Good News!

I'm Pregnant!...Due November 7th

I forgot

I wanted to do another random photo...It's fun to see what comes up from the last 7 years or so.



This is Adrienne, and her best friend Allison. I'm pretty sure I was preggo with Colette at the time. I was babysitting Allison and took them for a walk.

Procrastinating

I'm procrastinating doing the bills right now. I despise doing the bills.

This week has been good...I've been trying to be more structured with my time. I've been getting all the annoying housework that needs constant maintaining to stay caught up on done first thing in the morning. Then I work on other stuff that needs doing, then things that get me ahead, then I can do whatever I want for the rest of the day guilt-free. I've been meaning for ages to do this, but this is the first week I've actually done it. Today I've gotten all the maintenance done, but the other stuff that needs doing is the bills...I will write this, then I've got to get to it on the bills!

So since I wrote on Monday the potty training has been here-and-there. Colette was babysat by two different people on Tuesday, so I just put her back in diapers for that. Then yesterday we spent the day in Bellingham (more on that later), so today was the first day back at it full force. She's been resisting it big time even though she's shown all the signs that she's ready.....she wants her diaper changed immediately after soiling it, she tells me when she does, she gets her own diapers and wipes, she stays dry through the night and naps. Today I've even been bribing her with M&M's and she hasn't earned one yet. She did use the potty chair twice on Tuesday, but that's been it so far.

So yesterday's trip to Bellingham was fun. The girls and I headed up there to spend some time with Kristy and Jessi and their kids....we hadn't seen each other since high school, so it was like we went through a time warp. It blows my mind how quickly time goes by now and how slow it used to seem when I was a kid. They both looked exactly the same and I felt like I looked so old...but it came up later and we all felt the same way about each other and ourselves. So maybe my beginnings of wrinkles aren't as obvious to everyone else as they are to me. The kids just ran around and played while we talked and caught up and talked about reunion stuff. Then later we went to Kristy's restaurant for dinner. It was good food, and it wasn't too busy, and our kids were very well-behaved, so all that adds up to a wonderful time. Plus an added bonus was the balloon guy that could make about 20 different things. Adrienne got a heart with a teddy bear hugging it, and Colette got a flower that went on her wrist like a corsage. Adrienne and Kristy's daughter Payton didn't want to separate so soon...next time I go up there I will have to plan on staying the night.

Emma's fun picture game

Emma invented this fun picture game. (I think she just intended for it to be a one-time thing and I'm the nerd who decided to keep it going.) You pick a picture at random and then describe it! So I got Adrienne's help in picking this picture at random. She pointed at different folders until we got down to the picture. When I went to click "upload" she says - I can't see what it is. I said - That's because it's supposed to be a surprise. She says - So it's supposed to be random? (I was impressed that she knew random - I purposely didn't say 'random' and said 'surprise' because I didn't think she knew it). So back to the picture. It's a pretty recent on actually...I took it a couple weeks ago. We have SO many picture of Adrienne from before Colette, and I just try to remember to take pictures of Colette once-in-awhile. I can't get her to look at the camera or smile though! Pardon the messy living room floor:


Okay, one more. So this next one was about three years ago. I found this program on the internet that lets you take a picture of yourself and do a virtual makeover. This was one of the "after" pictures. Sorry it's so fuzzy:

...Colette's day continued.

Another shot of Colette's new hair-do. A side shot and without the clip:

Big Day for Colette

So, today has been a big day for Colette. This morning I realized I only had 4 diapers left and I had no plans to go anywhere today, so decided to potty train her. Six pairs of training pants and plastic covers later - 2 of them poopy, and she has yet to use her potty chair. But it just takes that first time to get things going, so I'll keep trying. If that doesn't work, my secret weapon is M&M's....worked with Adrienne.

This picture is after the second of three baths today:



I've been growing her bangs out and a lot of the time they would cover her eyes and it just looked terrible. I'd put her bangs up in an elastic or clips when we'd go out, but she doesn't like wearing them, so will take them out if I put them in just to wear at home. Today I thought I'd close the gap between her hair length and the length of her bangs by cutting her hair. So now they're about the same! It was much harder to cut her hair than it was to cut Adrienne's at her age.

After the third bath:


What d'ya think?

Feeling Nostalgic - Pre-kids

I came across some pictures today I thought I'd put up.

These ones are from when Mike and I were dating and spent a lot of time driving around in his Blazer. They were probably taken in the summer of 1999:


Love that smirk:


While I was working at Clear Creek Elementary for Americorps - school was cancelled for the snow and I was bored so made myself a snowman and took a pic from off the hood of the car (since Mike had to work despite the snow). I'm such a nerd. But, you can see where I'm standing is where we're building our house:


This next one is me and my most favorite cat Josie. Looking at this one really makes me miss having cats and wish I didn't have allergies. We had two cats for awhile - Josie and Matilda. We believe a cougar ate them both. Later we took in another stray, Frodo - but we had to get rid of him when I broke out in hives and my throat started closing:


At Hurricane Ridge in February 2001:




My Tarzan. My first memories of Mike are of him climbing up behind the basketball hoops in the church during Volleyball. This is at Ft. Flagler in the summer of 2001. Our very first date was at Ft. Flagler and I was impressed by his decision to go there, because all there was to do was talk and get to know each other.


Our cats Josie and Matilda on my Cabriolet. I miss that car....it was SO FUN. It was our first major purchase together. We bought it together six months before we were married. Our next big purchase was our house that we closed on 2 months before we were married.

This little girl was my favorite kid at the day care I worked at while pregnant with Adrienne. She had Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and was so sweet, and cute, and funny - she was like a little imp. She was a foster child and I wished I could adopt her. Colette is partially named after her - she and her auntie Diane. She really thought I should name Adrienne "Allie" and even after I told her that her name was going to be Adrienne, she insisted that it would be Allie. One day she asked if the baby was wearing a dress in my tummy. I told her no, that she was naked....she thought that was the funniest thing and often giggled about it later.

Imagination

I'm not sure if I should feel guilty or happy. Adrienne was asking me to play cards with her today, but I really needed to buckle down and get some things done - so I told her I'd play with her tonight. So, later on she told me to look at what she was doing - she said she was playing UNO with her slipper since she had no one else to play with. Should I feel guilty that I didn't play with her? Or should I be happy that she has enough imagination that she is satisfied playing a card game with an inanimate object?