James updated the OS on our server, and in so doing, accidently grabbed an old backup instead of a current backup.

All of my blog entries were lost. I started this thingee in Sept, and the backup was from Sept 6th.

So…. I have managed to grab quite a few from cached search engines, but am missing probably around 20. Also, with the server upgrade came wordpress upgrade, thus the default design.

I’m trying to get all my old posts entered in. then I’ll see about the layout.

james was very very upset when he told me what happened, and I told him it really is ok. I mean, what is this? Words? But the relief that came over me as I found more and more of these words was overwhelming, and the sadness at what I might be missing is growing on me.

Anyway. That is what is up. Oh, and I registered a domain. I’d be more excited about it, except for all the work that is ahead of me.

anyway. off to bed now.

I do wonder if there are people out in the world reading this space that I don’t actually know. Do I know you? Do you know me? I have been taking our gallery of photos and slowly uploading them into our flickr account, and this morning when I opened my email I was somewhat amazed to see that someone I’d never heard of had added me as a contact on flickr. Do they read this thingee here and saw the Christmas photos and then added me? Or were they just a flickr person who randomly found my photostream and thought it was neat and added me that way? I COULD just message them and ask but then I would be a dork. (I am a dork anyway, but this way, nobody knows but you, and me. Shhhh.)

So, speaking of photos, I’ve been glancing them over as I upload them, and I gotta say, DAMN are my kids cute. I mean really. They also look a lot alike. Sometimes when I’m out somewhere with Jocelyn, someone will tell me how she looks just like me. I seriously do not see it. However, when I/we are out with both of them, they NEVER say that, they always say (if a comment is made) that they look so much like EACH OTHER.

Here is one of Ethan that looks startlingly like Jocelyn, perhaps because he’s hair is getting all long and fuzzy:

Looking at pictures of Ethan when he was littler makes me so nostalgic. He was (and still is!) such a SWEET little boy. He still gets the same look on his face from when he was a baby.

I think overalls should be mandatory for toddlers. HEAR YE, HEAR YE! ALL’ST WHOTH POSSESSETH SMALL CHILDREN, GET THEE TO TARGET TO PURCHASE OVERALLS, STAT!

I recently got a pair of overalls for Ethan, and he totally shunned them. In fact, EVERY article of clothing I have bought recently, except for 1 pair of pants, he has refused to wear. The boy is going to grow out of anything and have to run around naked because of all the clothes in stores are somehow not coming up to the high standards of the The Boy.

Speaking of naked, there was a time when I could barely keep clothes on him. Potty training pretty much consisted of letting him run around naked a lot and putting the potty chair in the living room. Also reading about Joshua, and how he has a bottom for sitting on and a hole in it for making poo-poo!

I have issues with this book. Have you ever thought that your bottom is “making” poop? Frankly, that is a little startling. Also, the book states that the “pee-pee” MAKES “wee-wee”. As I read this book to Ethan, I would always change the wording on the spur of the moment because it just doesn’t sound right. First of all, it’s a penis. Always has been, alwasy will be – no “pee-pee” in this house, thank you very much. I waffled too much on saying either “wee-wee” or just “pee”, so now in our house, it’s wee-wee. I hate wee-wee. I would much rather it be called pee. It really is a weird word, don’t you think? How in the world did urine ever get turned into “pee”? Anyway, the penis doesn’t “make” pee, that would be part of the kidney’s job. I hold no truck with these ON-THE-FLY wee-wee-making pee-pees, that’s just eerie. Aside from the actual nouns used for all the bathroom talk, the wording in the book is just a little weird. “Afterwards he kept making Wee-Wee and Poo-Poo into his diaper and I, Joshua’s mother, kept changing him.” I mean, that’s a little wordy for a toddler who really doesn’t have a lot of mastery over anything yet, let alone english. Good book, just strangely written.

