As usual, Megan made another awesome cake, despite the time crunch.  Xavier wanted a Buzz Lightyear cake, so she made a big planet with an awesome Buzz gum paste figure on top of it.

You can check out the pictures from the party are here.

In other news, spring is here in Texas!  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking forward to the 100+ degree weather that summer will bring, but spring is actually really nice here.  It was in the 70s all weekend and beautiful.  We even colored Easter eggs outside since it was so nice.

There hasn’t been much activity on the site lately, but that’s because any free time I’ve had for web stuff has all been working on the re-design.  The WordPress part is nearly finished, I just need to finish the search results page and the archive pages.  I did get some time today to upload some photos though.  It’s a bunch of pictures of spring-time fun and the kids coloring Easter eggs.  Check it out here, and if the gallery doesn’t seem to be working please let me know what it’s doing.  I’ve been trying to track down why not everything loads for some people, but haven’t had any luck yet.  It will be kind of slow since it’s on my server now, but it shouldn’t be too bad.

This year marked my first full year as a working mamma with a full-time career to handle in addition to raising the kiddos. It’s been a challenge; balancing work and family life is hard, but I’m fortunate to have the two most amazing kiddos and sweetest hubby in the world to support me.

Josh’s job is going well for him to. I dare say he actually loves his job–which is great.  He’s been truly blessed to have landed a career that allows him to endeavor in all his nerdy exploits and get paid for it.

But, of course, our year revolved around those two amazing kiddos of ours. And of course, a big year for them equates to a big, proud year for Mom and Dad.

For starters, both kids are now potty-trained!!!!  That’s right, NO MORE DIAPERS. Ali, our over-achieving two-year old, was fully potty trained by the end of October, with little effort exerted on our parts.  She seemed sort of content to stay in her pull-ups, so one day Josh and I just decided we would do away with them, and she’s been dry ever since.

Both kids are learning SO FAST right now. Xavier recognizes his letter (X) everywhere. He’s started writing his name, recognizes the letters of Ali’s name, my “M,” and can spell “red,” “brown,” “blue,” and “green.”  He colors in the lines of his coloring books, draws most of his shapes perfectly, and is an animal expert.   He’s a budding techie, and is in every way, the duplicate of his father.  He loves cars, trucks, planes and trains, all things Wolverine (or super-hero) related, and building things with Play-Dough.  Xavey is also the single most vocally affectionate person ever.  Over the course of our break, Josh and I have heard “I love you” from him at least once during each of his waking hours, often more. Don’t be fooled by that though-he’s 100% boy, and loves to do all sorts of mischievous things to get him (and Ali) in trouble.

Ali is also learning fast, and super independent. Her approach to everything is, “I do it!”  Ali knows her “A,” and loves singing, dancing, and doing anything with crayons, glitter and glue (who’d a guessed?). She is in most ways, my mini, right down to her incessant desire to have someone play with her hair or rub her back while she’s falling asleep.  She’s truly coming into her own now, and unlike me, is already nurturing her loving side (or maybe just her bossy side, in which case, yes, she’s just like me) by constantly playing with her baby dolls. Ali is our little firecracker, a big ball of beautiful, joyous energy.

Xavey’s big goal for the year is to learn how to do a flip on the trampoline (yeah, the grey hairs are starting to sprout). Ali simply wants to be Picasso and paint some more.

My immediate, easily attainable goal is to get Josh to a concert. He’s roamed around for twenty-six(ish) years now, and still has NEVER been to a concert. We need to remedy this given my love for all things rock.

Long term, our goal is still to get outta Texas.  Northeast, midwest, Pacific northwest. I’m not picky. We just want to be somewhere where our kids can actually enjoy the outdoors. That’s hard to do here, when four to five months of the year temperatures are near or above 100 degrees.

We’ve got one final gallery for the year, with all of our holiday pictures right here.  Enjoy the pictures, and Happy New Year!

I was just like every other middle class graduating senior, I received my fair share of graduation cards and checks and presents, and with my graduation money I decided to purchase ze5170.  It was a great day for both of us.  I took him from the lonely shelf of a local Best Buy, away from the torturous salesmen who were too busy dreaming up new ways to rip off unsuspecting customers with one of those “premium protection plans”.  ze5170 and I went home and started our time together.

At first it was the typical computer to person relationship, I’d power him on when I needed him and leave him be when I wasn’t surfing the net.  But things soon changed as I started classes at OU that fall.  ze5170 was no longer just for my entertainment, him and I wrote countless papers and completed hours of engineering projects; so much typing that his keys are shiny smooth from wear to this day.  Before long I just started bringing him with me to class since I always seemed to need him.

