New Do

You can't really tell from the picture, but my hair is ALL in layers now. Not to mention about 3-4 inches shorter in the overall length.

And on and on it goes...

We had a pretty good weekend. Didn't leave the house at all except to go to church and lunch with the IL's. Steven didn't even do that - he was having some major sinus issues (YUCK!). In fact, on Saturday I will admit, I never got out of my jammies. I had not done that in a really long time.....it felt GREAT!!! I did a couple loads of laundry, the dishes, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, read a book, played with Emma and believe it or not..........I actually cooked. Nothing fancy, but I did make dinner and dessert. (I even did it again Sunday night.) Emma did not sleep well at all Saturday night so her and I were up at 3:30 in the morning. Needless to say, once we got home from lunch, both of us crashed. I only slept a couple of hours, but Emma slept for almost FOUR hours!!

Now can anyone explain this to me..........I had to go to traffic school (yes....I got a ticket). It's not like they call you a couple of days before you are supposed to be there and tell you to show up on such and such a day for x number of hours. No...........they send you a letter weeks in advance telling you when, where and for how long. Well, originally I was going to go on a Saturday, but it conflicted with my nephews birthday party so I called to reschedule it. I decided that I didn't want to waste a weekend sitting in traffic school (yes.......I know I shouldn't go that fast), so I asked to reschedule it during the week. During all of this, Steven is constantly asking me if I got my letter yet and when am I scheduled to go. The letter comes fairly quickly........he was home and is actually the one that opened it. He gives it to me and I turn around and immediately put it on the calendar. You know, the one he has to walk by like 40 times a day going in and out of the kitchen. He tells me some other dates that he is going to be gone, but says that he will be home that day and I can work until it is time for me to go to traffic school (yes...........I will try to go slower from now on). So this past Friday, Steven tells me he is going to be gone Monday night. WHAT!!!! I kindly remind him that he can't be gone.........he tells me that he 'forgot' and it wasn't on his calendar. You have got to be kidding me! He can't reschedule it, so he leaves incredibly early yesterday morning and I pack up a bag for Emma and I take her to school and I go to work. I make sure I am in my vehicle at exactly 4:30 to go get her some dinner, pick her up from school and take her to Grandma's house. I have to say, I was incredibly grateful for the rain yesterday. Not only did we need it, but it meant that the kids could not play outside so she was actually clean!!!! (I really did not know how I was going to get her bathed, dried and get me to that class on time.) But, it all worked out and I got there a few minutes early. It was a really, really long night and by the time I got Emma picked up and got us home and unloaded it was almost 11:00 p.m. And do you think Emma slept all night..........NO! She woke up at three with her legs hurting again! It was almost five before she fell back to sleep. Needless to say, we overslept this morning..........oops! But.......................how on earth do men forget things like that. Before I got the letter he asked about it constantly. How hard is it to check a calendar that you walk by frequently to see what is going on in our lives? (Can you tell I am still a little frustrated!). All of it could have been avoided easily, if he had just checked the calendar in the house against his or checked with me before he scheduled an overnight trip. Anyway, it all worked out, I completed traffic school (yes.......I know I can't take it again for a year), I survived the crazy night and he got home and all is good again. But seriously....how :-) Hee Hee........wait until he finds out I am wanting to go on a scrapbooking retreat for 3 days this fall! Love you honey!

She's Gotta Dance

Emma started dance lessons last night.  She was all excited to be able to go dance with her friend Allison.  Us mommies were able to watch them last night and take pictures, but going forward we won't be able to see in except for once a month(apparently all of us standing outside the studio window is distracting to the little ones). 

I was very impressed by how well the little girls did.  I took a LOT of pictures, but I won't bore you with all of them.  Here are some of the highlights.

Emma all dressed and ready to go...

 

Emmaline and Allison waiting 'patiently' to dance while Ms. Char goes through the roll call.

 

The girls doing exactly what Ms. Char told them to do.

She was having soooo much fun!

Emma watching herself in the mirror.

I just love the look of concentration on her face in this one.

Steven got there for the last few minutes of her class.  She just happened to look up through the window and saw him.  You could see her say, "My Daddy is here!"  As soon as class let out and she came out of the room, she ran right to him.  It was pretty cute!

 

Have a good weekend everyone.

They won again!

Well, right after I took the pictures in the previous post, Emma's nose started to run. (and I am serious about the 'right after').  She was literally fine one minute and the next she wasn't.  Allergies!!!  I am sooooo tired of them.  By the time she went to bed Sunday night, she was coughing, sneezing and had a constant runny nose.  Needless to say, we did not get a lot of sleep (like maybe 3 hours).  So once I finally got myself going, I decided just to bring her to work with me, so that I could keep an eye on her and make sure she got her meds when she was supposed to have them. 

Luckily, I am fortunate to have a job where on occasion, I can bring her to work with me.  I have a small loveseat in my office and I have it set up for her for when she is here.  There is a small tv with a VCR in it and I have brought some of my old VHS movies from home to keep here for her.  As soon as I told her she was going to work with Mommy, she says....'I can watch Snow White.'  And she did.....THREE times!

