We spent a pretty lazy weekend. It's so nice having Darren work at home on Friday, because that means that our weekend can begin when he stops working at 5:30, instead of waiting for him to get home and be exhausted around 7:00. Friday evening, we went and met some friends at the neighborhood pool. The boys splashed around, the parents talked, and Zoe hung out in her float. It started to get cold, so we didn't stay until closing. Friday night, we scrounged in the freezer to find dinner, then the boys played Zelda until really late. I went to bed at 11:15, and they were still playing.

Yesterday, I had every intention of spending the day studying. I have two tests the day after we come home from Schlitterbahn, and I have to finish my test review, plus read and fill out the PowerPoint for Chapter 8. I think I spent about three hours on and off working on it, because there were constant interruptions. If the phone wasn't ringing, Zach or Zoe needed something. Darren made it his mission to get the toilet put in the bathroom, so he spent all day working there. There were two trips made to Sears Hardware, but besides that, we didn't leave the house. After dinner, which we ate at 9:45, we watched Camp Rock. It was cute, and Zach enjoyed having us do something together. Zoe woke up around 11:15, and I brought her downstairs and gave her a bottle. I started realizing that we have three months left of bottles, and she's not really a baby anymore. She eats table food, and wants to sit up instead of lying down. I know that before long, she won't want to snuggle anymore, and that hurts to think about it. I took Zoe back upstairs, and fell asleep with her in bed.

Today, Darren let me sleep until almost 10:00. We decided to go out for breakfast, and it was 11:00 by the time everyone was dressed and ready to go. After driving by the place we wanted to go, and seeing that there were so many people waiting that they were spilling out into the parking lot, we decided to try a new place. It's a fairly new Mexican restaurant, but they do an American breakfast. There was an older Hispanic man playing guitar and singing, but he wasn't singing Mexican music. It was strange to hear John Mayer coming out of him! Anyway, we enjoyed the food, and Zoe had pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs,watermelon, and tortillas.

After breakfast, we decided to make a quick trip to the mall, because I wanted sunglasses and Darren wanted a new pair of swim trunks. Three hours and one swimsuit and sunglasses for me, as well as ice cream for Zach, and a new shirt for my dad, we followed our original plan of going to Home Depot for bathroom accessories. We bought a mirror, towel ring and toilet paper holder for our newly remodeled half-bath, and finally headed home.

I spent quite a bit of time doing schoolwork this afternoon while Zoe napped, then she woke up angry. She either has a cold or ear infection; her nose is running with yellow mucous, and she is pulling on her ear. She spent quite a bit of time crying this evening, then the whole family went to the grocery store. I wore Zoe in her sling, and she didn't make a peep the whole trip. We came home, ate breakfast food for dinner, then put Zoe to bed. Darren, Zach and I watched Ice Road Truckers, and Darren made it through about 20 minutes before passing out. He's still on the couch now; he'll stumble upstairs eventually.

Oh, test update: I made a B. 9 people out of the 21 made an F, so I felt really good about it. I've made As on everything else, and think I made an A on the lab practical last Wednesday. I hope I can keep my grades up, and make at least a B for the semester. I have a nursing informational session tomorrow, and I plan to try to get credit for a psych class. It was a graduate class that I took for teacher certification, and the one I have to take for nursing school is a sophomore level class. I plan to take my syllabus and textbook tomorrow and see what happens!

My good eater

Zachary is terrible at eating a variety of foods, and has to be seriously bribed to try anything new. lnevitably, once a new food hits his tongue, he declares it "disgusting" and that's that. As a baby, he was a great eater. When we were in the stage one and two baby foods, he would eat anything that Gerber made. Once we tried size three, which are the chunkier foods, the texture turned him off, and he refused to eat. For a baby who was previously drinking 48 ounces of formula a day, this was a big deal.

For a couple of years, Zachary lived on Schwan's French toast sticks for breakfast, and chicken nuggets for lunch or dinner. He would also eat French fries and peanut butter sandwiches. Today, as an almost seven-year-old, he drinks lots of chocolate milk, and eats Pop Tarts, hot dogs, pizza, yogurt, string cheese, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, hamburgers, cheese quesadillas, rice, roast, and any junk or snack food that is made. The one vegetable that he will eat is edamame.

With Zoe, I vowed that she would eat what we eat, and so far, everything is going well. We started her on baby cereal at about four months, and she did not like that at all. Soon, we introduced the stage one fruits and vegetables, and while bananas aren't her favorite, she'll eat any baby food put in front of her. She's currently doing great on the stage three foods, and also loves all of the baby snacks like puffs, banana cookies, and Cheerios. Zoe has been eating table food off and on for a couple of months now, and she has tried and liked carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, zucchini, mushrooms, corn, bananas, blueberries, YoBaby yogurt, brisket, turkey, chicken, sausage, hamburger, bread, and many more things. At the age of almost nine months, and with two teeth, Zoe already eats better than her brother does. That's a shame!

I hope there's still hope for Zachary. He tried cereal with milk in the past year and liked it, and recently began eating scrambled eggs and bacon. We'll have to resort to some heavy negotiation to broaden his palate, or maybe the shame of his sister eating foods that he doesn't will do it. We'll have to wait and see...

