moonlit-butterflies.net - -

Friday, February 5, 2010

I think OCD is genetic, Mom and Dad. : )

I have been lazy this week. I got a little ahead on school stuff last week, and Ryan suggested I just do my house cleaning on Saturdays when he can help and/or distract Anya so that I can get it all done in one go. So I've just been trying to enjoy a little down time. Though I'm still working on homework a little bit each day, and the urge to mop the kitchen tiles is almost overwhelming. Is it weird that I get a cleaning high? Haha. I enjoy cleaning and organizing. Or at least the feeling of productivity and the sense of accomplishment once it's all done and everything looks awesome make me feel that way. Which is why I claim that I am OCD. Because I'm a neat freak, and I am very particular about the way things are organized. If Ryan moves something at the wrong angle I will have to move it back. Sometimes he feels like even when he helps me I end up doing everything behind him anyway so that makes him feel like he can't do anything right. That's not true. I just get a nervous tick when things aren't just so. That's not his fault, and I try to let things go when I can so he doesn't feel bad about not doing something to meet my impossible standards with cleanliness and organization.

Sadly, for Ryan, I can already see the OCD in Anya. She is stubborn about routine and sameness. And heaven forbid if you don't do whatever it is the exact same way every single time. She will freak out. We try to mix things up sometimes by taking her out or letting her nap when she's tired instead of trying to put her on too rigid of a schedule. But oh my goodness the crankiness that ensues when she doesn't get to do it her way. Her daily routine currently looks something like this since she and I are at home all day during the week:

8:00AM-9:00AM: Morning bottle, reflux medication, diaper and clothing change
8:30AM-9:30AM: Playtime on the tummy mat
10:30AM: Cat nap in the bouncy seat while I shower
11:00AM: Playtime with Mommy usually on the couch
11:30AM-12:00PM: Lunch bottle, dirty diaper change (like clockwork)
12:00PM-12:30PM: Long afternoon nap in her crib with many pacifier replacements
4:00PM-4:30PM: Afternoon bottle, reflux medication, diaper change
4:30PM-5:00PM: Playtime with Mommy often on the tummy mat or couch
5:30PM-6:00PM: Playtime with Daddy while I work on dinner
6:30PM: Cat nap in Pack 'N' Play or the swing in the dining room during dinner
7:00PM: Playtime with Mommy and Daddy usually on the couch
7:30PM: Bath, diaper and pajama change, bedtime bottle, reflux medication, story
8:00PM-8:15PM: Bedtime followed by many pacifier replacements through the night

And she just kind of fell into that by herself. I notice her sleepy cues and such, but other than just putting her down when she starts looking tired I have done nothing to put her into such a predictable routine. She refuses to take more than one long nap so she just takes one really long nap with a couple of cat naps. She's down to four bottles a day with no night feedings. Replacing her pacifier is getting really old so at 6 months instead of buying the pacifiers for the next step up, we're just going to quit them cold turkey and deal with a few days/weeks of crying it out. I have a feeling it will be rough because of her stubbornness. Anytime we take her to the store with us during those nap times it is always crazy crankiness by the time she finally does get some semblance of a nap. We try not to let it get in the way of doing what we would normally do within reason, but sometimes she tries my patience with her fussiness. She is a drama queen already. God help us both if this is a sign of how she is going to be throughout her entire childhood and - I shudder at the thought - when she is a teenager. At least then I can reprimand her for behavior I think is unacceptable. It's not easy trying to reason with a 4 month old who only responds to funny faces and the trippy light emanating from the nose of her musical polar bear.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Update on the small, spazzy, giggly version of us.

So I don't want to jinx myself, but this is the second day in a row that I've put Anya down for her afternoon nap in her crib without any fussing. Granted, she wakes up about every hour - at least - requiring me to put her pacifier back in. But as soon as she has it, she rolls over and crashes back out. Which is way better than screaming until I pick her up. Which was happening for about a week or so there. Which is when I made the decision to switch her to the crib because she had gotten to the point where she screamed in the swing, too, so the days of using it to trick her into nap time had ended. This pacifier thing is still happening at night, too. Sometimes she'll go over a week without waking up once. And then she'll have a week or two of needing it at least two or three times in the middle of the night. And some nights we feel like, between the two of us, we're up every hour to replace the pacifier. It's getting ridiculous. She used to be a champ about going to sleep and staying asleep. Maybe her ability to self soothe is on the fritz? I'm not sure exactly how we should go about repairing whatever damage we've probably done by jumping up every time she whimpered for the first couple of months of her life when the reflux was in full swing and making her so constantly miserable that we just wanted to make her feel better at all costs. Part of me is just hoping that it has more to do with teething, or at least the gum pain that is usually the prequel to actual teething, and that she'll outgrow it with time.

