We're baaaaack!

Sorry it's been so long. We went to NY for the long weekend to visit my parents and grandparents, and I've just been too busy to catch up on here! I'm sure you don't want the entire weekend play-by-play, so I'll write today's "ketchup" in bullet style:

• We left Thursday around 3. I didn't put Rissa down for a nap, hoping she'd just take a long one in the car. Well, she didn't fall asleep until almost 5, and then only slept for 20 minutes! She woke up VERY grumpy (wonder why!) so we broke out our latest "secret weapon" - Dan's video iPod, The Backyardigans, and this! It was an instant hit (no surprise) and immediately changed her mood to ecstatic! She watched for a little while, and then we it put away and she was happy and talkative until she fell asleep around 9. We were pleasantly surprised with how well she did in the car, since we haven't travelled anywhere since the big Christmas disaster. She did so well entertaining herself with her cup (pretending it was a baby, kissing it, etc. - lol) and a few toys, and when she was tired of them, she was entertaining to us! We just had a good time talking about the funniest things: supposedly she was wearing Timmy's socks, and Timmy (friend of Dan's, well, I guess my friend too, lol) was wearing her socks - where does she get this stuff??? About 2 miles down the road when we left at 3, she started saying "All doh (all done) Frissa's car, nuh-uh!!! Muuuum, where are yooooouuuuuuu?" I was very worried that we were in for a miserable trip, but obviously she reconsidered spending a little more time in "Frissa's car"!
• Friday was a relaxing day, and we spent some time outside with my mom, aka Gramma = "Mum."
• Saturday we got up and went to a drop-in shower for a family adopting their first baby. She was adorable, and Marissa ended up wandering around with a bunch of little (and big) girls, all holding hands. It was so adorable! One of the girls was also named Marissa - she was in the Kindergarten class that I spent a week with waaaaaay back in my freshman year at college. She was by far the cutest girl in that class, and I just fell in love with her. You know, the favorite you're never supposed to have? Haha, anyways, she goes to my old church now too, and is still beautiful. She was the inspiration for naming our daughter Marissa, and she thought that was very cool. She hung around Marissa a lot, and I can tell if we lived there, she'd be an awesome babysitter in a few years!
• My dad mowed the lawn Saturday afternoon, and took Marissa out on the tractor for a little while. She thought it was the coolest thing ever. It was so cute to watch her laugh and giggle as they sped around the yard. Expect pictures!
• Sunday we went to church with my family, and then headed to a local park for an afternoon picnic. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, and we had a blast. I finally got some sun, so I'm not totally pale anymore. And Marissa totally wore herself out! We knew it was risky, but we decided to skip her nap, since it would be right in the middle of things and there wasn't a good place for her to nap at the park. She never even noticed! She ran around like a maniac the entire afternoon and didn't bother to eat much at all. Lol. Wherever we were, she had to run in the opposite direction as fast as she could! She finally crashed on the 8 minute drive home, and slept for an hour in her Gramma's lap!
• Over the weekend, she learned zillions of new words and phrases. But there are two that just crack me up. Dan randomly asked her to say "Mississippi" and she repeated it perfectly, only a bit twisted: Missippissi (Miss-i-pee-see). We also got to look at many caterpillars at my parents' house. After telling her they were caterpillars, she very carefully repeated "catter-boo-foo" and continued to say it exactly that same way every time!
• Monday we left around 11:30am. Again, this was risky for us, but based on the drive there, we thought Marissa would be fine. And we were right! She took a nice normal almost-2-hour nap in the middle of it, but the rest of the time she just played and talked with us. She watched a little of The Backyardigans, but overall, the drive was very successful. Surprise, surprise, our little girl is growing up!
• Tuesday I worked my second real day at the massage clinic. Blah...More on this later.
• Today a bunch of guys came from the company we built our house through, and did touch-up on all the drywall issues we had at the 10-month check-up. Which means...

IT'S TIME TO PAINT!!!!!

We went to Lowes tonight and bought some paint samples, and the plan is to go back and get the full amount once I decide, and PAINT SATURDAY! I'm soooooooooooooo excited to get rid of these BORING off-white walls! I'm starting in the living room/dining room/kitchen. It's one ginormous room, with no place to change paint colors. So I hope it won't be too overwhelming. But since BEFORE we moved in, I've been picturing it a beautiful light/bright green color. Dan is tolerating it, but I can tell he doesn't care one bit! Lol. After painting, a nice new couch is all we will need to complete our downstairs (at least for now)! There's obviously a bunch of other stuff I want to do/buy, but I won't mind waiting once the painting is done and a couch is in! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!! Definitely look for pictures of this on Sunday!

