Todays post is brought to you by the number 51 and the letter G.

AT WORK

Last night I had to close at work.  I’m closing 3 nights a week now (except for the weekends I’m off, cause one of my closing nights is Sunday) and I hate closing because so much of it involves cleaning up the crap that has been left behind by hundreds of shoppers in a given day.

One of the first things I had to clean up last night was barrets.  We have recent gotten a barret/hairbow section with our ribbons.  Customers have been asking for such things forever, and now its there.  Of course the first thing they do is trash it.

I counted them.  I often count things when I have to put up lots of them.  It helps ease the tedium….and prove I can count over 10 without using my toes.

Last night I had to pick up 51 packets of barrets/bows and re-hang them.

I don’t know if it was one person who pulled them all off.  A bored child maybe.  Or the work of several customers over the course of the day.  But that was a lot of putting back I had to do!

AT HOME

Do babies come with a warranty?

Do husbands?

Seriously, one or the other of them is going to have to go, because taking care of both of them is starting to make me pull my hair out.

Not really.  I’m not pulling it out, its falling out on its own.  In handfulls.  Its stress related.  It usually only happens around the holidays, when work is killer.

Speaking of the baby…

Parker turned 4 months today.  Okay, he’s probably a little under 4 months seeing as how February is oe of those short ones.  But he was born Nov. 18th, so his month-days are always the 18s for me.

We threw him a surprise party:

And afterward we threw him in a zoo cage full of rabid farm animals.  They have photographic evidence that we’re bad parents, but it was worth it to be on the 6 o’clock news.

PS

In case my subject/title confused you, its in reference to Prince’s song “Raspberry Beret” whose lyrics I’ve always misunderstood.  It’s a funny people, humor me and laugh.

PSS

No farm animals (or babies) were hurt in the process of creating this blog entry.

My husband lost his job.

He WAS working at a printing company.  He ran the cutting machine. I asked why they fired him and he said “He told me he didn’t like the way I cut.”

What the hell!?!  He’s only been doing the same job for the past 6 (7?) years and all of a sudden they decide they dont like the way he does it?

So, he’s jobless and I’m still working retail, with short hours and little pay and I’m thinking, “What the hell are we going to do now?”

Somehow I have managed thus far to not have a total mental breakdown.  Hubby is going out every day looking for a job BUT he WILL NOT for some damn reason go to apply for unemployment.  He won’t say why.  I don’t know what the hell he is thinking because we NEED money.  We can’t run this whole house on my salary, especially with Master Parker now.

And speaking of Master Parker, I feel like taking him down to the place where Robert works, handing him to the man that fired my husband and saying, “If you intended to fire my husband couldn’t you have done it BEFORE this little man was born?  Did you wait until after my husband and I had another mouth to feed on purpose, just to be a bigger prick?”

And Parker has a word or two for him too.  Those words being, “Wahhh-ahhhh. Ah-heh Ah-heh WAHHHHHHHHH!”

I think in the language of the tiny and loud that translates into “WHAT THE HELL, MAN?”

Or possibly it could mean, “Change my diaper.”

What type of charity do you want to run?

I would like to run an animal rescue.  Mostly a small animal rescue.

With easter around the corner kids everywhere will be getting bunnies and ducklings and baby chicks, which they will quickly tire of.  Those poor pets will be cast aside like last years Easter Basket grass.  The unwanted ones will need a place to go while waiting for a forever home with people who really want them.

Likewise, every time a cute Disney movie about rats or guinea pigs or whatever comes out, many of those pets get bought, then disliked and discarded after a certain time.

I would also want to help find homes for those “Free to Good Homes” litters of puppies and kittens you find, and to work with vets to pass out free or low cost spay and neuters to the people giving away these pets to keep them from having another unwanted litter.

What else do you want this week? Share it all.

