I'm done!!!!!!!

Since I last posted, all of my free time has gone towards studying. After I graduated school 4+ years ago, I learned that I had until the end of 2007 to take 3 exams. I took the first one immediately and procrastinated the other 2 until last month... sigh. A smart girl would have finished all these darn tests BEFORE she had a baby - I mean I had 9 months notice that I was going to be a mommy. But I had preggo brain... I had a lot of excuses. Anyway, long story short, I took the other 2 tests and passed them without a moment to spare!!! So now I just have more letters after my name, but that's cool - I'm completely done with all my required tests now!!!!

Other than that, we've just been preparing for the holidays... shopping, stressing - ah good times. We decided to keep it simple this year for our sanity and we are staying at home and having a "open house" Christmas Day. Now I'm freaking out a little - my house is not big enough for everyone that may show up at the same time!!! And poor Brian! He keeps on trying to help me by giving me suggestions and I am not being very open to his criticism lately. It all started when we were watching the Victoria Secret fashion show a few weeks ago. All those perfect, prancing, starving models - he looked at them and then looked at me and said something along the lines of "why can't you get your hair to look like those girls on tv?" To which I replied, "I don't have a team of stylists here at 5 am when I'm getting ready for work!" So since then he has made multiple comments about him not liking my hair. So apparently I have done the new mom thing and just "let myself go." It's not that I don't care anymore, it's just that I don't have a whole lot of time lately, besides the fact that it's just easier to pull it back into a ponytail so Little Red doesn't yank out a chunk of it. Has anyone ever tried taking a 10 month old with them to a hair appointment??? How do you keep them happy during your cut, blow dry, and style?? Anyone wanna babysit while I get my hair cut like Heidi Klum?

I'm spoiled - I love it!

I got flowers last weekend for no reason at all. They were the most gorgeous bouquet of pink roses I have ever seen! I feel so loved! :-) I've worked long hours the past few days, so I never got a chance to take a picture of them arranged. Here's the petal arrangement that I made today:



In honor of Brian, I stole (copied) a husband survey off someone else's blog and will now fill it out for him.
An Ode to Brian
1. Who is your man? Brian
2. How long have you been together? 7 years (wow - has it been that long already???)
3. How long did you date? almost 4 years
4.How old is your man? 28
5. Who eats more? him
6. Who said "I love you" first? it was me and then I was very upset because he wasn't ready to say it back to me yet, but he eventually came around
7. Who is taller? him
8. Who sings better? me, but to give him credit he is really good at making up silly songs involving everyday objects
9. Who is smarter? he has more common sense than I do, but I have a super memory
10. Who's temper is worse? MINE MINE MINE
11. Who does the laundry? me or otherwise my sweaters shrink and a pair of blue jeans get mixed up in the whites
12. Who takes out the garbage? he does it more often, but it's a shared responsibility
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? he does
14. Who pays the bills? that would be me, the CFO of our house
15. Who is better with the computer? he is
16. Who mows the lawn? he does - same kind of thing as the laundry. well that and it takes me 5 times longer and I'm scared to death of the weed wacker
17. Who cooks dinner? whomever gets home first
18. Who drives when you are together? mostly he does
19. Who pays when you go out? Brian
20. Who is the most stubborn? me me me
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? me because I'm usually wrong
22. Whose parents do you see the most? his mom
23. Who kissed who first? he kissed me
24. Who asked who out? he asked me out while he was making maccaroni and cheese
25. Who proposed? he did - and it was so romantic, he is awesome!
26. Who is the most sensitive? ME ME ME
27. Who has more friends? we're pretty equal, though i may have a couple more
28. Who has more siblings? he wins that one by a landslide - he has 3 sisters and i have no siblings
29. Who wears the pants? usually Brian, though I put them on sometimes when necessary
30. Who do I love???? Brian Brian he's my man!!

Guitar Hero with the Rinns!

