Posting Pictures??

Hey everyone - quick HELP ME question. I see so many blogs post so many pictures in any given post, it makes me believe I MUST be doing something wrong! If I were to post that many pictures, it would take so long to resize them, pull them all up individually and hit upload. What am I doing wrong?? Do you all resize your pictures and then upload them? Do you just choose the ones to upload and say small, medium or large? Help! I want to post more pics but it is so cumbersome sometimes it just prevents me from taking the time! Any help is APPRECIATED!

DWTS - Update!!

In case you missed the latest episode of DWTS - this is the newest couple!!

(*Copied directly from my friend Kim's blog... Thanks Kim!!) It made me LAUGH!
**Read first post from today below...

The Twilight Zone

This weekend was supposed to be relaxing... strike one. It was the end of October, I was dreaming of nice weather... strike two. The World Series is on and they cancelled Sunday Night football... strike three!!

Friday night was fine. Uneventful. Maia went to bed and I had to run out and return movies I had rented last Friday night. (If you have my taste in movies, then I recommend these. The Bucket List - good, sad at times. Definitely, Maybe. Good movie, not a classic for me, but certainly good enough to watch, maybe even again sometime. P.S. I Love You is already/will become one of my Top 10 (or whatever number I'm up to now.) It is excellent, in my opinion and I will watch it over and over and over again. What are some of your favorite movies?? That night ended with me falling asleep before Matthew even came upstairs from the basement while he listened to music... Man, how times are a changin'!!

Saturday, I had the plumber come and fix a few things and install a few things... Maybe he'd be here 2-3 hours, right? He called at 8, would be here by 9. RIGHT?? Wrong. He called at 8, be here at 9. Check. 2-3 hours? HA! Try 7. 7 hours. Now, it was a coldish, rainy, windy, dreary day. I didn't WANT to go anywhere, but because I COULDN'T go anywhere, all of a sudden I felt captive in my own home. As soon as he left, Mom and I went shopping. Dad and Matthew stayed with Maia who was just waking up from her nap. We got some good things accomplished, so that was nice. We had a lovely dinner, Corned Beef and Cabbage, red potatoes. De-lish!! Matthew even ate well, really well! Maia even ate some meat, along with her cabbage and potatoes which she scarfed down.

I started to clean the dishes after dinner and Mom asked if Maia should take a bath. Well, for 1, it was definitely a bath day, so yes, and two, if you're offering AND I don't have to help, by ALL MEANS, give her a bath!! They went in and started the bath water. Matthew came to me and said he felt pukey and could he have a Sprite, he needed to burp. Sure, I said. He came back in (our sodas are in the refridge in the garage) and was drinking way too fast. I said, Matthew, slow down a little bit. Give the bubbles a chance to work - don't drink so much so fast. I told him to go sit down in the living room (our family room on the main level). 10 seconds later I here him say, "I puked". Oh man!! I thought he was conning me into a soda, I thought he wanted an extra sweet that day. I thought he wanted to get out of washing the dishes... I didn't think he was really going to be ill!! And be ill he was... remember how I told you he ate well, really well, at dinner. Well... this was turning out to be quite the evening. He was all upset because he was sitting in MY CHAIR (my brother calls it the Archie Bunker chair since I have to sit there almost 100% of the time and make others move if they happen to sit in it. Of course, they sit in it just ot bug me!!). Matthew was all upset and said, I ruined your chair! Well, he didn't ruin my chair, but perhaps the evening, not that it was his fault! So, he got to take the shower Maia was waiting to take, and when Mom took Maia out of the bathroom (not in the bath yet...) she got hysterical. Why is he cutting in line and taking a shower? Why is she naked in the hallway? Why can't she come out in the living room or even down the hall... (I was cleaning the LR and the path Matthew had taken down the hallway.) Fun, right??

Well, he finished showering and said he felt better. In fact that was it. He didn't get sick again and no one else got it. Wow, if someone has to get sick, that was about as perfect as it gets... with a one time thing and no one else catching it!

