To the left is my darling Yorkipoo, Reilly. He was two on January 14th. He is the sweetest, smartest, well-behaved dog.

To the right, yours truly (I TOLD you I had braces didn't I?) and my baby girl Madison. I usually don't smile in pictures because of my metal mouth. Madison looks nothing like me :( I am fooling around with some picures now instead of going to Darlington but i'll be MIA tomorrow and Saturday. Ah heck who am I kidding? I'll find time to blog!

I spent all last evening trying to hook up the Router to my laptop.
Stacy went fishing. No dice. I'm NEVER going to be able to share any pictures at this rate! Arrgh! This is one my niece took of me. It was a family party and no, that is not my house with all of that tacky indian stuff. Oops did I say that out loud?

I'm currently wrestling with the decision to have my tubes tied. As many of you know it took me 10 years to have my little Princess and it was a very difficult delivery. My doctor advises against another baby but I know Stacy would like to try for a son. Plus i'll be 40 this year. I had another babbly post up but I went to the Peanut Queen's Blog and it reminded me of my current dilemma.

I admit it I am a book 'Ho. I have always loved to read ever since I was a wee girlchild. I had the Nancy Drew books but I liked Trixie Belden even better. I also found (thanks eBay) a bunch of Cricket Magazines circa early 1970's. I used to subscribe to Cricket and loved it, it's not the same anymore. I did look at one in the library the other day. I was disappointed. Why do things have to change and seldom for the better? What were your favorite childhood books magazines? Have they changed over the years for the better or worse?

We had a GREAT time at the Flowertown Festival. It was very crowded and so many vendors. I had heard they had to turn away over 100 vendors and I can believe it! Does anyone else go to these festivals? I love them! We have the Sweet Potato Festival in Darlington in October (usually around my birthday). My MIL asked us to go to the Rice Festival with her in Walterboro which I think is the end of this month. Anyway I know this is a rather boring post but I honestly didn't do much else over the week-end except go to the Flowertown Festival. I bought a few things, Stacy a set of windchimes made out of recycled glass that he liked because he won a bet with me and the loser had to buy the winner any item of his/her choice at the Festival. Let me tell you that was a FIRST that I bet him something and was wrong. Usually I won't bet unless it is a sure thing! I got Maddie a cute hand-painted romper with "Five Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed" on it. That is one of our favorite books. Okay enough. Gotta get to work and start reading other blogs. I've got a late start this morning. This time change has totally messed me up!

Today is my Mom's 70th birthday. I will be leaving at 2:00 to run errands and pick up her cake. We are having a surprise party for her with the whole family there. Should be fun! My Mom is a great lady, was always a good Mother and I heart her very much. She is a two-time breast cancer survivor and that means alot to me. Happy Happy Birthday Mom!

In an effort to make this a cheerful, happy Monday I am wearing my monkey sweater. It is exactly the same one as the one pictured. It has a monkey appliqued on the back at the neck also. Maidson pulled one of the banana bunches off the sleeve this morning but i'll sew it back on tonight. She loves when I wear fancy sweaters & shirts. She always has to touch everything and say "Pretty" over and over again. I have a few for her but we have to be careful that she doesn't pull the pretties off!
Anyway I wore this so it would improve my mood.

Mondays just are not my best days. I don't hate my job but it... bores me. So sometimes it's a struggle. Stacy's birthday is this Saturday and my Mothers's 70th birthday is this Thursday so it might be a busy week for me. We are having a big family party for Mom and guess who Dad put in charge? Moi. I don't mind though, he knows i'll do it right. Stacy is going fishing on his birthday and we'll have cake & presents also that evening. Boy am I rambling on here. Sorry! Happy Monday all. Do you have any clothing/item that makes you feel good and lifts your spirits?

My post about Easter Candy led me to think about Easter's past. Do any of you remember when they used to sell Easter Peeps (or Chicks) at the dime store and dye them green & pink? One time my brother Mike rode his bicycle from Williamsport to Montoursville (about 12 miles I guess) to get us some peeps for Easter. He tied the cardboard box to the back of his bike and set off for home not realizing one of his captives had escaped. Yes this hardy, brave little peep rode all the way back to Williamsport clinging for dear life to the back of Mike's bicycle seat. We lived in the city but when the peeps & ducks (we also got ducklings several times for Easter) got bigger we took them to a friend's farm "Mr. Red". He boarded our horses for us so we always got to visit our peeps & ducks when we went riding on Sunday afternoons. We also got bunnies several times but my personal favorite was always the peeps.
Madison is still too little but when she gets older we will probably get her a bunny for Easter. I don't think you can get peeps or ducks anymore and I don't think the peeps or ducks would enjoy being terrorized by our cats. I really want to go all out on the holidays for Maddie like my parents did for me. Maybe next year I will cut out cardboard bunny feet and dip them in talcum powder and make bunny tracks in the house on Easter Morning. ~Hop~Hop~Hop~

