It’s still a little hard to believe that I get to celebrate Mother’s Day as, you know, a MOTHER. I was sufficiently spoiled by getting to sleep in as long as I wanted, breakfast and mimosas in the backyard, wonderful presents, flowers, and lunch (more mimosas!) and croquet at my mother’s house. Basil and I also made a tript to the pet store to pick up supplies for the new puppy. On Mother’s Day, I wanted to make sure all of my children were taken care of in some way. Even Ernie got to spend the morning wandering the backyard, eating toast, and getting some fresh air.

Basil and I have discussed moving his cage outside for the spring and summer, so that he can enjoy the sunshine. And we’ve discussed getting him a friend to hang with. It must be lonely in the cage all day by yourself. He has moved into my office, so we get to chat and he gets to listen to all of my phone calls, which I’m sure is riveting for a bird. I won’t be surprised if one day he pipes up, and says “Just buy it, so she’ll shut the hell up already!” Sometimes my customers hear Ernie scream in the background, and I joke about him being an unhappy customer that I locked in a cage in my office. Pets are wonderful scapegoats.

Since I put up the new site design the night Annie was hit, I didn’t have a chance to properly show you all where everything is now. If you’re looking for the photos (ahem, grandparents!) , you can click the Photos link at the very top right of the page, or you can click 2005 Photo Gallery in the right hand navigation menu under links. I only moved over the 2005 galleries. The rest are still alive and well on the old DarnLucky site, which can be found by clicking the DarnLucky 2003-2005 link in the rand hand menu as well.

I put up new photos today, so check them out.

I feel incredibly blessed to be Beckett’s mother. He is warm, and funny, and sweet as pie. And can I just tell you that he gets cuter every single day? His baby moments are slipping away from us. He’s getting bigger, and more independent. He wants to eat with his own spoon, and tries to climb in and out of the bathtub himself. He barely ever crawls anymore, and he barrels through the house with confidence and breakneck speed. It’s hard to let go of our baby boy, and watch him move into becoming a toddler. But then there are those moments when he smiles up and me and says, “Mama”, and throws his arms around me in a big hug, or when he does the hand gestures while I sing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” (pictured below) that make my stomach churn with the excitement of what is about to come. I watched Bella yesterday playing croquet with a rubber hardware mallet and a smiley faced bouncy ball, and thought about how wonderful it’s going to be to see our son playing games, and laughing with us, and discovering new things that will shape his life.

Being a mother is like a big rich piece of chocolate cake, topped with a cherry, and served with a glass of milk. It’s really hard to beat.

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Basil and I drove to Greenville last night to have dinner, and to go visit with a litter of cocker spaniel puppies. This gorgeous little girl is coming to live with us on May 19th. She is an almost all black cocker, and her father “Jessie James” is the spitting image of Annie. Her mother, “Sadie” is a sweet girl with the most shiny jet black coat! We can’t wait to get her home.

Another baby is on the way! Oh Lord, now we have to name the beast. Any suggestions?

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Today was a breakthrough day for me. I decided if I was ever going to get out of this little slump, I’d have to kick myself out of bed, make lists of things I needed to get done, and then cross those things off of the list one by one. Sometimes this is the only way I can motivate myself to move forward, and to stop sitting around feeling sorry for myself.

I started out slowly. And everything on my list was work related, but included some tasks I’ve been putting off for months, and that were really important. For example: I work from home. I incur expenses from working at home. I haven’t submitted an expense report since October!! So, I made a big pot of coffee this morning, and waded through the pile on my desk.

I think I had 7 things on my list today, and I crossed every single one off the list before closing time.

Baby steps. Baby steps.

I have been obsessively surfing the web looking at dogs that are up for adoption, and I think I’ve lost my cotton pickin’ mind. I’ve written to people all over the country, and even found myself surfing tea cup chihuahua sites. I think I need help. Serious help. If I don’t hear the jingle of a dog collar plinking around the house pretty soon, I may wind up adopting a pot bellied pig or a half miniature weiner dog half guinea pig. I’m out of control. The Internet is the world’s largest pet pound, and they’re all just so. damn. adorable!

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