Writers' Strike

So, no new TV for the past couple of weeks...and no end in sight to the writers' strike. It's killing me! Literally, the highlight of my last week was Clash of the Choirs (go Team Lachey!) and Laguna Harbor. How sad is that?!

Clash of the Choirs - Interesting concept. I actually missed the first episode cuz I forgot to set the DVR (the whole family's been sick for the past 2+ weeks). However, I was impressed that they were able to take random people off the street and turn them into pretty decent choirs. Some of those people have some really good voices! Personally, I thought Team LaBelle should've won, especially after her Somewhere Over the Rainbow solo, but I guess Nick had more voters out there (not that I'm complaining since I like Nick). I do have to admit that some of the personal stories were super-cheesy. I mean, c'mon, the people looked like they were forcing themselves to cry (and not very well at that).

Laguna Harbor - I'm assuming that they only have a few episodes to show, since this series was taped over a 4 week period. Can I ask what happened to Chrissy? She went from "I've never had a serious boyfriend before" to hooking up and lying about it? And her dad, he went from super-overprotective, I'm going to call you every 5 minutes to you can have a party at the house and go ahead and kiss new boy from college while you're at it...?! Hmmm, something about Clay always kind of bothered me, but Chrissy screwed him over, so as far as I'm concerned, he has free reign to hook up with Taylor or Allie or both. Besides, not sure what the big deal is with Chase. He seems like a mimbo.

Laguna Harbor is *much* better than Laguna Beach was, in its last season. Of course, I was a big fan of the original LB cast (with LC, Stephen and Kristin). This brings me to The Hills. I don't see why everyone is making such a big deal out of the fact that The Hills is semi-fictitious. Who cares, we're all still addicted anyway. Real life, fake life, staged life...whatever! It's all about the drama! I can't wait for The Hills to come back with new episodes from Paris. I'm a little annoyed that Lauren is going around with that ugly Parisian guy, since I'm rooting for Lauren and Brody to get together, but oh well. They're saying that MTV hired that guy to show Lauren around Paris (and unfortunately, she doesn't use her better judgment and is going to hook up with him to supposedly get back at Brody for dating someone else).

*sigh* What's really sad is that I'm this obsessed with TV. Rich makes fun of me cuz I act like these people are real.

Merry Christmas!

Love, Maddie and Nathan

Christmas Shopping '07

This used to be my most favorite time of year... I used to *love* Christmas shopping! Malls lit up with Christmas decorations, Christmas carols playing nonstop... However, since having kids, it's become much less enjoyable. Malls overcrowded with people = difficulty maneuvering with a stroller (and even worse now that we're double-wide).

Anyway, for the past couple of years, Christmas shopping has become painfully unenjoyable, even stressful. However, this year, I pretty much bought everything online, and it was so, so easy! All we have left are Rich's parents and my sister (gift card). Amazon is literally a godsend. Free Super Saver Shipping and no tax -- how can you beat that?!

Right now, our house looks like the place where all the Amazon packages have come to die. We have stacks of boxes, just delivered over the past couple of days, all containing gifts ready to be wrapped. Incidentally, I *love* wrapping gifts..and am very much looking forward to doing so once again this year. I even considered taking a part-time job at Williams-Sonoma so that I could be that person who wraps gifts in the back. Okay, I know that's weird, but really, that's how much I *love* wrapping gifts.

Oh, by the way, the other thing I love is being able to buy gift cards to pretty much anywhere at the supermarket. How ingenious is that?! It's like one-stop shopping while you're out getting groceries anyway. I do still have to get Maddie's teachers' gifts, so I'll do that the next time I'm at the supermarket. Gift cards, another ingenious invention by retailers. I read somewhere that less than 50% of gift cards purchased are ever redeemed. Isn't that insane?! But I guess most people forget about them or lose them before ever using them. Sad.

