New. (not really)

I'm rejoining the world of blogging. I've just been so busy lately. It's finals time and I am scrambling to make sure I have everything done, or on track to being done. I've only got a semester left!! I am so ready...

Jack went for his 9 month check-up Monday. Everything looked good, and contrary to everyone's beliefs, he is in the 50th percentile for weight, so HE'S NOT FAT! If I hear one more chubby remark... Ha, just kidding. Kids are supposed to have rolls. Anyway, he is sick now. Just like last time we took him to the doctor, he's got a stuffy/runny nose and coughing. I mean, I know it's a germy place full of sick kiddos, but jeez! I hate hate hate when he is sick. And he got his first half of the flu shot. They said it shouldn't make him sick, so I can't blame this on that. Oh well.

Tomorrow we are having Thanksgiving at Shawn's grandparents. I'm ready to see all of the family. Plus, I don't have to cook or bring anything, so I am psyched to eat a meal that I didn't have to prepare myself. Is that selfish? Maybe. Do I care? Not one bit. Speaking of family, we got an invitation in the mail today for our neice's first birthday party. Crazy. I was there when she was born, there's no way she can be a year old. Plus, if she's a year old, that means Jack is only a two months away from being a year old, and I just don't think I can stand that. A year!! So much has happened in a year, it's amazing. And sad! I almost, well, more than almost, want to have another kid again, just to keep the baby smell in the house. No, not the dirty diaper-pail smell, the lotiony, powdery, wonderful wonderful smell. Man. I'm a sucker for this motherhood business.

Ok, well, the kiddo is crying (snap out of the wishing for another one) so I'm off. Everyone have a good Turkey Day.

Man, it's been a while. I'm thoroughly depressed. Or, about to be. I'm watching the election results on TV... I am mad at the people who didn't vote and mad at the people who voted based strictly on race- white or black. I cannot believe that the people of this country could let such a weighted decision rest on what color person they like better. Actually, I can believe it, because most people these days are lazy and greedy and irresponsible and only a few of us still understand that we have responsibilities as citizens, parents, children, employees, mentors, Christians...I could go on. I just hope that the man we elect, whomever it may be, has God in his heart and our children's best interest in mind.

.........

I only have 7 more days of school left this semester! I'm so excited. And then only one semester left til graduation. I register on Friday, and I have to say, it's going to feel good registering for my last college hours of undergrad EVER!! In order to make sure I make it to that graduation, I have to study for a test now. Sorry to be on my soap-box tonight.

Saturday

It's Saturday!! I started today off awesomely. I was a cleaning fool. And then Shawn left for work. I'm practically at a standstill in my thourough cleaning of the casa. I have something undone and all over the floor or counter in basically every room in the house. Which is disappointing, but I feel strangely like I have gotten something done today. At least all the laundry is done!

Starting Monday, I only have 6 more weeks left in this semester!! I cannot believe it. Then it's only one more semester left. And I register for it in 2 weeks. Amazing. Then I can be a for-real stay at home mom and we will be off to start our lives as a real family. I'm so excited.

Jack is sitting next to me. Actually, he is jumping. He loves that jumper. And I love it because now that he's crawling and pulling up on everything, I can't keep him out of anything! He is a busy little beaver. I caught him trying to escape through Rusty's doggie door this afternoon. He is a handful! And he hasn't quite mastered sitting down yet, after he has gotten up, so in the middle of the night, instead of crawling around his crib and going back to sleep, he stands up, gets stuck, and cries until we come and lay him back down. Despite the new lack of sleep, it's actually pretty funny.

Anyway, I'm gonna hafta start something for supper now. Maybe I can attach the mop to Jack while he's crawling around the kitchen with me so he can help me get a little more cleaning done. :) Bye!

Growing

Well, I am halfway through the semester! I haven't been around here lately due to an amazing amount of homework and tests. But now I've finally got time to breathe, yay!

I finished making the burp cloths today for a friend's baby shower. They got done quick once I got the machine fixed and the stuff pinned. I'm kinda sad they're all done now, I like to sew!! :)

According to my babycenter.com ticker, Jack is 7 months and 3 weeks old. He also seems to be defying gravity these days. He started pulling up to standing last night and hasn't quit all day long! What are they teaching him at daycare? He has just started to get around pretty well crawling and now he only crawls to get to something to pull up on! Guess I'll be needing to get some new running shoes as he'll be off and walking everywhere as soon as he can. I absolutely cannot believe how fast these past 7 months have gone and how much Jack has learned in them!
Here's a few pictures of the cutie.









