Random Picture Challenge 7.0 and Q&A

It's time again for the Random Picture Challenge. Head on over to 4 Little Men and Girly Twins to join the fun. This is my 11th folder (for me March 2007), 11th picture:



My wedding day! This is a photo of my bridesmaids and me before the wedding. I loved my wedding day! What bride doesn't though? I kinda want to pull a Monica and wear my wedding dress around the house while I do whatever. (Okay, I'll admit, sometimes I do wear my wedding tiara around the house, but I haven't gone so far as to pull out the dress.)

Just a reminder: I want to have a fun Q&A post, so if there's anything you want to know about me that I haven't volunteered already, ask away!!

My Little Monkey

He's two months old today!

Oh Captain, My Captain

Stonewall made Captain yesterday!

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the ceremony. Last time he was promoted (1LT) he was in Iraq, so I didn't get to see that ceremony either. Maybe one of these days he'll get promoted while he's in the USA and I'll get to actually be there to congratulate him with a hug and kiss (plus some). Oh well.

Great job, my husband!!! I am so proud of you!

The Mrs' Giveaway!

Head on over to Trying Our Best where The Mrs. is having a fabulous giveaway! She's giving away a four CD pack of Hushabye Baby Lullabies. Enter before Thursday at sixish for a chance to win!



Actually...on second thought, don't head on over to enter. The less people that enter the better the chance I have of winning :)

Celebrating My 201st Post!

This is my 201st post! Yay!

So to celebrate I'm going to jump on the bloggie bandwagon and open up the floor to all my readers. (This includes my lurkers. Even though you don't comment, I have Sitemeter, so I know you're there.) Ask me anything and I'll answer...this is why I have a blog after all, to talk about myself! (I guess deep down I am a bit of a narcissistic little fool.)

I Love Peas!

Yeah, that's really about it for this post.

Executive Accountability Act

So have you heard about the Executive Accountability Act that was introduced last week?

Are you flipping kidding me?! Please tell me that my tax dollars did not pay for the paper and ink that was used to write this joke of a bill. Please!?!

Apparently now whenever someone gets po'd at a decision made by anyone in the executive branch of our government that someone can just start an inquiry and waste more of the taxpayers money. Excellent.

Is this kind of like an impeachment thing? I mean, if, let's say the president, is guilty under this bill and they are given a fine and jail time, are they still President? Or do they do their presidential thing from prison? If not, are they impeached and do we also have to go through that process on top of the first inquiry? And who pays the fine? Does it come out of the President's paycheck or does it come out of mine?

On a positive note...I would like to thank Congress for admitting that it is full of idiots. Apparently, someone feels that members of Congress can and will be easily duped in the future and they will continue to make stupid mistakes and vote without getting all the facts. Thumbs up to you guys and gals in Congress!

Armpit Hair Commercial

This commercial is flippin' hilarious!

Dance To Your Daddy

Even though I am a ridiculously bad singer, I like to sing lullabies to Lil' Mootz. My new favorite lullaby to sing to him is "Dance To Your Daddy." There are several different lyric versions all over the Internet, but I made up my own lyrics to sing to Lil' Mootz.

Dance to your daddy
My little baby
Dance to your daddy
My little boy
You shall have a kiss
And you shall have a song
And you shall have your daddy
When he comes back home

Dance to your daddy
My little Sammy
Dance to your daddy
My little man
He shall see you laughing
At his silly faces
He shall see you laughing
When your dad comes home

Baby's First Cold

My poor Lil' Mootz has a cold. His little nose is all stuffy and last night he had a slight fever. He spent most of the day sleeping and when he was awake he was very fussy. I'm hoping he's over the hump of things and he'll start feeling better soon.

Happy Valentine's Day

Stonewall does not have a very good track record when it comes to Valentine's Day. The past two years left much to be desired. However, this year from halfway around the world he made up for it with these:



And a phone call! We were able to talk for a whole hour! It made my day!

Random Picture Challenge 6.0

It's time again for the Random Picture Challenge over at 4 Little Men & Girly Twins.



For our wedding, I used silhouettes as one of our "themes" (I use that term loosely as it was a wedding and not a kid's birthday party). We used this picture to create this silhouette:



We used this on everything from the cake to the programs to the stamps on our invitations.

Pet Toxins

Since so many of us are pet owners, I thought I would post this site that lists several foods that are dangerous to our little furry friends.

AOL Health: Treat or Toxin

For My Baby

My darling Lil' Mootz,

Every night, after your bath, I sit with you in our rocking chair and watch your little face and think about how much I love you. I watch as your grey-blue eyes search the room, focusing on the ceiling fan, the light, your stuffed animals, and finally, my face. I smile back when you smile at me with your toothless grin and laugh as you baby talk.