Throughout our time at college, ze5170 went through the usual aging process, and he required repairs and got some upgrades on more than one occasion:

• early on, while he was still under warranty, his optical drive failed, so I fixed him up with a new one
• after my first year with him he got a RAM upgrade from 512MB to 1GB
• in his second year we replaced his battery with a newer high capacity one
• shortly after ze5170′s third birthday his original hard-drive failed, so he got another similar one (same 40GB capacity)
• after a solid two years with no problems, ze5170 and I were out of college and out in the workforce when his graphics card fan came loose and started flopping around inside of him – this prompted his first major surgery to get to the fan, but in the end just required snapping it back into place
• finally in his sixth year of life him and I had our first major battle – he lost his second hard-drive and took with it about a month’s worth of code, web designs, financial data, and who knows what else – luckily for him a ridiculous trick of putting the hard-drive in the freezer actually worked and allowed me to get all my data back
• after the hard-drive debacle we replaced his drive with a tiny 20GB drive from a Creative mp3 player about the same age has ze5170

So we’ve had quite a good six years together, and I was kind of content just to keep on going and see how long it would last, but suddenly a couple of days ago ze5170 just shut down right in the middle of some normal budget work.

With the cryptic last words “System Restarted – CRC Error,” ze5170 passed on.  After a bit of Googling, I attempted rudimentary CPR by running a memtest on him, and sure enough there were failures all over the place.  With ze5170 bleeding out, I order a 512MB stick of RAM to hold him over, but when it arrived I got the same results.  It seems his motherboard has stopped mother-boarding.

Time of death: 9:34 p.m. 11/7/2008

May ze5170 rest in peace.

Please leave your condolences in the comments.

Love you,

~ Josh

Now to code the bbPress forum theme…

• Admin Drop Down Menu
• Fluency Admin

Both of these plugins change the way the admin area of WordPress looks.  They can be activated independently of each other, providing a couple different changes.  If you just activate Admin Drop Down Menu, you’ll have the standard admin tabs moved up to the top of the admin area and changed to mouse-over drop-down menus.  This lets you get to a lot of admin areas in just one click and one page load, while maintaing the general look and feel of the admin area.  However, if you want a completely different look and functionality, I suggest activating Fluency Admin and Admin Drop Down Menu.  This allows you to still get everywhere with one click but moves the links to the left of the page and changes the color-scheme to a slate-gray and black feel.  I am personally using that combination for awhile.

[Note: In order for Fluency Admin to function, you must be using a CSS compliant browser, such as FireFox, Safari, or IE8.  You can still activate it without any harm, you just won't see any changes.  I recommend FireFox 3, the current Release Candidate is perfectly stable for everyday use. ]

• you can forego the login link and just create a bookmark to blogs.joshandmeg.net/nameofyourblog/wp-admin
• or, since most themes have widgets in the sidebar, you can go to Design >> Widgets, and add the ‘Meta’ widget to your sidebar (this should add login/logout, register, RSS, and WordPress links)

Hope this helps!  Leave a comment if you have any problems.

Thank you ‘Economic Stimulus’.  Obviously I think the Economic Stimulus Act is a completely idiotic ‘solution’ to the slow economy; but, in our current position in life we happen to benefit greatly from it (married, two kids, below the monetary thresholds).  So, to do as we are supposed to do with the money, we dumped some of it back into the economy by buying the kids a big playground.

‘Build and play in one day’ is what the box claimed, and it could probably be done if you got started early enough.  But I didn’t get started until about 3 o’clock on Sunday, and the construction ended up extending into Monday.  Thanks to Mark, Steph, and Steve, we got it all put together.  Needless to say, the kids absolutely love it.  Xavier has literally been running around in circles screaming in excitement about it.  Ali is happy too because she can finally swing at the same time as Xavier.  Here are a few pictures of it.  It makes our backyard look a lot cooler, that’s for sure.

I am a fish killer. An accidental, but continual killer of fish. This is my plight.

Poor Grunt never stood a chance. From the day we brought him home, the little guy just wouldn’t eat. He’d swim around his little bowl, he’d swish his blue tail, and he’d pretend to be interested as Xavier carefully dropped food into his bowl each day. …But Grunt never ate. Perhaps he had a preexisting condition, an ongoing battle with anorexia perhaps, but just the same, the little guy starved. Unfortunately, fish don’t talk. They don’t come with medical records or psychiatric evaluation papers. They don’t say, “Don’t buy me, I’m on the brink of death!” as you carefully place them in your shopping cart and let your son get all excited.

Strike one, Meg. Strike one.

