Hello, my name is Heather & I am an e-mail addict.

Yes, it's true. I've decided that I probably check my e-mail an inordinate amount of times throughout the day. Like the next person, I usually turn on the computer when I get up and bring up our e-mail soon after that. I'll also check it before going to bed. The OCD part is that I continue to check the e-mail at least 50 times throughout the day--sometimes minutes after I've already checked it. I don't know why, exactly, but I have some theories:

*We have recently had some luck on Craig's List, so I am constantly curious to see if anyone has e-mailed about an item for sale.
*I have a number of family/friends that I keep in touch with via e-mail; i.e. my sister, who is away at college in Duluth (sniff); my cousin & good friend from high school, both of whom are HEADING away to London; friends in Spokane; my mom...who, admittedly is about 2 minutes away from me, but sometimes e-mail is just easier. (You get the picture.)
*I have too much time on my hands.
*I am simply addicted.

Whether it's one of these possibilities or not, I do really enjoy that little thrill I get when I see the words "Downloading 1 of...e-mails" or the e-mails that are bold, signifying UNREAD! (On the off chance my husband is able to get to the e-mail before I can.)
Anyway, that is my addiction. I guess it's better than something seriously life-threatening, although I'm sure decades from now, our children's children will be laughing at how dumb we were to actually touch computers, since that will be found to cause some horrible disease like "computer flu." At that point, people will just wave their hands over little keypads or something, think about an e-mail, and it will get written & sent. Then I would be there, thinking all day, waiting for e-mails to come in...

New Way to Watch--Sooo Funny!

This is great if you know Pachelbel's Canon--which is probably everyone. Just watch. I laughed...a lot!

I updated this post with the actual video "play button," thanks to Afton's assistance. :)

"Why does everything happen to ME?"

Once again, I am finding myself without adult playmates. For the millionth time, both my sister and my mom are gone at the same time, with Mary on her way out in a month or so. You'd think that would not be a big deal, but when you're used to having them over every day or every other day, there is a big, gaping hole when they aren't there. I realize that not everyone has the luxury of having family around at all, and I'm sorry if that's the case for you. However, for me, it's simply a fact and I really do enjoy it. Senia is always up for going on walks, running errands, or just playing with Hannah while I do something ridiculously wild like take a shower. My mom is great about watching Hannah while I teach piano, also going on errands & walks, and taking Hannah during my "voluntary timeout(s)." Mary is somehow able to play with Hannah, pet our cat Mocha, and visit with me without skipping a beat. (She'll be a great mom!) Above all, though, I enjoy the easy-going, interesting & fun conversation that we can have whilst giving Hannah lots of love and attention. Now granted, I love my moms groups, and they are wonderful for both Hannah and I, providing me support and encouragement, as well as playtime & valuable learning lessons for Hannah. At those, though, the conversation is (understandably) centered on everything "baby" or "toddler." While I thoroughly enjoy that and find it very helpful, there are also times where I just want to talk about the Olympics, or The Office, or maybe even something as profound as feelings or emotions about relationships, faith, etc. Mom, Senia, and Mary are my outlets. So you can see why I might be a little disturbed to find them all gone or leaving...it's not that I don't want them to experience new adventures & enjoy their school, vacations or volunteer opportunities, it's just that sometimes a girl's gotta be a little selfish. :)
And now I'm done ranting.

P.S. I'll give a back rub to the person who can name where that quote is from.

Isn't it too early for the Terrible Twos??

Well, it's official. I need a break from being a mom. This may sound horrible, or it might sound completely reasonable, but at some point, I'm sure all moms get to this moment. My break doesn't have to be long or even overnight--we're just talking a few hours of Heather-time, sans Hannah. (I don't even like typing that, but it's the truth!)
Today was one of those days where I felt like I was going to jump out of my skin out of restlessness at approximately 9:00 this morning. Hannah was up by 8:30, and we'd had our breakfast...and my day was empty from then until 6:00pm. I did the responsible & appropriate Mom Thing and took us both out on a nice walk, picking some blackberries on the way. That was good, but then as soon as we got back to the house, Hannah was a wreck. She cried when I took away my cell phone, she cried when I took away the lotion she was holding, she cried when I took away the raw pie crust that she was eating. Now, you might be wondering why I'm so cruel in taking all these things away, but I was giving Hannah other options all the while. And these weren't little fake cries, but real live alligator tears & big "wahs." One thing I found interesting--and somewhat amusing--was that during one of these outbursts, she actually took a second to open her eyes to make sure I was watching. Hmmmm...That IS interesting.
At any rate, after a total nap time of 1.5 hours, Hannah was really falling apart by 5:00 when Keith got home (EARLY!!! :) She did one of those smiley, whiny cries that seemed to say "Daddy, save me from the mean mom!"
Now I'm sitting here doing stuff online & trying to think of the things I can do during my voluntary timeout on Friday. My mom has graciously offered to watch Hannah so I can do just that. Any ideas for something free that will be relaxing & fun at the same time? :)
What's amazing, though, is that despite all of today's frustrations & difficulties, I still find myself wanting to go outside and be with Keith & Hannah, even though these are precious minutes to myself. Ahhh, the power of unconditional love in action. :)

The Par-tay!

