My Wonderful Husband!

I took this from Lynn's blog. Just a few answered questions about my sweetest husband, Michael.

1. He’s sitting in front of the TV: what is on the screen? Seinfeld
2. You’re out to eat. What kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Blue Cheese
3. What is one food he doesn’t like? Tomatoes
4. You go out to the bar. What does he order? Dr. Pepper
5. Where did he go to high school? Highland Christian School in Colorado...class size 6!
6. What size shoe does he wear? 10 or 10 1/2
7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Michael Jordan memorabilia
8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? Turkey or maybe Monte Cristo
9. What would the Husband eat every day if he could? Sushi...blah!
10. What is his favorite cereal? He has a Wheaties box with him and two friends on it, but I would say Multi-Grain Cheerios
11. What would he never wear? lipstick!
12. What is his favorite sports team? Mavericks...but he would say the Bulls in the days of MJ
13. Who will he vote for? Probably McCain...we'll see. 15 more days to be swayed!
14. Who is his best friend? Sun Ho Pak...they're half a world a part...how sad! or it could be me!
15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn’t do? Walk next to the street when we're together. He always corrects me and seems just a little too upset by it. I didn't know I was supposed to be on the other side!
16. How many states has he lived in? Kind of 3. He lived in Alaska when his mom was pregnant with him, then Texas, Colorado, and back to Texas.
17. What is his heritage? 1/4 Spanish, 1/4 Mexican, 1/2 English-Scotch/Irish
18. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind? He doesn't like sweets, but probably chocolate for my sake!
19. Did he play sports in high school? Basketball
20. What could he spend hours doing? Watching Seinfeld

10 Months!

Audrey is another month old. Another couple of months and she'll be 1! She still has just 2 teeth, but surely there are more coming in with her fussy behavior! She went to a high school football game, played with balloons twice (she likes balloons a lot!), went to a birthday party, and went to a pumpkin patch last month! We almost went to the fair yesterday, but the rain cancelled that. She is still crawling. She can get up AND get down around things. She can change the channel on the tv...urgh! She is getting tired of baby food, but she only eats bananas and bread well. She likes to make this sound that sounds like Donald Duck. She's our Lil Stinker and we love her!

Pumpkin Patch

Just wanted to share a few pictures we took Monday at the pumpkin patch.

Tagged

I have been tagged! The assignment is to post the 6th picture from the 6th file of photos on your computer. This is a picture of my friend, Lori's, first baby shower. She's got two little girls now!

It's your turn! I tag Dad, Blake, Lori, Shannon, and Meredith!

I Spoke, er, Ate Too Soon

Poor little Audrey still can't handle milk protein. We thought she could, so I ate some glorious meals between Friday and Monday. Those meals included a lot of pizza, monicotti shells with various cheeses, and a little bit of ice cream. My baby was covered head to toe in a rash last night. :(

I appreciate your comments on the last post, but I'm not as sacrificial as you think I am. Audrey is allergic to both milk and soy, so that knocks out your basic formulas. The formula that she can have tastes AWFUL! She wouldn't have anything to do with it. She is so tiny, why make her eat something that she hates when I am fully capable to nurse her? I had planned to nurse for a year anyway. I just didn't know my diet was going to be effected so drastically or that some other things that sometimes occur with breastfeeding would happen. I am very much looking forward to that one year birthday! Hopefully, this milk allergy won't force me to continue past that date.

It has been a hard week. Early last week, she was teething so bad, she had all sorts of problems sleeping. She was also crankier than normal. Then, she got her shots, including a flu shot. She ran a fever for 3 days. Then, I go and eat dairy and she gets a rash and an episode of diarrhea. Poor girl.

Dr. Visit

27 1/2" long. That puts her at a steady 50%.
16# 4oz. This feather-weight comes in at 10%.

So her weight dropped. I was concerned until my doc said that this was very typical in breastfed babies. He told me that I didn't need to change anything that I'm doing. Whew!

