I am woman, hear me roar...

Today was pretty boring, but I can say I got a lot accomplished. Started out by getting some laundry out of the way. Then I picked up the mounds of trash from the prior week. (notice how there is a perpetual pile of trash in my house?) Collin and I did what we do best on the weekend. Lazed around the house for most of the day. Later on I got the kitchen cleaned up which included dishes and mopping the floor. I'm hoping to hire a maid. My baby sitter's daughter in law is cleaning houses so I may use her services. But before I let anyone come and clean, I want it to be in atleast a semi decenct condition. I know that sounds silly, but I don't want her to think all Americans are as filthy as we've been lately....
well, that was pretty much my boring day. Time for me to go and get an icecream sandwich out of the fridge.....yum.....

Great day!

This has been a really nice day. Collin has just been the perfect little kiddo for me today. We lounged around the house for a good part of the morning. I put him down for his nap, showered and once he woke up I thought it'd be good for us to get out and do alittle shopping. So I took him to 4 different stores and he didn't get crabby once!!! For me that is huge. Cause I love to shop, and I usually don't get past 2 stores before the bordom for him sets in. (must get that from his dad! LOL) He was just a little sweetie. One of those stops was to the grocery store. He even let me put away the groceries when we got home without screaming at me to get him out of his highchair. Later in the evening, we were playing around on the floor in the living room and he took his first couple of steps without holding on to anything!!!! Another HUGE milestone. He's not walking yet, but he was so excited when he let go and took those steps toward me. Today I saw my son blossom. He was in such a good mood today and that just made my day. It seems like the cranky crabby little boy is slowing becoming a happier kid. I just love it.
These past few days have been pretty tiring. I haven't blogged lately because I rented a couple of movies and by the time I got done watching them I was just ready for bed. One of those movies were the 40 year old virgin. It was ok, but I'm glad I didn't buy it. It wasn't as hilarious as I thought it would be.
Another awesome thing that happened this week was we got the end of the year utility bill. They do an estimation system here in Germany like they do in the states. They estimate what your usage will be based on what the previous years bill showed. I've heard horror stories about how huge people's (my fellow Americans) end of the years bill have been. One friend said they owed 1000 Euro! Which is about $1500 dollars! BUT here is the good news. THEY OWE US!!!! (Can you tell I'm siked?) I'm not sure if it includes the water bill, but it definately had the electic on it and they owe us about 210 Euro. I even called them to make sure I was reading the bill right. Yeah!!! The sweet sweet smell of a refund. Gotta love it!

Busy busy day

Today was a pretty good day. I got up early, got ready, dropped Collin off at the sitter and headed to work with plenty of time to have a nice relaxing breakfast in the chow hall. Except for one thing. The damn line to get into the post this morning was so long that it took me thirty minutes just to get into the hospital. So I had to grab some crap at Burger Puke for breakfast (we have one in the food court in the hospital) then run up to the ward where I proceded to inhale it.
The ward was pretty slow this morning but I had lots to do. Since I missed work last Friday I had alot of medical charts to break down so that they can go down to inpatient records. About midday things picked up as we received post op patient after post op patient. We only had one RN today so she was swamped getting them settled in and comfortable after surgery as well as take care of our other patients. We have LPN's on the ward, but they are not allowed to push narcotics. We had several things come up today that made for some good drama, but I'm not going to get into them online for privacy reasons. Gotta love the drama. It's like General Hospital there sometimes. It keeps things interesting, that's for sure.

Knee deep in poopie...

Oh the joys of motherhood. I don't think I've ever changed so many diapers as I have today. He was a little poop machine! It's like he waited until I changed him to do his business. In spite of the dirty details, Collin and I had a great day. We didn't do jack crap and it was wonderful! I did my grocery shopping yesterday so we didn't have to leave the house. Collin let me sleep until 8 again this morning and he took a two hour nap so I was pretty happy.
I told you yesterday that I would review the Wedding Crasher movie. I thought it was pretty damn funny! I love Vince Vaughn's character. Sure there were some cheesey, predictable moments but all in all I thought it was hilarious. You know how sometimes you buy a movie before you've watched it cause someone told you how great it was (Anchorman...blech)? I'm glad I took a chance on this one. It'll go right up there with Old School!
Well, since I didn't go anywhere today I really don't have much to talk about! See you on the flip side...

