Watching Some TV

We don't watch a lot of television at our house, but we do watch American Idol and it's on now. It's such a long season if you watch every show ... we watched most of them last year, and just a couple of the later shows the year before that. Tonight I'm finding it very interesting the number of contestants who seem to expect the judges to choose them just because they want to go to Hollywood sooooo bad. Not that they're good singers (they're not), just because they really, really, really want to be the American Idol. Hello?

Well, that thinking drives me crazy. "I'm pathetic, feel sorry for me, give me what I want not because I deserve it but because I'm so pathetic". Ewww. I should have taken more psych classes. Were there psych clasess explaining these weird, borderline personalities?

Since my last post Anna is much better and back to her usual self. Last night she slept through the night without coughing, and her appetite is back to normal. I almost forget to give her her medicine, she's doing so well. She's been so funny, wearing all her necklaces and wanting to carry her little buddies around with her wherever she goes. I try to get pictures of her during these silly times and hope to update her blog with some of these funny pictures soon. I'm trying to pay attention to what her new favorite songs are these days, to make a new CD for her sometime. It's sweet to watch her sway and clap her hands to music she likes.

Speaking of music, I am currently addicted to the CD by Corinne Bailey Rae. I love practically all the songs, the most popular and my favorite "Put Your Records On" which is played on Cities 97 quite a bit. I've already decided that my next CD purchase will be a collection by Marvin Gaye that I found in a local gift shop. Unusual, I know, but I am finding that I love a lot of his old songs and think the purchase will be worthwhile.

As for the State of the Union address, I didn't watch it. I read a few things about it today, the most humorous being how Michele Bachmann made sure to give GWB a kiss after the speech. She's always good for a laugh, isn't she? I am still waiting for one of her former foster kids to give a shocking interview to a local newspaper. After all, there were dozens of them, one of them must have something scandalous to say about living in her household!

Well, that's all I can think of for now. Stay warm people!

Hanging at Home

Anna's been sick with a cold and I am home with her today. This is at least day three, Edwin and I tag-teamed yesterday, and the day before. We thought yesterday was the worst of it, but last night she woke multiple times and now has no appetite at all. She has a doctor's appointment at 2:30 so we'll make sure it's nothing other than a cold to worry about. Sigh!

Monday was a work holiday and Edwin and I had planned to drop off Anna as usual and go to the gym, out to lunch, and then to the movie Dreamgirls. But our daycare provider was sick that day (and the next) so our plans were scrapped. It's been a long week. I keep reminding myself "it's Thursday, it's Thursday".

I see through the window that it is snowing some more. It is really pretty to have everything covered with snow, I don't mind that at all. I'm happy for the city of St. Paul that all this snow may mean they'll actually have a true Winter Carnival this year, I'm not exactly sure when it starts but it must be soon.

... Okay, we just got back from the clinic and the pharmacy. The NP said Anna had fluid in her lungs, which could lead to bronchitis or pneumonia. Poor girl! We got a prescription for antibiotics and she's now taking a nap after a very long afternoon. Thank God we brought her in today, if we'd waited another day I think it'd be far more serious. Waiting at Walgreens was very frustrating, it took over an hour between clearing up the new prescription coverage and then actually getting the prescription filled. So there I was with a crying, obviously miserable toddler trying to figure out a way of keeping her entertained and not having a clue how much longer it was going to take. Grr.

Our bathroom has now been done for about a week or so. I painted the closet and its shelves, and also painted the window. Now I just have to paint the closet door and the main door and frame. Edwin will need to rehang the window treatment and the towel racks, hopefully he can get to that this weekend. We're happy with the results, definitely. It's reminded me of the other small projects I'd like to tackle around the house. My father in law just called to see if they could visit us at the end of June, so I think that would be a good deadline for getting things done.

I just finished reading Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which was a good read. Plus, now I have a better sense of what Saskia is reading, what life questions she may have. There are flirtations, the death of a young girl, and one of the main characters loses her virginity. Yes, you read that right, though it's not given a lot of attention in the book. That same character's mother had depression and killed herself, which is also not given a lot of attention but is mentioned. I'm curious what happens next to the characters, there have been two sequels.

In the last couple weeks I've also done some scrapbooking. I'm almost done with Anna's card album--I saved all the cards we received for her birth, baptism, and birthday and put them all in their own album. I also finished a couple pages of her baby album, and a few pages in the main album I like to keep of the things we all do as a family. I hope to spread out all my stuff on the dining room table this weekend and get at the albums again. If I can keep my supplies and all the items I want to scrapbook better organized it'll go much smoother.