We still haven't put up our Christmas tree. We're undecided about whether we're going to do it at all this year. It's so much work bringing everything down from the attic (and worse, when we have to put it all back up). The sad thing is that Maddie might actually enjoy the tree this year. We keep waffling back and forth...but if it doesn't happen this weekend, it won't really make sense to do it at all. Ugh, we're just being lazy. It would be cute to take pictures of the kids in front of the tree though, so maybe we'll do it.

Maddie's 3rd Birthday Party

Maddie had the best time at her birthday party! She was surrounded by her friends, got to bounce and slide to her heart's desire, and had a *fabulous* Spongebob birthday cake. What more could a little girl ask for, right?

Anyway, the party went off without a hitch. Someone actually commented that it was the calmest Pump It Up party they had ever been to. And if you've ever been to PIU, you know that they are anything but calm. I was actually expecting to have a splitting headache afterwards (combination of loud music, a bunch of kids running around, and the stress of hosting a party), but surprisingly, not this time.

Maddie's Spongebob cake was a *huge* hit. In fact, the receptionist at PIU commented that she sees thousands of cakes come through, but this was, by far, the best cake she'd ever seen. One of the parents even took a 360-degree video of the cake using their cameraphone cuz a regular picture wasn't going to do it justice.

Thanks Traci!

Nate's 1st Haircut

On Saturday, Rich took Nathan to the hospital with him on rounds cuz I took Maddie to a pink / princess / tea party / birthday party for one of her classmates (the nurses *love* holding him, so it's not like he's going into the patients' rooms). I guess everyone was asking, "how old is SHE?" "what's HER name?" etc. So, that evening, Rich decided it was finally time for Nathan's first haircut.

BEFORE:And AFTER:
A part of me was sad to see his long, feathery baby hair go...but he looks much more clean-cut now (and so grown up!). It's crazy to me that he's going to need a haircut every 3 weeks from now on, especially since we've only slightly trimmed Maddie's hair once in the nearly 3 years of her life. Also, Nathan looks so much more like Rich now...I'll have to upload one of Rich's baby pics for comparison.

DWTS Relationships

Okay, I was trying to figure out if there was some kind of compensation pyramid for the celebrities / professionals on Wikipedia and saw the section on "Relationships."

- Season three star Willa Ford dated her partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy. They went on the DWTS tour together but eventually ended their time on the tour together. [Knew this, thought they were a cute couple, but it didn't last long...seeing that Willa married her on again-off again boyfriend shortly after her time on DWTS -- saw them together on MTV Cribs]
- Mario Lopez, also a season three star, is dating his professional partner Karina Smirnoff and they now reside together in California. [Everyone knows this one.]
- Season four star, Apollo Anton Ohno has been rumored to be dating his professional partner Julianne Hough. [Eek! Totally news to me...and can I say EW!?]
- Cheryl Burke dates former competitor, Joey Lawarence`s younger brother, Matthew Lawrence. [Once again, everyone knows this one.]
- Season 5 star Sabrina Bryan and Mark Ballas Jr. are rumored to be dating. [Thought I saw something there, especially on the last show when she was voted off...but another surprise!]

Not sure why I even care about this...and NO, I have not figured out how they are compensated and whether they are "rewarded" for lasting longer (or winning) the show.

Pix from the Hogan-Woo Halloween Party

So, Rich's co-resident and his wife throw an annual Halloween party. Personally, I hate getting dressed up. I just feel so silly (and old)...BUT some people really get into the whole dressing up thing. This year's party theme was superheroes and villains. Too bad we couldn't take Maddie cuz she would've loved it!

As usual, I was being a bad sport, but since I knew I had to go, I ordered myself a Wonder Woman costume from buycostumes.com. When it arrived, it was horrific. I mean, it was literally *unwearable* (it was all kinds of frumpy looking, just all around bad). I had to return that one (and was pissed about having lost $ on the back-and-forth shipping). So then, I ordered Batgirl, and surprisingly, it wasn't as slutty as it looked online (probably cuz I'm not nearly as skinny as the model in the picture, nor am I 6 feet tall). Maddie, of course, was thrilled that Mommy was dressing up as Batgirl.

