I read Marita's blog and feel the same way. I love my everyday life but figure you don't necessarily want to read about it. So, I guess I've waited long enough. Here goes. We don't have any Christmas decor up yet. I got a few new things last year, for when the Sharps came up, but it was all apartment sized. You know if you've lived in an apartment before, once you're in a house all of your apartment friendly decor seems kinda small. I'm not too worried about it though. I like decrations for Christmas but just don't like putting them up. I'll get to it eventually. Definitely before Santa comes. I'm very excited to get some new things for Piper. You would think that with as big of a deal as I make about my birthday (December 19th A.K.A. KRISTENAMAS!! 15 shopping days left) that I would be sure to make hers a big deal but I didn't this year. No party. We did go to the Ringling Bros. circus. It was amazing. She got a few things from family but we just kept it low key. So, now I'm ready to spoil her a little. We have a pretty slow month ahead of us at work. All of our patients seem to be putting their appointments off until they are out for break and any new patients are waiting until the beginning of the new year so their insurance benefits will renew. Slow is okay sometimes. Especially if you like the people you work with. Brett is still working his crazy early morning hours. He picks P up around 1-1:30ish and they play until I get home. I try to remember to be thankful for the messes my husband is happy and willing to make while he plays with our daughter until I get home. They are the best of buddies. If we are together, just the two of us for a while, P will say to me, "Mommy, I'm gonna go hold Daddy, okay." If he is home, she wants him at her hip. He is more than happy to do whatever she wants. He is, for sure, the fun parent. I'm the one that comes home and makes everybody tidy up the house, set the table, help with dishes, take baths, brush teeth and get in bed. They are on the same nighttime routine so B goes to bed around 9, too. (he has to get up at 2 am.) P always makes sure to tuck him into bed before she goes to her room. She has discovered how fun it is to make tents in the living room. I'm getting tired of moving furniture and folding blankets when we are done, so I'm looking for a cool pop-up version for xmas. Well, blah blah, okay I'm just rambling. I hope whoever reads this has a great weekend. I'm off for 4 days!! Lots of work on my classroom at the church building, football (BOOMER SOONER!!!) and hopefully crossing names off our list. So, happy shopping this weekend, if you go. Do any of you have good black Friday stories? I went for the first time this year. Nothing too crazy. I promise next time I'll try to talk about something besides decorating and shopping. Sorry So Shallow!!
Not shallow...life. I've got 2/3 of my list still to go. I hope to knock some of it off this weekend.
There weren't any deals I was interested in enough to get me out this Black Friday. It was a shame 'cause last year and the year before that I had a good time.
We'd love to see any recent pics of the family...
:-)
I try to avoid Black Friday like the Black Plague. I am too clausterphobic to deal with that many people in my way. I didn't even know about Cyber Monday until after the fact. That I might have tried. Well, except I didn't have any money to spend. :)
I've done very little Christmas shopping. Like Angelique, we are scaling back. But I am about to hit the Christmas shopping I do have to complete this weekend.
We didn't do anything amazing for Trina's birthday...it being her first one even. Ever since Tessa's sixth birthday party (you and Brett were there with us to celebrate at Maggie Moo's) I was kinda put off by *how much* stuff she got. Ever since then, I've not done big birthday bashes. I am doing a party for Ryan next year since he has never had a party at all and he will be turning 7. I want him to have at least one "real" birthday party before he gets too old to want one. Tessa is old enough now to just want a few friends over. We let Ethan pick two friends to sleep over and then we took them to the science center here that we have a membership to so it didn't cost anything.
It sounds like you guys have the perfect arrangement for Piper. She gets a lot of good quality time with each of her parents.
Okay. A few new things in our lives. We have our own home now. It's been a lot of work. Most of it done and lots of it has found it's way to the perpetual "back burner". Before, I didn't really understand why people would wait so long to touch up trim or fix a door or pull weeds. I GET IT!! As a mom that works outside of the home, I hit the floor running in the am and usually don't get chores done before the weekend comes. So, on those weekends that before seemed like the perfect times to do projects, are pretty full with regular stuff. "One day" will be a very good day. I'm sure when it comes I'll feel such a great sense of accomplishment. Till then, I'm content.
Brett helps out so much. He goes to work @ 2:45 in the am so he is able to pick Piper up from her Aunt Lorie's around 2:00. They hang out and sometimes even have dinner ready when I get home 5:30ish.
I love 2 year olds. Mine especially! This has been my favorite age, by far. She is so sweet and cracks us up all the time. She loves to set the table, feed the animals, ride horses, watch Barney and many more kid videos, have her toes painted, go to bible class, "drive" around the neighborhood, chase bugs, take the dog out, ride her trike, wash dishes, use the swiffer, "fix" things with her tools, cook in her kitchen, read books, doing anything w/ her Daddy, and sleeping in Mommy's bed. What's not to love?
