34 Minus 1 Day

Because tomorrow is my birthday.  And so I figured I'd make that my post title. 

It's hard to believe this was already 4 years ago.  I mean, seriously!?!  My life has changed a lot in 4 years.  And it's about to change a whole lot more...

So, first of all, I should tell you all about our adventures.  But that would take forty forevers, so I won't.  We survived being kicked out of our house temporarily.  We were out for 8 days.  And we were so thankful for the amazing friends who welcomed us.  It was so nice -- like a bed and breakfast, really.  And after hearing the horror stories from the other tenants who took the offered hotel option...  Yeah, I am even more grateful for what we had.  It was still challenging at times.  Hard for me to know what to do with myself day in and day out not being in my own house.  It was kind of like vacation -- but not.  Lynnaea loved it, because there were new people around a lot -- not just boring old mommy in the evenings. 

Gosh, I really haven't blogged in a while...  So this picture is from the ferry when we were on our way to Jeremy's family's reunion that takes place in October every year.  I think it's the only picture I got of the whole day.  I've become a lame picture-taker...  Unless it's food, I guess.  Anyway, this was the Saturday before we started staying with friends.

The Monday after we started staying with friends, I took Lynnaea to a local park to play with some other kids.  It happened to be Columbus Day, so the schools were out and there were tons of kids there.  She had fun.

 Here's the only picture I took while we stayed at our friends' house.  Lynnaea looks thrilled, doesn't she?

 Then this past weekend, I went with Lea to Seattle.  We went to see Beauty and Beast.  It was awesome.  Want to know what wasn't awesome?

This:

This was the P.F. Changs I had before we went to the play.  So here's the thing:  I've been wanting to try P.F. Changs for some time now.  And so Lea and I decided to go there before the play (with plans to hit up Cheesecake Factory afterwards -- it's all about partying on one's birthday, right?).  Lea and I got the exact same thing.  Like right down to the soup. 

Lea's was fine.  Mine.  Was not.

I managed to make it through the play (thankfully!).  But we skipped Cheesecake, because I didn't know if I'd make it.  For a while there, as we trudged our way back to the ferry, I thought I was going to toss my cookies on the streets of Seattle.  Because there were no garbage cans anywhere that I could see.  Believe me, I looked.  But then I felt better.  So we stopped into a Starbucks (probably the only one in creation without a bathroom, I might add) for some water.  And by then, I was feeling bad again.  Really bad.  And so...  I threw up in the garbage can.  And chased off the clientele (sorry people I don't know).  And made them close.  20 minutes early.  Embarrassing.  I felt so bad.  But there was nothing I could do.  I felt a million times better after that.  And so we got to the ferry terminal.  Where someone else wasn't having such a great time of things either....  I don't think she had P.F. Changs though.  Apparently she'd been drinking.  A lot.  So she puked all over the ferry terminal and then passed out.  That was adventurous to see.  Eventually the paramedics came and took her.  We learned a lesson though:  don't be near death at the ferry terminal.  It takes the ambulance so long to get there, you'll probably die.

And the fun wasn't over for me...  I also tossed more cookies at the ferry terminal.  Fortunately I was not suffering from alcohol poisoning, so I could make it to the bathroom.  And then 3 or 4 more times on the ferry.  And then once when I got home.  It's not fun to be sick when you're the mommy and your husband's at work.  Because you still have to keep doing the stuff you have to do to take care of your munchkin.

Anyway, after all that puking, I had managed to purge whatever bad food and bacteria had been ailing me.  And while my stomach wasn't happy...  At least it wasn't rebelling against me anymore.  Because that was lame.  I went to bed and started Sunday with small amounts of bland food.

So, yeah...  I really wanted to like P.F. Changs...  But food poisoning kind of makes that impossible.  So I won't be going there again.  I'm glad Lea's was fine.  To be honest, mine tasted weird.  I kept checking the beef for doneness...  Perhaps I should have been smart enough to stop eating it...  Novel idea.

But the play was awesome.  I'd highly recommend it. 

And isn't she a cute cool kid?  Love this baby!

And here's a few of Lynnaea in her newest "toy" from Costco.  She sits in it like a chair.  And I think it's the cutest things ever.

Please take note of her hair...  That's some mommy skills.  Jeremy was unimpressed.  Fortunately for him I know some hairdresser friends.  So today, after lunch with my former co-workers at the County, one of them fixed the bangs for me.

She is so pretty.  So cute.  Even if I'm a little biased ;).  I can't believe she's growing up so fast.  She amazes me every day.