1. I want a stay at home job so I can be with my Parker
2. I want a steak the size of a mans head.  A big man. With a huge head.
3. To not have to close tonight.
4. And easy day at work
5. Some butter pecan ice cream
6. Whirled Peas.  I mean, Word Peace.  (or do I?)

I’ve decided that I have too many blogs.  Counting this one I had 13 going at once.

Well,  I deleted 3 of them.  2 craft blogs and 1 photo blog bit the dust.  The content from them will now be posted at THIS blog.

I’m also working on starting a vlog.  Starting with a weight loss theme, but maybe expanding the horizons of it as time goes on.

I’m going to make the vlog its on page, but until then:

Once upon a time there was a little wooden frame all alone on the clearance shelf. It was a deeply discounted christmas object, and since I like little crafty frames, and it was only 20 cents I thought I just had to buy it.

I really wasn’t a fan of the little cottage in the bottom corner, as I didn’t know what I’d put in the frame to match it.  So the first thing I did when I got home was pop it off.  It popped off easily, but not cleanly.  Now I had to find something to cover the spot with.

I had a kids bead necklace kit I’d gotten a while back just because I liked the pink skull. And it seemed to be the perfect size to replace the cottage I had popped off.

So, while Parker napped I painted the frame. Then I fed Parker, then while he napped some more I hot glued the skull and flowers to the frame and strung the beads on a string to hang the frame with between them.

Then I fed Parker again (babies eat a lot)then while he sat in his swing I quickly cross stitched a tiny cross stitch to go with the frame and skull.

What do you think?

What is your weight today? 227.2
What have you done towards your goal? -2 pounds
Are there any planned additions/changes to your routine? This will be my first FULL week. 
This week’s mini-goals :
- Drink (at least) 64 oz of water a day
- Start a food log.  Log EVERYTHING.  Be accountable!!!
What was you overall mood this past week? Tired, edging toward crabby…

–

Sitting here thinking about the week ahead I can’t help but think about how HORRID today was.  I ate 1 and ½ pizzas (no joke) and a ham sandwich, and 2 sausage egg and cheese croissant breakfast sandwiches, a box of (4) valentine chocolates and ½ a can of Pringles today.  I’ve drank umpteen cups of coffee and no water at all.

Sheesh…no wonder I can’t button my jeans I could even still fit in when I was pregnant anymore! I’m eating myself further and further toward the 300 pound mark!

I stripped this morning, before breakfast but after my first cup of coffee, and weighed in at 227.7

I have set myself a first mini-goal of dropping 20 pounds and being at 217.

The first week I can probably drop 5, most of it being water weight.  And probably 2 pounds a week after that.  So I’m setting my first mini-goal to have lost 20 pounds by March 2nd.

To do this I’m going to have to start exercising again.  I’m not 100% sure how I’m gonna do that.  I was walking a mile every day, but haven’t found the time for that since I started work.  I have 2 good exercise videos, but can’t use them cause hubby’s always watching TV.  Can’t use my Wii fit for the same reason.

I guess I could start getting up earlier, when hubby goes to work and try working out when he is NOT home, but when he’s not home there is no one else to watch Parker while I exercise.  If he’s in “good baby” mode he’ll swing while I work out.  If he’s in “crabby baby” mode I can’t do anything but hold and try to soothe him.

I’ll figure something out.

In the meantime I’m going to start logging all my foods, sort of using Fly Lady’s Body Clutter Investigator (http://www.flylady.net/images/bc_investigator.PDF) as a template.  Gotta be accountable for everything that goes in my body.  If I’m embarrassed enough its sure to make an impact.

Hubby woke me up this morning digging in the closet in a desperate search for clean pants to wear to work.  That is when I realized I should probably do some laundry since he was obviously out of clean jeans.  So I rolled out of bed at 7am and have done 2 loads of jeans so far, and have a load of colors in the wash, with a load of whites waiting in the wings and 2 loads of towels not far behind.

