Tell your creepy dog to stop staring at me...

Now that I am home for a while, our dog Arthur and I have to get a few things straight.

First of all, stop staring at me. I will win any staring contest that you instigate. I have Vicoden on my side and I can space out for long periods of time. I will win.

Second, there is no room for you on my hide-a-bed. There is a machine strapped to the bed that is the size of me and you will not fit. Stop whining at the edge of the bed because you want up.

Third, your gas is nasty. Do not look at me when you do it. I will not take the blame. You did it, it came out of your butt, I did not throw my voice to make that sound come out of there.

Last but not least, when I let you outside on your chain of course, do not get tangled up and then start barking because you are stuck. I know that you know how to untangle yourself, because you do it when you think I am going somewhere without you.

Arthur, I love you, but you are strange.

Here I go again...

Hello everyone! It has been a long time since I have blogged, but I will try it again for a little while at least. So many things have happened since my last blog that I don't even know where to start.

I will start here. I changed jobs again. I went back to driving forklift. I was not satisfied at my last job so I went back to full time forklift. I love it. Now I can be myself and not have to worry about saying the wrong thing to upset anyone. Women are very hard to work with. Way too much drama.

Next, we have left the trailer park for good. We bought a real house with a real yard and the house is no longer on wheels. We were somewhat entertaining the thought of buying a house, since my best friend Miah and Al did, so we were looking. We wanted a place outside of Sioux Falls and we kind of had our hearts set on one at the end of Main St. here in Lennox, but they were asking way to much for that particular house and when we were driving around looking for houses, we stumbled upon this house that would be up for auction. Low and behold we got the bid and here we are!! It is a beautiful 4 bedroom, 2 bath house on 2 1/2 lots in Lennox. Now I don't have to worry about my boys becoming "trailer rats". Lennox has a good school and seems to be a good community so we have much to look forward to. It is still a small community and therefore people are not as warm to the "transplants" as the families that orginated here, but my folks have been in this town for many years so at least we have a little head start.



The week after we moved in, we received a letter from the son of the family that originally built the house in the 20's. We are only the third family to live here. Kind of exciting. I emailed the gentlemen back and told him that pictures and info would be great, and he emailed back saying that he had written a book about his parents (the builders) and that there were pictures of the original house in that book and that it was in the Lennox library. I of course checked it out and haven't got very far. Some of the pictures are hard to place because of all the changes over the years, like the second floor, the patio doors, etc.

Now I will have plenty of time to read that book, because last week I injured my knee and had to have surgery on Tuesday. I had torn my ACL and they replaced it with a cadaver ligament. Sounds a little creepy, but it will drastically reduce my healing time compared to my other options. (Robbing ligaments from my already handicapped knee) Hey who knows, maybe I have the knee of a 20 year old, or an African American so I can run and jump faster. He He. All I know is that it is terrible pain, and that I would rather give birth again that to go through this pain. I know it has only been 2 days, but it really frickin' hurts. I had to stay in the hospital overnight and had a wonderful nurse Andy who kept me heavily medicated to alleviate most of the pain during the night. I am at home now, and will be for at least a couple of weeks, so I will try to keep up on my blog until then, maybe longer now that we have internet access now. (We were to cheap to splurge on wireless internet and the neighbors had protected connections. Damn them.)

Whew, that was a lot to say, so I will blog later with so much more to say.

Happy List

I was thinking that since my last blog was so depressing, that I should make up for it by making a list of things that make me happy so you don't think that I am a psychotic, unhappy person. So here it is in no particular order...

Paula's Happy List:

1. Samuel and Nathaniel

2. Watching my children learn new things, and their reactions to them. Especially when Sam does or says something that just blows my mind.

3. Listening to "Break Things" by Limp Biscuit on my way to work at full blast in my pimped out mini-van. (after I have dropped off my kids, of course)

4. Eating Blue Bunny's "Super Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough" ice cream in bed.

5. The t.v. show Scrubs

6. Watching dads with their kids

7. Payday

8. Homer Simpson singing "Spider Pig"

9. Jake

10. Miah

11. Julia

12. Thinking about the good ol' days

13. My family

14. Sitting outside

15. Bacon

16. Grape Bubble-Yum

17. Dove candy bars (Regular or Dark)

18. When Jake tells me that I look cute

19. Looking cute

20. Playing Sudoku on my phone

21. Cooking (when I am not rushed)

22. Reading my cookbooks

23. Cuddling with my munchkins

24. Watching people at stoplights

25. Pepperoni and mushroom pizza

26. Sarcasm

27. Trivia

28. My oversized puppy Arthur

29. When the squirrels tease Arthur

30. Stopping at the truckstop to catch up on gossip or just to visit

31. Mello Yello

32. Driving forklift

33. Wildflowers

34. Riding horse (even though it has been 13 yrs. since I have been on one)

35. Listening to old school Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog

36. 95.7 -so I can listen to all of the old school and eighties music.

