C and C Baby Factory

When I think of being home, the song that keeps popping in my head is one that is at the end of Caleb’s “Blue’s Clues” video. Besides that song playing over and over again in my head, it is good to be home.

Our trip went well. The kids had a wonderful time visiting Brett’s side of the family. He has a great extended family, and it was so great to see everyone. All of the Great Grandparents on Brett’s side are still alive (and one Great Great!), and they are all so healthy. So I love that Caleb and Chloe get to hang out with them. It is a bit difficult keeping 8 grandparents straight, but that is a good problem to have. My parents are Mimi and Papa (Caleb named them. My nephew and nieces call them Grandmama and Grandpapa). Brett’s parents are Grammy and Pappy (Grammy is a cute name, but for some reason, I am not a fan of Pappy. But he likes it, so Pappy it is!). Then the great’s are: Gigi (G.G=Great Granny) and G.P. (Great Papa), then Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. Whew, that is a lot to keep straight!

The flights went well, for the most part. Squirm the Worm (Chloe) had a difficult flight home, but we managed. Caleb flies well (which is quite a change from last year). The trip, overall, was a good time. Caleb and Chloe played at the splash park and kiddie pool. We got to visit my college friend, Kacy, which was really awesome. She and I were in the same major. Ironically enough, Brett (before we were dating) introduced us, and we have been friends since! It was coincidence that we had a lot of classes together. We were pregnant together the first time, so that is always a good bonding experience. She lives 10 minutes from Brett’s parents, so I always visit her when I am down.

Chloe cut TWO teeth on our trip. She was toothless up until Monday. It is strange, though, because she cut her two top front teeth. I thought the two bottom ones came in first?!

Caleb’s vocabulary is expanding quickly. Some of his words are so cute! He says most things pretty well. It makes me laugh how parents can understand their child better than anyone. His words seem so easy to me, yet some peope cannot understand them.

We played cards and dominoes a lot. I enjoy games, so I had fun doing that.

I also ate a Publix sub. We do not have Publix here, but I really like their subs. Yummy!

Brett and I were able to go to the Florida Outpouring Revival. Brett went a lot, but I only could go one night. That was actually the purpose of our trip. It was really awesome. We are not as “pentecostal” as the revival is, but I still had a really great time.

I was very tired from our trip. That is to be expected. It is hard to stay at other people’s homes, because my kids are just very into everything! And the sleeping arrangements are not ideal. Though, we all slept fine, minus Chloe waking up a lot with her teeth.

So I wake up today, very refreshed! Oh, did I mention that my neighbor and good friend moved (just about 10 minutes away, but I am still very sad because I loved having her across the street) while I was gone?? My heart is sad, though I am excited they found a new fun house! And, of course we are still friends.
Back to my point…I woke up today, refreshed….with apparently too much energy. Because I completely organized my closet. Which involved taking down Brett’s dowel rod thing and a shelf. It was falling from the weight of his heavy clothes (a downside of being his size). I had a garment rack in the basement, so I moved it up.
While in the basement, I got the crazy idea to completely organize the storage rooms. I am still not done, but I needed a break.
Brett says the house is a destruction zone right now, and he is right. Everything is everywhere. Once it is put back away, though, it will look better than ever!

Oh, and one last story. I was telling Brett how my friend, Melissa, thinks it would be funny sometime to board a Southwest Airlines flight and sit right in the middle of a row (you know how you pick your own seat?) because everyone chooses the aisles and windows. We were boarding our flight yesterday, which was getting full fast. I am not sure what came over him….but there was a row that had an empty middle seat. As we were walking down the aisle, Brett asked the lady if we could put Caleb in the middle seat and she watch him for the flight. Overcome by the frustration of realizing someone wants to sit in the middle (you know the feeling) but not really listening to what he said, she started to get up to let him in. She, then, realized Brett was joking and laughed so hard. The other people around heard it and laughed too. It was a good way to start a flight!

Well I need to go finish what I started…….good night!

I am leaving town tomorrow for about a week.  I will not be blogging, but I will resume my regular writing when I return.  I know you are waiting in anticipation to hear about the happenings of my days.  Try not to lose sleep.

Before I go, though, I must say that I love it that I live in a neighborhood where people still wave at one another as they drive by.

Life has been crazy lately. And it shows no signs of stopping. Fortunately, it is all good things.

It does not help that my sweet little Lulu has decided to start waking up at 6 or 6:30 am. For many, that is not early at all, but working with college students puts us on a college-ish schedule. So 6:30 is early!! And I am tired. I actually did go to bed early on Thursday, but Brett woke up with the kids….I slept from 10:30 until 10:00, only waking to feed Chloe at 6:30. I woke up refreshed, but sleeping that late is on occasional thing!

