It's the end of the world as we know it, and i feel swine...

I feel it my duty as a blogger, to warn you of many of the evils of the world, such as SPAM, the Wiggles, and the Snuggie. Now we have a new evil that i feel i must discuss with all of you. It is the well known Swine Flu outbreak.

Why go to the World Health Organization webpage, when you can come here? Who are you going to trust, people with an MD after their name, or someone who plays peek-a-boo and patty cake all day?! The answer is obvious, my friends.

I recently read that they believe they found "Patient Zero" in Mexico, yet they are delaying closing the border. What is it going to take people?! We have a pandemic on our hands here!

For those of you who are worried about how to prevent the spread of this piggy flu, i am going to give you some helpful tips to pretect yourself and your family:

1) Wear a mask. Nothing like keeping panic to a minimum than by walking outside like you were just infected with SARS. Michael Jackson got the message. He'll be safe. He'll be our leader when this whole thing finally ends and there are only a few people left. Here are a few suggestions:





2) Invest in some stylish clothing options, to help keep the swine at bay. Here are some options for you:





3) Don't touch your mouth or face after touching doorknobs, public restroom faucets, money, or anything that has been on a VH1 Reality TV show. Not only will you contract Swine Flue, but there's a good chance you will also get Hep C and Herpes





4) Stay away from Mexico. Unless you happen to be named Heidi and Spencer, and are there on your honeymoon. In that case, i suggest you participate in a running of the pigs excursion. I'm sure you'll be fine!



5) And lastly, whatever you do, totally freak out and panic, because you WILL DIE!!

Thank you. Be safe, and good luck!

My first attempt...

So i managed to hunt down and buy the book that i've been looking for for a while now. It's called "Hello, Cupcake". It's a baking book, so no need to worry that the real Stacey has been abducted by aliens and replaced with a book loving pod. I've read reviews about this book, and i just thought it would be the perfect thing to help me on my way to becoming super mom. Yes, that's my ultimate goal, to become the world's most wonderful mom. I want to be that "cool" mom, the one who all her kids friends (and yes, even her OWN kids) wants to be around. The mom who has awesome crafts projects to do, the one who throws the best birthday parties ever, the one who makes the coolest foods and cakes! Well, this book is just one step on the way to all of that. So when i found it at Borders, i had to buy it. Of course, Frank is trying to take credit for the book, and saying that HE bought it for me for my birthday, and i just got it early. Ok, baby, whatever you say :)

So here's my first attempt at making something from that book. As my avid readers all know already, i'm baking cupcakes for the benefit for the little girl that got attacked by the dog. Well, i saw this as my perfect opportunity to test out my skills. At first, i wanted to make the cutest things, so i was going to make doggie cupcakes. Bad idea, especially for the benefit for the GIRL WHO GOT ATTACKED BY THE DOG!! Time to rethink my plan. So i decided to go with sunflowers. Now, they don't look as wonderful as the picture in the book does, buy HEY, it's my first try here people! I'll get better. And they taste good...(yes, i ate one...hehehe)




I give myself a B-...but not bad for a first try.

Snoozin like her mommy...

Last night when i layed Mady down for bed, i could totally see myself in her. Not the little cries because she wanted to stay awake just a little bit longer, and not the staring at the mobile and the pretty lights on the ceiling. But the part where she fell asleep. She was laying on her tummy, yes you read that right, i said her tummy. She had her arm up under her head, and her one leg bent...it's pretty much exactly how i sleep. It was so weird! Good thing though, i was beginning to wonder if she really was my baby...you know, since EVERYONE says she looks like Frank. It's true, i know, but it's nice to know she has at least some of my traits.

And what is with the weather?! We were just getting used to the nice warm temps, and all of a sudden it drops 20 degrees? What the heck! As you can tell, i'm ready for summer already. I'm also ready for school to be over so i can spend every minute i have with Mady, but that's a whole other story all together.

Tonight i'm baking cupcakes for the bake sale to benefit the little girl who got attacked by the dog in the Heights. I feel bad for her and her family, as she needs plastic surgery and stuff and they don't have a lot of money. But at the same time, i don't think that dog should be put down. Not to be mean or critical to that poor little girl right now, but who lets 2 9 year olds walk a Bull Mastiff?! That's a large dog, and unsupervised little girls can't handle it. And i'm sure those little girls did something to that dog to make it turn on them, though they'll never tell anyone that they did. A well mannered dog, like this dog's owner said this dog was, would not turn on someone for no reason. I just find it all a bit fishy, and i think that that poor dog is going to pay the price for no reason at all. It's all just very very sad if you ask me. There has to be a better way.

Splish Splash, was i taking a bath?

