Menu Plan Monday

Josh was sweet enough to take Reagan and head to the grocery store this weekend for me so I have our menu done and all the ingredients to make it!

Dinners:
Rump Roast with Pecan Cornbread Stuffing, vegetable
Chili Chicken Pasta with a cucumber salad
Senate Bean Soup and Bread
BBQ Chicken and Cornbread Salad
Grilled Chicken and Creamy Corn
Leftover Night

Lunches:
Leftovers or the following
Sandwiches with tuna or peanut butter
Ants on a log with fruit
Fish sticks and vegetables

Breakfasts:
Cheesy eggs and toast
Fruit and eggs
Pancakes and sausage
Breakfast hot pockets (if I get around to making them!)

Baby Fever Sucks!

There's just no nicer way to put it. We just started trying for number 2 this month. And it didn't happen. Which is fine, no big deal. I know some people have to try for years and years and I'm thankful we didn't have to do that for Reagan (and I pray we don't have to do that with #2). And I thought I would be ok with waiting, but now I'm realizing we should have started months ago because I'm looking at ultrasounds and really feeling some serious baby envy.

And it's not as though we're really ready to deal with the whole pregnancy fiasco (because a fiasco is exactly what it turns into with us), but we're ready to have another one. If that makes sense. ARGH! I think there's going to be a whole lot of "I'm so ready!" and "I'm SO NOT ready..what am I THINKING?!?!?" posts around here for the next few months. In the meantime I'll just keep reminding myself that at least I'm not throwing up blood and dealing with intense bouts of nausea at the moment!
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Oh and one more thing..I swear to you I AM SO SICK of all this natural childbirth talk. Let your body do what it needs to do. Your body knows what needs to happen. Have your baby at home. Doctors cause more problems. Embrace your femininity and orgasmic organic side by giving birth and letting your inner woman glisten with the dew of your labor.

GAG. ROLL EYES. THROW UP.

If I hear one more woman waxing poetically about the glory of childbirth I may go on a postal rampage. Sure women can give birth without hospitals. Sure our bodies are designed to give birth. But let's get serious. Doctors do NOT do more harm than good. The reason there are more maternal deaths and more complications and interventions at hospitals are because...say it with me people...HIGHER RISK PREGNANCIES AND DELIVERIES TAKE PLACE AT (where???) HOSPITALS!!!

Really, people? Really?

Are you honestly going to tell me that the reason there are less incidents of maternal and fetal death at home is because it's safer? It isn't. Healthy women opt to give birth at home. People who are dealing with complicated pregnancies and deliveries are going to give birth at a hospital with access to every life saving device possible.

So if you're one of those mamas who gave birth at home and reveled in your femininity and glory and the orgasmic experience of a contraction....great! Congratulations! But don't you DARE act like you're superior to me or my baby is in any way less perfect than your child is; because given the choice again, I'd still take every single life saving measure and medical intervention available...AGAIN. Because it saved my baby's life.

AND FORMULA IS NOT RAT POISON! ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Reaganisms!!

Last night I moved Reagan to our bed because she had thrown up earlier and I wanted to keep an eye on her. In the process of moving her, I woke her up..just barely. Still half asleep, she heard a train in the night and mumbled: Sometimes I hear a train and it wakes me up and then I say please, please, oh pretty please with a cherry on top, let me get some more rest!

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We spent Memorial Day weekend with Josh's parents. One morning Reagan was in the kitchen with Grandma and Grandma was explaining how she doesn't really cook much. After the two of them prattled on for a while in this vein, Reagan looked up and said "So, Grandma, your kitchen is just for decoration then?"!!!

Really?????

To understand what I'm going to post, you really need to check out THIS article. Basically, a 25 year old college graduate has accumulated $97,000.00 in education debt with her mother as her co-signer on some of the loans. The article goes into detail and begs the question of whether it was the university's fault or the student's fault.

To be honest with you, I felt little sympathy for the mother and daughter. I mean, come on...$97,000.00 in debt? As the article goes on (and go on it does, for quite a while) I began to feel like perhaps the university SHOULD have taken on a more direct role in advising the student that perhaps she should reconsider taking on such a large debt.

Then I read this: She recently received a raise and now makes $22 an hour working for a photographer. It's the highest salary she's earned since graduating with an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies.

Can you see where I'm having the problem??? An INTERDISCIPLINARY DEGREE IN RELIGIOUS AND WOMEN'S STUDIES?!?!??! Did she REALLY truly absolutely believe with a fluff degree like that, that she was going to get a job making enough to pay back a $97,000.00 loan without it being a huge burden?????

The world is full of very stupid people. This was not the fault of the university. It was 100% the fault of the student and her mother.

Hmm..

Why is it I'm having such trouble keeping up with blogging lately? Have I finally run out of things to ramble about, endlessly...? I'm sure that can't be the case.

So, today I'm going to ramble about the hardships of being a mother. Sometimes you feel like you're coasting along great (those times are rare indeed) and others you feel like you're slipping and sliding on ice and you have no idea what you're doing or even if what you ARE doing is working. Such is the case today.

Reagan, who should have been put down for a nap much earlier than she was, threw toys at and then scratched one of her friends in the face. This from my girl who has never been a hitter, biter, scratcher or any of the like. I was mortified. Clearly she was exhausted. But I couldn't just let it go...no, she had to get the full gamut of punishments...toys gone, time-outs endured and apologies administered. Princess castle? Gone. Rose Petal Cottage store? Gone. Ok. Let's be frank--my lovely tom-boy of a girl could have cared less about the princess castle being taken away. She was a little more hurt with her store getting taken away. But still...to just take her things away from her? Instead of feeling like I'm upholding the sword of justice and instilling in her the ideas and behavior that I KNOW she needs to be taught, I feel more like a bully ripping her toys away from her, resulting in sending her to future therapy sessions lamenting over the fact that she has attachment problems.

Somehow I think parenting in the 1950s might have been a tad bit easier. *Sigh*

I Think I Might Be In Love....

with this guy.....



What? You don't see his appeal? I do..check THIS out!

Time for my annual "I HATE COTTONWOODS" post...

Have I mentioned I hate cottonwoods? I HATE cottonwoods! It's 4 am and I'm wide awake because my head is filled with fluff and stuff, my nose is swollen to twice it's size, my eyes are red and itchy and I'm just miserable. To top it off, the weather is awesome so we're spending a lot of time outside..especially with Memorial Day coming up!

So......Benadryl is my new best friend. Thank you Oh Wise and Wonderful Makers of Benadryl. You have no idea how much I want to kiss each and every one of you.

On a side note..remind me never to live in Kansas. The state tree is the Cottonwood tree. I'd probably be arrested for taking a chain saw to one.


Kind of innocuous looking isn't it? IT ISN'T!!!


Yes, I took this from istock. I just don't care at the moment. But it has their name plastered on it. Free advertising? Anyway, this is what the air looks like around my home. It's like snow. I wish it were snow!! Argh!!!!

A Funny For All of You!

I received this in an email today and knew I had to share it!!

Political Science 101


A Short Spelling Lesson
The last four letters in American........I Can
The last four letters in Republican......I Can
The last four letters in Democrats.....Rats
End of Lesson
Test to follow in November

Golf According to Reagan....

Reagan to her Grandma: I can golf with Daddy. All you have to do is whack the ball!

Yep, pretty much!

For the record....

As I was cutting Reagan's hair yesterday, some of her hair fell onto her baby, Ming-Ming. She looked down at him, back at me and said "OH YUCK!" And then she looked down at him and said "For the record, I don't think any of this is your fault!"