We are still busy....

It was pointed out to me Friday night that I hadn't blogged since October 9th. Thought I should do some updating. Lots has happened since I last blogged. Miss K got croup and ended up getting a ride from the doctor office in an ambulance to the ER. Because her breathing was still bad, we got to spend the night at Vandy. She finally got over the croup, but was still a little sick. Then Brian and I both got sick. (I finally went to the Minute Clinic at CVS today to get some meds because I was STILL sick.) Let's see...since I've blogged we've done the following:

*rode in an ambulance

*spent the day in the ER

*spent the night on the hospital

*got sick

*had a garage sale (we made $300!)

*went to a Halloween party at CEC

*went to the Bounce Factory

*made a black and orange tutu for Miss K

*made invitations for a baby shower

*lost my cell phone

*went to another Halloween party

*went to school a couple of days

*found my cell phone

*went to a sing along at Pottery Barn Kids

*shopped Gymboree

*took a garland class from Julie

*went to a pumpkin carving party at a friend's house

*shopped Gymboree...again, with a trip to Costco thrown in

*went to a Halloween parade and cook out in our neighborhood

*uploaded a ton of photos

I know I've missed a ton of things, but needless to say, we have been busy here. I leave you with a photo of Miss K in her Halloween costume. It's called Sweet Pumpkin Pie. I got it from Gymboree. I love this costume.

Blog ya later!

I've been busy!

I think I got bit by the "busy" bug recently. Monday I dropped Miss K off at school and headed home to clean. The only thing I really got done was a quick trip to Target and cleaning my upstairs hallway carpet. Let me first say...I have 4 animals. Two cats, two dogs. I need to vacuum everyday, but I don't. I need to do my floors everyday, but I don't. So, my first step in cleaning the carpet was to vacuum. I won't admit to how many times I had to empty the cannister. I do think though, that the Hoover is about to bite the dust. I really want a Dyson Animal, but we can not afford to spend $500 on a new vacuum right now. (I started an envelop to save for it. ) Then the steam cleaning. I am glad that we decided to buy that thing instead of renting one the first time we needed on. Best $350 we ever spent. (Bought it 5 years ago when we had money and no child.) Anyway, my mom watched our dogs while we were out of town and let's just say....she didn't watch them closely and didn't clean up. So, did a LOT of spot cleaning and steam cleaning and more vacuuming.... I think we are going to have to get new carpet pretty soon. But remember...no money for new vacuum, so no money for new carpet. Pick Miss K up from school at 1, bring her home and put her straight down for a nap. Then I started cleaning the stairs. My stairs are hardwood and they show everything. So, I took water and Pine o' Pine and wiped down the baseboards and the facing of the stairs. I removed all the scuff marks on the facing with my handy Magic Eraser. (Love those things.) Then I cleaned each step with wood floor cleaner....by hand. All of the chemicals I was using, you would have thought I would have remembered to put my nice yellow gloves on. Nope, I forgot. Anyway, I noticed during all of this...my walls need to be painted. Gross. Ain't gonna happen right now. Anyway, the stairs look so good.

Tuesday was another busy day. We get up and head to Lowe's. On my list...new drawer pulls for Miss K's bathroom and a new rag for my hardwood floor mop. I got the drawer pulls, no rag, 2 mums, potting soil, stakes for my rubber tree and twine. Then a quick stop at the mall for lunch. I was going to buy Miss K some Converse high tops, but she did not like them being up so high on her ankle and kept stomping around the store trying to get it off her foot. We ended up with Dora hair clips instead. That's Miss K's latest obsession...Dora. She calls her Dory though. I only have one video and I can recite it word for word now. We are teaching K to say some of the words in Spanish. My parents (dad and stepmom) thinks that is neat. It's hilarious to hear her yelling "Hola!" Anyway, Miss K goes down for a nap and I get to work outside this time! Clean the front porch off, pot the mums, sweep up the HUGE mess I made, pull up some funky tomato looking plants that are growing in my beds, dig in the garage until I FINALLY kind my pumpkin door mat. (K calls it a punkin.) 2:15, drag K out of bed with a promise of seeing her friend "L", get dressed and head to the pumpkin patch. Awesome place. I was very impressed. So impressed that we are going back again this week with some more friends and then probably again on Saturday morning so Daddy can enjoy it too.

Wednesday will be busy too, I just haven't decided what I am going to do yet. I know that I need to drop off a donation to Goodwill, go by the bank, wrap some gifts, get packages ready to mail and run to the post office. Okay...it's late and I need to get to bed. Miss K has school tomorrow, so I have to get up in the morning and get her stuff ready. I love Mother's Day Out!

Only my child...

So, we are still on vacation. LOVING it. All we do is swim at the pool, try the beach out for about 30 minutes while Miss K screams. We've read a lot of books. Miss K has become CRAZY for Dora. It's been a lazy vacation. I told Brian that this has to be one my favorite vacations. (New Orleans with the C's was awesome too.)

Anyway...Miss K has been sleeping in a big girl bed. Last night apparently, she came into our room at some point. She didn't get in the bed though. Best we can figure out, here's what happened.... We wake up to this SCREAMING, but it sounds really muffled. Brian jumps out of bed and finds Miss K...UNDER THE BED IN OUR ROOM! We assume she came into the room sometime in the night and went to sleep on the floor at the foot of the bed. Because she is a WILD sleeper, she must have rolled under the bed or something. Brian said all that was her foot. Her entire little body was under our bed. It really freaked her out because it took her quite a while to calm down. I mean, it would have freaked me out too. That was at like 5 in the morning. When I woke up, I asked Brian if she was really under the bed and he said yes. I started laughing. It makes me laugh every time I think about it.

Hello from beautiful Destin!

We spent most of Saturday driving, but it wasn't a bad drive at all. Miss K was on her best behavior for most of the drive. About the last 30 minutes she was mad. And to be honest, I was too. I was ready to get out of the car. Miss K actually slept in Sunday morning. And, she is sleeping in a big girl bed while we are here. She had been talking non-stop about "go to beach" since we left Nashville. So, our first stop this morning was to the beach. She did NOT like the beach. She walked maybe 5 steps in the sand and started screaming. I, on the other hand LOVED the beach. This is my very first trip ever to Florida, so I had no idea what to expect. I grew up in the Houston area, so the beach to me was Galveston Island. I don't think I can ever go back to Galveston and enjoy myself again. Destin is amazing. The sand is so fine and so white. And the water. It's AMAZING! It's so clear. I am not normally one to get into the water at the beach more than up to my knees. I actually wanted to go swimming in this water. It was so beautiful.

So, we are going to keep trying the beach every day with Miss K. Thankfully, she does like the pool. The pool here is zero entry, so she can walk in and not have to cling to me or Brian while in the water. There is also a small ledge that runs around the pool and she like to sit on that as well. I think we will be spending most of our time at the pool. And yes, she more those sunglasses pretty much the entire day....everywhere we went.

So glad....

that the GM strike is over. No, my husband isn't a union worker, but it affects him just like it does every employee at all the plants and and all the suppliers....and so on.

The day the strike started, I got no less than 5 phone calls asking me if Brian still had a job. Talk about stressing me out. But then again....I stress out over every little thing.

Can I just tell you....I am so ready for my beach vacation.

Ponies

I remember My Little Pony from YEARS ago. Imagine my surprise when I found out they were still around. My daughter is the very proud owner of about 9 of them. She loves them. My good friend Margie gave Miss K her first pony for her 2nd birthday. My child is crazy about those silly ponies. Many times when Miss K goes to bed at night, she has 2 or 3 ponies in bed with her. (Those are in addition to the monkey, the bear, and two babies.)

So, Miss K started school last week. It's been great. Monday was her first day. It was kind of like an "open house". They only attended 9-11 while the director went over the handbook. She made an apple tree and was so proud of it. She showed it to everyone in Target. She napped for 2 1/2 hours. Tuesday we went to the Jump Zone. She went crazy on those slides. She worked up a big sweat. She napped for 3 hours. School on Wednesday. Napped for 2 1/2 hours. Thursday we went to the Adventure Science Center. That place is great. It reminds me of the Children's Museum in Houston, but a much small scale. She had a blast. She napped for 3 1/2 hours. So, needless to say, I've run my child ragged the past week. We've got another busy week planned and then we are headed out of town on vacation. I'm really looking forward to the beach. I did ask Miss K if she wanted to go to the beach. She said no....

