Amy J. Bennett

Here are some pictures of Emma playing outside today.
<img src=”http://www.sabennett.com/emma/100_4737s.jpg”/>
<img src=”http://www.sabennett.com/emma/100_4735s.jpg”/>

Oh my, someone please save me from the whining. And please someone remind me of this when she actually can talk and I’m tired of that too. This little tiny girl is the most insistent, impatient, bossy person sometimes. Lots of small things happened today that seem report worthy. When I picked her up from nursery at church today the nursery worker told me that they were being entertained by her animal sounds. Apparently they were going through a book that had animals in it because when I asked Emma what a monkey said in front of the worker and she did it, the worker said Oh! We didn’t hear that one! She then happily said bye bye and waved and then walked down the hall toward the exit of the church. Now why can’t she be that sweet ALL the time? She sure does have her moments.

Boy, if those workers could have seen her at lunch. We met Scott at Golden Corral and she was TERRIBLE. She made me hold her while she ate so Scott hurriedly ate while Emma ate. I went to get my food after that and she insisted she sit in my lap while I ate. Scott tried to take her but that made her worse. People were staring and one guy even stopped and talked to her and said, What’s wrong, you’ve been crying since you got here. I was just shy of being mortified. We draw attention when Scott’s in his uniform and we meet him for meals anyway, but this really topped it off. I barely got threw my salad and I just walked out with her. Scott followed with my purse and her cup. It was awful. A waste of money, that’s for sure. We usually don’t attempt an out to eat dinner on Sunday afternoon’s just for this reason, but I thought maybe since she was in such a good after nursery that it might work.

This afternoon I had to get out (Scott’s working this weekend, can you tell?) so I took several bowls of different sizes outside to the front porch in the shade. There is a water spigot right beside our front door so I had plenty of water to keep filling up what Emma kept emptying. She was SOAKED by the time we were done. She even kept bending her head down in order for me to pour a bowl of water on her hair. Which she normally does not like when she is in the bathtub. Anyway, we were out there for a whole hour so it took some time.

Then we went out to Target. I thought it was going to be a disaster when I tried to put her in the cart in the parking lot and she wouldn’t sit in the seat. I took her out and put her back in the cart right inside the door. Thank goodness for the little boy getting in a cart right beside us. It distracted her from her temper tantrum. I quickly got her diapers and crackers I needed and even let her do the credit card at the check-out. She’s really good at that. She even handed it to the cashier so she could check the signature. Anyway, to bide more time, I went and got myself and ICEE at the food court thingy and let Emma sit in the cart and eat the crackers which she had been whining for. In the meantime, our friends S&H turned up and we talked for a few minutes. I let Emma have some of my ICEE and she was surprised I think. She ended up really liking it and I let her have what I didn’t want. She drank it the whole way home (only about 4 minutes) and loved it.

So, when we got back, we stayed outside for a few minutes and I let Emma try to unlock the trunk with my keys. I wouldn’t let her go to the front door so in case she scratched it, it was on the trunk and not the door. She went anyway so I gave her a little spanking and picked her, took away the keys and headed inside. She screamed and then BIT ME on my shoulder and then HIT ME with both hands in my FACE. I about had a heart attack. I was in complete shock. I didn’t do anything but continue going inside. I then let her play on the counter with her sippy cups while I cooked dinner. When she got in trouble for throwing cups off the counter, she cried and I finally gave in and stuck a Wiggles tape in which she happily watched while I finished and ate dinner in some sort of peace. She’s been whiny on and off even since Scott has been home. Let me just say I’m happy to have him home until Wednesday.

I have no idea why I gave so much detail about today but I guess I had to get a little frustration out. I talked to a friend from our church back home. She is such a mentor for me and was talking about how our children are gifts and how blessed she feels with her children. I kept trying to remind myself of that today through all of this.

So. I have even more to ramble about today. Our inspection was done yesterday by one of Scott’s friends. Mom and Dad met them there since we are out of town. Mom said he did not do a proper inspection which I tried to tell Scott that beforehand. Mom said he just walked through the house and only checked out a few things. Mom said he didn’t even check things like the washer, dryer, dishwasher or even the heat. At least he didn’t charge us. Dad said that he didn’t think we needed to make a big deal about it though because he felt like the house was in good condition. Mom and Dad are really smart about that stuff so I trust their opinion. It is kind of disappointing that he didn’t do a good job inspecting it though.

