A sportman's paradise.....

Yep, today is the day. Cabela's has officially opened its doors to the public. I was up with Maeve this morning at 5:30 and it was all over the news. They showed people lined up outside the store about 2 hours before it opened. One guy had been there for 4 hours!

They have closed the closest southbound exit to Cabela's on southbound 35. Makes no sense to me, but whatever. Instead they'll have to take OUR exit. Great. I can see Richard cussing to and from work! LOL!

My dad is coming up this weekend. We'll have to go check it out. I just hope that all of the roadwork and construction that they did was worth it. I'm going to be ticked if there are traffic pileups all the time. Ugh.

Oh, and they said that they expect 20,000 visitors today. Lovely.

A worn out welcome.....

So I watched The Real World-Austin last night. I mean how could I not? All of the places shown last night are very familiar to me. I just wanted to see what it was all about.

I have to say that this is a group of crazy kids (yes they are kids to me because I'm nearing 30! LOL!). Within the first 20 minutes of the show, two girls were kissing each other on a dare. Lovely. The 2nd half of the show included 2 of the male castmates almost getting arrested and one getting in a brawl bad enough to send him to the ER with a fractured bone near his eye. Yeah, they're really smart.

One thing I've noticed is that the first episode of each season is pretty much run the same way. The cast members arrive and are in awe of their new place. They meet each other and congregate in the hot tub. They immediately are talking about who is going to hook up with who. It's actually kind of "blah" to me. I think that in essence EVERYTHING has been done on this show. There's nothing surprising to me. There's been gays, lesbians, rich, poor, cowboys, sorority girls, frat guys...the list goes on. It's all very redundant to me. The cast last night seemed to be outspoken and "daring" because they know that's what's expected of them while being on the show. I just don't know how much is "real" and how much is "fake" anymore. I know there's a LOT of editing going on because they air 22 30 minute episodes and they lived here for 5 months. So, a lot doesn't even make it to air.

All in all, I think the show's days are numbered. It's in its 16th season right now. It's the granddaddy of reality shows. But it's kind of like "Friends" or "Everybody Loves Raymond" in that there's only so much you can do with a show. Then it's time to leave.....or is it? I guess it's still popular because there are people out there like me and when curiosity kills the cat, they get viewers tuning in to see what the roomies are up to.

Get into the groove....

Yesterday I did the new Body Flow release that I'll be teaching in August! Oh my gosh! I haven't done Flow since I was about 30 weeks pregnant. My body can tell. It's really amazing how quickly you lose flexibility. It's a shame because it takes so long to build it. It was a great workout and I took a long nap later in the afternoon. I was so relaxed. I really miss teaching Flow and can't wait to go back next month (hopefully). I'm sore today, so I know that I did everything right. It's funny because Kyra was laying on the sofa and soon fell asleep while I was working out. Guess the music relaxed her too! LOL!

Oh and Jen, I'm going to pop in the Pilates DVDs soon too. I just work out in the living room when Maeve takes one of her naps during the day. It's too hot in Richard's shop right now since he put the window unit in our room to keep cool. :)

An easy way out.....

I saw a commercial this morning for kids' vitamins. I think it was for Flintstones vitamins. They were pushing off the fact that their vitamins now had Cholate in them...."an important ingredient for proper brain development THAT'S FOUND IN BREASTMILK". It amazes me how all of these companies try to make these products "like breastmilk" just so people will buy them. It's NOT the same! It's also very demeaning to breastmilk and breastfeeding moms. As one myself, I want others to realize that nothing is better than the real thing. Gosh just watch a commercial for FORMULA and read the ITTY BITTY fine print at the bottom of the screen. It says, "Pediatricians recommend breastmilk as the best source of nutrition for baby's first year of life". DUH!

I could go on and on. I read something recently that said that there's 30 ingredients in formula and over 300 in breastmilk! Amazing! Gosh how I wish I had done this the first time around!

4 years ago....

My Kyra Marie is 4 years old today. I remember that Saturday morning well. After enduring almost 24 hours of labor, my doctor suggested that we do a c-section. I was terrified. But all of the pain went away when at 9:30 that morning an angel came into my world and made me a mommy. The beginning with Kyra was hard. She was very colicky and had reflux. I suffered from some postpartum depression. But, we sought help and within a few weeks all was fine again! The joy that Kyra has brought into my life is immeasureable. She is the brightest and kindest little girl. She's always worried about others and seldom worries about herself. She's a very sensitive little girl. She wants to make people happy too. My favorite moment is when she comes and sits on my lap and tells me that she loves me and that I'm the greatest mom. My heart just melts. She comforts me when I'm sad. She is the best daughter that I could ask for and I love her dearly.

