Happy Holidays!

I'm writing you from my phone today, as I have a sleeping exhausted baby on my stomach. Evelynn is getting her bottom teeth. She is growing up entirely too fast. I never truly understood that saying/comment until I watched my almost ten month old started getting little ivory razors in her mouth. And sliding off the bed on her stomach. And openly defying me when I tell her no all while smiling at me and breaking my attempt to hold my "Mommy" face. Watching her run away from her Dad in a hallway game of chase me, giggling all the way. Playing peek a boo with her grandpa while sitting on the counter, smiling behind the corner of a tea towel. Being comforted by her grandma and running up to her excitedly when she comes in the door. It is all going by too fast indeed.
I'm starting to feel the desire to have another baby, I don't know if its Evie growing up too fast or my biological clock screaming at me or my worry we will have trouble and it will take another year to get pregnant. Either way I've been starting to plot the end of nursing Evelynn. Its not easy at all! I'm not very good at it. Any tips at all are appreciated! I'm about as good as I was kicking her out of bed, which I still haven't done.
I'm excited for Christmas. I'm not sure Evie will be as excited as I want her to be. But I'm super happy to spend time with our family and extended family. I hope all your holidays are great!
Love (Christmas),
Carrie
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Early's late if you make tomorrow yesterday.

We have new friends.  Nurse Carol introduced us.  Its fabulous because they have a kid, a small kid, like ours.  They are our first friends who have a kid.  Want to know why its so great?  Because they get it.  They don't wince when our kid power vomits on their pretty sofa and carpet.  They aren't embarrassed whenever my kid screams out of turn at a restaurant or church.  Or smears food all over herself and anything she can touch.  Or when she plays musical laps.  Oh or when she stands in their kid's carseat and swings from it and slobbers all over the toys hanging from it, in fact they protect her head and catch her when she falls.  They laugh and cheer her on.  There are toys for her to play at when we go to their house, we have adult conversation, and we have baby conversation, and we don't feel bad about it.
Don't get us wrong, we love our childless friends, we wouldn't be here without them, but it man it is such a difference to have friends that have a kid and get it.  They get the anxiety, they get if you call at the last minute and say you are running late or you aren't going to make it at all.  They get that it can be easier to come to your house because someone is in a mood and you don't think that you can put that kid in the car seat.
You also get GREAT tips from your friends with kids.  You share ideas and shortcuts and most importantly FOOD.  Haha.
But honestly, I'm not knocking our childless friends.  I can't wait until they have kids too.  And seriously we couldn't have gotten so good at raising a kid without them, they were here in the beginning to hold her, make us food, and cheer us on.  And they will continue to be here for her.  I just wanted to give a little shout out to our new friends, who we are having a great time with.  Even after we give our death plague to them.

Love (our friends with babies),
Carrie

Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.

I'm not the person you want to sit next to in church, if you are serious about church.  I crack jokes, comment on the message, and generally act like a twelve year old.  I'm not sure why I do it, because I like church and I listen to the message, I just think everyone needs my rolling commentary apparently, like an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Apparently my daughter has inherited that trait.  She hollers out "WOW" and "WOAH" at completely inappropriate times.  Sings louder than everyone.  Crawls under the pews.  Tries to deface Bibles.  Pulls out every piece of paper from the racks.  Generally everything she can to appear like a heathen in the eyes of the Lord.  But she is cute so she gets away with it. 

Some of you have wondered, and yes, we are still cos-sleeping.  It is working really well for us, and I can't tell you how comforting it is for both her and I to have each other there.  I've tried multiple times to kick her out and it hasn't gone well for either of us.  So we will keep at it, at least until she can talk me out of sleeping in her own bed every night.  Ha.

Evie has a new toy my parents bought her, its a fat overstuffed cat.  My brother named him Spencer Catt (a play on Spencer Pratt, the reality douche) and of course she loves it and is dragging it around everywhere.  She also got down the SHHHHH noise, so she points at it and says "SHHHHHH" which cracks me up.

We have to get her a new car seat because she is too long for hers.  We will probably get it on Friday.  I don't know what kind to get though.  Of course every review I read says you should get the three hundred dollar one, but who can afford that?  I just had my parents buy new tires for my car, which I'm slowly working off.  I can't believe how expensive tires are!!!  We really needed them before the winter, I would be a nervous wreck without them and driving with Evie.

I don't say it enough, but I am truly blessed to be able to stay home with Evelynn. I can't imagine putting her in daycare everyday.  I know I give Seth a lot of crap about working so hard and so late, but I need to remember he's doing it so that I can stay home and try to teach my kid to leave the bibles out of her mouth.  Evie and I are two lucky ladies for sure. 

Well I'd better get ready for the Advent Tea at church tonite.  Evie and I are going to practice NOT being a heathen so we don't embarass her grandma.  :-)

Love (my heathen baby),
Carrie

If you believe everything you read, better not read.

In our house, December brings about an event that I try to get psyched up about, but about halfway thru the task, I crap out and wonder why in the hell I agree to do it every year.
And that event is our cookie plates.  First of all, it takes us forever to plan it.  Then it takes FOREVER to make all the cookies.  After that it takes us forever to deliver all the cookies.  And I really think most people don't even LIKE our cookie plates.  Besides Seth's family, they always eat them all and enjoy them.  And the people at Seth's work.  Most everyone else complains that we are making them fat, or these are the fifth cookie plate they have received, or that they don't like one of the cookies.  One year we had someone complain about the way we decorated the cookies (ok fine, that year I got a little spikey towards the end of decorating and started making inappropriate cookies, but they were FUNNY)
Anyway we have our cookie day scheduled on Saturday the 18th of this month.  Hopefully we tone it down this year, but Seth is super crazy about it.  He likes to do it because it reminds him of when he used to do it with his Grandma.  And like me, he is a food pusher, and likes to see other people enjoy the food he makes.
So anyway, since Ellen does 12 days of give away's, I guess I'll do 12 days of bitching about Christmas.  Ha.
You know what would make this all better?  Snow.

Love (pushing food),
Carrie

Only the mediocre are always at their best.

I've sat staring at this screen for a while now.  Well that's not true, I stared at the baby being destructive, but my hands were on the keys!
You have missed me right?  I've missed you.
Evelynn is walking, and destroying everything 29 inches high and within her reach.  I spend most of my day chasing her down trying to get tiny things out of her hands so she doesn't swallow it or destroy it.
She is so stubborn.  I'm not sure where she gets that.  I can move something out of her reach and she still goes after it. 
I have been struggling with the idea of "Santa" and if we want to introduce her to him and perpetuate the lie for the next eight or so years.  Seth says we are doing it.  I'm not going to NOT do it.  I am not hating on anyone that does it, I just...I guess when I found out, it made me sad, and then I was such a bitch, I was so upset about the lie that was Santa, that I ruined it for my brother.  Also Seth works so hard, and our parents worked so hard to save up for Christmas presents and to make Christmas special for us, I want her to know that, I want her to know how hard we work to make Christmas awesome.  Also Christmas is supposed to be about Jesus, and when she is old enough, I want her to focus on that,  not on Santa and his presents.  I'm back and forth, well actually my mind is made up, everyone just thinks I'm an uber bitch for denying her Santa, so I'm just going along with it, and maybe when she can understand I will explain it to her.
I caught myself though going along with it, because I wrapped all of her toys and labeled them "From Santa" and all her books and clothes "From Mommy and Daddy".  Shit!  I would have totally unwrapped everything (because we are cheap and just write on our wrapping paper with a red (festive, no?) sharpie) and done it again but I HATE wrapping and for some reason I get stuck doing it EVERY year.  Even wrapping up my own presents (which granted, I bought for myself, but still, its a little fucked up that I have to wrap them, but I know that a. Seth will never get around with it, and b. I don't want him going, wait, when did you buy a new cupcake pan?  We have a cupcake pan.  And then I would have to say, it's covered in rust and it was four dollars, and then that would digress into a conversation all about how four dollars adds up yada blah glub cheap cheap cheap...so I wrap them myself.) and his family's presents. 
Its hard to wrap presents with a kid.  At least my kid.  I made the mistake of letting her open my birthday presents from Seth's family and now she thinks ALL wrapping paper is for ripping, even the stuff I leave on the floor.
I'm a such a crap present wrapper.  I don't trim any of the edges, I eyeball the paper when I cut it so sometimes the entire back is showing and I don't have enough paper.  I save every single scrap and then try to make it work with other presents...
Do you guys wrap the presents you put into stockings?  We never had that as kids, but Seth's family does.  It seems like a good idea, I mean that way in case some one peeks or gets upset when you can see what the gifts are...or is the stocking wrapping enough?
I've missed my grandpa who recently passed away a lot this Christmas season.  He made a lot of my Christmas decorations, my favorite ones actually.  The 3D snowflakes on my tree and the white tree with reindeer that is just so classy.  He made these pins at Christmas and gave them out to everyone, my Dad finished them this year for him and we are handing them out around town at the Christmas festival in his hometown on Saturday.  This year I begged and inherited his train for the bottom of my Christmas tree.  It means a lot to me.  I loved decorating ours as a kid and I can't wait until Evie decorates ours.
I'm excited because I'm going to be cooking for my parents twice a week to help pay for the new tires on my vehicle.  I have tons of ideas, I just hope they like it!
Okay my loves, this is all the time I have to spare.  I have to wake up the sleeping Birdie and give her a bath before Seth gets home.

