"Happy Birthday Cousin"

I have had a loooooong day. A good day, but very long. I got off at 7, came home, and promptly went to bed a little after 8. I tried to catch as many zzzz's as I could before noon. I woke up at noon, showered and headed off to spend a few hours with my dear friend Cara. We had both been on vacation and wanted to reconnect and chat a little bit. We had a great time chatting and eating ice cream (gotta love DQ!), then we goofed off on the computer a bit. I won't hate you if you post those pictures Cara! :)
Sadly, our time was cut too short, because I was watching Brooke, and had to be there to get her at 5. We said our goodbyes and promised to do it again soon. No vacations planned for either of us (that we know of), so hopefully it will happen soon.

Well, I arrived to get Brooke at 5 and she was in the prettiest little yellow party dress. I was only watching her for the night because Dan and Becky were taking Luke and Mer to some car show. So I was taking Brooke to my cousin Rachel's birthday party. (Happy 18th Rach!) The second I got there she ran out the front door and jumped in my arms. She is so sweet... She melts my heart! I hugged Mer and talked to her and we went inside. Becky said hi and that she wasn't ready, but if I needed to go I could take Brooke because she was ready. Well, we still had some time, so I just went ahead and loaded up Brooke's carseat in my car, and then sat in the living room with the girls and chatted a bit while Becky finished getting ready. Becky commented that I must have bonded with Brooke or something (because I started watching her when she was 5 months old), because anytime they needed a babysitter Brooke would say, "My Megan gonna watch me?" Becky said I'm always her first choice, but she tries to get her to understand that I can't always watch her. Yea, right... she's 2!
Anyway, so we're sitting in the living room and Brooke keeps looking at me saying, "I ready to go in the car. Let's go bye-bye." She was so ready to go and party! :) I chatted with Becky a little longer and then her and Mer left to meet up with Dan and Luke.
Brooke and I left shortly after, and she couldn't have been more excited. I kept telling her we were going to my cousin Rachel's birthday party. We rehearsed a couple times "Happy Birthday Rachel". Well, it was quiet in the car at one point and I hear her talking to herself in the backseat... "Happy Birthday Rachel". Then a few seconds later... "Happy Birthday Cousin". How sweet!!! She was all ready to say Happy Birthday. We had gone through the guest list (My mom, Holli (aka Hoddie)....), she was ready for cake and ice cream...we were set! So we're driving along and I had a country radio station playing pretty low, because we had been talking. Well she all of sudden says, "Megan, can you turn it up?" So I did. Then she says, "Really loud, k?" So I turn it up louder. Then I hear her sweet little voice singing to the radio. Are you kidding me?! She knew a lot of the words to the chorus. The funny thing is that it was a Montgomery Gentry song. I wanted to start laughing, but she was just so sweet I didn't want her to stop. When the song ended she said, "My mommy and me listen that music in her car." Too precious! So we're almost to my cousin's house and we pass an ice cream place. Well there is a huge ice cream cone outside and I hear her gasp and say, "A Snowball Man! Did you see it??" At first I had no clue what she was talking about then when I caught on all I could do was smile. She seriously is a bright spot in my day when I get to be with her. She's so funny!

We finally arrived at the party and as we were walking toward the door and we went through all the people she knew that weren't there yet, she looks at me and says "I don't like cousins." How hilarious! She was nervous! Well the fact that my cousin's dog met us at the door barking did not help the situation, but she quickly calmed down, and when Holli arrived shortly after, she went to her while I got her sippy cup filled. Brooke was pretty quiet at first, but she opened up pretty quickly. My mom got there and she went right to her and was soon chatting it up with the guests and showing her sweet little smile to everyone. :) She was thrilled that my mom let her stick her finger in the cake to get some of the frosting off. She ate her dinner great, and barely made a mess at all. I was quite proud of her. :p
While Rach opened her presents (which were basically cards) she sat on Hol's lap and then sat in mine next to where my cousin's little boy was. They quickly began playing together and were just too funny! I think Carter was a little smitten. :) My cousin snapped some pictures of the two, and if she emails them to me I will post them here and let you know.
Brooke started getting a little tired around 8:15 so we left and went back to her house. She kind of snoozed for a couple minutes on the drive home, but not too much. It must have been just enough, because she was wide awake and raring to go when we got inside. So much in fact that she was completely naked in the matter of 5 minutes. Silly girl! I got her dressed for bed and decided to pop in a movie. Bad idea!!! I was so tired, that putting in a movie just lulled me into a relaxed state. I was on the couch and she sat with me for a bit, but then she wanted to get some books out. I couldn't muster up the energy to read them to her so she sat in a chair and read to herself. Thankfully Dan and Becky got home shortly after that. I was fading fast, and I was pretty sure I would be asleep soon if they hadn't shown up. We went through the run down of how she did, bathroom breaks (now that she's potty trained), if she had fun. She nodded her head vigorously when Becky asked her if she had fun. Then she asked, "Are you and Megan best friends?" to which Brooke nodded and smiled. I love her!!

Thankfully I am home now, and I am going to be going to bed now. I'm way tired. 4 hours of sleep in like 32 hours is NOT enough. I'll be sleeping in tomorrow and taking a long nap on Sunday before work. Don't worry though. I will be back with my trip post as promised. I want it finished just as much as you do. Everyone have a good Saturday!

Until...................................

Exhaustion Doesn't Come Close...

This will be short and sweet......

FOUR days... woohoo.....


I did not get much sleep last night because Izzy is a major yipper. Grr!