• HAHA, I almost forgot the best story from our weekend away:
  Sunday morning, everyone was waking up and getting ready at different times. Soon after I woke up, I found Marissa playing upstairs with someone, and decided to take her downstairs to get her dressed. Well, my parents live in kind of a split level. You walk in to the main floor, but there is about 3/4 of a stairway that goes up to the bedrooms, and 3/4 of a stairway that goes down to the family room (there's also a basement 3/4 of a stairway below that). Also, all the floors are hardwood floors, including the stairs. So anyways, we were all the way upstairs by the bedrooms. I took Marissa by the hand, and slowly started to lead her down the stairs. Instead of keeping her safe...instead of her slipping on her socks like we all were terrified of all weekend...I SLIPPED ON THE TOP STEP and bounced my way all the way to the bottom! Thankfully, Marissa somehow let go of my hand, and simply sat on the very top step and watched her mommy bounce all the way down the stairs! By the time I reached the bottom, everyone had come running (well, except for Dan who somehow slept through the entire thing!). Also, by the time I reached the bottom, I was laughing hysterically! Poor Marissa didn't know what to think! My mom picked her up right away, and then she wanted to come to me. But she didn't actually cry, which was surprising. So yeah, I'm pretty sore and have some awesome bruises. But the funniest part about the whole thing, is that for the next few days - in fact even today still - she said over and over "Mama fell over? Fall down stairs? Mama hurt? More fall stairs?" LOL. Poor girl, traumatized for life!
  

• And lastly, a quick story from (nanny) work:
  They have a circle to run around (you know, kitchen, dining room, living room), and Marissa and H. will run around forEVER! And after every loop, Marissa says "more running?" and they just run and run and run, and giggle the whole time! Marissa somehow convinced her Grandpa to run the loop at my parents' house, but that didn't last nearly as long! I'm so glad this nanny job is such a good fit for us. I don't always have the most patience, and I don't always enjoy it. But Marissa loves every second of it, and I'm even starting to have fun!

Oddities

So Marissa has always been the best sleeper, and has gone to sleep so easily and quickly for nap and bedtime. But suddenly, Friday (the day after I started working my new evening job!!!), she started this new thing. For nap (if Dan and Rach are both here) and bedtime. We go around and everyone gets a night-night hug/kiss, and then one of us (so far it doesn't matter who) takes her upstairs and gets her ready for bed and puts her in her crib. But instead of laying down with her blanket on her and quietly babbling til she falls asleep, she now hysterically screams to "bye Dada, bye Ra-ra" like she didn't get to say good-night to them. She seriously cries so hard because she wants to say bye to them again (or whoever doesn't put her to bed). The first time she did it, Rach was putting her to bed, so Rach just came downstairs and let her say good-night to us again. And yesterday, Dan and I were getting ready to leave to go to my work meeting and then out to dinner and a movie (for Mother's Day since he was out of town last weekend). She could tell we were getting ready to leave cuz we were both all dressed up and had our shoes on already. And Rach was just starting to do her hair since we are all lazy on Saturdays. So I think Marissa thought everyone was leaving her while she napped. But I assured her we weren't leaving her alone, and eventually just decided to let her stay up til we left, and then Rach would just put her to bed after we were gone. Then today she did the same thing for nap and bedtime, crying SO HARD to get what she wanted. So now I think she has just figured out a way to postpone going to bed! Isn't that bizarre? The first few times she did it, I gave in and comforted her and reassured her over and over. But today, I just told her she already said good-night to them, and then started to leave her room. When she realized I was leaving even though she was crying, she suddenly insisted she needed her blanket on, so she finally laid down and calmed down a little. She still whined quite a bit before she fell asleep, but at least she knew I wasn't going to take any more manipulation. Can you believe what she is up to? WOW!

