Long time!

It's been awhile! It's hard to balance work, new baby, hanging out....and find time to blog! :)

Things are going well, it's been a busy fall season. We just had Halloween with Madison, her first. She dressed up as a monkey and we walked around the neighborhood. She was completely oblivious to what was going on, but Mom and Dad sure had fun! Strange story...so Brent started to walk down the street with Maddie in her stroller. A cop car came speeding down the street and Brent yelled for him to slow down. The cop stopped and proceeded to tell my husband that he was trying to find a man dressed up as a genie, apparently he is chasing children around the neighborhood throwing acid on them. CRAZY! Never found out what happened and I didn't see anything on the news, so I hope it was just a hoax. Nothing that crazy ever happens in 'Tang!

I'm going to NORTH CAROLINA this weekend! Can you tell I'm just a little excited?!!? I fly in on Friday, either going to Jacksonville for the weekend or my Granny's house in Burlington. Then I'm headed to Bobby's place in Charlotte until Tuesday. I've got a work thing on Monday and Monday night. I'm flying with Madison alone, Brent has to be in Austin for a planning session. I'm SO nervous, I just hope she enjoys it and doesn't get fussy.

That's about all that's interesting right now. I will definitely blog after I get back from the greatest place on earth and tell ya all about it. KNOW that we'll be stopping at Smithfield's as SOON as I get there so I can get some REAL BBQ. (not this crap the midwest calls BBQ - it's drowning in red sauce, ick!)

Life in the Thomas lane

Long time, no post...I know, but I've been busy. Something about having this kid makes me 10x more focused at work. No time to screw around b/c I have to get out of there by 5:30. So, what's up outside of work? Much o' nothing. We went to the fair with Madison last Saturday night, just in time to see the scary people of OKC on the last night of it all. I've never seen so many people smoke with babies in their arms, crazy. Next weekend our friend Lynn is flying in from Houston to enjoy some electricity at our house. Bless her heart she's been without it since the hurricane, but her work has it so she has to go in. Don't wish I lived in Texas right now! We're going up to Stillwater for the OSU/A&M game...Maddie's first football game! And we're camping out, hopefully, on the lake that's actually on OSU's campus. Dumbasses don't take reservations so we'll probably have to pay for Monday thru Saturday even though we're not going until Friday afternoon. At least it's waterfront and from the pictures it doesn't seem to be a red lake. Could have been expert photoshop work, but let's hope not.

Brent is gone again, now he's in Florida. Destin Beach...lucky s.o.b. Lucky for me he's not there to sightsee. He's flying in tonight at 10:30 pm and he's home tomorrow night by 9:30. He's such a dedicated Father. I'll tell you most AE's don't book travel as efficient as he does. However he's gone Monday thru Thursday next week. And he has to fly on a private jet 4x with the company he's going to visit. NOT HAPPY. Do you know he's flying in the same area as the Hendricks jet did? If you're a fan you know what happened to most of Rick Hendrick's family. So, I'll be a nervous wreck for those 4 days. What's new?

Maddie got her 4 month shots today. She is a tough girl, she only cried for 10 seconds. I cried for much longer :) And she's up to 13 lbs, 3 oz, 50th percentile. That's a long way from the 5th percentile she was born!!! And the doc said she can start eating real food anytime I want. How cool. I hear the poopies get 10x worse....ouch.

Not much interesting to report. Although I did get a call from a friend who is taking a job on the east coast. Will miss him and his fam very much, didn't take advantage of the time I could have spent with them. However, I wish them all the very best. If you have the opportunity to live around family jump all over it. Life will take care of you, it always has.

Til next time....holla back.

Life as a working Mom

So, Brent is out of town tonight for his 1st of 5 trips this month. This is his busy month of the quarter, and I'm ok b/c he didn't travel much in August. All I have to do is get through this month and then I have a 4 day weekend in Tulsa camping with Brent, Maddie and our friend Lynn! Not sure where we're camping yet, there's not a lot of lakefront choices. We're also going to the A&M/OSU game, Maddie's first football game!!!