Rich, on the other hand, found some head-to-toe spandex, crazy-looking Spiderman costume on eBay and ordered it. The seller was from China, and the package literally shipped from Shanghai. After we won the auction, the seller emailed us asking for measurements and his English was barely understandable. We were somewhat worried...after all, it wasn't like we could really return it. The item cost less than $10, but shipping with insurance was almost $70.

Anyway, here are a couple pictures... The first one is from '05 (there was no theme that year) and the other two are obviously from this year. Rich's costume is actually pretty realistic and scary-looking. Maddie was totally scared of him when he put it on.

DWTS Season 5

Okay, so week 6 is about when I start enjoying DWTS cuz by now, the really bad couples have been eliminated for the most part. The ones remaining are either the ones who started out good or those who have significantly improved over the first few weeks. I essentially speed through the first 5 weeks by fast-forwarding the dances that aren't really watchable (God bless DVR).

While I haven't been voting for the past couple of seasons, mostly because I watch Monday night's show on Tuesday or later (depending on when I have time), I was rooting for Helio and Sabrina. Okay, "rooting" is too strong of a word, but I felt like Helio was the people's favorite (big smile, just having a blast out there) and Sabrina was the most talented dancer. I also figured Mel B would do well (lots of support / high scores from the judges) and end up in the finals. Cameron and Jennie are on my most-improved list. They're both so sweet and genuine, and are trying really hard. Not to mention, Cameron's "Superman" paso doble from a couple weeks ago was Maddie's favorite (and we literally watched it at least 10x).

**SPOILER ALERT**

If you haven't watched last night's results show and you don't want to know who was eliminated, then don't read further... SABRINA! I don't think anyone could believe it. The judges were shocked that she even ended up in the bottom two. I think that when she and Cameron were under the red lights, everyone (including Cameron and Edyta) was thinking it was their last night on the show since Sabrina has consistently been the more talented dancer of the two. Needless to say, there was a lot of booing from the audience and the judges were flabbergasted.

I suppose with all these types of shows, there are often shockers. And things can never be completely fair since the viewers skew the results with their haphazard voting. Anyway, Jane Seymour and Marie Osmond better be the next to go. They're still on my fast-forward list.

At this point, I would like to see Mel B, Helio and Cameron in the finals. I always like to see the most talented dancer (not necessarily the most popular) win the show, so based on that, I am now hoping Mel B wins. It doesn't hurt that Maksim is my favorite of the professionals -- it would be nice for him to finally win. Also, there hasn't been a female winner since season 1.

I don't have a great track record when it comes to picking winners, so I may have just jinxed Mel and Maks... Season 2 - I absolutely wanted Drew to win...so YAY! Season 3 - I was rooting for Mario, even though Emmitt was fantastic and charismatic (and clearly more popular). Season 4 - While I like Julianne (she's probably my favorite female professional), I wanted Joey to win as I thought he had the more original and "fun" performances.

The question I do have is whether the stars (and the professionals) get compensated differently based on how long they last...? I always wondered if it was merely their competitive nature driving them or if there was also a monetary incentive.

Born Free Bottles

So, Nathan is already 5+ months old. Rich and I went through this whole argument before he was born, and the whole bisphenol A scare initially surfaced... However, at the time, Rich won and convinced me that if the plastic in baby bottles was truly leaching poisonous chemicals at toxic levels, then they would immediately be banned and pulled off the shelves. Rich felt that the whole thing was very gimicky and would not let me replace all of Maddie's old bottles (we used both Avent and Dr. Browns interchangeably with her).