Dishes are done. Matthew feels better. Maia has a bath. Maia goes to bed. I found out how to move my iTunes music from one computer (old as the hills) to the newer laptop I use... All is good with the world now. Sleep well, cool night. Excellent. Visions start appearing of Sunday morning and my wonderful coffee with Pumpkin Spice Creamer... mmmmm. I love Sunday mornings. Sunday supplements out of the newspaper. Coffee. No rush to get anywhere early... Sundays are great... relaxing... excellent... football comes on later... Matthew, why are you screaming at Maia?? He comes down the hall, she had my deoderant!! I think she ATE SOME! What?????? I picked her up and low and behold, her breath was as fresh as a man's underarm. Y U C K!!! Gross, disgusting, nasty - now I want to puke! What do I do?? Matthew never put ANYTHING in his mouth - I don't know what to do!! So, for a few minutes, I didn't do much, then I read the label on the deoderant.... If swallowed Seek Medical Attention or call Poison control Immediately. WHAT???? Poison control?? But I'm relaxing. I'm going to pick up my brother and watch football. I want to go buy a pumpkin.... I want, I want, I want... SHOOT.

Mom tried to calm me down and tells me to call my brother-in-law who is a doctor. They are walking out the door to church so he calls me back in a couple of minutes. Admitedly, these were the longest 2-3 minutes I think I've ever endured. I was starting to panic... I told him what happened and does he think I should call Poison Control... YES??? Really, I have to call them? CRAP! Now I'm really a good bit panicked. And Joel is so nice and trying to tell me he thinks he's sure they'll say it's OK and blah blah blah (I tuned out) I was panicked and not really listening... but I didn't want to be rude and cut him off!! He was being so nice and I just wanted to hang up on him... Poor guy. So, I didn't hear the last bit he said and when he stopped talking I said, OK, thanks... have a nice day and THEN I hung up.

I called Poison Control and after saying my two year old daughter ate my son's deoderant, she said, can you hold please? Sure... tick, tock, tick, tock, tick - HEY, I'm on HOLD HERE! Who puts someone on hold for 2-3 MORE minutes when my world is ending?? HELLO, are you coming back?!!?!?!?!

Ah, there you are. She asked how long ago this happened - somewhere between 15-30 minutes at this point. I've lost track. I'm in another dimension... (**about the Title of the Blog... "There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call the Twilight Zone.")

Moving on... she asks what her symptoms are. I said she has none. She said, well, the worst we would expect is she might spit up a little and if she hasn't done that yet, then she probably won't. Go ahead and give her a big glass of water or milk to dillute anything that might be in her tummy, but otherwise, don't worry about it. I did clarify that she kept calling it deoderant, but it was actually Anti-persperant. (I had said Anti-Perspirant on the phone, even though that's not what I wrote earlier...) Anywho, she said that didn't make any difference (I thought it might have other ingredients..) and that we were good to go. I couldn't believe, all that stress - and nothing was wrong. THANK GOD!! But, wow, I started to really freak out.

So, I've known Maia 8+ months, she's been home for ALMOST 7 months and she's had to go to the ER already AND I've had to call Poison Control already. Matthew is 13 - haven't had to do this with him, yet!!

So, if anyone is still reading, I called my BIL back and let him know what they said (partially so he would know and not be worried and partially because I wanted to say goodbye properly and not be like, OK BYE and hang up on him again.)

So much for a relaxing Sunday morning... The rest of the coffee got thrown away - I didn't need the caffeine at that point - I was AWAKE, au natural. Legal stimulants became unecessary that day. (And no, I never did get to look at the Sunday Supplements (ads from the paper for sales I never do attend...)

Before I go any farther, I will let you know that I do NOT have pictures of these weekend events. You're welcome.

