Wordless Wednesday

New Favorite Food:  Daddy's Protein Bars (Buttin doesn't really like sharing)

Not THAT Mom

I really like Cub's preschool.

I especially love his current classroom, but most children move up to the next classroom by around age 19 months (Cub is almost 20 months, faint).  They've had some space issues in the older classrooms, so I hadn't really given much thought to Cub's moving up (especially because like I said, I love, love, love his current teachers) because a couple of his buddies (they all started school together when they were around 3 months old) were also still in the classroom.

Anyone guess where this story is going?

I found out today that Cub's two buddies have moved up into the next classroom - which means they've actually been transitioning for the last few weeks (they don't just have them in one classroom one day and a different classroom the next day). 

So, when I learned this factoid - my first thought was - Why hasn't MY CHILD moved up to the next classroom?  My second thought was - Oh geez really, Stephanie?

Cash is technically older than the other boys (one by two days and the other by a couple of weeks), but I know the other boys have hit certain milestones before Cub (they walked earlier and started eating solid foods earlier) and I don't think the other boys have biting issues (ahem, Cubbie).  I'm honestly not sure why Cub hasn't moved up yet and I kind of hate myself for wanting to know.

I know all children develop at different rates and that Cub is super smart (at least when it comes to pushing rockets into fire hydrants).  I've never once had a concern about the timing of his development and I find benchmarking-type parents to be irksome.  However, I just can't help wondering.  Then, I hate myself for wondering because Cub is happy and healthy and loves his teachers and I really shouldn't (and don't want to) rush Cub's toddler-hood.  I don't want to be that mom.

Side note: I'm quite sure my friend Liz will have a field day with this post.  She'll probably say this is all my fault because I ate too much Splenda while pregnant and because I don't do enough physics problems with Cub. She'll also throw in some grievances for good measure. 

Here's the non-physics doing, Splenda fueled toddler on the swing today.

Now a little something that made me smile.  Our new house has only had one other owner and they actually built the house.  We just took up the flooring (we're going to put down tile in the entire downstairs) and found a little drawing that the parents and children had done when they were building the house:

I took a picture and sent it to our agent (who in turn sent it to the sellers' agent who in turn sent it to the sellers) because I thought it was something they might like to see (I have no idea if they even remembered doing it way back in 1999).  I got an email back (from our agent) saying that the sellers LOVED it and were very touched that we took the time to send them the photo.  It made me feel good.

Misfit Monday

Today was the first day for our newest misfit, a sales girl,who I'm sure we'll get a nickname soon.

We've never had a sales girl before and my expectations are very high; however, she'll probably get Touchdown Duck soon (I honestly forget who had it last).

A Weekend Of Good Movies

This weekend Buttin and I saw three movies (two in the theater and one on-demand) and that must be some kind of post-Graby record.

Last night, we saw Hugo with Liz and Jonathan.  I loved it.  It was beautiful and I cried. FOUR COOKIES. 

It took us two nights to watch Crazy, Stupid Love on-demand (I fall asleep early).  It was funny and fantastic and I cried.  THREE POINT FIVE COOKIES.

Today Buttin and I went to see The Descendants. It was indescribably amazing.  Not surprisingly, I cried.  FOUR COOKIES.

Today while Cub was feeding the outside cats he decided to eat some cat food.  He was pretty proud of himself. 

Filanthropy Friday

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are so fortunate and I'm reminded daily of how lucky I am to have such a healthy family and wonderful friends. 

OK, enough of the sappy.

Yesterday, Liz decided to start a new Thanksgiving tradition - go around the table and say something for which we were un-thankful. 

Liz's #1 unthankfully thing was that there are no more flaming hot Fritos at HEB (it's a pretty tough life).  I am really unthankful that Keebler stopped making Magic Middle cookies.  So, I did some extensive (google) interweb research and found that Nabisco (whose parent company is Kraft) is Keebler's #1 cookie competitor.  Kraft's largest philanthropic endeavor is The Kraft Family Blood Lab at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute so I donated $15 to them.  

Nanny-nanny, boo-boo Keebler - my $15 Filanthropy Friday money could have been yours!

I'm pretty sure this is the true meaning of Thanksgiving.   

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great day of park time, eating and hanging out with friends.

Here's picture of Cub at the park this morning.

Wordless Wednesday

My Crappy O'Craptastic Piece of Poo Car

I'm starting to think that any good deeds (however small) I might be doing are somehow being undone by crimes I'm committing in my sleep.

When I went out to my car this morning (we had storms last night, can you guess what's coming?), there was about an inch of standing water on the driver and passenger side floor boards.  Oh goodie.  The smell in my car has gotten even better. 