Love (cold days and warm baths),
Carrie

its the most wonderful time of the year.

Dear internets,
I am here, I am just currently consumed with being a Mom.  It's kind of fabulous, kind of nerve racking, kind of gratifying, kind of challenging, kind of stupendous, kind of nerve testing, kind of the best thing ever all in one.
And on top of that, I volunteered to host Seth's family and my friends for Thanksgiving this year, in my itty bitty never quite clean house.

So I'm kind of having a meltdown of sorts.  I'm excited and overwhelmed. 
Plus today is flu shot booster day.  Oh joy.

So I'll try to be back. 
My Mom didn't win the election so I put back all my old posts for you.  I thought you might have missed them.  We are VERY glad she didn't win by the way.  We missed my Mom.

Alright well off to the peds doctor. 
Hope you all are doing great!!

Love (the holidays, sort of),
Carrie

first family vacation

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Evie Halloween 2010

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Sometimes people are layered like that. There's something totally different underneath than what's on the surface. But sometimes, there's a third, even deeper level, and that one is the same as the top surface one. Like with pie.

The above is a Joss Whedon quote.  I love Joss Whedon.  He is the creator of some of my favorite television shows.  Like Firefly, Angel, and Dr. Horrible's Sing a long blog.  If you don't know, wiki him and check out his work.  He is lovely.

So I've been away for a while.  Seth had to stay home yesterday to work on school work because he was falling behind because of his real job being so busy.  I'm also getting ready for ouIr trip to Orlando.  I'm so nervous about traveling with the baby, but I'm sure it will be okay, and if not, well then I know we won't be traveling until she is older!

Only one more week left of my blog's censorship and then the political race will be over and I can come back full force! 

I have been having playdates set up by Nurse Carol.  The Mom and her lovely daughter are coming over today!  They are new to the area.  I am glad to have a Mom friend to get together with. 

Alright I'd better get the house ready for company!  I'll leave you with my new favorite bread recipe from Pioneer Woman:

Ingredients

• 20 ounces, weight Bread Flour (all Purpose Is Okay, Too) - About 4 Cups
• 8 ounces, fluid Water
• 4 ounces, fluid Melted Butter With Chopped Herbs Of Choice. We Like Chives, Rosemary Or Thyme.
• 2 teaspoons Salt
• 1 teaspoon Active Or Instant Yeast (if Active, It Would Be Best To Sprinkle Yeast Over The Water To Let It Start To Work Before Mixing It In)

Preparation Instructions

Combine all ingredients together in the KitchenAid stand mixer with the dough hook (it can be done by hand…it just takes longer).
I mixed them together for about 10 minutes or so until I could successfully achieve a windowpane with the dough. This is where you can pull off a small chunk of the dough you’re kneading and stretch it gently to see if it is somewhat translucent. If you can do this without it tearing, it’s ready.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
After the dough starts rising, it should be kneaded for a minute or two so that the yeast can redistribute. Form it into a dome and place in a covered cast iron pan after coating it with olive oil and a sprinkling of kosher salt. Cut a large ‘X’ into the surface of the bread dough so it can bloom!
Bake on the center rack of your over for 30 minutes with the lid on, them remove the lid to finish it off for another 15 to 30 minutes.

Love (bread and butter),
Carrie

Practicing for Halloween

Somehow my daughter's inappropiate dancing is ten times funnier when she is dressed like a tiger.

 

I wish she was old enough to actually go trick or treating, because something tells me it would be fun.

Love (my little tiger),
Carrie

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.

Today's quote was said by Jerry Seinfield.  I used to watch his show.  I didn't really get into the cult love of it.  But I love bookstores, so I used this one.

Because I don't have a lot of time, and I don't have a lot to say today, I decided, at least until the election is over, I'm going to post some of my favorite recipes for you all to try.  Then you can tell me how it went. 
Plus I already have this recipe all typed up for a friend.  This one is the BEST.

I've never found one like it on the net, Italian Bob gave it to me.
1 gallon of whole milk
1 quart of 1/2 and 1/2
1 quart of water
3 tablespoons of sugar

Using a large heavy pot, combine all the above ingredients
Using a candy thermometer, heat to 75 degrees then add 3 tablespoons of salt.
Let cook to 200 degrees stirring continuously

Mix
1 quart of buttermilk
4 tablespoons of vinegar

Add to the mixture in the pot when it has reached 200 degrees

Stir the whole mixture LIGHTLY in the pot over LOW HEAT until the mixture cracks and is ready to boil
Bring mixture back up to 200 degrees.

Take the mixture off the heat when at 200 degrees.  Cool but do not stir for 20 to 30 minutes

Spoon out with a slotted spoon, cheese cloth, or sieve and leave a little bit of water with the finished ricotta so it doesn't get to dry.

Yields 4lbs and will keep for 2 weeks in the refrigerator, 6 months in the freezer.

Love (cheese),
Carrie

Seek simplicity, and distrust it.

Today's quote is brought to you by Alfred North Whitehead.  The reason I chose it is because I have a story regarding Lord Whitehead. 
Back when I was a senior in college and my last name was still Whitehead I  was running out of classes to take in my major to fill my schedule and I was shying away from super hard math classes, which seemed to be what my adviser thought I needed to take.  So I decided to take some classes from the Social Work tier, just to be with some of my friends where were social work majors.  I signed up for Introduction to Sociology.  When the teacher was going thru the class roll, she about cried in delight that there was a "Whitehead" in the class.  She asked me if I was any relation to "THE GREAT LORD ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD, world renowned philosopher and teacher?"  Now I knew the best way to get a grade, especially in a small liberal arts college, was to get on good terms with the teacher.  If the teacher liked you, she/he would cut you slack, or help you out with special tutoring or put you in the best groups.  So in a split second I said "Oh yes!  He's like my great, great, great uncle or something to that effect, but he's in the family tree."
I have no idea if I'm related to Alfred North Whitehead.  No idea what so ever.  But I wasn't about to tell her that.  She was so excited and you better believe that I got a GREAT grade in the class.  In fact she encouraged me to take more of her classes and I got great grades in those too.  End of story.

Mommy blogging
Okay so I have this little "safe" area in front of the tv where Evie and I hang out most of the day.  I have baby proofed it pretty well.  Seth calls it Evie's preschool.  All of her toys are there, I have layers of blankets down to keep the carpet from getting vomit bombed.  There are tons of books and obnoxious noised toys and even odd things that she has loved playing with around the house.  She has a container full of binx that she likes to take out one at a time, put in her mouth and then put on the floor.  She has an old keyboard since she loves to pound on our keyboard, so she has one of her own.  She has toddler cups and bowls since I read something that said to give them to her so she gets used to using them.  Needless to say she has tons of shit to keep her busy.  But for some reason she finds everything dangerous, disgusting, and downright annoying to put in her mouth, tear apart, or break.  It is driving me crazy.  Here is what caught her doing yesterday:

Yes that is the cat tree.  No I have no idea how she got up there.  This is what I deal with daily people.



Alright I have to go do some research for my breastfeeding mentoring session tomorrow!  Hope you all have a great day!

 Love (trouble),
Carrie

About the time we think we can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends

Today's quote was brought to you by Herbert Hoover.  Not to be confused with J. Edgar Hoover, who was the head of the FBI and a cross-dresser.  Allegedly.  Herbert was a president and he hated FDR, thanks wikipedia!

