Standing on her own!!!!

I think I can make it official. Lily can stand on her own. She has been attempting it for a few days and today I am going to call it official. She is definately my child because she doesn't do it the normal way of holding on to the furniture and then letting go, she does it the hard way...from a sit! She will pull herself from a sit to a full stand very slowly and then wobble there for about 20 seconds before she lowers herself back down. she must have some incredibly strong thighs because the way she does it, I would have a hard time trying that. She does it in the middle of the floor or the middle of the grass and doesn't even hold on to anything. It is great, I can't wait to get it on video.

I'm in print!!!

I am so excited! Last fall I was interviewed by a journalist for the Wall street journal who was doing an article on ebay express. She never called for the last interview so I thought maybe she had just scrapped the article. Well, on Friday I get a call from another journalist wanting to interview me about ebay sales again. I accepted and we set up a phone interview and during the talk he told me that he had found me because he saw my name in another article. Hmmmmm....so, I googled 'Shelley Wall street journal addicted rockabilly' and sure as shit, there I am!
here is a link to the article
It was published back in December in the StartUpJournal, the Wall Street Journal's center for Entreprenuers.
I am so excited! The interview I did today was for a twice yearly ebay publication. I feel so much more accomplished. I feel so much more important that someone called to interview me. It kinda justifies all the hours that I spend on ebay, kinda makes me feel like a real professional.

Life is never that easy

Last week we were so excited about Ross's new job and looking forward to our life as real adults. The week we are depressed. It turns out that Ross may not get the job after all. He had even gone to work one day too before they pulled the plug! There is still a chance, but we won't find out until Monday.
But anyway, on a lighter note. This video is of Lily practing walking. I have to hold this thing for her to keep it from going too fast. It goes so fast that she can't keep up and then she just sits down, but if I hold it she can take a few steps. She was walking all over but it took Ross so long to get to a pause point in his video game to film us that she had gotten tired.

Here is a video of her riding on the same toy. I think she is supposed to be a little older to ride it but she seems to do just fine. She can't get on it by herself but she can get off without falling. She can only go backwards on her own but if I push her she hangs on.

Insurance & Taxes

I really wish I understood more about politics. I would love to get involved because I feel so helpless and I want to be a part of the solution. But things are so complex that it is difficult to decide where the stand needs to be made.
I just got a letter from my insurance company basically stating that unless Ross or I join the military we would have to get a different insurance company if we ever decide to move. It explains it in a way that makes sense of the business side so I can't fault them for making this decision not to write new policies for Florida. I also understand the legislation's stand in keeping companies from raising rates to Floridians. However, I also feel that if Florida puts restrictions on companies than all that will happen is companies will do exactly what has been happening, and will just quit serving Florida altogether. Which in turn leaves Florida homeowners still screwed anyway. So, what now? It just seems like when it is election day all this talk of keeping the insurance rates from rising sounds great and everyone is all for it, but there isn't much of a thought to the future. I am glad that I can keep my policy for now, and it is nice that my rates aren't going to hike, but I don't plan to stay in this house forever. We'd like to have another kid and hopefully a bigger house someday, but now it isn't just the cost of property that will slow us from that dream, it is insurance too.
Next issue. Last night I did our taxes. (I am not usually a late taxes person, but O'Malley's took their sweet time getting me my W-2.....it arrived on FRIDAY!!) and I realized that we paid more out in Social Security taxes than we did in Federal taxes. I don' t know how it is for the rest of the world because most of our income is in cash, but I find this very strange. And disheartening because I know I will never see a dime of that. I think it is great that my dad and my aunts will be able to collect some of it, but they paid into it their whole lives too. My generation has really dropped the ball on this one. We are a generation of NOW and it is going to really hurt us in the future. My generation needs to stand up and be counted. Instead, we don't vote, we don't get active and in result have allowed for the current government to refuse to look at this issue. No one in government is going to do anything about it unless it matters come election time. It just seems like my contemporaries have just accepted the fact that we can't depend on it and are planning other ways to support ourselves rather than forcing someone to address this problem. My generation is contributing to retirement savings, 401ks and IRA at a higher rate than those ahead of us, which is great, but sad. Last year I contributed 30% of my salary to IRAs because I am so scared of what the future will hold and since I know that I cannot count on ever seeing that money that I am paying out for social security. I think many of my contemporaries see it as a tax and that isn't what it is! It is supposed to be OUR retirement!
sorry....rant over.

Killing some time while my website loads up

I am beat-down tired, but I can't go to be yet until my website loads. I found a new photo editing software that I absolutely love and it doesn't cost a million dollars so I have been up-dating all my photos.
The other day Daddy sent Lily a new toy. She was so excited about it that she skipped her nap. She first played with the box for about an hour while I tried to fiqure out how to put the damn thing together.
She loves it though. She is supposed to push it around in order to learn to walk but she pushes it and when it starts to move she sits down (she is so smart! only took a hundred head bruises to figure out how to protect herself!) She isn't quite to the stage of wanting to put one foot in front of the other yet. Which is perfectly ok with me. She has learned some new neat crawling tricks though. She will carry things like her socks or a small toy in her mouth while she crawls (Zelda taught her that) and she will push things around too. She likes to pull the pillows off the couch and then slide them down the hall. I have been working on teaching her how to go down the step backwards and she will actually do it once I pick her up and turn her around. She has only fallen off of it once, but I am sure that it will happen again soon.

Yep, she is still making "the face"

You have to watch every second

Lily was playing with the tupperware today and since she was playing so nicely on the floor in front of the cabinet I thought maybe I had a second to check my email using my laptop. Well, things got very quiet, no more banging lids on the floor, so I looked over and Lily was gone. I FREAKED! I instantly checked to see if the door to the studio (not childproof and has a concrete step) was closed, it was, and I was standing at the other entrance to the kitchen. ?????? Guess where Lily went?

First Baseball game and First Easter

Friday night we took Lily to the Marlin's home opener. She was so wonderful. She played around hitting the tires of the jeep while we tailgated and blew kisses to the ladies who sat behind us during the game. She even clapped when the Marlins scored! She clapped when the Phillies scored too so we have to work on that. Ned got us some really great seats right off of home plate where we watched the first half of the game, but then Lily got antsy and since we were also given seats to the Bub beach we moved down there for the 2nd half. The Bud beach is awesome because you are literally on the field, but the view of the game was better in the box seats. In the Bud section there are hot tubs and free appetizers so I put my feet in the hot tub and let the jets give me a foot massage while I pigged out on chicken fingers while Christina played with Lily. That is the life right?

We stayed for the whole game so when Lily fell asleep in the car on the way home at eleven we put her straight in the bed and she slept in her Marlins jersey.

On Easter we played in the yard with Easter eggs, I don't know if I would call it an Easter egg hunt, but she wore her bonnet at least!! We didn't go to church even though I had planned too because she slept all morning. oh well, maybe next year.

Happy Easter

Lily has spent her entire Easter so far sleeping. She must be in a growth spurt or something because last night she fell asleep on the babysitter's shoulder before even having her last bottle of the day and then this morning was only awake for an hour and a half and then now is 3 hours into her morning nap! I am going to go wake her up after I post this because it is starting to scare me. Last night Ross and I went to his boss's wedding and we had so much fun! We rarely get a chance to go out toghether and last night was perfect. A limo drove us down to Miami and back and the food was delicious. There were so many folks there and we knew just about everyone so we did lots of socializing and even a little dancing....yes Ross danced!