Typically redundant but never a dull moment

Saeler's Birthday

Des — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:17:00 +0000

I know this is late, but here are a few pictures from Saeler's birthday!

Pizza!

Lyric chowing down

Emily chowing down

Saeler telling me it was her birthday

Opening presents

Giving big hugs

Happy about all her presents

Saeler blew out her candles before we got done singing the song, she was ready for that cupcake!

See!

The night ended quite abruptly due the storm, and a bunch of us went to the Watkins to wait the storm out. Here I am in the back of the van with Ash and Maddy

This is my new fave pic of Judah! He's like, "What?! Are you telling me I'm the only boy?"

The next morning the Watkins left for their super fun mini-vacation to Sea World.
Look at the cuteness of my nieces and nephew

If you are her friend on MySpace, you can read her blog by clicking HERE

Ok, I think this might be the end of my catch up blogging for the day.

Love to all and have a great and restful evening!

Pesach

Des — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:36:00 +0000

First off, I just want to clarify,
As most of you know, we aren't Jewish, so it might seem kind of strange that we keep so many of the Jewish traditions. Well it shouldn't be. The Jewish traditions are so beautiful and meaningful and are centered around God and the family, can it get much better than that? I am a follower of Yeshua (Jesus) and just in case you didn't remember, Yeshua was a Jew and kept these same customs. We SO support Israel and know that God has not abandoned his people or the land of Israel itself and we want to do our part in keeping these traditions alive and also to raise awareness to other Christians the importance of honoring Israel and its people.
So basically we celebrate these things to honor our own Jewish roots, as in the Jewish roots of our faith. If you still think it's strange, well sorry, I probably think something's strange about you too.

So obviously since we aren't Jewish, we don't follow all the rules to a T, case in point, my mom made Challah last night :) (during passover you don't eat anything with yeast in it), also the fact that we celebrated Pesach (Passover) last night instead of Saturday.

We have a joke around our house that no matter when a feast starts, we always celebrate it on Shabbat. It's just easier that way, because we are all so accustomed to getting together on that night.

So anyways, the entire evening is a lot of fun and can take hours to go through. We did an abbreviated one, but it still took awhile.
The group

It starts off with one of the kids asking a question:

And then the lighting of the candles

Then starts the evening. It is really intricate and I don't want to go into it all here, but if you are interested in reading more about Passover and the Seder that we did last night, you can go HERE

Here we are eating our Matzah Ball soup

Jodie and Sophie

Brad about to eat the Karpis (you dip it in salt water)

The Seder plate

Dad about to hide the Matzah

My cutie

Kid's table

Me showcasing some Matzah. During Passover you don't eat anything with leven in it. And boy, in Israel, (particularly Jerusalem), they are so serious about it. During times I've spent Passover in Jerusalem, I've eaten hot dogs with Matzah, sandwhiches, hamburgers, pizza, it was my breakfast toast... you eat it with everything! And you can't even buy beer in some places because beer has yeast in it. No pasta... that was a tough one for me. By the end of passover, all you want is a nice hunk of bread to knaw on.

My niece Ashlyn eating the horse radish

My daughter was bored during the Seder, so proceeded to take all the magnets in reach off the fridge and bring them to me

And daddy put them on his forehead, because, what else are you suposed to do with them!

One of the things is that you are suposed to lounge, so this is Christina lounging

And Jon and I lounging-- Jon has issues

Tiffani was master of the lamb shank

Here are the kids dancing to the song Dayaynu- note that my daughter gets so excited dancing that she has to like do a gymnastic move. She has never done that before, it was so funny! She pulled a Kadyn.

Ashlyn got the camera and so took some pics:

My dear friend Abby and I

My niece Maddy found the matzah that was hidden so she won $2. But then we gave Ash and Kade $1 just because they are cool and got 2nd and 3rd place

The Matzah Winner

2nd place

3rd place

Lyric and I, (you can tell I was "celebrating" by this point, hey it's tradition to drink a lot of wine!)

So as you can see, last night was super fun! Though I did wake up with a terrible headache!

Now to leave you with the traditional ending of a passover seder

Love to all!

My Mabes!

Des — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:19:00 +0000

I finally got to see one of my dearest friends Mabrie today. I've known Mabrie most of my life and we are forever friends. She moved to Chicago a few years ago and so we don't get to see eachother very often. But it doesn't matter where we are, where we're located, how much we talk or how many times we see eachother, we're just forever friends.
Well her husband Jason turned 30 and we went to lunch today to celebrate! We ate at Mi Cocinas at the Southlake Town Center. There was an arts festival going on, so parking was a nightmare, but it was fun to walk around.

Anyways, I snapped a few pics for your viewing pleasure.

The birthday boy and me

There were a bunch of kids there and of course they all love Uncle Jason. He's going to make a great daddy one day (hint-hint-- pressure-pressure)

Mabrie and Lyric

Me, Mabes and Jason

Lyric was plum tuckered out by the end of the day and fell asleep in her big girl car seat. That has to be so uncomfortable!

Well that's that. I have a bazillion things to do around the house and I'm not doing anything. I did watch Lost and Grey's Anatomy... McDreamy is going to break that poor nurse's heart... but it kind of irks me to see him so happy. The teaser for next week's show looked really good! I can't wait!!