We had so much fun last night - Dave and Bethany came over for dinner (would I be bragging if I said that it was the best home-cooked meal I had in a loooooong time and I'm the one that made it?) After dinner we played Guitar Hero on XBOX 360- so much fun! I think Bethany surprised herself with how much fun she had playing that game. She did really well for a first time player - I guess that piano playing coordination really helped her out! We will have to do that again really soon! Sorry about the photo quality guys, it appears that I had the blurry and dark setting on my camera.

Butternut Squash

I make my own baby food and it is incredibly easy (not to mention it's sooooo much cheaper). All you have to do is cook whatever food you want and throw it in the food processor until it's pureed. I like to freeze mine in ice cube trays over night, then pop the cubes out and place them in a freezer bag. I only freeze things that were made from fresh ingrediants. I never freeze previously frozen items. For instance, when I make peas for her, she eats peas for a few nights in a row. She doesn't complain.

I'd like to start posting our Little Red-approved recipes. So here's her favorite vegetable recipe:

Butternut Squash

Wash and then cut the squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and strings. Place cut side down in baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Then flip them over, cover, and cook an additional 20-25 minutes or until very tender. Cool them to touch and then scoop out the insides into the food processor. Pulse, then process until smooth or to whatever thickness Baby likes. You can add a little water or bmilk/formula to thin it out some more if needed.

We're goin places!

Little Red is now doin the army crawl - and she goes really fast when there is food on the floor! She's even got half a tooth now!!! It's so cute!

We just wrapped up Halloween - we were just too cute! She was Glenda the Good Witch on Halloween and tonight we went to a Halloween party and we were both cheerleaders! Here's pics!

Yes, my child is inside a pumpkin...

Today we also enjoyed some beautiful fall weather and we took LR to the park. No suprise here - she LOVED the swing!

We had a great day today! We really know how to have fun. Ask Little Red what she had for a morning snack (this was Daddy's fault!)

The pumpkin patch

One of the big downfalls of my new job is that I have to work every other weekend, which makes me miss out on some very fun things now and then. Here's one that I missed - taking Little Red to the pumpkin patch. Brian and his mom took her and she had a great time!

LR and Grandmother
LR and Daddy
"I want that one Daddy!"

So the other morning, LR took her spoon out of my hand and decided that she wanted to try to feed herself oatmeal and bananas with her hands (spoons are just too tricky)

and when her hands were just taking too long, she did what the doggies do
What a mess! Straight to the bathtub!

A funny thing happened on the way to the grocery store...

This morning we decided that we all go as a family to the grocery store (usually its just me and Little Red). We are in the new car and according to me, we are still on a learning curve with it. You know how when you drive a different car you have to get used to how "touchy" it is (like how quickly it brakes, accelerates) Well, our new car is touchy on the accelerator. We are at a stop, discussing on how to get around this massive construction project on Hwy 377, I start to take a sip of my frappaccino (the kind in the glass bottle from the market) when Brian hits the gas and I get "baptized" by my yummy dark chocolate mint frappaccino!!! I was angry at first (he's done this to me on purpose before) and we started to yell at each other (which Little Red really hates); but then he started to laugh at how ridiculous I looked and then I started to laugh too and THEN I looked in the mirror: I had a brown mustache and beard, it ran down my chest, pooled in my belly button, and about 1/4 cup of it was in my lap. We turned around and went home so I could change EVERYTHING that I was wearing. And yes, it got in the new car too, a little bit. Brian really wanted to take a picture of me, but I wouldn't let him. I'm no fun. (And no, he didn't do it on purpose - not in his new car!)





So after my mess this morning, LR had a funny mess of her own. DISCLAIMER: GROSS STORY: GRAPHIC CONTENT AHEAD!!!. I made the mistake of feeding her prunes with lunch and finding out the hard way that they really work! We were cleaning the garage and she was in her walker. I glanced at her and she was making "poopy face" but didn't think anything other than "Yes! I'll get to go inside to the air conditioning soon!" A few MINUTES later, Brian says, "Uh-oh, LR has a dirty diaper!" I look over and my precious perfect baby girl is sliding around on the garage floor in her own mess. It had overfilled the diaper, ran down her legs and onto the floor, and she was tap dancing in it!!!! Is that not the most disgusting/ funny thing you've read today?!?!?!?! I didn't know where to start cleaning. Luckily it was in the garage where we just wiped it up and used the pressure washer on the floor. I don't want to think about what it would have been like if she had been in the living room or something!!!!!!!





