How many?

Somewhere a Butterfly Flapped it's Wings

Last week, Clint and I were at a lovely B&B in Napa when we got a phone call from our alarm company that the motion detector had gone off in the living room....3,000 miles away. We were pretty sure it was a false alarm (problems with this before) so we didn't think we were being robbed; just annoying our neighbors at 11:30 at night. The bad news is we can't turn the thing off from anywhere but our house, but the good news is that the alarm stops sounding after 10 minutes and resets. We were too late to prevent the police dispatch (visit number one from WSPD), so we hopped all was fine and went to sleep. Unfortunately the alarm went off again an hour and a half later and the company called us...in Napa. It's now 1:00am EST and our neighbors are probably getting ready to cut our electricity or egg our house, but again, we can't turn it off unless we are IN the house. Argh!
We tell them not to call us again since we can't do anything, and that we'll take care of it in the morning. We both worried about it all night long, but at least I have no idea how many times it really went off, so I can pretend it was only two. Right?
After much debate, the solution we went with was to have the Club's superintendent break in to our house (yep) and cut off the alarm. He was worried that somebody would call the police, but we assured him our neighbors were well past that and would probably cheer him on even if he was robbing us blind. Somehow he got his small son into the house and silenced the alarm. Hurray!
Last night, I came home to two notes. One was from the Police (visit number two) and the other from an angry neighbor. From what I can piece together, the dogs got our of the backyard and boisterously greeted a lady from down the street who was walking her two dogs. She was not pleased. Another neighbor, who doesn't hate us yet, put our dogs back in the yard. Since they were no longer loose the only thing the upset lady could call us on was a barking complaint which is why the Policeman came to the house. He didn't hear them bark (amazing!) so he just left us a note, as a nice little FYI.
How did this all happen you ask? The alarm went off becuase a wasp came down the chimney (see BLOG post from 11.2.08, this must be a seasonal thing) and flew in front of the motion detector, setting it off repeatedly. The man who "broke-in" to our house to silence the alarm came in through the back gate and did not properly secure it allowing for the dogs to escape.
What luck!!

New bed

I was woken up at 4:30 in the morning on Thursday by A's hysterical cries. I came downstairs to find that her leg was stuck up to her thigh in the slates of her crib (not the first time this has happened). She tosses her leg over the bumper and gets it stuck, and then she gets scared.
We weren't ready for the full size bed so we got her a toddler bed this week and she helped me to put it together this morning.
I'm happy to report that she is sleeping in it as I type!
I knew she'd like since she had been sleeping on a cot a school for the last four months and so far, so good!

Where Have I Been?

I know, I know, I have been very delinquent in my blogging! The Summer is flying by and I'm keeping busy with the usual stuff. I'll get you caught up with a couple of quick posts.

"The Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder"

Kimmy (and Eric) gave me this bird feeder for Christmas. I think it was in response to the squirrel in the basement story and not just a happy coincidence. Even though this is a "squirrel proof" bird feeder, the persistent little fellows like to hang around the orb and shake seeds loose and try to paw some out. The lady who lived here before us used to feed the squirrels peanuts and I guess they haven't gotten the memo that the squirrel feeders are gone to the birds. Ha, ha.
I came home from church last Sunday and saw that one greedy little guy had managed to get himself inside the feeder and was running around in circles like a hamster in a ball! I called Clint on the cell phone and had his bring the camera out (I forgot I had a camera in my phone)but by the time he got outside our quarry had found his way back out. If I manage to get a photo of this in the future I'll send it to the manufacturer and tell them to rename it the "Squirrel Resistant Bird Feeder".

We are walking!!

It took almost 15 months, but my little girl is finally walking! I've asked C to get me a video recorder for my B-day since the one on our digital camera is not fit for Beta Max quality film. I tried to upload twice and was unsuccessful.




I also now understand why you want your child to crawl for as long as possible. I don't mind that she wants to get into everything at the house or that she loves to run around in the front yard looking for birds; it's how she behaves when we leave the house. She thinks that because she can walk, she should be allowed to walk anywhere, anytime with no regard for anything but her fierce little wishes. The once peaceful (relatively) errand of grocery shopping has turned into a minefield that I need to race through. She hates sitting in the cart and wants to have free roam in the store. Not gonna happen. So...since Mommy has her strapped in the seat she makes her displeasure known with loud and frequent screeching. If you've met my daughter you know what I'm talking about. She's loud and piercing and relentless. I try to distract her with the free samples, she distracts herself by twisting sideways and pulling items out of the buggy (it's a southern term). I found her today eating cheese through the packaging which I was too distracted to notice earlier since I was running though the store trying to get the items on the list like it was a scavenger hunt and I had to finish before the next eruption.

I'm exhausted. Time for a beer, dinner and bed.

A Morning Haiku

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts this week, Planet Money, and heard them reciting Haiku's about the economy. I thought it would be fun to throw out a challenge to all of you to come up with your own Haiku about the morning. It's a much more cherry subject.
If you don't have a blog to post to then just add yours to the comments.

The format is a short, three line poem all on one subject.

Here are mine:

Dogs shake, baby coos
Sunny and bright this morning, at 6am
It's Saturday! Go back to sleep


Thank for the Cherrios you put in my mouth
So wet and slimy
You eat it

Last week at work was kind of crazy.  We had a team left the office so it was late nights and early mornings. Most days I hardly had time to eat lunch or tear myself away from the phone to go to the restroom!  By the time I got home each night I was so exhausted that all I had the energy for was to eat dinner and go to bed.

One night my usually good sleeper woke up and started crying.  I checked the clock (5:15) and went downstairs to get her a bottle and a fresh diaper.  After she was changed and fed I put her down in her crib to go back to sleep (another 45 minutes please!!) but she screamed and proclaimed herself up for the day.  She sleeps until 7am unless it is a Saturday or Sunday.  (Mom, I know how you felt).  

Since I was not ready to face the day 45 minutes early I climbed into her crib with her, snuggled up and proceeded to nap lightly until 6am which is the usual time to face the morning.

We chatted about breakfast and went to the kitchen.....OMG!!  It was NOT 6am but 3am?!? I guess I read the clock wrong in the wee, wee hours of the morning.

See how tired I was?

Sorry there is no accompanying picture of me in the crib.  I'm sure it would have been priceless as well as sleepless.