the big 2-4

I'm here to tell myself Happy Birthday. Hahaha! No seriously, I'm here to tell you what my daughter gave me for my birthday. She pottied in the toilet! It was so exciting and I acted like the only parent in the world who's child just pottied in the toilet for the first time. My husband gave me money because that's what I requested-with the money I bought some North Face flip flops (which I looove) and a new shirt :). I have more money left and I'm trying to think of something I "need". My mom and stepdad ALSO gave me money and made me a Bar-B-Q dinner. Yum! Yesterday I went to lunch and a movie with a good friend. We saw 'Madea Goes To Jail'. It was pretty hilarious! I'd suggest waiting for it to come out on DVD and watching it with some sort of filter to eliminate some wordage. Then lastnight for dinner the hubs and I went to dinner with two other couples. Pappa Rollo's. It was good. My birthday has been good. I can't believe I'm 24. It felt like just yesterday that I was 21 and getting married and then 22 and delivering my daughter. Wow, time flies when you're havin' fun.

I think we're getting internet sometime this week. I'm super excited for that-I'm sure you all know. Caaaaaan't wait!!!

Stay tuned for a photo update.

New phone

Well, I'm here posting a blog from my new cell phone. Isn't it anazing? It was my Valentine's present...not a planned one but my phone died and I had to get a new one. I am very thankful for such a sweet husband. Instead of buying me a regular/basic phone he allowed me to pick this super fun one with a keyboard and he set up the internet!! Now I can check my email, blogs & even type a blog...which I am doing right now. It's definitely not as fast,not even close, but I'm thankful to be connected to the world. THANK YOU HUSBAND! He's so good to me. :-)

On another note, I'll be in town this weekend for my birthday. I'm really excited because it feels like it's been forever since I've seen some friends.

Well, I guess that's all I have for now. I've been working on this for atleast 15 minutes now.

PICTURES

^^^on our way to Austin last Sunday^^^

^^^riding with her cousin, Abigayle^^^

The following: FOR AUNT BRI

AND, incase I don't get back to the computer before Valentine's Day:

And this one is for her Granny because I knew she'd like it:

long week calls for long post

Bear with me.

I think I'm experiencing one of the longest and most frustrating weeks of my entire life. Seriously, it's been rough. I'll start out with last Saturday. I was in town, like mentioned in my last post. I was staying at our home away from home. The BFF's were out of town so it was just the kid and myself. As you previously read, I had a list of things I wanted to do. Before I could do them, I had to make it out of the house in one piece. So, I sent Sean off to work, fed AK breakfast, put the dog outside, got the two of us dressed-check.check.check.check. All seemed to be falling into order. We get in the car and we're headed off. First, I needed to stop for gas. In the process of this exchange I ended up leaving with gasoline all over my clothes and my shoes. Niiiice. Check. Then I needed to get air in the tire. Couldn't seem to get that one checked off because the two places I went didn't have working air thingies. What's with that?! Next, I volunteered to run by Shipley's to pick up breakfast for my mom's house. 15 minutes and $20 later I was FINALLY on my way to my mom's. She was dying to see AK and I wreaked of gasoline. Not to mention I was supposed to meet a friend at 11:30 for breakfast. By the time I get to my mom's house it's like 9 or 9:30-my vision was getting time blurry. Anyways, I called Court, asked if we could meet for dinner instead because I was in the process of washing my clothes at the 'rents while I walked around in some pj's of my nieces. She confirmed that this was okay with her. Whew, okay, now all I have to do is make it to 5:30 without any major catastrophes.

All was going smoothly. I spent most of my day helping my aunt move. No biggie. At 5 o'clock I head out the door to meet Court for dinner. On my way I MUST stop and get air in the tire. Location one-a no go. Two-FINALLY. We're getting somewhere.

THEN I REALIZE that I put the dog out without ANY water. You have to be joking me! I was sure he was going to die of dehydration and I'd have to explain to my dear friends that I killed their dog. Great. So, I call her aunt who lives next door to see if she could possibly let him in. No answer. "WHAT! She's always home!", I thought to myself. But nope, not today. Not the day I REALLY need her to be there. I have a dying dog on my hands! So I call Court and ask for her opinion. Would one hour really be that big of a difference for a dog who's been outside all day. She says she doesn't think so. I agree. We meet for dinner. Now, taking Anna-Kate out ANYWHERE is a major task. She is all over the place. Good thing we were basically the only people in the place because I finally got to the point where I just let her run wild. I asked the lady behind the counter if I could please place a chair in the little walk space to keep the kid from trying to make her own food. She agreed. Nice, we were in control. And then she figured out that she could open and close this door thing underneath the drink fountain. OMG, I'm totally committing social suicide. I feel like such an awful person by this point. One, I can hardly hold a conversation with this gracious person sitting across from me. Two, we were both exhausted (AK & I). Three, I had a possibly dying dog at home. No bueno. Finally, I strap the kid in the carseat and head for home.