Fortunately, though, both Caleb and Chloe are such awesome kids. They definitely have their moments, like when Chloe does not like me to be out of her sight (which is pretty much the whole day, but we have an open floor plan so that helps) or when Caleb decides to remove his clothes and diaper and run down the street in the nude. He looks really cute, but I am sure not all of my neighbors would agree LOL.

We are leaving on Monday to go to Florida for a week. We are going to visit Brett’s family and also to go to a really amazing revival that is going on down there. While Brett and I do not really affiliate with a political party, his family is die-hard Republicans (for no apparent reason). I mean, they are so die hard that they will not watch George Clooney movies because “he is so outspoken out his liberal views”. Anyway, I am saying all of this to say…..Brett is a huge practical joker. He loves to laugh, and he loves to be the source of that laughter. (On a side note, he has wisdom when to turn it off, so he is not annoying or anything). I am making him an iron on “Obama ‘08″ shirt. He is doing it just to get a rise out of them. It will be really funny!!

Well I have a lot to do today!! Have a good weekend!

Airline tickets: $150
Hotel room: $88
# of shoes between 3 girls: 12
48 hours of laughter and fun: Priceless

I returned home yesterday from a three day-two night trip to Chicago with two of my friends (Melissa and Dana). As you can see by the prices, it was a pretty inexpensive trip (I mean, as compared to other vacations). We went sans children, and it was so much fun. Even though these stories may not be entertaining to anyone else, I use blogging as a form of journaling, so I like to document my experience.

The flight and drive to the hotel were uneventful. We enjoyed a delicious lunch and an afternoon of shopping. Sunday night (after Mel did all of our hair and make-up), we planned to go to a comedy club called Second City. We asked three people for directions, all who told us to take the Red Line to a certain street. Exit and go east. Not one of those three people informed us that we would be walking 45 minutes east. In high heels. (The worst part is that we took a cab home, and it was only $4 more expensive than the train ride.)
We arrived at the comedy club, sweaty and with blisters, but very excited for the show. We were seated in a row of chairs with no table. We asked to be reseated (we were early, so it was half empty). The host did not want to reseat us. Instead, he tapped on the shoulder of the person in front of us and asked if we could share their table (which was actually a table for everyone to share, but they did not agree). We were embarrassed beyond belief because we could have just asked them ourselves. (This was a lot more humiliating than it sounds). The people were rude to us the rest of the night. The show was hilarious, so it was worth it. I love comedy, and the comedians were so entertaining.

The three of us at Second City:

We ate dinner at Navy Pier and called it a night.

Monday morning, we slept until our bodies woke up naturally (what a treat!), but it was not near as late as I had hoped. All the same I was rested. Yay. We went shopping for awhile (I actually did not buy anything the whole trip, except food, of course) then back to Navy Pier for lunch and to walk around.

Navy Pier

I love city skylines

After walking around, we went back to the hotel to relax. We talked the afternoon away. That was my favorite part of the trip….just talking. We learned so much about one another!

For our evening festivities, we ate dinner at Bistro 110. We then went to the Signature Lounge at the 95th floor of the Hancock Tower. I did not actually take pictures in the lounge, because it was a chill atmosphere.

The Hancock Tower

After the lounge, we went to the bottom floor to eat dessert at the Cheesecake Factory.

We then went to the hotel, talked for awhile, then to bed.

Tuesday morning, our trip was ending :(. We flew home. That was the worst part of the trip….even worse than walking 45 minutes in heels. We were probably 100-200 feet from landing the plane, and we take off again. I hate to fly anyway, but this sent me over the edge. I panicked. I thought possibly the landing gear had not come down or something like that. We circled the airport for about 10 minutes before landing for real. The pilot did not say anything the entire time. When we landed, he said that there was another plane on the runway. I told my dad later on who said that that is one of the most dangerous things that can happen while flying, and that the pilot did not say anything because he had probably wet his pants. LOL. The adrenaline rush (which was not a good thing) mixed with the already turbulent flight made me so sick :(. To make matters worse, there was a severe storm the whole way home, so we had to drive so slow. I also hate storms, by the way. I have never been happier to get back in my own home!

Although the trip ended badly, it was so much fun!! Being with friends is so refreshing. I really enjoyed the time away, but I was so happy to return to these wonderful children:

Also, this is Caleb’s drawing. Pretty impressive for a 2 year old, I think:

He did it himself!

I am glad to be back home, but I had an awesome weekend!!!

I have taken more pictures in the last two days than in like two months combined. Maybe I am actually a fun mom, for once! Actually, I did choose to be the fun mom a few days ago. Caleb decided to finger paint with his salsa the other day. Instead of correcting him, I just let him do it. He had a blast. When it was all over, I told him we do not normally play with food, but I am hoping to choose to be fun more often than not (because I err on the side of order). Don’t get me wrong; there is a time for correction. But he won’t finger paint with salsa when he’s 10. (Hopefully).