I feel like the next pictures I put up will be of him graduating kindergarten! :(

F-U-M-I-N-G

Jack's teething. He's been crying since 3 this afternoon. Fantastic.

Shawn commissioned this weekend. It was pretty cool. I got to pin his bars on, which was so neat!! I'm so proud of him.

The fam came down. It was an interesting weekend. Will (Shawn's dad) had to keep Jack for us Friday cause I had school 3-11 and Shawn worked. Shawn didn't want them going anywhere b/c he is wayy uptight about Jack getting sick like Chris did and becoming handicapped. He basically doesn't like Jack leaving the house unless he is with him. That includes me taking him to the store. Crazy. So he asked them not to go anywhere and for good measure, hid the carseat before he left for work so they couldn't leave. Come to find out (today when Will called me on their way home from here), they left anyway. Now you see why the title of this blog says fuming. What the heck was he thinking taking my kid somewhere without his carseat just because he didn't want to sit at home (and I think to also be defiant to Shawn)?!?!?! Not only is this illegal, but completely unsafe. I am SO unbelieveably mad right now... Also, Connie, my step-mom, had to be taken to the hospital. Come to find out, she has kidney stones. Man, what a weekend.

And I'm not in church right now because my kid is sprouting teeth, which leaves me to do anything I can to stop the crying for 3 minutes and not able to do homework.

I'm gonna leave a nice, cheerful post someday.

BTW: I'm gonna say something to Will about the carseat incident. If I tell Shawn before I talk to Will, I'm afraid it will be pretty bad... I'll let you know how it all turns out.

Birthday!!

Jack is 7 months old today. I absolutely cannot believe it. Cannot. He celebrated bright and early by eating the pavement this morning... He was outside with Shawn sitting in the driveway (don't ask me why, boys are weird). Since all Jack wants to do is crawl, but hasn't mastered going from sitting to crawling yet without face-planting, guess what happened? The poor little guy had a big ole goose egg on his head and scratched up his head and nose pretty good. :( So sad.

Have I mentioned lately that I HATE Shawn's work schedule? It's after 10 now and he's not off yet. He gets home around midnight like, every night... I miss the hubs. And my sanity. This housework/homework combo minus a helping hand is the pits. And tonight at church they announced that they were starting a young adult class (yesss!!). But Carl (the elder who announced it) made it pretty clear that he didn't want to do it and thought it was a bad idea. He basically told us to not join it without saying "Don't join it." Bah humbug.

But I can't wait to see Shawn on Saturday in his cammies... I am so proud already. Plus, he's quite the looker. :) lol. Ok, enough for tonight. I'm sure there's something around here I need to be doing...

Ten Days

It's been a while. Ten days. And I feel like it will just be a rambling sort of post... so brace yourself. First, here's what's going on this week. Shawn is working, of course, so I am here with Jack in the evening. The weight of school is starting to get a little heavy, all the professors think their class is the most important class... So I'm super busy with homework, which is really hard to get in before I put Jack to sleep at night. Plus, Shawn commissions Saturday and all of our family on both sides is going to be here, so I have got to get this pig-sty cleaned before that. I have class Tuesday and Thursday from 8-3. Church Wednesday from 7-8 and cleaning and homework all day. Thursday is school, plus a debate workshop from 7pm- whenever it's done. Friday I have to work at the debate on campus (hence the workshop) from 3-11pm. I should probably get an espresso IV hooked up real quick...

I'm taking a swimming class this semester that is awesome. Since my back is so messed up, there are only a few types of exercise I can do without a ton of pain, and swimming is one of them. It's my last class of the day and a great way to have some time to myself and unwind before I get back to the grind.

Ok, on a more random note...you know when you are somewhere, like an assembly or movie or something and you're trying to listen? And there's the guy or guys behind you that are talking, and their voices are on this tone level that all you can hear, despite your best efforts is them. JEEZ, I hate that!! (It happened today in class) And I didn't get to hear the lecture. Not that I really was interested in what she was talking about, but hey, I kinda need to hear in order to graduate. Thanks, guy.

I haven't seen Shawn at all in the past 24 hours... He got home from work after midnight and I was asleep. And when I left for school this morning, he was asleep. And he had to be at work at 2, I get home from school about 330. Bummer. Maybe someday we can be husband and wife again. :) In the meantime, I seriously doubt my awesome mothering and just basic good human skills. If Jack spits up, I don't always clean it up really quick, and sometimes, if Rusty (the dog) gets to his spit-up covered chin first...I just let her clean it up. Then I hit it with a wipe. And since Shawn isn't here at nights, I don't much feel like cooking for one. I've been having Ramen and sandwiches for the past week or so. I know, I'm the epitomy of a healthy eating example for my son. But he does eat super-healthy. He had little pieces of my fettucini alfredo Sunday after church. We went to Zookini's for lunch. I swear, that kid will eat anything, it's great!!

