Random Thoughts to Know and Tell about the Last Week and a Half

Okay, I really didn't intend to make a big announcement and then disappear for a while. And everyday I've had things on my mind that I intend to put on the blog, but then the evening gets busy and other things come up and I never get to the computer. So this post may be a little disjointed and random. Sorry.

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We've been having a late-September heat wave, which tends to happen in Ohio, but fall seems to be making a comeback. I have to say that I like fall for fall itself, but I don't like it because it means winter is coming. Brrrrr...

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A couple Fridays ago, Brian and his folks took Katy to visit Brian's grandma. I cannot pass up these adorable photos of Katy and her great-grandmother shopping for Halloween candy in Rite Aid. How classic is this? Grandma got stocked up.

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This is kinda gross, but I have to ask, has anyone else ever had a fruit fly problem? We found them when we came back from vacation, and we've tried about 4 different methods to get rid of them, and darn if they aren't still flying around. Any suggestions? Or just make me feel better by telling me that you've had them before?

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Katy is loving her new yard (created by her new fence). We play out there multiple times per day. We moved the playhouse from the side yard to the front yard so she can play with it more easily. Add a little play food, and we're in toddler heaven.

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Katy's vocabulary is absolutely explosive lately. It seems like everyday Brian comes home from work and I say, "Guess what new word Katy learned today?" Here are some of her recent additions:

*"tass" (trash - this kid loves garbage)

*"dacka" (cracker)

*"dinky" (drink - and for the record I have never called it drinky)

*"ot" (hot)

*"appuhl" (apple)

*"ub oooo" (love you - which she says when she goes upstairs for bed. be still, my heart.)

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I'm still hanging on to some of this nausea and exhaustion, at 14 weeks. With Katy it lasted until 16 weeks, so I'm hoping we're almost through it. At one point this week I actually considered calling Molly Maids to see how much they charge, because the amount of dirt in my house was overwhelming me. But I was able to pull it together and get it (for the most part) cleaned. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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Today we went up to cousin Gabe's 1st birthday party. It was a beautiful day with lots of presents and cake and family time.

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Brian and I have both had some developments with our jobs, but that's too much for this post. I'll have to do another post about all that. I promise it won't be another week and a half!

Check out Katy's new shirt

Yes, it's hard for me to imagine, too, but this little booger is going to be a Big Sister. And at the ripe old age of 22 months. How about that?

So yeah, that means I'm 13 weeks pregnant, as some of you are aware. We are very excited to be welcoming another little one into our family. Might as well do it while sleep deprivation is fresh in our minds, right? Or at least that's what we'll tell ourselves.

So for the last 8 weeks or so I've had one motto in mind: Get. Through. The. Day. I know pregnancy is different for every woman, but for me, the First Trimester is the WORST of the WORST. Even at the end when I was huge and swollen and back hurts and having contractions and can't get comfortable enough to sleep, I remember saying out loud to Brian, "Yeah, but this is nothing compared to the first trimester." Ugh. I feel exhausted and nauseous and bleh and tired and just...barfy. BUT! The good news, no, the GREAT news, is that this First Trimester was significantly less miserable than with Katy. Still yucky, but at least I was able to function this time. Much, much better. So do you think this means if I have another one it will be even better??? (I know, I know, I can hear the chorus now, "I bet you're having a boy.")

I had my OB appt. yesterday to make sure everything was okay after the accident (this was another scary thing about the accident - and probably why I was having trouble breathing - can we say panic attack?). So everything is fine. The heartbeat was strong and she said at this stage the uterus is well protected and that it's rare for a car accident to cause a problem. Shew.

That's my news for the day. I guess I will need to change the name of the blog eventually. Any suggestions?

A Little Family Vacay

So we're back. We're rested, relaxed, rejuvenated, and we have a new perspective on life. Literally. I'll explain later.


We rented a house on Norris Lake in Tennessee and rented a pontoon boat for the week. The house was really great and provided a terrific haven for our families to enjoy the area. For the first part of the week, Brian's family joined us, and we had perfect weather to get some play time on the lake.

And Katy makes four blonde granddaughters...

Overheard: "This is awesome!" and "Let's come here every year!"

A family swim...Katy's not quite sure what to make of this whole lake thing...

Uncle Mark sets Carrie up for the tubing experience of a lifetime...

Aunt Kelly and the other girls watch the tubing...Katy's the only one who didn't get a turn. :(

For the 2nd part of the week, my mom and Greg and Melanie joined us. We didn't have quite as much success with the weather, but we still managed to have a really good time. We spent a lot of time relaxing at the house (evening hours watching 24 - man that show is addictive), grilling out, spending time on the water, and of course, outlet shopping. No vacation with my mother is complete without a serious shopping trip. It's just what we do. And it's a blast.

A week without the internet? Impossible...keep trying.

Mom and Mel, enjoying the scenery

I learned to drive a boat. I know, it's really hard.

Between duckies and doggies, Katy had lots of entertainment for the week.

So about that New Life Perspective I mentioned earlier... it's very strange as I look back, because as I was packing for this trip, I had this worry/fear/premonition that something bad was going to happen while we were gone. I wasn't sure what form it would take (national disaster, death in the family, etc.), but I just had this weird feeling. And then it also occurred to me that we would be gone over September 11th. And ever since 2001, I just never think that 9/11 is a normal date. There's something about it that has a gloomy cloud over it's head.

