Lots o' Pix!!!

Brian, Charlotte, and I went to Orlando today to see the in-laws...we spent about an hour in traffic on the way home, so I'm not even about to write a long post about our day, but I got some cute Moo-ness on "film."

She is pulling up on EVERYthing now...the doggy gate....

...the gate at David and Jane's house...

...her crib...

Course, she gets up there and doesn't know how to get back down, which causes her some concern...then Mommy has to step in and save the day. Good to know I'm still needed.

Silly Moo making silly faces!

Um...

Yes, she is standing. No, I did not put her there.

Updates!

It's been a while since I've had time to post (if a few days is "a while"), so here's a quick rundown:

I'm so freaking tired of being treated like a criminal. First was the Walgreens debacle, which...whatever. THEN, the next day, I wake up and have an email from AdSense, which is the program that allows advertisers to place ads on blogs, and the blogger gets a certain amount of money from every click on the ad. The email said that my account was cancelled due to "invalid clicks." I have no idea what that means. The only thing I can figure is that the same person or people clicked on the ads too many times, and it logged the IP address. Which...you know, I'm sorry if only 3 people read my blog! I can't help that! *I* never once clicked on the ads, nor did I solicit people to click on them, so WTF AdSense? It just makes me mad because I'm like the straight and narrow person, and I'm tired of being treated like I'm doing stuff wrong! I don't! I follow the rules!

The first week of school is almost over. 35 weeks left. I'm so over this getting up at 5 am thing. My classes are mostly ok, but I can see a few here and there who will be...fun.

Moo sits herself up now! (I can't remember if I mentioned this previously.) She's been sitting unassisted for a couple of months, but I always had to put her there...now she can put herself there. It also means that she usually has one leg under her, which puts her in prime pulling-up position. It's the beginning of the end...

There's a new Outlander book and a new Wheel of Time book coming out within the next 2 months! I am so excited! Especially about the The Gathering Storm, the next installment in the WoT series. Brian isn't thrilled because it's not Robert Jordan, but I just want to know the end already! And I want to know who killed Asmodean! omg!

Tomorrow I'm going to Outback (yay!) with my new fellow band teachers!

Charlotte was asleep when I got home, so I didn't get to see her, which made me sad. So...here are some pictures instead!

Never a Dull Moment

Not in our house, at least. Charlotte is fast approaching the year mark, and becoming quite the little handful. She's still army-crawling, but she has (finally) learned how to put herself into a sitting position. She's been sitting up for months, but could never get herself there...and now she can. I get the feeling that it's all over now--she'll be pulling up, standing, cruising, and then walking. In fact, we had to lower the crib mattress tonight...but I'll get to that.

My mom and I took Charlotte to our favorite place today--the mall! We spent all afternoon shopping, then came home for dinner, bath and bed (for Mommy, too!). It is our habit to let Charlotte crawl around naked for a while after her bath to let things air dry, which usually isn't a problem...except for tonight. While she was cavorting about in the nude, I was folding laundry, and Brian came in to see what we were up to. He immediately moaned, "Oh nooooooooooooooo." Yep, she had pooped where she was sitting, and managed to smear it all over herself. Back into the tub she went.

When she was out of her second bath of the evening, she was back to crawling around on the floor and found the box of wipes I'd bought at Wal-Mart earlier in the day. She proceeded to use the box to maneuver herself into a kneeling position, which incidentally was the exact same position Brian found her in this morning when he went to get her out of bed--kneeling, holding on to the side of her crib. Which brings us to...lowering the mattress. The process itself wasn't that difficult, though a squirmy, inquisitive, naked baby roaming around doesn't help much. But...but...she can't be big enough for this yet! She's still a baby!!!

Here she is, sleeping in her newly lowered crib.

So now I'm off to kiss my sleeping almost-one-year-old and head to bed myself, because the kiddies are coming back tomorrow and methinks it's going to be a cluster...well, you know. Ginormously so.

Anyway, here are a few moo pics! Hopefully I'll have time to take some more soon!

She came with me to my school's orientation night, and crawled all over my classroom! It's probably the only time it'll be clean enough for her to be on the floor.

Silly Moo!

Seriously?!?!?!

So it takes a lot to offend--I mean really, seriously, truly offend--me. I get pissy about a lot of little things, but it takes quite an effort to really *get* to me. Tonight though...