Halloween
I got two sets of really good coupons to Target's photo studio and I have been thinking of taking Evie there and getting her picture taken in her Halloween costume, but like my Dad says, do we really need more pictures of Evie?  Well professional ones anyway.  We always need lots of pictures of Evie. 
I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween.  On one hand it, I love that it signals fall is here and I like the colors and the weather and the costumes and most of all, the CANDY.  On the other hand I hate the kids that are like 45 and trick or treating and the people who ruin the spirit of it all with meanness. 
Most of all I hate Haunted Houses.  Seth has been trying to get me to go for YEARS now and I tell him that if he drug me to one of those that would constitute a divorce.  I have friends that love going to those things and making an event out of it every year.  Not me.  You can forget to mail me that invite, thanks.
Every year I want to have a scary movie marathon.  But then I get scared and chicken out.  My best friend Pam taught me this trick, when things start to get scary, fall asleep.  So that is generally what happens.

Back on!
Did I mention our trip to Orlando is back on?  I'm pretty excited.  I hope Evelynn does well!

Flu-poo
I made the mistake of getting Evelynn's flu shot this morning so she is pretty miserable right now.  I'm going to go rock her for a couple hours and sing her hymns.

Love (vacations),
Carrie

Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Unknown
I decided it might be more advantageous to credit the quotations I use in my blog titles.  So that is what that is about.

Back on!
Hooray!  Our trip to Orlando is back on!  I'm excited.  Mostly because I wasn't ready to put away the tub of clothes I sat aside to pack for the trip.  Full of swimsuits and sundresses.  I'm super ready for some warmth.  This morning it was so cold that after bundling up the baby and myself I went downstairs and got the mini fan heater to use in the living room.  And now I'm about to go heat up some oatmeal for breakfast.

Random Questions
Lately I've had a lot of random questions, here are a few:
Who are the people who sing the songs on kid shows, and do they feel as ridiculous as they sound sometimes?  How do you get that job? 
What happens to the stuff on the clearance aisle when no one buys it after it has been discounted?
I wonder what things that I expirenced as an infant/baby shaped who I am today.  Like is the fact that I sing hymns to Evelynn (I swear, when I have to sing on the fly, hymns are the only thing that I can remember) mean that they will be stuck in her head forever and they will be the only thing she sings to her babies?
Where does Evelynn's desire to dance and bop around when she hears music come from?  Did she learn it from me, or is it natural?
What is with the fall weather in Nebraska?  67 to 90 in two days.  Ugh.
What exactly is febreeze made out of?  Is it just heavily scented water?  Because I spray it on myself all the time.

Strange dreams
I've had some crazy dreams lately.  One was about my friend Pam, she found out she was going to die and decided to fake her death so that she could go to her memorial (not something Pam would do AT ALL by the way, if she found out she was going to die she would go live on a tropical island with butterflies for her remaining months or something) anyway, I knew she was alive because I helped her fake her death (is that a felony?) so we were on our way to her memorial (she was incognito) and I didn't know how to get there and somehow we ended up in this hotel elevator, which was HUGE with a bunch of people and it was storming outside and the elevator got turned off because we were at the top of the tower and the wind was swaying and something disabled the elevator.  Anyway we got stuck and then I gave birth.  Very very strange.
The second weird dream I had was that because of the crappy economy the government limited couples to one baby each (what is this China?) and if you wanted more you had to go to court and get permission and take someone else's "couple child claim".  So we went to court and had all of our brother's cards, since we decided that they would never have kids.  So we had four cards.  Then Seth's brother Cody went and had a kid and we had to hide our fourth kid from the government so they wouldn't take him and kill him.  Because apparently I was living in communist China.  I don't know why they wouldn't go after Cody's baby, but either way, weird dream.

Off the grid
So I have been phoneless for about two days now.  I actually don't mind not being able to talk to anyone on the phone, because you know I hate that.   But I do miss the easy accessibility of my facebook, twitter, and internet.  Also my pedometer app, and my pandora app.


Sons of Anarchy
Love this show, and last night it made me so mad, and I realize it's because it is great story writing.  But come ON, can we have one couple that doesn't cheat on TV please?  There are people in the real world in everyday life who don't cheat on each other.  Not just in Nicholas Sparks novels.  I've recently been following the creator on his blog and twitter, Kurt Sutter, so I'm officially obsessed with the show.  Plus his twitter is hilarious.

Better get to it!
Well Evie needs some lunch now, and a lot of attention.  She is all into everything today!  I hope you all have a great day!!

Love (SOA),
Carrie

Nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content.

Me?  A Mentor?
Guess what world?  I'm a mentor.  Nurse Carol asked me to mentor a young mom on breastfeeding.  I guess she is having some trouble and Carol feels like the girl would be more receptive to taking advice from someone her own age.  Apparently she is college educated like I am and just had a baby.  I don't know much more, I'm waiting for her to get into contact with me via email.  I hope I'm helpful!!

WHY?!?!?  !HY?!
The Carrieberry is dead.  Oddly enough I was headed into the Verizon store to get a camera pixel fixed and on my way there it just decided to give up and die.  By the time I got to the store all that was left of signs of life in my phone was a faint blinking red light.  Of course I tried the battery pull and when I got to the store THEY tried the battery pull, which apparently is the universal fix all for smart phones.  It reminds me of when Nintendo first came out and if your screen went all screwy you had to pull the game out and blow on it and then restart the game.  And for some reason Verizon things this is some fix all secret that no one knows but them, so they do it all cocky like while you tell them vehemently that YES YOU ALREADY FUCKING TRIED THAT.
So they told me it was dead.  And I told them I had a warranty.  So here is something you may not know.  Verizon has these local owned boutique stores called Verizon Z Premium retailer stores.  They are locally owned and deal the exact same product.  Normally I would shy away from crap like that just because it feels like the Walmart brand of cell phone stores, and you know when shit hits the fan and you have to deal with corporate, they will be all snotty about you going to the Z store.  But here is where things are different in my world.  In the Z stores, I actually get more help, more answers, awesome customer service, and I usually leave (though it is usually hours later) with a solution to my problem.  Twice now this has happened.  Frequent blog readers will remember when I was pregnant and we had to get our cell phone numbers changed.  Even though it took forever and we had to deal with corporate, the people at the Z stores sat thru the call and helped us get to the right people and say the right things to get our number changed.  Yesterday was no different.  They even called the store we originally went to and got our policy number and everything we needed to get the phone replaced. 
The bad news is that I have no phone until Thursday.  Hells Bells.  I feel completely disconnected from my life.  I MAY have cried about it last night.

Starving
Okay I'm about to eat my own hand and my lap is all hot from having Nero the netbook on me all the time while I facebook stalk.  I mean, look up really important things on the internets.  Talk to you later!

Love (my phone),
Carrie

We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.

Hi blog world!
I hope you aren't too mad at me about my self imposed censorship.  I did it for my daughter and my sanity.  Politics are not very nice.  It's like government sanctioned and protected bullying.  I realize people need to know the truth, but it should stay in the political arena and not stretch to a person's family or their personal beliefs, if I joke about wanting to quit motherhood on my blog because its been a hard day and I'm frustrated and using my blog as a outlet, it shouldn't come back that I'm a terrible mother who would easily abandon my child at the drop of a hat.  That is just not right at all.  My Mom isn't running a dirty smear campaign and it sickens me that they have resorted to this.  And I'm sorry you dear readers, have to suffer too.  Bare with us, its only like 22 more days. (That is a guess, evil reader minions of my Mom's opponent, it does not mean that I don't care about the campaign or I don't even know what day election day is because I don't know anything about the constitution because I went to DOD schools, it is a guess because I have a seven month old sleeping on my lap and I have approximately 15 minutes to write on my blog before she wakes up and we go on a walk, so I didn't have time to count the exact number of days.)

Anyhoo, on to more light hearted topics.

