Friday, June 24, 2011

Aren't Fridays supposed to be more fun?

This explains the state of my day perfectly:
Sigh.  If only I could just give up on those things that are wearing me down right now. 

However, I get to go home in about an hour and see my hubs and my babe and that always cheers me up!
Hopefully this weekend has better days for me!

Come Monday, I will be ready to tackle all things grad school once again. 
I will, I will, I will ...

Image from: http://imgfave.com/view/1136557,
found via http://www.luvinthemommyhood.com/2011/06/weekend-wishes_24.html,
modified at www.picnik.com

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Our first Luau

One of Miss T's bff's from church turned one last week.  So you might be thinking, "Ok, cute little one year old birthday party.  Probably a cute little bug or animal theme."  But, no.  See, M's parents are from Hawaii and they have a custom of throwing an amazing luau for their babies to celebrate the milestone of turning one.

Here's a picture of the inside of the function hall:


Yep, that's an authentic ukelele band way in the back.  They were amazing!

There was a lot going on outside too!  Water slide, moon bounce, fishing prize game, baby sprinkle pool (similar to this one, I will have to look into this for next year!).  It was amazing.

Unfortunately, Miss T was having a bad teething day.  Little girl wouldn't eat and was just so uncomfortable.  I felt so bad.  I was willing to do anything to make her smile.  Unfortunately, some of that got caught on film.

B loved that a picture was taken of me right at that moment.  Can ya tell?

Well, even the fishy face didn't cheer up poor Miss T.  We headed home soon after that.  We heard the rest of the luau was amazing and the cake was great (I didn't even stay for cake!  Me!  Can you believe it?)  We can only hope there will be more of these lovely events! 

A huge thanks to our hosts, the Spains, for inviting us and including us in their little girl's special day! 
Hau'oli lā hānau, M! (Happy Birthday M!)

BTW, I'm linking up this post with The Anderson Crew for Embrace the Camera Day (Yay! Emily is back!).  I figure this is a good one for T to see the lengths that I am willing to embarass myself for her! :)


Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Tuesday Ten

I try to keep up with a great blog named "Under the Table and Dreaming" by Stephanie Lynn.

She posts so many great ideas and collects a bunch from the blogging world!

She's starting a new linky party, "Tuesday Ten" that sounds fun.  Ten little things that normally wouldn't make up an entire post but we like to share anyways.  I thought it sounded fun, so here we go!

UndertheTableandDreaming


1~ Yellow thumb?  I have never been good at keeping up with plants.  Every attempt to grow herbs, veggies, etc. has failed fantastically.  My indoor plants have a constant rotation of watered to withered.  If it's not crying, meowing, or barking, I just don't have the attention span to remember to water/feed it!  However, I have been able, somehow, to keep a couple of my outdoor plants alive.  Maybe it is the fact that I see them every single day as they greet me home at my front door.  One is a Chrysanthemum that B gave me for our anniversary almost two years ago and the other is the hydrangea that he gave me for my first mother's day last year. I didn't expect these to come back at all!  My hydrangea surprised us when we returned from vacation with tons of beautiful blooms and the mum is full and lush and ready for it's blooming season!  Woohoo!

Taken with my iPhone.  Still getting used to it!


2~ Latest project.  B's cousin is getting married this fall to a girl I just adore!  I only met her in person a month ago, but felt like I knew her forever from facebook!  Crazy!  Anyways, I thought it would be A-Dorable if Miss T, and her cousins, K, M1 and M2 all coordinated!  (Cousin D will be here too by then, but might be too young for a tie! :)  Maybe I'll make him an appliqued tie onsie, hmmm).  I picked up some super cute green with purple polka dot fabric with coordinating purple satin.  I just finished cutting out all the material for the dresses the other day.  Now, if Miss T gives me a chance, I'm going to try and get some sewing done!  I'm making party dresses for the older girls, a pillowcase dress for the baby girl, and ties for the boys.  Not sure if I'm doing long ties or bow ties.


3~ Have I mentioned how much I love my iPhone?  Oh, I did?  Yesterday?  Anyway, the case I ordered came (yep, ordered the day before - I love amazon!).  It looks super cute!  It was waiting for me when I got home and I just had to get it on right away.  Don't worry Miss T, I know I haven't seen you all day, but Mummy just got her iPhone case and it needs to be put on right away!  Poor girl.  Once I realized where my attention was, I quickly put it down, picked her up and covered her in smooches.  Thanks for the reality check!


4~ ...Smooches. Does anyone else have this issue?  I cannot stop smooching my little one!  Poor thing is covered in kisses all the time!  Have I mentioned that she gives kisses now?  So cute.  She smiles so big afterwards, like she knows how happy she just made you.  Gosh, I adore that girl!

5~ Landlords.  We're getting ready for our first official tenant!  We inherited the last one when we bought the house, so this is new territory for us.  I spent an hour cleaning yesterday evening.  AZ had left it in pretty good shape, I just needed to cleanup those places that you generally forget to clean, like the top of the oven hood, etc.  Beautiful evening that it was, I kept the door open and let the "fresh" air flow.  OK, city air, but still.  I just hope no one was offended by me singing away with my iPhone playing my Pandora Glee station!