Anyway, back to pictures, Brett took some pictures of my awesome kids playing with me today! So fun! I was actually telling my friends the other day how my kids will wonder if I was ever around because I am the one taking the pictures.

This is not that great of a picture, but I think Chloe looks so funny when I put her arms by her head.

Yesterday, I received a smile from God, which is what I call a special blessing that I know is from God. In May 2007, I wanted to buy this clip board thing. However, at that time, we were really trying to save money (still are). Even though it was only like $15, I was not spending any extra money. Anyway, yesterday, I was given that very clipboard thing! I was so excited!!!! It is so small to some, but to me, it was really cool.

I do not think I have written about this. But last week, when I was with my little sister, I was telling her the story I wrote on here about how the angel caught Chloe when she fell out of her car seat. Lylia (my sister) was really curious about angels, so I talked to her about her “guardian angel” (the angel that watches out for her). Later in the week, she fell off a wall thing (like the side of a ramp that gets larger as the ramp goes down) and got hurt (minor injuries). In the midst of her crying she said, “My angel wasn’t paying attention to me and let me fall.” It was so sweet, and seeing the innocence of a child was precious. I also realized that I need to do a better job explaining things to children!

Today, the children and I, along with our friends, went to a “sprayground” (like a playground with water). It was so much fun! Caleb is not really a water kid, but after he got comfortable, he was loving the water! He was sad to leave. Chloe had fun too. It is not very close, but I think we’ll go again soon.

Here are too many some pictures! We went with friends, as I said, but I do not want to post pictures of their kids (unless they’re looking away):

There is another post below this one. But I have been regrouping tonight…..doing stuff I have put off all week! One of my projects was to finish painting, which we did!!!!! YAY!!!!!! I enjoyed painting, but it is so nice to be done!

Here are the pictures…..but first some kid pics!

And now the finished product…..(if you remember, we started out with all white walls. I would post before pictures, but they are too far back in my photo album on photobucket. And I am too tired!)

YAY! We are done!!!!!

Golly, I really do not mean to go this long in between posts! I am not really lacking material, but for some reason, I have been so bad about blogging lately.

My children are growing up too fast. I know all parents say that, but hearing my little boy learn new words each day makes me realize the years are passing too quickly. Chloe is really mobile now. Mobile. How did that happen so fast?

I have not mentioned painting in awhile, so I shall update you. We are about 20 minutes away from being done!! There is a spot on our foyer wall that is uneven. Once we get that done, we will be DONE. There is still some touch up paint to be done, but I feel like that will be over the course of a long period, as we see things needing to be done. I will post pictures this week hopefully!! Even though it is not perfect, I love the new colors. It makes such a huge difference! My home just feels warmer. I enjoy home improvement projects, so I imagine when this one is done, I will enjoy a short hiatus before moving onto something new. I try to do improvements that require no money. Costly improvements will have to be done at a later time.

I went running last week for the first time since before having children. I jogged pretty consistently in my teens and college days, but I have not done it since getting pregnant with Caleb. I have exercised; I just have not gone jogging. I got a wild hair last Sunday and went for a jog. It was a really interesting time. I felt like I got a glimpse of who I was before becoming a mom. Though I love how my life has change, it gently reminded me how important it is to nurture myself, too. It sounds strange, but it was a turning point in my parenting. I had aspirations to totally change, which, of course, did not happen. But I have taken steps toward becoming who I aspire to be. I have eaten a lot better this week than in the past two years. In fairness, I have been pregnant and/or nursing for 37 months straight, which allowed for a fair amount of justified gluttony. However, my nursing days are coming to an end in about 2 months, so I figure my eating habits should change, too. All that to say I feel like a new person. It feels nice to recharge!!

On the opposite side of that, I have long said that I plan for Chloe and my next child to be about 2 and a 1/2 years apart. Which means I will be trying to have a baby this time next year. I am not sure I am ready to take that step. Maybe by next year, I will be ready. But I am loving my life with these two treasures…I feel like I am just now really getting into the groove of two. Currently, I do not have baby fever, but I imagine it will return when the time comes. I have not actually prayed about when to start trying to have our next child, but then again, I have never actually tried to have a child (though I have been super excited both times)….so God may choose to surprise us again.

I have been thinking about traditions I want to start in our family. And one I will start doing (probably next year) is celebrating 1/2 day on July 1. That is the halfway point of the year. Having a half day sounds like so much fun!

I rearranged the furniture in our basement last week. It has been the same for two years, which I think may be a record for me. I love the change!! I really enjoy change in general. I know a lot of people hate it, but I like to keep things fresh!

I feel like I have so much more to say, but when I sit down, I seem to forget.

Have a great week!!!

I am home. I keep opening my fridge, expecting for food to appear. But, alas, it has not. But, I am home. And home is sweet. I love visiting my family, I love seeing friends. And yet I always love coming home. Home is just….home!