We bought season tickets to the Thunder last night. It's cool b/c we got row 1 (and the only row) in the balcony of section 329. We are seats 1 and 2, so no one is in front of us or behind us, and seats 3 and on can get to their seat from walking behind us. Perfect for taking a 5-8 month old to games. And there's a section right behind us for a small stroller, a family bathroom outside our tunnel and NO steps to our seats. Good thing b/c I'm not that coordinated when it comes to stadium steps! God forbid I drop a baby trying to get up and down steps made for someone 5ft tall.

I went and visited Maddie at her daycare today, it's right behind work. While I thought going to visit on my lunch break was a good idea...it's not. I couldn't stop crying! When I walked in she was in a crib bawling her eyes out. According to DHS rules daycares can't let babies sleep in bouncers or elevated in cribs...both of which Madison does at home. It's going to take awhile for her to get used to it, and I'm not going to be there daily to observe it. It was too much. I called my Dad when I left...Brent was on a plane and my Mom was at her new school getting her classroom ready. I'm taking his advice, he said to let her be at daycare when I'm at work. It will only get harder as she gets older and recognizes when I come and go. Just to hear the stories of him leaving me in daycare growing up. When I was 2 and 3 I wouldn't talk to him the whole way there, or the whole way home. He said it broke his heart. Not looking forward to that! And most would ask...'Cara, why not just stay at home?'. I'm thinking longterm. Brent and I could afford to live off his income, shoot most of America does. But what do I do when Maddie, and the future Cole, go to school for good?? I'd go insane at home, my lil brain couldn't take constant PTA meetings and 'Mother's day out' (that actually sounds painful), God forbid being called a 'Soccer Mom'! So, I'll bite the bullet for now and hope it pays off in the long run.

I'm trying to keep Madison awake right now. She didn't sleep a lot at daycare, for obvious reasons, but I would LOVE for her to sleep through the night. Have you ever tried to keep a sleeping baby awake? Not easy! And I would love to watch Big Brother, only TWO episodes left, but Brent asked me to wait until he gets home. UGH - damn AEs and damn hotels with no DVR.

Life is good, even with it's daily ups and downs.

Sonicville, Oklahoma

Wow, another exciting week in the Thomas house. Yesterday my Nanny texted me at 9am telling me Maddie was gagging on bottles, ok, that's NEVER happened. Then texted that she was running a low grade fever, and then said she vomited all over her kitchen floor. I fretted for 2 hours then finally decided to go home with her. Got home, her temp was 97.5 (what it always is, not sure what was going on at Misty's house) and thought she was ok. I fed her a bottle and not 30 minutes later did I experience projectile vomit in my kitchen (thank goodness it was on the tile!). So, for the rest of the afternoon I laid down with her hoping she would get better. Now I'm filling out her paperwork for daycare on Monday and realized I need a local contact in case of emergency. Here's where Brent and I fall short of having lots of friends. We've isolated ourselves for so long b/c we are refusing to call here home. I trust the Forshays and the Forshays only with my child if I'm not available. Thankfully Chris was ok with that, and I'm sure Emily is too. Ok, onto Sonic-ville....they are building a new fast food restaurant in Mustang. To most towns this wouldn't be a big deal, but for here...I got excited. They didn't put a sign saying what it was in front...something I think should be a law. So, for the last 2 months I've been excited, thinking we were getting a new joint to eat at! As construction progressed I started guessing...maybe it was a Bueno, or a cute burger joint. No, friends, it's not. It's a Sonic and guess what? There's a Sonic right across the street from it. I hate Sonic and only Oklahomans would build a Sonic right across the street from another Sonic!!! So friends and family, welcome to Sonic-ville, Oklahoma. C'mon economy, let's get better and create some decent jobs in N.C!!!! Sonic-ville, it's now Thunder-ville. We don't have thunder here...we have tornadoes, oil and horses. Not sure why they chose Thunder! We go on Monday for a preview of season ticket holders. I think we're going to do it, how exciting! Not sure how it will affect Maddie being out so late, but I'm determined to make her a B-ball fan!!! On a good, closing note...I will soon be an owner of season tickets to the NBA!!!