Another vacation

We are getting ready to go on another vacation. To the beach...again. We are going to Destin this time. We looked for a place to stay for a long time. We needed a pool that had a zero entry for Miss K. We finally found one that was actually available. And, it was an awesome price. Most of the stuff we saw was like $1200 a week. We got ours for almost half that. Can't wait!

On another note....my husband could use some prayers if you think about it. Just some stuff at work. Nothing bad at all...just some possibilities that we didn't think would happen right away couple possibly be happening a lot sooner. It's a little stressful for me.

Okay...it is a BEAUITFUL day out. I am running to take my BAD dogs to the groomers and then K and I are going to hit the park for a bit. I have a photography asssignment for my class, so I want to try and get that done today. So, maybe I will have some photos to share tomorrow!

Blog ya later!

Halloween Costume, new cars? and a photography class

So, I bought Miss K a Halloween costume this summer. She likes JoJo Circus and I found the costume on the Disney website, so I bought it. One problem...she won't wear the hat part and that is where the hair is. So, it looks goofy without the hat. I went in search of some cute costumes. I did great her first two years, so I wanted something just as cute as the flower and the Heffalump. I found a monkey, but I wasn't in love with it. Then I found this cutie costume from Gymboree. (You know how much I LOVE Gymboree!) It's called Sweet Pumpkin Pie. I put the head piece on her at the store and she smiled and said, "I'm so pretty Mommy!" She thinks the shoes are a hoot too.

So....today when I picked Brian up from his doctor's appointment (the Bob Barker treatment, Renee!) we drive by the Saturn dealership and he makes a comment on the new Saturn Vue. Then he surprises me and says that he is looking at trading BOTH of our current cars in and getting us both something new. I am perfectly happy with my Trailblazer, but he pointed out that it is our "family car", the one we use the majority of the time and it no longer has a warranty. We haven't made any kind of decision and probably won't until the end of the year. Maybe there were will some better rebates out by then.

I finally did something I've wanted to do for a long time. I signed up for a photography class. It is every Monday from 6-9. I am really looking forward to it. One of my friends is also taking the class. I am so looking forward to learning more about my camera.

Okay...gotta run. Blog ya later!

Something I never thought I would say....

I am beginning to think that people need to be screened before they are allowed to reproduce. I honestly think that there are some people in the world who should never have kids. Who in the world thinks that it is okay to take your 2 year old daughter to a brothel...leave her strapped in her carseat INSIDE the HOT freaking car for TWO HOURS while you and your buddies attend a "private function" in a house full of prostitutes? Well, some stupid dad did. He did manage to leave the windows cracked, so that is how the security guard was able to hear her crying. It was 95 degrees outside that day. Don't you wonder how hot it was in that car? STUPID. STUPID. STUPID. Someone needs to strap is stupid ass into a car seat and leave him in a hot car with NO SHADE for two hours and see how much he likes it.

Okay...off my soap box.

Yeah Me!

Have you ever done something in your house and then just been so pleased with yourself? That's me today. Well...I actually did it on Monday. I cleaned my laundry room. Big deal you say? HA! It's a big deal for me! It's where clothes enter, but never leave. So...LONG ago, (honestly...it's been so long I can't remember when it was.) I saw some super cute Rubbermaid baskets on kellidarrsuperstar's blog. Loved them. Ran out and bought like 5 sets. I was DETERMINED to get my laundry room in order. Well, like most (umm...all) of my projects, I bought the stuff and just let it clutter up my house. So, now that we are back home, I have decided I've GOT to do something. I am living in a house full of clutter that would qualify me for Clean Sweep. (I wish they would come to my house.)

So...Monday I got the BUG. My entire house needs to be purged, but it is all so overwhelming that I start in one place and get so sidetracked that it never gets done. The laundry room is small, so I decided to tackle it. The first thing I did was clean the floor up. So much CRAP on the floor. Stuff that didn't even belong in there. I got all the clothes into two hampers. Then I cleaned off the dryer. Why do I stack stuff on there? Well, because it is easy and there isn't any place else to stack stuff in there. Then I tackled the monster. Monster=clothes. I don't know what my issue is about clothes. I've got LOTS of them and don't wear 1/4 of them. So, I went through and took out what I wanted to keep and folded what was going to Goodwill. Then I took the extra hanging rod out of the room. If it is there, I will use it. Then I tackled the shelf. Again...more crap just stacked. This is where my lovely baskets come in. My entire shelf is now BASKETIZED! It's awesome. The only clothes that are in there are the dirty ones in the hamper and a basket full of towels and sheets that need to be folded. I was so excited about how awesome it looked, I ran out Monday night and bought a new ironing board cover. Brian still needs to rehang my storage thingy that holds my ironing board and iron, but he needs to patch the wall where it pulled out a while ago (that means several years....) Then...I went BACK through the clothes that I said I was going to keep and decided all but one thing could go to GW. I was so freaking pleased with myself. I kept telling Brian to come look at it. Even Miss K thinks it's "pretty". She even helped me with the laundry yesterday. I usually don't let her in there because it is so cluttered. Now, she can go in there anytime she wants! No photos. I need to find my thingy to download my photos with. Then I will post of photo. Brian told me I should have taken a before photo. I know I should have, but honestly...I would be too embarassed to actually show it. In the end, I had two large trash bags of clothes for Goodwill, a half trashbag full of trash and one old broken hamper full of wire hangers.

Here is a question..... Do you clean your washer and dryer? I wiped the outside of everything off with my bleach/eater mixture, but what about the insides? I mean, I clean my lint trap on my dryer after every load, but nothing to the washer. Any suggestions?

HOME!

Praise Jesus!

It was so freaking cute!

Today was the day I've been waiting for since the ultrasound technician told me I was having a girl. Today was the first day I put pigtails in Miss K's hair. I giggled the entire time I did it. She was not happy with me, so they look really wonky. But...they were there. And they looked so cute. And she wore them for FIVE hours! I'm still giggling thinking about how cute and grown up she looked. She looked like a "big girl". She's not a baby anymore and that makes me oh so very sad. But seeing those cute pigtails cheers me up!

Packing again....

Miss K is leaving for her own little mini vacation today and I am sad. She is actually going to stay with Brian's parent's for the rest of the week. Brian and I will use this time to PACK OUR BELONGINGS!!! We are moving HOME! Can you tell I am a little on the excited side?


Okay...I've got to get K's bags packed, lunch for both of us, naps and then a quick Target run before we head out to meet Brian's parents for dinner and to drop K and the doggies off.

And, because I need to post more photos, here is a cute one of Miss K from our week at the beach. Oh...speaking of the beach, we are going to Destin in October. Yes, I am going to subject my child to the beach all over again. We really want to go on a family vacation with just the 3 of us. We've been talking about Destin since before K was born. Now, we are going. I've found a condo, I am just waiting to hear back from the owners about the contract. As soon as I get the final approval, I will post the condo. It's really nice.

Oh...and this is how Miss K felt about the beach

Used my SIL's awesome big 'ol lense for this one. I really need that lense. I LOVED using it! Click on the photo to see the huge tears on her cheeks.

Beach Photos

I mentioned that we hired a photographer, Amy Bly, to come out and take some photos of my family on the beach. (If you are ever in Galveston and need a photographer, I highly recommend her.) This was the first time in a LONG time that we have all been in the same place at once. Granted...my youngest brother showed up about 30 minutes into the photo shoot. But, at least he was there.


Here are a couple of my favorites from that day. (She took over 350 photos.)

My super cutie pie, Miss K

My hubby, Miss K and Big L. I think they were playing with a sand crab or something.

The whole dang family
My niece Miss T, my younger brother Frank, who tried to DROWN me, Big L and me. Yep...we got REALLY wet, but it was so much fun.

