time flies

So my little peanutter turned 2 months Friday. My how time flies! He is starting to smile and my mom says he giggles, but I have yet to hear it no matter how hard I try. I know it will happen soon enough. This was my fear with going back to work...my mom would get to see all the fun stuff first and then I just have to wait til it happens again. I guess when I consider everything, I wouldn't want him to be sharing all of that with a daycare lady, so grandma is good for me. They had a good first week together, so I was glad. I have to post a picture...

I love that my friends help me out with the parenting advice and give me little pointers. It is the unsolicited advice that I can do without. I know it sounds crummy, but how can you tell me what to do with a baby when you have never had one? Before Elliot, I just kept things to myself because it wasn't my place. I still don't offer anything unless I am asked.

I got the information for grad graduation! Woohoo! Only 3 1/2 more months and I am done. I am more concerned with getting people together for a cook out than the graduation, but it will be nice to don the cap and gown for what I think is the last time. Dr. Copen has a strange ring to it and a dissertation freaks me out! I am about to send in some info for a scholarship, so keep your fingers crossed that they deem me fit for it! Every bit helps :)

I don't want to say that Spring is anywhere near and jinx anything, but I really like that the gross nasty black snow is finally melting and according to the paper seems like it has the potential to go away completly in this next week. It was nice to feel heat from the sun yesterday.

I am willing Spring to come...it is supposed to be about 38 tomorrow! Woohoo! I guess then back down to 17ish in the week. Take what you can get is the motto.

T-minus 2 days until I go back to work...what a bummer. I guess the bright side to this is that I still have a job. I heard from a friend that New York could possibly lay off some of their teachers. ..by some I guess it is about 15,000. Apparently Los Angeles is in the same boat. Good grief, talk about No Child Left Behind. I would have to imagine that they would need to up some of the class sizes and have a huge contractual issue on their hands. NY is seeking about $6.4 billion in a...you got it...stimulus. How much can we stimulate? It's there a point where you blow!?

Superbowl snuck up on me. I don't know that I have true passion about who wins, but I guess my pick would be Arizona simply because they have never had it before. I dig the commercials, as do most people I would assume. The Tide one last year cracked me up..where the stain on the guys shirt was talking...yup, that was good! So, The Boss is the halftime show...matters not to me. I read in the paper this morning that it will be a 12 minute show, I wonder if he needs a stimulus? The trophy that the team gets is worth $25,000 and comes from Tiffany and Company. Talk about a big blue box.

It is freezing here, I am so over winter. There are some days that it is 30 and then some days that it is -30. What the heck is up with that? And to think that people think there is global warming...not here in Wisconsin.

I have a lot of randomness...on the 18th was my dad's birthday. He would have been 94 if he were still alive. The stories that I have heard over the years have been so great. I wish I would have listened much better when I was younger. I finally figured it out in my teen years. It is fun to tell my students that my dad was born the year that the Statue of Liberty came to America. We have been talking about going to the cemetery, but it has just been too cold. It is my thought that he knows were always thinking about him.

I watched the inauguration and oddly enough it was on the same day that Elliot was 6 weeks old. I found it strange about the two men who gave the prayers...they seemed to not span tolerance and good in some respects. That guy that wrote Purpose Driven Life is seriously opposed to homosexuality...but mentioned tolerance. Shouldn't that be something we are tolerant of? Don't get me wrong...everyone is entitled to an opinion, but one shouldn't state publicly that they feel one way and then go one to say something so terribly opposite. All things considered, I just hope that we can, as a nation, get out of this funk...be done with lay-offs so that unemployment can get back on track, banks working to fix things so that everyone and their brother doesn't need a bailout, etc.

I'm working on trying to get a scholarship for my last round of grad classes...keep your fingers crossed. The money would be helpful seeing as student loan rates have even gone up!

Well I am off to make bruschetta for a dinner tonight. It should be fun to hang out and catch up. Let's hope that the weather man in wrong so that I can also bring Elliot.

Happenstance

I have to keep up with the pictures because I have become "that mom." I won't push pictures of my son off on someone who doesn't want to see them, but in this case, this is mine and I'll put whatever here! He seems to be growing so fast. Everyone says take pictures because you won't remember this. I sure the heck hope I do!

It seems like time is so limited..I always want to sit down and do this, but there is laundry and dishes and and and...right now my little bird is taking a nap so I figured what the heck.

Classes start tomorrow and it is supposed to be bitter cold...exciting! The super cold still reminds me of my senior year of college when I had to be out to take finals, but cars wouldn't start. I had to be dropped off and picked up by a friend that was able to get his car started. These classes coming up are the business end of administration. I think that I am going to have to work fairly hard because business is not my thing. I guess I will have to try to make it so.

