Strep o'clock

I feel like my blog posts of late revolve around looking forward to the weekend and the various diseases and infections that Mia brings home from daycare. So, for that reason, I am not going to dwell on the fact that Mia, B and I all three tested positive for Strep, are all three on a total of four different kinds of antibiotics, and all three had to take two sick days following a sick weekend. I won't even get into the story where I had an allergic reaction to the first antibiotic I was prescribed (shortness of breath, hives on my palms), having to catch the Minute Clinic nurse just before she was leaving to please give me something different, don't make me wait until morning THANKS! I'm also not going to dwell on the sinus pressure headache of the ages that I am currently experiencing, since the strep bacteria which gave me the most painful sore throat I've ever experienced has migrated up to my sinuses, despite being back at work because, let's be real, nobody can miss an impromptu 5 days in a row off work. Being back today makes it 4 (2 vacation days for my anticipated long weekend last week, and 2 sick days because of the Strep).

Instead, I'm going to show you a few pictures of how we were able to ignore our symptoms for a day, and entertain my high school friend J for the 36 hours of her visit. (She was supposed to be with u for four days, but she had a family emergency and had to delay her arrival from Thursday to Saturday -- everything is OK now, and it ended up being for the best, disease-wise)

Mia is visibly miserable, although we did not have confirmation that she was also in awful throat pain until Monday at 8am, which is when the pediatrician opens. I was stopping in every restroom between SharkReef at Mandalay Bay and The CocaCola store (not pictured) next to the MGM Grand to spray my throat with Chloraseptic, infinitely more times than the recommended amount of 1 spray every 2-3 hours. It was more like 3 sprays every hour, but you know.

 By tuesday evening, Mia had been on her antibiotics for 36 hours (me, day 3, Brian 35 hours) and was feeling well enough to earn her first evern baby time out. 2 minutes on a chair without getting off for deliberately knocking over a speaker after repeatedly being told to leave it alone and understanding perfectly.

Time Out, misunderstood as the "Mama won't let me get up game".

The Man Diets

Today is my friday! One of my best high school friends is coming to visit tomorrow through the weekend, and I spent the first two days of the week making sure I wouldn't have to come in Thursday morning as I initially thought I would. The good (and not so good) news is that I did manage to get everything checked off my to-do list. So, with the exception of my 15 remaining hours of CLE to be completed by the 30th, I'm free as a bird (so long as I'm within earshot of my the extremely fascinating gentleman speaking through my computer about the complexities of e-discovery).

Anyway, about three weeks ago, I started diligently logging my food intake using My Fitness Pal (thanks BeeBee!) Evidently, I had turned into a very annoying person, quickly searching my App for the calorie count of quite a few of the things B was putting in his mouth. "Did you just eat that whole bag of popcorn?? That's ---- calories!" I'm down three pounds, which is not a huge accomplishment, but at least shows that my goal of one pound per week is manageable, sustainable, and that so far, it's working. Bonus, it has also been effective at annoying my husband into downloading the app for himself and logging his own food intake!

So, based on B's height and weight and goal (the same as mine, 1 lb per week), he's allowed 2100 calories a day. That seems awfully high to me, seeing as I'm allowed 1400. But, my Fitness Pal is not wrong. Everytime I diet, I am always begging him to follow along. "It'll be so much easier for me to do this if you're doing it with me!". Well, not so when your husband sits down at the end of the day, checks his iPhone and sees that he's got x amount of calories left over after dinner. "OH, let me just eat some of these twizzlers left over from the movies on Saturday!" Great, enjoy those twizzlers while I sip my crystal light. Be careful what you ask for!

He's Cute and I Love Him...

Please tell me I'm not alone on this one, I love my son.  I would take a bullet for him.  I'd lay down my life for him.  I adore him with all my heart and soul...but some days...I just don't particularly *like* him.

Today is one of those days.  I know he means no harm.  Chances are it's more my PMS and upset stomach than his attitude.  But *everything* is getting on my nerves!  Many days I'd like to just cuddle.  In fact, I wish this usually curious and independent toddler would.  Today, of all days, he refuses to leave my side, won't let me leave the room (which made throwing up earlier today from some eggs gone wrong difficult), won't listen to anything I say or ask, stares at me with big empty eyes like he isn't comprehending when I know he is, and seems to purposely be doing the opposite of what I ask.  Oh, and my darling sleeper usually goes to bed around 11pm, sleeps through the night, wakes groggily for milk around 7 or 8am, and happily falls quickly back asleep for another couple of hours until 9 or 10am. (I should probably quickly explain-- he is put to bed between 9 and 10pm but he chooses to "play" in his crib until later--which is fine with me who has insomnia, his whole sleeping routine and sleepy-head nature is great for me actually--I fall asleep around 4am, drag myself up after a cat nap to give him milk at "first call" and fall back asleep like he does until 10am).  Anyway, today he was up for milk and diaper at 2am, which was no biggie because I hadn't fallen asleep yet, but then up and ready to go go go at 6:30am!  Which means I got slightly over 2 hours of sleep on which to deal with him today.