Brian has really bad allergies, and there is one formula of medication that works. We have bought every kind of allergy medicine/antihistamine under the sun, but the only thing that works is the old, pre-pseudoephedrine-ban formula of Actifed, which is now only available as the generic Walgreens brand called Wal-Act. He has been taking this medication for literally years--since I've known him, which has been almost 8 years. A couple of years ago, a law went into effect that limited the amount of pseudoephedrine products one could purchase within a 30-day period, but it worked out that between the 2 of us, we could buy enough to last him the month.

So tonight I stop on my way home to buy him some Wal-Act. I have to go up to the counter and ask for it, as they are kept under lock and key, and the pharmacist asked for my license. No big, that's how it usually goes down. I hand it over, but rather than ringing up my purchase and entering my license number into the register, he takes it over to the computer and starts typing. He types for a few seconds, then stares at my license, then looks at me, then back at my license, then back at me, and says, "This doesn't look like you." I get that a lot, so I laughed it off (my driver's license picture was taken right after I got married FIVE YEARS AGO, when I was about 25 pounds lighter and had super-short hair), but he was SO not kidding--he really thought it might not be my license.

He then pulls up his information on the computer screen and clucks, "It looks like you've bought this twice in the last month," and he turns the screen toward me. (OK? And...?) He then proceeds to tell me that my frequent purchase of the medication is "a problem" and that he "can't continue to dispense it to me." (I'm sorry...I didn't realize that OVER THE COUNTER medications were "dispensed.") He then wanted to know what I was doing with it (clearly, I am making meth in my bathtub...or my husband takes it for his allergies), and proceeded to inform me that if my husband was the one actually taking the medication, that HE had to come in with HIS license to purchase it.

Now, let me tell you that I have literally stood in line to buy this medication with my mom and my aunt, and the pharmacy tech knew damn good and well we weren't all buying the same medicine for our own personal use. I've gone in with Brian and we've both bought it at the same time. Has anyone ever said anything like this guy? No.

So he (the pharmacist) felt it was his job to #1 act like I was using a fake ID, #2 imply that I have a drug problem, and #3 presume to dictate to whom I give over the counter medications in my own home.

What makes it even worse is that there's no recourse. A pharmacist can refuse to dispense a medication at his/her own discretion. Brian just went up there and tried to buy it, and the guy refused to sell it to him, too. I'm just...at a loss. I have no idea what to say or think. What is wrong with people?

Every Single Year...

The night before I go back, I can't go to sleep. Most likely this stems from going to bed at all hours for the last few months, but of ALL the nights...

My biggest problem is that my brain just won't shut off. There are eleventy million things running through my head when I close my eyes; it's like a marquee sign that keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling...so I thought I'd share with you, my loyal reader, the things that are plaguing my consciousness, in an attempt to allow my brain to take a breather.

1. School tomorrow...meetings all day. 'Nuff said.

2. Must update uniform payment list and give to Joy. Must also update guard attendance for last week. Must find out names of new girls who have been practicing with us all week...

3. Must finish syllabi for AP and Guard, and have some sort of course description for Intensive Reading.

4. Must finish list of supplies needed for all classes, to be included in previously mentioned syllabi.

5. Would like to find someone to explain to me how raw scores are converted to scale scores on FCAT and ACT tests.

6. Would like to see official list of classes that I will be teaching and have some idea of who is in them.

7. Must plan, tentatively, at least first week of school.

8. Had an idea for choreography for last number of our halftime show.

9. Must get a copy of the MIDI file of our halftime music, and a score. And an extra copy of the drill sets.

10. Tomorrow is going to suck. 730 am to 9 pm. No moo all day. Did I mention that it's going to suck?

11. Who's going to choreograph next year's halftime show?

12. Charlotte's first birthday is coming up...need I say more?

13. I'm going to have 3 preps this year. I've had 2 every year except last year, and that was bad enough. 3 is going to be fun.

14. I hate waiting. If I'm going to have a week back to get ready for my kids, then I want to get ready for my kids. I'm going to be moving rooms (again), and getting ready for 3 classes that I've never taught before.

15. I might as well just cancel my gym membership, since I'm apparently not going to have time to go anywhere in the near future.


These are just a few things that keep bouncing around my skull. Literally. There are more. I could go on and on. And on. And on some more. I would go lie in bed and read, but I can't because my lamp is broken...or, more accurately, my husband's lamp broke, so he thieved a part from my lamp to fix his lamp, so now mine doesn't work. (Catch all that?)

I was kind of hoping this would be somewhat cathartic, but it seems I was mistaken...so I'm going to go lie in bed and maybe fall asleep around 2 or so.

