ten on tuesday: ten things that freak me out/scare me

Ten things that Freak me Out

1. BLOOD (click on the link and check out the cool youtube video)

I am NOT a fan of blood. I don't even like the "V" word (the thing like an artery that carries blood). It makes me queasy just to hear the word. For some reason getting a needle is not so traumatising, but having something stuck in me to REMOVE my blood is just wrong. A vampire or a heroine addict I would never be. Watching ER, (even though it is my FAVE show) and Intervention can make me ill. It even makes my palm sweat to have someone touch me in the crook of my arm where one draws blood from. I had a friend once videotape a surgery and then want to watch it with a group of friends. That is twisted.

2. Swimming in a lake where there are grabby things that touch your legs. I have no problem swimming in the ocean, but lakes with stringy ankle grabbing stuff freak me out.

3. Proposition 8. Proposition 8 is titled "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry". It is an initiative measure on the 2008 California General Election ballot. If passed, the proposition would amend the California Constitution to remove the legal ability of same-sex couples to marry. A new section would be added stating "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

What ACTUALLY freaks me out is the fact that many of my extended family members are in support of this proposition. It just freaks me out that in this day and age, there is still such opposition to people being equal. I can rationalize when it is strangers - they don't know me, they know nothing of my life and although it annoys me, it is not nearly as scary as FAMILY advocating legal action against gays and lesbians.

4. Scary Movies. I am not a fan of scary movies and I have known to find myself scared of cartoons. Monster House creeped the bejeebers out of me and as much as I love Scooby Doo, even Scooby has been a little too intense at times. I have the Scooby Doo PS2 game, even the game was a pushing it for me in terms of scariness.

5. Checkouts. I am freaked out by paying for things at the checkout. It seems to happen to me OFTEN that I am at the checkout ALONE and my debit card for some reason does not work. It never happens when my spouse is there with her cards to bail me out, but only when I am alone and have no backup. I know (logically) that if in case my card doesnt work, I can leave my stuff and walk out and return when I have gone to a debit machine or straightened something out, but it freaks me out still. Yesterday we were in Walmart and my spouse offered to take the kids to the van and wait for me while I paid. While it was easier to unload the cart without "help", I could have an anxiety attack waiting for the debit machine to show "approved".

6. Haunted Houses. These are not such a big deal where we are living right now as they were when we lived in the USA. Especially at Halloween, haunted houses cropped up EVERYWHERE where you could go in and pay to have people scare you. The concept eludes me. PAY someone to scare the shiznet out of you. Knowing they are there, and knowing they are paid (minimum wage) to jump out at you is freaky. Knowing it is fake doesn't make it less scary to me. I have better things to waste my money on thanks.

7. Corn. I like corn, don't get me wrong. Nothing makes me happier than to buy fresh corn in the fall. What freaks me out about corn, as the mother of a two year old who also loves it, is that no matter how many times you CHEW a kernel of corn, it comes out "whole". You know what i mean. It's freaky. You can chew that corn until it is completely unrecogniseable and you will still poop a kernel. It's like there is some little stomach gnome, that takes corn pieces in your belly and reconstructs them. Seriously, for little babies you can buy creamed corn babyfood in jars. you feed that to them and corn kernels are pooped out. No word of a lie.

8. Mormon Missionaries. I am a former Mormon. I have moved countries and moved homes NUMEROUS times since the Mormon church notified me that my "lifestyle" was inappropriate and I was not welcome to participate in church any longer. Since that time the missionaries continue to find me in hopes that I will abandon my sinful ways and rejoin the flock. How do they find me? It's freaky how those twosomes get around and find people that no-one else in the world can find. I think the US government should have hired missionaries to find Osama Bin Laden. I swear those kids would have him by now if they had gone door to door in Afganistan.