Good nights sleep

I had a reprive from the frequent sleep interuptions last night. I put Collin to bed last night at 9pm and he actually let me sleep until almost 9 this morning. I was even able to take the dogs out before he started screaming for me to go and get him this morning. It was great and it set the tone for the whole day. We had a good day together. It's amazing how it can go from one extreme to the next. I just tried to keep him on a schedule and I also gave him tylenol last night before bed, so I'm wondering if it's not from teething pain. We went out for awhile today and just enjoyed our day together. Now why can't we do this during the week when I have to get up early?? LOL.
Thanks to everyone for the words of encouragement. It means alot to have that support right now.
Well, I bought the movie "Wedding Crashers" today so I'm going to get that started now that I have Collin in bed. Hope everyone is having a great day. I'll let ya'll know if the movie is worth watching!

Rollercoaster Ride

These past couple of days have been pretty tough. Collin has been waking up atleast two times a night after he's been put to bed. His sitter is saying that he's only getting a 1-2 hour nap a day, so he should be freakin exhausted. I know I sure am. I didn't go to work today so that I could make a doctors appointment for him. His sitter thought that maybe he had an ear infection. That would definately cause him to wake up frequently at night and I could get him on meds to help get him over it. It was scheduled for 1 but I wanted to go to the mailbox before hand so I could see if I got my bedding (which I did) so we left at about 11:30. Collin would not take a nap before then, so we were going to his appt without a nap. I knew if was gonna be a fun trip. He did pretty well until we had to wait in the waiting room. He started to do that limp noodle kid thing. He wanted down, but no way in hell was I gonna let him crawl around in the waiting room of the pediatric clinic.
His check up went well, no ear infections. The doctor thought that maybe he was starting to have night terrors. He thought that since he's waking up around an hour after I put him down every night and he's pretty much unconsolable that he might be having them. I have to turn the lights on and sing to him to get him to stop crying. I think that maybe it has more to do with teething. (which the doc also said it might be the reason for him waking up) He also got his flu shot booster today, so that didn't help his mood either. I get home at about 2 and I put him down for an afternoon nap. He goes down right away and sleeps like a rock for 2 hours. Then he wakes up and he is just sooo upset. Nothing I did was good enough, or what he wanted. I got so frusterated I just wanted to scream. I did slam a few doors. I almost wanted to call someone to come and get him so I wouldn't blow up in his face. He's just a little boy. ANd after I got him some Tylenol and milk he perked up again to his cute happy little self. And after that I felt like an ass. I just don't know what to do anymore. I'm just glad to know that he doesn't have an infection that I'm ignoring ya know? And when he's happy all is great. I just don't have much patience left anymore lately.
The rollercoaster ride comes into play in regards to my moods and my job. I think I have decided to quit my job about 5 times today, but then I'll change my mind. If Collin is having a good day, I want to stay with my job. If he's waking me up alot, I just want to quit right then. I feel like I can't do this when he acts like that. I can't stand to see him upset and I'm also resentful that I can't just have a relaxing dinner or a couple of hours to myself before bed.
This deployment can't end soon enough for me. Right now I'd like to kick the Army in the balls. They take my hubby away, and my job isn't real accomedating towards me having extra time off. I'm going to try to stay with this job until Dave comes home, then when he comes home, quit my job. i dunno.
Well, I'm sooo tired and starting to not make sense.
Brandi

Life is not fun right now

I'm not going to write anything tonight cause I'm depressed. I'd just like to kick the Army in the balls right now.

