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A friend from work had a baby recently and wanted some art for her little girls room. So I went to one of the bottle and brush type of events/painting classes and instead of doing the same thing as everyone else, I painted this. The tree and birds is fairly similar to the bedding in Mary Collins room. I hope she enjoys it.

The finger-trigger wackos have come out in fury this February! First it was a 14 year old shooting another 14 year old dead in my former middle school. The following week it was a truly psycho teacher at UAH, where I went to college. That was followed with kids that probably thought a copy cat act would be funny and they could make the news because 2 more gun sightings put highschools on lock down. Last week there was a home invasion a couple miles from me where the guy was shot, then yesterday my neighbor was robbed at gunpoint. The UAH incident was a true tragedy, 3 professors were shot dead and another 2 wounded. The biology department is in pure turmoil and so many lives were affected. One of the saddest parts was that the damn woman (a Harvard educated female!) should have been taken to the loony bin a long time ago because she had already shot her brother and sent mail bombs. I know schools budgets are being cut all the time, but isn’t there some kind of background check that would have discovered that?! She probably just came across as one of the other hundreds of smart weirdos in this town. I was talking with a friend that works at UAH and has met the shooter Amy Bishop a few times, and she’s been asked several times – could you tell she was crazy? My friends reply (I love this), well she’s definitely odd, but odd and smart people are a dime a dozen in this town, how would you know when one of them is about to crack.

While all of this was in my town, the neighbor robbery yesterday shook me up the most. He lives diagonal across the street from us and I was home just minutes before it happened at 1pm. He was not harmed but the guy was not caught either. Too bad he did have a gun and not just a knife because my neighbor teaches martial arts and I know he would have fought back and the punk would have gone down and been in jail.
Upon finishing this I need to start researching alarm systems.

This weekend felt was the first time in months that it was above 50 and the sun was shining on a weekend day! It was sooo nice. Jeff was still a little sick on Saturday, but on Sunday we went to the Madison Indian Creek Greenway Park. It's been over a year since I've been when it was just a 3 mile paved walking trail. Now it's extended further (not sure how much) there is a big playground and fenced in dog park and a 20 hole disc golf course. We packed up Allison about 1pm and beat some of the church crowd, but by 3pm the parking lot was full and those poor neighbors practically had their driveways blocked from all the cars lining up the streets. Allison seemed to enjoy herself, she stayed awake the whole time (which would have normally been naptime) and we walked over to the dog park side so she could see the dogs. Whenever we made it to the swing though, I think she was wiped out, didn't really get a smile out of her.

Saturday I kicked the cats out. There is a long ongoing saga with Ginger who is at least 13 years old and is now going into renal failure according to the vet and hundreds of dollars in tests. Our cats have been indoors cats forever, and Des is much younger and came skiddish of everything. Ginger was ok outside for a bit, she found some sun and chilled out, but Des freaked when we put her on the grass. She just hid under the porch for a bit and then howled to get let back in. Later in the day Ginger was showing her pitiful side too. Ginger spent the night in the utility room and got thrown out again today. This is another reason I want winter to be gone for good. In a few days I'm going to feel really guilty for having Ginger outside when it's 40 degrees.

It's a good thing that I'm not a big romantic with high expectations for Valentines Day. Allison had a high fever Saturday and has not slept good since. I knew it was time for another virus because she made it 2 straight weeks in daycare. I took her to the dr today and she has blisters bleeding in the back of her throat. No wonder when she starts crying, nothing we do will calm her down. And there is nothing to treat this, just time and motrin to ease the pain. Tylenol does not seem to do anything. And Benedryl does not make her as sleepy as I was hoping. So she's almost her usual self every few hours when the motrin is working, then there are gaps where she's like a colicky baby, can't hold her and can't put her down. Times like this I get disgusted thinking we pay this place $11k a year to make her sick.

I can't describe how hard I laughed today at my first Valentines Day card from Allison. The cover was very cute, her foot prints in a heart with the words: "From my head to my toes... My love for you grows...
And then you open it up and this photo is glued on top of a paper doily heart.



I know this is daycare and the workers create these cards and I love it. I love getting a laugh at the background they created for this photo shoot that they stripped my kid down for. These are some brave ladies that give paint to lil babies, all in the name of art. Art that I'm torn on which pieces to keep. But this one.... this one made it on the blog, so it's out on the internet in forever land!

I guess I'm going to add this to my list of projects for a rainy day. I love this idea - lets just hope I get around to doing it.

Personalized ABC book using photos of your kid

I've added a few more parent-type blogs on my reader. From Parent Hacks
I learned some funny and genius parent hacks:

cut up old credit cards and put them in a dirty diaper

coat slimy foods with Cheerios dust to make it easier to grab

Help diaper pale smell with dryer sheets or coffee beans

Cut off socks to cover stinky/wet car seat straps (if in a bind while traveling)

Evidently pull ups are expensive, some parents give panty liners to their lil girls while potty training

use a crock pot as a humidifier

make nose-wiping fun by playing peek-a-boo and just patting (not wiping)

We had a nice short visit with with the Machamers in Birmingham. We were at the 4 week mark when Allison's Mimi goes crazy to see her, oh and it happened to be Jim's 29th birthday. Claire definitely had a baby bump showing and everyone seemed to be doing well. K&B didn't report much progress on the packing front but there is still time, so I didn't dwell on it :) Family gatherings always come with alot of food and this one was no exception. Mexican dinner where we found out Allison loves avocado and then a BBQ lunch. Now that elliptical Jeff and I ordered needs to get here in a hurry :)
Here are a couple pictures:

Claire showed off her sewing machine and she made Allison a birthday shirt. I love it.

If you're viewing this in a reader, go ahead and check out the real website and let me know what you think. I'll work on customizing it a little more later.

Since I'm not up for writing in complete sentences, here is what my week last week consisted of:

lots of baby time (Tuesday thru Sunday). oh wait I did go into work for a few hours Wednesday

Making my husband bring me lunch :)

hoping I remembered the correct order of which Tylenol or Motrin to give her in the middle of the night

watching Allison get her first qtip shoved up her nose for an RSV test (was negative)

Me twitch when I see her jump after I turn on the nebulizer machine

Several texts with my sister who I consider a mommy expert for breathing troubles

tons of cuddle time with a clingy baby (which is much easier to do when you know they don't feel good)

figuring out new things for Allison to play with

Letting her practically crawl into the kitchen island after she removed all the tupperware (pure heaven for her when she thinks she snagged something she wasn't supposed to get)

watching Allison shut her bedroom door endless times always as happy as the first

watching her close her fingers in a kitchen drawer and then leave them there while she cried (uh, need those brain cells to kick in soon so she'll move your hand out)

dreams of a vacation to anywhere (I'm still trying to figure out if Stacy was serious about London in May)

buying Allison a new LeapFrog puppy toy that sings and is programmable to say her name in the middle of songs

wondering when I'll get some sort of carpal tunnel from using my Iphone (it'd be worth it)