9. People that I care about dying before me.

10. Driving at night when I can't see and I know there are animals in the road.

The Name of the Meme

The Name of the Meme

Blogenstein did this one.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet, current car): Aphrodite Tinkey Winkey
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe): Vanilla Birkenstock. That's so gangsta. I'd be laughed all the way out of the hood.
3. YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN NAME (favorite color, favorite animal): Green Elephant (seriously?)
4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, city where you were born): Catherine Gwelo
5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (the first three letters of your last name, first two of your first name): byrju - Not bad!
6. SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): Purple Pepper. That's just not right.
7. NASCAR NAME (the first names of your grandfathers): Joe Eric. LOL. I think there already is a nascar racer with that name - or a few dozen fans.
8. STRIPPER NAME (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy): This one really didnt work out for me. Somehow CKone Peanut m&M is not a good stripper name.
9. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (your fifth grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Fifth grade? I have no idea what country I was living in when I was in 5th grade. Calloway Chicago
10. SPY NAME (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Easter Orchid. I'd fool people with that name for sure.
11. CARTOON NAME (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now): Raspberry Underwire Bra. There's a cartoon with an R rating right there!
12. HIPPIE NAME (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Banana Baobab

Friday Fill in (on Monday)

I am late getting this done, but I have a lot of fun doing it. Thanks to Janet for putting it together.

1. My birthday, my spouses birthday and halloween are some of the things I'm most looking forward to in October.

2. Sometimes I am wrong, but not often.

3. I am a married lesbian and that's why there is a saying, "never say never"!

4. When I'm down, I want to be left alone.

5. At work is where you'll find me most often.

6. A rainy day is good for staying in bed with a book.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to sleeping, tomorrow my plans include sleeping and Sunday, I want to sleep!

Shut UP. Clay Aiken is gay?

I don't believe it. Clay Aiken has come out of the closet.

Was there anyone in America who DiDN'T think this kid was gay? I can see how someone looking at the picture of him above would think he was straight. NOT.

Check it out in his own words here

television

I think I have previously ascertained that I watch a lot of television. We have this great thing which I think is something like a tivo, called a PVR. It's like a built in recorder and you can program it to record shows. The thing I love about it the most is that you can fast forward through the commercials and it keeps a nice little log of what shows you have, how many hours you have remaining etc. It's WAYYYY better than a VCR tape where you have to fast forward and rewind through tons of garbage to find the shows you watch, or you accidentally record over shows you haven't seen.
So this summer there has not been a lot of good shows to watch. On the Home and Garden Channel there is a show called House Hunters. I think I have watched some of the episodes about ten times but I can't seem to get enough of checking out the homes people look at and then chain themselves to (with 30 year mortgages).
My spousal unit and I try to guess which house the people will choose and I like to add my little comments about why they were dumb to choose the one they did (if it wasn't my guess).
OK. ( It took a long time for me to get to the point here).
This week we were watching one episode and the realtor made such a stupid comment it has stuck with me ever since. Yes, I even rewound it to listen to her say it again. She said "This has been wired for electricity"
You heard it here folks. "wired for electricity".
I won't go into the long discourse I subjected my spouse to, you can come to your own conclusions. Such a great show.

ten on tuesday: ten great things that happened this summer

This week the topic for ten on tuesday is "ten great things that happened this summer". Since I worked all summer and used my vacation days to go to school, I thought I would write about ten things that have happened at work since school started.

#1. I am the emergency on-call person. Usually I only receive calls when there is a REAL emergency but occasionally my idea of an emergency is not the same as others. Last night I got a call that there was a lamb on the loose on the farm "in case" I wanted to do anything about it. While the dorms are sometimes a bit of an animal farm, I have nothing to do with the REAL farm and a lamb on the loose is the least of my concerns.


#2. We implemented a new check in procedure that for the most part was extremely successful and saved a WHACK of time for me and my staff.
#3. We implemented a new payment procedure that for the most part was successful and has saved a WHACK of time for me and my staff.
#4. A student was found passed out on the grass outside. The security report (as usual) said absolutely nothing other than "student found outside on the grass passed out". I don't know how much more training I need to do to get security staff to write more information. I can't do much with this lack of information.#5. A student got electrocuted by the outlet in his room. He does not wear a pacemaker so at least it didn't kill him, and we had a good laugh as I was trying to remember the word "pacemaker" and my gesturing made him think I was asking if he had boobs.