End of my rope

I've never been so ready for a vacation to be over. I am so stressed out. One little thing happened today and it snowballed and pushed me over the edge. Needless to say, I WAY over reacted, but at that point, I was so over the whole thing that I just lost it. I should be hanging my head in shame over the way I acted today, but my head hurts so bad from all the crying. I turn my rental car in at 9 am tomorrow morning and head to the airport. I am so ready to go home.

And to my wonderful sister-in-law, Jenny. Thank you for being Switzerland. Thank you for being the calm one. Thank you for opening your home to me. Thank you for being you. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful sister. I am glad that we got to spend more time together this visit. I do look forward to spending more time with you.

Grandparents Rock

I will be the first to admit...my dad and I disagree on how to raise a child. But, he loves his grandkids like crazy. I was really worried about how Miss K would react to them since she hadn't seen them since Christmas. I shouldn't have worried about it one single bit because she is head over hills in love with her Papa. She loves Nana too, but she LOVES her Papa. She and her little cousin Little L are crazy about him. The minute Little L thinks Miss K is going to get near HIS Papa, he runs over to Papa and jumps in his lap. It's too funny.

So, today I picked up my nephews, Big L and Little L from "school" so that I could spend some time with them. I told Big L I would take them to Bounce USA. You know...one of those places that has all the jumpy things. Now, I was taking a chance here because we took Miss K to a place while we were on vacation in July and she screamed when you put her near one of those things. Well...not this time. My child was WILD. Running all over the place climbing and jumping. So, my parents show up and my dad jumps right in. I convince my step mom to join in as well. They had such a blast. Miss K can climb up the "stairs" to the slide all on her own. And much to my horror....she can even do the stairs of the one that the stairs are like a 90 degree angle. FREAKED ME OUT.

Now...here are why Grandparents Rocks. They jumped and climb and slid along with the kiddos. It was GREAT. We had a great time at the beach. I hired a photographer to come out and do a photo shoot on the beach with my family. What a BLAST!

I'll update on my vacation when we are finally done. Miss K and I leave for Michigan Saturday early afternoon. Lots going on. We will be moving back to Nashville in a little over two weeks! YEAH! I am so excited.

This morning....

the first thing Miss K said to me when she woke up was, "No go beach, Mommy." Does that give you any indication as to how our week at the beach went?

Happy Birthday Miss K!!!!

Two years ago....

Two years ago today I was a nervous wreck. It was a Sunday. I was having an early dinner with my husband, my parents and my inlaws knowing that the next day, our family of two was going to become a family of three. I was scared to death. I was not prepared. I didn't know the first thing about taking care of a newborn. And the pain. I was so afraid of the pain. I don't do pain at all. What was labor going to be like? Was Brian going to pass out when I got my epidural? But I was so ready to meet this amazing little creature that had taken over my body for almost 9 months. When I went to bed that night I was wondering...what would she look like? Would she have red hair? Is it really a girl? Because if it's a boy, we are so screwed! I was bordering on the brink of an anxiety attack, but my neverending morning sickness demanded all of my attention as it had for the past 38 weeks. And that night was the first night in about 34 weeks that I did not receive a shot in my tummy. So thankful that part of the whole pregnancy was over.

Monday morning at about 5:45 am we headed to Williamson Medical Center. I am not sure if I told Brian just how freaked out and scared I was about what was about to happen to me. As it turned out...the labor was pretty easy and uneventful until it came time for me to push. Then it all went down hill from there. In the end, I had a c-section and there she was. I don't recall a lot about the whole day, but I do remember being in that operating room and telling my doctor that if she didn't have red hair, she could just put her back. I heard all the nurses and the doctor laugh when the pulled her out and informed me she didn't have red hair. I remember holding my daughter for the first time and crying my eyes out. Crying that I now had this amazing little girl. Crying for the big brother that she was never going to meet. Crying because my entire family had been there to be apart of this little miracle. I cry alot...did you know that? I can cry at the drop of a hat.

So, tonight Brian and I put our little miracle to bed. I told her that when she woke up in the morning, she was going to be a big 2 year old. She didn't seem to care much about that. All she wanted to do was hug and kiss her mommy and daddy.

And because I need to start posting more photos, here is a photo of Miss K at Brian's parent's house. She had just spotted an airplane and had to point it out and make sure that we all knew that she saw it!

ETA: She started screaming about 20 minutes after we put her down. So not normal for her. Brian and I went in to check on her and I noticed our cat, Socks was in there. Miss K was holding her fingers in a funny position, so I think the cat might have tried to bite her. Brian brought her back into the living room and got her calmed down. He told her it was time to go back to bed and she needed to go get in her bed. She ran in her room and said, "bad kitty". Then she looked under her bed to make sure the cat wasn't in there. LOL...Brian and I couldn't stop laughing.

My daughter...

My daughter is a riot. All day yesterday she walked around asking me questions. I was putting trash under the sink....she knows it is there, but she asked me, "what's in there?" I told her trash. To which she responded, "trash". I am loving this age because she understands so much. I just can't seem to make her understand that it isn't okay to feed to dogs from the table. And no, she doesn't just feed them the "bad stuff".

A new word that she said yesterday was "muffin". But the way she says it is, "muffone". She must have said it a million times yesterday and was quite mad when I wouldn't let her eat a "muffone" whenever she asked for one. The first thing she did this morning when we got up was ask for milk and a muffone.

Miss K also has a new favorite toy. We had her birthday party last Thursday while we were in Nashville. My friend Tracie and her daughter came to the party and gave Miss K a LP Airplane. I am not sure if I have ever explained my child's obsession with planes. Buses too. So much so, that when I heard about the toddler and mom who were removed from a flight because the kid kept saying "bye-bye plane", I got concerned. Miss K will scream "It's a plane!" over and over again when she sees one. Just makes me nervous. It seems that people are less tolerant of toddlers than ever. I understand that there are some toddlers who are out of control, but for the most part...they are toddlers and sometimes they get a little excited. I am taking my portable DVD player and a stack of videos to keep her entertained. And I will make sure that I pick up a number of snack once we get through security. That will cost me $50.

Well...must run! Blog ya later.

Usborne Books

I'm having a book party. Check it out. Usborne books are awesome. We have a few. We recently got one of the puzzles and Miss K and I are loving it.
So, please check out my on line book party.

Hollye's Book Party

Today's the day...

We are having Miss K's birthday party today at Chuck E. Cheese's. I know..that place is nuts, be we are doing it on a weekday, so it shouldn't be too bad. Plus, with us living out of town, I didn't have time to get everything organized and my house cleaned up. Plus, I am probably spending a LOT less doing it this way! I just have to stop by and pick up the cake I ordered and we are off. I ordered one of those cupcake pull apart cakes. Much easier for little hands to deal with.

Here is one of the photos we had take yesterday of her.

I am off to find my CF card. I have no idea where it is and my friend Tracie agreed to take photos at the party for me so I could actually enjoy my child for an hour or so. Thanks Tracie!!!

Day 1 of Projects...completed

Well, we are back in Nashville. And let me tell you, we have a list a MILE long of things that need to be done this week. That doesn't include all the doctor appointments, dentist appointments, vet appointments, hair appointments, portraits, birthday party (MY BABY IS TURNING TWO!) and stuff we have to do. Today's list went something like this...

* Take Betty Boop to vet (she is having eye surgery on Monday.)
* Trip to Home Depot to pick up supplies for all the projects. (We actually made two trips to HD, one to Target and a slushie run to Sonic.)
* Take railing of front porch apart.
* Remove and rebuild one wooden column on front porch. (Yeah...shabby construction. They didn't use pressure treated wood, so it rotted.)

We actually got all of it done. Well, Brian did about 99% of it. I tried to help take the railing down, but I broke the drill bit off in one of the screws, so he made me start sanding the other columns since we will be painting later this week. Torromow's list is LONG too. Pressure washing the fence, the deck, the railing from the front forch, the front porch itself and the front porch swing. We own one pressure washer and will be borrowing the neighbor's so that we can get twice as much done. Thankfully my mom is coming over today to hang out with Miss K so that we can get some stuff done. She heard Brian's skill saw yesterday morning and attached herself to my neck for about 15 minutes.

