Happy Halloween

Today is Halloween!!! It's already been very chaotic for me. Well at least in my head. Angry Toddler's school did orange day today. I am glad that I bought a long sleeve orange shirt from Old Navy about a month ago.

Tonight we are going to Mickey's Treat at Disney's California Adventure. We went last year. We had a great time. We trick or treated around and took lots of pictures with the characters.

I'm soo not ready for this. I need to organize Angry Toddler's costume, and do some modifications. I need to take a shower and do some laundry.

Plus, I need to go to the Toddler's school at 3pm. They are having some pumpkin thing, I think?

Angry Husband played around with my camera yesterday. I think he has it fixed. He compared the settings to my work camera. Stupid Nikon!!! I wish I would have bought a Canon.

The Great American Fish Tank Build Part 2

So I previously blogged about our fish tank build, September post.

I thought I would update y'all a little bit. The Angry Husband has been working alot on his days off to get some funds to complete this project. I know it's a totally expensive hobby, and I hate seeing money go towards it. But, I was really sick of looking at this six foot long, empty plastic tank. He saved up enough money to get his sand, rocks, water, and lights.

I'm including the pictures taken a few days ago. It's got a neon glow to it. And it's hella loud. Like soooo loud, that it sounds like our dishwasher is running 24/7. The husband said that it's the pumps, and that he needs to UPGRADE them. Well of course he does.. My husband never does anything simple. The man must always upgrade things.

My mom is freaking. Seriously, everytime she comes over our house, she gets anxiety. She keeps thinking that the tank is going to break and that water is going to destroy everything in our house.

I will actually be happy when we get some fish. I'm tired of looking at ugly rock. I want to see pretty fish. I told Angry Husband that I want the tank to look like the one at the Pediatrician's office. It's soo purty.

Too Wordy

I just realized that my blog is looking a little wordy. I will try and add some pictures later.

Daylight Savings Not

So I crashed on the couch this morning when I got home from work. I really truly wanted to sleep in our bed. But, alas, angry Toddler was lying horizontal on my side of the bed, snoring. I grabbed my blanket, drug it down the hall, and plopped myself on the couch.

I woke to the sound this morning, of AT screaming, "DADDY, DADDY". I knew that my husband was getting ready for work, which meant it was like 7am. Oh, oh no, this is way too early for me. The husband put the toddler to bed especially late last night so I could get some extra sleep. His plan did not work.

The toddler is extremely wild and hyper this morning. I swear, it was like he was eating candy in his sleep.

So Angry Husband's cellphone rings, can you wake me up even more... It's his co-worker, AH is late. The husband looks at the clock, 8am, what? I mumbled from the couch, ummmm, I think your alarm switched to Daylight Savings. AH shouts back, "Is it Daylight Savings?" I reply, "No, Congress voted to push it back this year. It's next weekend.". AH grabs his keys and runs out the door.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking, ok 8am is much better than 7am. I got to sleep in a little, 5 hours of sleep is better than 4. Meanwhile, the toddler is galloping up and down the hall. He's crazy.

I then call my parents.. "What's for breakfast?", I say. "Meet us at Ruby's, at 9am", my mom says. Yay, free food. I don't even think we have any breakfast-y food here anyway. We took Angry Toddler to breakfast last weekend also. He was pretty good for his usual self, I guess we will try it again.

Now, I gotta pick out an outfit for him. One of his many "Halloween" themed outfits. I decide on a lovely Gap shirt with Frankenstein, and Gap jeans. I have a slight obesession with baby Gap this Fall. I'm debating whether or not, it is cold enough for a sweater.

Working, Nine 2 Five

It's been ten years since I graduated college. I graduated in December of 1997, and in January, I joined the work force. My parents stressed the fact that I needed to get a full-time job with health insurance. I did. I've been working full time since then without a break, at the same damn place!!!

But alas, the life of a public servant. We work shift work, yes crappy, non-normal hours. So I'm sitting here at 2am writing this post, why, because I'm at work. Normal people work Monday through Friday, from 9-5. Noo, Angry Julie works Friday through Monday from 4pm-2:30am.

