My Conversation with a Telemarketer

So we had a little bit of a rough night last night with sleep... again.  Who am I kidding, it’s no different than usual... it’s just been 11 month’s of sleep deprivation and I am tired.  T.R.D tired!  ;)  

So, this morning, we slept for about half an hour longer than usual and the phone rang just as we were stirring.  This is how the conversation went...

me:  “hello”

Telemarketer... from now one TM:  “May I speak to Joseph Davis?”

me:  “sure”, and I put the phone up to his ear as he’s babbling.  

me:  picking the phone back up...”he doesn’t say much... he’s only 10 month’s old.”  

TM:  “he’s 10 month’s old?”

me:  “yep”

TM:  “he’s only 10 month’s old?”  (did I stutter?)

me:  “yep!”

TM:  “Well is his father named Joseph Davis?”

me:  “nope”

TM:  “YOU’VE STARTED HIS CREDIT ALREADY?”

me:  “ha ha ha... NO”

TM:  “Are the last four of his social 5555?”

me:  “nope”

TM:  “oh... okay, sorry.”

Ha ha ha ha... that was fun.  I only put J Davis in the phone book as we are all three J’s, so I thought it was appropriate.  Well, now I get calls for Juanita, Joseph, Joe and more.  I spose I need to pay to have it unlisted... but what good would that do?  

Anyway...  I found it funny...  hopefully you will to.  

A Boy and his Dog

So I wrote an entire blog and my computer died and then the written blog died with it.  :( I am sad, I was proud of it.  Lets see if I can recreate it.  

I am the luckiest girl in the world.  I have a wonderful house, a caring and supportive husband, a gorgeous baby full of personality... I have two kitties that... well...  let me know exactly how they feel.  And I have Murphey.  This is really a story about Murphey and how she came to be a part of our world.  

Jason and I had been together for a couple of month’s when my parents bought a new boat and it happened to be in Florida.  So, we needed to bring it back.  Mom, Dad and some of their friends and I took a week and tootled around Florida and then for the second week, Jason, my sister, her husband (at the time) and Emilie joined us.  It was the most amazing trip.  It’s actually one of my older blogs on the travel blog...  if anyone’s bored.  :) 

so... we pull into Houma, Louisiana and I have Emilie asleep on my lap when I hear Jason yelling for me.  We had just bought a house a month before and I think I *knew* why he was calling my name.  I picked Emilie up and walked outside to see this little black puppy.  I mean itty bitty.  

And she was so cute... she followed us everywhere.  If we walked up the doc, she walked up the doc...  and vice versa.  We asked around and everyone said that she had been on the doc for a week... but no one had claimed her.  Jason was snuggling her and I said... “you want to take her home, don’t you?”  He said.. “I am not saying yes, I am not saying no!”  I said... we can’t take a puppy with fleas back to Houston on Dad’s boat...  and of course, Dad chimed in... sure we can!  ugh!  

So, off we went to Walmart, in a cab, to get her a collar, a kennel, some flea medicine and some food.  On the way... we talked about her name.  I had always said when I got off of ships that I wanted a dog named Murphey... although I had envisioned a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier...  who would fit the name of Murphey.  But, Jason was adamant, we needed to name her Murphey...  and it has stuck.  

The whole way home, she slept.  She had the perfect temperment, was sweet, didn’t bark, wasn’t hyper...  until...  (dunh dunh dunh) we got her home.  All of a sudden, she was well rested... had eaten and she had ENERGY!  WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  She was CRAZY!  Every effort we had at containing her...  gone.  My little escape artist.  

In our training efforts, we went through a couple of shoes, some clothes, maybe a leg or two off of a chair.  :)  But, with some work and a whole lot of love...  this dog has turned into the most remarkable dog!  

So, fast forward... and when we got pregnant, I wondered how Murphey was going to do...  well, I needn’t have given it one moments notice.  She is so protective of him.  She even protects him from my cats.  When she goes out and comes back in... he is the first thing she looks for.  It’s really very cute.  

Lately...  Joey will get a hold of Murphey’s ball or her chew toy and he’ll hold it and the dog will go to get it back... and Joey will pull it away.  Then he gets the giggles as she licks him.  It’s this give and take but Murphey would never even get sort of rough with him.  Even with any sort of provocation... he sits on her tail, he pulls her hair and he grabs her toys.  And Murphey just takes it all.  

