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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

More Lessons

Ahhhh-motherhood.


The joys.......and the absolute shocking things that it carries with it.


I have done things as a mother that I NEVER.IN.A.MILLION.YEARS would have done in my previous life.


For instance, I have gone out in public in an outfit that appeared clean, only to discover upon arrival at my destination that it has in fact been spit up on and the stains are starting to appear. Yes-it is true-formula and spit up can disappear and reappear on clothes. I swear it. So, there I stood, with regurgitated formula all over me. The most shocking part? I didn't really care. I used to care about these things.....now, I just shrug. Seriously, I used to have Tide pens in my purse, in my car, in my drawers. I still do, but, again, I just shrug. Tide stock has fallen.


On another occasion, I had showered, taken the time to straighten my hair, got dressed for work, fed HK, and burped her. You know where this is going........she proceeded to spit up all in my hair. What's a girl to do? I don't have time to rewash my hair and myself. Soooo (tip for you new moms out there), formula can dry in your hair and be brushed out quite nicely. While it does turn very crispy and it can be difficult to get the brush through your hair in the beginning, keep at it and it will brush right out. The formula smell is another thing-invest in hair perfume. Seriously, I have it. I never in a million imagined that I would know this. And that I would not have completely FREAKED out, but I remained very calm. I can be quite the trooper in emergency situations.

I have left the house in clothes that I would never have before-in my life. Ever. Like full up pjs and sweats with tee shirts no one should have to see. Tee shirts that remind me of how old I am because they are old sorority party tee shirts that blatantly state my age-like Barn Party 1997. I SHOULD at least care about advertising my age.

I have learned that baby wipes are almost as good as a shower, and that dry shampoo can add volume in a pinch.

Ahhhh...the things you learn not to care about! But I have hope for my full hygienic self to reappear and have not given up complete hope. In the meantime, I will continue to dress my little precious one in her smocked dresses and bows paired with her sweatpants and tee shirt clad mom!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Titans or Vols?????

Soooo-it is officially football time!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have always butted heads with my in laws who are NFL/Titans fans. They think that the Titans are the end all and be all of football. In Tennessee.

I disagree-the Vols are the end all and be all-period. My Father in law said that the Titans are the biggest athletic institution in the state. Of Tennessee. I have no idea if this was a fact or a personal opinion, but I found myself outright stating-"No way." That is my opinion, not fact.

But, I got to thinking about it-are the Titans now the biggest athletic institution in the state?

Now, there are a lot of factors that go into this debate-first of all, Tennessee is filled with "transplants." Few people are "officially" from Tennessee. That means that these people bring with them all of their sport dedications. Those of us from Tennessee never knew the real dedication of being an NFL follower. We never had an NFL team to call our own. So, those NFL fans found an NFL team to follow. But, as for college sports, there were only 2 choice-the Vols or the Dores. Period. That was it.

You have to understand - these college followers are bred and raised to bleed orange and white or gold and something....... Point is, coming from a Vols family, it is a religion-you are bred to bleed the orange and white-for generations. It is truly a way of life. From my perspective, there is no way that you can bring a pro team into the area for only ten years and think that it is going to trump the pure dedication that we have to the Vols. No Way.

The transplants who were dedicated pro football followers might transfer their dedication to the Titans, but there is no way that it can replace the religion of the Volunteers. And-what kind of dedication is that? Transferring loyalties and all-geez. Just go to a Titans game when they play the Colts and see how many people are wearing Colts jerseys in honor of Peyton. Simply because he was a UT player.

Just go to a home game at Neyland Stadium. And-compare the seating capacity of the stadiums. No one can convince me that 10 years of NFL existence in this state can trump the generations of volunteer fans.

And-on another note-we are not even considering NASCAR in this scenario-did you know that on a race day in Bristol, TN, Bristol is the largest populated city in the entire Southeast? Let me remind you that on non-race days, the city is TINY!

So, opinions out there? Have the Titans out ranked the Vols and become the largest sport in the state?

Personally, I want the Titans to win. Sure I do-they are my team. But, do I follow them like I follow the Vols? No-I don't.

The Vols are football in my book.

God-I love football season!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Athlete

Ahhhh-football time in Tennessee. We have just finished week number two, and I am still debating the coaching prowess of our newest, fearless leader. There were enough interceptions in the UCLA game to make me cringe more than I would have hoped, and at times I thought that I truly should try out for the team-I mean, I am not really athletic or anything, but I swear I can throw as well as Crompton. I mean, come on Kiffin, I thought you could recruit. Do something about this, would ya?

But, back to my athleticism. I guess it goes back to my "workout" from Saturday (yes, I know that today is Monday). Mom and I took HK to Opry Mills-ONLY because they have a Strasburg Children's Outlet. Otherwise, I would NEVER go to that mall-I mean, they TORE DOWN MY THEME PARK TO BUILD A MALL!!!!!! Yes-they trashed my childhood memories to build a Bass Pro Shop. Opryland USA versus MALL-hmmmmmmm. Some moron made the wrong decision.

Anyhoo-we went out there because they were having a sale, and in my mom's EXACT words, and I quote, "I have waited 8 years to buy something in this store." She announced this to the sales lady. Well, I'm not going to stop her. It is irrelevant that my 8 month old owns about 6 dresses from this store. If it makes my mom happy to plunk down dad's credit card, then who am I to stop her? Funny though, I know that we would not be plunking down the credit card if there was a Strasburg adult equivalent-say for instance, a purse from Coach? Nope. I have definitely fallen out of favor.

