a.rose

I'll give you three guesses. Guess #1 - (feel free to insert your own guesses if you don't like my suggestions) Amy ate fish. You're wrong. (And don't ever guess this again.) Guess #2 - Hallie is potty trained. You're wrong. (But don't I wish.) Guess #3 - We've been having nice weather lately. You're right, it's been fabulous, but that's not what this is about. Turns out I have a hernia. So let's see: Nausea, check. Vomiting, check. Migraines, check. Hernia, check. What's next, Pregnancy? Bring it on. They're making an appointment for me to see the surgeon. The two doctors that looked at me today already told me that they most likely won't do anything until after I have the baby (apparently they don't like to do surgery around that area on pregnant women...) so please keep Hallie and I in your prayers that I can be a good mom!

Tonight we had chicken paprikash (a delicious new recipe) which is basically chicken in a paprika sauce with red and green peppers served over noodles. Hallie ate three noodles (plain) and two grapes, and a quarter of a slice of bread. All in all, it was a pretty good meal for her. She also took her vitamins. So, when dessert was out of the oven, brownies, I thought she could have a little piece. So I'm sitting there, eating my brownie, and I give her a little bite, and she eats it, and seems excited about it. She loves brownies. Then daddy started getting his "dessert" ready. Now I had competition. She loves it when daddy makes his oats. When I say oats, I mean a completely unique to Devin concoction that he created during his undergraduate days when he was hungry and had nothing in the cupboard. It is oats (uncooked) mixed with a little peanut butter, milk, and a little sugar. Yeah, that's it. So Devin's mixing this up, and I give Hallie another bite ...

So here is the story about our "hike". We had originally hoped to go horseback riding, but I was never able to get ahold of the people with horses, so we'll have to try that another time. We decided we'd just go on a walk in the morning before returning home (to my baby... I think she grew two inches while I was gone.) This park is 3,200 acres (square acres?) so it's a pretty good size, and we figured we'd be able to find a trail for a nice walk. We had a little map, but it was terrible, so Devin said he would scout for trails on his morning run. He came back a little discouraged, and said that all of the trails (as far as he could tell) just seemed to start at random, without anywhere to park, so we'd have to leave the truck at the campsite and walk to one of the trails, and by that point as we all know from my story about the showers I would pretty much be done for walking! But he said he did see a sign that had an arrow and the symbol for handicap,...

It's true. Even if I don't have any pictures. (I know. It's just the way we are, we meant to take pictures...) We left Hallie with her grandma, and took off in her truck. We got our tent set up, and ate dinner, washed the dishes, then sat back and realized that it was only like seven o'clock in the evening and we had not packed any cards, or games to play, or anything. Enter thumb twiddling. So we took a walk to investigate the shower house and toilets (flush toilets, that is) and on our way we saw a field full of deer (literally, quite full) and one baby deer who stared at us the whole time we walked past. Hey, kid. We saw a fabulous sunset, pink and purple and swirly with white clouds. I told Devin that it was a good thing they had a parking lot next to the shower area for people to drive to, because if I actually walked that far to get a shower in the morning, I would be sweaty and gross again by the time I got back from showering, rendering it a pointless wal...

My mom and I gave each other makeovers today, and then we decided we had to have a photo shoot. We went out to my mom's truck and she told me to do some biker chick poses. Hallie wanted to be in some of the pictures. Here are a few for you to enjoy. My mom said I made her look like a mix between a "desert rat" and a "silver fox" with "batwing lips". Then when she was doing my look she got confused halfway through the word "pretty" and decided to say "beautiful" and what I heard was, "You look putrid." Thanks, mom. We had a great time. Hallie was asleep for most of it, but when she woke up she got into the action... my mom had an old foundation that was the wrong color so we let her have it and a sponge and she went to town... then we put a little lipstick on her. She looked really great. (Al, your kitty also got some makeup... but he's recovered, and looks like a nice little black kitty again.) I just thought Hall...

Today the world (or the microcosm in which I live) celebrates the birth of one of my all time favorite people. 20 some odd years ago today (I'll keep it vague, for you Hannah) Hannah was born into this dreary world, and instantly, it seemed a little brighter. My friend Hannah, the grass loving desert dweller. The rescuer of forlorn and pitiful looking eighth grade girls. The Janice Joplin fan. Hannah, whose artistic side took me a long time to recognize, and I know realize is an inherent part of her. My friend Hannah, who I am fairly sure in high school was composed of 40% pool water, and 60% chocolate. I'll never forget the first night I met Hannah. I was at a sleepover, at the home of a woman I did not know, surrounded by girls I had never met before. I remember there were brownies, and we watched a Chris Farley movie. Hannah made me feel comfortable (as much as that is possible, when you're the only stranger in a room full of teenage girls at a sleepover) and s...

Girl! Coming January 2010 to a hospital near me. Her femur is one and a half inches long. Hallie has been saying "sister" all day. I've been asking her for weeks if she was getting a brother or a sister, and now she says it. Thanks, Hallie.

It happened again today. A mom was holding Hallie, and she said, "Wow, she's so light." I have no problem with this statement, it's true, and I would say the same thing if I was holding someone else's child that felt particularly light. What has been bothering me about it is my own reaction to it. Why do I get so frustrated with Hallie for being so small? (She had her 18 month checkup a few weeks ago, I know, two months late... but we got there. And she's 20 pounds, 31 inches. That's 2% for weight, and 12% for height. She gained one pound and one inch since her last checkup, at 12 months.) But the doctor keeps telling me that she's healthy. She is energetic (clearly), she is developing normally, and she looks good. So that should be enough for me, right? I should be happy with her because what does size really matter? Maybe it's because it's so frustrating to offer her food and have her throw it. So let's pretend she does eat as...

In my defense, Hallie has never choked while eating. Not once (except while drinking, but what can you do? Like mother, like daughter I guess). AND she has sixteen teeth, with which she is usually extremely good at chewing, I make sure because when she does it she tends to put way too much food in her mouth. I wasn't hungry when she wanted lunch today, so I sat her down with her little plate of food and she began happily munching away. My attention drifted, and I was completely distracted, thinking about, of all things, the papers on our refrigerator. All of a sudden she made a noise that will remain, for the entirety of my existence, as one of the scariest sounds I'll ever hear. My heart stopped, I turned to look at her, and she had this panicked look on her face. I said, stupidly, "Are you breathing?" Although, again, in my defense, I have been caught many times thinking she was choking when really she was just, say, pooping. So I'm a little skeptical of ...

I have no idea where we are. I found this picture tonight when I was going through some old stuff, and it just made me laugh. I love how my sister and I both look fairly dorky, and yet... as always, she looks good, and I just look really dorky. :) I love that girl.