So on Tuesday, September 11th, we woke to find a forecast of rain, rain, and more rain for the day. So we decided to count our losses and take off for the outlet malls in Pigeon Forge. My mom, sister, and I took Greg's Nissan and headed for our destination. As we were making our way through Knoxville, we were in the left lane of a busy highway, passing a semi on the right. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, we hit a patch of water and hydroplaned, swerving and spinning between the semi and the cement wall on the left for what seemed like several seconds. By the grace of God, we spun around and hit the cement wall head on, and somehow all that traffic swerved to miss us, and we sat stunned and panicked. We all seemed ok. An emotional wreck, but ok. I was sitting in the back seat, and was having some chest pain, neck pain, and faintness. In the next hour that was a blur, emergency vehicles arrived, I was strapped to a backboard, taken to the hospital, x-rays completed, and Brian arrived. Everything came back ok, and they determined that I probably have a fractured rib or two, and other minor bumps and bruises. Mom and Melanie had bruises and scrapes from seat belts and air bags as well, but relatively, we are amazed at how well we walked away from this accident. There were so many "what-ifs" that could have been more serious. I'm so thankful that Brian offered to watch Katy so she wasn't with us when it happened. I'm thankful that we hit the wall instead of the semi, the more forgiving of the two, I think. I'm thankful that somehow no one else hit us, which I still can't understand to this day. And I'm thankful for the emergency response team that "just happened" to be driving by when it occurred, so we had immediate help on the scene.

So on the one hand, this put a damper on our trip. We had to deal with insurance and rental cars and all this from out of state (you can read my mom's version of the story and see her new car here). But on the other hand, although it was scary, I am just. so. thankful. I really appreciate the chance to be alive today and enjoy my family and be healthy and safe. And I'll take that as a warning to be an extra cautious driver from here on out. Dually noted.

Big girl (15 month stats)

Yesterday we had Katy's 15 month appointment (a couple weeks late), and everything went really well. The pediatrician was very impressed with Katy's word count, and said that if our future children had normal language development, we'd be needing some pretty strong reassurance that everything was ok. And I was thinking that Katy's appetite had really increased and that she had grown quite a bit since 12 months, and I was right:

12 months:

Weight: 18 pounds, 13 ounces - 20th percentile

Height: 28 inches - 20th percentile

15 months:

Weight: 21 pounds, 2 ounces - 30th percentile

Height: 30 3/4 inches - 40th percentile

He said the average weight gain at this age is about 1-1.5 pounds per 3 months, but Katy gained almost 2.5 pounds and grew almost 3 inches! That's huge!

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I remember Kelsey putting a post on her blog titled something like "Going Away to Relax is a Lot of Work." Well, I'm in the middle of that right now. Tomorrow we are leaving to go on vacation for a week. We've only been away from home for this long once since Katy was born. And I must say that I'm much less stressed about this trip. It definitely gets easier to travel with her with each month that passes. But it's still a little overwhelming. I'm organizing food, water toys, laundry, toys, CD's, DVD's, bottles, medications, diapers, wipes, bibs, and did I mention food? Both Brian's family and mine will be joining us for portions of this trip, and it has been quite the endeavor to get it all straightened out, but finally, the day before we leave, I'm really looking forward to it. I think it will be fun and relaxing (or as relaxing as you can get with a toddler), and I always enjoying having extended time with our families. So I'll be back in a week with lots of pictures and interesting stories, I'm sure. But until then...

Katy's long weekend

A couple of people have requested a little more "Katy-related" content, and I admit there been alot of my babbling lately and not as much cuteness, so I'll see what I can do. Katy had a very busy Labor Day weekend, filled with lots of unrelated activities in which we got to spend some quality time with a lot of friends. It was really nice, she had a really good time, and we got some good photos.

First we went to a wedding for a friend of Brian's from OSU. It was a large, beautiful, miltary wedding in northern Ohio. Anthony just got back from his 2nd tour in Afghanistan with the US Marines. You can tell he is thrilled to be home with his beautiful bride.

Congratulations Angie and Anthony!!

Since the wedding was in the general direction of my cousin Abby's home, we scooted over to their house to visit with them and their 11 month-old son Gabe. We had a really nice time catching up and seeing that blue-eyed cutie. Of course, Katy is into kissing (HA! Kissing cousins!), so Gabe wasn't quite sure what to think of it.

Of course, in the midst of all of this we missed the first OSU football victory (Go Bucks!). Katy has a board book called Where Is Brutus? The theme of the book is that this little boy has a stuffed Brutus Buckeye doll, and that his Dad and his friends figure out that the Bucks only win when the stuffed doll is in the room where they're watching the game. So I had mentioned to our friend JT on his way to the game on Saturday that I hadn't been able to find a stuffed Brutus doll for Katy. And look what we found when we came home!!

We figured out after a few hours that when you squeeze his belly, he plays the OSU fightsong. Perfect. I wonder if Stadium Hat has a little competition?

Next we visited with our friends Pam, Craig, and Jack. Jack and Katy had a blast playing the pool and the play ktichen set. Katy was cracking me up as she kept opening and closing the microwave door and pushing the "buttons" on the front. I guess you have no idea how closely they are watching you all the time. So as I said, Katy's into kissing... I just wish she was a better judge of who was interested, or else she's going to get hurt!

Finally tonight we went to a BBQ with our church Life Group. We had a blast eating a delicious meal, playing a cornhole tournament, and a little crochet in the side yard. We were also able to get a group photo, just in time before Brian and Karin move in a couple weeks. We'll miss them.

Brett & Abigail, Jason & Beth, Dave & Kate, Brian & Karin, and us...

Like I said, a busy weekend, but we feel blessed to have so many wonderful friends to enjoy and share our lives with. I hope your weekend was as much fun!