37. Ribeyes (seven days without beef makes one week)

38. The smell of new plastic

39. Spring

40. An ice cold glass of milk

41. Rain and/or sleeping in on a rainy day. Sounds too cliche doesn't it.

42. Babies laughing

43. Perverted text messages and sick jokes

44. Taking pictures *NOTE* Notice I said taking pictures, not developing them. I am just a little slow

45. Pillow talk

46. Hugging and kissing Sam and Nathan

47. A sense of accomplishment

48. Mexican food, especially from Puerto Vallerta

49. My Mom's homemade salsa

50. My family's sense of humor


I am sure I will think of more things, but I have to go and meet my Dad for lunch. Ahh, #51.

I am back from lunch and it was delicious. We went to Puerto Vallerta. My favorite. Anyway, I thought of a few more things that make me happy.

52. Getting all the green lights

53. The summer of '03

54. Dollar stores

55. Friday afternoons

56. Practical jokes

I know you missed me...

Well, I haven't been very good at updating because we have been very busy at work. I don't have very much blog-time. So many things have gone on since my last entry, but we will start with Sam.

If you have two children, and the baby is hungry, please heed my warning: DO NOT leave your two year old alone with corn. He will find somewhere to insert it, a nose for instance. There was so much corn in there that I thought he planted some up there (9 pieces I think I counted). Did I forget to mention the spaghetti that came out too? I couldn't help but laugh, but it was still a little scary. I have heard the horror stories about the kid who put a bean up there and it started to grow, etc... That was last week, so on Sunday when he started getting green boogies, I panicked. My child has corn in his brain and it's going to grow!!! We got to the doctor on Monday and thankfully there was no corn lodged up there. Maybe the planting season is over. The weather is not ideal for growing in the nose, who knows. Anyway, she then informed me that my son has allergies. Wonderful. She suggested Claritin everyday for two weeks, and if that doesn't help, come back for some more stuff. So far it doesn't seem to be working. When I pick him up from daycare, his nose is raw from all of the blowing. Poor guy. If anybody has any sugestions for something that might actually work, let me know. I will try just about anything if it means relief for my little guy.

Now on to Nathaniel. He is growing like crazy. He is already into 9 mo. outfits already and only 13 weeks old. Mommy's little giant. We used to call him Peanut, but now it's Meatball. He is solid though, and doesn't look too much like the Michelin Man. He is still a handsome little devil with my dimples, and a smile that could melt anyones heart. I am blessed once again.

Now it's my turn. Every month at Curves you are to be measured and weighed. This month I have lost 4.5 lbs. and 6.25 inches. Two of those inches don't count because it was in my boobs, and I had just fed Nathaniel. But still, 4.25 inches! Yeah ME! A step in the right direction.

I think...

I think rice and Cream of Wheat are making me stronger.

Scaling Down

I have lost 7 pounds since I have been going to Curves. I can only attribute some of the weight loss to them and some to the fact that I was very ill on Sunday/Monday. Still, I am ecstatic that I shouldn't have to keep buying larger and larger jeans. Yeah ME!

The boys had their 2 yr. old and 2 mo. old check ups on Monday. Samuel is in the 90th percentile for his height and weight and the Dr. said he looks good. Nathaniel is in the 90th for his length but over 90th for his weight. He is a large boy. He is at 15.6 lbs. and only 8 weeks old. I must be doing something right (I breastfeed). Doc also said he is right on target. I love to hear that. They both got shots, Sam only one, but poor Nathan got three and was a little cranky the last couple of days. Poor little man and thank God for Tylenol. I wish I could have taken them for him so he didn't hurt. Maybe next time...

From lumpy to curvy...

My sweetie got me a membership to Curves For Women. I am absolutely ecstatic. I went to my first workout last night and I love it. The place is just plain fun. You only work on each machine for 30 seconds at a time and then switch. Perfect for me since I am what one would call "fitness challenged". The last time I had a membership to a gym, I didn't know what to do or how to use the equipment so the first time I went, I sat in the locker room and watched T.V. and the second time I just sat in the hot-tub, so I am definitely making progress. I was actually sweaty and it wasn't from the warm water. At first I was a little shy (don't say it Miah) and reserved until I looked over and saw this girl jogging like a disco dancer, so if she is comfortable with herself, than I can be too. I will have to post updates on how I am doing, because this is a big step for me and I am very proud. Yeah toast! My goal is to go from lumpy to curvy and to definitely lose the bingo wings.

Samuel turns two tomorrow. Holy underwear. Where did the time go? What's next, graduation? Just joking. We will be having a party for him at Jake's mom's house. Nothing better than a little barbeque, family, friends, and of course cake and presents.

Speaking of presents, I will finally admit that I am 30. I think saying it is the hardest part. I had a great birthday. None of my teeth fell out and I still have all of my hair even though some of it is discolored, you know, light black?

Have a spank-tacular weekend!