Ok, I need to go start some laundry so we have clean clothes this coming week.
Later people!

Girl Talk

Des — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:40:00 +0000

You know, sometimes I take for granted some good ol'fashion girl talk.

Last night Courtney and Christina and I decided to go out (Abby was suposed to go, but couldn't make it). I was a bit unsure of going out because I'm sooo tired (I know, it's my anthem now) and most of my evenings the last week have been busy... and I really wanted to see a movie but they weren't that interested in seeing a movie... but we compromised on going to dinner next door to the theater and if we got out in time and wanted to see it, we would go.

Well we went to Hurst and ate at Carraba's right next door to RAVE theater.

We had such a great time at dinner. Just talking, talking, talking. We all shared our plates and drank wine and laughed. It was really a great dinner. We even got dessert! Well we didn't realize it, but we were already 10 minutes late for our movie, so we walked over there and nothing interesting was playing at that time, so we decided to go to Gators and sit out on the patio and have another drink (Which actually came in a bucket). Lot's more girl talk ensued, actually it was knocked up a level due to the bucket'o'drink.

So to wrap it up, I think every girl needs a night of good girl talk every once in awhile. You know the type that would probably make your husbands blush. You get out everything that's bothering you, who's bothering you, and everyone laughs and relates on different levels.

It's refreshing and relaxing.

So that was my night last night. Here's to good friends!

American Idol... why America?

Des — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:59:00 +0000

I knew I should have voted... I am just so sad. Carly was my pick for the top 2, her and David Cook.
And now BROOKE is staying on? What the heck?!
She did incredible on Tuesday, and I guess she can be happy about that. But to leave as 6th place? Come on now! She is so much better than that.
It should have been Brooke last night, then Jason, then Seyesha, then David A, then Carly and David C. in the final two, with David C. winning the whole thing.

But no, America went and screwed it all up! :)

Come on people, Brooke has not been good the last few weeks. And that stunt of starting the song and stopping it because she forgot the lyrics, SO unprofessional.
Jason last night was not good either. He just doesn't not have the vocal talent to be this far into the season...
Seyesha has a great voice, I just don't connect with her (and obviously America doesn't either as she's been in the bottom 3 for awhile now).
David A., you all know that he's not my fave.

But David Cook... oh David Cook!

I love that boy and I was so afraid he would totally try to put a personal spin on Andrew Lloyd Webber, which I wouldn't have appreciated... but he didn't, and when he hit that high note (which is a very difficult note) I just melted. He's my American Idol! :)

Oh well. I love Carly and I think she left with a bang, which is always good. I really believe she'll have a career.

So yes. Goodbye Carly.

Did I do something bad?

Des — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:49:00 +0000

So we started Lyric on new antibiotics on Monday night. I could have sworn the doctor told me that it was still the same dosage, 1/2 teaspoon (5ml). So I gave her that dosage. Then Jon called me yesterday morning and told me I was trying to poison our daughter because she only needed 2ml.
Oops! So I was hoping that it wasn't too bad. She didn't have any advserse reactions, so I figured we were ok.
Well Jon gives her the 2ml yesterday morning and then last night I looked at her medicine (what I thought was her medicine) and it sure enough said 2ml twice a day. So I gave her 2ml last night.
Well I didn't realize it till this morning that, that particular antibiotic was leftover antibiotic from December when she had that UTI. I had gotten it out on Monday night because I thought they were the same antibiotic and they were and I must have left it on the counter. But the difference is this one said to give it to her twice a day, but her current prescription said just once a day!
So basically Lyric has had double the dose of her antibiotic for 2 days in a row.
Is that really bad? Should I call her doctor?
I tried googling it to see if I'm like poisoning her or something, but I can't find anything helpful.
Anyone been in this situation before??? I feel like such an idiot because obviously I can't read a simple prescription.
Oh and the antibiotic was Omnicef.

Raise in US Immigration Fees

Des — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:14:00 +0000

Jonathan and I got married almost 3 years ago and filed for his US residency in August of 2006. WELL, since we were married less than 2 years when we filed, then you have a conditional residency for 2 years and then we have to submitt a document to show that we are still married. We have to submit birth certificates of our kids (if any), copies of lease/mortgage to show we live together, bank documents to show we share finances and 2 affidavits of people who have known us the entire two years and can attest under oath that we are married and that we love eachother and that Jonathan didn't just marry me for a green card. :)
How funny is that!?!
But here's the kicker. When we did this process in 06', the fee for this was $170. Well we had heard that immigration fees were going up and I just checked today and the fees are now $465 plus an $80 fingerprint fee. But he already had his fingerprints taken... I guess they want to make sure his fingerprints didn't change in 2 years. You never know what marriage can do to you I guess :) That's an almost $400 increase in price!
So ya, add an extra $600 to the list of crap that needs to get paid for! :) It has to be done by August, so I have some time to work it all out.
So I just felt like complaining about the outrageous immigration fee hike, oh well!
I think they may be trying to discourage immigration, but I wish there was a way that those of us already in the process could get grandfathered in with the old fees. We were thinking about getting Jon dual citizenship, but not anymore. It's too expensive.
Well we are going to the Lowries tonight, so I better go.
Later!