And thus ends my laundry report…I’m sure you found it to be SUPER interesting, right?

ALL THE LITTLE THINGS
(to be thankful for)

1.  Parker napping in his swing.
2.  Food in the fridge for breakfast.
3.  Coffee, coffee and more coffee.
4.  Indoor plumbing.  Having live without a working indoor toilet before, and as cold as it has been, I have a new appreciation for it.

READ MORE

If you cant get enough of me, I’ve also recently updated:

Parker 365
Random Animals
Pawesome

I did one Sweet or Sour post over at Parker 365, if you wanna see pictures of Parker head on over.

Meanwhile, I’m getting ready for bed.  Sleep is good, but has been soured by Parker. 

As someone who has never went to sleep quickly, I find I’m getting less sleep than ever, as I’m often woken up almost as quickly as I go to sleep.

On the bright side, I’ve found that if I bring him into bed with me when he wakes up at 5:30 or later (because he won’t go back to sleep in his crib after that time) then I can bring him in bed with me, and the little sweetie will sleep chest to chest with me for another hour or so.

My sleep tonight is also going to be soured by the fact that I have to get up at 6 in the morning, and work for 10 hours.  Bah….humbug.

Well, goodnight everyone and Sweet Dreams….

Well, we’ve done it.  We’ve all succeeded in surviving 2009 and living into a new decade.

If you HAVEN’T suceeded in surviving 2009 then that is awesome in its own way because it means my blog has an afterlife readership that might boost my undead book sells if I ever write that earth shattering novel.

Anyway…

How did you welcome in 2010?

We rang in the new year in a relaxed fashion.  Hubby watched some of his “How I met Your Mother” DVDs while I played online, because I have a dislike of that show, other than Barney’s character.

Then we watched some of “Big Bang Theory” together.  I’m coming to be CRAZY about that show.

All three of us (him, me and baby makes three) watched the ball drop before I fed Parker and put him to bed.

He slept almost 5 hours straight, then went back to sleep and slept another hour and a half so I was fairly rested today.

Now I wanted to get some bloggage in before feeding Parker and putting him to bed again.  I hope he sleeps as well tonight as he did last night.

For 2010 I resolve to “Go Green.”

Or, I should say I resolve to “Go Green(er).”

Recently our city started a curbside recycling program, which my husband instantly hated.

“Until they clean up our water,” he says, “Its useless to do anything else.”

He wont even TRY to separate the recyclable stuff.

I try to keep it separate, but he ends up tossing my stash in the trash.

See, he refuses to put the recycling trash can in the back yard where I can reach it.  In fact, he refuses even to put it close to the fence, near the regular trash can.

For me to reach it I have to either get the key and unlock the back gate, or go out the front door and around the house.

So, instead of taking one thing out at a time I try to collect a bagfull and take it all at once.

Robert inevitably thinks the “trash” is taking too much counter space and ends up tossing it out.

So, I plan on stashing my recyclables in a different spot and making sure I get them into the recycling can before hubby tosses them.

Other “Greener” steps I plan to take are:

1.  STOP USING SANDWICH BAGS: When I take lunch to work I had been putting everything in sandwich baggies.  This year I’m going to nix the bags and put everything in reuseable plastic containers.

2.  “UPCYCLE”: I’m going to try to us as much “junk” as I can for a different purpose.  Such as large boxes becoming toys for my rats, and magazines being scavanged for pictures for my art before being tossed into the recycle can.

3.  TURNING IT OFF: I have a tendancy to leave lights on.  I leave the TV on even though I’m not sitting where I can see it most the time.  I need to focus on turning off lights when I leave a room, and turning off the tv.  I can use my small radio for background noise if/when I need it.

Thats all I have so far.

I’m open to any suggestions.  Give me your simple and easy Green ideas.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Club House. All opinions are 100% mine.

My mother in law is baking some chicken tonight.  I hope she’s going to make some rice and make some chicken gravy to go with it.

