Pulled an insect out of a patient's ear this morning. That's not even what she came in for. It might have been in there since last fall. I think it was a sandfly. Gave me the heebies and the jeebies.

Weekend in review

As many know, our basement was flooded in the crazy storms this weekend. Brian's weak attempt at playing weather man gives an accurate summary:



As we prepared for sleep at midnight, we heard a car driving through the lake typically known as our street. My heart sank when I looked out the window, knowing that our basement must be in trouble. It sort of made it funny that I had scolded Brian for not mopping up a small puddle he had found in the basement earlier that evening. All four rooms of our daylight basement were covered in about 2" of water at that time. The water had backed up through our grey water drainage in the floor, and did the same to all of our neighbors. We waded through and picked everything up and out of the water of value (mattresses, children's toys, dresser, tools, camping equipment, chest freezer, etc.) By the grace of God, we weren't electrocuted. Overnight, the water level increased to about 4". Saturday AM, in true day after Thanksgiving style, Brian busted down the door to Menard's and bought the last of the shop vacs with a water pump. We spent the day sucking up water, moving all of our stuff out to the garage, and drying out boxes and carpet. It was no fun, but now we've redesigned our set-up to make our next flood much easier to clean up.

These pics don't really do it justice - just looks like a mess!


I was too cheap to throw out all of our moving boxes - so they got to sunbathe until they dried out.


We really were quite lucky compared to other horror stories I heard - tree limbs crashing through ceilings and spearing a bed, 5' of water in the basement, and sewage backing up in a basement and ruining wedding photos. I'm counting my blessings, and planning on getting an estimate to cut our dying tree down before it not only damages our house, but hurts one of us.

Sunday we enjoyed Brian's first Father's Day up at the cottage. Charlotte got to swim in Whitefish Lake and play in her own personal pool. Quite a spoiled baby!

Charlotte and Grandpa


She's almost sitting up!

We're not making much progress on "ma ma." If only my name was "Aah."

Ask and ye shall receive

My SIL, Jacqueline, asked where is her weekly dose of Charlotte photos. Yes, I am a bit of a slacker on my blog lately. Perhaps because, as many have, I have become addicted to Facebook. I hope it's just a phase.

Last weekend we finally made it out to Lisle, IL to check out Carrie and Matt's house (which they moved in last September). Better late than never. They have a great thing going for them in Lisle. Their house is elegant, roomy, and didn't require any fixing up. I'm so jealous! And - most importantly - plenty of room for a family :)

While there, we visited the Morton Arboretum. Even if it was raining/misting, we just sucked it up and sat on towels to enjoy our little picnic. By the time we left, the sun was shining, giving us more time to check out their maze and children's garden.

Charlotte loves the new Pepsi Throwback. Mmm, real sugar.




I'm so big!


Last visit to Camp KickAss. "I want to go to there."

The Nursed-Baby Diet

Many would think that the reason why a woman can lose weight so easily while nursing is due to the extra calorie expenditure. Over the last 5 months, I've realized that there is so much more to the algorithm.

* When the baby ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. Which means all of her meals are a priority over mine and I'm on call 24/7.

* When the baby is content by herself, I feel I must use that valued time for such items as showering, paying bills, laundry, sweeping, watering the vegetable garden, facebook, organizing coupons....you get the idea. It seems that everything else is so much more important than feeding myself.

* Grocery shopping trips must be short and sweet so that I don't come face to face with a hungry baby and am still in the dairy aisle. (One might realize the humor in that, but I would beg to differ.) So, faster shopping means I skipped the cookie aisle.

* Meals are small and simple since meal prep is an afterthought. So, no three course meals or dessert to fatten up on. In fact, I would go for PB&J sandwiches most nights if this didn't disappoint my husband.

* And once the day is through, baby is nursed for that last "top off" of the night, and off to dreamland, there is no energy left to fix a late night snack. Forget having your husband wait on you when you're pregnant, this is when you need it most!

Of course - weight loss doesn't equal muscle tone. But I'll take it one baby step at a time :)

Writer's Block

I haven't felt creative for blogging lately and have been a bit absorbed in Facebook (now that I've finally given into the peer pressure). So what do mommies do when they have writer's block? Why, write about their kids of course!

Charlotte is almost 5 months now. It took her about 4 weeks, but she has finally grasped the concept of eating cereal. Now that she understands how good her belly feels with cereal, she loves to finish the whole bowl. And I love it because she now (sometimes) goes to bed for Daddy and doesn't want that last bedtime snack. I know I'll miss those last little cuddles someday, but for now I'm grateful for a little time to myself.



She continue to grow more playful and talkative. She is learning to hold objects, trade them hand to hand, suck on her thumb (and toes!). She will look to you when you call to her and is always willing to give a smile.

Here is one of her new garage sale finds - very cool toy.




As you can see, she is our constant source of entertainment. Can anyone place Brian's quote?

Tis' the season

Forget the Christmas bargains, the time to get great deals is summer garage sales! Unfortunately I am working this morning, and this is the day that the upper class neighborhoods are selling their "junk" (my treasures). But we did sneak into a "preview" sale last night and found many toys for Charlotte.
At one stop we managed to get 5 great light up/noise making/balls through tubes toys and a foam bumper for the coffee table for a grand price of $5. Even if Charlotte is still entertained by her current toys, I'm bored by them, so I'm glad to have more stuff to play with. A friend of mine is a garage sale guru/addict and taught me toys and baby clothes are the best deal at sales. I hesitate to buy too many clothes right now as it is already hard to rotate her through all of the outfits she currently owns. But I'm willing to shop for my friends if they give me the thumbs-up on used clothing.

Happy Birthday Maggie!

Maggie turns 2 today. Supposedly she is still supposed to be a naughty and hyper puppy at this age, demonstrating her teenage rebellion. Quite the contrary. Maggie is a calm and dear puppy. She has been an angel since Charlotte came home. She has been more subdued, sleeps a lot, but is always eager for a walk. I would love to say she doesn't destroy things anymore, but to prove me wrong, she ate my sunglasses yesterday. (In her defense, I did leave them on the floor.) I still see the puppy in her once in a while, like after her bath when she runs laps around the house at top speed (baths are like crack to her) or when she spots a squirrel. And she hasn't met a pile of cat poop that she wouldn't like to roll in. But her good qualities overshadow her bad any day. Isn't that how everyone feels about their "children?"
Someday I would like to bring home another puppy playmate for Maggie, but we're going to need a fenced in backyard before I do that. For now she's my one and only furry friend. Happy Birthday pups.

(Maggie when we first got her - I'll never stop loving those floppy ears.)

Inside Joke