#6. A student locked himself out while cooking. He was the only one home. One of the things about loving where I live is that it is NOT close to campus. The whole time I was driving into town to let him in I was thinking of the fire video I just watched where a dorm room is incinerated in literally 7 minutes. I didn't make it to work in 7 minutes but he had broken in by that time, and just forgot to call me to let me know he was in. So do I fine him for locking himself out? Fine him for breaking in? Or just thank my lucky stars that the place didn't burn to the ground?

#7. I had a grand master plan to put mini fridges into every room in the dorms. One of our biggest problems is students arguing over food and stolen food. Putting mini fridges (in my mind) solved this issue, but in our moving efforts we inadvertently took mini fridges from rooms where students were storing personal belongings. When they returned they all thought someone had stolen their fridges. Whoops!
#8. I didn't hire the five extra students I need. I am still trying to find willing bodies.
#9. I heard about parties after the fact (sometimes I DO hear about them before they happen), but I was hopeful (translate: in denial) that the parties wouldn't start happening quite yet. Please don't ask me why i was hoping for this. Students always party most enthusiastically the first and last weeks of school.
#10. I finally ordered "staff parking only" signs and I will put them up. I have prolonged it for many years even though I have wanted them and get tired of walking to the back fourty when I get off work at midnight. I will take bets on how long they will last before facilities comes and takes them away - like they did with my garbage cans. (They took my garbage cans because..... it "promoted" people throwing trash on the ground!)

unconscious mutterings

I say ... and you think ... ?

Heist :: Money
Hack :: Computer
Dane :: Great
Stings :: Jelly Fish
Monkey :: See, Monkey Do
Junkie :: Intervention
Pumped :: Ah-nold. Skit on SNL
Brass :: Knuckles
Fight! :: UFC
Vouch :: for me

Sick family

This past two weeks have been something like I imagine hell would be. Everyone in the family has been sick. I am not good at being sick. In addition to feeling like I was hit by a mac truck, being sick makes me feel sorry for myself.

Having sick babies is no fun at all. Sick babies can't eat, they can't sleep, they are generally grumpy. This is not fun to deal with at the best of times, but when you feel sick yourself it is downright hell. The only thing I have wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep. Yeah right, that's a pipe dream.

This is the implement that we have for sucking snot from baby noses. This implement is not good at sucking snot, nor do babies like it shoved up their noses. If you happen to be lucky enough to extract something from the baby nose, then you have to clean this "bulb" out. Gag-o-rama.

Needless to say I have missed work and I have fallen behind in just about everything in life, including blogging. My apologies to my three readers.

You are all just lucky you can't catch my virus by reading this post. I promise you don't want it.

Friday Fill in

Check out more participants in Friday Fill in by clicking on the link above.

1. There is no need to talk to me so loudly when my head hurts so much.
2. Where in the heck did the cold wind come from when the weatherman said it would be warm today?
3.Get dressed and brush my hair is all I managed to do.
4. Prospects for coming into a lot of money anytime soon are dismal.
5. Drink lots of water, sleep, and get over this flu is the message.
6. Simplicity and tranquility are two things I am not experiencing at work right now.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to Max's birthday, tomorrow my plans include Sleeping at every opportunity and Sunday, I want to feel better !

12 of 12

A while ago I came across this blog - (12 of 12). I loved the idea of taking 12 photographs on the 12th of each month and I couldn't wait to join in.

Unfortunately this month I had camera issues on the 12th, even though I was almost panicked to get them taken and get my name linked with others who were particpating. Since I missed the day I have decided that I will post 12 photos even though I won't link to the blog. since I didn't do it officially. Now I am on the countdown to next month. Here are my pictures:

I started out the weekend at school. Here is the view from the parking lot.

