Insurance Rant...

$500 a month for Abby and I to have health insurance is freakin' ridiculous!!! Thank you Mr. Obama and your (not so) brilliant health care plan that caused my rates to increase just so you can cover a bunch of people who sit on their butts and collect welfare checks. I really appreciate that one and plan to show my appreciation at election time.

OK, I'm done ranting.

A Bittersweet Symphony...

For those of you who don't know it, this little tune by Oasis is one of my all time favorites. The music is incredible and the lyrics really ring true. One of the lines is about trying to make ends meet and ends with the words "Your a slave to the money, then you die". While I am not trying to wax poetic here, I think that is absolutely true. You work hard in school so you can get into a good college so you can make good grades so you can get a good job. Well, guess what, I did all the aforementioned things in order to make sure I made lots of money and that simply didn't happen for me and in a way, I am really glad it didn't. While my job is certainly tough and stressful, it certainly isn't as bad being a slave at a big firm would be. And while I don't make nearly as much money as those guys do, I have decided that that is OK. Although I strongly contend that I deserve to make quite a bit more than I currently do, I also believe that this job may have been the better path for me. Until recently, being an amazing attorney was near the top of my priority list. Since Abby was born, the most important thing to me is being an amazing mom and an amazing wife. I thought I could be amazing at everything, but at this point, I am pretty sure I can't so I have chosen to pick wife and mom over attorney and to my own surprise, I am totally OK with that.

At this point in my life, I would love to take less of a raise when the time comes for one and work 3-4 days a week just to get a little extra time in with Abs. Hopefully, that will happen sooner than later because the only thing I want to be a "slave" to is my family. After we get through this rough patch in the real estate world, I am ready to scale the career back because I miss my princess too much. The money will come on its own even if I don't become the best real estate attorney in town but I can't be an amazing mom if I devote all my energy to my job.

What is the deal with Paper Products...

So Abby latest obsession is with paper products. While she has long had an affinity for magazine pages and sheets of paper, her taste in objects to eat has now turned an obsession with all paper products - paper, paper towels, napkins, toilet paper, etc. Last night, we had dinner at Friday's with Web and she started to eat one of the napkins. I took it away from her and she screamed bloody murder in the middle of the restaurant. IT'S JUST PAPER!!! Get over it. Then this morning she was playing in her room and I went to brush my teeth. When I came back, she had found a paper towel and was eating that. I don't get it and I just really hope that we make a swift exit out of this phase.

No More Heathen...

While still a complete pill, Abby is no longer a heathen thanks to her baptism yesterday! After weeks of planning and tons of work to get ready for 30 people at my house, yesterday was wonderful. We had lots of friends and family who attended. We are so blessed to have those people in our lives. Abby did pretty well at the church service minus a few minor outbursts. She was great during the actual baptism and looked like a little angel in her Strausburg dress. Of course, the ceremony didn't go off without a hitch. Long after the baptism, the preacher (who was a guest preacher) was in the middle of his sermon when the fire alarm went off! They couldn't find the source of the alarm but decided to go ahead and evacuate right after he finished. We rushed back to the house and got ready for the party. The food was great and we hardly had any leftovers (except for dessert but I suppose those leftovers are OK). Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time and the house looked beautiful if I do say so myself. All our hard work definitely paid off. I will post pics as soon as I have a chance.

Slooooow Week...

Why is it when you are looking forward to something, it makes the week go by so incredibly slow??? That is my week this week. I have a million things to do to get ready for Abby's baptism and I am here at work where I can't get anything done. I hope Thursday goes by a little quicker. It also doesn't help that it is just one of those slow weeks. I think that lots of people go on vacation between July 15th and August 15th so everything kinda stops for a month.

At home, we have been busy with the preparations and busy trying to keep up with Abby. Now that she is fully mobile and can move in and out of every room in the house, we have to keep a watchful eye at all times. Yesterday morning, I caught her trying to eat a dead roach. Then on Sunday, we lost her for a minute and she was in the front room where she had knocked over a floor lamp. Gotta stay on my toes these days!

In With the New...

So yesterday was the first day I have ever left Abby with someone other than family. A scary proposition at first, but it worked out great. One of the VPs at our company has a daughter who is an honors student at UT (I was willing to forgive the UT thing). She is home for the summer and has tons of babysitting experience along with a current job at Adventure Kids Playcare where babysitting is literally her full time job. Since Byron and Gail are out of town, she volunteered to help us out for a couple of days this week. Yesterday, she and Abby had a very successful day with good napping and good behavior. She has her again tomorrow so I hope all goes well then too.

In the meantime, I am in the middle of planning the big brunch to celebrate Abby's baptism next weekend. I have to admit that I love planning parties like this from the invitations to the dessert so I am very excited. My only problem is that I need an unlimited budget, which I am sure JB won't let me have! I think I can control myself but I have so many ideas that I want to incorporate. Once I get my final number, I will be able to get so much more done. I am pretty sure that the weekend will be consumed by party planning which is totally OK with me!

Milestones...

Crawling - Check
Drinking from a sippy cup on her own - Check
Solid foods - Check
Cruising - Check
First tooth - Check

If you are thinking what I am thinking, that is a whole bunch of "Checks" in the past couple of weeks. Its like she hit 7 months and decided to wake up and turn into a toddler. On one hand, I am so proud to have such a smart little girl, but on the other hand, it makes me sad that she is growing up so fast. Plus, its totally stressing me out that she constantly seems like she is ready to fall down and bash her head in on something. The biggest problem is that she is so dang fast. I put her down in the middle of the room and within seconds she is on the fireplace or walking along the coffee table. I think she has some Harry Potter magic skills!