A Bunch of Random Stuff

First off, I want to thank Alicia at Raina's Designs for this totally cute dress that she made for my baby. These pictures don't do it justice! It's gorgeous! There's so much detail from the lace to the little flowers. This woman can sew and with an actual sewing machine too, not my "sewing" method of hot glue and duct tape. I would've taken a picture with my baby wearing it, but she has a cold and was crabby and not very compliant today (besides I wouldn't want her to get snot on it.)

I want to also thank Kim at Lillian Grace Boutique for making Lexi this adorable tutu and this T-shirt that says, "Move over Cinderella!" She wants to sleep in it every night! Talk about "fit for a princess". I'm not sure what she's doing in the picture. Posing? Shooting laser beams from her fingers? Doing a cute little wave?

And I want to thank Lindsay at My Family Meal Planner for sending me her family meal planner. This is a great cookbook with super easy recipes for busy folks. The really cool part of this cookbook is that she's got four meals planned every week and she includes a magnetic pad of paper with a grocery list for each week printed on each sheet. You can tear off a sheet, hand it to your husband, send him to the store, and as long as he sticks to the list, you'll have the ingredients for four nights of meals. Last night we had taco soup and it was simple to make and yummy to eat. Everyone liked it. Well, except Brooklyn who had fish.....

.....plastic fish

Gotta get those Omega-3s

Yes, that's my almost 40 year old child. Don't want to let the kids have all the fun now, do we? Between you and me - I don't think he was using it as a Pogo stick. I think he was fantasizing about using machinery i.e. a jackhammer.

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Oh yes - thank you to Sandy, a nice woman from my church who has been telling me that "I started reading your blog back before you became 'famous'." She sent me this email...

Dawn,
Just for your information. I found a city named Bob in Louisiana. So even though it would sound out of place in your list of names, it would continue your theme.
Sandy

I stand corrected. I guess you can have an Austin, Savannah, Jackson, Lexington, and Bob. LOL!

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Here is a link to my most recent interview in The Daily Herald.

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Again, I want to thank everyone who's taken the time to leave me a comment or email me. You don't know how much I appreciate it. I do read all of them. Seriously. I only answer a very few because I just don't have the time. I wish I could write you all a personal thank you, but until I figure out a way to add another ten hours to my day, I just can't.

Thank you so very much!

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My little boy is having his adenoids and tonsils removed and possibly a second set of tubes put in his ears tomorrow. I won't be around to update tomorrow night because I'll be staying with him in the hospital. But since you guys are so awesome, I'll take a notebook and some pens and write a funny story while I'm there so check back in Thursday night. ;)

A Rose by Any Other Name

Several people have written me to comment on my kids' names. Yes, they're all named after cities. Yes, Clayton is actually a city even though it doesn't sound like one. The thing about Clay is that we were running out of good city names by the time we got to him and we had a hard time deciding on a name. We didn't have a name picked out until the day after he was born despite plenty of "helpful" suggestions from family and friends. Let's see if I can recall some of their wonderful name ideas. There was

Schenectady
Tallahassee
Paul & Minnie (St. Paul and Minneapolis) if I had boy/girl twins
Albuquerque
Tuscaloosa
Chattanooga
Punxsutawney
and of course, Rancho Cucamonga

As awesome as all these suggestions were, I figured I'd probably mess my child up enough on my own without giving him a name he'd never be able to spell. Can you imagine the therapy bill for a kid named Punxsutawney?

By the time I was in labor, I'd narrowed down my choices to Dallas, Houston, Branson, and Clayton. (Yes, I used a copy of Rand McNally to get ideas.) My husband and I couldn't decide so we let our other kids pick the baby's name from those four choices. Austin and Savannah both voted for Clayton. Jackson, on the other hand, opted to call him Slicker. In fact, he called him Slicker for about a year at which point Clayton became known as "Baby Day-on" which is how Lexi pronounced Clayton at the time. It could have been worse. Jackson wanted to call him Nemo at first.

My point is - you pour over baby name books for nine months agonizing over the all important question - what will I name my baby so no one will give him a goofy nickname? It seems that for every choice you can think of, there is an unappealing nickname just waiting to attach itself to your baby. (Not to mention trying to find a name that doesn't remind you of someone you hated in highschool.)

You can insist and demand that your little Joseph never be called anything but Joseph, but by the time he's in kindergarten, he'll be known as Joe or Joey to someone. And if that doesn't happen, he'll acquire a nickname like Skipper, Spaz, Rhino, or some other equally ridiculous moniker that will stick with him for life. It just happens. You might as well accept that.

And really, I'm not sure why I bothered to give my kids names at all. I can never remember them. I spit and sputter, going through a list of disjointed syllables. "AusSavaJacksClaytonReid get over here right now!" It's very hard to sound authoritative when you can't remember your child's name. For some reason, the kids just don't take you seriously when you say, "JacksSav, er ClayLex, grrr whatever your name is! You know who you are!"

My dad used to call my poor sister "Corky". Corky was the dog. We thought he was crazy. Now I know the truth. We made him crazy.