I've pretty much given up

Yeah...uh weightwatchers...um, it's just not happening right now. I do pretty well during the week when I'm at work. It's so easy there because I can take a lean cuisine and have a salad from the salad bar and be good. But when I'm at home, and bored, and left to my own devices...that is when the trouble starts. Lets see what have I had to eat today. I shared a can of mandarin oranges with my son (he LOVES those things) for breakfast, then for lunch I had two wienerwurst with curry sauce and fries, then about an hour later the snaking began. I shared a couple of fat free pudding cups with my son (see, it's ok if you're sharing with your son...the calories don't count!) Then I had some pretzels with cheese dip, then later a handful of mini rice cakes. If weightwatchers did one thing for me it was open my eyes to just how much I put in my mouth. You'd think pretzels, rice cakes and fat free pudding wouldn't add up to much, but when you add up all the little things it does count. Then the really bad treat came later, when I should have been eating dinner. I had about 6 tablespoons of Ben and Jerry's KarmalSutra! Oh you'd think I'd died and gone to heaven. What is it about food? Why can't I just eat to live and not live to eat. Eating is pretty much the focal point of all my social transactions. What do my hubby and I do? Go out to eat. What do I do with friends? Go out to eat. When you have people over for a game night? Have snacks and goodies available. It's so weird. I wish I could just love eating healthy food. If only I could love broccoli as much as I love french fries. Then last but not least for dinner I had a couple of cheese and green onion burritos. Not healthy. I have no excuses. I know what I'm supposed to be eating. I know how much I'm supposed to be eating. What it comes down to is motivation. I'm really hoping that once my husband gets back I'll have more time to focus on this eating situation. Because swimsuit season and god help me short season is right around the corner. And I don't want to feel as self concious this summer as I did last summer. My sister in law sent me pics of their trip here last summer and I was horrified when I saw a picture of me and Collin. I didn't even recognise myself. Well, it's the end of my four day weekend and so I'll be headed back to work tomorrow. Maybe that will get me back on track eating wise.
Collin and I had a semi good day. LOL. He only got an hour nap all day, so he got real cranky the second half of the day. (I tried to get him to take two naps and he wasn't having it) It was a pretty boring day, just cleaning around the house and doing laundry. I'm hoping that since this is a short week for me that the days will fly by. The more days that go by will mean I'm that much closer to seeing my sweetie again. I miss him alot.

It worked!

I just noticed that a couple of links that I tried to add are showing up now! It must have just taken some time for the blog to update. Yeah...I'm not a challenged as I thought I was! :) But I could always use more suggestions (if you have any) on how to spiff up the ol blog. Take care...

I'm blog challenged

I've been fiddling with my blog all night long (man that sounds perverted) and I just can't seem to get it more personalized. I would like to add links to other blogs I like, maybe add pictures to my blog, ect. I've looked at the help section, but I'm just not getting it to work. This would be another great project for my hubby to help me with if he were here. He is a computer god. But alas, he is not here....sigh. Last I heard he should be coming home in February. We'll see. I've learned with the Army it's best to not expect the best. That way if it does work out, then it 's a pleasant surprise!
Today was a great day. Collin slept till almost 8:00 again. I heard him playing in his crib so I went ahead and got up too. We hung out for a couple of hours then I decided to finally head for the store. It was one of those days where it was so cold you could see your breath, but the sun was shinning bright. There was just a crispness to the air, like right before a snow. I think Collin and I both enjoyed getting out of the house for a few hours. And after my migraine last night I feel like a new woman.
So we did our shopping and came back home. I had oodles of trash to sort and bag up. Yoohoo! Then I disinfected all the toys I bought from the thrift store so that Collin will have some new toys to play with tomorrow. So it was a full but not too exciting day. It was a good day with my son, just a good day to be alive really. Now I think I'll head off to bed to start fresh tomorrow. Toodles...

Not exactly what I had in mind

The day started out pretty good. Collin didn't wake me up last night and he slept in till about 7:30 which I really appreciated. He was in an awesome mood. He was such a happy boy today! Well, last night my friend Angela called me and asked if I wanted to go to the Thrift Store on post with her today. He husband was gonna watch both our boys, so I thought it would be nice to go with her to check it out. She is always picking up the coolest toys for cheap when she goes there. We found quite a few things there for both our boys. Once we bought our goodies (I only spent 9 bucks and got 6 toys!) we headed back to her house. I was going to pick up Collin and head over to the grocery store to pick up a few things. However, he was crabby so I decided to go home for a nap then go to the store.
I was starting to get a headache on the way home, so I took my migrane meds. From the time I left Angela's house to the time I got home I was in a full blown migrane. I can't believe how fast they come on sometimes. So I fed, changed and put Collin down for a nap and luckily for me he went right down. I took more meds and layed down on the couch. Collin slept for two hours and the whold time I was in agony. I kept thinking I hope this goes away before he wakes up. He woke up and I still couldn't get over this migraine. Not too long after he woke up I felt nauseous. I ended up huging the porcelan god not too long after that. I would rather get festering boils then throw up. But I did feel better afterwards. Needless to say we didn't get to the store tonight. It's 8:30 pm and I just got over my headache. (I got it this afternoon at 2pm) It's weird though. Everytime I get a migraine once it goes away I feel awesome. It's like such a huge comparison. From agony to huge relief. So I made myself some dinner since I lost everything else I had eaten for the day. (gross I know) It tasted so good. Right now I'm watching Dancing with the Stars. I am so glad to see dancing coming back into the spot light. This is classy television, it takes so much disipline and talent to dance well. Someday, when we go back to the states, I will be taking some dancing lessons. Hopefully my husband will join me, but if not I still want to do it. Maybe my sister will want to go with me! LOL.

