Saint Cloud, Here We Come !!!

This weekend we will be moving into our new condo in St.Cloud.

Pros:

Our condo is bigger and brand new with all brand new appliances.
Our new condo has carpeted stairs allowing Jack to practice climbing.
We will be within 5 minutes of our, non-existent as of yet, new business.
We will be within 5 minutes of the Florida Turnpike for heading north/south to escape
We are within 30 minutes of the East Coast beaches.
There is a lakefront area in St.Cloud with an actual beach and water playground.
We will have that small town feel.
We will be much closer to our babysitters...my mother, father, and Angie.
We will be out of the Downtown Orlando traffic.
Jack doesn't need to where pants, shirts, socks or shoes...just a diaper is necessary in St.Cloud.
The mayor is a newly elected Democrat and mental health counselor...like us.
It's not in Texas.

Cons:

Orlando lacks culture but St. Cloud has never heard of it.
We will have that small town feel.
There are no museums that don't showcase Crackers (cowboys with whips...big in the area in the 1800's.
This is one of the main rodeo towns in the country...they actually have a day off of school called Rodeo Day.
There isn't a mall to walk Jack in.
There is only one movie theatre, showing one movie.

Overall, I'm excited about the move. Although I've always preferred the big city to the country. I love to visit the country though. I guess I'll just think of this as an extended visit.

Just Blogging Around

The best part about finishing getting ready for an audit at my job is that I get to play around with my blog for an hour and figure out how to use html script. I probably could quit this job and get paid twice as much with what I learned in 1 hour by myself. This is especially disturbing considering, I have 60 thousand dollars of student loan debt outstanding, after nearly 4 years of post-graduate schooling. I should be a doctor or lawyer or an astronaut by now but instead I make diddly squat and I'm getting ready to start a business to work a great deal more and make slightly more than diddly squat.

This brings me to a soap box...warning I'm winding up for a rant if you didn't see it coming.

Okay, so I've never been motivated by money. It simply isn't what I'm all about. However, I like money. I like the comforts money can bring. The problem is I give meaning to life by things like helping others rather than selling things to others or providing consumer services or taking advantage of poor little old ladies. I've always been of the mindset that by working hard at what I think is important, helping children and families who are less fortunate, that I would simply not have to worry about money. I never cared about being wealthy or getting bunch of stuff but simply don't want to worry about the bills, whether or not I can by a new car, whether I should buy the Huggies or Publix brand diapers for my baby, you get the point. These days it seems you are either getting richer or poorer in the U.S.. Right now at least, I'm in the latter grouping. While I serve the less fortunate, I think I'm becoming one of them.

I feel like Andy Rooney on 60 minutes now. And, what's with all those sandwiches at 7-eleven. Every damn one of them has mayonaise on it. Does everyone like mayonaise except me. I don't think so. If I can't change anything that matters, maybe I should put my energy here. Everyone write your respective senators about the health effects of mayo...don't worry if your accurate, your bound to get some of it right. As everyone knows, mayo was created by the devil, or George Bush, I've forgotten which one.

More Sleep Dep and Baby Food Makeup?

Jack woke up at 1:30am!!! Susie got up to feed him at around 2:30am. He went back to sleep but I just tossed and turned for 3 hours only to fall asleep 30 minutes before Jack woke up for good. I think Susie was awake too.

I got up and fed him another bottle while Susie tried to get an extra hour of sleep. Now I'm here at work, eyes drooping, with clients on their way. Susie's back home probably staring at Jack while he whines and fusses until his first nap of the day. I feel guilty leaving her there but lucky at the same time.

Honestly, I think we've both lost it. Yesterday, when I got home from work, Susie and I loaded Jack up to take a walk. We started out and we talked about our respective days. While Susie was talking and walking next to me, I turned and made eye contact. I started laughing hysterically and she did too not knowing why. One of her eyebrows was decked out in the most mysterious and trend setting colors I've seen this fashion season. It was orange. The same color as Jack's dinner. The funny thing is, it was perfectly covered as if she did it on purpose. I pictured her sitting there with Jack in his highchair attempting to feed him his dinner whilst he grabbed the spoon rubbing carrots all over himself and his chair. Suddenly, I envisioned Susie grabbing the little jar of mixed vegetables and declaring, "Well son, if you're not going to eat this I will find another use for it." Then, like a cut scene from Mommy Dearest, I picture Susie slowly smearing Gerber with her fingers on each of her brows. After, she grabs a different color for her lips, perhaps some apples and blueberries for dramatic effect.

Later, the same night, Susie and I watched QVC as two wonderful ladies sold Tova makeup products...one of which was Ms. Tova herself. We laughed hysterically once again as they kept putting the products on their cleavage no matter what the product was actually made for it seemed.

Sleep Deprivation can be quite funny until the next morning. Wonder what we'll do tonight? Perhaps we'll watch an episode of Benson and think it's hysterical or maybe we'll get up at 2am, go in Jack's room and cry until we eat some food and fill our underwear with pee? Oh, the possibilities.

My 1st Father's Day

Yesterday was my first Father's Day of many to come. Jack started the morning off sleeping in until 6:30am. A rare treat which certainly did not go unnoticed. Jack (Susie) had laid out several presents for me to open in the living room. I opened them revealing 3 large pics of Jack nicely framed and one book, "The Poop Bomb". Then, Susie fed Jack his bottle, I loaded up the car with boxes full of things to move to our new house, and we left by 7:45am for St. Cloud.