Other than that she's adorable pretty much all of the time. If I took photos every time she was being cute, I would need to buy another SD card for my digital camera. She's laughing so much more than ever before, and her adorable smiles when I peek into her crib in the morning make my heart melt in an instant. She was totally worth this 10 extra pounds I can't seem to lose and almost four hours of labor that went so quickly my epidural didn't have time to kick in completely. She's that awesome. Most of the time. Her eyes have turned into an exact duplicate of Ryan's, which kills me when they're sitting on the couch together and both turn to look at me at the same time. I think my heart explodes a little every time that happens. She is rolling around like crazy, though she still hasn't figured out how to get on her belly from her back or vice versa. She just lays on her side and kicks her legs to turn herself in different directions. Sometimes when we go to get her in the morning, her feet are where her head was when we put her down for the night. It's mildly entertaining and a lot frustrating because she gets out of her blanket and wakes up cold sometimes resulting in several of the pacifier replacements required in the night along with being tucked in all over again. Crazy baby.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

The laugh that melts our hearts on a daily basis.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Anya Photo Dump

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Life hates me sometimes.

In case yesterday's tweet wasn't noticed, I think I may have sprained my left wrist. I was stressed - am stressed - out of my mind yesterday trying to get some semblance of homework done during Anya's nap when the upstairs neighbors started playing music with a rather intense base beat very loudly. Which Kieran interpreted as knocking or stomping and decided to bark. And being afraid that it would wake Anya I chased after him to reprimand him. During the chase my feet flew out from under me. I landed in a sitting position but put my hands flat out behind me to catch my fall. My right wrist took this fine, but my left wrist must have landed funny because it jammed into my hand upon impact.

Now, I'm still not entirely sure whether it's just jammed or maybe sprained. It doesn't hurt as intensely as yesterday, and I've been doing most of the usual things with it without too much discomfort. But if I twist it in certain directions, lift something too heavy, or exert too much force on something: ouch. So I'm also a tiny bit worried that maybe there's a hairline fracture in there somewhere. If it doesn't seem to get any better in a few days I'll probably go in to have an x-ray done just in case. If it's just sprained then all they're going to do for me is prescribe pain killers and stick my arm in a sling. Not really worth the hassle of an ER visit right now. And if it's just jammed, the soreness should dissipate in a few days.

And so back to stressing out of my mind. (If I smoked I would need a heavy duty cigar to calm me at this point.) I have got homework coming out of my ears and not enough time or patience to accomplish it. I have a one page paper due tomorrow, a quiz due on Thursday that I have to read 50 pages of material for before I take it, and a handful of programming assignments due by Friday. That's for only three of my courses. But instead of working on any of that last night, Ryan and I finally got out of the house alone. One of his friends babysat for us once Anya was already in bed for the night so we could go out and catch a late dinner and a movie together baby-free. And it was nice. Would have been nicer if I hadn't jacked up my wrist. Even nicer than that? Not having this ridiculous one page paper that I actually have to put in MLA format with citations due tomorrow causing me to be high strung today even after a nice night out. Welcome to my life. It's load of fun.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Say What?

I want to know how on Earth I'm supposed to fit the link spa filter into one of my blog entries? Haha. Some of the links I have to use crack me up. I'm sure you get tired of seeing the random links in my posts, but, hey, I have to help pay the bills with something. Anywho, I haven't really been the best blogger lately. Lots of random posts to get paid links in but no real updates on life around here. But everything is pretty much the same old routine. Lots of bottles, diapers, and homework for me. But I'm starting to get more of a handle on the homework finally...I think. Except for this 10 page research paper I have to write for my Operating Systems class. I mean, seriously, 10 pages about operating systems? I think this professor just likes to be mean for fun. It excites him to make his students write a huge, specific research paper about material they have no interest in for a filler class. He's just a super guy like that.

