Our Week in Quiz Form

***Note: while reading the following questions and answers, please recognize that some of the statements are "slightly" exaggerated for humor.... other statements are minimized so that I seem less crazy than I actually am***

1. Your taxes come back and GOOD NEWS - you're getting a bigger refund than you expected. You:
a. make arrangements to invest the money in a solid CD
b. set the money aside to pay the upcoming mortgage on your new house during the month and a half you won't have any income due to your husband's job change
c. use the money to pay the upcoming credit card bill that will be higher than normal due to your addiction to paying other people to take pictures of your child
d. research charities that could use the extra dollars
e. think to yourself, "ehhh.. lets forget about our ability to pay our bills this month" and proceed to go eat dinner at the Japanese steakhouse

answer: e

2. Your husband is due for a "vacation month" in his rigorous and grueling residency for the month of March. What was supposed to be a relaxed "do as much or as little as you want to" experience is now going to require 90 plus hours of activities. You learn this information 3 days prior to the rotation beginning. Your response is:
a. realize that the situation stinks, but acknowledge that it probably is a good educational opportunity and might provide some needed skills during your husband's last few months of formal training
b. prayerfully consider your negative attitude about this last minute change of plans and focus on the potential benefits
c. respectfully admit that many of these "new" activities have actually been a requirement all along, and the fact that they weren't enforced before now does not change the fact that the right and responsible thing to do is to cheerfully complete the assigned tasks
d. mentally reflect on how lucky you and your husband are to have leaders who are so involved with the quality of your husband's education that they are willing to spend all of their own, personal, spare time constantly thinking up more stuff for him to do
e. resist the urge to curse and throw things while discussing with your husband how unreasonable it is to drastically change things up in the middle of the year on 72 hours notice. point out how unfair it is that some residents aren't having to do this extra work since they've already done this rotation, and if he'd only been lucky enough to have done it earlier, it wouldn't be an issue for us; proceed in this mature fashion to express your anger at the many unexpected and arguably unfair changes this training program has thrown at both of you. breathe a sigh of relief that the program leaders only have 4 more months to rule your lives and say a quick prayer that your weekend and vacation plans won't be ruined for the month

answer: e

3. Your child will be 8 months old in 2 days and is neither sitting up well nor making an effort to crawl. You:
a. recognize that each child develops at a different pace, and just because the kid you babysit for has been crawling since she was 6 months old doesn't mean your child has to be doing it that early
b. remind yourself that her doctor said she looked great a mere few weeks ago, and it is highly unlikely that anything concerning has changed since then
c. observe that she *can* actually sit up just fine; she just chooses not to most of the time, and appreciate the fact that you don't have to constantly chase her around just yet
d. say a quick prayer that everything is alright and increase her floor time so she can perfect her skills
e. grill all of your friends about how old their babies were when they started crawling and repeatedly ask your medically knowledgeable husband about all of the various illnesses that could cause such delays; proceed to worry for a day and a half that your child has an incurable disease of some sort; finally, consult your trusty "What To Expect the First Year" book where you immediately discover that your daughter is not only right on track with her milestones, but she is actually excelling in several of them

answer: e

4. After 6 months of trying, you FINALLY lost 4 or 5 pounds after a vicious stomach bug weeks ago. You:
a. take advantage of your shrunken stomach and motivational boost and make an effort to eat less so that you can continue your weight loss
b. step up your working out efforts to continue the trend
c. integrate healthier, low-calorie foods into your diet
d. substitute water for the unhealthy amounts of soda you drink
e. increase your number of daily meals and snacks; take home 7 pieces of leftover cake from a friend's birthday party and eat them all within 2 days; begin a new routine of eating a candy bar at least once a day; feel sick all over again when you realize that you wasted a perfectly good weight loss opportunity and are on the verge of gaining even more weight

answer: e

5. Your talented but overpriced photographer is offering "Mommy and Me" and "Daddy and Me" sessions in a week and a half. Your child hates getting her picture made, and you just purchased 6 pages worth of pictures for her baby album. You:
a. vow to have a family picture made along with her 1 year portraits
b. research alternative studios for a cheaper "Mommy and Me" session
c. ask a friend to take your picture together in the 70 degree, sunny, February weather with your nice new camera that you just got back from the Canon repair shop
d. tell yourself that your child is only going to be a baby once; that this is your first little girl and you'd envisioned a sweet picture of the two of you all along; that you haven't yet regretted a single penny you've spent on her pictures; that you do have that extra tax money coming after all; that you'll only buy one print for the wall, so it really won't be that expensive since they're not charging a sitting fee, all the while knowing that's a flat out lie and you'll likely end up with a regularly priced package; that your husband happens to be off the day they're doing this promotion, and what are the odds of that happening??? so it must be fate telling you that you need to have these pictures made
e. go get the friend who recommended this photographer to you in the first place and who's already paid for her own "Mommy and Me" session to validate the reasons listed in answer d and promptly schedule your appointment so as to get a good time slot

answer: d and e

Check back Thursday - it's Christa's 8 month birthday, and I'll post some pictures of her with my good camera that I am oh so glad to have back. Have a great day!

