I don't have time to Blog!

I was very disappointed to wake up to 8-10 inches of snow. However, my little monkey was thrilled. She got up and looked out the window with me and started screaming “SNOW!! SNOWW! SNOOOOWWWWW! snOWing!!!” When I took her out to the car, she would put her hand into a pile of snow and pick up a bit and say Brrrr!

I knew at this point in time, it was a “snow day,” So back inside we went to get her snow boots and gear to take to Gaummie and Gumps house. We weren’t there more than 2 minutes before she was whining at the back door about playing in the snow.

When I left for work, she was still playing in the backyard…

From 20 Months

From 20 Months

From 20 Months

From 20 Months

From 20 Months

What a fun day this was! Addie had so many firsts. She learned the word “safe” and we introduced her to police officers, firemen, and EMT’s. Everyone that had a badge on, Addie would High-Five! By the end of the day, she police by sight!

Here are some highlights from the Sheriffs Office and Police Department demos.

Once again, this kid and Helicopters:

From 20 Months

After visiting with the Sheriff, she was allowed to sit on the four-wheeler. She knew what to do…

From 20 Months

She instantly became friends with Sparky the Firedog:

From 20 Months

From 20 Months

And Even became and honorary Fireman!

From 20 Months

She also had her first Bike Ride! Pink Helmet included. She did awesome and had so much fun. (I guess I know what we will be getting her for her second birthday)

From 20 Months

From 20 Months

Now that I have entered Mommy-dom, I find myself hearing about all sorts of fun activities going on about town that I never knew existed before. This year I have tried to take Addie to as many as possible. Here are pictures from WinterPalooza 2010. Unfortunately, by the time I realized my phone had a camera on it, we were almost done. So, sadly I only have a few pictures and one video… but you can tell how much fun she was having!

Winterpalooza 2010

Addie absolutely loved the bouncy-castle slide, we spent a good 20 minutes here:

From 20 Months

From 20 Months

She thought the helicopter was pretty cool too!

From 20 Months

I am hoping to not curse myself by writing this post…

Addie and Jess have been sick now for 2+ weeks, and there seems to be no end in sight. Fortunately, it’s not the gross kind of sick where there is a lot of *ahem* ”clean up” involved, but more the “we-have-been-through-eight-boxes-of-kleenex-in-the-last-2-weeks” kind of sick.

Poor Addie started to really get snotty (in both senses of the word) about 2 weeks ago, just in time to miss our good friends Steve and Mindy’s sons birthday party. He was turning two, and the party was a Classic Roller Skating. They have bouncy slides and all sorts of fun things for kids to do. Addie would have loved it, and I am so sad we missed it! But Happy Birthday to Zander!!

Addie got a pretty deep cough last week, and fortunately it really died down by Friday night. So she should be on the up-and-up. Jess on the other hand, is still sick and doesn’t seem to be getting much better. He is stuffy and runny all at the same time, overworked, stressed out from school, and not getting enough sleep. All in all, not a good combo for someone who is trying to get over a cold.

Last weekend, Addie and I went to another friends birthday party. Caden, Lisa and Nate’s son, turns 1 today! Happy Birthday little guy! He is such a cutie and we were very lucky to be well enough to attend that party. Addie was still a little sniffley, but hopefully my excessive tissue and Purell supply was enough to not get anyone else sick!

Please, everyone send well wishes toward our house, especially Jess’ way!

Many of you thought I was crazy trying to potty train a 14 month old. Maybe so, but it is paying off! Addie is doing so well, tonight she proved to me a little too well.

Let me start by saying I know I have much back blogging to do, WinterPalooza, more early morning car rides, a few kidisms etc… I will, someday. Tonight, she made me laugh so hard, and yet feel so bad, I had to post almost immediately.

I was doing homework and Addie had been in bed about an hour when I heard her start to stir. This is nothing out of the ordinary, and she usually puts herself right back out. Tonight however, I head her start to sob. She repeatedly said “oh, nooooo…. OH Nooooo….. OH NOOOO!!!!….” So eventually got up to see what was going on. I walked in the door and she immediately started crying and saying “too LATE, TO late, toooo LATE, TO LATE!” and sobbed. “Mommmyyyy, tooooo laaaate!” she said. I had no idea what she was talking about, I went over and picked her up to calm her.

What am I too late for? What is she talking about? How can I fix this? All went through my head. Then…

She cried on my shoulder for a minute more, picked her head up, put her tiny hand on my cheek and said “Potty… Tooo Late” in a VERY calm voice all while slowly shaking her head no.

Fears? Gone. Concern? Gone. Laughter…. starting up. I smiled and told her it was ok and we would fix it. Next time we would be faster. I put her on the floor to change her expecting to see poop. Nope, pee. a VERY small amount of pee. I really hope this is not a sign of things to come. If that child wakes up and flips out every time she pees… we are in for some Looooong nights.

As of now, it is 10:00 pm. If she gets me up again my dear readers, there will be another post to inform you. I do like where this is going though. At 20 months she is concerned about peeing in diapers. Now if I can only get her to be that concerned mid-day when she is running around like mad and distracted by invisible butterflys and things that jingle…

*edit: It was pointed out to me, no where in this post did I explain “neighborgood”. That is how Addie says it. It’s not a typo.. but thanks for keeping tabs on me, most days I need it!*

This isn’t really about the people in our neighborhood, but Addie does mention my parents neighbors when prompted.

Another conversation in the wee morning hours from anout 2 months ago. I got recording a little late, as I had to wait for a stoplight to find my phone. Addie remembers everyone, she will most likely grow up to be one of those people that never forgets your name, and you are struggling to remember theirs. Ack! I hate when that happens. Good thing she will be around to remind me of everyones name!

Addie and I have some of our best conversations in the wee morning hours when we are driving to one of the Grandmas houses for a fun day. On this particular day, Addie sat in the back seat singing “one, two… one, two.” So I grabbed my phone and started recording. It is dark, very dark, so there is no image.
(This was actually taken about 2 months ago, but of course I am just around to posting it. She can count much better now. I guess I should record again, but for now, this will give you a good idea of her counting skills!)

For reasons I don’t feel I need to explain, I am not tagging this post or putting anything in the title that could make it “searchable” or “findable” via google.

Lets just say this… This was Addie’s first time doing this all by herself. We have done this together.. but she has never been alone while doing it. She had SOOOOO much fun. Now, we can’t get her out of there! We take her in and she pushes the button by herself to turn it on! Confused?? Just watch the video, it will all make sense…

for anyone who has visited my blog in the last few days, and gotten any number error messages, my apologies. I thought my troubles were over, but as it appears, they might be just beginning.

I switched my hosting service from siteground.com to justhost.com. The primary reason for the change was monetary. My account was up for renewal and siteground wanted $8.95/mo with a 12 month contract, Justhost was only 2.95/mo with a 3 year (prorated refundable contract). When I contacted siteground they said new domain names could get hosting for $3.95/mo, but renewal did not have the option.

So, I decided to swap over to justhost.com. They make it sound easy, pay us, tell us your domain name and we will take care of the rest! They did, sorta.

I paid them, and my account was golen for about 2 days. Then I tried to restore my old blog… that is when the problems started. The username I had with siteground was already taken by another person at justhost, so I had to be assigned a new username to which my old blog didn’t like… you following me here??

So my old blog was looking for one user name and my new blog was looking for another. No communication between the two. Justhost tried to change my username to match my old blog.. but that caused billing issues so my account was flagged and DELETED!

Oh crap. Now what, I pay $8.95/mo for service where I know my blog lives happly or give justhost.com another chance. I have to admit submitting support “tickets” is ridiculous! They never get answered by the same person and you just end up running in circles.

I got a bit frustrated with this, checked the Better Business Bureau and found a phone number for sales. I figured they could either get me with someone to help, or cancel and refund my account. Either way I would be happy.

Now, let me start by saying I usually don’t like getting support from people with accents, and it’s not meant to be racial, but simply the language barrier is difficult to break through at times… Justhost.com the people have accents… but they are BRITISH!! Oh joy! Talk to me all day! I love british accents. (think: the rain in spain, falls mainly on the plain — tha rayyn in spayyn faaauulls maayyynly oon the plaayyyn.) LOVE IT.

On top of that, they are RIDICULOUSLY helpful. Now if I have an issue, I submit a ticket, give them 1 chance to fix it, or at least start fixing it and if that doesn’t happen I call. I can only assume the same group that answers the phone is the same group that answers the support tickets.. but you would never know, as phone support is fast, effective and gets it done.

As it sits right now (5:26 pm on 1/14/09) My blog is up and running. I can read it, access my archives, comments and admin portion.

Michelleandjess.com and michelleandjess.com/abb (my two other works in progress) are down and I cannot log into the admin panels to fix it. I will keep you posted as to how it goes.

In the mean time if you need to talk to a real person at justhost.com, finding a phone number that actually worked was a bit of a task for me. So here ya go. 888-755-7585, press 1 for sales (even though you want technical support they will help). They are super friendly and actually WANT to keep you as a customer. Major points in my book. It is still undetermined what will happen as I am waiting to hear back on my other two pages… I’ll keep you posted!!!

As a final note, the customer service at justhost.com is better than that of siteground.

Addie’s first Kidism. What a milestone! The other day as Addie and i were driving home, we were chit-chatting about this and that. The conversation went something like this:

Me: What does Daddy Say?

Addie: Bee-Bum (as in Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum)

Me: What does Mommy Say?

Addie: I-Uvvv-Ooooo

Me: What does Ali Say?

Addie: Hand?! (As in Hand Hand Fingers Thumb)

Me: What does Grandma Steph Say?

Addie: Well Duh!

Clear as day it was. I am not quite sure if I was just supposed to know what Grandma Steph says so the “Duh” was for me or if that is actually what Grandma Steph says… Kids. Better yet, My Kid.