6~ Daydreams.  We're still adjusting to being back from vacation.  Is it sad that it depresses me that my summer vacation is over already and all I have to look forward to now are hot, humid, sticky city days?  Spent my lunch today daydreaming with  my friend L about where we would go right now if we could just blink ourselves there.  Here's the short list: on safari in Nairobi, Blue Hole in Belize, Fiji in one of those huts at the end of a pier with a glass floor.





7~ Summer project?  I've been thinking about cleaning out our basement.  When we moved in, we thought we'd only be there for a year and decided to only unpack those things that were essential.  Fast forward 5 years, we're still there and those boxes are still there, along with all kinds of stuff.  It also looks like a used baby supply store.  Wondering if I could tackle a big project like that this summer, get it cleaned out, spruced up and turn it into a cute welcoming craft area with some storage.

Wouldn't this be an amazing place to create in?
source: http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2010/01/craft_spaces_betz_white.html


8~ Since Miss T was 12 weeks old, our dear friend Colleen has watched her while I finish school (just 6 more months!!).  I couldn't have imagined a better person to take care of my precious bundle.  While there were more than a few tears in the beginning, I never worried about Miss T.  I knew she was in very capable hands and was well taken care of and loved so much during the day.  Well, Friday was Colleen's last day watching T.  She's being called to serve in East Baltimore, reaching out to people that most of us would cross the street to get away from, homeless, prostitutes, drug dealers, while at the same time starting up a children's ministry.  She's amazing I tell ya!  We're so sad that she's leaving us, but we know she's on the right path.  Miss T will be in the care of Kathleen, a college student that serves in the above mentioned children's ministry with us, for the rest of the summer.  What happens after that remains to be seen.  I'll be making a few more phone calls today - I'm sure with much better results than last Thursday!  I'll keep you posted!

9~ Tumblelina.  Miss T is turning into an active little lady!  She loves our game of "upside down baby".  Basically, we just turn her upside down and yell "Upside down baby!".  I know, pretty self explanatory.  She loves it.  I started this other game to make falling down on her bum fun where she stands up in front of me, falls back onto me and laughs.  It's kind of backfired in that now, she doesn't want to stand, she just falls back onto me.  I think I need to get her into a toddler tumbler class ASAP.  Any suggestions?


10~  Family date nights.  We just had some fun family date nights last week!  Friday, we had dinner at our pastor's house.  I love them!  He's fun, his wife is such a sweetheart, and their kids are awesome.  It was so nice to escape the city and enjoy suburbia for a little while.  Sunday, we joined some friends for dinner after church.  That was interesting.  They have four kids and they do this regularly!  We're lucky if we can get through lunch at Panera.  We were quite a sight!  It was a little overwhelming for me.  Miss T decided not to eat and to test out her lung capacity.  Poor nearby restaurant patrons!  It was great to spend time with out friends though.  J is an inspiration.  Sweet, funny, super nice, and somehow, even managing four kids, she still finds time to blog!  Check her out here.   These kinds of dates are my favorite because we're altogether.  There are just too many tears when B and I go out on our own (and those are just mine!).

Well, that's my ten.  You may find follow ups to some of these later.  Hopefully a trip to Belize! : )
(yep, still daydreaming....)

I linked this up over at Stephanie Lynn's.  Go check out some other ten-spots!

Friday, June 17, 2011

Daycare Blues

This week's focus has been on finding daycare for my baby.  Not an easy task made more difficult by living in a city like mine.  I spent the day on Tuesday calling nearly 20 places only to find two that had openings!

I visited those places yesterday and the results were less than appealing.

Let's just start by saying that yesterday was a bad day all around.  I had to bring our little Joey in for dental surgery at 8:00 am.  I cried when they counselled me about the risks of anesthesia.  I am completely aware of all these risks already, so I'm not sure why I started crying.  (He did fine, one tooth pulled and a deep scaling.  Poor baby!)  Next I get to work only to spend the day trying to order the one test that I need to complete my manuscript for a journal article.  My boss has been MIA for three weeks now, the ordering account is expired and I'm stuck.  Grrr.

Anyways, the first place was overwhelmingly loud, not secure, and there were people outside at a bus stop drinking from a paper bag and swearing all over the place.  Not sure why I did, but I scolded the man dropping F-bombs like it was his job.  I mean seriously, have some tact in front of little ears!

The second place was in a home daycare in a dark, semi-finished basement and the kids were all watching a movie.  I mean, television was built into their schedule!  On occasion I let Miss T watch TV (I can count it on my two hands), but to have it as part of her daily routine?

I felt bad about having such negative feelings for both.  At both places, the women were super nice.  I would have no problem with them coming to my house to watch Miss T.  But the thought of me leaving her in either place had me sobbing in my car.