Also, I received some verey exciting news! Ever since Audrey was 2 months, I've been off of dairy because she has a milk (and soy) allergy and what I eat, she eats. Ladies and gentlemen, it appears that Audrey has outgrown the milk allergy!!

Some of you have said some things about how quickly I lost my baby weight. If you don't eat food, you lose weight! Of course I was eating, but definitely not what I wanted. The next time you see me, I will most likely be twenty pounds heavier! Bring on the ice cream, pizza, lasagna, fetticini alfredo, chocolate milk, cheese enchiladas, quesadillas, cereal, oreos and milk, cheeseburgers, nachos, pudding, coffee with cream, mashed potatoes and everything else that I miss soooooooo much!!! I will eat healthier things, but I miss these the most! And yes, I'm thrilled that Audrey will be able to eat mac and cheese, milk, and yogurt!

9 Months Old

Audrey has done some major things in the past month!

She got first two teeth right after turning 8 months. I think she working on a third one now. She hasn't been too happy today as a result. The breastfeeding has been alright since the teeth came in. She has bitten me a few times, but nothing too bad. I know how bad it could be. Today, while putting orajel on her gums, she bit down HARD! OUCH!

She also pulls up. This results in a lot of grabbing things she shouldn't and tumbles. She has had a few bumps and bruises this month.

She also will crawl on her knees every once and awhile instead of army crawling.

Audrey also knows how to wave. When I ask her to wave hello or hi, nothing happens. When I ask her to wave bye bye, she sometimes waves and say, "Bah bah!" So, I am considering this her first words.

She also has begun to initiate her own game of Peek-a-boo. She will hold a toy over her eyes and bring it down really fast over and over. When I say peek-a-boo, she sometimes make noises that may sound like those words.

Michael has begun to do this very annoying game with her. They will stand in front of me (doesn't matter if I'm sleeping, reading, eating or whatever) and begin yelling in unison. They will do this a long time. Fifteen minutes at least. It is totally ridiculous. I'm so afraid this game will show up at church.

I love how interactive she is. I like that she will come find me when I leave a room. I also like that she understands that I'll be right back if I leave the room and not melt down. That's important when you pull dinner out of a hot oven!

Below is a video of her craziness. Of course, there is no performing for the camera. Thursday, I'll get her stats after her doctor visit.

Crazy Hair

We snapped this picture right before bathtime. What would I do without bows to calm this wild head of hair?

Happy 3 Years, Babe!

Three years ago, on Labor Day Weekend, Michael and I got married. I can not even begin to tell you how he has made me so happy and how he has improved my life. He brings so much love and support to me daily. Thank you, Lord, for bringing us together!

Last night, we were able to celebrate. We had steak dinners and walked the park where he proposed. They have added nice touches with fountains and benches there. We ended the night talking at a coffee shop.

Over dinner, we went over highlights of the last few years. It was so sweet to remember all of those times we have shared.

I believe special relationships like ours carry a certain energy. This energy is easy and very powerful. It makes you joyful, gives you strength, and wraps you with love. I am glad I have this marriage as an example of Christ's love for us.

A Day NOT at School

Today was the first day of school for so many kids and teachers out there. There is a saying that the two best days of school are the first day and the last day. No truer words have ever been said.

Audrey woke me up at 6:30 this morning. This is earlier than usual, so I wasn't a happy momma. I brought her in to our room and we played for a little while. I finally let her eat breakfast. As per routine, I open up the blinds in the window across the dining room table that looks onto our yard and the elementary school across the street. I typically enjoy watching those dedicated morning joggers and the hustle and bustle of people scurrying off to work. Today, I got to enjoy watching entire families walking to school, anxious about the year ahead of them.

What struck me was this. These kids with backpacks looked soooo young! I am used to thinking 6th graders were the small kids at school. I watched 4 and 5 year olds bounce down the sidewalk and cross the street with the sweet, old, crossing-guard lady. Then I would put a spoonful of baby food into Audrey's mouth. These last 8 months have flown by and I know that I will blink and find myself taking Audrey's first day of school picture in front of our beautiful tree in the front yard.

