Happy Endings

They called off school yesterday due to the severe windchill. I never heard the official temperature, but I'm sure it was severe enough. Addison and I still braved it and headed for the YMCA. I've been very diligent in the exercising, not so diligent in the watching what I eat, but oh well. I bleached my hair the other day and it gave me groovy tints of blue around my temples. I decided just to leave it. It's my "cool mom" look.

Jason booked me a massage for Valentines Day. It was heaven. If you've never had an hour long Swedish massage, I highly recommend it. It cracked me up when I was filling out the form before it started, at the end it stated that any "request of overture" would result in the session ending, that the massage was for therapeutic purposes only. All that kept running through my head was "You want happy ending?" with that Chinese accent. I wanted to ask the lady if she had ever had a "request of overture" before, but I chickened out.

David and Karen came up last weekend. It was relaxing and very nice to have some friendly faces up here. Addison enjoyed all the extra attention and she kept us all entertained. We all went to church on Sunday. They spoke with the pastor after church and found out they knew some of the same pastors from Columbus, NE, which is where David's father preached, so that was neat.

We possibly have a babysitter lined up for this weekend. Jason and I haven't been out alone since we moved up here, which was Jan. 10th. Before that is all a big blur, so I'm not sure when it was. One of the girls who babysits at the YMCA seems to be very sweet and responsible, so we're going to give her a shot. Addison runs into her arms every time we walk in, so that's a good sign.

Sorry I haven't blogged lately, just not alot to report. I'll keep my eye out for anything weird or interesting, but it's been slim pickings lately.

Want To Hear All About My Rash???

I haven't had much to blog about lately. I had a horrid reaction to some laundry soap last week that gave me a rash that I won't even go into detail on the locations and severity of the itchiness. Apparently, we have extremely hard water, which doesn't rinse soap out very good. After Benadryl and a dose of steroids, I'm on the mend. Here's a shot of my rashy leg. The pictures don't do it justice. Let's just say, leprosy was one of my self-diagnoses before I went to the doctor. Other than that, we've been very healthy, thank God.

Addison and I are getting into a pretty good routine of working out at the YMCA every day, along with her activities. Jason is really struggling getting used to working weird hours again. He gets home anywhere from 2:30am-4:00am. We try to let him sleep in as much as possible, but he just hasn't found his routine.

Addison's vocabulary has really started to blossom. New words of the week are cheese and please. She also has gotten the hang of using a straw and she folds her hands to pray. When we sit down to eat, she points to the cow picture above the table and says, "moo".

Then she points to the other cow picture and says "moo".

Then she plays peek-a-boo and smears whatever sauce is on her hands all over her face. She moos a couple more times and ..................well you get the idea.

I finished painting my bathroom walls and vanity. I replaced the hinges and door pulls on the vanity. I bought a new light and medicine cabinet. I'm just waiting for Jason to have some time to put them up. David and Karen plan to come up this weekend for a visit, so maybe we'll give the men a little Honey do list. The bathroom really needs a total facelift, but we're just trying to get by with this for a while.

Last Sunday's church shopping was pretty successful. It had a good feel and I think we'll go back a few more times. Here's a shot of my two favorite people before we left.

Spring.......Hello, Spring? Are you there?

Geez, it's cold here in Nebraska. I'm feeling the winter blues. I dream of green grass, trees with leaves, and flowers. I'd kill for a pansy right now. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Wal Mart? Well I can add this to my list of reasons. Is it just me or is it cruel for them to start filling up their garden area with weed eaters and lawn furniture in February? I think so. Anyway, we've been keeping busy shoveling snow everyday. Jason has a snow blower but hasn't got it running yet, so we've been doing it by hand. He's been doing the lions share, but today I took a turn.

Notice the ice cap on the end of our driveway. It'll be there until May, I'm sure.

Addison went to gymnastics Tuesday. She did really well. They worked on jumping. She got to jump on a little trampoline and a big one. They played with balls, a parachute, and at the end, the teacher got out a bubble machine and the kids went crazy. Here's a picture with her teacher. She weighs slightly more than Addison, but not much.

Here's a shot of all the cool stuff they get to climb all over.

I hate to admit it, but I'm getting a little homesick. I knew it would come, just didn't know when. My big brother stopped by last Wednesday and Saturday on his way to and from Omaha to catch a flight to Arizona. It was so great having him here and it gave me a little relative fix, but I'm like a crack head. I need more. In a few weeks, Jason should have a weekend off and we'll come home. I can't wait. It would be easier, I think, if the weather was nicer and we could enjoy the outdoors without getting frostbite. Spring can't come fast enough. But, in the meantime, we'll try to keep busy with all our little activities.

Addison was "helping" me with the laundry last night. This is what her hair looks like in the evening. From the time she gets up in the morning, until the time she goes to bed, we really only have about a two hour window when it's under control.

The Next Mary Lou Retton Has Crazy Hair

This is what the poor child looks like when she gets up each morning. Although my hair was never as curly as hers, she has inherited my stringy, ratty locks.

Check out the one spiral curl in the back. I don't know if you can tell by the picture, but at the end is an untangable knot. No More Tangles does not work on these. You must yank and jerk until the baby screams in agony. My Grandma Johnson used to sing to me while I cried, "Call the cat to get the rats". I sing it to now to my daughter. It's not comforting.

We went to the Library today for Toddler Time. Addison had fun. There were lots of kids and mommy's. Addison didn't hit anyone, I was very proud.

Every time the teacher read a book, Addison ran up and sat in her lap. The teacher tried to get her to go back to her seat on the rug a couple of times, but then gave up. The only problem was, it was like a chain reaction with the other kids trying to jump in the poor lady's lap. She was really great about it though.

I signed Addison up for gymnastics at the YMCA today. We'll go every tuesday morning for 30 minutes. I don't know what gymnastics a 16 month old can learn, but I guess we'll find out. I wonder if they make leotards in 2T. I can see it now, big belly sticking out in the front and the diaper booty in the back. If I find one, I'll definately be posting those pics!

I also checked into ice skating lessons. First of all, it's pretty expensive. Since she's not all that slick at walking on land, I don't think we're quite ready for the ice. Second of all, the smallest skates they have are two sizes too big. The guy at the Y told me to look on Ebay for double runners that attach to the outside of her shoes like old fashion roller skates. Then if she had a pair of those, I could take her to the public skating times. Jason has a phobia of iceskating since the "accident". For those of you out there don't know about the "accident", it's a long story. But if you're interested, I could write a blog about it. Let me know if you'd be interested.