Last night was NOT as good as Monday night.  Josiah’s stuffed up with a cold, and he was up a couple times to nurse.  He’s very cute when he’s slightly awake in the middle of the night, snuggling next to us, gurgling and saying his little "babababa", though he keeps his eyes closed, so I think he’s still mostly asleep.  I took him back to the swing for a good chunk of the night but he still woke up again hungry at about 6.  It was a struggle to get up this morning, but we’ve got a pretty leisurely day. 

Analise and I are off to the doctor to check her ears again.  She’s got yet another cold.  This is the 3rd one in 6 weeks… the last 2 ended up as ear infections.  The doctor explained last time we were there that after an ear infection, though the antibiotics have cleared the bacteria out of the fluid in the ear, the fluid doesn’t drain for 4-6 weeks.  So if you get sick again before the fluid is gone, you’re nearly guaranteed an infection.  Analise just finished her 2nd round of antibiotics last Thursday… and she had a runny nose again by Friday.  AG.  I hope this isn’t another infection.  We’re going to Chattanooga with Brian’s parents on Friday to visit friends of mine and go to the Tennessee Aquarium and spend the night.  I don’t want my little girl to be sick any more!  We’ll keep you posted. 

We’ve got home church here tonight.  I’m off to the doctor, though. Gotta run…  

Last night before the wondeful sleep!

It’s only 7:45 in the morning here, but I had to come blog the wonderful, joyful news.  Josiah slept from about 8pm last night until 6:45am.  That’s nearly 11 hours.  WOOHOO!  It felt so good… I didn’t get to bed until after 11, but I slept so hard, and when I woke up at 5:30 because Analise was not feeling well, and Brian was talking to her, I couldn’t believe it was nearly morning and I hadn’t heard a peep from him.  I had to check on him, and I found him sleeping contentedly on his belly.  I thought for sure he’d wake up then, but he slept for another hour and 15 minutes, and so did we.  Lovely, just lovely.  I’m so happy.  Sure starts my day off in a good way!

I’ve got a Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) gathering this morning after Analise goes to school, and then I’ve got a lunch meeting.  It’s a busy day!

Besides Brian’s new Toonebucks home-based coffee shop, I’m in business, too!  Last night was my first Tastefully Simple party as a consultant.  I signed up earlier this month to start selling their products and having taste-testing parties, and this was my first "business" moment.  It was a bit overwhelming to get everything prepared in time, get the house organized, and get Analise, Brian and Josiah taken care of, but it went really well.  I really enjoy their products, and after hosting 1 party in the fall, I had so many people ask me when I was going to host another one, I figured I might as well start selling myself so maybe I could make a little extra money.  I don’t think of myself as being the sales-type, but I sure enjoy cooking and making cooking easier for others.  The parties are fun… all kinds of samples of soups, breads, sauces, dips and desserts.  You can’t lose with good food and friends!
Anyway, I only had 5 people there, but 3 of them wanted to book another party in the next couple months, so that’s a good start.  I’ll be able to get a website after I place a minimum order, and then I know quite a few people that will use my website to re-order products directly.  I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!
If you see anything on their website that looks tasty, drop me an email, and I can order it for you.  It will be shipped directly to you!

Heavy steam rises all around the machine in the middle of the inaugural brewing

Towards the end of the inaugural brewing.

Well, it’s official. "Toonebucks" is open for business! Last night, we bought an espresso machine. Here’s the story of how it all came about. We had dinner at my parents house, and afterwards my parents took Analise to an event celebrating National Pooh Day at the Hoover Public library. While they were out, Kristine and I took Josiah over to Patton Creek to run a few errands. I got my haircut while Kristine and Josiah picked up a few things at Linens ‘N Things.

Kristine was just about ready to checkout when I made it back from the haircut place. As I helped her load things onto the checkout counter, she mentioned that she had seen a Krups espresso machine on the clearance rack for 50% off. We had an additional 20% off any single item coupon so I said we should get the espresso machine to help kick my expensive Starbucks addiction. For a grand total of $74 including tax, we got a Krups "Il Cafe Bistro" Type 867 espresso machine / coffee maker which normally retails for $170.

We didn’t have any whole bean coffee that we could grind in our new grinder Kristine got as a Christmas present from Anna and Hal so we had to wait until I was able to bike to the store today before we could make any. That didn’t stop me from trying it out last night with just water and no coffee. I put the switch on the wrong setting and water started to spew out the end of the frother attachment like a miniature fire hydrant. Fortunately, it was aimed directly at the middle of our kitchen floor and made a small pool there.

