Wordless Wednesday: Silly Babies

New Look & Random Thoughts.....

So it's Tuesday, and I needed a break after pouring my soul back out in Pity, for Pity's Sake: pt 1 and  Pity, for Pity's Sake: pt 2.   Incase you are new, or don't know ... because this isn't really the blog that I put it all in...   2 of my son's were born extremely small, both with medical issues.  (I got Noah's button - FINALLY - made yesterday)

Noah, I found out while I was pregnant, that he has a rare genetic disorder called Mosaic Trisomy 16.  Part 1 is about him.  He was 1lb 12oz at birth and I was told he wouldn't live past pregnancy or shortly after birth.  Well, he turns 8 years old on February 1st!  As bittersweet as each birthday is, because it means my boys are growing up so fast, each year is a huge victory for him!  Noah has struggled with a lot of things, but his main issues at this moment are hearing, kidney issues, and tight muscles.  However, with his disorder, we just don't know what it effects and anything can go wrong at any time.  (interesting fact about Noah's button up there, that footprint his his footprint at birth - notice it has no "prints" ... babies born that small have none of the unique ridges in their skin yet)

Part 2 is about our son Nathan.  He was 3lbs 4oz at birth and we found out while I was pregnant that he has a cyst in his brain.  It can't be removed, it can't be "fixed" ... right now, it's stable and it's just there.  He has a lot of medical issues, more then Noah ...  Nathan also has a cleft palate, is labeled "Failure to Thrive" because at almost 3 years old, he is only 18lbs & 31 inches.. he has hypothyroidism (yes you read that right, hypo is the one that makes you gain weight, however - not in Nathan's case) ... he has sensory issues, migraines, he has not "officially" been diagnosed with Russell Silver Syndrome which is a type of Primordial Dwarfism, but we are pretty sure he has it, and there is questions if he has some sort of high functioning Autism due to his mannerisms and repetitive habits.  

My other blog, where those entries are located, is where I update on their medical stuff, or sometimes I just put general chit chat in there.  If it's something important, I usually link it in here, too.  

So.. random thoughts Tuesday.......

•  I have a new look, I'm not sure I like it..  it might change...

•  I have 4 new awards to hand out and 44 people to give them too!!  OYE!  I'm still compiling a list, but I want to thank Ruby @ Growing Up BLACKXICAN, Diane @ Good Morning Glory!, and April @ Mama is on the Potty, and Erin @ Cultivating Rosebuds ... for the awards :)  I GREATLY appreciate them!  I loooove getting awards :D
  

• The other day Dennis and I were in the car .......we were discussing something and talking about how shy someone was.  He looks at me, and says "Like you, you are shy ... but you are very social too." And then after a moment pause he says, "and I'm outgoing but prefer to be by myself" ....   shy and social ...  outgoing and loner...  we are such a conundrum ...  or as Dennis says, "a walking contradiction"

• Monday Morning: Noah's eyes open, mouth opens out spews "can I play the x-box?" no, I love you Mommy, to ease the Mommy Morning Beast ... not even a good morning.. just love for the X-box, so unfair. 

• Every time my phone rings, Kaedyn comes running (or goes running if I'm not at my desk) ...  he is addicted to talking on the phone, even though ... he doesn't talk.   He will babble your ear off and push buttons until the phone goes dead... trust me, my mom has had to suffer through it many times.  He literally stands there and says (in baby babble) .. "Who is that?" ...  "Is that for me?" ... and he'll reach and babble as if saying "Give me the phone, geez woman, if you aren't going to answer it I will!"

• Monday Afternoon - During Nap Time: "Mom" Noah says to me.  "What?"  I'm reading a blog ... he's suppose to be cleaning his room.  Babies are sleeping.  It's ME time...  not MOM time...  who am I kidding, every minute is MOM time...  "My leg hurts" ...  "Okay," not stopping reading... "go lay down and take a nap, rest your let and when you get up you can finish you room." ...  he humph'ed me...   apparently he didn't like that answer ...  "No Momma my leg HURRRRRRTS" ... as if drawing it out makes it more believable..  I mean in his defense, his legs always hurt, it's part of him being him (tight heel cords, he will likely need to be casted)... but...  it's an excuse, at the moment.   "Well that's why a nap will do you good, you can lay down, nap or watch some TV, and when you get up, your legs will be rested, and you'll be able to finish your room" .... not being able to argue with that logic other then the generic "I CANNNNNNNNNNN'T" to which I reply "Yes you can, you can do anything" he stomps off to his room.  5 minutes later he's back at my side "Moooooooom, my room is done."  And it was, almost... LOL. 

