Happy Birthday Josie!

Josie Leigh turns 2 on Tuesday! We had an awesome Barney-themed birthday party for her this Saturday. It was the happening place to be! My Dad (aka Grampa Curly) flew in from Minneapolis to be there, and my Grandma came from Iowa along with my Aunt, Uncle and cousin. (My cousin just turned 16 and drove 5 hours with parents and Grandma to attend a 2 year old's birthday party. You know he must have been thinking "kill me!" but he was a great sport!) Josie completely understood that we were having a party for her, unlike last year when she was confused by the crowd and wanted everybody out of her face. This year she greeted everybody that came in the door by yelling "Hi Guys! Happy Birthday!"

Josie loves Curious George and she scored a new stuffed animal from her cousin, Annie. As Josie would say "Yeah! A new Oooh-ee-ee!"

Showing off new garden tools to cousin Nolan and her Great-Grandma Mickie.

The coolest present- a new trike from Grandma and Grampa Johnson! (She still has to figure out how to make it go, but that's why Daddy is there to push. Hooray!)

She was looking forward to singing "Happy Birthday" the most, but then the actual singing kind of freaked her out.... uh-oh!

Blowing out candles with help from Mommy- yum, delicious straw-baby shortcake! (Josie can't quite say strawberry yet...)

Those are two hot looking Planks! Gmax with the coolest Grampa in town, Grampa Curly!

The Results Are In!

Thank you to everyone for taking my poll on my styrofoam dilemma. I secretly wish everyone would tell me how they voted, because I find it so interesting. But I guess that kind of defeats the purpose. Anyway, here were my results:
1 vote- Yes, keep up the strike because maybe they will eventually change their ways
5 votes- Yes, keep it up because at least my conscience is clear
6 votes- No, just recycle more
1 vote- We're all going to die, at least enjoy some coffee on the way down

And my thoughts? I think I will continue the strike because I should be recycling more regardless. But I do think I might follow this good suggestions-- to buy a re-usable Dunkin Donuts mug and enjoy the coffee without the styrofoam. Genius! Maybe they will even give me a discount! This plan makes the drive through more difficult (oh how I LOVE drive-throughs) but alas, something has to give.
Thanks for voting!

Depressing Election

And no, this is not my foray into discussing the current Presidential election. This is my response to the vote on my latest music woes. The vote was totally split-- how will that help me with my coolness? Russ suggested I may have had a more decisive vote if I'd offered option D- 'don't even listen to Miley Cyrus when its on the radio. ' Interesting option.
The other thing I found depressing was my lack-luster number of votes. Is anybody reading this thing? Maybe I should stop writing here and dig up some spare change to call someone who cares.
In the mean time, I will at least amuse myself with another poll. In honor of Earth Day, this one is about coffee- or perhaps, my lack of coffee. Help me determine the most ethical route to take here. To summarize my feelings, I have chosen to express myself through prose:

Ode to Dunkin Donuts Coffee:

Why you gotta taste so yummy?
But serving coffee in styrofoam is just plain crummy
In a billion years, you'll fill landfill craters
And my great-great-grandchildren will be haters
If I want to please them and Al Gore
I am forced to buy your coffee no more
Yes, this is a terrible poem
But this is what I think about at home
As I sip bad tasting home made brew
And wish I had a cup of you

Love always,
Gmax

Did I just experience the weirdest day ever?