She makes excellent gravy using only her meat drippings, water and flour.  I’ve watched her do it and even attempted it a couple of times on my own.

Unfortunately, whenever I try to make gravy’s on my own it usually comes out more like walpaper paste than gravy.  I long ago stopped trying to make gravy from scratch the way my mother in law does, and started using gravy starter packages like the Clubhouse mixes. 

See, it takes so much stress out of the whole gravy making process.  You don’t have to worry if you’re using enough drippings to flavor it, or to make sure you don’t put in too much water, or if your going to burn the flour.  You don’t even have to worry if you’re going to have lumpy gravy!

You just add a little something to the packaged mix and voila….you’ve made gravy “just like mom used to make”.

And for the daring experimental cooks out there, the clubhouse website even has a tips video to help you take a gravy mix and make it your own.  People wont even know it came from a mix when you’re done! Click here to watch the gravy tips video

You can sign up for the Clubhouse Newsletter and a chance to win a Clubhouse Great Gravy Gift Pack.  Click here for the newsletter sign-up and contest entry.

Hubby caught a bug from someone at work.  Sore throat and head cold.  He was real sick for 2 days, and avoided Parker to keep from getting him sick.

But, then I got sick.

Me being the Mommy, I didn’t get to avoid the baby, though I tried really hard not to sneeze, cough or breath on him.

Sadly the avoidance was no good.

Parker is now congested with ick coming out of his nose.

Poor little boy.

Today has made me want to SCREAM!

Parker didn’t go to sleep until after 1am this morning, so I didn’t go to sleep until WAY after 1am this morning.  On the bright side he slept until 8.

Well, I had fixed him some bottles before bed last night out of a powdered formula mix.  Come to find out this morning that THIS FORMULA CLOGS THE BOTTLE NIPPLES!

No matter how hard poor Parker sucked he just wasn’t getting ANY milk!

About a hour, 5 bottles, me mixing and STRAINING fresh formula TWICE, he finally got to eat his breakfast.

It turns out instead of grabbing a package of Similac Sensitive I had grabbed a package of Similac Sensitive RS, which is thicker for some reason and won’t come out of slow flow nipples.

Lucky for me (because I wont have to strain, strain and restrain his formula constantly) I also had a package of the RIGHT formula on hand.

Now he has slept ALL day, so he’ll probably be up all night again, but when he wants to sleep I just can’t keep him awake.

Then my MIL called this morning and came over to put together the swing she bought for Parker.

Well, we forgot to make sure all the parts were there before we started putting it together.  We got it 99% done and THE LAST PIECE WAS MISSING.  She and my FIL both called and raised heck at Babies-R-Us and they agreed to give her just the part we were missing so we woudln’t have to take the whole thing apart.

Well, lo and behold, when I got the last piece on and the batteries in IT DOESN’T WORK.  You can barely hear the music, the womb and nature sounds don’t work at all, the swing WILL NOT SWING, and the volume control doesn’t work.

SOOOOO, we’re probably going to have to take it apart ANYWAY and take it back.

But wait…..there’s more!

EVERYONE from my family, to my OB, to the Pediatrician keeps trying to get me to sign up for WIC, and since we have to buy formula now since Parker WILL NOT breastfeed I decided to call and set up an appointment today.  BUT….for some reason she has to call me back in 24 to 48 hours before she can set up the appointment.

Anyone wanna take bets on if they call back or if I have to call them again?

So, after I talked to the lady at the WIC office I attempted to call the Social Security office.  See, at the hospital I never read or signed anything about getting Parker an SS#.  I thought that was something I applied for there, but all I saw there was the birth certificate form (which I still have to go to the Health Department and BUY a freaking copy of Parkers birth certificate). So I attempted to call the SS office, but I can’t find a phone # for them that works!

