Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Congratulations!!!

I have had some really big news to share, but until Dave took his state test I didn't want to jinx it. Now that we have received his testing results and he PASSED! I can now share the good news with all of you.

I am now the proud wife of a paramedic!!!


For those of you who don't know, Dave has been taking classes to become a paramedic since the fall of 2007. Before this he was in college for almost 7 years. He started college in Toledo, then switched to Akron, switched majors and finally decided that he would go to a local community college for their paramedic program. I tell you this simply to explain that my husband has been in school for a looooong time. We (kindly) joke with him that he could be a brain surgeon by now with all the schooling he has under his belt. In all honesty though, I don't think I have been more proud of my husband than I was on Saturday when we walked up to the front of the room and received his certificate. For you see, in the time that my hubby has been in school we have met and started dating, moved in together, gotten married and started a family. Those are a lot of things for anyone to go through, let alone having to stay committed to working full time (and then some), putting in major clinical hours and maintaining good grades. And he has pulled it off!

The sheer amount of determination that my husband has to give myself and our child (and future children) a better life is remarkable. I have never seen him so dedicated and focused. He was very nervous to take his state test and fail because this test has a very high percentage rate of failure the first time. He didn't want to let me down. I tried to let him know that even if he failed, I loved him and was very proud of him. We would simply take it again and again until he passed. You guys, he took the test in less than an hour and passed with flying colors. My man is a genious. ;)

So this post is dedicated to my husband. Who can finally relax and take a break from schooling (but wants to get right back into it again and start his nursing degree!) for doing whatever was necessary for you to get through these last two very difficult years. I am so very, very proud of you and even though I know Kensley can not understand all that you have sacrificed to make her life better right now, I know that when she grows up she will and she will have an excellent role model for her to look up to. So CONGRATS BABY!!! You did it!!!

(Here is Dave with his mom on graduation day. I swear K is much more excited about his graduation than she looks in this picture. She was just much more interested in chasing a 3 year-old boy down the hallway ;~) Does daddy have his work cut out for him or what?!)

Monday, June 22, 2009

Father's Day '09

I have to start my Father's Day post by pointing out my dad's huge Father's Day Fashion Don't. Socks with sandals??!! In June??!! Sometimes I am just so embarrassed to be your daughter. But he redeemed himself just a little by wearing the Ohio State shirt Colton bought him with the Cleveland Browns swimtrunks we bought him at the same time because he liked our gifts so much. Love ya Dad. And Kensley may or may not be wearing pajamas from the night before because her parents are just a tad too lazy to change her clothes. Anyways.



Father's Day was a good one. We spent the majority of the day at my mom and dad's. We ate delicious grilled food, swam in the pool (and K enjoyed it much more this time!), toasted marshmallows and ate s'mores and had a great time celebrating the men in our lives.

K really enjoyed the s'mores.



My brother and his gf Rachel spent the day with us as well. The look blindingly pale in this picture because they never come outdoors. They are usually always in the basement ignoring the rest of us ;)



Mom and Pops.



She now grabs your hand and makes you take her for walks all over. She walked circles around the yard for at least an hour.



Champion marshmallow toaster.



Just the three of us.





Daddy's girl



This was the view from the pool. A girl could get used to this!



I feel so blessed to be married to the man that I am. I knew when I met him that he was going to be an amazing dad and that was one of only a million reasons why I married him. Just watching him with K each and every day is a sight to see. He is soo good with her, he thinks about and misses her constantly and when she sees him her whole face lights up. I am glad that we have days like today, but I hope that he knows how much I appreciate him each and every day.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Photo Post

DanielleNicole99- I want a picture of your house when you think it is messy!

Well, this certainly was not hard. My house usually resembles that of a tornado's aftermath. These were taken just this past evening before K went to bed and I had a chance to pick the living room up. These pics are pretty mild though. I would dare say this looks clean for my home.

I am really look forward to when K gets a bit older because we are going to set the basement up into a playroom and all of the junk toys in that corner will be out of sight/out of mind. But we need to wait till she can go up and down stairs safely first. That huge car needs to go, but her aunt and uncle dropped it off weeks ago and that is where it has stayed. (K is terrified of that car. She loses her mind when I set her in it. But she loves to play around it).