Vacation, all I ever wanted
It sounds like our vacation is canceled.  Seth is really upset, his group isn't going to the conference in Orlando anymore.  I'm back and forth with my feelings.  I WAS really upset last night because, as readers who have seen the archives know, I LOVE space.  I dream of the day space is like a tourist trip where we can go and maybe I can live on the moon.  Because Lord knows I'm not getting there with my math smarts.  Oh sorry, detour, anyway I checked to see if we could visit the Kennedy Space Center while we were in Orlando because we missed it last time we were there for our trip to Disney World.  I found out, for the second time in my life, I would be in Orlando for a space shuttle launch and would not be able to attend.  WOE IS ME.  If I got to attend something like that, it might be the third most awesome thing to happen to me in my life.  It would be one of those things that Seth suffers thru, bored to death because he thinks the space program is wasteful and that there has to be a better way, a way using renewable energy sources to launch something into space.  So he spends most of the time thinking of ways to fix the space program and I spend the time oohing and awwing like he would if we were at the secret IBM lab or something.  Anyway I found out that tickets were already sold out.  *pouts*  Even worse is there is like four more space shuttle launches left before they retire the shuttles.  So one of my bucket list items will never be achieved.  BAH!


Things I'm working on for my return
I'm going to do a blog staple 101 in 1001 list, suggested by our friend jeni friend over at www.jenifriendphotography.com
I'm going to try to post a weekly picture of Evelynn and her family
I'm going to try to blog a little more about the cats, I know you miss them
I'm going to try a weekly review of a tv show



She's awake! 
Off to do flash cards, or if you are seven months old, eat some flash cards.  Hope you all are having a great day!!!

Love (space),
Carrie

Don't worry readers!

Due to my mother's political campaign turning grossly negative, I have had to suspend the archive portion of my blog. 
I'll continue to blog and post pictures of our vacation and such, I just don't want these vultures to twist anything I write and use it against my Mom, as they have already proven they have no morals and will boldly lie and manipulate facts for their use.  I  can't even imagine  the Momma Bear mode I'd have to go into if they attacked my daughter.
Once the campaign is over in November, I'll be back to full force public!!!


Thanks for the support and for reading!

Love (my momma),
Carrie

2 Vie For Spot Vacated By Sen. Tim Gay - Politics News Story - KETV Omaha

It's my Mom!!!! Yay! Teresa Whitehead for Legislature!

2 Vie For Spot Vacated By Sen. Tim Gay - Politics News Story - KETV Omaha

The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.

Happy Hump Day. It feels particularly humpy today. I am seriously lacking motivation.

Its like a game, really
Evelynn is at that stage where she is actively crawling around and all over the place and into everything and she is putting EVERYTHING she finds into her mouth. Cat toys, fuzz, crumbs, shit off shoes, shoes, slippers, cat body parts, her own spit up, the list goes on and on. And its gross. And not only does it make me feel like a horrible mom, it makes me feel like a horrible housekeeper. As we speak she is playing in the cat toy bin. Just trying to find the grossest grodiest cat toy imaginable to put in her mouth.

I give up
Here are pictures of my kid. Enjoy.




Space bags rule











Love (Toots and Doots),
Carrie

Equations are the devil's sentences.

Hi blogworld! Evie is busying herself with making music on her fisher price table and alternately trying to lick a cat. So I have a minute.

Evie's a chunk!
Okay not so much, she actually only weighs 14 pounds. Which was a little bit of a disappointment because Nurse Carol comes every other week now and I thought she would make more of an improvement on her weight but she is just too busy I guess. She has had some problems pooping, she is all stopped up so I have to go and get her prune juice or something.


As promised my TV updates.
Sunday:
The Glades- Is over, and ended in the most irritating way, are they going to get together or not? UGH.
Mad Men-We haven't watched this week's, but I'm hoping Roger doesn't go anywhere but it seems like that is where they are heading
Sister Wives- Man I'm stuck, I want to watch constantly! And I'm constantly judging.

Monday:
Chuck- It was a good episode last week, I like the new Buy More. Its has been consistently well done. We need more Casey and Grimes though!
The Event (new)- Three strikes you are out. Deleted.
Mike and Molly (new)- Still hilarious, this is a keeper, I hope CBS thinks so too. I love seeing Sookie every week and featured in her own show.
Castle- I haven't watched this week's episode yet, but I am just sure it is going to be awesome as usual.


Tuesday:
Glee- I still enjoy the show, but feel it is stalling out. I hope it picks up a storyline soon. Like tonite soon.
Raising Hope (new)- Three and your out. I tried, I just couldn't click with it.
Life Unexpected - Last week's episode was a bit better, but come on, did they fire a writer from last season when it was better?
Parenthood - LOVE IT. This last week's episode was kind of so so, but still good.
Sons of Anarchy- HOLY CRAP, I just want to know what is going on and there is no spoilers out there! ARGGGG I can't wait week to week.
Teen Mom (don't you judge me.)- Um, please tell me Amber is being investigated for that beating she dealt her baby daddy. Should she really be allowed to take self defense classes?

Wednesday:
Undercovers (new)- I gave up. Sorry. It wasn't clicking for me.
Criminal Minds - I cried thru all of JJ's "goodbye" episode. Now I have ranted about them dumping her, but that being said, they did a nice job and left the door open for her in the future.
Law and Order SVU- As always, going good.
The Whole Truth- Still loving it
Law and Order LOLA- (new) I'm actually really enjoying this, and Skeet Ulrich is really good, even though i would love it better if he was still in Jericho
Top Chef Just Desserts - I'm afraid they are going to run out of ideas with a quickness
No Ordinary Family- (new) Eh. I just started it but I liked the first episode, I like Micheal Chiklas.

Thursday:
Big Bang Theory- Another good episode, my child laughs like Sheldon, so I get a kick out of the show even more now.
Bones- In the good, I'm not really liking Booth's girlfriend though, I'm not sure why
Destination Truth- still think they should dump the looking for a monster part of the story
Grey's Anatomy - Really enjoyed this episode, especially Christina's and Meredith's interaction. The end was the best part. But I hated how they played out Meredith's miscarriage.

Friday:
Ghost Adventures- Scariest episode ever. I had to stop watching. Twice.
Blue Bloods (new)- Loving it, it gets better with each episode, it maybe one of my new favorites.

What new show's are you all enjoying??

Love (falling in love with new shows),
Carrie

I hope that when I die, people say about me, 'Boy, that guy sure owed me a lot of money.'

Way-hey there world!
We had a lovely weekend with friends and family. Even though I can't say it's "back to the work week" since my job is 24/7 (Evelynn is screaming, clinging to my leg as we speak) it will always still feel like Monday is the start of a LONG journey.

Maybe she will be a hairdresser
Evelynn is currently obsessed with hair. Her own (which I can't decide what color it is, sometimes it looks dark brown, sometimes red, sometimes reddish blond), her father's (which apparently doesn't taste very good at all), and mine. Mine is the worse. She pulls it all the time and it takes everything in me not to have that gut reaction to elbow her in the face when she does it. It is awful. I would cut all my hair off if I wasn't afraid I would look exactly like my mom.

Book news
I just got in the mail Ken Follett's new book "Fall of Giants". It's like a billion pages long. I'm so excited. I can't wait to start it. Of course I need someone to be calm and/or take a nap to do that. But I swear she will be dead asleep and hear me turn the page and shoot up as if to say "What are yo doing? Is it fun? Can I do it?" and then she finds out its not something she can shove in her mouth or squish to death in her pincher like grasp and then the whining cry starts. So hopefully I can start that soon and be reading that forever, because Ken Follett books take a lot of concentration to read and this one is HUGE!

Seven Months
Evelynn has been on this earth seven months as of Sunday. I can't believe how much she has changed since when she was born, and how much more changing she has to do yet. She already likes or dislikes things then when she was born. For example, she used to HATE having a bath, now she loves it. She hated her stroller, loves it now. She used to love just laying and cuddling, and now it is just torture. She used to not mind getting her pants changed at all, and now it is equivalent to being held down by the man. She honestly gets smarter and has more personality everyday, its unreal. We have some friends having a baby and trying to have a baby right now and I just want to call them up everyday and say, IT IS SO WORTH IT. Even on the days it is a little more challenging than most.

TV
I have had grand plans to review my second week of TV viewing sometime this week. I wanted to do it today but someone is requesting that I take a nap with them. And Momma never misses a nap!

Love (growing up, but not too fast),
Carrie

Making Bread. A post by Evelynn

HIIII! Or as I like to say- HEEEYYYYYY!

Evelynn here.
So you want to make bread? Well here is what you will need:
One cute baby sidekick


Oh and that kitchen aid thingy, but most importantly a cute baby sidekick


Next you follow this recipe... http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/the-bread-in-his-words/
Then you cover it with plastic wrap, Mom can I touch that? Can I? Can I?


