Happy New Year

To all of you who celebrate, have a happy and healthy New Year. L'Shana Tova

Monday's Gas Update

I hate that I have to get in the car these days but I had a doctor’s appointment this morning so I had no choice. On the way to the office, I passed about 10 gas stations. Only 2 stations had gas - one priced at 3.73 a gallon and one at 4.29 a gallon for cheap stuff. By the time I left the appt, 30 min later, all of the stations were sold out.

Gas Crisis Update

Unfortunately, things have not gotten any better- probably worse. Harder to find a station with gas and long lines at the pump. People are unable to go to work and delivery trucks are unable to bring in groceries. It is pretty scary and they say it will be like this for another two weeks.

Since I work from home, I can get away with minimal driving but this past weekend I drove to the airport, over an hour away and later this week I will be picking up a friend from either the airport or the train station which both locations are not close!

How ironic- the one week I need to put miles on my car is when I can't fill it with gas! Oh, how I miss my 4 cylinder Honda that got 30 miles to the gallon.

It's Good to be Home

It is wonderful to see familiar faces, listen to familiar sounds etc. This past Saturday, I went to see my Seminoles play. My first game in the stands since I was pregnant. I got chills when the Marching Chiefs began pregame. I screamed when the defense was on the field and yelled out when my team scored and it was a wonderful game.

I miss going to see my Noles play and am so happy that I am going to at least two games this year.

Gas Crisis Update

Well, we passed by the gas station that my husband got gas from the night before and it is completely empty. Then, we passed by our local warehouse store and they must have received gas because the line was wrapped around the parking lot multiple times. I can't imagine waiting in line that long.

The news says it may be up to mid to late October before things get back to normal. Really scary especially since I need to drive back and forth from the airport which is over an hour away 3 times before that. I don't think I will be able to avoid the gas lines now.

It is Mommy, not Ali!

Eli does not say many words yet but the one word he says all the time is Dada! If we are upstairs and he hears my husband downstairs, he screams Dada.

Well, mama was his first word months ago but he has not said it in a long time. When my MIL was here a couple of months ago, she thought Eli was calling me Ali. But, I did not here it. Last night, Lowell told me that he though Eli was calling me Ali.

So, I guess he is calling me something and I will take what I can get.

Baby signs

This blog is suppossed to be all about my experiences as a first time mom but there always seems to be other things to talk about like exposed breasts or gas crisis so I figured I should give you one post about Eli.

When Eli was an infant, I tried to teach him baby signs which he never really picked up. I finally gave up and stopped signing until months later when I saw all his little friends signing to their parents and then I started again.

Now, within a few weeks time frame, Eli can sign the following words: more (his favorite), eat, drink (milk), and his newest sign - please!

I am so proud.

More Gas Crisis

I was able to fill my car last weekend which hopefully will last for a while but hubby did not believe there was a gas crisis. Did not believe it until today. We needed to pick up some supplies at Lowe's and we passed at least 10 gas stations. Not one had gas.

We took a different route home and there was one station with gas and the line was insane.

So, at 9pm, when I am usually starting to relax for bed, Lowell and I called multiple gas stations so he can go fill up before there is no gas in the city since he has less than a half a tank in the car. The station we passed earlier still had gas so Lowell is now waiting on line to fill up and did I mention that he will be paying $4.65 a gallon there. Is that price gouging or what????

On a funny one, one of the stations I called, the man could not hear me well because the connection was not good so at one point I am yelling "Do you have gas?" Felt like I was pulling a prank call from high school.

I hate being so dependent on gas

It is so frustrating that we are so dependent on gas. We need gas for our cars, gas for our heating source and gas for our stoves. It has been about a week now where it is almost impossible to find gas for your car. I have never waited on line before. I usually try to fill up around ½ tank so when there is a line, I just fill up another time. But, last Sunday, I had no choice, it was either wait or no gas.

I live off a main road so there are plenty of gas stations around. But, for the past week, none of them have had gas. Luckily, with working from home, I do not drive a lot but you need gas to get to the grocery store, the doctor’s office, the essentials etc.

On the news, they talk about the one station that has received a shipment of gas and the hour long wait for you to get gas. When is relief coming? According to the news, it could still be another week or two.

