Ten on Tuesday

TEN of MY FAVORITE THINGS!

1. Could NEVER live without TARGET!! I don't think I have ever walked out of Target without a single purchase! You can always count on Target to have something you need ANY day! I LOVE it!


2. I LOVE Amazing Race! I want to be on that show SO bad. I think the best case scenario would be my sister, Colleen, her husband Pat, Paul and I!! (They once had a family season) My sister thinks it would be a nightmare and doesn't want to go, Paul doesn't want to go on with me, and Pat just really wants to go also. So Pat came up with Paul and himself going! WHAT?!?! What happened to me!? I would be pleasant on that show! Why don't I get to go? I think that Pat and I should go...they have never had a sister-in-law and brother-in-law team!

3. Baby Einstein play mats! Endless hours of entertainment for Rylee Rose!

4. Sushi! I absolutely love it! I am counting the days till my birthday so I can indulge in some sushi again! YAY!

5. The Hills. I am addicted to this show and can't get enough. I am sad this is the last season but I can only hope and pray that it will end with Heidi and Spencer breaking up!

6. My Honda Civic Hybrid. Not only great gas mileage but I can drive in the carpool lane! (I bought this car while pregnant and not knowing I was pregnant but I got a good 8 months of driving by myself in the car pool lane!) It cuts a good 15/20 mintues out of my long drive to work!

7. I bet my Wii Fit would fit in on this page but yet it is still in the plastic from Christmas! Paul worked so hard on finding me one and I have yet to use it yet. It spent three months in the box and now one month just in the plastic. I am making progress! Maybe one more month it will come OUT of the plastic and then by summer I will use it!

8. Babies R Us!! I could spend hours (and hundreds of unnecessary money) in this store. I love ALL of the new things they come out with ALL the time. Once again...I always find something in that store! They always have something that I feel I need!

9. Jodi Picoult books. I love to read and she is my favorite author!

10. Safeway bakery. I do all of my grocery shopping at Fry's but yet every weekend I will go to Safeway for my bakery items. A unnecessary stop but they are SO yummy! (Although they are not on my good list right now since I filled out an application online about 2 weeks ago for a night time cashier and they haven't called me back! I thought a couple hours at night would keep me sane and give me something to do since I will be sitting at home all summer.)

*I wish Old Navy would have made this list but I am still a little bitter about not getting an AWESOME coupon last week so hopefully by the next favorite list it will make it! One more shot this week at these coupons!

Bring it on Old Navy...BRING IT ON!

Well I am addicted to these coupon sales! I set my alarm last night for midnight since last week the site was reset at 3:00 in the morning EST. Well it took me at least a good 10 minutes to realize that the site was reset but I didn't realize this at first because the boy picture on the right is the same as last week. So I finally found one of the coupons because it was something like last week where something was flying across the page after you vote ...except this week it took long to appear on the page. So this time it was a stupid little fluttering hummingbird that you could not catch worth your life!! So I finally got smart, found an actual mouse (not the laptop touch pad that was doing diddly SQUAT for me) plugged it in and got hunting on this hummingbird. The coupon counter on top still said they had about 400 left of the $50 of $100 coupons but when I finally "shot" this bird the message came up scandal...the coupon is already gone. ( I say "shot" the bird because I feel like at midnight, when one is supposed to be sleeping, I was going at it like I was playing Duck Hunt or something). I was even on the site when it said there were a couple $75 off $100 coupons left. UGH!! Now it is 5 in the morning and I have not gone back to sleep because of this silly Old Navy site. Oh but you can bet I will back next week!!! I am on Spring Break next Thursday night also so bring it on Old Navy...Bring it on!! I am on to your tricks and I am going to get one of the coupons!!

If this was Banana Republic or JCrew, I would so not be doing this since that would be like one shirt I could get. But this is Old Navy we are talking about here people....do you KNOW how many clothes I could get for $100 and only have to pay $25 for?!?!

Now today I am just tired and cranky. I would so not be cranky, just tired, if at least I had gotten the coupon! I would be online shopping...now I am just online. :o(

Wordless Wednesday

I did it!

I jumped on the Ten on Tuesday bandwagon and I am giving it a shot! Here is goes....Ten things going on in the world of the Thomson's!

1. All Paul wants to do in life is be a firefighter. He volunteers 24 hours a month and has for the past 6 years! As Andy Groft would say..."Why would they hire you Paul? You are their best UN-PAID employee! You do all the work for free!" I think that Paul has shown his dedication by now! It sucks to see someone want something so bad and not be able to do anything about it!

2. Today is a field trip with my fourth grade class to JA BizTown and it lasts ALL day. Tomorrow we go to Castles and Coasters and Thursday we have half day. What a waste of a teaching week! Spring Break I am SO ready!