Tomorrow I go to the dr. I’m 15 weeks now. This really has been going quickly. It seems so strange. I kind of keep forgetting I’m pregnant. I’m not showing yet, I haven’t really been sick. I have had some heartburn and I get really dizzy if I get up fast but that’s the only symptoms I’ve had. We are hoping for an ultrasound tomorrow. She said she would try to get us in there and try to figure out the gender. Yay! I’m hoping to find out! Scott and I have been tossing around some boy names. Zachary Alexander, Ethan Tyler, Ethan Scott, Zachary Scott, Landon Scott. Who knows. The thing is, I want something that I know we aren’t going to plan on a nickname. Like, if we are planning to call him Zack, then we’ll just name him Zack. And everytime I say our full name with Scott has the middle name, I feel like I’m saying Scott’s name, not the new baby’s. I feel like he needs his own, unique name. So when MIL suggested Elijah Scott and call him Eli, I just couldn’t go with it. It went against both of the rules. And I’m actually not stuck to those rules, it’s just they rub me the wrong way.

Oh and the Captain and Colonel are supposed to be meeting tomorrow about the transfer. We found out another guy from our county wants to transfer to the same county we want to transfer to and supposedly has already moved there without having his transfer approved. According to Fst. Sgt. who we heard all this through, Captain is pushing Scott’s transfer through and the other guy’s only if he can get two pushed through at the same time.

So I’ve rattled on enough. It’s a big week ahead of me. Lots of work. D’s baby shower I’m throwing myself. M’s engagement shower I’m co-throwing out of town this weekend. This time next week I think I’ll be completely worn out.

So they moved closing on the house. We’re set for 3 weeks from TODAY. 21 days. I can’t believe it. I still don’t think I’ll believe it until we have the transfer letter in our hands. We haven’t packed a thing either.

Emma has been sick this week. She had an ulcer in her throat caused by a virus. She woke up Monday morning with a fever and kept it until Tuesday. Today she is finally seeming like herself. I’m thinking that Motrin makes her irritated. She seemed very whiny and at night she would flip flop so much like she couldn’t settle down. Almost like she had taken caffeine or something. Her feet which have been infected with some type fungus. But she has ALSO had some type of reaction to the sunblock we put her on so it is making her feet look worse with some type of red bumps.

Last night Emma got a hold of the remote control. I didn’t think she had done any damage until about 2 hours later I saw a message from the cable company across the bottom of the screen saying our Pay Per View move, Big Bottom Sadie was getting ready to start on the Playboy channel. Whoops! I immediately called the cable company and she walked me through putting parental control on the movie channels and then credited our account for “this one time”.

And today she really got into her piggy bank that sings when you drop in the coins. She thought she was doing magic and we didn’t know how it was happening. She would hold the coin right at the edge with an expectant look on her face and then drop it and throw up her hands with a delighted look on her face like, Look what I did! It was the cutest!

Alrighty, so we bought a house! We ended up offering, she counter-offered and we counter-offered back, settling at $100 above offering price + 3K in closing. We were happy with that. Looks like we won’t need to spend more than $100-200 extra in closing above our down payment. We are really excited about it and have already started making a to-do list of what we want to do. Just some cosmetic things mostly. We are set to close either 6/25 or 6/28. Less than a month away!! I can’t wait! We still don’t have finaly approval on our transfer, but according to Corporal’s instructions, we should rely on Fst. Sgt.’s original comment that we should plan on being in Fort Mill on June 30. So that’s what we’re doing.

I finally made a comment to my good friend whose wedding I’m in and who I am helping throw our other friend an engagement party. I had agreed at first to split half of food and a keg for the party. After I told Scott, he was none too happy about spending our already thin money on something we don’t even drink and something we don’t think anyone else needs to drink. I know we are in the minority, but that’s just the way it is. Anyway, so in some conversations about the party in email, I finally spit it out that I’m not too happy about having to split the cost of the keg but I was willing to do it since I said I would. She wrote back simply that her and her fiance would buy the keg and we could split the cost of the food. I just put ‘ok’ back in my email. I feel REALLY crappy about what I said even though it was the truth. I think if I had told her from the beginning that I didn’t want to help for the keg that I would have been fine with it. Now I just feel like I’ve insulted her, gone back on my word and look like a cheapskate. It’s a crappy place to be. She hasn’t emailed me a thing since. I can’t decide if she is truly insulted or just doesn’t have anything else to say to me now. It is quite an awkward time for things to be weird between us. The engagement party is in two weeks and it’s supposed to be a fun time. And then I’m supposed to be in HER wedding in September. I actually do remember my relationships with some of my friends being quite strained the closer it got to our wedding. I guess it’s just a stressful time. Our other, other friend and I talked a little bit about this friend that I’ve been talking about and we talked a lot about how different she is. I’m not saying this about all unmarried, childless people, BUT she is very immature in some ways still. Very selfish in her thinking and has no idea what it is like to be a wife and a mother or either has no regard for those that do. I just feel like we’re living different lives now. Not much in common anymore. I mean, on the surface, we get along. Our goals are just different now and that’s ok. Really. It’s just she’s got to be able to understand my life is a little more complicated and she just DOESN’T see that. I know I’m talking in circles but I just need a little frustration out about this.