Poor Xave-o realized Grunt was no long in his bowl shortly after Josh had flushed the fishy. So, to be a good mommy, I thought I’d just pick up a goldfish when I got groceries. Certainly a goldfish could survive in our house. The information on them says they’re hearty eaters, so that squelched any fears I had about bringing home another pet with an eating disorder. I carefully inspected the bright orange specimens swimming in the take, and picked out the liveliest, brightest one of the bunch. I picked up some goldfish food and was on my way.

Fish number two, or Grunt Jr., as I’d affectionately named him, didn’t even make it home. As I presented Josh with the fish so we could transfer him into the bowl, I noticed that the fish had pulled a Nemo. Grunt Jr. was sideways, nearly upside down in the bag of water. Josh, Mark, and Steph had a good laugh at my misfortune, and after an unsuccessful attempt to revive the fish with food and fresh water, Grunt Jr. was also sent to meet his maker.

Strike two.

I should’ve known better. Nothing in my past suggests that I have any ability at all to care for an animal. I had three, yes three betas in the past, and all of them died. One ate itself to death. He ate and ate and ate, until his little fishy self could contain no more, and then popped open at the seams in his bowl. (Ironic huh?) The other suffered a casualty during a water change, and was mortally wounded in the drain of a sink. The other fish, was much like Grunt Jr, and lived for a day. The cause of death is still unknown.

These poor fish. It’s all my fault. I was not created with the capacity to care for living beings that cannot communicate their needs to me. Next time, we’re getting a dog.

We’d like to introduce you to the fifth member of our family. About a week ago, we ventured out to Wal-Mart, in a desperate attempt to spend more time together as a family. I’ve been convinced for the past month or so that Xavier thinks mommy and daddy aren’t allowed to be home at the same time. So, on Thursday evening, when Josh and I were both at home, the last thing I wanted to do was go get groceries and leave my sweet family. …So, we all went. We loaded up the Jeep, popped the kids into two seperate carts, and made our rounds at the grocery store.

I say that like our trip to Wally-Word was a quick one. It wasn’t. We strolled, we caused traffic jams, and oh yeah–we got a fish.

Since the kids were being so good, and we had (stupidly) dragged them out right around dinner time, Josh and I thought we should let them go see the fishies so they’d be entertained for awhile. We probably stood in front of the tanks with Xavier pointing and going “unhGRUISunnnnnnh!” for ten minutes before he spotted the betas. With my excited child trying to escape the cart’s restraints, I quickly wheeled him over to see the betas. Before I could stop him, Xavier had his hands around one of the little plastic containers, and was peering devilishly at the little creature inside. He looked up at me with his big, beautiful eyes and a slow smile creeped over his face as he turned around quickly and desided to drop the container into the cart.

It was decided. We were not leaving Wal-Mart without a fish. …Obviously not that fish. I do believe that particular fish suffered from shaken-fishy-syndrome and wouldn’t have been with us very long. So, we let Xave-o pick out a new fishy (this time mommy prevented any animal cruelty), Josh picked out an aquarium and we were set.

Once we got home, we set about the task of transferring Grunt into his fishy habitat. Xavier dragged his potty-chair (the one he’s now scared of… He stood up too fast, and WHOOPS, caught his pee-pee on the cup. Sorry, tangent.) out to the kitchen and stood on it, watching closely as Josh moved the fish into his new bowl.

“Xavey what do you want to name the fishy?” I asked, half expecting him to call the fish ball, cup, more, or aheee.

“Gwwwwwwwwuuuuuh,” my child practically growled.

“What?” was my stunned reply?

“Gwwwwwwwwwwwwwwuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnuuuuh!!!!!!” he said, now excited and pointed at the fish. I almost checked his pants to make sure the sound he was making wasn’t an indication that he’d filled his pants.

“Grunt?? You want to name the fishy Grunt.”

And with that, Grunt was named. You’ve never seen such an excited 21-month-old. He bounced up and down on his potty-chair, pointing at the fishy. He ran circles, he stared at the fish some more. And at the end of the evening, Xavier formally initiated Grunt.

“Give mommy and daddy hugs; it’s night-night time Xavey.” He did. Then he hugged Ali and ran over to the bowl where Grunt was just hanging out. Then he waved night-night to “Gwwwwwwwwwwwwuuuuuuu” and went to bed.

Fantastic huh? At least the fish doesn’t stink. Or poop (that I can see). Or need walked or otherwise taken care of at all really. Or make noise. For me, the non-animal person, Grunt is the perfect pet. Josh agreed to remember to change his water and feed him, so we’re golden. And, should Grunt meet that big toilet bowl in the sky too soon, I happen to know where we can find a wide array of betas to carry on the Grunt legacy.

(An update totally on Ali will follow soon. She’s awesome! She climbs on everything, doesn’t listen when Josh tells her no, and eats everything in her path. She’s the sweetest, funniest, cutest little girl ever. I’ll dedicate an entire post to her before this time next week and get some pictures to go with it. )

Without further ado, an update.