ALL THE LITTLE THINGS
(to be thankful for)

1.  My MIL watching Parker so I could go for a walk this afternoon.
2.  The WIC office called back as I was typing this and I have an appointment for Dec. 10th
3.  Parker isn’t crying 100% of the time anymore.\
4.  Getting to take a tub bath last night for the first time since Parker was born.

Well, with Parker having been out of my belly for a good 2 weeks (and 3 days) I guess the time has come to try to shed the “baby weight” I gained while pregnant.

Well, I didn’t really gain much while pregnant.  I ended up only 5 pounds heavier than I was before.  And currently I’m 13 pounds ligher than I was before I got pregnant.

But, since I’ve been trying to lose weight for the past 18 years or so, I guess a “post baby diet” is still a good idea.

It started when my doctor “prescribed” for me to take a walk every day.  His wasn’t for weight loss, but for postpartum depression, which I seem to be suffering a touch of.  I figure as I’m going to have to walk anyway I might as well make it count.

So today I convinced hubby to part with $20 and  buy me a digital bathroom scale.

I did already have a bathroom scale.

Wanna see it:

Full of skunginess right.  Its taped together, and filthy, and rusty at the bottom, and coming apart at the seams, and the dial itself is growing mildew.  I’ve been trying to convince him I needed a new scale for a while and he always said, “You’ve already got one.”

I guess having Parker in the house made him see the nasty scale for the nasty thing it was.

Meanwhile, I have a pretty new digital bathroom scale now!

See the shiny new goodness!  A scale itself good enough to motivate me!

Guess tomorrow I’ll have to post my official starting weight on my BRAND SPANKING NEW DIGIAL BATHROOM SCALE THAT I’VE BEEN WANTING FOREVER!!!

ALL THE LITTLE THINGS
(to be thankful for)

1. Getting out of the house today.
2. My mother in law babysitting.
3. Going to put up the Christmas tree TONIGHT.
4. Parker’s new formula seems to be making him feel much better.
5. iCarly on Nick.  Hubby and I both enjoy that show.
6. Cleaned my rats cage today.  Go me!
7. Visiting Roberts Gramma (Parker’s Great Gramma) today and how much she enjoyed having Parker visit.  We’ll have to visit again SOON.

Ever since we brought Parker home from the hospital he has cried.  If he was awake, he was crying, unless he had a bottle in his mouth.  He hardly slept, and cried from the second he woke up to the second he went down.

People told me he was probably gassy or had colic and gave me lots of ideas of how to soothe him, and nothing worked.

Also, he was spitting up a lot of his formula, passed A LOT of gas, and his poops were all liquid.

I was concerned that maybe his formula was disagreeing with him.

He got to go to a doctor a couple of days ago, after I finally quit trying to contact the PED who had seen him in the hospital.  I’d been trying to get a hold of her since Before thanksgiving with no luck, so I finally just chose another doctor.

The doctor asked me about his sympotms, then asked what I was feeding him and listened to his enitre little body with a stethescope.

He said he thinks Parker is lactose intolerant and said we should try changing his formula.  He said it could take 5 days to a week to notice any real difference.

Well, here we are a couple of days later.  Parker slept 7 hours last night, was up for 3, and has been asleep ever since (exept when I wake him up to feed him).  He’s not passing gas as much (only one poot so far today) his poop is still soft, but is much more solid than it was, and he’s not spitting up as much after he eats.

He still seems to be fussy when he is awake, but overall changing his formula seems to have helped.

Having this morning been surfing Entrecard I stumbled upon What the Hell Wednesday and thought…What the Hell, I might as well give it a try.

If you’ve looked at my blog recently you probably know by now that I recently had a baby.  And people kept asking me if I was going to tell my mother.  At first I wasn’t.  I mean, she’s been a non-entity in my life for a while.  But after my brother called yesterday I was feeling a little guilty about not even letting her know I was pregnant and thought “What the Hell, I might as well call her, what can it hurt.”

