Apparently, I am not smarter than a 5th grader

When my husband is out of town, I finally get to control the remote and engage in all my guilty pleasure tv...you know reality tv, dumb game shows, home improvement, the usual guilty pleasure tv, right? Anyway, tonight I'm watching some game show hosted by the "you know you're a redneck, when" guy where they ask questions to contestants taking on 5th graders and 5th grade knowledge questions.

I was psyched about this, I was ready to go - that was at 7:07, it is now 7:22 and at this point I am ready to get on the phone to numerous 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade teachers and inform them that apparently they did not do their job. I mean, really, why didn't they teach me that not every adult rhinocerous has only one horn? It's gotta be common first grade knowledge, right?

In other news, I haven't given a Babygirl update in quite some time, so I thought while I am wallowing in my sub-par education, I would indulge in a little "my babygirl is growing up" nine month old nostalgia. So here are some of the new things babygirl is up to lately:

- Munching on lots of solid foods these days - up to the 3's - who knew babyfood came in numbered stages? She's also eating cheerios and those gerber puff things (which, btw, I've decided are just expensive cereal in a fancy bottle with a fancy name thought up by some baby marketing mastermind to fool all first time scared of choking moms like me into buying them) and trying little bites of our food.

- Moving and grooving! She is constantly on the prowl; able to spot a spec of anything smaller than 1/4", stalk it out and pounce immediately while putting it where else but in her mouth and then looking at me as if to say, "mom, picking up random bits of food and dirt and shoving them in my mouth is the bomb!" The grooving part is the best - when there is a jingle on tv or when dad is singing the "daddy, dad, dad" song, she immediately starts a little baby dance while trying to mock the melody or song. It's hilarious and could not be cuter.

- A little more snuggly. Not to jinx it, but finally, my little babygirl is starting to be a little nuzzler. It only happens for ever so brief fleeting moments, but on occasion, she will actually rest her head down on your shoulder or chest and as soon as it happens the head darts back up and she immediately looks around as if to make sure no one saw that snuggly moment and to ensure we all know that she is most definitely NOT tired, that is NOT the case.

There you go - that brings you a little bit up to date (although most of my loyal blog readers already know all that), but it also marks this time in writing for me, too. I really love it right now and I'm sure 5 years from now it will be hard to remember the difference between 6 months and 9 and a year, etc... She is so interactive and has a huge personality developing (even if it may be a demanding one at times) that I feel really connected to her as a little person even if she's still my little babygirl!

Well, back to my guilty tv and trying to figure out how long it takes the moon to make one full orbit around the moon and how many pecks are in a bushel...thank god for the internet!


PALTSKKJ

Friday's Baby Fashion Trend: Little baby sombrero

Look mom, I'm pretty proud of what I did when you weren't paying attention to me...

Of course, now that I have your attention, you have to put a big stupid hat on me?

Did you slip some tequila in my bottle, mom? My teeth sure feel better now.

Happy Friday & Memorial Day Weekend!

Future Computer Programmer?

Lately, this is the ONLY place babygirl likes to be when we are working - directly under my chair and between the two CPU's. As you can see, she thinks it's VERY funny.

She's starting to learn how to ham it up for the camera, ah.. such a mama's girl...

I had to take drastic measures to keep her from pushing
the pretty blue blinking power button AGAIN!

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, I know you all know why, but I think I am getting ready to get back in the swing of things. It's been a rough couple of weeks and will continue to be hard, but thanks to everyone for all the support, cards and prayers for not only us, but most importantly for Steve, Karla, Kailey, Jake and my entire extended family. They still need the prayers, so keep 'em coming.

We had a great weekend at the Ehlert's wedding and it was incredibly nice to be out with good friends and to, not forget, but to be surrounded by people that care about you is so important when life is harder.

The last week was one of the hardest things I've ever experienced, but as I've said before, I'm trying to use that as a learning experience and to keep doing more positive things. One thing I will take from the funeral service was what Steve said in a letter he wrote to Karla, I'm paraphrasing, but it went something like this, "the laundry may not be done on Sunday nights, the grass may not be cut and the house may be messy, but 20 years from now our kids won't remember those things, but they will remember all the trips to Branson with family, vacations to Florida and camping trips at Lake Carlysle". He's so right and if there's one thing that Steve and Karla did know how to do it was to live life to the fullest and they certainly crammed a lot of quality in what was definitely too short of a time and we could all take a lesson from that.