I'm half asleep, waiting patiently until the clock turns 2:30, so I can run out of her, jump in my SUV and drive home. Then I will try and crawl in bed. 75% Angry Toddler will be on my side of the bed, under the covers. So I will have to make the decision, sleep in our bed, or go to the couch.

Then, at around 7:30am, Angry Toddler was come to wake me up. Most likey by hitting me on the head with some small toy, "Mama mama, wake up!".

It's been busy here tonight. Lots of drunk people and Halloween parties.

On a positive note, I did get to visit one of my favorite places tonight. Yes, Target. I am one of those nuts hunting down The Little Einsteins Pat Pat Rocket. Does my son even like The Little Einsteins, probably not! But I must hunt one of those things down. It has become my quest. Knowing my luck I will finally find one, and decide that he doesn't need it. I think I just like the hunt. I ended up walking about of Target with a skull shaped trick or treat bucket, and some cleaning products.

I've been sitting here in the office the rest of the night lurking on all my favorite blogs and websites. I've found a couple of new ones tonight. I'm always anxious to read about people like me.

I hope I survive the day tommorrow. Angry Husband is going to be working and it's up to me to entertain. We can't go outside, there is tons of ash from the fires. Then back to work, I go, same time, same place. But alas, definately not 9-5.

Thirteen Things

For today's post, I will point out thirteen things I found in my car tonight. I cleaned it out, finally. What a mess a 2 year old and 31 year old woman can make!

1. Bob Revolution Jogging Stroller-This stroller kicks ass and has a 5-point harness. This is my second Bob Stroller. The Angry Toddler cannot escape from this.

2. Camouflage Backpack-A cute little backpack from baby Gap. I use it as a diaper bag. Sometimes, I have the Angry Toddler carry it on his back. Less for mama to carry.

3. Parking Pass-The parking pass for the City I work for. I don't know why I have it on my dashboard. Everyone knows my car.

4. Toll roads Transponder-I cancelled my membership to the toll roads over a year ago. They keep upping the prices. One of their routes is over $8.00 for one way. Alas, sometimes I need to take the shortcut, I never have cash, so I rejoined.

5. Cellphone Charger-I'm always talking on my phone, hence I need to charge it. I have like 5 chargers spread out between two cars, work, and home.

6. Work Uniforms-My dirty uniforms from working last weekend. They are still on the front passenger floorboard of my car. I need to wash them tonight so I can wear them tomorrow.

7. Artwork-Angry Toddler's artwork from preschool. About once a week, I get handed a pile of drawings, paintings, and cut/paste work. I have no idea what to do with it all. Somehow it's piling up on my rear passenger floorboard.

8. Map of Disneyland-We frequently go to Disneyland. I have no clue why we collect/use maps. I think Angry Husband grabs them at the gate.

9. Wedding Ring-My wedding ring was in the cup holder. I mostly wear it for work. Ever since my other ring was lost/stolen, I refused to get a new one. I finally broke down this summer and had a white gold Hawaiian wedding ring made. It has Plumeria flowers on it with our names inscribed inside.

10. iPod-My pink little Nano. It's soo cute. I love that the Tahoe has an adaptor so I can listen to my tunes in the car.

11. Magazines-Angry Husbands fish magazines. There's like 4 of them in there. He reads them while I drive. I always drive. Sometimes I like to be chauffeured around.

12. Britax Marathon Carseat-We have owned 4 Britax since having Angry Toddler. I swear by them, I love them.

13. Noisy Toys-How come all the noisy toys make it to my car? We have a small basket of toys in the backseat. It seems to be filled with loud noisy cars. One of the toys is this chicken sitting inside a car. When it moves, it starts clucking. This damn toy always seems to get stuck under the seat. It was the first thing to go to the trash when I cleaned out my car tonight. I can't handle the clucking anymore!

