Randomness.

Happy Tuesday. Today I got my hair trimmed. And I got this fabulous Republic of Tea cup at the local natural foods store. And Ardyn spent the day slapping or scratching my face when she didn't get what she wanted. Yee.

Last night Evan made fabulous tacos. They were my birthday request and they were SOOOO Good. We were all full. Ardyn ate two soft shelled tacos herself! Seriously! I stayed up way too late, as is evident by my lack of energy today.

Today I, once again, called the window people to see if the windows are in yet. We were told they would be in and ready to install 3-4 weeks after our last appointment, and it has been 4 weeks today. I left a message at the end of last week and they didn't return my call. This was par for the course, as the past two times I have called, no one has returned my call and I had to basically track them down myself. It is incredibly frustrating, and although we have yet to even GET our windows, I can't say that I can recommend them to anyone. I was just discussing this with the husband earlier today, when tonight we had a neighbor drop by, who asked us how things were going with the window company (because they put a sign in our yard) and when we told them we were having a hard time getting them to call us back, she told us that her daughter bought windows in JULY and that they still weren't installed. From the same company. And that she too had several estimates and they were the best price, and that one day when she came home from work, the liquor cabinet had been gotten into by the men doing the installations. Can I just say that I am less than thrilled? And that now I am seriously gonna be on their asses to get things done quickly and correctly? This is insane. Like it could be "Better Business Bureau" insane.

So I am really wanting to expand Ardyn's food choices. It's difficult with the whole "no milk" thing. The hardest is during the day, when we make things for just Ardyn or just Ardyn and I. We have staples that I am not thrilled with, not because they aren't tasty, but because I feel like we are so repetetive and perhaps unhealthy. First of all, she is at the age where she will not eat veggies. Period. Except that now I can get soup with veggies (chicken Noodle, beef vegetable, etc) and she will eat the veggies, and she will eat lettuce on her tacos (although she picks out the tomatoes.) We have to get her special corn soft shells because the flour have milk. She only eats 12 or 15 grain bread, and mostly whole wheat pasta. She likes toast with Sun butter or jelly, and Sun Butter and Jelly Sandwiches. She likes Tuna salad sandwiches and tuna salad in general. She eats chicken nuggets, fish sticks, tater tots, any type of noodles (but can't have cream sauces or any kind, and no cheese sauces) and adores spaghetti type dishes. She will eat a lunchmeat sandwich (no cheese) and likes scrambled eggs, toast, pancakes (special ones with no milk or butter)- I would like to give her oatmeal, but we haven't tried since the milk allergy, since the organic flavored, and instant varieties all contain milk. She likes dry cereal, and will eat some of the cheerios with rice milk over them. She loves and gobbles any kind of fruit and likes jello. Tonight I am thinking about making her jello pudding- certain flavors contain no milk, and I want to try them with rice milk and see if it will setup properly. I just feel like I am feeding her the same foods OVER and OVER again. I guess I need to get out some of my kids cookbooks and see if I can find anything that doesn't have milk or that I can do substitutions with. When I write all that out, it seems like more food options than it seems in my head, especially for a toddler, but she generally is NOT picky. She likes it when I microwave a ripe banana with some spices and brown sugar and cinnamon, and then stir it until it's a chunky warm banana pudding. We love to share that.

Right now we are listening to Kids Radio on last.fm, and she is running around the living room screaming various random babbles and dragging a keyboard around by the cord and clapping. Pure Entertainment! I am avoiding washing bibs and digesting my cheesecake that mom brought me for my birthday.

I need to make myself a list of what I need to cook and prep when, and a list of husband tasks, like bringing up the crockpot, and things like that. Since my laser printer is not picking up paper anymore, and no matter how many pieces I have cleaned or taken apart, it won't seem to get better, I am now reinstalling and preparing my color printer (ink jet) for use again. Ugh. I have lots of new ink for it, but the heads need cleaned and everything needs aligned. I am on my second print head cleaning right now. I figure I will probably have to do this like 5 times since it has been sitting unused for close to 2-3 years. But I am so sick of not having a printer!

I am frequently making lists and notes on the computer and if I need to take it with me, I might print it out, and that has been driving me nuts. All the handwriting! Argh! Drives me nuts. I would just do more syncing of my pda phone and keep my notes there, but there is a time change issue on there that messes with my appointments when I sync. Ever since there was the daylight savings time change, my computer hasn't synced correctly, even with all patches installed for the OS and for Outlook. It's frustrating, but it makes me just sync when necessary, and not like on a daily or weekly basis as I normally would.

Today I magically remembered to call my endocrinologist to get the test results from last monday, and of course, they were going to call me back, and never did today. Ugh. I will be calling them by noon tomorrow if I don't hear from them. Frustrating.

The print head cleaning made things better, and now suddenly they are worse than they were before I cleaned. Ugh. I don't want to put new ink in this damn printer. Even if I did, if the print heads are clogged, a new cartridge isn't going to fix that.

Ardyn is doing her signature booty pop and bop to Perry Como and Pappa Loves Mambo! She cracks me up. The things that get her jamming can be so funny.

Well, I give up on this damn printer and I am going to start handwriting my lists. Ugh.