Well, we picked up Joey and went home.  It was late and I still had to bring Druha to the park and it was about to start raining.  I checked the radar and figured we had about 20-30 minutes.  Just enough time for a quick run around the park and walk home.  Nope.  As my day would have it, we got caught in a RIDICULOUS down pour.  I couldn't even see with all the water pouring down and getting into my eyes.  Miss T was screaming, soaked and shivering.  We tried to run for it, but since I was so blinded, we instead hid out under the deck of one of my neighbors.  After a few minutes, it let up enough that we could finish our run home.  No bath needed that night!  Poor thing, Miss T was so cold, I raced her upstairs, dried her off and put her in long sleeved and long pant PJs.  After all that, I burned her dinner.  Cannot get a break.

My wonderful, patient husband brought home dinner for us.  He let me cry and sulk and just be mad about the day. 

In my broken down state, I finally reached out in desperation.  This is a turning point for me.  I have always been of the mind set that if it can be done, I can do it myself without any help.  I have such a hard time asking for anything!  At this point, I was desperate and I sent a group email to the ladies of my church that work in the nurseries with me.  The response was amazing.  I literally sent the email right before bed and I had at least three responses before I even got under the covers!  These women are amazing!  They are praying for us to find a solution and offering recommendations and solutions themselves!  I am in a completely different mind set today than I was yesterday because of all of their encouragement!  I am taking this as a lesson to me that I need to be able to reach out more when I need help, and to be able to recognize when I can't do it myself.

I'm sure my husband will smile when he reads this as this is a lesson that I've needed to learn for a long, long, time.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

I'm a changed woman!

and  much smarter one at that!

I've joined the elite ranks of smart phone users.

Woohoo!

I am totally loving my new iphone4 in white. GORGEOUS!

I really tried not to get too excited about it.  yeah, yeah, so I can send an email as easily as a text message now and there are a bazillion apps to choose from for anything I could possibly think of.  yawn.

And then, I purchased my phone...



Oh man!  I love this thing!  I'm really trying not to go app crazy and am limiting myself to only free apps, but WOW! 

I love how it looks!  I love how it feels!  I love how it sounds!

Did I mention that my battery on my iPod died yesterday?  Never fear, my iPhone is my iPod now too!

I just ordered some screen protectors and a beautiful green case for it so I can protect my little investment.  Ordered yesterday on Amazon, shipped yesterday.

(side note: have you checked out Amazon Mom yet?  Do it!  Free shipping, free Amazon prime upgrade, discounts on diapers, wipes, etc. all delivered to your door!)

Anyways, what apps have you found indispensable?  I have weatherbug, ESPN scoreboard (for B), fb, cnn, southwest, and skype.

Yeah, did I mention I can skype from my phone!!!  Yeah facetime!

Any other suggestions for a newbie?  I've already included a pin code lock.  Never mind my phone getting stolen, Miss T  has placed a few too many calls on my last phone - at 6 am!

Monday, June 13, 2011

ahhhh... vacation...

So... Did you miss me?

Well, we're back.

Can't say that I'm too pleased.

We spent a week in Corrolla, NC. (If you're pronouncing it like a small car, you're saying it wrong, it's more like "Holla!")  What a week it was!  Pool swimming, wave riding, body surfing, sunning, sand castle building.  The best part was just being together every day for a whole week!  No meetings, no work, no annoying errands.  Just wake up, play, nap, play some more and then sleep. And that wasn't just Miss T's schedule!

Speaking of schedules, Miss T made the conversion to a one-nap day.  It was actually pretty painless.  She was fighting the second nap all the week before and so we just went with it.  Turns out, she'd much rather take one 3-hour nap in the afternoon, than 2 2-hour naps.  So we've switched and it seems to be working out pretty well, so far.

Other milestones:
Miss T is getting 8 more teeth at the moment.  yep, she already has 8 and now she's getting 8 more, 4 of them being molars!  Yikes!
Miss T is taking up to 20-ish steps when going between me and B, but has yet to get up the courage to just walk to where she wants to go.  Any day now...
Miss T is picking up signing!  She knows milk and more (even tries to say more!) and we're working in thank you and hungry.

I have some milestones too! 
-Right before our vacation, I was approved to defend my thesis in 6 months!  Yay!  We are expecting early December for a defense date!  Woohoo!
-Still no progress on the day care search.  I'm working on it, I promise.  I just hate this task sooo much!

So I just wanted to let you know we were still here, still kicking!  I'll have more to post very soon.  Lots of things to share!  In the meantime, here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the OBX!


 Seriously, does it get any cuter than this?!

 Giving the beach kisses goodbye. :(  This was our last morning here on our way home.

 Our official one year milestone picture!  We took one like this at 6 months too. 
I plan to have one like this to mark how much she has grown over the years compared to us. 
Thanks to my cousin Becky for the inspiration!

 Oh Druha.  Doing what you do best! 
Looking sad even though you might be the most loved dog in the world!

 Making friends on the beach. 
Miss T seems to be saying, "This is my dog, Druha.  Isn't he the best?!"

Our first day in OBX.  A very nice lady offered to take this picture
of my beautiful family as we went to the beach for the first time this summer.