Weekly update

It seems I'm only able to post about once a week lately! I started my new job on Monday - and since the computers at work are WAAAAYYY faster than ours at home (damn dial-up!) it's easiest for me to jump on at work and blog. BUT when you start in a new department, it's hard to tell what the environment is like for a while. Do they frown upon internet usage? Is lunch exactly 45 minutes or is an hour okay? Can I squirrel away office supplies in my bag to take home without anyone noticing? You know - the normal stuff. :) So it's going to take me a while to see if I'll be able to take a few moments once in a while to post at work.

Anyhoo - the new job is going... okay. Training is tough, and I hate being the low man on the totem pole. It's a big transition going from being a "go-to" person who had all the answers (or at least knew enough to bluff her way through made-up answers!) to being a "know-nothing" person who has to ASK all the questions. Everyone here is very nice - and time will tell how I fit into this department. It's a job, and my phone isn't ringing off the hook, and that is a good thing!

Josephine May Daly is officially 1 year old. We walked into her room on her birthday morning singing "Happy Birthday," and she got a huge smile on her face, scrambled to sit up and started clapping and dancing. She was on a very nice sugar high when we picked her up from daycare on her birthday last Thursday from the lovely cupcakes Betty made for the kids. We took party hats for everyone, and they were a hit. It seems that she turned 1, and made an instant personality change. She's much more independent all of the sudden, insists on feeding herself exclusively and is no longer afraid to voice her opinion, about everything! She's going to be a handful! Must get that from her dad. :)

Speaking of her dad - I didn't ask Patrick if it'd be okay to post this, but it's such a funny story that just has to be written about and preserved for posterity - so I'm going to share the other event that happened on Josie's first birthday. So we walk in the door at daycare Thursday night to pick Josie up, and Betty comes hustling into the kitchen asking "Okay. So who got Josie ready this morning??!" Pat and I nervously looked at one another and I quickly pass the buck and point to him. He gives a sheepish smile and says "Uh - me. Why?" Betty proceeds to tell us that after we dropped Jo off, the kids were all playing, doing their normal things and she noticed that there were these "spots" on the living room carpet. She thinks to herself - "we didn't have a dog here this week - what is that?" She goes to check and sure enough, they're little, fresh wet spots on the carpet. So she looks around for a possible solution, puking kid, kid spilling juice, etc... and spots Josie crawling away from her. Hmm. Picks her up and WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT... she doesn't have a diaper on!!!! OOPS. Daddy forgot the diaper! Too funny. After many vehement apologies from Pat and many many laughs from all of us, Betty tells us that one of the other dads was there when the bare-butt discovery was made and he proclaimed that he was glad to see that someone else forgets things in the morning, too! :)

We had birthday party #2 on Saturday the 21st with my family, and the stinker wouldn't let my mom or grandma hold her. She went to my niece Val and family friend Darlene, but that was it. Not only would she not let them hold her, she would give this little hand swat and grunt and turn away when they'd reach for her! As much of a pooper as she was being, it was awfully funny. She got so many lovely gifts - thanks to everyone for coming and for making her first birthday so special. We love you guys!

The fun weekend continued when I hosted bookclub on Sunday. Always a good time to get together with the girls, eat lots of good food and solve all of life's problems. Oh - yeah, I guess we read and discuss books sometimes, too. :) I'm not sure what I would do without this group of extremely smart, funny and supportive friends. We love you guys, too!

One more thing... I guess I had a birthday in there somewhere, too. And yes, it was a big one. Pat made the day very nice by making me french toast and bacon for breakfast, going to eat at LeeAnn Chin for lunch with me and picking up Green Mill to go and a Baker's Square pie for dessert. Hmm - guess that was a day focused on food!! What else do you expect from a pregnant lady turning 30?! No big party plans for us on a Monday night, in fact, I think I was asleep on the couch by about 8:30! Here's a picture to prove it:
Quite the party animal(s), huh?! It was a bizarre day as it was the same day I started my new job. Very strange to spend the day with a bunch of virtual strangers. But I survived, life goes on we've got yummy pie still in the fridge. Doesn't get much better than that!

It's a week of birthday celebrations!

So my Beaner turns the big "1" tomorrow! Un-freakin-believable. We had a very fun birthday party last Sunday with Patrick's family at our house. Josie thoroughly enjoyed the chocolate frosting from her cake, and thought everyone singing to her was a hoot. Godfather Ryan made the day with his gift of her new favorite toy - a lullaby Glow-worm. Anything that plays music is a delight, and anything that plays music AND lights up is the best! She got so many great gifts - thanks to everyone for your generosity!

Daycare Betty said that the kids have been practicing singing "Happy Birthday" for the last couple of days so they'll be all ready for Josie's big day tomorrow. Too cute. :)

My family is trekking up on Saturday for birthday party #2. Maybe Josie will actually venture into the cake part of her birthday cake this time and not just dip her fingers in the frosting! If she reacts to the sugar rush like she did last Sunday, we'll have to have the camera ready. She crawled around in circles for a while and was wired like we've never seen before!

A whole year has gone by - wow. Feels like just yesterday I was waddling around the house, waiting for the big day that came so much sooner than we anticipated!

The Stork Strikes Again

Alright already! The news is out, so now I can FINALLY blog about it!

That's right, Patrick and I are expecting another baby. I am about 12 weeks along and had my first doctor's appointment last Friday. It was a bit hairy for a while as Dr. Rolando could not find the baby's heartbeat. After doing some bloodwork and a pregnancy test, we decided it would be in my Best Interest to order up an ultrasound (Best Interest meaning so I wouldn't go insane for a week waiting to come back in to try to find the heartbeat again.) The only bad part - I was seeing the doc at 3:00 pm and wasn't able to get an ultrasound until 6:00. So I spent a couple of very busy hours at home washing dishes, doing laundry and anything else I could find to keep my mind occupied. But in the end, everything was just fine and we got to see our new little one squirming around as soon as the tech started the ultrasound.

