Yes, you read that right. In fact I never even had an iTunes account before buying my iPhone in March, because I never had an iPod. I consider myself pretty much up to date with technology, but in this particular area, I am pretty much a decade behind. Truth be told, I can count on one hand how many CD’s I’ve purchased for myself in the past ten years (two were Carrie Underwood CDs, and I don’t remember the rest).

But somewhere between being in the car all the time, driving to places I can’t even get a decent radio station, falling head over heels for Pandora on my iPhone and realizing that it’s only as good as my 3G signal (which, if you’re reading this AT&T, needs some serious help in the Adirondacks…hillbillies need 3G too!) I have decided to import the CDs collecting dust in my garage to my iTunes so I can have them at my fingertips at all times.

You can imagine how dated this collection is…I’m pretty sure I used to belong to some sort of CD buying club (Columbia House maybe?) and the majority of my musical acquisitions were around 1996. So far there’s a LOT of Dixie Chick-esque country, a little Indigo Girls, Sarah MacLachlan…and a pretty sweet Fleetwood Mac CD. I have a feeling I’m going to be jamming down memory lane for many weeks to come!

The second motivator for this undertaking is my foray back into the world of running. The last time I recall being a consistent runner I very distinctly remember a mix tape *on my walkman of course) with various Jock Jams and other such energizing anthems.

In other news, Avery has her 9 month physical tomorrow (she’s turning ten months in a few days). I’m not sure why Brian and I still get excited about bringing her to physicals. I guess we’re still new parents and although we think our kid is fabulous and perfect we really like hearing an expert tell us that she’s fabulous and perfect.

That’s all for today. More tomorrow? Who knows…

Truth is, it has! I couldn’t have given in at a better time. I needed something to get me through that last week of training, and now that I’m out in the field I would be completely lost, both figuratively and quite literally, without it. And my biggest hurdle, the cost, was rationalized because with this new HUGE territory I had to invest in a GPS anyways, so I just put the $$ towards the iPhone instead, and with Brian already on AT&T it will save us money long term to be on a family plan.

If you had asked me if I would ever get an iPhone when they first came out, I would have said absolutely not. First of all, I thought it was just an accessory, a toy if you will, that made people feel cooler about themselves because they could incorporate macs into their life even more. [Sidebar: I realized how effectively marketed I was when, the moment I picked up my iPhone, I felt instantaneously cooler. Am I that vain? I guess so. The coolness feeling has since waned, but it was pretty strong those first few days...even if all I was doing was playing solitaire.]

Another reason was the network…I have been a Verizon customer since I got my first cell phone (the Motorola StarTac…best cellphone of all time, for the record) and have often joked that I’m “Verizon for life” and would never leave. Well, apparently all it takes to lose a loyal customer is one bad business move (not partnering with apple to bring service to the iPhone) and one bad customer service person (whoever was working the day I called to say my thrice-replaced phone was not working…again. I even told them I was on the verge of switching. It doesn’t matter that I have spoken to like 50 good customer service people over the last ten years, or that I’ve been completely happy with Verizon up until the last couple months. Consumers have a very short term memory! That is a whole other blog post, but I digress…

So anyways, after several months of pleading Brian finally got his iPhone in January, and I started to think it actually did some pretty cool stuff. I was wrong. It does ALL the cool stuff. In fact, I would challenge you to find one thing (other than videos…and it will do that soon) that it can’t do! iPhones are not for super trendy metro urban people in skinny jeans…they were pretty much made for busy moms! You can do anything on the go…and with one hand!

For the most part I’ve used it for e-mail, twitter, pictures, calendar, to-do list, Googling, TONS of mapping with my new territory, and oh yeah, text messages and phone calls (sidenote: when I got it I had my e-mail and twitter set up in about 2 minutes…but it took me just as long to figure out how to make phone calls). And I will confess, I am becoming addicted to Sudoku, Freecell, Scramble and Chicktionary…I’m basically like a kid with their first nintendo…completely enamored!

