The night before Christmas Eve

I forgot to mention last post that the red Jeep is finally missing from the driveway. It has been broken for quite a while. It was a matter of finding someone who Hubby felt was capable of working on the old thing. After I did some calling around, we found someone to take it to. We dropped it off early Saturday morning. This guy we found has a shop on the side from his regular full time job. So, it will be with him for a while, since he gets little time to work on it.

So, here we are the night before Christmas Eve. We built (well, Hubby built and I supervised) something tonight that needed to be built prior to Thursday morning. It was done fast and easy. I still have a few gifts I need to wrap prior to delivery tomorrow.

Courtney is done with daycare until next week now. They did some really cute things for Christmas this week. They made reindeer food with glitter. It’s oats (oatmeal) with glitter. The oats are to attract the reindeer and the glitter is to reflect the light so reindeer can find the house. We will sprinkle it on the lawn tomorrow night before bed. We also purchased our cookies today to put out for Santa.

We also got a rib roast at Whole Foods tonight. We plan on roasting and smoking it tomorrow. Our office will only be open half a day tomorrow, but I am not going in since Courtney doesn’t have daycare. But she and I will make a stop up there to say hello to everyone. And the executive board made the decision to also keep the office closed on Friday. But Hubby has to go in for a few hours in the morning that day too.

Well, just a quick update as to what we are up to! I need to go and wrap a few gifts!!!

It's almost Chritmas!

Another week flown by! I can’t even believe it!

Hubby and I braved a snow storm to get down to my parents’ house last weekend. It was snowing pretty hard on the way down. But, we went and dropped the kid off. We were hoping that also meant fewer crowds out and about for our toy shopping. And indeed, it pretty much did! We were able to maneuver around Toy R Us without much company!

After spending a long time there, we finished all the shopping for little one’s we needed to finish! And from there we went and ran a few errands to finish the rest of our Christmas shopping, including a gift for me!

Monday was a fun day. I had another doctor’s appointment, including an ultrasound! And guess what? The baby finally decided to show herself, and yes, it is a girl! I have started having contractions, but the doctor said that it’s still okay. I am not meeting the criteria to make them worry. So, he told me when they start, I am to drink water and get off my feet. Yeah, I will do my best, but that is just not always possible.

Tuesday I took Courtney to My Gym. She is so independent. She runs around there with no fear and wanting to do what she wants to do, which sometimes is against what is going on in the class! But, it’s good to see her learning new things and doing new activities.

I took Thursday off from work. My mom got tickets for Courtney, her and I to see Sesame Street Live, Elmo Makes Music. I hadn’t shared the fact that we were going to see Elmo with her. I let my mom do that once we met her at her work. And it’s a darn good thing I didn’t tell her. Once she found out where we were going, that child was on a mission. She immediately put on her coat and started walking out the door. And she was on a mission until we were in our seats. She kept asking over and over again, where Elmo was. Finally the show came on and she was pretty mesmerized. She was just enthralled until the end.

After the show we went to lunch and Courtney kept informing us that after lunch we were going back to see Elmo. She has talked about it every day since. In fact she mentioned going to see Elmo today, 4 days later.

Thursday night we had a dinner party here at our house. Every year we have a Christmas Party that is just for close friends. This dinner has been held annually for several years now. Our favorite restaurant to have this event at closed. So, in order to keep costs down, we decided to have the party at our house. We had it catered, and that was nice. Everyone pays their share for dinner and we collect donations of kids PJ’s and books for the Pajama Program. It was great to catch up with everyone. One couple that was there recently got engaged, so that was big news to be shared! Since we had the party here, we also hired a babysitter to come and play with Courtney. She also put her to bed, so we could enjoy our dinner party. It was handy!

Friday we also had a babysitter booked so that Hubby and I could go and have dinner with one of my old friends. He ended up cancelling, but we decided to keep the babysitter and have a date night. So, we went to a nice restaurant for dinner. We finished up dinner just about the time Courtney would have been going to bed, so we decided it was probably best to find something else to do instead of going home. But we couldn’t think of anything to do. We ended up making a trip to Best Buy and Target. I think we need to practice our date night skills.

Saturday was a fun day. Our friends’ daughter had her first dance recital. She is 4, but this dance class starts kids at 2. I had never been to a dance recital for kids before. It was incredibly cute! Kinsey did a fantastic job. How on earth did she grow up so fast? It just doesn’t seem like it was almost 5 years ago now that we were visiting her and her parents in the hospital the day she was born! (Kinsey’s the one without the hat)

Kinsey wanted to celebrate her dance recital with pizza and ice cream sundaes afterwards. The recital was right during nap time, so Hubby stayed home with Courtney. They met us over at the Z’s house once we all got back over there. And we chowed on pizza and had incredible ice cream sundaes after dinner. Courtney actually didn’t sleep during her naptime, so we didn’t stay late. She was right at the end of her good behavior as we were leaving, so we left just in time. After a quick bath she was in bed, and out like a light pretty fast.

Today we slept in about an hour. I was planning on taking Courtney to my parents’ house for the day, but she was struggling with listening this morning and lost the privilege to go to Nana and Papa’s house. So, she stayed home with us. Our plan was to wrap gifts and to get the crib out of her room today, and other things. We still got these things accomplished. We didn’t get as much accomplished as we would have liked, but we did get the crib out of her room and I did get all Christmas gifts wrapped.

This afternoon, after Courtney got up from her nap, she and I went to the basement and watched A Muppets' Christmas Carol. It’s my favorite Christmas movie and it always puts me in the Christmas Spirit! Courtney actually sat and snuggled with me for the whole movie.

One of my Christmas gifts arrived Wednesday night. Hubby got me a new BlackBerry Storm. So far I love it. Its touch screen and fun to play with. I still have a lot to learn about it.

Well, it’s late and I still have to get ready for work and school tomorrow! Hope everyone is well.

First trip to see Santa

The holidays are certainly upon us. I can tell by how busy we seem to be every night!

Saturday night we had our company holiday party. It was a good time had by all. It was amazing that we had most of the staff in one place at one time! We were only missing 2 staff members and 1 contractor, so not too shabby! We went to a local Italian restaurant and ate and ate and ate. My office assistant has a daughter a year older than Courtney and a daughter a year younger than Courtney. When Courtney took swim lessons over the summer, the older girl was in her class, so Courtney knows her already. Plus we try to get the girls together occasionally. Once we and they were at the party, Courtney migrated right to them. She colored with them, and danced to the music with them. She had a great time. It ended up being a late night for her, but she did well.

The next day we put a turkey breast on the smoker, my favorite. And we invited some friends over for dinner. So that night we had 5 adults and 3 kids at our dinner table. Kinsey and Hailey joined Courtney at the “kids table” we added onto our dinner table. We all ate a great dinner and the girls all played really well together!

Monday night we let Courtney stay up late (just an hour past her usual bedtime) and watch Charlie Brown’s Christmas special. She loved Snoopy. When Snoopy was not on screen she kept asking “where’s Snoopy?”

Tuesday we started our Christmas baking. Courtney helped of course, and she thought that was fun. She got to stir. We didn’t get much done that night other than the actual baking of the cookies.

Wednesday night we frosted and decorated the cookies we had baked the day before. She and Daddy had a great time doing that. She also enjoyed being our frosting tester, since we made homemade frosting too.

Thursday I sent some of the cookies she had made in her lunch. The teachers said she was pretty excited when she saw them in her lunch the next day. We also brought some for her teachers. They said they enjoyed eating them too. We used an Alton Brown recipe and everyone was commenting on how yummy the cookies turned out. We took all the leftovers to work on Thursday where they were devoured.