I have to stop on the way out of town at Tim hortons. This is what LOT of vehicles look like as they leave town. People drive long distances to shop here and do as much as they can. Even with the price of gas being what it is, it is still cheaper to shop here.

Iced Cappucino. YUM

Next stop Pizza Hut. We have no decent pizza in town and so every time we go we have to stop and pick up pizza to bring home. We will go so far as to ask people to pick us up Pizza when they are in town. Yea, we are that desperate for it. SOME PEOPLE (cough, K-LO, cough) "forget" to stop on the way out of town. I'm not bitter.

I was testing out the camera as I drove. It takes a decent steady shot. I figured if I can text while I drive I can take pictures while I drive.

The top of the hill. This is where cell reception dies. This is also where the road is falling away into he ravine inspite of being repaired repeatedly. I hope this is not where I die one day, driving as the road gives way.

Another view from the top

They are doing contruction on the bridge (Still) and as you wait in line to get across they have this sign posted. Unfortunately there is no cell phone reception where you wait to get across so I hope there is never an emergency as you would have to turn around and go back to the top of the hill in order to make the call. Hopefully the people on the other end of this line aren't working on the bridge when someone tries to call. That would be a pretty messy emergency.

The bridge

The bridge again

I have to admit I did not take these last two pictures. They were taken by my spousal unit after I got home. Both were taken from our yard.

I wonder if he has a better view of mice from the top of my truck.

unconscious mutterings

If you want to check out more link here:

I say ... and you think ... ?

Cut the crap :: Deceit
Scent :: Vanilla
Vanishing :: Act
Wetness :: Diapers (this was not my first thought - LOL)
Cheap :: Trick
Badges :: Name tags - HATE THEM!
Puppy :: Accidents
Problem solver :: Communication
Gambling :: Debt
Sophia :: Lady I worked with at WSU

litter boxes

When I met my spouse she was (what I consider to be) a "freaky cat lady".

She had a lot of cats. A LOT.

I am allergic to cats and I was purely a dog person. I was unfamiliar with the habits of cats, and with her cats in particular. I had never seen a hairball, heard a cat coughing up a hairball, been exposed to the treat of a cat bringing home a live, or half dead mouse. I had not had the pleasure of having my clothing dragged out of laundry baskets and deposited all over the house. I was completely unaware that a house cat, if treated well, could live long into it's teenage years or even longer.

My introduction into the lives of the cats was not an easy one. In fact it has been fraught with problems. The first time I heard a cat coughing up a hairball I was completely captivated. What was that sound? My SU informed me that it wasn't anything I would enjoy watching, but I needed to see what all the fuss was about. She was right. She knew of my weak constitution and we almost had to clean up cat hairball and human vomit. The sight of it made me gag. I have learned to remove myself from any situation when "hairball sound" starts.

Sharing the bed - with the cats - took a lot of getting used to. They were not very happy that I was taking up THEIR spot. Angry cats are not nice cats.

I have now lived with these cats for a long time. We have come to an understanding. They get their way. They sleep where where want. They drag my clothes from the laundry basket and deposit it all over the house. They bring me dead and half dead mice. And to tell you the truth, sometimes I don't completely hate them.

What I DO hate is kitty litter. I hate it with a passion. I hate it more than anything I hate in this world. I hate the smell of it, the texture of it, and most of all, I hate the weight of it. I hate the 100 pound boxes it comes in at Costco. I hate the 200 pounds boxes of used litter I have to cart up the stairs and out to the truck and to the dump. I hate the litter more than I love the cats. I cannot wait for the day in my life when kitty litter is no more.

I think there should be a lottery for cat owners - like the 1000 dollars a week for the rest of your life, there should be a ticket that would exempt you from cleaning litter for the rest of your life. I would seriously buy those tickets.