I will post photos and a recap about our trip to Wisconsin soon. We had such a great time. You really don't realize just how much you miss your friends until you see them again.

Gotta run. Blog ya later!

Happy 4th!

Did you enjoy some smores today? We sure did!
On vacation still...will update more later!

We are off!!!

Two weeks vacation baby! I love it when Brian is off like this. We are off to visit some of our very favorite people....Mr. & Mrs. C. (Yeah...like from Happy Days.) We are WAY overdue for a visit with them. The last time we saw them was for breakfast after Christmas 2005. So, it wasn't a very long visit.

Okay...gotta jet. Need to pack the laptop, load the rest of the stuff, pick up Brian and hit the road!

Blog ya later!

Oh my...

I found this photo tonight when I was looking through my June photos. I need to lighten it up a bit, but wow....this kiddo is freaking adorable!!!!

So...we've got this parrot...

And it repeats EVERYTHING you say. Oh my. I've so got to watch my mouth. Twice in the past week, I've screwed something up and I've used the "S" word only to have it repeated right back to me. Oh joy.

Here's a funny Miss K story. Early last week we had gone to McD's for lunch. I was sitting on the sofa reading a book and she walks up and points at my cup and says, "It's a burger". (But sh used this funny Boston accent.) I looked at her like she had grown a second head. I looked at the cup, and sure enough, there was a drawing of a burger on the side of it. I laughed and laughed. So, she said it over and over again all day. Imagine my surprise when we drove past McD's and she says, "It's a burger!" Oh crud. No more McD's for us for awhile!

So, Friday we played this game...I would say a word to her and she would repeat it back to me. I even got her to say her name! I was so excited. She said it twice, but hasn't said it again. Then on Saturday I was chatting with a couple of the Amish girls who work for my mother-in-law and I told them that Kennedy was a mess....meaning she is wild and crazy. And I kid you not, the child shook her head in agreement and said, "a mess!" We all just busted out laughing!

The kitchen that we ordered for her birthday came in last week, so we went ahead and put it together and let her play with it. (This thing is HUGE!) We figured since we are going to be gone a lot this summer, we wanted her to get to play with it as much as she can. She LOVES it. She likes to cook for Mommy and Daddy quite a bit. I have to be careful with her because I've caught her hiding stuff in the cabinets. I gave her a piece of cheese at lunch and several hours later she goes in there and pulls it out to show me. Then right before she went to bed tonight, she came running in with a milk cup...from this morning! She had it hidden in that dang kitchen!

I mentioned that we are going on vacation soon. Brian is off for two weeks starting this Friday. Yeah! So, we are headed up to Wisconsin to stay with some friends for about 4 days. Brian's best friend and his wife. He and Brian use to work together in Arlington. Then we transferred to Nashville. Then they moved to Wisconsin. We have seen them since Christmas 2005, so we are really excited. They have two kiddos. One of them, who just happens to share my birthday, is 6 months older than Miss K, so I know she is going to have a blast. I am just worried about how my child is going to act. The Terrible Twos are in FULL effect. I just know that I am going to be embarrassed by how she acts. Some days she is a complete angel and other days she is possessed! I took this photo of her the other day when we went out for a walk. She stopped to smell the flowers I had potted on the back porch. After she smelled all of them, she had to make sure that Carmen smelled each and every one of them. She was in such a great mood and did great on our walk....then she turned into a lunatic and started stomping around in the landscraping and screaming. Then she started spinning in circles and finally threw herself down on the grass. It was 8am in the morning, so all the morning commuters going to work go to see her in all her glory. All because I wouldn't let her play in the street...in the traffic. I am such a mean mommy.

Okay...it's late and tomorrow is a day full of things to do to get ready for our 2 week vacation! Oh...after we are done with our visit in Wisconsin, we are headed back to Nashville to work on the house to get ready to move back home. And, we are going to celebrate Miss K's second birhtday while we are there. Fun, fun!

Ok...blog ya later!

My second layout.

I am sorta getting the hang of it. I've got ton of things to tell you all about Miss K, but it is late and I need to go to bed. Check back this weekend for new photos!

Oh my...I just ordered Miss K's halloween costume. It's a cute costume I've seen before, but I really like it and the price was too good to pass up!

Not to sure....

So, I am taking an online class in digital scrapbooking from Jessica Sprague. I am not sure how I am going to like this whole digital thing. It will be nice if I decide to make a gift for someone and I want to make more than one copy. Like gifts for the grandparents. Or maybe an album of our trip to the beach with my family. Which, by the way, I can NOT wait for! I am so excited! I get to see my parents, my brother, my SIL and their kiddos. And my best friend and her kids too.

Anyway...here is my first digital layout...

SWING!

We went to a wedding reception of a family friend last night. Miss K found the dance floor. Another little girl was being swung by her mom and Miss K is one of those "monkey see, monkey do" kind of kids. She she put her arms up for Brian to swing her. The look on her face the first time was pure horror. But when he put her down and she was walking around like she had just downed a pint of whiskey, she was ready to do it again. And again. And again. Get the picture? Oh...and Mommy had to swing too. Then we had to swing the monkey. I was so glad when we left. My arms were starting to hurt!

So, my parents have been living in Qatar since the beginning of the year. They are coming back to the states for a month in July/August. My dad mentioned maybe getting a beach house for a week. I was all for that. Well, my awesome sister in law jumped on it and went in search of the perfect beach house. One of my requirements was a pool. I know...goofy, but I am not a fan of the beach. I would have preferred a private pool, but we were a little late in making reservations. So, we found one that had a "communal" pool. So, it is ALMOST the perfect beach house. But, it is on the beach front and we can walk to the beach by going across this little bridge.I can not wait. I am so excited. I've been emailing my SIL, Jen about all the stuff we need to take/buy/cook/do...all that stuff. My parents LOVE to eat out, but we are going to have anywhere from 10-12 people in the house at all times, so eating out won't be all that fun. Added to the fact that we will have a 2 year old, a 21 month old and a 1 year old with us , might make dining out a lot less fun! I already went in search of a second bathing suit for myself and I am going to Old Navy this week to pick up one for Miss K. And I want to get some cute beach towels. I am going to have to plan carefully since K and I will be flying to Houston ALONE and I have to take luggage with clothes for both of us for two weeks, cloth diapers, car seat, stroller, camera bag...I am sure that there is stuff I am forgetting.

I just can not wait! We have a very busy summer ahead of us. Lots of traveling, but we will get a chance to see so many of our friends and family that we haven't seen in awhile. I am most looking forward to Miss K getting the chance to spend time with her cousins. I grew up living on the same street as one set of my cousins. We played together all the time. I hate that I don't have that for Miss K. I've recently mentioned moving back to Texas to Brian. Even though we would be 4 hours from family....it would be only 4 hours. And to be honest...I miss Texas. Everything about Texas...except the heat.

Okay...gotta run. I've got about 30 baby cards to make and a 2 page layout. Gotta get on that since we are flying to Nashville Wednesday.

blog ya later!

Yes, we are still alive!

Things are slowly getting back to normal in our household. We got home Monday evening from a short visit to Nashville. It was nice to be home. We got a few things done, but overall we just hung out. Brian and I were even able to go see a movie one night. Miss K stayed with her Meemee for the evening. I was a little nervous about it, but everything seemed to go okay.

So, while we were home we looked at houses again. Of course I found a floor plan that I really like. Then Brian tells me Monday night that we probably won't sell our house, but of the other houses in our neighborhood start selling for more, he might change his mind. Good gravy. Make up your mind man!

So, we are going back to Nashville in July for a week, so while we are home, we will be doing some repairs to the house. One of our columns out front has started to rot, so it needs to be replaced. Since we are doing that, we are going to remove all the railing, paint all the columns and pressure wash the rails. I told Brian that I want to change the color of the shutters and the front door. I am not sure he is up for all that in July. We shall see. Might also have a yard sale in July. It will be wicked hot, but I have so much CRAP that I need to get rid of.

