Today Joey came home screaming with excitement. Her teacher had nominated her to be trained as a recess conflict manager at school. She's so excited. I think it will be a great thing for her--they get some training on what to do and then they are assigned different recesses to be on duty. I'm hoping that she'll be able to use some of the skills she acquires in her own life, too.

On top of that, she got a letter in the mail from the school superintendent inviting her and us to attend a school board meeting where she'll be recognized as a Reading Whiz Kid for scoring so well on the state reading tests she took in third grade. We're so proud of her and it's such a great boost to her self esteem. Not that her self esteem is flagging but who doesn't like recognition for being a Whiz?

Good news for her all around. We're insanely proud of our baby. How she got to be this old, I'll never know.

When Ed came home from work, he asked me how my day was. I told him I pretty much sat around on the couch all day. And that's just about it. I had cramps and a headache most of the day and sitting/sleeping on the couch all day was just about all I could manage. I did sort the laundry and start washing and drying but I didn't get very far. Thankfully we had some great leftovers for dinner so I didn't even have to cook. I'm feeling better now but I'm still tired. This cycle has been one of my harder ones.

Oh, and I got a lovely phone call today from a credit card company. I've been getting messages to call this company but when I do, they check my account and tell me that my payments are current and everything is fine. So today, the original guy got me live and proceeded to tell me that I hadn't made a payment on my credit line with them since April and that I had exceeded my $7500 limit by almost $400. I was speechless. We always pay all our bills on time. We have an impeccable credit rating. I just couldn't believe that somehow Ed would have a brain cramp and start blowing off a credit card statement. I asked the guy if there was some kind of mistake with our mailing address that could be preventing us from receiving the statement so he asked for our address and it didn't match the record. And her birthdate didn't match mine. Turns out there's another Lobotomybabe out there using my phone number on her stuff but not my SSN or address or anything else so it's not identity fraud. Hopefully this will be the end of it. It reminded me of the time the IRS called for Ed. That really stressed me out but it turn out they wanted and Ed R. Lobotomy and I'm married to Ed M. Lobotomy. They said if I ever came across Ed R. to give them a call. Whatever. It's stressful when you get calls like that. I'm just glad that in both cases it was not us they were looking for.

I've got a gigant zit on the side of my neck. It feels like it's about the size of Frankenstein's neck bolt. I may have to wear some turtlenecks this week if I go out in public--I don't think I could dare risk letting anyone see me in this state.

I bought our tickets for Valentine's Day. We're going to see a group called Pink M@rtini. They play some really kewl international lounge-y music. I can't really describe it but I know I just want to get up and start to dance tango when I listen to their CD. They're playing with the 0regon Symphony--it ought to be a great evening. I like knowing that our Valentine's Day plans are made. I just have to be sure to secure a babysitter far enough in advance.

I can't believe how sleepy I feel, even after getting plenty of sleep today. It must be all that sleep-inducing progesterone in my system right now. I don't have to get up early for the baby for the rest of the week--Yay! I'm so excited about that. In the past 8 days, I've had to get up early (5:30 twice, 6:15 the other days) 6 days. That's way too many. It's not supposed to be at 5:30 ever and it's only supposed to be at 6:15 three or four times a week.

I'd better go change the clothes from the washer to the dryer and put in a new load. I'm almost half way through my laundry marathon. I'll have to finish the rest tomorrow.

Ciao!

--L