loudly with that ultra-yuppy Bluetooth thingy in my ear and simultaneously typing with such intensity and fervor that obviously this email must be sent immediately or my entire company's existence is at stake"

I, on the other hand, sit at my little table, drinking my delicious coffee*, typing emails (and blog entries) and cussing out Starbucks for making me pay $10 for internet access while just two doors down I could get this for free at bread company.

I watch 5 (yes, 5) people in a row exit Starbucks, piping hot coffee in one hand, cellphone attached to the ear with the other hand and not ONE single one stops to hold the door for the one behind them. It was really quite unbelievable. Not ONE person held the door often making the door close rapidly on said Starbucker (copyright eej 2007) with hands full. Yet that was not enough to make that person hold the door for the one behind them. It was probably one of the saddest commentaries on humanity that I've seen in a while. I'm sure I can't capture the real rudeness of it in a blog and had I had my cell phone this morning (another long story adding to my bad monday morning) I surely would have videotaped this just to document on youtube or something.

Well, I am off to another client site as the client that insisted we meet at Starbucks, thereby making me waste $10 on internet access and get a lesson in human indecency decided not to show... happy freaking monday.


*Regardless of the selfishness and rudeness that I often encounter in Starbucks (not to say that all Starbuckers are this way), this post is in no way meant to reflect the true love I have for a Grande (sometimes Venti) non-fat no whip Mocha and should not discourage anyone from drinking their lovely beverages (lord knows I don't need any bad Starbucks karma.)

Family resemblance?

Making sure she gets her 15 minutes of reading in a day

Perfect, I am quite in the mood for a little light,
yet thought provoking reading this afternoon.

Hmmm.. while I am pensively contemplating the reflections of the protaganist's
soliloquy, I'd have to say I don't necessarily acquiesce to his point of view.

Ah, yes, now we return to the witty, insightful and
ingratiating satire of the great Jimmy Buffett.

Why did you Hassel the Hoff, Anne??

Believe me, I am not ever going to be one to defend David Hasselhoff, in fact, I don't really like taking up precious blogging time writing about this, but that interview by Anne Curry this morning was probably one of the worst things I've ever seen her do. I mean, give the guy a break. He came on the show I'm sure to promote that ridiculous show, America's Got Talent and here Anne uses the entire time with her fake sympathetic concern drilling him with questions about alcoholism and his daughters. I'm sure he agreed to discuss elements of this problem, but she didn't even ask him ONE single question about America's Got Talent.

At the end of the interview she does her fake, let me put my hand on your knee
disingenuously and act like I care about your well being, and says, "David, get well, get well..." The look on his face was like, "Woman, I'm about to smack you upside your head with the fifth of Jack I got sitting right next to this chair" and I don't blame him at all. If I can find the clip of it in a couple hours I'll post it so you can see the rage in the hoff's eyes. I think he was about to go Hoffwild on her a$$.

I mean, anyone that's done this kind of quality work, surely doesn't deserve an Anne Curry drilling, of course then again, maybe he did...



*Disclaimer* This post is not meant to defend or encourage anyone to give a rats behind about David Hasselhoff, but is more meant to encourage everyone to start an extreme disliking for Anne Curry.

Most of all I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you....

Okay, girlies... you all know where is that line from, right? Was I the only major Dirty Dancing fan out there?

Tonight I'm being taken back 20 years ago to 1987. How is it that I can remember 20 years ago? That is strange enough in and of itself, but I digress. 1987 - what a simpler time, I was 12 years old and nothing mattered in life but butterfly t-shirts (I'll have to explain that one another blog time) and giggling with friends about which boy in my neighborhood was cutest (my neighborhood was freakishly overrun with boys 1-2 years older than me and hardly a girl in sight).

So watching this movie totally brings me back. I'm guessing a lot of us felt the same, but this was my absolute favorite. I had Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray posters all over my walls (in fact I had the poster you see here), the cassettes, I reenacted the famous "come here loverboy" scene in my pre-teen bedroom 100's of times, I pretended that I was Baby and that Johnny was really in love with me. Remember that song - She's like the wind? Ugh... and I really loved that, too...