My Last Weekend of Freedom...

Before I go back to work. Whee!

We went to visit Granny today, and Charlotte had fun playing with the present Granny had for her:

Actually, there were a few presents. Granny got Charlotte a cute little outfit with one of the Aristocats kitties on it, a ball, and a doll.

We also took Charlotte around so Granny could show her off to some of her friends. While we waited for Granny to get ready, Charlotte played with some boxes--I swear, I don't know why I even bother spending money on toys for this child. She loves to play with things that aren't supposed to be toys!

We were supposed to do some shopping with Grandma, but both Mommy and Charlotte were so tired, so we came home and took a nap. Charlotte chose to use her nap time to learn a new skill:

Do you see anything wrong with this picture? Let me just tell you that that is the SECOND diaper she took off. Brian and I were watching her on the video monitor from our bedroom, and she was all rolling around in her crib with half her diaper flapping in the wind. I figured that I somehow hadn't put it on right, so Brian went to fix it. In the time that it took for him to walk from our bedroom to hers, I watched her pull the rest of the diaper off like a pair of regular underwear, and wave it around for Daddy when he walked in. He put a fresh diaper on her, yet what you see in the picture is what I saw when I went to wake her up. No more naked baby naps!

Anyway...off to bed. Tomorrow is my last day of freedom! Did I mention whee?

In Honor of M&M

Just for my friend Melissa and her husband Mike...it's...Serious Moo!

(yaaaaay!!!)

Apparently Melissa was reading my blog and showing it to her hubs, and came across an entry where I referred to "Serious Moo." (I'd like to add that I've been trying to figure out which post it was, and I can't find it.) She said she couldn't find a picture to show him what I meant, so here is Serious Moo, in a nutshell. Teehee. I love this picture. Worth a thousand words, indeed.

Back in the Saddle Again

Started band pre-school rehearsals today. So tired I can't form complete sentences. Using fragments for effect. That's all for now.

Weekend Projects!

Check out Charlotte's new chair!

I've been wanting to get Charlotte her own little chair for a while, so when my mom and stepdad found this cute little baby adirondack chair at Sam's, they couldn't pass it up! It started out plain green, but then Mommy got ahold of it--now it has lots of pretty flowers and butterflies on it, for my pretty girl! I think she likes it.

And I just think this picture is hilarious...she looks like she's yelling "Moooommmm!!!!

I also got a little crafty with the sewing machine (and some help from mom). A bunch of Charlotte's clothes were getting too short for her--she had all these onesie/pants combos, but she's on the long-ish side, so the onesies weren't cutting it anymore. So we cut the bottoms off and made them into t-shirts! I also had a second go at making her a tutu. The first one I made a couple of weeks ago didn't require sewing, and it turned out pretty cute. I wanted to see the difference in appearance and quality in that one and a tutu that's been sewn, so I tried my hand at that:

It's kind of hard to tell, because the tulle is white and more sheer, and this one is longer and not as poofy...so I can't decide which one I like better. Decisions, decisions.

Sea World!

Today was Charlotte's first trip to a theme park!!! Sea World has been doing a thing where teachers get in free, so one of my fellow masochists and I took advantage of that and the sweltering heat to pack up the diaper bag, stroller, and baby, and take off for Orlando. I'll try to make it about Charlotte, post some pics, and leave it at that...but oh.MY.god. do I hate (HATE) people sometimes. I mean, if you're going to a theme park, there are some things you should remember:

• If you're standing in line, get in line. If you're not in the line, GET OUT OF THE LINE.
  
• Just because it's hot, you do not have carte blanche to bare as much skin as possible.


• At Sea World, the animals are in the water. You are not. You do not need to wear a bathing suit, or a towel, or anything else that you would wear to a "water" park. If you do choose to wear these garments, you should still wear regular clothing.
  
• WEAR A FREAKING BRA. Seriously. Some young women *may* be able to get away with it, but the problem is that a) the ones who can't don't seem to realize it, and b) many women do not seem to realize when they stop being able to get away with it, and they keep going and going and going...and by "they," to whom am I referring? You be the judge.


• If you're walking, and you just randomly stop, you do NOT get to give me a dirty look when I run your ass over.

OK...that was my abbreviated list of thoughts from today. I'm sure there are more, but this isn't about me, remember? So...when we first got there, I tried to get a picture of Charlotte, but I quickly discovered that she was already hot and there was too much going on, and therefore she was not in the mood, and also that people are just freaking rude and walk in front of you! omg. Anyway.