Today, I followed all 17 steps posted on the cabinet right above the espresso machine and made our first espresso drinks. I used about two tablespoons too much coffee and ground it way too fine, so I think I have the equivalent of six-shot coffee drink that I am sipping slowly this afternoon. Any professional baristas (hint, hint: Anna!) any suggestions or tips about making good espresso would be greatly appreciated!

Someone on Brian’s Birmingham cycling team stumbled across this photo, which was taken in September of 2005 during a road race in Tennesse.  What a great photo!!  Doesn’t he look intense?

The actual page is here: http://velonews.com/galleries/2006Gallery/image25.html and the main page for the VeloNews Photo Contest that it was in is found here: http://velonews.com/galleries/2006Gallery/index1.html There are some great pictures in the gallery… he’s among good company!

I don’t hate dentists personally, but I really despise going to the dentist, like most people.  I’ve got pretty good teeth, and so I’ve been very very lucky to have had fairly good experiences with dentists.  Even years of orthodontics didn’t leave me with a bad feeling about them.  And Brian knows when I go to the dentist, I’ll come home glowing with the praises I’ve heard about my "Hollywood smile" (should be after all the $$ that went into making them beautifully straight!).  Usually, it’s just a regular cleaning and exam.  I haven’t had a filling in YEARS.  I do have very sensitive gums (and I’m notorious for not flossing – Brian flosses enough for both of us, I feel), and so I do hate when a hygienist isn’t very gentle. 

But today I had a tiny filling that the dentist had mentioned in July that needed to be taken care of after my cleaning. ARG.  I started stressing about it last night, and I was just grumpy this morning as I left.  The hygienist is my least favorite – not very gentle, and of course my gums were sore when she was done.  "You’ve done a really great job," she said.  Sure felt like she was scraping hard and catching my gums with the probe-y thing.  Then the dentist looked at the tiny "pit" in my tooth, and despite my saying that maybe it really wasn’t anything to worry about, he thought we should do it.  Really quick, he said, and it probably doesn’t even need novocaine.  He started drilling and after about 15 seconds he said, "I think maybe we should numb it."  ARG, though I had definitely been feeling the grinding.   He numbed it up, chatted with me for a few minutes and started again.  He hadn’t waited very long, though and I could still definitely feel all the drilling.  He finished up, and my mouth was getting progressively more numb as I got up to leave.  Now I’m at home and my mouth is fully numb on one side, and I didn’t enjoy my tasty lunch of leftover Chicken Divan and a piece of yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  Bummer.  Maybe I won’t have to worry about getting a filling for another couple of years… (fingers crossed)…

First, some Josiah adventures …

Analise is still in the middle of potty training. Honestly, it’s like 2 steps forward, one step back, ‘cept we’ve gone back a couple steps in the last week for some reason. Some days are completely accident free in big girl underwear, others are full of accidents, cleaning-up and pull-ups. I’m getting frustrated, but it sure is nice to have half the diapers! Today was a Good day – only one "miss" at school in her pull-up diaper. Tomorrow could be better!

Josiah’s sleeping still isn’t great, but it’s so much better than on our trip Up North. While we were gone, it was so bad. We were all in the same room most of the time, and with all his fussy sleeping, I nursed him practically all night to keep him from waking Analise. Or I’d end up on a couch, letting him sleep on my chest. Not good sleeping for 16 days straight. But now that we’re back home, he’ll start in his bed, wake up after about 5 hours and come to bed with me to nurse for 30 minutes to an hour, then he’s so restless I’ll put him in his swing, where he stays until the early morning. Not ideal, but I’m getting some rest, finally, so I guess it’ll work for a while. He has been putting himself to sleep for his naps, though, which is a nice relief, and he’s napping a little more regularly. He’s crawling backwards all over the place, and I think since he’s figured out how to navigate in revers, he may not ever go forwards! He just loves his big sister… it’s the sweetest thing, and it just melts my heart to see him stare at her and light up with a big smile when she talks to him or plays with her. But then there are the moments when he reaches out to her tantalizingly beautiful hair and gets a handful…

Funny story… The alarm clock next to our bed was fast about a week ago. We thought at first that Brian was changing the time when he was changing his alarm in the middle of the night/early morning. But then he realized he wasn’t doing it, and we thought Analise might be messing with it. But after resetting it before going to bed, and waking up to find it more than an hour and a half fast, we were thoroughly stumped. Even unplugging it and resetting it didn’t work, so it’s consistently fast… and not just fast, but getting faster. So in our interrupted sleep state, we kind of feel like we’re in a time warp. I’ll ask Brian what time he came to bed, or try to remember what time I fed Josiah, and we try to figure it out based on the other clocks we might have glimpsed. For a while, though, those other clocks were all off due to a brief power outage. We were a mess. On the to-get list THIS WEEK… a new alarm clock. This is driving me crazy!

