Evil Monkey has left the Building

I'm nervous to even type this thinking it will come back to bite me, but I'm going to anyway. I think only Precious Baby lives at my house now! Sure, he still gets thrown for a loop if you take him away from our house or if a stranger tries to hold him, but when it is just me and Adam here he has been good as gold. Adam had him this week while I worked and he sat on the sofa with him playing with toys for over an hour. He smiles and giggles all the time and I think even likes it when I lovingly touch his face and hair. He use to be so stiff and jerk himself around that he was very difficult to cuddle. It has really been an awesome few weeks for us. We took him to two restaurants today. Granted they were both fast (chick-fil-a and Panera). Mom bought this bright green magic seat that we put on top of the table and we give him straws and cups and it is wonderful. We don't have to take turns eating or walking him around. WE CAN LEAVE THE HOUSE AGAIN!! And not just to go to Target and Wal-Mart! Life is good.

Today was dress like a cow day at Chick-fil-a. I love doing this. Adam doesn't at all, but I think it is great fun. I even dressed Oliver in a white onesie and taped little cow spots and a cow tail on him. We got there and I got my camera out to take a photo and almost cried when I realized my battery was dead. I would've taken it when we got home, but the ink bled all over the onesie so this kodak moment is forever lost. :( He was adorable...got lots of smiles from other customers!

Took the time after the DG meeting on Tuesday to go get a beer with Jody. Really glad I did even though I felt a little guilty about not going home right away to help with Oliver. Going to try to make that a monthly ritual. Exercise has completely fallen off the radar with work being busier, but I did get some new shorts a size smaller! Gotta try to priortize. Made another Paula Dean casserole and this time it sucked. I still ate it most all of it and maybe sucked is too strong of a word. I just didn't like it as well as the others. Going out with some Calhoun friends tomorrow night that are all tan. Been trying to put on fake tanner so I don't look like a ghost in the photos that I am 100% positive will be on facebook by the time I wake up on Sunday morning. I've been looking for Oliver's next year's 4th outfit and found several I like online by Funtasia Too...none in his size. Ugh.

Happy Friday! Happy Weekend!

Happy 4th

I had a 3 1/2 hour nap today! I have been at my parents for a few days and I decided to take a nap when Oliver did which is not uncommon, but I planned to get up when he did and resume taking care of him. I thought I had turned the monitor on when I got in the bed, but apparently I didn't and my sweet mom got him when he woke up. He slept and hour and a half and by the time I rolled out of bed he was ready to go back down for another nap. I think this is the first day in 6 months that I feel fully rested without coffee!

Oliver's first 4th was pretty much how I expected it to be. He didn't want to be held or touched by strangers. I spent most of the night looking just like the photo. A few funnies happened. Adrienne's youngest son (Hudson) tried to sit in the Oliver's push car while Oliver was also sitting in it! After Oliver got out Adrienne pushed Hudson around and when Oliver saw him in his car he started kicking and screaming while I had him in the bjorn. First sign of jealousy! A few little girls were inside where the 4 dogs were and one told me that Precious had bit her sister, but her sister gets bit by dogs a lot. Precious is not a fan of toddlers and she didn't actually bite her...just snapped at her. I found Precious in the bathroom as people were coming in and out to use it. She was scared either of the toddlers or fireworks. We went to a petting zoo yesterday b/c my dad's first cousin owns it and she had a cookout. Oliver was not a fan of the animals when they made their animal noises. No gobbling or donkey noises allowed! I'm finding he is sensitive to noise, but didn't have a problem with the fireworks.

Diet break was yesterday and back on the wagon today. I think I'm about 3 lbs away from the 10 lb mark. I have gone down a size in clothes. Going to try to pack away that size so that way if I gain again I will have to go get that box of clothing in the basement and it will hit me that I'm gaining weight. Lost 52 lbs since December 16th...too bad 36 of that was a baby and baby weight I had gained!

Adam told me today that he missed us and is ready for us to come home. We have been in Calhoun since Thursday night. It reminded me of Jon and Kate where she says it is a crazy life, but it is our life. He's a crazy baby, but he's our baby!