So enough rambling from me. All of this to say, I thought $200 was a ridiculous price to pay for a phone. I will now eat my words (Brian thinks I should issue a public apology for months of mockery…this is as close as I’ll get!) because I actually think $200 is ridiculously reasonable for everything you get.  I hesitate to even call it a phone since that only accounts for about 25% of what I use it for! Just wait till Avery grows up…I’ve heard they can work wonders for occupying busybody toddlers, and you can’t put a price on that!

1. A few weeks ago, myself, Brooke and Jenn got together to watch a Beth Moore DVD that we’d missed in our weekly Bible study. I hit play and we heard it but didn’t see it. I hadn’t watched a DVD in a while so I checked all the cables. They were plugged into all the right places, but CUT right down the middle. A clean cut, not a Posh induced tear.  Even more bizarre – there was another set of cables laying right there, not connected, that I was able to connect to watch the DVD.
2. Perhaps not as bizarre, but equally unexplainable…I got $20 out of the ATM the other day and shoved it in my coat pocket. Last night we ordered Chinese (a little break for my diet) and I went to aforementioned pocket to retrieve it, and, alas, it was gone. Not too strange. I figured I’d put it somewhere else or Brian had pilfered it. Today, I mustered up the courage to try on a pair of my favorite pre-pregnancy jeans (they zipped and buttoned by the way…the look awful and gave me a mean muffin top, but they zipped and buttoned) and as I hung them back in my closet, what fell out of the back pocket but…a crisp clean twenty dollar bill. Those jeans haven’t been touched in almost a year…

So I’m not really into the whole supernatural thing but can someone please explain these events to me?!

All the Little Babies
Sung to the tune of Beyonce’s “All the Single Ladies”

I’m up in the tub, gettin cleaned up.
I’m doin’ my own little thing
I’ve gotta take a dip, cause you started to trip
Caused I ruined some more of your things
I’m not sure why, you’re mad at me
About my bodily functions
Cause I’ll still poop and pee, on your stuff till I’m three
You can’t be mad at me

Cause if you liked it then you shouldn’t have put me on it
If you liked it then you shouldn’t have put me on it
Don’t be mad, cause you’re seein’ that I peed on it.
If you liked it then you shouldn’t have put me on it.

Wuh uh, oh, uh, uh, oh, oh, uh, oh, uh, uh, oh 
Wuh uh, oh, uh, uh, oh, oh, uh, oh, uh, uh, oh

Don’t judge me, I have lots of free time…

When Avery was finishing up in the ol’ slow cooker (aka my ginormous belly) my nesting got a little crazy. Not only was I bored out of my mind after too many weeks off of work, I had this insane urge to have things in the house perfectly clean all the time, just in case I went into labor. I knew family would be coming in and I wanted the house to be clean for them. And I know myself, and when I came home from the hospital with my new bambino, I wanted the house to be immaculately clean for me! And so it started. Every night I would go through the house so meticulously. No dishes were left in the sink, no clothes in the washer or dryer. I’d tidy up the family room and kitchen so they would be perfect.

But alas, every morning I woke up without a puddle of amniotic fluid or painful contractions. I did find, however, that I really liked waking up to an extremely clean house…and so the obsession began. I mean, I’ve always been this way - work now, play later - but I think this pushed me over into the full-on OCD category.

So I’m one of those people that loves to do everything now. Why? Because if I do it now I don’t have to do it later. Now, my loving husband probably thinks I’m completely crazy for this. And that’s ok, because I think he’s crazy for thinking “well I’ll just do it later so I don’t have to do it now.” He relaxes better in the now. I relax better in the later. (Fortunately, his now and my later sometimes match up and we can actually enjoy eachother’s company). So what is more sane? Pain endured now for the promise of pleasure later? Or learning to relax in the moment and push petty things off?

Whatever the verdict, I’m pretty sure I’m hopeless. I think this is why I love slow cookers, and why I make dinner in the morning now. Why I start to pack 3 days before a trip (even if it’s only mentally, or on paper). Why I make my coffee at night so it’s ready for me when I wake up. Why I always start the car 10 minutes before I get in. Why I clean my house before I go out of town. And, yes, it’s why I eat my vegetables first.