Friday Fill in

Check out more participants in Friday Fill in by linking here:

1. I enjoy laughing.

2. Improving the environment at work is something I wonder about often lately.

3. In your heart, you know I love you the most, nings back, so there, HA!

4. Take Corn Tortillas, add a little Chorizo and you end up with the taste of "home".

5. Life has gifted me with a beautiful family.

6. Dreaming or reading a good book is an instant vacation.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to class, tomorrow my plans include checking out new vehicle prices and Sunday, I want to chainsaw dead trees!

Ten on Tuesday: ten favorite movie songs

This week's topic is ten favorite movie songs. I like movies and LOVE music so this one is hard for me to narrow down.

In no particular order (and likely to change at any time)

1. Rainbow connection by Kermit the Frog from The Muppet Movie

2. Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls from City of Angels

3. Banana Boat Song from Beetlejuice

4. The Animal Song by Savage Garden from The Other Sister

5. It Must Have Been Love by Roxette from Pretty Woman

6. Pennies from Heaven by Billie Holiday from Corinna Corrina

7. Blood Money by Bon Jovi from Young Guns 2

8. Do You Hear the People Sing from Les Miserables

9. The Lonely Goatherd from Sounds Of Music

Weekend

I could not wait for this weekend to start. One would think because last week was a short week, that it would have flown by and been a nice little break. Unfortunately (for me mostly), the week seemed to drag on. I was extremely busy, and I was too too tired from night duty.
Our baby seems to be doing well. He is growing and eating more and looking healthy, but he is not sleeping any better. Last night I was on night duty. It was absolutely insane. He was up ALL night long. His crying kept waking Max and then Max would cry. Because I had the light on in the bedroom, the dogs bugged me CONSTANTLY to be let out. I finally relented at 5am and let them out, but then they didn't come back for half an hour. He would eat, then cry, over and over and over in about 20 minute cycles. AI AI AI AI AI. It didn't help any that in one of my frustrated "flopping on the pillow" moments, I knocked the night stand and spilled his gripe water all down the back of the nightstand, all over the wall and on the floor. Cleaning it up is not as tragic as not having any more.
I know that we have a lot of good days, but these last few were not them. This morning I was in bed and Max was playing with the spousal unit. He tries to crawl away from her and she grabs him by the ankle and it is all shrieks of fun. Only he seems to be getting faster - and Shel is as sleep deprived as I am and not as quick as he is. He managed to get away at full speed and tip right over the foot of the bed, while we both looked on as if it was all happening in slow motion. He has a nice scratched up nose to show for it.
I go back to work tomorrow and I am starting out the week in absolutely the worst way. I am absolutely exhausted and the list of things I need to get accomplished is longer than I can even think of right now. Of course that just adds to my problem - with everything on my plate I won't get a wink of sleep tonight either.
Thank GOODNESS for Max sleeping the whole night through. I just keep hoping that we will get to that point sooner rather than later with this little guy. For now I have to just look for pictures of Max having fun to remember that there IS fun in our lives. I am too far removed right now.

Friday Fill in

1. If I was to walk into your life, would you have a place where I could lay down and take a nap?

2. Catch a bright star and place it under your pillow.

3. And you can send me some chorizo and corn tortillas from the USA. Oh, don't forget the chewy spree.

4. ... but I'm dealing with a memory that never forgets. I have absolutely no idea how to start this sentence.

5. I'm the innocent bystander / Somehow I got stuck doing someone else's job.

6. What's keeping us apart isn't selfishness, it's the fact that I can't string together two cogent thoughts because I am so damn tired.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to sleeping, tomorrow my plans include sleeping and Sunday, I want to sleep!

Thursday Thirteen: thirteen things that happened at work this week

I am very lucky to live in a place I love, with a home in a location I love (surrounded by woods - lol) with pets I love, (even though they are bringing WAYYYY too many mice into the house) at a job I love, working with people I like.

This week for me at work is one of the most busy weeks of the year with students returning, new staff being hired and trained, and so on, and so on and so on.

Here are 13 things that have happened at work or related to work in the last week.

