the move

it is time...time to move again. I approach this with excitement and hesitation. This is my home although at times I curse this house, it is my home. We have painted all these walls, they are very "personal" and "intense" according to the home stager that came last week. We laid down the floors, okay, only very few of the floors we installed remain but we did put some down. We turned the backyard from a dirt field into a beautiful paved Florida paradise. We made a baby and brought that baby home here. There are so many emotions tied to this ugly blue house that it makes me sad to leave. But we need more room -- and to be closer to Brent's job. We want something new and pretty, something we can move it and call home without putting in a lot of work. We are leaving St. Petersburg and moving north to the Tampa Suburbs. I love St. Pete and wish we could stay but the houses we can buy in Tampa are so much newer, larger, nicer than anything we could afford here. So with some hesititation we are putting our house for sale --- I hope a family will be as happy here as we have been, I hope they will learn to love the forever backing up shower and the mean backyard neighbor.

life

why do i have no idea what i want to do with my life?? i have a law degree and the student loans to prove it and I have absolutely no desire to practice law any longer ---- i hate everything about it. Why do I just want to stay home and play with my baby --- i really don't clean or do laundry and I am not much of a cook...I should want to be something else than just a mother, a wife, right? I am working from home right now on as a contract in-house counsel, last month i worked 5 hours. Probably not enough --- i just need to win the lottery. I wish someone would tell me what to do with my life.

ants

it is cold here ... like it is going to be below freezing tonight...which is cold in Florida. The ants have decided to come inside for a vacation. They were not invited and tonight I am on a killing spree. I only have Windex on hand, but it appears that Windex kills them on contact. The bug man is coming tomorrow. I hope they all die.

Dash

Little Man Dash is growing up so fast --- he will be 15 months on the 13th and he thinks he is the funniest little man ever. Example - he comes up to me with his little sneaky smirk on his face and i just smile at him, then he proceeds to shove an entire handful of dog food into his mouth...all while laughing and causing the majority of it to fall onto the floor. The other day I found him the the kitchen double fisting taco shells....he looked so happy i just let him eat away. He is learning his body parts right now...his favorites being his belly button and his head. He is constantly pointing to his head and screeching, what I think is his way of getting me to sing "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" his favorite new song! For some reason the child will only eat Turkey Dogs, tomatoes, green beans and any kind of fruit. At least he is a healthy little eater. He is not much of a talker yet -he says dog, dada, all done and the occasional mama. Dash LOVES to climb on everything, he attempts to scale our night table multiple times a day in order to reach the light switch, which he likes to turn off and on. He is probably going to fall on his head soon from all of his climbing but he is so happy doing it that I just supervise and let him do it. This kid amazes me and makes me fall in love with him more each and every day. These last 15 months have been a whirlwind -- it is hard to believe that it has already been so long and yet I can't remember what it was like without him. I am excited what the next year brings for me, for our family and for my little Dashman.