She's already talking about turning 5 and going off to kindergarten next year. I don't think that mommy is ready for that quite yet. *sigh*

I scream for ice cream.....

Well it finally happened. Blue Bell's Wedding Cake ice cream is out. Richard has been waiting on pins and needles for this and has been checking the freezer section at HEB for the past month or so. He came home all giddy on Saturday morning. I knew why. HEB had it and he picked up 3 containers of the stuff! LOL! He's stocking up since we have the freezer outside (and will stock up at the end of the summer too). Let me tell you, this ice cream is sinful! It's got coconut, pineapple, cream cheese, and vanilla wafers in it. It does taste similar to actual wedding cake. Some of the Blue Bell flavors are seasonal (like this one) and you can only get them during a certain time of the year. We ate a lot of this ice cream last summer and Richard was ticked off when it was all gone. However, the ice cream tales don't end here.

Two summers ago, Blue Bell tested a new flavor called Cinnamon Caramel Crunch. Let's just say that this flavor put the Wedding Cake to shame. It was that good. We loved it. It was a seasonal flavor and by the end of that summer, it was gone. Fast forward to last summer. Richard went looking for it in the stores and it wasn't there. SO, he calls Blue Bell....yes you read that right, HE CALLED BLUE BELL. What a stalker! LOL! They told him that it wasn't successful enough, so they weren't making it anymore. I haven't seen him upset about many things, but he was ticked about this. He told all of his friends about it and suggested that they call or email Blue Bell and complain!

Bottom line: Richard likes his ice cream and he'll do anything in his power to get his hands on his favorite flavor.

Nocturnal bliss.....

God bless you, Jennifer! You rock! Jen sent me two books to read: "The Happiest Baby on the Block" and "The Happiest Toddler on the Block". I skimmed through the baby one and we have used some of the 5 S's for the past few nights and it's been WONDERFUL! Granted Maeve doesn't sleep through the night, but she has slept for 3-4 hour stretches. What an improvement! The most amazing thing is that she sleeps IN HER CRIB! She'll sleep there or in her swing.

For those that want to know, the 5 S's for getting baby to sleep better and quit crying are: Swing, Swaddling, Shhhh (white noise), Side-Laying Position, and Sucking. The ones that have been extremely effective for us are swaddling, shhhhh, and sucking. Richard and I have been swaddling Maeve up really tight before bed. Think of how tight they swaddle them in the hospital. It's like that. We found (and the book states this) that Maeve was waking herself up a lot by flailing her arms. This is because babies have an immature nervous system. I'm sure you've seen how babies do this with their arms and with their legs (they kick nonstop). Swaddling with their arms and legs in the blanket eliminates this. Babies LOVE to be swaddled. For the shhhh, we put a little radio on AM and don't get a station (on purpose), so that all Maeve hears is static. This works well too. Her Godmother also bought her a heartbeat bear that mimics sounds of the womb. That's another thing that helps. And yes, Maeve takes a pacifier. Kyra never took one. Maeve is obsessed with sucking. She'll definitely be a paci child. Kyra is my blankie child.

Richard goes back to work this week. I'm pretty nervous about not having his help at night. But, his mom is here this week, so I'm safe! Maeve hits the 6 week mark this week and she should be sleeping more at night. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

TV tales.....

When you're home all day and sitting on the recliner nursing a little one, you get pretty in tune with the TV and what time certain shows come on. I soon found out that with our DVR, we get a ton of channels...some of which I never really knew existed. The Discovery Health Channel has a ton of baby shows. They have one called "Birth Day" and one called "Adoption Stories". All of the birthing shows usually have me in tears, but I didn't think that the adoption ones would too. Good Lord. I cry and cry like a baby. Adoption is very special in my book. Someone near and dear to my heart is adopted. I think that it's the ultimate sacrifice and act of love as a birth parent. There's nothing "bad" about giving a child a better life that you couldn't provide for them. The adoptive parents are some of the most loving and caring people. You can just sense how thrilled they are to raise these children. It really touches my heart. If I had the money and the resources, I definitely would adopt a child.

On another note, I'm so sad that American Idol is over with. I'm bored on Tuesday and Wednesday nights now. I've been taping every talk show that Bo Bice is on. *blush* I told Richard that we'll be buying his CD when it comes out. :) I still wish that he would have won.

The Real World Austin starts on June 21st. Lord help me if I'm on there somewhere.