No more sleeping late for us! It's back to school time!
Here is T's breakfast this morning....bacon, catsup, and chocolate milk. Did the kid want a bagel and cream cheese? Nope. Eggs and english muffin? no way. Cereal? Nope. Just bacon, catsup and the milk.
I comfort myself with the fact that Reagan actually attempted to sell the idea that catsup was a vegetable. At the time, I thought that he was crazy. Now, not so much. Its quite comforting to delude myself that there is some nutritional value on her plate.
We were experiencing some technical difficulties this morning, and I had to call in Verna, the Ex-Blog Fairy to fix it. She suggested that I add a gadget to the side-bar for followers. So, scroll down a bit and enter your name, if you wish. I think that when I post a new post, it will contact you. Not sure about that, though.
I'd love to see who T's most loyal groupies are....can I follow my own blog?
Wow....more breaking news...and this is a big one.
It's official....
Taylor can write her name!!!! Everything you see in green on that paper, T wrote herself, with no help from dear old mom!
I then wrote my name under the 2nd clear "Taylor" pictured below, and T then proceeded to copy my name all by herself.
Of course, its an interesting mix of capital and lower case letters all mixed together, with an odd assortment of sizes. T still can not write a lower case "a", nor an upper case R with ease.
No matter, though, this is real progress!
Today, I took my mom to a dr appointment this morning, then got sucked in to staying at their house dealing with their issues. I have workers there this week, doing various handyman jobs. I ended up having to go to home depot and running other errands.
How do I cope with all this?
I picked up T early from school and headed to the mall. One big fat glass of wine later, and all is right with the world!
T, on the other hand, when she wasn't busy mainlining catsup directly into her bloodstream from finger to mouth....
...was busy knawing the breading off the chicken strips, and ingesting her catsup that way. Leaving a debris plate of really gross looking plucked chicken strips. Yuck!
She loved it!
No, No. This post has nothing to do with religion or sex....
Nope, this post is all about shoes!
When I was in my 20's and 30's, I always turned my nose up at the sensible shoe store or, as I would call it, the Lesbian Shoe store. You know the one, the one with all the million-dollar hiking shoes and sandals in them. Rugged, athletic types, often quite ugly. Or, if the shoes were a bit less stylish, I'd call it the "old lady" shoe store. 
Well, let me tell you, we can all learn alot from the Lesbians and older ladies of the world!
Now that I have "foot issues" since my swan dive off the judge's bench last April, I am a convert! Further, now that I'm getting to be "a certain age"...perhaps a little wiser...I'm learning to value comfort over style. My shoes now must have both!
The other week I spied the Mephisto store at the mall, and dragged Dot and T inside. In the past, I would never have noticed it, let alone ventured inside. This night, I tried on every pair in the store to guage my size, and bought none since they were retailing at close to $200.00. Yikes!
I promptly went home, searched the web, and found these black patent-leather numbers by Naot. Rhinestones and everything.
FAB-U-LOUS!
I got them for 120.00. A big $80.00 savings. They're like walking on butter!
Anyway, after ordering up the black ones, I was busy trolling addictive-ebay and came across these gold mephistos...rhinestone, leopard print and everthing!
SCORE!
I put in my bid and after six nail-biting days, WON with a flabbergastingly low bid of 35.00! Wooohoo!
For anyone interested in a comparison, the gold ones have a much harder leather, that will be slicing up my poor feet the first few times I'll be wearing them. So, I'll be busy in the next few days filing down the rough edges on the leather with a nail file. For $35.00 I'm happy to do it!
The black Noat ones need no extra breaking in. The leather is as supple as a babies bottom!
So, there you have it. I am truly converted and firmly in the camp of the Sensible Shoe...it's such a comfy place to be!
Let's see, what were we up to this weekend?
*The big news as you can see from the photos, is that T has graduated from a car seat to a real booster-style seat. She finally hit 38 inches and is loving her new, big-girl seat. She especially likes that it has double cupholders!
*We did lots of errands and planted 3 little impatien plants....2 in pots and one in the ground, to see which grows best. T is in charge of watering them.
*I'm busy organizing a handyman to do some work at my parents house and in one of their rental properties. We spent lots of time in home depot.
*Dot and I now sport a Nemo key on our keychains. I got some extra keys made fro my house, and let T choose the theme. Frankly, I'm shocked that she chose nemo over the princesses, but there you have it. For those not in the know, they actually make keys in different themes. Good thing about it all is that I'm never confused as to which key goes to my front door!