All for now ... I need to get caught up on some emails!

Pictures from the holiday season

My little family at the work holiday party.














Anna loved to play with these snowmen on the windowsill.


















Anna finally gets her hands on my (old) wallet.


















Sas and Anna, checking out a new book during dinner.


















Having a blast on New Year's Eve.





















So many pictures, so hard to choose!

Random Thoughts

*I can't decide which I find more offensive--GWB comparing himself to Lincoln, or comparing himself to Truman.

*It was worth voting in Keith Ellison if only to have him deal with all the nasty comments about his being a Muslim in an articulate, classy manner. Speaking of which, has anyone heard a peep about him since he was sworn in on Thomas Jefferson's copy of the Q'uaran??

*Woohoo! New Orleans is about to win their game against Philadelphia! Anna and I picked both Indianapolis and New Orleans to win this weekend! We also picked Chicago and New England, so we'll see what happens tomorrow.

*I am freakishly excited by: 1) getting a South Dakota quarter in my change last week, 2) finding a cleaning brush specifically for radiators, and 3)succeeding once again in finding a kick-ass calendar at Barnes & Noble for 50% off after Christmas (it has bridges from around the world).

*Monday is a holiday at work, so a few weeks ago Edwin suggested that he and I spend the day together. He was out of town for work most of last week, so it will be nice to spend some time together doing leisurely things.

*One of the movies I recently checked out from the library was The Constant Gardener. Don't bother. I didn't even watch it to the end.

*Anna can crawl up the stairs all by herself, and she wants to do it all the time. Where in the world did she learn this? Oh well, as long as someone is right behind her and she doesn't try going down the stairs by herself, I guess that's okay.

All for now ...

The New Year is Here!

So, finally my new vacation time has kicked in at work. Thank God! Already it feels good to have a little breathing space in that regard.

Our bathroom is almost finished, it looks great. We're happy with the tile we picked out, and the fixtures look classy. We've had our shower back for a few days now, though I can't get the shower curtain to stay up. There are still a few loose ends to wrap up, for example, the toilet we bought didn't have a toilet seat. So now we have to buy one of those, but not at Home Depot because they don't have one to match. ??? Who would think? Oh, and the medicine cabinet rocks, despite it not being our first choice. I will have to devote some time to painting the trim, as I need to do in our bedroom.

I have finished reading Anna Karenina and am now reading Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Saskia and I have watched the movie, which is quite good for a teen movie. I wasn't expecting to read this book, but Saskia had taken it out from the library and had finished it with about a week left so I thought I'd try to squeeze it in. It's certainly an easy read compared to Anna Karenina!!

I did enjoy reading Anna Karenina, though it got tiresome at the end. I would have liked more of her story to end the book, rather than the switch over to Levin's story. Had I been reading the book half asleep at the wrong time I may have completely missed that she committed suicide. Anyway, I am assuming Tolstoy's style has to do with a desire to share his personal views with his readers, not a pure storytelling goal. While reading the end of the book I kept thinking about Madame Bovary, and how I liked that book so much better than Anna Karenina. The storyline is similar--bored 19th(?) century wife has an affair and later kills herself in despair of the new life she's created.

New Year's weekend was a lot like Christmas weekend--low key. Saskia was with us and we ended up at Edinborough park that evening, rather than the outdoor plans we originally had. Anna loves Edinborough park and had a blast, many of the new pictures of her and Saskia on her blog are from New Year's Eve. I went to a movie that afternoon (The Painted Veil--excellent) and then met up with the girls and Edwin later. After putting Anna to bed, Edwin, Saskia and I sat in front of the fire playing Rummikub until midnight, which is exactly what we did last year.

New Year's morning we were invited to our friend Cindy's house for a pancake breakfast and had a lovely time. The food was delicious (I love breakfast!) and Anna got plenty of adoration from the other guests. Later Edwin took Saskia sledding for a while, then the two of them took Anna sledding and once again she had a blast, going down the little hill at Lake Harriet. Somewhere in there I spread out all my scrapbooking supplies on the dining room table and got to work. I still have all my stuff out so I can work on a couple pages here and there. It feels good to be making some progress.

Anna is now walking! She can take several steps before falling, and is so, so proud of herself. It's really sweet to watch. She still likes to practice a lot, and always heads toward the stairs when she practices with me. She has always loved the stairway, so I shouldn't be surprised. When she was tiny, I'd hold her in my arms and walk up and down the stairs over and over as a way to calm her down when she was crying.

More another day!