Hair & Nail Growth

So, everyone kept telling me how fast your hair & nails grown while you are pregnant and also how strong & beautiful they will be.

I did notice that they both grew very fast, but I didn't really think the quality of them had changed until now, after birth and during breastfeeding. Could the hormones associated with breastfeeding be improving the quality of my hair & nails? All my nails have never been so long, strong or pretty (now, I type that I will probably break a bunch.)

It's unfortunate that my wash & go style involves throwing my hair in a ponytail, because my hair has probably never been so healthy (at least not since I started dying it over half my lifetime ago.) Even if I did wear it down, it's not practical anymore. Isabel can already grab up and pull my hair. She likes to grab at things with her free hand while she nurses.

Organic Food

So, I was trying to look up information about a particular brand of organic cereal when I came across this article about how big name brand companies have been buying up small organic companies.

I was just doing some research on some food products before I bought some things on Amazon's Grocery (store, a beta store). Right now if you spend $49+ you get $10 off instantly if you enter in the code GROCERY2. The cool thing is that all this stuff qualifies for free shipping (at least everything I have looked at so far.)

Now, if you buy organic food (& we try to quite a bit), you know it can get spendy, especially if your grocery store only has a small section and they aren't buying in bulk. Bulk is the key word here because you are not just buying 1 box of cereal, you are buying a box of 6 boxes (just an example).

And for those of you WW dieters out there that I know, you might want to check it out because organic food tends to be made with whole grains, thus being high(er) in fiber & lower in added sugars, thus lowering your points for an item (or allowing you to eat more.)

I should mention that there are plenty of non-organic food in the Amazon grocery section if you choose to want to buy that.

Things That Suck!

• The "budgeted" gas bill going up by $16/mo.
• 100 degree weather
• The electric bill when I see the total from having the a/c on all the time
• That my baby won't take a bottle & I can't go anywhere w/o her for more than an hour
• My garden is getting weedy
• The smell of a diaper pail full of dirty diapers
• The price of gas hovering around $3/gallon (& probably rising)
• Never being able to get rid of those cottage cheese looking thighs
• That summer is half over already, which means my maternity time is half over too
• Vegtables & fruits going bad before you have a chance to use them
• Lack of Sleep
• Babies outgrowing clothes before you ever have a chance to put them in it
• Those first few minutes in the car before the a/c cools it down when it's 80+ degrees out
• Cat hair all over everything, and no matter how hard you try to keep up with it, there is always more
• Having to pay for car tabs or car insurance
• Offering to give something away for free & then the people not showing
• Burning the toast or popcorn
• Babies who don't want to sleep
• Dead bugs on window sills
• Wasps, bees, or anything with stingers
• Vaccuming & then having the cats fight & leave little tufts of hair all over after you just finished
• Buildings that don't allow cell phone coverage because of how they are contructed
• Buying creamer (or any dairy product) & then noticing after you get home that it is expired
• Craving cereal but discovering you are out of milk
• Thinking you are drinking milk but instead it's a glass of lemonade
• Blogger having problems & losing big long posts you typed

ok- I guess I should end my rant & try to be more positive. I am just tired & cranky.

Garden Progress

I got some radishes out of the garden. Yeah! And I see I have peppers & tomatoes growing on some of my plants. The zucchini has blossoms on it, so hopefully I will have some of those soon as well. Everything else is growing nicely.

Updated Links

Updated my links on the sidebar, both on here & the baby blog.

All Good To Go

I had my 6 weeks post-pregnancy checkup today and I can not be sexually active again. Hubby will be glad for that. I am breast feeding, which is supposed to act as a birth control (but it's not fool-proof), so I got back on Depo. I hope my period doesn't come back. I was on it for 5 years before we decided to have children, at which point I went off of it for 1 1/2 years, and after the first couple month of being on it didn't have my period. I loved not having my period (which is a great thing about being pregnant & breastfeeding - no period! Although, with breastfeeding, it does come back after a while in some women.) So, my appointment went well. I am almost back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I have 6 more pounds to go (gained 30 during pregnancy.) I bet those 6 pounds would already be off if I didn't keep eating so much ice cream & brownies & cake & whatever other sweets you put in front me. The last 6 weeks I have eaten so many desserts that it is not funny. My extra 500 calories a day I am supposed to eat because I am breastfeeding is all coming in the form of desserts. I am creating some bad habits here - but it tastes so goooooood! I think I here a frosted brownie calling my name.