Okay I don't know who watches American Idol but i'm a fan. I don't watch much TV but this is one (along with Desperate Housewives) that I don't miss. I'm about to start on Monday nights with Prison Break also just to see that little hottie Wentworth Miller. Anyway I am curious at everyone's guess who will be eliminated tonight. I say it will be Kevin aka Chicken Little. I voted for Elliott last night and had a hard time getting through so I think he is safe. I also like Chris, Taylor, Mandisa & Kellie. I think the guys are better than the girls this year by far. Really there are none left that I can't stand. I didn't like Brenna or Ayla or Sway much. Last year I HATED Mikayla (aka little Babs aka Little Nanny) and before that I hated Jennifer Hudson & Fantasia.

Well I couldn't leave you guys hanging with a post about being a crab could I? This is my Vera Bradley Citrus Bucket Bag. I heart it very much. I also have the matching wallet, checkbook cover & key chain and am about to get the mirror. Vera is very popular here in the Southeast even though it originates out of Indiana. All the young girls are carrying this pattern and alot of the pink & sherbet also. My main baby diaper bag is a Vera in the Greenfield Pattern with my monogram on it in hot pink. When Madison is out of diapers I am going to carry it as a tote. Madison also has a tiny Vera purse in the Greenfield pattern that her Aunt Bonnie got her. She was carrying it this week-end and Stacy said my MIL was having a fit over how cute and girly-girl she was being!

My sister and I went shopping in Columbia all day Saturday and I do mean ALL day. Well we went to Kohls & Ross and did a little damage then we ate at Red Lobster and then we were off in search of Mark Roberts Fairies. (you know the ones I blogged about a few weeks ago that they do NOT sell here in Florence anywhere). We went to two places on Two Notch Road, nada. One was closed, the other said they sell them at their other location but only at Christmas. We were hunting for the third store on Sunset but time ran out. Drat. I REALLY wanted a St. Patricks Day Fairy dammit.

Okay what is relevant about the pic above (besides the chick has a shape that I am SO sure does not need a body shaper) you may be asking. I detected a little pudge and decided I could use some smoothing out here & there.
So I found a body shaper.
This morning Stacy is helping me get into it.
Him: "What the hell is this thing for?"
Me: "A torture device"
Him: "Why are you wearing it?"
Me:"Cos' I was looking pudgy and this will help until I get a tummy tuck"
Him:"You women are crazy as hell I wouldn't be caught dead in one of these"
Me:"Men do wear them"
Him: "No Way!".
I am sweating like a pig by now and we are both out of breath from trying to wrestle me into the shaper.
Madison is sitting in her Daddy's La-Z-Boy silently watching the proceedings while sucking on her sippy cup of milk.
She's probably thinking 'I'll have to watch my weight so I don't get big as her and have to do THAT".
So now I sit here at work feeling slimmer and trimmer but realizing that if I take a deep breath and bust this thing I am going to fly all around the building like a baloon in the Macy's Parade...

As you know I am having "issues" with my stupid laptop and cannot download pics from my camera to it yet so I had to rely on a picture sent by someone else. This is me & my bff Mindy in February at a party. I am the dark haired one in red on the left. It is not the most flattering picture of me I think I have a slightly demonic look in my eyes but maybe it was the refreshing alcoholic beverage that I was holding making me look that way. Well do I look like you thought I would? I often get a mental picture of someone I have not yet seen. Sometimes I am right sometimes WAY off. I know Madison really looks nothing like me, she is the spittin' image of her good-looking Daddy!

My baby loves a bath! I just thought these pictures were cute and wanted to share them. My SIL Buffy sent them to me. I just found out Madison has two back teeth! Yay! She's been sort of crabby, now I know why poor thing. She has already cut her eyeteeth so maybe the worst is over now. She changes every day, does more & more. In the close-up pic she really looks like Curious George doesn't she? Maybe it's the shape of her face, I don't know but we think she looks like an adorable little monkey. I was going to get her Easter pics done tomorrow (w/ a live rabbit) but Oh well I can get them done March 24th. We will also attempt to visit the Easter Bunny at the Mall. I hope he rates higher than Santa did. Maddie threw a FIT on the jolly old elf's lap.

