Peanut Butter

So apparently my organic creamy peanut butter AND my organic crunchy peanut butter are among the lists and lot #'s that were recalled with the recent salmonella outbreak...so sad.

Sleeping

My little Ellie girl is sleeping in her toddler bed right now. We bought one a few weeks back from a lady on Craigslist. It is really cute, but it needs to be painted to match the rest of her furniture. Anyway, it's been sitting in her room with blankets on it for the past few weeks. She occasionally plays on it, but that's about it. Ben is gone tonight "jamming" with the guys, and I played with Ellie in her room. She kept climbing into her toddler bed and laying down. In fact, she wanted to do everything in it tonight...read books, play with her farm house, play with teddy. So, I thought, "well, maybe she wants to try it out!" So, I put her down in the toddler bed tonight. She's been asleep since 7:30 (it's now 8:48).

I have mixed feelings:

1. How long is this going to last? I keep expecting to see her little face pop through my door at any minute, with a charming "mama!" She may be back in her crib before long. If so...that's okay!

2. This is my baby and I feel kinda sad that she is not in her crib. She's slept in it since day 1. I know she has to grow up eventually, but it's still a bit sad, and happy, all at the same time.

On another note, Ellie has taken a fancy to repeating whatever Ben says. I suppose we need to be more careful now about the words we speak. So far this week, she has repeated "butt-hole" and "munch" (from the latin root-word butt-munch). I think we are going to have to limit the number of times we use the word "douche" as well. This could be hard :)

It Is Finished...

School is done, well, its been done for over a week now. My brain is starting to think and function normally again (I almost typed the f-word as I was writing "function"...oops :) Anyway, I got my first C...EVER...in a class. I didn't care as much as I always thought I would. I also got an F, well, not really, I'm almost positive I should have an A, but that's what my report card said. I totally freaked out, called the college, and spoke to a nice lady who said that I wouldn't even hear back until after January 5th. Sigh...that's quite a while. This professor was one of my 2 douche-bag professors this semester.

We had our Little Lites Christmas performance yesterday and it was totally awesome! The kids all sang and danced like pros. No one ran off the stage, which was a first.

Michelle is gone...this makes me sad. I found her blue hooded sweater today in the classroom...that made me even more sad.

I had 2 tall decaf pumpkin spice soy lattes today. 1 from myself, 1 from my lover, and also a chai from my friend Mindy. I love Starbucks. I also love it when people bring me starbucks :)

Ellie is sleeping and Ben is playing his Xbox...once he starts, he has to finish the level, otherwise his progress won't be saved. He's been playing a lot lately. It doesn't bother me except when I'm running around the house in the morning trying to get everyone out the door on time and he's standing 2 feet from the screen like a cute little boy trying to complete the level. Sigh, boys and their toys... :)

Procrastination.....

I'm taking a momentary break between essay #1 that is due tomorrow (which I just wrote and submitted), and essay #2 (that is also due tomorrow).  I have 5 more quizzes to take by Saturday (I have not read any of the chapters yet...not that I ever do) and a lab report due Friday.  AND...this is not even finals week!!!!  

This is the first time in my school career that I can ever remember hoping for "just a B"....I would be SOOOOO happy to get a B or better in all 5 of my classes.  I don't know if it's that I'm just "settling", or if it's that I've realized that A's are not all they've cracked up to be...probably a combination of both.

I just heard the garage...Ben's home...I'd better post this and pretend to be working and NOT procrastinating :)

School

As much as I occasionally enjoy going to school, I will be so glad for this semester to be over. I took 15 credits this semester (all online, minus a few nutrition labs I had to go in for), and they were surprisingly easy, mostly because they weren't my usual Early Childhood Classes. ECE classes in themselves are not hard (actually, they are very easy and interesting), but many of them require a lot of creativity and designing different activities for kids to do to accomplish a particular goal. These classes were all cut & dry...read the chapter & answer the questions...NO thinking or imagining. Sometimes it's nice for my brain to have a little rest. Just a few more weeks...

Ellie is Ben's Daughter

So, last night Ben and I were laying in bed watching House, which was previously recorded, of course. I kept sniffing all over my bed because I was sure that Ellie had gotten poo somewhere on my bed. It smelt like her last-few days scent, but I could not locate where the smell was coming from. After laying in bed for about 30 minutes, I finally told Ben about the "stinge" :), to which he replied, "Oh, I've been farting this whole time!". Ben and Ellie smelled exactly the same...and it was not a good smell. Ellie's daddy is definitely Ben :)

Ellie is 1

So my little girl had her first birthday on October 29th. It was very exciting to me. It's obviously a big milestone, but there were several other things to be excited about, as well:

*One year old's don't finish all of their free chocolate milkshakes at Chile's.
*One year old's don't eat their entire free fudge square at Scheel's.

I am pretty sure that two year old's would prefer to consume these treats on their own :( Maybe I will just need to have another baby :) This has been such a fun year for me. I have always wanted to be a wife and a mom. I love children and I feel so blessed to have a child of my own. Ellie has so much personality. I am excited to see more of her personality come out over the next year.

Today was her 1 year well check. It was her best appointment, yet. No tears (she doesn't like it when the dr. looks at her). She weighs 22.5 lbs. At 9 months she was 21.6. She also grew an inch and a half. Her height and weight are in the 75%, and her head is in the 97%...thanks daddy!

On another note, Uncle Louie is gone. Ellie pushed open his door today to peek in. She turned around with a sad and confused look on her face...you are missed, Uncle Louie!