Here are the answers to the most frequently asked questions we've had so far:

1. Are we going to find out the sex of the baby this time around?
--- I don't know. Right now, I think we're leaning towards not finding out... but I think I could very easily start to lean in the other direction. We'll see when the next u/s comes around.

2. Am I going to keep working?
---Once again, I don't know. We're kind of in a "damned if I do, damned if I don't" situation. If I stay home, it will be generic cereal and peanut butter all the time. If I work, it feels like it will be just to pay for daycare. So we're hoping ferociously to win the lottery between now and then. :)

3. Where are we going to put this baby in our already small and very full house?
---Great question! We're thinking that we will be moving upstairs to the expansion and will just keep the baby with us until it is sleeping through the night, then baby and Josie will probably share a room for a while, whether it's a boy or girl. We are thinking of turning what is our bedroom right now into a play/tv room.

4. Are we insane??! (or more accurately, asked by my friend Meg, also having babies very close together,) "Didn't you learn anything from us??!"
---No. Yes. Maybe? I don't know - I guess we knew we were going to have more kids and why not do it when we're still in "baby" mode? Plus, I felt like an only child growing up and knew I didn't want that. Not to say that we won't have an "oops" baby somewhere down the line, you never know. :)

5. When am I due?
--- August 1st, 2nd or 3rd. I've been given all three dates. By the u/s, I think officially it is the 3rd of August. Whatever.

6. How have I been feeling?
---Just fine! VERY tired, but no morning sickness. Thank goodness for Husbands Who Pick Up The Slack Around Home. :) Or at least Are Sweet And Understanding While Not Picking Up The Slack Around Home. Love ya, babe. Thanks for putting up with me!

So - you may speak freely about my pregnancy. It will be fun to keep everyone posted as we progress closer to having another baby Daly! And if you get tired of baby, baby, baby... you may not want to visit for a few... years!

A new adventure

Sometimes when you wake up in the morning and get that yucky feeling in your tummy because you really don't want to go to work, it's time for a change.

I finally reached that point.

And as a result, I will be venturing on a new journey here at Securian as of January 23rd. I will have my 6 year service anniversary with the company on January 18th and have spent the entire time in the Group department. I have worked with some great people, but it's time for a change. I'm leaving on good terms, no hard feelings or burned bridges. So I'll be getting off the elevator on the 5th floor of the 401 building and joining Broker-Dealer. Yup. No idea what they do, but that's where I'll be! And I'm excited to meet some new faces, learn some new systems and tackle some new projects.

I got the final details worked out yesterday, and can't believe the amount of stress and pressure that being unhappy in my job had been putting on me. I had a great night's sleep last night, the first in a long time. (It also could have something to do with the fact that we shut the cats out of our bedroom and I had my WHOLE side of the bed to myself - what luxury!) It is so easy to get stuck in a rut. I'm the Queen of Ruts. But this rut had gotten too deep and I woke up one day and realized that I had options to make me a happier me. So goodbye, Group! Thanks for the experience and the friendships.

Another country heard from...

Wow. It's been a long time! Where these past few weeks have gone, I have no idea. So sorry for having deprived you all of your "Daly Dose" for many, many days! Let's see... why don't we play catch-up:

• We had a lovely Christmas. Josie thoroughly enjoyed the wrapping paper, tissue paper, boxes and bags that her numerous, generous gifts came in! She looks awfully cute in her new outfits - I'll get some new pix up for you soon. Really - I promise it won't be another month! Back to the holidays - we enjoyed Christmas Eve with my family in Chatfield, and Christmas Day with Patrick's fam up here in the Cities. It really was a laid-back celebration this year, which we all very much appreciated. I am a very big fan of NOT trying to go 25 places in 2 days.
• Josie's newest accomplishments are drinking whole milk, pulling herself up on everything and moving back and forth between pieces of furniture, throwing mild temper tantrums when told "no," blowing kisses to mom and dad (although sometimes they seem to be 'angry' kisses, so I'm not sure what that means,) clapping all the time, and "dancing" to any sort of music from the radio to tv commercials to daddy singing "Iron Man," which, much to mommy's chagrin, seems to be her favorite. If she turns out to be a 70's and 80's rock lover, I'm in a lot of trouble! I guess she is her daddy's girl (as if there was any doubt before!)
• New Year's Eve 2005 (even though I was drinking out of a New Year's Eve 2000 glass!) was a blast. A big thanks to Tricia and Kevin for hosting a party at their house and for all the lovely treats and games and laughs. We got to spend quality time with a lot of our friends, even some who made the trek all the way from Florida and Wyoming. We are so blessed in this 2006 to have so many wonderful family members and friends!

Otherwise, there really hasn't been that much going on with us in 2006 so far, other than very busy work days which lead to very tired evenings and weekends. We had a miserable weekend as Josephine was battling the crud - ALL weekend. She developed a temp on Friday afternoon at home with me, and we fought it and a very runny nose and a couple of bouts of vomiting throughout the weekend. On the upside, she was very cuddly, but I much rather would have had my healthy, happy baby. Daycare Betty said she is doing well today, no fever, so that's a good thing. Still doesn't have her full appetite back, but seems she's on the road to recovery. And HOLY COW, she's approaching her 1 year birthday!

Well, my lunch break is almost up... again, sorry to have been out of touch for so long! I'll be more regular in 2006... wait - that didn't sound right! What a resolution, huh?! I'll post more often, you knew what I meant. :)