Awh...rest and relaxation

It's Friday and I'm just beginning my four day weekend. If there is a perk for working with the military, this is it! I've got my little boy down for a nap and I'm just relaxing with the Golden Girls. (ok, stop laughing and no I'm not 60)
One of my friends posted her favorite 10 movies on her blog http://spaces.msn.com/members/ketcherintherye/ and that has made me think about what are mine.
10. The Man Who Knew Too Little-starring Bill Murray
I think this is the funniest movie he's been in. It's about this guy who goes to visit his brother in London and his brother buys him a spot in a role playing mystery show, only he ends up envolved in the middle of an international incident where he is believed to be a hitman. He doesn't have a clue that what he's gotten himself into is reality and not the show and it's just so damned funny. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a good laugh.
9. American Beauty-starring Kevin Spacey
I just loved how the dynamics of that family played out. Every character was disfunctional in their own way. I really enjoyed the fact that Kevin's character was able to find himself again before he died. So many of us work horrible jobs that we hate, or lose ourselves in relationships that aren't working and just never have the guts to do what truely makes us happy.
8.Steel Magnolias
This one is always good for a huge cry session. I think my favorite part is where M'Lnn has her breakdown after Shelby's death. I ball like a baby when she says the next line....
"I find it amusing. Men are supposed to be made out of steel or something. I just sat there. I just held Shelby's hand. There was no noise, no tremble, just peace. Oh god. I realize as a woman how lucky I am. I was there when that wonderful creature drifted into my life and I was there when she drifted out. It was the most precious moment of my life."
Now that I'm a mother I truely get that line. If my son were dying I'd want to be there for his last breath. I hope I never have to know that pain though.
7. The Goodbye Girl-Richard Dryfuss
The reason I have this movie on my list is because it reminds me of my childhood. This was one of the first movies we owned on VHS and I know every word by heart. Here is the synopsis since it's kinda lengthy... A divorced woman and her daughter come home to find that her boyfriend has left for an out of town job with no warning. This has happened before. The second surprise comes in the form of another actor who has sublet the apartment from her boyfriend (who did not mention the pair of females who would be in residence). After some negotiation the two decide to share the apartment even though she has vowed to stay away from actors.
6. Breakfast Club
I love all the John Hughes movies. Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles,Ferris Bueller's Day off, ect. You gotta love the 80's teen angst movies.
5. Moulin Rouge
I LOVE musicals and this was a great modern musical. I bought the Red Curtain Set of Baz Luhrman movies. It includes the Romeo and Juliet movie with Leo Dicaprio, Moulin Rouge, and Strictly Ballroom. All of those movies are beautifully made. Beside the great music, they are some of the most colorful movies. The colors just pop out of the screen in these movies.
4. Dumb and Dumber
What can I say, I love all the Farrelly Brothers movies. They are so off the wall and hiliarious. Nothing like a blind kid playing with the head of a dead bird to get some laughs.
3. Never Been Kissed-Drew Barrymore
This is such a cute movie. A copywriter who wants to be a reporter goes undercover and poses as a high school student to get a story. When she was in highschool she was a nerdy geek who no one liked. She becomes popular when her loser brother joins her and helps her become popular. She ends up falling in love with a teacher, but once she is exposed at the senior prom he wants nothing to do with her. The end scene is she is at the high school baseball state game waiting for him to come and give her, her first real kiss. It's a sappy girlie movie, but I like it.
2. Braveheart
I absolutely love this movie and it's soundtrack. The love story intertwined in this wartime movie is so wonderfully made. Plus, Mel Gibson is so hot in it! LOL.
1. Joe Dirt
This movie makes me laugh my ass off. My husband and I watch it several times a month and David Spade just makes this movie. He is truely the picture of white trash perfection with a heart of gold.
There are so many movies I could pick though. I love anything with Adam Sandler (except Little Nicky) or Jim Carrey.
That's pretty much it for me right now. I've done absolutely nothing so far today because I can. I have to go out tomorrow though cause we're almost out of groceries.

