Left turn on Green

The law here in Illinois is that you can turn left on a green light (yielding to oncoming traffic, of course) unless there is signage to say you can't. Well, since part of the rule is to yield to oncoming traffic, there is a big piece of judgement used in making these turns.
On my way home from taking my little one to the pediatrician this morning, I ran into this situation. I am a fairly cautious driver when it comes to yield situations and I had a VERY aggressive driver behind me. Twice HE thought I could have gone, so he kept honking at me. When I did turn, he sped up to pass me before the street narrowed to one lane. I wasn't surprised when this fancy red sports car with a middle aged driver passed me. To top it off, he was rude. He wasn't looking at the road and was gesturing, etc. I was relieved when he turned and got out of the way.
He may have been right, maybe I could have turned earlier, but with a baby in the car I would rather not take the chance of trying to go and being wrong.

Time abusers

Why do people find it acceptable to tell you that they are going to do something, then not do it? I talked to MIL yesterday and she mentioned that she wanted to stop by today to drop off a Halloween gift for my little one. She said they would be here early.
So, I delayed things I needed to do around the house today waiting on them. It's after 1 PM and they still aren't here.
I had really wanted to take my daughter for a walk this afternoon and it's starting to get late. If they aren't here by the time she's done with her lunch, we are going anyway.

Doctors

Can anyone tell me why doctors feel it's neccessary to have you come in for an office visit just to tell you that tests results were a little funky and they want you to repeat the test in 4 to 6 weeks?
In June, I went to a family doctor to request a follow up glucose test (to make sure the gestational diabetes went away after my daughter was born) and she ordered the normal test for someone my age as just part of a physical. The thyroid number came back funny, so she said to go back in 3 to 4 months, redo the one test, and we'd discuss the results.
I went for the test on Saturday and the nurse called saying the doctor wanted me to make an appointment. When I put a stink and mentioned that I had a baby and no back up child care, the doctor got on the phone. The thyroid number is still funny, but in the OTHER direction. It's not off by much and she doesn't want to treat it right now because the two tests have been off in opposite directions, but she wants me to redo the test and is mailing me the order. How hard is that?
I understand that doctors can't bill insurance companies for phone calls, but it seriously took less than 5 minutes of her time!!! Why should I waste an hour or more of my time for 5 minutes of news?

So RUDE!

I've written before about how my sister-in-law hates me. I was okay when it was just me that she was being horrible to, but now she's being rude to my husband too. On Saturday morning, HER kids called our house to talk to their uncle. He talked to each of the boys and then they handed the phone to her. Dave was MID sentence when she cut him off saying she had to go. I was always taught that it's rude to interrupt someone mid sentence like that.
If that wasn't bad enough... Last night we were watching a movie when my Mother-in-law called. She wanted to know if it was okay if we invited my brother-in-law's parents to my HUSBAND's birthday party because BIL's Mom's birthday is the day after hubby's and SIL and BIL are just too busy to do two get togethers. This rubs me the wrong way on multiple fronts: 1) They are hijacking my husband's birthday party to meet their own needs. 2) SIL didn't even have the nerve to call us herself, she "made" MIL do it. 3) We are now obligated to get a gift for a woman we see maybe 4 or 5 times a year.
I fumed about this last night as I laid in bed and tried to go to sleep. But, when I woke up this morning I was determined to make BIL's Mom feel welcome and like this was her party too. That was before MIL started e-mailing today. First she questioned the kind of cake I am getting. Then it was not knowing if BIL wanted his Mom to have her own cake or if they would be okay with putting both names on one cake. Now, I am going to have to make an extra trip to the grocery store this week to get the cake ordered because I probably won't be able to do it when I am there today.
I a so sick of bending over backwards to make these people happy then having it blow up in our faces!

So many milestones

It seems like just yesterday that we brought this tiny baby home and all she did was eat and sleep. Now, she's just over 7 months old and she's sitting up, rolling, crawling, and babbling. It seems like she's grown up so fast. I can only imagine what it's going be like on her 5th birthday or her 16th...... I bet we are going to look back and wonder where the time went and when she grew up from our sleepy, tiny baby.
Thinking about how much she has changed in the last 7 months, makes me really glad that I've been able to stay home with her and see how much she has changed.

Mean Mommy

Lately our little one has been fighting her naps, even when she's very tired. So, I've had to be a mean mommy. I've had to start putting her in her crib and trying to soothe her for a few minutes, but then I just have to leave and let her cry. I absolutely hate doing that because I hate to hear her cry like that, but she has to take her naps when she is tired.
Do other Moms run into this issue, how do you deal with it? Thankfully, today she didn't cry for very long...