I just really hope this whole nap/bedtime thing is not because of me starting my evening job. If it continues, I will be quitting immediately! I only work one day this week, then two days next week (because of appointments and stuff), but the following week my schedule will be kinda crazy. If Marissa starts becoming upset too easily, or thinking that everyone is leaving her - I will quit with now qualms whatsoever. More money is not worth her misery

This afternoon, after her nap, we went to the mall and were walking through JC Penney's I think. We were walking past the men's section, and suddenly she loudly exclaims "Oh no!" and walked off the walkway. The flooring was hardwood off the walkway and in each end of every individual plank was a big dark brown circle, supposed to look like a nail or something I guess. But she thought something fell all over the floor! She kept trying to pick up each dot but she obviously couldn't. It was funny!

She's still so funny lately, but she's definitely starting to form some stronger opinions. I just mentioned to Dan and Rach the other day that I was suprised that Marissa wasn't acting out and throwing too many tantrums, but I guess I spoke too soon! Haha, we had a few interesting experiences at the mall today, including one SUPER loud screaming session in a tiny store. Here comes the fun of "terrific" twos!

Counting

Marissa can now count to 20, and hearing her say all the "teens" makes me smile every time. I think I need to get it on video.
"one, two, pee, foh, pive, sic, seven, ay, nine, ten, leven, elve, tir-teen, fur-teen, fi-teen, uh-teen, uh-teen, uh-teen, ni-teen..." actually I don't think she even says 20. Lol.

I got another part-time job! I will be working a few nights a week, and probably every other Saturday at a massage place nearby. I'll be their evening receptionist, doing some filing, and checking people in and out of their appointments. It's dimly lit, and they play "massage music" and it's going to be so relaxing to work there! I started with some training on Thursday, we have a scheduling meeting on Saturday, and then I start next week! I'm excited, but really nervous. I haven't had a "real" job in 2 years when I quit a job at the daycare cuz I was punched in the face by a 4 year old and was pregnant, sick, and moody. Lol. All the jobs I've had since did not include an application, contract, tax forms, or anything else. I'm not really worried about the actual job, just worried about being gone in the evenings. Away from Marissa, and losing that time to do things around the house (ha, I mean losing that time to watch my evening shows and relax). I'm still working every day 9-1 at my nanny job, but I'll still have my afternoons while Marissa sleeps, and then Marissa time before Dan gets home to let me leave around 4:30. I think my hours end at 9, so I'll still have some time when I get home too. Overall, not too bad, and it'll be nice to get some extra spending money. When I was training, I was worried that Marissa would freak out, since I'm hardly ever gone from her. But I guess she only asked about me a few times! It was busy enough that I didn't have time to wallow, but when I got home and Dan and Rach were telling me about their evening, I was sad that I missed it. I'm such a wimp! I guess my big girl is bigger than I realized!

Guess that's all. I'm trying to remember to post here more often, instead of on my other blog. I guess you could go there if you want www.xanga.com/rccalyn. But it's mostly protected so only people on my list can read recent posts. Time to go figure out what's for dinner tonight! Yay, it's FRIDAY!

Some things I want to remember:

• Marissa knows so many words, and comes up with new ones every day. Yesterday morning, when it was just the two of us up nice and early, she asked me to hold "this part" of something so she could hold the rest. But what is even cuter than actually knowing all the names of things, is when she points to something, says "this?" and clearly needs to know the name of it!
• At work, we watch Blue's Clues every morning during M's bottle. It occupies H so he doesn't beat up Rissa when I can't defend her as easily, and gives them a little something to look forward each morning. Marissa doesn't really pay attention very well - she prefers The Backyardigans, The Wonder Pets, Ni hao Kai lan, or Dora. So she just plays around the living room while H sits in his "thinking chair." So imagine my surprise when suddenly, Thursday afternoon, after her nap, she found a piece of cardboard, and immediately started singing "We just got a letter" and shaking the "letter" back and forth in front of her, exactly like the guy does on Blue's Clues. She was grinning, and when I realized what she was imitating, I started laughing, and she thought she was just so funny!
• Yesterday morning she was standing next to me and started coughing a little. After two coughs that weren't helping, she turned around, showing her back to me, and managed to grunt out "pat me" before she started coughing again. I patted her back, and she stopped coughing. LOL.
• I always wear a hooded zip-up sweatshirt at work. I'm always cold, even in my own home, so I'm even colder in someone else's house where I don't control the heat. Apparently I put my hands in the pockets often, because now every time Marissa wears a hooded zip-up sweatshirt, she puts her hands in the pocket and walks around like she's so cool, giving me a little smirk cuz she knows she's imitating her Mama.
• She can now count to 20 all on her own, give or take a few numbers here and there. She especially loves to count all the M & M's in my The M & M's Counting Book I bought in college.
• We're working on the ABC's, especially at work with H too. Both of them can fill in a missing letter most of the time, especially if it's at the end of a phrase.
• When Dan and I had the 2s & 3s class at church last week, I randomly asked a girl how to spell her name, not really expecting an answer. She surprised me by singing the cutest little song, with the spelling of her name being the first part, and the last phrase was "spells (insert name) every day." It just rhymed so well and was so cute that I had to come up with a "Marissa song" too. So now every night, before we sing Twinkle, Twinkle, we sing the "Marissa song" - M-A-R-I-S-S-A, spells Marissa every day (to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, or some other random tune that helps her fill in a letter). She now requests it, and can sing most of it with us.
• She got a Bible story book from my parents for her birthday, and we've been reading a story in it every night before bed. She now requests "Gog" = God, since we started at the beginning obviously, and learned about how God made everything.
• Yesterday morning, she picked the crumbs off her chair (underneath her booster seat for meals), and one by one, brought them over to me to show me. And when I told her they were trash, she took them one by one to the trash can.
• After she cleaned all the crumbs off, she put her baby in her seat, put a bib on baby, and proceeded to feed baby a bottle. She has only learned about bottles recently, since I nursed her forever and she never took a bottle. She's been watching me feed M a bottle at work, and in the 2s class at church, all the older girls were fighting over the only bottle in the room. So the other day, when we walked into Walmart, out of the blue, she started saying "baby bottle, please?" over and over again! How could I refuse? So I bought her two baby bottles.
• She is really into pretending with her baby, and her doll house. Her doll house is on her new table, sitting in the middle of her bedroom. She didn't used to have many toys up there, and the ones that were up there, she got sick of fast. So this new location for her doll house (that she got for Christmas) has really made her play with it more. Every morning, it's the first thing she sees, and the first thing she requests to play with. So after I change her diaper, while I'm washing my hands and throwing the diaper away in the bathroom, she plays with her doll house. Her soft voice babbling away is so cute to listen to. She talks about the mama, dada, and baby, and places them around the house. Usually the mama and dada are in the doorway. Lol.
  
• Since we watch Blue's Clues, H always has a zillion "notebooks" around his house, all with a crayon in the top. Marissa started obsessing over them as well, so for her birthday I got her a few from the dollar store. I put a crayon in each of them, and now she carries them around. She draws in them a little, but mostly asks other people to "draw Frissa."
• Haha, speaking of "Frissa" - that's how she still says her name. And when she's using it possesively, like "Marissa's car" she says it "Frissy's car." I will be sad when she learns to say her name properly. Frissy is just too cute!
• She mostly feeds herself now, even with a fork and spoon. But once in a while a food is just too messy for me to let her. But if someone is feeding her, she can only have a certain amount of food in her mouth at a time. If she thinks she's not ready for the next bite, she will say "wait" and finish chewing. Then, when she's ready, she'll say "ready!"
• If she's trying to do something, and someone is in her way, she says "mush" = move. Kinda reminds me of a dog sled in the snow.
  

Well, Dan's coming back from his brother's college graduation this afternoon, and we're going out to celebrate Mother's Day tonight. I think we're going to the Indian restaurant for our meal, then running over to Bravo for our favorite amazing dessert. Can't wait!

*Clarification on my previous post: I have left Marissa for a few hours or an evening. But not much longer than 2-3 hours, and not very often. Since my sister lives with us, she's a built-in babysitter, so we take advantage of that often, just not for long periods of time.

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On a serious note, this Mother's Day seems weird to me. My first Mother's Day, Marissa was only about 2 weeks old. Second, she had just turned 1. Now I am the mother of a 2 year old. But not ONLY a 2 year old. There are 2 babies in heaven that had the potential to be a part of our family. I could have been a mother of 2 children by now. Or expecting another child in July. But I'm neither of those. And I think I'll always remember March and July, and remember the possibilities. But for now, I am thoroughly enjoying loving my one and only daughter. She is such a joy, and I am blessed to be her mama. If we were in the throes of a newborn stage right now, or if I was hugely pregnant, I don't think I would be able to enjoy Marissa quite as much as I have been lately. So I'm taking comfort in that, and using it to convince myself that it really was the best path for my life to take. Even if it didn't seem like it at the time, and still doesn't sometimes. God knew what He was doing. But God? If you get this memo...My greatest fear is losing a (future) 3rd...