What a difference a day makes

I actually had a pretty good day at work today. I worked hard and accomplished a lot of things I have been trying to get done for days. I think it's this particular crew I worked with today. These nurses take care of their own business and let me take care of mine. I know it's been tough for the nurses I've been complaining about lately. I'd say about 75-80% of my co workers are reservists that are deployed here for a year. They may not be in the desert, but they are separated from their families. For the most part all they do is bitch and moan about everything. I can understand but it still makes it hard to work with them. Plus, I just want to say to them...look, you could be the patient in that bed, so get over your self. They are the ones in harms way and you're bitchin and moanin about how many days off you have a week. I dunno. But still, today was a good day and the people I worked with today were great.
Another great thing is that this is a short week for me. This weekend is a four day weekend for the military so I have those days off too. At some point this week I need to go get another DVD player. Ours decided to just up and die tonight. I think it ruined one my Golden Girls DVD's. I just bought it last night and the DVD player said it couldn't read it, so I take it out and it is scratched to hell. I know I didn't do anything to scratch it, so either the player did it or it came like that. Then tonight, it wouln't play any DVD so off the the trash it goes.
I think I've been semi cursed since Dave left. Every light bulb in my house has burned out atleast once. (some of them I can't reach, so I guess they'll wait), I've lost a rebate check from the State of Oklahoma for $90, I've got mice in my basement and I lost my diamond wedding band. I can't keep track of anything lately. LOL! I thought maybe Collin ate my ring, but Silvia (my babysitter) thinks it's too big for me to not have noticed him eating it. Plus she didn't think it'd go down. I still asked if she'd keep an eye out for anything shiny coming from his diaper! LOL So that leaves either I left it on a counter at work (while I lotioned my hands) and someone stole it, or it's lost in my mess of a house.
My little boy is doing good. Still getting the same four teeth in, and nearly walking. He's getting a little temper on him though. Not that he hasn't always been a little cantankerous, but he definitely lets you know now when he's not happy. But he's also laughing and talking more too. Still nothing too legible, but he still is trying out his "Ewok talk" as my mom likes to call it. He is so cute, makes me want to have another one. Not yet though sometime in the next year or two.
That's all folks...have a good night.

I've been a bad, bad girl

I haven't been sticking with my weight loss plan and it's only the second week in January. I had chinese tonight. Ok honey, prepare to be jealous...I went to Bambusgarten (bamboo garden in German) and got chicken low mein, chicken fried rice and mini egg rolls. I didn't eat all of it, but I ate a healthy portion of everything. There aren't too many great places to get take out here in Germany, but this place is awesome. Of course it was swimming in grease , gave me heartburn, but it was soooo good.
Along with my fatty feast I have another guilty pleasure. The Golden Girls. I bought the first season tonight cause I've been bored with the crap on AFN and there wasn't anything else that looked good. This shit is funny! Not only is the interaction between the girls funny, but so is the wardrobe and makeup. I'm sure my hubby is grimicing.... I figure this would be a good time to get it since he would rather sear his eyes out with hot pokers then watch the Golden Girls. I just love how they are re-releasing these shows on DVD's. You can get almost any old show on DVD. I have a couple of other shows that remind me of my childhood. I've got every season of the Brady Bunch as well as Quincy. Embarrissing, but true. Oh well, I'm sure we all have things we feel dorky for liking.
I've been pretty busy these past couple of days. Yesterday I took Collin over to a friend of mine's house. She has a little boy who is a couple of weeks younger than him and they just have a great time together. I had fun hanging out with another adult and we had a great time comparing mommy stories. So, they played and played till they were both exhausted then we came home. He got dinner and a bath and was off to bed.
I did not want to get up this morning. I got about 6 hours of sleep and it still wasn't enough. Work wasn't too bad today. Which is good for the patients since they are what makes the hospital busy. The more I think about it the more I want to quit my job. I love the job itself, but the atmosphere at work is getting unbearable. There is a real negative vibe growing among the staff there and it gets worse everyday. What also makes it hard to leave this place is I just love the dang money it brings in t00. I dunno...I think I'll give the job a couple of months, then quit. I'm still not sure. I just know that if something doesn't change I don't want to stay in this job anymore.
well time to hit the hay.....