Oh you will need a dutch oven or a pan with a lid. This is actually Mommy's roaster.



Next you wait for the bread to rise. I suggest catching a nap with Daddy and Willow.


Then you bake it and if you are lucky, it comes out looking like this!



Way to go MOMMY!!!


Then you eat it. That is the best part. Trust me.




Would this face lie to you?

No. Neither would this one.


This one might...


Thanks for visiting my Mommy's blog! Please come again!

Love (Bread making),
Evelynn Ann

PS
Please remember to vote for my Nanna, Teresa Whitehead, this November!

There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.

Yeah, there is a reason you have openings
Right by where I turn to leave our neighborhood and get on one of the main thoroughfare streets there is the world's scariest daycare in someone's house. The grass is all overgrown and there are nightmare induced lawn ornaments and gnomes. The house is all raggedy looking and stuck randomly throughout the yard are hand made signs, that look suspiciously like real estate signs that hell's minions absconded with and put poster paper over and used finger paint to make. It really makes me uncomfortable. I really want to march up there and check it out for child services and ask to see their license. Today there was a new sign that said "Lot's of openings!!" and even I knew that grammar was wrong. It took everything in me not to pull in the driveway and knock on the door and say "REALLY? Really."

Bread...attempt 1
So I'm going to attempt to make THIS bread. I don't have a dutch oven though, so I'm going to try and use the way he suggested in the comment section if you don't have one. Hopefully it will be super easy and I will be able to use the recipe without purchasing a fifty dollar dutch oven because that is what they are running. Seth wouldn't let me get one last night at Walmart. I would say that I might put it on my birthday list, but I think I'm going to try and get Lady Gaga tickets for my birthday. They go onsale Thursday, she is coming to Omaha in March. Anywhoo, I have my trusty assistant in her bumbo and my kitchen aid, so it may not go badly at all.

College football
I don't like college football as much as I like pro, but Seth pointed out that we hadn't seen a lot of our friends in a very long time, mostly because he has been working like a mad man. So I'm throwing together a little Chili/Soup/Bread party for people to come watch. Hopefully my bread turns out!!

Love (to think out loud),
Carrie

I despise the pleasure of pleasing people that I despise.

Well lookie here, it's TUESDAY. I have to say things like that because generally these days I can't remember what day of the week it is without looking. It's not as awesome as you think.

I don't remember agreeing to S&M in this marriage

Seth forced me to go to the dentist today. Because he's mean and evil and enjoys seeing me rethink giving up my anxiety medicine.
He's been going to the dentist regularly for years now. I finally found out why. His dentist office is full of hot women! Not including the actual dentist, who had a mustache and bad roots. So you would think I would make an ass out of myself at the dentist office like I do the doctors office when I get nervous. I probably would if they didn't have shit in my mouth constantly and were picking at my teeth. Mostly I just lay there and exude an uncomfortable silence while making mental conversation with myself. Here is a sample of what I could say if I had a mind reader for a dentist:

Oh boy a total mouth x-ray, these things freak me out. Oh look a handy little mirror to stare at while I get radiation. Holy shit I look rough today. So glad I didn't put make up on or anything, it would be like walking on silts on Amazon Woman island since all these women are so pretty. Did she just say shut my eyes? Why the fuck would you put a little mirror here if you want me to shut my eyes? Fuck, fine. *shuts eyes* Will I go blind if I open my eyes? I should have asked...I feel so vulnerable with my mouth on this stupid stick. *machine slowly goes around my head and starts to ram into my shoulder.* Fuck! Fuck! Am I not supposed to move?!?!? She didn't say anything about not moving but I'm assuming...SHIT. *moves to the side* God I hope she doesn't yell at me, but what the fuck? How about you put the machine in the right position there night school?

More x-ray's in the chair. Really? You didn't get everything over there in x-ray land? These chairs are suspiciously comfy...this is a nice new office. Where are the TV's? The dentist office I went to three years ago had flat screens. Way to be behind the ball. I guess we are spending too much money on hair supplies. What is with this music? It's like classic rock but all acoustical. Is this supposed to relax me? Well it does the opposite, it makes me hate you for trying to pseduo relax me with the unplugged set. Now if you had acoustic gansta rap that would be better because then I could still identify with the angry lyrics but mellow out with the acoustic.

Oh thanks for the "anitbacterial mouth wash" to start out with. You can just call it scope, because that is what it is. Scope.

Okay let me get this straight, you are going to clean my teeth and then a hygienist is going to come in and count and check my teeth, and then the dentist will come in and do what? A dance? What is she shooting up in back? Or what? You realize this is a fucking racket, right? You guys are doing all the work and she's in back fucking taking a nap. Whatever. I guess if you are okay with it. But remember, she gets paid WAYYY more than you to pop in and go "Good job on the tooth cleaning!"

How am I doing? Oh good, I'm thinking of painful ways to pay my husband back for this, its going to be at least a week of head drilling dirty looks in his direction.

Yes my kid is small, sorry you had ginormous kids and a flappy cooter. Don't be jealous.

I hate the part where you stick the sucker in my mouth and I have to close. I feel dirty for some reason.

Oh gross the flossing part. Here is the part where all the blood starts. Oh great and now my mouth tastes like a garbage can, or that time I got my wisdom teeth pulled and a week later went back and they "flushed" the cavities and there was all this old decaying food and it was the reason my mouth smelled like ass, but it tasted even worse and I vomited. I could vomit right now. Okay I need to floss. On my way home I'll stop and get those individual flossers. This could be why my breath smells in the morning. Ugh-water and suction thingy please! Also, please check your pluck job on the eyebrows on your next break, you have more than a few errant hairs.

Oh boy next beautiful lady! *mocks* Oh hiiiii! Seth, what a beautiful baby! Meh meh meh. I'm pretty. I'm pretty sure I can reach that stabby looking thing from here and put it in her eye.

I wonder if those mouth covers come scented.

Please don't find any cavities, please don't find any cavities.

Phew.

Hey lady, what is with the shoddy suctioning? Why aren't you telling me to close my mouth? Am I just supposed to swallow this shit I have in the back of my throat? Fine, then. I will.

Yes I would love some chapstick. FUCCCKCKKCKCKCKCKCKCK what is that? Pure alcohol? It's burning my lips and my EYES! Is it menthol? Are you sure that isn't a tub of vicks vapor rub?

Did she just turn the overhead light off by waving her hand in front of it? I HAVE to try that when she leaves the room. But first... *Shoots Seth a dirty look over shoulder and ignores his gentle reassurances* Holy shit! It does activate by handwaving! It's like the sinks in the bathroom-only it works! Crap someones coming! *waves hand frantically* Shit it's still on! Maybe no one will notice.

Oh boy! Here comes the dentist! HOLY SHITBALLS. Is that a mustache? What is she like 100? MY GOD. I'm almost thankful you didn't do all that other stuff the other ladies did. Oh my God, oh my God, she's coming closer to my face! *snickers* she just tried to turn the light on only it was already on and she made angry eyes.

Then it was over. The end. After not going to the dentist for three years and never flossing I had no cavities but was told to be more gentle with my gums on the incisors because I was starting to lose gum or something or other, I wasn't listening. I fucking hate the dentist.

Motherhood-a mantra.

Last night I was in the shower, and we had just replaced the light above the shower (many thanks to my Dad and his good friend George for installing it for me, it really makes a difference) so the light was super bright. As I was washing I looked down and realized the "bruise" I had noticed on my boob and had been telling myself must be a pretty bad one because it had been there a while was actually a stretch mark. A FUCKING STRETCH MARK. Now I know I shouldn't complain because I didn't get any on my stomach (which I totally owe to a regimen of Avon face lotion (nighttime), vitamin E drops, cocoa butter lotion, and belly butter twice daily). I sobbed quietly in the shower and then wrote myself this mantra/poem in my head:

Motherhood
I wear the scars both outside and in
my beautiful child who is without sin
The worst thing I have done to my body
The best thing I have done to my soul
I'll bear the wounds until I am old
But I'll memorize the smiles, the shape of her face
I will only begrudge her when I feel out of shape
Motherhood
Has changed so much of me
I am whole because of she

So I was repeating this in the shower over and over, silently sobbing and stroking my stretch mark, when I hear this high pitched squeal. I jumped about a thousand feet and probably peed a little since bladder control is another adverse effect of motherhood. But thankfully I was in the shower and didn't notice one way or the other. See Seth thinks its funny, when I am in the bathroom having my private, mommy-freedom time, to randomly sneak up on me or push the door open and pretend it was Evelynn. Because he's bored and doesn't really know how to entertain Evelynn for more than five minutes, or maybe because he misses me. I don't know. Sometimes it's cute and I can't help but laugh and sometimes it's so GD annoying that it takes everything in me not to slam the door in his face and rip him a new one. It depends on how hard of a day it was for me.
SO here I am in the shower, to all unknowingly appearances inappropriately touching myself and crying and Seth and the baby sneak up on me and scare my half to death.