Websites

I have a couple of websites that I visit on a regular basis. Some are for fun, some are for information, and some are money makers.
The fun websites are Facebook and Linkedin. Both, especially Facebook, have been a great way to get and stay in touch with old friends.
My favorite informative site is Mamasource.com - even when I have a bad day, there is someout on Mama source having it rougher.
My favorite money making sites are Upromise (saving for my daughter's college education), Bond rewards (online shopping gets US Savings Bonds), Amazon Mechanical Turk (complete small tasks and get paid), and Ebates.com (you shop online and get a check once a quarter).
As a stay at home mom, the money making sites are important to us because every little bit helps.

The Cure for a Cranky Mommy

Yesterday made Day #3 of having a fussy baby and that was making for a cranky Mommy too. Last night I discovered the cure for a cranky mommy. I took a long, hot bubble bath and got a good night's sleep. The bath helped my muscles relax and I think that helped me sleep. My husband took baby duty this morning and let me sleep in a little, so when I woke up this morning I felt rested and refreshed.
This has made dealing with my little nap fighter easier today. :)

Fussy baby

Our 7 month old has been very fussy the last few days. It got started on Saturday when she got off her nap schedule and ended up laying down with her Daddy to get a good nap. Yesterday she screamed for nearly 30 minutes before finally falling asleep.
Today has been a rough day too. Because of work we had done on the house she didn't get to take her morning naps. She did get an almost 2 hour nap in and was fine while we were at the grocery store, but has been very cranky since we got home.

OK State leapfrogs Tech in the AP

Oklahoma State, Texas, and Texas Tech are all undefeated so far this season. All three teams easily won games that they should have won... Texas maintained their number 1 ranking in the AP polls, but something strange happened with OK State and Tech. The teams traded places with OK State moving from number 8 to 7 and Tech going from 7 to 8.
I'm not sure I agree with the voting.... I mean OK State played Baylor, the whipping boy of the Big 12 for as long there has been a Big 12 conference.
But, at least Tech is still in the Top 10 heading into a game against Kansas next week. That will probably be a tough game because Kansas just got beaten up on by Oklahoma.

GO TECH!!!!

Our house

Today we got a card in the mail from an investment company saying they wanted to buy 5 houses in our neighborhood with in the next 60 days and that our house was a candidate. For about 30 minutes we were very tempted to call and find out what they would be willing to pay; we’ve known from day 1 that this isn’t a house we will stay in forever and we are already starting to outgrow the space we have here. But, the more we talked about it, we decided that we don’t really want to know what the offer is right now because if they came back with a really good number we’d have to make a choice and neither of us is ready to move yet. We put way to much time, effort, and money into this house during the last 18 months to just pack up and move on; especially since we don’t know what these people want houses in our neighborhood for. They could be developers and we would all really hate to see our cute little house torn down after all the work we put into it.

Oil below $70, but will gas prices fall?

Oil prices fell below $70 a barrel yesterday, the lowest it’s been in a year. But, I’m willing to bet that we don’t see gas prices fall back to the levels they were at this time last year. Because of the rapid increases over the summer, our expectations have changed and we are now accustomed to paying $3/gallon or more for a product that we were paying less than $2/gallon for 12 to 18 months ago. And I expect that the oil companies will milk our adjusted expectations for all they are worth.
Gas prices coming down is one of the best things that could help our economy right now. With house prices falling and so many other prices going up, fuel prices coming down may be the one thing that could save our country from a recession because dropping fuel prices will remove pressure from the average families pocket book and it may mean that prices for other goods may not have to go up as much because the costs to producers are lower.
Let's all keep our fingers crossed that prices at the pump will keep coming down.

What to do....

Dave and I have worked hard to come up with what we think is a potential solution to our Christmas dilemma. We still need to talk to the in laws to get the sign off and we may not get it, but there’s hope.
Part of our solution was to be with Dave’s family every Christmas Eve and Day and go see my family in Texas the day after Christmas. My Mom threw a wrench into our plan when I talked to her today. She reminded me that my sister and her family and my Aunt and Uncle all leave shortly after Christmas to go visit other parts of their families. My Mom thinks that if they all continue to get together on Christmas Day, then everyone isn’t going to want to drop everything to do Christmas all over again just because we’ve come into town.
So, now we are back to the drawing board. I still like the idea of us staying here for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day…. The idea of having to tell Emma that she can’t play with her Christmas gifts on Christmas Day because we have to take them home on the airplane breaks my heart. But, I hate the idea of not getting to see my family every other year.