Lots of stuff has been going on with Miss K. That kid is a chatterbox. She is saying so many words. She is at a point now where if you say a word to her, 8 times out of 10, she will repeat the word to you. She will point out things and say the word...bus, plane, duck, puppy, etc... She will tell you what she is doing. Like...I brush when she is brushing her teeth. She puts her cup and her plate up on the counter when she is done. It's too cute. And she understands directions and routines. Her "daily chore" is feeding the dogs. We've been having problems getting one of our dogs, Betty Boop, to eat, so Miss K has decided that only way to get her to eat is to feed her each piece of dog food by hand. Hey, it works and I can actually make dinner while she does this!She also understands what to do with a diaper when it is "poopy". She knows that I have to shake it out in the potty, throw the wipes in the garbage under the sink and then put the diaper in the pail. (In case you are wondering...we cloth diaper.) She has started drinking out of a big girl cup. I only let her have it with water because she tends to play with it. She likes to pour it out on the coffee table and then get a towel out and wipe it up. One of her favorite things to do involves her bath toys. I keep them in a plastic basket and in the linen closet. Every night while her bath is filling up, she will take the toys out and put them in the basket. Then when she is done with her bath, she puts them back in the basket. When you ask her if she is ready for a bath, she goes to the linen closet for the toys. It's just amazing all the stuff that she is doing. She is such a grown up little lady now. She is also a master at throwing a fit.

Okay...it is late, so I need to get to bed. The weather is suppose to be crappy this weekend, so we are going to try and spend as much time as we can outside tomorrow and Thursday. And Brian's birthday is this weekend, so I need to get my act together on the gift thingy. I'm so bad about that these days!

Blog ya later!

A family of three...

It seems that a family of 3 is what the Cross family was meant to be. Mother's Day started with me in the ER of a small town hospital. Having gone through a miscarriage before, I thought I knew what to expect, but this was totally different. It was like I actually went into labor. Thankfully I was blessed with an awesome ER nurse who understood I was in very intense pain and an ER doctor who was right on top of giving me something for the pain. I am still in a bit of shock. I was actually starting to get use to the idea of having a second child. Brian and I were talking about names, potty training Miss K, moving Miss K to her big girl bed so that we would have a baby bed, possibily moving before the baby was born....just a bunch of different things you plan before you have a baby. Now...we are just trying to decide on where we go from here. But we do know that we can not go through all of this again. I can not physically or mentally go through losing another baby again.

So, Miss K and I are staying with my in laws for the week so that I can heal and have someone help me with her. I've been having a hard time picking her up. She is not a little girl. She and I are spending some time playing on the swing set her grandparents bought her, drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, counting, singing Wiggle songs....I am just enjoying my daughter.

No photos. I've taken some, not a lot, but I've taken them. My inlaws still have dial up, so I can't upload any photos. They are getting cable internet tomorrow, so maybe I will get to upload some later this week.

Okay...I am headed to bed. Blog ya later.

ARG!

What's worse than being pregnant and having MAJOR morning sickness? Being pregnant with major morning sickness and having a REALLY bad cold! I think I am DYING!

ETA: Add a sick toddler to that too. At least she puked on her dad and not me.

Ready to share....

First of all...I want to say that I am sorry for anyone who thought I was very sick. To the person who thought I might have cancer...I am so sorry. Nothing that bad.

First of all...let me say that Brian and I have had a plan for our family. Miss K was a blessing to us. But, because of all the problems that I had with my first pregnancy, everything that went on with Miss K, and the recommendation of the oncologist, we decided that Miss K was enough for us. Well....God has other plans. So, the Cross family will be adding a 4th member in November. I am a nervous wreck who has been SICK for weeks. Taking care of Miss K has become somewhat of a challenge for me. I know that women have babies everyday. I just don't do it well or gracefully. It will take me a little while to get use to the whole idea of having another baby.

So, that is what is going on with us. I have a cold, so I am off.

Blog ya later.

New words everyday

The past couple of weeks have been big at our house. Miss K seems to learn a new word everyday. Now, she doesn't continually use the word, but it seems she will say it a couple of times and then not use it again for a couple of days. Saturday...all day it was 'baby' and 'puppy'. She has said each of those words before, but like I said, she said them once and then they went away. But when they come back, they come back BIG. Today's new word is APPLE. Let me tell you....this kid LOVES apples. One night Brian was eating a Granny Smith apple. Miss K walked over to him, took it and started eating it. We were shocked because the apple wasn't sliced. It was still on the core and everything. So, a couple of days later she and I were at Panaera having lunch with her gymnastic friends and she grabs the apple off the tray and started biting into it. She ate half of the apple like that! Everyone was laughing because she was going crazy with it. Today I was getting her lunch ready and she went over to the fridge, opened it up and took the apple out and started saying, "apple". She is constantly saying "oh boy!" and "oh gosh". Can I tell you I LOVE this stage. Except...can someone explain to me while my child throws herself on the floor in a tantrum every 10 minutes or so? And we won't even go into her great escape yesterday. She has learned to open the sliding door. She and the dogs made a break for it yesterday. Thankfully my new neighbor Amy saw them all outside. Seriously took 10 years off my life. Remember...I l ive next to a pond.

We are leaving Friday afternoon to head to Nashville. We will be there for a week! So, I hope I get a chance to see a lot of my friends while I am there. I've got a LOT of organizing to do while I am there. I've got to get Miss K's clothes sorted and stored. Right now they are just in a HUGE pile in her room. And I've got BOXES of scrapbook supplies that I need to get rid of. I think I will have one day where I will let people come over and look at stuff and then the rest of it will be DONATED. We are talking 3-5 large moving boxes. I think one box is full of nothing but pattern paper. And my husband helped me box it all up and never said a word about all the stuff I was getting rid of.

Well...I hear my child waking up from her nap. Blog ya later!

Long time no blog....

I know. I said I was going to be better about it, but things happen. Our family is dealing with some stuff right now so we are in need of some prayers. I am not ready to share just yet, but trust me...when you pray, God knows exactly what you are praying for because I pray about 10 times a day.

We spent 19 hours Wednesday/Thursday without any power. That really stunk because it was cold. Miss K and I spent most of the day away from home staying warm at places like McD's, Tuesday Morning and our favorite cookie bakery that has great sugar cookies. I think I actually did a happy dance when the power came back on at exactly 1:41 pm yesterday.

Brian's parents are coming to visit us this weekend. I am looking forward to that. I love my in laws and they are so great with Miss K. I am hoping to get some time to work on my scrapbook room while they are here.

Here is a photo of Miss K from Easter Sunday. We had lunch at a friend's house. She was wearing this cute outfit. Imagine my surprise when my friend opened the door and her daughter was wearing the same exact outfit in pink!

I am crazy....

Brian and I have both given up all Coke products...regular and diet. What in the world was I thinking?????

Have you ever told someone a HUGE secret and made them PROMISE not to say anything to anyone? I did that to someone yesterday. You know who you are....I'm sorry. You know I love you.

Prayers Please

This is photo from March of 2006. This is K's birthday buddy. This beautiful little boy passed away this afternoon. His parents put him down for a nap and he never woke up. Please pray for his parents. They are living every parent's worse nightmare. Hug your children tight.

Busy little bee

So, Miss K's personal library keeps growing. I found a bookshelf at Staples for $15. It fit perfect in her closet. So, Brian put it together last night. I decided to go ahead and get it in her closet and the books on it before we left for the weekend. Here is how it looks...

And here is how it looked 1 minute later...

Oh well. I am sure I am going to spend the rest of my life picking up after her.

Anyway...we are off to spend the weekend with my inlaws. This starts the week of our crazy traveling over the next month. We leave Thursday to drive to Nashville for Easter. Brian drives back on Tuesday and Kennedy and I fly back on Friday. Then we head straight to Brian's parents house again for the weekend. Then we are back in our apartment for 4 days and then back to Nashville for another week while Brian is in a workshop. Speaking of Brian and work....today is the last day that the plant in Spring Hill is operating. It will shut down today and they will start the teardown of the equipment to retool the plant for a new product. I have no idea when the plant will reopen. I think it will be at least a year.