Anyway, the sickest part of all of this is that I just found out (thanks IMDB) that Patrick Swayze is 55 years old. Making him 35 in that movie meaning a 35 year old was shacking up with a 17 year old? Yuk - totally took some of it away not to mention that now when I look at Baby's father all I see is Lenny from Law and Order cracking some stupid dead guy joke at the beginning of the show, we do miss you, though Lenny!

I gotta say, I love my husband, I love my baby, I love my dogs, but man do I love being able to sit home by myself on a Saturday night and watch my kind of movies! It's amazing how a movie or a song can take you back to a completely different time in your life - how in that brief fleeing moment you can remember exactly how you felt exactly at that time in your life and that's [usually] an awesome thing.

Okay, enough reminiscing...I'm going to snap out of it and get back to 2007. So, again, in a miserable attempt to try and elicit more comments from my blog readers, how did you guys feel about this movie? Love it/hate it/favorite/stupidest moments, etc...

Remember girls, nobody puts baby in the corner.

Apparently, I am not smarter than a 5th grader

When my husband is out of town, I finally get to control the remote and engage in all my guilty pleasure tv...you know reality tv, dumb game shows, home improvement, the usual guilty pleasure tv, right? Anyway, tonight I'm watching some game show hosted by the "you know you're a redneck, when" guy where they ask questions to contestants taking on 5th graders and 5th grade knowledge questions.

I was psyched about this, I was ready to go - that was at 7:07, it is now 7:22 and at this point I am ready to get on the phone to numerous 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade teachers and inform them that apparently they did not do their job. I mean, really, why didn't they teach me that not every adult rhinocerous has only one horn? It's gotta be common first grade knowledge, right?

In other news, I haven't given a Babygirl update in quite some time, so I thought while I am wallowing in my sub-par education, I would indulge in a little "my babygirl is growing up" nine month old nostalgia. So here are some of the new things babygirl is up to lately:

- Munching on lots of solid foods these days - up to the 3's - who knew babyfood came in numbered stages? She's also eating cheerios and those gerber puff things (which, btw, I've decided are just expensive cereal in a fancy bottle with a fancy name thought up by some baby marketing mastermind to fool all first time scared of choking moms like me into buying them) and trying little bites of our food.

- Moving and grooving! She is constantly on the prowl; able to spot a spec of anything smaller than 1/4", stalk it out and pounce immediately while putting it where else but in her mouth and then looking at me as if to say, "mom, picking up random bits of food and dirt and shoving them in my mouth is the bomb!" The grooving part is the best - when there is a jingle on tv or when dad is singing the "daddy, dad, dad" song, she immediately starts a little baby dance while trying to mock the melody or song. It's hilarious and could not be cuter.

- A little more snuggly. Not to jinx it, but finally, my little babygirl is starting to be a little nuzzler. It only happens for ever so brief fleeting moments, but on occasion, she will actually rest her head down on your shoulder or chest and as soon as it happens the head darts back up and she immediately looks around as if to make sure no one saw that snuggly moment and to ensure we all know that she is most definitely NOT tired, that is NOT the case.

There you go - that brings you a little bit up to date (although most of my loyal blog readers already know all that), but it also marks this time in writing for me, too. I really love it right now and I'm sure 5 years from now it will be hard to remember the difference between 6 months and 9 and a year, etc... She is so interactive and has a huge personality developing (even if it may be a demanding one at times) that I feel really connected to her as a little person even if she's still my little babygirl!

Well, back to my guilty tv and trying to figure out how long it takes the moon to make one full orbit around the moon and how many pecks are in a bushel...thank god for the internet!


PALTSKKJ

Friday's Baby Fashion Trend: Little baby sombrero

Look mom, I'm pretty proud of what I did when you weren't paying attention to me...

Of course, now that I have your attention, you have to put a big stupid hat on me?

Did you slip some tequila in my bottle, mom? My teeth sure feel better now.

Happy Friday & Memorial Day Weekend!

Future Computer Programmer?

Lately, this is the ONLY place babygirl likes to be when we are working - directly under my chair and between the two CPU's. As you can see, she thinks it's VERY funny.

She's starting to learn how to ham it up for the camera, ah.. such a mama's girl...

I had to take drastic measures to keep her from pushing
the pretty blue blinking power button AGAIN!