I did not contemplate too long that this is the first August in 24 (?) years that I was not in a classroom. I did not go over the excitement of meeting the 130-160 students that will be your responsibility everyday for the next 180 days. I didn't really relish the freedom that I now have. What I did was come very close to shedding a tear for how quickly my little girl will grow up. And, btw, Becky, your blog and video did not help things! :) So, say a prayer for your children -that you will cherish each moment and raise them so that they are confident and ready for their first day of school.

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On a side note - Did anyone see what happened to me at church Sunday? We feed Audrey those star puffs during church to keep her as quiet as possible. These puffs become a nasty, soggy mess once they touch her mouth. Since Audrey insists on being the one to put the puffs in her mouth, sometimes they get in and come back out. This can create quite a mess. I was so proud of her yesterday. I didn't see a single puff fall from her mouth and her hands were staying pretty clean. What I didn't see was that a puff had fallen and was hiding behind a bow on her dress. She was sitting in Michael's lap, facing us. She looks down, sees the puff, and proceeds to THUMP the puff off of her dress. I see this random object shoot across the air. The soggy, gross, and apparently very sticky puff strikes me in the neck and stays! It was like I was in a movie, sitting in the forest, minding my own business, when a native shoots me with a poisoness dart in the neck! I peeled the puff off of my neck and made Audrey eat it. Michael and I were trying to suppress our giggling, since this happened at a very inopportune time. Isn't that always the case at church? Can you imagine if it had hit someone else on our pew? How embarrassing!

The Last Gummy Smile

I snapped this last night after Audrey took a bath. Today, she has a tooth. Looks like its neighbor is coming in too. I'll admit, I'm a little sad. I'm also scared about nursing. Can you say "Ouch!"?

8 Months Old

Today marks 8 months with this little munchkin. It has been so fun watching her develop a personality!

Audrey has decided that she no longer wants a pacifier! One day she wouldn't take one and hasn't looked back since. I need to find all of them and hide them so that she doesn't find a random pacifier one day and pick up on her old habit.

I'm pretty sure that the no pacifier has hurt Audrey's sleeping. There's no telling what to expect from her when it comes to sleeping. I really miss just plopping a paci back into her mouth to settle her. We'll be through with this one day.

Also, she is all over the map when it comes to how well she eats. There have been several times she has gone to bed with just a bite of food for dinner and her other meals weren't great either. The past couple of days have been a completely different story. I had to go to the pantry 3 times to get her more food last night. It has continued into today. I guess she knows when she needs more food.

Audrey is also repeating the sound "ba." She cold totally join the Beach Boys and sing Barbara Ann with them.

Catching Up

It has been a long time since I blogged about life. This post will mainly be about Audrey. Today is Audrey's 8 month birthday, so I will snap some pictures when she wakes up from her nap and post again.

Below is a picture of Audrey and her new friend, Levi. Levi's momma was a great friend of mine in high school. This friend, Jennifer, is so brave. Her husband is on his second deployment to Iraq. It will be over a year before she and Levi will see him again. Can you imagine? Take a moment to say a prayer for all of our soldiers. Levi is two weeks younger than Audrey and is all smiles. He even cuddled with me! That's huge to me because Audrey is an anti-cuddler.

The next two pictures are of Audrey eating breakfast in the mornings. Her hair and messy mouth always make me want to snap some pictures. What am I going to do with this kid's hair?

Like mother, like daughter. Audrey is watching the Olympics. She's a big fan of Nastia and Phelps. She's likes to kick back a lot these days. BTW, anyone else dealing with Olympic fatigue?
This video below makes me laugh. I honestly don't know if you'll find it funny or not. It's the very end that gets me. It leaves the viewer guessing. No babies were harmed in the making of this film.

