Time

I am a blog slacker. I hate that I get so far behind on this thing. I have already forgotten things that I wanted to say on here.

Anyway, we had a nice Withers beach vacation this year. Next year, I hope Richard's girls get to come. They were missed! We went to San Destin, Fl. Wow, what a place! Audrey sang karaoke, played moroccas with a band and did the trampoline jump thing. It was an experience she will never forget...well she is only 3 so she probably will forget. We have pics to prove all of the above!

Here are a few pics:

This is Audrey's last day of being 2. She fell asleep in my arms this night. It wa a great day. We tried to go to the water park. Their website said they were open but they weren't when we arrived. So we went to Chuck E Cheese instead. Yes, we did go in our bathing suits. We had a few clothes over top. LOL!




This was a pic from Audrey's party. She had a ball and for weeks after she kept asking for all of her friends to come back. She would set the chairs up in preparation for everyone. I hated to tell her that it would be another year before her next birthday.



A picture from Mary, Paul and Andrew's visit to Pensacola. We had a ball. Mary is amazing and so is her family.



Here is a picture from my May Mommies trip to Jax Beach in June. It was a magically weekend. I had the best time ever.



Here is the family shot from the San Destin vacation.



Ok all for now.

Radio silence

Whew! Sorry for the radio silence. We have been so busy. Since the last post: Audrey had her third birthday, we had a garage sale, we met Mary, Paul and Andrew in Pensacola, the oil has now ruined the beaches, we went to Charleston for Dino's 20 year HS reunion and lots of other things.

Here are just a few pics of some of the fun times.

Well, I'll have to post them later because Blogger won't upload them right now. ARGH!

My sweet princess. She has been feeling 100% better since her surgery. I'm so grateful that she is feeling better finally!

Her birthday is approaching very fast. We will be having a princess party (her idea). My friend is working on the invitation for me. I should be sending it out soon. I hope lots of friends can come.

Post Op

Surgery was about 11 days ago for A. She did really great. She amazes me. The first couple days seemed easy but then Sunday she kinda went downhill a bit. I think the pain was increasing. Gigi told me that day three or four would be rough. She was right. I'm sure that the scabs were itching her. Since they were in the back of her throat there was no way to itch them. Ugh! She is a trooper and never complained. I would have been curled up in a ball crying. She went on to school Monday and never looked back. I am praying that this will be the solution for her ear issues once and for all!

On a side note, I got to meet John Croyle today. Wow! What a powerful speaker. I found myself wiping tears away and so did D. He was talking about how to be a great parent and how to raise your kids up the right way. His main question was "Where do you want to be in 10 years?" and "Where do you want your child to be in 10 years?". My answer was to gain more control over our finances, have another child if God has it in the plan, and to have a better position within the company. We are on our way!

Surgery planned

A has been very very sick for over a month. Double ear infection that won't go away. Her tubes that she got less than a year ago fell out which we weren't aware of until we went to the pedi about 3 or 4 weeks ago. After a round of antibiotics which did nothing, he referred us tot he ENT. So the ENT examined her and did 2 x-rays of her head. He told us that her adenoids are enlarged and that her sinuses are filled with puss plus the ear infections. Yuck! I feel terrible for her. I can't imagine how bad she must feel. It does explain alot about her behavior lately. I asked her many times if her ears hurt and she would say no. I guess she had felt so bad for so long that she couldn't tell me what hurt. I knew something was not right though so this was confirmation of that. She doesn't always run a fever with an ear infection so it can be a real tough to figure out that she is sick. Sometimes it appears that she is just being grumpy and defiant. She really is a sweet child so next time she starts acting like that we will be off to the pedi.

So she will have surgery for her third set of tubes, an adenoidectomy and a sinus irrigation. Hopefully after this she will feel normal again. Surgery will be 4/1.

I finally uploaded my pictures to the computer. Here are a couple pics.

Look at this hair and curls! It only stays this way for a couple hours after a bath and then it goes straight. Sure is cute while it lasts. This was D and A going to their dance together at daycare. Aren't they adorable together?




Snow day. Audrey was not a big fan. She said it was cold.







I'll be posting some more soon!

And life goes on

I found out on Tuesday that my dad's best friend died. My dad has been gone for about 10 years. That is hard to believe in itself, but now this? I was close with "Uncle" Robert. I am completely heartbroken. I keep thinking of what I should have done like writing him more often, or call more often or stop by more often. I think the last mail I sent him was a Christmas card. The next was going to be A.'s birthday card. I often tried to call him and sometimes he would not answer for whatever reason. I can't actually recall when the last time I talked with him. I do recall talking with him and the conversation, but when that was I can't remember. I did get to see him several times over the last year or two for which I am grateful. He thought A. was awesome. He was the funniest person and the best story teller I've ever met. I recall so many nights when he would come over to eat dinner with me and my parents and all of us would remain at the table for hours while he cracked us all up. We would literally be crying from laughing so hard. I know that time will help my heart. I plan on writing his family a card and letting them know how much I loved him. Asher had a good idea about donating to the Animal Rescue League. He would have liked that.

sickness

We have all been sick. That is the main reason for there being a lack of posts lately. We all have a cough, sinus stuff. I hope that it is on it's way out over the next couple days. We have all been going to bed early like 7:30pm because of how bad we felt. It's terrible when everyone is sick at the same time. Ugh! On top of that we have been sleeping through all of the excitement that comes with the Olympics. I usually really enjoy watching but this year I have been in bed and fast alseep when alot of the good events were shown. Oh well, I got to see the highlights on the news.

I promise to start posting some pics...eventually!