Birthday Freebies

Here are a couple more I found:

Kids
California Pizza http://www.cpk.com/register/cpkids.aspx
Denny's http://www.dennys.com/en/cms/DZonereg/93.html (must fill out application)
Perkins http://perkins.kidsbirthdayclub.com/
Toys'r'Us http://www5.toysrus.com/bdayrus/brus_ad_gbc.cfm (ages 2 – 10)
Sonic http://wackypack.kidsbirthdayclub.com/index.cfm?TheLogout=1
Ringling Brothers http://www.ringling.com/offers/
Ace Hardware http://www.helpfulhardwareclub.com/kids/kids.asp
JC Penney Portraits https://www.jcpenneyportraits.com/birthdayclub/secure_bday.asp
Cold Stone creamery http://www.coldstonecreamery.com/birthday/
Hollywood Video : Free Rental on your b-day http://www.hollywoodvideo.com/specials/default.aspx
Dairy Queen http://thedqcentral.com/
Pizza Ranch http://www.pizzaranch.com/fun/index.php?id=7


Adults
Crabtree & Evelyn http://www.crabtree-evelyn.com/emailexclusives/default.aspx
A bunch of adult ones if you click on the title, which will bring you to an old post of mine.

My Home Town (old postcards)

Way before my time, but interesting nonetheless.

Lucy - The Other Cat....

Lucy sleeps in hiding spots most of the day, so she's never around to take pictures of. But today was different. She decided to sleep on the bottom of their kitty tower in the office. She likes to sleep curled up in a ball, and often covers her face like you see her doing here.

New @ the Outlet Mall

There is another new store over there -- Lane Bryant. Also, not sure if I said that J. Jules (clothing place) is new over there as well (a couple of months ago).

I Don't Understand....

Wha I don't understand is how Larry just loves sleeping in our smelly clothes & shoes. He is really into Andy's stuff and andy can be a pretty smelly guy. His shoes do not smell at all like roses, but Larry loves to dive into them as if he were wearing them and sticks his head in them.

Here he is sleeping on Andy's pajamas, which he has been wearing to bed and sweating in them for a couple days now. There is just something about Andy's smell that this cat just loves, and the stronger the scent the better.

Poor Andy can barely get his pants down to do his #2 business before the cat jumps right in the pants and takes a nap. Strange.

The Poop Report?

So, Andy & I were having a discussion about what a floater means? What I mean by that was do you have a lot of gas in yor diet, or maybe a lot of fiber, or maybe it's something else. So, I did a little search and found the Poop Report. Their slogan is "Your #1 source for your #2 business." Funny. But here is what they have to say on the topic of floaters & sinkers. Apparently you have floaters when you are gassy.

Weird Sleeping Position

Here Larry is half sleeping on the bed (by Andy's head) and half on the night stand. I believe he is there because he likes to be in front of the a/c. Speaking of a/c, I found him sleeping on top of the big a/c n the hallway @ 5:30am. Crazy cat. He's been finding all sorts of weird places to sleep.

He's still been puking and abnormal amount. We'll probably need to take him into the vet on Monday to get him checked out.

I Like Ellen....

I just like watching the Ellen DeGeneres (wow, there are a lot of e's in her name). I normally do not watch talk shows, but hers I like. She's not like some of the others that seem so full of themselves. She's so carefree and presents information in an entertaining way and doesn't beat things over the head. Today is was Ellen the Musical. Very funny.

Brittany on Dateline

So, I Tivo'ed Dateline last night to see the interview with Brittany Spears.

She looked awful! She was falling out of her top, I kept waiting for her boobs to fall out. Her bra was showing on one the entire interview. And her mascara was clumped on her top lashes on one of her eyes, it looked nasty. Her skin tone was all splotchy. It was almost like Dateline was helping foster the image that she is upkept & disorganized. You sould of thought that someone would have told her to tuck her bra in or fixed her makeup. Did they want her to come off bad?

It was pretty annoying that she was so "Poor Me!". She kept dropping names of other stars who had a similar situation and they didn't get harrassed as much as she has. They said she is worth around $100 million, if you are worth that much money and got that by being a public figure, you have to expect that the public is going scrutinize you.