The apartment is really quiet now that Anya is in bed. She's been sleeping 12 to 13 hours every night. Though we're still having to wake up several times to put her pacifier back in which is getting old. But we're not really sure how to break her of the habit because if we let her cry it out at 3AM we aren't exactly going to be getting any sleep during the process. And Ryan has to leave the apartment for work between 5 and 6AM most mornings. So listening to Anya cry for 2 hours in the middle the night does not sound like a promising solution to the problem. We didn't have this problem at all until she started teething. Now anytime she's awake she has to have her pacifier or her hands in her mouth. And when she wakes up into that half asleep state she just starts whining and crying until we put her pacifier in for her to chew on for relief. It's really frustrating but still better than middle of the night feedings so we try not to be too annoyed by it considering what we've endured previously. I guess the only way to break her of expecting her pacifier in the middle of the night is to do what we're dreading and stop getting up to give it to her. I can hear the screaming already. Save me.

Western Governors Online University

This is a sponsored post.

I've talked a lot about wanting to look into online university options for my schooling. I've recently looked at the website for Western Governors Online University in my internet search for an online education. I looked over their online degree programs, and while they do offer a lot of sought after programs, there really isn't anything related to any of the fields I've studied. They do, however, offer full degrees for teachers and in technological fields such as Databases or Networking which are all careers that won't be going anywhere anytime soon. Any one of the degrees offered by this university would be a great investment for a more secure future in the workplace.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Of Crazy Neighbor Ladies

If I have to keep blogging about vitamins and diet supplements, I might go insane. So in an effort to lighten things up around here I'm going to tell you about one of my stranger neighbors. (And because Christina is waiting for this story with bated breath.) This was a neighbor I had in 29 Palms while I was staying in the apartment by myself during Ryan's time at MOS school for Communications. The apartment was one of two in the same building that had at one time probably been a single house. There were a couple of similar buildings around us, but I was really only attached to the one other apartment and therefore only technically had one neighbor that I had to deal with on an almost daily basis.

This neighbor was a female Marine that worked on the base. She wasn't married, but I believe she had at least one boyfriend during the time I lived there. I'm not entirely sure because there were two or three different guys who would come over and stay for random lengths of time. But she always seemed to be fighting with the same one on the phone for hours at night. (Let's just say the walls were thin, and I heard a lot of crazy stuff during those conversations.) And this woman complained about everything. As if her curse filled phone rants and the sounds of her night time...activities with her boyfriend(s) weren't inconsiderate. She complained about everyone else all of the time.

For instance, someone decided it would be fun to smash our mailbox. Our mailboxes were joined on one post so she and I both had smashed mailboxes to deal with. Now, I just thought it was common sense that some people like to smash mailboxes for fun just to get a rise out of the owners. But apparently my neighbor was not aware of this. She filed a police report. No joke. Ryan and I returned to the apartment from grocery shopping to a squad car parked out front. I mean, seriously. What did she think the police were going to do? Get CSI out there to track those pranksters down and throw them in jail? Because the police have nothing better to do, I suppose. You could tell the officer was trying to decide if he was more amused or annoyed by my neighbor's antics. She called our landlady ranting and raving, too. The landlady did the only thing she could; she replaced the mailboxes. And in case you're on the edge of your seat in suspense: those pranksters are still out there somewhere just waiting to smash another defenseless mailbox. Beware.

To understand this next part you have to know that Ryan and I did not have a car and would often walk the 1/2 mile to the 7-11 and back for snacks as well as visit the local movie rental store or grab a pizza. Sometimes we would do this at 11 or 12 o'clock at night. On the weekends only. Which is pretty normal around that area. Most Marines are out way later than that drinking and being crazy. You also have to understand that it was normal to hear the artillery units practicing out in the desert even on Sunday mornings. Sometimes I would think it was thunder. Sometimes I joked that T-Rex was coming. But, no; it was always just the echoes of artillery being fired. You'd think being a Marine herself that my neighbor would understand this. No. She thought someone in the complex was slamming doors randomly at 7 o'clock on a Sunday morning. Ryan and I were fast asleep and were barely disturbed by the echoes of the artillery when suddenly we heard our neighbor screaming obscenities and asking what was going on. We just kind of laid there confused as we heard her get up and slam her door to retaliate. We decided trying to get anymore sleep was a lost cause and began to get ready for the day.

While this was happening our neighbor called our landlady - at 7 o'clock on a Sunday morning - to complain about her neighbors slamming doors. The kicker? She thought it was us. Because it just had to be us since when she heard noises outside the night before and checked through her window thinking someone was attacking the mailboxes again - OMG, really, lady?!? - she saw us walking around outside. (What she saw was us locking the apartment door and talking to one another as we walked toward the 7-11. We weren't just standing around outside her window shouting and carrying on.) Basically she wanted the landlady to do something about us because she'd been living there such and such amount of time and shouldn't have had to deal with it. Blah blah blah. I laugh about it. Because our landlady never said a word to us about it. I think she was just used to our neighbor's antics and knew that I was not the cause a bunch of trouble type.

