Archives for January 2004

These past two days I’ve gotten quite a bit of work done. I guess after last week, getting ANY work done feels like a lot. Emma has been pretty independent and Scott has been home in the mornings so it has been pretty easy.

There is not too much new going on in Emma’s world except a really bad diaper rash right now. And, she loves playing chase. She gets these big eyes and this deep throated giggle, bends at her knees and gets ready to run. She just cackles when you go after her. When I ask her what a pig says, she scrunches up her nose and tries to snort. It’s so cute. She doesn’t play with her tea set too much anymore. She still likes her books and especially those about animals. She LOVES animals. She also has a puzzle that has farm animals on it that she likes. It’s so funny because I go through the pieces and name all the animals and then say like, What does a cow say? And then say, Mooo.. But I always get to the goat and say What does a goat say? And then I say quickly, I don’t know what a goat says, here is a duck! I’m blanking out! What sound does a goat make??

I don’t think I ever mentioned but Scott talked to his corporal about putting in for a transfer and his comment was that the first sergeant wouldn’t be happy. He said, you could do it and get it and then be treated badly until you left or take the chance of not getting it and be treated badly for a long time. Not “badly” but just first sergeant would give him a hard time. He wouldn’t let small things slide. Corporal told him that he knew Scott never took that kind of thing seriously and could probably deal with it, but it was up to him. The highway patrol is first sergeant’s life and he would take it very personally if he tried to leave. Which I don’t see why because he knows that Scott doesn’t want to be here. He gave him another “stay a few years and you’ll love it” speech the other day. The thing with me is you know, I really don’t care if we don’t move back home. Just let me know. I want out of this apartment and into a house if I have to be here any longer. I searched for some houses for rent the other day. We could so afford being in one. I wish we could have found one a year ago. It would make living here so much easier. This apartment just feels so temporary. Believe me, it is very nice, it’s just, I sorta still feel like I’m living in a hotel. There’s too many neighbors around us and the public parking and no back yard doesn’t make it feel like home. I try to get Scott to just say, ok, this is it, we’re staying here for 2 years and then we’ll go home and then we can plan for that. But not knowing whether we’ll be gone in June, January or in 5 Januarys, it makes it very difficult to feel like you can go on. I know that sounds strange and really, on a daily basis, I do feel like we’ve moved on, but I don’t like not having a goals. Like, I would like to be able to say in June, we’ll leave the apartments and then find a house to rent for a year and if we still plan on staying, we’ll buy a house. Well, right now, he’s *thinking* of putting in for a transfer and he *might* get one who knows when. Really, as I’m thinking about this, this is what we think we know. Our lease ends at the end of June (we know this). The HP is thinking of having a class in January that would graduate the next June. Why doesn’t he approach the transfer and say, once the class is graduated and you have someone to replace me in June 2005, I’m gone. That would give us the ability to get a house to rent for a year and then be able to plan when we can start looking for a house back home to buy. Why doesn’t first sergeant listen to me! Did you know first sergeant told Scott he knew that a lot of the reason that Scott wanted to go back home is because of me?? Uh, no. We BOTH want to go back home and neither of us dislike being here, we would just RATHER be near our family. Ok, I need to get off my soap box. I do this every time I start talking about this.

I think I might be quite pathetic. I have been DYING to get our taxes done. I am always so nervous to find out if we are going to have to pay/excited to get a refund. We have had some good years in the past but I changed my exemptions at work to try to offset that and I am scared we are going to have to pay. I haven’t gotten all of our W2s but I did have our check stubs at the end of the year and of course I already have all our itemized deductions all lined up. I pulled last year’s tax returns and figured what the heck, I’m going to figure this out. So, yes, people. I just spent an hour doing Federal form 1040 along with Schedule A–Itemized Deductions for fun. I think this ice here has frozen my brain. But really, the thing is, it wasn’t that hard. I finished and thought, hey, I could do our taxes, in fact, I just DID our federal taxes! Bad news is it looks like we won’t get a huge refund, good news is, it looks like we might break even. It hurt that we didn’t have Scott’s education credit (of course, we didn’t have to pay for his school this year either), we didn’t have our house taxes, our mortgage interest wasn’t as much and our gifts to charity were down. And for some odd reason, our income was about the same even though I cut my hours by about 25%. Of course now I REALLY want the taxes done just to see how close I am ;).

You’ve found the final (hopefully!) home for Permission to Peruse. Thank you to <a href=”http://javamama.net”>Allison</a> at <a href=”http://javapixels.com”>JavaPixels</a> for hosting and helping me.

I would say move any and all domains at <a href=”http://www.namezero.com”>NameZero </a>to <a href=”http://godaddy.com”>GoDaddy</a>! They were great until I actually tried to do something “different” with my domain. And the customer service I received while trying to do it was quick, but horrible.