Well, the Breaking Dawn party was fun, interesting & maybe not something I would need to do again. :) (I would've written this post earlier, but I was too busy reading the book--in 48 hours.)
Senia, Mary & I decided to go to the Borders near us as opposed to Powell's because it was closer...as much as we were disappointed to not give blood...We arrived at the scene at about 9:30 and were given a wristband with the number 674 (!) on it--that was to receive a book!! We discovered later that fortunately, those numbers were somewhat arbitrary and the wait was not long. The store was already pretty crowded at that point, and the party had just began. We saw teenage girls in prom dresses (for the Forks HS Prom), teenage girls with an array of t-shirts--both professionally made & handmade, teenage girls with costumes representing various Twilight characters, and more teenage girls. Notice a theme? Nevertheless, we forged on & pushed ourselves into the sea of people (teenage girls.) There were older people (including some guys) at the store, but we quickly discovered they were simply customers hoping to sit in a nice quiet (haha) bookstore & sip their lattes or chai teas. Poor, unsuspecting people. :)
The night started off with a trivia game, which consisted of minute details from the book (aka--the temp in Phoenix when the book series begins; which was 75, by the way...not something I recalled during the game.) These gals had obviously spent some serious time studying to prepare for such an exam. :)
Next was the debate of the "Edward vs. Jacob" camps. If you don't know what that means, read the books. :) Mary, the lone Jacob fan in our little group, somewhat reluctantly snuck over to that side of the room, which was actually more populated than I would have guessed it would be. For the next few minutes, these gals were screaming (yes, SCREAMING) comments back & forth about who was "hotter," who was better for Bella, and who could give her a better life. At one point, I attempted to raise my hand to say something, but the judges were obviously only paying attention to the jumping, screaming, fanatic girls in front of them. I was just waiting for someone to burst into tears while emotionally defending Edward or Jacob. I might add that before the party, the three of us had a very in-depth, psychological debate about the pros & cons of Jacob or Edward, and none of those points were brought up in the Borders debate. Hmmm...
After a short break for everyone to regain their composure, the costume contest started. That was fun to see how people dressed up, but it was a bit sad when someone would come up & there would only be a few claps. :( Brought back memories of some uncomfortable talent shows & such. So when someone would get that response, we would try to clap wildly instead!! :)
Then for the next hour, they did a couple raffle prizes & started to get things organized for the actual book release. That was the most organized part of the night--oohhh, if only I could have gotten a hold of a megaphone during the games...
Anyway, according to the receipt, we got our book at 12:45am on August 2nd. I started reading as soon as we got home (sorry, Senia & Mary, but a girl's gotta have her priorities) and finished at 1am yesterday morning. Whew! I loved it--I know there have been some controversial comments online about the book's plot, but for a teen vampire saga, I think it is really entertaining & very well worth reading.--See my earlier post "Vampires are SOOOO Cool!"

WinCo Wins

Brand-name items are interesting for me. I've never been one to worry too much about brand-name clothing or shoes; I don't really care if I have Fred Meyer pants or Payless shoes. If they get the job done & don't fall apart after a few washings, I'm happy with them. Groceries are a different story. I used to really feel good about my pantry, cupboards or refrigerator if I had "Kellogg's," "Heinz," "C&H," etc. I was really making it if I had some Trader Joe's items in there. After reviewing our budget a while ago, we decided to try shopping at WinCo to see how it went. The savings were pretty obvious; especially if I went with the generic brand. However, I didn't want to become a regular WinCo shopper. For some reason I really kicked my heels in at the idea of having all those generic brands in my cupboards, and more importantly, that I would have to bag my own groceries!
Well, with gas prices (going down, though--yeah!), food price increases, and the point that WinCo is just minutes away, I couldn't keep giving excuses when Keith would ask "Tell me again why we don't just shop at WinCo?" I finally gave in when I saw how much I had spent at a competing store, only to get home with one bag of groceries. At WinCo, I knew that amount would buy twice as much!
Although going to WinCo is still a bit of a difficulty for me, I like it a little more knowing that I'm saving a lot of money & that I've noticed more people that "look like me" there, in terms of silly superficial demographics. You really can see every range of people there; it's quite interesting. Sometimes I forget "the rules;" for example, yesterday I was there & without thinking, pulled my cart forward when the lady in front of me pulled hers to the end to bag (gasp!) When she came back to pay, she said--somewhat rudely--"exCUSE me, MISS!" I apologized and backed up, only to run into the guy behind me who had mistaken my pull-through as valid.
Anyway, it's a work in progress. I've decided the benefits outweigh the negatives, and, as Senia has pointed out, you can't beat their bulk section!

Breaking Dawn at the break of dawn...

Well, the time is drawing near. Come August 1st, I will be heading to Powell's for a release party! I never thought I'd be "that person" that would be so interested in a book to attend a midnight release, but it sounds like so much fun. Mary & Senia are going to come along, and we are going to party it up vampire-style! I will definitely be posting more about it later, but it is going to be lots of fun, if for no other reason than I get to hang out with my best gals. :) My act of service for the night will be giving blood, as they say, "To the Red Cross, not vampires..." which will be interesting but hopefully uneventful.
That is all I have to say about that for now.

In other news, Hannah is as fun as ever! She is getting a little longer & a little chubbier (at least in my opinion) and it is fun hearing her "talk" in her little voice. It's fun to try to imagine what all she is saying. Tonight we went on a walk & she was just chatting away with her little leg resting on her stroller tray--so casual & relaxed. Her newest thing is that she makes a little round-lipped face and says "Woo-woo" when she sees a dog. I have to say that it is PRETTY cute! :) She has also had some fun times in her little wading pool; the other night she even went skinny-dipping and even sat down. The water is becoming a little less intimidating for her, which is nice to see.

Well, that's enough for now; I've been wanting to post something, but I have a hard time coming up with topics that I feel will be interesting for people to actually read. :) Senia, I could use a few more "post-starters." :)