Public School Crisis

As a former public school teacher, I have seen some pretty sad things. Today, I have been blown away by what I have read in the news.

Harrold ISD, north of Ft. Worth and just south of Oklahoma, is allowing its teachers to carry guns. Their reasoning is that they are far from police and just off a freeway. They would need to protect themselves if something were to happen.

It is sad that we have to think about protecting ourselves, even out in the country. This isn't a school in the rough inner-city, where you might assume you need protection.

Even at my own school last year, a student pulled a knife on our principal. Imagine if that had been a loaded gun instead.

I can't decide if I'm okay with this new policy or not. We do need protection. It's just sad that we do need protection in the places we send our children.

Another thing that I read was about Dallas ISD. Have you heard about this? The new grading policy is to allow late work. Students always have the option to retake a test and they are to receive the higher grade. If homework grades are bringing down their average, those grades don't count. The lowest grade a student can receive as an average is a 50.

As a teacher, I've done some of these things at one time or another. It was a decision that was made after evaluating the situation. The students never assumed that it would happen. I always took late papers, but points were deducted. If a student retook a test (during tutorials before school), I would average out the two grades. I never just took away homework grades! I've had to (due to district policy) give a student a 50 on a report card when it should have been a zero.

I felt bad every time I did these things. I felt that I was becoming part of the problem. But the thing is, I had to have at least some students pass my class. The ultimate goal was for learning to take place. If learning didn't happen by the first test, than hopefully by the retake, that student would learn at least one thing.

Isn't that sad? I understand to some degree why DISD is doing this. Now that it is a policy, the students will never do anything right the first time around. What are we teaching them? Will they expect all of these second chances in college (if they get there) or at work? Will they expect that if something is hurting them, that it will simply be taken away?

This, my friends, is what I think is the most crucial issue. I don't think a president can do something to fix the horrific system that is public education, but something MUST be done. This country will be so different in a few years if we allow all of this to happen. Maybe I will pack up my family and head to Canada.

Hold on to Your Hats!

Life's been busy and I've not been blogging. Shall we catch up?

Two precious people have been waiting to give birth to baby girls during this month. I really thought my sister-in-law, Emily would have her baby before July 4th. I was sooo wrong.

Let's begin with Thursday. Happy Birthday to my father-in-law, David! On this day, my brother, Brett's, family came in from San Antonio. My parents will be keeping their boys while they vacation. Also, my Uncle Joe's family came into town. My parents hosted my grandmother, Aunt Sasa and Uncle Ralph, Uncle Joe, Laura, and twin boys Mike and Jack, Brett and Jenny, Zach and Ethan, Blake and Jaime, Maddie and Macie, and Audrey and me. That's seven kids ages 5 and under. Fun fun!



Saturday, Michael's sister, Melissa surprised everyone when she, Matthew, and Meredith came into town. We had dinner and fun with the Halls, Burrows, and Averys! Emily still hasn't had her baby yet!


Sunday. Happy 36th Anniversary to my parents! WooHoo! Happy Birthday to my mother-in-law, Janie! We had Sunday lunch over at the Halls and waited to see if Emily would go into labor. Nope. We went home and I took my Sunday afternoon nap. While getting ready after my nap, we got this video of Audrey.




Monday, I went out to visit Zachary and Ethan again. Zach's birthday is soon, so I took him shopping! He is definitely Brett's kid. He wanted something from the dollar area at Target. I convinced him to look in the toy section for something better. He looked over everything and chose something on clearance! What a great kid to shop for!
While visiting these boys, I find out that Lori, my college roomie, has had her baby! Sophia Grace arrived at 1:10, weighing 6 lbs, 10 oz. Everything went well! YAY! I'm sure big sister, Faith, is thrilled!


On my way out of Rockwall, I get a call from Emily. She has seen her doctor again today, and she's at a 7/8. Are you kidding! You're still holding in this baby!!! She went home and would go back later Monday night to have the baby. Molly Christine came into the world weighing 7 lbs, 6 oz.