New bedroom suite

Here is the new bedroom set I bought for us. I just love toile....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v65/brandi74/beddingset.jpg
It's from JC penny and I can't wait till it gets here!

ok, i'm annoyed

I had a long blog ready to go and lost it. So, no thoughts for tonight. Cause I'm tired and not gonna re-type it.
Love peace and chicken grease......

Exhausted...

I haven't been able to write for a couple of days cause it's just been brutal at work. Things are flaring up in the middle east and that always means we're gonna get busy. I'm really not gonna write much cause I want to get to bed at a decent hour. Collin (my son) had a hard time getting to bed last night. He went to bed late then woke up at 2:30am so I'm running on about 4 hours of sleep. He didn't drink much of his bottle tonight, so I bet he wakes up hungry at some point tonight. Which is why I'm going to bed now so I can actually get some sleep. Good night all....hope you have sweet dreams.

Nothing news worthy...

My day was busy at work, but nothing really news worthy happened. So instead of picking a topic at random to complain about, I thought I'd just find something positive to post. Like comics. Everybody loves comics...they are fun for everyone. :P I especially love Get Fuzzy. Check it out, hope it makes ya smile.
http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/index.html

Hi Ho Hi Ho, It's off to work I go...

Today was my first day back to work after my week and a half vacation. It was kinda hard getting back into the groove after being away so long. I was feeling right at home by the second half of the day though. I'd say it was a pretty good day for me since I got to meet a unique bunch of people today. First off I have to tell you about the amazing place that I work.
I work at a military hospital here in Germany and the floor that I work on takes care of patients mainly from Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. I work as the ward clerk, so I don't do any patient care, but I help free up nurses valuable time by taking care of the mounds of military paperwork and the answering of phones. (they hate answering the phones! LOL!) In my time at the hospital, I have seen the atrocities of war and the strength of the human spirit. I think this job has forever opened my eyes to the sacrifices of our men and women and what their families go through while the are serving our country. Some have touched my life more than others but they are all heroes.
We get a lot of distinguished visitors that come and see our patients. Today we had the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace come by to visit the staff and the patients. He is the highest ranking member of the Armed Forces, and is the principal advisor of the military to the President. And to top it off, he was a very nice man. He thanked each and everyone of us for our service and gave us his coin. Coins are personalized with that member's rank, name, unit info ect and are given to people they feel have done a job well done. They are a time honored token of appreciation that they have been handing out since WWI. So that was pretty special to me.
We also had a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient come by to meet the soldiers. That was pretty special as well because to be awarded a Medal of Honor is a rarity. There are only some 120 or so recipients alive today. Everyone including the President of the United States salutes these brave service members. To get a Medal of Honor, you have to have shown great bravery without regard for your own life or safety. I got to shake his hand and thank him for his service.
The last visitor we had today was Diana Degarmo of American Idol fame. She came with the group (which was all part of a USO tour) to help lift their spirits. She was very nice and just as cute as she looked on TV.
So that was pretty much my day at the office.
Oh I almost forgot, I also watched the first episode of Lost (season two). It is just now getting broadcast over here so I am sooooo excited! I just love that show. I highly recommend it to everyone who likes a good suspense.