3. I feel sorry for all the people in the world that are facing infertility. Some of the blogs I follow have been struggling with this problem for 3-6 years! I can't imagine what they go through. I LOVE my daughter and cannot imagine life without her. I complain about what I would have to pay now to have another one (or to prevent having one) and I just sit and think about what they must pay to have one. It's extraordinary what it costs to have a baby if you can't have one and WANT one SO bad. I am currently looking into becoming a surrogate mother. I think that would be so great!

4. Paul is planning his next get away...yet again. Scuba Diving in May in California. Oh the life of Paul Thomson....maybe he should start a blog, it would probably be more interesting. ;o)

5. I can't wait till May to see if I can follow through with not eating out for an entire month. I have already tried to think of 31 different meals and that part has already been challenging enough! I would say that it might help my bank account in May but come June...I will be broke as heck because I won't want to eat at home EVER! (I already have to break this promise since my Grandma's 80th birthday is in May and she wants to go to Olive Garden. How can you say no to that!?! :o)

6. June 1st is my estimated time date for "Get rid of all pacifiers in the house" day! Rylee doesn't really need one and doesn't take it very often but I think I will just throw them all away and see how it goes from there! :o)

7. Easter is my favorite holiday!! I love Spring, April is my favorite month and I LOVE Easter candy!! This house has probably been through 5 bags of jelly beans in the last 5 weeks! I know what I am giving up in Lent next year!

8. I LOVE Old Navy!! I am stalking their site hoping for some great coupons! I am desperate for a $75 off $100. oldnavyweekly.com is where to go for these awesome deals. They reset their sites usually every Friday but at stupid hours like 3 in the morning. But since I am up at 5 every morning anyway...I am hoping I have a good shot this week! Last week I got a 20% of one item and a 50% off one item coupons. I got to use them in one transaction!

9. Looking forward to hopefully starting rice cereal with Rylee Rose on Friday. She is still spitting up a lot so we are wondering if maybe the doctor will put her on soy based formula. Every time we go though he doesn't seem concerned because she is gaining weight. She is known as the "Happy Spitter." All I have to say is I am SUPER glad we didn't get those brand new couches at Costco Home right before she was born! Although, maybe if I had...Grandma Bobbee wouldn't cry when she came over and Aunt Colleen would come over more! (They HATE our couches!) Ha Ha!!

10. I am obsessed with Home Depot and if I cared about our house and I wanted to live there forever (which I don't) I would be SO broke!! I can think of at least 5 things I would love to do to our house to make it prettier but I have NO desire to put any more money into this house since I don't want to live here anymore. But since it seems I am stuck here until the market turns around, I am going to try and plant some flowers over Spring Break (but not if it costs a lot of money!).

Well that is my first attempt at Ten on Tuesday. It did take me awhile to actually think of 10 but got it done! Next week should be a little easier since I will have had 5 days of Spring Break done. Updates and Pictures to come next blog after her four month check up on Thursday!

Pictures...FINALLY!

Rylee and Mommy on St. Patrick's Day!

Rylee Rose pretending she is Ty Ty. The SAME two fingers! Amazing!


One of the many attempts at trying to take a picture of Rylee's scar 2 weeks after surgery. She does NOT want to cooperate! She is such a little stinker!

Finally caught one! Doesn't look too bad. We go for a check up on May 13th and will probably schedule Stage II that day. Hopefully it will only be one more!

Looking so cute in the hat Karissa got her! Grandma Bobbee was NOT a fan...but how can you resist those big blue eyes?!?!

Looking so cute and posing for the camera! In this picture you can see the WHOLE hat. AWESOME!

Update: I said I would keep y'all posted on my "pregnancy." I still have no visit from AF (Aunt Flow) and Sunday's pregnancy test was negative. I am just continuing on with birth control starting on Wednesday because why would a pregnancy test be negative a month after...right? Insurance at work just got more expensive and the coverage just got shittier! It now costs me less to prevent a pregnancy that to have a baby. I guess that made up my mind! ;o)

Pregnant, Camcorders, and Conventions

We will start with the first one. Pregnant.
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No I am not. But thought I was.....Could you even IMAGINE?!!?
Supposedly the Nuva Ring can fall out without you even knowing!! Who knew!?! So off I went to the gynecologist yesterday to have her "check" for my nuva ring. Nope, not there....pregnancy test next. LONGEST 5 minutes of my life! NEGATIVE. (I guess I am not really in the clear yet....keep y'all posted around the 25/26)
While I was there I asked some questions about IUD's since this "ring" thing was not for me anymore. I used the ring four years prior to Rylee Rose....never had an issue. Back then (a year ago) it was forty dollars....it has now jumped to a whopping sixty dollars!! WTF?! It would be cheaper for me to have a baby every year ($500) on my insurance than it would be to prevent a pregnancy. (I work for a Catholic School.....I guess that should explain some things!) But let's not forget that my work doesn't give you ANY maternity leave and you have to take short term disability. So I call up my insurance company this morning and SHOCKER....they don't cover IUD's either. Go figure. I did learn a lot at my OB visit though. My appointment was with the RN Nurse and gave me SO much information. NEVER knew that you could just walk into the office, without an appointment and tell them you need a pregnancy test. That could have saved me a lot of money last year. (Paul's comment to that was: "You probably have to pay your $35.00 copay every time though." I don't think so....but I don't really know) She also gave me TWO samples of the Nuva Ring after I asked her for one before I left. She probably felt bad for me after telling me that the IUD's run about $800.00 if your insurance doesn't cover them. But good news...Mirena has a credit card that you can just sign up for and pay monthly. OH GREAT!
So my new theory is that I am going to make an appointment for the OB-GYN every two months and make up some symptom that I need to be seen for and pay my $35.00 co-pay and ask for two samples of birth control every time. Do you think they will catch on?