MOTHERHOOD.

Good idea, bad execution
So all my sun tea jars leak and it pisses me off. Lately I have been downing decaf sun tea like its going out of style. (I guess really it is...). Recently Evelynn has acquired a taste for giant pickles, so I got her a jar at Sam's. After they were gone I washed the jar, threw my sun tea jars in the recycle bin, and used it to make my next batch of sun tea.
I have just tried said batch of sun tea. It taste like pickles.
FAIL.

Speaking of the recycle bin

I am either the worst or the best recycler EVER. See I don't really pay attention to all those stupid rules they sent me, printed on the side of the can, and emailed me. I don't wash the cans, I don't fold the paper, I don't break down the boxes. Fuck I'm lucky if half of it even qualifies as recycle. (Like the sun tea jars) We pay them to take it away now (Seriously, really?) and they give us meager points for recycling and advertise that we can buy all sorts of gift cards and cool rewards with our points. Except a 25 dollar gift card costs about 10000 points and we make 50 points a week. Maybe. If Cody has been here and drank a couple cases of glass bottles of beer. So no, I'm not going to wash anything or break anything down, or take the lids off my pop bottles or sour cream containers. What the fuck am I paying you for? To NOT do your job? How about I just don't do it and you have something to do for that 5 bucks or whatever it is a month you are charging me, what you used to do for FREE.

Nap time!
Okay fine friends! Evelynn has finally gone down for her long nap and I'm going to join her...because I can...MOTHERHOOD!

Love (motherhood),
Carrie

To be great is to be misunderstood.

Happy Monday world!

Why aren't you my facebook friend?
I wonder how many people have hidden me from their news updates on Facebook. See I suffer from chronic facebook status updating. If you were my friend, here is what you missed this weekend from me on Facebook:

Seth is on his way home and we are excited!
giving our Birdie a bath after ice cream!
oh Castle I missed you!
watching Sesame Street with Evie. What the hell happened to Sesame Street? Burt and Ernie are creepy claymation, Cookie Monster eats veggies now and he's a cartoon, and there are new puppets that are just annoying. And I'm pretty sure they just said we were going to Abby's flying fairy school...which sounds like a club for men who like glitter.
errands done, Seth is home whining about wanting to go to the nighthawks game tonite.
making soups!
Dear Kitchen-aid mixer, you never cease to amaze me. You just julienne four bags of carrots in under a minute for my panara inspired broccoli cheddar soup. I love you. Please don't ever leave me.
so Willow likes to eat Evelynn's foam letters. Seth just caught her eating one and because we were watching Sesame Street this morning he goes "Willow, this ass kicking will be brought to you by, THE LETTER Y!!!" I almost died laughing.
Evelynn has entered the stage where she comprehend when I tell her no or to stop and she does NOT like to listen one bit.
little Sons of Anarchy before bed? Why yes please, give me some motorcycle man meat dreams. Thankyouverymuch.
football and errands and dinner with my parents! Sounds like a good Saturday!
Hellbusch conversations: Seth- Carrie for the last time they are called uniforms not outfits. Carrie: Whatever point is you aren't supposed to wear white after labor day and those pants that look like they have a giant pantyliner are a huge faux pas. Seth: *deep sigh*
making some ricotta! All the supplies were on sale so I took it as a sign I should make some.
just saw the hillybilly neighbors all decked out in bridesmaid and groomsmen gear carrying sleeping bags and camping gear and coolers into a car. Creepirs. In their defense the dresses were beautiful and the sleeping bags looked uber fancy and new.
dear Arkansas, your outfits are cute. I especially like the shorts. Love, Carrie
off to buy new running shoes...blah, I think Seth is only agreeing to it because he knows I will feel guilty for spending that much money and then never using them.
I am so sore from working out last night. I'm not sure why it is catching up with me now.
finally getting to soak these sore muscles! Tomorrow I try my new Reebok "Ree-toners". Hopefully I will magically get a butt like the ladies on TV.
woke up to a singing Birdie. Seth woke up to Birdie puke in his ear. Guess that will teach him to pretend to be asleep when she is sleeping.
Hellbusch Conversations- Me: What I'm wearing today is a indicator of my commitment to this day. Seth: You are wearing your pajamas. Me: Exactly.
Hellbusch Conversations- Seth: Why are we watching the Giants game? Me: Because I want to see if that guy throws his hat again. Seth: What?...Carrie for the last time its called a helmet, not a hat. Me: Does he wear it on his head? Then it can be a hat too.
taking the shoes for a test run.
I need a nap before TV tonite...Sister Wives starts on TLC! I'm obsessed with polygamy. also Mad Men and The Glades. Oh and Seth's disgusting cartoon Metalocalypse.
thinking Evie has an excessive amount of snot. Also thinking now is a prime time to make Seth hold her.

Pictures I posted to facebook this weekend...
\

I hate this picture of myself, but Evie is impossibly cute in it, so I guess it can stay.
When she isn't screaming, this is how my kid looks in her carseat. We like to think she is giving Carlos the singing bee the stink eye. She is probably really just throwing us that look in her baby mirror.

Stinky Baby
Every since we have been feeding Evelynn real food, she has begun to stink. She has the WORST smelling vomit, which makes her breath smell horrendous, and her butt smell even worse. I used to think that her Diaper Genie was the most magical expensive trashcan in the world. Now I just know she didn't stink all that bad before. Even her pee stinks. Blech. We had broccoli cheddar soup for lunch and it was so bad I'm thinking of a Mommy and Baby afternoon shower. I'm also sad because she threw up all over the really cute outfit I put her in.

Wadda you doing?
We really don't have much going on this week since Seth starts school tonite. Yuck. But he is on the downward slope of school so that helps.

Sister Wives
OH MY GOD THIS SHOW. I love it. I love polygamy, or at least goose necking it. I have so many wildly inappropiate questions. Some of them get answered in this show. You can feel the hostility towards the other wives and husbands. I can't wait to watch more!!!

Alright
Better get cracking.

Love (Sister Wives),
Carrie

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.

New Fall season review
Okay so here is what I thought of my TV watching this week...because I know you care...
Sunday:
The Glades- Would they finally let the two main actors come together, I hate all the give and take and waiting for them to get it together, trust me a show will not die because you actually do what you have been building up to. You die because you don't, look at Gilmore Girls.
Mad Men- I have no idea what is going on. At all. It's getting too arty for me and I hate Betty. Am I supposed to hate Betty?? I liked it better when I was just scared of Sally and was hoping Betty would start having an addiction to pain killers or start taking "diet pills" which were really doctor prescribed meth.

Monday:
Chuck- Very good comeback. I was enthralled the entire show. PS they just signed Summer Glau (Firefly nerds, which this household is enthusiastically-rejoice!!!(
The Event (new)- Ehhhh, it officially has one strike, even if it does have Luke from the Gilmore Girls. I wasn't ever really into Lost, I don't like not knowing what is going on half the time and this show felt like a poor man's Lost, plus it has Luke from Gilmore Girls, but he plays a scary pilot trying to kill a bunch of people. And his hair looks painted on.
Mike and Molly (new)- LOVED IT. Seth actually watched it too and we were laughing so hard. We realized why at the end of the show, the guy who created it is the same guy who does Big Bang Theory. Seth says it is as if Family Guy came to life and I think its a King of Queens with a less annoying female lead. Plus it has a Pushing Daisies alum (the mother) who I love. I could live without the sister. The cop partner is hilarious though.
Castle- Could this show get any better? Nathan Fillion you are my favorite guy on TV. Amen.
Pawn Stars- Seth wants me to tell you they filmed this in Vegas when he was there because Bob Dylan was playing at his hotel.