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, I know you all know why, but I think I am getting ready to get back in the swing of things. It's been a rough couple of weeks and will continue to be hard, but thanks to everyone for all the support, cards and prayers for not only us, but most importantly for Steve, Karla, Kailey, Jake and my entire extended family. They still need the prayers, so keep 'em coming.

We had a great weekend at the Ehlert's wedding and it was incredibly nice to be out with good friends and to, not forget, but to be surrounded by people that care about you is so important when life is harder.

The last week was one of the hardest things I've ever experienced, but as I've said before, I'm trying to use that as a learning experience and to keep doing more positive things. One thing I will take from the funeral service was what Steve said in a letter he wrote to Karla, I'm paraphrasing, but it went something like this, "the laundry may not be done on Sunday nights, the grass may not be cut and the house may be messy, but 20 years from now our kids won't remember those things, but they will remember all the trips to Branson with family, vacations to Florida and camping trips at Lake Carlysle". He's so right and if there's one thing that Steve and Karla did know how to do it was to live life to the fullest and they certainly crammed a lot of quality in what was definitely too short of a time and we could all take a lesson from that.

Thanks again for the love and prayers. I love all of you if I don't say that enough...well, I know I don't, but I do, I even love you non-blog readers.

It's a Josh Groban kind of morning..

Tim just walked upstairs and said, "why are you listening to church music?". Defensively, I corrected him that it was not church music, it was Josh Groban. Of course, not knowing who Josh Groban even remotely is he just gruffed, "well, sounds like church music to me..."

He's right, it does sound like church music, but some days, especially right now during these very difficult times, I sometimes feel better by making myself - or maybe allowing myself - to listen to sad songs and feel down. To accept the sadness, to accept the aching in my heart that is constantly underlying, to acknowledge it and say to it, "hey, I know you're there, and right now, I'm going to let you come out and play for a little while..."

I'm trying and sometimes succeeding at believing that what my family and mostly my extended family is going through right now is a part of life. Take the beautiful baby girl that lights my days - she just entered my life - out of nowhere and became the biggest part of it, all in less than a year.

Just like I can't believe something like that can just happen, I also can't believe that such bad, terrible and completely horrible things can just happen... to really, truly good people. It's clichéd and certainly trite, but it is truly a cycle of life. I am not good at accepting it and I really don't think I ever will, but I am witnessing it and I am trying to learn and grow from it the best that I can.

So, while I struggle with emotions and showing them or masking them, today I am wearing them. I am saying to them, come out, just for now, just for this Josh Groban morning, let me feel the pain, the sadness, and then go back to your little hole deep in my heart until I need you (and Josh Groban) again...

---

P.S. To counter balance this downer post, you'll notice I've changed the look of the blog with a cute new summer look. That was, before the JG songs came out, but at least, it's not all so sad, right?


PALTSKKJ

Make the Cereal, Save the World...

Tim has been eating cereal roughly since January. This is a new thing for him that I pushed when he started the "biggest loser" contest on December 1st. Since that time, when I come downstairs, almost everyday left on the counter is the particular box of cereal he has chosen for that morning (he has about 8 different varieties to choose from) with the bag and box left open, gallon of milk sitting out, cap laying somewhere next to it on the counter and typically at least 6-9 pieces of the offending cereal spread about on the counter (usually complete with our ant houseguests also enjoying their breakfast on his leftover cereal).

Anyway, this particular scene always leaves me with visions of what can only be the most hurriedly fixed bowl of cereal EVER. It's undoubtedly being prepared with such vigorous speed and intensity that surely this bowl of cereal had to be made in less than 20 seconds or the world would implode.

Today I actually beat him to fixing myself cereal so of course I had to make some passive aggressive comment about it:

"Did you notice that even though I had cereal before you today that the milk and box were put back where they belong when you went to fix your bowl?"

He looks up with 100% complete seriousness (as if to say, how could you even possibly question this) and says,

"I'm going to put it away when I get done eating it. I have to fix it and eat it as fast as possible so it doesn't get soggy."

Well, thank god I know - for months I was sure Tim was the saving us all from worldly destruction, but really he is just saving himself from soggy cereal.



PALTSKKJ

You know I'm over-emotional when...

Both Earl & Scrubs made me cry.... Tim won't even begin to let me watch the E.R. wedding...

