This just made me laugh.

Nervous Charlie’s Market/Gas Station/Fireworks outlet and Souvenir shop.

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Southerners like their religion.  I’ve been quite surprised to find that the question “where do you go to church” is often one of the first 5 things someone asks upon meeting.  In my 30+ years in the north, I don’t think anyone ever asked me that.

The south uses the highway to attempt to save you from eternal damnation.  In the north we figure if you want to go to hell it is really none of our business – just get out of the left lane if you aren’t passing.

Recognize that face?

My brother in law is a very talented artist.  He and my sister in law tend to hang out with other artists.  One of their friends thinks Sabrina is a beautiful girl (duh).  Their friend, Mark, painted Sabrina from a photo my sister in law took and is using that painting on the cards he is sending out announcing his show.  How cool is that?

Is it just me or do all moms try to think 12 steps ahead for each action?  Steve thinks I am a little crazy but I’ve seen where kids’ minds lead them.  Admittedly, many of the children I’ve worked with had serious behavior issues or mental health issues.  But shit happens.

An example.  When we go out to dinner and they give Sabrina crayons, Steve almost always draws on the back of his hand with the crayon and encourages Sabrina to draw on his hand with the crayon.  I’ve asked him not to encourage this behavior because I am imagining this happening in our house.  With a sharpie.  The day before a scheduled family photo shoot.

He doesn’t understand how my brain ends up there.  I don’t understand how his can’t.

I turned 36 yesterday.  My consolation was this lovely ice cream cake filled with jamocha almond fudge.  Yum!  Thinking of having a piece for breakfast.

I had a pretty ordinary day but how can I complain when an ordinary day is one spent with my beautiful daughters and an evening with my wonderful husband?  Wouldn’t have spent it any other way – well except maybe on a beach with a cabana boy bringing me copious amounts of slushie fruity drinks.

You all know that I’m not afraid to get into controversial subjects when the mood strikes.  I’ve declared my opinion on several hot button topics at different times.  I’m sure some people were waiting for a rant on the Palin issue.  A rant about how unfair it is that everyone is saying she needs a make over or how no one is questioning Obama’s ability to be a good father while running the country or whatever else might strike my fancy that day.  When no rant appeared many of you probably thought I was too busy or tired to put together a post or to give it much thought.  That isn’t entiredly incorrect.  But mostly?  Those things don’t matter to me.  I am so tired of reading threads on message boards about what kind of mother Palin is or what her religious practices are or if she has shot a moose.  I have said repeatedly in those venues and will repeat it here:  I don’t care.

Palin’s ability to be a mother while being the vice president isn’t any of my business.  That is an issue for her family to address.  I don’t care what her hair style is.  Also not concerned about her shooting moose.  And as long as we continue to have a separation of church and state in this country (I won’t start a rant on how this has been erroded under the reign of the current king president), I don’t care what religion she practices.  I care only about her politics, her experience, and her ability to assist in running the country.  If someone has solid information about her supposedly wanting to ban a long list of books when she was mayor, I’m all ears (and willing to rant at length).  But I’m tired of the conversations that have nothing to do with the issues at hand.

For a variety of reasons, I will not be casting a vote in favor of her ticket in November but I assure you it isn’t because I’m concerned her kids might not get enough mommy time.

Now can someone tell me who taught my oldest daughter to say “mommymommymommy” 37 times in a row without taking a breath while tugging on my shirt tail?  Because that is an issue with relavence today.

I had my 6 week postpartum doctor appointment today.  All is well.  (My fever from yesterday topped out at 103.5 for a couple of hours and then responded to the advil I was taking and by bedtime I felt back to normal.)  I can now resume all normal activities with one caveat: the doctor asked that I wait another 2 weeks before doing any abdominal crunches.  Considering the closest I’ve gotten to doing a crunch is sitting forward on the couch to grab my iced tea off the coffee table, I felt I could pretty safely agree to that limitation.

Tessa is also doing well.  Last night, she went 8 hours between feedings.  I’m sure it was a fluke but what a happy fluke!

Modeling her super comfy gift from Sabrina’s future mother in law:

And for my sister, the new red glasses.  Ignore the red eyes.  (They don’t look very red in the photo but the frames are dark red – tres trendy for this momma.)

I’ve learned something about myself this summer.  I apparently can’t keep children and plants alive at the same time.  My poor herbs struggle in this heat to begin with but add in my neglect and they were doomed from the start.

The rosemary and oregano are completely dead.  The basil is trying to hang in there.

Horizon Organic Milk sent me some samples in return for me telling you what I thought of them.  (The website has recipes and info about their products.)