And then this same neighbor had the audacity to knock on my door early one morning just to let me know she was leaving for the Holidays in case I wondered where she went. And then she was just oh so sad when I told her I would be moving out on such and such a day. All I know is, that time she was gone was the quietest our complex was the entire time I lived there.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Permanent Bad Hair Day

I've been wanting to do something with my hair for a while now. I just feel kind of bleh about it, but I don't really know what I want to do next. I think I'm done chopping it off and growing it out. Now I'd really just like to find a style that suits me and doesn't take more than fifteen minutes to maintain, blow-drying and all. It seems anything decent take an hour and seventeen products to accomplish. And probably a stylist because there's no way I could see the back of my own head well enough to accomplish a lot of the popular styles.

No to mention my hair falls out like crazy. I have to clean out our tub all of the time because I shed so badly. It's kind of gross. I've got my hair floating around this apartment than the dog. I need a vitamin for hair loss or something. Seriously. It's pretty bad. I'm not sure if it's just a normal amount of shedding or if my hair is unhealthy. I've cut back on using heat on it all of the time, but that only seems to have helped so much. For now I at least need to have my bangs trimmed and an inch or two off of the rest. I wish I could find something a little more awesome to attempt, but I have a feeling that would just end bad. I feel like I can never come to a concrete decision on this. Heh. I'll probably end up leaving it alone after a trim. Such is my life.

So Much for That

As I settled down to read Anya decided she wanted to wake up early from her afternoon nap and scream. It was wonderful. (At this rate I'm going to have to start looking into natural arthritis treatments for all of the moving around required to keep her happy.) So I had to give up on homework to feed Fussy McFusserson. Who is now playing quietly in her bouncy seat. Though for how long that will last I can't say. She'll probably end up taking a short, late nap there if I leave her alone long enough. That's about how she works.

And now it's so late in the day that I need to fold a load of laundry that's wrinkling in the dryer and start on dinner - which will take an hour and a half to cook - before Ryan gets home. It's not like he demands that things be done; I just prefer to be able to enjoy as much time as I can with him without having to do any housework or homework while he's home. Though that doesn't always work out. In which case you usually helps me tackle the chores or takes Anya off of my hands so I can read 50 pages about operating systems in peace. Is that really considered a break? Because, somehow, I feel gypped when my break consists of trying not to drool on my textbook when the contents cause me to doze off.

Snoozefest

I'd totally rather be blogging about accutane than reading 50 pages about operating systems. But that's exactly what I'm stuck doing today. And I have to read about 30 pages about both computer security and database fundamentals. Loads of fun, interesting stuff. And I'm just hoping that Anya stays asleep during her afternoon nap long enough for me to get it all done. Or that I don't fall asleep in the process. Which is entirely likely given the subject matter. At least I have all of the assignments turned in. The reading is more for my own benefit for future assignments, quizzes, tests, etc. But I know I will regret not doing it now if I have play catch-up later so I'm trying to stay focused and motivated.

But I thought I'd just take a quick break to gripe about it now that I've been reading for almost an hour and a half. I still feel like I've barely started. There is so much more reading to do before the day is over! But regardless of how much I get through, I'm stopping once Ryan gets home so I can spend some time with him and worry about dinner. Of course, once Anya's up from her nap I may not have a choice but to stop reading depending on whether or not she's wants my attention or wants to be left alone to grin at the polar bear on her bouncy seat. Until then I suppose I should be taking advantage of nap time and get some of this reading knocked out.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

These are a few of my favorite refrigerated things.

The hilarious Holly of Nothing But Bonfires got me thinking about something when she blogged about the three things she always has to have in her refrigerator. What would my three things be? I could give one answer easily, but the other two needed some thought. In the end I came up with my list of can't-ever-be-without refrigerated items.

1. Diet soda of some variety. Be it Coke Zero or Diet Pepsi. I would probably die without at least one a day. At least one. Usually I drink two or three. On a bad day when Anya won't stop screaming, and I need a pick me up...you don't want to know how many I drink to keep me going. I could probably buy a brand new car with the money I would save if I stopped drinking diet soda as a cure for all that ails me I suppose that's better than being an alcoholic?

2. Cheese. Usually slices of American for sandwiches and such. Though we do go through quite a bit of shredded cheese for the variety of recipes I make for dinner. Ryan is a cheese fiend. If I didn't keep cheese in the house he might leave me. I'll let you decide if I'm kidding.