They say, do not fill up unless you are running on fumes because everyone filling up when gas stations open up is part of the problem. But, it is hard not too- when your job, grocery store, etc is not around the corner, you need to make sure you have enough gas to last until our stations are refilled.

Where I live, gas is usually below the national average. But, for the last two weeks, we have been about 20 cents above the national average and according to cnn.com gas prices have been going down but not where we live.

It still frustrates me that government is not doing anything to help the situation. I disagree with drilling in Alaska. That will hurt the environment and only bring about 2%-3% more gas to the US. To me, it is not worth saving pennies. It frustrates me that government does not allow more efficient cars into this country. They have been made and available in Europe but our money hungry, oil investor government officials don’t want them here.

Boo!!!

Now is the time of year where stores are displaying Halloween and Christmas decorations (which piss me off - it is September, I have no interest in seeing half a store of Christmas decorations and listening to those same songs that are so annoying!)

Lowell and I went to Lowe's with Eli. I was holding him as we entered the store and Lowe's had displayed a 4 foot tall witch which had her broom in a cauldron. As we approached the witch, she starting moving (stirring the cauldron), talking and cackling and her eyes glowed and moved.

Eli almost jumped out of my arms and had a mixed expression of gameface and I just sh't in my pants. Lowell and I were hysterical laughing at his expression. (nice of us!)

I have read that kids are not scared about monsters and stuff until age 3 but my 16 month old was petrified!

He is so adorable!

Last night, I was able to get away from the house to go to a bar and watch the Seminoles play with a friend. I said goodbye to Eli, gave him a kiss and took my keys out of my purse. Eli went to the kitchen and took his lunchbox off the countertop and followed me to the garage door. He was ready to leave with me. I picked up Eli, gave him another kiss and then passed him to Lowell.

But, the experience was heart warming.

Thank you

• The 14 months of interrupted sleep was difficult.
• Working at 6am and then again at 8pm to spend more time with you has been stressful.
• Missing two seasons of FSU football home games has been odd.
• But, spending every second with you has been wonderful.

Eli, these first 15.5 months have been amazing and the smallest things touch my heart. Yesterday, when we were at dinner and you took turns kissing myself and daddy, it melted my heart. Thank you for being such a wonderful and sweet little boy.

How I miss those curls!

Eli went for his 4th haircut this past weekend. Yes, my 15 month old went for his 4th haircut. (And if my husband had had his way, it would have been 10th by now). Usually, the woman cuts his hair using scissors so when he is done in my husband's eyes he needs another haircut. But, this time Lowell asked for Eli to have a buzz cut so it would finally be as short as he likes it.

Well, it is short. I miss Eli's curls that I loved to play with and I think he looks like a completely different kid. (not my kid!) But, the good news is that I will not have to get his haircut next week. But, I like his hair longer. At least it will grow back, and probably quickly.

Enjoy some before and after pictures:

Before:



After:

Embarrassment! Spin, Spin, Spin

This week's spin is about embarrassment. At first I thought, what would I write about? What do I want to divulge? Then, it came to me, a story I was just talking about last week....

I am a huge FSU Seminole fan. I am also an alumni. I have had season tickets basically since 1995. I have missed weddings for games. I have stayed in the stands cheering during hurricane like weather (odd, that we were playing the Miami Hurricanes that game). I bleed garnet and gold. Well, you get my point.

Anyways, I usually use the games as an opportunity to sun tan. Under my FSU gameday outfit, I usually sport some type of bathing suit. Once I enter the stands, my tank top comes off and it is time to tan. In a very exciting game, I was yelling as loud as I can for the defense and look down and my boob is outside of my bikini top exposed for the world to see. Even more embarrassing, the person I have season tickets with is a guy, good friend of mine. If he had noticed my exposed breast, he was nice enough not to say anything.

I covered myself. Put my tank top back on and never again wore a bikini top to a game.

All Da!

Eli has been working on physical milestones in the past couple of months: walking, running, climbing etc. He has not been saying many words that are easy to understand but he babbles all the time.

His new word is Done. Now, when he finishes eating, he waves his hands and says "Da" for All Done. I need to capture it on video. It is very cute.

Pleading Words to my Son’s Second Molar

Dear Molar,

It is great that you have blessed us with your precedence. It was wonderful to brush my son’s teeth last night and see one corner of you in his mouth. But, could you please finish coming through? Last night, Eli was awake (and I was awake) every two hours trying to deal with the pain of you coming through. It would be great if you could finish your way into this world.