PALTSKKJ

At last ! Mr. & Mrs. Ahren Jetensky

I've been extremely remiss in not commenting on how great my cousin Christina's wedding was. Although the weather didn't cooperate, I think everyone would say the wedding was a big success and judging from some of the truly awesome pics, I now understand why people say rainy/cloudy wedding days make for great pictures. Here are just a few of my favorites:

This is my cousin Lori's daughter Lauren. She was a great little flower girl and I think this is one of the coolest flower girl wedding pictures I've ever seen. Look to the right and you will see the petals are in a big puff up in the air! So cute!


Here's another sample of one of them - don't they look too cute!



Now for one I took:


Some of my cousin's cool kids :


Pictures I took of the wedding can be found here.

And photograher pictures are here (warning - there are quite a few, but worth the time if you have it since there are some truly amazing ones!) I think the photographers did an unbelievable job. I joked with Chris that they could wallpaper a room with the number of awesome pictures there are of the two of them.

Congratulations to you both! I'm so happy for you and love you mucho!

PALTSKKJ

Monday's Baby Fashion Trend (Drool included)

I'm honestly having a hard time blogging right now about things that wouldn't include delving deep into how I'm feeling at this difficult time for my family and I don't know if I have that in me right now. So for the time being, I might just post a happy baby picture once in a while or funny baby story, because lets face it - I don't think anyone can look at one of these sweet baby faces and not feel a little bit better about life - even during the most difficult "life" times.

PALTSKKJ more than ever right now.

And I wonder why she doesn't nap well during the day...

Why I shouldn't go running anytime between 5 and 6pm

Lately, the earliest I am managing to hit the streets "new mommy style" (baby in tow blaring my favorite hip hop from my ultra yuppy jeep - yes, it's a jeep - jogging stroller) is sometime between 5:30 and 6:30pm. This is probably the worst time to try and head out in my neighborhood for this one reason: these people know how to grill. Imagine running between that time or in my world "the hungry hour" and every street and corner brings a new unbelievable aroma of delicious food on a grill. It's so bad that I have developed a little game to keep me distracted from the mouth watering smells - It's basically just a guessing game of what meat or veggie is making that smell? Is it pork tenderloin? Chicken? A veggie packet? A bratworst - which I've decided has the most recognizable grill smell. It's just pure torture the whole time, but at least guessing the meat keeps my mind distracted enough from going right up to the perpetrators door and demanding that they let me and babygirl in for dinner.

Regardless, the whole point of this post was to tell you about the two funny things that happened today on the run/walk but I get so damn distracted thinking about grilling that it's all I can focus on...

Today, this hungry hour time must have also been a popular time for 2-3 year old girls to be outside because they were running rampant in the neighborhood. The first one I encountered on Spring Hill drive was walking up the driveway with daddy when she spotted me.

"Daddy -daddy, look at the baby"

"Yes, that's a cute baby"

This is where I luckily start slowing down so they can admire my gorgeous baby a little longer - just as the little girl decides to dart away from daddy directly into my path causing me to come to a very abrupt stop. As I look up, dad has a pretty nervous look on his face as he is leaping to pull her away from the eminent yuppy stroller squashing injury that is about to occur. Luckily, I stop just fine as she comes up to the stroller, stands on her tippy toes and and peers over the edge,

"Daddy - I want to pet the baby"

Laughing, the dad explains that babies are not like doggies and that you don't "pet" babies, you say "hi" to babies. She goes on to say hi about 10 times and I say hi back on Bridget's behalf and finally as we slowly say goodbye and start moving again I hear her say to dad as she is walking back up the driveway,

"Daddy, I don't know why that baby didn't have any shoes on."

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love this time with babygirl, but things like that certainly make me see that the future is going to be filled with so much fun, too.

I'll save my other funny little girl story to entice you with later in the week as I have already blown off way too much work already!

Happy Tuesday!


PALTSKKJ

The great toy uprising

Can you spot the baby in this pile of toys?

I wouldn't want to spend even one day in your head...

