I'm a winner. And I won a prize.

A little while back, I posted about supporting Seth in his journey to get cochlear implants by participating in the Profound Pictures Prize Package. For obvious reasons (okay, for those of you who missed it, my kid has cochlear implants!), I thought this was an awesome cause. While CI's are not for everyone, they certainly have improved my daughter's quality of life. So supporting Seth and his family was something I wanted to do.

I didn't win the big grand prize, which really was fine. Kenny, his mom, and my parents all chipped in and bought me a camera for my birthday, anyway! So somebody else really deserved that one. However, I did win a blog makeover, which rocks because I have been bored of my blog lately and too tired to fiddle with it.

Thanks!

Happy Birthday to me.

Thursday was, in Emmi's words, "my happy birthday." I celebrated with first a pre-lunch lunch with Anita, then lunch with Sheri. It was the first time Sheri and I have been together sans kiddos (well, except for that little sweety Violet, she came along. But she doesn't run circles yet or ask if we can leave now every three minutes.) in a long time. We got to talk about non-kiddie things and laugh a lot. It was good times. Later that day, Kenny came home with a surprise for me.

A cake.

And a gift card (because he wasn't sure if I was leaning towards Nikon or Canon) to get the camera I wanted. Combined with the birthday money from his mom and a gift card from my parents, I also got the lens I wanted, too! Yesterday, I finally found time to go get my new toy. I was actually really leaning towards the Canon. It got better reviews, and there are some features I like better. But I finally decided it didn't make much sense to start completely over with a new brand. I can use my accessories from my film SLR on the digital, I just might need to manually focus a few lenses. No biggie.

I spent the rest of the day torturing Kenny, the dogs, and even a few flowers in the backyard.

Now I am just waiting on my kids to come home, so I can torture them, too.

A Lesson

When you go out of your way to tell someone how they are driving like an idiot in the parking lot, be advised. They might just be going the same place as you. In fact, you might get to sit through an entire dance class right next to said person, because your kids attend the same dance studio. Even better, you might get to sit through months of dance classes with said person, because the semester doesn't end until July.

Things I Love

Cracking my tooth in half the day before we leave for vacation.

My dentist's office being closed on Fridays.

UPDATE: Turns out, the tooth isn't cracked. My previous dentist just fucked up, and it took a few months for the problem to surface. And by "surface" I mean require tylenol 3 to get through the day. And Rachel, I had to go by Kleypas's to get Emmi's records for Texas Children's and they saw me right there on the spot. He fixed me up! It was those crowns I just had done. I thought I had cracked the tooth behind it, but nope! I think I am in love with everyone there at that office. Now, could you just go back, so my kids will be happy to go to the dentist again?

Today

This is my favorite work day. No, not this particular day. But this point in the process of my work that happens every so often. I spend days staying up late, importing piles of data into tables. Then finally, when that is done, I start running the processes. Now with most counties, those processes take minutes. But with Harris county? It takes hours. And bogs down the whole computer, so that I am forced to walk away from the computer and do things like watch the episode of Real World I have on my DVR.

How Did You Start Your Day?

My favorite way to start the day is when my seven-year-old wakes me up at 5am to tell me that the dog peed in her bed. I do have good news, though. It wasn't pee.

It was throw up.

Pink throw up.

Pink, I-am-a-bad-dog-and-ate-the-remainder-of-the-birthday-cake throw up.

Photos courtesy of Sheri, my personal photographer, cause my camera sucks.

On Jill's white bedding. And the upstairs hallway carpet. And the carpet in the master bedroom. But don't worry, she missed the tile and wood floors that won't stain and can be easily cleaned.

Do It Now

Here is what you are going to do. You are going to click here. Not up there on that pretty picture. When I made it a link, it made all my posts go away. That was no good. So just click here. Then you are going to donate towards Seth getting some cochlear implants, cause we think cochlear implants are cool.

Besides. Emmi said you should. How can you "no" to a face like this?

The Ems

Proud Cochlear Implant wearer for the past three (Holy! It's almost been three years!) years.

Cake anyone?

I woke up at 6:30, which, of course, felt like 5:30. I have been dragging ever since. All I want to do is crawl back in bed, but I have work to do. On top of that, I hadn't really looked through my email until this morning. There was a contract for a home sale waiting to be signed by Kenny and I. It needed to be done by this morning. Awesome.