So I changed her into this:

And it appears she has her first pimple in this picture - not really sure if that's what it is, but thats what it looks like.

Our new SUV

Here's a picture from the maunfacturer's website - not that I'm too lazy to go outside and take a picture of ours... I would if it was here. Brian took it to work today (I'm still very jealous that he is driving it) because I have to take Austin to the vet and we can't have a bunch of dog hair in the new car, can we... So this is what it look like, but ours is a deep blue.

And since this is turning into a blog more more about Little Red and less less about me, here's what she is doing right this minute:

She is napping with her favorite blankie, and no she doesn't have a hand deformation, that's just how she is laying... she's so sweet!

Ah! I can't get enough of this baby! Little Red's main form of gettin around is by rolling and rolling and rolling. It seemed like too long before she actually rolled over and now I can't get her to stop! Diaper changes are the worst! I can't get her to lay still for just a second so I can change her - and then she gets aggravated bc I'm talking too long!!! If you'd just lay still, I'd be really quick!!! I've tried to give her a toy or something to play with while I'm changing her, but the best toys just aren't as interesting as the diaper or the wipes!



Another milestone we've reached is:

Ta-Da!!! Sitting Up!!!
She's getting better at it everyday. She's pretty good when it comes to side-to-side balance, but she likes to throw her head back when she laughs or cries, so that causes her to go backwards.

We got a new vehicle this weekend. We traded in the truck for a Mitsubishi Outlander. It was time for the truck to go - it was a V8, horrible horrible gas mileage -and with Brian driving 80 miles a day for work, we had to do something, so we downsized. We are very happy with the Outlander. I'm jealous bc he gets to drive it. He promised me that I get the next new car and it will be better than the Outlander. That's great and all, but we're probably about 2 or 3 years away from getting our next vehicle. My Saturn is great for just 1 kid, but there is no way that I'll be able to get 2 car seats in the back seat with one of them having to be rear-facing for a baby. Whenever we have our next baby (not even close to thinking about that now) is when I might get a bigger car. I'll post a picture when I remember to take one. :)

I love her!

This picture really makes me smile - I honestly think that I have the most adorable baby in the entire world! I'm not joking, I've never seen a prettier baby - she's perfect! She gives me a purpose, she gives me a reason to be a responsible adult... okay, enough gushing for the moment...

I started my new job this week and I really like it. Things are a lot different at this hospital - there is really an enphasis on quality of care, I get to know my patients. People are friendly, all of my patients so far have spoken English (yay!). I found out that I was "peer interviewed" behind the scenes. There are probably less than 6 degrees of separation among respiratory therapists - so when my resume popped up, the department manager asked some people if they knew anything about me etc. I felt very special to know that people know my character and recommended me for this job. I feel like God had a plan for me in this job, everything just fell into place. I'm so thankful.

BTW the cafeteria food is actually amazing. There is a great variety and it is resonably priced (you get what you pay for). The people that work in the cafeteria are very friendly - the cashier actually looked at me and smiled and talked to me, and took my $20 bill without looking at me as if she was giving me change out of her very own pocket! (The place I last worked had a few of the most un-friendly cashiers I had ever met.)

I think I'm really going to like it here.

I took off a week in between jobs and it has been very nice. I'm enjoying my time off and it's making me dream of how I would love to be a stay-at-home mom. That's not possible right now, but maybe in the future someday it might be if I'm lucky. My cousin came over tonight for help with her algebra homework. Math is one of those things that I look at and go "Wow, I used to know how to do that" Math is not like riding a bicycle - you forget how hard it is - but I am such a dork, I had to work the problem over and over again because I couldn't just give up on it. I had to prove to myself that I had a braincell left! After a little internet research, we solved the problems. In case anyone was wondering, the equations involved fractions. We had to find the lowest common denominator.... solve for x... remember all the rules about adding and subtracting negative numbers... ugh! I'm soooooo glad that I'm done with school!