Matthew, Mom and Dad left for the football game as soon as they knew Maia wasn't going to die... Poor Matthew had broken in to a sweat he was so nervous, and blaming himself for her getting in to his deoderant. I mean, we have to be careful, but can't help that she ate his deoderant. Have I said how gross that is? Her breath was 'fresh' all day. Ick. Now all of you know - if kids eat the deoderant, no worries. They may throw up a little, but aren't going to die.

My brother came and watched football with me and Maia took a 3.5 hour nap while we watched! How nice of her!

Now on to today. Today was supposed to be sunny and 65 degrees. It was cloudy, if not raining, all day and hit a high of 45, yes 45 degrees today. Maia wore a lightweight gingham jacket. Man, she was probably freezing outside, it was windy, so our windchill was in the 30's!! Tomorrow was supposed to be in the 60's too, but now they're saying high of 50 at most. Not my kind of weather - but I'll be working so who cares. So, we were all cold and the house is chilly. We want some good winter comfort food. Grilled cheese and tomato soup! Matthew loves it, and man, I hope Maia does.. we eat this at least once a week during the winter months. So, I make her a grilled cheese and give her some soup. Hey Mikey, she likes it!

Fast forward to the end of the meal... she had enough of using the spoon to eat her soup and/or dipping her sandwich in the soup to eat it. So, she picked up the bowl and started to drink her soup. The FUNNY part was that she was GULPING it so loud, she sounded like a cartoon!! You could hear her slurp it which was 'cute', but more importantly is that you could hear it gulping down her throat as she chugged it. We thought it was so funny. (Crude and no mannered, but funny!!) Let me tell you - she drank every last drop of her portion of soup! Yup, she belongs in this family. She loved that meal and surely will eat it again when we do! Yeah!!

She also has figured out how great OREOS are. I've never seen someone take so long to eat one single cookie, but even funnier is how chocalately and messy she gets from eating this one single cookie.

So, that's our doings from tonight. I wanted to tape her soup chugging, but didn't get the video in time. (And even so, still can't find that blasted cable!) So, perhaps pictures soon - wanted to catch you up on out life, at least these last 3 days. I certainly can NOT claim to be bored - right?? :)

Two weeks...

We made it through two weeks in Maia's new day care! Yeah Maia!! This is longer than the other place lasted with her in her new classroom. This new school is so far superior - but I won't go all in to that again... suffice it to say, we are very happy here. The teachers are working with her and she has learned many new things (apparent already!!) She knows how to use 'gentle hands'. The next step, however, is having her know she doesn't have to pummell something BEFORE showing she knows how to use gentle hands... Just use the gentle hands to begin with, little Maia!

She did have one incident - she bit a teacher. Uh...oh. She was frustrated about something she didn't want to do... They told me they told her NO BITING (not, no thank you Maia!) and read her a book about what teeth/mouths are for. She does seem better (so far...) and we have some NO BITING books at home too, and she likes to read them, over and over. I'm teaching her to kiss (my hand, or whatever...) rather than biting. The book also shows that teeth are for eating food, etc. We've gone two days since then without another incident. BUT the most exciting thing is that they gave me a sheet of paper with the guidelines etc... They consider this 'normal, albeit, inappropriate behavior' until the age of THREE. Now, she can't bite every day, but I'm just saying they are not worried about her and certainly not about to kick her out. Yeah!! They are a good school who knows how to work with kids her age and what's appropriate for teaching her about changing her behavior. Not some fluffy stupid Maia No Thank You response when she has no idea what you are talking about! ok... I'll stop.

I've had a week of no sleep. It's getting old. I want to SLEEP. Let's hope it's tonight... my eyes are burning they are so tired.

Tomorrow I have the plumber coming to install some new toilets, a new faucet and fix a leaky faucet in the kids bathroom. I look forward to having this work behind me. It'll be nice.

I hope to take some new pictures this weekend and get some posted. I am still looking for the blasted cord to download some video.... Stay tuned!

Tag, I'm it.

My friend Kim tagged me, so here goes!!

A) Four places I go over and over
1. Work
2. Giant
3. Target
4. The Bathroom

B) Four people who e-mail me regularly
1. Judy
2. Kristy
3. spammers
4. Matthew's teachers (i don't look forward to these...)

C) Four of my favorite places to eat
1. The Melting Pot
2. Rudee's on the Inlet
3. PF Changs or Sakura
4. Anywhere I don't have to cook

D) Four places you'd rather be
1. At my parents beach house
2. South Carolina
3. New England (seeing even more beautiful fall foliage than we have here)
4. In bed

E) Four TV shows I could (and DO!) watch over and over
1. Friends
2. Seinfeld
3. Everybody Loves Raymond
4. House Hunters and/or Designed to Sell

F) Four people I'm tagging
1. I don't know - anyone who wants to play along!! Jen, Michele, Kami, Christine, Jocelyn, Renee, Judy, Catalina, Sandi, Christy, Sam, Sara - and all the rest of you!

Friday night

I'm getting tired, so I'm going to hit some bullet points.

1. I can't find the right cable to download some video... why can I find the other 1,052 power cords, download cables except the one I'm ever looking for?? you know murphy, right?? he's my cousin. I call this kristen's law.

2. matthew has gone camping. i've been sleeping with my windows cracked at night and still been too warm at times. tonight, i have the windows closed and i'm still cold inside. i'm wearing long pants, long sleeves and slippers and still have a chill. matthew is outside camping! he claims to love it - more power to him. better him than me.

3. i rented a movie tonight. the bucket list. good movie.

4. maia has finished her first week at the new school. it is awesome and we had a wonderful week. follow your heart and gut everyone! if a situation doesn't seem right (which it didn't before the whole "disinvited to attend" fiasco) trust your instincts and move on. i even ran in to one of maia's teachers last night from the first place and she too has left the daycare - and confirmed the idiocy and incompentancy i thought i was seeing too.

5. it was a crazy busy week at work. our fiscal year has ended and not only are we wrapping things up and getting out financial reports, but we are preparing for the audtiors. oh joy!!

6. maia and i are obviously alone all weekend, and i don't have much planned. so we will have to find some entertainment to fill part of the day. the weather is supposed to be pleasant fall weather. it was in the 80's here all week until today. tomorrow, maybe high 50's... nice, but big changes.

7. my poor parents have caught the cough i had for 3.5 LONG weeks. i am finally over it but it started 4 weeks ago today. mom is like, when will it end?? they've had it about 3 days... I hate to tell them, they've only just begun!

8. i'm going to TRY to go back to titling my posts by movie titles like i did while in kaz. i am going to add in some song titles though, and perhaps an occassional TV show. i'll have to think of a few again to get me going. i probably still have the list of movies mom and i came up with in kaz.

9. I miss Matthew when he's not here, especially when he's gone all weekend! I miss my snuggle time with my 'little guy'.

10. i saw this somewhere else and thought i'd give it a try too.... i am going to do Five Friday Fun Facts.... I will list 5 facts of the day each Friday. So, I'll start the renumbering now for this one:

Fun Facts:
1. I need to buy two toilets, a bathroom faucet and a couple of light fixtures.

2. One of Matthew's nicknames is 'Chew'. Maia says it crystal clear and after he left tonight, she was going around calling "Chew".... "Chew". So cute! She gets sad when he leaves! (Like me!)

3. We bought food for 4 meals for 8 boys for $73.99 (The budget is $10 per boy..) We did OK!! (Of course, I'm not sure how GREAT the food will be, but Matthew assures me that those Cup O Noodles are DELICIOUS when you are camping. Ok.....

4. I filed my 2007 taxes this week... Bring on the refund!

5. I had cocoa puffs for dinner. (sshhh, don't tell the kids!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAIA!!!

Maia is two today!! Happy Birthday, precious, sweet child!! I am so glad I get to be your Mommy and celebrate with you on your second birthday! In the 8 months (243 days to be exact) since I've met you - you've already grown up more than I'd like. You're getting big - FAST! I look back at pictures from 8 months ago and realize how much of a baby you were then, and how big a girl you've become!! Amazing. I've known you for exactly 1/3 of your wonderful life... and I cherish every single day I get to spend with you! I look forward to the next 8 months as much as I've loved the last 8 months with you. I am so glad I got to spend this birthday with you - I love you, little Maia.