Thursday night Courtney’s school was having a parents’ appreciation dinner. It was supposed to start at 4pm. When we arrived about 4:20pm there wasn’t much going on. We waited around about 15 minutes and there still wasn’t really much going on, and Courtney asked to go home, so we did. We hadn’t planned on eating at home that night, so we ordered Chinese on our way home.

After dinner, it was My Gym night. There was a LOT of kids in her class. For the holiday season they opened it up so that you can anyone can attend any classes. Usually you have your class you are scheduled for and you stick to that one. But because everyone’s holiday schedule is so crazy they open up the scheduled and restrictions which I am guessing is why there were so many kids in the class. Courtney had a blast running around and playing on the equipment. And she enjoyed the little activities they brought out for the kids to play with. But for some odd reason, her favorite thing to do is help clean up and put away things. Now if we could only get her to do that at home, too!

Courtney certainly knows who Santa is this year. She can spot him a mile away. She spotted him one night on top of a pole at a Christmas tree lot we were driving by! And anyone who may even resemble Santa is classified as Santa. We weren’t planning on taking her to sit on Santa’s lap this year, thinking she is still a bit too young, but we have decided that we were going to do it. She is just enthralled by him. Of course she doesn’t understand what his job is or that he brings presents, but she certainly likes him! So, last night we took her to the mall. We arrived right at 5pm, which apparently is Santa’s dinner time, and he was on break until 6pm. So, we went and ate dinner at the food court. Once we were done, I went and got in line while Courtney and Hubby walked around the mall.

Finally Santa arrived. And finally, it was her turn. For about the first 2 seconds she was on his lap she had that look of “I am gonna cry!”, but thankfully it faded and she was just kind of there. It took 3 tires before she somewhat smiled for a picture, but even the best picture is kind of a half hearted one! But then Santa gave her a book and all was right with the world. THEN Santa was a good guy. Then she was willing to talk to him.

Hubby was kind enough to prep her about what she wanted for Christmas. So, when Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said “a pony”. Aww, how cute. Doesn’t every little girl want a pony? Of course on the way home she then wanted to know where her pony was. Hubby got to explain that the pony was on the farm. And since he prepped her with the “I want a Pony for Christmas”, he can also diffuse any pony situations that may arise.

Update on my schooling, I got a 97% on my last test!!! And thanks to the fact that I didn’t miss a single class I got enough extra credit points to put my grade to an A+!!!! Next I am taking Legal Environment of Business. I am looking forward to this class, but I am taking it online since I am due in the middle of the semester. I am worried how I will do with motivation; I have never taken an online class for that purpose. But who knows, maybe I will love it and end up taking more online classes!

Tomorrow Hubby and I are taking Courtney to Nana and Papa’s house. After leaving her there, which is never a problem, she practically pushes us out the door (I wonder what goes on when we aren’t around?), we are going to do some Christmas shopping for her. I have no idea what we are going to get her, but I can tell you it won’t be a pony. (Although I wouldn’t mind having a pony, it’s against our HOA rules.) But this way Hubby and I can take some time to find her some good gifts.

Well, it’s bed time! Night all!

Fun Snow!

So, the weatherman kept telling us that we would get some snow on Saturday night. But they didn’t make it out to be much of anything. In fact they weren’t even predicting inches of any sort. Imagine our surprise when we woke up Sunday morning to about 5 inches of snow!! And it was still snowing!

Mid morning we took Courtney out for her first real snow experience. We pulled out the little sled Nana had purchased for her last Christmas. We put on 50 billion layers, well not really 50 billion, but you know how it is. And we all headed out for some fun in the snow. Hubby pulled Courtney around for a while and then I got a turn. Hubby then pulled out the snow blower and cleared the driveway and sidewalks. Courtney and I went into the backyard and played out there with the dogs too. Overall we spent an hour and a half playing outside! It was fun! We came in and I made grilled cheese and ham sandwiches to help us warm up. After lunch both Courtney and I took long naps!

Sunday night we measured how much snow was on our deck and it measured at 6 inches. But it sure felt like more! Funny thing is that at my parents’ house, only 10 miles south of us, they only got about an inch!

Monday night we went up to the zoo. We were invited to attend their Premier to the Winter Wildland at the zoo. In the past it has been called the Electric Safari, but they made some changes so I guess they decided to change the name too. So, we got up there right at 5:30pm as it started. We rode the tram up to the Moose Lodge for dinner. They had a nice buffet that was pretty tasty!

When we arrived at the lodge they had a porcupine out and Courtney got to feed it! It put it’s paw on her hand and that is all she talked about for a few days. After dinner we headed out to look at the lights. I love any excuse to go to the zoo at night. I think the animals are always so much more active!

We worked our way through the zoo to end at the giraffe house. Of course we had to feed them! So, we fed them a few crackers before heading out. Yes, the little trip did cause Courtney to get to bed about an hour late, but she sure had fun, and so did I!

The next morning she was pretty grouchy! Over the weekend when it was snowing I had made coco for us all to warm up. Courtney calls it coffee. She saw me heat up the water in the tea pot. Well, when little Miss Grouchy came downstairs Tuesday morning, she saw the teapot and started saying “I want coffee, I want coffee!” When I explained to her that I wouldn’t be making “coffee”, she increased her voice an octave or two, and a decibel or two and repeated “I want coffee, I want coffee!” I had to laugh, here is this 2 year old demanding coffee as if she was suffering from lack of caffeine. I was glad no bystanders were around to witness it. Without explanation, it would have seemed pretty odd!

So, we finally got all the snow cleared out of here, and we get hit again today. It has snowed all day and the roads are pretty bad. It’s also very cold! At 9:30pm the temp outside is 13 degrees! We skipped going to My Gym tonight. It is supposed to stop snowing at some point tonight or tomorrow, and we are only supposed to get 1-4 inches. I know we were at about 2-3 inches when we got home from work, so hopefully the weather men aren’t wrong again. I really need to make a trip to the grocery store. We certainly could scrounge in our pantry for food and we wouldn’t starve, but it would be nice to have more staples on hand.

Well, I guess I will go and move laundry!

Thanksgiving 2008

What a week! Courtney is supposed to go to the gym on Thursday nights, but because this Thursday was Thanksgiving, we took her to the class on Tuesday night. There were only 2 other kids in it. She was the youngest and she is still pretty new at this whole thing, so she is still learning how to do their skills. Two of the skills they had the kids learn and work on was climbing up bars on the side of the gym wall and crossing the monkey bars. Courtney was having a hard time grasping the whole one hand at a time thing on the monkey bars. The My Gym lady was holding her and she would let go with both hands at the same time to move on to the next bar. Funny!

Wednesday was a busy busy day! The owners at work, including Hubby, made the executive decision to close at noon on Wednesday. Nice! So, at noon Hubby and I headed up to Whole Food for our Thanksgiving feast fixings. We ate some lunch to build up our energy before we wiggled our way through the crowds!!! It was CRAZY in the store! But we were able to get just about everything we needed! I only had to stop at another grocery store to pick up 2 more items.

After that we went to get my car. We had dropped it off that morning to get new tires. The tires it had were HORRIBLE in the snow last winter. So, in order to support my NASCAR friends, I got some Goodyear Triple Treads put on it. Ok, I didn’t really get the Goodyear’s to support NASCAR; I got them because Consumer Reports rated them top of the line for all weather tires. I have to say, they are dang pretty! Who knew a tire could make me smile? Is my life just that sad that I get excited about tires? Still, I looked at them again today and smiled and thought “man, those are some nice looking tires!” Sigh…..