When I lift you up to kiss your soft chubby cheeks I smell your clean baby scent and feel your soft downy hair craddled in my hands. You cuddle your face into my neck and rub your button nose into my shoulder, so I know you are getting tired. I don't want to put you into your crib. I want to feel your warm little body snuggled in my arms because I know that all too soon you will be all grown up and too big for me to hold.

Every night, as we rock back and forth in our chair, I hope that somewhere there is another mother doing the exact same thing with her baby and she is feeling the exact same way that I am feeling. I hope that somewhere another mommy is as happy as I am because I should not be the only one who is as happy and as in love with her little baby as I am. I hope there is another woman somewhere who knows my joy and lives in the same beautiful world that I live in: a world that is more beautiful now that you are in it.

I love you, my sweet baby boy. I'll love you always.

California Octuplets

You know, this whole ordeal is just rubbing me the wrong way. People just go crazy excited over "Jon & Kate Plus 8" and the Duggar family. Yet, here this woman comes along with fourteen children all through in-vitro and suddenly everyone is up in arms about "ethics." WHAT?! Why are Jon and Kate and the Duggars so much more special and awesome? Because they're married? Because they're getting paid to exploit their story on tv? What is it?

I understand this woman does not have a job and she does not have the means to raise this family in what some might consider the proper manner. Yeah, she does have some issues upstairs and isn't exactly the brightest crayon the box. However, we live in a country where welfare is considered a way of life. We just elected a Democrat into the Presidency and Democrats love to hand out the welfare, yet people are going to give this woman a rash of s#!t because she has to use the system to support her kids.

Better yet, she NEEDS to use the system to support her fourteen children and the masses are going to cry foul if they think someone is trying to help her. On the Dateline interview this evening, she admited that she has no money, no job, and is going back to school and will support her family with student loans, and then someone actually emailed NBC and basically said, "I hope you're not paying her." Here is a woman who can't support her children with a proper job and you don't want to give her money, but you'll buy Jon and Kate's book at Amazon.com and call it a day after watching the Duggar wife give birth to yet another child.

Why is this woman any different from the Duggar family? The Duggar parents decided they're just going to keep popping them out while they can and because they're getting endorsements, what's to stop them? They can afford their kids that way. Why is this woman any different from the normal Smith family who has decided they want a large family? This woman wanted a large family, but we're going to fault her because her doctor took her money and did the job.

And now, when it's too late to change anything, we're going to tell her that we don't want to help her. Here Gerber and Procter & Gamble won't help her out. Other parents of multiple births, including Jon and Kate, have received a slew of products from these companies and many others, including a tummy tuck and hair plugs (because that's necessary to raise to properly raise a child), but the one woman who probably needs more help than any of them is getting zip.

On top of that, this woman's mother (the grandmother) is, in my opinion, the worst of them all. She's been sure to let the public know that she strongly disagrees with her daughter's decisions. Plus, she has warned her daughter that when she gets home from the hospital, "I'm going to be gone." Oh well, doesn't that make you the flippin' hero of the hour? You sure set your daughter straight. Oh, and don't worry about the fourteen kids. I'm sure they can fend for themselves.

I think in all of this people have lost sight of the most important things: the fourteen children. This woman and her doctor made a huge mistake, but it's a mistake that can't be undone. When you punish the mother in this case, you punish the children. Don't give this woman freebies and book deals and handouts to help her; give them to her to help her children because they're going to need it.

Get off your high horses, people. Yeah, this woman got herself into one heck of a tight spot, but for pete's sake, don't let her drown and take her children down with her. Her kids deserve a chance and she can't afford to give them one. We'll bailout the Wall Street dudes, but not these kids? What a sad country we are if we'll turn our backs on fourteen innocent children, who we know will need help, because we don't like the decision their mother has made.

My Doctor, My Brother, and My Soldier Walk Into A Bar...

So a couple of things...

I had my postpartum check-up today and everything is awesome and things are as they should be. Most excitedly, I'm losing weight! I was at about 230 right before Lil' Mootz was born and I probably lost about 10-12 lbs. when he was born (which is the quickest 10-12 lbs. I've ever lost). At my one week check-up I was still above 200 lbs, but today I was at 197 and I was wearing jeans at the time!

My doctor also had me fill out a postpartum depression survey to make sure I was doing well. There were questions about how often I cried, how sad I was feeling, how overwhelmed I was feeling and I honestly couldn't answer "Never" to any of the questions. Granted, I was in the "I occasionally feel this way" bracket, so it wasn't anything alarming. The thing is I'm feeling overwhelmed and sad times and I cry sometimes, not because of postpartum depression, but because Stonewall is deployed. I'm actually happier because of Lil' Mootz. Lil' Mootz is keeping me from feeling depressed. Luckily, my doctor knew that Stonewall was deployed, so he wasn't concerned with my answers. He even marked on the survey that Stonewall was deployed and that was the reason for my less than 100% positive answers.

Next topic...

