The Texas Mama

Taking advantage of daylight savings, we made it up for church this morning without too much of a problem.  And we were still only five minutes late.  After arriving late, there were no seats, so we parked it out in the foyer.  The next hour, I brought Hali into nursery. 

I should have known better.  The last time we took her, it was not good.  This morning, we walked in, parked it in front of a puzzle and exchanged pleasantries with the other moms.  Before we even had time to actually start putting the puzzle together, this little capsule of nasty cold germs girl, about three years old, walks in.  And coughs.  A lot. So the “leader” in charge of the nursery, tells her to cover her mouth with her hand when she coughs.  So the little girl states the obvious and tells her that she is sick, and that her mom did not take her to the doctor.

WTF?  First of all, you DO NOT bring sick children to nursery.  What was the mom thinking? Oh, that’s right she wasn’t. Or maybe she just doesn’t care. Or maybe  ”I am so sick of dealing with my bratty child that I don’t care that she will get all the other kids sick, I just have to have a couple hours away from her for free”.  I wanted to hunt the mom down, lick my hand, shake her hand, and tell her

“Congratulations! You have just won the opportunity for (1) all the other moms to hate you when I tell them they may want to come and get their child from nursery b/c there is a sick kid there infecting their kids, (2) the opportunity to come and clean my house and cook while I take care of my sick child in the next few days, and (3) pay for a doctors visit and prescriptions!  What are you gonna do next?  Disney World? No? Lick all the hymnals so we ALL get sick for sure?  Sounds about right!”

Alright, so I understand that the hubs and I may be slight germaphobes, but SERIOUSLY!  Have some consideration! 

Oh, I feel so much better now.  I left immediately, giving the leader the eye as I left.  Then, we went to find hubby.  I headed to the foyer and ran into one of the moms I know that had just dropped off her little girl in nursery.  When she asked Hali why she didn’t want to stay in nursery, I told her that I pulled her out, and gave her the whole story.  Which another mom I know overheard. 

I left right after, but I sure hope they pulled their kids out and had a talk with the leader.  I just wanted to get the heck out of there.  That, and I was just too upset to say anything just then.  I will be talking with her next week.  I will personally make the fliers and give them to all the parents that say ” DO NOT BRING YOUR CHILD TO NURSERY IF THEY ARE SICK OR HAVE BEEN IN THE PAST TWO OR THREE DAYS!” 

Just fooling around with my template at one o’clock in the morning.  But hey- you’ve never seen Hali or I, so here we are!  How about that?!  Bet you thought I was better looking, huh? Sorry to disappoint… Not that you really see my face in the pics, but they are pretty much the only ones that I have on my computer of us.  Keep in mind I am still working on this…

I do not know what is going on with this dang blog right now!!!!!!!!! I pulled it up when I was messing around with my template, and there were entries from Feb. up front, and it thought it was Feb. for some reason!!! I don’t know what is goin on but I will try and fix it…

I am sure this is going to seem odd that I think about this kind of thing, but I just realized that Hali was born almost exactly 1,000 days ago.  Isn’t that amazing?!  My little kiddo.  She’s nearly three.  It is making me sad just thinking about it.  Each day is such an adventure still, though.  It seems she is always saying something that makes me laugh or sigh or think. 

Her new thing, which I can honestly say I have nooo idea where she got this, is that when she farts, she says something about a dragon.  I am not sure exactly what it is!  A dragon of all things! I need to listen closer the next time she says it after she farts, but I most definitely hear the word “dragon”.  Makes me crack up every time, so I really don’t catch all of it.

The new house is fabulous, albeit painful.  When you move into a much larger place, suddenly you have to actually walk to get things.  You can’t just reach across your entire minuscule apartment and get to anything you need.  My poor poor legs!  I have not had to tell Hali to stop jumping up and down in nearly a week now.  You have no idea how nice it is to be able to let your daughter run and jump without fear of a mean visit from the neighbors!  I have been able to get all my STUFF out now.  I left it packed in boxes this whole time (since we moved from Idaho in March), so it’s nice to have it out to enjoy again.

I am a little bit worried about the stove and oven, though.  I have never used a gas stove/oven before now, so I don’t know for sure- but should you smell gas when you are cooking or is this bad? I assume its fine, we have not been passing out or anything.  And I just realized how stupid that sounded. 

My husband has been working at a delivery/courier/shipping service of sorts lately.  He drives around Houston all day.  Sometimes, he works at night at this law firm.  They send him out for food.  Once, it was over $500 for some Chinese carry out.  Tonight it was over double that for an assortment of food from a steak house.  They order from all the “hottest” spots and then bill it to the client.  Crazy, huh?!  I can’t imagine spending that kind of money on one meal.  It was for like 10 or 11 people, but still! I was shocked as was my husband. I suppose we are just good ol’ country folk, but we just couldn’t fathom it.

I am moved in finally! YAY!!!  It has been a rough week, but I am in my new house, finally.  Sorry about the lack of posting and/or quality posts here, I will pick things up as we settle in.  I may even post a few pics of the new digs!

Right now, I am sucking down a milkshake and about to go watch Click- I rented it from Redbox.  Man, I love Redbox.  No, I am not being paid, I just like to pass on good things.  They are located at certain McDs- just put in your area code to see if there is one near you on their site.  It’s a DOLLAR a movie per night.  You don’t have to have a membership.  SWEET! 

So how long do I give the neighbors to come over and introduce themselves before I judge them for being unfriendly?  Or am I supposed to go introduce myself?  Do I bring cookies?  Some help here, please.  What is the proper ettiqute here?  What do I do to break the ice?  Advice would be good.  A couple houses on this little cul-de-sac seem to have youngish children there, but no toddlers or preschoolers seem to have been detected. 