We ended up going home Friday afternoon. When Scott gets it in his mind to go home, we are out the door in a few hours. We are getting really good at this packing thing.

Saturday I went and got my hair cut. I really, really wanted to get it colored, but they didn’t have any appointments all weekend. I had originally been hesitant to do it, but after Scott insisted, I started to get excited about it. Oh well, I’ll save my money for next time. My hair cut is my extravagance. I pay $45 a pop, plus add a tip and all the “products” and I walk out with no less than a $70 bill every time. Scott about croaks every time but now I don’t trust my hair with anyone else. When my hair was straight, I would go anywhere. I remember getting a $3 cut when a salon opened it town. I also wanted to get my eyebrows done, but at $19, I couldn’t talk myself into it.

The pastor was really good this morning. You could tell the church was so excited about it, it was like it was Christmas morning or something. He is going to bring great things to the church. He was interesting to listen to, had an interesting topic and expected a response from the congregation. He starts at the end of next month. I know everyone can not wait.

I was so psyched I was going to get a laptop from work, but I just got word that it is slow and I would have to choose between my laptop and desktop. I was hoping for at least awhile I could have both and decide which I like, but it doesn’t sound like my manager has that in mind. Plus, if it’s slow, I don’t want it. Bummer.

Life almost seems normal this morning. Emma is on the floor playing with Scott. I’m actually working (well, not this exact second).

We are considering going home for a night this weekend. Our old church is having the new pastor prospective preach on Sunday and then they are voting on him. That’s always interesting in a Baptist church. MIL is on the search committee and she says he is really good, so I’m hoping so for their sake. The church is not in good condition right now. And I don’t mean the walls are falling down. This guy supposedly completely turned around the church he’s at now, so we’re all counting on him to do the same with this one.

I really think this week is one of the worst of my life. I don’t know, maybe not. But it’s been really draining. And I mean that figuratively and literally. I spent all morning in the bathroom/bed. Thank goodness Scott was home until 2 today. I was dreading him leaving all morning, knowing I didn’t have the energy to carry her around as she has required the past week. When he left we were taking a nap. When she got up, we watched a little bit of Dr. Phil together (yes, I know, I’m starting her young). I decided at the end that she needed OUT, I needed OUT and I could sit down in the car. So off we went to Bojangles to get some mashed potatoes for us for dinner. I drove around until she got a bit cranky and when we came back, I let her play in the front seat of the car for 45 minutes. It was 5:00 by then and I was counting down until her bedtime. We came in and I let her eat (ie play in) the mashed potatoes. That took another 30 minutes. And then, I pulled out the big guns. A 45 minute Wiggles tape. She laid against me like a doll. So, we played for a few minutes and then headed for bath time where after she fell asleep quickly. I am so glad to have this evening over with. That sounds awful but a toddler takes WAY too much energy for an ailing, tired, drained, stressed, I just want to go to sleep mother. I’m actually feeling much better than I was this morning and I’m hoping both of us feel LOTS better tomorrow.

My in-laws have been down twice this week and were there two of the times when we took Emma to the ER. I have to say when someone is sick, they are right by your side. Even when Emma was in the hospital last year, my family came when it was convenient. MIL would come through hell or high waters to get to the hospital when I take Emma. They definitely have a gift of taking care of people.

Oh, and I have been watching American Idol and The Bachelorette–yes, that can be done from a bed. My favorite on AI is the SCAT girl at the end of her “song” when she just flat out screams. Scott and I looked at each other with these faces like, what on God’s green earth was THAT! I’m hoping they didn’t show some of the more talented ones because I’m not seeing any that I’m overly impressed with. As for The Bachelorette (I hate typing that word out!!) it’s kind of boring this year. I feel like all she does is laugh to try to make up for how quiet she was on the last show. I don’t know, I’m not seeing any high potential there either. Maybe I’m wrong. There are still 10 guys left and we barely have seen any of them interact with Meredith, so we’ll see. I’m not holding my breath though.

I’m sick. That’s all for now.

Ahh, if only I’d read Allison’s comment before we gave Emma a glass of milk! We are indeed paying for it…she threw up twice this morning and had more diarrhea. I feel so bad that it is our fault this time. I called the dr and he said not to give her milk for a week! Uh, that would have been great if you told me that on Monday. This time doesn’t seem quite as bad. She has held down some liquids and even half of a cracker. She is just in a bad mood. Scott went to work and I feel queasy myself. I am wondering whether it is the beginning of this or I am pregnant?? It seems a little early to get morning sickness if I am. Hopefully whatever it is will move on soon. I really need to be in good health to take care of Emma by myself. These are the times I get really scared thinking of having another child. Anyway, we’re hanging in here.