This morning Tim takes his car to Combs to get a "quick" tire rotation and check on the brakes before he and the boys head out to Memphis for Ehlert's big bachelor party. Fast forward 1/2 hour to a frantic phone call to me about car needing new brakes, has to leave it for 3 hours, meeting at UMSL at 9:45, need to print out instructions, the password is Tremco9435....yadda, yadda, yadda...

So, to give you a nice run down of how I spent my day from approximately 8:17 am (the time of the first phone call) to 12:23pm (the time I FINALLY arrive at Sydney's Closet for my work day) I've prepared a lovely numbered list for your reading enjoyment:

1. Drive to combs and pick up Tim - 8:45am
   
   
2. Drive up to UMSL and drop Tim off for some big roofing meeting (only after reliving all my *crazy* good old days at UMSL ALL the way up there) - 9:30 am
   
   
3. Drive back to Brentwood to meet client for 10:30 meeting at Bread Company
   
   
4. Stop off at Brentwood Target for no other reason then I had 15 minutes to kill and who doesn't love to go to Target when they have 15 extra minutes
   
   
5. $47 Target dollars and one Venti Mocha non-fat no-whip later, I wrap up my meeting and go back up to UMSL (surprisingly the timing could not have been more perfect as Tim was just leaving his meeting)
   
   
6. Drive Tim back to Combs tire. This is where apparently (somewhere between the Venti Mocha and after only approximately 5.5 hours of sleep last night, but that's a whole different Bridget entry) I apparently became a monster chatterbox about my surroundings and events as they were occuring in real time:
   

"Do you think we can live in a house like that some day?"

"I know she's going to bug the crap out of me today with all this ABS b.s."

"Wow that dog just went after that little kid - did you see that?"

"Oh man, I hope there's not a train - is that I train - do you see a train? "

"This satellite sh*t is cool - don't you love it?"

These are just a few of the ones I remember and they were in that order - rapid fire. So, my whole point about this last bullet point is this...no really, I think I have one... -I decided today (when someone was actually in the car with me during my usual "alone" time) that I have a complete constant thought stream - it seriously never stops. Actually as I am typing these lines I'm thinking at least 4 sentences ahead and listening to 30 Rock in the background. Anyway, I guess Tim picked up on it especially today since he was privy to my own little J.D. world, because when he finally could get a word in he said:

"I wouldn't want to spend even one day in your head...it's tough enough even being out here".



PALTSKKJ

the landlord

This is worth watching - disturbing, but funny at the same time... sorry if this offends anyone - blame Will Ferrell.

The Landlord


I have lots of pictures from the wedding and easter getting ready to go up on shutterfly. I'll post as soon as I get them all loaded!

PALTSKKJ

It's the big ONE!

I LOVE April 11th - I always have. I get a little fluttery inside when coincidentally someone on tv announces something taking place on "April 11th" or when Easter falls on "April 11th" and people say it over and over again. It's no secret people - I LOVE April 11th. I really do think of it next to Christmas as the best day of the year.

Now, I have gotten plenty of flack in my life for this love. "Birthday Season" jokes have arisen and much ado has been made over this little day, but I really don't care, in fact I think I like that a little. I think of it as just a testament to another aspect of my quirky, yet childlike at times personality and whether I'm turning 11 or 32, why shouldn't I still love this day? It's really not the self-serving "give me all the presents you can" reason that I like so much about this day, although I would venture to say that many people think that is it. It's really just more that there's just a nice little something special to a birthday. Like a little secret you can carry around in your pocket that no other stranger knows about you on that day. You are special that day and, for that reason, I've always walked around with a little spring in my step.


So, now that I am 32 and have been through quite a few of these April 11ths, I started thinking about why I love this day so much and I realized it's not about the presents or the cake (to be honest, I've never been the hugest cake fan - I know, crazy...) but what it is about is basically one great thing - my family and specifically, my parents. They are why I love this day so much. They are the birthday king and queen. They made each birthday, no matter how rushed of a time of year or how many times it fell on Easter, always a special day for me. It was all about me - although occasionally my mom would remind me that they really should give the presents to the mom's on birthdays since they did all the work and, I'd have to say, this is the first year that I would probably agree with her on that one.... But, really, I would like to say thanks mom and dad - thanks for making all those birthdays so special and for teaching me that life is too short to not have a piece of cake on your birthday and be grateful for another year in life with good friends and family.