Poop after pictures

Today little girl and I met my sister-in-law and her two boys at Penny's to take pictures for Grandma's Christmas present. Dealing with a 6 month old and 2 young boys to take pictures isn't fun. Emma of course didn't smile for the pictures and it was hard to get her to sit the way the photographer wanted her to...We still ended up with cute pictures, but then the real confusion and headache began........ trying to decide what everyone wanted. What was for Grandma and what was for us.......
Oh well...... at least that is over for now.

Active Imagination

My Mom has a very active imagination! This morning I was going through my e-mail and had a forward from my Mother-in-law called "prayer." The instructions were to forward it to 12 people and if you sent it to the sender it counted as 2 people. Knowing my Mom had been worrying lately, I sent it to her. She e-mailed me back asking why I counted as 2 and said that it may make people think I was pregnant and she asked if I was. I'm not.... I mean my little girl is only 6 1/2 months old. I really don't understand how her mind works sometimes. She can take the most innocent statements and twist them so that they mean something. If we were expecting again, an e-mail like that is not how I would tell her. Good grief!

Bears Lose

We watched the Chicago Bears play Atlanta yesterday and lose when Atlanta kicked a field goal with one second left. Dave was bummed that the Bears lost, but after watching the game, I'm not sure they didn't deserve too. Atlanta really just played better for the majority of the game. And if the Falcons had taken advantages of the opportunities they had during the first half and scored touchdowns instead of field goals, the game would not have come down to a last second field goal. The Bears just didn't seem to show up until after halftime and even then, they missed a lot of good opportunities.

Still number 7

My beloved Read Raiders squeaked by yesterday and pulled off a win against Nebraska in OT. From looking at the stats in the game, Tech really didn't deserve to win. Nebraska beat them EVERYWHERE except on the scoreboard and if OT in college football was a full quarter of football, I'm sure they would have won there too.
Thankfully, teams ranked above us in the AP poll (LSU and Mizzou) lost yesterday, so we got to hang on to our #7 ranking even though I'm not sure we deserve it.
Next week we face A&M in College station and that is always a tough game. After that we face 4 Top 25 teams in a row... If we have any hopes of winning those games, our defense is going to have to step it up and play better than the did in the 4th quarter yesterday.

Christmas

Dave and I have been married for 2 years and we have yet to figure out a way to really blend our family traditions around Christmas. I come from a blended family and most of our Christmas activities were on Christmas day. Dave comes from a very close knit family that does most of their Christmas on Christmas Eve, everyone spends the night in one house, then goes to see the extended family on Christmas Day.
We have come up with a compromise that we think will work and honor the traditions of both families. We would spend Christmas Eve with his family, do the gifts, dinner, church, etc. Then we would come home and stay in our own house. Christmas morning, our daughter would get gifts from Santa, we would open stocking stuff, then rejoin his family to go see the extended family then Christmas night we would open gifts from my family.
Our problem is that we need to present the compromise to Dave's family and we aren't sure how they will accept us not doing EVERYTHING they way they do. It seems like because my family is so far away they have a hard time accepting my need to honor my families traditions.

Home Improvements

It seems like we have been working on our house ever since we moved in last spring. First it was the kitchen, new windows, and new siding done by a contractor. Then, it was work on the two bathrooms and now it's work on the garage to make it more user friendly and increase storage.
Last weekend, Dave and his Dad got rid of all the old wooden cabinets and jerry rigged shelving. One of the things we decided to do is add electrical outlets to the garage to make it easier to use power tools, etc. We submitted a request for quotes on line and the first of the electricians called us back this morning. I felt kind of bad because I couldn't answer on of the guy's questions and had to tell him to call Dave at work.
All the work on the house is to make it nicer for us, but to also increase our potential resale value. I have o admit, I'll be really glad when all the work is done and we can just enjoy living here, but I wonder if we'll ever get to that point!!

AIG

It was recently on the news that the executives at AIG, one of the companies "bailed out" by the government, went on a retreat that cost $440,000. With decision making and spending like that, it's no wonder the company had to be bailed out.
These are the highest paid people in the company and the ones who helped get the company into trouble in the first place. Do they really need the taxpayers to foot the bill for their luxury spa experience? I don't think so!! The excuse for going on the trip post bailout was that it had been planned well ahead of time. That's fine, but why couldn't they pay for it out of their own pockets instead out of yours and mine? I honestly think that they should be made to pay back all of the money spent on the retreat and then they should all be fired. When an insurance company makes so many bad decisions that the federal government has to bail them out, you have to wonder if the executives have been doing their jobs. But, when they are stupid enough to go on an expensive retreat, you know they don't care about fulfilling their responsibilities to their stakeholders - which now includes every American taxpayer.

