Happiness

2010 has been a year for changes for the Rice Family. We now have very little debt, we are paying things off, and it just FEELS GOOD. I guess when you start out on the roller coaster of marriage, law school, kids, moving, jobs, etc. etc. you just have no choice but to be at the mercy of craziness. Dan taking a new job with Jack Henry as corporate counsel was an amazing thing that happened in the past year. What a wonderful company, a huge raise and little to no travel! My job continues to be my job, I like what I do, ready for some new challenges and I am not shy about sharing that with ANYBODY......in this econony I think I am pretty lucky though.....

I do however wish to lose about 10 pounds. I NEED to do this for myself, I will feel so much better.....the first order of business is the calories at night time. I am great throughout the day, but that is where I am weak. I do eat healthy though!

I also have two amazing kiddos that just impress me everyday. They are smart, funny and getting so big. Tatum is becoming such a girl. She is very much into her hair and clothes these days. She wants to have short hair.....I want her to keep her hair long. She brings me pictures in today of the hair style she wants....UM NO KATE GOSSELIN you will not have that hair style....EVER...

Dalton continues to fight the bad guys and is learning a LOT from his sissy. She reads to him all the time and he is starting to write much better. He is only 4, but the earlier we get him going the more advanced he will be like his sister.

Dan is wonderful. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful husband. I look around and I see all these men who are just horrible to their wives, have put them through so much, etc. and I feel so lucky!!! This is happiness.....now to just drop those pounds!!!!

Oh, how can I leave out my friends and family and my sweet dog Buttons. (who chewed another hole in the crotch of my good pants).....let's not talk about that; I am talking strictly about happiness and that did not make Lindsay HAPPY at all.

For crying out loud

I think (I'm sure) I blogged about the 'toe incident of 2009.' Tatum and the door of The Meyer Center didn't agree. She had only her leotard on for her gymnastics class and her poor little naked toe was sliced and smashed in a horrible way, I was there, it was horrible. I was certain the nail would fall off but after almost 3 months, it simply grew out. Now, the dead part was still on there and needed to be cut off....but to a six year old, heck to a fully grown adult, that was scary. We negotiated, and begged and pleaded and she finally lost her cookies and was wailing "NO FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, NO DO NNNNOOOOOTTTT CUT IT, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD" ---I'm thinking..yeah, literally.

"DON'T CUT THE STINKIN' TOE NAIL MAMA, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD"

I am not sure if it was her yelling this, or if it was the 'stinkin' part but I had to turn away and not laugh, she would have been even madder if I had laughed.

That night, while she slept her daddy and I snuck in and clipped it off. She woke up the next day and was like a new woman. She was so excited to have that 'STINKIN' toe nail off. It's perfect timing too, she has a date with her dad for the father/daughter dance this Friday and she needs to be in tip top shape to boogy down; they have a dj and everything for crying out loud. Awesome.

The Body Wrap Questions.....

I am VERY ready for this week of work to be over. It seems to be dragging on. And on. Tomorrow the agenda is: take Buttons to the vet for shots, run by a boutique to check out their stuff, cable guy coming (between 8 a.m.-12 p.m) I always love that, they give you a four hour window and usually show up about 12:15! I am sure we will play, go to the store and then off to a friend's house for sushi!! I am a little mad at myself for not losing a few pounds before my birthday weekend with Maggie next weekend, but oh well. I am doing this body wrap at a local spa here called 'slenderquest' has anyone ever heard of it? If so, have you done one and does it work? I googled it and it seems to be the real deal. I am working with the spa director over there on some community partner advertising and flipped through their brochure and saw this treatment and it caught my attention. I guess they spray you down, slather you in this mud product then wrap you tightly for awhile......I don't know, it sounds pretty rough! But I will give it a shot. I guess you really have to drink a LOT of water, so that will be my goal next Thursday...then I am off to KC for my Maggie weekend.