I need something...

Des — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:42:00 +0000

I need something to look forward to. You know what I mean?
I've gotten into this rut, where my life is the same, day in and day out. I'm not totally happy with where it is, yet getting out of the rut seems daunting and I feel like I'll be stuck here forever.
I want to keep my life moving forward, not standing still.
I keep trying to figure out what's it going to take for me to be completely content. But you know what? I don't think there is an answer for that. I think there will always be a part of me wanting something more, I think it's a God given desire to never be satisfied and always wanting more. But there is a place where I need to come to that I can be content.
I'm not content right now.
I feel like I work too much and there are things as a mother that I'm neglecting. There are behavioral issues I see forming in my extremely strong-willed daughter that I know I can nip in the bud now, but it's hard when you just spend evenings and weekends with her.
I need to finish school, come on people, I have 3 classes left and just can not find the time to be able to get-her-done! That's ridiculous.
I just don't have anything to look forward to right now. No vacation anytime soon. No special event. Just the regular monotony of life.
It's honestly beating me down.
I think I'm so blah right now probably due to the lack of sleep, but the facts are true. I'm just not happy with my present life schedule and have no idea how to change it.

Any ideas? I'm almost willing to try anything that would get me home more and allow me to have insurance. But there is also a thresh hold of how much money I need to make per month, so it's not like I could just quit and work 20 hours a week at Starbucks.

I need guidance. I need an "And Suddenly" moment like never before.

Still Sick

Des — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:51:00 +0000

Well my little munchkin still has a double ear infection.
She started acting a little strange again on Saturday and Sunday, especially Sunday night, where she didn't sleep very well.
Then Monday Christina said she pulled on her ear a lot, SO yes, I left work a little early and took her to the doctor and sure enough, she still has fluid in her ears and they are still red and inflamed. Good times.
So they gave her a different antibiotic and now we'll see if this ear infection goes away.
It really stinks though because one of the worst things about your kids being sick is that you don't get any sleep either.
I was almost in tears because I just wanted to sleep and that kid kept crying and crying. Finally I brought her in bed with me and fell asleep and I assume she did too. BUt then she started tossing and turning and Jon got up and put her back to bed and she stayed asleep.
I feel so bad for her, that must totally suck to be sick for almost 2 weeks now.
But she still is cute!
Here's some proof

She obviously felt the stroller tasted yummy

Today has been an okay day. I'm just tired, so it's hard for me to be perky today. AND Brenda was out for the day so my office was quiet.

I need something good to happen to me soon.

The Zoo Pictures!

Des — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:41:00 +0000

Here are the pictures from when we went to the zoo on Saturday.

Lyric and her baby. She has to be holding a baby all the time. She wouldn't let this one go almost the entire day.

Hanging out with Daddy

Thinking she is hot stuff

Right before she fell down

And got this, which is her first big owie that bled as much as that did. There was blood trickling down her leg and for those who know how I am with blood, you'll be happy to know I didn't pass out :)

She thought the elephant was super cool

Too much fun for her, so she just passed out

The happy parents

Then later that night (before the massive cleaning of the house), we ate fajitas outside and had so much fun. None of us got bit by any mosquitos either.

Lyric thought it was awesome

Jon cutting the meat

Lyric loves to use her fork now

Ok, that was our Saturday!

What to do???

Des — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:30:00 +0000

Have you ever been faced with the question right after Passover... what do I do with all this leftover Matza.
One year we decided to have a Matza eating contest and see how many sheets of matza you could eat with only one glass of water... but if that doesn't sound fun to you, here are a few more options

Amazing!

Des — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 02:43:00 +0000

My day has been sooooo good! I really needed a day like this...

We woke up and ate leftover Challah with strawberry jelly. Then we got our cute buns out of the house and headed to Dallas to go to the zoo! It was a lot of fun and Lyric loved to see all the animals. She was ooh'ing and awwing over them. Of course she only cared about them when they moved though. She could care less about the sleeping animals :) We walked up to the monkey area and these two monkeys were playing tag with eachother and going crazy. She loved it!

I took some pictures with my mom's camera, but I don't have the sync cord with me, so I'll have to post them later. But anyways, we got there a little after 10am, and Lyric ended up falling asleep in the stroller around 1:30, so that's when we decided to leave. We decided since we were in Dallas, we needed to go visit Ryan who was working at Uptown Pub... I mean, what's the big deal, a baby in a bar! :)
Then we went and saw Tiffani at their new house. They haven't moved in yet, they are still renting it out to the lady who they bought it from (long story), but Tiff was doing yard work, and we were able to see their super cute house! I'm so excited for them. I really liked it! I can just imagine little kid birthday parties in the backyard :)

Then we came home and everyone napped, but I couldn't fall asleep, so I just caught up on my tivo'd shows.

Then we decided to make fajitas. Jon suggested we move our little kitchenette table onto our back porch so we could eat outside. It was so much fun! Jon grilled the fajita meat on the grill and Lyric and I danced to John Mayer and then we ate outside together (I have pics of that too).