Memories and Fun

Got this from Lori and Dee Dee. Play if you would like!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot-- or just from blogland-- anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

7 Quick Months

Little Miss Audrey is 7 months today! I simply can not believe it! She has changed so much in the last two weeks - it is stunning!

For the most part, Audrey has become a happy person!!! I've been waiting for the day that I could say that! A couple of Sundays ago, we had lunch with Michael's family and the topic of her "contentness" kept coming up. They simply couldn't believe what they were seeing. (I couldn't either, really.)

She has left rolling behind in the dust. You can almost hear her say that rolling is for babies. She is almost crawling. She sure has figured out how to pull herself around. Each half day, I see improvements. She's better at night than she was that morning. The next morning, she'll be better than she was the night before. And she gets so excited about going anywhere in the room she wants! She kinda sounds like a panting dog - it's funny. The video below was taken a few days ago, so she has improved on her crawling skills.

Audrey typically goes to bed 7 or 7:30 and won't stir until 5. That's still an hour earlier than what the doctor said she should be able to do, but I'm not going to fight it. She goes right back to sleep after I nurse her. If she were a chubbier baby, I might let the feeding opportunity pass.

She LOVES running around the house with her daddy. She kicks her legs as they do this. I think she believes she's running on her own. I've noticed that when she hears the garage door go up that she gets excited and looks around for Michael to come in. So cute!

Audrey is still doing well on the baby food. Looks like the Apple and Blueberry Mix is boring her. I just keep buying it because it looks sooo good! I think her favorite is Plum-Banana-Brown Rice Mix. It looks like we lucked out on not being allergic to bananas. That's a pretty big allergy on Michael's side of the family. Whew!

Lori's Baby Shower!

My college roommate for four years, Lori, had a baby shower on Sunday. She is expecting her second daughter, Sophia, in just a few short weeks.

Lori and I were inseparable for most of our collegiate life. We didn't really know each other before rooming. She lived in Austin, and I lived in Dallas. My sister-in-law, Jenny, had a friend at ACU that tried to put another girl and me together. When I finally got around to calling that girl (I was sooooo shy that I couldn't bring myself to call her), she had found a roomie and set me up with her friend, Lori. That was God working, let me tell you!

Lori and I got along so well! We were both education majors, so we tried to have every class together. She made a great study partner! She had a boyfriend freshman year and we had him always have someone for me when they went out on dates because we didn't want to be apart. Horrible, I know! I bet he hated me! We used to joke about how we needed to find boy versions of each other to marry. Funny, I'm nothing like her husband and Michael is not like her!

Michael, Audrey, and I made the trek to Abilene and back on Sunday. You're probably feeling bad for Michael, but he had a lot of studying to do and he got the time to do that. He sat in the back with Audrey on the way there. Audrey did great! She had very few tears and mostly smiles. This was Audrey's first trip. If you had told me 2 or 3 months ago that I'd be able to make this trip with Audrey staying happy, I would have laughed in your face. Audrey has really made a turn around lately. I have to credit Gerber Puffs, toys, peek-a-boo with a burp towel, and baby food for keeping Audrey happy. She slept 30 minutes on the way there and about an hour on the way back.

What made my Sunday was seeing my beautiful friend all round and precious and Audrey doing so much better than what I was expecting! Thank you Lord!

Free Friday Night Fun

Wondering what you could do tonight that was fun and free? Why not get a slurpy at 7-11? Today is July 11 (7-11) and so you can get a free slurpy! Oh happy day!

After the Fourth

We survived the 4th of July. Audrey woke up hoarse Friday, so I didn't make her get accustomed to the swimming pool like I was hoping to do. We did have a lot of fun though. We spent the day with family, friends, swimming, and eating. Sadly, I didn't even go outside to see fireworks. Holidays are quieter when you have a sleeping baby.

Happy Birthday to Blake and Maddie!

Here's a video of us playing with Audrey today.