Looking forward to a trip to SD to see a girlfriend who is due soon. So glad we have paid it up already, since they just raised our daycare tuition by $135 a month! Yeeowch! So we are also looking for alternative care. Hubby's CD sales are picking up, thanks to a couple of people in Japan and Canada who really seem to love the music and a few who have bought multiple copies. He put so much work into it, I really hope he can sell enough copies to feel it was at least worthwhile. (Even better if he could sell enough to make up the daycare difference -ha!) Of course it was all really a labour of love.

Have started a diet, but was too scared to step on the scale before I knew I had lost a little weight. Since then it has been another two pounds - little by little, eh? I am looking at this as a long term change in eating habits, because I think it is going to take a long time to get where I want to be and stay there. I'm sure many of you can relate *sigh*. Even those that look fine to others tend to look heavy to themselves. 

First of all, hubby released his latest album - check it out, it's really really good! 

Link here: www.leonplaysmusic.com

At work yesterday, the president of the company projected the inauguration on the wall so everyone could see the new president of the country. I am very hopeful about the new pres. even though I know he has his work cut out for him. Of course all the pundits were off to a running start and I just had to stay up late and watch Jon Stewart. Let's keep our fingers crossed for good things to come.

Work is picking up, too. We had a round of layoffs and thought we were about to have another, but projects started rolling in in the nick of time. Odwalla is thankfully keeping me really busy. Yay! 

Planning a trip to San Diego in April to see a friend's baby wh ois due in Feb/Mar. It's been sounding kind of like she (her husband) doesn't really want us to stop by, so we are turning the trip into kind of a birthday thing for one of our daughters. Looking forward to visiting the zoo and Disneyland, and anything else we can cram in. This will be the baby's second trip out, and I am a teensy bit nervous, but very excited at the same time. He and I will be doing all the lame stuff while Dad will probably be spending most of his time at Space Mountain with his daughter. I'm actually really looking forward to having that time alone in the park with the kiddo. 

 mamabargains:

This site offers only 1 item at a time, usually, a different one each day, but each item is at least 50% off and often more. The products are very nice quality, boutique-y stuff, so great for gifts. 

good luck!

Little E's hearing checked out a-ok when we went back to the ear doctor - yay! And we're all booked up for our trip to Florida to see the grands this holiday. Can't wait! Hubs and the girls are meeting their aunt and  going to Disney for a day, but I'm staying with the boy and my folks. He's really too little for such a long drive. It would be a waste when he could be spending the day being spoiled by his Grandma and Grandpa. I'm a little jealous, but not too much. I expect I'll be a little spoiled, too. 

Got news our big girl is planning to graduate even earlier! She wants to take classes in the summer so she can graduate in 3 years. We just have to see if her scholarships will transfer. If that is the case, then this time next year she will be a college graduate! Hard to believe. She is editor-in-chief of the college newspaper now and was flown by the school to Kansas City to accept an award for the paper as one of the best college newspapers in the country. Hopefully the economy will shape up and with her merits she'll be able to find a good job.

The little one is getting more and more excited about starting college. It seems she studies all the time now and we hardly see her. I'm sure she is looking forward to winter break more than anyone! She is president of her Travel and Tourism Club and really enjoying the hospitality industry. My dad mentioned to me the other day that we need to come to terms with the fact that there is a good possibility that both kids will end up working overseas. Wah! I just told him that would mean we'd have to travel more. 

Gratuitous picture of the munchkin getting into the baby powder:

Here's the little one hangin' out with Dad:

Went to the Art Festival on Saturday with E and an old friend from Indonesia who happens to now live about an hour away. Little bit had a good time putting his little hands in all the fountains and running away from me on the grass. His little socks got all muddy. I even caught him singing to himself. What a cutie! But right in the middle of all that lovely sunshine and green grass, my little camera officially died. I will have to start hinting around for Christmas. The big camera is wonderful, but I can't toss it in my handbag (which is probably why the little one died in the first place).

Then went to the Halloween celebration at the zoo on Sun. My sister-in-law came into town with her son, whose voice is starting to change. Great fun! They had a pumpkin patch full of little pumpkins for the kids to take home. E loved his so much he held on to it for most of the day. It was so nice to see all the little kids dressed up in their costumes, and the costumes have gotten so cool! When I was little store-bought costumes were a printed plastic apron that tied around your neck and a plastic mask that left your face all damp when you took it off - if the elastic didn't snap off first, that is.

I visited one at lunch today that I love. It is part of the local university and benefits from all the graduate students who are completing their theses. Everything I saw today also shows me that they are in line with my child care goals and philosophies. Unfortunately it an extra 350 a month. Ouch! So I'm trying to figure where I can cut some costs so that I can swing this. Don't know if I'll be able to, but I'm definitely going to put my budgeting skills to the test. The amazing thing is that this is kind of the going rate for day cares that don't smell funny. Even though I'm looking around, I think we got awfully lucky with the one we are using now.

He had also been more spritely with the fluid gone. Now when Daddy says, "No!" when he reaches for the TV remote, he picks it up anyway and hands it to Daddy as if to say, "I was just getting it for you." 

Naughty little thing.

We had to be at the hospital at 6 am for 8 am surgery.

We weren't so much worried about the procedure as the anesthesia. He seemed so little to be put under general. It only made it worse when the anesthesiologist came out and told us that since he had a bit of a cold, there could be serious complications: his breathing could stop and they might have to administer drugs and a breathing tube to try to revive him and could result in paralysis and even death and did we want to continue with the surgery? AAAGH!

Anyway, it turned out that the only way to improve on that is to have him sniffle-free for at least 6 weeks, and since that wasn't likely to happen, we went ahead. At least the agony only lasted for 15 minutes, and he was back in my arms, plugged in and drugged up. I just wanted to cry, except hubby's shirt was already speckled from the last 15 minutes.

Although he was still woozy when we got home (falling over a couple of times when he tried to stand up on the bed) by nighttime he was playful as ever, and figured out that Mommy jumps when you pinch her.

This morning he went back to the day care, good as ever with brand new ears.

Needless to say, I'm having a wonderful afternoon. 

Anyone with teenagers will understand.

It makes me crazy. We both work for the same smallish business, but he is higher up than I and has more latitude, and I am a little sensitive about my work time since I had the baby - the other women who have worked for us that have become moms have generally not worked out so well, their attention has redirected and their work has suffered, so I feel like I have to go above and beyond to make up for not being able to stay late or work weekends any more, and taking plenty of sick and vacation days. Although I know I am entitled, that doesn't really help the perception that much.

Don't think I can do much about work - time will work all that out. Have tried to do something about hubby, but I think that is a lost cause. 

Ike pictures from around us - minus the office and our family. These were intended for sharing.

Here are a couple of others a friend of mine took:

Meanwhile, this is what my little one and his sister were doing during the power outage: