all my bags are packed, i'm ready to go

Is anyone besides me super-stoked about the retreat?
I honestly can't even concentrate on the mountains of homework and incessant waves of emails that I have to deal with.
How wonderfully peaceful it will be to get to spend a weekend with a bunch of amazing women who just want to get to know their Daddy a little better than before.

Ahhh...

the blog with no agenda

Our halloween costumes: Lois, Clark, and Princess Brylie

Relaxing after church.

And this was taken today. We were just playing around and she nearly fell off the bed! Daddy saved her life though. He's very good at that. : )

juice - the ultimate evil

No one warned me.
I had no idea that it could inflict that much damage on sweet, soft, baby booty skin.
She seriously looks like she's got 3rd degree burns on her hiney. Or a disease that should be on a poster at Planned Parenthood.
All this for 3 oz. of watered-down pear juice?

crazy.

I've tried Desitin, Balmex, Nystatin, and Boudreaux's Butt Paste. I've even tried the old "air it out" trick and just ended up with pee all over our rug.

So, please help. Any suggestions?

boobie blues

Let me start by saying, no one is forcing you to read this. If you wish to continue on, do so with the knowledge that you had your chance, the "back" button is right up there on your screen.

Here goes:

I have mastitis. Again.

I don't know how this happens! Everything I read says that "between 1-3% of nursing mothers experience mastitis, typically within the first 2-6 weeks of their child's life."

Well, my kid is 9 months old and I've fallen into the "1-3%" three times now.

This time I actually had to go through the "flu-like symptoms" that I was warned would happen if I didn't catch it in time.
So Tuesday morning (my "crazy, jam-packed schedule" day of the week), I woke up feeling horrible. I'm pretty much never sick - I can't afford to be. But I really thought I had the flu. So, I handed Brylie off to her daddy and said, "I'm going back to sleep...indefinitely."
He obliged and whisked her away to a morning of peach puffs and sesame street.
An hour later, I rolled over onto what I realized was a rather sensitive area, and it hit me.
Nooooooo.

So, Brandon had to cancel his day to stay home and be Mr. Mommy/Mommy's nurse.
The only time I managed to drag myself out of the bed all day was to write 3 emails to my profs explaining why I wouldn't be showing up for work/school (without really explaining why - I can just imagine these people discussing my boob issues amongst themselves).
Funny thing is, it took a few hours for me to realize that I didn't HAVE to get up and go to work. Take a day off to moan, groan, and flop around in bed? Never.
But I did it. I wish I could have actually enjoyed my day off, but I guess that's the way it goes.

Two days later, I don't feel "flu-ish" anymore, but I'm still sore. So that means the issue hasn't resolved itself yet. I've read that if it doesn't, they'll have to go in and take care of it...

but I guess two good things have come of this:
when I finally emerged from the bedroom, gas had dropped 10 more cents
and
I didn't change a single diaper all day long : )

brace yourselves

The "twelve days of Christmas" lights are already set up by the river.

Dillards has exquistely decorated trees up for all to see.

Our heater is on.

These are all signs...
It's coming, people.

i've come to a conclusion...

Having a husband that does housework is way more important than making sure my clothes don't shrink in the dryer.

compliments of Dr. S

Since she's originally from India, she sometimes forgets her English words or uses the wrong one entirely.
Tonight she was telling us about counseling in a prison setting. She said, "Now when you sit down to evaluate a primate... wait, that's not right. What do you call a person in prison?"

We all had a good laugh about that, and then she told us about a time right after she moved to America. She said it had rained really hard and the pond in her backyard flooded. There were slugs everywhere.
She started yelling for her husband, "Charlie! Come here, there are sluts everywhere! Oh my goodness, there are so many sluts! Charlie, get these horrible, disgusting sluts out of my yard!"
Her husband (who is American) ran outside and said, "Sangeeta, you're using the wrong word, quiet down or the neighbors will hear you!"

: )
Hope that brightened your day.