This week was nice. For the first time, I actually enjoyed working. H and Marissa have been getting along so well lately, and they just get cuter and cuter together every day. They offer each other toys, they take turns so well, they kiss each other's boo-boos, they help each other put shoes on, they help each other stand up after they've been playing "night-night", they roll cars back and forth and back and forth - they really are good buddies. H is still a little rough with her, but he's SO much better than he started out. And now Marissa can take it too. The baby (who I might sometimes call "M" - but that might get confusing since Marissa is an "M" too) is turning into such a happy girl, and is almost on the move. Boy, things will sure change when she starts crawling! She's finally taking good naps for me, so the "big kids" aren't always annoyed by our playing limitations when she's awake. But when she's awake, she's just a smiley, giggly girl!

This afternoon, Rissa and I left work and drove straight to the Newport Aquarium to meet Laureann (college roommate), her hubby, and their son "Baby Carter". Marissa had been talking about going to see the "pish and Baby Carter" allllllllllllllll week. For the first 15 minutes or so, she didn't even notice the fish, she was too excited to see Carter, see his stroller, kiss him, walk to him, etc. Lol. It was so cute to watch her, and he grinned the cutest grin at her every time. She LOVED the fish too, and every time we walked around a corner to see more fish, she would scream "MORE PISH!!!!!" and all the veins in her neck would pop out because she was so excited! She made her fishy face a lot too. I took my camera, but it was basically impossible to take any pictures of her, since I was her only adult - and we went STROLLER-FREE! But I think Laureann got a few good ones, so hopefully she'll be able to send them to me soon (HINT, HINT). I debated long and hard about the stroller. For some reason, she gets so excited to ride in a stroller these days. But I thought it would be difficult for her to see the fish in it, and I didn't think she'd last the whole way in it, and then I'd be left pushing it AND trying to hold her hand. So I took the risk - and she was INCREDIBLE! She held my hand the whole time! I ended up picking her up for every exhibit window because they all started just above her head. But the signs (telling what the fish were called) were the perfect height for her to stand on, so she could see perfectly. I definitely got my workout though, by picking her up and putting her down, over and over and over and over again! But it was so much fun! She even held a tiny cup for a bird to drink out of! And then we got peed on! Lol. We all went out to dinner after, and Marissa didn't eat much, and was "all doh (done) me" before we even got our food. But she was still VERY well behaved considering the circumstances. I'm so proud of my big girl!

Well, I will probably go to bed early. I'm wiped! And since Dan is gone, I have to wake up early with Marissa all weekend, instead of taking turns sleeping in.

*EDIT* I almost forgot to mention: I filled out an application and had an interview for a part-time evening receptionist at a massage therapy center in the area. Rach knew someone at work who said they were looking, so it all happened really fast. It was the most relaxing, soothing environment I can ever imagine working in. I'll know Tuesday if I get the job or not. It would only be a few nights a week, and alternating Saturdays. But it would be nice to have some extra spending money. And it would be awesome to have some quiet time doing something different in the evenings. I'm still not sure how I'll feel about leaving Marissa for a few evenings, but I know she'll be fine with Daddy. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that the longest - and only - time I've been away from her for more than grocery shopping was when I went to a Josh Groban concert when she was 10 months old, and I was gone for 12 hours, most of which she was sleeping. I've just always taken her everywhere with me, but I guess sooner or later she'll need her space anyway! And I guess I need mine too.

2

I know, I know...it's been a while. But I've been busy. Marissa turned 2 this week! And last weekend my parents and Dan's parents were all here for a big party weekend. Lol. It was so much fun. Marissa got a bunch of awesome stuff for her birthday. I can't wait for the weather to be nice all the time, so she can ride her new tricycle up and down the sidewalk! We're also hoping to buy a swingset for our backyard, but man, they are expensive!

I can't believe my baby is 2! She's definitely not my baby anymore!