3. Sunny D. No joke. Ryan and I drink one each almost every morning, and there's something about the tangy awesomeness of Sunny D that makes the whole day before me seem a little brighter than the bathroom cleaning and diaper changing that are my duties.

One thing you won't ever find in my refrigerator: a diet supplement.

Dear Robert Qualls

It seems that some young woman was completely overtaken by her affection for you during a trip to the Wal-Mart in my hometown. I know this because I purchased our bath towels there. Simple, relatively cheap, white bath towels for our master bathroom once we moved. At the time I put them in storage and forgot about them until we moved and said master bathroom was set up in the apartment. It was just a couple of days before my husband returned home from deployment that I noticed something was written on one of the towels. Not the towel itself, rather, but on the attached tag. In big, curvy handwriting that very obviously belonged to someone of the female gender a name had been inscribed with permanent black marker. It read, simply: Robert Qualls <3. And, yes, it was followed by the quirky little outline of a heart.

Now, I have seen messages of adoration for boyfriends and crushes written in some strange places like bathroom stalls (The last thing I care about when I have to pee bad enough to actually break down and use a public restroom is who hearts who.). But the tag of a cheap, Wal-Mart bath towel? One that she obviously wasn't even going to purchase? Why? What is the point? I suppose, in a strange way her affection for Robert will live on and be known by others. (Who needs an anti aging product when you can be immortalized on the tag of a bath towel?) But in all honesty, I really don't care that she hearts Robert. I just wanted a bath towel so that I could be dry after my shower. And now every time I happen to pick up this particular towel I stop and think of the complete ignorance a person must have to feel that writing someone's name in permanent marker on a product in a store that they aren't even going to buy must possess. Not to mention it really through Ryan for a loop when he returned to new towels and picked up one with some other guy's name on it in the first week he was home. That was an interesting conversation starter.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Our kind of, sort of routine.

I ended up not going to that baby shower yesterday. We'd had a rough night with Anya wanting her pacifier every 2.5 seconds. She's was just about as bad last night, too. I think it's a development caused by her teething pain. She just needs something to gum. But it's aggravating since she's slept peacefully through the night for weeks before the teething started. At least she's not asking for bottles in the middle of the night. She just takes her pacifier and goes right back to sleep. So it could be worse, but it's still not fun. We're working on thinking of a way to break the habit if it doesn't go away on its own soon. We've already pretty much got her settled into a nap time routine aside from getting her to sleep in her crib for it. She sleeps in her swing, but it's always at around the same time every day for 3 or 4 hours. And her body has already grown accustomed to it because she's started getting cranky in the twenty to thirty minutes before nap time in anticipation of sleeping. So I'm feeling pretty good about that. But I have a feeling getting her to take the nap in her crib is going to be a battle. For now we just let her sleep in the swing. We'll give her some time to build on that nap time routine as we did with her bed time.

I have been getting paid blogging assignments like no one's business. So don't be surprised when you see me talking about random things like Toronto hotels to fit in a paid link somewhere in an entry. Sometimes it takes some serious creativity to fit something in with some of the off the wall stuff that I'm assigned. But I do the best I can. Trying to do my part to help Ryan pay for all those diapers. At least we don't have to pay for her $20 cans of formula that only lasts three days anymore. Thank you, WIC! If only I had signed up for it sooner we could have saved so much money on all of the formula during Anya's first 2 months of life. But now our lesson has been learned. We'll apply while I'm pregnant with the next one. Which will hopefully be a few years from now, though. But I've filed the knowledge away for when the time comes.

Right now Ryan and I are just enjoying some time doing our separate things. He's playing Fallout 3 on the PS3, and I'm probably going to bust out Sims 2 or Sims 3 momentarily. Anya is taking a late nap because we had to run our usual Sunday errands of getting Ryan's haircut, going to the bank, grabbing lunch, and grocery shopping around the time she's usually napping. That's what we get for trying to sleep in, I suppose. Lesson learned: have the baby home in time for her nap, or we will regret it when the screaming and flailing ensues for half an hour before the swing finally wins the battle of nap time. Fun stuff.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

She's figured out how to make her hands do her bidding. Uh oh.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Nap Time

Anya has discovered textures. She pets Violet until she falls asleep every day at nap time. Violet plays lullabies for her. It's sweet. She stands no chance of fighting her nap between Violet's lullabies and being in her baby swing. Guaranteed 2 to 4 hour nap for me to get some homework done every afternoon. Awesome.