Then here's the kicker. I started cleaning up the kitchen and maybe I was just fed up with my dirty house, maybe it was the malibu and diet coke I had with dinner, but Jon and i went on a cleaning rampage. We cleaned the entire house, I scrubbed the bathrooms, cleaned Lyric's room, dusted and cleaned out from under the crib (which can always be scary, but also always lead to a discovery of more passys.) I went through her clothes and pulled out the ones that were too small. Then went through the box of clothes I thought were too big and of course most of them can fit her now. So she has a bunch of new clothes, a lot from her family in Belgium that now fits and a lot that were Saeler's. So I can't wait for her to start wearing them. Heck she'll be wearing some tomorrow at church!
So the bathrooms are clean, floors swept and mopped, rugs vaccuumed, everything dusted, I put up ALL of the laundry that I have been avoiding dealing with for the last week. Everything is just clean!
Well except my bedroom didn't really get cleaned (though it is all picked up), just the master bath, but we are going to work on it tomorrow. We are going to clean out the closet/dresser and get rid of shoes and clothes we never wear. That's just too big of a task for tonight after we've done so much work already tonight.

Speaking of tonight, tonight is the first night of Pesach (Passover). This is the first night in a long time we aren't celebrating as a family. Mainly because my family is pretty fragmented right now. The Watkins are on vacation and Landon and Holly are on their honeymoon. It's still a little sad though. Pesach always brings back great memories. When we first started celebrating it as a family, all of us kids would laugh at all the traditions and my mom would get so mad at us. Obviously as we got older, we really embraced it and it's so much fun now, but I still remember the first time we decided to honor our Jewish roots and celebrate Passover... good times! :)

Well this blog is pretty boring because I don't have pictures, so I'm going to end it now.

Hach Sameach!!!

It's FRIDAY!

Des — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:34:00 +0000

I can't remember a time where I've wanted my work week to be over so bad. Nothing awful is happening, and it's not like I hate it, I just really was ready for the weekend, like on Wednesday!
I kept trying to think of a good reason to take today off... but I just couldn't come up with one and didn't feel like burning a precious day off for no good reason!

SO, ya. Here I am, in the last moments of my work week! Yippee!

Last night was Saeler's birthday party and the night was TOTALLY cut short due to the imminent threat of thunderstorms, hail and tornado's. It didn't even end up being that bad, but the party ended quickly and I felt so awful that we all bailed. I mean, I wasn't even scared. We should have stayed longer, but I think we got caught up in the mass exodus of the evening. A group went over to Court's house to hide in the basement. Well before the mass exodus, we had a great time eating pizza and hanging out. There are a lot of babies around here! Goodness! It's fantastic! I love that my daughter has so many kids her age to play with and I love that I am so blessed to have Christina watch her while I'm at work. It's so nice to be able to totally trust that your daughter is being cared for and loved on when I can't be there.

I have pictures from the party, but they are on my camera, which is in the possession of my sister, who is in San Antonio with her family... so no pictures for the entire weekend. What on earth am I going to do??!

I hate that she left without me. She will learn that she will never want to go on vacation without me again. It's way too boring to leave me behind.
And I'm going to figure out a vacation to go on and not invite her just so she can see how it feels! It's going so awesome too! Waaaaay fun, and you're not invited Courtney! So there!

Tonight at Shabbat we are having a bunch of people over who are going to Israel with my parents in May. It should be fun. I don't have time to cook anything so I'm just bringing my chicken spaghetti leftovers. It was a bit on the cheesey side, but what's wrong with that? Huh?!

Well I need to wrap up the day. Much love to everyone and Shabbat Shalom!
Pesach is tomorrow night, so remember to say a prayer, thanking God for all he's brought you out of in your life.

Much love!

Oh well...

Des — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:13:00 +0000

It looks like I won't be going part time any time soon.
I talked with my supervisor today and she said most likely that wouldn't happen the way I need it to happen, so we are going to just let the matter drop. (though she hasn't actually talked to the big guy- this was just her take on it)

I'm sort of dissapointed as I started to think about how great it would be to be home more. But I also can't work part time without insurance, and I also don't want to quit here and get a part time job somewhere else as I really enjoy what I do.

For a minute there I thought I was going to get the best of both the stay at home mommy and working mommy worlds... but I guess it was too good to be true.

So ya, a little dissappointed am I today.

Too early!

Des — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:11:00 +0000

Lyric has been going to bed too early lately. I miss my late night girl! Though it is kind of nice to have the evening with just Jon and I.
Yesterday she went to bed at 8:30 and tonight a little before 9.
You can ask her if she wants to go to bed, and normally, if she is tired she'll nod her head yes.
She has really learned the meaning of the word "No" and she uses it all the time now! It's seriously adorable! I mean, she seems too little to start using words, but she does. I know that she really knows what she is saying too, because if she wants something, she'll answer yes (or nod her head at least).
Here is a video of it per Mabrie's request :)

I watched Enchanted tonight. It's a cute movie, not my favorite, but cute.
But the real goodness was American Idol. I was quite sad when Kristy got voted off. She actually has a great voice, and she loves horses... I love horses too... and country music! We are like the same person! I honestly would have rather Brooke left than Kristy, because Brooke has sucked it up the last few weeks. Anyways, I'll miss my little bit of country on AI, however, she'll do great, just like Kelley Pickler (also wasn't in the finals of AI), who has gone on to country fame and rocked it out at the CMT Awards a few nights ago. So ya...