Tuesday:
Glee- Cute concept in the beginning with the summer recap, but then what the hell happened to my show? On a different note, WHEEE Cheyenne Jackson! My first ever Broadway play I saw on Broadway was "All Shook Up" staring him and I have been in love since. In fact he was one of the first people I knew that had a blog.
Raising Hope (new)- Ugh. This was so bad I gave it two strikes.
Life Unexpected - More weird annoying decisions from Lux, but still a pretty good start to the season. I'm sad Bug is gone though, he was nice to look at.
Parenthood - Just when I thought that this show could not get anymore awesome, Clayu has a line like "I don't recognize your bullshit MC" and I am talking about it all week.
Sons of Anarchy- More great lines and the storyline is moving at a good pace. The thing I really like about this show is the characters react to situations realistically and well within what you expect from their characters. For example, just because Jax is mad at his Old Lady doesn't mean he goes off and bones someone just for a storyline twist, he's loyal, its a hallmark of his character (I'M LOOKING AT YOU GREY'S!)
Teen Mom (don't you judge me.)- Amber and Catelynn get on my nerves so much I sometimes fast forward thru their segments.

Wednesday:
Undercovers (new)- Eh. One strike. I'm not connecting with the characters at all.
Criminal Minds - Another example of shows going off the hinges and out of character for storyline twists. Writers we like the characters just the way they are. People have been killed in front of Morgan before and he didn't go all Robocop like he did this episode. What the hootenanny?
Law and Order SVU- Well done, I liked the carry thru of the characters between the two hours.
The Whole Truth- Loved this, even if it does have leads from two of my favorite canceled shows, Abby from ER and Epps from Numb3ers. I really liked that they showed you what the truth was at the end, I just thought they would show both sides.
Top Chef Just Desserts - Eh...some of the Chefs are getting annoying and the challenges are starting to stretch it.
Top Chef - Best news ever! There is going to be an all stars episode in December and it has a lot of my favorite chefs!

Thursday:
Big Bang Theory- Great episode. Way to come back strong and in a new time slot! I like the Penny/Sheldon interaction. That being said the B line story blew. Really? Robot masturbation? Who called it as soon as they say the robot hand?
Bones- I like the way they brought back the team together and didn't make a big deal about Angela and Hodges being pregnant. I hope they keep it that way
Destination Truth- I wish they would focus more on the paranormal and creatures that actually have a chance of existing. I mean as soon as they said they were going to Africa to look for a long lost cat man eater I was like "Didn't Val Kilmer do this and die?"
Grey's Anatomy - Parts of this episode I liked, others...not so much. I like that Avery is becoming part of the inner circle. But a lot of what is going on is out of core character. I mean I know trauma does crazy things, but really...some of it just doesn't feel right. Like Izzie not calling or even coming back. And Bailey pushing away the hot guy from Eli Stone (Eli Stone...sniff, I miss that show.)
Ghost Adventures- Okay here are the parts that scared me: Zak's uber pointy hair, the random old lady scream, the giant picture, Zak's strange muscles on his forearm, Aaron in the Christmas room. That is all.
Blue Bloods (new)- I haven't watch this yet, but my parents have (holy crap! I never get beat by them unless I'm not watching the show) and they said it was good. It has Donnie from NKOTB in it so how can it not be? I'll follow up later this week when I know more.

Seth thinks he can dance
So Seth was in Chicago changing planes this last trip and he saw a choreographer from SYTYCD. Sonja! He told her we "appreciated" her work. Which is exactly what my husband would say. I'm glad I wasn't there or else I would have been so nervous I would have told her I saw her vagina once when she did the air splits which is why I have never even attempted air splits, mostly because I can't and partly because of the whole vagina expose that could happen.

Our little cuddle monster
Evie is getting cuter by the millisecond. She has spent most of this weekend singing us songs, dancing for us, barreling back in forth on the couch in between Seth and I while we watch TV and football. Snuggling in the duvet, crawling so fast we can't keep up with her, throwing her hands in the air during the FloRida song "Club can't even handle me" and Taio Cruz "Dynomite", flirting with random people in stores, getting some of the cutest clothes at baby gap, and modeling her pj's for us all. It's hard NOT to love her, even when she is putting a cat tail in her mouth.

Lovely dinner
We had dinner with my parents tonite to celebrate our anniversary with them. The food was really good and Evie was a doll. Then they came back to the house and played with her for a little while. Mom brought her some used library books she got on sale (which makes me feel less guilty when she eats or tears them. Then Mom read to her while she sang a song and she played her piano for Dad. She got super active and then had a hard time going to bed so it's one now and she snoozing with Seth. Seth is just happy to be in bed and I'm happy to take a nice long bath and read my book "Saturnalia" which I haven't decided what it is about, besides a mystery novel set in Roman times.

I would walk 1000 miles...
Tonite I spent 99 dollars on new shoes. I can't even comprehend that, mostly because they aren't the coveted pair of Ugg (or Ugg knock off) in the darker caramel brown color that I have been dreaming of wearing all winter (I've decided to embrace comfort full bore and hope to have knock off knee high Ugg's in tan, black, and caramel for this winter-ha, fat chance I know right? I'm going to have to get a hooking job to get all of those!) But I got a new pair of walking/fitness shoes, those retones by reebok. So we will see how those work out. Pam told me some of the people she worked with had them and they hurt their ankles. I was going to get a knock off pair at Payless but I figured that's not really something you should tempt. Seth agreed and we picked them up today along with his other two suits and more baby gap clothes for Evie, including an impossibly cute baret/shrug knit hat. I'll have to take a picture when it's clean.

Time to soak the soreness
I'm off to the tub to read! Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Love (Warm fuzzy boots in the winter),
Carr

Being a woman is a terribly difficult task since it consists principally in dealing with men.

Happy Hump Day all! I had a really nice day, well late afternoon really. Evelynn's Grandma Busch came down and we visited and played. I gave her some recipes I cut out for her and we talked about various things we tried and wanted to try. Then we went out to Five Guys with Uncle Chet and had a good laugh at Evelynn eating french fries (or I guess I should say ketchup with french fries since the ketchup was all she really cared about-something I learned she gets from her Dad) and lemons (because I'm mean) and puffs. Then Janet called me when she got home and told me that I was really a great Mom and she is just so proud of how Evelynn has advanced and she can tell I'm doing a great job. Which made me all warm and squishy inside, because not only is it awesome to hear that stuff, it's even more awesome to hear it from your mother-in-law.

Evelynn's first taste of meat
As many of you seasoned blog readers know, I'm a vegetarian by choice, going on almost 20 years now. I have no qualms or anything against meat eaters, and if our kids choose one way or the other, I certainly won't begrudge them. For some reason people constantly ask me if I'm going to give Evelynn meat. And the answer is yes, I plan to let her have it and if she likes it she can eat it and if not she doesn't have to. I'm not going to be one of those clean your plate Mom's because Seth is INCAPABLE of not cleaning his plate and he swears it is what made him fat and let's face it America has a problem with portion control. ANYWAY so Evie was playing in the kitchen while I cleaned off her tray from snack time or as I like to call it: "Let's see how much fucking puff slime we can get in various places and on things that are hard to clean" It doesn't help that the cats think the puffs are cat treats and try to snatch them and make the mess worse. Anyway I got Evie clean and sat her on the floor and started to clean up her mess. Bagheera (the prince of the household) gets a can of the worse fishy smelling wet cat food a day because he loves it, he has anxiety issues, and he makes HORRIBLE noises if we don't give it to him. His food is served in the dining room on a mat, because he feels the need to make an even bigger mess to eat it. So I'm talking to Evie and I swear I turn my back for one second and somehow she has gone all the way around the outer walls of the kitchen and into Bagheera's cat food in less than 20 seconds. And she ate it. And I almost threw up for her. She smelled like cat food the rest of the day. Even after scrubbing and washing it down with juice. I wonder if this will affect her desire to eat meat? All I know for sure is that it is going in the baby book.