THEN, I remember that I really wanted to go to Sally's and I didn't know if they'd be open on a Sunday or not. It was about 7 pm at this point and it was sort of on the way...atleast I could make it be on the way. So to Sally's we head in a frantic dash trying to make this as painless as possible so I could get home to the dehydrated dog (I'm such a bad dog sitter!). So, I get to Sally's and immediately smell that my child has a dirty diaper. GREAT! I ask if there is anywhere I can change her and THEY DON'T have a place!!! Oh my gosh, are you kidding me! Then, I go to check out and they won't take my card because it has only my husband's name on it. Shoot, I have cash in the car, okay, be right back. As I'm about to walk out the door Anna-Kate felt the need to grab every bottle of whatever it was on the counter and knock them all over, some landing on the floor. Holy mackerel, can I just get out of the store!! I get to the car, grab the cash and run back into the store. I'm standing there with a dirty diapered, sticky fingers toddler on my hip and this chick is carrying a conversation on the phone. You've got to be joking me! Pleeeeease hurry. Okay, so she comes back, I pay for my two items and I'm finally on my way out the door. Oh but not before the diaper bag knocks over a handful of little earring boxes! At this point I'm literally about to have a nervous breakdown. Nothing else could happen at this point that would surprise me. So, after cleaning up my mess, I head to the car where I have to change my child in the seat. Check. Ready to go. Okay, we head home. I get home and the first thing I do is let the dog in and almost dunk his head in the water bowl because I was convinced he was about to die. Nope, he didn't want any water. WHAT! You've got to be kidding me. The dog wasn't interested at all! He wanted his bone. Well, atleast he's alive. Whatever, don't drink the water then!

Few, the night is almost over and the dog is still alive. I get AK ready for bed and allow her a few more minutes to play. Or so I thought. I go to the fridge when I frantically realize that I had put a DP in the freezer earlier that morning so I could chill it. Yeah, well, I forgot it and it is now completely exploded in the automatic ice maker tray thing. Really, I was ready to be committed at this point. I had to take a bunch of stuff out of the freezer and flake off the frozen DP that I was so mad at because I could've really used it-all the while trying to keep sticky fingers from running off with random frozen things. Thankfully, I got it all cleaned up, put the baby to bed and decided I needed some relaxation myself...really, I just needed something to help me fall asleep. I got in bed with the mini DVD player, popped in a movie and watched EVERY minute of the horrible thing. What is my problem!!!

That was all Saturday.

On Tuesday night, I jumped out of bed too fast...from a low lying bed...like close to the floor kind of bed. When I did I completely landed wrong on my left foot and heard a pop and to the floor I went. Good thing it wasn't a far fall. It hurt SO bad! After a couple of minutes of shock I realized I could move it but it was definitely swelling nicely.

On Wednesday morning I had to take Anna-Kate to work with my because Sean didn't get home from work until 7 am. Thankfully I have a laxed job. After telling Bri about my harindous weekend I go to open a payment and almost completely rip the check in half. GGRRRR! Then I put too many papers in the shredder at one time and jammed it up. Completely. I couldn't get it to work. AAHHHH. I seriously thought I as going to have to buy a new one. After working on it for about 20 minutes I fixed it. Thank God.

Wednesday night AK spiked a fever of 102.8 and a yucky cough. I called the doctor. He said if it continues to be that high over night he wouldn't mind seeing her. It did stay in the 102's but by 10 am she seemed to be doing better. I wasn't going to waste a trip for nothing so we chose not to take her. By Friday night (lastnight) her fever was back up and her cough had worsened. Everytime she'd dose off, she'd cough and then start crying. It was so sad. So Sean and I sattled up and took her to the ER. We were worried it could be strep or something because of the way she was acting with her throat. Too bad we didn't have this suspicion before the weekend rolled around. The doctor checked her out and she did indeed have strep throat. Well, actually, she suggested that we not pay $200 for the strep test because either way her treatment/antibiotic would be the same so we agreed with that and thanked her for saving us money. She said if it didn't test positive for strep right then (which apparently that happens a lot) then it would within a day or two. Soooo, yeah, they gave her some antibiotics and we were on our way. We got home around 3 am. Had a rough night with hardly any sleep. And here I stare zombilike at this computer. Whoa, I'm glad the weekend is almost over and I can start new on Monday.

^^here she is with a slight fever-you can tell by her cheeks^^^

P.S. I'm getting really ticked because for SOME REASON my paragraphs won't separate! So I'm sorry if this looks like an unorganized mess.