Anyway, fast forward several months -- I just placed a very expensive order for a whole new set of Born Free bottles for Nathan and drinking cups for Maddie. I wish I had bought the bottles at the very beginning so that we could've gotten a full year's use out of them, but I figure, Nathan still has a lot of bottle-time left. At $10 per bottle or cup, Born Free is definitely not cheap, but I guess it's comparable to paying more for organic products.

My mom literally flipped out when I told her about the potential leaching problem with most of the regular bottles. She was basically saying that I'm putting these things in my baby's mouth and she couldn't believe that I hadn't switched everything out upon learning that there was even a suspicion that they might not be 100% safe. So, that was the straw that broke the camel's back and convinced me (finally) to buy the new bottles.

I swear, there are so many things now that we expose our children to that supposedly cause cancer. Think about all the recent toy recalls with the lead paint. Then there's my mom's mantra of not microwaving plastic or plastic wrap. Rich's mom's big thing is never to buy any foods packaged in China, since they pretty much don't regulate any of their products. Dude, everything is made in China these days!

The real question is, is it even possible to stay away from these potentially harmful things all of the time? Yeah, I suppose if we lived in a bubble and raised all our own food. *sigh* I guess we can only do the best we can do and accept the fact that nothing's completely safe anymore.

Maddie's Supergirl Costume

I was getting a little discouraged cuz I was having so many problems finding this Supergirl toddler costume for Maddie... Apparently, it's very popular cuz it was sold out online and at the Party City near our house. Today, after church though, we stopped by a 2nd Party City and luckily, they had it in stock. Maddie is now in love with it and has been wearing it all afternoon. Usually extremely camera-shy, she even let me take some pictures of her wearing it. Enjoy~!


Nathan is also going to be Superman for Halloween. Once I get some pictures of him in his costume, I'll post them as well. I'll have to wait for the weather to cool down a bit because his costume looks uncomfortably hot. Unfortunately, here in Houston the weather doesn't really start cooling down until sometime in November. Ugh~! Last year, Maddie wore her polyester / synthetic / fleece monkey costume from Old Navy to go trick-or-treating at our neighbors' houses and was literally sweating to death...but of course, it was her first time trick-or-treating and she loved every minute of it.

Sorting Clothes

So, I finally came to the realization that I need to organize Maddie's closet. There are too many things hanging in there that are now too small for her and (sadly) she will never be able to wear again. The truth is that I have multiple large, plastic containers already filled to the brim with clothes she has outgrown. Today, I emptied two of them and started making piles: the first one for my sister-in-law, and the second for my ex-nanny who is expecting a daughter next month. Mind you, I've already performed this exercise once before, to go through Maddie's newborn and 3-6 month stuff for my sister-in-law. Unfortunately, Chloe was born in the peak of summer and Maddie was born in the winter, so the seasons don't match...

Anyway, while going through Maddie's clothes, I started creating a third pile (back in the container): clothes I didn't want to give away. Every outfit I unfolded brought back a memory...Maddie used to wear this to the park...Look how faded this is now, I remember how cute it was when I first bought it...So-and-so gave us this one when we visited CA...etc., etc. Before I knew it, the container was full again, and my other two piles on the floor weren't looking too impressive.

Maddie has tons of clothes. I mean, the girl has TONS of clothes. I really should just give all of it away since it's just taking up space in the closet, and we've already taken permanent measures to ensure that we will never have another daughter (or son), but part of me cannot bear to part with all her old dresses, denim skirts, and even pajamas (geez, they're just pajamas!). My conclusion is that everyone should have at least 2 children of the same gender...that is the only way to get your money's worth out of the clothes you buy (and based on the number of outfits we're talking about, I clearly spent way too much money on Polo, Gymboree, and Baby Gap). Unfortunately for us, all we can ever do with Maddie's old stuff is give it away. Granted, I know that giving it away is good and all that, but no one else will ever appreciate each of the outfits the way I would've had I had the opportunity to clothe my 2nd, imaginary daughter in them. For me, each piece has its own unique Maddie memory attached to it, but to anyone else, it's just used and faded...hence, back they all went into the plastic container.