I'm staring at the clock counting down the minutes until Romeo will walk in the door from work.  Unfortunately, with his job each night is different.  Last night he shocked me by arriving home at 5:55 of his own accord!  Gasp!  Did he really get home before 6pm?  And without my prompting because there was something he or we had to do that night?  With my luck tonight will be a 7 or 7:30pm evening.  Well, when he does get home, Mommy's eating in the bedroom (if eating at all on this still woozy stomach), and Daddy is on full-time duty.  I only feel slightly sorry that Daddy doesn't know this yet.

Anyway, a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I promised you more pictures of Tybalt, this time with his hair short right after his first cut.  Well, the cut was months ago, I still haven't blogged about it (Oops!  Bad, Juliet, bad!), he actually now needs a new cut, but I do have his cute short hair pictures.  So, in order to keep me sane and remind us all how cute he is, and remind me how much I love him, lol, I thought now would be a decent time to put up some cute pics.  Even though they are 5 months old (from January when he was 17 months old and he's now coming up 22 months): Enjoy!

"Hi, Mommy!  Sure, I'll model for Grandma, but I think you forgot to put my glasses on me this morning!"

"Oh, you were serious about the modeling and smiling thing?  What's the big deal, all I did was get a haircut?  (And scream bloody murder throughout.)"

"What?  Modeling means staying still and smiling nicely?  I thought it meant running and giggling!"

So not interested in getting any good shots for his Grandma and Grandpa in Chicago.

"I'm cute."

"In fact, I'm A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!"

AAAAAAAAAaaaaaannnnnnddddd, now he's found a cereal bowl and metal spoon to bang.  (Why can't think kid at least choose some quiet tupperware?)  Gotta go put an end to "band rehearsal" as he's now moving on to banging the furniture, the cabinet, and the cable box with said spoon...and now scraping the walls in the hallway.  Sigh....Romeo?  Romeo? Wherefore art thou, Romeo?

Father's Weekend Movie Marathon

A brief description of our father's day will give you a nice amount of insight into who my husband is (because you were all wondering). So, let's proceed:

B requested that we do the exact opposite of what we did on Mother's day, which was a jam packed day. So, yesterday, we had breakfast at our favorite breakfast place around the corner (exactly the same thing we did on Mother's day, failing so far), went to a use CD/DVD/Record store, where B combed the DVD aisles for hidden gems. I entertained Mia for the close to an hour we were there, by chasing her up and down the aisles, keeping her from touching the DVDs that she very much wanted to grab, and reading grown-up picture books to her (like the ones they sell at Urban Outfitters -- I didn't show her anything inappropriate, so hold your shocked horses). He came out of it smiling, with a few odd collection of used DVDs: Fever Pitch (Jimmy Fallon, Drew Barrymore), The Hangover (you know the one), and The Island (Ewan McGreggor, Scarlett Johansson). Here is what we can learn from those selections: He likes baseball, he likes to laugh, and he likes to watch ScarJo run around.

We came home and we all parked ourselves in the living room to have a B-requested movie marathon. That was absolutely fine with me, because I had two custom Frills bracelets to make. On the DVD player were: Recently purchased: The Island; Too Big to Fail (HBO docudrama about the collapse of Lehman Brothers and subsequent bank bailout); Total Recall (at this point I was kind of movie'd out and was not paying much attention, to B's chagrin. I was re-taking photos of my bracelets, since I realized a lot of the ones I had posted looked significantly less professional than the ones on other people's Etsy shops); and finally, The Hangover.

Appropriately, the Hangover was the last movie we watched, and I very much have a movie hangover today. B LOVES movies, and I am certain the day did not disappoint since, well... there were movies. Keep in mind, also, that Mia's daycare had a "parents night out", where they were open on Saturday night from 5-9, giving us enough time to grab a bite (B's choice: Falafel) and... you guessed it, a movie (B's choice: Prometheus).

If the Bachelorette wasn't on tonight, I'd say that the TV was staying off. But let's be honest, I can't even wait a day to see what drama happens this week!

