I tried to mobile post this week, but it didn’t work, so blahhhh, but highlights:

Work is going really well, and I just put in a request for a MacBook pro, since I have to use mac in the school of ed, and winxp in the other schools, really, it only makes sense for me to have a macbook pro. (Plus, since my job is requiring me to go into classrooms, etc, and they are moving to have a laptop plan and wireless campus, etc, I really should have one, no?)

We have been playing sickness Whack-a-Mole for weeks now, and I’m so, so tired of it. Just when we all feel good, another one falls. It’s ridiculous. Poor Dave, this weekend is our crazy-busy weekend, where he had four games in 3 days, and I had tournaments to shoot, and by the end of the 1st period of his first game, he had to go home, and he threw up until 2:30 am, and hasn’t been out of bed yet today. He called in for the games, which if you don’t know him might not seem like a big deal, but he’s taken 1.5 sick days in the 6 years I”ve known him, and this weekend is all OT, so it’s especially poignant that he’s not powering through it. Poor guy. 🙁

I got my car inspected! It cost $500 to fix the stupid ABS light (fried sensor) but they fixed it, and inspected it, so yay, no new car for a year or so now. (Which is fine, actually, as the less we spend the better i am, really) I do still really want an 07 CRV, but now it will be a used one. 😀

Ingrid had her 9 month checkup, she’s 18 pounds, 27.25 inches, 50th% for both, but 90th for head. I still have to write a mothly post, hopefully this weekend. But, that’s the quick and dirty. I hope everyone else is enjoying thriving good health, and that we all are too, soon.

Hi! Hi there! yeah, it’s been nuts.

For one, I’m all employed now, can you believe that? And while I use my pump breaks to read my bloglines and stuff, I can’t exactly do any of my own posting. (I can’t pump hands-free. I’ve tried everything, but it’s just they way my boobs are shaped, so I go one side at a time. Whee!) Anyway.

Work is going really well. My coworkers are similar enough in age and experience to make it comfortable, especially when it comes to the whole working mom thing. For instance, my car wouldn’t start on Monday, so Dave and I had to carpool, and when we dropped Ingrid off at daycare I noticed she had *no* jarred food in her cubby, which she needs, as she’s pretty unimpressed by bottles these days. So I had to drop dave off, go to hannaford, back to daycare, and then to work. Luckily, everything is really close by, but still, it slows a day down, and I called and left a message with my coworker saying I’m on my way, sorry!.SInce I technically go in early by starting at 7:30, I said I’d just stay til 4:30 to make it up, but they told me not to bother, since I’ve been eating at my desk anyway. Cool! And on Tuesday, I had to take dave’s car and do daycare dropoff, which made me later-than-7:30 since daycare doesn’t open til 7:30, and again, no big deal, that’s fine.

So, right, my car died, but it was just the battery, which is awesome. However, this is on the tail of Dave and I having some weirdass illness, where Dave had been sick for more than a week, and I about the same, that came in these weird waves of "hey, I feel good! let’s eat something other than soup!" and then crashing down to both of us feverish and being thankful for 2 bathrooms at 1am. FUCKED UP. Anyway. Today we both felt much better, went to work, and I got sent home at noon because the college closed, and Dave was told to go home at 3, but he really wanted to finish one of his projects, so he stayed til 4. I picked up Ingrid at noon, and we got our first-ever school projects — a valentine frm her, with her little smudgy handprint on it, and then pictures — one of her, laughing, pasted on a big pink heart, and another of her and my mom on a pink heart as well. (My mom had stopped in to visit her last week while she was in town for her MRI.. more in a minute)  She also had a Valentine’s crown, that all the babies wore on their buggy ride around the center today. I guess it was ridiculously cute, and Ingrid hated hers.

MRI- my mom started having trouble hearing in one ear last summer, and her NP said totake Sudafed, but it never cleared up and I was so frustrated with her hearing loss, I insisted she get a second opinion, because clearly, Sudafed was not curing her newfound deafness. She had her audiologist appointment last month, and they found siginificant hearing loss in one ear, and since it was sudden, the guy wanted an MRI done to rule out a brain tumor. Fun! His logic was that if you came in with chest pains, we’d rule out a heart attack, and that makes sense, but still, brain tumor sounds scary as shit.

And then, today! Today we both feel almost human, though because I finally slept well, I was in one position all night, which led to a plugged duct, YAY. And the snow came, so I was glad to have my car back, and when they closed school for noon, I was totally excited. I sang to Ingrid when I picked her up, "this is why mama is in educatttiooonnn!"

For Valentine’s Day, we aren’t super sentimental or anything, and knew that this year would be way better than last year, which was the day of "get rearended on way home from ER after being doped up with morphine for back spasms" but all of us getting home early was pretty nice. Dave is making me dinner — real dinner, like, he went grocery shopping and cut veggies and is following a recipe and everything dinner! — and I got hime a few books, one even, gasp! a hardcover! New! But he’s been whining about not having any good books to read, so I picked up an anthology of Lovecraft inspired stories, and "the Ruins," which was well reviewed, and features some mayan temples  or something, so that’s cool.

I hope y’all are doing well out there. I need to test my remote posting again. I missed ROLLINS DAY, and I never miss that! So, Happy Rollins day and happy valentines day and all of that.

New pics of Ingrid, oh, somewhere over there… under February. Anyway.

Work is going well, so, so, so much different from teaching.  I don’t have to be ON all the time. I’ve just picked up Dave’s cold, and, well, whatever, I’m in my cube-office all day anyway, so blowing my nose and crap isn’t distracting.

Also? I’m listening to MUSIC. You can’t listen to music when you teach. Not at all. I’ve had Pandora on for two days, and now I’m playing with finetune and totally amazed. How do they have like, every single song, ever? Including random shit like Moxy Fruvous or that Urbal Beats compilation from like, omg, ten years ago. INSANE.  Also? Listening to old This American Life episodes is cool, too.

I’ve made my google personalized homepage my homepage, which is basically Dashboard for Windows, so, that’s cool.

I am so. tired.

More later….

When I finished my undergraduate degree, I was already teaching, but I switched to being a salaried, official teacher iin December, as opposed to a long-term sub/student teacher. Since Dave had supported me through basically all of my UM time for that degree, I always told him that I would get him a graduation present. With my first check, I bought him a PS2, with all the accessories. (I actually had my kids help me pick out what to get, which they thought was SO cool.) But, my degree(s) have involved a lot of sacrifice on Dave’s part, with the crossed fingers that it will all pay out in the end. Of course, this time his big prize wasn’t nearly as cool as a PS2, but instead a new carseat for his car, as Ingrid is outgrowing the bucket and he’s doing daycare dropoffs.

I’m fantasizing a bit, too, about getting a paycheck.  One of the first things I want to do is re-subscribe to People. It is my guilty pleasure, my not-so-secret shame, and it was soooo cool to get it for 6 months as a baby gift, you have no idea. So, there’s that, I think for my wholly unnecessary splurge. I mean, the addition of my income is tempered by the cost of daycare, but it will still be profitable after that, and those profits will pretty much go to savings, or, savings with a purpose. We need a new oil tank this spring, I need new glasses, I want/need a new car eventually, as well as house stuff: windows, siding, roof…

I also want to warm up my office/cube a little bit, but I have no idea how. What do you have in your office? Any suggestions for me? I have windows, one cube wall, and one cube wall with the overhead shelves with the metal doors that lift up, and lights underneath. Blank slate. Anyone?