Presidental debate

We watched the Presidential debate last night and walked away from it more confused than ever. I'm really going to have a hard time deciding who to vote for. One thing I wish both candidates would do, is get rid of the political speak. It's hard to keep track of what they are really try to say about what they will do because they wrap everything up in insults to each other and key words like taxes.
I don't want the candidates telling me the differences between themselves. I really wish that they would publish a list of the things they want to do AND what steps would have to happen to achieve their goals and then let the people compare them to decide what is better. That's probably naive though.....

Cheap insurance Companies

I was sitting in the pediatrician’s office the other day with our little girl when my cell phone rang. I figured that it was either my husband or my Mom. It wasn’t either, it was my allergist. I had requested a refill of my antihistamine on our prescription plan’s website the day before and they had called the doctor to find out if they could change my medication to something cheaper. The problem with that was that the something cheaper doesn’t help control my allergies. So, I told the doctor no…. and he suggested a trip to Sam’s Club to buy their version of Zyrtec, which is what I took before they made it over the counter. I think that when the doctor told the insurance company they went ahead and refilled the prescription. So, when it comes I will take the $70 prescription for the next three months then switch to the Zyrtec we bought for $18.

What's eating my plants?

Early in September, we planted 3 beautiful mums near our front door and in our front planter. One of them is doing okay, the other started to look bad right away, and something keeps trying to dig and/or eat the other one. AND it looks like something is eating the leaves off my roses. I think the local rabbits are eating the leaves of the roses, but I think it is a squirrel digging in the mums.
Dave and I were in the garage yesterday and saw a squirreled digging in our neighbor's grass for something, so it's not a stretch of the imagination to think they'd come over to our planters. i just wish I knew what they were digging for!

Sport Weekend

It was a big sports weekend around our house, especially yesterday.
My beloved Red Raiders faced their first real contest of the season when they played Kansas State and won 58-28. They continue to be ranked number in the AP poll. I'm under no illusions that they will finish the season with that high of a ranking, they have too many tough opponents coming up.
Dave's Chicago teams had mixed results... His Cubs lost to the Dodgers last night. It's the second year in a row that they've been swept in the NLDS by a NL West team. The curse continues...
On the positive side though, the Bears won pretty convincingly against Detroit and now lead their division.

My Sister-in-law hates me

Okay, that's just my opinion. But, in the time since my husband and I got engaged in 2005, there have been lots of little things that add up to that conclusion. None of the little things are big enough that I could call her on them without being accused of overreacting and being over sensitive - meaning that she wouldn't have to admit how she really feels.
Examples of the little things...... Twice in the past week, she has needed to communicate with us about my mother-in-law's birthday. Both times, she called Dave at work to talk to us even though she knows I'm a lot more reachable because I'm a stay at home mom. She could have very easily called me at home, my cell phone, or even sent an instant message.
It's just really frustrating because I had really hoped that she and I could at least be friendly - if not friends - and I'm not sure what I did to make her not like me so much.

A Clean House

When I started staying home, I thought it would be easy to keep our house clean. Boy was I wrong! Keeping up with our baby has been a lot more work than I ever thought it would be. I think I'm finally making progress though. In the past week, I have managed to clean almost every room of the house. I know it sounds silly, but it actually feels like an accomplishment. Now that the house is cleaner, I'd like to keep it this way. I think I need to make myself a list and try to do one chore each day of the week to keep the house fairly clean.
I still would like to have a cleaning person come in before we put up the Christmas decorations and get the house really clean all at one time.

Bailout Sweetners

On last nights news, one of the top stories was that the Senate approved the $700 Billion bailout plan. But, they only approved it after $150 billion in earmarks were added. That's an AVERAGE of over $1 BILLION dollars per senator! These people should be ASHAMED of themselves! They have shamelessly taken advantage of the need to prop up our national economy by propping up the businesses and industries in their states.
I have serious doubts that the house will agree to the senate bill, so I doubt we'll see a bailout plan this week. This is where the President having a line item veto would be very handy.

Oprah

Today's Oprah show was about a mother who left her 2 year old in her car for 8 hours last August while she was at work and the baby died. I started to watch the show, but I didn't even make it 5 minutes into the story. Being the mother of a 6 month old, I have a hard time imagining what that mother is going through. After watching the little bit of the show that I did, I had to go check on my napping little girl.
I have a hard time imagining how a parent could forget that they have a baby in the car, but they say that this type of thing usually happens when you change the routine. And that's what happened to the mother on the Oprah show. She wasn't the parent who normally dropped her daughter off in the morning and the baby was asleep in the back seat. I guess part of the reason I have a hard time imagining it, is that Emma is normally with me. I actually feel weird if I go someplace without her.