One of my biggest peeves is when there is stuff all over the couch and the cushions are not in their place. I need to let it go, because by the end of the day it always looks like this. We have Dave and K's clothes, a box of tissues and a stethoscope (Dave was listening to my lungs when I had those terrible allergies) all hanging on the back of the couch. The pillows are definitely not in their place and the throw is all messed up as well. Even in 100° heat I still use my throw blanket. It drives Dave nuts.



And if you look in the bottom corner of this pic you can see the very top of the adorable head of the little girl who makes all the messes. But we have such a good time making them, that its not soo bad to clean up after ;)



Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Photo Post

Kait82521-Post a photo of the inside of your fridge and the inside of your closet please!

Alright, You asked for it! And here is the inside of my fridge in all of its glory!



I have broken it down by shelves. The top shelf has our homemade suntea, there are some of K's teethers in a bowl, some homemade pesto vinaigrette dressing, organic yogurt, pomegranate w/ acai juice, organic butter, organic pizza sauce, steamed broccoli, organic refried kidney beans and some organic cherry tomatoes.



The second shelf has light sour cream, organic prunes, organic strawberries and raspberries and some organic chocolate chip cookies ;)

The bottom shelf has watermelon cubes, organic honey wine, Simply Lemonade-with raspberry, organic whole milk and Arizona green tea.



We have a ton of condiments ;)



This is our walk-through closet. This is the view looking in from our bedroom. The opposite door leads to the bathroom. Its super messy, but I am trying to keep it real ;) You can see all of my ties for work, most of my old maternity clothes are on the top shelf and the boxes on the floor are full of shoes that I have yet to unpack since we moved in February. Yes, you should be able to see my Peyton Manning SuperBowl jersey. And yes, I hang my purses in my closet as well.



This is Dave's side and it is looking pretty bare because he needs to do his laundry. His side is always cleaner than my side though. Mine is usually a disaster.



Thanks so much for asking! I loved all of your questions!More photo posts to come!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Drive-in Theater

This past Friday Dave and I decided to load up the car with Kensley in tow and head up to the drive-in movie theater in Barberton. We came fully prepared with K in her pj's, sippy cup of milk and her taggie blanket. I have never been to a drive-in before, but Dave used to go all of the time when he was a little boy.
Look at that, K at 15 months is already doing things it took me 27 YEARS to do!

It was so neat to go and think about what it must have been like back in the drive-in heyday. To go on a date with your boyfriend and cuddle up together in your car and enjoy a movie. It really does make you think about a simpler time and how much fun things like this can still be.

Not surprisingly, K is in love with all things tv and the fact there was a gigantic screen in front of her held her attention until past midnight. She didnt make a peep throughout The Hangover. She just sucked on her paci and enjoyed the movie. By the time Terminator started she was getting a bit fussy and refused to go to sleep with such a big distraction staring her in the face. We left about 30 minutes into it. But the fact that Dave and I got to enjoy a movie without the hassle of finding a sitter was a major plus for us! We will definitely go back sometime soon.

Here I am waiting for Dave to get us a coke for the movie!





The beautiful sunset we caught



Waiting for the movie to start...



K very tired but staying up to enjoy the movie with us.



Christian Bale ;)





Have any of you enjoyed a drive-in theater?

Monday, June 8, 2009

Happy 15 months Kensley!

Dear Kensley,

Yesterday you turned 15 months old. There are times this month that I looked at you and you seemed so much older than 15 months. Besides the fact that you can only get out a "Hi!" or "Hey!" you are really figuring out how to get what you want. (You know, besides throwing yourself down on the ground and performing the Beyonce scream).



This month I had a lot of chances to get you ready for bed myself. I usually work at night so this special time is usually spent with grandma or GG, but work has been slower and I have been getting home before you are asleep. I absolutely love bedtime with you. I give you a bath, lotion you all up, get you a cup of milk and then we read book after book after book. You have started walking over to me with a book (Usually Pat the Bunny or Goodnight Moon) plopping it down in my lap and then staring at me. If I purposelly act like I dont know what you want you will pick up my hand and place it on the book. So we read that book and then you repeat those steps over and over until I can no longer stand to read the book again.

