Nope, Haven't Died

No readers, I haven't died. However, I feel like I could. Things around the Martin house have been INSANE! First and foremost, I got a job. I'm working as a patient care coordinator for Beltone Audiology. While the job is in Columbus (about a 30 minute drive) its been great so far. The bad news? I still have yet to get into the routine of the "working mom". I get home between 5:30 and 5:45... just in time to either feed MC, or watch Adam finish feeding her. I then have about 45 minutes to see her before its time for her bath and bed! Now, during this short window of time I have with MC,of course I want to play with her. Its the only time I get to spend with her during the day (I'm sure you know how chaotic the mornings are trying to get both of us ready!) So by the time I or Adam feed her her bottle at 7 and put her to bed, we still haven't even had time to think about dinner (let alone eat it). So as you can see, there are still a lot of kinks to work out. Dinner being the main one I suppose. Even if I do start cooking as soon as I walk in the door, its going to be at least 6:30 before its ready and by that time its time for little bits bath, bottle, and bed. So we still don't get to even eat until about 7:30. I wake up at 5 each morning so, as you can imagine, I don't want to go to bed any later than 9 or 10. That leaves me two hours each night to cook/eat, do laundry, do dishes, clean the house, and iron clothes and pack my lunch for the next day. Can we say EXHAUSTING??!! Sorry for the pity party - I realize its all just part of being a mom and I better get used to it. Its gotten a little better. I spend a lot of the weekend cooking so I can freeze meals for us to have during the week and that has seemed to help some.



MC is still doing great. Crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything. We also just started trying a sippy cup - pics to come. She's not too sure what to think about it, but I guess she'll learn to like it eventually! Well, time to feed little one!!! I'll post some more pics and details soon :)

Escape Artist

Sooo, this is what I walked into this evening when I went in MC's room...

She had just finished eating dinner and I put her down for a minute while I put away her highchair, etc. My little escape artist. I am soooooo glad Adam and I had already lowered her crib. (On a side note about cribs... remember the beautiful crib I posted that we bought for MC? Yeah, we ordered it in MARCH and it's still not in!!! The company told me what was going on and I won't bore you with the details but I am still quite perturbed. Thankfully friends of ours gave us a crib to use! Her furniture should be here in August - if its not, they just better watch out! haha) Anyway, MC was apparently quite proud of herself and decided to show us what else she's been working on..

Did I mention she has a new fascination with her tongue?

"Hey dada!"

I'm busting out!

"Now, this is as close as you get when you dance with boys Maggie Claire..."

Does it get any better than this smiling face??!!!

Have a happy weekend everyone!

Captivating

Elderly people are not appreciated enough. I remember being a kid and even a teenager and not taking the time to really get to know my grandparents. Its only been in recent years that I have come to truly appreciate the amazing life stories that elderly people have to offer. There is one perosn imparticular that I could sit and listen to for hours. Her name is Hilda and I'm not sure if I have mentioned her before or not. A little background - my mother is her hygienist and they quickly became quite close. She is an older woman whose husband had passed and her only daughter lives halfway across the country. My mother realized she could probably use some help getting to and from doctor's appointments and taking care of her house, so she jumped in and volunteered. I met Hilda soon after and remember thinking she was the funniest person ever... her bouffant hairstyle and thick German accent would have me laughing to myself quite often. Here are a few pics of her with "Tigressa" (her name for MC) when she came over this past weekend.This weekend when she was over, Adam and I got the treat of listening to some of her stories of living in Germany during the war. This woman is completely captivating. The things she has seen and experienced are enough to leave your jaw on the floor. I just had to share a few...

First of all, she has met Hitler. She worked in a factory in Germany and for some reason the factory workers were invited to Hitler's home for dinner. They were starving and all quite poor. They entered his home to find a beautiful table filled more food than they had ever seen. As you can imagine they were quite excited that they were actually going to get a meal. She then went on to describe the experience..." Hitler walked in and, Jessica, you could've heard a pin drop. Everyone was at attention and said nothing. He walked into the banquet room and looked at the table. He walked closer to it and then grabbed a corner of the table cloth. Then, without a word, jerked the table cloth off, sending every bit of food and china crashing to the floor. Just as silently as he entered, he left. Again, no one said a single word." At this point I literally thought I was going to have to use my hand to close my wide open mouth. She then went on to tell us "my friends and I were so hungry that we were almost in tears. I knew we had to have something to eat so I grabbed one of the linen napkins I found on the floor and started shoving food into it. I told my friends to do the same, but the hesitated saying that we would surely be killed if they caught us trying to leave with the food. I told them that we had to take the chance - we didn't know when we would get the chance to eat again..." Pretty amazing huh?