Hubby went home and started prepping food for the next day. I went and ran some errands I have been wanting to do, but hadn’t had time. I also wanted to get them done before the craziness of the holiday shopping started.

That night our friend Rick came over for dinner. Not sure if I mentioned it before or not, but he had been working for this aircraft company in Denver for something like 10 years. When the economy started to go horrible, they closed, and he lost his job. Then the rumor mill started saying that a Russian company was going to invest in it, which they did and after he had been out of work for a couple months, he got his job back. But then, about a month ago, when the stock market really started to dive, the Russian investors pulled out. Result was that he lost his job again. So, he is currently unemployed again. Courtney adores him, so she gets a huge kick out it when he comes over.

We also bought his motorcycle from him about a month ago as well. Now Hubby and Courtney both have a bike to ride!

Hubby stayed up late Wednesday night. He put the bird on the smoker at midnight. Next morning we started cooking about 9am. My mom and Dad arrived just after 10am. Which was great, because then they could distract the kid, so I was able to be the sous-chef. We ate a huge, yummy meal about noon. After we stuffed our selves full, Courtney went down for her nap.

While Courtney was napping we put up the Christmas tree. By “we” I mean Hubby brought it up from the basement, and he and my mom put it together, then my mom and dad decorated it. I sat on the couch whole time drinking wassail. Don’t worry, the wassail was non-alcoholic. Hubby also took down our large blow up turkey in the front yard and replaced it with our blow up Santa riding a motorcycle. So, in one fell swoop we went from Thanksgiving to Christmas!

I am pretty much done with my Christmas shopping! I am waiting for a few packages to arrive to wrap, but other than that, I am just about almost done. There are just a few things I need to go out and get still. Maybe tomorrow but I sure wasn’t going to go out today! Sorry, but I don’t get into that whole Black Friday thing. I also avoid shopping on my birthday, too crazy again!

We got snow Thanksgiving Day! We got a few flurries during the day, but then that evening it really started to snow. We got probably an inch. It made for super slippery driving for those crazy people who were out before the crack of dawn shopping. By the afternoon the sun had melted most of the snow. I got up a few minutes ago and looked out and apparently it’s snowing again! According to the weather man it’s supposed to do this off and on through Sunday.

We are currently a household of 4 dogs. Greg and his fiancée Tania went up to Blackhawk for the holiday. All their kids are in NY for the holidays, so they were able to go and have a grown up Thanksgiving. So, Romeo is here to play. Bristol really likes playing with Romeo because Romeo plays with him and isn’t bossy and pushy like Maggie. For the first hour that Romeo was here, it was crazy while the two of them ran around and got all the playing out of their system. Now, he is just like another dog in the house. They will pick him up on Sunday.

My mom bought these snow boots for Courtney that are white with princesses on them. She is now HOOKED on them. We can talk her out of wearing them around the house all the time, but when we leave the house, forget it. She is going to wear her boots. The other day she insisted on wearing her boots in the car to daycare but I told her we had to bring her shoes and put them on once we got to daycare. But for the last few days when we run errands, she insists on the boots. Some battles you just don’t pick.

THEN my mom got her a Santa hat and gave it to her yesterday. Now, whenever we leave the house it’s her boots and her Santa Hat she has to wear. So, tonight we went to Walgreens with boots and a Santa Hat on. She took the hat off before going in the store, but she was trudging around Walgreens in her boots! She’s pretty cute!

So, the pregnancy is still going smoothly. I have been going through a lot of days this week where I don’t feel the baby move most of the day. Then late afternoon I start to get a little panicked about it. But then that evening she starts to move again. I know I drive Hubby crazy, but it drives me crazy! Hubby swears I went through this when I was pregnant with Courtney too. I don’t remember that, but that’s not saying much. Now if we ask Courtney where her sister is she will reply “in mommy’s belly”. It’s pretty cute.

Well, I am off to move laundry and maybe watch a movie!

Such a girl

We have such a girl on our hands. Last night I was clearing out her shoe bin of her shoes that no longer fit her. She discovered a pair of red boots in the bottom which she pulled out and announced she wanted to wear.

I said “I am not sure they will fit you, but we can try them on”. So, I put them on her feet.

I asked her “how do they feel?”

To which she promptly replied “they look good!”

Almost Thanksgiving!

Another week come and gone. Another week closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas! This past week Hubby was in DC teaching, so it’s been just us girls at the house.

I am still not overly happy with the Zebra room at Courtney’s daycare. It still feels very chaotic in there most of the time to me. But, Courtney likes it. And her potty training is advancing really fast, so hey, maybe it will be okay.

Thursday night I took her to try a class at My Gym. If you aren’t familiar with My Gym, it’s a “gymnasium” for kids 6 weeks to 13 years old. They hold classes for different age ranges, and they have all kinds of play equipment for kids. They are nationwide and apparently worldwide too! (http://www.my-gym.com/)

So, we headed to our 6pm class. The teacher, Mr. Joe, was telling me at the beginning that most kids don’t participate in circle time the first time so not to feel discouraged if she doesn’t. But Courtney jumped right into the first circle time! And she did everything the teachers did! She loved it! They start the hour by doing free play, then a circle time with some songs and movements. Then more free play, then an activity, which they had little square boards on wheels that the kids laid on and we pulled them around using a hula hoop. Then more free play, then they pulled out swings they hung from the ceiling, then free play then more circle time, etc. They also do about 5 minutes of social time where the kids play and the adults leave the floor and let the kids do things on their own. She did really well during that too.

I was shocked when right in the middle she came up to me and said “I need to go potty”. So, I took her to the potty and sure enough, she pottied!! Later that night, her diaper was dry when I changed it, so she is obviously figuring this whole potty thing out!

The class gets over at 7pm, which is her normal bedtime. After the class I had to stay to fill out paperwork to get her enrolled, so she was starting to fall apart while I was doing that. Thankfully the gym is not far from our house and it’s only about a 5 minute drive. So, as soon as we got home I put her to bed and she was out in a matter of moments! Next time we should be able to leave right after class, so that should help with the bedtime stuff. It’s close, but as long as we don’t stay much past 7pm, she should be able to hold it together.

She did so well! She participated in everything! And she had a blast jumping on their trampoline, jumping in the ball pit, and riding on their little train. She can’t wait to go back! She kept saying “we went to Gym’s house”.

After I put her to bed, I spent the evening doing my accounting homework. Do I know how to have fun or what?! I only have 3 more class sessions left and I am done with Accounting 1!!! It sure would be a lot more exciting if it was Accounting 2 that was almost over so I didn’t have to ever do accounting again, but it’s not. So, next summer I am going to have to suffer through Accounting 2. BLECK. But it feels great to have all my accounting homework done for Tuesday! Now I don’t have to worry about it!

So, this time of year, in this economy is really tough for me personally. What I mean by that is that I know that there are so many families that are struggling just to make ends meet, let alone have a large meal or purchase presents for their kids. There have been food drives left and right, and I have always been trying to donate to them.

Courtney’s school just held a drive; I donated about a bag of dry and canned goods to that. At work, a few months ago over the summer, I initiated 3 collection boxes at the office. 1 is for our Office Assistant’s husband in Iraq, 1 is for the Humane Society, and 1 is for the local food bank called Care N Share. All of us who work in the office pick stuff up, just an extra item or two when we are at the store to throw into one of the boxes. Then Kim sends the stuff to her husband, or we take the other boxes to their donation locations.