While watching Enchanted/American Idol, I should have been tackling this:

Laundry, shmaundry. I just am NOT in the mood! I did cook some yumpty chicken spaghetti though! I have so much left over. I'll probably take it down to Courtney's as it will not get eaten in this house. We don't do so well in the leftover department. We need a bigger family to make that work better. More kids! (hint-hint)

This week has passed really quickly. That is soooo nice! Still no word on me going part-time... I really hope I hear something soon. I'm getting a little tired of feeling like I'm in limbo.

Well, that is basically all I've got tonight. I need to get in bed. I'm reading a good book by Terry Brooks.

Lastly I just want to send a special shout out to the Shulls. I love you guys and will always be here for you. True friends are forever friends.

How-dy

Des — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:51:00 +0000

How's life?

Mine's pretty good. No major complaints here.

The day passed really quickly, which I always love. Busy as a bee. Or a queen bee if you may because, well, I'm the queen (or at least the queen of my own world).

I so didn't follow my diet today, but does anyone really care? Nope! I don't think I'm going to work out tonight either. I'm in recovery mode. In recovery mode from the last 3 weeks of stressing about parties. Dad's party, Lyric's party, the wedding... too many events, too many full evenings, too much money spent!

Now, I'm calming back down, bringing BALANCE (or trying to find it).

How is it that my life got out of balance? Busyness. Which brings us back to the queen thing, which I am.

Well I really need to get home, so I can start cooking dinner, so I can be sitting comfortably on the couch eating dinner (because eating dinner at the table is for losers) and greatly anticipating who will get kicked off American Idol tonight. I'm voting for... actually I can't remember who I disliked the most last night, but even though she did good, I still hope Seyesha goes home. I'm just not feeling her. Her OR David Archelletto (do you like I how I just make up the spelling of these people's names). David bores me too.
Just like folding laundry bores me, which is why I haven't folded the rest of the laundry. Just like cleaning the bathrooms bore me.
Just like writing the word bore, bores me.

Ok, I need to go. I'm like SO rambling.

Late.

And then there was light

Des — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:09:00 +0000

So we have light in the Vandeput household again.
Thankfull it cost us not one red cent. Well I take it back, Jon spent like $40 on crap from Home Depot trying to fix it, but thankfully he can return it all.
Anyways, Spence came over yesterday and gave us the great news that it wasn't an issue with the box!! Yeah! Something about needing 240 of something, but only getting 110. So ya. Jon calls the electric company, they come out, fix the problem, restoring electricity to my house, and even trim two trees and tightened the lines (which were sagging a bit). How awesome is that! Apparently it had something to do with the storm. So that is one financial crisis adverted!

It gets better. I get home basically just in time to throw my workout clothes on and jump in Court's van to go to the workout class with Abby and Courtney.
When I get back, all the laundry from the 10 loads that was in the kitchen was sorted and in the living room. How fun is that?
So I cook some dinner and then have to run to the petstore to get Jedi some more food. Then Lyric and I go to the bookstore to get my new book... seriously. That kid is hilarious. She loves books and loves to read them. She was just laughing and walking around like she owned the place. We got her these new Converse high top shoes that are so stinking cute.

So when I get home from the bookstore/petstore, half of the laundry is put up in the right place! I don't think my husband has done anything laundry related in the whole of our marriage. He said he just didn't want to hear me complain :)
So half the laundry is put up, so that's a start, right?!

Lyric is feeling much better. The medicine is really kicking in and she is in a much better mood. Almost back to herself. We got home a little late after the post-dinner errands and I still had to give her a bath, so it was 9:30 by the time we were finished and she was so tired, so I just quickly put her pj's on and put her in bed. 15 minutes later I realized, crap! I didn't give her her medicine! So I had to wake her back up, but thankfully she went back to sleep.

So today, I was suposed to be here early because Natalie is gone so I am covering for her all day. But I totally forgot and remembered right about the time I was suposed to be there! oops! :) So I was late this morning unfortunately.

Jon has really been helping out alot more recently. It's been so wonderful. I think he's just seen how tired I've been and he is really kicking in and taking up some slack. I am so grateful that I married a keeper! :)

Now if I can just get that house clean, my life will feel more at peace. I know it may sound silly, but it's hard for me to relax when I know there is so much to do. We just need to do a really good spring cleaning. The garage needs to be cleaned out. The closets. The pantry. The cabinets.... one of these days I'll get the energy. One of these days in the near future.

On a sad note (but happy for them) my sister and her family are leaving for an extended weekend and they are going down to San Antonio and going to Sea World and all of that fun stuff. They are going to have a blast and the girls are SOOOO excited! I wish I was going, but this will be there first family vacation, just them, so they need to go have fun as a family... but I just want to see the girl's reactions to Sea World, I know they are going to love it!!

Ok, well I'm starving and I need to figure out what I'm going to do for lunch.

Love to all!

Double Ear Infection!