There are some good points to it though. Joshua’s mother brings him a potty, and he opens it up and contemplates what it could be. “Is it a milk bowl for the kitty? — No..” I remember one day Ethan was playing, and we hadn’t even read the book that day, and he said to himself, “Is it a bowl for the kitty? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Is it for flowers? NOOOOOOOOOOOO! Is it bird-bath? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! IT’S A POTTY!!!!!!”

That by far, was his favorite part.

Jocelyn has been talking talking talking lately. Not only does she say, “Awesome!” but the other day she helped daddy empty the dishwasher. Too cute already, but as she took out a cup and hand it off to Daddy, she would say, “Ethan’s cup.” “Mommy’s cup.” “Daddy’s fork.” “Plate, daddy. Ethan’s plate.” Every article belonged to someone.

Family picture:

– amy needs a new flash

(Originally posted on a temporary blog account until the server was back up.)

I have a whole list of things that I’ve been dying to write about but couldn’t because our server was down, and thus, no blog. “Why didn’t you just write it anyway and save it until you could post it?” Well, because I’m weird and if it’s just me that’s reading it, then why bother. Yes, that’s right, I think the reason why people have blogs and websites in general all goes back to wanting to be famous. We all wanted to be a rock-star or an actor or the president when we grew up, right? And why would we want that? Because they’re famous. So there you go, Kottke, the reason why folks have secret sites? It’s because we all want to be famous. Secretly Famous! And if they’re not secret, then the more famouser we are. Wheeee, internet!

So, to get back to this list. First off, you’ll be happy to know that there is no longer the nasty smelling tube of Mary Kay hand lotion in the ladies room at my office. I don’t know if it got used up or someone else was annoyed and had more balls than me and just pitched it, but it’s gone. Now, whenever I walk into the bathroom, there’s a faint minty smell. At first I thought it must be whatever cleanser they use in the toilets, but whoever heard of a minty toilet cleaner? Lemon-fresh, sure, but never minty. The toilet bowl cleanser marketing people probably ruled taht one out, as they don’t want anyone to think, “That smells so good I could LICK IT.” Maybe someone is brushing their teeth in there all hours of the day because it is ALWAYS minty smelling, not just in those few hours after lunch when the teeth brushing would occur.

I’m very grateful that the hand lotion is gone because lately I feel as if SMELLS! ARE ATTACKING! MY NOSTRILS! I have stopped using any hair spray (not that there was a lot of use of it in the past, but now, none at all) and I unwrapped a candle the other night and had to put it in another room because of the strong scent was accosting my nasal passages. It wasn’t even lit, just the smell from the scenty wax.

I was ironing these thin curtain things to hang up on our four-poster bed* when my mom called, and when she heard what I was doing, she suggested I use some linen water instead of the starch I was using. I have various bottles of scented water that she has given me over the years that I always forget I have, but they’re very nice and faint and a little spritz with lavender water on a freshly changed bed is nice come night-time, so I immediately went and fetched the bottle of sweet-pea linen water (it’s water for linens, do you think the linen water police will come get me for using it on curtains? I guess curtains could fall under the linen category) and started using it. And immediately, the sweet wonderful fragrance (it really did smell super!) did it’s number on my nose and I couldn’t breathe and my eyes watered and I had to stop using the pretty water and switch back to starch. Honestly. Can I get another nose please? This one is broken.

Speaking of pitching and mary kay, I don’t think I ever told you about the envelope that was in that same bathroom a few months ago. I saw it and ignored it during a few trips until finally my curiousity got the better of me and I opened it and peeped inside. It wasn’t sealed or anything. Inside, there was a letter to “Dear New Client!” from a Mary Kay consultant and had a smallish brochure of products. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not one to diss Mary Kay or anything, but come on! Leaving brochures in the ladies room?! Can’t you take out an ad or something if you’re that desperate for clients? I actually did throw that one away, and looked around all surreptitiously. Maybe the consultant worked in my office. Maybe she was spying, waiting to see what would happen to her line thrown out in the darkness. Would it hook her a little new client fish? OK, I’m stopping with the bad analogies now, (“thank god!” -oh shut up) and stopping with this story because, yeah, it’s dumb.