We had a busy day today! We visited her new school for about 2 hours. She loved it! She played with lots of toys, met lots of teachers, got acclimated to her new room. They even had crafts set up at different tables in different rooms... while doing various crafts, she proceeded to eat playdough and suck on markers without the lids on. She ended up with a purple mouth... She eats everything! And puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. I've never seen anything like it. So we took her to another room where they were serving cupcakes... but do you think she would eat a cupcake... Nope, not really!! She was too full from the playdough... We went outside on the playground too and when it was time to leave, Maia was having no part of that. I literally had to drag her to the car, kicking and screaming. I think she's going to be just fine on Monday... :)

We came home and had lunch and a nap. (Yes, I had a nap too!) Then we headed to our friend Kayleigh's 5th birthday party. There were lots of friends there, for all of us. It was a gorgeous fall day and they had a big bouncy tent in the backyard. It was fun for me too to be able to chat and reconnect with some friends I haven't gotten to see in a long time, in some cases. I found out one is expecting, one is adopting, one had a baby in July I hadn't gotten to see yet... Really exciting times!! We had a great time!!

Tonight was relatively quiet at home except for the call from my sister and her kids. They had sent Maia a package that arrived today. We were going to open it after dinner, but they called right at the end of our dinner, so we opened it while they were on the phone. It was full of really awesome stuff! They sent LOTS of dress up outfits, and hats, and shoes, and leotards, and ballet shoes, etc. Also, they sent If You Give a Pig a Party and a Cabbage Patch Doll! How neat - an adoptable baby doll!! :) She was overwhelmed with it all, and will have fun going through it all for days and days!! It was great to talk to Regan and all the kids. They are getting so big now, that we can have great, real conversations with them. Maia on the other hand... still doesn't chat much, which dissappoints the kids I think, but one day, she'll be chatting up a storm with the rest of them!

Tomorrow we have Evan's party to go in the morning. That should be a lot of fun too!!

Mom left yesterday and went on a retreat. Dad left the house this morning before the rest of us got out of bed. (Although Maia woke up right when he was leaving, so we were up shortly afterwards.) So, it was different around here today without Mom and Dad, but we weren't home that much either, so tomorrow will seem even stranger. It's always quiet around here with two less people in the house.

Tomorrow is football day - yeah! Gotta love Sundays in the fall - especially when our teams win and the ones we don't like lose.

Happy Birthday, Maia! We love you!!

It's Been a Long Time...

It may not seem like long to you all, but it feels like forever to me since I, not only wrote a blog, but downloaded any pictures, and even read many blogs. There just isn't time, and when there is, no matter how much I love blogging and following other blogs, I just don't feel like being on the computer! But, I feel like Maia changes daily, and I'll try to capture some events and changes as I write now.

The past month has been interesting trying to line up day care for Maia until the new school is able to take her. Well, Monday is the day! Maia will start at her new school - and I am so excited! Tomorrow there is an open house that we can attend. Perfect timing! I can take her in, and get her used to the room and the teachers, all while I am there. That will make Monday morning less stressful. (Frankly, I'm sure she will be fine, it's me I am more worried about!) Right now, I would say I'm not worried at all, and I'm NOT! BUT, come time to drop her off, worry isn't the right word, but something comes over me where I get sad to leave them at a new place. Like I said, SHE will be FINE!!

The first week of this month, my friend Julie watched Maia. Then my parents took Maia to their house for a week. The Friday of that week, my brother, Matthew and I went to the beach house for the weekend and brought Maia home with us on Sunday.

