chilly willy

Flannel PJs keep baby warm.

(Yep, those are size 18 months!)

Baby had the warmest seat in the house!

We lost power for 9 1/2 hours on Saturday. We had the fireplace on, and paired with several layers we endured until it came back on. The house got down to about 64 degrees, but it felt warmer in front of the fire. As you can see, baby took her nap with several quilts where it was the warmest while The Hater and I huddled under several quilts in our bedroom. We were really glad when it came back on.

I really wanted to get outside and take some snowy pictures, but baby's cold prevented it. We did go out on the front porch and look around a couple of times, but we didn't bundle up and pose for posterity. She was especially fussy today, too, so mostly we tried not to rock the boat.

She's taking a few steps on her own from time to time. She can take one to two on her own without wobbling, and up to five or six steps on her own if she's really concentrating. She's everywhere she wants to go if she's holding both of your hands, and a slower version of the same if she's holding just one. We're just trying to keep our socks on and enjoy sitting while we can before she's totally running everywhere on her own.

The Hater is holding his breath hoping he won't have to go to work tomorrow. We're hoping it'll be a day where we can drop baby off at day care, he can take me to work, and then come home and rest. Fingers crossed.

peek-a-boo

We've gotten about 6" of snow on top of 1" of ice. It's been coming down hard all day, but looks like it's starting to ease up. According to the local news it's done snowing, but it's still coming down at our house, albeit considerably less than it was earlier.

We lost power this morning for about 3 hours. Fortunately, this happened shortly after I got out our "bad weather box" which holds the wind-up flashlight, wind-up radio, and other exciting sundries. (We found out at the Xmas Eve blizzard that my trusty flashlight that I bought at boot camp at Ft Knox had some corroded batteries in it. We've not fixed it yet.) I pulled some other flashlights from our bedroom, and just in time. (We also have flashlights in the car and truck, if we were to need them.)

We'd made food that we could eat warm or cold, so that was set. We found batteries for the wind-up radio, but didn't play it. Our Coleman lamp was primed and ready to shine. We added another layer of clothes to everybody.

The Hater lit the pilot light to the gas fireplace yesterday. We'd read that it should still work if we lost electricity. Sure enough, when the power went out, we turned on the fire. It was a constant adventure keeping baby out of it.

After three hours the power came back on. We're ready in case it goes out again, but don't expect it to do so.

Baby was not impressed at all about losing power. I plan on getting her outside briefly for some more snow pictures tomorrow, despite her snotty nose.

Oh, by the way - in the case of power outtage our wireless internet router won't work. Although we really appreciate the emails wondering if we're okay, we have no way of checking or responding to them when the power is out. :) For those of you in LBG, we've called The Dorks every few hours to check in and let them know we're not dead.

It's headed your way. Stay warm! Get your bad weather box out now just in case...

if you're happy and you know it

I know you can't truly appreciate this through the picture above, but someone has figured how how to clap her hands. She's not doing it all the time, but you can tell she's really proud of herself when she does get them together.

reaching for the golden ring

or in Baby's case, the remotes...

shadowed portrait

We had May weather this afternoon. It was 71 degrees outside, and it just seemed wrong not to go out and play in the beautiful afternoon for a little while. Baby's teeth are bugging her, so she wasn't much in the mood for posing and playing -- but I did manage to get a fun shadow picture.

building immunity

Mommy says that eating dust bunnies

makes good roughage for my tummy.

feeding myself

I think The Hater and I knew that things would get really messy once we started offering baby finger foods other than neat cereal puffs... but we weren't mentally prepared for this nightly adventure.

Hard-boilled egg, shredded cheese, cereal bites, diced prune... and baby cereal and a squash and corn veggie combo. Meanwhile she's also learned to ppptthththpthh her food at us.

Suppertime is an adventure to be had by all. Just don't look at the floor or kitchen table.

a new beginning

Dear Coach Dooley,

Welcome to Rocky Top and the Vol Nation.

We didn't know much about you until a couple of days ago, but we think your past experience has helped prepare you for this job. We like what you said at the press conference; that was a touchdown. You already appear to have much more integrity than our last coach.

Good luck recruiting and assembling your staff in the next few weeks.

We'll be pulling for you and our team. Please don't let us down. We don't expect miracles - and we know you're still have quite a hill ahead of you.

Go Vols,

genderist, The Hater, and baby

"We'll be watching you," warns baby,

"Please don't make us hang down our head and cry."

no rain on our parade

Like the rest of Vol Nation, we were shocked to hear the news of Lane leaving UT for USC last night. Shocked, angry, pissed, and shocked some more. Too angry to blog about it, but The Hater and I talked about it while reading what updates we could find online and listening to what ESPN reported. Lane left with his coaches, his recruiter, and our hopes of beating OU when they play each other in a few years.