Sometime in the middle of the night on Friday, I woke up to a weird rumbling sound along with something scratching somewhere in our bedroom. In my stupor, I also realized Russ was asking me "hey, are you moving the bed?"
Putting "scratching noise" with "shaking bed" I came to the logical conclusion that a huge animal was under our bed! (Too many years in cheap student housing in vermin-infested La Crosse, WI will do that to you.) When the shaking stopped, both from my panic and whatever caused it, I forced Russ to investigate the noise. He realized it was a picture frame tapping on the wall. Weird. So, maybe no animal. I joked that maybe it was an earthquake- hardy har. That was a hilarious 4 am joke, because we don't have earthquakes in Chicago!
Cut to 6:30 am. I had showered the night before so I was doing the awkward half-naked crab-walk pose over the side of the tub while I washed my hair in the faucet. Suddenly I hear the phone ringing and just as I'm adding conditioner I hear my Aunt saying "...the very scary news..." ACK! Who's calling this early? What's scary? Someone died! I run to the phone.
No one had died, it was my aunt telling me that we'd had an earthquake. Then she started telling me a story about some documentary she'd been watching, and I was nowhere near awake enough for that. At that point Josie spotted me from her crib and was jumping up and down yelling and wanting out. After 30 minutes I still hadn't even washed the conditioner out of my hair and I was late to work. Not off to a good start.
At noon my co-workers and I headed downtown for a luncheon we were hosting for museum donors. How wonderful, the bank was paying for the lunch. Too bad everything has meat in it. One bowl of pasta salad out of the 15 options-- this better be good, cause its all I can eat. Pesto pasta usually has nuts, so I ask a waiter if I'm okay to eat it. I am assured I will be fine.
Three-fourths of my way through my pile of pasta, and comfortably into our lecture on cosmic collisions, I spy a pine nut on my plate. Try not to panic. Is this garlic, or a pine nut? I've played this game before.
I discreetly sneak to the back of the room to ask another waiter as I notice my lips starting to puff. They confirm it is pine nuts- Jerks! Didn't we go over this before I started eating it! I go out to the hall to find my happy place. Hopefully relaxing will slow the reaction. I really don't feel like a trip to the emergency room today, especially when the room is full of people I have invited and am supposed to be schmoozing. After a while my voice has dropped and its hard to swallow, but it doesn't seem to be getting worse. Lucky for me, I think I'd managed to avoid eating an actual nut, and was just reacting to the oil.
So what is that all about? Could it be that I was, in fact, having the worst day ever? Or at least the weirdest day ever? To build my case further, should I add to the list the awkward large conference room bridal shower I was forced to attend later that day for the bitchy chick in another department that I never talk to? Should I also add that I got stuck in Cubs traffic on the way home and it took me an hour and 20 minutes to drive 10 miles? And that I really had to pee the whole time?
I made things better that night by taking to my bed and enjoying my benadryl induced nights sleep beginning at 7:30 pm. But I am determined to be positive. Because hey, when a day sucks that bad, things can only get better from there.

Dilema

I have decided I need everyone's advice. I am frequently ashamed of my taste in music and keep my favorite songs a secret from most people. Lately I have been loving this one particular song on the radio and getting excited every time it comes on in the car. Then I learned, to my horror, that the song is by Miley Cyrus--- I hate her and am almost too humiliated to admit this! So here is my question: are there just some songs you can't like, regardless of how much fun they are to dance too? I feel this may be the song. What do you think? Take my poll and help me decide!

Bargain Buster!

I am totally excited about an amazing stream of shopping luck I've had lately. Indulge me for a moment, will you?
So last week in a desperate attempt to shrug off winter and brighten up my life I went on a major shopping spree! (Okay, $100. Lets not get carried away, its still me we're talking about.) I went to the Gap and bought 4 shirts, some pants, a dress and a cute cropped jacket! For $100! I was gorgeous!
Fast forward one week. I have displayed my hotness with new clothes all week. Except I'm having second thoughts about the jacket. I went back to the Gap to think about returning it when low-and-behold, the price has been cut in half again. I hate that!
So I asked for the difference in price, and figured if they didn't give it to me I would just return it anyway. When I presented my receipt, they gave me the difference, no questions asked- 15 new dollars, yeah!
When I got home, I realized I had given them the wrong receipt and they'd given me the difference on the pair of pants I bought. (Long story about why I had two receipts.) So I went back again today with the other receipt with the jacket- and got even more money off not only the jacket but another shirt that had also gotten cheaper. Apparently Gap has a policy of honoring price changes up to two weeks from the date of purchase. Who knew? I ended up with $35 back today, making my original shopping spree last week, like, the cheapest ever!
So I am feeling not only hot, but very good about myself and my budget. Maybe I am a complete loser for nickle-and-diming them, but I now have money to get a pedicure and splurge on coffee many times this month. And that is hot!

1 Million Degrees

Josie has been super sick for the last several days! She is finally now recovering from one of those random childhood illnesses that brings on a very high fever but no other symptoms (thank goodness). We woke up on Sunday at 8 am and she was still not up yet. When we went to check on her she was just laying there and barely could muster up the energy to say hello. Poor little stinker!
She laid around in her jammies for a few days and her fever got all the way to 105! We did some serious Barney watching and intense snuggling. She didn't want to eat or play (when she doesn't want to play with her farm, you know there's a problem). On Monday I was getting ready for work, but her sadness at seeing me leave was too much for me. I decided to stay home and play nurse one more day.
That night Josie couldn't fall asleep. I finally went in her room and took her out of her crib to rock her and snuggle her. This is something I hadn't done since she was a newborn.
Is it wrong that I secretly loved these few sick days? Of course I hated that she felt so terrible and wanted her to get better immediately. But I am always the one having to go to work and leave Russ to take care of Josie. I don't get that awesome I'm-really-taking-good-care-of-her Mom feeling often, especially now that she is getting so big. There was something so great about knowing that she really needed me. It was better than any power-suit-wearing-great-sale-kinda-day at work in the office. Sometimes its the simple days at home when you feel really good about who you are. And man, I needed that.