rachel's continued ramblings

are you ready for it? "this" not very profound, i know. but he goes around pointing to stuff going, "this?" and then he'll point to something else and go,"this?" it's pretty cute. (and yes mary, reminiscent of lily. we're working on 'that'.) ... i'm taking shane to the doctor today. he's been having some random bouts of feeling like he's goint to throw up. he never does, but it's usually been at night and i'm getting tired. today's the first day he's felt bad during the day, but he was awake for a couple hours last night and today he said he wanted to go to the doctor and find out what's wrong with him. so we're going. ... i don't know if i ever mentioned that we finally got layla's doctor to refer us to an allergist. YAY! so now we've been in the holding pattern of trying to make an appointment and being unable to because they don't have all the info they need from her doctor...

micah pooped in the tub today. he was in there playing and i was attempting (unsuccessfully) to do something with my hair. i looked over and saw more than toys in the water. aagghhh!!! bath was followed immediately by a shower. on the upside, i discovered a new use for the 'massage' setting on the hand held shower head. it works great as a sort of pressure washer for cleaning that poop which has been stepped and/or sat on (and therefore plastered) in the tub before you noticed it was there. oh, yummy yummy. and that was just the start of my day. after that we all went to the doctor's office and now i'm waiting for shane to finish eating so i can take him to the ymca and then i can haul the others around while i run some errands. i'm sure micah will be in a spectacular mood for the rest of the day since he had two shots. poor kid. okay, i'm off to herd kids into the car (again) and see what other fun incidences await us for the rest of the ...

the 11th commandment: thou shalt not covet the incredibly cute but ridiculously expensive clothes that thou seest on thy computer, unless thou desirest to be dissatisfied with thy financial position in life and ungrateful for all the many blessings which have been bestowed on thou and thy family. but oh, i love gymboree clothes! i long to dress my children entirely in cheesy matched outfits that coordinate with everything else in their closets. oh, how i want to purchase all the cute hair accessories and shoes that go with the coordinated outfits. ::longing sigh:: why can't it be free? or at least reasonable? i want to get a job there. but when? i recently splurged on my new niece and bought her the most incredibly cute outfit at gymboree. check her out on mary's blog .

these are as is... spelling errors and all. how to use a bathroom scale seriously? how hard is it? if you want step by step instructions, read this . washing machine doesn't empty bummer dude rachel's restroom i seem to remember someone predicting, when i was in high school, that i would go into the portable restroom business some day... "locks of love" site:blogspot.com because i'm totally the authority on that sort of thing. my hair is still in a ziplock bag waiting to be mailed. http://rambling-rachel.blogspot.com/ i think you typed this in the wrong place does 2 year old talk with imagination is there any other option? SLUDGE IN WORM BIN yummy. diapers to bed well, considering the other option... yes, please! imagination and 2 years old once again. 2 year olds do like to use their imaginations. loose change in my washing machine what priceless wisdom are you looking for here? how to get some? where did it come from? what to do with it? duh! rachel joe...

don't you love it how your kids have a tendency to SPOIL EVERYTHING! last night, dave and i had planned to go out for our anniversary (which was on the 5th). we didn't go then because the kids had finally passed the hand foot and mouth disease to me and i wasn't feeling too hot. so we postponed and were planning for last night. we even decided to make it an excuse to get dressed up. so dave went to work wearing suit pants and a dress shirt. he even had a tie with him to put on later. (those of you who know my husband will have to pick yourselves up off the floor now.) apparently he took a lot of razzing at work about it too. someone asked him if he had a job interview. another called him fancy pants. i was looking forward to wearing a dress i bought last january and have never worn, along with my hooker boots tall black boots. we were going to eat at the cheesecake factory, which i have never been to, and who knows what else. layla has a little cold. not a bi...

so i haven't posted in awhile because, honestly, i've had nothing to talk about. shocking, i know. preschool seems to be going fine. monday was our first drop-off day, and she did totally fine. wednesday was more of the same. today was my day to stay and that went well too, although layla was a little off today. i think she's worn out. 3 days of preschool, plus we spent all day tuesday at playgroup. i'm looking forward to staying home tomorrow and doing big fat loads of nothing. that is, unless she's getting sick. there were 6 kids gone from class today. i know one had a cold and one had stomach flu (ick ick ick) and the rest were unaccounted for. well, stomach flu girl has a twin sister, so she stayed home as well. so everyone is either sick or just worn out. 3 days is a lot for a bunch of barely 3-year-olds at the beginning of the year. layla is currently napping. i lifted the no-nap ban today because she just really needed it. i'll have to ma...

just doing my part to help make sure everyone knows about this recall. if you have one or see one at a garage sale or second hand store, make sure the sellers know they are recalled.

