Bach would roll over in his grave

I was pureeing sweet potatoes for Baby J tonight and Jason turned on the Light Classical station on the TV for me for some 'ambience' while I worked in the kitchen. He's always doing random acts of service like that... one of the many reasons I love him so. Anyway, there was a particularly enjoyable tune coming from the TV, so I glanced over to see who the composer was and what the title was. Low & behold, I kid you not, the composer was Bach, and the title was "Air on a G String." Now, I'm not dumb. I have had a little musical training in my time and understand what every bit of that song title means. But come on!!! That's hilarious! Air on a G String! Ha ha ha!!! Like what happens to an exotic dancer who ate beans!!!

Sorry. I'm really tired and need to go to bed. OBVIOUSLY.

Oh, on a totally different subject, Emerson is in a BIG GIRL BED today! We converted her crib into a full-sized bed, and MAN, does she look little in it. I almost got verklempt realizing that she'll never ever be in a crib again. I'll never again get to reach over the railing and run my fingers through her hair while she's waking up. I'll never again get sweet kisses through the railing slats, and I'll never again get to lean completely over the side, my feet leaving the floor, Emerson laughing at me while I pretend to be flying. Geesh, this whole growing up thing is not much fun right now.

She's really starting to get fun, however, with her vocabulary. When people come to visit, she says, "Welcome home!" And when she gives long hugs, sometimes she'll say, "I luh you too much, Mommy." Anytime she enters a room, it's "Whatta you DOOOOIN', Mommy?" Then, my all-time favorite, thanks to Dora the Explorer (whom she calls Dora Fara), is she's now yelling "Ayudame! Ayudame!" (Spanish for help) when she actually needs help. So funny.

I love that girl!

Payless & Old Navy

Just in case you happen upon a Payless tomorrow... the coupon ends tomorrow, but it's a good one! They have some cute flats right now, and sometimes I find cute kids' shoes, too.

http://media.oprah.com/sterm/payless-halfoff-coupon.pdf

Also, Old Navy is offering free shipping online until 11/2. Just enter ONSHIPFREE at checkout.

Little Baker

A few days ago I made some whole wheat berry spice muffins and realized Emerson wanted in on the action. She loves sitting on the island counter and stirring things while I cook, but I'm always afraid she's going to decide to jump one day and bust her head open. So I figured the floor would be much safer. I was using the foil muffin liners, and you know the paper liners in between each one? Those worked perfectly for her and her own muffin pan. Sister Sue went to town, lining that muffin pan like there was no tomorrow. Gave me a few minutes of uninterrupted baking, and gave her some ownership in the kitchen. Seems like lately she's been wanting ownership in EVERY AREA OF MY LIFE. ALL DAY LONG. :)

Morning workout

A few mornings ago, Jason and I had finished up our P90X workout DVD and were stretching in the living room. Boomer heard us getting in position on the floor and decided to get out of bed and come in to get some attention. I guess he felt like he needed the extra stretching time, too, because he promptly rolled onto his back and perfectly mimicked Jason's move. I couldn't believe my eyes, and he literally stayed there for like 30 seconds. I laughed out loud and quickly grabbed the camera which happened to be on the counter above my head.





I mean, just look at the two of them. So many things about it make me laugh. Probably most of all is that they both have their eyes closed and basically the same expression on their faces.

I love that even at 5:45 in the morning, things like this happen. It's these little things that make me so thankful to be living my life with the people in my house. They're some good people.

My love affair with Aldi

In the past 6 months or so I've really started couponing and watching what I spend at the grocery store. Normally I just go to Walmart for everything except produce & meat, then hit Reasor's or Food Pyramid for these two categories, depending on who has the better sales going on and what side of town I'm on. Then I discovered that Walmart price matches competitors' ads, so I was going more & more to Walmart to shop what was on sale at other stores. I soon realized I needed to pay a little visit to Aldi to see what it was all about... my friend Cristin had always told me how cheap things were there, and I had been in Aldi before with my sister and mom (but that was before I even cared about prices).

Let me just tell you that I am now officially smitten with Aldi. Sometimes I wake up and secretly hope that I have to run an errand on Memorial so I can stop by & pick something cheap up. Mind you, I typically try & only grocery shop once a week, but you know how it is when you run out of something random on a Thursday and really need to replace it. I've probably shopped at Aldi 5 or 6 times since our affair began, and I have never spent over $20 there. Now, I'm not going and getting a heaping cart-ful of groceries, but I usually end up with 10-12 items. FOR LESS THAN $20. It's a beautiful thing. I've never been a name-brand food snob, so if you're like me and don't care what it says on the label, you've got to go.

I took Jason and the kids a weekend or so ago, and you should've seen his face when he walked in. He was like, 'Oh wow, this place is freaking me out.' By the end of our excursion, he had developed a healthy appreciation for all that is Aldi, but not enough to stop him from developing a new lingo... when something is 'ghetto' to him, he's promised me he's going to say it's 'so Aldi.' Whatever. We mock that which we don't understand. (Or something like that).

