Oh Jules!

Julsie Pulsie is getting so cute. Here is an update on my little JLO.

- She has 7 teeth now

- No, she can't walk yet. She refuses to let go of your hand. She is so stinkin' close though. It should be any day now.

- She is a fast little crawler and does a crawl on her hands and feet (not her knees) that makes me laugh.

- She can often be found raiding the food cupboard in the kitchen. I had to move the prunes because I think they're a choking hazard and she was always in them. This weekend, at various times, I found her in the box of Cheerios, her Gerber Puffs, and a bag of mini schmarshmellows.

- She loves music and begins to dance anytime it comes on, be it a cd, commercial, movie, whatever.

- She is a climber and a little escape artist. Any time any door is open, she bolts for it. I call her the bird man of Alcatraz.

- She gives the cutest kisses. She leans in, makes an "aaaaa" noise and plants it on you. Many times, if she gives one of us a kiss, she then looks at the other one, leans, and waits for her kiss from that one... even if we're across the room! We, of course, run over to get that kiss... and it goes on like that back and forth, back and forth.

- She can definitely say "dada" and maybe "maaaaaaa" She is also working on Uh-Oh and I swear she says "good girl" although she hasn't said it in front of anyone else but me. Last night she was saying "Shhhh" and putting her finger, well, to various places on her face. =) We'll get there!

- Her little skin is silky soft and as brown as a berry. Even with SPF 50 she is getting a nice little tan. Her hair is really light now too and coming in more and more.

- Best thing ever. When you pick her up and put her on your shoulder, she'll pat YOUR back. Its the best little feeling.

- This week at the grocery store she has insisted on holding some food item. One day it was a protein bar. By the end of the trip she had managed to open it by herself and was sticking her finger inside and then licking off the chocolate coating from her finger. Another day this week I picked up some chocolate chips and let her hold them. She would not let go of them for ANYTHING. She held them like a little baby doll and cuddled up with them in the grocery cart "car." By the time we got home some of them were all melted together.

Oh my little JLO, JJ, Julsie, Jules. She sure is a cutie. We just can't get enough.

Domestic MacGuyver

So Nat drops something down the overflow hole located in the bowl of the bathroom sink. Hmmm. Think. Tweezers don't work. Think Think Think...
So I run to the craft box, grab the hot glue gun and a pipe cleaner, apply the hot glue to the end of the cleaner, send it down the hole, wait a second and Voila! out comes the lost item!
Yeah, I was pretty tickled with myself, can ya tell?

Oh, here are some other uses for hot glue: putting a new safety tip on your underwire and gluing it back into its sleeve. Sealing off the ant highway between your baseboard and floor.

I Wonder as I Wander ...

As I walk the dog, I find time to think.... and this is what I thunk...

At 11:30 pm, you are driving on the interstate by yourself with two small, sleeping children. You've now finished one coffee and one large Sheetz Iced Chai Tea. Your bladder is about to explode. Do you:

a. Find the most well-lit gas station you can, lock the doors and run in and out as fast as you can? No one will even notice the kids in the car... right?

b. Find the most well-lit gas station you can, wake up the toddler and try to get her to walk. Carry the baby in (waking her up too). Attempt to balance the baby on your hip as you unbuckle your pants with one hand while trying to get the toddler to stop trying to lay her head on the in-stall trash receptacle. Wipe, pull up and buckle your pants with one hand, flush, and wash everyone's hands. Return to your car, buckle everyone up again and hope that no one notices that you are obviously traveling alone.

c. Although your husband tells you never to do so, you pull off the side of the highway and put the car in park. You strategically place the cup from your Sheetz Iced Chai under your own "bumper." You pray as you stare into your rear-view mirror that the oncoming traffic does not hit your car and that THIS cup doesn't "runneth over." (you dump the cup out douse your hands in Purell but keep the cup until you get to a trash can at your destination.... can't be a litter bug!)

d. Pull of at an exit, find a secluded office building, and relieve yourself in the woods near the edge of the parking lot. There probably isn't any poison ivy there....right?

e. None of the above. Mind over matter. Plus, the pain is helping to keep you from dozing off.