More Mundane Happenings

Good morning all! We are doing well at the Jackson household. 5 months and counting until we move to Rome! We are excited, but the anxiety about such a big change is starting to build. I'm already obsessing about which doctors I'll use, what the utilities on a house will cost, and where I'll shop for clothes. I'm not doing so well on the packing front. I definitely have plenty of things I could go ahead and pack away, but I just can't seem to get motivated to go get boxes from anywhere. Oh well - all in good time.
Yesterday, I picked up the proofs from the traumatic photo session last week. They are beautiful! I was shocked. My photographer is a genius. We even got one good smile and lots of pleasant expressions of Christa sitting up. The best ones are the ones we got at the very end when she was really mad at us, and we were just trying "one more time" to get a good shot. We stuck a prop in front of her as a distraction, and it worked nicely. I'm very pleased.
Tonight we are headed to Rome for the weekend. Cline has 3 whole days off, and he's not even post-night-shift. This is a rare treat! The weather has been beautiful here, too - 80 degrees and sunny! I hope it lasts through the weekend.
I will try to post pictures later today, but I don't know if I'll get a chance before we leave. I am going to have to send my camera into Canon for repair because, apparently, it's not normal for the battery to run down overnight by simply leaving it in the camera. I'm a little reluctant to send it off, but I do want it fixed, so I guess I'll have to make my peace with it. In the meantime, have a great day!

Christa is 6 months!

Cousin Maggie Beth, Aunt Bethany, and Christa on Maggie Beth's 1st birthday!

Getting ready to go see Lights of the South

Having a small, family Christmas in Augusta


(I will post more pictures later. I went to download them, and realized my new battery is dead, so it's charging. Apparently, my laptop doesn't have a card reader, so I have to install some software to download from the new camera. Here are a few from my Kodak until I get a chance to do that)


Hello again. Well I've obviously been wasting my time! I spend hours creating the perfect post and get maybe 1 comment. I hurriedly throw something up there about how I don't have time to post, and get 3 comments on the first day!! LOL! Well, I'm writing anyway, even though I know that all 5 of you who read this blog just come for the pictures :) I guess I'll start with our Christmas! God smiled on us and worked it out for Cline to have Christmas off, even though he had the last 2 years off. So, we went to Rome for a very fun, but hectic few days. We learned that Chas and Bethany (Cline's twin and wife) are having a little boy! We are very excited, as this will be the first grandson for the Jacksons. (We have 2 girls so far - Christa and cousin Maggie Beth). A funny thing happened while we were home. Christa sucks her thumb pretty much constantly now. Even when I'm feeding her baby food, she sucks her thumb in between bites. I have a feeling we may be in for some dental work later on... At any rate, she spent our time in Rome sucking her thumb as usual. Her cousin, Maggie Beth, who is 1 year old and a pacifier baby, must have noticed this because our last night there, Maggie Beth started sucking her thumb, much to her parents dismay. It was hilarious to see her "copy" Christa and to think of my child being a "bad influence" at 6 months of age. (Sorry about that, Chas and Bethany:)

My favorite gift for Christmas was my Canon Digital Rebel. The majority of people I polled recommended it, and said I couldn't go wrong. They were correct. We saved a few bucks and got the 8 megapixel, and I am very pleased so far (except for that dead battery I just discovered - we did use it a lot over the weekend, so I'll hold off on ordering a spare). It is sooooo much easier to catch Christa's cute facial expressions - it takes 3 pictures per second! Christa's favorite gifts so far are a Mother Goose book (I read all 120 pages to her yesterday, and she just listened and looked at the pictures), some rubber blocks, and a Sesame Street pop-up-singing thing. She is starting to interact more with her toys, but shows little interest in learning to sit up by herself. I am not worried about this - she's always been a laid back baby who is perfectly content to sit in a bouncer and suck her thumb all day. She's getting stronger for sure, but every time I try to sit her up, she just rolls to the floor after about 2 seconds (if I haven't mentioned it before, she has her mother's lack of patience and persistence:) She also got lots of adorable clothes (she'll be wearing LOTS of pink for the next six months, but I love pink, so that's OK) and other toys we can't wait to play with.


Since we got home, I've been very busy finding room for all of our gifts and catching up on the laundry. It's always nice to go to Rome, but there's a ton to do when I get back, especially at Christmas time. We're definitely looking forward to next year when we can just enjoy being with our families without the hassle of traveling. It was nice to run into Shanda at Longhorn while we were there - Gracie is too precious - I can't wait to get to know her better :)


Well, that's about it for now. I'll post some more Christmas pictures and Christa's 6 month photo later this evening. Have a great day!