Big girl bed

After much anticipation and excitement, A is in her new big girl bed! We talked about it for a couple weeks before we set it up so she was fully prepared. She even helped us polish her new bed before we set it up. The bed was my uncle's bed so it needed a good cleaning and polishing. We went shopping and got princess sheets and a pretty bedspread. Daddy actually found the bedspread and A loved it. We set it up Friday and has been doing great! She was a little distraught when she realized that her crib was down but once we got her bed set up she was thrilled. I'm so proud of her. She is such a big girl now.

On that note, she refuses to let me call her a baby. I try to explain that she will always be my baby, but she disagrees. One day maybe she will understand.

Cold weather and spending money-eek!

I'll be so glad when the weather warms up. It seems on weekends when it is so cold like this one there is little left to do but spend money. We went to Target yesterday and today. I still don't know why really. We did buy some much needed groceries but also spent money on things things that we probably didn't need, like movies. Granted the ones we got are for A and hopefully she will watch them more than once, but still. If it were warmer we could go to the park or go for a nice stroll or hike. Instead we stroll around Target and spend money. A picked out a nice bedspread for her new twin bed. We will put that up this weekend. I hope it looks cute and more importantly I hope Audrey likes her new bed. I'll post pics once her room is put together.

The other thing I began this weekend was our taxes. It is not looking good for a refund. Not a good combination when it comes to our spending.

Mystery solved?

I certainly hope so. Over the past day or so A has had UTI symptoms. D, the good daddy that he is, took her to the doctor this morning. After much debate and waiting, he got her to give a urine sample. There were several calls to me while I was working. Not sure what I could do to help except give moral support to Dino. She finally told him she was ready to go home and he reminded her that all she had to do was pee in the cup. She finally obliged. Girls...yes we do things in our own time even at 2 years old. I digress.

Anyway, so the sample was clean. No infection. They gave some cream and sent her home. Several friends at school and then a daycare worker suggested that it could be our laundry detergent. Ah ha. Yes, could be. I tend to buy different brands looking for the best deal. So we got some hypoallergenic detergent and I washed every single pair that she owns. I am hoping this solves it!

Date night

D and I are going on a date tomorrow night. I'm very excited. We are off to see Avatar in 3d. I've heard good things about it. A is off to Brandi's house to play with Hunter while we see the movie. I know she will have a blast.

D is off work tomorrow since he had to work last Saturday. He gets to sleep in. He is heading to T-town for the Al v Msu basketball game. Audrey and I hope to head to the park if the rain will hold out long enough. Then Scarlet is coming over for some wine/whine time!

Back

We are back from Brookhaven. We had a nice visit with Gigi and Granny. Granny seemed a bit better but still has a persistant cough. I have her extra hugs when I went to leave.

We had hoped to see Asher this trip but she got called into work. Bummer. Maybe next time.

Moving on up

A visited the Monkey class today. Even though she is only 2 1/2 she is going to move on up to the 3 year old class. She has been in the Everglades class for 10 months or so. We love all of the teachers, but they have done their job and A is ready for the big girl class. She had a ball playing on the big playground. She got to see her old friends who had moved up before her. Megan, Izzy, and Abby. I'm so glad that she likes the new class. It will be a transition though getting used to the new kids and new teachers not to mention a new routine. We will still drop her off in the Everglades for a few more days to make the transition smoother.

I'm off to pack for a quick trip to Brookhaven. Granny is not doing so well.

A and her sayings

She is so funny lately. She made me some dumplins the other day (water with a paper towel in it). She nearly died when I went to pour them out. ;) On the way home from daycare I had Jackson Browne playing. Take It Easy came on and she said that she liked it. Then she asked if it was a new song. I told her yes, since it was new to her. Of course it was written in the 70's. We bobbed our heads to it anyway. She also is learning to pretend play. Tonight we went shopping at a new store, cooked dinner in her house, and acted like we were speaking in a foreign language. The last one was hilarious. We giggled and giggled. Good times.

Monday

What a day. A got no nap today at daycare so she was a mess by tonight. She was grumpy and whiney. All related to the no nap thing. I fixed an awesome dinner though and we all enjoyed it. Ham, green beans and rice w/gravy. Oh and don't forget the crescent rolls. Yum. She was in bed by 7:15pm. Sweet baby.

Oh and D likely has walking pneumonia. He has been sick for a couple weeks now. He has had a really bad cough, mostly at night. He saw the MD today and got a shot, antibiotics and an inhaler. Hopefully, he will start to feel better soon.

First Attempt

I have no idea what I am doing or how this works, but I am looking forward to figuring it out. This is just to document our lives, mostly for A. My goal is to update this at least once a week.

This weekend was nice and relaxing weekend. D went to Livingston for some Delta Chi things. It was bitterly cold here all weekend long, so A and I headed to McDonalds for some food and fun. A had a ball. We stayed close to 2 hours. The first 45 mins there were a bunch of loud boys there and she was terrified to play on the playset with them. After they left, it was on. She played and played. We came home and watched some Little Bear and went on to sleep. Sunday, we made it to church and then came home. Watched some movies and waited on D. He made it home right before she went to sleep for her nap. He helped her fall asleep. So sweet.

Even though Christmas was several weeks ago, she keeps asking about Santa. Where does he live, where is how? So funny. The funniest thing to me is that everything she owns she asks if Santa brought it. Even things that she has had her whole life. I will try to tell her that Santa did not bring it and she disagrees and tells me 'Yes he did, mommy. Santa brought it.'

She is growing up so fast. I want to remember as much as possible. Another good reason to start this. ;)