I am hoping for some introductions this weekend as we are outside doing a few “just moving in” type of things.  I have noticed people noticing us, though.  So this could be good.  Or maybe there are just a lot of middle age men who were hoping that I was a hottie.  Sorry to disappoint, guys.  Unless they go for the “bigger” women (ok, I am not THAT big, but still) and I know there are some out there who do. And, yes, I realize that is all very mimi smarptypants, but I had to have some fun. 

I’m fine! Well, fine as can be expected, considering I have No: phone, internet, cable/satellite, or room to walk around in our apartment without puncturing my shin on a box. Oh, and no water all day yesterday.  Never, since my church “young women’s” camp days have I been so thrilled to see running indoor plumbing as I was this morning.  So now, here I am, smelling all fresh and clean, sitting in my FIL office, typing a quick note here.  Still no house.  Maybe sometime this week.  I’m actually considering telling them never mind, we want our money back, here’s your lease agreement, you lying B$#@%&! And we move to a town closer to Houston.  The hubs is now driving for a job.  His shop is STILL not done. I think you all get the theme here… So now hubs is working for a delivery service of sorts- more like a courier.  That’s what is going on here. Ta.

You know how you hear about those moms who had the fore site to document EVERYTHING about their children?  Sounds really nice.  In theory.  So here is my version.  Yes, I do a little scrapbooking, but that’s just not really all that personal enough, you know?  So every month, I will write a little letter here, for Hali.  Here’s the first (albeit a little late):

Hali,

You are nearly three now.  You are a VERY….exuberant girl.  I wanted to say baby there, but I didn’t.  You are, and always will be our baby.  But you are a girl- there is no doubt about it.  You love girly things, and I couldn’t be more happy about it.  I have always wanted a girly girl to have fun with.  And we do have fun together. 

Your love of all things accessory is astounding.  You are never more happy than you are when you are wearing only a diaper to cover you, accompanied by a purse, shoes, and jewelry of some sort.  With sippy cup in hand, you are ready for the day.  Before you have even rubbed the sleep from your eyes, you are searching for a favorite pair of shoes.  You wear shoes all the time- you would wear them in the bath tub if I let you. 

Mothers all love to brag about how smart their children are.  You truly are amazing.  You could count to ten in English and Spanish before your second birthday.  You just recently learned all your phonics and can tell me what sound any letter of the alphabet makes.  You can quote dozens of lines from your favorite movies. 

You are a shopaholic at only two years old.  If we are not gone shopping long enough, you insist we drive around some more.  Pulling into Walmart or Target or HEB or really any store warrants a smile and exuberant exclamations of glee.  After two years of a stroller stand off, you have decided that going for a walk every week day morning with mom is something not to be missed.  You can operate the mouse on the computer now- true child of the twenty-first century that you are. 

Hali Monster, Mama Monster loves you.

Oh, man, what a week!  Sunday, we discovered that we had mice!  We live in an upstairs apartment.  You may have picked up on this, or may not have, but I am borderline OCD when it comes to cleaning.  I have this schedule made of chores, which ones I do on which days, and so forth.  I vacuum our tiny apartment twice a week- even though it would probably be fine if I only did it once. I sweep and mop our tiny kitchen every week.  I wipe the counters down every night before I go to bed.  But we got FLEAS too a few weeks ago, even though we have NO PETS!  We are CLEAN PEOPLE, I SWEAR!!!  What is going on?!  Is someone in a nearby apartment just really nasty and their pest problems are flowing into our home?! Oh, this is so gross it is embarrassing! 

So I put this expensive flea powder down a couple times and it seems to have taken care of that problem.  We got two traps, and put them out.  We caught two mice with them.  Then yesterday we (meaning Jeremy did as I watched) set four more traps. I think they have figured them out, because no more have been caught.  Unfortunately, before we were able to kill Bob and Albert (I named Bob, Jeremy named Albert, as in Fat Albert, when he made the comment that Bob’s brother “Albert has got a big ass on him”) they were able to spread the word that there was plenty of room at the next apartment over.  So I know we have at least two more, which I refer to as ‘the twins’, not because they are super hot beer models, but because I seem to be lacking creativity lately. 

So I called the management, and they said their pest guy is here today and they would send him over with some sticky traps.  So I am going to have mice in my kitchen with their tiny feet stuck to a sheet of this stuff. Alive.  Squealing for help.  And Jeremy will be at work.  All day.  And I will be here, because I have to pack for our move.  In four days. 

I am so stressed.  I am scared of going in the kitchen. I pull on my tennis shoes, work up my courage, take a big breath and step over the panel we taped to the kitchen entry so that they have to stay in there and not, say IN OUR BED CRAWLING OVER US AT NIGHT!!!  They haven’t, as far as we know, but still, Jeremy is especially paranoid about this happening.  Poor guy is not getting much sleep.  So I do a big trip into the kitchen about three or four times a day.  Last night, I wouldn’t even cook dinner- I had Jeremy pick some up on his way home. 

I manage two bowls of cereal, chocolate milk, juice, and my green tea this morning (in two trips, but only about two minutes each in duration), but when Hali started demanding grilled cheese for lunch, I refused.  I could not do it.  I would have to get the skillet out of the drawer under the stove/oven where the mice are. I can actually here them down there, banging the pans and cookware with their tails.  No way. Uh-uh.  Was NOT about to do that. So we went to Jack-in-the-Box.  Right now, I am trying to work up the courage to go pull some chicken out of the freezer for dinner.  Not to mention figure out how I can bribe Jeremy to cook diner.  Huh.  Looks like I am going to owe someone some sexual favors.  It’s really my only bargaining tool.