Today was delivery day for the food drive I've been working on for the past couple of months.  While driving between the first and second stop - my car stalled and wouldn't accelerate. I was delivering food to abused women when my car decided to stop working - ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME??!!!  Like I said, I must be committing some pretty heinous crimes in my sleep.  

When my car was towed to the shop (it was around 2:00 PM) and the mechanic started it up, he said (apparently) "oh no, that was a bad noise - I'll have to look at it more tomorrow".  Fun stuff. 

Cash has decided that anytime I take out my phone (which I use as my camera) that he wants it.  I haven't had much luck taking good pictures today, here's the best I got.

Misfit Monday

Turns out we owe the State of Texas money.

Our accountant pretty much said we owe the money, but we are still going to argue the auditor's final number.  Oh joy! 

In other misfit news, we have a new misfit sales person starting on Monday - and she's a girl (woman)!  I'm very excited.

Today I took Cub to the new house to let him play.

Not surprisingly, he loved the stairs.

He also enjoyed the slide the previous owners kindly left for us.

It was too much to ask of Cub to sit still by the front door, so I thought (incorrectly) he'd take a picture with me under the deck to show off all the pretty trees.  Isn't this a super cute picture?

Funksgiving

This afternoon we went over to Baby Mama Heather's (Isaac's mom) house for Funksgiving.  It's an annual tradition for them - they invite all their friends over the weekend before Thanksgiving for a little party.  Heather mentioned that the "party" has changed somewhat over the years, but fried turkey is still on the menu. 

Unfortunately, we weren't able to stay and eat (because Cash is in the bathtub by 5:45 and normal people don't eat dinner at 4:30 in the afternoon), but Cub had a ton of fun playing with friends and inspecting Heather's new sliding glass door (seriously, in and out no less than 523 times).

Heather and Todd have been remodeling their house for the last couple of years and they just finished an awesome balcony and patio.  Buttin was upstairs on the balcony with some of the other menfolk and Cub had fun pointing at him (this was during the time when Cub was testing out the front door).

Running & Moving

I woke up this morning and discovered that my Garmin did not charge (I think my Garmin is dying).   I quickly found a free iPhone app, appropriately called - iRun.

I wasn't able to look down at my phone (like I normally do with my watch) periodically (it was stored away in my armband), but it was somewhat freeing not to have the watch.  It was freeing, but I'm not sure I want to do without my watch forever. 

Here were my results from iRun:

Trip Time: 03:08:50

Trip Distance: 15.8 mi

Average Speed: 11:57 min/mi

That sounds about right.

I was planning to run about 18 miles, but when I got to the water stop at the 8 mile marker, I looked down at my shoe.

I decided to turn back.  I guess it's time for some new shoes.

Buttin and I spent this afternoon packing, throwing stuff away and taking a couple truck loads over to the house.  We're exhausted. 

Cub spent the afternoon being silly with Hannah.  Here he is being silly with me.

Filanthropy Friday

It's house closing day!  It's also the start of 24 hour Christmas music playing on our local radio station!  Coincidence?  Nope - it's just a very happy day for me!

In honor of house day - I donated $25 to Green Doors. 

Green Doors is a local charity determined to prevent and help end homelessness in Central Texas.   Green Doors was founded by a formerly homeless woman and they focus on veterans, disabled, seniors and families with young children.  Their housing is well-maintained and they strive to use energy efficient components. 

In addition to housing, they provide a food pantry and social services for residents.  Their goal is to have all residents return to self-sufficiency.

I thought the best way to celebrate our new home is to help others with their home.

Just To Recap

This week, we've had:

• One stomach bug
• Two flat tires
• One (legitimately) missing diamond
• Two mornings where someone (and therefore everyone) was awake before 4:45 AM; and
• One nasty little cut to the forehead

I'm hoping that all crappy stuff has happened because tomorrow is going to be SO AWESOME - it's house closing day!  

Proving the adage that you should get right back on the horse (or rocket), Cub was full-speed (seems even faster) ahead on his rocket today.

Wordless (Mostly) Wednesday

For the Mormor, Gigi, Dadoo, Bubie, Nana and countless others' sake - I couldn't make this a Wordless Wednesday.

Cub and his rocket had a head-on collision with a water hydrant.  Cub got a cut (that bled like crazy) on his forehead.  Cub cried for about 30 seconds, then stopped, then cried when he realized we were heading (running) home (without his rocket).  Hannah's (our babysitter) mother is a nurse, so we went straight to their house (it was also closer to the accident scene than home).  Cub didn't like their house very much, but Laura (the nurse) cleaned up his cut and said it wasn't very deep (just bled a bunch) and that he would be just fine.  She also brought over some small little sterile bandaid-ish things to close up his cut. 

I promise (especially to family), Cub is great and I hope this picture proves it.

And if not that one, hopefully this one.

