Polly Wanna Cracker?

Julianne is a like a little parrot. Her new favorite phrases are "Good girl" and "Bad girl." She's been saying "Good girl" for a while, but didn't start the "Bad girl" stuff until recently. Nana was watching her and she did something naughty, so Nana said, "Bad girl!" and she's been parroting it ever since. It's cute, but I hate to hear her say it because I don't want her to think she's bad. She knows what it means, too - in the evenings when she starts to get ornery, she'll say, "Bad girl!" and then she'll do something like hit me or throw something. She is so smart!

She's also ALL toddler. Lately she's been getting into the habit of putting things on her head and running around. Last night Pete was over and she put her plastic Halloween bucket on her head and ran around laughing like crazy. Then tonight we were over at Nana and Pap-Pap's for dinner, and when I was cleaning up the kitchen she got into the tupperware cabinet and tried on a bunch of different plastic "hats." It was hysterical to watch - especially because she was so pleased with herself!

She ate like a horse at dinner tonight! We had pizza burgers with noodles on the side, so she had two helpings of noodles with sauce. And they weren't wimpy servings, either - they were hearty! After dinner, she had one of Nana's oranges for dessert. She's been eating a lot of oranges lately. She had them for breakfast the last two days, then had a banana, grapes and some mixed berry Yo Baby! yogurt for breakfast today. She currently has really bad diaper rash, so I'm wondering if maybe all the acid and sugar from the oranges isn't causing it. We have one more orange for breakfast tomorrow and then we're doen, so we'll see if the rash goes away. She really enjoyed the yogurt, so maybe we'll have some of that tomorrow morning!

I am SO excited for Christmas! Not for me, but for Julianne. I can't wait to see how she reacts when I help her open presents and when I show her how to get stuff out of bags and out of her stocking. I don't think we're going to put out cookies and milk for Santa this year - we may wait till next year. But I AM going to wait to put out her Santa presents till after she goes to bed tomorrow night! Uncle Tiger has to work on Christmas Day so after we get up, open presents and have dinner, he's heading back to Tampa and then Julianne's daddy is coming to pick her up for Christmas with his side of the family - she is a very lucky little girl to be having TWO Christmases with TWO families that LOVE her VERY much!

Saw this rainbow today after school... it had been off and on raining and sunny.  The two finally collided and this was the result - isn't it glorious to see a full rainbow on the day you get out of work for 16 whole days?  I know I think so!

STRESSED OUT!!!

I have been so stressed out this week. The first thing that's driving me nuts is this stupid COLD I have. Of course, an already stressful week wasn't enough... I had to get sick. Ugh.

It's the week before Christmas break so the kids are INSANE. Today (L) went to the Christmas shop and bought a little ceramic snowman. (A) stole it out of (L)'s desk and tried to pass it off as her own... TO MY FACE. Like I'm stupid or something and wouldn't notice. Then this afternoon in the hallway for car riders, these kids DONE LOST THEIR MINDS. I screamed at them, "ARE YOU INSANE?!?!?" They got REAL quiet, REAL quick. And you could see by their faces they were thinking, "Um, we're not, but you might be!" I almost lost control... they were so terrible.

Julianne is driving me nuts. She learned how to undo the cabinet latches and learned how to climb on the entertainment center. Every time I would pull her down, she'd get back up because she thought it was a big game. Then I put her in brand new jammies after her bath and while I was trying to figure out how to keep her off the entertainment center, she grabbed my water bottle and spilled the WHOLE thing all over herself. I had to change her entire outfit, diaper included. I was so frustrated.

Also, this morning she took of her diaper and peed on the floor. NICE.

She's definitely getting the "Flush-And-Sing-Royal-Stepstool-Super-Duper-Potty-Of-Awesomeness" for Christmas.

All Lit Up!

Here's King Midas all lit up... a crappy picture, but you get the idea!

King Midas!

I must be getting back some good karma... yesterday I got a free burrito at Chipotle, and I don't even LIKE their food (although the burrito was pretty good) and today I got a faboulous Christmas tree for only $20! (Originally $60) Here's King Midas the tree on his way home!

Heavy Heart

Tomorrow night Julianne is spending the night with her dad. This is the FIRST time she's spending the night away from me and only the second or third time anyone other than myself has put her to bed. My mom is the only OTHER person who has put her to bed.

I'll see her tomorrow at NOON when Joey brings her to school for me to say good-bye, and then I won't see her again till TUESDAY afternoon.

My stomach feels sick, my head feels full, my heart feels heavy.

I hate this.

Holy RAIN, Batman!

I woke up this morning to RAIN outside... lots and lots and lots of RAIN.


I had to take the day off work to take care of all my car crap and it would have been nice to have decent weather for all the running around, but NO SUCH LUCK.

I talked to Pete last night and he said he would take me to the DMV to deal with the license issue, so I called him when I woke up. I could tell I had woken him up and I thought he was mad for having to leave the house, especially when it was so SHITTY outside. So I started crying but I didn't want him to know - I told him, "You know what, it's OKAY, don't WORRY about it, I'll figure SOMETHING out, talk to you later, bye." And we hung up.

So then I panicked a little bit. Who to call? What to do? Where to go? Lynx doesn't run here, and all of my friends had to work today (except for one, and for some reason it never even occured to me to call her!). So I called my mom, who was IRRITATED too, so I hung up. She called my dad and had him call me, and we arranged for him to take me to the County Clerk's office and the DMV.

He picked me up, we went to the post office, we went to the shop, then we went the the Clerk's Office. Thankfully I got everything taken care of and we didn't have to go to the DMV.