But I'm not... there is something that is still haunting me in regards to school. I still have to take my advanced level board exam before the end of this year! It is incredibly hard to disipline myself to sit down and study for this thing! I have procrastinated this test to the very last minute and I hope I can pass it on the first try. If I don't pass it before 2008, I will have to re-take my entry level board again... So instead of blogging, I should be studying, right??? Yeah, but who wants to do THAT?

For those of you who wanted to see a pic of us

This is an old pic of Brian and me - from Nov. 2006. We had a photo shoot with my dad at the botanical gardens - so much fun to be a "model."

it seemed like nobody cared

Yesterday I left my job of five years. Well, I "left the door open" so that I could go back if things don't work out at my new job, but I have a feeling that I won't be back. In several ways it was so sad for me to leave. I loved the people that I worked with - I learned so much from them and we had some really good times. I was also sad bc nobody remembered that it was my last day. People said "Oh, if I knew it was your last day, we would have thrown a party or got a cake or something!" You know how many times I heard that yesterday? But do you know how many times I had said to people "Next week is my last week" "Next Thursday is my last day." I don't want to be a brat, but my feelings were totally hurt! I acted like it was no big deal, however inside I felt like I didn't matter and even though they were telling me to come by and visit and to keep in touch, by next week I will be forgotten about entirely.

I have taken a job that is much much much closer to my house. Before I was driving about 45 minutes one way to get to work. Now I will be driving about 20 minutes. Its a fresh new start for me... I feel like I'm changing schools in the middle of the year!

I am imagining that today people at my former job are talking about me, "Did you hear that Tiffany left? Yesterday was her last day!" "Really, I had no idea she was leaving?" "Yeah, I'm really going to miss her - she was such a good therapist!" "I know, we lost a good one!"

I'm not in control

To say that I have had to deal with a lot of change this year would be an understatement. To say that it has been a life-altering, never-be-the-same-again type of year would be more like it. Indulge me for a bit while I recount the events that have made this the most stressful year of my life.

"Little Red", my precious baby daughter, was born on Valentine's Day. Becoming a mother has changed me in the most amazing ways - if you feel the need to grow up in one minute, become a parent. Gone are my days to have a bad day and mope and do nothing. Now there is a little bitty person who depends on me to give 100% to her all day everyday. Before she was born I read a lot of things in books etc. about how I'd feel after she arrive. I read/heard that I would be totally annoyed by my dogs, would forget about my husbands needs, forget to eat, and would not remember who I used to be BB (before Baby). I didn't really believe it all - I thought that maybe that happens to some people, but I have control over my life and I love my dogs like they are my "furry children"; I wasn't the perfect wife all the time, but Brian and I were insync with each other most days and I loved catering to his needs (backrubs, dinner, etc). LR was born and guess what... my dogs are annoying, I am 15 pounds lighter than before I got pregnant because I forgot to eat or had just a few bites, Brian has to remind me that he exists too, and I have no clue who I was BB. What??? I thought I had control over my life!!! I was going to be super-mom --house clean -check, perfectly happy baby - check, dinner on the table - check, quality time with husband - check, groomed dogs - check. Yeah... that's not at all what happened... But what this has taught me is that I'm not in control and that's okay. I'm learning that God is in control and I have to trust in him everyday. This is by no means an easy lesson, he's pulling out test after test for me lately, but this is an ongoing process and He will change me into a better woman. Things may not always be perfect, but I have to deal with all of my insecurities and figure out who God wants me to be. I have to trust Him. I will trust Him.

So who knows how often I'll get to blog. I'm blogging for myself - I have issues that I need to sort out and talking through them seems to be very therapeutic for me. This will help me open up to people in my own little secure way. Here's a glimpse into my insanity: I don't open up to very many people, not because I'm a private person but bc I don't think anyone really cares. So if you're reading my blog and you don't care, don't tell me bc it will hurt my feelings....

...but that's a whole other topic.
I'm going to bed now.