They snuggle together... they play together... they are truly pals.  

So yesterday morning, I was getting ready to take Joey to daycare and I put the baby on the floor to play.  He started to crawl away and so I went and grabbed a kitchen utensil that looks like a dumbbell but it’s wooden... I use it for making cookie shells.  I went about doing what I was doing... I mean working... just kidding.  I was getting everything ready to go.  

I look down and Joey is sucking on the end of the dumbell and then Murphey is sucking on the other end.  They are alternating playing with it.  And if that wasn’t cute enough...  all of a sudden, Murphey gives Joey a big sloppy kiss right across the smacker.  Now that was cute... but what followed was even cuter.  Joey took one look at Murphey and very promptly followed suit and took one big swipe across her nose with his tongue.  

Imitation is the finest form of flattery!  HA!  It was so cute and I wish wish wish that I had gotten it on video, alas, it is in my mind for all eternity.  

I am so lucky to have such a good dog who loves my son as much as I do.  :)  

Tag, I'm it!

I've been tagged by Shelley at Toadally Talking, which by the way is a wonderful blog that I very much enjoy reading! Go on over and take a look. Anyway, this tagging thing has some rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Okay... weird and random things... that none of you know??? 

1)  I have not let my son “cry it out” not because I really don’t ‘believe in it’ although I do have my questions...  really it’s because I am a big wussy and am afraid to do it.  

2)  I love pineapple with Creme de Menthe on it. 

3) I eat my oatmeal with ice cream on it. 

4)  I seriously  miss the microphone.  Well, I suppose that’s not random nor is it any sort of surprise to the people who know me in real life.  If I could take my son and my husband with me... I would probably go back to sea.  

5)  I broke my left arm when I was young, rollerskating.  I rolled down this swirly ramp and THEN fell and hit my arm on the concrete.  

6)  My bestimous friends are from the internet.  I really don’t know what I would do without them! 

7)  There is a possibility we will have to move to Dallas within the year.  :(  I will miss my family terribly but think it could be good for my marriage.  

Who will I tag?  shelley already tagged most of the people I know... humph.  

** Burgers and Blondes

** Tales from Labor and Delivery

** The Ingram Gang

** Holding Little Hands

** Cowtown Times

I can only come up with five right now... but all five of these are blogs that I regularly read and think about and pray for...  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.  :) 

Dear Joey: Nine Month's

My precious little man, you are growing up so fast!  It hardly seems real that just nine short month’s ago, you entered our lives.  Was it really nine month’s?  Were you really growing inside me as long as you have been in this world?  How is it possible that you haven’t been busting my heart wide open forever.  Well, I think that you actually have.  

Let me explain.  I have always dreamt of being a mother.  I have always had visions of diapering and feeding and holding and loving a baby.  Your grandparents always used to tell me not to go off and have babies too early.  (I am so glad I listened, by the way... how would I have EVER appreciated you this much when I was younger?)  Anyway...  I had a vision in my head of the way that it would be.  So, I think that I have always loved you in my heart.  However, having you actually here in my life makes it pale in comparison.  

Being YOUR mother makes me a better person.  You have taught me so much... how is it possible that I was so ignorant?  :)  Most recently though, you have taught me a bit of pain through growth.  This past week was your first week at daycare and I am quite sure that I was worried part of me would die without you during those short hours.  

We decided that it was time for daycare because you are very active and bringing you with me to work is really unfair to you.  You might not believe that the alternative is much better right now, but it is!  You really need the interaction of other children and teachers that are going to spend lots of time with you.  So after much research and a whole lot of coercion, I was convinced that I had found the right place.  

To say that it’s been a rough week is an understatement.  Driving you there the first day was torture.  You looked at me with those big eyes of love.... and you knew we were going to see your mawmaw and your Mimi...  you were so excited.  When we pulled up to Starting Point Children’s Center you still just went along with a big smile on your face... until...  until I handed you over to Miss Javeline and Miss Ann.  Your little face fell and you reached out to me with big tears in your eyes.  And I had to do the unthinkable... I had to walk away.  