• Monday Afternoon - During Naptime:  "Com'on you mother ****** ... I had it on auto-speed, you stupid son-of-a-b****" ...  er..... turns around and looks at my HUSBAND..... Seriously?  He's playing an x-box game.  Apparently it's a very poorly done game....  or at least my husband seems to think so.  This goes on for an hour or so, with the same type of ...  hostility emitting from his mouth...  I finally, after so long of hearing this, and seeing him almost throw the controller out of the corner of my eye.... I turn around and say "why are you playing it if it's pissing you off so much" ...  because he has obsessive compulsive disorder about the most useless things and it'll bug him until he figures it out.  He gets up and turns it off.  "It's not my fault the game is so stupid" ...  I looooooooook at him.   You know, that look only a wife can give a husband that screams "are you KIDDING me?" without actually screaming it.  And I said ... I quote:  "No but you are for continuing to play a game that pisses you off so much and makes you want to throw a controller" .... silence...  "right? It has an off button!"   HA!  Okay maybe it wasn't verbatim but it might as well been.   I love being right, as I am, so very often!   (BTW - I read this to him, and he threatened my life, said "if that shows up on the web anywhere, you are so going to die" ...  he didn't mean it of course, but incase I show up in a river somewhere - he does have Italian Mob connections in his very own family - you know why) ... 

• Why does my son insist on making MILK puddles?  Seriously??   He either shakes his cup or puts the soft spout against the (whatever he wants to flood) ... and proceeds to make a massive mess!  This morning - I got up .... my couch was COVERED ..... nice thing to wake up to and it didn't help the Mommy Morning Beast, especially since he kept us up all night ... his cup was upside down though, so I donno if it was really his .. playfulness that caused that.  Later he asked me for more milk so I got him some, and do you know what that little shit....... DARLING did???   He had emptied the WHOLE thing in a puddle on the floor infront of the TV.   Are you kidding me??  Then had the nerve to come back and ask me for more.   Okay, I can hear some of you saying "why don't you just switch him to hard cups?"  Well, it's simple.  He has a cleft palate which is now closed by only the membrane that is at the roof of your mouth, he still has classic cleft palate issues, difficulty sucking, fluid getting into (and coming out of) his nose... etc...  so soft spout cups are A: not easy to find, and B: about the only thing he'll drink out of - unless it's not spill proof.  And it can't have a valve in it, which means it comes out easy regardless (these soft spout cups we use) ...  So yeah, it's a pain.  I could give him a hard spill-proof cup and tell him tough, but he can't afford to lose the weight it would cause when we did the several day fight!  Humph..... what to do.  Oh yeah, and he is biting through the spouts now.  Oooooooooooh such good times.    It's a good thing he's cute and loveable!

• Monday before he went outside: Noah just "high-five'd" me with his head......... WTH???

• Monday: OMG ..... "Wisconsin" was on Ellen today.... during a blizzard warning down in LaCrosse apparently Channel 8 news had put the county map over Ellen's face and someone sent Ellen a picture.  LOL... (Click the link)
  

• Tuesday Morning:  Anyone want to come clean out our fridge?  Today is grocery shopping day and I don't really WANT to clean it out but it has to be done.... right?  (gag) ...  Fine, I guess I'll go do it since no one is volunteering ...  

• OOOOOOOOOOOMGosh..... Duff (my boy from Ace of Cakes) is desperate!   Okay maybe not but he's giong to be on an episode of Imagination Movers this Saturday looking for his secret ingredient! 

•  Dennis has had a bad lung infection for several weeks now (about a month) and he's on his second round of antibotics, it's not helping, it's getting worse...  I want him to go back in, he doesn't want to go back into urgent care or the ER and can't get into the DR until the 18th.  UGH!  Not to mention one of my best friends is skipping out on a DR appt today that she needs to go to, I understand why she's not, but she's got to go.  :(    UGH!    And my lungs are starting to hurt something fierce, which isn't good.  I can't afford to get sick.   But I already am :(
  

• I'm reading THE HOBBIT by J. R. R. Tolkien right now, and I don't know how I'm going to get 100 books read in a year unless I count some of the kids books I read to the kids that we haven't read before.   So I might have to.
  

Pity, is 100% Curable ...

 Over on my other blog:  My Unique Flowers  ... I wrote a post today that I would love to share with all of you that read this blog and not the other one.  It's important to me..  because I feel so strongly about the fact that "disabled" kids, even though they may have some extra challenges, they teach us so much... they are such blessings in our lives.  If you never go over there again to read about the medical updates on the kids, the issues, the just general health discussion that I put over there to keep it separate from here...  I would appreciate it, if you just went over there to read this one...

My world changed forever, for the better (and worse) ... in 2001. I was pregnant, and one of the only reasons I was staying in my marriage, at that time, was because of that. The changing forever, for the better, would be the baby ... and we're going to focus on that.

