Conversations with a 20 month old

Everyday I put Paige's hair in pigtails. We have a little routine where she sits on the edge of my bathroom countertop with her feet in the sink facing the mirror. I stand behind her and she watches me through the mirror while playing with the makeup/bottles/toothbrushes that are out on the counter.

Paige and I had the following exchange while I styled her hair today:

Me: Paige, please stop. (I was refering to her rubbing a comb in bar soap and then smearing the comb across the mirror)

Paige: (doesn't stop)

Me: I told you to stop and you didn't, now I have to take it away (I remove the soap dish from the counter and take the comb out of her hand). You need to listen to Mommy.

Paige: (leans forward stretching out her arms, trying to reach the mirror so she can smear the soap with her hands)

Me: (much more firmly than before while holding her arms down at her side) Paige! STOP! Sit still!

Paige: (while glaring at my reflection in the mirror) Briiiiidget! Knock. It. Off. Time out!

Me: Oh, don't talk to me like that; and my name is Mommy. Who needs time out? You?

Paige: No.

Me: Then who? Me?

Paige: (still glaring) Yes. Mama. Trouble. Trouuuuuuble.

Happy 7 Year Proposal Anniversary

Seven years ago today, Ben proposed. It was the Sunday evening before Thanksgiving, I knew he'd had the ring for awhile, and I was getting REALLY impatient to get it because I wanted to go shopping for a dress over the holiday weekend when my mom was coming to town (Mom said, "Can't make wedding plans until you have a ring on your finger!"). Nevertheless, he managed to catch me by surprise and propose in an unforgettable way. I had planned to type here what I wrote in my journal from that night, but after just going back and reading the entry from November 18th, 2001, I can't bring myself to do it. It is just WAY too embarrassing. How many exclamation points can you use before it gets ridiculous? Let me just say that before I married Ben I was well on my way to becoming TAMN . . . well, maybe kind of like tamn . . . a version of tamn? Anyway, Ben has a way of keeping life real and keeping me grounded. Thanks, Sweetheart, for giving me so many reasons to say, "YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" when you popped the question all those years ago.

The picture at the top is from the night we went to see Les Mis at Tuacahn when Ben was home on leave in September. Oh yeah, and that blurry white spot?, that's the result of the camera lens having a stupid scratch right in the middle of it; same scratch that ruined our dland pics :( . I would have scanned in a picture from the night he proposed, but sadly all of those pictures are in storage; something to look forward to for next year.

Game Day

Paige has a message for all college football fans:



GO COUGARS!

2 Weeks Ago. . .

. . . we made it a whole block around my sister's neighborhood dressed in costumes and begging for candy. All of my parents' grandchildren were there (however, only the 4 youngest are pictured). Paige really liked the dressing up part, knew exactly what we were doing (having practiced at trunk or treat the week before), and did not complain once. It was an awesome Halloween.

Me and the little monkey.

Paige's cousin Maggie was "Monkey See"; Paige was "Monkey Do".

Paige's cousin Andrew was a banana. "Hey, Banana! Is your sucker as good as mine?"

And Paige's other cousin Anna was a penguin. A chocolate eating penguin.

Hmmm, That's a New One

This morning Paige woke up calling my name. No, not the usual, "Mommmaaaaa!", but my actual given name.

"Bridget! Bridgeeeeeeeeeet! Briiiiiidgeeeeeeeet!"

Vizi(N)o

Last summer when my sister moved back from England forcing me to give her back her tv, Ben and I went out and bought a new one. A 32" Vizio from Costco. It was great at first. But then every once in awhile it would get vertical red lines through the picture. They wouldn't last very long and they really only appeared about once a week at first. We ignored it for awhile thinking the lines would go away or thinking maybe it was actually the satellite causing the problem. But then the lines became more frequent and included green along with the original red. And on occassion a horizontal break with the top half faded out would appear on screen. So a couple of weeks before Ben's deployment we gave in and called Vizio's Tech Support (the 90 day Costco return window had ended a few weeks before the appearance of the first of the vertical lines). After describing the problem in detail, a transfer to a "level 2" support person, more agnozingly painful explanations of the problem, a couple of more transfers, an hour on hold, and instructions to unplug, wait 45 seconds, and then plug the tv back in, the geniuses at Vizio deduced since they had "never" encountered this problem before, there was in fact no problem with our television and the issue most likely lie with our satellite receiver. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. Oh, but we were instructed to call back if the problem persisted.

So since the problem continued to be intermittant (although becoming more and more frequent) we put up with it. However, by this September the screen never went back to normal. So while Ben was home on leave, he got to call Vizio again, and go through the whole infuriating tech support rigamaroll AGAIN. This time Vizio decides to send a tech support person to repair our tv. A week later tech support comes, spends an hour and a half fiddling with the set and decides he has NO idea what is wrong with the stupid tv. He reports to Vizio, they send a box for us to ship the tv back to them in, and then we wait for them to receive and process the shipment before they send us a new one. No wait, not a new one, a REFURBISHED one. So approximately 2 weeks after shipping off the original (7 months after our first complaint to tech support; 5 weeks after our second complaint to tech support; 1 year since our original purchase) we get a replacement television that someone else has already sent back because it didn't work properly. Great.

So guess what people! Approximately 16 days ago I hooked up the replacement tv and it took a whole TEN DAYS before IT went on the fritz. What a record of excellence.

I called Vizio today. Ugh. They are going to take this replacement back and send me a new replacement. An actual NEW replacement, thank goodness. But at this point, I just want my money back.

Long story, short: Don't go with Vizio; fork over the extra $150+ for a better (read different) brand.

A Soldier's Christmas

For any of you who want to send Ben something for his birthday (Dec. 9th) or for Christmas, here is his shipping information:

SSG Benjamin Reed
D.Co. 142nd MI BN / TF Wasatch
Bagram AF
APO AE 09354

If you are planning to send a package, the cheapest way is to get a priority mail box from the post office that looks like this:The box itself is free and then you pay a flat fee of $10.95 to ship it, no matter what the weight.

The shipping deadline for letters and packages to arrive by Dec. 25th is Dec. 4th!

FYI you'll have to fill out a customs form at the post office.

Football for the Ladies

So my older sister Noelle started her own business this year. If you are a girl and you like sports, then you should definitely check it out. If you don't like sports check it out anyway - you never know what might happen after taking a look at this site (I joined my first fantasy football league this year).

The main site firstandgirl.com is still in beta testing so keep that in mind. The boutique is fully functional and can be accessed through the ad below and through the ad on the side bar.


You can also see this add on seriouslysoblessed , and the jewelry will be featured in TAMN's November and December giveaways. If you don't already know what seriouslysoblessed is, you should definitely take a look - just remember to take your sense of humor with you.

FYI the jewelry'd make a great birthday or Christmas gift - especially with playoffs and bowl games just around the corner. And it doesn't have to be just for football. The number jewelry is great for ANY sport and the initial jewelry is obviously versatile as well.

PS I have both the beaded necklace chain and the silver logo charm and I love them. Also, the bracelet and necklace chains can be used with any charms you may already have.

It's all happening so fast . . .

Like all typical toddlers, Paige is learning new things at an alarming rate. Today she did this all by herself:



Papa is the one that let her go down without help for the first time. When he called me outside to show me, I, of course, frantically ran to catch her at the bottom. Little did I know that she no longer needed me for yet one more thing.