Des — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:59:00 +0000

Well there we go! The reason for my daughter's random fever, extreme clingyness, outbursts, incessant crying...
I finally took her in yesterday to CareNow as I couldn't wait anymore to take her to the pediatrician.
She has a double ear infection. Her left ear(I think it was the left one) was so bad, the eardrum was close to bursting. Poor little thing.
I had taken her in last Monday because I thought she had one, but he said no. So either she did have the beginning of one and he didn't catch it, or she just developed one really quickly, really severely.
No matter what, she is now on antibiotics and already woke up feeling better, with NO fever!
Yeah!

Oh, but the mass craziness of my weekend doesn't stop there.

We get home from the doctor's on Sunday and half the house doesn't have electricity. That is the kitchen, guestbathroom, dining room and living room.
The only rooms with electricity are the bedrooms and my bathroom.
It's a breaker box issue, so Jon went to Home Depot and got some new breakers, but still nothing.
So we had no electricity all night. I just kept Lyric in my room and we watched movies. Jon was frustrated with everything and left and he and Spencer went to a late movie last night.
So ya.

Oh and to top it all off, the 10 loads of laundry that I did on Saturday are piled up in the kitchen, unfolded.

My house still didn't get cleaned, just picked up.

I'm cramping.

And I just wish I could be home getting stuff that needs to be done, done and taking care of Lyric.

I just feel like crying.

I'm just so tired and worn out, yet I still have so much to do...

I'm just overwhelmed.

Laundry, Laundry, Laundry

Des — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 22:57:00 +0000

That's what I've been doing all day. That and taking care of a sick baby.
Lyric woke up with a fever again today and has refused to eat anything but one package of fruit snacks. Well I take that back, she ate a little bit of breakfast earlier this morning, but nothing else since.
I've offered her, her normally favorite foods all day, but she is not interested. She doesn't even want to drink.
Her fever has fluctuated between 100-102 all day... poor thing. :(
She still has her little cough too. I just don't know what's up with her!

She has been sleeping basically on and off all day. She only wants to be in my arms. She just lays against me. She doesn't want to play with her toys, just hold one of her babies while she lays on me. and that is how it's been all day.

But! We did get her a big girl car seat! This is going to be sooo much easier than lugging her infant carrier around! She was way too big for that thing!
Here she is in her new car seat. We went and got breakfast at Cracker Barrel this morning. You can see she doesnt' feel good. She's almost falling asleep in her seat and she just woke up!

So ya, she basically has just passed out on and off all day. She'll just be laying by me or on me and fall asleep. She just doesn't feel good.

She got a book for her birthday from her Mami et Papi in the mail today all the way from Belgium!
She did sit up long enough to read it for a few minutes before she wanted to lay back down.

Here is my sick girl. You can tell she doesn't feel good just looking at her eyes.

Ok, well I have to go switch a load of laundry. I feel like that's all I've been doing all day. Laundry! I've done 6 loads so far today.

I haven't even touched the rest of the house though. Currently the house is not just dirty, it's filthy. Sigh.
Maybe I'll work on that tomorrow. I don't know if I am going to church tomorrow... we'll see. I'm suposed to be on worship team, but my voice is out right now. I've been coughing all weekend.

Ok, Lyric is fussing, so I better go tend to my sick baby and deal with the laundry. I've been on the computer too much today already uploaded all the wedding pics! :)

Photobooth Pictures Are Up!!!

Des — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:56:00 +0000

If you were at the wedding last night and took pictures in the photobooth, you can go to www.shullphotography.com and click on online proofing and then click on Landon and Holly's wedding!

They look great!

If you love your picture(s) you can buy it online!

So happy shopping!!!

Here are mine:

Landon and Holly's Wedding

Des — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:16:00 +0000

Okay, well it was beautiful. Every detail, every aspect, just beautiful! And it also helped that the bride and groom were also very beautiful! It sure makes for great pictures.
Speaking of pictures, Landon and Holly were blessed to have FIVE professional photographers at their wedding!
Thanks to Shull Photography for setting all that up and of course Sarah Kuglin for being there to capture the video!

It was so great and these pics and videos are going to last them the rest of their lives and bring constant reminders of their love!

Ok, well let's start with the wedding rehearsal

The sanctuary looked beautiful!

At Mercado Juarez for the dinner

There was a slideshow playing in the background throughout dinner of Landon and Holly growing up

Brad and Abby

Sophie is getting so big

Korb and Lyric hanging out

Kisses!

Court and I

The dinner

Lyric and Korbin (mostly Lyric) got most of her food on the ground.

Landon and Holly felt it was time for an impromptu dance

Taking pictures with dad

Okay dad

Ok, I'm done!

Vandeput family

Jon and mom and dad

The wedding:

Holly looked gorgeous! Just like a magazine bride!

Ash and Maddy were flower girls and thought it was so cool they wore princess crowns (aka diamond tiaras)
Madysen

Ashlyn

Mom and Meme

Mom and Holly. They both look gorgeous!

Good lookin' boys!

Cousins playing before the wedding started

Mom and Sherry lighting the candles. You can see how BEAUTIFUL the wedding canopy was!

Mom and Dad walking Landon down the aisle. This is such a special tradition as it honors both the mother and father for raising their son and they walk him down the aisle and release him, signifying that they release him to be a man of his own household. Both Holly's parent's walked her down too, signifying the same thing.