So here's Charlotte at the entrance to Sea World

We walked around the park, and spent most of our time looking at the animals and exhibits. I think we could have done that OR go to the shows, but not both. We ate lunch when we got here, and ran into some of my students, and believe me when I say that I was not ready to hear "Mrs. Webster?!?!!?!" for several more weeks!

The first animals we saw were the sea lions, and there were all these little babies and they were SO cute! And their water looked really, really nice from out in the hot, humid August-in-Florida weather.

From there we went to the penguins, which I loooove (they're so cute!), but it brought us to the first of many annoyances: in order to go anywhere at Sea World, you have to take the baby out of the stroller and leave it parked with a million other strollers. I was actually privy to this in advance, as Tara had warned me, but I underestimaed how much of a pain in the ass I would find it. Get the baby out, put the baby in, get the baby out, put the baby in...diaper bag on, diaper bag off. See where I'm going with this?

Anyhow, the penguins were fun, as was the shark exhibit. The sharks are featured in a 124 ft. long cylindrical tank through which vistors move on a conveyor belt, the better to watch and not worry about silly things like stumbling over other people's kids. Sorry. There I go again...

Charlotte's eyes were about as round as saucers while we went through the tank. I'm not sure she had any idea what she was looking at, but she seemed to like it!

We almost got eaten at the entrance to the sharks! Ahhhh! (OK, lame, I know...)

This was next to the sea dragons. They look like plants. Way cool.


Having a snack!

We did take in one show while we were there--a Cirque du Soleil-esque performance featuring dance and acrobatics and really loud music. Charlotte was all about the dancing, colors, and light, but she was not so much into the loud music or the lack of a nap. During most of the show she was torn between watching, hiding in my cleavage, and trying to sleep on my shoulder.

Then it was off to the Arctic exhibit, with the polar bears and beluga whales. Charlotte didn't seem to mind the ice at all...in fact, she seemed fascinated by it!

After the Wild Arctic, Charlotte managed to catch a quick catnap in her stroller...

...and woke up in time to hang out with Mommy, then Auntie Indira, while we took turns going on the new roller coaster, Manta. It's a pretty cool ride; similar to other "bottomless" or floorless coasters, except that it folds up on itself so you take the whole ride facedown. Fun times, especially with the screaming teenagers next to me.

All in all, it was a pretty good day. I think Sea World was a good choice to introduce Charlotte to the world of theme parks, since there's lots of stuff to look at and not as many rides. We were only there for a few hours, but it was long enough to wear her out! She slept al the way home, but woke up in time to have dinner with Daddy, have a quick bath, and head off to bed! She was a tired, tired little girl!

Double Digits

That's right...Charlotte is now 10 months old! Where has the time gone?

We made it home safely from our trip to Virginia, and though it was a PACKED weekend, we had a very nice time. I had a blast getting to know some of Brian's family a little better, and Charlotte was, of course, the center of attention.

The wedding was very pretty, but it was HOT out there! Charlotte behaved very well (of course!), though it took some distraction to keep her quiet:

Please ignore my frizzy hair, and Charlotte's Richard Simmons 'do...like I said, it was VERY hot, and VERY humid!

The flight back was not real fun. Let me just suggest that flying from a major hub (i.e. Charlotte-Douglas airport) INTO Orlando is not a great idea. All I have to say is: children. Lots and lots of children. Charlotte was fine, and actually slept most of the time we were in the air. The 20 minutes we had to wait for them to sort out the overbooking and put together families with small children who were seating across the plane from one another...not so fun. The lady who got all rude because my purse was in the overhead bin taking up space that she felt better used for her steamer trunk...not so fun (get a clue, lady, I'm in a bulkhead row, my purse HAS to go up there). The 20 minutes we spent on the runway waiting out a lightning storm...not so fun. Again, Charlotte was fine during this little delay. She played Climb the Mommy, and Wiggle Toward the Floor, and Look at the Screaming Baby, and lots other fun games, but she played them quietly. The rest of the kids on the plane did not follow her example, however, and 20 minutes felt more like 20 hours. Brian has decreed that we are NOT having any more children.

Anyway. We are home, and I am exhausted. 5 hours of holding a baby, even a good baby, wears on you. The good news is that Charlotte's first plane trip was a success, and we got to meet and spend time with lots of new family. Now the countdown begins to the end of summer. This is my last week "off;" even though we don't go back until the 17th, I have two days next week of...band camp! I can't believe I'm doing this all over again...what was I thinking? (I'm so excited!!!)