The Crafting Bug

I have found a new craft I want to start making! This is big news because I love using my hands, but I'm not an artist nor great at all things naturally like our Frenchie, so while I like the look of many crafts, I rarely come across one I feel confident I could make and make well. And I found this and just fell in love.

What's even better is that I have not seen anyone sell them at the craft fairs in Vegas. So seeing it's not already out in the local fair and bazaar scene, I'd have a corner on the market of these. For once, I'd be doing something original! Woohoo! Usually I just follow the trends. (Okay, I got the idea from Pinterest, so not completely original, but something new to Vegas and the small community of dedicated crafters here.)

Anyway, my adrenaline is pumping. Hence the blog post at 3:30am!

Only issue-- can any crafters out there-- Frenchie I'm looking right at you, lol, but also any of our readers-- look at the pictures I've included and tell me: How would you attach the ribbon used for hanging? The "trays" are noted in the very basic description as being "fake silver" from the dollar store, so I am assuming that could mean either plastic or tin. I'm also seriously considering thrift store and garage sale shopping for better metal trays (though probably not real silver; depends on what bargains I can find). How would you attach ribbon to either material? If it was tin, I'd be prone to say a metal punch and put a grommet in and thread ribbon through, but there are no "holes" in the photos, so that's obviously not what the original crafter did. What do you think?

(Note: Picture is courtesy of more than one Pinterest.com board, and they credit "signaturestyleblog.com," but she credits back to Pinterest and no one person's specific account, so I don't have the copyright nor know the exact citation.)

Grand Opening!

Guess what I've been up to in the two hours between Mia's bedtime and my bedtime?

Frenchie's Frills Etsy Shop

Here are a few pictures of my start up pieces, but take a look at what I have available.

My absolute favorite bracelet, it's teasing me from its jewelry bag, whispering at me to take the listing down and keep it for myself!

I improved on the design I found at Ten Ten Knits, ordered some nice colored leather, experimented with different bead sizes and leathers, and... I just couldn't stop buying and making these bracelets! My initia idea was just to do area craft fairs, but there don't seem to be many around these parts at the moment. So, an Etsy shop seemed like a good place to start.

No Etsy sales yet, but I do have a couple of custom order requests here and there :)

Crime Spree

I just checked, and it was March 26th that I last posted about police action right outside my apartment. That's only what, like a little more than 2 months ago?! And it had been a Sunday night too. Well, last night it happened again! Not a shooting this time, luckily, and at 9pm, not the middle of the night, and no cops banging on my door this time, so okay, not at all the same thing I guess when I add all that up...but still, come on! What the heck is going on around here? This time I heard a helicopter before anything else, and I could hear it circling around two or three times and saw the spotlight (through my bathroom window, no less). I looked out the bedroom window and there were two cop cars, one of which had lights going, and was blocking my SUV in the carport outside!

Last night I got more bold than before, because at this point it was kind of like, "What the ____?" Plus I could see other residents outside like peeping toms, so I assumed were weren't talking a high danger level here. So yes, I walked outside, in my shorts and pajama top, sports bra underneath, and my Crocs. (I was a sight to behold, I'm sure!) There was police tape at the end of the 10 space carport aligning with the end of the building I live in, so great, it happened next to my farthest neighbor this time, just not my next door one. Insert sarcasm, groan, and slight dread here.

Anyway, I couldn't see much in the dark except police with flashlights and I could tell it was around the corner of the building. I figured it was bad enough for my neighbors to see me dressed like that-- I wasn't going to venture any closer to cops and official business, plus, I wasn't quite *that* bold. But two elderly gentlemen were walking back to their apartments, having finished nosing around (a little further than me) and I was able to ask and get their version of the story.

So, as of now, it goes that apparently the cops came for a resident (or they followed someone driving a truck into the development, that's unclear) and the "person of interest" decided to try to speed away from the cops in their truck. While doing so, they lost control, veered off the roadway, and crashed up onto a grassy area between my apartment building and the one to the east of us. I guess they also fled on foot at that point, hence the police helicopter searching above.

Unlike the last time, I have not taken Tybalt out to "go get the mail" and spy on the leftover evidence myself yet. (Not for lack of curiosity, but rather because it's 100 degrees outside.) So I don't have any follow-up details or anything yet. But, just thought I'd give you the latest episode of the soap opera that apparently resides where I do!

Frustrating Sunday

Lately, I've been seriously neglecting my apartment. I've been letting clean laundry stack up unfolded, I've been piling things on the guest bed rather than putting them away, I've been letting my dining table get full of jewelry-making and knitting clutter. Sunday, after being surprised by a trail of ants coming from my laundry room and invading my kitchen and Mia's daycare backpack, enough was enough.