She is so content.  Notice she has her favorite napping blanket (a Baby Snoopy quilt), her favorite stuffed animal 'Brown Dog', her princess figurines, a root beer from Sonic, and some new 'Nemo lipsticks' (chapsticks).

After lunch, Miss Geneva, had a surprise waiting for Emma on the couch. A puppet (Emma loves puppets!).  They named her Rachel and Geneva taught her how to make Rachel 'talk'.

Emma was so good all day.  She even took a 2 hour nap!  I got a lot done (Yeah me!) and I was able to spend the day with her (Yeah me!)  So while her allergies may have won again, I won too!

Sunday Smiles

Emma was all smiles as we were leaving for church.  She absolutely loves going to Sunday School.  And although it is incredibly hard for me to get myself up and going and to get both of us (her and I....Steven can fend for himself) all dolled up for church, I do my best each week.  Her smiles and giggles as we were leaving made it all the rushing around worthwhile.

This next picture makes me realize that she is no longer a baby...but what a pretty girl she is becoming (at least her Daddy & I think so!).

Thanks for the smiles, my sweet daughter! I love you!

Happy Birthday Grandma & Ethan

My MIL and my nephew share a birthday.  I always thought it was special that her first grandchild arrived on her birthday.  What a special gift!

On Sunday after church the entire family went out to eat to celebrate her birthday.  She had all 4 of her children there along with the spouses, 3 of her grandchildren and her great-granddaughter.

Uncle Michael was entertaining the girls while we were waiting for our food. 

 

Michael took the girls to the other end of the table to sing to Grandma.

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

On Monday, we went out to celebrate Ethan's birthday.  It is hard to believe that he is 4 already.  

Happy Birthday Ethan!!

 

I think Ethan is giving Emma some pointers on how to drive the tractor.

This last picture, I just put in because I thought the sunset was so pretty.  I took it right before I took a bunch of pictures of Ethan and Emma.

It has been another crazy week in my little corner of the world.  I am just thankful that I have survived it :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Post #4 - Cousins at play

I am sooooooooo behind in my blogging, so I am going to attempt to get caught up all at once.  I am going to use the date I should have posted it (is that cheating), but really, I have done it all in one fell swoop :-)  Happy reading....

This week-end, Steven's oldest brother and his wife came down for the week-end with their grand-daughter (yes you read that right).  Leah was born 3 weeks after Emma (so I became a great-aunt right after I became a Mommy).  They had a BIG time playing together.

Tickle Time.....

They each had to put a little ball under their clothing....in the back...'baby got back'...it was pretty fun.

  

We took them outside for a few minutes to play.  I tried to get a few pictures of them...........I took about 50 and this was the best one.  Neither one of them would sit still.

Finally at the end of the evening....with both of them in their jammies.....and a Dora DVD in.......they slowed down.

Saying goodnight to Steven and Grandpa (or Great Grandpa)

I have one more post I need to do, but it is going to have to wait until later.  I hope everyone has had a good August so far.

Have a good week ladies!

Post #3 - I'm a big girl now!

I let Emma ride in the front seat from the restaurant to Steven's office Friday night. Now before anyone jumps all over me.......his office was behind the restaurant, so it was only going from one parking lot to the next one......we never got out on the 'open road'. But she sure thought she was something else. She did figure out pretty quickly that she could not really see much from this vantage point. But she thought the clouds were pretty. :-)

Post #2 - Mommy played Hooky with Emma

Monday dawned, and it was a beautiful sunny day.  It was hot, but not overly humid (for August at least) and it wasn't raining.  I found out our favorite 'staycation' home was available and I packed up Emma, our suits, towels, sunscreen, books, lunch and afternoon snacks and a change of clothes and off we went to relax and go swim.  My SIL took off from work early and joined us for part of the afternoon and once Steven was done with work for the day he came up to spend a little quality time with his little girl.  It was one of those perfect days.  Here are a couple of pics from the day.  I didn't take too many pictures, because I was having too much fun.

  Do not ask me how Steven got himself in this pick tube (or why he decided on the pink on instead of the green one) or how he got  himself out of it.  I thought he looked pretty funny myself. :-)

Post #1 - The View from the Side View Mirror

I have mentioned before that my time in my vehicle is often my quiet time.  The time when I plan my day, think on the events of the day (or day before) and pray.  I spend a LOT of time driving each week, so it has worked out pretty well for me.  I have spent some time lately 'looking back' on my life and the events in my life that have gotten me to where I am today.  I guess you could say I have been in a reflective mood.  As I was preparing to change lanes and I looked in my side view mirror, this is what I saw.  It startled me, I pulled over onto the shoulder and had to pull out my camera. 

The picture really does not do it justice.  It was beautiful.  God's beauty is all around me.  God is all around me.  I am always telling Emma that God is everywhere.  Guess I just needed a little reminder myself.