*T finally fits into the little skirt you see. It was a gift from my baby shower from my friend Robyn. We've been waiting 3 years for it to fit!
*Gymnastics class has asked if I'd be interested in T being tested for a special class, that eventually trains for their competition teams when they're older. For now, I figure it will be OK, as she really isn't that challenged in her present class. Bonus is that the cost is the same, so we'll try it out. As long as she's having fun, she can continue.
*My mom actually allowed Karen, the healthcare worker to stay and went for a ride with her. I was certain that they'd send her away as soon as I returned to work on Thursday. She seems open to the fact that Karen will be back on Tuesday, but I suspect that she's still driving. I'm taking her to the doc on thursday, perhaps she can convince her not to drive.
*On Sunday we went out to dinner at an open-aired mall, and sat outside. It was pretty deserted, and T had a ball running all around the outside bar area, which had all the outside furniture you see depicted.
*I love daylight savings time, but its killing me! I've mentioned before that T usually goes to bed between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. (she naps for 2 hours at school). Well, last night it was after midnight. I've been dragging all day. She, on the other hand, seems just fine. Kids.
Yes, I believe in living my life by the Golden Rule, b/c I truly believe that "What Goes Around, Comes Around". I'm starting to learn that in spades!
All my life, I've grown up with stories from my Mom and Aunt Connie about how I insisted on tying my own shoes, even when I didn't know how. They'd be itching to get to the stores, and instead be stuck waiting for me to tye my shoes. Through the years, I would smile, laugh along with them, but not really appreciate what they were talking about.
Um, no more. I now perfectly understand what they were saying. T is now doing the same thing to me. I curse the day I bought her tie-up keds. T usually wears her velco keds everyday. However, once in a while she insists on her stupid tie-up ones, that I bought like 8 - 10 months ago, and were always too big. Now, they fit.
This morning was one of those mornings. She has insisted on the durn shoes, and insisted on tying them herself. Usually, I wouldn't mind so much except....I'm trying to get out of the house to go to work and school!!
Meanwhile, a good 20 minutes later, T has tied her shoes and is finally ready to go.
Mission accomplished.
Mom, however, is pulling her hair out of her head in frustration.
As I said, What goes around, comes around!
...I'm not sure, but I think that we hit another milestone. T actually "read" a word last night. She was looking over my shoulder at the computer, and started pointing saying, "G -O, that spells "go". Now, I know that she recognizes her name, but I don't think she's "read" before now...realizing and putting together that letters have sounds that form words.
She's also perfected her handstand...with the help of the sofa to prop her up!
Hope Dot, who is in Houston this week, enjoys the pics.
I fear that I am no longer the biggest love in Taylor's life. Yes, it pains me to admit that her mother appears to quickly be losing out to a rival...Catsup!
For lunch today, T asked for pita crackers and catsup. Yes, I agree...gross. Gave it to her anyway, and she was eating it! Those Stacy Pita chips and catsup. I felt marginally better when she ate some ham with it...and catsup.
Tonight, we went to dinner at Nordstrom. Her preferred method of eating catsup this evening? Chicken fingers and french fries. I'm actually somewhat greatful for the catsup bottle, as it magically causes T to eat, which otherwise she probably wouldn't.
Anyway, as for me? I had a yummy chicken caesar salad. No amount of coaxing will get T to put any type of lettuce in her mouth. So, you know what I did...yep, I dunked a piece of lettuce in the catsup! I thought that was brilliant! Unfortunately, not even her beloved catsup could coax T into eating some salad.
Bummer.
I love this picture, really more for sentimental value and the feeling of deja vu it instills. T was having fun and grandma and grandpa's house (same house that my sis and I grew up in) playing by laying under the coffee table. I used to do the same thing when I was a kid. I loved laying under that durn table. My mom would always chase me out. Fast forward 40 years, and now T's under there, and nobody really cared to chase anybody out.
When I told T how I used to do that, she replied, "Mama, I play under that table. You can't play under the table, you're too big. The table would break and fall down and go boom".
Out of the mouths of babes...
Meanwhile, the home health care evaluator was let into the house and everyone cooperated. I think the first one will arrive on thursday. They're not too thrilled, but I keep stressing that we're just trying it to see how it works out. Nothing's written in stone. I'm just praying that they send someone who is good.
Lastly, I nearly threw my back out yesterday, searching for bank statements and checks from 2007, which I'm calling the lost year b/c, will, its lost. Gotta call the bank for them to send us the information. So, I'm running really slow and careful today.
Happy Sunday Everyone!