Last year we adopted a family at work. We have done the same again this year. We have adopted a family of 5 that needs help. They asked for things like sheets, pot and pans, jackets, shoes and coats. We will go shopping for them and then wrap all the gifts.

Also we have an annual friend’s dinner at Christmas time. We have instituted that everyone that attends brings a pair of kids PJ’s and a book and we donate that to the Pajama Program (http://www.pajamaprogram.org/). Just a few small things we try to do to help those in need. But to me, it sure doesn’t feel like much. I sure wish there was much more I could do, especially in these economic times.

Well, Hubby is finally home this afternoon, so I guess we will all go and spend some quality time together as a family. Hope everyone is well!

So, yes folks, we are pretty sure we are having another girl. Not 100% sure, but pretty sure. We have mostly started to call “it” “she”. I will feel much better with confirmation one way or the other in a month.

Well, we had Veteran’s Day off from work, so we took Courtney to day care and spent the day cleaning. Except for the part of the day where I had to go to school and take an accounting test. Which by the way, I got a 96% on! We got a lot of the stuff cleared out of the baby’s room. Now we have several trips to make to Goodwill. And I have to take pictures to list some things on Craig’s List. But we can at least see most of the room! And once I get all Christmas presents wrapped and shipped out, or delivered to where they belong, we can finish clearing out the room and then move furniture out. THEN we can start to move baby furniture in.

Yesterday Courtney went in the basement with Hubby to do something. She saw the baby swing that we had pulled out. She asked what it was. Of course once she heard it was a swing she wanted to sit in it. Hubby explained to her that it was for her new baby sister once she gets here. Fast forward about an hour, we were walking around REI and she starts saying “where’s my baby sister? Where’s my sister?” Not sure if she thought we were going to be purchasing her baby sister at the store, or it finally hit her that she was going to actually have a baby sister. But it was pretty cute.

She has transitioned rooms at day care officially now. On Friday morning I took her in and opened the door to her old room. She refused to enter and said she wanted to go to the Zebra room, her new room. The teacher said I could go ahead and take her down to the Zebra room. She spent the whole day down there and is now officially a Zainey Zebra.

I guess as usual I am not happy with the transition. They are supposed to be transitioning out 4 of the oldest kids next week. But for now, the age gap is pretty big. They have 24 month olds up to 30 month olds. At this age range, that is a pretty wide span and really is a big difference in size and abilities and such.

When I walked in the room on Friday afternoon to pick her up, there were a LOT of kid in the room and it felt very chaotic in the room. I hate that feeling. I don’t like the idea of little Courtney being stuck in a room that just has chaos in the air. AND while I was standing there trying to gather her stuff, one of the larger kids just walked right up to her and pushed her down. Courtney had just been standing there not doing anything! Thankfully the teacher saw it too, and made the other kid apologize to Courtney. I also walked over and told Courtney to tell the girl how that made her feel, but she still isn’t great at using her words. Plus she was pretty stunned. I walked out of there with that sick feeling in my stomach that I hate. That feeling of: maybe I should just quit my job and stay home with her. However, that is not very realistic for us, so hopefully next week goes smoother.

Other than all that, things are pretty much the same around here. Hubby was allowed to purchase himself a new laptop for work, so he has a new MacBook Pro. He just got it Friday and has spent every possible minute on it since it arrived. One of these days I am going to have to start hiding his power cord while he is home.

Well, I need to go and spend time with the kid and work on laundry. Hope everyone is well!

New Bed

Well, big news around here recently is that Courtney got a new big girl bed! Last weekend we went out to find her a new bed. With the baby coming in a few months, we wanted to use the crib for the new baby. So, we wanted to switch Courtney as soon as possible so she didn’t feel misplaced by the baby.

We took her to a furniture store to look for beds. We told her where we were going and what we were looking for. She runs into the first store we go in, stops in the middle of everything and says “where’s my new bed?” It was very cute. She test drove several beds.

But we moved on to another furniture store. At the next store she found a bed she loved and we found a bed we loved, but they were different beds. Unfortunately this is one of those situations where the parents win. But, it didn’t really matter, once the bed we picked out was delivered, she was so excited to have a new bed it could have been a spaceship and she would have been excited!

It was delivered on Wednesday this past week. Our plan was to read to her in her new bed but still put her to bed in her crib until Friday night. That way, if the first night didn’t go smoothly, it wouldn’t be a huge deal because of the weekend. But, do you really think that happened? Once she was in her new bed, she was in her new bed and refused the crib.

She stayed in her bed without getting out until Sunday nap time. Nap time on Sunday she finally figured out she can get out of the bed when we aren’t around. She also knows how to open doors now. So, we had to stay nearby and put her back a few times before she finally stayed in bed and went to sleep.

So, we currently have both beds in her room. Our plan over the next few weeks is to get the other bedroom that is currently a disaster area, cleaned out and to move the crib and rocking chair into that room. This will make an easy transition for Courtney as well.

We have just been amazed at how easy the switch was! She was a little cranky after her first night in her new bed, but we haven’t had to go into her room at all overnight since she has started sleeping in it! She doesn’t stay in one spot, or even the right way like most people who sleep in a bed. She is still all over the bed.

Saturday we went and tailgated and then went to the AF game. We do this once a year with a group of friends. It was really stinking cold this year. It really made me wish we had an RV! But, we toughed it out. The game was against Colorado State University (CSU). It was a pretty good game and for the first time in the last several years, I stayed until the very end. I usually give up early and go back and eat more food at the tailgate spot.

Courtney stayed with Nana and Papa for the day. When I dropped her off, it was like ‘Mommy who?’ when I tried to say goodbye, which is the opposite of what happens when I drop her off at daycare. But, at least I know she loves being there! Apparently they played all day and had a wonderful time. I picked her up about 8:15pm, so she was pretty off schedule. That always causes major crankiness the next day, but its okay once and a while!

Other than that, life has kept us pretty busy with work and school, etc. Daycare is getting ready to move Courtney up a room to the Zebra room. She is currently a Rowdy Rhino. I am glad they feel she is ready. It’s just tough on me as a mom to see her growing up so fast! They are transitioning her into her new room this week, and then next week she will be over there full time.

Here is a cute picture of what happens when I let Hubby do her hair:

Well, our office is closed today in honor of Veterans Day. I have an accounting test this afternoon, but I need to use this morning to start clearing out the baby’s room! Hubby took Courtney to day care, so this will help speed up the process of cleaning!

Happy Halloween 2008

As you know, we moved Courtney to a new daycare somewhat recently. Our last daycare didn’t celebrate any holidays, or birthday, or anything. Our new daycare actually celebrated Halloween! So, Courtney went to daycare in her costume yesterday morning. She didn’t wear it all day, but it was sure cute seeing all the kids dressed up that morning! The parents were invited to come back at 4pm for a Halloween party. They had a parade of all the kids so you could see everyone’s costume. All the parents brought something to the party, we brought sliced cheese. There were cupcakes, cookies, fruit, drinks, and more. After the parade, they let the kids dig in. Courtney had part of a cookie, part of a cupcake, some cheese, juice, and fruit. Yes, they were plying them with sugar just before we take them home for the evening to go out and get more sugar.

We came home and ordered pizza. After pizza we finally headed out to Trick or Treat.

Courtney survived her first Trick or Treating. We went to our neighbors’ house across the street first who she knows pretty well. Of course we couldn’t get her to say “Trick or Treat” but she said please and our neighbor had a nice bag all done up for her. Ms. Lisa (the neighbor) wanted to get some pictures of Courtney, so we were hanging out while she took some, and kids starting coming to the door in droves. Courtney would see the kids in masks and get scared. She kept saying “scary, scary” and crawled up in Daddy’s lap.