Here is my family at my home-away-from-home. One might think we don't get out much.

B-Ball in T-Town

Last night Jason and I went to see the OKC Thunder play the Miami Heat at the BOK Center downtown. We went with two of his agents who won a sales contest (one being his dad), their spouses, and Jason's boss & his wife (who is aka my friend Kara). It was a cold, drizzly night, but inside the arena there was lots of good people-watching and fairly good basketball to be viewed. I full admit that I did more people-watching than b-ball watching. I've never been a huge NBA fan. Case in point: yesterday morning Jason and I were doing our P90X workout, and we had to do these lateral, frog-like moving squats. Basically we looked like we were playing some serious defense on the hardwood. He looked at me when we were finished & said, "We just played more defense than we'll see in 4 quarters of basketball tonight." It's true! I love me some good high school & college basketball, but that's about it.

Anyway, back to the game. We ate some sushi for dinner (I know, I know... it's ridiculous to eat sushi at a sporting event, but COME ON people, it was In The Raw). It's so good! I'll eat it any night of the week, no matter where. Jason's boss Mike ate an Ike's frito chili pie, and word is he barely made it out of the house this morning due to some 'serious GI events.' Should've had the sushi!

Here's a shot of Mommy & Daddy at the game:

Next is a shot of the guy sitting in front left of us with one of the best Kentucky waterfalls I've seen in a long time. That's some serious party in the back.

Here is my lovely husband's half-masticated California roll:

The following halftime occurrence made me feel really weird.

Gap coupon & fussy toddler

Here's a Gap coupon I plan on using before the end of October:

http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/Mil2Mil8509/coupon/


Emerson has been miserable since yesterday morning. She's horribly congested in one nostril, but has a continually runny nose. She's completely sick of me blowing her nose, bless her heart. When I walk toward her with a kleenex, she says, "All finished blowing." And every little thing is making her emotional. This morning I was taking her PJs off, and she broke down crying because she wanted to pull the zipper down. Ahhh!!! I'm really hoping she's not getting sick, that she just feels yucky from allergies or something. Days like yesterday are the ones where I just say a little prayer asking the good Lord to give me patience above & beyond what I have, because my little 'patience reserve' isn't adequate sometimes. All you moms can relate, right?

Free Photo Book

Get a free 8x8 photo book from Shutterfly:

http://www.918couponqueen.com/2009/10/free-8x8-photobook-from-shutterfly.html

I've only done one other photo book so far, and it was a huge hit. I gave Jason a photo book of pictures of him with Emerson in her first year of life. And since I'm one of those non-scrapbooky type of people, I didn't even add captions or anything. Each page is just one huge picture of the two of them. He LOVED it.

On a sad note, yesterday my beloved and much-coveted cute little measuring tape was eaten by our canine. Yes, I accidentally left Boomer running free in the house while I ran a few errands, and when we got home, I discovered the remnants of my adorable, leather-bound measuring tape that my sweet husband bought for me a few Christmases ago. I was so mad! Maybe Santa will bring me another one this year. Jason told me to add it to my list, that maybe I'd get lucky. Let's hope so.... in more ways than one. :)

Little man is 6 months old

I took these pictures of Jax yesterday while we were playing outside, and it wasn't until I uploaded them just now that I'm realizing he's really growing up. *sniff* He's sitting up almost completely on his own now... he only topples when he leans back. I love the slow-motion baby toppling when they realize they're going to go over but can't do anything about it and their chubby little bodies stiffen up as they do it. Funny. He's also into attack kissing right now. As he's facing me, he'll grab sections of my hair with both chubby little fists, pull my face to him, and plant a big, wet one either on my mouth or my nose. I'm sure it feels good on his first little tooth that popped out last week, but I'm pretending that it's completely emotional for him and that he just really likes kissing his momma.

On another note, I think my hormones are out of whack right now. I was on the phone with our health insurance company and literally started crying talking to the rep. Not kidding you. Long story short, I accidentally forgot to add Jax to our insurance when he was born, so I got a bill for his most recent pediatric visit asking for the full amount. When I called, we realized my error, and they said there was nothing they could do. I started calculating in my head the cost of paying cash for all of his doctor visits until now, and I totally freaked. The lady was like, 'Ma'am, I'm sorry, I can tell you're upset, but I'm just afraid there's nothing I can do.' I get off the phone with her, call Jason, and can barely get it out to tell him what happened. I'm crying HARD, people. He calms me down and reminds me that our baby boy is worth every penny we'll have to pay (that's a good Daddy). I get off the phone with him, call the insurance company back, get another rep on the phone, and I kid you not, this wonderful man added Jax to our plan with no hassle. Sometimes you just have to call back!!!

Favorite September Pictures