This brings me to pile #4: stuff that's non-gender-specific, for Nathan. Once again, a very small pile. Sadly, I realized that my HUGE son may have already outgrown some of Big Sister's old stuff that I never had the chance to re-use (not being very successful in getting my money's worth here)...and some things looked like they needed to be worn TODAY or possibly never again... For example, the Stanford t-shirt from Cathy Eemo looked like it might fit Nathan now...wasn't Maddie like 18 months when she wore it?! How is that even possible?

Nathan is going through his clothes at rapid speed. He is barely wearing things once (maybe twice) before he outgrows them. I am seriously beginning to feel like buying him anything is a waste of money. I'm already starting to accumulate piles of his stuff that he's never going to use again...and so, back to this dilemma of having to give it away or (I guess) buy more plastic containers from Target. At least Maddie's stuff is all pretty well-worn. Nathan's stuff is practically new. So, while I can't seem to give away Maddie's clothes because there are so many old memories there...I feel like I can't give away Nathan's because they're all so brand spanking new. Clearly, Maddie and Nathan are it for us...no more little kiddies...so why can't I give their clothes away? What is my problem?! Am I just going to keep accumulating more and more old baby clothes in the years to come? Is pile #3 just going to get bigger and bigger, until it's literally just ridiculous? Help~!

Random Update

Maddie is adjusting to school quite nicely. She actually prances in by herself, greets the Principal with a handshake and a "g'morning," and sometimes even forgets to say goodbye at drop-off. Of course, getting the uniform on her is still somewhat of a challenge, but she's pretty much like that about any outfit I pick out for her. She usually knows what she wants to wear and doesn't want to wear anything else. Stubborn, strong-willed child!

As for my dad, his oncologist is saying everything is okay. They want to take a wait-and-see approach with those nodules / lymph nodes in his chest. I believe the plan is to take another PET / CT scan in 6 months.

Because it's fall, it's that time of the year again -- interview time. The past two years, I was interviewing students from 3 private schools in the area, but this year will be my first year interviewing students from Bellaire High. I just looked at my list of prospective students and there are already 41!!! How can that be?! Of course, these are just individuals who have expressed interest in potentially applying to MIT and may or may not request an interview, but even if half of them do...my gosh, that's 20 interviews! I think I did 8 or 9 last year and thought that was a lot, especially towards the end, when we got close to the deadline. Eek, 20+ interviews!? Kill me now.

Ha, I guess the upside is that since I'm no longer working, I will [theoretically] have more time to write the interview reports. Interestingly enough, I wonder if any of my prospective students will google me before their interviews to see what they can learn about me before actually meeting me. If that's the case, there is a possibility that they may come across this blog... Interesting...

Other than that, we're taking Maddie to the zoo today. She's been asking to go for some time now, and now that the weather isn't so blazingly hot, we're going to try it. Hopefully Nathan won't fry. We're planning to take the BOB though, so he'll have a big sun shade to hide under. BTW, if any of you are considering a double jogging stroller, the BOB Duallie is amazing! We have the one with the 12" aluminum wheels and it can literally turn on a dime. We've taken it to the Galleria, and it is 1000x better than the Maclaren Twin Techno (which we also own)...you really can push it with one hand (which is so important when you have two kids and undeniably, one always wants to be held). The two are about the same width actually, but the BOB is just longer and taller, so it seems much bigger. The truth is though, the kids are way more comfortable in the BOB, and the sun shades are great (and a necessity here in Houston).


Last, but not least...Nathan is teething! He has been slightly grumpier this past week and super drooly. We figured he was cutting teeth, and sure enough, yesterday I felt them poking through on his lower gums. Poor thing! But he's such a good boy, he's still pretty much happy and chill...he just wants to be held a little more these days, that's all.