We received a single serving of chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and plain reduced fat milk.

The single servings come in juice box form – box with a straw attached for easy portability.  The milk is also shelf stable so you can throw it in the diaper bag or lunch box without any worries about it spoiling.  I really like that feature because we don’t do juice in our house and I don’t like to take milk in a sippy cup when we are out and about because it gets warm and yucky.  Then the cup gets left in the car and I end up throwing it away rather than opening a week old sippy cup with milk in it.  These milk boxes save all of those worries.  I know many of you try to feed your family organic items so this is another way to bring organic products to the table that your kids will enjoy.

I don’t drink a lot of milk except in my coffee so Sabrina was the taste tester.

I asked her if it was yummy.  I think she was a fan.

I give this product very high marks on the convenience scale.  And Sabrina loved it – the flavored milk was of course a hit but she also liked the plain.  The novelty of milk in a box also was a hit.

Blogging gets the last tiny shred of my attention so bare with me while I continue to figure this whole mommy-of-two thing out.  I am still so tired I drool a lot shouldn’t be operating heavy machinery.  Some days, like today, I think about throwing in the towel on this whole nursing business because it feels like more than I can juggle – then I make it through another day and keep plugging along.  I’m all about the “One Day At a Time” principle (the AA thing, not the 70’s sitcom starring Valerie Bertinelli) right now.

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My big news for the weekend is both Steve and I managed to get new glasses with 2 children in tow.  I’m really rather sad that new eye glasses now constitute big news in my life.

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I lied.  The really big news this weekend is that I finally got that margarita I’ve been talking about for 37 10 months.  It was yummy.  I could have easily drank several more but it would have gotten messy because my tolerance is at negative 2.

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Sabrina’s car is in the garage.  Unfortunately, it is still disassembled in the box.  Things like sleep, eyeglasses, mommy’s margarita, and mowing the grass took precedence this weekend.

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Speaking of her new car, why does EVERY SINGLE CHILDREN’S TOY have to play music these days?  The car plays “6 tunes” (in theory because we will not put batteries in it).  When I complained, the salesperson said he was pretty sure they all played music now.  Obviously kids love the car without music – why must they add extra noise?  My mother in law got Sabrina a wooden puzzle for her birthday – even it plays sounds!

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We’ve decided Sabrina is old enough this year to pimp her out for some free candy to take her trick or treating.  Am I the only parent unwilling to spend $40 or $50 for a costume she will wear for an hour or 2?  I’ve been looking on Ebay but the bids are outrageous.  I didn’t find any toddler costumes at Target – maybe I need to check out the evil Wally World?

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I am sick so I’m going to whine briefly.  I woke up with a headache and feeling achy but chalked it up to being almost 36 and having a newborn keep me up through the night.  But within a couple of hours, I developed a fever of 102.4.  I see my doctor tomorrow for a post c-section check up so if it is mastitis she should be able to help me out.  But I don’t have any symptoms of anything – just the fever and general crappy feeling that accompanies a fever.

Back to my couch.  Is it wrong that I am using my infant as a heat source by letting her sleep on my chest?  Let’s hope the stars align for the first time and I can nap while Sabrina does.

Sabrina had a fun birthday.  Her present (yes the Little Tykes car…but don’t tell her yet) will be in the house tonight or tomorrow but she wasn’t missing it.  It is raining today so she wouldn’t be able to play with it.

I think it is safe to say she enjoyed her cupcake.

Actually she ate very little of the cake portion but was sure to lick off most of the icing before giving daddy a crazy, sugar-induced laugh.

And crash.

My baby is 2 today!

I’m not quite sure how that happened.

Here are a few photos from her early birthday celebration in PA last weekend.  Shared with a late celebration of her cousin’s 4th  birthdays and an early celebration of my birthday.  (We got a huge kick out of the beach towel on her chair featuring a duck smoking a cigarette.)

She wasn’t particularly interested in the cake…she just wanted to pick off the sprinkles and icing.  And she was rather neat about it.  She had some on her face and chest but kept wiping her hands off on the napkin.

Me wondering when I am old enough to no longer have the numbers on my cake.

Sabrina was interested in the her gifts for 2.3 seconds.  Then she wanted to go back to playing in the Little Tykes car.

She has been turning everything into hats lately so Grandma got her a hat.  Here is daddy trying to entice her from the car to try on her hat.  It didn’t work. She just paused and said “Daddy hat” then went back to driving her car.

I’m off to bake some cupcakes for our own little celebration tonight.

Happy birthday my darling girl!  Now quit growing up.