I'm feeling so unmotivated.

Ryan has extra time off this weekend and is already home for the day. Unfortunately I can't really spend much quality time with him for the next couple of days because I really need to get ahead on some of my course work in order to be a little less overwhelmed by it on a daily basis. And I'm going to a baby shower for another Marine wife tomorrow afternoon. Though I think Ryan and I might take a walk this afternoon once Anya wakes up from her nap to pick up a few things for the baby shower and diapers for Anya - she's running dangerously low, and I don't think she'll make it until our usual Sunday shopping trip on what we have left. And luckily there is a Wal-Mart within walking distance. It's always really busy so it's probably faster in all actuality to walk than to spend half an hour trying to find a parking space available in the entire shopping strip nevermind the Wal-Mart itself.

I could really use a vacation. Just me and Ryan. Somewhere awesome like Disney World or Japan. But right now I'd settle for some New York budget hotels or a trip to Myrtle Beach a few hours away. But, alas, Anya has to have someone around to feed her, change her, and keep her entertained. And that's our job so here we stay working on home work and caring for Fussy McFusserson. She's napping at the moment, though, so home work is the plan of the day for me. Ryan's just going to play video games or something while I sit in the living room with him on my laptop working on stuff. I really don't feel like doing much of anything, but I'll push through.

Speaking of not feeling like doing much of anything, I got sick out of nowhere last night. We had dinner, and Ryan was playing with Anya in the living room while I cleaned up when out of nowhere I had to make a mad dash to the bathroom where I was violently ill for the better part of two hours. Ryan had to give Anya her bath and put her to bed by himself because I was completely incapacitated. I was blindsided. No idea where it came form or what caused it. After those two hours I felt fine, just tired from having been sick that whole time. And I'm feeling fine today. It was strange. Almost like something I ate disagreed with my system, but I didn't eat anything out of the ordinary yesterday so I have no idea what the deal was. Oh well. As long as there are no repeat incidents any time soon, I can live with not knowing.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Out and About

Homework has made my days pretty full. For the couple of days Ryan worked a normal shift since his return that I didn't have class I actually had a good chunk of free time during Anya's afternoon nap after all of the housework was done to just do something for myself. But now that nap is my official homework time of the day. Although I'm blogging at the moment in an effort to procrastinate working on installing Linux features onto my computer for my Operating Systems class. At least I won't need secure online backup if something goes horribly wrong because my files are backed up onto the lovely external drive Ryan got me for Christmas. So I've got that going for me.

Anya's nap is a little late today because I took her with me when I went out to lunch with some of the other Marine wives in the area. It was fun though I don't really feel like I got to say much or had much part in the discussion. So I still feel like I don't really know anyone except for the wife I hitched a ride with - Ryan still having the only working vehicle and all. But I'm going to a baby shower for one of the girls on Saturday so maybe that will help. I'd really like to have friends. Though it sounds like a lot of the girls are moving away to other duty stations or getting out of the USMC altogether this year. But more will come; such is the nature of our lifestyle. Lots of comings and goings. I'm just tired of not having any friends to spend any kind of time with and feeling like a hermit. Not to mention it keeps Ryan from hanging out with his friends because he doesn't want to leave me sitting alone at the house feeling sorry for myself. So I'm trying. Here's hoping I forge some kind of friendship with some of the other wives by putting myself out there a little.

I can't wait for Ryan to get home tonight, though. He hasn't been home since he left for duty at 7AM yesterday. And I've missed him. Anya has missed him. I've missed having him to help with Anya. But I've managed. At least he gets a four day weekend this week! I'm pretty excited about that. I have the baby shower on Saturday, but otherwise it's whatever we want to do. Maybe we'll try a movie on Friday or something. I need to get out of the house a little bit and enjoy time out with my husband. We really need to find a babysitter in the near future so we can just go out, relax, and enjoy ourselves for a few hours, just the two of us. But right now that's all just wishful thinking.

And now I really do need to work on some homework...