The third week, my friend Julie watched her again. However, Julie had an illness that just wouldn't go away, so I ended up having to stay home with her that Tuesday. Then, Julie still didn't feel well, and I had someone lined up for Wednesday, but that got mis-communicated, so my back-up fell through for Wednesday! At 8:30 pm Tuesday night I found out this wonderful news, SO, I had to find someone, at 8:30 at night to watch Maia starting about 7:30 the next morning. As it turns out, my friend Julie had a neighbor with a little girl who is just a bit older than Maia, and they had played together when Julie had been watching Maia, SO, we asked her Mom to watch Maia for me that day! Yes, a stranger to me, but a friend to my friend, and at that moment I had to trust her judgment! It turned out to be wonderful, and I hope I've found a friend for me (the mom) and a friend for Maia, the daughter as well. Julie was better that Thursday and Friday. Yeah!!

Then, the fourth and final week, my parents came up to my house and stayed her to watch her. Today ended this long stretch of people stepping up and helping me out!! Obviously I couldn't take all this time off from work to do it myself, so luckily I have great family and friends willing to assist!! Thank you ALL!!

We had a great weekend at the beach two weeks ago. My grandma was visiting from Florida, so it was awesome to see her, and have her meet Maia!! It had been too long since I'd gotten to see her (this past year has not been a typical one - obviously.) She religiously wrote to my mom and I though while we were in Kazakhstan living in Siberia in the winter... and we loved her frequent emails!! So, althought I hadn't seen her in about 1.5 years, it didn't seem quite that long as she stayed so close to us via email and kept us up on all the news stateside!

This weekend is going to be very busy. Tomorrow is the open house at Maia's new school. Then, at 3 pm we have a birthday party to go to. I can't wait to go see some of the Mom's I'm friends with that I haven't gotten to see in a while!! Sunday, there is a party for Matthew's brother, Evan. They invited both Matthew and Maia, so we will all be attending this party on Sunday.

Maia's birthday is tomorrow!! She will be two! The first celebration (I assume) for her birthday.) We have had a couple of little family celebrations already. Last night we celebrated with Mom and Dad. She got some presents and I made cupcakes (actually I frosted cupcakes, Mom made them for me!). It wasn't really what I wanted, celebrating on a weeknight. It was more stressful knowing I had to go to work the next day for some reason, but she didn't know any different. I did do presents before dinner though, and that was likely a mistake. After presents, while trying to seat her for dinner, she had a major meltdown. This has never happened before, but honestly, I think she was just hungry and thirsty!! She was much better after I gave her a juice box (as a treat, but also knowing she'd drink it really fast if she were that thirsty and I wanted some quick relief!) It worked, and then she ate some dinner and then a cupcake. I'll post some various pictures, not only fromt he borthday, but also other events I've been missing.

This week, Maia climbed out of her crib for the first time!! Mom went down the hall to check on her about the time she thought she would get up from a nap. She stood outside her door and listened and heard nothing. Then a few seconds later, she heard knocking. Maia was standing on the other side of the door, knocking to get out of her room. Her room, by the way, looked like a tornado went through it... so she had been up a little while, emptying her laundry basket, and diaper container, and dresser drawers.... it was quite a site. Mom left it 'as is' until I got home from work. The mattress is as low as it will go, and the sides are HIGH. She is just a monkey. She stacked up her stuffed animals, and blankets and bumper pad and made it high enough to get out. Maybe it's time to take the bumper pad out.... ?? That gave her some leverage (we could tell because it was crushed!) She hasn't done it since though - so ??? Who knows when she will strike again!

Maia got a baby doll stroller for her birthday. (Actually, she got too.) We decided one will be for inside and one for outside play. Anyway, Maia insisted that were for HER and she wanted to sit in it! I'll post a picture of Maia in the tiny baby doll stroller. Silly Maia.

Then today, she decided the stroller belonged on a chair and she climbed in the chair too. Mom took a picture of this.

I'm getting tired, and still have pictures to post, so I'll stop rambling and post some pictures. I'll be back sooner rather than later to talk some more and post some more pictures...