Things That Must Go

1.  Chuck Todd.  The only t.v. stations we get are Fox and NBC.  I don't have a problem with the NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams is personable enough, but I cannot take Chief White House Correspondent, Chuck Todd seriously because of his stupid goatee.  Now you know I love a good beard, but there is something about a goatee that looks so sloppy and unfinished.  It screams college student.  I cannot listen to this guy talk about the politics of the nation cause I just imagine him going to his frat house afterwards.  He has taken the spot of least favorite news caster away from Katie Couric.  Shave it off Chuck!

2.  The Northwest E.R. Billboard.  Our local hospital has a billboard up on the freeway that has a digital readout of the current E.R. wait time.  I find this morbid and unnecessary.  First of all, we are not a large enough community where there are lots of E.R. options if you are in an emergency.  Northwest is it for Bentonville, so it doesn't really matter what the wait time is, you can drive to Mercy in Rogers, but the time it takes to keep driving will most likely eat a significant portion of the Northwest wait time.  And lets face it people make these decisions based on which system their insurance covers anyway.  Secondly, it makes me sad when I do see that the wait time is long cause then I just imagine all the people in trouble and it bums me out.  I just really don't see the point of this billboard.

3.  People who shush adults in church.  Now I am all for shushing kids in church, and I do not advocate adults being disruptive.  The problem lies in how we deal with them.  Shushing is ALWAYS done out of anger and frustration.  I defy anyone to deny this.  People only shush when they get really annoyed.  It is like how all the parenting articles say you shouldn't spank your kids cause it is only the parent's way of relieving their anger and frustration.  All that shushing an adult does is make the shusher feel like they have done something proactive.  But it hardly ever solves the problem and it only offends the talker.  "Well they offended me by talking/making noise...they shouldn't be offended in Church."  Yeah yeah yeah whatever, look do you want to hurt feelings or do you want to stop the noise?  If you want to do the latter then stop treating adults like children and politely ask them to stop talking or quiet down. 

4.  Tight diapers.  I don't understand the need for people to squish baby tummies by pulling those tabs as tight as humanly possible.  As long as I have had kids in diapers I have noticed that people love to get those tabs close together.  I can understand this if the child had diarrhea, but not for everyday.  I think I became aware of this with Max because his acid reflux was so painful that we specifically left his diapers a bit lose.  But daycare workers, babysitters, and almost anyone who has changed any of my kids diapers likes to squish their tummies.  That can't be comfortable for them.  Who likes wearing too tight under ware?  I suspect that for some it is an unconscious reflex like people who like to flatten pancakes while baking them.  It just seems right to get it as tight as possible, but I feel bad for the kids.  It reminds me of people who put headbands, or as my dad calls them "Brain Squashers", on baby girls.  Sure they look cute, but headbands give me a headache, of course those babies are crying. 

Impulse

Despite what you read in the last post I am not usually an impulse shopper, or atleast not for myself.  It takes me weeks to agonize over a comforter, shoes, or what have you.  So this morning I was scanning pinterest and saw these stunners.  I had to click.  Yup upon further inspection I was hooked and had to buy them this morning.  I don't care how stupid they would probably look on an overweight frumpy housewife. SOLD OUT!  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Not when I was being all Carpe Diem.  That's not fair.  I want/need bunny shoes.

Sucker

Mae found these shoes at the associate store yesterday and I am a total sucker who was high of getting cans of formula for half price.  She can't walk in them but that doesn't really matter.  She sat in her car seat looking at her feet the whole way home.

Just Call Me Nancy Drew

cause I just solved the case of the fussy baby.  Poor Spike has another tooth coming in.  The funny part is that it is another bottom tooth, but not the one right next to his two teeth, the one over a space.  That kid is gonna look like a serious Arkansas hillbilly.

Talk to me baby

So I found myself once again faced with a child who wasn't talking at the same level as their peers.  I'm starting to think that maybe it's me.  We decided to get an earlier start with Mae then we did with Max.  Part of this was because of experience and part was that the two sitautions have actually been different.  I felt like with Max that he was a bit behind, but that he communicated more effectivly then Mae does.  For Max it was more of a non-polished thing and for Mae it feels more like, something isn't right.  I debated whether or not to go down to Little Rock and visit my brilliant speech therapist cousin Liz, but while I feel she would have done the best job, the 3 and a half hour trip would have made regular visits prohibitive.  So we had her checked out locally.  The therapist we met with was a wonderful gal who is positive, kind, and really works well with Mae.  After the testing we met and discussed Mae's needs.  Whereas Max had been mostly fine and did not qualify for therapy, Mae is behind.  She speaks and comprehends at a twelve month level.  The therapist isn't sure why this is exactly, but Mae is going to get speech therapy three days a week for now.  I am very excited to help Mae communicate with us.  I think it will help us all be happier in the long run.  (Although I am not thrilled about the less then convienant schedule we were able to get.)  I love my Miss Mae, who is trying to attack me with books while I type this.  I am very eager to find out what she wants to say.

Break on through to the other side

So a side effect of getting a new roof was getting the use of a full size construction dumpster.  We took this opportunity to empty the garage.

It took Jeff and I about two hours of hauling that crap up the driveway into the dumpster but it was worth it.  We kept finding the most random construction items.  We kept finding all these mirrors and panes of glass.  One pane was like eight feet by six feet and it took both of us to carry it to the dumpster.  It was very heavy and oddly enough traffic picked up that Friday night so it felt like we were extras in a stunt movie.  I was waiting for the police to chase someone right through it.  SO MANY DOORS!  It often felt like the chase scene in Monsters Inc. 

 Alas none of the doors led us to Narnia.  We chucked most of it.  We kept one nice front door and inside door for our other house, and we kept these puppies.

These guys are solid something and HEAVY!  Rumor from the neighbor has it that the previous owner took them off the P.F. Changs job site where he was doing electrical work.  I talked to a contractor friend of mine and I am gonna post them on craigslist for $700.  I have no where to put them myself.  You can't tell from the weird glare but they are gorgeous. 

So this is what the garage looks like now.  We got Jeff a garage door opener for his birthday/Christmas and he can now park in the garage.  Hooray. 

*Oh snap how clever am I with the title?  A" Doors" lyric that aptly describes getting through to the other side of the garage and the intense fear I felt carrying the giant glass sheet.  

Sleepy Guy