And so...  our next adventure (assuming all goes well):

Hormone levels were in the normal range (but that's a huge range).  And I hope to know more soon, just for the sake of knowing.  Sure, it's a risk to announce at this point (8 weeks).  But there is a life, and I am choosing to celebrate.  Not everyone feels the same as I do, nor do I think everyone should.  I think people should do what's right for them.  But this is what I want to do.  And we'll hope :).  Because there's every reason to.  (By the way, this explains my lack of motivation to blog -- or do much of anything else these days.  Seriously...  I nap a lot.  I'm exhausted!)

Re-Locating

...Now don't go gettin' all excited that we are movin' to Alabama.  It'd be cool.  But it's not happening... yet ;).  (Actually we don't know where we'll end up...  Could be Alaska for all I know!)

But we are relocating.  Temporarily.  And I'm so not looking forward to it. 

Jeremy says I should think of it like a vacation.  Except it isn't. 

So what gives?  Well, miracle of miracles, they are finally working on our stairs!  And while this is a most blessed event (trust me, the ghetto-fabulous look was getting real old), it comes with its own fair share of inconvenience.  The largest of which is the whole "we have to remove access to all the units, so you can either stay in a hotel paid for by us or you can take cash and make your own arrangements" thing.

We're taking the cash. 

Because who wants to live out of a hotel with a mini fridge and microwave for 10 days with a toddler!?!  Perish the thought!  (Am I playing up the dramatic?)

Fortunately for us, we have some amazing friends.  Our friends Mark and Amalea have invited us to stay in their basement which has a bedroom and a full bathroom and a large space for a toddler to play.  Not that we aren't allowed upstairs ;)...  We are.  But that will be our little "home away from home."  And it means Jeremy's commute doesn't have to turn into a 45-minute each way nightmare (which would have been the case if we'd have stayed with his parents).  Especially since he's on swing shift and isn't getting home much before midnight. 

So yeah...  We have amazing friends.  We are blessed.

In other news... I think I have lost my mind.  Due to the fact that I wanted to find out some information for myself without spending a lot of money to do so...  I am in the middle of planning a vendor event for December.  What possessed me to head something like this up?  I have no idea.  Well, I do.  But now I think I was just crazy.  So, here's to hoping it will be THRIVEing for all involved!  Thank goodness for my sister-in-law Gwen who is helping me.  Just the fact that she's involved gives me great peace -- because she's way more go-with-the-flow than I am ;).

Oh yeah...  And Jeremy may or may not have hurt his ankle at work the other night...  Should make for loads of fun when we're temporarily moving this Friday...  Let the good times roll!

Oh, so do you need some pictures :)?  Cool....  Because Lynnaea and I -- we like to take selfies.  A lot.  Have I mentioned she is the awesomest ever?  Even when she wakes up at 11 p.m. and won't go back to sleep until after midnight -- after you put her in bed with you and the hubby...  Yeah, that happened.  It's okay.  She's worth it.

If you're Lynnaea, the object in her hand is alternately an object that makes the DVD stop playing (which she thinks is hilarious) or a phone.  Which I think is hilarious.  It's a win/win.

Mostly her facial expression in this one cracks me up.  She's like, "Okay Mom...  I'm done with this."

7 Years

I have no idea why I'm still awake.  Because I'm a night-owl, I suppose.  And because my husband is still at work (and probably will be until midnight -- good times!).  I should be asleep.  Because my munchkin doesn't care when I went to sleep the night before.  She'll wake up at 7 or 7:30.  And she'll be so happy.

Which is good, because it makes me happy too :).  Her happy squeals from her crib that wake me up make forcing myself out of bed a not-so-bad thing.  I actually smile as I hear her.  Who knew motherhood could do that to a not-morning-person such as myself?

But I felt like writing.  And then I felt like looking over where I was in life around this date of the last seven years.  Thank you blogger.  Can you believe I've had this blog for 7 years?  I kind of can't.  My life has changed drastically in 7 years.  It's so crazy.

Last year my baby was a baby.  Where did the time go?  I mean, I remember the days...  And it just doesn't seem possible that they are gone -- that they were a year ago.  That that baby in the pictures can now walk.  And talk some.  And actually do what we ask her to do most of the time.  She understands so much of what we say.

The year before that, I was overwhelmed, emotional, nostalgic.  And pregnant (which probably explained all of those symptoms), but we weren't telling people yet.  We were still newlyweds with no clue how our boat was about to be rocked.  Ignorance was bliss, people.  Ignorance was bliss ;).  (Don't worry...  we survived the boat rocking.  And we are much better for it!  Apparently parenthood is a shock to many...)