Landon was laughing and so excited while he waited for Holly, but when he saw her, he started sobbing. It was so cute!

(I stole this from Brad, but this just SO captures it!)

Flower girls

Who gives the bride away

Kiss the bride!!

This was the song they picked to walk back down the aisle too! So cute!

Vandeputs

Ashlyn hurt her foot and couldn't shake it off

Mom and Preston

Taking pics outside. They are going to turn out so amazing!

GQ boys

Now I have 2 sisters! :)

My parents and Landon and Holly

All us kids

The reception looked gorgeous too. This pictures does not do it justice in the least bit. Zach Lowrie was the MC and he was great. There was a great dance floor and a slideshow playing in the background. It was just great! Everyone had a blast!

Father Daughter Dance. Lyric loved dancing!

Here is a video of the father/daughter dance. If you'll notice the gorgeous voice singing the song in the background, it is none other than my fabulously talented brother Austin! :)

She was definitely a mommy's girl last night. She would barely let me put her down, unless she was dancing.

Off to the honeymoon!!!

The photographers (minus Jenae). Brad (obviously the guy in the pic) who owns Shull Photography did such an amazing job with the pictures at the wedding. I've already seen a few and am blown away!!! If you are getting married soon, or need family portraits, pics of your kids, whatever, book him!

Jenae was inside taking photobooth style pictures

Way to go Jenae!

And let's end the blog with the lovely Baker Girls, Hannah and Olivia! :)

So as you can see the wedding was BEAUTIFUL!

To see just a few of the professional pictures that Brad Shull did, click here.

I have a few more videos I'll try to upload later!

The last few days...

Des — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:18:00 +0000

Do I even remember them??

The last few days have gone by in a blur, as I have been super busy at work, then add that my evenings have been full each night... wedding stuff here, wedding stuff there...

Can you believe my little brother Landon is getting married tomorrow??

Totally crazy isn't it?

He is going to make such a good husband. And he is Mr. Fix-It, which will always come in handy. It's just hard to believe he is growing up so much so that he is going to be a married man!!

Last night a bunch of the ladies from the wedding went and got manicures and pedicures. It was so much fun. It's a new nail salon on Green Oaks and they let us have the whole back part of the room. We drank wine/champagne and ate pizza! It was a blast!

Courtney

Me!

Then afterwards, Court, Abby and I went to My Martini and had a martini and a Marry Me Roll... mmmm... delicious!!

So it was a lot of fun. Tonight is the rehearsal dinner for Landon and Holly's wedding. I need to leave here and then go home and get ready as I am not looking super cute at work today.
I chalk that up to not wanting to get out of bed because it was so gloomy outside. What about those storms the last few nights?? Jedi has been sleeping in our room because he hates thunderstorms. As long as he is in our room, he's fine. Though normally he prefers to sleep on the couch.

I still have no idea what I'm going to wear to the wedding tomorrow. The dress I was going to wear is one I've had, but Jon says it makes me look, in his words, "heavy". So I'm not going to be wearing that one! It's nice to have a husband who tells me like it is... even if it sometimes comes out rude. I would rather him be honest. But sometimes he's a little too honest :)

So I have to figure out a way to get my hair done and also to get a new outfit somehow before 7pm tomorrow... I'm not really sure how that is going to happen though.

Lyric is feeling better, still has a slight cough, but the snotty nose and fever are gone. Yeah!

Also, I still haven't heard anything from my boss about me going part time. So hopefully that will work out.

Ok, well speaking of work, I need to get back to it. Lunch break is over!

Irritated

Des — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:32:00 +0000

I'm irritated right now.

I don't really want to go into it, but I'm just irritated.

Lyric still has a low grade fever. Jon is home with her right now. Poor little girl. She woke up early this morning and I was able to cuddle with her in bed for awhile before I had to get up and take a shower.

I guess that stuff from Belgium works well because she does not have any semblence of a bruise on her forehead. Either that or Lyric is like the cheerleader from Heros and has regineration powers. That would be kind of cool if that happened. Maybe that's why she never really cries when she gets hurt! :)

So this morning has passed at a SNAILS pace. I feel like it's never going to end. It's only been a little over 4 hours since I've been here... you've got to be kidding me.

I need a better attitude right now because I'm just really irritated. Have I mentioned that I was irritated?

Update on Weaning!

Des — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:28:00 +0000

I just realized that I never really updated everyone on how Lyric is doing with the whole weaning off the bottle thing.

Well, I am proud to say that the little shnookums is off the bottle! The schedule I created worked! (click HERE to read about it)

She did really well with it all. I stuck with my schedule and just cut down one bottle per week. She did great with the morning one. That didn't bother her at all. But I never thought she would be okay with that night bottle as it is just a comfort for her. She would only drink like 2 or 3 ounces, but if I would put her to bed without her getting one, she would wake back up 30 or 45 minutes later and cry till she got one. But then last Thursday or Friday, she didn't wake back up, and now she is fine!