Yesterday was a gorgeous day outside. So nice, in fact, that i thought it would be appropriate to take Mady swimming. Well, we don't exactly have a pool just yet. We thought about that fact last weekend when it was so hot outside, and we did the next best thing for her, we bought her a kiddie pool...you know, the kind we all had as a kid, the kind that took hours to blow up but was so much fun. Well, this one is a whale, and it's tail is like a shade for her, and you can attach the garden hose to the side of it and water will spray from the "blow hole". It's really very cute. Well, by the time she ate breakfast and was ready, it would have taken forever to blow that pool up. Plus, she took an extra long afternoon nap. So what was the next next best thing for her?! Swimming in the bathtub. Yes, you read that right. We put on our bathing suits, i filled the tub with coolish, warmish water, and we went swimming in the tub. It was quite fun. Next, i'm going to buy her an inner tube floatie thing that she can sit in, and we'll fill the tub more and let her kick around. Oh the things we'll do to entertain our children. I can't wait until the river is open and we can take out the boat, and when school's over and i can take the baby swimming, in a real pool.

Here she is, with her first barrette in her hair. It barely stayed in, but it looked so cute!

Here she is enjoying her first summer day

It's like a heat wave...

Our weekend here was absolutely wonderful. Well, at least i think so, but i know Frank doesn't agree. He doesn't like the heat very much at all, but i absolutely love it. And this weekend was a great start to that heat wave i've been so craving for what seems like forever lately. It was in the upper 80s on friday and saturday, and in the 90s yesterday...and today and tomorrow seem to be promising as well.
Saturday, we took Mady to Knoebels. It was opening day, so it was a bit crowded, but not as bad as i thought it would be. We walked around and ate, and she seemed to have a good time looking at all the people and being outside. Then we went out to eat later, but it was just too nice to be inside at all.
Yesterday we went to Sam's club. I love Sam's club. They are a conglomerate genius! The deals there are completely amazing, it's no wonder i don't spend all my money there. But taking Frank along with us is a sure bet that we just MIGHT spend all our money there. I love him dearly, don't get me wrong, but he is like a giant walking kid when it comes to places like that. "Let's get this", "Can we have that", buy buy buy, spend spend spend. And you can't talk any sense into the man. He picks something up and sets his mind on it, and that's all there is to it. A good example, he picked up a bag of like 150 mozz sticks and says "Let's get them". Now, we do in fact eat mozz sticks, but only like once a month, and only like 6 at a time. What in the world would i want with a bag of 150?! He looks at the ginormous box of turkey burgers...we don't even EAT turkey burgers! He doesn't understand that just because it's a good deal, doesn't make it a good deal for US! We go there mainly for diapers and formula. It's such an amazing deal, you can't turn it up. It's 200+ diapers for the same price as 100 diapers at Wal Mart. The only bad thing is that they get random sizes in, so you have to catch them on the right week. This time we needed either size 2 or size 2-3, since our little peanut is only 14lbs, and they didn't have either of those sizes. We ended up buying size 3's, and we'll just buy a few packs of the 2's at WalMart to get us in between. We also bought a small case of the little swimmers diapers, so she can be ready for the pool and the boat. I'm so excited for summer!!
Then we went to Wal Mart last night for groceries. I am growing to hate WalMart. There are 25 or more check out lanes there, and the most i've ever seen open at one time was 5. That's right, 5. The lines are at least 6 people deep, and people have full carts (not just 10 items or less), so you are pretty much guaranteed a 15+min wait in line just to check out. And it's not like they don't have the man power to open anymore lanes. I see plenty of employees just standing around, talking, pretending to price check or something. Open a lane people! Most of us don't have forever here. And then you get the people that only have a few items, and you think you're going to go fast for once, but then they pull out coupons and ads from other stores and all kinds of other annoying things, and they end up taking longer than the people with the cart loads. There should be a line for people who want to price haggle more than 3 items. Seriously people, have that stuff ready when you get to the front of the line, you have plenty of time in line to do it. Argh! No pent up frustrations against WalMart THIS week, nope, not from me!

Picture updates...

Here is Frank pushing Mady on the swings

Here is Mady, out for a walk in her sunglasses

Here is Mady in her summer wear

Here is Mady, practicing her log rolling skills

And, in honor of Earth Week, here is Mady in her Earth Gear...she also wants me to pass along the message "Recycle, reuse, and Go Green, so i will have an earth to grow up with". Happy Earth Day everyone!

What's next...

So today was an eventful day, in a way. Mady ate her lunch a bit early today, so we had some extra time, so i thought it would be a good idea to take her to the bank with me so i could deposit some checks and put a few things in the safe deposit box. Well, when i went to pick her up, i caught a whif of something...yup, you guessed it, it was poop. No biggie, normally. So i went to change her, and when i unbuttoned the overalls she was wearing, it was not a normal poop. It was the mother of all poops! It was everywhere. Down her legs, up her back, everywhere. So i had to give her an emergency bath to get it all off. It was our first actual, major, huge blowout. So once i got her cleaned up and re-dressed, we still had enough time to get to the bank, so off we went. Well, on our way back out, i realized it was pouring! It wasn't letting up, so we had no other choice than to make a break for it. I put the shade up on the stroller, put her blanket over the rest of her, and off we went in a dead sprint for home. It was quite funny, i imagine, to see. Then, since all "wonderful" things come in 3's...i drive all the way out to work, only to find that all the games for today have been postponed again! And it was dry out, to top it all off. Seriously people, what a day.