Camcorders
Paul, Rylee and I headed out for some sushi last night to celebrate our anniversary! YUM! We went right after Rylee ate at 4:30 and hoped for the best. She sat in her car seat for about 10 minutes and the rest of the time she was held by either Paul or I. She wasn't really cranky...but I could tell she would have been happier playing on a mat. When we left the restaurant it was time for her nap so she fell asleep right away so we headed to Target. Paul is ADDICTED to Target clearance and found a camcorder for a steal! I would love to post a picture of it but I have NO clue which one it is. I was busy off in other departments finding steals of my own!
I can't wait to learn how to download some cute videos!

Conventions
This morning while I was supposed to be getting ready for work, Paul found me at the computer catching up on blogs! I told him I have become ADDICTED (maybe the post title should have been "Addictions") to blogging! You can get so caught up in people's blogs. Then you find more people on their friends lists and so on. I am addicted to people's lives that I don't even know! I need to spend more time with the people that I DO know rather than worrying about what the people I DON'T know are doing!
Anyway...so then Paul was talking about setting up his scuba diving trip that he wants to go on. This was our conversation:

Me: It must be nice to live your life. Scuba Diving, Flying, Snowboarding....(he recently went flying with his cousin and snowboarding with his friends, all within 3 days!)

Paul: Yeah, it kinda is. You can go do things that you love to do. Why don't you go to a blogging convention?!

I couldn't even respond, I was CRACKING UP. But the more I think about it....what a GREAT idea. Then I could spend more time with the people I do know without having to be ADDICTED to reading their blogs. Then I could actually say that I know some of these people! Let's get this convention started!

*Pictures on next post!

Hospital Visit #1

Rylee Rose was such a trooper Friday morning! We had to be at the hospital at 6:00 a.m. and we were right on time. We were in and out of admitting in about 10 minutes and we were all ready to go into surgery by 6:30. What to do with a 3 month old for an hour and a half!?! To our amazement, she was SUPER good! She sat on Paul's lap with her bunny and eventually fell asleep with me. She was so calm and so well behaved! I just hope the same happens in 3 more months for stage 2. Good news out of the surgery was that the doctor got 70% of her nevus sebaceous and will probably only have to go back for one more stage and not two more! Thank goodness! She goes to the doctor in 2 months for a check-up and then we will schedule the next one that day. The scar is A LOT longer than I though it would be but I guess they know what they are doing. No more big bald spot...just one BIG scar! Hopefully it will fade and become lighter soon. She is back to her happy self...playing and laughing along! Of course some crankiness was expected! We only gave her infant Tylenol twice. Such a Thomson Trooper!

There was one up side to the hospital trip....the cafeteria! It did make the hour wait go by SO much faster and we all ate for SO cheap. If any of you are ever on a small budget and need to feed a big family for CHEAP...St. Joe's hospital is the place to go! My sister's favorite...her 75 cent pancake!

Waiting so patiently! This bunny comes EVERYWHERE with us now. She sees it and SMILES so big!
Waiting for the doctor and anaesthesiologist. Rylee had the SAME anaesthesiologist that Jackson had! What a crazy, small world! He was so nice and all the nurses LOVE him. They told us he is the best one and he used to be a pediatrician. How can I book Stage 2 with the same one?!

This picture was taken Friday when we came home from the hospital. She was ready to play! I tried to capture the little mohawk she came home with but it's so thin...u can barely see it.

This picture was also taken Friday when we got home from the hospital. My sister says it looks SO much better already. I will have to take pictures when she wakes up from her nap and download them. The purple/blue mark above the scar is where the doctor marked the bald spot. The bald spot is 70% gone so hopefully only one more time!

Being a Queen in Mommy and Daddy's bed!

Cousin Jackson looking so cute! They came over Saturday night to visit Rylee Rose and bring us dinner! How sweet! Thanks guys! (Jackson's hair was in the cutest, curliest ponytail right before this picture. Pat too it out WAY too quick before I got a picture of it!)

Giving Bunny hugs! So cute!