So we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch instead.  And Pete texted me and everything's FINE.

After lunch we went back to the shop and Mom and I took Julianne and went to the post office to ship some packages overseas and it was AWFUL... the weather was WET, I slipped on the wet FLOOR and hit my ELBOW, the people at the post office were RUDE, they wouldn't take three of the packages because the were in the WRONG box, and I slipped on the floor going back into the shop and hurt EVERYTHING.

After all that nonsense we had CHINESE for dinner... then Mom and Dad brought us home.

I didn’t hear from the insurance ADJUSTER today… so I need to call tomorrow to find out about getting my stupid CAR fixed. Ugh.

Car accident

So just this morning I was thinking, "Wow... I could really use a car accident to add some drama to my life! I really want to go to the DMV, and call insurance companies, and go to the doctor because my neck hurts... Yeah, let's sign up for that!"

NOT.

But I guess someone somewhere thought that's what I was thinking. Because that's what happened this afternoon. After I picked Julianne up from the sitter's I was driving home along Hiawassee like I normally do. As I got closer to Clarcona-Ocoee Road, I noticed there were cops all over the place blocking off the intersection but it wasn't clear why, so I just kept on trucking. I had just passed through the light when the guy in front of me stopped quickly. I stopped too and then was rear-ended, HARD. Julianne got scared and started crying, so I jumped out of the car to get her. The cops that were in the Hiawassee/Clarcona-Ocoee intersection came running over to check and see if we were okay. We seemed to be, so they had us pull to the side of the road and called Florida Highway Patrol. While we were waiting, I chatted with one of the officers and told him about Kurtis being a cop in Hillsborough County. He gave Julianne a little stuffed bear with Orange County Sheriff's Office embroidered on the front and told her to show it to her uncle and tell him she met a "REAL" deputy today, lol. It was very funny.

After a while the officers blocked off Hiawassee so that the other lady and I could drive our cars over to the Winn-Dixie parking lot to get off the road. The officers assured us that FHP was on the way and they left. An hour and a half later the officer showed up. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until the office asked me if I knew my license was suspended.

"I'm sorry... WHAT?"

She pulled up my records on her computer and showed me that somehow, some way, I received a ticket on July 24th (no I didn't) that was never paid (obviously, since I never got one) and because of the non-payment (that wasn't necessary since I never got a ticket) my license was suspended (LAME). So she took my license, and I had to call my parents to come pick me up since I wasn't allowed to drive (even more LAME). So I looked up everything on line and it says that my case (which never existed) was satisfied (their words, not mine - it said that in TWO places). So tomorrow, not only do I have to get my car to the adjuster so they can make an estimate on how much it's going to cost to get it fixed and make plans for THAT, I also have to spend the morning either on the phone or at the clerk's office or the DMV, trying to get my stupid license back (which never should have been taken away).

After she FINALLY got us all the proper paperwork, I wound up getting a ticket for unknowingly driving on a suspended license, and the other lady got a ticket for careless driving and for driving on a learner's permit with no passenger older than 21 in the car (she was about 45 years old - still on a learner's permit?)

So I'm PISSED.

Sooooo tired...

Date #4 went well last night... he came over and brought Chinese food. Julianne LOVED him. She was all over him - climbing, jumping, bringing him books to read, giving him hugs - it was really adorable! After she went to bed we finished watching Fred Claus and then we watched Sex Drive - both hilarious! We wound up staying awake talking until he finally left at 2 a.m. And even then, he only left because I had to wake up for work in 4 hours! I really enjoyed the evening. He was going to come over for dinner tonight, but would up having some family issues and decided not to come over because he was in a terrible mood and didn't think he'd be very good company. I asked if I could have a raincheck on making him dinner and he said, "Absolutely!" So hopefully I'll see him again soon!

Please pray for Bonnie and her DH... I don't know exactly what's going on, but I have a sick feeling that it's something terrible with the birthmother changing her mind.

Dear Lord... please give me patience...

Julianne's dad is driving me nuts... he's not doing anything that bad, but he is so flaky sometimes I can't stand it!  Saturday night we talked about how he really wanted to take Julianne overnight Sunday night and keep her all day Monday. Now that she's had some good visits with him, I'm all for letting her spend time with him, even extended periods of time, but I still haven't left her overnight and I don't think I'm ready for that yet. So he kept pushing me and I told him I would think about it and let him know in the morning. Well, he texted me at the crack of dawn Sunday morning telling me how he went grocery shopping and has all this great food for her and got a playpen for her to sleep in, etc. I didn't text him back right away and he started to get pushy again, telling me he really wanted her to start staying at his house and it was time he got to spend more time with her, etc. So I finally told him I wasn't ready to let her go overnight yet, but we would shoot for next weekend. So he seemed to be okay with that. Then this morning he texted me before I was even out of bed to ask if he could pick her up from the sitter and keep her for the day. I told him I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon so he had to bring her back to my school by 3:30, and he said he'd just bring her to my house later, after my appointment. So I said okay, rushed around getting extra clothes, juice, toys, snacks, diapers and stuff for her and was really late getting out the door for work. Then I'm halfway to work (running about 15 minutes behind, mind you) and he texts me again to say he'll just wait and take her next week because he doesn't feel like driving all the way to my apartment tonight during rush hour. So my car is strewn with all of her extra stuff, I'm fifteen minutes beind schedule, I'm trying to keep the schedule straight as to what day he's going to take her, and my glasses are STILL broken from when Julianne broke the arm off yesterday.


AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!