We met my half-brother, S., over the weekend. As it turns out, my dad has a son from a previous relationship. My sister and I learned about him a few years ago, but at that time my dad had had no contact with him or his mom since S. was a baby. A few months ago, S.'s mom contacted my dad and asked if she could give S. my dad's email. He said yes, and so here we are now.

S. is about four years older than me. He's married and has two adorable kids, a 4-year-old girl and an 18-month-old boy. S. and his wife are so nice and his kids are super cute and friendly. I was really glad we met them and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.

One of the funny things is that S. has never been around my dad before, yet he has some of his mannerisms. There were several times I saw him standing like my dad stands and talking with his hands the way my dad does. Also, except for the nose, he looks just like my dad.

Last thing...

Sometimes I really dislike the Army. Yeah, big surprise, I know. I find it very ironic that because of USERRA every single deployed National Guard soldier who holds a civilian job is guaranteed to have that job when he/she returns home while soldiers like my husband who were employed full-time by the Army are NOT guaranteed their jobs. Before Stonewall was deployed he was on ADSW orders. However, since being deployed the unit he was working with has been disbanded. When Stonewall returns home the Army is, of course, not required to give him another full-time job. WTF?! Why are civilian employers held to certain laws to protect soldiers, yet the Army does not protect soldiers in the same manner. How messed up is this?!

Stonewall and I have no idea what we are going to do when he comes home. We have a few options. He could try and get another ADSW job or better yet, an AGR job. However, it's the Army. At this point, we can't know for sure that he will be able to secure those orders and so right now we can't depend on that to make plans for the future. AGR jobs are slim-pickins. Everyone wants them and why wouldn't they? The benefits and pay of active duty, with the added benefits of staying in one place and not having to deal with many deployments.

Option two is get out of the Army and get a civilian job. I don't think that's what Stonewall wants. He's a soldier through and through. I know he would do it if that's what our family needed, but I also know a part of him would be unhappy and unfulfilled. Another really big problem with option two is the money. We have created a lifestyle with the kind of money he makes in the Army. He would not be able to find a job right now that makes what he makes in the Army. Financially, we would be in trouble and we, most likely, would not be able to afford us.

Which brings us to option three: active duty. We've talked about this. We both agree it would be exciting and something different. However, neither of us likes the idea of moving away from our families. We've picked the life we picked so far because we like home being where our families are. However, like I previously mentioned, we can't afford this life without the Army. If we go active duty we can afford this life, but we would have to leave it.

*Sigh* A rock and a hard place.

Nighttime Feedings With Lil' Mootz

Believe it or not, but my favorite times with Lil' Mootz are when he cries to be fed at night. Even though at first I'm usually foggy headed and I have to drag my butt out of bed, by the time I get to his nursery I can't wait to pick him up. I love that when I pick him up his little screams just shut off and the look on his face is like, "Yes! I did it! I cried and you came a runnin' and with food!" His eyes get all wide and his little mouth forms into an "O" and he starts pecking at my shoulder like a little bird.

I'll sit in our rocking chair and when I put Lil' Mootz's bib on him (he's a messy little eater) he eyes get even wider and he gets even more excited. His little hands form into fists and he waves them in the air and it reminds me of Tevye doing his dance to "If I Were A Rich Man" from "Fiddler on the Roof." (Around 2:25 in this video, but best seen at 4:50)



Then when I finally get the bottle up to his mouth he grabs on to the bottle nipple with what I call a Mommy's Monster Munch and his little hands start grabbing at whatever they touch which is usually my hand holding the bottle. He is so excited to finally start eating. Eventually his eyes start rolling back in his head and his eyelids start closing and he is in his own little baby heaven. Just sucking away on his bottle.

I love watching my Lil' Mootz. While he's eating I like to talk to him. I'll tell him about his daddy or I'll sing songs to him. And he'll stare at me with his big blue eyes like he understands what I'm saying. Sometimes he smiles a little and he's beginning to really smile, so he eyes will smile too. After awhile he'll fall asleep, usually with the nipple still in his mouth. Then I'll watch him sleep. He looks so peaceful and so comfortable lying in his mommy's arms. Sometimes I'll sit there and rock him for so long I end up falling back asleep also.



My Lil' Mister Mootz - I love you so much.

Sammy's Bloggy Name

I've decided it's time for my little man to get his bloggy name. From here on out Sammy will be known as Lil' Mootz (pronounced like "foot" with a "z").

Bridesmaid Dresses

So I'm going to be doing the same thing as Mrs. Staff Sergeant over at Married to the Military. My sister is getting married on Dec. 31, 2009, and I've agreed to wear this dress:



This was my choice, however, so I can't blame my sister. Up until this evening I was going to be wearing this:



The second dress is obviously a lot more figure/weight friendly. I made a command decision though and decided that the first dress would be my incentive to really get down to business, lose the preggo weight and get into shape. I have almost a year to do this. And I'm going to do it too. Aside from the bride, I'm going to be the hottest, sexiest woman in that room.

You Can Call Me Al

To Betty.



Love, Frank