Two in a Row

Miracles do happen...Adam has actually liked two things I have made in a row! I felt like I was in a cooking rut so I went on Foodnetwork's site to find some new recipes. I cooked two of Paula Deen's with success. I originally went on looking for healthy recipes and one of Paula's was on the list. I didn't know she made anything healthy! After looking at her recipes I think many can be made healthy with just a few tweeks. The first I made was a chicken and rice casserole and the second was an asian chicken and orzo salad. I read several of the comments before making them and was able to incorporate some of the ideas I picked up. I had never made orzo before and never used sugar snap peas so it was fun to experiment and even better that they turned out really good. I also used fresh veggies instead of the frozen it called for since I am trying to use less prepackaged food in general.

I found out Michael Jackson had passed while surfing facebook. One of my friends posted that MJ would be missed. I immediately thought of Michael Jordan and went to complete shock and sadness for a few seconds. Clicked MSN and discovered it was another Michael. Whew. While I am very sad to say goodbye to the King of Pop I have to admit I was relieved it wasn't Jordan. Not really sure why except that he is an athlete/hero and I like to think he would slam dunk (w/ tongue out) death in the face. It was kind of obvious Michael Jackson had problems and took no telling how many pills to get through the day. I do love me some MJ songs and when I think back on his life it was a very unique one, but not sure if it was a good one. Either way, a musical legend and I'm happy when we think of MJ now we can think of the one with a jheri curl.

That's really about it for us lately. I have been working a good bit so between that and taking care of the babe we have been quiet. We did meet Carl last night for dinner and it was the best Oliver had behaved in a restaurant while awake. He cracks up several times a day now and last night while he was asleep as I was rocking him he started smiling and giggling. It was oh so sweet! I had a friend recently tell me on one of my hard baby days that you have to appreciate the moments. He has had a lot of good ones lately and I find myself blurting out "i love you" to him whenever he does something precious.

Photo for today was from our 3 month session with Melissa. Love it!

Lil Drummer Boy

Livin' the Dream

Oliver can now pull up! He does it on the outside of his exersaucer and tries on the coffee table, but can't seem to get a good grip there. He can also beat a drum. Got to video that soon. All he wants to do now is climb on us, stand, and us help him walk. No interest in crawling at all. We bought him a walker thinking that would make him happy. Not so much. I think he feels trapped in yet another contraption we put him in and he prefers for us to assist in his walking/climbing/standing. So much for getting anything done! He's been pretty darn good lately for Oliver....sure, still demanding and a 24/7 job, but he at least hasn't been crying and complaining at the same time. Oh, he also took his first bottle of formula last night. I have had a pretty busy 10 days and I feel like I haven't gotten to pump/feed him as much so my supply seems to be a little down. Gotta work on that, but in the meantime he seems fine with formula!

Diet still going well, but exercise was only 2 days this last week. Actually had Kim (brother's girl friend) tell me I was getting skinny today. Made me feel good, but I also tried to silence the retard in my head that usually says I can now stop dieting since it worked. I even resisted an ice cold can Coke today when I felt especially sorry for myself. I had cleaned for 3 hours (more on that below), was exhausted, and really, really wanted it when I opened the fridge. Instead I took the gross diet coke and left the kitchen before I changed my mind.

Why would one clean for 3 hours you ask? Because a renter moved out and left the place disgusting. She got behind on payments so she knew she wouldn't get her deposit back so she didn't bother to clean the dog crap out of the basement or hair out of the shower much less sweep, mop, etc. She also left a huge sofa, broken tv, and many other random things that I guess she no longer wanted and therefore we had to dispose. Adam spent most of the time moving all the stuff she had left to a dump while I scrubbed on my hands and knees. There is something that brings me a strange satisfaction in cleaning a disgusting house to where it now is fit for a Queen, but it also irritates me to no end that people have no pride. This tenant had lost her job so I had lowered her rent by $300 a month to help her for 6 months and she still left the place in such poor condition. It is shameful. I know this is the reason most people don't want anything to do with rental property and I tried to remember that she more or less gave me almost 2 years worth of mortgage payments and I was returned with my $135k asset in undamaged condition...just needed a little TLC today. And that I have owned the property for 2 years and it has only taken 3 hours of my time in 2 years. Not too bad. Adam on the other hand wanted to hunt her down and drink her blood. The life of a landlord.....

Win Some, Lose Some

The day after I posted my "burning bridges" post I got a website lead that more or less said they were considering me as their realtor but had reservations after they read my blog post where I trashed a client. I have since reread that post several times and I completely disagree that I trashed a client. I did express my frustration and hurt feelings over being lied to and if anything I think it showed that I genuinely cared about these people because it is obvious that it very much bothered me. I think in order to have trashed them I would have had to mention things about their personality, their names, or specifics about their home which I never did or would because I actually liked them. For about a second I considered even removing the blog link from my website, but I so rarely even post about business that I don't think it is necessary. I actually think I will win more people over by being me 100% instead of editing myself and being so politically correct. (boring) Those of you that are frequent readers know that I never discuss politics or religion or things like that so that is PC enough for me. Plus I want people to see I'm a real person first and real estate is just what I do for a living.