We moved on to another neighbors' house and she finally said Trick or Treat! Then we started walking the other way from our house and there were kids everywhere! Between the darkness and the masks and costumes, she was scared to death. We hit one more house, and our mailbox to pick up the mail, and headed back home. She ate a lollipop while she watched us hand out candy. After eating a KitKat and becoming very chocolaty, I dipped her in the tub and Hubby put her down for bed.

We had several friends over. Our house tends to be a gathering spot on Halloween for some of our friends who wouldn’t see many Trick or Treater’s at their own houses. So, they handed out candy while we were out with Courtney. It was such a warm night, we had LOTS of kids. The past few years we have felt the numbers dwindling, but the warm weather brought them out in droves. It started to naturally quiet down about 8:15pm so we shut off the lights and brought in the pumpkins. Then we pulled out the cards and played a game of Phase 10.

Overall, it was a very Happy Halloween here, I hope it was for you too!

Another pumpkin patch

Well, Boo at the Zoo was a success. We arrived about 5pm in the parking lot, which was already full! So we had to head over to the overflow lot. The gates didn’t open till 5:30pm, but we were able to buy our tickets and then wait in a holding pattern for 5:30pm for them to let us into the zoo. It was crowded! We ended up going through their new sky ride entrance. Most people went through the main entrance. Our friends were in the mass of people waiting at the main entrance.

Once the gates opened, we were able to meet up with them and head off in a direction away from the main flow of the crowd, so it wasn’t bad! It worked out pretty nice. Of course we did meet up with the main bulk of the crowd in front of the carousel.

Courtney wanted to ride the carousel. We couldn’t believe it! She has always been afraid of it in the past! So, we got in line, and got on. She was always scared of the horses that went up and down, so I asked her if she wanted to sit on a bench. She said yes, but once we got on the carousel, she wanted a horse. I explained that it would go up and down and she was okay with that! She actually laughed for about the first 30 seconds once it started moving. So, I guess we finally have a carousel rider on our hands!

Courtney wore her costume the WHOLE time. She is a puppy. I think she was super adorable!!! To end the night, we fed the giraffes. Courtney and Hubby found a very social giraffe and fed him crackers.

Hubby was off again on Sunday, the next day. He was gone all week to New York City and got home late last night.

We got our first snow Wednesday night. We only got about an inch on the grass at our house. Some places got up to 4 inches. It wasn’t too bad, a few icy spots the next morning while driving, but overall pretty mild for the first snowfall. It certainly feels like it changed the air from fall to winter though. No more short sleeves, no more light jackets, its long sleeves and heavy coats from here on out.

Courtney and I had a typical week. We did go over to the Z’s house for dinner last night. Courtney had been asking to play with Hailey and Kinsey for 2 days. We had plans to go to a pumpkin patch today, but getting together for dinner would allow the girls some play time. So, we headed over to their house for dinner and the girls got some quality play time together. Courtney and Hailey are really starting to play together. Last night, they sat down and colored right after we got there. Hailey got them each a piece of paper and then the box of crayons, it was so cute. And they have conversations back and forth now also. After dinner, and dancing, and playing, I brought her home and put her to bed. She crashed FAST!

This morning was a big morning for her. Not only was Daddy home, but we were heading out to a local “farm”, more like a ranch. The farm that brought her the pony to our house set up a little pumpkin patch for Halloween. They had a hay ride, pony rides and you could feed the many animals. Plus you got to pick a pumpkin. The farm has a camel, many sheep, pigs, alpacas, donkeys, ponies, horses, cows, rabbits, chickens, ducks, goats, and probably some I am forgetting.

With the admission price, kids got a pony ride, a hay ride, a pumpkin, and a cup of feed! So, we started off feeding the animals. We then went for a hay ride, and it was a long hay ride! After the hay ride was straight to the pony ride. After that the girls went and chose a pumpkin. We let them play around a bit after that. It was quite windy, with a slight chill in the air, but not too bad. We finally left to head for home. Courtney and I both took a nice long nap after lunch.

She is looking forward to Halloween. I am not sure she grasps the concept, but she keeps mentioning Trick or Treating when we tell her Halloween is coming. So, she knows the two things go together. I will take her to a few houses on Friday, but not many. I am sure she will probably enjoy handing out candy too. I remember last year she got a kick out of watching the kids come to the door.

And that is what we have been up to!

Sinus Infection

Sorry it has been so long since the last update. Hubby was gone to Japan for 8 days. During that time, I got really worn down. Towards the end I just felt burnt out, and then I got sick. I am not surprised I got sick, since I felt so worn down (and I am pregnant). It has since turned into a sinus infection. I was at the doctor’s office Thursday getting a prescription for antibiotics. I have been sick over a week and I still feel really run down. With Hubby’s travel schedule, it may be a while before I can get completely over this.

So, yes folks, I am pregnant. I did find out on 8/8/08 at the Riviera hotel in Las Vegas at 6am. You can’t make up memories like that! I am 14 weeks now, which means I am into trimester 2. And this time so far (knock on wood) it has been a bit better! I have had some morning sickness, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it was the first go round. And I think I am already coming out of it!

I have switched doctors from my last time. I like me new doctor a lot. I have already seen him a few times of course, and he is a really nice guy. Hopefully I won’t have to see him more than normal!

I can’t remember if I have mentioned before or not, but I use the website babycenter.com. You can enter in your due date and it tells you week by week what the baby is up to that week. And each week it tells you how big the baby is, in approximation of course. For some reason each week, they compare the baby to food. I am not even kidding. For 13 weeks, they said the baby is about the size of a medium shrimp. At 14 weeks, the baby is about the size of a lemon. I just find it so humorous that they compare the baby to food for a pregnant woman. Looking ahead I saw that at 37 weeks they compare the baby to Swiss chard. I didn’t even know what that was until I went and looked it up, and it’s a plant that looks kind of like rhubarb. Where do they come up with this stuff?

Accounting is still going okay. I just took my second test and I got a 93%. Not too shabby. Looking back at my test after it was graded, I made some stupid mistakes. But I probably did that because I was pretty sick that day. So, getting a 93 isn’t bad when I think about how awful and rotten I felt!

Courtney is changing so fast every day. Her little mind just amazes us. Some of the stuff she says! The other night she had a toy Nana gave her a LONG time ago. She said, “Nana gave this to me”. We said “yes she did”. She replied “that was nice of her and Papa”. Amazing! And occasionally she will say ‘I love you’ without prompting. And somewhere she learned that her sneakers have a tongue! I am guessing daycare taught her that one because neither Hubby nor I did.

The big thing for Hubby was that she actually wanted to sit on his motorcycle yesterday. She has been so scared of it for so long she didn’t even want to touch it. She loves to watch him come home when he rides his motorcycle to work, so we sit outside and wait. And when he comes home she sits and watches. But she would never get near the bike or touch it. She always said it was too loud, even if it was off. And she said it scared her. Well, something changed because yesterday we almost couldn’t get her OFF! She wanted to sit in the back seat and have Daddy sit in the front! And then she wanted to sit in the front seat. She was so cute.