Labor Day weekend

This is my first holiday weekend with my new fam. It's been pretty chill. We took Maddie out shopping today, went to the Sam's Club in Edmond. It's MUCH nicer than the one in OKC. Although everyone wanted to stop and comment on Maddie. Brent had her in his Baby Bjorn. I know she's cute and all, but why does everyone touch her!??! It drives me crazy. Some lady told me that I was only allowed so many kisses in one day...guess what...ALL of those kisses are mine. Maddie was good, as always, and loved to look around. She's either a genius or just the most aware baby God ever made. Right now she's in her Daddy's lap watching the race. I'll make a sports fan out of her if it kills me! Tomorrow is another chill day. I'm trying to talk Brent into going to the Mustang Co. pool for an hour or so, but he has issues with public pools. I hear the Mustang pool is the nicest one around, so I guess I'll have to use my best sales pitch! We bought Madison her first Halloween costume today, she's going to be a monkey! Mom didn't like it too much, but I do. She looks adorable in it. One week until NFL kickoff!!!! Next weekend should be a blast.

The first 2 weeks of work are finally over...

What a 2 weeks its been. First we had to replace the transmission on my Honda (4 months out of FULL warranty)...my first day back at work. 2nd day we have a rancid smell in the back of the house and THEN Maddie gets her first cold on Wednesday! All is good now. I work with an amazing team and they had my back, although I was super nervous. Maddie is getting bigger every minute of the day. She's finally fitting in 0-3 months size, I NEVER thought I'd see the day. I remember shopping months ago and thinking no baby ever gets that big. Well, my baby did and I'm happy to see her getting chunky. Our Nanny is flaking on us, she was getting taken advantage of by the other family she nannies for, so she's taken a full time job at a daycare while she pursues her Directorship degree so she can open her own daycare. Brent and I are back at sqaure 1, but we'll figure it out. As he always says, things happen for a reason and they always seem to work themselves out. I trust him, he's my rock.

Brent travels every week in September, so I'll have my first overnights with Madison by myself. Every Mom who's married to an AE has to do it, and they do....so I guess I'll be ok. We'll miss his help. Boy, is he help. Ever since I've been back to work he's really stepped up and taken the lead. Bottles get washed, get made, the baby gets fed and dressed....it's amazing, I haven't done a midnight feeding yet! I appreciate it b/c I've been trying to get my head back around work. I tell people I've got training wheels on, and they have to come off eventually. I don't know how much longer the 'I've been gone, can you help me' excuse is going to work!

Thank god the weekend is here. We'll have 'chicken y beer' day tomorrow or Sunday!!!! OUCH!

Photos of Maddie

Welcome to our blog!

This is a first for us, so I thought we'd try it out. We've had an exciting year so far. Each year Brent gives a saying for the upcoming year...this year is "Life is great in 2008". Past ones have been:

"All about CJT in 2003" (the year we got married)

"We ain't po no more in 2004" (we finally started making it!)

"Gotta priortize in 2005" (the year we started trying for a baby)

"Striving for pure bliss in 2006" (we really thought we'd be pregnant that year)

"Present from heaven in 2007" (FINALLY got pregnant)

and next year?....

"Carolina on my mind in 2009", it's all worked out before, let's keep our fingers crossed!

Anyway, life has been pretty great this year. I had the best summer ever on maternity leave with Madison. Brent works from home, so it was the 3 of us, plus the dogs, all summer. Today was my 3rd day back from work and it's been pretty hard. I'm exhausted and still have to be Mommy when I get home. We're lucky enough to have a pretty amazing Nanny and I'm seeing her love Maddie more and more everyday.

We weighed Madison tonight and she's up to 11 lbs. 8 oz. Almost double in size from her birthweight of 5 lbs 11oz! She still fits in newborn size, I'm looking forward to 0-3 months so I can start putting her in something besides onesies!

Ok, that's all for today. I will capture each memory of Madison and post them here. Looking forward to sharing it with everyone!