We’ve been on a mission to get our basement cleaned up and organized. We’ve got a nice little area set up for my scrapbooking and other work, and an area cleaned up to be a play area. Brian’s working on his office area. It feels so good to have another space in the house for the kids to do things while we get things done downstairs! We’ve gotten our bedroom completely back to pre-baby, which is so WONDERFUL. No more co-sleeper next to the bed, no more changing table, no more diapers overflowing off the bookshelf, no more Josiah clothes taking over my dresser. I even have my quiet time corner back with it’s comfy chair and candles. AND I’ve even had a couple quiet times there. Feels good! Josiah’s room is looking great, and I think he’s getting more comfortable in it every day. He’s even happy to go play in his crib while I do a few things.

Analise on our way home last night: "I want a coffee macchiato, too, Daddy."
"No, sweetheart, you’re too little for coffee. I’ll make you a hot chocolate at home."
"Ok, I’m going to like hot chocolate. Go get it now."
"No, I’ll make it when we get home, ok?"
"No, from the coffee store, please."
(We didn’t go back to Starbucks to feed her expensive tastes. I made her a tepid chocolate – bc she thinks things that are too hot are "spicy" – at home. She sat in her little chair holding onto her mug with both hands, slurping it up and enjoying the marshmallows. It was so cute. Until she had a wet-pants accident. Then it wasn’t so cute.)

Our date night tonight almost didn’t happen. After dinner tonight, we loaded the kiddos up into the car to get ourselves some coffee for our in-house date night, regularly scheduled for Monday evenings, 9-10pm, after the little ones are asleep. Usually, one of us goes out for Starbucks. But tonight, we had a 50% coupon from our Entertainment Book (a Christmas present from Brian’s dad) for a new place, so we headed there. When we got to where we thought it was, there was nothing there! I swear the last time I drove by, Bean’s Coffeehouse was there, in a little corner spot in a strip mall. Bummer!

Starbucks was just down the road, so Brian dropped me off at Walgreens where I was going to get a package of diapers with a coupon, using my Walgreens gift card. I got my diapers, got to the cashier only to find out that my wallet wasn’t in my purse. Bummer again!

When Brian arrived, my wallet wasn’t in the car either, so since I didn’t have my Walgreens gift card, I didn’t get the diapers. As I took a sip of my decaf hazelnut latte, Brian related his Starbucks experience. When he got to the drive-up window to pay, he found his Starbucks gift card wasn’t in his wallet. Bummer again. He had to pay with "real" money.

Gotta go, though, as my date night has commenced. Brian’s setting up a game of Othello for us, and our Starbucks have been reheated for enjoying together.

I’m just not meant to do Christmas cards. It’s unbelievable all the things that have happened to make it not happen thus far.

First, we got our family pictures taken at the beginning of NOVEMBER, in plenty of time to get them ready to send out. The photo place gave us 6 photo cards, but they were $1 each to order more, and I was getting a big enough package to get a disc with the images. I figured I’d make our own at one of the many places that does that. When I got home, I found the images were not high-resolution, essentially not good enough quality to print out at 4×6. ARG.

I played around with them in Photoshop and created a nice collage of the family picture and the individual pictures of Analise and Josiah smiling. Printed out, it looked great, so I planned to upload it to Sam’s Club and pick up the prints before we headed Up North for Christmas. After uploading as I was placing my order, I came to the page where you had to agree that you weren’t using copyrighted material. Stumped again, needing to see what my morally-upright husband thought of this (he’s got strong feelings about copyright issues).

He and I both felt that we’d bought the disc, and I was using the low-res images, and never were we told that we couldn’t use these images in any way. The photo place never says anything about copyright, and so we both felt it was ok for us to use them, especially since they were the low-res images we’d paid for. But I know for a fact that Wal-Mart and Sam’s are very strict about not printing anything that looks even remotely professional, so I didn’t get them printed before we left or even while we were gone.

Finally Brian took the file to CVS to print on their kiosk, and we got the printed 4×6 pictures late last week – and they look very very nice. I was excited to put them in photo-frame Christmas cards that Brian’s mom had given us. I’d been planning to use these all along.

I just sat down to put them in the photo frame and found that the frame area is cut to fit either a 3 1/2×5" picture or a 4×6" picture. Unfortunately, that means that a good part of my picture – notably the kids – is hidden behind the frame. Stumped again!! AG!

Thankfully, in writing this, I just remembered that I bought some beautiful Christmas cards on deep discount last week, intending to use them next year, so I may use those instead. Maybe you’ll see one in your mailbox before March…