The Last Week in Pictures

A little smelly after she pets and hugs the dog but she sure loves her! Oh well I guess it's ok and I'm glad that she doesn't have my psychophobia of animals. She even likes kitties ~ mind you, we won't be taking ownership of any of the above. At least I can always argue that they are too expensive...NO pets until we have enough kids, nice vehicles, a house and we can't think of any other way to spend money, then maaaayyyybeee, but only if its like Carmen, very low maintenance and no messy in the yardy.
You know that reminds me. That whole "Never say never..." Oh it got me bad. "I'll NEVER drink coffee." (Little did I know that someday I would fall in love with Lattes and Iced Coffees). "I'll never live in a place like THIS!" (Little did I know that my newly-wed year would be spent living in the very trailer court that I swore I'd never live in when my parents first bought it...) "I'll never..." Yes, Never say Never for it will become your destiny. So, I just jinxed myself, watch and we'll have a puppy and 2 cats of our own before long.
Anyway, away from that tangent and back to my pictures...


Paige loves her cousin Hannah. Sorry Hannah for this momentary failure to support your head, but I assure you it was supported the rest of the time when I wasn't taking pictures. (And I didn't just let it flop over, it was a gentle settle). Grandma bought them matching dresses which were super cute for the baby shower. Hannah is a little sweetie!
Saturday morning sunrise over the river bend. Can't complain about that. There are usually a whole string of deer crossing the river single-file, it's pretty cool...the other morning there were even some Bambi's - isn't it too early for that? Maybe they were just midget deer. Anyway, bring on spring and summer, the faster the better! Well...we don't that river to rise too fast...although I'm not the least bit worried about flooding. WHAT has happened to me? Am I really talking about this? Next I'll be quoting you stuff from the Farmer's Almanac.
Our little bookworm. I just love that she sits in this little pink chair (below) and reads through her entire collection of books; it is a very nice way to keep her occupied while I work on homework. At bedtime she has five books that she reads before laying down and going to sleep; she makes me lay down and 'sleep' while she reads and most of the time I really do fall asleep and then she hits me on the head to show me something and no sooner do I wake up and look at what she wants to show me does she push my head back down into the pillow and tell me to go back to sleep. This whole process begins at about 8:45ish (more like 9:00) and the other night at 10:15 Jesse came in to the bedroom to find me totally zonked and Paige wide awake, who then pretended to sleep when Jesse walked in. Haha.

Classic

A lunch-break blog post. What a concept. So I have a story for you. It's titled Classic for two reasons (1) It's about my car, which is, if you don't know, my Grandma's car, a Cutlass Cierra Classic and (2) This is (sadly) a Classic Brenda story, as someone already pointed out. I don't even know why I tell these stories on myself, except that I just find humor in them rather than letting it ruin my self-esteem.

I went out last night to buy a baby gift for my new niece. Hannah, this is your fault! (just kidding, I can't wait to meet you tonight and kiss you on your cute little nose).
I’m driving in a 45 mph zone and definitely not going over 45 (and now you have probably guessed that this involves a cop)...yes...

I drove through an intersection and noticed a cop. My psycho-phobia about cops kicks in. Is psycho-phobia a word? If not, I just made it up to describe myself and my great dislike for cats and dogs and cops. In case you don't know, I have apparently been pulled over so many times that I swear they're all out there to get me and every time I see a cop, even in the distance, my heart starts pounding and I get really nervous. So anyway, I know that I was doing nothing wrong but still am watching in my rear view mirror for him and sure enough he turns and speeds up to catch me and turns his lights on to pull me over. "WHAT?"...instant adrenaline rush and I am not an adrenaline junky so don't think I like this for a second. Verge of tears, actually.
Obviously, I pull over. He sits in his car behind me forevvvvver and I’m just sitting there waiting. He finally comes up and shines his lights all over (like he is looking for drugs or illegal immigrants) and then asks me how I’m doing. I wanted to hate him except that he was attractive and nice. (Sorry Jesse, I promise he was not even close to your caliber). He proceeds to tell me that he was pulling me over because the little light bulb that is supposed to shine on my license plate is burned out. I said, (probably with a goofy look on my face), “What? I didn’t even know that existed. Will you show me?” So we go and look at it, and it’s not burnt out, just dim and covered in dirt. So then he tells me that he actually has to have two reasons to pull me over and the other one was the crack that goes all the way across my windshield. So “he has probable cause to pull me over” – I think he was starting to feel bad because he could sense my distress and tells me not to worry he’s not going to give me a citation, but with two reasons to pull someone over they’re supposed to. (blah blah blah).