I promise to take care of you and nag Eli to take care of you when he gets older. You will get a healthy amount of milk to keep you strong and be massaged by Eli’s toothbrush twice a day.

If I keep my promise to take care of you, will you promise to come through as quickly as possible?

Signed,
A Loving Mother

First game of the season

Well, the first game of the season for FSU was last Saturday. Even though we were playing a true underdog, I was nervous. Half the team was out on suspension and a few people hurt. I would be seeing a bunch of new players I had not heard of on the field.

I was very pleasantly surprised. Bobby Bowden has been giving more responsibilities to Jimbo Fisher who will eventually take over the head coach job. For this past game, Jimbo selected the quarterbacks. I was pleased to see Ponder start, Richardson come in later, and then Weatherford. In my 13 years of watching FSU football, I highly ever see a 3 quarterback game.

Anyways, most of you who read my blog could care less about FSU football so I will not blog about the whole game but a 69-0 victory was amazing. (even if we were playing the underdog)

GO NOLES!

I am officially a GEEK!

I am sitting here watching my NOLES play. Now, FSU was not on regular TV today so I hooked up my computer to the TV and am watching the game.

GO NOLES!

To be a child again

We take Eli to this new indoor play gym. Reminds me of my days of working at Discovery Zone. He loves it and does not just stay in the toddler section. He is all over the place. Climbing, running, yelling- a true little boy. Enjoy these pictures showing how non baby like Eli is:

Impressions - Spin, Spin, Spin

I love this week's Spin for Impressions. There is so much you can do with this. I will talk about First Impressions and how they have changed over the years.

When I went for my job interviews after college, first impressions were about how you looked, how you presented yourself, how you spoke, etc. Now, your first impression comes before you are even greeted by your interviewer.

I interview for my company and before I even meet my interviewee for the first time, I Google the person. You can learn a lot from Google. I usually stop at that point but I have talked to other people who interview and facebook and myspace and also very popular places to get a first impression of who you are going to interview. The web can teach you a lot about a person.

For example, when we sold our house in Florida, our first offer came back $25,000 less that what we wanted. (and this was when it was a seller's market). I googled the buyers and said if they were teachers, this may be what they can afford but if they were attorneys- no way were we marking down our price. Sure enough, the potential buyers were both attorneys. We counter offered and offered to pay some of the closing costs. SOLD! By googling our potential buyers, we were able to keep the price of our house what we wanted it to be.

Each time you post a picture on the web or write an article for the web, you have to think about who may be seeing it and how could that hurt you.

I HATE lazy people!

Well I just want to complain for a bit. Americans are lazy. We go through the drive through instead of going inside, we take the elevator instead of the stairs to even go to the second floor and we park in the fire lane instead of a parking spot.

Today, I had two errands to run. I needed to bring something to the dry cleaners and mail out some FSU season tickets. Both errands can be run from the same shopping plaza. I parked at one end of the plaza, put Eli in his stroller and made my way to errand number 1: UPS.

I walk to the other side of the plaza and some women parked her car right by the door of UPS. (A parking spot was a few feet away literally and she decides to park in the fire lane.) Usually, I give people like this a much deserved dirty look and move on but today I decided to say something to her. I said "You know, you are in a fire lane and a spot is right there." (pointing to the spot that was so close I could virtually touch) She was a little flustered after my remark and said "Oh, I was just dropping something off."

We both walk into UPS. She tells the cashier she was just going to drop this off and the cashier tells her she needs to buy an envelope. She walks out of the store because she says she is not parked appropriately. (like it is difficult to move the car)

I took care of my shipment and walked to the other side of the plaza to do my second errand.

I can't stand lazy people. It is one thing to park your car by the Blockbuster video return window because you have a baby sitting in the car seat that you do not want to get out for a few seconds, another to park in a fire lane because you are too lazy to walk from a parking spot. And, just because you drive an overpriced car like a Lexus or BMW, does not make you better than a Honda driver.

And while I am in a complaining mood- Americans are rude. Get OFF your phone while you are paying for something at some store. I do not need to listen to what you are making for dinner tonight and I can get my stuff paid for quicker if you actually paid attention to what the cashier is telling you.