TV and the Internet

Because of the Fires here in Southern California, our local television has been filled with news, news, news. So I got home after being out with the Girls last night, and checked my DVR. Yay! My new favorite show, Private Practice, had recorded.

So I got comfortable in my bed and hit "Play". What do I see? Fire, Fire, Fire..... I all about being informed. Believe me, I'm really concerned about the fires and the victims of the fires.

I just wanted a break from all this. So alas, I could not watch my show last night. I settled for watching the Eleven o'clock news.

So I took Angry Toddler to preschool this morning. I got myself a bow of cereal and sat down at my desk. Woo-hoo!! I can watch the full episode of Private Practice on the Internet. So alas I'm watching it right now in the background while typing this.

What's My Preppy Name?

Your Preppy Name Is...

Townsend Phinney Rockwood the Fifth But most people know you as Missy

What's Your Preppy Name?

Fire

Right now the fires are out of control here in Southern California. I live about 10 miles from one of the main fires, here in Orange County. It would have to jump a main freeway to get to us.

The air quality is awful right now. It's all smokey and dusty.I took Angry Toddler to preschool this morning and they are keeping the students inside. Angry Toddler has asthma and this would not been good for him.

It was really crazy at work last night. We had alot of power transformers go down, which led to signals and power going down. There was like an orange haze over the sky, it was quite scary.

Everyone was having major allergy and sinus problems last night also. I hid most of the night in the building. I hope I can hide in there tonight. I'm going to bring my inhaler just in case, I actually have to work.

Alot of people, I know have been evacuated from their homes. I hope that they can return to their homes soon. Apparently, the fires near my home were set by an arsonist. Some people are soo stupid.

My thoughts go out to the people affected by these fires.

I'm ignoring the toddler....

I'm sitting here in my office, checking my e-mail and such. I can hear Angry Toddler, we have a small house. Angry Toddler is in his closet, stuck I'm sure. He's making this sound, "Coo Coo, Coo Coo". He's like a little bird.

We have that Container Store Elfa System in his closet. He always climbs it and gets stuck. I know if he gets really stuck, he screams "Stuck, stuck".

Why must my child climb everything?

Preschool Woes and Stages of Grief

It has been a really bad week for us here. Angry Toddler's preschool owner called me on Thursday afternoon, she told me that her husband is terminally ill and that she would be closing down the preschool "for a while". We are totally devastated. Angry Toddler has been going to this school since June. He has already achieved so much. They have worked with him independently on all of his skills.

I feel like I'm going through the five stages of dying myself right now.

1. Denial-This isn't happening? His school is going to be closed after next week. Where will he go then? What about all his little friends?

2. Anger-How could they do this to us? We counted on this school. Angry Toddler was supposed to go there until kindergarten. Now we have to look for a new school, mid-Fall, when almost all the other schools are all full.

3. Bargaining-At least we have another week. He can go there until almost the end of the month. Five more days of seeing his friends. Will his friends be there next week?

4. Depression-Thursday was not a good day in our household. I'm soo upset. I finally felt comfortable with this school. AT was thriving. He knows all his friend's and teacher's names. He asks about them at night. He was talking about his friend, Jacob, when we were watching tv. I can't help but feel sad, these people were almost like family. In such a short time, we've bonded with everyone.

5. Acceptance-I realized that we need to seek other arrangements. After the school's owner called, I came right home. So much for a relaxing day off for me. I googled every preschool in our city and neighboring cities. I started calling them. About 90% of the schools, were full, or had huge waiting lists. I called one school and they had an 18-month long waiting list. I was able to find three schools that had openings and that fit our needs.

We went on Friday, and toured the three schools. I will do an update of this post at a later time. Right now, I gotta go check on Angry Toddler. Angry Husband is at work. I'm here alone with AT on three hours of sleep...

The Kid Sleeps Like a Teenager

It is a constant struggle with Angry Toddler and his sleep habits. Ever since we lost the crib, moment of silence for "THE CRIB". His sleep habits have been Crap!

