Just a few things

We had a really productive weekend - got a lot of cleaning done around the house, gearing up for some open houses after the Super Bowl. My parents spent the night on Saturday, and my dad watched Maddy and my mom REALLY helped us clean and do laundry. It was so great!

We had my work "post-holiday" party yesterday. It was really nice. My boss's husband owns a wine distributing company, and we went there for a wine tasting and dinner. The building is amazing and dinner was so nice. I can't even begin to describe what a pleasant atmosphere it was, and I will tell you that the best part about the evening was the way Jerry behaved and treated me. He was so sweet, and I caught him a few times saying some really nice things about me. I left there really knowing how proud he is of me and especially of Maddy. It just really was such a nice night, and I can't tell you how much we needed that - time out without the baby.

On a serious note, my brother lost his job last week. I don't really know too much of the details, but if you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll know that this is not good. He's been so depressed about the whole marriage fiasco, that this was not what he needed at all, but he's handled it surprisingly well. I helped him update his resume and send it out. He's going on a second interview today with a company that he really likes and would love to work for, and he's really approaching the whole thing as a way to make a completely fresh start. Keep him in your prayers, because truly, we are all very worried about his well-being and hope that he really is "making a fresh start." I'll keep you posted on his progress. FYI - in case I didn't mention it before, the dissolution papers have officially been filed and they will eventually have to go to court and get it all finalized, but for now, they are legally separated.

Madeline is feeling soooo much better. She's pretty much back to her old self. She had a good weekend, and played so hard. She is really into her toys, and will entertain herself for long periods of time. Her new thing is "dancin' dancin'" whenever she hears music. It's so adorable. My dad had such a good time with her yesterday - I think he took every toy out of her toy box and played with her. He got her dressed and took a nap with her. It was so cute.

I had a really stressful mommy moment on Saturday afternoon. You see, I have been dying to go to this really awesome scrapbooking/stamping store, and Jerry and I were all set to go out shopping and to lunch, but when Jer was snowblowing the driveway he hit some wire for the sensor on our garage door and it wouldn't close. So, he decided to stay home and fix it, while I took the baby with me by myself. Well, let me just tell you that this store is not a baby-friendly store at all, and I had Madeline in the stroller and she could grab way too many things too easily. Then, she got mad and wanted me to hold her, so I'm holding her and pushing the stroller around the store (which is not designed for said stroller pushing), and so I put all of the stuff I wanted to buy into the stroller. When, she wasn't really happy still. Then it dawned on me that she was probably hungry, so I took all the stuff back out of the stroller and put her in it again and gave her some of those wonderful Gerber fruit puff things. She was fine the rest of the time, but I will tell you that I was sweating in that store and I was so aggravated. Next time, no Maddy when mommy goes to Archivers. I spent way too much $$, because I really was so distracted that I wasn't paying much attention to what I was piling onto the stroller. Oh well. Such is life I guess.