Well...my child is crying. I am sure that she is tired. Doesn't help that she woke up this morning at 4ish. I woke up to her counting...1, 2, 3! She was WIDE awake and ready to play. Mommy. Not so much.

Blog ya later!

Good news and bad news

The good news is...my email is working again and I didn't lose anything. Yeah! The bad news...my cleaning people came LATE today. They usually come about 10:30. So, I scheduled Maxie and Betty Boop grooming appointments. Miss K and I headed to Hobby Lobby. It's a bit of a drive, but this week was a good sale. We get home about 1:45 and the cleaning people never showed up! Bummer! So I called the scheduler and she tells me that they don't guarentee a time, just a day. 2:59pm...5 minutes after I put Miss K down for a nap, they show up. CRUD! I only get the service every other week and I missed the last service becasue K wasn't feeling well and I didn't want to have to leave. So, they are going to try and reschedule for next week. Know what that means? I gotta clean. I have to scrub the toilets, showers and floors. Those are the things I totally dislike doing. I'm bummed. Bummed.

No photos. CF card is still missing in action. I have no idea where it could be. Luckily, I downloaded everything before I "lost" it. Gonna have to find it before we leave for Easter. Or buy a new one. Bummer. More $$ that I don't have.

Blog ya later.

Disaster

My email is gone. All my addresses are gone. All my stuff is GONE. Guess tomorrow Comcast is going to start rebuilding my email. I am bummed. I've lost email addresses of people I don't know how to get in touch with.

$100 Store, Baby Dreams, and Geese VS. Ducks

Do you ever go into the $1 Store to grab a few cheap things and walk out of there with you bank account $20 lighter? I always get suckered in at the $1 Store. Worst than the $1 Store is what I lovingly refer to as the $100 Store AKA Costco. Note to Hollye....you can not grocery shop at Costco for a family of 3! I mean, you can if you don't want to shop again for months. I mean...how long will it take us to eat 96 slices of cheese? I love Costco though. I get 90% of my photo printing done there. I also love their baby wipes. When Miss K was an infant, we used their formula. We love their muffins also. I buy them, we eat on them for a couple of days and then freeze the rest of them. The muffins are huge. Miss K and I share one for breakfast and Brian has one on the way to work in the mornings. One thing you can not beat at Costco is the snack bar. I mean seriously. You can eat there CHEAP. A hot dog and a coke for $1.50. And the hot dog is HUGE. I can't eat it all. Slice of pizza...$1.99. This HUGE chicken ceasar salad that can feed 2 people is $3.29. K and I had lunch there for $5.61 yesterday and we had about 2/3 of a hot dog left and 1/2 a salad. I was going to grab 2 more salads for dinner last night, but the line was long and the kid was grumpy. (My child is in a permnanat state of grumpy.)

So, K has not been sleeping well since oh...Thanksgiving. She wakes up in the middle of the night about 4 times a week and the only way she will go back to sleep is if she is in our bed. For those of you who really know me, you know how I feel about the whole kids sleeping with parents issue. Anyway...apparently she woke up this morning around 4. Brian brought her into our bed. She is dead alseep and all of a sudden it starts.....she's talking. Then she is laughing. The she starts singing. The tune was the ABC's, but she only knows the first 5 letters. I ws trying so hard not to laugh, but it was hard. Five minutes later Brian's alarm went off and she shot up like a rocket. So, our day started early.

Our apartment is situated infront of a pond. Up until last week, it was frozen. Monday afternoon, the ducks showed up. Tuesday the geese showed up. I heard them WAY before I saw them. They show up about 7 and honk so that everyone knows they have arrived. So, K and I have been watching them from our living room window. She screams when she sees them. Yesterday she was sitting on the coffee table while I was reading a book to her. All of a sudden she starts say 'hi' and waving. I notice a mom and her son outside feeding the ducks and geese. Duh....why didn't I think of that? K heard the word 'outside' and she was ready. We grabbed so old hamburger buns and went out to feed the fowl. I tried to engage the other mom in conversation, but she wasn't friendly at all. Oh well. I tried. Anyway...we were feeding the fowl. Well, we tried to feed them all. The geese kept honning in on the duck's territory, so the ducks hardly got anything. I felt bad for them. So, this afternoon the geese had gone and just the 2 ducks were out there. We grabbed our hot dog buns and went to feed them. The dang geese showed back up. Oh well. The ducks did get some, but they were diving for bugs I assumed and one of them came up with a frog in his mouth. K screamed. I was kinda startled. Do ducks eat frogs? He dropped the frog into the water, but picked it up again. I grabbed K and we headed toward the house. Bad frog eating duck.

Okay...no photos because I have LOST my CF card! Gotta find it tonight because we are headed to Canada tomorrow. Just to say we have been there. Plus...I wanna go to Hobby Lobby again! HA!

Blog ya later!

Leotard Lovely

As I mentioned before, Miss K is taking gymnatics. Well, not really gymnastics....we go to the training center and do some little activities. Some of the kids do rolls, but my child just wants to play with the pom poms. We did find the long trampoline today and she was singing "jump jump". That comes from the Jumpin' Judy episode of the Doodlebops. But, she looks really cute in her pink leotard. I took Brian's small camera today to class. Didn't want to carry the Rebel and chase Miss K around because she runs around like crazy when we are there.

It's not a great photo, but I wanted Brian to be able to see the "setting" of the gym. And please note the color of the pom poms in her hands. Those match her cheerleading outfit. Although, I think we are going to have to replace it when football season starts. I think it might be a little too short now.

New Goodies

I love new goodies. Here are a couple of the new things I've gotten in the past couple of days...

I won a gift card at the event on Friday night. It was for a cute little shop across from the scrapbook store. They carry my favorite bags...Vera Bradley. I've been eyeing the new Peacock pattern, so I ended up with this cutie!

We decided to go ahead and update our phones since Brian was having such a hard time getting good reception with his and mine was working fine in the same area. So, my hubby got me this!

Miss K even got some new goodies. In addition to the FOUR pair of shoes that her grandparents bought her while she was visiting, Mommy bought her a new car seat.We bought her a Britax Regent. It is referred to as the "King of all car seats." And let me tell you...this thing is HUGE. She will be using this thing for YEARS! I love it.

I also got a lot of new scrapbook goodies, but if I listed them all this blog entry would be very long. I got alot of the new Heidi Swapp stuff. As soon as Miss K goes down for her nap, I am going to work in the scrapbook/playroom. I need to get the table cleaned off and finally unpack all the boxes and get everything set up so we can start using the room for it's intended purpose. I am going to have to store all my supplies in the closet because Miss K thinks that she is suppose to eat the rubber stamps. Turkey!

Okay..off to clean. No cleaning people this week, so I need to clean the bathrooms and figure out why my child is having a meltdown.

Fabulous Weekend

I had such a wonderful weekend. I took my camera, but I didn't take hardly any photos. That seems to be one of my problems for ANY event that I go to. Oh well. I enjoyed myself.

As always...Jenni Bowlin was FABULOUS. I have been lucky enough to take classes from Jenni a number of times over the past 3 years. Love her and I LOVE her stuff. If you don't know who Jenni is (are you living under a pile of scrapbook supplies?), you can check out her blog. Also, she has an awesome kit club. Check it out. You will NOT be disappointed.

I have found my favorite new person. Alison Tyler Jones. This woman is AMAZING. I bought her book before we went and just glanced through it. We actually were sitting next to her in the lobby of the hotel and just started chatting with her. I know she thought we were nuts. We offered her a ride over to the store and she went with us. She said that she loves the South. So, before her lecture, I knew she was great, but I didn't realize how great until she started her presentation. OH. MY. WORD. I want this lady to be my neighbor! Too bad she lives in Arizona. I know that she does teach photography classes. I told Brian that I was going to look into her schedule. I've got a couple of free airline tickets. In the meantime, I am looking into a photography class here in Detroit.