Anniversary gifts
For our anniversary we got a four inch memory foam mattress topper. I was pretty excited because we had been planning to get this thing for MONTHS since my best friend got one and said it changed her life. But the sale timing was never right and then Target stopped carrying the one I wanted and the biggest one around town I could find was 2.5 inches and that just seemed lame. Finally Walmart started to sell a reasonably priced 4 inch one. So I got that for our anniversary and Seth got ANOTHER Transformer (that brings his collection of giant honking Transformers to at least 15.) When we moved into the house I successfully negotiated the Transformers out of our bedroom (CREEPY) but I noticed the other day when my stacks of books started to deplete all of the sudden they started to be replaced by Transformers, in particular the airplane models. I decided then that I needed to go back to the bookstore and to tell Seth to get those damn things off my bookshelves and take them to work. Anyway we have a SUPER bed and now it is even greater because of the memory foam topper. Thanks honey! Now if I could just get the two cats, the baby, and the husband out of there it would be a PERFECT bed. That or just some good 50 degree weather for some duvet snuggling with the family.

Nighty Nighty
Alright friends, busy day tomorrow, lots to do. Not really but I would like to pretend that I'm going to bed and not going to stay up all night and watch "The Reader" since Seth refuses to watch it with me and is giving me crap about holding up the Netflix Que. I mean Prince of Persia and Robin Hood is out, what am I thinking?

Love (memory foam),
Carrie

PS I promise to leave the format of the blog alone for at least a week, but seriously, how funny are the new pictures? And I have to change the background because sometimes you can't read the font very well when I caption the pictures.

How do I love thee?

I was bored and I thought I'd tell give you a survey about Seth and I, in honor of our anniversary:

1. When is your “engagement” anniversary:
September 20th, 2007

2. When is your “marriage” anniversary:
September 20th, 2008

3. How long have you known your spouse:
Since May 2006

4. How long did you date/court before you were engaged:
A little over a year

5. Where did you meet your spouse for the first time?
At the house I was sharing with our good friends Pam and Jason, we threw a fake party just to have an excuse to invite him over. He got shitcanned and fell asleep on my futon and then spent the rest of the day in bed with me and my roommates watching Beetlejuice. He almost missed his intermural football game which I still think Cheeto hasn't forgiven me for.

6. What is your spouse’s full name:
Seth Albert Hellbusch

7. Do you have any children:
Evelynn Ann, 6 and some change months

8. How many – boys/girls:
One very stubborn smart little girl

9. Do you have any house pets:
Bagheera and Willow

10. Do you own a house or rent:
We own a home, and it sucks, I hate homeownership, mostly the fact that when shit breaks you have to fix it.

11. Do you live in the country or town/city:
City

12. What is one of your favorite activities together:
Eating, watching tv, and snuggling in bed

13. Do you have a favorite vacation spot:
The first vacation we took together was to Cancun and that was one of the best times of both our lives, but shortly here we are taking our first family vacation to Orlando

14. When did you first kiss?
I'm not allowed to tell that story, but I will definitely tell you that it was not the first time we met. Maybe. WINK.

15. What church do you attend?
We have attended two churches locally but nothing really stuck. Seth is home so little these days we like to spend our time together as a family. Maybe one day if we get it together we can go, I'd like to for Evelynn. I was a bible banger once upon a time. (Wait should bible be capitalized like God is capitalized?)

16. Is this the church you were married in:
One of them is, my parents church, St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Papillion


17. What town is your current address at: Omaha, Millard District

18. Do you work or stay at home:
Stay at home

19. Where did you go on your honeymoon:
Funny this question came up, because just yesterday I was telling Seth my biggest regret is that we didn't go on our all expenses paid honeymoon. He was busy working and I used up all my vacation for the wedding so we kept putting it off and never went. So that is my biggest regret. That and not having a destination wedding in Mexico.

20. What was the funniest gift you gave when dating?
I gave him this shirt that said "Its all fun and games until someone loses a nut" and it had a picture of a squirrel dropping his nut and I thought it was the funniest shirt ever. He finally put it in the vets bin after not even wearing it once and admitted to me that he hated it.

21. How long have you been together?
Since May 2006, you can do the math, I can't

22. How long did you know each other before you started dating?
He worked with my roommate

23. Who asked who out?
He asked me out, finally after making me wait three days, which is some insane rule he made up that he says all guys follow. But the truth is he broke his stupid rule by trying to text me but I don't get texts so I never got it.

24. How old are each of you?
Me? I couldn't tell you, I get mixed up about it, I stopped keeping track after 21. I think somewhere around 28 and Seth is a year younger than me so he would be 27, if I'm right about the 28.

25. Where do each of you go to school?
I went to Dana College which is bunked now (sad) and Seth went to UNL but on the UNO campus, he also played for UNO football team. I played team Mom to the Dana baseball team...

26. Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Learning to say no to our respective extended families, in extension to that, for me especially, learning that Seth and Evie are my primary family unit now. My family and I are VERY close, due to all the military moves and me not having many friends or normal experiences outside my family unit, so a lot of time I struggle with either including my parents and brother in a "family" activity or conversation or not including his extended family in the conversation/activity. Because in my head this is old school China and we all should be living on a family compound and its always expected that my family will show up for dinner or be included in family pictures.
The other hardest part is me learning how to be a stay at home Mom and Seth working WAY too much for being on salary!

27. Did you go to the same school?
Just the school of life. HAHAH. Yeah, I mean no.

28. Are you from the same home town?
That would require me to actually have a hometown, so no.

29. Who is smarter?
Depends on the subject, like Seth always says, I am the strength to his weakness and he is to mine. So if you need anything that involves numbers or computers, ask Seth. Anything on the other side of the brain, ask me.

30. Who is more sensitive?
The girl on the crazy pills, who is now off the pills, but is still crying randomly at mushy scenes in TV shows, especially those involving children. You can usual find me on Tuesday nights cradling my child sobbing watching "Parenthood"

31. Where do you eat out most as a couple?
We just love to eat out, when Seth can squeak the money or someone gives us a gift card or I have a coupon. I'm a giant foodie so I love trying new places and eating out. Then I love to go home and try and cook the things I eat.

32. Where is the farthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Chitchen-Itza Mexico. And it was hotter than hell, I almost died of heat stroke. My brother and his girlfriend got sunburns so bad I had to give them my clothes to cover their blisters, Seth got accosted Mexican gypsies who jumped out of bushes with backpacks and he "haggled" a lot of black onyx from them

33. Who has the craziest exes?
Me. Or at least I think so. Seth is actually on good terms with most of his. I on the other hand routinely scan the obituaries with my fingers crossed that I see their names and the words "drunk" and "choked on vomit" in the same column.

34. Who has the worse temper?
I've only seen Seth really mad maybe four times. So it would be me. In the words of Garth Brooks "She will rage just like a river and then beg you to forgive her." There is also a Dustin Kensue song that Seth says reminds him of me, and it's entitled "Pistol" if that tells you anything.

35. Who does the cooking?
Me but we do like to cook together, but since the baby, for major parties (where I inevitably overcook) we tag team a lot of stuff. I like making stuff for his work events because he never has work people come over to our house!! And I like to show them I'm actually doing something besides blogging and eating my way thru the fridge.

36. Who is more social?
Seth, he was the king of parties in college. I was the queen of hiding in my dorm room or going home on the weekend or being the person you called to come pick you up at the end of the party for a safe ride.

37. Who is the neat-freak?
Him, and it makes me feel bad because I'm a terrible housekeeper.

38. Who is more stubborn?
I used to say me, but then I met our daughter.

39. Who hogs the bed?
I do, but that is only because I have Evelynn on my side so I need more room. That and he has been traveling so much I have gotten used to spreading out.

40. Who wakes up earlier?
Neither one of us if we can help it. But usually I do, to feed the baby.

41. Where was your first date?
First real date? Biaggi's and it was fun until I demanded to pay and old school farm boy about had a freaking meltdown.

42. Who had more boyfriends/girlfriends?
Uhh....me?

43. Do you get flowers often?
Last time I got flowers was from Seth's work when Evie was born.

44. How do you spend the holidays?
We used to bounce between the two families, but I'm putting a stop to that since Evie is born and we want to start our own traditions and it will help me solidify "my" family.

45. Who is more jealous?
That would be me, the expert Internet stalker.

46. How long did it take to get serious?
About five seconds, I truly believe now in "When you know, you know"

47. Who eats more?
The fat girl who had to break back into her maternity pants and borrow clothes from her mother

48. Who does the laundry
Me although Seth will help switch the loads if asked

49. Who’s better with the computer?
The man who is passionate about them

50. Leave a piece of advice for the other couples.
In the words of Seth, be each other's strengths to your weaknesses.

Love (that guy I married),
Carrie