He refuses to go to sleep in his bed. We've tried all the methods, even Super Nannying him. Nope, didn't work. Basically AT falls asleep on the couch in our living room. He usually falls asleep watching TV. This is how it is for naps and bedtime. His naps range anywhere from 1pm-4pm. His bedtime ranges anywhere from 8pm-10pm. Yes, that's right 10pm.

He actually went to bed around 9pm last night. Today, he goes to preschool. I walk into his room. His is asleep on his stomach with his blanket covering his head. I say, "Caden, Get up, It's time for school." The kid actually grunts and rolls to his side. He now covers his entire body with the blanket and curls into the fetal position.

So I roll him over. He growls at me. Then I take off his pajamas. He then gets onto his stomach, pushes up his knees, and sticks his butt in the air, and says "Night Night".

Then I have to flip him onto his back, change his diaper. I then continue to put on his jeans, shirt, socks, and shoes, all while Mr. Lazy is laying there. Then I leave the room. He comes walking down the hall, scratching his head, dragging the blanket. He's got those red sleep scars all over his neck and face. The kid sleeps in the strangest positions.

We jump in my car, and head to preschool.

The owner of the preschool just laughs when she sees him. She said, oh rough morning. I said my 12 year old, oops I mean 2 year old didn't want to get up. He gives her the "Angry White Man" look, which is typical in my household, and then says, "What"? She proceeds to then take him into the school and get him some breakfast. Why does the preschool teacher have to feed him? Because the kid is stubborn and never wants to eat breakfast right away. He's just like me and has almost all of my bad habits.

Then I jump into my mommy mobile car and head home. I race into the garage, take off my jeans and throw on my pajamas again. I then jump into my bed, and watch all my DVR'ed shows. Yes, it's a hard life for me, don't be jealous.

I couldn't wait to get home and watch my new favorite show, Private Practice. I love that show, but alas that's another post to come later!

Diaper Vent

My son has been wearing size 5 diapers for about a year. He was starting to potty train but regressed. We are ok with that.

One of my forums was talking about diapers recently, what size their kiddos wear, how much they weigh, etc.

I realized that Angry Toddler has been leaking alot. Duh, he needs to move up to next size. Which means, I need to get the 6's. No problem.

So I drop him off at preschool today and then head to my local Heaven Target, to buy diapers. Luckily, there is a sale on diapers so I grab two packs. I then realize how small the pack is. This truly annoys me. It's like every time we go up a size, we lose like 10 diapers in the package. The packages just keep getting smaller and smaller. That is not fair!!! There is nothing I can do about it, cause we need diapers, but NOT fair. Dammit Pampers, you make me mad.

No Soda, Cranky Julie

I gave up drinking soda on October 1st. I should have done that long ago. It really irritates my stomach. I love my soda though. I love my 32 oz. goodness from the local convienence store. The ice, the carbonation, and the caffeine....

It's killing me at work though. Working almost 11 hours with no soda, no caffeine, I cna barely stay awake. Normal people don't work from 4pm to almost 3am. I keep drinking water, but it's not the same.

I know I've lost weight from not drinking my lovely soda. My work pants fit me betterm but I still miss it.

Ok, enough of my ranting....You can probably tell it's 10:30pm here and I still have 4 hours to work. Oh wait, hence my blog title....Angry Julie Monday...

A Few of My Favorite Things

My friend, Londie, and I decided to do a swap. We gave each other a budget to send our favorite things to each other. This was a very difficult task for both of us. We like alot of the same things. Londie sent me her goodies. I got it this weekend. She lives in Texas.





I mailed out mine today. Londie will take a pic of my goodies when she gets them in the mail. It was really fun to do this with my friend.

P.S. Don't look at the horrible chair, that I placed everything on. Angry Toddler destroyed it when he was a baby....ok, he's still kinda of a baby, but before he was a year old.

Halloween Card

So after all my bitching about my pumpkin patch pictures, I was able to come up with ones I like. I did not have the time nor the patience to screw around edit the photographs.