Today was exhausting with Brooke. She was fun for the most part, but when she had her meltdown at around 6 o'clock I wanted to melt right along with her. :( Here are a couple pictures from the day....

(The hair was unruly ^ so up it went in the pigtails...)


(...and I quote, "Take a pickter of my toes.")

Until.................................

Stress Free Friday....

Oh today was wonderful! I didn't do much of anything! I slept in (well I got about the same amount as normal because I stayed up late, but it felt like sleeping in to me...) and didn't do anything for school today. It was glorious! Next week I will be running around like mad studying and wrapping things up, but this week I was blissfully obligation free in regards to school.

Tonight I went and watched Brooke and Meredith for a couple hours while Dan took Luke to baseball practice and Becky went to see a movie. Brooke is getting so big! What happened to that chunky little 5 month old that I started watching two summers ago?? Now she's walking, talking and potty trained! When I got there she was waiting for me at the front window and I wasn't there 5 minutes before she was asking me if we could go outside so I could "swinga her" on the swingset. I chatted with Becky for a few minutes and then I took the girls outside to swing and play on the slide. Brooke's little laugh as I pushed her on the swing just melted my heart. She is such a character and she cracks me up at some of the things she says. For instance...this was a conversation that took place while I was making dinner and the girls were snacking on cereal.

Meredith: takes bag away from Brooke to grab some cereal for herself

Brooke: NOOO!!!! AHHHH!!!!!

Me: Brooke, don't cry....we have more cereal in the box. Don't worry.

Meredith: sticks her tongue out at Brooke

Me: Mer, that's not nice. Don't do that.

Brooke: You not me best friend no more!

Meredith: (joking) Well you're not my best friend anymore! Megan's my best friend!

Brooke: No Meggy's me best friend.

Meredith: (trying to make amends) Brookie's my best friend (going in for a hug)

Brooke: (pushing Mer away) No! You still not me best friend! Meggy's me best friend!

At this point I starting laughing out loud. It was just the seriousness in her tone and that she was the one that said it first, "You not me best friend anymore". What two year old says that?? Too funny! Of course it wasn't 5 minutes later that they were BFF's again.

I love those girls! I will definitely have to go see them this summer when I have time off of work.
Speaking of work... I went and got my physical yesterday. I was there for an hour and a half. For atleast a half hour I was filling out paperwork. Some questions were 'different'. Have I ever worn a respirator? Am I claustraphobic? (This was asked to me several times and the doc brought it up in the exam room too. Did I sign up to work in a small box or the PICU??) Anyway... I liked the doctor. He was super nice and I didn't feel creeped out at all. The nurse however was another story. He was a little weird, and he didn't seem overly confident in his skills. He was poking around for awhile when he was drawing my blood. He's like, "Oh, I think it rolled on me." Well, maybe if he had the band a little tighter on my arm he could actually see my vein. He had it loosly around my upper arm, so I'm surprised he got what he did. He went for the best vein in my arm and still had trouble. It's a good thing I'm not a wimp and can handle a little bit of pain. Honestly, my arm hurt worse afterward than it did while he was digging around.

Providing the urine sample however was no treat. I knew I had a shy bladder, so I very smartly drank a whole bottle of water on my way there. Well when he's drawing my blood I could feel it coming on that I would have to go to the bathroom, so in my head I'm thinking "Perfect! Only the drug screening left and then I can go to HR and get my id and sign papers and be home before 4:30." WRONG! My bladder, in true form, decided to be shy. Why?!? It was ridiculous! I thankfully got enough out that he could run the test, but it wasn't as much as he would have liked. Seriously though, I can only do so much. I wasn't going to cath myself so he could have a little bit more. It ended up being all clear... no drugs, not pregnant. So off I go to HR. Here I spent another half hour on paperwork and finally got my ID picture taken. It was "eh". (see for yourself)

I finally got home a little after 5 and I was exhausted. However, mom and I still decided to trek to Walmart. I'm glad we did, because we needed food, but that wore me out even more. Oh well, it's over and done with.

Alright, well I should go. More shopping with the sisters tomorrow (for our trip) and then I have a graduation open house. My mom just came in to have me open her Reba season 1 DVD with my pampered chef blade (I love that thing. It opens cd's and dvd's so easily) so she can watch it so I'm gonna go watch some with her. I'll be back later this weekend probably.

Until..............................

Many faces of Brooke....

Brooke just cracks me up. She is a ham for the camera that is for sure. I was watching the kids tonight and it was just the two of us for an hour and a half or so and so we held a little photoshoot. Here are a few from our night....


(Here she is with her sweet smile. You can also see her big wad of gum. We were reading a book tonight about a dog named Peanut who sniffed everything and when we got to the part where Peanut sniffs a "wad of gum" Brooke said "I have wad of gum too!". So cute....)


(Here she is with her cheesiest smile.)


(At the last minute she lunged toward the camera and this is what we got. haha...)



(She thought this was funny)


(This was quite funny. I was kissing and tickling her and she would say "Again" so I finally just took a picture of it, because everytime I would go in to kiss on her cheek she would grab my face and pull me toward her. This picture was just funny how it turned out.)

Disclaimer: I know I look like crap, but just don't look at me... look at the cute baby. I didn't dress up to go get yogurt fingers put all over me and mashed potato mouths rubbed all over my legs.)

Another quite funny thing with Brooke tonight was that she was obsessed with washing her hands. If I would have let her I bet she would have washed them 10 times during dinner. She was being quite neurotic about it. haha....
Alright, I have a busy day tomorrow, so I will go for now.
Until........