Tonight we are taking her to Boo at the Zoo. Our zoo sets up all kinds of lights, and has trick or treat stations, etc. I went once years ago, prior to Courtney. It will be different this time with a kid; I am looking forward to it. She will get dressed up and get to practice her trick or treating! This year she is going to be a puppy. She has a super cute costume that Nana found for her. We are going with our friends, so she will be able to follow Kinsey’s lead for what to do. Otherwise, she hasn’t quite grasped the whole trick or treat thing yet. But we are working on it.

Well, Hubby is making us a delicious breakfast. I better go pay the few bills I need to get paid before its ready! Hope everyone is well!

Harvest Festival

I miss my mommy. She has been in Ireland for the past 2 weeks and won’t be home for another week yet. I finally spoke with her on the phone the other day. She informed me she is having a GREAT time and misses Courtney. (You can see where I rank).

I just got my furnace cleaned and serviced. I feel much better, knowing that it has been done, and just in time! A cold front is supposed to be moving in tonight. I don’t think it will bring us our first snow yet, but it won’t be much longer!

Greg came over last weekend to try to fix a light in our back yard. Hubby installed a motion sensor flood light and it hasn’t worked since he put it up. Greg is good with wiring and electricity, so he came over to take a look at it. There is an issue with the light for sure, and possibly the light switch. I have to purchase another light and have him come over to install it.

I also want to put a motion sensor flood light on the other side of the house. There is no light over there currently. So, I need to either get a solar one, or we will have to run power from somewhere. I am going to look at the solar ones when I go to purchase the other light.

So, why all the lights? The last few times Hubby has been gone, odd stuff has happened. It started with that scare with the guy on the porch. The next time the door from our backyard to our garage was open one morning. Then last trip one of our deck chairs ended up placed against the fence, like someone used it to crawl over the fence out of the yard.

So, I am going to be very careful about letting people know when he is gone, and I am doing all I can to prep the house. I need to get some deadbolts installed too.

Today Courtney and I had a super fun day. We went to the Fall Harvest Festival at the Rockledge Ranch. The Rockledge Ranch is designed to be like an old homestead from Little House on the Prairie days. They only open up for special events; it’s not something you can visit at any time.

They were open today for the Harvest Festival. We hadn’t been before, but our friends have gone several years and really enjoy it. Courtney is finally at that age where she would enjoy it. So, we met them there right at the opening time. It was a BEAUTIFUL day. The weather was perfect.

We started by going right to the Pumpkin Patch. Each girl picked a pumpkin. At first Courtney wanted the first one she came to. I was able to talk her into venturing a little further. Then she found the one she wanted. She found a really nice one. Of course, these pumpkins were carted in from somewhere, so they were all pretty perfect.

Next we headed to the pony rides. She had asked me first thing this morning, before we even left, if she was going to ride a horse. I hadn’t even told her there was going to be ponies!

After the pony ride we went and did a “Candy Scramble”. There was a pen of hay, and they put candy in the hay and let the kids go in and dig through the hay to search for candy. Courtney went in, but it took her a while to grasp the concept of what she was supposed to be doing. The helpers on the outside would throw candy into the hay right in front of her, so she didn’t have to search very hard. So she “found” a few pieces of candy.

From there we went over and waited in line for the tractor pulled wagon. Once we got on, we went for a little ride around the park. It was a nice ride.

After our ride we went to the face painting. Courtney wanted a ladybug on her cheek. Kinsey wanted to be painted as a princess, with a crown on her forehead. And Hailey got a ladybug on her hand. The girls were all so cute!

From there we went to Old Chicago for lunch. It was already a bit past lunch time and heading towards nap time. The service was incredibly slow!! By the time we got home it was almost the end of naptime. But I put Courtney down for a nap anyway, but she didn’t sleep.

While I was making dinner, Courtney did some redecorating. She colored on the wall for the first time ever! I couldn’t believe it! I guess it’s just about inevitable that kids will, at some point, color on the walls.

After dinner and a nice long bath to remove layers of dirt, pizza and face paint, it was bed time for a little sleepy girl. She was asleep almost instantaneously. But when she has days like this, she usually doesn’t sleep well. She has already been up crying once or twice, so we will see how the whole night goes. It may be a very long night.

What a great day! You can’t ask for a funner way to kick of October, fall, and the Halloween seasons! I am really looking forward to Boo at the Zoo and the other fall festival we are going to hit later this month.

same old, same old

Well, I did get an A on my accounting test! A 93% to be exact. I thought that was pretty good until I started to see the scores of the kids around me. 96, 98, so, I guess I still did okay. It’s still not a fun class. I am learning a lot, and I am doing well in the class, but I still HATE it. I just hate the concept, the work, the craziness of it.

Hubby was gone again. He went to Norfolk, VA. I am sure all of you have heard about the airline cutting flights. We have found where they have cut them from. They cut a lot of them from the evening hours. So, these poor business travelers who want to come home at the end of a day instead of staying an extra night where ever they are, can’t and they are stuck for another night. So, where Hubby used to be gone for typically 5 days, he is now gone for 6 more and more. Sucks for Courtney and I on this end. And thanks to this lovely economy we are in, travel is not going to decrease any time soon.

Other than that, things are going along. Courtney’s language skills continue to blow us out of the water daily with the things she says. She really amazes us constantly. Not sure if it’s just the age or the new school, but it sure is fun!

Well, I guess I need to wrap this up. I don’t have the power to my laptop plugged in so I need to post this before my laptop dies.

Hope everyone is well!

Another busy week under our belts

Life still isn’t slowing down here. I had my first accounting test this past Thursday. I feel I did okay. Probably not an A, but probably didn’t fail it either. I will find out on Tuesday.

It was a busy week this past week, but a lot of it was work stuff. Nothing really worth mentioning there.

Saturday was a little bit more fun. Apple (as in Apple computers) opened up a store at the Shops at Briargate. They offered T-shirts to the first 1000 people, and they said they would open the doors at 10am. Hubby was excited about this and wanted to go.

We found out a few days before that the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) was holding their annual memorial that day also. And they were starting the day’s events by meeting up in the parking lot at the Shops at Briargate and then having a procession through town to Memorial Park where the memorial is, and they would hold a service.

Turns out they were all meeting up right in front of the Apple store opening. So, we got to the parking lot about 9:45am. The Apple store was already open and there was a HUGE line waiting to get in. And in the parking lot in front of that, were lots and lots of fire trucks and lots and lots of motorcycles.

The kid enjoyed watching the motorcycles and fire trucks. They were moving the fire trucks around in the parking lot, and the kid would wave at them when they went by. She got a kick out of that.

We finally got in the Apple store, got our T-shirts, looked around and got out, it was really crowded. We walked around the fire trucks and motorcycles and stopped in a few shops before heading out to run a few more errands.

By the time we were done with our other errands it was about time for the procession to start. So, we went and parked at Hubby’s old high school. The Flight for Life helicopter led them, so we knew when it was coming. They had lots of fire trucks from all over the country followed by 600+ motorcycles. It was pretty impressive, and very powerful.

That evening we got a babysitter and went to dinner with friends. We went to the Melting Pot. I love their cheese fondue.

Hubby left again today on another trip. Courtney now understands that Daddy is on a trip. But when we start preparing her, she always says “No, Courtney go on a trip”. It’s cute.

Also if you tell her she is cute, she will say “I’m not cute, I am Courtney!” She sure is growing up fast! The other day she climbed to the top of the stairs and sat there. I asked her if she was going to slide down, she looked at me (with a mischievous look) and said “Maybe!” She is starting to understand more and more! It was the first time she ever used maybe.

Well, I am off to print out my homework for this week!

Courtney is now 2!!!

Hey folks!