Monday, January 11, 2010

I'm Exhausted

Trying to get Anya into a naptime routine is proving even more exhausting that her bedtime routine was. Or maybe I've just already forgotten how bad that was. I have a feeling that's what it really is. Kind of like how the pain of childbirth has already faded to a dull dreamlike memory. Another one of those tricks that Mother Nature pulls to ensure you have more than one child, I suppose. Unfortunately for Mother Nature, I'm not out of the woods yet with Anya. She put up a serious fight about going down for her nap today because I tried to put her in her crib instead of the baby swing. I'd really like for her to take her naps in her crib in her room so that I don't have to tiptoe around her for those three or four hours, and knowing she'll outgrow the swing one day I really don't want her to get too used to always napping in it. So I ended up putting the baby swing in her room where she finally took her nap, although later than usual. I guess we'll just have to take baby steps to napping in her crib without a fuss. But we'll get there. If I could get her into the awesome night routine she's in, I can do this. It's just a matter of time and patience. It's the patience I'm worried about.

School isn't as difficult as it is time consuming at the moment. The worst thing is needing to read the text books which requires a pretty substantial amount of time when I have to read a 30 page chapter in each book for my five courses every week. And then do the assignments, quizzes etc. Especially when my only real chunk of time to concentrate is that nap Anya kept refusing to take today. And tomorrow Ryan has duty for 24 hours which means he has to be on watch from 7AM until 7AM Wednesday morning at which point he has report straight to work for the day and will not be home until the usual time that evening. To make matters worse, Ryan isn't going to be able to fix his car until this weekend because it actually turned out to be a slightly more involved problem that took longer to figure out than we had thought it would this past weekend. So he has my car. Which means I'm stuck here the entire time he's at work. And although I never really go anywhere anyway, it's really aggravating to feel limited that way when I'm already at the end of my rope with frustration.

I'm just kind of fed up with life in general today so don't mind my pessimistic ranting. I just have a lot going on and not a lot of time to deal with it, especially when things don't run smoothly as with Anya's refusal to take her nap which cut into my homework time and made me stressed out about the possibility of getting behind. And then knowing that I'm on my own with Anya until Wednesday without a car to get away from the apartment for a while with. Stuck. With a fussy, naptime refusing baby and a never-ending supply of homework and housework. I dare someone to tell me being a stay-at-home mom isn't a full time job. Especially with school added into the mix. I would kick that someone in the face. Twice. But that's about as many times as I'd have the energy for after wrestling Anya into her nap.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Of Budgets and Babies

We had one of Ryan's friends over for dinner last night, and apparently I astounded everyone with the peanut butter pie I made for dessert. I'd never made it before so I'm feeling pretty good about delivering on a first attempt. Though I'm sure the pie probably killed all 5 days of the 30 Day Shred that I've done so far. I skipped one day earlier this week because Ryan and I needed some sit down and talk time, and then, of course, the dinner get-together last night was another skip. Heh. I'll get back on track tonight, though, with day 6.

Ryan and I feel like we need an "us" vacation. Totally wish we could afford to do something like one of those Outer Banks vacation rentals. But, alas, not only are we budgeting very carefully right now, we also know no one around here we trust enough to take Anya for a few days. Even an evening out alone would be nice for a change, but, again, we don't really trust anyone around here enough with our baby yet. I have one friend that lives about an hour away, and she'd probably be more than glad to babysit. But she already has a 3 year old of her own and is pregnant again so I feel a bit bad asking her to drive all the way out here and deal with our teething baby. Anya isn't as easy to babysit as she once was. She doesn't just sleep, eat, and poo anymore. Sometimes I wonder if that's a good thing.

Speaking of budgeting we had a scare Thursday night when Ryan's car just decided it wasn't going to do anything besides run. His power steering went out, and all of the dash lights came on. It was pretty crazy. He managed to get home as it happened just down the street, but apparently the belt came off of the engine. (We discovered this after a quick phone call to my dad. Because I totally still call my dad anytime something like this happens - he can fix anything. But isn't that what all little girls are supposed to think? Maybe I'm just a Daddy's girl times a milliondy.) So luckily that's a pretty easy fix that Ryan should be able to take care of. But that got us concerned because we were already worried about replacing his car before something really crazy happens. So now our budgeting is probably going to get pretty strict because we'd rather replace it sooner than have a bigger problem later. We'll see what happens, but I do have quite the sum left over from my financial aid coming our way next month. And our taxes are probably going to be filed as soon as possible so hopefully that will help. We'll see where we stand at that point.

For now I need to work on installing Linux. One of my classes requires it. Lame.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Back to School

Between caring for Anya, doing all of the household chores, and doing paid blogs about needing a mesothelioma lawyer I already had a lot on my plate. Being a stay at home mom and housewife is a full time job in and of itself. But now that I'm taking five courses - a full semester course load - my days are flying by. I usually just finish up all of the chores and the homework that has to be done that day right before Ryan gets home from work. Which works out until I have a bigger project so I'm trying to work a little bit ahead in preparation for when that happens. And...right as I was about to talk about the fact that the next thing on my agenda for the day is working on an extra assignment, Anya decided naptime was over. So I'm off to do bottle duty.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Anya is all about her fuzzy blanket.