#1. I am the emergency on-call person. Usually I only receive calls when there is a REAL emergency but occasionally my idea of an emergency is not the same as others. Last night I got a call that there was a lamb on the loose on the farm "in case" I wanted to do anything about it. While the dorms are sometimes a bit of an animal farm, I have nothing to do with the REAL farm and a lamb on the loose is the least of my concerns.

#2. We implemented a new check in procedure that for the most part was extremely successful and saved a WHACK of time for me and my staff.

#3. We implemented a new payment procedure that for the most part was successful and has saved a WHACK of time for me and my staff.

#4. A student was found passed out on the grass outside. The security report (as usual) said absolutely nothing other than "student found outside on the grass passed out". I don't know how much more training I need to do to get security staff to write more information. There's not a lot I can do with this.

#5. A student got electrocuted by the outlet in his room. He does not wear a pacemaker so at least it didn't kill him, and we had a good laugh as I was trying to remember the word "pacemaker" and my gesturing made him think I was asking if he had boobs.

#6. A student locked himself out while cooking. He was the only one home. One of the things about loving where I live is that it is NOT close to campus. The whole time I was driving into town to let him in I was thinking of the fire video I just watched where a dorm room is incinerated in literally 7 minutes. I didn't make it to work in 7 minutes but he had broken in by that time, and just forgot to call me to let me know he was in. So do I fine him for locking himself out? Fine him for breaking in? Or just thank my lucky stars that the place didn't burn to the ground?
#7. I had a grand master plan to put mini fridges into every room in the dorms. One of our biggest problems is students arguing over food and stolen food. Putting mini fridges (in my mind) solved this issue, but in our moving efforts we inadvertently took mini fridges from rooms where students were storing personal belongings. When they returned they all thought someone had stolen their fridges. Whoops!

#8. I didn't hire the five extra students I need. I am still trying to find willing bodies.

#9. I heard about parties after the fact (sometimes I DO hear about them before they happen), but I was hopeful (translate: in denial) that the parties wouldn't start happening quite yet.

#10. I finally ordered "staff parking only" signs and I will put them up. I have prolonged it for many years even though I have wanted them and get tired of walking to the back fourty when I get off work at midnight. I think I will take bets on hoe long they will last before facilities comes and takes them away - like they did with my garbage cans. (They took my garbage cans because..... it "promoted" people throwing trash on the ground!)

uh... I need to come up with three more interesting things. I will add to this as I think of things!

soccer family

For as long as I can remember my family has been very involved in soccer. We have played together, we have played against one another. I played in high school, at university and after university. My brother's both played in high school and after high school. Both my sisters play.
(I think I am the only one of the kids in the family who doesn't play currently).
I have coached teams - including my old high school team and teams my younger brother played on. I have also refereed. Needless to say we all love the game.
My brother (J2) now has a family with two children. He works full time and his wife works and as he has gotten older he has sacrificed some of the things in his life that he did when he was younger. One of those thing has NOT been soccer. He plays through injuries and illnesses and he is darn good at what he does.
This year the outdoor season has just ended for him and he sent me a copy of the local paper which updates stats. My little bro is the high scorer for his whole division! He scored 18 goals this season.
Way to go bro :)

You can tell in this picture of him here what an athlete he was going to turn out to be. LOL

I like to think it has something to do with what an incredible coach I was when you were learning the elementary skills in days of yore.

ten on tuesday: ten people I would like to meet

This week on ten on tuesday the topic is "ten people you would like to meet".

For those three of you who read this and know me, you will see a glaring omission (Rob Thomas), but then you would also know that he is on my list of "people whose love child I will have" and not on my "people you want to meet" list.

I started out my list and there was a lot of dead people on it, so I changed some and added some living people, just to show I don't live COMPLETELY in the past.

#1 Maggie Thatcher. I don't really know her politics, but any woman who can be the leader of such a powerful nation I think would be worth sitting down and talking to. I 'll bet she has some interesting stories to tell.








#2. Walt Disney. i am such a huge fan of Walt and the vision he had in creating disneyland - BEFORE the politics of it became such a huge issue. I would love to know what he thinks of what has become of his empire. I doubt he would treat his employees the way they are treated now.