By 8:15am we were sitting in a Village Inn a block from our new place with my mom and dad. After breakfast, we mosied on over to the new place. By 9:15am, all the boxes were in, my parents had seen our place. My dad had asked every conceivable question about the structure of the building, the burglar alarm system, and garage door opener. My mother had asked every conceivable question about the pool and foliage in the community. Then Jack christened the living room with a "poo bomb". Hastily, Susie and I decided it was time to leave. My dad received his gigantic, black and white picture of Jack and Jack was loaded into the car with his Grammy Valium and Grampoppy.

Susie and I sped away at 124 miles per hour headed to Universal Studios as we had a free pass and I found out I was still paying monthly payments of $15 for a yearly pass. By 10:30am we met our friends Stef and Jason at the park. By noon, I had finally consumed an imported beer and suddenly realized how great our freedom for the day was. It rained on us but we didn't care the least bit.

After several rides, 3pm snuck up on us quickly and we returned home. Jack arrived with his Grammy Valium in tow after visiting his great grandparents in Kissimmee all day and screaming at heavy mascara laden old ladies with bluish hair.




A great Father's Day was over by 9:30pm, as the Raskin Household was exhausted and asleep.

The Frogpond Wizard

The story goes something like this...

Once upon a time there was little boy named Jack who loved to take a bath but hated to get out of the bath. Every day upon getting out of the bath, the rosie cheeked, blonde haired baby boy would break down into tears. One day, while getting out of the bath, Jack discovered the magical Frog Pond Wizard cape which he thought resembled a plain old baby towel but clearly it was a cape. While trying the cape on, mysterious music began to play as if coming from his father's mouth; his father denies he had anything to do with it to this very day. "Frog pond wizard, frog pond wizard", repeated over and over again while the cape was adorned by young Jack.

No longer feeling like Jack, the boy who hated to get out of the bath, the Frog Pond Wizard flew around the house making magic happen around every corner, in every room. The first time he discovered his powers, he turned lights off in the very room his mother resided in. He made his mother laugh until she decided to make attempts at giving him hugs. Then he disappeared around corners, in dirty clothes hampers and simply vanished into thin air while his mother chased after him. The Frog Pond Wizard laughed hysterically while eluding his mother. She laughed too as she thought the young wizard was quite funny and very cute.

Then it was time to lie on the changing table and get ready for bed. The Frog Pond Wizard's strength grew weary at this point as he began crying hysterically. Having used all of his energy creating magic and mayhem around the house and making his mother laugh, the wizard was simply exhausted.

The wizard's guru-to-be, Daddy God Wizard King, offered his young apprentice a magic wand. While the wand resembled a baby brush with a big lady bug on the end of it, the guru insisted it was a magic wand indeed and, alas, it was. The Frog Pond Wizard was given the wand with instructions for a magic spell of how to get into his PJs without crying. The young Frog Pond Wizard waved his wand hastily and said the spell as he heard it, "Mamama, dadadadad, blllleeeehh, daaaat".

Suddenly, Jack found himself ready for bed and in his mother's arms eating his final bottle of the day. Rubbing his eyes, Jack fell asleep only to dream of his magical cape and wand, and his adventures to come as the great Frog Pond Wizard.

More Teeth & A Laugh Attack

Jack continues to fuss. Once again the weekend was a challenge as Jack doesn't seem content to do any one thing for more than 15 minutes. In fact, if in the house, he doesn't ever seem content these days it seems. We think he is teething again as he is chewing and drooling on everything. I personally think he's turning into The Fly and is simply wetting his pray with saliva before attempting to devour it. He hasn't mastered the devouring part yet but the saliva part is all but perfected.

This weekend Susie had a cold and Jack decided to start getting up at 4am. This meant I got up at 4am. Yesterday, he ate a bottle at 5:30am, we went to a park at 6:45am, walked about a mile and a half to Target, which was still closed. Then we waited outside only to finally get in by 8am, ate a bottle, shopped for clothes as he is finally growing out of all of the free baby shower clothes we received, walked home in the hot, hot sun all by 9:45am. Then Jack preceded to take a nap, his second already by that point. Then he woke up only to be cranky all day with one more nap somewhere wedged in there, a swim, and a walk around the complex. Just before bedtime, Jack broke into the most hysterical laugh attack I have ever seen. It started when Susie and I were watching him in his walker and talking. I had just cracked open a beer to cope with the end of the day and played beer trumpet by blowing into the bottle. Jack laughed and I did it again. This time he gut laughed hysterically. This went on for about 25 minutes as he continued to laugh non-stop and I blew in the bottle while Susie got it all on video.

Thanks Jack for ending the day on a good note as these weekends have not been very easy lately but a good laugh certainly helps. Note to self: play bottle trumpet all weekend long next weekend.

On The Move

We found a place to live, in St. Cloud. I never thought I would live in St. Cloud, or a small town, or anywhere more conservative than Orlando again after my experience living in good ole' Houston, Texas. Well, so much for my ability to see the future. We found a 3-Bedroom, 2 story condo near the turnpike and about 2 miles from our soon to be new business. It is about the same distance for me to my current job which is about a 35 minute commute.

Here's a rendering of our new place:




We will be in the middle unit as there are 3. It has a two car garage, overlooks a swamp with creatures and wonderful flora galore, a huge kitchen with lots of counter space for me to destory in my cooking rampages, tons of storage space, 21/2 bathrooms, washer and dryer, but, best of all, the third bedroom will be Jack's very own playroom. This means all of his stuff can be in a place other than under our beds, behind things, on top of things, etc...

So, we're excited and happy that we don't have to worry about where we'll be living in a month!