I responded to the website "lead" and wrote the following:

"I do apologize that your first entry read on my blog was the one written yesterday. If you read further in this blog you will see I hardly ever talk about business since it is more of a personal blog, but I had a really bad day. I’m sure you also noticed I didn’t name the client or list any information about their home. Most of the blog is a little exaggerated for comedic value since I have a large following that reads it hence the part about my husband (jokingly) wanting to burn the house down. All business people have frustrations associated with their business and talk about it to their friends/family as I did in my blog. The blog’s purpose is to let people know the personal side of me and the rest of the website is designed so you can read about my accomplishments.

Anyway, thank you for still considering me. I have attached a document that will help me prepare to talk with you. Please complete and send back by email at your convenience.

Again, I am truly sorry that your first impression of me may not have been favorable. I hope to make it up to you."

It occurred to me while rocking Oliver last night that the odds of me getting an email by noon the next day after posting this post just seemed a little off to me. I wondered if the seller had read the blog and had a friend pretend to be this lead. I decided to check it out on facebook and I found that this lead in fact was their friend, but she had used her maiden name. I took a look at her tax records and her married name showed up as the exact name on the seller's friend list. I'm assuming all of this was done to waste my time or make me think I had lost business by voicing my thoughts. Or I live in the twilight zone and it is some very strange coincedence that this lead just happens to be a friend of theirs. Either way, I'm at peace with living my life/business the way I do and keeping the link on my site. I like working with people I like and more than likely if you are reading my blog then you must like me too. And if my blog offends you than I may not be the realtor for you.

6 Months

Picture to the right is at 6 months and the one more to the left is at 5 months.

Oliver had his 6 months appointment today. He weighed 17.12 lbs and was 26.5" long. If I'm remembering right he weighed 13.15 or something very close to that at his 4 month appointment. Major growth...it's amazing what rice cereal has done for him! In the previous months he was gaining a pound a month and this was closer to two pounds a month. Melissa reminded us to check our list of 101 in 1001 and today I scanned mine. On there I had written I wanted to breastfeed for 6 months. This list was written a year ago when I was still in the early stages of my pregnancy. I was proud to place a check by that one today! I really wasn't going to beat myself up about it if it didn't work out, but after I knew that it was fairly easy for me I wanted to make it the full 6 months. Not sure how many more months or weeks I'll continue, but so far I don't mind. On the list I also checked off that he sleeps in his own bed. He has been sleeping in his swing for months, but a few nights ago we started all naps and bedtime in his crib. He has adjusted very easily. Still no sickness or a diaper rash and he sleeps 9 hours at night and usually two 2 hour naps. Like mom says, he would be the perfect baby...if only he didn't cry lots! He's actually had two really good days in a row. We've taken him to the pool yesterday and tonight and he really seem to enjoy it. That may be one of our new activities that we do to add on to our walks. When Adam and I decided to look for a house back a few years ago my 2 main criteria were a basement and a neighborhood with amenities. Now that we have Oliver I am so happy to have the pool. I can see him and his little buddies playing in there daily next summer.

Today is day 16 of my 45 day challenge. This past week I lost another 1.5-2 lbs. I don't have a digital scale so it is a little hard to know exactly. I think I am around 4 lbs off from where I started. Things are going well. I'm noticing I eat the majority of my calories before 6pm. I am very hungry in the mornings and usually eat near 500 calories for breakfast! I ate out a little more last week because I went to Calhoun for a visit. I think I ate out 3 times. One very strange thing has happened. I don't seem to be craving sweets. I usually like to have something sweet every day like a skinny cow item. I'm hoping this will continue!

I'm having my family down on Father's Day and I am cooking. Be afraid, very afraid! I have never invited them to eat my cooking. I usually just go to their house for a few days to get a nice long visit in every few weeks, but since we were just there and we will be going back for the 4th I thought it would be nice to not mess with Oliver's schedule and just suck it up and try to make something edible. I'm getting an ice cream cake from Coldstone for dessert! I haven't had one, but have heard good things. Yummy!