The year before that I had just moved into my own little house.  Finally.  After so much time waiting and hoping to be on my own.  Sometimes I don't think I gave myself the opportunity to enjoy that as much as I should have.  But that's okay.  I'm kind of crazy that way.

The year before that, I was getting ready to turn 30.  And listed a whole ton of toots and sweets.  Which made me laugh as I just sat here reading over it.  Holy cow.  Sometimes I crack myself up.  Plus, Lea and I had gone to the play Fame and took pictures with some of the cast members.  That was good times.

Then there was the year before that, when I was tripping to Florida and Alabama.  Or getting ready to at any rate.  My awesome friend April was getting married, and I was going to get to be there :).

And a year before that I was in a blogging funk.  So I was doing tag posts.  I did a one-word tag post where my answer to every question had to consist of one word.  One question was:  significant other?  And I wrote "future."  Hahaha....  Clearly I was full of hope for what would be.  And clearly my hope was founded -- and the promise fulfilled.

Which brings us to the year of my blog's birth.  This blog, at least.  When I was living it up in Tuscaloosa.  Making great memories with Virginia, Le, and Annie, Jeni, and a myriad of others.  I was in a place -- both geographically and metaphorically -- I never thought I'd be.  But I was surviving.  No... I was thriving.

7 Years is a long time.  And so much can change.  It is hard for me to believe that that 26 year old woman beginning this blog would, 7 years later, be a wife and mother.  That her dreams and hopes would come true.  Her prayers would be answered... again and again and again.

Sometimes I can't believe she and I are the same person.  And I guess, in many ways, we are not.  7 years have changed me.  Hopefully for the better.  But either way, I am different.  But grateful for the intervening years.  Grateful for the amazing and abundant life I've had.  Even when it was hard.

Our most recent selfie :)...  It was a pajama kind of day...  A warm pajama kind of day :).

Motherhood Means Wearing Many Hats...

...like:

Play-mate...

Doctor...

Chef...

Protector...

Dentist...

Cheer-leader...

Story-teller (or reader)...

Snuggler...

Bather...

Dryer...

Encourager...

And many more.  These hats are donned daily.  And changed often. 

The best one is snuggler.  Well, maybe.  There's a lot of really awesome ones :).

Like these:

I wouldn't trade motherhood for anything.  Even on the hard days.  This little girl has changed me for the better.  And anytime I see her, I can't help but smile. 

Her newest accomplishments? 

Folding her arms for prayer (she does this as soon as she sees me put food on the table or attach her tray to her high chair.  It's beyond cute. 

Saying "baby".  And I think she's even starting to realize what it means.

Running up to the heater installed in the hallway wall (which doesn't work) and strumming her hands across the vent part whenever Jeremy gets home.  She plays him music.  And gets very excited about it.  It's a daily occurrence in our household right now -- one I'll miss when he starts swing shift in the next couple days.  We've dubbed it "strumming the banjo."  It actually makes Jeremy feel really good too.  She is just so excited to see him when he comes home from work.

She has perfected "no."  and when to use it.  Which, for her, is anytime she's asked a question.  "Do you want more pancake?"  "No."  "Is Mommy nice?"  "No."  Hmmm...

I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones I can think of right this second.  She is amazing, though.  And I love her more every day.

(We're still nervous about how she'll handle not being able to run around in the airplane for 4 hours...)

Beard-Face

...And if you know and love Scrubs like I do...  You're pronouncing that differently :).

Speaking of Scrubs...  It's on the list of things that are happening in November when I'm in Alabama.  It's already been discussed.  Will be the coolest ever.  Well, maybe tied for the coolest ever.  Because I have a lot of cool parties ;).

Anyway...

Just a couple of pictures from tonight.  When Jeremy's beard doesn't get shaved off...  It's a sure sign the project at work is finishing up.  It's some tradition the engineers in his -- we'll call it a group -- do every project.  And then, eventually, some of them shave the beard and leave the mustache.  I could really pass on that part...  But it doesn't last long ;).

First, there's my munchkin.  You may not be able to tell now, but I trimmed up her hair a bit in the front.  It was always in her eyes.  I did a hatchet job, really...  But she doesn't really care.  As long as I don't dare try to put anything in her hair or on her head!

So that picture was because Jeremy was originally making a goofy face.  But I thought it turned out pretty cute, so I kept it :). 