Well, that's it for now...hopefully I'll have more interesting things to write about next time!

Mindless Drivel

I think I like thinking about stupid, useless things all day so that I don't have to face real-life issues head on. I avidly read celeb gossip blogs, shop online for clothes / shoes / whatever, watch stupid reality shows on MTV about spoiled rich kids (The Hills and Newport Harbor), and as mentioned in my previous post, plan my kids' birthday parties down to the most insignificant minutiae to pass the time. Maybe it's a protection mechanism that I've honed over the years. I am, by nature, a very non-confrontational person.

Friday, my dad is meeting with his oncologist. He recently had a repeat PET scan, post-radiation / post-surgery / post-chemo. His first PET scan confirmed the findings of his colonoscopy, but that was back in March 2006. His most recent PET scan showed 3 subcm nodules in his right lung (non-FDG avid) and two 1+ cm lymph nodes (also non-FDG avid). Rich is saying that the fact that they aren't FDG avid is a good sign, but the fact that they are there at all is not good (it may be nothing, but now we need to find out).

Best case scenario - they compare his first PET scan with this most recent one and see that the nodules existed beforehand (and remain unchanged), kind of like birthmarks or inclusions in a diamond. Yay, then we can celebrate! Worst case scenario - the nodules are new, need more tests, possibly looking at another round of chemo. Not good!

I don't how much more my parents can handle. My mom will go nuts, for sure. And my dad, he may break (emotionally and physically). Thinking about the "what ifs" can make a person crazy...hence, the mindless drivel...

Maddie loves Superman (and Dinosaurs and Spongebob)

Blogging is kind of addictive. I find that I have tons of things to write about, and could probably post multiple times a day, but then I would look like a freak with nothing better to do with my time...which is probably not that far from the truth. Of course, I could probably do 10 other things right now that would actually be more productive (like sort and file the mountain of mail that's been piling up for weeks now or start preparing dinner), but no~ I'm sitting here typing again...

A couple of things that are on my mind right now: (1) Huggies suck! (2) Is tomboyishness (that can't be a word) innate?

(1) Huggies are horrible. Someone gave us a box of Huggies diapers, and I'm about halfway through the box now, but I'm *this* close to giving the rest of the diapers away cuz I hate them so much. They're Huggies Supreme, so I'm assuming they're supposed to be better than the regular Huggies, but they are super thick / coarse and not soft. Pampers are 1000x better. If you're in the market for diapers, buy Pampers hands-down. Don't buy Huggies EVER!

(2) Maddie is such a tomboy. I don't get it. She is SO not into the whole princess thing. No interest whatsoever. Instead, she *loves* Superman. We've watched Superman Returns (the latest one with Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth and Kevin Spacey) at least 30x. We start the movie on scene 13, where Superman appears out of nowhere to save the burning jet with Lois Lane on board. She even drapes her "gucky" around her shoulders and runs around, calling herself "Super Maddie." One guess on who she's going to be for Halloween... Haha.

Of the Disney movies, her favorites are Monsters Inc., Cars, Toy Story 2, and The Incredibles. Right now though, she is really into Spongebob Square Pants. I have never watched so many episodes of SSP in my life. I'm not sure if she really gets what's going on in the cartoon (cuz it can be kind of crass at times), but regardless, she seems to love it and asks for it over and over again. She especially loves the episodes when Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy defeat Dirty Bubble.

The other day, we were at Target and Rich said she could have a toy. What does she pick? A weird-looking dinosaur figurine. It was so ugly that I encouraged her to choose something else (besides it didn't have a tag and I didn't want to have to deal with that at the register), so she ended up picking a shark instead. Mind you, it's not a cute, cartoon-y looking shark, it's a realistic, scary-looking one with teeth and pointy fins. Later that night, Rich tells me that the dinosaur and the shark were the two things he would've picked also as a kid...and that she picked the two coolest ones, in his opinion. Go figure!