Sorry it’s been so long since my last post, life has been crazy! 2 days after my last post I came down with a really nasty cold. And yes, Hubby was still in Switzerland. So, I was trying to manage the kid, and my class, and my illness. I would take Courtney to daycare, come home and go back to bed, except for the one afternoon I had to go to class, I spent days in bed. I was miserable. This is one of those long lasting colds, and here at 11 days later, I still have a slight cough and slight congestion. Hubby ended up having to take me to the ER the middle of the night Saturday night after he got home. We called our neighbor across the street that stayed in the house with Courtney while we went. My chest was just bothering me so bad, I couldn’t get a full breath. They put me on an inhaler and it made a world of difference. I actually got a few hours of uninterrupted sleep after we got home and woke up feeling much better. So, that was noooo fun!

Monday afternoon Hubby’s parents arrived. They came out for Courtney’s birthday. Courtney loved having them here and spending time with them. We went shopping at Castle Rock, we were going to go to the zoo, but it rained the morning we were going to go, and just spent quality time together.

On her actual birthday, last Thursday, we had a nice dinner at home and Courtney opened gifts from family and friends who had sent them to us. She got some very nice gifts from Ireland!

Saturday was her party. The big surprise for her party was a PONY! My mom found a place that rents pony’s for parties, and they come to you! So, at 4pm a pony arrived! We hid it from her until it was all set up and ready to go in the back yard, and then we brought her out. She went running right for it! She was in love! Our friends had their girls here too, and the 3 of them spent the hour taking turns riding the pony, as well as brushing it. He was very sweet, and his name is Sebastian. The owner also let us feed him some carrots. When his hour was up she had a very hard time getting him in the trailer. He apparently wanted to stay with us. I would have been okay with that! But I don’t think the HOA would allow it…

I ordered Jason’s Deli, and they delivered the food just before the pony left, so after we all worked up an appetite watching the pony, we ate delicious Jason’s Deli. Then Courtney opened her gifts and we moved her on to cake. After all that was said and done, and the sugar started to kick in, she had a blast playing with our friends’ girls. When they left to go home for their bath and bedtime routine she stood in the window crying for them. It was very sad. Shortly after that she let us know that she was ready for bed. So, she said her rounds of good-nights and I took her to bed.

While I was doing that just about everyone left. Rick stayed and played a game of cards with us and Hubby’s parents. We were in bed at 10pm, but it felt much later after all the excitement of the day.

Hubby’s parents left early this morning, and they have since arrived home safe and sound.

We had big plans for this morning too! We had won (purchased) a painting session with Lucky the elephant at the zoo, at the Zoo Ball. We set it up for this morning just to continue the fun festivities of Courtney’s birthday. We got to bring a total of 10 people with us. We met up with Tony, Kelly, Kinsey, Hailey, Rick, Glenn and Alexis at the gate this morning. We then met up with Tracy who works at the zoo and we have become pretty good friends with over the years. She took us in to the elephant house.

Our zoo has 2 elephants. Lucky is 27, and is very temperamental, and not very trusted with humans. But she is the artist. Kimba is the other elephant, she is 30 years old, and she is the dominant one of the two. She is very sweet and can be trusted with humans.

They brought Lucky in and got the paint all set up. We even got to choose the colors. Lucky painted one painting for us and then every guest got a trunk print. For out painting she used blue, purple and pink, and her “signature” (trunk print) is in pink. Then Courtney got a pink nose print, Brian got a purple and I got an orange. It was really cool to watch! What a memory!

After she was done painting, we went outside to meet Kimba. We got to feed her carrots! Courtney was actually too scared to do it! So, I got to feed her Courtney’s. We got to feel her trunk, and just be right there with her. It is amazing.

Overall the thing that amazed me most about both elephants was their eyes. Their eyes were just so soulful; I could just stare into them all day. They were quite captivating.

After that, we headed out and went to Fargo’s Pizza with the Z’s. The girls had a blast all sitting together eating pizza. And since Kinsey doesn’t sit in a highchair, neither would either of the 2 year olds. So, Courtney ate her entire lunch sitting in a booster seat for the first time.

She took a nice long nap after all the excitement of the past few days. We spent a quiet evening at home tonight, and she got to play with some of her new toys.

And since she is now sleeping, I need to get my accounting homework done that is due Tuesday! Hope everyone is well!

Labor Day Weekend

Happy Labor Day weekend to everyone! It’s been a busy one here! It was parent’s weekend at the Air Force Academy. So, our weekend started off with one of our sophomore’s family coming over for dinner on Friday night. Of course Hubby got home from Baltimore Friday afternoon. Once he landed he was running around getting a haircut, picking up dry cleaning, stopping at the office, etc. Then we had to get dinner ready. We have met this family before, and it was nice to see them again. They are a nice family.

Plus we had our cadet who is a senior over. His younger brother had flown into town and the two of them stayed with us for the weekend.

Saturday morning we got up and went off to the Arts and Crafts festival in Manitou Springs. It’s an annual event and it has grown quite large. I was surprised at how many vendors were there! I only purchased Christmas gifts, although Brian did pick up one pottery bowl for us.

Saturday evening we had a birthday party to go to. Hailey turned 2! So, we headed over to her birthday party. These young ‘ins are still at the age of parties being mostly adults. Courtney’s will be the same way. And the two young ‘ins are also at the age of the terrible twos. I am sure that in another 1-6 years the girls will be able to share their toys no problem.

By the time we got home from the birthday party we had gained another cadet. One of our sophomores also joined us for the weekend. His parents were supposed to fly in and at the last minute decided they needed to stay close to home, as they are having a house built and wanted to watch the contractors.

Sunday was a crazy day. Our two new cadets (freshman) and their families were due for lunch at noon. Plus Hubby was being picked up at 1:30pm for his next trip. It ended up that the two families didn’t end up getting here until about 12:30pm. But we finally got everyone fed, and had a little time to socialize before Hubby had to hit the road.

The two families were certainly different. One was a military family and one was not. The non-military family was very outgoing and very talkative, but the other family was much quieter. They both really nice families, but such a contrast! They all left around 3:30pm right as Courtney was getting up from her nap.

Hubby is all the way in Switzerland this time. It feels very different when he is in another country, I feel much lonelier. It’s odd. He has called a few times, but it’s still a very different feeling. He said that the hotel he is staying in is really really nice. He has a lake side view and it looks over the lake onto the Alps across. Apparently it’s very postcard looking.

Our house was finally back to just us as of about 12:30pm today. All the cadets are gone; they have gone back to the Academy.

Once Courtney got up from her nap, we spent some time outside enjoying the beautiful day. She is really good at picking tomatoes. I have one cherry tomato plant and she loves to pick them. And she is really good about only picking the really red ones. I hardly ever have to help her identify which ones to pick!

She amazes me more and more every day. The other day I asked her where Buddy was and she looked around and said “Um….” That was the first time I have heard her use that. Then last night she was coloring with Toby (one of our cadets, she adores him) and I was trying desperately to get her to go upstairs for a bath. She had pretty much been ignoring my requests to stop what she was doing. I said, “Come on, it’s time to go upstairs for a bath”. She looked at me and said “No, I am still coloring with Toby.” I said, “Okay, 5 more minutes, then its bath time!” She said “Okay, 5 more minutes!” And after 5 minutes, she was ready to go! She is so funny.

I have been watching coverage of Gustav most of the day. Wow, I really can’t even imagine what it’s like to live through these hurricanes!

Well, I have to go and take the trash out. Then I have to work on my accounting homework. Fun fun!

Kid is sick as a dog!