I watched you on the television screen in the director’s office for about fifteen minutes and we both cried the entire time.  I finally had to walk out that door and know that ultimately, you would be okay.  It was a horrible day.  I called to check on you several times and they said that you had “been a bit fussy” which I knew meant you had cried all day long.  I assure you that I cried all day long too.  I missed you so much and I had visions of jumping in my car and snatching you away from those big mean ladies.  :)  Alas, I didn’t.  And you know what...  you did okay.  

It took all week but each day got a little better than the last.  You have taken to the assistant director, Miss Brett and one of the teachers, Miss Ann.  You are eating okay and still on a bottle strike, although are taking water out of a straw cup pretty well.  My big boy, you are even eating real people food, in small amounts.  Thank God, the last day, Friday, you didn’t even cry at all when I left.  You didn’t look happy about it, but you didn’t cry.  You must know that by now, I will always come back for you!  That it breaks my heart to leave you but even if I know that a situation may not be best for ME... that the right thing is what’s best for YOU.  And that will always be what is most important.  

As you probably know by now, your mommy reads several message boards and other’s blogs.  She has learned so much from the big cyber world.  This journey was made even harder this week because there is a couple in Dallas that is going through the unthinkable.  They have lost a little baby, younger than you.  I cannot imagine my life without you in it.  I cannot imagine my world without your giggle and your smile.  You bring me light, you bring me love and your hug is worth a million gazillion dollars.  All I can do is pray that although you will have bumps and bruises (how else to grow?) you are kept safe and know... KNOW that your mommy, daddy, Bebe, Big Daddy, Pawpaw, Mawmaw, Mimi, Aunt Kiki, Cousin Emi, Aunt Erin, Uncle Kevin and cousin Jack... love you very very very much!  And that ultimately, you are in Gods hands.  

I cannot believe you are nine month’s old.  :)  

Opposites Attract

I suppose that Jason and I have always had “disagreements”...  fights even.  Where there is passion... there are fights.  We both feel quite *passionately* about everything.  And of course, we both feel that we are always right.  He is only partially wrong.  ;)  

So, yesterday, Jason and I had one humdinger of a fight.  When the book, Men was from Mars and Women was from Venus...  no truer words were ever spoken.  

I will say that even when we fight we are different.. he is so good at telling me his feelings and he is not one of those men that holds everything in.  In fact, quite the opposite...I hold most of it in and he has to pry it out of my cold dead hands.  I hold onto a grudge and stew on it, wallow in it, martyr myself and hold it against him... du’h.  It is one of the reasons we are so good together.  Because, none of these things are important to him.  Well... most of the time anyway.  

He picks at me and pokes at me and succumbs to me until I give in and usually yell at him what is bothering me and why I am upset.  I need this kind of man.  I need this kind of prodding.  I would walk all over someone with less *character*.    I remember someone telling me that the traits I love about my husband will ultimately be the same traits that bug the ever living stuffing out of me.  I hate this and love this about him.  

Opposites attract.  Truer words could not be spoken when it comes to Jason and I.  He thinks long range and I look at the short term.  He loves fishing, and solitary fishing at that... I love group outings with close friends.  My idea of roughing it is the Ramada and he likes to camp.  He talks about his feelings, I hold it all in til the champagne bottle pops.  I hold a grudge and he lets it go almost as fast as he can think it.  What was Gods’ plan when he put the two of us together?  

We make a good team.  For the most part, we are both social creatures as... we are both good in social situations even if we don’t choose the situation itself.  We are both caring.  We both want to, ultimately, make the world a better place.  We are...  better as a couple than we are as a single.  I suppose that I am the yin and he is my yang or vice versa.  

There are moments when I shake my head and think... why... oh why...  did WE end up together and then I have the moment of clarity that I am having right now and I think... life just wouldn’t be the same if he weren’t in it.  He is a wonderful person and he makes MY world better by just being in it.  

It’s funny...  I have said on more than one occasion recently that I married a man who closely resembles my father.  He and my dad are so much alike in their *A* type personalities...  in their thinking... in their makeup, in their qualities as well as in some of their faults.  It wasn’t until today that I think in his mind... he married his mother.  His mother is the most remarkable woman (not saying that I am remarkable)... but she is passionate.  She is smart.  She is devoted to her family and to the things she finds important.  