Buttons Rice

Last Christmas Santa (well an elf of his that lives close, is retired, etc.) helped bring Buttons the wee little dog into our lives, and although we weren't totally sure before we had her, she is absolutely precious. She is smart, sweet, LOVES to snuggle, she is just good all around. There is just this one problem. The peeing and the pooping. She did better when it was warm out and she could run around outside, but she is stinking up the carpets badly. We are going to put wood floors in the living room and study, that will help, but it won't fix the problem. We did the crate thing and (though I guess it's rare) she will still pee and poop in there too, so then we come home to a massive disaster every night. We put her in a bathroom, toys, water, etc. she chewed up the sides of the door. It's frustrating, when the stinch of pee hits your nose...yuck. We have steam cleaned the carpets several times too!!!!!! I feel like a bad adoptive parent that hasn't done right by my baby. Maybe we should hire a pet therapist.

Dude...where's my car?

I mean really.....is it just me? I have 'where is my car dementia.' I leave walmart, come out with 25 bags of stuff, it's bitterly cold and I walk the parking lot for-EVER trying to find the damn car. What is the deal? It's not like I have 7 cars in my collection, I drive a black explorer most of the time, or a silver audi...I really must have looked like a fool today leaving target. It's over lunch I was in there for less than 20 minutes and it wasn't like the parking lot was packed. I luckily had only a few bags, but the wind feels like ice going through you and I truly could NOT for the life of me remember where I parked. Some older gentleman must have been watching me because he pulled up in his old cadi and asked if I needed help finding my car.

Hi little girl, want a piece of candy?? NO WAY...I am not getting in a stranger's car, even if I do look like a fool. I was shivering but graciously declined. I don't want to end up at the bottom of a lake :)

I did find my car, but it took about 5-10 full minutes before I felt it was safe to use my frozen hands to actually navigate driving back to work.

I am ready for the day to be done, go home and make some salmon with lemon and fresh dill, asparagus, etc. play with cheech and chong and watch some dexter.

I am a little ticked off at the wee daschund, Buttons scratched the bathroom door up very badly and so now she is back in her crate during the day until she can win back my trust, that is for a later post.

A Bright Future

I am feeling so good about things. For one thing finances. Listen, I got married when I was barely 23, had Tatum 5 days after my first anniversary, and have moved 5 times or so in the past 7 years. Dan in law school, school debt, daycare debt, etc. you get what I am saying. It has been overwhelming, but with some great consolidations, we are going to be coming out so far ahead and that is very exciting. We both have pretty good jobs, well Dan has a GREAT JOB, and together we do quite well, but when you look at how young we were with kids, and moving, and school, it all added up quickly. But the light is there and we are really going places!!! We have great families too that have helped us out, babysitting, etc. along the way and that has made a huge difference. For example, this weekend will be the THIRD working weekend for me and Dan helps and so that means the THIRD weekend that the kids have to stay with one set of grandparents. We are lucky to have them around to help out with that.

Now I am looking at a little over a year and no car payments,,,,WOW!!!! This is all sounding so great to me right now. I have made financial mistakes in the past but frugal has been our attitude for quite awhile now, and it will pay off in the end. Now, if only I could get a raise, then I would be sitting pretty :) !!!!!

The other thing I am excited about is my girls weekend in KC with my BFF Maggie in a few weeks! OH MY I need to get in tip top shape for this b/c we plan to look GOOD!!!! She has it all planned and I am along for the wild ride and that is going to be fun. I am so blessed to have her in my life,,Maggie I LOVE YOU!!! Can I lose 8 pounds in 3 weeks? I doubt it, but let's give it a shot.......!

It's Thursday....

Not much to comment about today.....I am pretty much wrapped up on this weekend's upcoming event, the t's are crossed the lower case j's are dotted, etc. so hopefully it goes well. I feel special event-ed out these days....! I am hungry, that silly diet frozen lunch didn't cut it, and now I am faced with major hunger!!!

My good friend Dave sent me this pic I am going to post yesterday....how funny is that??