Thanks again for the love and prayers. I love all of you if I don't say that enough...well, I know I don't, but I do, I even love you non-blog readers.

It's a Josh Groban kind of morning..

Tim just walked upstairs and said, "why are you listening to church music?". Defensively, I corrected him that it was not church music, it was Josh Groban. Of course, not knowing who Josh Groban even remotely is he just gruffed, "well, sounds like church music to me..."

He's right, it does sound like church music, but some days, especially right now during these very difficult times, I sometimes feel better by making myself - or maybe allowing myself - to listen to sad songs and feel down. To accept the sadness, to accept the aching in my heart that is constantly underlying, to acknowledge it and say to it, "hey, I know you're there, and right now, I'm going to let you come out and play for a little while..."

I'm trying and sometimes succeeding at believing that what my family and mostly my extended family is going through right now is a part of life. Take the beautiful baby girl that lights my days - she just entered my life - out of nowhere and became the biggest part of it, all in less than a year.

Just like I can't believe something like that can just happen, I also can't believe that such bad, terrible and completely horrible things can just happen... to really, truly good people. It's clichéd and certainly trite, but it is truly a cycle of life. I am not good at accepting it and I really don't think I ever will, but I am witnessing it and I am trying to learn and grow from it the best that I can.

So, while I struggle with emotions and showing them or masking them, today I am wearing them. I am saying to them, come out, just for now, just for this Josh Groban morning, let me feel the pain, the sadness, and then go back to your little hole deep in my heart until I need you (and Josh Groban) again...

---

P.S. To counter balance this downer post, you'll notice I've changed the look of the blog with a cute new summer look. That was, before the JG songs came out, but at least, it's not all so sad, right?


PALTSKKJ

Make the Cereal, Save the World...

Tim has been eating cereal roughly since January. This is a new thing for him that I pushed when he started the "biggest loser" contest on December 1st. Since that time, when I come downstairs, almost everyday left on the counter is the particular box of cereal he has chosen for that morning (he has about 8 different varieties to choose from) with the bag and box left open, gallon of milk sitting out, cap laying somewhere next to it on the counter and typically at least 6-9 pieces of the offending cereal spread about on the counter (usually complete with our ant houseguests also enjoying their breakfast on his leftover cereal).

Anyway, this particular scene always leaves me with visions of what can only be the most hurriedly fixed bowl of cereal EVER. It's undoubtedly being prepared with such vigorous speed and intensity that surely this bowl of cereal had to be made in less than 20 seconds or the world would implode.

Today I actually beat him to fixing myself cereal so of course I had to make some passive aggressive comment about it:

"Did you notice that even though I had cereal before you today that the milk and box were put back where they belong when you went to fix your bowl?"

He looks up with 100% complete seriousness (as if to say, how could you even possibly question this) and says,

"I'm going to put it away when I get done eating it. I have to fix it and eat it as fast as possible so it doesn't get soggy."

Well, thank god I know - for months I was sure Tim was the saving us all from worldly destruction, but really he is just saving himself from soggy cereal.



PALTSKKJ

You know I'm over-emotional when...

Both Earl & Scrubs made me cry.... Tim won't even begin to let me watch the E.R. wedding...

PALTSKKJ

At last ! Mr. & Mrs. Ahren Jetensky

I've been extremely remiss in not commenting on how great my cousin Christina's wedding was. Although the weather didn't cooperate, I think everyone would say the wedding was a big success and judging from some of the truly awesome pics, I now understand why people say rainy/cloudy wedding days make for great pictures. Here are just a few of my favorites:

This is my cousin Lori's daughter Lauren. She was a great little flower girl and I think this is one of the coolest flower girl wedding pictures I've ever seen. Look to the right and you will see the petals are in a big puff up in the air! So cute!


Here's another sample of one of them - don't they look too cute!



Now for one I took:


Some of my cousin's cool kids :


Pictures I took of the wedding can be found here.

And photograher pictures are here (warning - there are quite a few, but worth the time if you have it since there are some truly amazing ones!) I think the photographers did an unbelievable job. I joked with Chris that they could wallpaper a room with the number of awesome pictures there are of the two of them.

Congratulations to you both! I'm so happy for you and love you mucho!

PALTSKKJ