I was watching the news the other night and there was this child in Milwaukee that had been taken out of foster care to live with his aunt (as I have read the other blogs, family is better than foster as far as the courts are concerned) and the boy ended up dying. What a sad sad thing. I think that he might have had a fighting chance in foster care. So I saw that he is in an unmarked grave because obviously it is not the city's deal to pay for this...long story short, and good news, there is a group (citizens protecting abused children) that is raising money to let this little boy be remembered and to rest in peace. Here is the story...

So my boy likes Coldplay, the Beatles and "You Are My Sunshine" I sang that to him before he was born and I think it is crazy how he responds to it now. Maybe I am a nutbag, but I think that he recognizes it! I just have to look up the second verse because I don't remember.

Bush gave his exit speech today and Obama is gearing up for inaugaration...should be interesting. I hope that he is "for the people" as he states. I am interested to see what happens with the stimulus and I am looking forward to the idea of our country becoming something different and hopefully better.

Well seeing as I have been all over the page, I guess I shouldn't wait this long to do this again!

Well, first off I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I hope that it was filled with love and happiness. I was reading a friends blog about how we sometimes get selfish at the holidays and feel like we have to spend a ton to make people happy. I know that I have said it a few times, but there didn't have to be anything under my tree this year, or probably for the coming years. I got all that I wanted and stuck him in a santa hat!

For the first time in a long time, the spirit has come to my home. My family was here last night just hanging out, having some snacks and enjoying the time. That is, to me, what it should all be about. Today, I hung out with my mom and my son, took it easy and just took some time to be thankful.

My only regret is that I didn't get out to the cemetery. We started out there yesterday just to stop by my dad, but there was this woman who was in a car accident and by the time we had waited until the police arrived, Elliot was a bit fussy and tired of being in the car. While I do like to make it a point to stop out there, I know that the spirit of my dad is with us always, and I cannot wait to teach my son about what a respectful, caring and loving father he was. I hope that my son gets the traits of hard work, respect, humility, modesty and honesty that my dad had and passed on to me!

So again, I wish you all the good, love and peace that can be given to all of you, and I wish you a wonderful day!

It is so hard to believe that my little bird is just about two weeks old. What a life changing experience. It isn't tough to learn that things all of a sudden do not happen on my time, they happen on his. There are a lot of times that I am washing bottles or doing laundry, but he is sooo worth it.

People are still stopping by to meet him and say hello, and my friends have been great. Everyday is something new. I have a tough time putting him down, I just want to cuddle and hold him. It is so fun to see the new things that he learns from day to day. Like finding his thumb to suck on, or those strange baby smiles for whatever reason.

All is healing well. Due to the back surgery I had to be put all the way under so I wasn't the first to get him. My mom was. I am so glad to have the support that I do.

Hopefully today I can take the tree that has been in the stand for a couple of days and get some lights and ornaments on it. The snow hindered us yesterday, so with that being cleaned up, maybe some stuff can happen inside the house. I guess you learn to slow down and take things in because it is all so precious. I read in the paper of people who aren't taking care of their kids, or do bad things to them, and I look at my son and want to hold him closer to protect him always from the bad things. I don't understand how someone can do something so terrible to any other person...adult or child.

Christmas takes on a whole new meaning this year with this special gift....

Bored....

Yes, I am bored...I know that the standard sentence right now is to enjoy it while I can and rest, but geez. I do a little shopping for Christmas and I get kinda tired, but beyond that I have started a book, and I am watching way more T.V. than I ordinarily do. I don't like to be driving much and the ice on the sidewalks and such scares me. Goodness knows I'm kinda clumsy.

I guess tomorrow will be the teller as to when this is all going to happen. I didn't think that my back would be an issue, but the hypothesis seems to make sense. I met with the ob the other day and he was a really nice guy. I am hoping that if anything were to ever go down and I needed a doc like that, that he would take me. It appears that he more than likely will come c-section, which is fine. I don't know that the laying and the threat of a nonworking epidural is a fate I want to tempt.

Maybe today I will try to clean out my trunk. The stroller I have is gigantic...It's like a cesna for a baby.

It was strange...yesterday we ran into a woman who had a 7 week old..her sons name was Elliott. I'm not sure how it is spelled, but it was ironic. It really made me want to hold my Elliot. This has been a road of greatness, and I am so thankful for the miracle that I am about to get. It is so hard to express it. It might be that my mind and body are all jacked up, and I know I am slightly more emotional than normal, but this is my dream come true and I am excited to meet him.