Friends

I recently had the good fortune to get back in touch with one of my closest friends from high school. He and I were only in school together for one year before he graduated, but we kept in touch after that, especially since we both went to the same university. He moved away while I was still in Baton Rouge, and I always wondered what had happened to him. None of the other people who I still kept in touch with knew how to find him, either.

Last week, I happened to find him on Facebook, and after e-mailing a few times, we talked on the phone late into the night. It was like we never lost touch, and it turns out that he is going back to school for nursing, as well. I hope that we stay in touch again, even though he's bad at e-mailing, and I'm not big on talking on the phone.

I realized that he and I have been friends for 19 years. I can't say that I have too many friends who I have known for that long, especially since I moved around a lot during college, and moved to a different state eight years ago. It's hard to make friends once you are out of college; it seems like neighbors and co-workers are the only people I am friends with now, and I wonder how many of them I will stay in touch with now that I am not working with them on a daily basis.

I am someone who needs a lot of friends, especially since we don't have much family here. I am an extremely loyal friend, and cannot stand having anyone mad at me. I've tried really hard to maintain all of my old friendships over the years, but it's gotten more and more difficult. With a lot of my friends, it always seemed like I was the one making the effort to stay in touch, whether it was through Christmas cards, phone calls, e-mails, or visits when we went back to Louisiana. Even though it hurts, I have finally come to the realization that I can't be the one making all of the effort anymore. It got tiresome to try to make plans with friends during the limited time we have when we are in Louisiana; we drive four hours to my parents' house, and friends who are an hour or two beyond that never seemed to want to come and see us. If we were in the same city, sure, maybe they'd have time for us to stop by.

Since we moved to Texas, friends here have come and gone from our lives. It's happened for many reasons: switching jobs, moving, or our children not having a class or activity together anymore. I have developed a few close friendships that I know I will keep, but have also lost many. Darren and I used to socialize a lot more than we do now; we'd rotate having dinner or going someplace fun with our friends. For the past couple of years, it seems like with a large majority of our friends, if we didn't invite them over, we weren't going to see them. Since having a baby in September, we haven't had anyone over besides New Year's Eve, and haven't been invited to do many things with anyone besides one or two of our closest friends. I am okay with it, because it is a lot of effort to get two kids out of the house, and most of the time, I'd rather just hang out here as a family. We play Wii, watch TV, go for a bike ride, or just hang out together.

What hurts the most is losing a friend who I used to be really close with, and we had so much in common that I thought we'd be friends forever. We went through job changes and having babies, but we always seemed to have time for each other. In the past couple of years, I realized that we are not as close as I thought we were, and maybe it's my fault that we are no longer friends. Who knows, maybe she still considers me a friend, and has no idea that I am hurt by her actions. My last few phone calls and e-mails have gone unanswered; maybe she doesn't realize that she blew me off. I really want to give her the benefit of the doubt and think that there is nothing wrong, but it's hard to do that.

I am already starting to make new friends in my class that I am taking, and most of them will be applying for nursing school with me in the spring. If we get in, we'll be together for three years. It's nice to have such a small class, and get to know my classmates and professor. I never had that in college. During teacher certification training, there was a core group who was really close, but we were all together for less than a year, and no one lived near each other. I would love to know how many of them are still teaching!

Time to go and get Zach from science camp...

Recent Photos

I finally pulled all of our photos off our camera. Enjoy! There are some here from Zoe's first swim, and also our trip to Baton Rouge and New Orleans over Memorial Day weekend.

We are enjoying a fairly lazy weekend at home this weekend. I have done some cleaning, but there is so much stuff in our house right now that I am overwhelmed and don't know where to start. I need time to finish a project, but I get distracted and end up starting several projects, none of which I manage to finish. Sigh.

You Know You're a Suburban Mom When...

You go to the grocery store as a welcome escape from your children. I was just in our friendly neighborhood HEB, after Zoe went to sleep, when I noticed all of the women customers. There were a few men darting here and there with their small baskets, but for the most part, the customers were women in their 30s and 40s, dressed in their comfortable "mom" clothes. They walked slowly, leisurely considering one item over another, and except for one woman I saw, were alone.

I don't generally like grocery shopping, but it's not too bad as long as I am alone. I tend to browse a little more and not race through the store.

When I went to the register to pay, the woman behind me commented on how much she likes grocery shopping, because that is the only reprieve she gets from her daughter. She also said that she was going to drive slowly, and take the long way home. I have to admit that I may have actually stayed within the speed limit on my way home tonight, after hearing her talk.

I have my first anatomy and physiology test tomorrow, and I don't feel like I can study enough to memorize all of the information that we need to know for the test. I don't think I ever put this much effort into a class in college! The professor gave us an extensive study guide, which I have probably spent close to 20 hours completing, but she also told us that the material on the study guide may not necessarily be everything on the test. WTF? I guess I'll spend tomorrow rereading the textbook and going over my PowerPoint notes. Another mom graciously offered to take my place at Cub Scout camp tomorrow so that I can stay home and study. We did have a pop quiz last night, and I made a 95, but I don't want to get to the classroom and freeze because I don't feel prepared.