All of the classes rocked. I really needed the break, but I was ready to get home. Brian and Miss K planned on meeting me in the baggage claim area of the airport to surprise me, but K went to sleep on the ride to the airport. So, she didn't even "see" me until about 15 minutes into the ride home. Then she just screamed when Brian left the car to go to work. She is all better now. She wouldn't say momma at all today. This evening she was getting a bath and I asked her if she was ready to get out and she started "singing" 'momma, momma, momma.' She's a hoot. Here is a way cute photo my MIL took of Miss K while she was outside playing in mud puddles. She LOVED it.

Overall, I had a great time. Thank you Kelli , JJ and Cathleen for the ride to Alabama. You ladies are so funny. Thank you Sherri and Michelle for letting me ride back to Nashville with you on Friday. It was good to get home early. Although, I do wish we had turned around and talked to the guy who was carrying the cross. He was on my mind all day today, But, I got to do a little cleaning and spend some time with my mom. Oh...and for those of you who knew my mom was getting chemo....she NEVER got sick. Praise God! We were so worried that she was goin g to get to get really sick. She has a great attitude about the whole thing. Just keep her in your prayers. She has 46 more weeks!

Okay...blog more about the event later!

Recipe, chemo, a trip and AWESOME weather!!

My friend Kennington had us over for dinner one night and she made the most awesome mac n' cheese. I asked her for the recipe and I thought I would share it. Brian and Miss K love it. I made it last night and they both cleaned their plates.

Homemade Mac n' Cheese

8 oz. elbow macaroni, cooked

8 oz. sharp Cheeder cheese, shredded.

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup mayo

1/2 cup milk

Mix all together and pour into a slightly greased dish. Bake for 25 minutes @ 375 degrees.

So, tomorrow I am headed to Nashville. I can't wait. My mom was suppose to pick me up at the airport, but she got a call on Monday and she has to start her chemo on Wednesday. She is very nervous. I am very nervous. So please say a prayer for my mom if you think about it. She is going to need them.

Also, say a prayer for me, Miss K and my awesome mother in law. Brian and I are meeting the in laws tomorrow night for dinner. When we leave...Miss K is staying with them. This will be the first time that Miss K has stayed away from both of her parents at the same time. I am nervous. I know my MIL can take care of her, I worry about how Miss K will react to me and Brian not being there. She will be there Wednesday - Sunday. Brian is driving up Friday after work. I'll probably call a million times before the end of my trip.

So, I am flying out tomorrow night. Means I have to miss the results show of American Idol AND Lost. I'm a little upset about that. Guess I'll have to watch it online later next week. But, I get to spend the next couple of days hanging with my scrappy friends. And to be honest, I need a break from my little family. I was nasty to Brian atfer the whole laptop thing, so I figured it was time for a little break. I am nowhere near ready to go, but I am not worried about it. If I don't have everything I need, I am not going to stress. I just want to have a good time.

And let's talk about the weather here in Rochester, MI. B E A U T I F U L ! It is 73 degrees outside right now. And sunshine. Fabulous sunshine. I am loving it.

And since I promised photos more often...here is one of Miss K after a long crying bout the other night. She is getting her eye teeth and she is not handling it very well at all. I'm not either. The stinker won't go to sleep. She was up until almost 11 last night and woke up in the middle of the night and wouldn't go back to sleep in her bed. We had to bring her into our bed. It's killing me.

It's not so bad...

This weekend, the weather in our part of Michigan was beautiful. It got up into the 50's. People had on their flip flops and springy skirts. I saw a bunch of people in shorts. We were still bundled up though. But the main thing...SUNSHINE! It was so nice. We spend Saturday running some errands. Brian decided that we could upgrade our cell phones, so we went to look at phones. We also found a great shopping area and my all time favorite grcoery store, Trader Joes. We also stopped in at PBK and tried out the Anywhere Chair for Miss K. She has used it at a friend's house and I wanted Brian to see it. There were WAY too many distractions in that store for her. There was a baby stroller in there that she was crazy about. It was hard getting her out of the store without her pitching a fit. I also hit Gymboree to check out the sale stuff. Walked out with ANOTHER Gymbuck. I was going to use it to buy K's Easter dress, but the new line that is coming out is AWESOME, so I will probably spend it all on that! I love Gymboree!

So, I am attending Scrap Etc. Event this week. I can not wait!!! I am riding to Alabama with kellidarrsuperstar and the fabulous JJ, so I am excited about that. I need to spend the next two days getting my stuff together. I am WAY behind. So, instead of packing, what have I done? I made inspiration journals. They aren't beautiful or anything like that. I saw one in Paper Crafts and decided to make one similar to it. I didn't have all the stuff I needed and since I was making 4 of them, I wasn't going to go out and spend a lot of money. I made one for each of my roomies...Susan, Jamey and Kim. I hope they like them! I also need to pack Miss K's stuff because she is going for her first stay away from Mommy and Daddy. She is staying with Brian's parents Wednesday night and Thursday night. Brian will drive up on Friday and spend the weekend with them. I am VERY nervous. And it isn't that I think anything will happen or that my mother in law will do something I don't agree with. I am just nervous about being away from my munchkin for so long.

Oh...did I mention that my husband spilled his LARGE Coke from Wendy's all over my NEW laptop? I was BEYOND pissed at him. Sunday he took the entire thing apart and cleaned it with a Q-tip. Lucky for him, I had the lid shut when he was being a klutz.

Today is a busy day for us. It's LAUNDRY day. I need to get about 10 loads of laundry done, plus all the linens and that includes towels and rugs. So, I better get my rear in gear!

Blog ya later!

We are in Nashville!

It was a pretty easy trip, even with the delay. SWA lost my stroller. Luckily, I bought a cheap $10 umbrella stroller from Target this morning to take to the airport. Still irritates me that they lost it. They gave me a loaner until they find it. It's a pretty nice stroller.

Had some car drama before we got home. Brian got it fixed, but now it is leaking oil. His car HAS to make it until the end of the year. Lucky for us, we are only home a couple of days a month, so we are hoping we can "patch" her up and keep her around until the end of the year.

My house is a pig sty. Tomorrow morning I will be CLEANING. I've got a load of rugs in the washer right now. I am hoping it is nice enough outside tomorrow that we can open all the windows and air the house out. Smells musty. Ick. I am the world's worst house keeper.

So tomorrow I am having lunch with my favortie mommy of 4 boys...Sherri. And I am hitting Hobby Lobby for some retail therapy.

Okay...it is almost 11 Michigan time and I am BEAT. Miss K woke up at 6 this morning and took a very short nap.

Blog ya later...with photos!

I promise...

I will start updating more often. I just haven't had a lot to blog about. I mean...how many times can I complain about how cold it is and how lonely I am? I resolved that it wasn't going to get any better until I did something about it. So I did! Miss K is now taking gymnastics. She is a "tumblebee". Today was our first day. No tumbling was involved for us. She just ran around and picked up all the plates that Miss Linda put down for "spots". But she was SUPER cute looking in her little pink leotard. Looking forward to going back next week. The mommies and kids that we met were really nice.

So, we had a "blind" playdate on Tuesday. It went okay. The little boy is older than Miss K, but she is bigger than he is. But he kept tackling her and kissing her. She wasn't having any of it. His mom finally convinced him to give me the hugs instead of Miss K. She was fine. Until another little boy decided that she was his type and he chased her all around the play area until he caught her and gave her a kiss. Then he was so excited he did a little dance and clapped his hands. His mom and I got a good laugh out of it.

Tomorrow we are going to spend the morning doing laundry and getting stuff packed for our trip to Nashville. I am looking forward to going home. We are going to try and get some stuff done on the house and visit with friends. Lots to do! Then in the afternoon we have another "blind" play date with a little girl.