Stats from 2-year well check up on her actual birthday:
23 lbs (10th percentile)
33 3/4 inches (Dr. said "average")

He was pretty pleased with her weight gain, and I was surprised that her height was average. She just seems smaller than most 2 year olds that I've known. Everything checked out just fine. She had a finger prick check, and got a Dora band-aid. She didn't even whimper, because she saw the Dora band-aid. She was so obsessed with it, that by the time we got home, she had pulled it off!

Our weekend extravanganza was wonderful. It only took Marissa about 5 minutes to remember both sets of grandparents, and she even came up with different names for them, and figured out who goes with who! Granny = benny, Pop-pop, Grandma = Mum, Grandpa = Pop-pop. She calls both Grandpas Pop-pop, but knows which goes with Granny and Mum. That's confusing, lol, but she had it all figured out. She was so cute when she kept asking for certain grandparents if they left the room, and had to make sure she knew where everyone was at all times!

I made a zillion chocolate cupcakes Saturday morning, and Marissa was sooooo excited to eat some "TACO!" Chocolate and chapstick both sound like "taco" and I think she even knows what a real taco is. But she knew EXACTLY what chocolate was, and knew she wanted some! That's my girl!

My parents slept in the double bed in Rach's room, Rach slept in the twin bed in Marissa's room (with Marissa) and Dan's parents slept on the double futon in the finished basement bedroom. It was awesome that we could fit everybody, but when Marissa shares a room she doesn't sleep as well, or as late in the morning. Friday night around 1am she woke up crying pretty hard and coughing. Saturday she was a little off in the morning, and after her nap she was even more upset and miserable. It's either allergies or some weird cold that no one else has. Her nose is all nasty, and she has a weird little cough. We did the main party/presents Saturday after her nap, so she wasn't as excited as I expected her to be since she didn't feel very well. But she still enjoyed all the gifts, and had fun playing with them as she opened them. She was mostly in a good mood, and really did very well considering there were so many people around and she wasn't feeling well.

After reading some other blogs of parents with almost-2 year olds, and hearing what the grandparents had to say all weekend, I realized I am extremely lucky with her usual sleeping habits! This weekend was probably the first time she has been awake in the middle of the night since we really set down the rules for bedtime (I think it was in October?). She never cries to go to sleep. She never wakes up in the night. She sleeps from 8pm-7:30am every day, and naps for a hour and 20 minutes every day (at least, sometimes a little longer). She sometimes babbles in her crib before falling asleep, but never gets upset. She's just wonderful!

Sunday we went to church and out to lunch with Dan's parents (my parents left early that morning), so we didn't get back til way past Marissa's naptime. Once Dan's parents left, Marissa slept for a normal naptime. So did I. Haha. But when she woke up, she was so sad. I brought her downstairs, and she just cuddled with me for at least 20 minutes! We just sat on the couch and she hugged me, arms wrapped around my neck, head on my shoulder. It was wonderful. She hasn't cuddled that long since before she could walk! It was so sweet, and just what this mommy needed. I can't believe she isn't my little baby anymore!

Some of Marissa's new phrases are so funny. When she falls, or even pretends to fall, she always says "I fell me!" Also, we make a big point of taking turns at work, so now she's worried about taking turns all the time. Whenever she thinks it's her turn, she says "Frissa's turn!" That's how she says her name lately, and it just makes me laugh every time. She also says "Frissa's" whenever it's something that's hers, or she thinks it's hers. Frissa's car, Frissa's bed, Frissa's purple shoes, etc. It's so fun to watch her figure things out!

In other non-interesting news, my left bottom wisdom tooth decided that now would be a perfect time to grow in. I've been told many times that I need to have them all removed, but haven't got around to it. Plus, for some reason our dental insurance doesn't cover very much. My top wisdom teeth are in, and have been for a while. They don't hurt, but they're really hard to brush since they're so far back. But now that my bottom one is coming in, my inside cheek is all swollen, and I can't even bite all the way down. I've been biting my cheek for almost 2 weeks now, and it's KILLING ME! I feel like such a baby, but then, babies are miserable when they're teething, so then I don't feel so bad about complaining. Lol.

I guess that about covers everything. Sorry for the delay! This afternoon Marissa and I are going to visit with one of my high school friends at the college we both graduated from. I can't even remember the last time I saw her - 3 years ago or more? Should be fun!