We're bitter. We're not lighting things on fire or shouting direct obscenities, but we're more than a little hurt.

We're not so bitter that we want Fulmer to come back and coach UT football. The Hater heard that once the UT athletic director names the new football coach (which he says will be by the weekend), the university will be looking for a new director. Personally, I don't think that's necessary, but I'll assume that there's stuff going on to justify it. The Hater also heard that Fulmer might be considered as the new UT athletic director. Both he and I think this is a great idea, as Phil has demonstrated that he loves UT. (We just want to clarify that we don't want him back as a football coach.)

We're not angry with Lane for leaving UT to go to his "dream job." We think the way he handled leaving and his exit was very low class. He had an opportunity to leave and not burn bridges, but he chose the scorched earth policy. The Hater heard that the players didn't find out he was leaving until they saw the press conference on ESPN. That's just shady.

I read an article online today that summed up why it was good for the UT program for Lane to leave (link). The Hater said he read this one, too. We both decided that we feel much better about the situation after reading it. There's still a bitter sting to the whole thing, but Schlabach is right - this is best for our program.

We're hopeful for a new coach who is really ready to commit to the program.

We're hopeful that most of our recruits will choose to play for what we consider is one of the most fantastic football programs ever.

Mostly we're just hopeful.

Dear Lane,

Have fun with those NCAA sanctions coming your way!

Love, Baby

happy baby

gag me with a spoon

Have I told you about the vertical marathon thing I'm going to do? Well, it's in May, and to be honest I've not entirely committed to doing it yet. Basically you just go up about 30 something flights of stairs. I didn't really want ot do it, but some of the people I work with have talked me into it. And I've goaded some other people into halfway-committing to it, too... so now I'm sortof more committed than I was before.

The biggest flight of stairs where I have easy access is 10 stories. I went to the basement level to climb to make it the full 10 flights. I've done this a few times. It's not pleasant.

Tuesday mornings I walk with a group when they don't stand me up. Typically I walk faster than them, but it's nice to walk with a group and not by myself, so I slow down. I thought I'd be super productive this morning and hit 10 flights before walking with the group. I did without much to-do. (Mind you, I walked 10 flights. There was no jogging or quick-pace involved. Slow and steady will win that prize.)

The walking group piddled out and nobody showed up to walk with me. I decided I'd go back and do 10 more flights of stairs before coming back to my office to settle in for a full day's work.

It sucked, but I did it. I wasn't even that out of breath by the time I got up to the 10th floor. However, in the elevator on the way back down I was hot. I willed the doors to open faster. I went outside to get back to my office. It was about 26 degrees out there, but it felt great hitting me wearing scrubs. I stayed out there a few minutes before coming back to my office while I was the recipient of many are-you-out-of-your-mind stares by passers by in coats, hats, and scarves.

Back in my office, I drank some water and ate a few grapes. I sent an email to the vertical-marathon-organizer saying that I think the company should buy us all stickers if we make it up 30+ floors without throwing up.

Then it hit me.

My stomach was mad that I climbed 20 flights of stairs. It was protesting.

I thought I could will it away like when I was pregnant, but no dice. I stood up and walked away from my computer and decided at a last minute that I should go to the bathroom.

You know when you know you're going to throw up and you cup your hand over your mouth in hopes that you won't spew on the carpet? I assumed that position. I threw up in my mouth with new hopes that it wouldn't spew out my nose to the carpet. I picked up my pace, but threw up again in my mouth.

About that time I made it to the bathroom door a male coworker walked through the other door. "Uh-oh," he said, "That's not a good pose."

I threw up again in my mouth before I made it to the toilet, where I threw up again on target.

The voyeur was on the other side of the door asking me if I was okay.

"I'm fine," I said between more throw-ups. I thought he went away, but he didn't. At the next break he asked again if I was okay. I told him again that I was fine. Another pause, another question if I was sure I was okay.

I opened the door to the bathroom. He was standing there, grinning, "Are you pregnant?"

I laughed. No, I'm not pregnant. I just climbed the stairs and made the poor decision to eat some grapes when I came back. I knew how crazy that sounded even as I was saying it.

"Are you sure you're not pregnant?"

"Yes, I'm sure I'm not pregnant. It's not possible." I didn't go into any futher details, and he didn't ask for any.

I rinsed my mouth and washed my hands, then stopped back by his office to further explain the need to climb 20 flights of stairs. He'd heard of the vertical marathon and told me he couldn't make it up that many. I told him that I was no longer sure I could make that many either. Maybe I should take one of those throw-up baggies with me just in case, you know, if I actually do it.

Needless to say, it was several hours later before I attempted to eat the rest of my grapes.