Out of The Cave!

...and the sun shines bright! Yes, I have stepped out of the cave and made my very first purchase on Amazon. Just recently. I guess I have been in the very very dark ages, as I have heard that there are decent bargains on the site, but never actually bought anything. Until recently. However, I didn't buy anything too terribly exciting, just a phone battery.

A little backstory: My phone decided to go *pop* last July without any reason or notice. Guess it was just too stressed out, as was I at the time, but that's beside the point. At first, super glue did fix the thing. However, its efficacy wore off way too quickly, about a couple of months later. Needless to say I just started winging it, replacing the little piece of plastic whenever it cracked out of line. It worked. Until Wednesday evening, that is. Earlier in the day it started acting a little weird; not closing correctly a couple of times, but I had been able to pop the plastic back into line when it popped out.

I placed a call to the DH and after that it was all over. It didn't close correctly again, in fact, the little silver ribbon connecting the display to the rest of the phone tore! The display quit working altogether, and I eventually learned, with the help of DH's phone, that mine had quit working, period. I attempted to call myself using his phone, but all that happened was the keypad would light up for half a second then nothing. Even if the ringer had been inadvertently silenced, the keypad should have stayed lit. fml. Here I was, without a phone and very importantly, without an alarm clock. (It's not very often these days that I wake up without the thing.) fml. What was I going to do? A search of the house for a spare clock came up fruitless. fml.Was it time to run to the store to grab the cheapest one on the shelf and use that?

A brainstorming sesh over dinner revealed a little-before remembered fact: I had another phone lying around. Found it. Charger? Check. Used DH's phone again to call customer service and 7.5 minutes later I had a semi-new phone that worked. TG!

Fast-forward to the next day, when it was *supposedly* fully charged. Eight hours later, the message my phone had so proudly displayed proved to be a boldfaced lie. The thing died, when I was trying to call the DH. Go figure. A quick search of the phone manufacturer's web site proved fruitless; they wanted fifty-someodd dollars for an extended life battery and probably more for a new battery door that wouldn't have matched my phone anyway. Um, no thanks, dudes. A quick search of the internet pointed me to some havily discounted sites. I bought the exact battery I wanted and needed, for about 98% less than what those other guys wanted. With shipping, I paid a total of ten bucks and change for a new battery, with expedited shipping.

Hopefully, in a few days' time, I will have a phone battery that actually holds a charge reliably. Tonight, it seems OK; it is currently going for the record at 12+ hours strong (the past couple of days we've been lucky for it to hold a charge for 12 hours. Yes, 12 hours.), but we'll see what time tonight it wakes me up with its low-battery beep. Nah, it won't. Knowing my luck, it'll wait until we're in the car or already at grammy's house to decide it's tired and wants its recharge.

Happy Sprummer, Folks!

Since I live in Texas, I practically live by the saying, "If you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes." And some of us know that it is all too true. In fact, lately, we have experienced spring, summer and winter, all within the same three-month period.

In fact, I'm not even sure that Texas has any real seasons at all, if ever. We may experience fall here and there, winter here and there, even spring here and there. However, they last only about a week or so, tops. But summer, all five million hot and balmy days of it in fact, arrives early and stays late.

The flowers are blooming beautifully as if it's spring. Our rose bushes (yes, even the new ones!) have tons of radiant pink roses on them. The bulbs that I planted three years ago bloom brightly once again. Our pear trees have already bloomed and shed their beautiful flowers, leaving their signature fat, light leaves in their wake.

Pink highlights, anyone?

The calendar dictates to us that it is currently spring. However, the hot and balmy weather we've had lately states that it is summer. The temp has hit 90 degrees already several times. We've also experienced several scary spring storms, with hail, high winds and the whole nine yards- yes, even confirmed tornadoes. So it's definitely not spring, temp-wise, but it's not summer, calendar-wise. It's officially sprummer, folks!

BTW, did I mention that the pic was taken in late February? Yes, the same month in which we had tons of snow, just three and a half weeks earlier.

I swore I wouldn't.

10 years ago I would have said "no thanks" (while thinking "hell no!"). "Ew" was my favorite word for it. I would have used the words "cumbersome" and "gaudy" to describe it, perhaps. My stuff would have gotten lost in it.

What is it? The oversized purse. I have usually carried midsize or smallish purses, up until now. My small-midsize bag that I have been using has worked OK, but not anymore.

Diapers, a sippy cup and a few toys, plus my wallet, cell phone and misc junk which I MUST carry with me at all times just weren't getting along in the same bag anymore, let alone fitting. And I refuse to carry a purse AND a diaper bag around multiple places with Jessy. No way, no how. Uh-uh. Nein. Nunca.

I strolled through the aisles at Wal-Mart and a few candidates caught my eyes, but I just wasn't sure. Target had some cute ones, but I just couldn't see plunking down $2900 (read: $29 Hey, I'm on a tighter-than-shoestring budget here!) for a purse which would double as my compulsive-hoarding enabler AND a diaper bag, which will surely endure countless episodes of being tossed around, chewed on, dragged around, having milk and cheerios spilled into it, ah heck, the list goes on and on. Needless to say, once I saw that price tag on the cutie, I kept walking.

Flash forward two days and I am at work. My co-worker walks up to me and asks me which one I want, while holding up two of these purses. One was the perfect size. Exactly what I was looking for, for far less than I was expecting to spend. Hell yeah. It needs a little super glue to fix a small glitch, but once that's done, it will be perfect. Not too big, not too small, juuuuuuust riiiiiight. Off to go bleach my hair blonde and change my name to Goldilocks.

Sweet Sensations

Those who know me know that I like chocolate. No, scratch that- I don't like it. I love it. In fact, if there wasn't such a stigma tied to sugar, carbs and calories (ahh, the good stuff), I would devour one small solid milk-chocolate bunny every single day if they were made year-round.

I'm sure we all know about the various research studies pointing to the many health benefits of chocolate, mainly with the heart. Not only that, but who doesn't feel soooo good after having some? Many like the dark variety, without the sugar and milk sweetening it up. In fact, that one is supposedly healthier. However, I just like mine with th emilk and sugar. The dark kind is a little too bitter for my taste.

In fact, I wonder if that is why the babyjess is such a happy girl... The only time I see her unhappy is when she is sick, tired or hungry... or tired of sitting wherever she is at.

Her second smile, at approx. 1 month and 5 days old.

And yes, this mama ate quite a bit of chocolate while preggo with her.

Now off to eat some chocolate for Jessy's little sister (still yet nameless...). ;)

Losing my mind!

It's official. I have lost my picture card reader for my camera. fml. About six months ago my camera's plug-in port stopped detecting when the thing was plugged into the computer. What a pain. I made a trip to Radio Shack and found a basic one for about $15 and it worked beautifully. That is, up until a couple of weeks ago, wehn it disappeared.

Keith and I were doing some cleaning and both remember temporarily placing it on the kitchen table, so that Jessy couldn't munch on it as she liked to do. And then it happened- we never saw it again. We looked in the couch cushions, the first most likely place, and it wasn't there. We have checked literally everywhere, well, almost... we haven't made the trip to the trash dump- perhaps we accidentally threw it away.

Oy, vey... I have a confession to make. Since I have gone back to work, I have indeed shed a few brain cells. Among them, the one that allows me to keep up with stuff. :p

In the meantime, here are a couple of pics of Jessy being sassy, from a few weeks ago.

Pregnancy Random Thought #498,352

I've heard the old wives' tale about how heartburn in pregnancy= lots of hair for baby. The more heartburn that mommy has while pg, the more hair the baby will have. Supposedly, estrogen is to blame, as it encourages hair growth??

All is fine with that, except for one minor, little issue... I've, well, had much more heartburn in this pregnancy than I did with that of Jessy.

For reference, this is Jessy on her first day out of the oven. Y'all see all that hair?? Um, yeah... how could a newborn baby have any more?? According to the ol' WT, I may birth a little Sasquatch in July... hmmm...