Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner

It's 4:30 in the morning and I haven't gone to bed yet! Why, you ask? No, It's not Hailey, she is sleeping peacefully (as are Tim, Russ, Jackie, Jake & Taylor). I have been up all night working on a volunteer project for the Denver Metro Deaf/Hard of Hearing Track and Field Day. You may be asking yourself, "Why the heck would I stay up all night doing something like that?" Well, the answer is because the person who was supposed to do it is a incompetent idiot and I had to swoop in and save the day. That's right, I'm a bonafide D/HH superhero! Basically, I have been organizing 300 elementary school kids, 150 middle and high school kids, and 200 adults into squads and events for the big day. It's a massive job, one which I was only supposed to do a small part of. Unfortunately, the incompetent idiot who was supposed to do most of this sent it to me the finish yesterday evening and it was COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE! So, I had to redo everything and make it right with my superhero powers of Excel spreadsheets and common sense (and a little bit of my "analness" as well) and it had to be done by today! I have probably spent a total of 12 hours working on this. At this point, sleep would be fruitless because Hailey is bound to wake up in about an hour and I would probably feel worse if my sleep is interrupted than if I just stay up, so I think I will cook my husband breakfast (he wakes in 25 minutes) and then give Jackie and Russ a crash course in parenting so that I can take a long nap today. Sorry if this doesn't make much sense, but I feel like a cross-eyed zombie and I probably look like one too!

I went to pick-up Hailey today, which I absolutely could not wait another second to do. I missed her sooooo much. The cruise was great (I'll write about that later in a different post) but sometimes I would just feel sad because she was't with me. So, my excitement was at a peak when I pulled into the Wendy's parking lot where I was meeting my parents. The reunion, however, was even harder than leaving her. I was afraid that she wouldn't remember me, but of course she did. She wasn't overly excited to see me, but I got a good welcome. The problem was that she just didn't smell right! Scent seems like such a small thing, but when you are talking about your baby it is enormous. She didn't smell like my baby anymore. A week at my parents' house and she smelled like them. Suddenly,I felt so guilty for leaving her and so sad because my baby didn't seem like mine. It was a horrible, awful, terrible, no good, very bad feeling! I got her home and have never been so excited to do laundry in my life. Funny thing is, I was mentioning it to Tim and that was one of the first things he noticed too, and it upset him also. I guess our animal instincts are more prominent than we sometimes realize!

Tim pretty much gave you a very comprehensive recap of our cruise, so I don't have much to add. He did forget to mention that we avoided gaining back all the pounds we have recently shed (people tend to gain at least 3-5 pounds on a cruise, if not more because of the 24 hour food availability) by NEVER once taking the elevators on a 10-story cruise ship and doing tons of walking or swimming while we were on dry land. He also forgot to mention that he gave me the BEST ANNIVERSARY GIFT!!! He had a three stone (one for each member of our family) ruby necklace specially made for me. He went to Jared! Finally, he forgot to mention that one of the best parts of the cruise were the many naps we got to take and the fact that we could sleep in whenever we wanted to. That used to seem like a small thing to me, but now it is a luxury:)

This Public Service Announcement comes to you from the Nelson household. It may be unwise to fertilize your lawn prior to leaving on an extended vacation, especially if the forcast calls for rain the next three days. The lawn may take on a life of it's own and gobble up your firstborn child!!!!!

Hailey has developed a new skill - they grow & change so fast! She can now pick up very small things with a pincer grasp (thumb and index finger only). Time for us to buy stock in Cheerios!!! But, currently she doesn't want to eat anything she picks up because then it would go away, so she squeezes it to death instead. She also likes to use her new skill as a torture tactic. Yesterday she found one of daddy's four chest hairs, grabbed on and pulled like hell. Watch out Tim...her first word may be "tittie twister!"

Saturday was Tim and I's 5th anniversary!!! It doesn't feel like it has been that long - we'll see if I'm still saying that at our 50th! It was a really great day, full of romance and excitement. We packed in the car at 7:00am to begin our 10 hour trek to the newest hip place to spend your anniversary, Oklahoma! My ever thoughtful husband bought me a coke at McDonalds in Limon and shared his ketchup with me at Wendy's in Hays, Kansas. When we got to Okla, only the nicest of accomodations would do. The Ramada wasn't good enough, nor was the Holiday Inn. No, we stayed at Enid's own Holiday Motel. We each had our own bed, brown shag carpet, and a shower that hit you about hip heigth. We took a walk around the place, admiring the flowers that had been planted in the swimming pool and watching the locals who were headed to "Knockers", the nudie bar next door. Tim really wined and dined me as we ate a beef & onion pizza in the hotel room before bed. We just couldn't get enough of each other, so we were really glad that the phone rang every hour for no apparent reason to wake us up and gaze into each other's sleep deprived eyes. Yes, it was a glorious annivesary!
Really, the cruise was our anniversary celebration and it was wonderful. This was just the icing on the cake to bring us back to the real world and cherish those "not so romantic" days that I wouldn't trade for the world. I love you babe!!!