Oscar the grouch

I didn't go to work today, since it's a federal holiday, but I did do quite a bit of post holiday cleaning around the house. I'm amazed at how much trash one person and a toddler can produce. Germany has very strict recycling laws therefore trash has been the bain of my existence for months. You've got the "plastic/aluminum" bag, the "paper/cardboard" bag, the "regular" trash (like spoiled food) bag, and the "diaper" bag, oh yeah and the biodegradable trash like leaves and banana peels trash bin. Yeah...I think that's it. So I spent most of the morning breaking down cardboard boxes that were used to ship Christmas gifts to us. There was also all the wrapping paper and tinsel to bag up and get in the appropriate trash bag. I also realized just how much bottled water I drink. I went around the house picking up stray bottles, cans, ect and sorted them in the appropriate bags. Errrgggh....I hate working to throw stuff away! Just another way to show how spoiled we are in America.
Once I got done getting all the trash bagged up, (6 plastics bags, 6 paper bags, 1 diaper bag...and a partridge in a pear tree..LOL) I went to take them to a recycling point. One problem. It's a federal holiday and even the Germans aren't working. Oh well, I'll just take it to work with me tomorrow and drop it off then.
Once I got done with the trash, I worked on another project. We have an extra room in our house between the kitchen and living room that until now we've been using for junk/storage. Um...it's called a dining room, but we never use it! So I cleaned out all the junk, baby proofed it and turned it into an extension of the living room so that my son will have more room to play. It looks almost like his very own personal play room. He just had a blast in there tonight. You could tell he really liked having a new place to play. And since he's got such good grandparents, we have plenty of toys to fill both rooms! :) Man he is one lucky kid. I think we as a family are pretty darned fortunate.
By the time I was done with that project, it was time to pick up the kiddo from the sitter. I finally turned his carseat around to face the front. He's a big boy now and is ready to face the world.
Well, the holidays are over now. They sure are nice, but they tend to leave a lot of debris behind with them. I look forward to next years mess in the good ol' US of A!

Beautiful start to the New Year

I ended up having a pretty cool New Years Eve. It wasn't that I got to go to a super cool party or dance the night away with the one I love. But I saw the most beautiful firework display by a town I've ever seen. I think that everyone in my village set off fireworks last night and it lasted till after 1:00 in the morning. I just love fireworks. I always look forward to the 4th of July because of the firework show. It did end up waking up my baby, but we were able to enjoy the fireworks together and I got to see the look of wonder in his eyes. He wasn't afraid like I thought he would be, he just stared out the kitchen window with me to watch all our neighbors light up the sky. I got him back to bed at about 1:30am and all was well for the night.
Today, however, I have been a vegetable. I've been sitting on the couch all day snacking and watching television while my son has been playing with his toys. Since this is the New Year I'll put out my resolutions. Like many people, I'm fat and I can't stand to see myself naked in the mirror. Luckily I have a wonderful husband who loves me no matter what, but I don't love what I see. Sure I had a baby last year, but I can't use the baby fat thing any longer. So my top two resolutions are to lose weight and exercise. To do this I have to have a plan. I started weightwatchers before the holidays and I lost about 7 pounds. It was a really bad idea to start it right before the holidays. I haven't weighed myself yet (I weigh myself on the scale at the hospital where I work and have been on vacation for the past week) but I'm sure I've gained it all back, or atleast close to all of it back. My goal is to lose 60 pounds. That would put me back to the weight I was right before I met my husband. I'd like to be healthy and live long enough to see my son grow up.
I've even been entertaining the idea of going vegetarian. I wouldn't go vegan, but atleast cut out the red meat and cows milk and possibly chicken. I was surfing the net and spent some time on PETA's website and the conditions that food animals are kept in are deplorable. Not only are they mistreated, but the way they are prepared...It's no wonder they tell us to cook the hell out of it. It's sooo gross. You'd have to just to get all the ecoli out of the meat. I've never been a huge fan of milk either. Everytime I eat icecream (which I do love) or any other dairy product I get this gross film in my throat. The hardest thing to give up would be cheese. I do love cheese and I put it on everything, but even it is filled with cholesterol. So soo good, but oh so bad for you.
I also plan on getting an exercise routine. I work two minutes from the gym, but I've not been able to go for two reasons. I work on a military base and if I try to go before work it is impossible to get any piece of free equipment. (everyone is getting their mandatory PT in first thing in the morning) I would go afterwork, but I pick up the baby from the sitter afterwork. I'm sure I can make it happen once my husband gets back from Pakistan.
That is the first two things I would like to do to improve myself this year. I also would like to go back to school and learn some new hobbies like quilting or photography but my husband and I are still building our family. So who knows, I may only have time to work on those first two then add on the others as I go. I just know that if you stop learning new things, you stop growing as an individual. What are your resolutions? Which do you think you'll keep?
Something to think about....