* Our bed has posts at each corner and then wooden slats that go across the top of each posts that make it look kind of like a canopy bed but without the canopy. I got these curtainy things some time ago, but never got around to actually putting them up again when we moved, 2 years ago. Oh I am ON THE BALL, only takes 2 years for me! Needless to say, they were very wrinkled.

I know this webspace is temporary, but it’s nice to have someplace to post again. Hopefully these words will be tucked into their own little beds at their own little home again soon.

amy smoothes your hair, kisses your forehead, and leaves the closet light on when she leaves.

I have a bee in my bonnet.

It’s been there a while now, on this particular issue, but now I just can’t be silent any longer.

It started of course, with the live-action movie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I have not seen it, nor will I ever see it. I actually recorded it with our Tivo, but then couldn’t bring myself to actually watch it. I think that a live-action movie could be made that would be true to the original, but just from what I’ve heard, this one wasn’t it.

Various things have come to my attention since the passing of the great Theodor Geisel, otherwise known as Dr. Seuss, that have made me cringe. But this most recent takes the cake.

We have many of Dr. Seuss’ books, some of them from our own childhood, over 20 years old. When Ethan was born, our neighbor gave us Dr. Seuss’ A B C, a delightful book that goes through the entire alphabet, and one that Ethan could “read” to himself, word for word, when he was about 2 and a half. It was in circulation for bedtime stories in massive purportions about a year ago, and has since fallen out a bit. With Jocelyn getting older, I know it will probably come back into use soon.

While, of course, it is wonderful to sit and read stories to your child for bedtime, I must admit, that I used to try to get Ethan to pick a different book, because this one is pretty lengthy. It has paper numbered pages, and I think there are more than 40 pages total. Especially in the beginning which has,

“Big A,
little a.
A.. a.. A..”

on the first pages, then have to turn to read and see,

“Aunt Annie’s Alligator,
A.. a.. A.”

He speeds it up after the first few letters and has the letter’s introduction and then the stuff for the letter all on the same page.

“Big G,
little g,
G.. g.. g.

Goat, girl,
Goo-goo goggles,
G.. g.. G.”

The illustration is on the opposite page, so you have 2 pages per letter (except for the first few letters, which is 4 pages per letter). Then you turn the page and read about H.

You are turning the pages pretty quickly of course, but still, it’s a good 5-10 minute read as opposed to Byron Barton’s Trains book, which is a minute, maybe two to read through. (Great one btw, still in bedtime circulation.)

Anyway, this is all background that brings you to me, at Costco Saturday morning, browsing through the books, when I hit upon Dr. Seuss’ “A B C”, and “Hop on Pop” in a large board book format. Very cool, because Jocelyn still rips paper pages on occasion, and I like the sturdy non-destructible kind. I open it up and glance at a few pages and not only is it a board book, but it appears to have condensed some of the page turning by putting 2 letters on one page, and 2 more on the opposite page – this appeals to me, because of the aforementioned tons of pages, so after debating about whether to get “A B C” or “Hop on Pop” I tossed “A B C” in, because it will mostly be read by Jocelyn at this point, and “Hop on Pop” is mostly read by Ethan, who can be gentle with the paper pages. I also get “Pokey Little Puppy” which is a classic children’s book, but I haven’t actually read it before. I’ve just found that if you’re going to come home with new books, better have one per child.

Blah, anyway, so I get home and show them both the new books I bought, and later settle in to read it to them. It doesn’t dawn on me right away, but this version of “A B C” is DIFFERENT, in more ways than mere layout.

FOR EXAMPLE!

Now, maybe this really is a small thing and I’m blowing it way out of proportion. But to me, it seems like the whimsy and wonderfulness THAT IS SEUSS, is taking out of the changed version. It’s just lacking some of the original nonsensical essence. What fun Ethan and I had exclaiming at the top of our lungs, “ker-CHOO!!!!!” If I were to keep this version (oh, like THAT would happen. Maybe when they’re serving up milkshakes IN HELL) Jocelyn would never know that sipping six sodas could make you SICK SICK SICK!