The Great Diamond Caper

Well, not such a great caper.

Today at work, I looked down at my ring and noticed one of the stones in my ring was missing! So sad.  We can get it replaced (it's insured), but my ring still looks like something from a  prize dispenser.

Ironically, a few hours after I discovered one of my stones was missing we got a call from a customers claiming that $12K worth of diamonds were stolen from a ring - the ring wasn't stolen, just the stones in the ring.  Apparently, one of our misfits was one of the last people in the apartment.  Buttin handled it as best as he could, but we're pretty sure that this person is lying. Buttin also got the impression that the police didn't believe the dipsy-doodle either.  Oh well, just another fun day as a small business owner.

Here's a picture a Cub today - happy guy. 

Misfit Monday

This misfit is a little under the weather.  I'm recovering from yesterday's pretty mean stomach bug.  

In other work related news, we received the results of our Franchise Tax audit - UGH! The auditor believes that we owe double what was paid, so Buttin and I are in the process of drafting a letter requesting a hearing.  Oh just one more lovely thing that I didn't really have time for this week.

Here is Cub today.  I thought he should try M&Ms.  You can't really tell from the picture, but he liked them!

Running & Cleaning

This morning it was back to marathon training.  I ran 14.4 miles and I did my half marathon split was almost a PR (2:24 vs. a 2:23 back in 2009).  It was  a very nice run - I think my body enjoyed the couple weeks off from a long run. 

This afternoon we had Hannah come over to hang out with Cub while Buttin and I threw stuff away in preparation for our move.  We started in the closets.  I found some real gems - including a bag full of scrunchies.  YUP, SCRUNCHIES!  I don't think I've worn a scrunchy since junior high, but I was keeping a bag of them in case they every come back in style (I guess).  I also found a piece of clothing (a skirt, I think) that was still in it's dry cleaning wrapper.  Here's the receipt. 

 Yup - 2004!  I haven't worn this skirt since 2004!  Guess it's time to donate the skirt.

Cub seems to have a little bit of a cold, but he and Hannah still had a great time.  

Here is Cub this evening (with Cartman in the background). 

Filanthropy Friday

It's Veterans Day.  

I could never have been in the military - aside from all the discipline, obeying, shooting and stuff - they don't serve enough cookie dough (or so I've heard).  I have immense respect for those willing to serve in our military. It's a sacrifice I was not willing to make. 

I'm extremely pro-military, but I'm not delusional - I don't think many of our current foreign entanglements are keeping us "free".  In the past ten years we've put our military families at risk unnecessarily.   

We should be doing a lot more for our veterans.  Veterans should receive Wallstreet CEO pay - their sacrifices are greater than those of most business people.  

In honor of all Veterans and one in particular, my dad, I donated $25 to the Fisher House Foundation.  Fisher House provides homes (there are currently 54) for the families of veterans while their loved ones are being treated at major military and VA hospitals.  The families never pay to stay at a Fisher House.  Annually, the Fisher House program serves more than 12,000 families. 

Thank you to all our active duty service men and women, veterans and all their families. 

Pet Integration

Also known as: complete failure.  

So the dog (Riggs) and cats (mostly Scratch) becoming one big happy family isn't going very well.   I contacted Riggs foster family to see if they had any suggestions (apparently they had cats too).  

Riggs was OK with his foster family cats, but I guess none of them were as aggressive as Scratch.  His foster mother recommended a squirt bottle or a quick tap on the butt with a kitchen towel.  Today we tried the squirt bottle and it seemed to annoy him enough to take his attention away from Scratch under the bed.  I wasn't in the house when all this was going on, but Buttin said it sounded like something from the exorcist was under our bed.  

In other pet news Buttin and I have been discussing the new house and how we're going to organize our four-legged children.  The entire upstairs is carpet and Cartman is notorious for peeing (everywhere).  We've decided to invest is a couple dog diapers - one of them is the PeeKeeper.  I'm actually pretty excited to try it out - I'm sure Cartman is considerable less excited. 

Here's Cub from today - giving me a funny, double-chin look. 

Wordless Wednesday

Running Alone

Most Tuesdays (at least during the past few months) I write about my group run.

I dropped my weekday group run, but am still doing the long Saturday run.  I also dropped running entirely on Tuesdays and have returned to a M/W/F/Sat running schedule.  I know this is all very fascinating. 

Next week I am supposed to meet my Tuesday morning running group for dinner and a recap of our marathon running (speaking of which, I really need to finish my race report).  It should be interesting to see everyone in normal clothes plus I might actually get a chance to speak with some of them since I never got a chance to when we ran (I was too far behind).  

Today, Cub decided to throw his bagel in the water.  Thankfully (although I certainly would have taken pictures of it) he decided not to pick it back up and try to eat it. 