And you know when you are trying to rush around to get something done what inevitably happens is the forms manager won't open, then Adobe won't be loaded on the computer that is connected to printer that, by the way, picks this morning to NOT print, so you will have to find another copy of the form and white out the old information. Except you won't have any white out, because who uses white out anymore? So after you get white out and need to scan the form back into the computer, the scanner won't work. And since you already know that kicking things like the fax machine with a work boot does not actually fix electronic equipment (Kenny, I am talking to you), you won't try kicking the scanner. Instead you will curse and scream and jiggle the cord around until it finally scans just in time for my Internet connection to go out, rendering it impossible to attach the scanned files for over an hour.

But you don't cry in frustration. Oh no. You just cut yourself a big 'ole slice of left over birthday cake, and tell yourself that it is perfectly acceptable to have cake for brunch.

Is it time to panic yet?

Things left to do for Emmi's party before the girls get home from school today.

1. Purchase ice cream cups.
2. Get balloons.
3. Buy (cheap!) markers and crayons for the kids to use for the banner.
4. Buy Emmi's birthday present.

Amount of time left to do it.
17 minutes.

Shit.

Things that might indicate you have a problem.

1. When employees of the cupcake shop an hour away greet you by name when you walk in the door.

2. When Kenny drives my car to pick up Carrabba's carside takeout, and the waitress says, "I thought you drove a truck?"

It might be time to step away from the cupcakes and spaghetti.

Big Creepy Barbie, The Second

For days I have been racking my brain trying to come up with some good gifts for Emmi for her birthday. "Just ask her," you might think. Well, I did. Her answer? "Mmmm.. a strawberry cake and a present." When I asked her what should be in the present, she replied, "A BOX!" Oh obviously. So I set about trying to come up with something a five year old who already owns just about every toy (and doesn't play with them) might want. Books? Clothes? Finally, while cleaning the game room, it hit me. Or more or less it tripped me, as I fell over the dismembered leg of Big Creepy Barbie.

We need a new Big Creepy Barbie.

Barbie's leg fell off about two days after she moved in with us. It can't be repaired, and I didn't have a gift receipt to return it. So Big Creepy Barbie became even creepier and she was dubbed Big Creepy Barbie With One Leg. Yet, still, the girls play with her every day. She is, afterall, the perfect flyer for their cheerleading squad. And? She never bitches when they forget to catch her as she performs her full down.

So when my parent's asked what they should get Emmi, I told my mom "Big Creepy Barbie." And when she sent my dad off to the store to locate such, she told him to get "Big Creepy Barbie."

It really is a shame that before asking a sales clerk to help him locate said toy, he asked my mom for clarification. I really would have enjoyed knowing that he asked where he could find a "Big Creepy Barbie."

Old Ladies

When you get old, I mean old like lived with the dinosaurs old, I think there are certain things that society owes you. For instance, we should help you open doors and perhaps even load the groceries into the car. We should even excuse the creepy things you do like watch my little kid get on the bus every morning, because that wave you give her in the morning is probably the closest thing you have to social interaction all day. But just because you and Dino used to be good buddies and you have walked to school in the snow, uphill, and your first car was a horse drawn buggy, does not give you the right to be a grumpy, bitter, old grouch.

One would think in all of your years you would have learned that being a bitch gets you no where in life, and saying "excuse me" before you plow into me while I patiently waiting for my goodies to be sacked at the store might be something you would have learned to do. But obviously not. So forgive me when I spent ten whole minutes "looking" for my keys, just so I could avoid getting the door for you.

I just need one sip.

To say I have no motivation lately would be an understatement. I have a million things to do, and I just can't muster the energy to do them. I blame the wedding. In a round about way. See, Kenny and I sat down and determined how much we each needed to set aside each month, and my contribution is roughly equal to the amount of money I spend at Starbucks each month. It was clear. I needed to break the Starbucks habit. I am being a big girl about it, and so far have only cried once or twice. But. The. Lack. Of. Caffeine. Is making me sleepy...

Ch-ch-ch-changes.

You know, I haven't been posting as much lately here. Mostly because well, when I started off I tried not to post too many mom stories or stories that weren't funny. But the truth of the matter is most of the stuff that happens to me involves my kids. And most of the time, I am not all that funny. Okay, actually, I find me highly entertaining. But most normal people? Not so much. Anyway, I felt pressured to come up with something to say. I would write things and edit and re-edit, trying to get the tone right, trying to make it funny. In the end I would delete it. Soon enough, even I was bored with my blog.

So? I am switching gears here, I think. I am not going to care if it is funny. I might post too much about my kids. I might post about absolutely nothing, because that is pretty much what I do all day! I will definitely be re-designing the layout of my blog over the next few days. Hopefully it won't bore you all more than it does now.