One Saturday, two or three weeks ago, I was at work (what else is new), and Josh was at home with the wee-lings. Before I continue with this story, I should mention that it was sunny and almost 80 degrees here, in Fort Worth, in NOVEMBER. With that in mind, my hubby decided to open the windows and enjoy the breeze. He opened all of our floor-to-ceiling windows, and he and the kids played inside, enjoying the fresh air blowing through the house. I came home to a sunny house and happy kids. Five points for Josh.

I remember coming home, thinking to myself “I guess 80′s not so bad,” and then talking with Josh for a few minutes about my day. After some small talk, I started wondering where Xavier had wandered off to. Our bedroom door was open, and since our room is one of Xave’s favorite hangouts, I figured I’d find him in there.

I went through our room and continued into the bathroom because I thought I heard Xave-o in there. As I entered the room, I breathed a sigh of relief. “There he is,” I thought, all the while, something about finding him wasn’t registering right with my brain. My relief quickly turned to (pointless) panic as I realized where my son was. Xavier was standing there, OUTSIDE, in the backyard, in his diaper, happily giggling at me. The screen was laying on the ground, where (I presume) it had landed after Xavier pushed it out of the window to get outside.

Minus 10 points for Josh. Minus like 500 trillion points for Texas and its stupid 80-degree Novembers.

In all fairness, no one was hurt. Xavier though it was hilarious that he escaped and fortunately, he escaped into our fenced in back yard. Mommy’s heart pounded a little harder than it was probably designed to, but oh well. From now on, our windows stay shut.

The next update has to do with Ali-gator. She is officially a(n) (army) crawling machine. Sorry for all the parenthetical phrases, but I don’t want to mislead you. The girl is mobile, no doubt about it. But she is completely unpredictable. I have recorded evidence of her actually crawling, and she’s done it a few times since, but most of the time she still army crawls. I got all excited right after she crawled for the first time, but I think my joy might have been premature. She does what she wants, when she wants, and doesn’t seem to care whether or not she makes mommy look like a liar. Oh well.

(PS, Xavier HATES that she crawls. She’s able to get into his food and stuff like that and he gets so mad. Apparently, we need to work on sharing.)

We did Christmas here yesterday, since we’ll be super busy this coming weekend, and the following weekend we’ll be in Ohio. (YAY!) The kids had a blast, and I think it probably took us almost two hours to open presents. Xavier and Ali had to stop and play with each present before moving on to the next one. I think the opening could have lasted all day if we hadn’t moved things along. The morning went well, the kids got some cute presents and both seemed to really enjoy all of us being together… There was only one thing out of the ordinary.

Xavier is terrified of one of his presents. He absolutely loves the Backyardigans, specifically Pablo the Penguin, so Josh and I thought it’d be great to get him a singing, dancing Pablo for Christmas. Pablo is pretty cute. He’s bright blue and he sings the Backyardigans theme song and plays “Pablo Says.” Not scary at all. Not to me, not to Josh, and not to Ali (who, by the way, completely adores the toy penguin). Apparently though, the singing or the dancing or both are too much for Xavier. He nearly cried when we turned Pablo on yesterday and even ran away from it. I tried to get Xavey to touch Pablo, and instead he ran behind me and hid. Even now, despite seeing how much Ali likes him, Xavier won’t go near Pablo. (Cindy, you should post your story about Kermit and Josh. Prove that my baby gets his wimpy-streak honestly. )

And now for our final update. Xavier got an easel for Christmas. We got him paint and markers and magnets to go with it. I, however, forgot to get any chalk for the chalkboard side and this morning Xavier wanted to play with it. I suddenly remembered he had all kinds of sidewalk chalk on the back porch, so I went outside to grab the chalk and shut the door behind me. I knew that if Xavey came outside too, we’d be out there all morning, and it was too cold for Ali to be out today. As I was bending down, picking up the chalk I heard Xavier messing by the door, but I just figured he was trying to get outside. Then I heard the sound that no mother wants to hear.

I rushed to the door and tried to open it. The door didn’t move. I tried again, no dice. I started knocking on the glass, yelling for Xavier to open the door. Instead he smiled, turned around and grabbed his sippy cup. Then he wandered over to Ali and sat down by her, and they started playing with her Singing Star Stage we got her for Christmas. I was completely stumped. My phone was inside. My keys were inside. The doors, the windows, I keep them all locked, all the time.

So I kept knocking. I finally regained Xavier attention and after what seemed like forever he came back over and unlocked the door. I’ve never been so happy to come back inside.

Whewwwwwww. Thank goodness. I’m positive that Josh never would have let me live that one down.

And, with that… I’m done with updates. Take care.