Misfit Monday

Sometimes it's a very small world.

Last week, I saw one of our sales misfits driving on our street while I was outside playing with Cub.  The next day, we noticed a sales order was written up for one of our neighbors - Hannah's (Cub's babysitter) house.  They had no idea that they purchased their flooring from us, so it was kind of fun telling them.  

Cub has this new thing he likes to do.  We can't tell if he's going to be a ballerina or a karate-ist (not sure what a person who studies karate is called) but he likes to lift one of his back legs up when he's pushing on the door. 

Or while he's pushing his rocket.

Buttin and I have pretty much decided that our kiddo needs a real haircut - he's now sporting what I like to call a "Farrah mullet".  We haven't made an appointment and I'm not sure I'm ready to say goodbye to his curly blonde mop, but we will eventually.

Dog vs. Cat

We love Riggs.  The cats don't really love Riggs.

Mouser avoids Riggs.  Scratch antagonizes Riggs.

The dog trainers told us to just let the cat and dog interaction happen organically.  Their theory is that Scratch will scratch Riggs on the nose a couple of times and Riggs will get the message.  Riggs doesn't seem to be getting the message.

The main issue with "organic" interaction between Scratch and Riggs is that we don't want Cub around while there is cat scratching and dog growling.  This afternoon Cub was playing with the front door (sounds like a fun kid, right?) and Scratch and Riggs met for Kitchen Death Match 5. 

It went on for about three minutes.  I still can't tell, but it looks like Riggs wants to play.  Scratch (for the most part) was the one chasing Riggs.  It was pretty funny.  Scratch was vicious and I had no idea that fat kitty could move so quickly and jump so high.  We had to eventually break up the interaction when Scratch jumped up on the entertainment center and we didn't want Riggs to hurt the tv (I mean, the cat). 

Here are a couple of pictures from today. 

This is Buttin pulling Cub and me in the wagon while walking Riggs at the same time - it was like a workout. 

Cub woke up from his nap after only 45 minutes so Buttin brought him to the couch where they slept for another hour.  It was pretty freaking cute. 

Long Day

Cub decided to wake up at 5:00 AM (actually, I heard him fussing a little at 4:45 AM) and then he only took a 45 minute nap. 

He woke up kind of grumpy and pretty much stayed that way. 

Here he is in a brief happy moment this afternoon (not surprisingly we were outside).

Filanthropy Friday

I'm a member of the Austin Apartment Association community outreach committee.  Our largest project of the year is The Doc & Gayle Young Food Drive. This year we have a very ambitious fund raising goal - $50,000.  This amount of money will buy food packs for 1,250 Austin families during the Thanksgiving holiday season. 

The Doc & Gayle Young Food Drive is awesome in many ways - but truly outstanding in one very unique way - 100% of all donations go directly to the families.  In my year of doing Filanthropy Friday, this is truly an anomaly. Most of the charities rated four stars (highest) by Charity Navigator give about 85% - 90% of all funds raised directly to the beneficiaries - there are always some administrative and/or fundraising expenses.  The Austin Apartment Association and their members absorb any costs associated with the food drive and that's amazing! 

This year - I donated $50 to the Doc & Gayle Young Food Drive.  It wasn't completely self-less, $40 bought a food pack for a family and $10 got me a t-shirt!

Maybe one day, someone will name a charity in my honor - I'm thinking - The Stephanie Cookie Dough Outreach Project or The Stephanie White Trash Christmas Spectacular-a-Thon. 

The House

It looks like the house will be ours!

The option period ended last night and we came to an agreement (with the sellers) on some money for repairs.  Yippee! Yippee! Yippee!

It seems like everyday Cub learns a new game.

Here he is playing a new favorite - Throw stuff in the trashcan even though mama says no.

Then make a cute face so that mama goes into the trashcan to retrieve the golf balls.

Wordless Wednesday

Updates

Update on me:

I got my blood tests back from my doctor visit last week. Apparently, my "joint soreness" wasn't just in my head.  One of the blood tests,  the ANA Titer (pronounced tighter not tit-er or teet-er), came back 1:320.  My doctor said that this test is not very specific and not indicative of any disease (but most people who have lupus have elevated ANA titer tests), but did refer me to a rheumatologist.   My doctor also mentioned that the specialist will probably tell me that my test results are no big deal, but we'll probably repeat them in a year or if my symptoms worsen. 

Update on Riggs:

Riggs is a farting, disobedient puppy; however, he's very cute.  We had a follow up visit from our trainer today and she got to see Riggs in full defiant mode.  I was thankfully that he was acting up even with her around because I thought his "special" behavior was reserved for only me.  We have lots of practice.  

Update on Cub:

He's healthy, happy and silly.