Can I tell you that we have created a monster? When you were younger (You know waaaay back in the day) we never really got the chance to rock you to sleep. You have always been a good sleeper and we could lay you down in the crib fully awake and within a few minutes you would be out. But I have to say that we sort of wished we got to rock you to sleep. I feel we missed out on feeling you sleep on our chests, sniffing your sweet baby scent. So we were so, so grateful when this month you really started to want to be rocked. You have never really fallen asleep while I rock you but you will lay there with your head under my chin until you get sleepy. We were so happy about this at first. But now we have to rock you EVERY TIME WE LAY YOU DOWN. If it is nap time I will rock you, if it is bed time we will rock you. Yes Kensley. WE WILL. WE WILL. ROCK YOU. And sometimes I think, "what the heck was I thinking?" We had it so easy before and now we have turned your bedtime routine into a 2 hour mini-saga. There are times now that even rocking you for a short while doesn't make you happy and I have to rock you until we have rocked you for the exact amount of time you prefer to be rocked. But you know what? I am still grateful. You may wake up tomorrow and never want to be rocked again. I DOUBT IT. But still.



You love being outside. Almost every morning after we wake up and eat breakfast you grab my arm and walk me to the front door. I know exactly what this means and unfortunately we have had a few yucky days here where it has been to cold and rainy to play. But you don't understand this and you point and grunt and say "Hi!" at the door. You look at me like, "You fool! Why must I spell it out for you?! Iwouldlikeverymuchtogooutsiderightnowthankskbye."



So when you do get to go out and play it is all the more special. The look in your eye when you discover new things is so amazing. It is so wonderful to watch you learn about your world. There are times where you run around outside with your eyes completely closed and then you peer them open slowly as if to see if it will all dissappear or if it is all as real as it seems. Sometimes I have to do the same thing when I look at you. Closing my eyes real tight, Ill open them slowly to see if you are still here. For I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have you here with me.

Love,

Mama

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Just one of those days...

It is 1pm and K has already had two timeouts naps and I have given her tylenol to help soothe whatever it is that is wrong. She woke up super clingy and fussy and it hasn't stopped. She cries to be held, then cries to be put down then cries because I put her down. It really is so exhausting on days like this. Even Shrek hasn't seemed to help.

What's worse is that last night I was trying to clip her claws fingernails and she pulled her hand away and I cut her finger. But by the scene last night you would have thought that I CHOPPED HER FINGER OFF. There was blood everywhere and I was trying to blot it with toilet paper to see just how bad it really was and she was FLAILING and SCREAMING and nothing I did could get her to calm down. I ended up calling Dave and bawling telling him to get home a.s.a.p because we may have to go the emergency room. Who makes those little baby fingernail clippers? Do they have any idea they have the cutting power of a machete? How can those things be safe when they practically cut children fingers off in one little clip?! And what is it about children that make them bleed so much?! I already felt like the world's worst mother without all the gallons of blood that came out of a little paper-cut sized wound. If there is one thing I hate doing it is cutting fingernails. Ugh.

Finally Dave did get home and she calmed down and it doesn't look too bad from what she will let me see of it. But man, oh man.

So I don't know if it is the finger or something else that is bothering her today but for once in my life I am counting down the hours till I can go to work. And enjoy my solitude.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Zoo!

We took K to the Cleveland Zoo on Friday. The last time we went to the zoo was last summer and K slept through the whole thing in her stroller. So this year we were very excitd to see she was a little more interested in the animals. As long as they moved, she would stare at them and smile. She really liked the aquarium animals. We even found clown fish that looked just like Nemo and Marlin and she watched them for about 15 minutes with her hands pressed up to the glass.


There was one thing I just couldn't believe that I saw. As we came up to a turtle exhibit they had these huge massive turtles laying out front. I saw a woman around 40-50 years old picking up rocks and tossing them at the turtles trying to get them to move. I was so upset by that. I almost picked up a rock and tossed it at her. I could see a young child doing that, but not an older woman who should have known better.


You can kind of see in the reflection of the glass how close she was to the orangutan!


She behaved surprisingly well and made it a good 3 hours there (plus the hour drive to the zoo) before she started to get tired and cranky. It was such a great way to spend our anniversary and we can't wait to see how excited she gets about the zoo next year!