Ok, well I guess I've vented enough for tonight, Lord knows I have other things to do. See ya!

Lady in waiting

Shawn got a job!! Hooray. He works 2-10pm Saturday thru Wednesday. Boooo!
He started Thursday and on Friday, he asked what his schedule was. That was the answer. By the way, usually you ask for your schedule on the first day. Along with those other new job questions like, how often do we get paid, how much am I making, etc? But not Shawn. lol, he amazes me sometimes. Anyway, so since Thursday, I have been all alone here with Rusty and Jack starting at 1:30 every afternoon until around eleven. And it sucks. It's kinda like being single again, except you don't get housework or homework done cause you've got a kid to tend to, not because you're too lazy to do it. And I have been less than motivated to cook a meal since Thursday too. Tonight was my third night in a row to have sandwiches- yum! Not. I just don't want to cook for me!

Also, I'm making (well, really embellishing) some burp cloths for a friend of mine that's having a baby. I got a new sewing machine for my birthday from my parents, and it's awesome. I have sewed a few things here and there, but nothing major until this project. So I made it halfway through the first one when, BAM, I ran over a pin, breaking the needle. Dang. So I replace it, I have 3 others. Everything is good, I get the needle threaded again and start. Same thing happens, only this time I didn't run over a pin. This process went on until I had killed all of my replacement needles. Yep, 4 in about 30 minutes. I was pretty much fuming. Cause I didn't know what the deal was, I wasn't running over anything and had the needle in correctly...nothing wrong. Today (like, a week later), I finally buy some more needles at the store. I get that baby in the machine and start sewing. Very slowly. It seems to be working fine, yes!! SNAP! Man, I was mad. This went on, I ended up breaking 3 more. I still don't know what the deal is. I am contemplating throwing the possessed machine off the roof later.

Tech was winning the ball game last I heard. Wreck 'em! I'm going to bed now. Mama is tired.

Weekend

How can I be so tired? Jack sleeps better now than he used to, which we are so blessed by, but I always seem to stay up later or do more in the day to make myself dog-tired. Ridiculous. Nathan and Pam just left with their 2 kids. Nathan is Shawn's brother. They live about an hour away, so it was nice to see them. They have a 4 year old and an 8 month old, so it's neat to be able to see what Jack will be doing next in her.
I got a hamburger recipe to make for lunch for us and it looked so so good. I forgot to let the whole mixture set up in the fridge for an hour. It was like mush, would not hold together and just all around sucked. I was so mad. Not only did the awesome recipe not work out, but we wasted money on food and had to wait another hour and a half before we ate. I'm a horrible hostess. Ha. Plus, it's about to rain here and with the kids running in and out, there a a MILLION flies in the house. Gross.
Guess that's it for now. I might try to catch a nap before Jack wakes up from his.

Number One

I have officially joined the world. I have a blog. Haha. As if I'm not busy enough with school and 'mommying'.Do husbands count as kids too? I don't know who reads these, but I guess I'll tell a little about me. I'm Lara, married to Shawn and we have a 6 month old, Jack. I go to school at Texas Tech and will finish up in May of 2009. Shawn is going to commission as an officer in the Marines at the end of September then we'll be off to Quantico, VA for 6 months. After that, we'll be stationed in Pensicola for at least a year and a half, maybe 3 years. I'm psyched for the beach!!

Living in Lubbock has been great. A big change from Waco. I especially love the lack of humidity. I don't understand how I was able to stand it for so long. Every time we go home to visit, (Shawn's family lives in the area too) I want to lay under the AC and fans all day! But, I miss my family like crazy. No, it's more than missing them...it's whatever the next step up from missing is. I call my dad everyday at least once a day. Shawn doesn't understand it, but I don't care.

Speaking of family, they are coming up for a visit this weekend. It'll be short though, Dad has Sam, my brother for the weekend, but he has to be back at my mom's by 6 Sunday. So they're only staying tonight. Bummer. But I'm happy either way, a visit's a visit. Oh, and don't expect me to talk about my mom much on here. It's a very sticky, crappy, smelly situation... Shawn prefers me to not talk to her at all. Hmm... Maybe in anothe post. So, I guess that's it for now. Jack's napping and I should be finishing up my insane cleaning spree for the fam.

Until next time...