This past week we went to Springfield to do several things. Some things we planned on; most things we did not.

A recap of the week’s events……
- Caleb got a black eye. His first. We were walking out of a restaurant. He turned to look at some people and walked right into a table. His eye looks bad, but he recovered emotionally pretty fast.

- Chloe can stand up!!!! She pulled herself to her feet for the first time yesterday. Exciting!!!!!!

- Chloe apparently loves chocolate. Brett and I went on a date (YIPPEE!!!!). While gone, my mom was playing with Chloe and Caleb. Chloe was playing in my mom’s purse, found a chocolate bar, and in a matter of seconds, proceeded to eat it/smear it all over herself. Mimi (my mom) said it was quite a sight!!

- I got to see my long time friend, Emily (Hi, Emily), which was so much fun. It was a bit chaotic with my children, but it is always so fun to catch up with an old friend (old as in long time, not as in age…although we were wondering when we grew up!).

- As I said, Brett and I went on a much overdue date. We have not been out together in awhile, so that was wonderful. We saw “You Don’t Mess With The Zohan”, which was funny at times but probably not worth the money. We also went to dinner.

- Oh, and we also ate frozen custard. Which I only did 3 other times in 6 days. What can i say, Strawberry Shortcake is in season. And it is D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!!!!

- Half the reason for our trip was for my mom to install a computer program on my computer. But smart me forgot my computer.

- We met with a couple of our ministry partners, which is one of my favorite things!! Raising our income can be very faith stretching at times, but I love the relational aspect of it!

- I spent a ton of time with my little sister, which was so awesome. She is just a gem. It is so sweet: she does everything I do. She will order what I order at dinner, drink what I drink. She is able to do her own make-up. When I asked her how she knows how to do that, she said she learned from watching me. Miss Lylia is all together so precious!

- I got new towels. Sweet heavens, I am so excited. The towels we have are only about four years old (most of them Brett had before we got married), but I have just never really liked them. They are not bad, just blah! I may have mentioned this before, but I feel like a lot of our wedding presents are starting to fall apart. We got married about 3.5 years ago, and it seems stuff is just starting to show a lot of wear.

- We ate out more in a week than we usually do in a month! I usually love to eat out, but doing it everyday gets old!

- While at my parents, we had severe weather. We had to wake the kids up from naps to go to the basement. Storms freak me out, but fortunately, it passed quickly!

We did a lot more, but those were the highlights! My parents’ house is much larger than ours, and with two young kids, their house is just exhausting! Additionally, Caleb and Chloe missed their naps a lot, so we are all tired!! But it was a really fun week!!!!!!

Father’s Day is strange, in that, it honors two different relationships in the same day.

First, the first 23 Father’s Days in my life were spent honoring one man: my dad. My dad is such a great one. If ever there were a man who cares about my happiness, it is him. I spent hours growing up talking to my dad about things going on in my life. He would counsel me, and he really helped me through a lot of rough periods of my teenage years. He always believes the best about everyone, yet he was always clear that his family were the most important people in his life. My dad has worked incredibly hard his entire life to provide the best life for me. Not only did I get to do everything I ever wanted as a child, he also put me through college and allowed me to start my own family without an ounce of debt. My dad encouraged me to be myself, even when that was not a popular choice. I have not struggled with low self-esteem because my dad believed in me and loved me unconditionally. He also told me often how beautiful I was (am). With all of that, though, I was not a spoiled brat. He demonstrated a balanced life of blessing and thankfulness. I am so thankful for the man my dad is because he raised me to be who I am. (My mom is awesome, too, by the way! But it’s Father’s Day!).

Because of my dad, I did not settle for less than God’s best for my life. I was unafraid to settle, because it took quite a man to win my heart.

But win my heart, he did. When I married Brett, I knew that he would be an amazing dad. And my thoughts have proven true over and over. I could not be more prouder of the man my children call Daddy. He is so incredible. Watching he and Caleb roughhouse and laugh together is precious. Caleb loves his Daddy so much. Brett is so interactive with him, and they have the best time together. Caleb’s favorite part of the day is when Dad comes home from work! They play football, basketball, they wrestle, draw together, and snuggle. So adorable. Brett tells Caleb how strong, brave, and handsome he is, and affirms and encourages him.
Brett is also such a wonderful dad to Chloe. He snuggles her and holds her. Chloe has her Daddy wrapped around her finger. He does anything for her. Brett tells her everyday how beautiful and sweet she is. He also reminds her that he is the only man that is allowed to kiss her until, well, a long time!
I am so thankful to have such a great dad for my children. He is the most wonderful Daddy in the world!!!!!!

Happy Father’s Day, to the dads in my life!!!!!

(On a personal note, I will be out of town for awhile, so I may not be blogging for a week or so!)