So, how is it that some girls are completely bought into the Disney Princesses and Maddie is not? It's not like Maddie has an older brother whose tastes in toys she wants to mimic. And it's not from lack of exposure to those things more typically gender-female. It just happens to be that Maddie prefers these other things that are gender-male. She honestly has no desire to watch Cinderella or Beauty & the Beast...and she has absolutely no interest in playing dress-up. She likes Little Mermaid okay, but I think it's because she likes the shark scene (and maybe Flounder too, leftover from her Finding Nemo obsession).

Anyway, it's not a bad thing. It could always be worse (i.e., Princesses at nauseum)...and besides, I think it's kind of cute that she has a crush on Superman. The girl's got good taste, BR is pretty hot! Gotta love my little tomboy!

First Day of School - A Success!

So, Maddie's first day of school was a success (for the most part). We bribed her to put on her uniform using a flikflak watch that I had purchased just for the occasion. It worked like a charm.

Upon arriving on campus, she even greeted two of the greeters who were standing at the door with a semi-cheery "g'morning" and a handshake. It wasn't until we approached her classroom that she became gunshy. She was walking backwards to my walking forward. I left her crying, in the capable hands of her teacher, and proceeded to drop off her medical forms to the office down the hall. By the time I passed her door again (less than 5 minutes later), her crying had ceased so I knew she was fine.

At pick-up however, she melted down when she saw me peeking in through the window. As soon as she saw my face, she started bawling. Bad move on my part. Lesson learned: no more peeking into the classroom...at least for the first few weeks.

Now the true question is whether we'll survive days 2 and 3 (tomorrow and Thursday). Hopefully this will only get easier and easier. Unfortunately, I will have Nathan with me from now on, so here's to hoping that Maddie gets used to school pretty quickly.

BTW, I wanted to provide a link to a pretty hilarious youtube video of Miss South Carolina @ the recent Miss Teen USA pageant (in case you haven't seen it already).

My First Post

So, yesterday I joined Facebook and also started this blog. I really doubt anyone is going to read what I have to say, but I feel like it might be cathartic in a way...kind of like writing a diary.

As you can see from the title of this blog, I am officially now a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom). This past Tuesday was the last day of my FMLA, following the birth of Nathan (our 2nd child). Funny how after having Madison back in 2004, I was actually itching to go back to work...but this time, I'm pretty much comfortable with the fact that my salary earning days are over. People keep telling me that I can always go back in a couple of years, once the kids are older...but I always knew that once I stopped working, it was going to be for good. Anyway, I'm okay with that.

In addition to having Nathan, another big change is that Maddie will be starting school on Monday. She'll be an Alpha at P* School. In fact, Rich and I went to a meet-and-greet / wine-and-cheese event with the other Alpha parents last night. It was okay, all the parents were nice enough (there were a lot of doctors there). Maddie, of course, is the only asian child out of the 22 Alphas. Yay, for diversity! The student body at P* School is pretty much homogenous, but we knew that going in. It's fine though, especially at the preschool level. I severely doubt that Maddie will experience any type of racial discrimination. Besides, it's a christian school.

The funny thing though was that Rich and I looked like little kids compared to the other parents. They probably thought we were in our early 20s. And everyone there looked (to us) like they were easily in their 40s (and some looked even older than that). Upon knowing that Rich was a urologist, they probably thought he was some kind of Doogie Howser. Haha.

Well, Monday should be pretty eventful. I'm not sure how I'm going to get Maddie to wear her uniform since she's pretty much been hating it ever since I brought it home. Besides that, she's been wearing Crocs all summer, so convincing her to wear shoes and socks...ummm, that's not going to be fun. I'm pretty much preparing for a Battle Royale Monday morning.

Anyway, I know this is a boring start to what's probably going to be a boring blog, but hopefully if you start reading, you'll keep coming back. TTYL