If I learned anything about weaning, it is do it gradually.
I started feeding her a snack/meal before every bottle feeding. I did that so she would get used to eating something and drinking her juice (or water) when she woke up. Then after her snack, that's when I would give her the bottle. So she would get full on the food, and then just have the bottle as an ender. I did this for a few weeks before even beginning to wean. It may have been easier for me because Lyric has no problem drinking out of a sippy cup (though she doesn't like the non-spill kind- only the cheap plastic ones)

Then when I was ready to wean, keeping the same routine, I cut out a bottle once a week. She got full on the food/snack, but I no longer offered the bottle at the end. I think she kind of forgot about it, because she was so used to the eating routine.

The bedtime one was the hardest one though because it's not like I could feed her a meal right before bedtime. We just worked through that one.

I did give her one bottle last night because the child refuses to drink milk! I got worried about her vitamin D intake, so that's why she got one. I've tried warming the milk up, giving it to her cold... tomorrow morning I am going to try to put some formula in her milk and see how that works.

But ya, she eats all the meals we are eating, like a big girl. I am having to be better about making veggies with our meals now, since she needs them. I mean, I need them too... :)

So that is that! Mission accomplished! That was way easier than I thought it was going to be. I was really stressed about it, but I made a plan, stuck with it, and it worked!

Anyways,
I was so busy today at work. I only stopped for a few minutes to eat, and then kept working. those days are nice because the day passes quickly, but bad because you are so tired at the end of the day. Right around 5, Christina called me and told me that Lyric had a 102.5 temperature. She had been running a low grade fever yesterday, but I thought it was teething related. But apparently today she was coughing, more snotty and ran a higher fever.

I think a mixture of Jon/Mom/Court are going to take care of her tomorrow as I can't really take the time off work due to all the time I took off last week due to Jedi. If she is better, I'll chalk it up to teething, if she is the same or worse, then it must be something else and I'll probably take her to the doctor tomorrow, or get Jon too.

As of tonight, her fever was just barely a 100, so it's better.

So we'll play it by ear tomorrow.

Ok, well I'm tired. Super tired. I need sleep.

Please pray Lyric feels better tomorrow morning.

Love to all!

Goodness!

Des — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:48:00 +0000

Do you guys realize my little brother gets married in just 5 days? That is really ca-razy!
Little Lando-Calrizio!
He already seems so grown up... unlike my other brother (I'M KIDDING AUSTIN)
They are working up a storm on this little house they bought. It is definately a fixer-upper and right now is rendered unlivable.
If any of you handy guys have some time off when Land gets back from his honeymoon, I'm sure he would appreciate the help!
Here is a pic of Holly at the beginning of the bachelorette party.

Court, Holly and one of her bridesmaids Tori

So yes.

I still haven't figured out what I am wearing to the wedding, or what Lyric is wearing for that matter. Actually, I think Lyric is just going to wear her Easter dress.

Speaking of Lyric, she has a fever. I think she is just teething, but she has a 100.4 and has a snotty nose and a congested cough. It was really dry the last week and has now gotten flemmy.

I'm really hoping it's just teething. But she hasn't been in a super bad mood, which makes me think it's not a virus. Her snot is clear too. lol. Jon just hit his head on a lamp. sorry. sidetrack.

Also, she has been EXTREMELY clumsy today. She has fallen more times than I can count. One of them was really bad and now she has her first big bruise on her head. It's just now starting to swell and get purple. I'm sure it will look lovely tomorrow! As long as it's gone down by the wedding! Jon's sister gave us this bruise be gone stuff you can get in Belgium that is supposed to work wonders. This is the first big test, so we'll see if it works!!
Here is her big bump! It's on her forehead.

We have also discovered she loves singing cards. Christina has one at her house that was Aaron's birthday card, and Lyric loves it! So Jon got her one for her birthday. Here she is dancing with it.

We spent the day at my parent's and had some fantastic photos taken by the talented crew of CP Camera (www.cpcamera.com) They needed some shots for their portfolio and we decided to oblige them with our lovely mugs! :) It was so great catching up with Vanessa after all these years!
Afterwards I was sitting on the couch with Maddy watching Lord of the Rings. She kept messing up which was one Sam and which was Frodo. I said, Sam is the one that is a little fatter. She said, "Oh like you Dee". And I said, "I'm not fat" and she said, "Your tummy is! It looks like you have a baby." LOL. Good thing I'm working out and trying to lose that gut, or that may have actually offended me. Out of the mouth of babes. :)
Well a new week is starting and I think I'm going to just crawl into a ball. This is absolutely nuts I tell you!

Keeping with random thought jumping process. I had a discussion with my boss about going part-time. I would absolutely LOVE to, however, as you all know, the insurance situation is there. He seemed totally ok with me going part time, but he doesn't know about offering me any type of benefit package because they don't have benefits for part time employees. I am really hoping this works out. If not, I'll be totally ok with staying full time, but as you all have heard me whine, I would really love to be home more with Lyric and Jedi :) I will hopefully hear something this week...
Of course that leaves us with a whole new set of parameters. We need to adjust our finances some, but I know we could do it. We may have to get rid of one of our cars. maybe Jon could just get a bike and we could just make it do. I'm not sure, but with Court and Nate living 4 houses down and 3 cars between us, I would hope we could make it work. If we can't, we'll just get a cheap-o car.

Ok, well I need to go to bed early tonight, so I best be getting to it.

I will leave you with a super cute picture of Jon and Lyric working on their laptops: