Last Thursday evening I took Alyssa to the mall. We met up with my friend Jason, and the three of us went shopping for shoes (sandals for him, sneakers for Alyssa), a cheap UV filter for my second camera lens, and two books from Borders (I think I can officially declare myself a fan of Phillipa Gregory!). Before we left I stopped by the Piercing Pagoda (I know, bad Jenn) and got fifth lobe piercings done in each ear. Amazingly, they don't hurt at all! Oh, there was the brief pinch when they were initially done, and my ear lobes felt hot afterward, but the typical sore/itchy healing period hasn't come at all. I guess I got lucky. In the past, the subsequent lobe piercings (second, third, fourth) were always more sore and itchy during healing than the cartilage piercings.
I think I want to get one more piercing done in my ears, and then I'll be out of room... unless I consider a tragus piercing. Does anyone have one? How badly do they hurt to get done? What's the healing like?
Too tired to blog. We went to Cherry Crest Adventure Farm (so funny to live so close when all the other cars had out of state plates and were loaded to the gills with luggage and travel crap) today and had a blast. Photos here. Goodnight (yes, at only 10pm)!
On August 16th, 2000, Dan and I went on our first date (one that I was so excited for that I didn't sleep AT ALL the night before). Obviously it was a successful one, and lead to a first kiss that very night, a few more dates, a relationship, an engagement, a marriage, two beautiful children, and many wonderful days, weeks, months and now YEARS with each other. I remember wayyyyyyyyyy back when our relationship milestones came in the form of months. Now? Years. Years!
Happy eight year anniversary (not to be confused with our wedding anniversary!) Daniel. I love you!
On Friday afternoon I put Ryan down for a nap. Within a few minutes he was crying "mamamama". That's his thing now - mama (or mamama, or even mamamamamama). Did I mention that he finally called me Mama (heh, not Mommy like Alyssa does)? It happened a week or two back. I had put him down for a nap and he reached his arms up to me and said "mama", clear as day. I leaned down, told him, "yes, Mama!", hugged and kissed him. He did it again. Rinse and repeat. That's his "thing". Only now, in addition to that, he holds my face in his hands and watches me while I sing a song to him.
It's funny how having an autistic (sorry Dan, I said the A word!) child can make you realize how much you take normal things like talking for granted. Alyssa did the baby babble that Ryan has only been doing for the last month or two. She talked before he even did the baby babble thing. I was being called Mama and then Mommy before Ryan was born. She was exactly 21 months the day before I had him.
With Ryan, these normal milestones mean so much more, because it shows so much progress on his part. Last night at dinner I said, "say Mama, Ryan!" and he did. Same for "choo choo" (he began imitating that after I gave him a toy train and conductor hat from the Strasburg Railroad on Thursday afternoon), "uh oh" and even "dada". Four words repeated in the span of five minutes? Freakin' amazing. Mama is the best though. I still tear up at that one.
Which is why even though he would have settled down to nap, I went in and picked him up, sang to him, then rocked with him in the living room until he fell asleep in my arms. Much like he did as a baby. The only difference between then and now is that he is no longer breastfeeding, and it takes two hands to pick him up and carry him. Oh, and his feet hang off my lap. But he still loves to be held, cuddled and rocked like a baby. And I still love doing it.
P.S. Yes, I am blogging at 6am. No, I haven't been to bed yet. Yes, I'm working on that.
P.P.S. 8000 words into my 32,000 word weekend writing assignments! Whoo!
On August 16th, 2000, Dan and I went on our first date (one that I was so excited for that I didn't sleep AT ALL the night before). Obviously it was a successful one, and lead to a first kiss that very night, a few more dates, a relationship, an engagement, a marriage, two beautiful children, and many wonderful days, weeks, months and now YEARS with each other. I remember wayyyyyyyyyy back when our relationship milestones came in the form of months. Now? Years. Years!
Happy eight year anniversary (not to be confused with our wedding anniversary!) Daniel. I love you!
On Friday afternoon I put Ryan down for a nap. Within a few minutes he was crying "mamamama". That's his thing now - mama (or mamama, or even mamamamamama). Did I mention that he finally called me Mama (heh, not Mommy like Alyssa does)? It happened a week or two back. I had put him down for a nap and he reached his arms up to me and said "mama", clear as day. I leaned down, told him, "yes, Mama!", hugged and kissed him. He did it again. Rinse and repeat. That's his "thing". Only now, in addition to that, he holds my face in his hands and watches me while I sing a song to him.
It's funny how having an autistic (sorry Dan, I said the A word!) child can make you realize how much you take normal things like talking for granted. Alyssa did the baby babble that Ryan has only been doing for the last month or two. She talked before he even did the baby babble thing. I was being called Mama and then Mommy before Ryan was born. She was exactly 21 months the day before I had him.
With Ryan, these normal milestones mean so much more, because it shows so much progress on his part. Last night at dinner I said, "say Mama, Ryan!" and he did. Same for "choo choo" (he began imitating that after I gave him a toy train and conductor hat from the Strasburg Railroad on Thursday afternoon), "uh oh" and even "dada". Four words repeated in the span of five minutes? Freakin' amazing. Mama is the best though. I still tear up at that one.
Which is why even though he would have settled down to nap, I went in and picked him up, sang to him, then rocked with him in the living room until he fell asleep in my arms. Much like he did as a baby. The only difference between then and now is that he is no longer breastfeeding, and it takes two hands to pick him up and carry him. Oh, and his feet hang off my lap. But he still loves to be held, cuddled and rocked like a baby. And I still love doing it.
First, an update on my last entry. I sent a lengthy email to the company that the person was/is doing advertising and promotion for, and let them know in no uncertain terms that I was very unhappy with someone they are employing. I mentioned the multiple comments, the person's attempt to circumvent the IP address ban (I went back and banned that entire IP), and their attempts at "testing" their ability to comment by using a different nickname, email address and website, despite my repeated emails to this person requesting that they stop commenting.
I got a response back this morning -- an apology and an assurance that I will have no further problem with this person. Sometime between when I posted the last blog entry and this morning the little dickwad created a Twitter profile and added me. For no other reason than to irritate me, I'm sure. Whatever, irritate away you little fuckwad. It's YOUR paid position on the line here with your outright spamming of my site, not mine!
So, the unexpected news: my mother's minivan started up yesterday morning! No shit! I went through the hassle of getting up at 8am (I hadn't fallen asleep until 6am! :dead: ), calling a local car place to make sure they could take her minivan and fix whatever was wrong with it, and then call AAA and arrange for a tow truck to come out. The truck gets here, and before the guy does anything he asks what's wrong. I told him how we changed the spark plugs and the battery and made sure there's oil and gas and it still wouldn't start. I went and grabbed the keys and offered to let him hear what it sounded like when we tried to turn it on. Insert key, turn.... THE DAMN THING STARTED RIGHT UP! Not a cough or wheeze or hesitation of any kind. To make sure it wasn't a fluke, I turned it off, then back on two more times. I then took it out for a quick one mile round trip spin on a nearby road, turned it off, then back on again... fine. So I apologized to the tow truck driver and sent him on his way, and then Danielle, Matt and I went over to my mom's with her minivan and came back with my car. Whoo hoo!!!
Now here's to hoping it doesn't die again. I wouldn't think so, since it was turned on and then off a half dozen times, and went about ten miles between my house and my mom's. Of course, she hasn't used it yet, but she does plan on going out to the grocery store tonight, so I'll find out soon enough if the victory is short-lived!
After we switched cars yesterday morning, we came back home to pick up Alyssa, and then we went to the Strasburg Railroad. Alyssa loved it, Danielle and Matt enjoyed it (I think, lol), and I had a great time taking pictures! It's kind of funny to be rubbing elbows with all of the tourists, heh. They're all sporting fanny packs and backpacks crammed with crap and maps and discussing where to eat and where to sleep, and here I am, living just fifteen minutes away. ;)
Alyssa liked the "ductor" hat and insisted on one for her... and for Ryan.
More pictures (Danielle has some on her Flickr, too!)!
For real! It's an LOL pin!
First, an update on my last entry. I sent a lengthy email to the company that the person was/is doing advertising and promotion for, and let them know in no uncertain terms that I was very unhappy with someone they are employing. I mentioned the multiple comments, the person's attempt to circumvent the IP address ban (I went back and banned that entire IP), and their attempts at "testing" their ability to comment by using a different nickname, email address and website, despite my repeated emails to this person requesting that they stop commenting.
I got a response back this morning -- an apology and an assurance that I will have no further problem with this person. Sometime between when I posted the last blog entry and this morning the little dickwad created a Twitter profile and added me. For no other reason than to irritate me, I'm sure. Whatever, irritate away you little fuckwad. It's YOUR paid position on the line here with your outright spamming of my site, not mine!
So, the unexpected news: my mother's minivan started up yesterday morning! No shit! I went through the hassle of getting up at 8am (I hadn't fallen asleep until 6am! :dead: ), calling a local car place to make sure they could take her minivan and fix whatever was wrong with it, and then call AAA and arrange for a tow truck to come out. The truck gets here, and before the guy does anything he asks what's wrong. I told him how we changed the spark plugs and the battery and made sure there's oil and gas and it still wouldn't start. I went and grabbed the keys and offered to let him hear what it sounded like when we tried to turn it on. Insert key, turn.... THE DAMN THING STARTED RIGHT UP! Not a cough or wheeze or hesitation of any kind. To make sure it wasn't a fluke, I turned it off, then back on two more times. I then took it out for a quick one mile round trip spin on a nearby road, turned it off, then back on again... fine. So I apologized to the tow truck driver and sent him on his way, and then Danielle, Matt and I went over to my mom's with her minivan and came back with my car. Whoo hoo!!!
Now here's to hoping it doesn't die again. I wouldn't think so, since it was turned on and then off a half dozen times, and went about ten miles between my house and my mom's. Of course, she hasn't used it yet, but she does plan on going out to the grocery store tonight, so I'll find out soon enough if the victory is short-lived!
After we switched cars yesterday morning, we came back home to pick up Alyssa, and then we went to the Strasburg Railroad. Alyssa loved it, Danielle and Matt enjoyed it (I think, lol), and I had a great time taking pictures! It's kind of funny to be rubbing elbows with all of the tourists, heh. They're all sporting fanny packs and backpacks crammed with crap and maps and discussing where to eat and where to sleep, and here I am, living just fifteen minutes away. ;)
Alyssa liked the "ductor" hat and insisted on one for her... and for Ryan.
More pictures (Danielle has some on her Flickr, too!)!
For real! It's an LOL pin!
Back in June I wrote a product review/sponsored post for a lingerie company (yandy.com). Since then a blogger for another lingerie company has been leaving comments on that post with links to their own company. I contacted this person via email and explained that I would not be accepting competing links in comments on that entry, because yandy.com paid for that space on my blog and should not have to deal with competition. I also let the blogger know my rates and requirements for sponsored posts, and encouraged them to contact me for more information if they were interested in advertising on my blog.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the standard professional leave off and cease with commenting?
Not the little prick I'm dealing with. He has ignored my various emails, and after I blocked his IP address, logged back online to have his refreshed (last three digits changed) and commented yet again. Then he did a "test" comment, using the URL of yandy.com for his author URL.
Well, all niceness is gone from me. I banned the motherfucker's IP address starting with the first two sets of digits, and set the keywords for the company and website he is advertising to be blocked from the comments. I also plan on contacting the company in question to let them know about the "services" of one of their employees/third party employees.
Links from my Neighborhood
Check out the RockMe. Schedule. I'm not sure if this is a...
All of us as Six Apart
Vox's parent company
