Tuesday, May 29, 2007

DON'T READ THIS....

unless you want to hear my misery.

Motherhood is a lonely job. We give up our jobs, our husbands, our friends, and our lives to take care of our babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. When they are little, we are trapped in our homes by diaper changes, feeding times, and naps. Then, they get older, start school, make their own friends, and leave us for their own fun. We get left at home alone then too.

When we do get out, we meet other mommies who have babies our kids age. We may have nothing else in common with these moms, yet we try to form bonds over our children. When the children drift on to the next phase, so do we. Lasting friendships? Maybe. But especially in the Silicon Valley, what is a lasting friendship good for anyway? Phone calls and overnight visits hours away when one or the other of you moves to a new location. How many of us really have someone to call up and say, "Hey, let's get lunch!" or "Want to meet me for coffee?"

Ok..that's the end of my rant today. If you got this far, thanks for reading. If not, I totally understand. It's very negative today.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

One step forward...

...and two steps back!

Yep, we had progress on our house. Dave went over there this morning to get some tools to put some fans in my parents' house and guess what?! Yep...you guessed it! It was our FOURTH break-in since AUGUST!!!!! There are no words to describe how angry I am at this moment in time. Dave is so mad that we are heading to Home Depot in just a few minutes to get several 2 X 4's to put over the doors in the back and front of the house. Fortunately our steel door is hard enough to break into that we are going to beef it up with extra locks, but no barricade. My mood right now....GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Oh yeah! And the bitch cop that came to take the report accused Dave of being on crank because he was pacing! Dave said at least her partner was nice.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Anyone know a deserving mom...

who has a story to tell for a cool prize in Palo Alto? Silicon Valley Moms Blog is having a contest to find the most deserving mom for a makeover, 3 months membership at Vivre with 2 personal trainer sessions; a brand new outfit from Romi Boutique; and a romantic dinner for two at Mantra! Sounds great! Check out the link:


But, here's my thing....How would I determine that I am more deserving of this than any other mom? Yes, I am a stay-at-home mom of 2 kids under age 4. Yes, I am still carrying extra baby fat from pregnancy #1 as well as #2. Yes, I wear my hair in a ponytail most days. Yes, it has gray showing through. Yes, I am still wearing clothes I bought in the 90's! I've had my shoes even longer! And, yes, Dave and I have enjoyed ONE SINGLE night alone since the kids were born. I wore a BORROWED dress for the occasion because I own NOTHING!!! In case you missed those pics, I refer you back to http://lstahlfamily.blogspot.com/2006_12_03_archive.html where we stayed in the fancy hotel with the in-room jacuzzi tub.

Come to think of it...that was not really a romantic night out. I froze my rear off in that slinky dress I borrowed from Judy and we could hardly talk over the music at the Symantec Christmas party. The best part of the night was eating sandwiches from the gift shop while watching some random movie ALL THE WAY THROUGH! I don't remember which movie it was, but I do remember waking up thinking, "Wow! Is it morning? We had better go clean the puke out of the car before we pick the kids up from Aunt Judy and Uncle Gary." This is all coming back to me now that I recall both kids puking in the car on the way to Judy and Gary's house. Oh, the fun times! :)

In any case, I don't think any of this makes me more special or more deserving of the great prizes SVMB is offering in their contest. I mean, so what--my hair is long over-due for styling (2 years); the gray is showing through (but I've never had it colored anyway); my clothes are jeans and tees; my shoes are either old and falling apart or sneakers; my marriage has seen better days (as has my fat ass); and I am carrying more weight than ever before. Oh...but did I mention my house??

Speaking of my house..there is progress. Today Dave met with the stucco guys and they are going to fix our leaky windows. As a bonus, the way they are going to fix them is by adding decorative trim to seal the problem spots and keep water out. We have figured out the loan issue and as soon as the money comes through we are going to make the house livable again and move home! YAY!!!!! Ok...I know...I am getting excited about it way too soon. But, we have been living here at Mom and Dad's for 430 days! Yes...I am counting now and it's been the LONGEST 6-8 weeks of my life! :)

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Time is A-FLYING!!

I am sitting here on this glorious Mother's Day all by myself with the peace of early morning wondering WHERE THE HELL IS MAY RUNNING OFF TO???????? I can't believe how fast this month is flying by! We have been so busy. It seems we are running around nearly every day with tons to do! So, here is a little catch up on us:

Jayden is a busy busy boy! He can not sit still for the life of him. We need to get out every day and burn tons of energy to keep him from climbing the walls and terrorizing the household. On the bright side, something happened about a week and half ago. We were visiting with Marcy and gang. I told Jayden that if he pooped in his pants, we were going home. Lo and behold...he pooped in his pants not 5 minutes after we got there. To his credit, he knew he had to go and tried sitting on the toilet. But....I told him we were leaving and he needed to get his things and say good-bye. Marcy was right there while I was dealing with this and talked me out of it saying that we shouldn't punish him for an accident and he tried and....bottom line...We ended up staying. Here's the major event right here.....That was the LAST day he pooped in his pants! Every day since then, he has gone to the potty ALL BY HIMSELF, on his own choice, with no help from anyone, sat down, pooped, and on some occasions even wiped his own butt! YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!! Milestone ACHIEVED!! Thank you, MARCY! We rarely have peeing accidents anymore either, but we need to work on our nighttime accidents now.

Eliana is growing like a weed. She is getting more and more little girl and less and less my baby every day. She loves to have her hair combed and put up in clips or a little (and I mean little) ponytail. She usually pulls it out about 5 minutes after I put it in, but she likes having it done. Her hair is getting thick and long too. I can't wait to see what challenges it will bring in the next few years with all those adorable curls. She is also starting to talk a big bunch. Jayden was not nearly as vocal as Eliana is at her age. He would babble up a storm, but had much fewer words and less desire to be understood as she does. She has sentences like, "Me, eat!" "I'm thirsty." and "Me go out." These are usually coupled with actions like climbing into her high chair to eat, pulling on the fridge door for a drink and carrying her shoes and sweater to the front door and pulling on the door knob. I don't know what I am going to do if she figures out how to open the front door! :)

As for me, I am working up a storm these days. I am still tutoring 8 hours a week, but I am also working for Notre Dame as my mom's personal assistant 10 hours a week--writing tests, grading papers, making photo copies, etc. Maybe this has a lot to do with why I am so busy these days. However, I just bought myself a new stroller (the Baby Trend Sit-n-Stand) so that I am ready to go to Gilroy Gardens (formerly Bonfante), SF Zoo, and neighborhood strolling all summer long. I am working on my motivation for the SJ half-marathon that I am signed up for in October. I figure if I get started on walking, perhaps I can work up my stamina to start putting on the miles. I didn't get very far in the last month, but I think I have done better than the month before. I guess it's a place to start.

Dave is working hard. He works 5 days a week at his regular job and most weekends he is at the house both days. He is trying to figure out how much money we need to get us back in the house and then working out a loan for us to get it done. Our new plan is to be completely finished by Thanksgiving. If it works, we will have Turkey Day at our house again. Fingers crossed!!!