Monday, January 4, 2010

This is how it's going to be for a while.

I have completely neglected blogging while Ryan has been on leave. Which, I suppose, is understandable. But he has gone back to work now so hopefully things will get back to normal around here. Though I have five online courses beginning on Wednesday. I had to stand in line for 2 hours today to get my books. It was a bit ridiculous. I have never had to wait that long somewhere to get textbooks. But now it's over and done with. As for the classes themselves I'm not too worried.

My biggest downfall is just going to be not having enough time between getting the work done, taking care of Anya, doing all of the housework, and cooking meals now that Ryan and I have been cutting back on fast food and instant stuff. My me time is going to be pretty slim. And time with Ryan is going to take some planning to fit in, as well. We've got a schedule for which evenings we're going to spend together each week and which we'll spend doing things on our own otherwise we both end up frustrated because we try to spend every waking moment together that we can and never have any time for ourselves.

I'm going to have to get up when Ryan leaves for work to get myself ready for the day, take the dog out, feed him, empty the dishwasher, and make Anya's bottles. I'll probably try and knock the housework out during her morning nap/chill time where she just kind of wants to lay around playing with her polar bear or stare at the stuffed lion on her Pack 'N' Play mobile. My schoolwork is probably going to be done during Anya's afternoon nap. Because once Ryan comes home to take over baby duty, it'll be time for me to start working on dinner. And by the time dinner is over and cleaned up we have maybe half an hour before Anya gets her bath so we usually spend that time playing with her together, or Ryan will take her so I can squeeze in a few more chores or homework assignments.

Then once Anya's in bed we get in our workouts for about half an hour before finally settling down for a couple of hours to watch a movie together or play our separate computer games, etc. That and weekends will be the only time I have for scrapbooking, internet surfing, video game playing, or guitar learning. I'm probably going to add my Japanese to my homework time when I have everything caught up for my current classes so I can focus on it knowing I don't get to play around until evening. Though I'll probably take a moment in the afternoons to check my e-mail and blog, especially if I have paid blogs about things like tv stands to work on.

Right now I'm waiting for Ryan to get home so I can start on dinner. My days are pretty full, but I wouldn't trade any of it for anything. Life is pretty good right now. Awesome husband. Precious baby girl to be amazed by every day. No job to keep me from taking care of the housework or my baby girl. And all online classes to keep me from having to stick Anya in daycare. I'm busy, but I'm happy about the things that keep me that way. And I think I'll feel a little more productive working toward my degree again. But at the moment I have a sleeping baby that needs to wake up from her nap so that she'll be tired enough for bed this evening.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

I feel somewhat triumphant about my epic win.

I sat down last night with plenty of ideas about what I was going to say in this entry. And then I found out that my computer had a virus. And I could not post a blog simply because every time I clicked the New Post button I was redirected to a random advertisement. And so it was with every link I clicked on any website. It was only slightly frustrating. It became downright infuriating when I Googled the problem and soon realized I couldn't look at any of the results because that would require clicking on the link...which would redirect me to a random advertisement. I eventually admitted defeat in that area and used Ryan's computer to look up a few possible solutions and downloaded the programs that could help me fix it onto my USB drive.

After five hours of deleting files, replacing them with dummy files, uninstalling Firefox entirely, deleting all versions of Java on my computer, reinstalling the newest version of Java, unhiding my secure files, scanning my entire computer for malware twice, rehiding my secure files, and completely reinstalling Firefox...I was virus free at last! And no factory restore required! All of my photos and music remain entact! I am so very proud of the computer savvy I didn't even know I possessed until the long drawn out battle I fought against that wretched virus last night. When all I wanted to do was post a blog and play some Sims 3.

As a reward to myself I played Sims 3 for pretty much the entire day in between playing/caring for Anya and a few household chores. And I'm about to play some more. Because my idea of a Winter break does not include a ski vacation; it just requires my family, my computer, and a stockpile of Coke Zero. And now that the beast has been conquered, I can sit back and enjoy all three for the remainder of the evening.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Photo Dump Preceded by a Video

Watching A Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve.

More Bath Time Fun

Rocking Christmas Pajamas

Decked Out for Christmas Day

Family Portraits