Even more amazing? The number of times she escaped death. Hilda was in her 20's during the war and lived with her parents in a home in Germany. She said she arrived home one day to find her house completely engulfed in flames from an air rade. Not only that - when they moved into another home, it happened again. They lost everything - twice - to air bombs. Things were so dangerous at this point that her family, and the friends they moved in with, were forced to live in the basement. Hilda said they had no food and couldn't even go upstairs to take a bath because it was so dangerous. She said she remembered an American soldier knocking on the door one time and being completely terrified. He asked her if she had a camera and she said yes and ran to get it. He said he would give her candy and cigarettes in exchange for her camera. She said she accepted immediately they were so hungry.

Another story which left me with my mouth completely agape went as follows... "I had started a job as a secretary about 8 miles from where I lived. There was another girl named Olga that worked with me who didn't live far from my home so after work we would walk home together. As we were walking, we heard the sirens and knew another air rade was coming. We were always told to get in a ditch if this occurred so we ran to the closest ditch and put our heads down. I remember hearing the machine guns and bombs so close to me. When it was all over, I said "Ok Olga. I think we can get up and go home now" Olga said nothing. I looked over and she was dead...."

After spending time listening to Hilda it made me realize how INCREDIBLY blessed we are. I asked her once if she was afraid and she just looked at me and said "Jessica, you don't even know fear." She's right, I don't; and I'm glad.

I was so amazed with this woman I just had to share a few of her stories - maybe it will inspire you to take the time to really talk to an elderly person you might know!

Mommy's Little Sparkler

Hope everyone had a happy 4th of July! As usual we spent our weekend trapped in a freaking car for 3 hours traveling. We went to Florence for Lisa's little boy's birthday party and to hang out with the fam for the holiday. It had been a while since they had seen MC so they were super excited of course. Her nana bought her a special fourth of July outfit for the occassion - "mommy's little sparkler"...
I really can't believe my little girl is 7 months old now. It seems that in the last month she has done SOOO much. I mean she finally learned how to roll from her stomach to her back, started sitting up alone, started waving, started crawling, said mama, and has now started pulling up on things and standing on her own (well, with mama's hands close by to catch her when those little knees collapse haha). Its totally insane to think back to her being a little, tiny, 7lb 13oz baby who just laid there and could fit so snuggly in my arms. Now she's all over the place doing crazy downward dog yoga moves. This is her newest "thing". I don't really know what she is doing, or why she enjoys it, but I just know I love seeing her cute little booty in the air like that hahaHere are a few more pics from the weekend. I know everyone wants to see the cutest baby in the entire world (Ok, maybe I'm a little biased...) ;)

Clueless

Alright readers, I've got a serious question. As you all know I have been frantically searching fora job here in Starkville. Well I made it past the first round of interviews for a job (it was a phone interview), and now I've got second rounds coming up. This will be a face to face interview with the manager of the company. We are meeting at Starkville Cafe (a little down home cooking sort of joint) at 9:15 in the morning. My question is WHAT DO I WEAR?? I mean, I haven't been on an interview in like 5 years... and the fact that this seems somewhat more casual (I mean we are meeting at a southern cooking restaurant in the morning) I am at a loss. I mean I don't want go the business suit route because number one it is freaking hotter than face of the sun outside and number two, as I mentioned, this seems a little more laid back. Let me give you some background. The position is for a customer service representative for a medical equipment provider (ie - they sell medical equipment such as breathing machines, mobility machines, etc.) The first interview was over the phone since the majority of the job would entail talking to people over the phone. Now, its face to face time. HELP!!! I am totally lost as far as proper summer interview attire!!!!