Then he asks me if I am ok. And I said, “Well yeah, now that I know why you pulled me over. I KNEW I wasn’t speeding!”
Then I told him that the windshield crack didn’t impair my vision and I didn’t really want to put any money into fixing the windshield because this is a temporary vehicle and not worth the investment. He asks me why it’s a temporary vehicle so I told him a quick summary about how/why we bought the car and he asked for how much and then he says, “sweet deal.” I also casually mentioned that it was my Grandma's car to make sure he knew it had some sort of sentimental value if nothing else. Mind you, now I have sat back down in my seat but the door is open and I’m sure he noticed the duck tape on the inside door panel, (I don’t even know why that is there). He takes a step back and does a once over on my car and says that it’s not THAT bad of a car and I looked at him like he needed to quit lying. (Sorry Grandma, it was a great car for you I know). So then he told me, “It actually fits you pretty well!” I said, “Oh THANKS!” And he goes, “No you look like you need an Escalade.” Nice back-pedaling dude.

Then he asks me if I’ve ever been pulled over before. I said yes. And he asks surprised, Really? What for?....….I told him that I didn’t really want to tell him because it was embarrassing but I told him about my license plate story. I didn’t tell him about the numerous speeding tickets and pull-overs of my past. Nothing on my record, no need to mention them.
And then when I’m leaving I have to do my manual blinker and I’m thinking, Please don’t let him notice my funky blinker.

Seriously, Do I have a bumper-sticker that says, I am suspicious pull me over…?

This confirms it, I really am not sure that this car and I are meant to be together, but I'll keep bombing around in it for awhile just because I don't feel like spending money on buying a car right now. Unfortunately, I was JUST getting over my major freaking out issue whenever I saw a cop (from the last undisclosed incident), and now I'm back to being super jumpy again. This morning a blinking red traffic light caught my eye in my rear-view mirror and my heart skipped a few beats.

Paige

While packing/unpacking I came across Paige's baby books and realized I needed to write in them as it had been awhile. Here is the latest and all of the sweet, sometimes funny and always wonderful things about Paige.

(1) She now has a baby cousin named Hannah. She is going to LOVE holding her little cousin and loves to look at the pictures. She says "Baby Hannah" perfectly and in her little voice she says, " OOohh, look at Baby Hannah." You know how we all change our voices when we say something like that...she's picked up on that.

(2) We all know my neurotic dislike for animals, especially dogs and cats. As I have already noted, our new place comes with a dog. The owners of the place still come out to their shop and decided to leave Carmen the dog here to run around. Well thankfully Paige did not inherit my dislike and loves the 'puppy.' She loves to go get her treats. This is how it happens: Carmen stands at the door, Paige sees her and goes and opens the door, says, "Hi Puppy!" (with changed voice like she is talking to a baby), closes the door and tries to tell Carmen she'll be right back. Carmen knows and waits. Paige yells, "Tay!" ('ok') runs across the house, opens up the back door, gets a doggy treat and brings it back. Opens the door, throws the treat at Carmen, giggles and then closes the door. Sometimes when we get home she stands there and pats her tummy and says, "Get me Puppy!" Crazy girl, she actually wants the puppy to run around her and lick at her. The best part, it is great bribery - "Paige, do you want to go home and see Puppy?"

(3) When Carmen is off running around at the river or in the trees, Paige becomes devastated that she's not at the door. Jesse taught Paige how to call for the puppy. "Puppy! **Whistle** *Whistle**" Paige obviously doesn't whistle, but like all kids makes a whistle noise in a high-pitched, "woo woo, woo woo"
Well...now she calls her parents like that. "Mama, woo woo, woo woo."

(4) We finally let Paige graduate from her crib to a bed a few months ago. After we go to bed she walks around in the dark and stands outside our door hoping we'll invite her in. We've learned that if we ignore her she'll just go back to her bed. But it is pretty funny to see her standing there in the dark, peeking around the corner at us. One time I followed her back in there and watched her climb up onto her bed, for some reason I just thought it was the cutest thing ever. Little Big Paige climbing into her bed.

(5) Paige, a few months behind most kids her age, has reached the independent stage, "My do it!" She must do everything. It's actually really cute and you know, kids can handle more than we think they can sometimes.

(6) When Paige goes potty on the potty we make a big production and clap and say good job and "Yay, Paige!" She returns the congratulatory behavior when Mama goes potty on the potty. Great to have the encouragement. Now just if I can get her to bring me some M&Ms.

(7) My most favorite thing of all - Paige comes up to me says, "Hi Mama" and then cups my face in her hands and puts her nose to mine and gets this sweet little content smile on her face and then proceeds to run her hands through my hair and caress my face like we do to her because we love her. She gives the best hugs a person could ever want. Being a mommy is most definitely the best thing in the world!