Be Careful Batman! Robin is Really a Joker

Where I work (John says "worked") is a total joke. I like getting cash and feeling like I am financially contributing to this family, easing financial burdens, but this is ridiculous. For example, despite being shift leader, being HUGGED by one customer and being told I was the best waitress ever, I was tipped an avg of 10% that night. Note to restaurant goers: If you have the "best waitress ever" or want to hug her, it is not appropriate to tip her 10%.... ever. Adding insult to injury, I had to pay the bartender and buser $15.00 of my tips (almost 1/3 of what I made that night). Worse yet, I was forced to claim that I made $52.00 for tax purposes when I really only made $37.00. Talk about utter disappointment. I was almost sick.

About 10 days later, its a Saturday night and I'm shift leader again. Again I think I should be able to make some decent money but realize I only have 2 really usable tables (the other 2 have bar stool chairs which never get sat.) Not only that, but this night (and the prior 3 I worked) I had to almost beg for tables even with a line out the door. I to tell them I had clean a table (one that I had cleaned myself despite knowing I would have to pay the bussers for doing it anyway.) I was frustrated and bored and pretty much just ran other people's food all night. Finally, it's nearing close and I should be getting sat more tables because everyone else is getting sent home but I'm not. Oh well, right? Then, I am bussing my tables and get caught up with a big party I had. I just left some glasses and a couple baskets on an unused table. I ask the busser to come up and help me clear them... but he never did. Five minutes later, the boisterous, rude and short (can we say "Napoleon Complex") manager comes up and gives me a hard time about the glasses (not really talking TO me, just talking to the crowd of staff hanging around). I assure him I'll take care of them, but another waiter just picks them up and takes them to the dish room. I go to the computer and the manager comes out of nowhere, and says, "did you hear that clanging back there?" I stutter, "huh? what? No?" "That was your **** and now they're all broken." ya-da ya-da (Apparently the kid who took them back dropped them.) He continues to loudly rant and rave as he walks away from me and I hear him yelling something about "if it says Made in China on your check." By now, he's yelling in a completely different room.

You've got to be kidding me, right? He's a manager? It seriously took all that was in me not to just walk out the door. In the following week, I have run my options through my head a million times and have had at least 3 nightmares about the whole thing. I know what I would do if this was a "real" job... but if this was a "real" job would someone so completely inept at dealing with people be in such a position?

Seriously. I know I'm a great waitress and a hard worker. I'm not a teeny bopper who needs to be scared into working, ... or who doesn't know any better. Maybe they like the teeny-boppers who practically make out in the bus stand, text message the entire time they are "working," peel wheel and shout profanities in the parking lot ... but I digress.

Catch Up

Holy mackerel. Have you ever had so many random things to talk about you just don't know where to start? We've had a wild couple of weeks and most of the things that went on aren't fit to blog about. I need to use my internal censor.

Here is the more tame version of events:

SATURDAY: Our niece, Randi (Spanky), graduated high school. Although it was about 1000 degrees in that gym-a-torium, we were very happy to be there and very proud of her. She's a smart and has a lot of potential. (I may have offended some but .... well, they deserved it [CENSOR]) After the ceremony there was tea and cake available. My MIL did not get to stay for the cake [CENSOR].

FRIDAY: Our niece, Erica, got married at the district magistrates office. [CENSOR CENSOR CENSOR] There were about 25 people there [CENSOR] She is a one-of-a-kind. To me, she looked like Amy Winehouse. To her family, she looked like her great grandmother, Barbie, which is appropriate because she and Barbie loved each other very much. We wish them the best and despite the non-traditional start, we take our role in supporting this marriage to help make it last very seriously. Her maiden name and new name is Erica O'Day-Paez Palorino. Her step-dad is Lewandowski. Talk about diverse! hahaha I think we're only missing a "Chung" or "Nyugen" and we'd cover the world.

SATURDAY: My parents, sister and BIL attended the wedding of one of her highschool friends. The bride is also my high school boyfriend's little sister. I think they were worried it would be awkward, [CENSOR] but in the end they had a good time. They told me everyone who was in attendance and I thought, "just add my side of the family and it would have been the exact guest list of my wedding had I been married right after high school." Weird