Sneaky...

Over the weekend Lauren learned a new trick. All by herself she climbed into the walker and then climbed right back out. I stood there with my jaw on the floor as I watched her do it. I wanted to get a picture of it, but I also wanted free hands to catch her in case she needed some help. It was so funny to watch her! And when she realized she'd done it she was so proud of herself! I'm pretty sure that she's gonna be one of those kids that climbs out of the crib... and that scares me to death!

Schedule

If I've done this before, someone please comment on this post and I'll take it down... but I was thinking I'd never really shared our weekly schedule with you. Or maybe I've done it before but now it's different since I work in Pine Bluff now. So...just what do we do during the week? Well here goes:

Monday - Friday:
4:45 am - the alarm clock goes off and I start crying (just kidding... I just hit the snooze button very quickly!)
4:55 am - "I'm up! I'm up!"
5:45 am - Hopefully at this point we are pulling out of the driveway. It takes about 45 minutes to get from our house to Trey's work.
6:30 am - Drop off Trey at his building
6:45 am - Walk into the daycare building and prepare to leave Lauren (I hate that part)
7:00 am - I arrive at work
7:00 - 4:30 - working, working, working...
4:30 pm - I leave work and head back to the arsenal to pick up the family.
4:45 pm - I rescue Lauren from daycare (yeah!)
5:00 pm (or sooner sometimes) - We pick Trey up and head for home.
5:45 pm - Arrive back home in Bryant
5:45 pm - 7:00 pm - Play with Molly, cook dinner, feed Lauren, play with toys, give Lauren a bath
7:00 or 7:15 pm - Bedtime for Lauren
7:30 pm - maybe watch TV, listen for Lauren to make sure she is asleep, clean kitchen, do anything that needs to be done before leaving for work in the AM
8:30 or 9:00 pm - Trey and I go to bed, because, you know, the alarm is going to go off at 4:45!!!!

This is my Monday - Friday (except for every other Friday that I have off). It's not too bad, but really I need some suggestions... like - how do I cut down my "getting ready" time so that I don't have to get up so early? I guess it's a hair problem. I've tried showering and washing my hair at night, but it's so flat by the morning that it looks awful... I've considered getting a perm. Seriously, is this a good or bad idea? I guess I'm thinking if my hair was curly it would take less time to fix. Is this a misconception? I've had a few perms before and I could air dry my hair and it would turn out way better than air drying my straight hair. Thoughts?
Also, what about cooking dinner? Do the working mom's out there have this all figured out and I'm the only one that doesn't know how to cook a good, quick meal? I've thought about trying to use a crock pot more often, but I'm gonna have to plan ahead for that. As long as the ingredients aren't crazy I'll try anything to have dinner ready when we get home. THAT would be nice. Then I would feel less rushed. AND we could have fewer corndog meals for supper. :)
Last night was okay though because we had some leftover duck marinating in the fridge and I just threw it on the grill. Although after that experience Trey tells me I'm not in charge of grilling anymore. :) We ended up with Blackened Duck, purely by accident. It tasted really good, but it did resemble a hockey puck on one side. Oh well.

Oh yes, the seemingly easy solution would be to live closer to work. Well, we've gone back and forth on that issue and have (for now) decided to stay where we are in Bryant. Namely because we just moved there a year ago. Also, the housing market it not fabulous. And we don't want to lose money on our house. Oh yeah, and the possibilty exists FAR down the road that my job could get moved to Little Rock. So, our current location is the best option right now. Even if the commute is somewhat painful.

Weekend fun and politics

We spent the weekend at Nina and Poppa's hunting camp in New Boston, TX. It was fun, but I forgot my camera, so I'll have to get Nina to email me some pictures.
Trey and Poppa went duck hunting on Saturday and Sunday morning for teal. They got their limit both mornings, yea! So, Sunday night we ate duck for dinner. Yum, yum.
I've grown up eating wild game my whole life. I can't imagine not having deer meat or duck. One of our favorite meals growing up was fried deer meat with mashed taters and gravy. My mouth is already watering...

Here's a list of some wild game that I've had and hope that Lauren will have one day too:(although she's already had duck and liked it!)
Venison (deer)
Duck
Dove
Quail
Wild hog
Squirrel (this one is not my fav though...)
Frog legs (wild game? ... not sure)

I think that might be it... :)


Call me a dork - but I am really looking forward to watching the Presidential debate this Friday. I hope McCain cleans the floor with that silly Obama. I really want to say something other than silly, but I'll just leave it at that for now. I am ANTI Obama and I'm not afraid to say it. The man has no experience that would in any way shape or form allow him to be President and don't even get me started on his view of abortion. A baby is a PERSON at the time of conception people... it is not a "thing" to be disguarded. A baby has rights too... Why are we not protecting the innocent babies of this world???? WHEW. Deep breath... I'm okay.

I might get on my soapbox every now and again until election day. I can get pretty fired up when it comes to politics. I don't know why... not sure where it comes from.

One year and family pictures

We had Lauren's one year pics and family pics taken last weekend. Thank you Liz for doing such an AMAZING job. I am thrilled with all of them, but here are some of my favorites.

Breakfast at the camp

"Momma, what's on my face? Oh, it's a Cheerio!"

Back to School...

"Hmm... I wonder if I'll learn how to read today?"

Looking at this picture makes me feel like singing the Back to School song from Billy Madison. Go on now... you know you want to sing it out loud... :)

Back to school

Back to school

To prove to dad I'm not a fool

Got my lunch pack packed

My boots tied tight

I hope I don't get in a fight!

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Lauren's latest stats from her one year checkup:

Weight : 17 lbs (grow, baby, grow!!!) -5 percentile

Height : 28 inches, 20th percentile

Head : Can't recall this, but I know she was in the 30th percentile.

All in all, she is tiny. I'm ready to turn her carseat around, but nooooo, nope, not gonna do it until she weighs 20 lbs. Which for her, might take until Christmas to get there. So, we have been stuffing her with mac and cheese and vienna sausages to get her weight up. I think now that she's on whole milk she's start gaining a little faster.

Other info on our sweet baby girl -

She's in a size 3 diaper and has been for a long time... and I'm sure she'll stay in this size for a while. Coincidentally she also wears a size 3 shoe. And even that is sometimes a little big. She is wearing 12 months size clothes, but her 9 month stuff still fits too.

She likes to take her socks off.

She likes it when I chase her around the house. She crawls as fast as she can and laughs the whole time!

She likes to play in the kitchen and open all the cabinet doors.

She loves to play on our bed.

Bedtime is at 7:00 pm and she gets up around 5:40 just before we leave for work. Correction - I have to wake her up, but thank goodness she is a morning person (unlike her mother). On the weekends she will sleep until 7:30 or 8:00 am. YIPEEE!