I got an answering machine and left a message.  She did call back later that night, having had to go get a calling card to do so since she had her long distance service cut off.

Meanwhile, she’s apparantly letting everyone know she’s a new gramma and relatives I’ve not talked to ever…or at least in 20 some years or so, are calling me.

Now one of my aunts on her side asked if she could come and bring Judy (my mom) to see the baby next weekend.  I said sure, if its okay with my hubby.

What the hell have I gotten myself into?

This week in celebration of Thanksgiving tomorrow “IWW” asks:

What do you want to give thanks for?

Well, lets see, I’m thankful:

• For Parker continuing to be a healthy baby.
• For my fairly quick adjustment to being a mommy.
• For Robert’s help in caring for Parker.
• For my Mother in Law being such an awesome woman and living just across the street.
• For my brother bringing my daddy to see me and the baby this weekend.

It has taken me so long to sit and type this up, that some of the memories are foggy, especially of the first couple of days in the hospital.

On Monday the 16th I had a doctors appointment, and he told me I still hadn’t had much change in my cervix, and he wanted me in the hospital the next day to begin an induction.

Well, after that things started moving too fast.

I got to the hospital at 4pm, and after a fairly long wait in triage I was taken to a room where I was given something to help “ripen” my cervix.  It looked like a long white string and was inserted next to my cervix.

Then we waited.  And waited.  And waited.

I thought that was going to be left in the whole night, and that I would be started on Pitocin the next morning, but they started me on the Pitocin around 1am that morning.

Hubby is miserable, having worked all day then gone straight to the hospital, he’s exhausted and hungry and all that good stuff.  He left, thinking he’d spend the night at home, only to have us call him and say they had started the Pitocin and we have no clue how fast or slow it might work, so he had to come back.

Well, it worked SLOWLY.  Other than making me hurt….a lot.

I eventually dilated to about 3cm and no further.

Then Dr. Jackson decided to break my water for me.  I think that in itself was the most painful thing of the whole birthing process!

After that the nurses kept coming in and putting me in different positions trying to make the baby start dropping, but he wasn’t cooperating.

Meanwhile, around 4: 30pm Dr. Jackson comes in and says there has still been no change, I’m still at 3cm and Parker still isn’t moving so….

He decided to do a c-section.  He barely gave Robert time to get on a suit and come with me!

The c-section wasn’t as bad as I thought it was.  About time Robert got in the delivery room they had already started and in no time Parker was with us. 

At 4:35 when he was born Parker was 7 pounds 11 oz when he was born and 20.5 inches long.

Robert left with the nurses and him to go meet Gramma and I fell asleep while they finished fishing whatever else out of me and stitching me up.

I was disappointed in having to have had a c-section, thinking it would make it hard for me to take care of Parker.

The first night in the hospital they kept Parker in the nursery and brought him to me at feeding times.  I was breast-feeding, and that first night went smoothly.

The next morning they rolled him into my room to stay, and then things went badly.

He hardly ate at all that day, and didn’t eat anything at all the next night.  The next day we kept trying to breast-feed.  He would not latch on.  Even with constant help and coaching from the lactation nurse he wouldn’t feed.

He kept losing precious ozs and was jaundiced and very, very unhappy.

Finally by the end of that day I started him on formula.

He took to the formula immediately, thought I still kept trying to breast-feed he just will not latch on.

On the 21st we got to go home, because Parker had started gaining back those lost ozs

Once home I started pumping, trying to still feed Parker from my breast even if he wont suck.  Well, thats not working either.  I can’t produce more than 10oz from each session of pumping.  He might get 1 full bottle of breastmilk a day from all my pumping sessions combined.

Its causing me a lot of heartache as I was looking forward to nursing my little one, or at least offering him breast milk in a bottle since he had no interest in latching on and feeding from me.

But, I’ve got this beautiful little man now, and he’s healthy and I guess in the end that is all that matters.