Mucho disappointed in most of tonight’s American Idol. Especially the fact they sang songs they had already sung before. They’re great at it, but come on, we need some variety. The first two songs of each contestant were blah. I didn’t like either one. The second were the repeats. The third…Diana was not so good. Fantasia rocked that last song. It fit her to a tee and almost had me in tears. If she doesn’t win, I will REALLY be mucho disappointed.

More baby movement today. I actually felt a kick on the outside this evening. Most of the feeling is either like he’s pushing on something on my left side, a little kick here or there or just random rolling around that makes me feel like I’m going upside down on a roller coaster.

We (I) talked through our offer on the house with our realtor today. She needs to do some more checking on the comps because we both feel like the house is overpriced. But, we really need the money for closing instead of bringing the price of the house down, so I don’t want to offer too little and have them laugh in our face. We’ll know more tomorrow. We are hoping that Scott gets to talk to the Captain tomorrow and finds something more sure out. I am still a little hesitant putting in the offer without knowing for sure but like I’ve said before, we are running out of time.

I think we are headed home for Memorial Weekend. Scott has to work on Mon and Tues but I think Emma and I are going to stay through. I’m kind of looking forward to the pool time and cook-outs.

Emma is becoming quite the little bossy one. She MMMmms and points until she gets what she wants. Scott and I are going bonkers hearing so many MMMmms. Someone PLEASE tell me if my child is normal or is really demanding. She has also started this thing if you correct her about something, she comes and gives you a hug. Man, we’re in for it.

I think we’ve targeted Wednesday for the big house offer day. Scott goes back to work that day (on days), his Captain should have no reason not to get in touch with him. Fst. Sgt. was supposed to find out something and he should have by then. And we’re just plain running out of time. I would be upset if the homeowner said she didn’t have time to move out by the end of June.

We went swimming yesterday and today. Man, is it hot around here. Yesterday Emma had quite a time at the stairs but cried when we took her out. Today she did ok with me holding her in the “deep” end but didn’t care to sit around at the steps. I’m sure it will take some getting used to. Last year she was a little water baby. I could zoom her around on her belly, carry her in the float, splash and she’d be fine. This time she seems kind of scared even though outside of the pool she LOVES water. I really want to try to put her in a baby pool and see if she takes to that better. Here’s a picture of her little Gymboree swimsuit.
<img src= “http://www.sabennett.com/emma/s2.jpg”/>

I’ve been a little sick the last few days. Fajitas at dinner on Thursday did NOT agree with my intestines. I haven’t felt right ever since. I’ve been doing a lot of lying down the past two days since Scott has been off. He went back to work tonight since working bike week last week and only has to work today and tomorrow and then is off again for two days. Ah, the life.

So Scott and I have decided on the house I saw last week but we still haven’t heard anything for sure about the transfer so we haven’t put in an offer. Time is getting close so I’m guessing we might put in an offer in next week no matter whether we hear or not. The rumor from everyone is we’ve got it, they’re just waiting until our lease is up at the apartment and since that isn’t until the end of June, no one is in a hurry to tell us about it. I’m getting really excited about moving. I can’t wait until I can actually paint a wall. I really want to try to make a plan for each room though. From all the decorating shows I watch, the one thing I have learned for sure is to make a plan. Even if I can’t buy everything (or anything) up front, I want to be able to know what direction the room is headed. I think that will help me not want to change everything up so often.

I have been doing some spring cleaning. I realized that in the next month we’ll probably have family helping us pack and that means they’ll see all our clutter. I can just hear them saying, Have you even cleaned this since you’ve moved in…have you even touched this since last year. I don’t know when I’ve gotten so concerned about people’s opinions, but I’ve realized noticed it in the last year. Maybe since I’m home all the time now, I expect more of myself for the house. I don’t know. Maybe I’ve just lived with Scott for too long. Speaking of which, this month we’ve been together for 10 years! This August will be our 6 year anniversary. Hard to imagine.

<a href=”http://quizilla.com/users/kstarbuck/quizzes/What%20Color%20is%20Your%20Brain%3F/”><img src=”http://images.quizilla.com/K/kstarbuck/1083637242_RandomGold.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”Gold”><br> <font size=”-1″>What Color is Your Brain?</font></a><BR> <font size=”-3″>brought to you by <a href=”http://quizilla.com”>Quizilla</a></font>