this blog is being retired from lack of use... mine, that is. i've decided to take my thoughts in a new direction... come see it at at my new blog, messages from the edge of sanity, at www.messagesfromtheedgeofsanity.com.

And life goes on.

It's been awhile sine I last posted.
Precious Baby is "there" with potty training. Occasionally ther eis an accident, but it's rare these days.

The game room is almost finished. We just have to do the floor and it's done.
Of course, our property taxes went up (AGAIN!) this year.
Boy is 13 and staring to think that he wants to live with us full time.

But today, something happened that deserves it's own, special mention:

We went out to dinner at the local pizzaria. We've been going there for almost four years now, since it first opened.
We came in order and found a table, and sat down to wait for our order, Next to us was a rather rotund gentleman, who was engaged in a freindly disagreement with another patron over the current state of the NBA playoffs.
I recognized the gentleman... he's also a regular.
We were eating our dinner, when.... suddenly... the noise... it seemed like the whold building shook. "Are the walls still standing?" Hubby asked.

"Excuse me," the rotund man at the next table said.

Yep, that's right... the public fart.

I was flabergasted. So were Hubby and Boy. I just couldn't beleive what we had witnessed.

Anyone else ever, well, been in the company of this sort of thing?

Today is Day Four since we said bye-bye to diapers.

And Precious baby is doing pretty well... we started on Friday. As I expected, she had quite a few accidents on Friday... I think six. The last one was at Plucker's, hubby's favorite wing restaurant, while she was sitting in her high chair! Luckily, I had changes of clothes and underwear for her, as well as a plastic bag for the wet clothes, and I was able to take her to the bathroom, clean her up and re-dress her without any problems.

Saturday and Sunday were much better. She had two accidents on Saturday, and two (or was it just one?) accident on Sunday.

Last night I got together the required five changes of clothes and underwear (and socks too!) to take to nursery school today. I had to use laundry basket to tote it all in! While I don't expect her to stay dry all day, a mom can hope, right?

Really, I'm very proud of her progress. And I think she's really excited about it to... I know she likes wearing her "Big Girl Pants" and her eyes just light up when she goes in the potty.

Of course, as proud as I am of her, and as happy as I am to say good bye to diapers, it does mean she's growing up... and in a way, that makes me a little sad. I feel like she's growing up so fast! Sometimes I really wish she could be a little baby for just a while longer.

But then again, every night she reminds me of how sweet and babyish she still is, when she snuggles up against me to read stories and wind down before bed. I wouldn't trade those sweet moments cuddling with her for anything.

Easter Sunday.

Hubby and I aren't religious. In fact, we're aethiests, but we love to celebrate holidays like Christmas and Easter... because, let's face it, the holidays are just so much fun for young children.

Last night, after Precious baby went to sleep, I got out the plastic eggs and the chocolate candy. After filling the eggs, I hid them (in plain sight, more or less) around the living room. This mornig when precious baby woke up, we told her that Easter Bunny had come and left eggs for her to find.

St. Patrick's Day is a sacred day in our family. Hubby is Irish, and darn proud of it. I am not, but, I'm (almost) always up for a party, and I've always loved St. Patrick's Day, especially since it it's right after my birthday and just contributes to the whole "long weekend" aspect of my Birthday.

This year, as we always do, we went to the St. Partick's Day restival at the Dog and Duck Pub. Precious baby, age two and a half, has been every year since she was born, that little Irish Lassie!

The festival is a lot of fun though... Irish folk music, Irish punk bands, and even Bagpipe and drum units do the Festival every year. Of course, it's also a really good excuse to drink Guiness (I passed but Hubby drank enough for both of us!) and eat fish'n'chips. Dog and Duck does have the best fish'n'chips I've ever tasted, and Hubby says they are as close to what you get in Ireland as can be. But. given my desire to loose weight (yes, we aregoing to discuss it!) I managed to resist the temptation... except for about three "chips"... and I am proud of it.

It's time to ditch the diapers.

Precious baby is two and a half. She's been showing interest in pottying from the day I showed her the potty... about two weeks after her second birthday. She's been pretty hit or miss about pottying, but getting better... but she still wants to pee in the pull ups.

However, recently, two of her little friends at school have started underpants. And she has said that she wants to potty train, and that she want to wear underpants.

So I've decided that it is time to put her in panties. And we are going to start this weekend, specifically, tomorrow, since I'll be off work for good Friday. I figure she'll wet herself a few times and she'll get the picture...

So in preparation, I've bought about 15 pairs of cute little girl panties... Dora and Hello Kitty. But that probably isn't enough, so tomorrow I'll probably go to Target and have her pick out some more. I figure I'll need about thirty pairs, along with many, many pairs of leggings and tee shirts, and easy little dresses, since her nursery school requires five (!!) full changes of clothes for everyday while they are potty training. It seems like a whole lot, I know... but I sure would want to have clean clothes to change into!!!

Wish us luck!

Time for a Birthday week-end wrap up.

Friday (the day before my birthday):
Hubby took me out to dinner at Vespiao Enoteca. Fantastic! As it should be, since they share a kitchen with Vespiao, the best (at least in my opinion) Italian restaurant in town. Enoteca is kind of like the kid brother of Vespiao, a little less expensive, and a little more casual... But still, so good. We ordered an apetizer plate of procuitto di parma, jambon, and duck rillets. Yum. Hubby ordered a margarita pizza and I had the gnochi with tomato sauce and a little cheese. Delicious. We would have probably just gone to a bar, and had another drink or two, and gone home early, except that my friend Brit called as we finished dinner... and she was ready to party!!!

Was she ever! She met us at some new bar on west 6th street (away from the SXSW crazyiness) and we had a few drinks before going over to The Brown Bar, the swankiest gin joint in town. Had a few more drinks. Then Brit talked us into going to Elysium, a dance club down town, right in the middle of all the SXSW insanity. So we hailed a cab. We got down there, and found out Elysium was participating in SXSW and the cover charge was outrageous, since we didn't have passes, so we got a bike rickshaw to Oil Can Harry's, the best gay dance club in town.

At Oil Cans, Brit began her "inspection tour" which consists of her walking through the club, "inspecting" (that means groping!) each attactive male behind that she saw... and given that we were at Oil Cans, which was full of well dressed, well maintained gay men, it took a long time.

After Brit had checked out every behind at Oil Cans, we went across the street for what would turn out to be our last drink at a Pub. Time to go home. Good fun, but I couldn't do that every weeked!

On Saturday, hubby gave me my birthday gift: an adorable little Micheal Korrs black patent leather clutch. I love it, it's so cute, and I can't wait to use it! Precious baby and the Boy had a gift for me too: The Kite Runner, ( a novel) and some nice socks.

Later that afternoon, all of our friends (except Brit... she was recovering!) came over to our house for chicken and veggie kabobs. It was great to see all of our friends, and Precious baby got to play with her cousin, and S, the daughter of our friends, S and C, who is just two weeks older than she is.

Yesterday was nice, quiet time, to relax and recharge... except for hubby who was resting up for today, St. Patrick's Day.

Last night, Hubby made dinner for me: roasted chicken with forty cloves of garlic. It was so good. I made parmesan mashed potatoes and french onion soup to go with it. It was a classic french bistro meal. Certainly a departure for our usual healthy eating, but then again, I don;t think it was too bad, in terms of fat and calories.

Besides, it was a birthday meal, and everyone knows that those don;t count. Right? Right? I wish.