• Getting dressed up and going to Christmas Eve Service with the fam…I loved singing Silent night with everyone holding up candles and the lights all out. Sometimes there is no replacement for an old school carol by candlelight.
• Driving around and looking at lights with the fam. But we were always itching to get home because Honeybaked Ham and a Christmas movie were waiting there!
• Waking up early with my younger sister and then trying soooo hard to get my older sister out of bed…no one was allowed downstairs until we were all up!
• There was huge anticipation in my house for the big reveal. My parents went ALL OUT for Christmas. The presents weren’t under the tree, they poured out about three feet in every direction around the tree! Yes, we were spoiled. We turned out ok though, mostly.
• My parents always wanted to capture our anticipation on camera. I have sooo many memories of sitting at the top of the stairs waiting what seemed like hours for my mom to get her coffee, and my dad to set up the video camera.
• Then he would bring the camera to the bottom of the stairs and interview us talking about what we were hoping Santa had brought us the night before.
• FINALLY we got to open presents. It was the best! We all had to take turns, watch eachother, try things on, etc. It took forever.
• My dad videotaped the whole thing. If the video ran out, Christmas morning stopped until he put a new tape in…VHS…you know it.
• I can’t remember what we ate Christmas morning but I think bisquick biscuits were on the menu. They were a staple in our house.
• Loved going to one of my uncles’ houses with my big crazy Pakistani family.
• Always exchanged gifts in a huge family secret santa.
• Nothing beats a jolly Pakistani middle aged man…with an accent…in a Santa suit…handing out presents.
• ALWAYS ate Indian food on Christmas. Mmmmmmmmmm. Best food on the planet.

What’s your favorite childhood Christmas memory?

Oddly enough, this year, such stressors have been removed. We warned our families long ago that this would be a lean Christmas (in other words, expect pictures of Avery and nothing else) since I will have just come off of my only partially paid maternity leave. We didn’t have a Christmas party this year either. I’m not even sending real Christmas cards…I still haven’t finished sending birth announcements!

Usually by this time (T minus seven days) I’d be using up every free moment trying to find that last gift or cook for, say, twenty people. But this season has been stress free (aside from having a newborn, going back to work full time, and finding out I will no longer have a job in a few weeks). Ok, it’s been close to stress free.

And the strangest thing has happened…I don’t feel like Christmas is really coming. Wow, reality check. Has Christmas for me been reduced to giving gifts and throwing parties?

Because of this realization, I’m trying more than ever to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Not just being with friends and family and giving to others. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but what if it was all taken away and all that was left was “Christmas” and not all that comes along with Christmastime? Would it be enough? Would it still feel like Christmas?

In short, high fructose corn syrup is made from a natural source, and although it’s not exactly a health food, it’s similar in nutritional value to sugar, another natural sweetener. Interesting. And quite shocking to be honest. And a little annoying, considering the amount of time I’ve wasted at the grocery store scouring labels looking for breads that are made with sugar or molasses instead of HFCS. So maybe it’s not that much worse than sugar after all, if at all. Anybody have any inside info here? I don’t know who to trust anymore!

And speaking of sweeteners, let’s talk about the artificial ones. I’ve heard more than once (from studies like this one) that choosing artificial sweeteners to reduce calorie intake doesn’t really impact your bottom line, or waistline. I, like most people I know, usually opt for the artificial sweeteners when it comes to beverages – diet soda, splenda in coffee, you get the picture. In fact, until I got pregnant, I never drank calories. Not juice, not milk, not regular soda.

Now, I drink both juice and milk, and the occasional Root Beer (I discovered during pregnancy it’s caffeine free but not often available in diet form if you’re out). So it’s gotten me all thinking. Not only is the benefit of going artificial and calorie-free not proven, but the risks are always looming in the back of my mind. Ever since I read this book (interesting but horribly vulgar for a health book, and, as it turns out, about veganism) I have been a little skeptical of artificial sweeteners (think FDA scandals and corruption in scientific studies). Not skeptical enough to cut them out entirely, since even I can recognize serious editorial bias when I see it. But skeptical enough to question their benefit.

So what’s a girl to do? Soon I’ll be deciding what to put in another little mouth. Anybody want to throw out some info that will help me decide what sweet stuff to/not to put in it?