So, we shop in Opryhell for about 4 or so hours. Then we are hungry and decide to sit down and eat at TGI Friday's. We feed HK, we scream at each other in what is an attempt at conversation because the large table next to us is breaking the sound barrier, and we place our orders. We are waiting for our meals and playing with HK-I am bouncing her on my lap and she and mom are playing across the table. Suddenly, I see my mom over HK's head start flailing about and shrieking. Seriously people, I thought that someone had just shot her. Since I could not hear her over the REALLY LOUD TABLE, I grab HK just in time to see A.HUGE.ROACH running across the table right at HK. I jump up, started grabbing our belongings; mom is grabbing the rest of them. We pass our waiter as we go screaming from the building that a large roach almost ate us at our table to which he blankly replies, "Really, huh?" Disgusting.

So-I think it must have either been the strenuous walking through the mall or the manic jumping around at the restaurant that made me pull my calf muscle. All I know is that since that day, I have felt extremely sore-like the tender remains of a charlie horse.

After putting HK to bed this evening, I am walking back down the stairs. As I reach the last step I felt this horrid pull-I SWEAR that my muscle tore. I KNOW that it had to. It really hurt. Justin is trying to convince me that I am fine, and he tells me that I would be in agonizing pain if I had indeed ripped a muscle. But, I protested that I KNOW what I felt and that I do have a very high pain tolerance. Then it occurred to me that I MUST be experiencing the symptoms of low potassium. Maybe even deadly low potassium. So, I dug up some old potassium pills and took those. It was either that or eat HK's mushed up banana baby food. So, I think that I saved my life. Thank goodness for my quick thinking.

So-here I sit with a sore calf. I really have to cool it with the activity for a while. And eat more bananas.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Nature versus Nurture

I have to say-HK is a really good baby. I mean, really good. She entertains herself, she never fusses, she talks herself to sleep and talks to herself when she wakes up. She is just a happy, content little person. And, everyone tells me that I am so lucky to have such a laid back little girl. Because, her behavior is apparently not the norm. As I am told all of the time. And again, how lucky I am to have a baby with such a great personality. Because it has to be luck.

I appreciate all of the compliments regarding HK's personality-I do. But, sometimes I get a little annoyed because I think that it cannot all be luck. Would it kill people to recognize that maybe we aren't terrible parents and MAYBE, just maybe, we had something to do with her personality? Just a little bit?

I do realize that if we are blessed with baby 2 that we might get a fussy little squaller, and then it could blow my whole theory to bits. Until that time though, I would like to think that we had a little something to do with the fact that we have a content and happy bundle of joy.

So-thanks for reading my rant.

On another note-now that HK's Vols ensemble is secured, I am now stressing about her halloween costume. I know that it is really for the photo ops, but I just cannot decide. I was leaning towards Snow White, but now I am thinking maybe Wizard of Oz Dorothy.

And, I will not lie-the ruby slippers are swaying my decision.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

I'm BACK!

I seriously cannot believe how time has flown! I cannot believe that it has been so long since my last posting. I have had a few crazy weeks for sure. Little miss is just scooting and crawling along-so much for setting her in one place and being able to get other things done!

So, I have not made blogging a priority. I will try to be better.

So what has been going on, you ask? Well, first of all, I am on a mission to find HK a Vols outfit for this upcoming football season. I have become obsessed. And a regular, old cheerleader outfit will not do. I have to find something unique, or smocked. So, mom is making her an outfit, and we bought another one this weekend. With a matching hair bow. I feel like we are well on our way to a great UT season.

My friend Stephani and her two boys stayed with us a few weeks ago as well. It was so great to see her, and her boys provided lots of laughs. But, I had my first experience with trying to explain adoption to an eleven year old.

Steph and I were looking through a photo album, and the first picture is of me and Justin at a restaurant. It was taken the night we found out that we had been chosen by a birth mom. I was explaining this to Steph as her oldest is sitting there taking it all in. After we finished looking at the pictures, Joey turns to her and says something about HK and the fact that we "won" her. Won her???? He mistook us being "picked" as us winning a contest of some sort. In this great contest, we apparently won a baby. Well, my first reaction was to laugh, but he was truly perplexed. It was then that I first discovered the difficulty in explaining adoption to another child. His mommy was pregnant with him, gave birth to him, and that created his family. End of story. When Justin began explaining that HK's mom and dad had her for us, lots of other questions arose. Why couldn't we have kids of our own? Why did HK's mom and dad not want to keep her with them? It was an eye opening experience for us all. The innocence of a child trying to grasp this concept, and us adults having to explain in a manner that makes sense to a kid. I am not sure how well we did with the explanation, but I do know now that an insanely complicated situation is really not that difficult when put into perspective. The whole thing boils down to love and selflessness. That is it.

This eye opening experience led to others for me as well-boys sure are different than girls. Duh, but they can be so creative. Steph's boys and I made parachutes out of fabric and dropped stuffed animals over the upstairs balcony, we played guitar hero and Wii sports, we had popsicles, I broke up fights, and I learned that small storage rooms make great "hideouts."

Ahhhh....Fun stuff