Well, finally to this April 11th (the whole reason I started this post way back when) THIS April 11th is especially special. (Can you use especially and special back to back?) Well, it is, let's just say SUPER SPECIAL this year! I am so happy to be able to now share what was my secret & special day with a very deserving little man. Yes, one year ago today, Mr. Matthew Wellington Muldrow made his way into the world on the (second) best day of the year - April 11th. I remember going to see him in the hospital and holding those tiny 6 lbs of pure adorableness and thinking how cool that birthday for me was -here I was seeing one of my best friends go through a real "birth" day and, for the first time, I got a real appreciation for why we celebrate birthdays the way we do. It truly is a miracle to have Matthew in our lives now and what better way to remember that every year then to celebrate the day he entered the world. I remember feeling so excited that he and I would forever be connected by this awesome day - April 11th.

So, without further ado - to my main little man -

Happy FIRST birthday!!!!!

Here's to many many more awesome April 11th's to come for you. Because, just like my parents made this day something great for me, I have no doubt that you will be 32 years old someday and looking back on how special your mommy and daddy made every April 11th for you! Love you, little man - Happy First!


-PS- Aimee wrote a great blog entry (something I will undoubtedly steal come August 26th) about Matthew's arrival into the world one year ago today! Check it out here.

PALTSKKJ

Larry Birkhead is the Baby Daddy

Well, thank god we all know now. I don't think I could have slept one more night not knowing.

Sorry, just bitter as they have broken in, yes, I repeat, broken in numerous times to announce the "breaking news". America, please get a life!

-Easter pics coming soon! Stay tuned!

Everyone here is extremely gruntled...

This takes forever and is absolutely beyond cheesy (although, brilliant NBC viral marketing at it's best), but you know how I'm a sucker for a good lovey dovey video and the music just fits so well. Anyway, don't bother watching if you don't like cheese or don't have 4 minutes, but DO get PSYCHED cause tonight Roy is "gonna kill Jim Halpert" (well, hopefully not...)

Happy Thursday and FINALLY new office night!!!

Diversity Training Day at the [CWC] office

Come on everyone, gather around, you too Blue Octopus, we need to address the comments you made toward Yellow-Orange Fish on Wheels last week.

Wait, I have a question... if I know Pink Puppy is socializing outside of the workplace with Green Frog Lily - is it my responsibility to pass this on to corporate?

Okay, let's say there is a certain colorful male giraffe who happens to sport a lot of bling - if he doesn't tell, we shouldn't ask, right?

Diversity training is fun - let's all celebrate diversity!

PALTSKKJ

Tuesday Newsflash

Anne Curry still makes me want to jab my pretty silvery-blue metallic pen into my eyes.

I'm a complete sucker for physical comedy

happy only one more week until the new office where Jim Halpert gets it!

PALTSKKJ

We really did try to get them IN her mouth...

Tonight we tried carrots - oh the humanity!

She's not terrified of the dog, she's terrified of the carrots...

Is the torture over?

Thank you, this is all I need...

In case you didn't read the previous post...make sure you do to catch up on how much babygirl LOVES eating solid foods...


PALTSKKJ

Now miss Scarlett, you come on and eat juss a little honey!

All of a sudden babygirl has taken to not liking her solid foods. In the beginning she would tolerate it and appease us, but she has absolutely regressed lately, preferring to just grab her little bottle on her own and eat from that at her own pace and on her own time. Whether we try and feed her when she's starving or just barely hungry, try rice vs. oatmeal, carrots or squash, she throws a fit as soon as the bib goes on... and I swear she even knows what kind of bib - if it's the slicky, plasticy bibs that's when the Gone With the Wind type drama begins...

This morning, before I barely even touched her mouth with the spoon, her little nose wrinkled up, the hands flew up in protest and she actually started this little gagging sound as if she was choking even though absolutely nothing had gone in her mouth yet....of course, this was enough to make me double check since any remote little gag or cough strikes fear in me like nothing else can. After confirming there wasn't so much as a drop of milk left for her to choke on, I decide I'm sure she is doing this on purpose, that she somehow knows this fake choking will make me stop trying to feed her. Refusing to be mentally defeated by a 7 month old, I go back to trying again and immediately her little hands start rubbing her fists across her eyes and forehead with a type of despair equal only to Scarlett O'Hara's dramatic reaction as Rhett Butler is leaving her to go off to war..