I contacted Crystal at Photo Card Designs. She was able to edit my mess, and come up with a really cute card.

I can't wait to get these cards in the mail. And as bad as he was that day, he actually looks quite cute!

Pumpkin Patch

So I took Angry Toddler to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday. It's the October thing to do. I wanted to take pictures of him in his cute outfit let him see all the cute pumpkins. My parents also went with me.

AT loved it. I don't think he remembered that we went this same time last year. He ran around like a crazy man. I took my pictures to send out record the moments while he dodged from pumpkin to pumpkin. He then wanted to go into the bounce house, so I told my mom to go pay the $4 entry fee. He jumped in there for like 5 minutes and then, as he says "all done".

My camera was acting up again. I'm about ready to throw this Nikon over a cliff. It's been sent to Nikon for service two times this year. I have all these expensive lens and flashes, yet I have no flash in my pictures, ugh..

So then AT got biatchy, why? Because no nap. He gets to be quite angry around 2pm lately. This is what happens when you refuse to take a nap, Mr. Toddler. I put him over my shoulder and frantically went looking for my parents. Alas, I found them by the snack bar.

Then AT wanted to see the blue chicken, aka peacock. He thought that this bird was the coolest thing ever. He kept calling it blue chicken.

We finally left said pumpkin patch after about an hour. I was done, AT was done. When we got into the car, I asked Angry Toddler if he was hungry. He said, "Yes". I said, do you want chicken nuggets... He started crying.. Oops, I forgot, he just saw that "blue chicken" at the patch..

Now, I have to spend this entire day trying to edit these photos that have no flash, and are dark....

P.S. I hate my camera. Anyone wanted a used Nikon d70?

So at the end of the day, I get pie...

It was a very long day... I will blog about the day at the Pumpkin Patch tommorrow. But some co-workers thought they would be nice tonight at work. They went out and bought 6, yes SIX pies.....

So I walk by the breakroom tonight, I see these pies calling me...Julie, hey Julie, come eat me...

So I look for a plate, no plates to be found. I grabbed some napkins, ok paper towels from the dispenser in the breakroom. I slice myself a lovely peace of Pumpkin Pie. I then search for an eating utensil. All I can find is a spoon.

So I sit down at the table eating my tiny, yes, it was small, piece of pie. In walks a co-worker. I'm sitting a table, with six partially eaten, molested pies in front of me. I have a spoon up to my mouth, eating my piece of pie.

Co-worker looks at me, looks at pies. This does not look good. Semi-chubby girl, eating pie, at midnight, with a spoon, six other pies around her.

Ugh...

Message Boards or Forums

Do you frequent them?

Do you have regular ones you go to?

I do. I have been using message boards forums ever since I was Trying To Conceive. It's an awesome thing about the Internet. There are people out there like myself, going through the same struggles of TTC, parenting, marriage, and life.

We post about our daily lives, what's going on, issues we are having. People respond with comments, tips, and such.

But alas, my favorite part of the forums, is the drama. Yes, I'm a Drama Ho, and proud of it. Because of the Internet being so anonymous, you can post just about anything, unless you are on a forum that is censored. I've seen tons of debates natural/c-section birth; breastfeeding/formula feeding; circ/no-circ; co-sleep/crib....

I could go on and on. People love to argue. I think alot of people will not say things in real life, because they are shy, or don't want to start fights. But, hey on the Internet, it's fair game. You can post your opinion, defend your opinion, and if people don't like it, you sign off your computer. You can come back in a few days, and a lot of steam has been blown off. Why? Cause there is some new drama that everyone is talking about.

I'm writing this post today, because one of the Forums that I subscribe to is down. There are over 6,000 members on this Forum. It is unknown on how many people are actually active. I'm also on several sub-boards of this message board. This is a sad day for everyone....people can't wait for this Forum to come back up, we WANT, we CRAVE, the DRAMA....

So all my other peeps out there, hopefully, the Forum will be back up soon, so we can eat our dinners in peace tonight, in front of the computer, and rehash some awesome DRAMA.