joe put a post up on mary's blog w/ info and pics of new baby hannah! click here!

we have a new niece! hannah was born this morning... i think some time around 7am central time. don't have a lot of details yet, but we're very excited. dave told layla as soon as he got off the phone with his mom. dave: layla, you have a new cousin! layla: why? dave: aunt mary's baby was born. layla: oh. me: lily has a little sister now. layla: but i have an owie so i can't go there. not entirely sure what she was getting at there, but i'm sure she has no idea what to do with the news. i just love the way kids react to stuff.

why is everything a finding nemo reference lately??? layla had her first day of preschool today. she had a lot of fun, made friends with a girl named lauryn and even told grandma all the stuff she did with pretty good detail. monday is the first day she goes all by herself, but i think she'll do fine. (although she told me this morning that she would be mad if i left.) here she is having her breakfast. posing by the rose garden outside the church that houses her preschool. hanging up her coat and backpack. afterwards... just running.

for some reason my to do list has been giving me dirty looks lately. i've done a few things off of it, and i feel good about it, but it's seeming really daunting. maybe the things i have decided i want to do or should do aren't so realisitic. i don't know. so i've decided to address what my excuses are for not doing the things on the list. maybe by writing it down i'll be more motivated to overcome those excuses by realizing how stupid they are... -buy new brown shoes - okay, that's easy. i've got no money right now. aside from that, i've tried on lots of pairs of shoes and haven't found any that were particularly comfortable. -buy new filter for steam cleaner - non-emergent purchase. however, the next time someone pukes on my carpet, i'll really be wishing i had done it. maybe i should move that up on the priority list... ::knocking on wood:: -buy new running shoes - no $$ -buy shane's bear book - well, this involves going to...

the other night at dinner (why do all of my funny anecdotes seem to start with those words?) layla looks at dave and says, "oh daddy, you have a dancing girl on your shirt!" dave was wearing the star wars t-shirt i had given him a couple birthdays ago. it looks something like this: you know the poster... so we kind of laugh, and i point to leia and say, "you mean her?" and layla says, "no mommy, not that one. the other one ." the only other 'person' on the shirt is luke. yeah... we're still recovering from that one.

as we're backing out of the driveway on our way to church this morning, this is what we see: door hanging open... flag up... so is she trying to gift the mail carrier? or did that just seem like a good place to stash a rock? the things they come up with...

the other night at the end of dinner, layla grabbed some 3x5 cards that i have chores written on and said to me, "here's your fifty bucks!" right on! so dave and i had an amusing conversation about the severe lack of motivation in our house when it comes to chores. we were speculating about how great it would be if, upon completion of a given chore, the thing you just cleaned or finished doing would automatically pay you. i said that we would ALWAYS get our chores done then. my example was that as soon as i finished scrubbing a toilet, you would push a lever (which toilets conveniently come with already) and it would spit out a $50 bill at you! wouldn't that be great? dave said that if it came out of the toilet, i wouldn't want it anyway...

okay, with a little juggling and me feeling a bit sheepish and overwhelmed for a couple of days, we are back where we started with the whole preschool thing. layla will be going to the original co-op i signed her up at, 3 days a week. kat said she can still watch micah - at least until her baby arrives. but that gives me a couple of months to figure that out. yay. i feel relieved and i'm glad my flaky self was able to work this out. so my stern warning to anyone who has or ever intends to have children: do not get a degree in or study child development or early childhood education. it turns you into a total psychopath and makes it impossible to choose a preschool for your children. just now in this situation, i would love to just be a normal person for a while. in other news. i'm now sick. i though i was safe from this whole hand, foot and mouth thing, but i guess i'm not. apparently my mom was wrong about me having it when i was a kid, or this is a slightly diff...

waaaa!! i am in the midst of a typical, rachel-ish, last minute dilemma of ridiculous proportions. it has to do with preschools. i won't bore you with the details because it will make your head spin. i know mine is. why, oh why did i ever get that stupid degree???

a camping we will not go. so we went down to portland on sunday. we got to willamette park where my aunt and uncle's 50th anniversary party was and had a great time... in the rain. there was wind and thunder and lots of downpours. fortunately we had a covered picnic shelter and everything was fine. but that got us thinking about sleeping in a tent in all that. so we wimped out and stayed with my cousin, barb (and fam) instead. it turned out to be loads of fun and we're eternally grateful for the invite that bailed us out. i missed it, but apparently the state park we were to be camping at was on the morning news yesterday, covered in huge puddles. shane especially had lots of fun with his cousin elsa. they bathed 4 mice, a standard poodle, and a cat. how's that for good old fashioned family fun. layla followed her cousin anna (14) around the whole time and helped her clean her room which layla was kind enough to point out was 'messy'. i'm sure micah ...