As I do finally manage to get a spoonful successfully in her mouth (instead of all over her face, fists, and in her hair) she makes a face as if I've just wronged her beyond any and all reasonable mother/daughter expectations, it's a face that I swear said word for word,

"How could you do this to me? The pain, the anguish, the betrayal..."

After this, she sits in her little chair for a good 15 seconds in what I can only describe as shocked stillness until finally erupting with volcano-like projectile spitting that goes all over me, the chair her clothes and even Brogan, a perfectly innocent bystander.

Finally, after at least three rounds of this fake choking/flailing arms and projectile spitting, I give in to the queen and stop the apparent torture I am inflicting. Given this flare for the dramatic she is developing, I'm sure one day we'll be watching her portray Miss Scarlett with ease in a high school play and, right now, as far as this solid food business is concerned... frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn....



PALTSKKJ

friday night lights during wednesday night screaming

Has anyone ever watched Friday Night Lights? We've watched it since the pilot right after babygirl was born. I think she was home for a week and we saw the first show and since then each show I like more than the last. In the beginning it took me a while to get into actually understanding and appreciating the story line, but now I am hooked. It's not just about football and teenagers, it has more depth than that but still gives you the good teenage angst stuff once in a while that I love. And given that the beautiful guy from my all-time favorite (though short lived show) Homefront is in this gives me all the more reason to love it.

Article: why you should watch friday night lights


At the moment, Bridget is trying to prevent me from watching this by fighting her very predictable and reliable bed time. The past week or so she has been very particular about going to sleep often fighting naps and now even bed time. The screaming is as loud and awful as anything I've ever heard, but I have a feeling she would rather just be up playing and hanging out with us rather than getting the sleep she so desperately needs. So, were letting her go for a while. We have a routine that we've always used practically since she started having a regular bedtime, so I know she's okay, but it's sooooo not fun to listen to.

I know the Muldrow's can appreciate this as I went back and looked at Aimee's posts about Matthew's sleep problems and imagine my (not) surprise when I realized Matthew's issues took place when he was almost exactly the same age as Bridget is now. There must just be a light bulb that goes on in their little brains that says, "hey, sleeping is not as much fun as my elephant book or big bird bouncy, so i think i'll just scream at the top of my lungs 'til i get to do that stuff again..." I'm certainly not glad they had to go through this with Matthew, but it does help me realize that this is just a phase and I won't have to rock her until she is in college!

Thankfully as I've been typing this it's finally been silent for a little while now...aahhh sweet silence....


PALTSKKJ

Like father, like son and daughter...

Happy 60th Birthday Dad...

Here's a little video to celebrate his 60th and kick off where he'll be spending his next 60...it is in a home...a lake home that is!




Happy Birthday Dad!

We love you!

PALTSKKK

Welcome Cole Daniel!

Babies, babies everywhere!

Chris and Kristi welcomed Cole Daniel into the world yesterday evening at 5:40pm. After waiting months to find out whether we had a he or a she and what the name would be we are all so excited to finally have Cole here!

Aunt Charlotte gave the following update:

"The beautiful red-headed baby weighed in at 7lbs 6oz and is 19 and a half inches long. Although born by Caesarean, mother, father and baby are doing beautifully. Thank you God for this new and wonderful miracle."

Congratulations guys - Bridget can't wait to meet her new cousin and neither can we!

ps - Come on Gianino's - I know you all have digital cameras...how about a picture of this little red headed man - you're killing us!! Update 3/16/2007 7:32pm - retraction issued - thanks for the photos he's a cutie!!

Are you sitting down for these gems...

Get ready for about 200 pictures! Libby and I took "the kids/babies" (Bridget and Matthew) to the Jewel Box yesterday for some fabulous Spring inspired photos. The weather was just too nice not to sneak away, that and I really wanted some professional quality pics of babygirl to mark her 6 month birthday. Even tho these are like 6 1/2 month pictures, I think they'll do. They may not be perfectly professional, but I love them a lot! She was smiley and had a lot of fun with her pal Matthew. Some of my absolute favorites are when they are sitting about 8-10 feet apart from each other with one in front, one in back. We couldn't get them to sit happily next to each other as you'll see in the sequence below of the two of them where you can see Bridget goes down. It's hilarious.