We have added a puppy to our brood. Her name is Sadie and she's pretty stinkin' cute. She's a chihuahua, pug, wienie dog mix. We figure she'll stay small. So now we are potty training a kid and a dog. Wish us luck.
I love having a pregnant sister. I hate that we haven't been together for our pregnancies, though. I'll visit in February when the baby comes. I can't wait to see who this baby looks like. Our family genes are pretty strong and I keep telling her that this sweet baby girl very well could come out looking like her Aunt Na or cousin Piper. I know she will be beautiful. Saving up kisses already.
I'm at work now and it's a day without patients. Lots of to-do's on my list but I thought I should squeeze in a post. Bye for now. Hopefully, I won't have to wait so long before my next post.
That's probably what some of you are saying to yourselves when you see my name is white! I'm not sure I remember where we left off. I now have a walking, talking(in her own language), smiling, laughing, twirling, hugging, kissing, helping, dancing, praying, cat chasing, book loving, stranger greeting, shoe loving daddy's girl. Everyday is an adventure from baths in the sink at Krispy Kreme b/c of serious diaper leakage to re-discovering the beauty of rocks and sticks on an afternoon walk. I am so excited to say that after 8 1/2 years, Brett and I are done with apartments. Yep! We never thought we'd do it. Never even thought we'd want to. Apartments were fine to us. But, like everyone said, kids change EVERYTHING. Last Friday we found a house we liked, looked at it on Saturday, put a bid in on Sunday and got it on Monday!!! Whirlwind Easter weekend. So, now begins the stringent process of buying our first home. We should close the beginning of May but won't have to move in completely until the end of June. We don't want to have to break our lease here and want to have all the work DONE on the house before we get in. It's great. We've never painted, never owned a mower, or had to change our own light bulbs!! So here goes nothing! I'm still working on braces. Brett works at Blue Bell making ice cream now. He really likes it. Several men from our congregation work out there, too. It's nice for him to have that support system at work. We have a great group of friends here. I talk to Angel just about everyday on my lunch break or on my way home. They are doing well. We love to get the girls together as often as we can. Neither of us can ever talk the other into moving, though. I'm gonna keep trying though. But for now, I'm gonna go get my lesson done for tomorrow. It's been nice getting on and seeing what everyone has been up to. New babies, homes, countries! Wow! So glad you're all doing so well. I'll try to get some new pics on here. Again! I never seem to have much luck. Bye
I was so very excited to see your name in white!!
Congratulations on your first house - that's exciting. Pictures? I would love to see updated pics of your girl!
Love you!
Their trip got postponed a week. He leaves Monday and will come back Saturday.
No pointers here. It's our first time to do this on such a larger scale. I did find some cool websites with some really great ideas. I'll link them for you later.
I know it's not like you all have been waiting on pins and needles for me to finally stop eavesdropping in on your lives but not sharing any of mine but it HAS been a while!!! Where to begin.... Brett and I just had our 8th anniversary this past week. It was a bit uneventful but always so sweet to celebrate love. Piper took her first steps a couple of weeks ago. She is staying true to her form and not showing off very much, though. Who would have thought, my kid - not showing off?! She has 6 beautiful teeth that she does show off all the time. She loves to smile. Piper loves to go to her "Aunt Lorie's" while we are at work. There is always something to do out there. I take her when I leave for work in the morning and Brett picks her up around 1:00. Then they have some time together and I get home around 5:30. He goes to work at 6:15 then it's just us girls. He has Wednesdays and Thursdays off so they hang out and I am off on Fridays. It is the best set up I could have imagined. Work is going well. I will have my 3rd anniversary with them on the 13th. I hope to celebrate many more there. It's one of the greatest places to work. Except for maybe Disney World or something! Piper is starting to sign with us. I only know some of the basics but it's so wonderful to see her use them to communicate. Brett just turned 30! He has fun with it. I think it's stranger for me to think I'm married to a 30 year old man!! EEEEK. Well, I'd really like to write more but I'm tired and I hope to watch the end of the NASCAR race. It's a little overwhelming to think of all the things I could write about. So why am I still here writing about possibly writing about it? Goodnight! Check out some of my new pics. They are small and grainy but I'll try to work on that later!
They may need to be resized. Do you have microsoft office on your computer? There is a program with that called picture manager that I use. I used to have trouble getting pictures on here and realized they were too big.
I'm excited to see you update! Now, just get Angel on board!
I can't believe Piper is already old enough to start walking. I can't wait for the pictures...
Hey!! I can't believe your baby is getting so big!! And it sounds like your arrangement for her is ideal. My Mom always worked, but I got to stay with my Grandmama!!! We were always extremely close. I still have such wonderful memories of my time with her. Having your child with people who really love her is great!!!!