No pic to go with this post but let me say I am feeling much better today as is BabyGirl. She was crabby last night, whoo ee! I was glad when she went to bed at 7 p.m. and so was she.
I then went to the Library and got a few new books (not as many as I would have liked) but I finally, FINALLY found one of the Anita Blake, vampire hunter books. I started it when I got home and yep, I love it! I didn't like the other series I kept finding by Laurell K. Hamilton (about the Aunt who was the Queen and always trying to kill her niece or something like that) but I do love the Anita Blake ones.
Also on the work front I still have a job (yay!) but due to some major CRAP may not get a bonus in July. We'll see. I'm not going to get bent out of shape over something that has not occurred yet and may not occur. All I can say is if they want to get stupid about our raises and bonuses than they will probably see the quality of work go WAY down and it will serve them right. We have a good group here and we deserve better.
Even though I don't think she reads my blog I want to thank Pissy Britches for turning me onto yet another childrens clothing line Zutano. Adorable!
Also a big shout out to Denny at Not So Normal News for being a published Author and go check out his cool forum for budding Authors and voracious readers. (He loves that word, voracious, heh.)
I'll be jetting out of here at 3 to get my internet installed I hope it all goes well. I tried to install the software for my Kodak Easyshare camera this a.m. and failed miserably but i'll wait until i'm online and give it the old college try again because then I can get help hopefully.
Who knows my bloggy friends I might even have a pic of yours truly posted tomorrow and then you can see what I actually look like. I know you've been waiting with bated breath (not!). Seriously i'm nosey and always like to see pics of people and wonder what they look like if they don't have one.

Okay actually somebody needs to smack this bitch and say "No, God hates your ignorant ass". I hope I live to see the day that SOMEBODY kicks the crap out of Phelps and his band of not-so-merry Misfits. They spend their days harassing the families of soldiers, who are fighting for the freedom they enjoy to spew their garbage, and they harass gays and I don't know who else but i'm sure the list is long. These people turn my stomach. I am a live-and-let-live kinda gal. Love comes in all shapes & sizes and anyway who are these people to judge? Grrrr........ I didn't want my only post of the day be about an upset tummy but then I stumbled on this which is even worse. Human diarrhea. Yeah, that's what these people are.

This is why I wake up each and every morning. My sole reason for living and breathing. No, not really but I do heart her infinity plus. My big 16 month old girlie, Madison Moore (her middle name, Moore is my mother-in-laws maiden name). She is SO funny. She makes me smile and laugh all the time. She is a Daddy's girl and has her Daddy wrapped firmly around her finger. Yesterday we took her to the zoo and my camera was DEAD so we didn't get any cute zoo pics but my sister took this one of her on Saturday (and made me some cool address labels - Thanks Sis!). She doesn't have much hair but isn't she cute in her little gymboree Goldfish. She got to ride a pony at the zoo and of course Daddy walked beside her. Every time she went by all I saw were teeth. She LOVED it. The girl gave her an extra long ride, I guess because it was her first time and she liked it so much, or maybe she was flirting with the hubs I don't know but it was to my girls advantage so... *wink* Things are still weird here around work but frankly I just don't care anymore. It is always something here. Sometimes I wish they would just close up this operations site and give me a good severance package and send me on my merry way. They are so nit-picky, anal and just plain STUPID about things sometimes. It grates your nerves.

Well I had to go out of town yesterday and managed to get a little shopping in at the Tanger Outlets at Myrtle Beach. Awesome deals! I got Madison & Brittany (my niece) matching dresses at Hartstrings. They are just beautiful! I buy alot of Gymboree but I really really heart Hartstrings clothing also. I got a beautiful jacket at the Coldwater Creek Outlet. I always drool at their catalogue. I bought a bit at the GAP also. I know, I know, so cliche' but I heart the GAP! Me & Maddie have matching pink GAP hoodies. I also bought the biggest bottle of their "Dream" perfume that I could find. I love that, it's so subtle and ladylike and stays with you. I also wear Clinique's "Happy" and in the winter "Obsession" by Calvin Klein. Oh, Oh I also got the cutest Liz Claiborne Doctor bag that reminds me so much of the one I carried in college.

Well it went good at Dr. Trant's! Madison so far does not have to have surgery but we do have to keep an eye on her. He said treat her like a normal little girl, not like she is sick so we will do our best! Thanks for all the good wishes and kind words. They mean alot. It was a scary day. I don't have any recent pictures of Maddie since her first birthday ones this one was last June. She was so funny this morning blowing me kisses when I was leaving for work (her Daddy takes her to the baby sitter). Such a sweetheart!

This afternoon my babygirl Madison who will be 16 months old on Sunday goes back to her pediatric cardiologist. Last spring we discovered she had a heart murmur and she went to see Dr. Trant. He did an echocardiogram on her and she has some blockage that makes one side of her heart work harder than the other. They said if it did not get better on it's own there would have to be surgery at MUSC in Charleston. When she had her 12 month check up in October it seemed to be getting fainter but when she just had her 15 month check up it was just the opposite. To say I am worried is a gross understatement. BUT I guess I should just be thankful they are on top of things and if she needs surgery we will just deal with it. Please send some positive vibes, make a wish, say a prayer, whatever works best for you for Madison today. Thanks.