I remember the day I found out I was pregnant, I was certain I wasn't. CERTAIN. After 5 years of infertility and miscarriages, there was no way. But Sara (my DR's Assistant at the time) .. came in and said "Congrats, you are PREGNANT!" After asking her if she was serious, I broke down into rivers of tears. It was the worst possible moment I could have heard the news, my marriage was basically shattered. From that point, all I wanted was to see that baby's heartbeat, and to feel some sort of confirmation this wasn't going to be yet another miscarriage. That day came, and I saw his little fetal pole and the heart flickering away, strong as could be. This was it... he was going to stick...

With every ultrasound, my due date would get moved back... a few days... a week.. I was due March 17th, the ultrasound where we saw his heartbeat, they determined I was due March 22 ... If I was due March 22nd, I wouldn't have found out I was pregnant when I did, because I found out a week and a half after he was conceived. The following ultrasound, the due date based on size was much further off then that. So I took the triple screen, which lead to a chance of the baby having Downs AND Spina Bifida.. which lead to an amnio... which lead to me sitting in one of the exam rooms, with my ex-husband, my 5 year old son, and my mom .... when my DR came in and announced.....

........ Your child has something called {Mosaic Trisomy 16} ... he went on to explain it and it feel on deaf ears, I was in shock... I heard "rare genetic disorder" and "happens much in the same way that Downs does" .... and I was numb. Until I heard "Oh and by the way, it's a boy" ....

.... Pity might have been in that room, at that time, but it's hard to tell....  My DR is an awesome guy.  He never let me doubt that that baby would be born..... alive.  However, when I left the room, to numb to even cry ... there were some glances from others, I barely caught them in my tunnel of silence... but they were there... She's been fighting for another baby for so long, now THIS happens...... I could practically hear their thoughts.

What was THIS?  ... a child who would be born with some issues?  Issues I couldn't even be TOLD about because the condition is so rare?   That didn't make him any less special... that didn't make him any less wanted... it didn't make him any less LOVED!

When I got home, I dove into the internet.  Trying to find any sort of information, a light at the end of the tunnel, but I found nothing.  Not until I happened upon the website of the Disorders of Chromosome 16 Foundation.  THERE I found {HOPE} ..  not pity.  I even spoke to the president of the foundation, a woman who's child - with the same condition as mine - was the same age as my oldest son.  She sent me {HOPE} in the mail.  Along with a ton of medical documents, she send me a small, brown, kneeling and praying, TY Beanie Bear, named Hope.  I vowed that bear would be next to the baby the moment he was born.  As soon as I could get it there, it would never leave his side.  (Story is continued... )

Noah with Hope on 2-4-02

If you want to read the rest, PLEASE PLEASE go visit my other blog ...

Today, my "niece" (aka, one of my best friends little girls) turns 8 years old.  Jenna and I were due the same time, met via the "March 2002" pregnancy board, and later bonded because we both had preemies.  I knew about Noah's issues long before she even thought there was an incline of a possibility her daughter might be born early.  So I just wanted to send out a little special "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" to her :)   I hope she's having a great day, we wish we could be there.   In a few weeks, it's Noah's turn!

Interview with my Boys........

 So here is an interview I swiped, it's set up to interview your kids....... well, I included the big kid too! LOL

Calahan - age 14
Noah - age 7 (almost 8)
Daddy - age older them me (heehee)

What is something mom always says to you?

Cal:  Knock it off

Noah: "I don't know" ...(after Cal's answer)  "Yeah, Knock it off"

In my defense, they bicker......... A LOT!

Daddy:  PLEH!!

What makes mom happy?

Cal: Us being Good...

Noah: Sharing, playing with the babies (I hate that part) ...

Daddy:  Candles, Jewelry, Food on the Table... your kids... David Cook

What makes mom sad?

Cal: Us misbehaving
Noah: ahhh... hurting the babies, and fighting

Daddy:  me going to work, cuz you miss me

How does your mom make you laugh?

Cal: saying "don't smile" or "don't laugh" repeatedly when we are being grouchy

Noah:  putting on funny shows, like funny cats on youdtube (yes he puts the D in there)

Daddy: Send me dirty text messages...  (ROFLMBO!)

What was your mom like as a child?

Cal: I don't know, probably funny

Noah:  I'll say HAPPY

Daddy:  Probably a pain in the butt

How old is your mom?

Cal: I don't know (how old do you think I am) 30

Noah:  I don't know (guess) 100?

Daddy:  33, duh 

How tall is your mom?

Cal: 5 foot something, shorter them me (smart ass)

Noah:  100345600300100556 (he said it like this "one zero zero three four five six-hundred, three-hundred, don't forget one-hundred, fifty five six..."  Yeah, he's about right)

Daddy:  5'3"

What is her favorite thing to do?

Cal: Play SIMS, Blogging

Noah: Play on the computer, taking pictures, love on us, talking to her mom on the phone, making me read, helping the babies, teasing Dennis, going to the grocery store, and most importantly, giving us presents!
Daddy:  Blog

What does your mom do when you're not around?

Cal: I don't know (so you can't guess) No (he's being difficult now, thinking this is soooooo stupid) ... 

Noah:  we fight, and we take candy, or at least Calahan does... (Noah - it's what does MOM do when YOU aren't around, not what do YOU do when MOM isn't) I don't know, we've not been around, oh you play on your computer?

Daddy:  Blog

If your mom is on TV for something, what will it be for?

Cal: ah... being a good author..

Noah:  ahh.. I don't know  (well, think about it) ... I don't know there is nothing in my mind ...  (after Cal gave his answer)  YEAH!  THAT!

 Daddy:  Blogging ... no you eventually published a book and they are doing an interview with you, now get working on THAT

What is your mom really good at?

Cal: Writing.

Noah:  Playing games on the computer

Daddy:  Blogging, Writing, avoiding household chores, spending too much money

What is your mom not very good at?

Cal: {crickets} (smart boy)

Noah: playing games on gamecube, xbox, playstation and DS (ha ha)

Daddy:  See that's tough cuz when you do something you are good at it, I guess I'd say time-management, cuz you don't seem to have time to do anything but blog and take care of the monsters (ha ha ha)  - course the monsters are awful demanding

What is your mom's favorite food?

Cal:  Spaghetti & Pepperoni

Noah: Apples (ah, I'm allergic to apples, have you ever seen me eat apples?) ... um.. when I was a baby yes, er.. no...  (so what is my favorite food?)  ... I don't know  (what do I make a lot of?) ... popcorn ... (for YOU) ..  can I have popcorn???  (ugh) ...

Daddy:  Whatever I make!  ... later, Salad (damn, I need to change my eating habits if THAT is my favorite food)

What makes you proud of your mom?

Cal: Um.... ah... hummm... being my mom?

Noah: when you say yes I can play the x-box

Daddy:  Your writing ability when you do it...  (ouch!)

If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

Cal: Velma, except without the glasses

Noah:  She'd be Bedtime Bear (Carebear)

Daddy:  Minnie Mouse (that makes him Mickey!)

What do you and your mom do together?

Cal: .Take care of the babies, play games

Noah: play games, read

Daddy:  Sleep, take care of the kids, shop for the kids... 

How are you and your mom the same?

Cal: .we both make the babies laugh (this is what he's doing right now)

Noah: . same hair color

Daddy:  we are both hopelessly tethered to our computers

How are you and your mom different?

Cal: .ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh... I'm tall

Noah: I'm little she's tall, I'm almost as small as a mouse, oh wait, when I was a baby I WAS as small as a mouse

Daddy:  I'm always running you are always at home

How do you know your mom loves you?

Cal: .she tells me all the time

Noah:  she really loves me, and cares about me (but how do you know?) cuz you are my momma and you are suppost to

Daddy:  Cuz you tell me repeatedly, cuz you send me obscene text messages, cuz you don't yell out David Cook in your sleep

Where is your mom's favorite place to go?

Cal: .Olive Garden

Noah: Walmart

Daddy:  Walmart

What does your mom do for a job?

Cal: .doesn't have one, but she writes ... (never mind that I homeschool and take care of them... sheesh)

Noah:  To homeschool us..... duh

Daddy:  Stay-at-home Mom

I blatantly stole these questions from KYS at Stir-Fry Awesomeness who shamefully stole it from Big Sis at Speaking of Witch.

TGIF ........ That Great Infuriating Feeling...

That's right...... it's not TGIF = Thank God It's Friday, oh no...  here in this house, it's TGIF = That Great Infuriating Feeling!!

Hey... I thought it was cleaver!  

Anyway ...  I spent the better part of my day re-vamping the Medical Blog ... ya know, the blog that I keep for the boys Medical updates and other updates on them.  It's called:  My Unique Flowers ...  I share here, I share there, I share yonder over there....... there's a great big, blogville, out there.......  

It went from looking like crap ..... to ...

I think it looks a lot better.  Maybe people will actually want to read it!  ROFLMBO!!!!!!!!!!  Then again, maybe not....

I had to save all my links, buttons, description stuff that I worked so hard on ..  list of blogs, this and that and everything else... Then I made it a three column, made it all cute...  and added everything back....... gah!  What a chore!  But it was a lot easier then losing everything like I did on this blog when I re-vamped it!


And a big thanks to  ...  ...  for having such CUTE free backgrounds and headers!  Both my set up on this one and the Unique Flowers blog are from there :D  I'm fixing to change this one soon though, which will be easy breezy now that I have it all set up like I want.

So Kaedyn got STUCK today ...... {STUCK} ... that's Nathan's favorite word at the moment!!  His speech is FINALLY picking up, his new word of the week is BOOK and he actually said "CAL" ... he *tries* to say "Bubby" too...  which is what we call Kaedyn most of the time.  Anyway ... back to Kaedyn being stuck! LOL...   I have YET  to take down my Christmas tree.  Usually I have it down before Cal's birthday but not this year.   My  oh'so'happy  attitude I had upon finding out Dennis go back into where he REALLY wanted to work, flew out of me like a deflated balloon when he was told he didn't have to come back.  (Personality conflict with the TL or they hired to many people, we don't know) ...  That and I've been really tired and we just don't know what to do, where to go, our life is basically up in the air again, and I hate that feeling.   So emotional and physically tired, I haven't done the tree, I haven't carefully packed away our precious ornaments or kicked the stupid skinny tree downstairs yet.  It's still one of those {Major Attraction} for little eyes and little fingers ...   So Kaedyn has not-so-happily fallen off the edge of the chair arm, into the tree, twice today .. maybe 3 times.  LOL... and he got STUCK back there..... he decided to not get my attention and squall at me and instead proceeded to try to squeeze his budda belly through the tiny space between the couch and the chair.  Then, and only then, being unable to move forward, or back... did he decide to yell at me to stop reading blogs and come help him.  Heehee...  So I walked over there, assessed the situation, snorted a giggle, and walked over to my desk to get my camera.  He was NOT impressed with the fact that I dared to walk away from him so that I could totally Mamarazzi the moment!

Then he decided he had ENOUGH Mamarazzi and yelled at me to stop...  so I did...

Teehee...  he was quite grateful for the release of the evil couch and chair, and the cuddles that followed... 

And he was making these crazy faces after lunch when I was carrying him to his crib for his afternoon nap.  He was scrunching up his nose and just chattering away and I was cracking up.  Of course when I turned him to show Dennis he totally stopped.  Trying to make me look like a liar the little gremlin.  LOL..   BTW, he weighed a whopping 25 lbs, almost 26 at the DR's the other day when we were dealing with his eczema stuff ... (you can check out the other blog if you want to read about that) ... 

So I changed him and put him in his crib that is on the absolute bottom peg, gonna have to start thinking about changing it into a toddler bed here soon... and told Nathan, who was at the piano, that it was time to tell Bubby ni-night and let's go... so he got off the piano bench and ran over to his bed, got in and looked at us.  HA HA .. lil stinker!  He doesn't nap in the room because if we laid them both down, most likely, neither of them would ever get any sleep.  Nathan usually sleeps on the couch in his nappy spot he's had since he was a baby and that's where he falls asleep at night too, watching a movie... it just seems to work best for him.  All the other kids have always gone to bed very well, but not Nathan, and I just got to the point where it was a matter of sleep & sanity or going insane.  Sanity won.   It works, so we're not messing with it.  Anyway ... so Dennis threw him his blanket which we had picked up off the floor and told him goodnight then, and he flew out of that bed with that blanket and out the door faster then ... well, faster then he usually moves and he's a quick little thing. 

He's just been goofy all day... he was running a bit of a temp this morning and acting like he wasn't feeling well, so he stayed in his PJ's ...  but as for being goofy ....

He thinks THIS is funny

That is one of Kaedyn's paci's! LOL - I love how it still just covers his face, it just goes to show how tiny he really is.  He will, every once in awhile - find one - put it in his mouth and run around with it for awhile because that's how he sees Kaedyn all the time.  Nathan was never a big paci baby... so, yeah, he just thinks it's funny. 

Kaedyn on the other hand, his shirt discriminated him to a T today .......

Daddy said it should have been more like "Wile Hair 1" LOL...  And I finally got a picture of Kaedyn with his Panda that Nanny has been waiting and waiting for....

That's pretty much it for now, I just finished up the other blog a little while ago, and started writing this... I have to go scrounge up something to eat since it's pretty much fend for yourself adult night.  (The kids had some pizza) ...   my hands smell like menthol from rubbing Kaedyn down with his lotion, oh such a lovely smell ... did I mention I have a headache?  ...  he's in bed, Nathan's going to bed sleeping soon since he didn't have a nap today.  Then I am debating about reading, or watching a movie with the hubster.  It's a toss up.  Maybe I'll just catch up on some more blogs! LOL... 

Babies Misbehaving!

Oh yes yes they do....... the two of them have discovered the joy of {teamwork} and the art of {distraction}....  See... Nathan will bring me a book and have me read while, say... Kaedyn is climbing the changing table and dancing on the dresser ...

Or...... like Kaedyn needing his bottom changed so while I'm in the nursery doing that, Nathan takes the opportunity to hammer all his crackers!

And who taught him to do this???

And how can you be mad at this soda stealing pringles eating little demon?

 He looks just like me, I can't be mad!

Why do Men Behave Badly???  Well, because they are too cute to discipline when they are babies... and it's the only entertainment their Momma has!

The Bachelor - Jake - Episode 1

This years Bachelor is Jake Pavelka.  The stand-up-guy who was broken hearted by Jillian when she let him go during the Bachelorette and returned to let her know what a tool Wes was (who I happened to like the first couple episodes, but then I wised up) ... I really liked Jake too from the very first episode but I didn't think they were a true match (him and Jillian) ... apparently I wasn't the only one...  and Ed was on my list of guys I liked, but never at the top of the list until he came back to the show and begged her to give him a second chance, it was then, that I really liked Ed.  Anyway ...... this isn't about Jillian... this is about Jake.  Jake, the hot pilot from Texas, has returned to show us his rock hard body heart of gold.  I watched the first half of the season premiere yesterday, and the second half tonight, then went on the website to swipe some pictures, and saw there was a commentary for the first half of the show from Jillian and Ed and I totally had to watch it!  So I'll be sharing pictures from the episode with some of their comments! HA!  Treat!

BTW ... Jillian and Ed totally made guest appearances ...

So the show starts out with Jake talking about his time on the Bachelorette, and then how he's 31 and ready for marriage and a family and to make people sick like his parents because after 30 + years they still hold hands in the grocery store.  That's the kind of love that he wants.

We get a peak at some of the girls prior to coming to the show...but I'll leave all my impressions of them for when I go through them.  However, here are some of Ed and Jillian's thoughts from the pre-interviews!  LOL..

About Vienna (it's small, it says "Ed: If she kisses Jake like she kisses that dog, Jake is in for a real treat!")

About Ella

Jake was the first Bachelor that I've ever seen show up on a motorcycle to the first night.  LOL...

So now onto the ladies....... (some of Jillian's & Ed's thoughts are below mine...)

Rozlyn - 28 - Model/Make-Up Artist - Richmond, VA
"My name means 'Little Rose' just incase you need a hint" {wink}{wink} ... ah.. yeah, then she followed it up with "Fasten your seat belt, it's going to be a bumpy ride"  ... humm, seriously?

Emily - 23 - Fit Model - West Chester, OH 
.... my only thought on her was she was pretty ...  and sweet, but she didn't pack all that much of an impression

Ali - 25 - Advertising Account Manager - Williamstown, MA   **So far she's my favorite**
She had lost her voice but brought a Peacock feather - she asked him if he knew what Peacocks used their feathers for and .. the answer ... to attract a mate.   I thought she was really cute in her yellow dress and Jake found her and pulled her away first .. she stepped on her dress and ripped it a bit - oops! - She's also afraid of flying which will pose an interesting challenge later on, however, in the preview for the season I did see that Jake got her in a plane (I'm not sure if it was off the ground or not) ...

Jessie - 25 - Cosmetic Sales Manager - Oakville, Ontario 
Seems very nervous, she said "do you have a registry for these guns" ... I actually watched it a couple times just to make sure...  LOL...  Hon, isn't it suppose to be be "registration" or "permit" ... registry?  Seriously?  As she walked to the house she shot this smile over her shoulder and it instantly turned to a grimace once she started turning back which made it look fake, but I'm sure it was just nerves.


Tenley - 25 - College Admissions (Dancer) - Newberg, OR 
She opened up in her pre-interview about how she saved herself for marriage and the only man she'd been with was her husband.  Now they are divorced.  I really thought she was cute.  She got the {FIRST KISS} and the {FIRST IMPRESSION ROSE} ...  She actually asked Jake for a "quick peck" just to see if they had any chemistry.


Ella - 29 - Hair Stylist - LaFollette, TN 
She has a son, Ethan, who is 7 years old.  She has a very sweet southern accent.  She seems really sweet but then goes a little "he's MINE" crazy  before even meeting him.  And when she got out of the limo and walked up to him, she totally put her finger up to his chest and said "you have a little something right there" and he looks down...  she brought her finger up to his nose and announced "gotcha!"  Seriously?!?!

You're NOT his MAMA woman!  So she tells him about her son, and how he wants to be a pilot when he grows up (convenient huh?) then she gave him her son's favorite plane and I think Ed says it best...

Especially when he doesn't get it back!  Man I hope he gets it back....Anyway, when Jake talked to Jillian and Ed, he asked them who they liked, Ella was Jillian's pick for her favorite.

Kathryn - 25 - Corporate Flight Attendant - Lexington, KY
She showed up in this poofy purple dress.  She's still cute .. but...  poofy purple dress???   She also has a "pretend" fiance and a "pretend" engagement ring which Jake asks her about it and she says that she's been pretending to be engaged and blah blah for so long that now she wants the real thing and hands Jake the ring.  Hummmmm...   Jillian, after her and Ed interviewed the girls and were later sitting down with Jake, said she liked her.

Caitlyn - 24 - Spokesmodel - Winfield, IL
(ahhhhh I apparently had no thoughts on her)


Elizabeth - 29 - Captain in Aire National Guard - Washington DC
She asked him, first off, if he liked to be called Jake or Jacob and he said he'd answer to both but most everyone calls him "Jake" ...  so then she pulls out this coin and says "I'll make it easy for you, heads I stay and get a rose, tails you send me home, ready?"  he says "sure" so she flips it and tells him to open his hand... then tells him to keep the coin and walks inside.  It was a 2 headed coin.   I don't think Jake was real impressed with that! LOL

Alexa - 25 - Entrepreneur - Galloway, OH
... my only note ...  "looks stripperish"   apparently I thought highly of her...

Vienna - 23 - Marketing Representative - Sanford, FL
Pre-interview she starts to boast about how "intelligent" she is and then proceeds to prance around in a bikini and flips upside down and does a walking handstand...  cuz that SCREAMS intelligent...  really, it does...  She has a dog named Chloe that is her love, they have "Mommy Daughter dates!" and she's a self proclaimed "I've wrecked 5 cars and my Daddy always buys me a new one" bad driver.  She gets out of the limo and proceeds to feel Jake up, and then when they are alone later in the night, she asks him to kiss a bump on her leg that she got from a softball when she was knee high ... and he does.

Corrie - 23 - Wardrobe Consultant - Kissimmee, FL
(again, no real impression of her, I have nothing written down)  .. oh but I do remember that she went up to Jake and said "how do you like Kissimmee?" and he loooooooooked at her, and she giggled and said "Kissimmee Florida cuz that's where we are going on our hometown date!" ..... I'm seriously thinking that some women are not creative at all...  that's as bad as any male pick-up-line..

Kimberly - 24 - NBA Dancer - Norman, OK
(looks at finger nails...  I promise, I was paying attention ...  {sings} NO IMPRESSION)

Valishia - 32 - Homemaker - Carlsbad, CA
(insert The Real Housewives of Orange County theme song here) ...   she was in a pretty red dress I think... she got out of the limo and went up to him, asked for his hand.. said she had been in Texas visiting family and she brought him back something...  she dumps some soil in his head and says that's it's "common ground" that they have ... and that "the best things in life are free" ...  I just get this feeling that the whole "free" statement isn't always true with her... 


Gia - 26 - Swimsuit Model - New York, NY 
(looks around innocently ... {whispers} no impression)

Elizabeth - 29 - Nanny - Imperial, NE
She came up to Jake and asked him to close his eyes, take a deep breath, and picture his favorite place to be ...  and he said, all excited, "Right here right now," and she got this disappointed look on her face and said "Oh mine is skiing!" ...... ahhhhh AWKWARD!  LOL... but later in the night she pulled out a football and started a game with Jake,

and then the other girls joined in.  It was kinda funny because at one point all the girls started to chase after Jake and it totally reminded me of the movie The Bachelor where a thousand brides were chasing Chris O'Donnell's character ...  and I said "OMGosh, that so reminds me of The Bachelor, oh wait - it IS The Bachelor!"

And when it came down to it, Elizabeth was Ed's pick for his favorite after his and Jillian's interviews that night.

Channy - 29 - Mortgage Loan Officer - Santa Rosa, CA
She got out of the limo and spoke to him in Cambodian, then she told him he could find out what that means later.

Later when Jake and her were talking, she said it again, and said it was Cambodian for "Jake, you can land your plane on my landing strip any time" .... er... [gag] .. k ...  all the girls were in the house talking about her while she was out there and how that was in reference to a Brazilian wax.

Ashley - 29 - Teacher - Pitsburg, PA
She had a pre-interview where she was pulling out dress after dress out of this box saying her Mom kept sending her clothes because she was living off a Teachers salary ... so her Mom kept sending her stuff.   Then she pulls out this tiny bikini top and makes the comment that her Mom must really want to get her married off to Jake.  I'm hoping all those clothes don't go to waste for her... lol!  When she gets out of the limo she has this thing in her hand, a pie chart on a stick, and she tells him that her Momma, or was it friends, tells her all the time how she has a broken "Picker" and Jake says "I hear that all the time too" ... well she just keeps going with her speech and says that means that she just doesn't pick the right guys.  So she put this "Picker-Stick" together for them... and he was suppose to spin it and wherever it landed was their destiny.  I don't remember what all the pictures were but it landed on Jake giving her a rose.

Then later that night she decided she was going to get her one on one time with Jake, and she went upstairs and changed into this blue stewardess outfit.   Then she went down, through the catty girls, who all made comments about her changing and how they didn't get "the memo" ... and went to find Jake.  She announced that his ... I think she said "Co-Pilot" had arrived.  LOL, he was all impressed.  I thought it was a little desperate but when you are trying to stand out and be remembered, I guess it's a good idea.  LOL

Tiana - 31 - Medical Technician - Vancouver, BC
She says that while her and her friends were watching the beginning of Jillian's show, that when Jake got out of the limo, she said "That is my future husband, he just doesn't know it yet" 

Christina - 25 - Restaurant Manager - San Diego, CA
In her pre-interview she said "I'm a self-proclaimed bitch"  ... when she got out of the limo she had a basket of jelly-beans.  Jake made the comment that she must really like jelly beans ... she explained to him that they were a parting gift for the girls.  Then she goes inside and says "I brought you all a little gift" and all the girls go "awwwwwwww" she's scoring points.... and then, she adds "but they are a parting gift for when you are going out the door because Jake is going to pick me" ....... Some of the girls put them back in the basket, one girl said "they are probably laced with laxatives" lololol ... she's handing them out and a girl said "I thought we got them on our way out" and Christina told her "Oh I'm just banking on ya'll leaving early" .. then we hear "Oh I'm not leaving"

... and then she kept saying how she was there to "WIN" ...  "I'm here to win!" ...  ah, yeah, she's not there for the right reasons at all, I don't think.  And THEN on top of all that craziness, she had Jake lay down on the floor lift up his feet, where she got on his feet and played "airplane" like a little kid with their Dad, where they are flying on their Daddy's feet............ SERIOUSLY!?!?!!

Ashleigh - 25 - Account Manager - North Potomac, MD
She got into the limo and literally tripped in her dress and fell into his arms.  "Thanks for catching me" she laughed.  Was it on purpose?  LOL

Kristen - 25 - Waitress - Aurora, CO
(not real impression of her)

Steaphanie - 24 - Dance Teacher - Morris, IL
she didn't make a very good impression with Jillian - she had come out of the limo and said something about how when Jillian had let Jake go she said that she was stupid and wanted to slap her...

I think she is the one that asked Jake for the first dance because she is a dance teacher, and they did ... she complimented him on his dancing.


Sheila - 25 - Commercial Pilot - San Juan Capistrano, CA
She got out of the limo, at night, with sunglasses on.  Sunglasses!  Seriously?  I'm thinking she got beat up or something.  But no, she said that since they had the pilot thing in common, she had brought him this pair of "I'm so expensive aviator glasses that cost me oh so much so you better give me a rose" glasses.  Yeah....

Last but not least, out pop'd Michelle....... crazy crazy emotional Michelle...


Michelle - 25 - Office Manager - Anahiem, CA
"Maybe a little crazy" ... seriously - that is the FIRST thing I wrote down!  And that was just for the brief pre-interview blurb! ...  Then I wrote:  Seems so attached already in the interview.  Then she comes out of the limo and does this.....

Yes that's right, arms out .. air-planing ... to Jake.  Is she five??????  Seriously???

Then as the night goes on she gets all emotional because he's not coming to get her to spend one on one time with her, so she goes off into the bathroom to cry.  She is completely obsessed and jealous of the time he's spending with the other girls. When she comes out - she decides she's going to find him. Then during her "interview" with Jillian and Ed, she goes on and on about how she wasn't getting her one on one time and how she had to wait.  When it came down to it, when Jake was asking Jillian and Ed who they thought wasn't right for him, they both thought of Michelle, and he seemed to get a little defensive or upset at that but kept his composure.  But he wanted them to be honest.  They just said she might be a great girl but she was awful emotional already.

****************************

All the flying references were horrible through the night.  I mean, seriously horrible.  Too many of them went that route.

In the end, Jake had to get rid of 10 girls.   So these are the girls he kept, in the order he kept them.

1: Tenley {First Impression Rose}
2: Ella {Jillian's Pick}
3: Elizabeth {Ed's Pick}
4: Ali {my Pick}
5: Vienna [the "intelligent" dog lover]
6: Christina [the jelly bean offerer]
7: Gia [no impression]
8: Ashley [broken picker-stewardess outfit wearer]
9: Rozlyn [little rose]
10: Jessie [registry for these guns]
11: Corrie [Kissimmee]
12: Valishia [Texas soil]
13: Ashleigh [trips over her own feet]
14: Kathryn [poofy purple dress pretender]
15: Michelle [crazy emotional jealous one]

They are of course doing the Rose Game on the ABC.com website.