What drives me nuts is that she has contant security around her, doesn't one of them know the carseat is supposed to be rear-facing for the first year and that you don't drive with a baby on your lap? Who are these idiots that she has hired that can't tell her she's f*cking up.

There were so many things she said that could be considered "bad" quotes. I'm not sure that the end result of this interview that she has hoped for will happen.

Poor Larry....

He's just having a bad week. He must have gotten into something, we figure a chewed on a plant he shouldn't have , and has diarrhea & has puked a few times.....This started yesterday. His energy level is just fine.

He has dried poop all over his back side & Andy had to clean him up. It was pretty gross and I don't think either appreciated it.

Anyways, today I had a candle on the counter that he got a little to close too and burned the tip of some of his fur. He didn't get hurt or anything, just scared.

Patch Is Back!

So, Steve "Patch" is back on DOOL. You can read here on the DOOL website all about Steve's history. What I had intended to find out was just how Steve (now calling himself Nick since he doesn't remember his past - funny how that always happens on soap operas) died. It isn't until you get to the last paragraph that you find out how he "died".

This is what it says:
"After learning that Bo was the Riverfront Raider, Steve agreed to help him. Steve spotted a suspicious looking boat and when he investigated, he found a card addressed to Bo from Lawrence Alamain. The boat exploded (an explosion meant for Bo) and Steve was knocked into a coma. He came out of the coma, only to have Lawrence poison his IV. Steve died in Kayla's arms but before he was buried, his coffin was switched with an empty one."

Nursing makes me thirsty

When I nurse Isabel, I get so dehydrated. It's like when she drains me of my milk supply she just sucks all the fluids out of my body. Strange.

Woohoo!

Went for a 2-week post-pregnancy doctor visit (will have another @ 6 weeks) anf hesaid my uterus is almost back to regular size. My BP was good and my weight is 9 lbs. more than my pre-pregnancy weight. I had gained 30 pounds in the pregnancy and I guess normal weightloss from delivery (weight of baby, placenta, amniotic fluid, excess body fluids) is an intial 14 pounds.

So, I am happy that the weight has come off nicely so far. We'll see how long it takes to lose the 9 pounds (since I am not dieting since I am breastfeeding.) I know where that 9 pounds is too -- right on my squishy belly & into my hips, plus some to my breasts as well.

Got the garden planted....

Just planted the garden today. I was hoping to have it done a few days ago already, but oh well, better late than never.

To the left here is my garden layout. All the circles are mounds. I basically left the middle open so that the viney stuff can grow into it.

I bought single pots with 3 plants each of watermelon, green slicing cucumber, & zucchini. The tomatoes I bought plants for to. The rest I just planted seeds. I never planted melons before, so we'll see how it goes. I have had pretty good luck with the rest though.

I actually have green beans that are growing along the chicken wire fence by the canteloupe, & yellow squash. They had re-seeded themselves again. So, I am just going to let them grow in the fencing and I won't have to trellis them.

This year we are doing the lasagna gardening thing. It's work the first year to get it established, but hopefully next year it will be so so simple.

I got some composted alpaca manure (from a woman who picked up stuff we listed on Freecycle). It was nice that she offered to bring some for me. She brought 4 bags (leftover bags from corn feed for the alpacas) for me. So, I put that on the garden as well.

I also have other garden stuff.....in pots by the deck. I have Roma tomatoes (1 plant) & some other smallish type tomato plants (2 plants) and jalepeno peppers (3 plants) in pots. And I have hanging baskets off the deck with green leaf lettuce, turnip green, red leaf lettuce, & spinach (although the spinach has not sprouted - I think the seeds were too old or something, but the other 3 sprouted).

I also have my herb garden. My chives & oregano came back (yeah!) and I planted sage this year (so, hopefully that will come back next year), and I also planted cilantro & purple basil (both annual herbs), and I also have my little strawberry patch. Oh, and we have our 4 apple trees, which had a TON of blossoms on this year and didn't get nipped by a late frost like last year, so hopefully we'll have a lot of apples.

Now, I just have to keep everything watered. It's been pretty hot and we have not been getting any rain. It's only the 1st week in June and already the grass is getting that burnt brown look. Bah!