Jason told me today that he remembers his mom and dad getting into a fight when he was little... I believe it involved a fist fight... :::giggle::::... and it’s THAT kind of passion that inspires me.  It inspires me to have that kind of marriage if it means I can have THEIR kind of marriage in years to come.  I don’t know if I have met two people more devoted to each other and more in love.  They are individuals yet they are a couple.  They are wonderful on their own but magnificent together.  I want this! I want this for me... and I want this for my children!

Now, if I can just make it through wanting to “stick hot forks in his eye” for not helping me get everything together to come and see his family!  ;)  Let me multitask and tell you the ways!  :)  

Tough Questions

Last week was Joey’s first week at daycare.  He had been coming with me to work and really had been spending 24/7 with me which meant that separation anxiety was even greater than normal.  You add in that ultimately, daycare will be wonderful for him because he will learn so much with his teachers and with other children.  

It has been a rough week but it is getting easier, day by day, and he only cries a little bit when I drop him off and then he cries when he sees me in the afternoon.  I suppose he doesn’t want me to see that he’s having fun or I might bring him back again tomorrow...  (the rationalization of a nine month old).  

So today, his teacher told me that he is sleeping better and better and yesterday he slept a whole hour in his bed.  So, today, I asked, (confirming what I already knew...) how she got him to do this.  And, basically...  she is using the Ferber method which is a modified version of Cry it Out.  I think I knew this in my heart but now I know it in my head... and I have been unable to do this at home.  

Which brings me to the next question.  Am I unable to do this at home because I am weak? Am I unable to do this at home because I am fundamentally opposed to it?  Am I unable to do this at home because everyone is telling me that this is the only way to make him go to sleep and that this will teach him how to self soothe?  Or am I opposed to it because my husband has been pushing me to do this since he was much younger?  Gosh I hope that this last one is not the case.  

I have been telling everyone, to date, that I am against it.  That there really has been no *reason* to make him cry it out.  I don’t want him to think that I am not there for him.  There is a contingent of parents, usually pro *attachment parenting* parents that say that this teaches him that when he cries no one is there for him.  (which probably is a bunch of hooey)... but I have been really good at “wearing” him, breastfeeding him to one year, and in general it has been so important to me that he *know* I am there for him.  

Now, all of a sudden, he is thrust into a world where I am NOT there for him, his teachers are, and they are teaching him to soothe himself and cry himself to sleep.  

I am not sure what to do with this information.  I don’t want to tell my daycare that he is NOT to cry it out... as she does have other babies and he needs a nap.  But, if he is crying it out at school and they are having some success... do I have a responsibility to let him cry it out at home?  Can I expect one thing out of him during the day and another at night?  

I really don’t have the answers... if any of you have any solid advice, I welcome it!  

All I know is that my schmoopy has always been there for me, I hate to let him down (I know ultimately, I will let him down in his life)...  but should I be forcing him to self soothe at night?  Do I need to be the grown up here?  

tough questions!  

Juggling Acts

A woman can be a mommy... but how can a mommy still be a woman?

Lately, it seems that I have come across some very interesting blogs.  It got me to evaluating my blog and I decided that it was rather boring.  So, I decided to branch off and add some of my thoughts about being a mommy and how this journey affects not only me, but how it affects others too.    

I had wine with some friends last night (now there’s something unusual... HA!) and one of them recently had a baby too.  Her baby is much younger than mine but yet all of us moms go through similar scenario’s.  Motherhood, marriage, family, work, recreation and more are all pulling at us.  How do we possibly find time to make each one of those a priority?  It’s a juggling act.  

I am not so sure that I have done a very good job at it...  in fact, I know that some of the above mentioned things have suffered.  Some of it is my fault and some of it is through no fault of my own.  I do know that all of it seems to take a bit of a back seat to Joey.  

I remember reading the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and Stephen Covey said that you have to keep all aspects of your life in balance... if one aspect gets out of balance EVERYTHING else is out of whack too.  He pictured each responsibility as a piece of a pie... if one thing gets a bigger slice than the opposite thing gets a much smaller piece.  

I think I need to realign my slices... ;)  

There will be much more to come... but I wanted to get this new blog started...  so welcome to my journey through mommyhood.  The most important and the most terrifying job EVER held by anyone.  And by far, the most precious and the best job anyone can ask for!