#3. Rosie O' Donnell.

There are very few celebrities that I really have any interest in meeting. I think I would be friends with Rosie if I ever had the chance to meet her, but I am sure a lot of people think that.


#4. Nelson Mandela.

I would be awed just to be in Mr. Mandela's presence.






#5. Albert Einstein.

How cool would it be to hear his take on things. I wonder what he would think of the war in Iraq and the price of gas.









#6. Benazir Bhutto.

Another amazing politician who knew that her life was in danger running for another term as president of her country. I would love to know what motivated her.




#7. P!nk.

I would only want to meet her if she wore this outfit in our meeting.








# 8. Gary Larson
Gary is the brains behind the far side comics. He has been retired for a few years now but I still laugh at his brilliant comics. I would have a blast meeting with him.






#9. Lady Di

I was totally in love with Princess Di and very sad when she passed. I would love to have had an opportunity to meet with her.

#10. The founders of google.
Maybe they have some ideas of somewhere I can invest my money (when I get some). If I had to give up my job right now and take a job working for someone else, I think I would like to work for google.

23 months old

Hey Buddy,
I am a bit late this month writing my letter to you. I can't believe this month you are two years old already! Every day that you get older more and more of your personality comes shining though. You are developing a wonderful sense of humor and you LOVE to tease us. I don't think a day goes by when you don't laugh. You are such a joy. This month you met Aunty Jill and fell in love with her instantly. I know it's a hard thing to NOT fall in love with Jill. It's moments like these when I wish we lived closer to family so these bonds could grow. You will be almost 4 before you see her again, I hope you will remember her.

For some reason this month you figured out that if you say "hi" to people they will respond to you. You greet me in the morning when I come up before going to work, and in the grocery store this week you greeted everyone we passed. I was surprised because usually you are so shy around people, but apparently sitting in a grocery cart makes you invincible and it is safe to greet others.

You have now been living in a house with a baby for six weeks and you are doing remarkably well. In many ways I like the person you have become since the little man joined us. Prior to his arrival you were so independent, you hated us trying to help you with anything, but now that you have to compete for our attention you are a lot more accommodating. All of a sudden you want to sit in our laps and be held, which makes me happy, but it also reminds me just how TALL you are. It seems crazy that just two years ago I was packing you around in one arm. Now you are running around behind your mom galloping like a horse (which she taught you this month) while she calls out " I am a FFRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIITOOOOOOOOOO BANDITOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" She's hard not to love.

At supper time we are trying to sit down and eat together which is not as easy as it sounds. Because you have so many different food allergies we try to make the food you eat LOOK like the food we eat. Unfortunately for me, you want to feed me from your plate and eat from mine. While under normal circumstances this does not bother me, when we make mini pizza's I really prefer not to eat goat cheese on top of gluten free crust. Your mom insists that I not show you by my facial expressions that the things you put in my mouth taste gross to me. I should get an academy award for acting.

I have been working at my job for five years now. I love it, but I have started watching the clock when it is tome to go home because I know you are waiting for me. I hate spending any more time away from you than I have to.

You are no fonder of wearing pants than you ever have been. The weather has turned a little chillier but it doesn't seem to stop you. I imagine that once you step outside after it has snowed that you might change your mind, but who knows. Probably not!

When we brought you home from the hospital 23 months ago we were under strict instructions not to overstimulate you. You had such a hard entry into this world that any stimulation at all would cause you physical pain. It is pretty typical for kids who have had similar beginnings to go through life with problems of overstimulation. We had to dim lights, talk quietly (a hard one for me), and taking you somewhere like the grocery store was advised against. No-one would ever know that if they met you today. You are SO aware of everything that is happening around you. While you still aren't really interested in the television (something I hope you outgrow for my sake), you are interested in everything that is going on around you and you soak it all up like a sponge.

Well Bud. I am on my way to see you right now. I can't wait.

Love you bud.