Matthew isn't sure about sitting at this point and babygirl is about to be his first casualty...

There she goes...don't worry it wasn't bad. Not half as bad as when mommy wasn't watching her and she fall over backward and banged her head on the concrete...that was BAD.

This is my favorite. You can imagine all kinds of great scenarios for this little beauty. Bridget looks exhausted from the long day of modeling and Matthew looks like he's preparing himself to defend her with his cool new kung fu moves....

Want to see 'em all?

http://picasaweb.google.com/edelanty
Now before I hear any lip about the new photo site, I had to post them temporarily there since the files are so large, I can't upload them all to shutterfly. If you want any, just email me and I'll post them to wherever your little heart desires.

Irish eyes are smiling...

It's no secret that I'm a wannabe Irish-girl, so I thought I would get ready for the big holiday by using my daughter to create the cutest St. Patrick's day header ever. In case it's not clear the "name" I'm referring to in the header is mine - Erin. Some people thought that may not be clear, I think some people are just stupid.

Still busy working on the new going-ons at the CWC headquarters. It's really not too exciting so to ensure I don't create a bigger buzz than is warranted, I will give you a hint: it really just has to do with organizing and some new equipment. That's really about all, but there will be some good pictures to come hopefully by the end of the weekend.

In other news, my little 1/4 Irish baby or however much she is has been very busy lately (and not just working in the CWC offices). She is almost fully sitting - picture a weeble wooble that usually makes it back upright after wobbling forward back and side to side. She is also eating some rice cereal now, too. She's had a couple feedings and basically took to it like "what's the big deal here people? it's not rocket science, it's a spoon"... at least we're pretty sure that's what she was thinking. She is also training for the upcoming 5 miler downtown on St. Patrick's Day. So far she's up to about three miles run/walking, but really seems to be good at it... although once again, she's expressed that sitting in a stroller while someone pushes you up and down hills isn't really brain surgery, either.

Well, time for the best night of tv - except for the reruns, but most office's are usually worth watching again- Happy Thursday!

PALTSKKJ

Oh hi - we're vaccuuming, yeah that's fine

I've discovered something about myself that I find either interesting and a sign of high intelligence or disturbing and weird so since I have about 10 minutes for something to finish copying I thought I would share... I just opened up an older client file of mine to check a password and written in close proximity to the client's all important username and password was the following three lines: oh hi, we're vacuuming, yeah that's fine. You see, almost everytime I open up an old client file or thumb through some notes or project lists I've joted down, I will find these little areas on the page where I have written down aspects of a conversation. It then makes me wonder what the context of that conversation was and I'll spend too much trying to remember who I was talking to and about what. Seriously, why did I even need to tell the caller I was vacuuming in the first place?

You can always tell if I've been on the phone and there was paper and pen nearby because you can pretty much surmise what the conversation was and in a lot of cases who I was talking to - actually at times this is a borderline dangerous habit. Just last night I found the following chicken scratch at Tim's desk on the back of an envelope:

"annoying, so annoying...
irritating - why does he think that is funny?"

- now, to give you the full effect, picture the above text bordered with little hand drawn daisies and hearts and sprinkled around were my initials and full signature both Delanty and Jones versions ... am I ten? It took me a while but I remembered the conversation with Molly last week about how Tim annoys us when he says "get off my back jack"... funny now, but that little chicken scratch could have implied something much more sinister and my unconscious writing could definitely get me in trouble some day.

Anyway, without making this too long of a boring post about my idiosyncracies (some of you are already thinking "too late"), I was just wondering if everyone does that or that makes me odd in some way?

I am in the midst of some very exciting stuff right now and I really have so much to blog about that it's pretty ridiculous that I just took up some blogging time writing about my weird habits... but you'll have to stay tuned to find out what I (err...we... I guess Bridget is kind of helping) have got cooking up for Custom Web this week! BTW, that's called "pulling a Preszler" - when you lead someone on just to make them keep tuning back into you. Cindy Preszler that is - for those of you saying what the hell is she talking about now?

Happy Tuesday

PALTSKKJ