And then we did our family picture.  Very informal, as you can tell.  Jeremy's already in his hole-y pajama shirt.  He laughed about that.  But I think a pretty good picture, nonetheless. 

So yep, the end of the project is nigh at hand...  Which is good and bad.  Good because the project will be done.  Bad because it means the month of October is going to feel like I'm a single mom again -- Jeremy will be working a ton of overtime.  But then it'll be November.  And I'll be winging my way to Alabama and all the awesomeness there.  So it's all good :).  And then, we see where we go from there!  (As of right now, it'll be on to the next project!)

Just Some News

As some of you may have heard, I will be heading to Alabama in the not-too-distant future.  Yeehaw!

We are flying Southwest for the first time ever.  I'm pretty excited I can take checked bags for free.  Because traveling with a kid means you don't travel light.  That's what I've learned. 

We are already sort of contemplating how unpleasant it may be to fly with a toddler.  But she did awesome at 5 months...  And she did great in the car.  So here's to hoping!  The problem is we won't stop every 2 or 3 hours to let her get out and run... 

But we are flying in the day-time this time.  So hopefully she won't disrupt too many people's sleep, if she's fussy.  We'll be finding some cool apps for the tablet too.  And maybe find a way to put some Sesame Street Elmo stuff on there.

The girl loves Elmo.  Did I mention that?  After letting her watch it on the car ride back from Utah, she has been hooked!  If you show her a picture of Elmo, she starts dancing from side to side and trying to sing his song ("la la la la").  It's so stinkin' cute.  But who knew Elmo would be such a hit with my toddler?  She now brings me the Sesame Street DVDs we own for me to put them on for her.  I concede about once a week. 

Anyway...  The other thing she loves to do is to have us take video of her with Jeremy's camera and then let her watch it. 

That's her, watching one of her videos on the camera.  How cute is she!?!  She'll just toddle around watching the videos over and over and over.  And whenever I'm singing in the video, she starts dancing (while watching herself dance in the video).  It's pure awesomeness.

Just a selfie from last week.  I need to get this kid a hair cut.  Seriously.  She won't let me do barrettes!  That's a weird word, by the way.  She had her 15 month check-up last Tuesday.  She's seriously a champ.  She got 3 shots.  Only cried after the 3rd one.  Poor baby girl.  But she quite crying after a minute.  This kid is amazing to me.

Watched the girls this weekend.  And so we built a blanket fort in the living room.  The girls loved it.  Lynnaea loved being Godzilla and walking into everything and pulling off clothespins.  She did have fun going under it with the girls...  But she didn't like the low-lying areas where she was too tall.  Now that she can walk, crawling is just not her thing. See?

Another selfie...  It got nice and chilly here.  Then today it warmed up.  I spoke with my sister-in-law on the phone and she asked how I was handling the heat...  My distaste for hot weather is well-known, obviously ;)...  I commented that it didn't seem so bad here.  Well, that was at 2ish.  By 5ish, it was hot with the evening sun blazing through the window of the living room.  Blech.  But it's been dropping into the lower temps at night, and that makes all the difference.  It's comfortable now. 

Why did I write that?  Because you can see Lynnaea was all warm and snug in her fleece footie pajamas.  So I figured I'd tell you I wasn't roasting my kid in mid-September.  Tonight she isn't wearing those ;).

And, finally, a picture of the cute girls in the door of their blanket fort.

It wasn't as awesome as I'd like it to have been.  Jeremy could have done it better (too bad he was at work when it was constructed).  Our living room has too much empty space, so it was hard to get the cool fort thing.  But the girls loved it anyway, and that's what matters.  I love how Lynnaea no longer "cheeses" for the camera.  She waits until after the flash to get all excited and smile. 

So that's life.  Just some fun stuff.  :).

The Power of No

Someone learned the word "No" in the last couple days.

I'll give you two guesses who that someone is...  And the first one doesn't count ;).

Mommy:  "It's time to get out of the bath."  As I open the towel.

Lynnaea:  "No."  She forms the word very well.

Yeah... It's kind of cute right now. 

But it won't be for very long. 

They learn fast, don't they?

Tomorrow is her 15 month check up.  I think she gets more shots.  Boo.  Poor thing. 

Also, I have 3 cavities.  And we have the crappiest dental insurance coverage ever.  Well, maybe not ever.  It does cover preventative stuff.  But when you're a lousy flosser like I am...  It's not a good wager to go with the preventative care only option. 

Super. Lame.

I'm still going to go to Alabama on vacation.  Sometimes a girl just needs what she left behind.