It’s been a long week. So, as you know we started the week last week with an ear infection. We started her on her antibiotics on Monday. Suddenly Wednesday she came down with a fever. Wednesday night she was miserable, she was achy and feverish. And of course we had our Presidents Dinner at the zoo. We left the kid with my mom and dad.

Courtney was also breathing really fast and shallow. So, we were at the pediatrician’s office early Thursday morning. She sent us off to the hospital for blood work and x-rays. I felt awful when they pricked her arm, she screamed! The pediatrician was thinking she might have pneumonia.

We found out late that afternoon that it wasn’t pneumonia, and it was most likely just viral. So, the next few days she still had a fever and just was miserable. On Saturday her ear started hurting again. When she woke up on Sunday morning, her ear was oozing goop. So, say hello to ANOTHER ear infection. But by Sunday her fever was gone at least. She is currently back on antibiotics and drops for her ear and we are going to the ENT’s office this afternoon.

My sister is in town visiting. I feel so bad; she has only seen the miserable Courtney this week. She hasn’t been able to see the adorable fun loving Courtney. Susan is currently in Vegas for a wedding, but she will be back for dinner Tuesday night, so hopefully Courtney will be close to back to normal by then so that Susan can see the real Courtney.

We took Courtney and Susan for a quick zoo trip on Saturday morning. Susan hasn’t seen the new Rocky Mountain Wild exhibit yet, so we had to take her up to show her. And we couldn’t go by the ponies without a ride. So, we had a super fast trip. We fed giraffes, saw the baby tiger, rode a pony, walked through Rocky Mountain Wild, and walked thought the gorilla house. Then we left and got Courtney down for a nap, she was wiped out. Poor kid.

Like I said before, last Wednesday was the President’s Dinner. This year’s feature was a training session with one of the bears. It was the neatest thing! We were probably 3 feet from the bear! Of course he was on the other side of the cage, but it was still really close! It was really neat!

At dinner, we sat with the PR director. He was telling me about how People Magazine was doing a feature on one of their giraffe’s, Tamu. They are apparently doing a story about “rock stars of the animal world”. The next day Sean, the PR director, called me and said that People magazine called back and asked for a visitor to talk to, and he couldn’t think of anyone better! So, I got interviewed by People Magazine! The story should hit newsstands soon. I will let you know as soon as I hear when!

Plus my accounting class started last week. I already had homework, and I already got it done! It only took me about 2 hours, so hopefully it will be like this for the rest of the class. A kid in my class last semester scared me; he told me his homework took him 5 hours every night!

Family Vacation

Well, we are back from our little family vacation. We left Thursday to head to Grand Junction, CO. We had to start our day by going to Courtney’s new school and getting all the paperwork done. After we got that accomplished we ran home, packed up as fast as possible and hit the road.

Had we taken the interstates (I-25 to I-70) it would have been a 5 hour drive. But driving the interstate is just so boring when you have beautiful mountains to drive through. So, we headed out hyw 24 and then over Independence Pass through Aspen and then to Glenwood Springs, where we then caught I-70. Yes, it took us a lot longer, like 7+ hours, plus we stopped for lunch and dinner, but it was pretty!

We purchased a car DVD player for Courtney for the drive. It kept her pretty entertained on the drive since she doesn’t really care about looking out the window at the pretty scenery. But she also is not interesting in napping in the car either. On the way out she slept about 10 minutes. That made for a long afternoon and she was just about completely melted down by the time we finally put her down for the night.

The next morning we had a relaxing morning. After breakfast, we took Courtney down to the hotel pool to swim. She loves swimming and asks to go all the time. So, she was excited to be in the pool. Although, after about 30 minutes, she is done and she tells us! This time she started asking for her towel.

After lunch and a nap, we headed off to the Peach Festival. Our whole point for going! The main festival was at their river bend park. Turns out overall it’s pretty small. It’s a typical festival, but you get a free peach when you pay your $3 at the gate. They have food vendors and different vendors selling all kinds of different wares. We did end up buying ourselves two nice pottery bowls for serving dishes. We seem to lack in the nice serving dish department, so we picked out two nice ones for ourselves!

We ate some food, Courtney and I tried to share a roasted corn on the cob, but as soon as it had cooled enough to hold, she took over. And I apparently was not going to get anymore. They also had pony rides, so of course we indulged the kid. She really loves it! She got done riding and she kept saying “ride dat one, ride dat one” as we passed the other ponies to exit the ring.

The next morning we went back over to Palisade for the parade. It was probably the shortest parade I have ever seen, but hey, it was a parade and the kid loved it. It had a few horses, ponies and alpacas. She also had one of the best seats in the house (daddy's shoulders).

After that we went over to one of the orchards that offers free wagon ride tours. This is probably the biggest orchard in Palisade, called Clark Orchard. Courtney was pretty excited about riding on a wagon, and it was pulled by mules. She kept asking for them to “go faster”.

So, we got a nice little tour and after we walked around their farm stand. They also had a pen nearby with 3 little pigs (sorry, couldn’t resist). They were the friendliest pigs I have ever met. Of course, I haven’t met many pigs, but these guys would come running when they saw visitors coming. They were oinking and grunting up a storm. Courtney was oinking right back at them, it was pretty darn cute. She really got a kick out of the pigs.

That evening, after her nap, we headed over to the Colorado National Monument. (http://www.nps.gov/colm/) It’s a nice drive through rock formations and canyons. We even saw a little lizard. Courtney liked that too.

The next day was our last day. We stopped again at Clark’s to pick up our peaches. We got 2 boxes of them. The boxes are 24-26 pounds each. But, we have a friend who promised a peach pie, and cobbler, or second pie. Plus we brought lots back to share with friends.

We had stayed in Grand Junction, as Palisade is a very tiny town with few places to stay. Our hotel was just 10 miles away, so not bad. And we had to pass by Palisade on the way home, which is why we waited until our way out of town to pick up the peaches.

We had beautiful weather the whole time. Saturday morning it was a little cooler, but not bad. No rain and really nice temperatures. Apparently while we were enjoying the nice weather the mountains between us and home were not. They got SNOW! So, when we were coming down I-70 and passing the ski resorts the tops of the mountains had snow!

This time on the way back we went through Breckenridge and people were dressed like it was winter. It was funny to us to see the change! It apparently rained at home most of the time we were gone.

Sounds like we had a great time, right? We did for the most part, but Courtney had a cold and it was at its worst on Saturday. Her nose was running like a faucet. Then at 4am Sunday morning she woke up with an ear infection. Plus whenever Courtney was sleeping, Hubby was working. And when she wasn’t sleeping, he was always on his blackberry. So it wasn’t exactly the quiet relaxing family vacation I had hoped for.

She was supposed to start her new daycare today, but because of her ear, I needed to get her to the pediatrician’s instead. Looks like the tube in her left ear is half dislodged and therefore not working. So, we get to go to the ENT on Thursday to have it looked at. This is her 3^rd ear infection in 3 months. I wouldn’t be shocked if we are looking at surgery again. Yippee…. So, she is on antibiotics again.

She also gets to look forward to another swallow study this Wednesday. I am curious to see if there is any change, but I am not holding my breath. I have a feeling there hasn’t been.

My next class starts tomorrow, accounting. I am a little nervous about this one. From what I hear, it’s a bear of a class. And I get to take 2 of them. I shall see!

Our house kind of looks like a bomb exploded inside. When you are gone for 5 days, come back for 2 and then leave again, it happens. So, I have been trying to get things back in order. I guess I should go and work on that. Hope everyone is well!