Adventures in La La Land

I've decided to change the name of these Saturday "quick takes," because - let's face it - there's never anything quick about them!  They shall henceforth be referred to as "The Saturday 7." 1. We had a crazy ice storm this week.  Just when we were starting to think winter was on its way out, it blasted us with one last (hopefully!) storm.  Everything was covered in ice for days.  Even though the sun has been out for the past two days, the trees are still coated! I took these pictures 2 days after the storm: 2. Thanks to my amazing sister, even before Lucy was born, we had a huge stockpile of diapers and wipes.  We added to the diaper stash a few months after she was born, but there haven't been many good deals since then, so we've just been living off what we have.  We just ran out this week!  That stash lasted us almost a year!  I finally broke down and bought some wipes on Monday.  Thankfully there's a semi-good deal on diapers at Ri...

It's been another big week for Lucy. Last Wednesday she suddenly took off crawling .  It took her a couple days to perfect it, but now it's her preferred mode of transportation.  I kind of wondered if she'd just stick with army crawling until she learned to walk, but I guess she decided to do the proper crawl after all. :-) Another exciting first:  I think  she might have her first word!   In the past couple of weeks she has figured out to wave when we say "Bye-bye," and I've noticed that she usually says "ba-ba-ba" while she's doing it.  But it's not all the time.  And she doesn't do it on command.  Haha.  So I don't know . . . And finally, weaning.   We are officially down to 3 nursing sessions a day.  It kind of just happened that she started stretching her feedings out farther.  On Monday, I decided to see how long she'd go before getting fussy. I nursed her at 7:30 am, gave her breakfast and a lunch (though she ...

In light of Lucy's distaste for vegetables, I've decided to start trying a new fruit and vegetable every week.  Hopefully we'll hit on some winners for her, as well as us.  I am so not a vegetable fan. Last week I got a kiwi and a butternut squash.  Lucy loved  the kiwi, but I still haven't used the squash.  Any recipe suggestions? This week I'm going to get cantaloupe and red and green peppers.  Again - any recipe ideas for the peppers? Stay tuned to hear how it goes!

1. I had my first encounter with a Jehovah's Witness this week.  She came to Chase and Lyla's house and I stupidly opened the door to her.  I didn't want to be rude and slam the door in her face, so I listened to her little spiel and took the pamphlet she gave me.  I read through it and was left wondering how exactly JW's are different from evangelical Christians.  Does anyone know?  I noticed a few differences - they don't think the earth will be destroyed in the end times, just that the wicked people will be wiped out.  And they don't think Jesus was crucified on a cross, but rather was "impaled on a pole of torture" or something like that.  Those don't seem like major salvation issues.  What am I missing? 2. I went thrift shopping on Monday.  I've been wanting to go for weeks, so I was excited to finally have the time!  And Lucy did so well the whole time.  She loves riding in the cart, flirting with everyone who walks by. ...

I'm going to attempt to do this really quickly.  I'm leaving for Ladies' Night Out in 5 minutes. 1. I saw someone post on facebook the other day that they hate the kids' show "Special Agent Oso" on the Disney Channel.  I heartily agree.  Fortunately Chase and Lyla don't like it either.  They do, however, like another show I detest: The Freshbeat Band.  It's real people who sing and dance and act ridiculously cheesy at every opportunity.  They're "teenagers" (probably actually in their 20s) who think they're soooo cool.  I think I'd prefer the Wiggles (40 year old men) over these dumb kids.  Haha. 2. I had an awful dream last night that my little sister got pregnant and my first reaction was to pump my fist in the air and yell, "Yes! I'm the only one of my sisters not to get knocked up out of wedlock!" :-O  Horrible! 3. Our Valentine's Day gift to each other this year was an outdoor antenna that is supposed ...

I feel like I just  wrote the 9 month update.  Crazy!  I'd say time is flying, but it's really not.  Will winter ever  be over??? Anyway, I digress . . . We have made it to double digits! Here's what's up in Lucy Land: Routine This is the general routine: 6:30 - wake her up, nurse, go to work 7:30 - breakfast with the kids - usually pancakes and cut up blueberries, bananas, grapes, or apples 9:00 - nap 10:30/11:00 - up, nurse, play time 12:00 - lunch with the kids - usually just whatever they're eating and fruit again 1:30 - nap 3:00/3:30 - up, nurse, play 4:00 - snack while I clean the house - banana cookies, puffs, yogurt melts, or cheese 4:30 - go home 6:00 - dinner with us - whatever we're having and then 2 jars of baby food (1 veg, 1 fruit) 7:00 - Baby Einstein movie 7:30 - nurse, bed Sleeping After all our troubles with sleeping through the night, we are being rewarded now with amazing sleep.  Lucy is an angel at night.  (Well...

Today has been a big day for Lucy.  As I write this, Justin is installing her big-girl carseat.  She's going to be so excited.  She hates  that cramped infant carrier - and I don't blame her.  It's taken us this long to get it installed because we had to bring my car in to get the brakes fixed.  I only bought one convertible car seat, though, and as long as it's taking Justin to install it, I'm wondering if that was a bad decision. In other exciting news, I found Lucy standing up in her crib today.  We were at Chase and Lyla's and I had jsut put her down for a nap.  I put the kids to bed upstairs and when I came back down, I heard Lucy screaming.  That's so unlike her.  She always just lays down and goes to sleep.  So I went in there to find her standing in the porta-crib.  Apparently she couldn't figure out how to get back down.  I know this is a common problem, and I remember going through it with Lyla.  Not excit...

Happy Saturday! 1. Good news everyone: I've made the switch to Diet Dr Pepper.  I figure now that I'm 25, it's time to admit I'm an adult and start acting like one.  Plus I've read a thousand things lately about how bad pop is for you and how much needless sugar I consume.  I know, I know - diet pop has aspartame in it.  I'm not scared of aspartame. ;-)   Anyway , my new rule is that I'm allowed to drink the real stuff at restaurants, but have to have diet if I'm going to drink it at home or work.  I've actually discovered that Diet Cherry  Dr Pepper tastes more like the real thing. 2. Lucy has an awful cold.  It is so terrible listening to her cough her guts out (although it doesn't seem to bother her).  As a result she is currently embodying one of my parenting pet peeves: the constant snot nose.  I hate  when people are out in public with their kids' noses dripping green gunk.  But seriously, I cannot keep up with it. ...

Ok, I finally got this entry written.  Be prepared.  It is LONG.  And I copied and pasted a lot, so I'm sorry if the font size/type changes throughout. Haha. Thanks again to everyone who gave me their input.  I found a lot of it so helpful.  Here are some of the things that really spoke to me: The most common response was that the reason for prayer is to have an intimate relationship with God.  I certainly agree.  Many times in the New Testament, Jesus is shown going away from the crowd to pray for long periods of time. As for my questions about presenting our petitions to God, many of you pointed out that God does indeed change his mind sometimes.  Laura said, There are instances in the Old Testament where God had seemed to decide one thing, but when a righteous person went before Him and asked for something different, He "changed his mind." One example--in Exodus 32:11-14, Moses convinces God to "change His mind" or "repent" (vs. 14) of ...