When I dip, you dip, we dip

I love fondue!

We celebrated our 8th anniversary today. Hard to believe it's been 8 years...so we got through that 7 year itch without a hitch! (Does that really exist? The only itch I was feeling was the one on the surface of my belly when it had a growing baby inside!)

Last year we celebrated by going to the local Indian chaat house (I was in the middle of my pregnancy craving craziness). This year we brought the little cheekaboo with us and had some fondue (FUN-do! heh) It was neat, I'd never been to one of those places before. I thought it was a little pricey considering what you get and how easy it was to make the dipping stuff (throw in a little beer here, a little shredded cheese there...add a little shake shake of seasoning and voila! That'll be 80 dollars please!) The Bananas Foster fondue for dessert was delicious though, so that made it all ok. Lauren enjoyed watching our server flambe' the fondue with a flourish of sprinkled cinnamon into the flame that made sparks fly. She also enjoyed bits of bread, cheese, apple, and banana that we set aside for her. Overall it was fun, so I think we would go there again.

TGFS

I love working for the University. Even though we get less pay, we have great benefits and nice working environment, so I'm not complaining. Once a year the University shows it's appreciation by having a picnic for staff called TGFS (Thank Goodness For Staff). The staff picnic this year was catered by the Buckhorn and the food wasn't too bad...plus it was a beautiful day to hang out and we picked a perfect spot under a big tree. We had tri tip sandwiches and ice cream from Fentons. Lauren had pureed squash and cheerios. Yum!

Peek A Boo!

This is the kind of silliness that I miss out on when I'm at work. I wanna pinch her!

Lazy Sunday

I was doing errands around the house last Sunday while Lauren and her daddy played in the bedroom. I'd been working for almost an hour when I noticed how quiet it was, there were no giggles or baby talk coming from the bedroom. I went to investigate and this is what I found:

On the move...and standing still.

Well today she made lots of progress on both fronts...walking AND standing. Well....using a walker anyway. And before you guys slap my hands for letting her use a walker, I made sure she was in a safe area and will promise not to let her hang out in it for too long that it will encourage bad posture, etc. etc. (but hey, my mom put all of us in walkers and I think we turned out ok!)

Even though she's been using her walker for the last few weeks, she never did anything more than scoot backwards a few inches at a time. She mostly just hung out in it and it was a safe place for her to be while I did some errands around the house. Well...all that's about to change! Something must've clicked in the part of her brain that controls coordination because suddenly she was whizzing past us going backwards and FORWARDS! And you should've seen how excited she was when she realized that she could get to the container of cheerios across the room on her own! Yay! and Boo! a the same time...I can no longer keep her unattended in that walker and have to clear the area of hazards. I can still put the brakes on though so that it remains stationary like an exersaucer, but I have a feeling that once she's had that taste of "walking" she's not going to stand for being still.

Like I said, the synapses in her brain that control coordination must've been in overdrive today. After she pulls herself up to standing, she can now let go of whatever she's holding on to (usually my leg or my butt..if I'm lying down) and remain standing ON HER OWN for almost half a minute before crashing back down. The look of pride on her face is priceless while Mommy and Daddy wistfully shake their heads and worry that their cheekaboo is growing up way too fast.

Happy Birthday Uncle Clyde!

Green Day

Well, today being Earth Day, I guess I'll jump onto the "Going Green" bandwagon. Although, the whole Earth Day thing is starting to get annoying...especially when you know people don't really mean it.

For example, we had a Vendor Fair today at work where different vendors gathered in a big room to see who could attract our business by giving away the coolest SWAG. By the end of the fair, I was pretty sick of all these companies with their GO GREEN! marketing plans....for example, one prominient office supply vendor asked us to GO GREEN! by not putting in an order until our total reaches 50$ to minimize shipping costs and packing materials. Ummmmm....if you wouldn't ship a 6 pack of sharpie pens that's about as big as my hand in a HUGE 12 x 12 x 12 box filled with styrofoam peanuts, maybe THAT would be a better way to GO GREEN! rather than ask us to spend more money! Erg... Also, the same vendor was giving out free pens! Individually wrapped! In a Plastic Bag! That contained more marketing materials printed on non-recyclable shiny glossy paper! GO GREEN! indeed.

Another vendor tried to convince me that buying from their local company would reduce emissions and transportation costs. I declined one of their HUGE 5 inch thick catalogs (it probably took a whole tree to print the things, I kid you not, it was about 1000 pages) and told the rep I'd rather browse the catalog online. I explained that we're trying to minimize getting paper catalogs and he kinda looked at me funny like it was a novel idea.

I'm not going to let them get to me though, I am interested in preserving the environment, so I guess whatever brings that issue to the forefront is commendable, no matter what the underlying commercial gain is...better than nothing, right? On that note, here's a cool list of 50 ways to Go GREEN!...little things that you and I can do to help out Mama Earth. I like # 17 (woot woot!)

http://www.wireandtwine.com/green/50/