It just makes me sad. It’s that same sadness I feel when I watch the original muppet shows and movies. I think that Henson Jr. is doing a pretty good job at keeping his dad’s legacy alive, with minor wrong turns here and there, but sometimes I wish everyone inheriting the rights to their spouse’s or parent’s art would just LEAVE IT THE HELL ALONE and let it end with them. We didn’t need Mike Myers being the Cat in the Hat, we didn’t need kermit to be a SECONDARY CHARACTER in the Muppet’s Christmas Carol (hell, we didn’t need a story that WASN’T ORIGINAL. Did you understand your father AT ALL?) and we didn’t need Jim Carrey as the Grinch.

I can understand why one might want his work translated to the big screen for a new generation to enjoy. I can kind of understand merchandising of his illustrations into other fields.

But I CANNOT understand how and why ANYONE EVER would want to take the “ker-CHOO” out of the A B C book. Seriously. It makes me want to cry.

Originally posted on a blogger account, and now moved here and time-stamp adjusted.

Our server is down and not blogging is driving me crazy. So, I created this account to at least have a place to post my posts until our server is back up and running. James is upgrading the server so it’s down until the end of the week.

I went to weight watchers on Saturday morning. I don’t think I ever posted about last week’s weigh in. So to catch you up, 2 weeks ago (the week before Christmas), I had a great loss of 4 lbs. Then Christmas and staying home and eating my body weight in yumminess hit, and last week I gained 3.8 lbs. I was seriously bummed. I made rice krispie treats that Saturday thinking the kids would love them, and ended up eating most of them myself (Jocelyn loved them and her face turned into a melting away marshmellowy nightmare, Ethan didn’t really even try them, he’s Mr. Picky). I got back on track fairly quickly thought, and this week I’m happy to report I had a 3.8 lb loss! On the upside, there are no more holidays. I am trying not to look at my total lbs loss and the weeks I’ve been giving this a go and getting depressed. I mean, I have managed to lose 10 lbs over the holidays! That is GREAT (she says through gritted teeth).

So, with project skinny in mind, here is my #1 New Years Resolution. I am putting it here, for all to see.

1. Get a family portrait taken at the end of this year to send out in Christmas cards.

The amount I lose is not in here, though I’m sure I will make lots of mini goals along the way. This year I got our wedding photo negatives scanned in and then uploaded them all to our flickr account. I was looking them over and really just feeling sick about how I looked. This is a real cop-out, but I have to say going off Depo-Provera was the best thing I ever did (A. it did not help the weight thing, and B. it made me full on crazy. TOTALLY! CRAZY! Seriously, I’m scared of birth control now.) Seriously, I’m not *really* one to not allow people to take pictures of me, though I do remember at a recent party holding up my hand in front of the camera that was not even 2 feet from me (I just really didn’t want my pores to be that closely examined) but generally speaking, I’m not picture shy. Looking over our wedding pictures may have totally changed that. Blech. So, as Project Skinny progresses, I would like to have a nice family picture at the end of the year to look at and be pleased over. So there it is.

And while I’m talking about project skinny, I am also happy to report that this weekend wasn’t a full on ignoring the whole weight watchers scenario, like I usually do. I usually just eat whatever I want, and then figure I’ve used up all my weekly “flex” points (just think of them as extra credit) and stick to my daily points for the rest of the week. This weekend, while I did have some nice splurges on things like chicken pot pie and a burger and fries from 5 Guys (yum), I think if I had counted points, I probably wouldn’t even be that far into the weekly flex points. It’s nice to start the week feeling like I haven’t dug a hole that I now have to work all week to climb out of.

I think I will stop now for today, and post later or tomorrow on other thoughts that have been rambling around in the noggin.

Just in case you are suffering from cute kid stories withdrawal, I will let you know that Jocelyn’s new Word Of The Day, is “Awesome.” Yes. She’s not even two, but she will randomly declare, “Awesome… Daddy. Awesome.”

amy rocked the casbah.