Despite having been awoke before 6am by Mia, who refused to go back to sleep, B offered me a 5 hour energy that some reps had dropped off at the Bank. I popped that little bottle (my first 5 hour energy) and seriously felt a burst of energy 10 minutes later. It was kind of impressive, actually. Four hours into my energy burst, and I had vacuumed every corner of my apartment, scrubbed my couch cushions with oxy-clean, killed all the ants I could find with a vinergar and water mixture, put all picture frames that had a hook on the back up onto the wall to declutter our bookshelves and entertainment center, dusted said bookshelves and entertainment center and rearranged a few small pieces of furniture. Our main living area looked awesome, save the remaining jewelry-making tools on the dining table.

I really wanted to move on to our bedroom, but as soon as I glanced around to see what I could get rid of or rearrange,  all I could do rule out all the game plans I came up with. I threw my hands up and gave up. Also, my five hours were up. Our bedroom, which should be a serene and restful place for B and I to relax at the end of the day instead became a repository for furniture that has nowhere else to live. In addition to our bed and our two dressers, we also have an enormous dog crate and a desk. The dog crate has to stay around as long as Chloe is around (Did I really just type something so crass?), since she's still likely to urinate all over our carpets when we aren't at home, or when we're sleeping. We will not throw out the desk since it is a nicer piece of IKEA (oximoron?) furniture, which we bought in Chicago back when we had a guestroom that did not double as a nursery. Unfortunately, we do not have any kind of storage where to move said desk, or to put the huge dog crate in favor of a more beagle-size dog crate. Our bedroom has a large walk-in closet, but it is already full of who knows what. We toyed with the idea of getting a garage that our apartment complex rents out, but that is an extra $100 a month that we do not have in the budget.

So, I reach the same conclusion writing this out as I did when I collapsed on the couch on Sunday evening (woozy from the 5 hour energy, by the way): We have to move. I am currently hating our apartment complex manager who somehow sold us on some bullshit that there were no more 6 month leases available, making us sign an 8 month lease. So instead of the end of September, we're stuck here until the end of November.

Let me end on a more positive note. Tomorrow's my Birthday! Because of some AT&T activation stuff, I got my iPhone upgrade a couple of days early (from a very slow 3GS to a 4S -- Siri is mispronouncing my real name, so I just asked her to call me Frenchie!) and it's really pretty. Also, this:

At least the Bachelorette is on tonight!

Extended Memorial Day

Once in a blue moon, B gets two days off in a row. He works almost every saturday and gets a week day off, since the Bank is open for shortened hours.  This weekend, it was more of an eclipse in our house, because B got Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off. Three in a row! I switched my reduction of hours day to Tuesday and, presto! Extended Memorial Day Weekend.

We toyed with the idea of going away for Monday night, thinking that hotel/inn/bed and breakfast rates would be nice and low since most people would be returning to work on Tuesday, but couldn't agree on a location. We had to be in town on Sunday, since that was the day of Mia's birthday pool party at my boss's house. We considered Mount Charleston or San Diego, or even just a night at one of the Strip hotels with a nice pool.

The party was great, we spent the entire day by the pool in beautiful 85 degree and sunny weather and enjoyed the company of only a few guests (a lot of people went out of town, so it turned out to be very low-stress). The few kids (and B) that came enjoyed the heck out of the $5 I spent at the dollar store on inflatable pool toys and water guns, the adults (mostly me) enjoyed the pre-made margaritas from Costco. Next year, we hope to reduce the stress by infinity by hosting at our own (rented) house so that we don't have to transport loads of food and decorations.

Mia and B were both slightly sunburned, so we crossed San Diego and the Hotel Pool off the list for Monday, and then all together decided to save our Mount Charleston visit when the weather in Vegas got too hot to bear (Mount Charleston is about an hour from Vegas and is 10 degrees cooler at all times). Instead, we took another step in embracing our status as Vegas residents and became members of the Las Vegas Springs Preserve. The membership price pays for itself if we visit three times in one year, so we figured it would be worth it.

There are short hiking trails, bike rentals and baths, desert gardens, a playground, a little museum, a little animal show, and another little museum whose theme I am blanking on opening in a few months. Available also for members are grilling classes, gardening classes (not applicable until we move in the winter), a farmer's market every Thursday and a few other things. Mia enjoyed toddling around the little exhibits, and even walked around the gardens on her own with Mama trailing closely behind. I'm excited about taking advantage of the few non-gambling things this little city has to offer. I get to bring a guest for free, and all children under 5 are included. (Juliet, I'm looking at you!)