Thought I would share this photo of Miss K. Monday night I was taking a shower and Brian was "watching" her. When Iturned the water off, K ran to the bathroom to hand me my towel. I yelled for Brian. K took a tub of Vaseline and covered her face, her head and her PJs. We washed her hair 5 times that night and 3 times with Dawn the next morning and it wouldn't come out. So, I went and bought some Neutrogena Anti-Residue shampoo and planned on washing her hair with baking soda and that shampoo. The little trouble maker got into a new thing of Vaseline that I bought when I bought the shampoo! I totally forgot that it was in the Target bag. This time she only got a little on her clothes and her hair. Most of it was on the carpet, coffee table and the dog. Thankfully, the baking soda and shampoo seem to have done the trick.

Can you believe that tomorrow is March 1st? This year seems to be flying by!

Blog ya later!

I am not sure what I feel...

I recently found out that one of my friends is pregnant. (Congratulations Jennie!) She is having twins. I don't evny her that, but I think I am jealous that she is pregnant. WHAT? Where did that come from? If any of you were around me when I was pregnant, you know it was NOT a pleasant situation. I was sick for 38 weeks straight. I had morning sickness at the hospital. Then there were the daily shots in the tummy. Overall, I HATED being pregnant. HATED it. Hated everything about it. When K would kick me, I would get sick to my stomach. Are you getting the sense that I didn't enjoy being pregnant? I remember being at my OB's office for one of my twice weekly non stress test. She walked in to check the monitor and I busted out crying and BEGGED her to send me the hospital and induce me. I was only 36 weeks and she was not doing to grant my request no matter how much I begged and pleaded. I know by the end of my pregnancy, she was ready for me to done too. Hollye = not a good patient. It is not something I would every willingly do again. Right??? I mean, the outcome was amazing. I've got this beautiful, funny little munchkin running around my house calling me "Hawee" and giving me sloppy kisses whenever she gets the urge. I can't even describe the feeling I get when someone tells me that she looks just like me. (Even though I think she looks like Brian.)

I am not sure what I am feeling. I need to sit down and have a long talk with myself about it. Brian just tells me that he will be happy with whatever I want. And I know that is true. He loves K like crazy. And she is a handful. Then there is whole doctor "you shouldn't have another baby" thing I need to deal with. The oncologist said no more. Guess I need to do some research on that. Then there is the whole heart issue. Some of you may or may not know this. K is not my first child. My first child, Jonah had a heart defect that was not compatible with life. And even though K does not have anything wrong with her heart, the defect is hereditary and the chances that another child would have it actually go up after you have one heart healthy child. When I was doing the research on Jonah's condition, I came across families that had more than one child with a heart defect. And not minor ones. Major life threatening conditions.

Lots of things that need to be considered. And before anyone says "all pregnancies are different", my pregnancy with Jonah was just as bad as K's, but without the shots.

Okay...I am off. All my scrappy Tennessee friends are hanging out at J's and I am jealous. I am gonna go scrapbook with my dogs for company. Pity Party for one!

Still cold...

For some reason, it is wicked cold outside right now. Brian came in from walking the dogs and I thought he had frostbite on his ears. Crazy!!!

Today was another PJ day. Both mommy and baby were sick. We both took a nice long nap.

So, yesterday we headed to Panera for lunch. Now, while I am not as obsessed with Panera as Sherri is, I do love their creamy chicken and wild rice soup. I love it even move in a bread bowl. So, came home and hunted for the recipe on line. I found something similar to it.

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice
(like Panera)

INGREDIENTS
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
2 cooked, boneless chicken breast halves, shredded
1 (4.5 ounce) package quick cooking long grain and wild rice with seasoning packet
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter
2 cups heavy cream

DIRECTIONS
In a large pot over medium heat, combine broth, water and chicken. Bring just to boiling, then stir in rice, reserving seasoning packet. Cover and remove from heat.
In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper and flour. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in contents of seasoning packet until mixture is bubbly. Reduce heat to low, then stir in flour mixture by tablespoons, to form a roux. Whisk in cream, a little at a time, until fully incorporated and smooth. Cook until thickened, 5 minutes.
Stir cream mixture into broth and rice. Cook over medium heat until heated through, 10 to 15 minutes.

Guess what I will be making this weekend? :) I am going to run by Panera and pick up some bread bowls. I need to grocery shop this weekend. I need to find Wal-Mart around here. Groceries here are more expensive than what I am use to. I thought I was crazy at first, but I found a receipt in my purse from before we moved and I bought some of the same things and they were more expensive.

Saturday my husband is taking me to Hobby Lobby. Yep..you read that right. The nearest HL is an hour away. I don't even know if this store is even worth is, but we are going to try it out anyway. We've got a ton of errands to run, so we will just make a day of it. I've already told Miss K if she is good, we will go and get Beary Bear a new outfit at Build-A-Bear. He is still wearing his V-day pj's. He needs some new clothes.

Okay...off to bed. Blog ya later!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hi there! I hope that your Valentine's Day is full of love and chocolate! We are having a PJ day here in Michigan. We got about 6 inches of snow yesterday, so we are staying in for the day. I've got plenty to work on, so that's a good thing.

So, yesterday K and I went to the mall. This place is just like Opry Mills. But..they have a Gymboree Outlet. YES! I got Kennedy 5 outfits for $70. These are for next Fall. They are putting their spring stuff on sale Thursday. They also have what I think is the biggest ever Children's Place. It is..SERIOUSLY 10 times bigger than the one at Cool Springs. They have all the new stuff and then they have a ton of stuff from last seaons for 99 cents! Everything that was on clearance was an additional 50% off. We played in the play area and she was so funny. She hadn't seen any "kids" since she was in Nashville. She played so hard. I have GOT to find some friends for her.

On the way home I started thinking...I've not seen a Chick-f-la since I got here. Well...there is a reason for that! The only one in this area is at the college and that is it! The next one is like 150 miles away. I AM GOING TO DIE! How am I going to scrapbook without my sweet tea? Oh well!

So, today I am 35 years old. That sounds so old. We are going to try and go out for an early dinner tonight at some place easy...like Chili's. Let me tell you...having a birthday on Valentine's Day is not fun. You can never go out to dinner without it being a major hassle. I think we are going to dinner at like 5. Okay...I must go. K is emptying out all the drawers in the bathroom and bringing it all to me in the living room. She is so helpful!

So, check out these vidoes I took of K yesterday. She is a HOOT.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Catch Up

Well, we made it to Michigan. Miss K did great and made herself at home from the minute we walked into the door. I think she likes the fact that everything is on one story. The weather has started to heat up. The night we arrived, it got down to -8. And the heat wasn't working. It actually got up to 22 yesterday...a heat wave! The furnace was fixed the day after we got here. It's all good now. Here is a photo of her on the plane. As much as I complain about the crazy Doodlebops, they kept her entertained the entire flight from Nashville to Detroit.

While Miss K is adjusting just fine, I am having a hard time. I don't want to go outside because it is FREAKING cold! I've been to the grocery store twice and both times were bad experiences. Nothing like having some one make fun of the way you talk. I asked some jerk who worked there where the pie crust were. He laughed in my face and then mocked me. I have not made any friends here because honestly it is too dang cold! I did post something on 2Peas looking for someone in the area that I am in. I got a response from someone, so I am hoping to join her group for a crop later this month. I am going to check out one of the scrapbook stores next week. The maid comes on Tuesday, so Miss K and I will head out and run errands and do our grocery shopping.

I've not been spending much time on the computer these days. K and I usually try to turn the webcam on first thing about 8ish so that we can talk/see my dad in Qatar. Then I usually don't get on the computer until K is napping or down for the night. I realized I was spending WAY too much time on my computer and not enough time doing things that needed to be done. I'll blog more about that later.

Brian brought all my scrapbook stuff in last night and put my bookcase back together. My table is all set up. We are headed out to visit my inlaws for the weekend. I can't wait because we are celebrating my birthday early. So, when we get back, I am going to get everything wiped down and organized. i can't wait to actually start scrapbooking again. It's been a LONG time.

Well, I gotta run. I've got a load of diapers in the washing machine, a batch of cookies waiting to go into the oven, a suitcase that needs to be packed and a child that just ran pass and made it apparent that she is in dire need of a diaper change.