For Maria.

My New Mexico Bug Story.

Last fall, we were leaving my parents house after dark. On the way home, we stopped at a stoplight and something caught my eye. I looked out the passenger side window, and sliding down the glass was a GIANT tarantula!!! I jumped out of my seat, screaming my head off... I went ballistic! Barry started swerving and yelling because he thought that a car was barrelling toward us. After realizing we were not about to die, Barry screamed, "WHAT!" And I frantically explained that there was a spider on my window.

I've never seen Barry so mad.

When we got home, I made him get out of the car, come around to my side, and thoroughly make sure the spider didn't miraculously stay on the car during our drive, just waiting for a chance to eat me.

Lucky for me, it was gone. But I wonder, HOW IN THE HECK DID A TARANTULA GET ON TOP OF MY CAR???!!?! My theory is that it dropped onto our roof from a tree we were parked under. Just think! It could have landed on my head!!!!!!!!!

Even after a year, I still have to check the roof (and the car handle) whenever we park there, just to make sure Tarantula's Family isn't seeking revenge. Shudder.

BRISINGR!

The Girls and I had the funnest time on the eve of "Breaking Dawn", the fourth book in the "Twilight" series, but it was just a Ladies night. So, my friend, Priscilla and I wanted to make sure our husbands got to partake in the Par-tay as well. Friday night was the release of "Brisingr", the third book in the Inheritance series. We met up at Priscilla's house and ate some "Saphira" Cake, then played games until our husbands left to buy their books. It was a blast! Here are a few pictures!

P.S. Please don't judge my dragon cake, the frosting melted because our apartment is so hot, so it looks rather gross and disgusting! We still ate it though, and it was good!

Every day...

Grayson no longer allows me to feed him. If I try, he just spits the food out until I hand him the spoon. I'm beginning to believe he got the Ricks' "stubborness" gene. This is very frustrating on the days where he is already dressed and I am planning on going somewhere after he eats. So we have this new tradition:

Every day, I strip Gray down to his skivies to eat. He makes a huge mess, and instead of cleaning him up I take him straight to the tub. Every day, Grayson poops in the tub. And every day, I remind myself to wait a few minutes before bathing him so he can do his business in a diaper. But, every day I forget and stick him right in the tub. They say people are supposed to learn from their mistakes.

I guess I'm just not one of those types of people.

What a week!

Before I start, let me add a little disclaimer... I am very close to "lady time" so I hope that might justify my actions that you will soon be reading.

A few days ago, I lost my car keys. Not only the car keys, but our house key, the mail key, the laundry key, and a few sentimental key chains. Needless to say, the keys were important. I was rushing to take Grayson to the doctor and I distinctly remembered putting the keys into the diaper bag, then we walked to the doctor's, and then we were given a ride home. Somewhere in that time, the keys disappeared.

Now, as you all know, this week has been horribly stressful, depressing, and difficult with Grayson's condition. My stress level was beyond red alert so the key incident was sending me into a nuclear melt down. For days I tore our apartment apart, I searched through the diaper bag a billion times, I checked the side walk to the office, called the doctor twice, all to no avail.

On the eve of a very particularly horrible day, Barry and I were just sitting in our living room and he casually reached his hand into the front pocket of the diaper bag and VOILA... pulled out the keys. He held them up to me excitedly... and I threw something at him. Grayson's binky went flying from my hand before I even realized what I was doing! It's a good thing I'm a terrible shot because it nearly grazed his face. He just stared at me, bewildered, and finally choked out, "WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR!"

I shouted back, "YOU FOUND THE KEYS!!!" Then I went to the bathroom and cried.

Isn't it sad, that men... our wonderful, amazing, adorable men, have to get stuck with such emotional nutcases? Fortunately for me, I didn't scar my husband too badly, because he still kissed me goodnight, happy as a clam. Or perhaps he was just being a typical male, and never even realized that I was upset. Either way, I have my keys back.

THE VERDICT.

Firstly, THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE for your comments, emails, phone calls, and prayers. I feel so loved! You are all such wonderful friends!

And secondly, I took Grayson to the doctor today. He has Herpes. As in, the form of the herpes virus that causes cold sores. The doctor said pretty much everyone has the virus, and Grayson probably got it from a shopping cart or something... A SHOPPING CART! CAN I BE ANY MORE DISGUSTED!!! But, apparently for babies, the first flare up of the virus is severely painful. (Symptoms include fever, swelling, redness, bleeding, etc. for all you new moms like me!) And apparently, we are "lucky" that Grayson doesn't have open sores in his mouth... just swelling and pain. We've been advised to stay quarantined from other children for a week. Grayson wasn't put on any medications, the doctor said we just have to let the virus run it's course and to wash our hands a lot. (That would have been nice to know six or so days ago!!!) I can't believe a "Cold sore Virus" is causing so much damage but I am soooooooooo grateful that it wasn't a life-threatening, mouth-eating disease or something!

I hope none of you were stress-ridden and worried all day just to find out Gray has a cold sore. Haha! But THANKS AGAIN FOR EVERYTHING!!!

I didn't sign on for this!

When you plan on having a baby, you prepare for what's to come. Before we even conceived, we knew we would be giving up our free time, giving up our late nights, we'd be changing poopy diapers, cleaning up puke, getting puked on, catching those fingers in the toilet... we knew we'd have to discipline, we'd have to put up with tantrums and screaming, crying, laughing, sadness, etc. But I didn't sign on for this! About five days ago, Grayson started a fever, it wasn't very high but he was cranky and pretty much slept through the whole day. The next day was the same thing. On the third day, I noticed that Grayson's top teeth looked unusually small. They were literally disappearing. His gums were so red and swollen, they had almost completely covered the top teeth. The next day, his bottom teeth started disappearing. He hasn't eaten for the entire week because his mouth hurts so bad, and today he bit into something and his gums basically split open and started gushing blood. Finally, we decided it was time to call the doctor. Unfortunately, they can't fit us in till tomorrow. I hate watching my poor baby suffer. It's not fair that we can't take their pain from them. Sigh. Please pray for my little guy. We still have so many hours to go till our visit tomorrow. :(